Astral Pet Store

Chapter 306 A Reasonable Man

Having killed the eight of them, Su Ping suddenly heard the system’s voice in his mind, announcing that the mission of finding the real culprit had been completed.

After he heard the message, the killing intent in his eyes gradually faded away. It seemed that this time, the Zhou Family did well. They wouldn’t dare to challenge him again.

“Sir, sir…”

The three titled battle pet warriors had lost control of their facial expressions as the eight people died tragic deaths right before their eyes. They had completely disgraced the Zhou Family because they were the ones who had personally handed the eight people over to Su Ping.

And yet, since they were willing to do everything to save their family head, they had to endure the humiliation.

The elderly titled battle pet warrior bowed to Su Ping as he asked, still scared, “They were all the people who were involved in the incident and all of them have been punished accordingly. Now, could you please… let our family head go?”

As the elderly man made this request, the other two titled battle pet warriors turned to Su Ping as well, waiting for his reply nervously.

They had allowed Su Ping to finish the lives of their family members. If it turned out that Su Ping was merely screwing with them and was going to kill their family head no matter what, that would no longer be acceptable. That hatred would be irreconcilable and they would fight against Su Ping until one of the involved parties died!

Of course, in that case, they would have to mobilize the resources of the entire Zhou Family. If and when they killed Su Ping, the Zhou Family’s strength would also be compromised. The Zhou Family would either have to leave the Longjiang Base City or end up being cannibalized by the other four major families.

Either way, it wasn’t something that the Zhou Family would want to experience.

Besides, honestly speaking, they weren’t sure that they could take away Su Ping’s life. After all, they still didn’t have a clear idea about Su Ping’s full strength. He remained a man of mystery.

Su Ping looked at the three titled battle pet warriors in front of him. All of a sudden, he put on a grin and asked, “Say, I have humiliated the Zhou Family. Will you get back at me afterward?”

The three titled battle pet warriors seemed to be frightened. They waved their hands in haste. “No, of course not. Never!”

The elderly titled battle pet warrior who apologized first and who was the most esteemed of them all made a pledge, “Sir, I promise that from now on, no one in the Zhou Family will ever offend you or the store you have. We made ignorant mistakes this time and displeased you because of it. Those men died and they deserved it. Your punishment has come at a good time. I swear in my name, Zhou Tianguang, and my title!”

Titles were what titled battle pet warriors valued the most because their titles represented their honor. Swearing on his title meant he was serious.

Nevertheless, Su Ping would not trust promises that weren’t legally binding. He wouldn’t trust them even if they swore in the name of their parents, or their ancestors, let alone a mere title.

Once people decided to go back on their words, no amount of previous promises would matter. Verbal promises could be broken and that was a rule amongst the fierce overlords. This Zhou Tianguang acted submissive at this moment. But he was a famous titled battle pet warrior in the Longjiang Base City. He would say one word and many people would go bankrupt. When he held birthday parties, many prominent households and families would pay a visit to congratulate him. He was someone who was able to control the forces of nature. It sufficed to say that Zhou Tianguang was such a “fierce overlord.”

Su Ping would never, for the life of him, believe the promises made by such a person. It went without saying that Zhou Tianguang would hate him.

And he sure would want to seek revenge.

Yet, Su Ping still stopped the killing while he was sure of those facts.

In the air, the Little Skeleton had received Su Ping’s orders. The evil aura that was surging around the Little Skeleton was completely absorbed back into its body. Once again, the Little Skeleton became its old, dull-looking self. The Little Skeleton went back to Su Ping without giving Zhou Tianlin another look. The Little Skeleton landed on the head of the Purple Python and stood beside Su Ping.

The blazing Inferno Dragon also made a slow descent, stopping next to the Purple Python. The Inferno Dragon’s eyes were filled with violence, coldness, craziness, and calmness, all at once. The Inferno Dragon fixed its glare at the three titled battle pet warriors. Any wrong move on their part and the Inferno Dragon would attack immediately.

