Astral Pet Store Novel - Chapter 237

Chapter 237: The Best Academy?

“And me, please!”

“Here, I bet I have something you can use as well!”

The rest of them quickly offered as if someone else was going to steal their chances away.

Oh well, the charm of power… Su Ping thought, amused by their reactions. These respected warriors are just like common people when they know they are in real trouble.

Su Ping didn’t believe that all the good warriors in this world would “cleverly” adapt to different situations, even if it meant bowing their heads. But… those who got dignity would probably not follow around someone like Yuan Tianchen.

And since those people were willing to submit to Yuan Tianchen’s control, they’d do the same in this shop.

Su Ping was quite interested in what he had just heard, especially the old man who claimed to be a healer. He was told that this man was a renowned master healer who was also a titled battle pet warrior. His healing arts were able to treat most known conditions, such as fleshly wounds and poisons. This alone had won him a good reputation in the base city.

While Su Ping did not need healing support when training inside cultivation planes, he did require such a thing in real life. Studying the art himself might not be too helpful when he spent most of his time inside the shop; he wondered if he could ask this man to teach Su Lingyue instead.

For the moment, he decided to keep Venerable the Blade and the healer guy for the moment. He didn’t have enough time to accept too many “teachers” right then.

“You didn’t come here just to have a friendly chat, am I right?” Su Ping glanced at the four people he was going to send away. “I’m not letting you go just like this. Come on, show me something to earn your leave, if you know what I mean.”

The said people carefully took a glimpse at Joanna, who responded with one of her threatening glares that appeared just as dangerous as before.

A man stepped up. “I’m sorry, Mister Su. I was blind. And foolish. I… am afraid I don’t have anything of value. For your trouble, I’m willing to pay with my flesh. How about this, I’ll cut off an arm and never trouble you again. Or both of them, if that’s what it takes to quench your anger!”

Su Ping rolled his eyes. “Why do I need your stupid arms? I’m not a freaking cannibal. You have nothing valuable? I don’t think so. Being titled warriors, you all gotta have some good stuff stashed away. Show me, or I’ll kill you and find it on your body.”

Too bad he couldn’t simply force them to help the shop by buying a lot of items. The system didn’t allow him to force customers when it came to business.

The group seemed relieved when they learned that they could buy their way out without losing a body part or two.

“May I know the general price, Mister Su? Just tell me a number and I can surely try to produce it.”

“Of course. How about a quadrillion astral coins?” said Su Ping.

“What?? Please, sir, you know that’s unreasonable!”

“I know that.” Su Ping humphed in disgust. “You’re the one who told me to ‘give you a number,’ so there it is. Guess your wallet isn’t as big as your pride, huh? Fine. Just tell me how much you can pay me, at most.”

“Well… Ten billion?”

Su Ping felt his heart race faster in excitement while trying not to show it on the outside. If he could convert such money into energy points, he could buy enough items to boost himself to the legendary level overnight!

However, he couldn’t. All the money he earned outside his business was just money that couldn’t be used in the system shop. And he didn’t really need more money right then, when he had just gained a huge sum from the Mysterious Realm explorations.

“Let’s see… Forget about money. I need materials. Have you heard of something called the Fire Crystal? It grows inside the hearts of powerful ninth-ranked monsters of the fire type.”

Another old man spoke this time, “I’ve seen it before, but I do not have any at the moment. If you allow me some time, Mister Su, I can help you look for it. May I?”

Su Ping looked doubtful. “Are you sure you’re up for the job?”

The old man was taken aback by the question. He chuckled.

“My name is Lin Ziqing, Mister Su. I may not be a superior battle pet warrior like my fellow companions, but I own multiple esteemed corporations and I even keep famous black markets supervised, from where you can find some of the rarest treasures. A Fire Crystal is costly, but it certainly isn’t too rare a specimen. I can tell my people to deliver it to your door as soon as they find one.”

Another old man with white hair chipped in, “You can trust him, Mister Su. I’ve known Lin Ziqing for a long time.”

Su Ping held his chin.

“All right, get to it.”

Lin Ziqing sighed in relief. “Thank you for your kindness, Mister Su. I’ll contact my workers—no, I’ll find my daughter right away and tell her to search for it, pronto. She’s the current president of Lin International, one of the biggest trading associations on this planet.”

Su Ping had never heard of this association before, though he knew it wouldn’t disappoint him since their leader had a titled battle pet warrior as her father.

He then took out a piece of paper and began noting down something, before handing it to Lin Ziqing.

“Mister Lin, can you help me look for these as well? I won’t take those for free. If you do find them, I’ll trade with you by paying you something of equal value.”

The Fire Crystal was the last component he needed to improve his Solar Bulwark to the second rank. After that, he would need a ton of new materials to keep going. And of course, most of them were hard to gather.

By leveling up the Solar Bulwark to the third rank, he would be able to survive attacks of Beast Kings!

“Certainly!” Lin Ziqing took the paper with a smile. “I’ll work on it as soon as possible.”

Su Ping shook his head. “Don’t take me wrong. I have my rules. Since you guys came looking for trouble, I meant to get something from you for the inconvenience you caused me. Nothing personal. In your case, giving me a Fire Crystal is enough to clear your debt. As for the other materials, we’ll be trading on fair terms. The rest of you are free to procure them and trade with me as well. I’ll pay accordingly.”

They quickly approached Lin Ziqing and memorized what was written on the list. All of them regretted following Yuan Tianchen to this place, only to end up with a huge embarrassment.

While reading the list, Lin Ziqing slightly frowned when he recognized several extremely valuable types. It had been a wise decision to not make an empty promise in which he’d find everything Su Ping needed for free. He wouldn’t have raised enough money even if he sold all of his companies.

“Mister Su? Since you run a pet shop, can I pay you with a pet instead?” The man who tried offering his arm spoke up with a reluctant look, “It’s a dragon. Still a child. I think you can use it.”

“What kind of dragon?”

“A Moonfrost Dragon.”

“Oh, I see. I guess I’ll take it.”

A Moonfrost Dragon was placed at the sixth place on the “dragon ranking list,” which meant it was three ranks lower than an Inferno Dragon. It was pretty good, being inside the top ten.

Seeing that Su Ping was not intrigued in the slightest, the man almost felt sad.

“Ahem, I do not have it on me right now. Shall I go and inform my man to send it to you?”

“Do it here.” Su Ping pointed to the floor. “You can, right?”

The man had no choice but to step aside and use his phone to make a call.

The remaining two people neither had dragon-type pets nor materials Su Ping was interested in. One of them gave Su Ping one of his valuable treasures, while the other one made a rather strange offer; he said he would grant Su Ping a free chance to study in the best academy across the continent.

As soon as he said that, his companions shot him confused looks, as if they had seen an idiot. Rather, even idiots could see that neither Su Ping nor the girl nearby needed to study in some academy.

This had left the man in a very bad spot; he was the vice principal of the said academy but didn’t really have much to say about himself otherwise. A free ticket to his academy was pretty much the only thing he could think of. Besides, it was a very good offer. Many titled warriors would seek his help when they wanted to send their children to the academy for education.

However, the offer was clearly counterproductive in the current case. He was basically implying that Su Ping was incompetent.

Of course, that wasn’t what he meant at all.