Astral Pet Store novel - Chapter 445

Chapter 445 Enrollment

After dinner, Shi Haochi found Su Ping a nice and cozy guest room.

Su Ping took a bath, cultivated for a bit, and then went to bed. He organized his time well.

Soon, one night had passed.

The next morning, Su Ping got up on time, freshened up, and went to the living room to wait for breakfast.

The maids were as busy as bees; they swept, mopped, and filled the fruit bowl with fresh fruit.

Shi Haochi was sitting on the couch, reading the newspaper. He greeted Su Ping gladly, “You’re up early. How did you sleep?”

“Very well.”

Su Ping nodded and sat down on the couch.

The butler went in and reported to Shi Haochi, “Sir, your students are here.’

Shi Haochi raised his head from the newspaper. “Tell them to come in.”

The butler gave an affirmative response and went away. Soon, he came back with a young man and a young lady who was dressed up nicely. The two seemed to be a bit nervous. They didn’t even take a look around the manor. They stood by the entrance to the living room and bowed to Shi Haochi. “Good morning, sir.” Shi Haochi nodded to them. “Feel free to sit down. Have you had breakfast?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

After the greeting, Shi Haochi said no more and kept on reading his newspaper. Right then, the young man and the young lady noticed Su Ping who was sitting on the other end of the couch. They found him familiar. They recognized him upon a closer look.

“You, you’re the one…”

They realized that this young man was the one who was making trouble at the gate and then taken to a test by their teacher the day prior. The guy claimed that he was participating in the conference. Such a guy should have been punished severely. Why was he sitting in their teacher’s home?

Shi Haochi looked at his students and immediately understood why they were surprised. “Listen, this is Mr. Su. We have already verified that he is invited to the conference. He has unique training skills. You must listen to his speech carefully at today’s conference. But how much you can learn, that will be dependent on your brains.”

“Well…”

The two students could not comprehend what he meant by all of that.

This was quite a drastic turn of events.

So drastic that they couldn’t even process it.

If it weren’t for their teacher—the two of them, two sixth-rank trainers—wouldn’t even be qualified to participate in the conference. But this guy here was invited? He was actually invited, like their teacher?

While the two students were still standing in a daze, Zhenxiang and Tongtong had come down from upstairs. The two of them had put on brand-new formal dresses. Zhenxiang was wearing a light purple princess dress which exposed her collarbone. The dress was ladylike and not too revealing.

Tongtong was wearing a black princess dress. A row of silver-gray crystals decked her neck all the way to the chest, adding an elegant and yet not too exaggerating grace to her.

Su Ping took a glance at them. He had to admit that he was amazed but since he had been staying with Joanna for a while, he had already become immune to beauties.

“Xiangxiang, Tongtong.”

The girl student came back to her senses when she saw the two girls. “You look very nice today,” she exclaimed, her eyes glowing.

“Sister Xiu-er, you look nice as well.”

The two girls were happy to see the girl. She was their father’s star student and the three girls were always close.

Three would be enough for a drama. The same applied for three girls. They clustered together, chattering on and on about their dresses and jewelry, the foundation or color of their lipsticks. They made recommendations to each other and would burst into laughter when they agreed on something. The three gentlemen standing by their side would feel their blood freeze.

The male student looked at Su Ping who was sitting on the couch. He wasn’t even in the mood to ask how he had gotten the invitation.

They were heading to the conference later. He would know by then.

Shi Haochi didn’t let the conversation continue endlessly; he gathered Su Ping and his daughters to sit down for breakfast once the food arrived.

Tongtong glared at Su Ping and snorted again. She could not wait to see how he was going to communicate with the other master trainers, later at the conference.

After breakfast, everyone was ready. They gathered by the door.

They were going to ride a car that was like a Lincoln limousine that could easily fit all of them.

While riding the car, Shi Haochi kept on telling things to look out for in the conference to the two students and his daughters, in case they would offend some big potatoes.

