Atlas Studios
Atlas Studios
When he finally left the room, Wang Che saw his mother playing with the green caterpillar.
“Old Wang, let’s get a leave from work today. We’ll bring Little Che and this one out to relax.”
“Isn’t he supposed to be going out with his friends?”
“I know, but haven’t you heard where they’re planning to go? It’s a soul pet training base! He has a few good friends who all want to purchase some soul pet eggs there. If Little Che follows along, wouldn’t he feel even more dejected? How could he bear it?”
“Eh, I actually forgot about this! Alright…”
The two were conversing when Wang Che walked out.
“No need,” he suddenly interrupted them.
“…” The two of them didn’t know what to say.
Wang Che looked at his parents and said in a calm manner, “I’ll go out later.”
“Little Che, are you alright?” Mother Wang looked at him in bewilderment.
How had he managed to recover from his dejection so quickly?
“I’m fine,” Wang Che replied with a faint smile.
“Then earlier, when eating breakfast, why did you…?” Father Wang suspected that he was hiding his true feelings again, like he did yesterday.
“I had a nightmare last night,” Wang Che explained casually. “It didn’t have anything to do with my soul pet.”
“I see,” Father Wang said while nodding his head. “What kind of nightmare? How bad was it, to have made you look like you lost your soul in the morning?”
Wang Che glanced at his father and paused for a moment before replying,
“In my dream, you revealed your true identity as a Titled Heavenly King in the seven great war zones of the Martial Soul Federation. You told me that you have been hiding in the mortal world to experience life.”
When he heard this, Father Wang was taken aback. After a moment, he exclaimed in both shock and joy, “You had such a nice dream? Why didn’t I get to experience it myself… No wait, this is a good dream! Why did you look like you had a nightmare then?”
Wang Che continued, “Just when I was getting excited, you suddenly claimed that I wasn’t your biological child, that I was picked up from the streets. In my dream, I wasn’t related to you.”
This seemed to leave Father Wang speechless for a moment again before he responded, “That was indeed a scary nightmare. No wonder you looked so dazed.”
Mother Wang nodded in agreement.
After all, the Titled Heavenly Kings were the strongest Contract Soul Masters in this world.
Just their names alone carried glory and strength.
Every Contract Soul Master revered and yearned to reach their level.
If only Wang Che had truly possessed the bloodline of a Heavenly King, then his martial soul wouldn’t have been so weak.
However, since there was no relationship… then…
“Are you bringing this one along?” Mother Wang asked as she poked the green caterpillar’s soft head.
“Of course,” Wang Che looked at it and replied. “It’s my soul pet.”
He squatted down and reached out his hand to the caterpillar.
“Ssss!”
The green caterpillar immediately shrunk its body, afraid of being flicked again.
When it realised that Wang Che wasn’t trying to hurt him, it slowly crawled towards his finger and nudged it with its head, as if testing the waters.
A few seconds later, it wriggled into Wang Che’s palm.
With its curved glass-like eyes moving about, the little caterpillar seemed to be full of joy.
Seeing this, Wang Che sighed to himself as he carefully placed the young pet inside his chest pocket.
He had several different pets in his previous life.
Each one of them had been considered divine beasts in the cultivation world.
Yet, this bug he had as a pet now was so weak…
Wang Che comforted himself, ‘It’s okay, it’s not a problem.’
Right as he walked out of the house, the fresh morning air started to fill his nostrils, making him feel extremely refreshed.
After taking a deep breath, Wang Che looked up at the blue sky and at the tall buildings in the distance.
Even though he lived in an ordinary neighborhood, the environment here wasn’t too bad.
The vicinity was surrounded by a type of plant called Silver Flowers. Apart from looking beautiful, these flowers could also cleanse the foul air and release a refreshing fragrance.
It was the first green plant that most cities chose to grow.
Of course, despite their quirks, Silver Flowers were just special plants, not soul beasts.
On top of that, there were also several Cloud Trees in Wang Che’s neighbourhood.