As the Little Skeleton left, Zhou Tianlin felt the horrifying shadow over him and the suffocating stress on his chest vanish as well. The warm sunshine bathed him, and at this moment he had feelings of having returned to the light and of having been reborn.

He had heard every word in the conversation between the three titled battle pet warriors who were the cornerstone of the Zhou Family and Su Ping. After all, Zhou Tianlin himself was a titled battle pet warrior. As long as he had the intention to, he would hear an ant crawling a thousand meters away.

He could feel that his back was soaked wet with cold sweat. His heart was still fluttering with fear. He never thought that his life would be at risk on such an ordinary Saturday.

The expression on his face was troubled. He certainly looked awful. He slowly flew down to join the three titled battle pet warriors.

He threw a glance at the skeleton which was standing next to Su Ping. Zhou Tianlin was still afraid of it. Soon, Zhou Tianlin turned to Su Ping and produced a forced smile. “Sir, thank you for being merciful!”

As the defeated, he could not think of anything else to say.

In front of him, the dead bodies of the people who had been handed over to Su Ping were still sprawled on the ground. Blood was still visible on the neck of the python. Even so, Zhou Tianlin had to smile.

At this moment, Zhou Tianlin-a man who could control the lives of others, who sat at the top of the Longjiang Base City and controlled countless civilians—had become a complete loser.

The weak were the prey of the strong. Usually, Zhou Tianlin was the “strong” but he had to play the part of the “weak” this time.

The weak had no dignity to enjoy. Therefore, although he was standing by the corpses of his family members, Zhou Tianlin still had to smile and say thanks to Su Ping.

“I’m a reasonable man.”

Su Ping looked at the four. His look was composed and at the same time, a profound meaning could be seen in his eyes. He could understand that the four felt humiliated but he would not feel sorry for them.

“No debts without creditors, no hatred without cause.”

“Your family offended me first. You aimed to tarnish my store’s reputation. I came here to seek revenge and that is the sole cause.

“They died and my revenge is over. The disputes between us have thus come to an end. This is the effect.

“You give unprincipled protection to your family members regardless of their wrongdoings. That is the cause on your part. Therefore, as of now, the humiliation has come to you and that is the effect you deserve to see. “I don’t care what you think about this. But on my part, that is all in the past, over and done with.

“If you want to come and get back at me, my door will always be open. But don’t forget about this… you have to face the effect of your decisions.”

As he arrived at the last sentence, Su Ping sounded serious and his look remained calm. However, when the last syllable ended, a smile suddenly climbed over his face.

This smile was peculiar. It seemed that Su Ping was a bit cynical, a bit casual, and at the same time, a bit violent and cold.

Zhou Tianlin and the three titled battle pet warriors lowered their heads. Su Ping could not see this but they were all grinding their teeth in hatred.

Su Ping broke into their territory, killed so many of them without even so much as batting an eye and then he claimed that he was reasonable?

Your Pixie Pet Store and the Liu Family are the ones competing against each other, to begin with. We did nothing but to add some fuel to the already existing fire. We didn’t kill anyone in your family. But you came and did not stop until you killed our people. What kind of reasoning is that?!

Of course, they only dared to shout those words within their hearts. They just wished that this demon could leave as soon as possible. Su Ping darted them one more look and smiled again. He could sense their hidden anger and killing intent. He was fully aware of their thoughts but that had nothing to do with the decisions he made and the things he did. Just like he said, No debts without creditors, no hatred without cause. He had found his creditors and that was it.

As for the Zhou Family, since he had offended them, the best solution was to kill them all to remove the source of the trouble. That being said, the Zhou Family was one with a century-old history in the Longjiang Base City. On the one hand, it would be hard to annihilate them all. On the other, there were good people and there were bad people in this big family.

