Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-166

Chapter 166 The Qin Family

“Sure.”

Everyone accepted this proposal. Before they set off, Nie Chengkong asked the servants to put the prepared supplies such as dry provisions on the cars. They got in the cars and left after everything was ready.

“Mr. Su, would you like to ride with me?” Luo Guxue asked Su Ping with reverence.

Ye Chenshan noticed that Luo Guxue was quite respectful and polite. This wasn’t a two-way affection. Was… Luo Guxue pursuing Su Ping? “It’s okay. I will ride with Brother Ye.” Su Ping was too lazy to change to another car. He was going to stick with this one car.

The disappointment in Luo Guxue’s eyes was hard to conceal. Nevertheless, she nodded.

“Sure.”

Ye Chenshan admired Su Ping for declining her. What an excellent application of “playing hard to get”!

Everyone got into the cars. Nie Chengkong took the lead and drove away.

Cars V

ers

All five cars were T3 models. Many explorers on the way would stop to see. The onlookers were stunned when they saw the word “Polaris” printed on the side of the cars. They knew the cars belonged to Team Polaris. Naturally, members of Team Polaris were in the car!

At this base site, Team Polaris was the best of all and had established great fame.

They had arrived at the exit. The entrance was still packed. Many cars were lined up with some buses mixed in.

“Is this the explorers’ base?”

“There are so many people here. Are they all explorers?”

“This is awesome. Gee.”

Students sitting in the buses were curious about everything around them.

Some students noticed a fleet of cars driving away from another path nearby. Interested, they asked, “Are those cars driving back to the base city?”

The teacher in charge threw a look. He was startled by the word “Polaris” printed on the side of the car. He had heard some stories. With respect, he said, “That is a top team amongst the explorers. The weakest on this team are advanced battle pet warriors. They should be heading to… the Mysterious Realm!”

“The weakest are advanced battle pet warriors? For real?”

“I heard about this team from my dad. They are good!”

“Sir, what is a Mysterious Realm?” “Tell us.”

The teacher didn’t answer their questions. He kept his voice down. “This is not something you should know. Alright, quiet down. Many important people are here. Do not anger them.”

Some students were afraid to pursue their questions further.

Some of the students who came from stronger families were intrigued when the words “Mysterious Realm” were mentioned. Their eyes glistened. They watched as that fleet of cars traveled further and further away. Those students had made up their minds. They were determined to explore Mysterious Realms in the future!

The fleet left the base and soon drove to the sixth highway, going straight forward along the road.

The highway was wide but with little traffic. The highway was usually deserted, without a soul to be seen. Rarely would any cars travel on this path because the sixth highway was an inter-city road that led to the edge of other base cities? Usually, people would only travel in this way if they had other business to take care of in other cities.

Recently, every now and then, some cars would be seen there. They were all traveling from the Longjiang Base City to the Mysterious Realm.

Beasts around the highway were few and far between. Feces of powerful dragons were scattered around the highway to keep away the beasts.

In the car, Ye Chenshan explained to Su Ping, “Longtai Mountain is one of the three Mysterious Realms on our continent. Not only will Longjiang Base City send over some top-level teams, but other base cities will also send their teams. Some teams from base cities a bit further away had set off since yesterday.”

Su Ping was not worried. “That is to say, the Mysterious Realm gathers many powerful warriors.”

Ye Chenshan, on the other hand, appeared to be concerned. “Whenever the Mysterious Realm opens up, it turns into a gathering of talents. Team Polaris has some fame in the Longjiang Base City, we can do whatever we want here. But in the Mysterious Realm, we have to be careful.”

Su Ping nodded.

On the highway, the fleet moved along fast. In less than an hour, they had driven away from the territory of the Longjiang Base City. They were officially in the wilderness. Some base cities were neighbors, but some of the other base cities were located in remote areas with depopulated zones. Those depopulated zones were not recognized as the barren areas. The depopulated zones have a mixture of good and evil beings, which made those zones incredibly perilous. Even the best explorer teams could perish in the depopulated zones. Having entered the depopulated zone, Ye Chenshan put on a more serious look. He was even a bit nervous. The entire fleet began to travel even faster.

Luckily, they did not encounter any dangers. After roughly 10 minutes, they were out of the depopulated zone.

Having driven away from the depopulated zone, Ye Chenshan breathed in relief. The speed slowed down.