After all, the other master trainers would also bring along their children or star students to attend the conference. Those who could get to the conference were certainly not the common folk.

Soon, they arrived at the headquarters of the Trainers Association. The crowd outside the gate was even larger than the day before!

People were standing on two sides. Guards were trying to maintain the order. The space in between the two sides was for the vehicles.

That year’s master trainer’s conference was not kept confidential. It was widely known that the first half of the conference was not open to the public, but there would be open classes during the second half, which had caught the attention of many trainers. All of them had arrived early in order to grab a good seat.

It wasn’t common to listen to classes taught by many master trainers. The open classes could be quite beneficial!

“Look at the license plate. There must be a master trainer inside!” “Whoa, I wonder which one.” “Look, another one. OMG…”

The crowds gathered at the sides were thrilled. More and more luxury cars drove by. The license plates were exclusive to master trainers and had the letter “M” at the beginning, symbolizing their “master” status.

As they looked at the excited onlookers from inside the car, Zhenxiang, Tongtong as well as the two students couldn’t help but get nervous.

Soon, the luxury car drove into the compound and pulled over by a building with a strange structure that Su Ping didn’t get to see the other day. The building’s shape was like a beast standing on all fours. The staircases to the sides were like two arms, which led to the conference rooms upstairs.

Many luxury cars were waiting outside in the parking lot.

“Isn’t that Old Shi? Your daughters are turning out to be more stunning than ever.”

“Of course. They have my genes, you know.”

“Stop it. Fortunately, your genes didn’t do much. Otherwise, I wonder how they would ever grow up to be such pretty girls.” As soon as they came off from Shi Haochi’s car, they met others who were stepping out from another luxury car. The one talking was a middle-aged man in his forties; he seemed to be close with Shi Haochi.

Shi Haochi rolled his eyes at him.

Both Zhenxiang and Tongtong knew their dad’s friend. “Nice to meet you, Uncle Dai,” they said politely.

“Nice to meet you, too, girls.”

“Nice to meet you, Master Dai.” Shi Haochi’s students, Qian Xiuxiu and Zhou Jin were clearly more nervous.

Master Dai smiled at the two students. “I’ve heard about you two. You must be Qian Xiuxiu. I read the paper you published on Trainers Weekly. You have a very good understanding when it comes to training pets of the thunder family!”

Qian Xiuxiu blushed from excitement. To hear the words “very good” from a master trainer was a high honor.

Blushing, Qian Xiuxiu answered, “Sir, thank you. I was inspired by my teacher. That is why I came up with such a thesis.” She didn’t forget to praise her teacher as well, even though the paper had little to do with Shi Haochi because he majored in the study of pets of the fire family.

Zhou Jin was wearing a smile but he was a bit awkward. He had once published a paper on the Trainers Weekly and yet Master Dai didn’t mention that. It was evident his paper was not praiseworthy. Of course, Zhou Jin hoped that it was merely because Master Dai didn’t see that paper.

“Old Dai, why didn’t you bring your wife?”

Shi Haochi was very happy about Qian Xiuxiu’s previous answer. He asked his friend a question, “You know about my wife. She’s not interested in this. She is just into getting her hair done.”

“She does that for you.”

“Well, that’s not a bad thing.”

Shi Haochi turned his way to Su Ping. “Brother Su, this is Old Dai, Master Dai Lemao. This is Brother Su Ping, the trainer that our Vice Chairman has told us about, the one who trained the Moonfrost Dragon.”

Dai Lemao was surprised. Just then, he was wondering why the young man didn’t greet him. Dai Lemao didn’t ask that question out loud on account of Shi Haochi. Shi Haochi’s introduction had stunned Dai Lemao. “He is the one who trained the Moonfrost Dragon? Old Shi, are you sure?” Dai Lemao could not help but ask.

“Of course I’m sure. I’ve already checked.” Shi Haochi could fully understand Dai Lemao’s mood. “Brother Su is a genius. He will surely become a top-level trainer in the future.” Shi Haochi gloated.

