Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-167

Chapter 167 Heritage Ground

Su Ping turned away and followed the team up the stairs.

When they reached the final step, they found themselves in a huge plaza.

The plaza was crowded with powerful, senior explorers.

While there were many people present, the place was neither noisy nor chaotic. People were talking in whispers. If someone wanted to discuss important matters, they would build up astral power screens to stop any sound from getting out. “Our Longjiang Base City section is over there.”

Nie Chengkong was quite familiar with this place. He led the way.

The explorer’s teams were not standing randomly in the plaza. There were different regions for each base city. At the moment, Nie Chengkong took Su Ping and the others to a corner of the plaza, the section for the Longjiang Base City. All the teams from the Longjiang Base City had to stay there.

There was a signboard in front of the area with the word “Longjiang” written on it and a number “28” below the name.

Su Ping asked about the number and learned it represented their turn to enter the Mysterious Realm.

The fact that they were the 28th to enter the Mysterious Realm was related to the power of the base city; it was unrelated to them, the explorers.

This section had an area of several hundred square meters. Over a hundred people were gathered there.

The Qin Family team that Su Ping had seen earlier was there as well. There were another 10 people in addition to the original six around that young family head of the Qin Family. This was quite a large team.

The other teams, because of wariness, kept a safe distance between them and the Qin Family.

Some team captains knew Nie Chengkong. They approached him to say hi and exchange some pleasantries.

Nie Chengkong’s eyes glowed when he saw one of the teams. He told Ye Chenshan and the others to wait here while he went to greet that team.

Ye Chenshan looked in that direction and said to Su Ping, “That is the Team Dragon Fang. They spend time in a Class A barren area all year round; it is one of the best teams. The captain of Team Dragon Fang once helped our captain with his career and used to invite him to join Team Dragon Fang. Unfortunately, our captain didn’t join because he had his own ambition.”

Su Ping checked that team. Everyone on Team Dragon Fang was overwhelming, similar to Nie Chengkong in power.

The middle-aged man that Nie Chengkong went to greet stood there like an imposing mountain. Somehow, there was a pressure coming out from him, as if there were surging violent energies inside him.

Su Ping was taken aback. He had a feeling that person was a titled battle pet warrior!

Soon, Nie Chengkong finished with his small talk and came back.

The others from Team Polaris stayed in a corner, looking around but no one said a thing

Soon, more teams came. The area with a size of hundreds of square meters was fully packed.

Some teams that arrived late would have to wait in the public area by the staircase.

Not long afterward, some people suddenly flew up from the plaza and stood in the air in front of the many teams from different base cities. There were five of them in total. The overwhelming aura coming from them indicated that they were all titled battle pet warriors!

The people chatting on the plaza quieted down at once.

Many people raised their heads high to look at the five people.

Some, however, just raised their heads slightly. They didn’t like looking up at the five people like this. In the middle of the five, a middle-aged man wearing a black short-sleeve shirt shouted, “The Mysterious Realm is open. The teams from all the base cities are here. Please enter in order. Do not stir up any chaos!” His voice lingered around the entire plaza and his eyes were glowing

He sounded calm but his voice was so penetrating that everyone felt the sound was heard directly in their ears.

“It’s Venerable the Blade!”

Ye Chenshan looked up to see that middle-aged man. There were traces of respect and excitement in Ye Chenshan’s eyes. “Venerable the Blade is a titled battle pet warrior that established his fame several years ago. He became a titled battle pet warrior at the age of 28. He is more talented than any of his peers! “He is 42 years old this year. His pets are formidable. Also, he himself has learned amazing sword skills which are appalling. There was one time, when his hometown base city was invaded by beasts, he cut up to eight ninth-rank beasts on his own without summoning his battle pets!”

Su Ping was astonished.

It was rare that someone could have done that without relying on pets.

The battle pet warriors that Su Ping had met so far, for the most part, relied heavily on their pets. People would train them more than themselves. Without their pets, battle pet warriors would not be able to defeat beasts of their same rank.