There could be loyal members of the family, others could be entirely innocent in this plot. Someone born in the Zhou Family didn’t necessarily have to get along with the Zhou Family members. Some even had left the Zhou Family a long time ago, though they still had the Zhou family’s blood running through their veins.

People who desired to wipe out an entire family would either be psychopaths or killing maniacs.

Su Ping was neither of them.

His brain told him what it would be the most advantageous decision for him and at the same time, he had enough moral standards left to tell him what kind of choices he had to make.

As for the future retaliation from the Zhou Family… From the four titled battle pet warriors’ reaction, Su Ping could feel that while they hated him, were clearly angry at him and surely wanted to get back at him, they still had enough sense to know that they wouldn’t easily resort to action before they were sure that they could take away his life.

To think and to act were different.

Naturally, it was understandable that they would want to get back at him after he killed their people. It was well within reason.

Furthermore, every big family had countless people. Some would inevitably stir up troubles, and sometimes those troubles could be tough. However, that didn’t mean that the Zhou Family would have to fight back like a mad dog every time they came across a tough issue. A force like that would be like gangsters; such a family would never be able to sustain a history of over a hundred years like that.

That was also why the five major families rarely engaged in many bloody battles while they would have conflicts often. After all, a wounded wolf would no longer be a hunter. It would be the game of another hunter.

This also explained why the Zhou Family was willing to let Su Ping kill the eight members one by one. They would rather lose their dignity than their family head.

The family head was the core of the family and the bloodline of the family.

They could bear it no matter how many furs and skins were hurt, but never the bones!

Skin wounds could be healed eventually, but a wound to the bone would not be able to recover any time soon!

Therefore, in tough situations like this, they would be furious but they would also bear the insult. They would bear it until one day, they were stronger than their opponent, and they were confident that they could finish their opponent off within one move and that was when they would take action.

That was how the major families sustained their lives in the world.

Su Ping knew that as long as he could maintain his strength, the Zhou Family would be terror-stricken by him forever.

At the same time, if the Zhou Family were so foolish as to get back at him right away, Su Ping would not mind it. He had a few weaknesses. His mom and dad could stay within the safety zone of the store. That unlovable young sister of his would go to the best academy in the continent after the Elite League. Given the strength of the Zhou Family, they would never be able to exert any influence there.

Also, the Vice Principal would take care of Su Lingyue for him while in the academy. The Vice-Principal was a titled battle pet warrior at the peak level. He was less powerful than Venerable the Blade and had little chance to reach the legendary level. That being said, he was one of the best titled battle pet warriors. He alone could overpower the entire Zhou Family!

“Sir, you don’t have to say that. We were the ones in the wrong… We wouldn’t dare to think of revenge. As a matter of fact, we have to thank you for cleaning up our family for us,” Zhou Tianguang complimented Su Ping.

Zhou Tianlin, who was standing next to him, felt his mouth twitch but he left his words unsaid. He understood that he had to admit defeat for the moment. As the family head, to say those words would be inappropriate. So, it had to be Zhou Tianguang.

Su Ping replied with a smile and a shake of his head but nothing more.

Naturally, he would never treat those empty words seriously.

On the other hand, the fact that he was able to come up with those empty words at this time attested to the fact that this old man sure was patient.

When a man wanted to make something of himself, he would have to put some effort into

it.

“See you…” Su Ping said. Under his feet, the Purple Python suddenly began to slap the ground with its tail; then it turned away and left.

Zhou Tianlin and the others were relieved that Su Ping was leaving and angry since he said “see you” at the end.

“See you?

“See you never!”

All of them filed their teeth in indignation.

As the Purple Python turned around, the warriors of the Zhou Army standing guard came back to their senses and cleaned up a path in fear.

Since their family head and the higher-ups present didn’t say a word and they seemed to have given silent consent of letting Su Ping leave, those warriors stepped to the side at once.

