Astral Pet Store

Chapter 989: Declination

Is it a meteor from outer space?

Su Ping gazed at the black tablet. The longer he watched, the more he noticed how rays of light were twisted in front of his eyes. A strange, indescribable feeling popped up in his heart. The tablet seemed ablaze, as if radiating a weird light with its flames.

Is this how flames are created?

Su Ping stared at the flames covering the black tablet, completely fascinated.

Right before his eyes, flames came into being from the weakest and simplest structures. They turned from ordered to chaotic, and then the chaotic went back to ordered.

The path of flames…

Su Ping was already adept when using the path of flames. Therefore, the path he knew best showed up and directed him to a new stage.

…

While Su Ping was devoted to discern truths from the black tablet—somewhere else, in the Fighting Heavens Academy…

Both Joanna and Tang Ruyan had completed their paperwork, claimed their student badges and chosen their residences. They had picked the same island, which they shared with three gods.

Soon after, a mentor went there and taught them rules and cultivation methods for God Warriors. Joanna was astounded by the World Multiplication Technique, as she had never thought of such a cultivation method before. Could small worlds be multiplied?

Joanna couldn’t help but ask, “All Celestial Gods and God Warriors have their limits. Then, what are the limits for Gods of Rules?”

She was asking that question to aid her original self, who seemed to be approaching those limits, yet she had yet to find the opportunity to step up into the Superior God level. That was why she had developed a reincarnation, to find an opportunity to advance!

“The Gods of Rules?”

Their appointed mentor was a young goddess. Once she heard what Joanna said, she shook her head with a small smile. “That’s an old term. That rank doesn’t exist anymore. Also, in ancient times, Gods of Rules were bigshots only second to Superior Gods. I’m only a Major God, so I cannot answer your question.”

Hardly had Joanna asked the question when she knew she had misspoken. She was smart enough to learn from other people’s conversations that Major Gods were as strong as the Gods of Rules that she knew from the Demigod Burial, and the Superior Gods she knew were only Gods of Rules in the Archean Divinity.

No wonder the four Superior Gods failed to send us back to the Archean Divinity. They would have been able to do that if they were real Superior Gods, Joanna thought.

Joanna changed her question. “What about the limits of Major Gods?”

The mentor had noticed that Joanna was a reincarnation, and knew that she was asking on behalf of her original self. She smiled and said, “I will gladly answer your question if you come to this institute in person. That’s only fair, isn’t it?”

Joanna hesitated. Her original self could hardly leave the Demigod Burial, much less go to the Heaven Path Institute.

The others looked at Joanna after hearing their mentor’s reply. She had left a deep impression on them since she had passed the test with full marks. They didn’t know she was a reincarnation.

“May I know if there’s any way for me to meet the Ancestral Gods of our institute?” Joanna asked again after being silent for a long time.

Her words attracted a lot of attention again. Even Tang Ruyan was surprised by this, but then she understood Joanna’s purpose.

“You want to meet the Ancestral Gods?”

The mentor was stunned too; she looked at Joanna, lost for words. She recovered and said, “The Ancestral Gods are too honorable to grant an audience. Not just you and me, even our masters can hardly meet them. Every new student wants to become a disciple, but they never take disciples easily. You can’t even meet them if you’re an unparalleled genius on the Chaos Rank!”

She was rather blunt, as she thought that Joanna was being over confident.

Such a request seemed like a random whim, for the girl to think she could meet the Ancestral Gods because her original self was a Major God.

“I’m not trying to become a disciple; I simply have a favor to ask of them,” said Joanna, knowing that the mentor misunderstood her. Even so, she didn’t want to explain.

“What favor?” The mentor frowned.

“About that…”

Joanna looked around. She didn’t think that those present could understand her. After all, the people she had met earlier had forgotten the glorious achievements of the Heaven Path Institute in the past; who knew how much time had passed in the Archean Divinity since then.

It should be noted that time flowed at different speeds in different worlds.

“It’s about salvation,” said Joanna, after considering her choice of words. “A fragment from the Realm of Gods was detached for some reason. There are still a lot of gods living on that piece of land. I hope to bring them back.”

The mentor was stunned for a moment, not expecting to hear such a matter. She glanced at Joanna and said thoughtfully, “Such things do happen. Battles by the border are sometimes too intense and pieces of the realm may shatter, but drifting fragments aren’t too large. Our masters can easily find lost spaces beyond the realm.”

She looked at Joanna and added, “I’ll take you to our master. You may tell him the details.”

Joanna was relieved, and was quick to thank her. There had been a misunderstanding earlier, but their mentor was clearly not a bad person. Then, their mentor encouraged the other students to work hard, before she took Joanna away.

They arrived at a temple and stood by the stairs. The mentor bowed respectfully and said, “Greetings, master.”

“It’s you, Le Yue. What’s the matter?” said a gentle, elder voice.

“Master, a new student is in trouble and seeks help,” said the mentor respectfully. Then, she hinted at Joanna.

The latter quickly paid her respects; her ever steady hands, no matter the battle, were shaking at the moment. She said, “It’s an honor to meet you, senior. There’s something that I wonder if you could help me. My homeland was detached from this realm and has drifted in an unknown space due to a battle from a long time ago. I hope you could bring that continent back to the Realm of Gods. All my compatriots have been yearning to return home…”

She became excited when she said the last part, to “return home.”

The temple was quiet for half a minute. Then, the old man said in confusion, “Child, you’re a reincarnation. In normal circumstances only Major Gods who have hit the bottleneck would choose to develop reincarnations. Your original self is a Major God, isn’t it? How long ago are you talking about? From what I recall, battles have often taken place in the Realm of Gods, but not to a scale to affect a whole continent, has it?”

Joanna was shocked; she never expected such an answer. She quickly said, “Senior, the students and teachers of the Heaven Path Institute fought a desperate battle against the Heavens. The entire Realm of Gods was involved in the war; the continent that I lived on was just one of the regions affected. The other continents were also broken apart…”

“Hold on a second.”

The old man inside the temple stopped her and asked in confusion, “Did you say that the Heaven Path Institute fought the Heavens with all our students?”

“Exactly!”

Joanna was dazed.

Her mentor was also surprised as she looked at the former.

After a long silence, the old man in the temple finally said, “I can’t do that. Child, you may leave.”

Joanna was stupefied; she felt that her blood was turning cold. She couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, please help me! If you can’t do that, what about the Ancestral Gods?”

“Nonsense!”

The old man scolded her from within the temple. “You must not mention the Ancestral Gods with such ease. As I said, what you ask of me is impossible. Go back. Do not bring up this matter to anyone in the future. If you have only come to this institute for that matter, then I suggest you quit right now.”

Joanna was rather confused. She felt that whoever was inside the temple had drastically changed his attitude, almost as if he were a different person.