Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-287

Chapter 287 The Start

At first, the boy hardly paid attention to his father’s words, but the last thing his father said stunned him. The boy stared at Su Ping. Titled battle pet warrior? Him?

“I should be a Brother Su…”

Su Ping was feeling resentment. Although he was… sophisticated on the inside, he was beautiful outside. Besides, he was only two to three years older than the boy. Why should he be “Uncle Su” when he should be “Brother Su”?

“You’re a titled battle pet warrior? Really?” The boy still was in disbelief.

“No,” Su Ping replied.

The boy breathed in relief. He said to himself no titled battle pet warrior could be that young and that his father was becoming more and more unreliable. Why would he brag about someone else? He might want to scare me but he could have come up with a better lie.

The boy looked away. He was no longer in the mood to talk to Su Ping, nor his father. He focused his entire mind on the stage.

Fei Yanbo believed he knew why Su Ping denied it because of the “unspoken mutual understanding” between them. He was trying to keep a low profile.

Fei Yanbo could tell that his son was being disobedient again. What a piece of trouble he was.

“Your son is not participating?” Su Ping chatted casually. He sensed that the boy was around the third rank and was qualified enough to participate. He might fail but he could gain experience along the way. That was better than to merely watch.

Fei Yanbo forced a bitter smile. “I was planning on having him participate but his mom always spoils him. She insists that he has to reach the fifth rank before he can be a part of this. He will have to wait until the next Elite League. I just brought him so that he gets some ideas.”

Su Ping said “oh.” It turned out that Fei Yanbo was a hen-pecked husband.

The boy glared unhappily at Su Ping since he was asking about him.

“Is your sister okay?” Fei Yanbo asked. Not long after Su Ping left the other day, a large amount of news about his sister Su Lingyue broke out online and stirred up quite a reaction. Although he wasn’t a frequent internet user, he still learned about it because his students told him.

Also, from this piece of news, he figured out that Su Lingyue was the girl that the Pixie Pet Store had proclaimed as the next champion!

With the help of other sources of information, Fei Yanbo realized that the owner of the Pixie Pet Store was Su Ping.

Su Ping was making his younger sister the champion…

Fei Yanbo was not sure who gave Su Ping the confidence. He was a titled battle pet warrior but that could not make her a champion.

All the major families in the base city had members who were titled battle pet warriors but none of them had the guts to claim that they could win the championship.

“She is fine. It’s just that she ate too much.” Su Ping heaved a sigh.

He recalled how she made a clean sweep of dinner the night before. Who could have told him that the information online would destroy his dinner? Damn the Liu family!

Fei Yanbo didn’t know what to say.

This is not the time to talk about her appetite, okay?

“I heard that your sister is aiming for the championship. Is that so?” Fei Yanbo thought he should tread lightly, given the sensitivity of the matter.

“Yes.” Su Ping answered without hesitation. He had put up the advertisement. Naturally, he had to deliver his promise.

Fei Yanbo again was rendered speechless when he saw how little Su Ping cared. He was worried about Su Ping when Su Ping himself was not nervous at all. All of a sudden, Fei Yanbo felt he had worried over nothing.

“Then, good luck to your sister.” Fei Yanbo said nothing else. After all, he was not all that close to Su Ping. They did once fight together. His Abyss Snake was still in recovery, psychologically speaking being the most important.

“Sure. Good luck to your students as well,” Su Ping answered.

As the two of them chatted, the contest had officially kicked off.

The hosts appeared once more on the airboat which caused a sensation amongst the audience. After they announced the rules that had already been posted online, the hosts began to draw the names for the challenge contest.

That was not a one-on-one battle. Rather, five would share a stage.

Same as before, names were displayed on the huge screens by the stage, which were randomly drawn.

In the battle of five, the person left standing at the end would qualify for the next round and the other four would have to go through the one-on-one games and win five times in a row, for a chance to pass to the next round.

Over ten thousand names flickered on the screen at the venue’s Crescent Zone.

To make the names stop rolling, a pet called the “Sneezer” would sneeze.

The Sneezer would sneeze countless times a day with no pattern to be found. There was no control of the intervals of the sneezes but the longest interval would be less than a minute. Therefore, the name drawing would be fair and at the same time, interesting.

Every time the pet sneezed, some females in the audience would laugh. The Sneezer looked like a panda, with black and white fur; quite the cute look. Two slugs would always dangle on its chubby face.

A camera was directed at the Sneezer and the audience could see it on one of the screens. The Sneezer opened its mouth and sneezed abruptly. The names gradually came to a stop and five names popped out.

The first group of participants was selected.

The hosts announced the names loudly. The five came out from the staging area and jumped onto the stage.

The stages were assigned numbers, such as A1, A2, and B1, B2, etc..

Su Ping didn’t find Su Lingyue’s name.

Soon, the Sneezer sneezed again and the second group of names was released.

Then the third and the fourth…

In a few minutes, the eight stages had been occupied.

“Your student is going up there.” Su Ping saw Luo Fengtian going up to Stage C2.

Fei Yanbo saw him as well. He appeared to be worried. Luo Fengtian was a powerful student but the five-people contest could become complicated. Luo Fengtian could easily lose if the other four were to hold him in a siege.

If he failed this time, he would have to win five one-on-one games to pass, which would put him in a disadvantageous position.

“It’s Brother Fengtian!” The boy Fei Fei’s eyes glowed. He was excited, and he looked at Luo Fengtian with admiration.

Next to the stages, there were judges and other staff members in charge of maintaining order. The battles had begun. Of the five that went to Stage A1, three had failed, leaving two competing against each other.

As some advanced pets began to appear, the audience chanted again and again. The venue could hold over one hundred thousand people, so even if it were just a part of the audience cheering, the voice would be loud like thunder.

Su Ping noticed Luo Fengtian had summoned his dragon as soon as he went onto the stage, the Black Pit Dragon.

Su Ping could tell that the Black Pit Dragon was much stronger than the last time he saw it. The Black Pit Dragon grew larger and was black all around. The ferocity of the Black Pit Dragon intimidated the other four participants on stage.