The rest of the onlookers also moved away in a hurry. With everyone’s eyes on them, the python took the lead and the dragon followed. They stomped over the street and the carefully trimmed grass, gradually going further and further away.

The man standing on the head of the python would forever leave an impression on all the Zhou Family members.

After Su Ping completely left Zhou Family premises and his energy had vanished, Zhou Tianlin and Zhou Tianguang felt they could finally breathe.

As they relaxed, they noticed that their bodies were sore.

They were glad that the young man didn’t begin a killing spree in their territory. If Su Ping had gone completely mad, not stopping until his killing desire was satisfied, the Zhou Family would have probably been doomed by then. This “doom” didn’t necessarily mean that the young man would destroy the entire Zhou Family. It was more in the sense that the Zhou Family would have to pay a great price. Once they suffered heavy losses, then the Zhou Family would have to deal with the other four major families that would be eyeing them like hungry wolves.

“Clean this up and let the guards go. Impose a gag order. No one can say a thing about what happened today!” Zhou Tianlin coldly glanced over everyone present. He saw the many people gathered, who were still in shock and confusion.

Zhou Tianlin felt embarrassed, when thinking that he had been put in a difficult position in front of those people.

This invasion had harmed the Zhou Family’s dignity, and the matter had to be dealt with great care. They would have to try their best to lock the information. Otherwise, they would become a joke. That would take a great toll on all of the aspects related to the Zhou Family and their stock price would take a steep fall.

“Yes.” The old man wearing the brown robe nodded. He took a look at one of the dead bodies. It was Zhou Feng. This time, the Zhou Family had lost a titled battle pet warrior!

Each titled battle pet warrior would be considered a cornerstone to a family. Once they lost one, the family would be at a greater risk of falling

Luckily, the most powerful titled battle pet warriors were still alive. They could manage to keep the family going.

“Sir, are we… letting the matter go?” a female titled battle pet warrior asked. She was still unwilling to accept the fact.

The others were unhappy to hear her words. She was peeling the scar off the wound that had just healed. Zhou Tianlin’s eyes glowed in coldness.

“What else do you think we can do?”

Before Zhou Tianlin answered, Zhou Tianguang, who apologized first to save Zhou Tianlin’s life, quickly darted a glare at the female. “Didn’t you see how horrifying that man is? He must be someone at the peak level as a titled battle pet warrior. Who, other than those old guys that have retired from society, dares to fight him?” “Besides, who can tell if there is anyone more powerful behind him? Naturally, a powerful warrior would have several good friends that are just as strong. How do you think we can get back at him?!”

Zhou Tianlin looked at Zhou Tianguang and heaved a sigh. The former patted his shoulder. “Uncle, thank you so much this time.”

Zhou Tianguang shifted his look to the pools of blood. Sadness flashed past his eyes but he hid it well. He took a deep breath, “Zhou Xu was my son and Zhou Ji was the grandson of my deceased comrade-in-arms. They offended the wrong people and almost made the family fall into crisis.”

“Their deaths have put an end to this entire event. I just hope you wouldn’t blame them and can allow them to be buried in our family graveyard.”

Zhou Tianlin looked at Zhou Tianguang for a while. “Naturally.” The former nodded.

The female heaved a sigh but said nothing else.

The other two titled battle pet warriors remained silent. This time, almost all of the deceased were from Zhou Tianguang’s family. He lost his son and no one could feel that pain. Yet, for the greater good of the family, Zhou Tianguang chose to swallow the pain. This tolerance was unmatched.

Given this man’s strength and power, he and the Liu Family will inevitably fight someday. Zhou Tianguang was deep in thoughts. All we need to do is to sit on top of the mountain to watch the tigers fight. Let’s see if the Liu Family can force out all the cards of this small store. It will be best if both sides are ruined. If the Liu Family is the one destroyed, then we will eat up what is left of the Liu Family to make up for our loss.

