20 An Underground World

Shao Zifeng tailed the group of people for over ten minutes before they came to a dilapidated building. Someone stepped out and knocked on the wall.

A moment later, the wall split open, leaving behind a gap wide enough for two people to walk through. Shao Zifeng looked around and made a mental map of his surroundings. As he followed the group, he entered a spacious elevator to his surprise.

A sense of weightlessness came as the elevator descended rapidly.

"-1M... -23M... -107M... -187M..."

Shao Zifeng stared at the digital floor indicator above the elevator doors, his heart pounding as if he had encountered a powerful force.

Ding! They arrived at the destination. 

As the elevator doors slowly opened, blinding light and noise hit them like heat waves, almost sending Shao Zifeng into a daze.

A vast underground space then came into view. It was estimated to be about 10,000 square meters in size, complete with simple silverish decor, much like a spaceship's interior in sci-fi movies. 

Shao Zifeng followed the crowd and walked out. Looking up, he saw a dome over ten meters above ground, and embedded in it were fluorescent lights that were as bright as day. It dazzled him just by glancing at it.

These people had various pet beasts with them. Some were chatting with each other, some were talking with the receptionists at the service counters, while some were combat trainers who let their flying pet beasts swoop past the top of people's heads in the crowd. The flying beasts stirred up the ladies' dresses with the resulting air current and sent them shrieking nervously.

At the center of the vast space was a hollow that was protected by a ringed guardrail. Several hundred people were surrounding the guardrail, screaming and shouting hysterically.

Shao Zifeng went up and looked down at the hollow. That was when he saw what appeared to be a coliseum. In the stone arena, two pet beasts were pouncing on each other and tearing apart the other's flesh with their teeth. Blood splattered all over the arena floor, which was already covered in dried dark-red bloodstains. Feeling excited from seeing the splattering of fresh blood, the crowd cheered, shouted, and screamed even louder as their eyes reddened.

The interweaving of old and new, as well as the clash of civility and barbarism, created a stark contrast. Shao Zifeng could clearly feel the various negative emotions in the air.

He saw the two pet beasts. Their skins were torn open, and their bodies were drenched in blood. Shao Zifeng frowned, while Ballie had long covered its eyes with its little claws. It leaned its head on Shao Zifeng's neck as it made a low cry to hurry him to leave the place.

After he walked away from the gladiatorial ring, Shao Zifeng proceeded to the service counter at the edge of the space.

"How may I help you, Sir?" a lady dressed in a uniform asked with a professional smile on her face.

"Umm, this is my first time here. Can you tell me what you have?" Shao Zifeng was hesitant after he saw this place of indulgence. He was thinking about beating a retreat. 

"Sure, Sir. We are an integrated service platform. You can post or accept jobs, purchase or sell pet beast merchandise and mutated creatures, join the gladiatorial games, or bet on your favorite pet beasts. You can even participate in pet beast training and skill learning, depending on your needs," the lady explained the services they offered in detail. "Since you're here for the first time, why don't you register with us, Sir?"

Shao Zifeng was moved. However, considering that he was not a qualified combat trainer and he did not feel like revealing his personal details, he remained silent.

"Don't worry, Sir. You just need to register with your nickname. We will assign you an identity code after the registration. Only the identity code will be visible unless you choose to show your nickname." The receptionist smiled, having read his mind and known what he was worried about.

His fear was alleviated, but he got stuck when it was time to come up with a nickname. He did not want to look stupid in front of the lady by using Qiandu, so he scratched his ear and rubbed his chin in desperation. Ballie could not bear to see his awkwardness. With a heightened emotional perturbation, it gave him a few suggestions like Eggie, Roundie, and so on; basically, anything that was round and looked like Ballie.

Just then, Shao Zifeng accidentally noticed an engraving that spelled "Hidden Peak" on the sheath of the Tang saber in his hand, and he decided to use it as his nickname.

Ballie was illiterate, but when it saw that the words Shao Zifeng had entered were different from what it had in mind, it got angry and bit his ear with its toothless mouth.

A dumb two-legged beast with a terrible sense of aesthetics...

"All right, Mr. Hidden Peak. Your personal ID number is 9331. May I know which service you would like to use?" The receptionist smiled as she entered the information into the system.

"I am thinking of purchasing a Type I Fire Energy Potion. How can I go about it?" After looking high and low for a better part of the night, he was excited as he could finally buy the item he had been dreaming of.

Ballie did not know what was in Shao Zifeng's mind. It just sensed his slight excitement, so it put on an excited face too as it looked at the lady. At the same time, it glanced at Shao Zifeng in its peripheral vision to compare its expression with his.

All right, Shao Zifeng's skin was redder.

Ballie looked at its white body and figured that it did not look right.

As it started to think about how it could make its skin redder, a thought came to mind.

Ballie secretly gathered some fire in its mouth, then swallowed them into its stomach.

Ballie's body instantly swelled, and its skin rapidly turned red.

It did not want to let Shao Zifeng notice this embarrassing moment and closed its mouth. As plumes of black smoke gushed out of its nostrils and ears, Ballie quickly restored its body to normalcy.

It then looked around as if nothing had happened. Seeing that Shao Zifeng had not noticed the incident, it finally breathed a sigh of relief and curled itself into a ball.

Ballie was angry with itself.

Shao Zifeng was waiting for the receptionist to find the sales listing, and he did not notice that Ballie had performed a solo act. Good for Ballie. Had Shao Zifeng noticed it, Ballie would have wished for the floor to swallow it up.

"Mr. Hidden Peak, we have found twenty-eight listings with an average price of 1,200 yuan a bottle. May I know how many bottles you would like to buy?" the receptionist asked with a smile.

It was 200 yuan more expensive than the official price, but it was not a huge increase.

Shao Zifeng was undecided about how many he should buy, and he ran some calculations in his mind. For all he knew, a newborn pet beast only had a short larval period. Typically, five bottles of Energy Potion were enough to provide a pet beast with sufficient nutrients. However, Ballie had a giant dragon bloodline.

Everyone knew that giant dragons had a long lifespan. It took a long time for a juvenile to mature into an adult giant dragon. Even if taking Energy Potions could help the pet beast grow as fast as possible without harming its intelligence, that was still something other ordinary pet beasts could match.

"I will buy ten. How do I pay and pick up the goods?" Shao Zifeng asked curiously.