Among those present at the plaza, many knew Venerable the Blade; they stood in awe while they looked at him.

Venerable the Blade had completed many lofty achievements. Some were convinced that he would very likely become a legendary battle pet warrior.

The other four people standing around Venerable the Blade were renowned battle pet warriors as well. They had been famous for years. Usually, the ones that had just become titled battle pet warriors lacked the courage or the right to stand in front of everyone in the air, looking down at the crowd.

After all, some titled battle pet warriors in the crowd came from many base cities.

After Venerable the Blade said his piece, the personnel in charge of maintaining the order began to act. The teams in the first area were then allowed to enter.

The others would have to wait in anticipation but quietly.

Among the five in the air, an old man with bleached sideburns clasped his hands behind his back. He stated a question with a smile, “I wonder if five parcels can be explored this time.”

But his voice vanished before it reached the ground.

A strong man that had the build of a mountain answered calmly, “To explore three parcels is good enough. Anyways, we’re not in such a hurry. To open up all the parcels is of no use at the moment. I’m just curious about what kind of treasures can be dug out this time.”

The old man with gray hair laughed and replied, “I’m so envious of you because of that secret skill you obtained last time.”

“Same here. That cyan flute of yours is good as well. One song is enough to destroy the soul. Even ninth-rank beasts would have their souls collapse,” the strong man answered.

Standing in the middle, Venerable the Blade looked composed. He observed for a moment and then turned around and said, “I will head into the Mysterious Realm to have a rest.”

With that said, he flew away without hesitation.

The others looked at each other and forced a smile. Only Venerable the Blade could ignore the leader’s orders and leave at will.

“It’s our turn now.”

Nie Chengkong put away his smile. He adopted a more serious attitude.

The teams of the other areas had already entered. It was finally their area’s turn.

The Qin Family was the first team to set off. They stepped on the stairs and went further up.

Following them was Team Dragon Fang and two of the other top-level teams. The three teams were small, with merely five or six people.

Next in line were some of the other outstanding teams, including Nie Chengkong’s team.

They walked steadily up the steps to the top of the mountain. They saw a space vortex like a crack in the sky that was suspended in the air more than ten meters above the ground.

One by one, people jumped in.

Su Ping’s eyes glistened. He jumped into the vortex after Ye Chenshan.

The change in space and time was familiar to him. Su Ping soon got used to this feeling. He opened his eyes to look around.

The first thing that leaped to his eyes was a magnificent plaza. Above him were the scorching sun and many stars. This sun seemed to be quite massive and very close. However, around the sun was a starry sky and the infinite universe that appeared to be able to suck people in.

Soon, Su Ping’s attention was caught by a mountain-sized dragon head.

That was the dragon’s skull. There was no piece of flesh left on the bones but the horns were still there. One of the horns reached to the sky like a towering mountain!

Standing on the plaza, Su Ping looked up but he could not get a full view of the skull.

The simple and vast aura of recklessness rushed toward his face, accompanied by a heart-pounding pressure from the dragon. The aura was beyond that from ordinary dragons and beasts, enough to make any lifeform tremble.

Su Ping was stunned.

He had… seen this.

Not only had he seen this, but he was also more than familiar with this place!!

The Dragon king’s heritage ground? Su Ping stared at this huge dragon skull in front of him in a daze. He couldn’t believe this. The dragon king’s heritage ground he found on the list of cultivation sites was here. How?

The dragon king’s heritage ground was one he had randomly selected from the list of elementary cultivation sites. There were other such sites such as the bone demon’s heritage ground or the voodoo’s heritage ground.

Those heritage grounds were unlike the common cultivation sites. Everything in the heritage grounds had been built with illusions. The system stated that it learned from the tests set up in real-life heritage grounds to train pets.

However, Su Ping had found the real-life location of the dragon king’s heritage ground he had picked out casually!! This place was on the blue planet, on the continent, right in front of him!