If the store is the one on the losing end… then we can go and get our revenge! Zhou Tianlin nodded. He naturally would not pass any opportunity to hit that person when he was down.

“Too many people in our family must have seen what happened today, given the scale of this night’s disturbance. I think it will be hard to cover this up,” the female cautioned.

“Heed my command, kill anyone who leaks this information!” Zhou Tianlin said coldly, “Try your best to conceal the fact. If words do get out, tell people that the man was scared away by us. We cannot let the Liu Family know about his real strength. Otherwise, I don’t think the Liu Family will be willing to fight a monster for the sake of Liu Yuan!” “Of course.”

“We can create some trouble for the Liu Family even if we lost to this man.”

Su Ping left the Zhou Family residence.

He stored away the Inferno Dragon and the Purple Python. He hopped into the car, letting the Little Skeleton take the front passenger seat, and he drove away.

He left the Kings Zone quickly and drove back home along the highway.

This entire trip took him four or five hours. He didn’t spend much time in the Zhou Family territory; most of the time was invested on the trip itself.

Su Lingyue ran out when she heard the noise from the car. She asked Su Ping curiously, “Where did you go?”

On normal occasions, she would rarely see Su Ping leave. He would just stay in his store, being mysterious.

Su Ping rubbed her head. “To collect some debts.”

“Debts?” Su Lingyue slapped his hand away. “You would allow anyone to buy something on credit?”

As far as she could tell, Su Ping would always take money before he noted down the customers’ information. How could anyone be indebted to him?

Su Ping didn’t explain. He went to his store and shook Tang Ruyan out of the painting. “If you don’t have anything else to do, go and train with your Aunt Tang.”

Su Lingyue was stunned still to see Tang Ruyan falling out from the painting. She had never seen anything like this.

Tang Ruyan had little time to be angry over the fact that he had once again thrown her onto the ground when she noticed his words.

Aunt… Tang?

Since when did I become Aunt Tang?

I was Miss Tang a few days ago. How could I be Aunt Tang?!

Hmm, men.

Su Ping darted a glance at Su Lingyue and saw how the latter could not take her eyes away from the scroll. He threw the scroll to her. “Just a piece of artifact. When you finish looking, give it back to me. Also, don’t tell people about it. This is quite expensive, at least worth several billion. I don’t want people to covet my things.”

Su Lingyue had just taken over the scroll. When she heard the number “several billion,” her trembling hands almost dropped the painting In disbelief, she stared at the painting scroll.

This piece of paper was worth several billion?

In her world, even one billion would be an astronomical figure. And several billion would be astronomical, astronomical…. astronomical figures!

She didn’t doubt the authenticity of Su Ping’s words because this painting would house people. She had never heard of an item that could do this. It was not strange that the painting would be worth billions. She realized that there were more things in the world she didn’t know than she could even imagine.

Su Ping paid no attention to Su Lingyue, nor to the girl who was eyeing him with killing intent. He just hurled an instruction to the girl. “I will leave my sister to you. Do your job.”

With that said, he went into a storage room.

The storage room was where he hoarded pet food.

When the doors were closed, this room would be completely shut off. Without his permission, no one could come in or sense the room, and that applied to Joanna as well. Not even a god could change this rule.

“Let’s see the reward,” Su Ping said in his mind.

His trip to see the Zhou Family was because of several considerations. First, he was angry that the man was willing to sacrifice his Aurora Fox. Second, he was angry that the fame of his store had almost been destroyed. Third, he had to finish the system’s mission and obtain that pet skill of legendary level.

“Mission accomplished. The host can start the lucky draw,” the system said.

Su Ping could have done this the moment the mission was accomplished back at the Zhou Family estate but he was too busy then.

“Start.”

Su Ping stared at the imaginary roulette.

Soon, the words flashed by in a blur. Those were all pet skills. “Stop!”

The roulette gradually slowed down to a full stop. A book that was giving out a green hue jumped out.