Longjiang Base City.
Whoosh!
A ball of fire was on the move; it arrived just outside the base city.
The many guards recognized the dragon covered by the fireball at once. Some of the battle pet warriors had raised their hands in salute.
Su Ping breathed in relief.
Good. The wild beasts haven’t attacked us yet.
“Have you detected anything?” Su Ping sent a mental message to an old man at the titled rank. The latter had been gazing at Su Ping, wanting to say hi but afraid of coming off as offensive.
The old man felt flattered that Su Ping was talking to him. He replied at once, “Mr. Su, we’ve already sent out guards to patrol the surrounding areas. Everything is fine at the moment.”
“Good.”
Su Ping nodded.
He then flew straight toward his store.
The people were excited as they watched him leave. They knew the young man riding a dragon would be their savior when the wild beasts crisis hits.
Back to the store.
Su Ping stored the Inferno Dragon. He saw that several titled battle pet warriors were talking by the Qin family building across the street. “How are the other defense lines doing? Have you heard anything?” Su Ping went over and asked.
The Qin family elders moved to greet him.
“Mr. Su, we’ve just heard from the Longjing Base City. The strike has ended,” one of the elders said passionately, “We’ve seen the video. Mr. Su, you are a hero; Longjiang will be safe with you here. We will stop the wild beasts.”
“Right, right…”
The other two elders agreed.
Su Ping rolled his eyes. “I’m not here for honeyed words. I’m asking about the actual situation.”
The elder felt sorry after cozying up the wrong way. “A new report will arrive in another two hours; there have been some delays at times. After all, the wild beasts have destroyed many things, including stations in some of the base cities. But as of now, everything is fine.”
“Good.”
Finally, Su Ping got the answer he needed. He was speechless; that old man had to be one of the PR guys from the Qin family.
Su Ping left at once.
He would go and help if anything happened to the other defense lines.
After all, if any of the defense lines were to collapse, it could harm the Xing-Jing Defense Line and also the Longjiang Base City. He couldn’t have watched them fall and remain idle; otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to give aid to the Longjing Base City.
“Mr. Su, have a good day.”
The Qin family elders bowed.
Su Ping went back to his store. He decided not to go to the cultivation sites after much deliberation.
Judging from what had happened to the Longjing Base City, he could tell that things were difficult. A group of wild beasts led by beast kings would have the capability of reaching the detection radius of a base city within half a day. Longjiang had yet to detect any wild beasts for the moment, but some wild beasts might have started gathering outside.
If he were to leave for a cultivation site, even for just one day, it would be too late.
Su Ping dialed a number.
“Xie.”
“Mr. Su!” The call was quickly answered. Xie Jinshui sounded thrilled as he took the call, “I saw your video in the Longjing Base City. Mr. Su, how heroic of you! I’m very happy that you’re a resident of our Longjiang Base City. Mr. Su, if we can get over this peacefully, I will gladly step down and leave the mayor post to you!”
Su Ping said grumpily, “I’m busy with my store, I don’t have time to be a mayor. Back to business, I have to say that strike was unusual. Longjing was just a start, and there was only one beast king at the Fate State. That is nothing. “There will be more of them.”
“Nothing?”
Xie Jinshui was confused.
He wasn’t at the legendary rank, but his mayor status allowed him to have a clear idea about the distinction between different states of the legendary rank.
A legendary battle pet warrior at the Fate State could be the ruler of the Blue Planet!
The four Heavenly Kings that had been wreaking havoc on the Blue Planet for over a thousand years were at the Fate State!
Twelve warriors in the Tower were at the Void State; only one was at the Fate State, or at least that was the information known to the
public!
There had been a Fate State beast king during the battle waged in the Longjing Base City. Still, Su Ping had just claimed that it was nothing. What would be something?!
Xie Jinshui calmed himself down. He trusted Su Ping
He knew that Su Ping was a mysterious man; it wasn’t surprising that the young man had access to other sources of information.
If the battle in Longjing was nothing, then, the scale of the next beast strike would be… astonishing!
Xie Jinshui expressed his concern, “Mr. Su, are the wild beasts from the Deep Caves really that terrifying?”
“Of course. After all, those wild beasts have been contained in the Deep Caves for a long time. The environment is harsh and the law of the jungle is the only law there. There are more beast kings at the Fate State than you think. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to see ten Fate State beasts at the same time,” Su Ping said.
He wasn’t trying to intimidate Xie Jinshui. He was stating a fact.
He had not planned on hiding that information from Xie Jinshui. He was the mayor and he would have to be mentally prepared so that his people wouldn’t fall victim to panic.
“Ten…”
Xie Jinshui felt his mind was blank.
Su Ping had overestimated Xie Jinshui’s strength of mind. He felt his heart had stopped beating when he heard the number!
Ten such beast kings were like ten masters of the Tower!
Ten times stronger than the Tower?!
Xie Jinshui felt a chill running down his spine and his hand was trembling. He could not even imagine how grave the disaster would be.
Su Ping said hello several times as the silence was prolonged. Eventually, Su Ping said, “Xie, don’t overthink this. Either way, the Longjiang Base City will survive. Maybe the base city won’t last till the very end, but humanity will manage to hang on. Some of us will survive.”