These had straight trunks that were light purple in colour, and as their name suggested, the leaves that spread out on their branches looked as white as the clouds in the sky
The Cloud Trees would illuminate in the dark as well, which made them look spectacular at night.
Similar to the Silver Flowers, regular Cloud Trees were not soul beasts either. They were just another special plant.
As Wang Che made his way out of the small district, he noticed many people running around with their soul pets.
From what he observed, most of them were rather ordinary soul beasts.
Though, he did spot several rare ones.
After all, it wasn’t completely impossible for a normal family to purchase a rare soul pet egg, as long as they were willing to be frugal in other matters.
When he arrived at the floating station, Wang Che took the maglev train and headed directly for the city’s only soul beast training base.
Currently, the world was led by one highly concentrated organization alone.
The Martial Soul Federation.
Below the Federation were seven war zones, each equivalent to a country.
They each further comprised a number of continental cities.
Wang Che was now in the Eastern War Zone, West Peak Continent’s Skyheart City.
Twenty stops later, he got off and was immediately greeted by the large, bird nest-like structure in front of him.
This was the Skyheart Soul Beast Base.
The building had been built against a mountain, appropriate for the scenery of the West Peak Continent which was rich in forests and greenery.
Because of its abundance of nature, most soul beasts in this continent were flying, rock, ground, grass, and bug types.
“Wang Che, you’re finally here. I thought you wouldn’t come!”
Just as he got off the maglev train and reached the entrance of the base, Wang Che heard a voice calling him.
The base itself was colossal, and there was an enormous plaza at the entrance as well. There was a diverse range of soul pets everywhere he looked.
There were Hundred Flower Beasts that were covered in all kinds of flowers and plants, shaped like spinning tops, and Rock Golems that were as large as kangaroos with their firm and hard muscles.
Above Wang Che were Steel Wing Eagles soaring in the sky, wings spread stiffly outward like airplanes. On top of that, he even saw an exceptionally rare semi-human elemental soul pet, a Wood Warlord.
...
The sheer number of soul pets there would definitely have dazzled any young man.
There were even soul pets that Wang Che could not recognise from his 18 years worth of memories.
That was because Skyheart Soul Beast Base wasn’t just a place for outsiders to buy young soul beast eggs from.
It served as a research facility as well.
Meanwhile, feeling curious, the green caterpillar in Wang Che’s chest pocket slowly revealed itself as it tried to take a peek at its surroundings.
When the caterpillar saw the myriad of soul beasts roaming around, its eyes started to sparkle. It could not help but be completely dazzled especially as it noticed the Steel Wing Eagles soaring in the sky.
“What’s wrong? Are you dumbfounded too?”
The same voice sounded again. When Wang Che turned around, he saw a slightly shorter ruffian youth with a buzz cut walking towards him.
Xu Haifeng was Wang Che’s classmate and good friend.
“It’s alright,” Wang Che waved his hand to greet him.
“I admire your composure,” Xu Haifeng patted Wang Che on the shoulder and said. “Honestly though, I think it’s a pity.”
Xu Haifeng looked at the green caterpillar on Wang Che’s chest. He almost said something but managed to stop himself in time.
“Let’s go in and take a look,” Xu Haifeng said, trying to change the subject. “It seems we’re pretty lucky. There are quite a few soul pet professors here in the base today. That person there made an appointment with one of them, Professor Yan. You could say that our class will benefit from this.”
A person who wished to purchase soul pet eggs could choose their own at the base.
Typically, there would be professional researchers present to help the buyers make their choice.
However, this came at a great cost.
If a professor was personally present to help pick out soul pet eggs, the lucky buyer would almost certainly end up with exceedingly good soul beasts that suited them well.
It didn’t matter if it was their first or second soul pet.
Nevertheless, not everyone was privileged enough to get a professor’s help.
It was no longer a matter of money in that regard.
“Professor?” Wang Che had a surprised expression on his face.
“Yes, Young Lady Lin Xi invited him personally to select a soul pet for the people in our class.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Wang Che remarked while nodding.