Ancient Cultivation Sites

As an Otaku, Su Ping would spend all his days "learning" online. He was not a stranger to systems. Pleasantly surprised, Su Ping began to probe the functions of this system immediately.

"I am the Super Pet System, dedicated to cultivating the strongest pets in the world, and the motto of this system is: everything can be cultivated, and everything is a pet!"

"A pet cultivation system?!" Su Ping exclaimed in surprise.

The system sounded presumptuous. Everything was a pet. So, could flowers and the grass along the road be counted as pets as well?

"Flowers and grass can be pets as well, when they have intelligence and are spiritually awakened. Pets of the vegetation family evolved from common plants," the system gave an indifferent reply.

Su Ping was taken aback. He glared at the air and asked, "You can hear my thoughts?"

"I am connected with the host's soul. Of course, I am aware of my host's thoughts… Warning, first profanity alert!"

"…"

Su Ping fell into silence.

"The system has been activated. You, my host, must add a pet store that belongs to you within 24 hours. If the addition fails, the system will be removed and the memory of the day will be erased…" The system added.

"The system would be removed?"

Su Ping raised his eyebrows after hearing that reply. While a system wasn't all that uncommon, it was a system nonetheless.

"There's a pet store right in front of me. Can I add this one?" Su Ping asked telepathically.

"Authorized. Please confirm."

Su Ping confirmed right away.

After all, this pet store was owned by his family. He could do whatever he wanted with it.

"Addition was successful. Adjusting the pet store…"

"[Pet Trough] established, [Nursing Pen] established, [Window to Cultivation Plane] established…"

"Set-up is finished. Initiating beginner's quest…"

"Two pets are detected in the store. Please select any one pet and enhance its strength by three-fold within a week to reach the standard deemed as 'qualified' by this system."

As the system finished its reports, promptly, Su Ping felt the Astral Pet store appeared to be different than before. The previous pungent smell of urine and animal feces was gone. At the same time, the store appeared to be tidier and cleaner. The items were the same as before but the outlook was completely new.

"Enhance the strength of an Astral Pet by three-fold? Within a week?" Su Ping wondered if he had heard the system wrong. Or, maybe, the system was acting up.

How hard was it to enhance the strength of an Astral Pet?

Without hunting and training day in and day out, or consuming popular brands of precious food, it was impossible!

It was incredibly hard to achieve progress by one fold, let alone three-fold in one try or the one week's time limit…

"What will happen if I fail in this quest?" Su Ping asked.

"The host must accept punishment for failure. The method of punishment will be drawn at random, including thunder punishment, purgatory punishment, extreme pain punishment…" the system answered.

Su Ping rolled his eyes. He could tell none of those forms of punishment were to be trifled with just by hearing the names.

"Can't I change to another quest?" Su Ping was making his final struggle.

"No." He was turned down ruthlessly. "Warning. Second profanity alert!"

"…"

"Third profanity alert! Thunder punishment randomly chosen!"

Hardly had the system's voice faded away when Su Ping felt a huge electric current running through his whole body. He was twitching like a zombie dancing Disco.

The electric current disappeared as quickly as it came. Su Ping felt a burning pain all over his body. He wanted to hurl out verbal insults but he pushed the urge down. A wise man should know when to retreat.

"Never mind. I will try out the quest first. If I fail, then I have to say the system is a piece of garbage!" Su Ping bit his teeth in hatred.

He dragged his aching body to the pet room inside the store.

As soon as he was inside, Su Ping noticed the place was more spacious. The main footprint was the same but the score of piled-up iron cages was gone. Taking their place were two rows of stone cages.

It was more like a strange stone array than stone cages.

Several stalagmites rose straight from the ground and surrounded the two Astral Pets. The gap between the stalagmites was big and there was no ceiling above them. The Astral Pets were virtually able to hop right out or squeeze through the gaps.

However, the two Astral Pets were lying on the ground without the slightest intention of "bailing out."

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. This had to be something the system had conjured up. The [Pet Trough] the system mentioned must be this.

He threw a look at the two pets in the stone array. Both were Battle Pets of the average type.

One of the pets was a Lightning Rat, an inferior grade Battle Pet of the agile type. Even in adulthood, a Lightning Rat would only reach the intermediate position of the first rank. The probability of Lightning Rats evolving was quite low. Even when they did evolve into Thunderstorm Rats, they could only reach the third rank, which was as high as they could go.

The other one was Managarm, also an inferior grade Battle Pet of the agile type. When grown-up, Managarms would be at the high position of the first rank, about as powerful as a Siberian tiger on earth.

Su Ping faintly remembered that those two Astral Pets were left in the store's pet boarding service and were going to be picked up after a couple of days.

"I'm going with the Lightning Rat."

Su Ping considered his options and chose the weaker Lightning Rat. This way, the room for improvement would be larger.

He heard the system's voice again, "Pet selected. Please choose a Cultivation Plane."

As soon as the system finished the sentence, a surreal ray of white light suddenly appeared in front of Su Ping and it tore apart space, forming a vertical crack that was in the shape of an eye. There was a destructive aura on the other side of the opening, able to twist anything it came into contact with.

Su Ping was taken aback. Upon confirming that this thing wouldn't pose any danger to him, he asked the system. "What is a Cultivation Plane?"

"Cultivation Planes are the main sites for the breeding and cultivation of pets. The host can choose a site suitable to the selected pet to cultivate it."

"Cultivation sites?"

Su Ping dug through his memory for information on this regard. The cultivation of Astral Pets relied heavily on the sites. Therefore, many Astral Pet breeding stores would rent large areas to build up cultivation sites, also known as professional hunting grounds.

The larger pet stores would have such facilities as well, but with more thorough services.

For small pet stores like the one Su Ping was operating, they only had to feed their customers' pets and keep the place clean.

"Detecting pet. Lightning Rat. A pet of the thunder family. Match found for most suitable cultivation plane. Ancient Thunder Cloud Realm. Entering, yes or no?"

Su Ping felt baffled. "Yes… I guess."

Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt this cultivation plane's name somewhat familiar.

Astral Pets came from different backgrounds but most of them were from cracks in space, or maybe some were celestial bodies occupied by beasts and animals, while other Astral Pets were from ancient planets.

The Thunder Cloud Realm seemed to be an ancient birth site of Astral Pets in the thunder family that was broken and long gone.

It was said that there had been many top-level Astral Pets in the thunder family, such as the Thunder Dragon of Blue Sea, the Nine-headed Grand Thunder, and the Zephyr Beast, all of them were from the Thunder Cloud Realm. With the collapse and disappearance of the Thunder Cloud Realm, those top-level Astral Pets had become legends that could be rarely seen.

Could it be that the place he was going to was an ancient site that was long lost?

Before Su Ping had returned to his senses, he felt a strong force sucking him toward the crack with the surreal white light.

The sky and earth were spinning around.

Then, it turned pitch dark.

When he regained his sight, he saw a blurry white mist and heard the rolling sounds of dull thunders.

Su Ping was there in a daze for a moment before he felt shocked by the visuals in front of him!

Was this a lost ancient site?

He found himself in a vast area surrounded by giant trees. Clouds and fog were in the sky tens of meters away from the top of the trees. Lightning flashed amid the cloud and mist. Purple lights flickered as if dragons were there riding the clouds.

The boundless starry sky could be seen through the thinner areas in the sea of clouds and mist. Giant planets, near and far, were visible to the naked eye, so close that the rings of planetary meteorites on their surfaces were clear and distinct.