Xie Jinshui remained silent for a long time.
Su Ping didn’t try to comfort him; he had to process this news.
If he couldn’t even handle the information, who could tell what would happen when the information became a fact?
“I called you because I want you to contact me whenever something goes wrong in the other defense lines; I will go and help if I’m able. Helping others is helping ourselves.” Su Ping circled back to his original intention.
Xie Jinshui finally came back to his senses. “I see. Will do.”
“Okay.”
Su Ping hung up the call.
He then went to see Joanna who was cultivating in the nursing pen, and asked her to teach him the Heaven Lock. Su Ping sat down in the nursing pen to absorb anima and compress his vortices.
The Tower.
The floating mountains had been moved from their original spots to clear out a path; there was a spaceship at the end. In front of the spaceship was Gu Siping’s hill. The place was merely decorated by the cottage, which was the sole construction.
There were a dozen people standing before the cottage at the moment, including Gu Siping, his two grandsons, those from the Hugh Mia Academy, as well as other legendary battle pet warriors and young people.
“Are they the other four candidates?”
The middle-aged man glanced over to include the four young people.
They were standing with their respective families. Even though the four were blessed talents on the Blue Planet, they were actually quite nervous. They were only pretending to be calm.
“Bone age is 19 and she’s at the peak of the ninth rank. I have also detected the power of thunder and lightning in her,” the middle-aged man said to a girl holding a sword.
The sword-wielding girl looked quiet and pretty.
She was Yuan Linglu
“Qualified. She can be admitted.” The middle-aged man nodded.
The girl and the old man standing behind her felt relieved
The old man smiled, but he was trying hard to keep his joy in check.
The middle-aged man moved to the next young person.
“Bone age is 18 and at the ninth rank, close to the peak of the ninth rank. There’s a presence of undead energy. Good.”
“Bone age is 14, intermediate stage of the ninth-rank. There’s an insect beast energy. I wonder how good it is.” “Bone age is 22 and at the peak of the ninth rank. The astral powers in you are… profound!”
The middle-aged man was interested in the last young person. He did not feel any inborn skills in the young man but the abundance of astral powers was astonishing. That young man’s storage of astral powers was close to the Ocean State.
It wasn’t easy to compress astral powers to such a level.
“You do have a special constitution but I think it has to do with astral powers.” The middle-aged squinted.
The young man was nervous but he faked a smile. “Sir, you have good eyes. I indeed have richer astral powers compared with the other battle pet warriors. I already had astral powers close to the second rank when I awoke.”
The middle-aged man nodded. That was not surprising
“Good. You’re all qualified,” the middle-aged man said.
They were all relieved.
To be able to be admitted to the Hugh Mia Academy meant they would have a promising future ahead of them!
“I cannot believe that we found this many good students here.” A lady with red hair smiled.
The other middle-aged man said, “I know that this planet is almost primitive but there are humans here. This trip was not a waste.”
“All six candidates are qualified. We didn’t waste money on this trip.” An aloof girl crossed her arms in front of her chest. Yuan Tianchen, Gu Siping, and the others smiled happily.
“Have you left out anyone else?” the teacher asked. All eyes were on Gu Siping.
Gu Siping said in a hurry, “Mr. Fang, we have global competition every few years. Apart from the Elite League, we also have the Supremacy League. Both are competitions intended to pick the talented. Anyone who has some talent will stand out, unless they don’t care about such events, at all.”
“But that is rare. After all, the rewards for the two events are quite lavish. Say that some people would never take part in any competition, they would still have to go and study in some academies. All the top academies are actually managed by the Tower.”
“We would make note of all the promising students and I would always show up and straight off recruit those who meet your requirements. I don’t think I have missed anyone.” “Is that so?”
The middle-aged man nodded. “Since we’re here, I believe it would be a good idea to recruit more students. We will take anyone who meets our requirements.” He looked at the legendary battle pet warriors standing behind Yuan Linglu and said, “Some of the talents do come from a prominent background and some might be unable to use the potential inside them; they can be ignored. Apart from the four, go and collect information of all the talented young people under the age of 22. I will look at their information myself.”
Gu Siping was surprised. “Well… sure. Right away.” Gu Siping didn’t dare to refuse.
He summoned some legendary battle pet warriors that were close and told them to get the job done.
The Tower kept records of all the talented young people around the world.
They had a team and designated people to collect such information.
Study records of all the top academies and logs kept at some Mysterious Realms and some special locations were on record as well.
Yuan Linglu thought of a person. She bit her lips and clenched her fingers even tighter.
Behind her, Yuan Tianchen felt the smile froze in his face. A glint of hatred passed across his eyes, but he hid it well.
Talents around the world?
Some legendary battle pet warriors managed to remain calm while others could not.
Soon after, the legendary battle pet warriors returned with a thick pile of documents. “Master, sir, these are all the files we have. Here are people that we know are under twenty-two years of age and these here; we have just heard about some of their stories. We don’t know their names or ages,” a legendary battle pet warrior reported.
Gu Siping nodded. He signaled the legendary battle pet warrior to directly hand over the files to Mr. Fang.
The middle-aged man remained silent and idle; still, the files flew to him and automatically turned, page by page. The first few files were student records and the information was quite detailed, including the students’ ages and family background, among others.