Another half an hour later, the fleet moved off to another road. Going straight on the sixth highway, they would head to Yanbei Base City, a base city that was Longjiang Base City’s neighbor. This new path would lead them to the Longtain Mountain. The Longtai Mountain was quite close to both Base cities. It was said that the name of Longjiang Base City was somewhat related to the Longtai Mountain.

Not long after they moved onto the new path, the fleet met with another fleet with cars of a dark red color.

“Those are from… Yanbei Base City.”

Yan Chenshan squinted.

Su Ping looked their way. At the back of those cars were a pair of wings with the color of blood.

From the rearview mirror, Yanbei’s people saw the fleet of Team Polaris as well. The former didn’t respond at all. They kept moving at the previous speed.

Gradually, the speed slowed down. More fleets of other teams began to show up. Some were from the Yanbei Base City, some from the Longjiang Base City. Ye Chenshan saw some familiar teams from the Longjiang Base City and he introduced them to Su Ping one by one. All those teams were the best.

The average teams, first of all, were not qualified enough to go. Second, even if they could, it would be a suicidal trip for them.

All those fleets pressed forward slowly. Not long after, they arrived at the Mysterious Realm.

The entrance to the Mysterious Realm was at the peak of a mountain.

At the foot of the mountain were many roads that extended to all sides like a complicated spider web.

The explorer teams from different base cities were coming along from different roads which were then packed.

“Let’s go.” Ye Chenshan got off first.

Su Ping followed him.

The other teammates got out of their cars as well.

“Let’s park the car here and walk up the mountain,” Nie Chengkong said.

Su Ping was surprised. He asked Ye Chenshan, “Parking the cars here? Aren’t you afraid that they could be stolen?”

Ye Chenshan laughed. “That’s what I thought the first time I came here. But the Mysterious Realm is covered with satellite monitoring. After all, this is an important place and no losses are allowed here. Nobody would dare to steal cars here. If someone did that, we could report that when we get back to the base city. We can pull the surveillance footage to find out who was responsible. Hmm, they would find themselves in serious trouble!”

Su Ping was still puzzled. “Since the satellite monitoring can be used here, then why not check the barren areas?”

Ye Chenshan shook his head. “The space fractures there will interrupt the signal. The signal can be scrambled at the Mysterious Realm as well. However, the super satellites used here are considered rare even in the world and they were bought by the federal government. However, to use them in the barren areas, the base cities would have to pay.”

That explained it. The old man Mo and the strong man Chen threw another look at Su Ping. It was strange that Su Ping didn’t even know this which was commonplace. In principle, if he came from a powerful background, it was unlikely that he would be unaware.

Anyways, they were there in the Mysterious Realm. Neither of them could say anything at this point. On the off chance that Su Ping would hold a grudge against them and set them up, it wasn’t worth it.

Mo and Chen were senior explorers. They knew that some weak teammates could not deal with the beasts. However, when it came to backstabbing, those sort of teammates were better than anyone else.

“Get ready. Let’s go,” Nie Chengkong said.

Everyone took out the supply bags from the cars. There were water and dry provisions inside the backpacks, as well as other camping equipment such as tents and pesticide powders. Su Ping noticed that the other teams’ supplies were about the same.

Nie Chengkong led the team and started climbing the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, someone stopped him, “Captain Nie.”

Nie Chengkong turned around. It was an old friend. Nie Chengkong greeted that person with a smile.

They exchanged some words and then that person left.

The team continued to climb up. More and more teams were going up. The teams were not only those from Longjiang and Yanbei, but also ones from other base cities as well.

The way up the mountain was quiet. Nobody talked. Everyone seemed to be indifferent, fierce and tough.

Su Ping noticed that almost everyone was an advanced battle pet warrior. Sixth-rank ones were hard to find there.

Halfway through the mountain, Su Ping noticed that next to him, Ye Chenshan suddenly became scared. He looked at someone with fear visible in his eyes.

Su Ping was puzzled. Ye Chenshan kept his voice low, “Up ahead is a top-level team from a Class A barren area in the Longjiang Base City. Do you see the captain there? He is the current young family head of the Qin Family of Longjiang City. He is young, about 25 years old but he is already an eighth-rank battle pet warrior and he has two adult ninth-rank dragons!”

“Even some senior titled battle pet warriors would have to yield to him!”

Su Ping looked over where Ye Chenshan pointed.

A team of seven was going up the stairs upfront.

The one leading the team was a young man with a fair complexion wearing black clothes. He carried a long spear on his back. The spear was wrapped in cloth and only the sharp head was exposed.