Both Qian Xiuxiu and Zhou Jin were astounded. Why does our teacher praise this young man so much?!

As for the Moonfrost Dragon…

That was one of the rarest dragons! One must be at least a seventh-rank advanced trainer to be able to train a rare dragon like that. A trainer any weaker wouldn’t even have the courage to do that.

Zhenxiang and Tongtong were eyeing Su Ping in surprise as well. It never occurred to them that Su Ping had trained such a rare dragon.

The two girls were still doubtful of Su Ping’s identity, still worried that their dad had made a mistake.

“Have you?” Dai Lemao sized up Su Ping, still in disbelief. “Yes, he has,” Shi Haochi answered with certainty.

Dai Lemao wanted to ask Su Ping to show a skill or two as proof but that seemed to be impolite and rude. He supposed that Su Ping would pull a long face and walk away.

Su Ping didn’t bother explaining anything to those suspicious people. He would be exhausted if he had to prove something to anyone who questioned him.

After all, he had merely met one of Shi Haochi’s friends there. Who could tell how many friends there were? If he had to prove himself every time…

No, I cannot even think about that.

Su Ping had become used to this kind of questioning. Alas, he had to blame himself for being too brilliant (+2+)…

They walked upstairs and chatted. Dai Lemao didn’t offend Su Ping; he treated the latter quite nicely since Shi Haochi had been respectful to Su Ping and insisted that he had verified his identity.

Dai Lemao had seen the video of the Moonfrost Dragon. The dragon could exhibit such great powers when its rank was not that high. The trainer had to be really something.

Soon, they entered a conference room.

There were many people gathered. There was a round table with dozens of chairs at the center of the room.

Outside the circle were rows of seats for the audience.

Next to the room was an exhibition where food was served. On the walls hung the portraits of some master trainers as well as a list of their contributions.

All the master trainers had garnered some academic achievements. Su Ping saw Shi Haochi’s picture and what he had done. He had improved the refinement method for pets of the fire family and he had also developed a way to refine elemental powers using photo-thermal ways. That second was Shi Haochi’s masterpiece: a skill which could enrich an elemental power’s richness. There was even hope for the pets of the fire family to pick up the skills of the light family.

Even a low-rank skill of the light family, for example, the Photoflash, could generate stunning results.

“Chen.”

Soon, Shi Haochi met another friend.

“Ah, you two again.” The man named Chen walked to Shi Haochi and Dai Lemao with a smile. Chen had also brought some young people with him.

They introduced each other’s students.

“This is Su Ping. He’s participating in the conference. He’s the one the Vice Chairman told us about,” Shi Haochi introduced Su Ping separately from his daughters and students.

Chen stared at Su Ping in surprise and so did the students he brought with him.

Dai Lemao could fully identify with Chen, but he just smiled silently. Shi Haochi took them to a place to sit down, chatted, and waited for the conference to start.

“I heard that Senior Bai will attend the classes,” Dai Lemao said, his eyes glowing.

Shi Haochi nodded. “So I’ve heard. Senior Bai’s special cultivation method for dragons has benefited me greatly. He proposed to better dragons’ constitutions from a genetic level to propel mutation and evolvement. No wonder he’s one of the best trainers. We still have much to learn.”

“Right. The more I know, the more ignorant I feel.” Chen nodded.

Zhenxiang, Tongtong, Qian Xiuxiu, and the other students were all holding their breaths nervously as they listened.

Senior Bai.

That was not the full name but everyone knew he was one of the twelve most powerful trainers in the Trainers Association!

Even titled battle pet warriors would have to treat those trainers with respect.

Such trainers enjoyed a high status and had connections that the public could not imagine. They were second only to legendary battle pet warriors!

While they conversed, there was a commotion by the door. They looked over and saw a group of people walking in with a hunchbacked old man as the leader. Two middle-aged men and a bespectacled middle-aged lady followed the old man.

“That is Master Ding,” Shi Haochi whispered.