Chapter 16 - Strength Of A Great Yao
Amidst the strange atmosphere, Zhuang Qing was the first to shift his line of sight. He looked at the Zhuyan. “You’re saying you’ve never seen the yao emperor before?”
“I may not have seen him before, but I’ve heard of his outstanding prowess in combat,” The Zhuyan didn’t know how powerful the yao emperor was, but in front of his captors, he couldn’t wait to describe the yao emperor as a heavenly, omnipotent, super great yao. “His Majesty the yao emperor appears and disappears unpredictably. If he knew you were treating the yao race this way, he would definitely seek justice for my yao race.”
“That may not be the case,” Xu Yuan was scribbling on a book with a pen. Hearing the Zhuyan’s words, she retorted, “It’s not like you represent the entire yao race. The number of yao cultivators we have here aren’t few either, what if the yao emperor stands on our side?”
“Yao emperor daren is of utmost respectability, how could he wallow in the mire with all of you?” The Zhuyan gave an arrogant, cold smile. “All of you had best wish for more fortune. Enraging the yao emperor could cause tsunamis, the leveling of mountains, and the destruction of the entire nation in a blink of an eye.”
“Is that yao emperor an idiot? Does he have nothing better to do than cause tsunamis and level mountains? The land under the Heavens is huge and possesses its own principles. If some great yao really dared to do such a thing, would heavenly law allow it?” Fu Li mercilessly called out the Zhuyan for the bullsh*t he was spouting. “King Zhuyan, you’ve lived for almost ten thousand years, how can you so shamelessly cheat the younger generation with such words?”
“It’s you again,” The Zhuyan was angered just from seeing Fu Li. If it wasn’t for this yaoguai, he wouldn’t have been shut in this place. “What kind of mountain were you staying at in the past, I’ve never seen a yao who meddled so much in someone else’s business.”
“Only through mutual help can a harmonious homeland be built,” Fu Li didn’t mind the Zhuyan’s mocking tone of voice either. Turning, he spoke to Zhuang Qing, “My apologies, I won’t be able to help you. I’ve never seen any strange great yao whose appearance matches the Zhuyan’s description.”
“Mr Fu, you can’t be blamed for that,” Xu Yuan brought a sketchbook over. She had sketched out the yao emperor’s appearance according to the Zhuyan’s words and then realized that the combination of these elements made for an extremely odd appearance. “I suspect that the truth was distorted in the yao world that year. By the time it reached the Zhuyan’s ears, it had long since changed.”
Zhuang Qing took the sketchbook, shot a glance at it, and then shoved it at Fu Li. Fu Li held it up. A mountain-like body, sharp golden fur, and two pairs of wings – what kind of hideous mess was this? This appearance looked way too haphazard.
“With this appearance, using his original body to fight probably wouldn’t give him much of an advantage,” Fu Li turned the sketchbook around multiple ways, examining it quite a few times. “Fights in the yao world revolve around speed, ferocity, and precision. Although this legendary yao emperor has a huge body, the four wings are in disharmony with the body. I don’t know what his tail looks like, but if his body can be as large as a mountain, then the flexibility of his tail is probably extremely low. He has no advantage in battle.”
“Given his cultivation, if he fought with other yaoguai using his human form, the other yaoguai wouldn’t be able to tell what his original form is either. How would they be able to describe his appearance?” Fu Li handed the sketchbook back to Xu Yuan before turning to speak to the Zhuyan. “So, you must be lying.”
The Zhuyan swallowed. Looking up, he saw Zhuang Qing staring straight at him and immediately shrunk into a ball from the fright. “I didn’t lie. I al-also heard this from other yaoguai.”
“Tch,” Xu Yuan threw the sketchbook onto the desk. “After an eternity, it turned out to be a waste of time.”
Despite not having obtained the answer he wanted, there wasn’t much disappointment on Zhuang Qing’s face. He turned and looked at Fu Li. “I’ve troubled Mr Fu for this matter today.”
Fu Li shook his head. “You’re too polite. It’s quite interesting to listen to the yao world’s gossip.”
“Mr Fu really won’t consider joining our bureau?” Zhuang Qing intended to cherish talent. Recalling the dilapidated rented house that Fu Li lived in, he couldn’t help asking, “The bureau will arrange staff lodging for you. Communications and transport costs will be reimbursed every month.”
“Benefactor, our bureau usually isn’t very busy, and we get off work at set times. You can even read when you have nothing to do. That way, you’ll easily get into university when the time comes,” Chu Yu walked over. “Don’t worry, the salary is definitely higher than a security guard’s.”
Upon hearing about the wages and staff lodging, Fu Li was a little tempted.
Behind him in the spirit locking formation, the Zhuyan who appeared to have been frightened into keeping even his head down used a sharp claw to slash open his palm. Blood dripped bit by bit onto the talisman formation. He thought that his movements had gone unnoticed, but the moment he slashed his palm, Fu Li suddenly looked back.
“You want to cast a spell using blood?” Fu Li raised an arm all of a sudden. His arm pa.s.sed through the spirit lock formation’s barrier and dragged the Zhuyan out of the spirit lock formation.
The moment Fu Li acted, Zhuang Qing’s dark brown eyes were suddenly suffused by a golden light and countless golden rays pressed down on the fresh blood seeping out of the Zhuyan. The golden light and baleful qi collided, emitting crackling sounds. His hands moved rapidly, and a thick barrier formed in front of them.
A violent explosion sounded. However, other than the empty s.p.a.ce in the spirit lock formation, there was not even a tiny bit of movement anywhere else, as if the explosion was merely everyone’s misconception. Zhuang Qing closed his palm and smiled coldly. “You deserve to be called an ancient and famous fiend-yao, actually knowing how to use blood-triggering spells.”
Chu Yu and the rest were so frightened that their complexions had changed. The wave of immense yao qi just now was practically an ultra-energy bomb. If not for their Boss swiftly setting up a barrier, the entire building would have been razed to the ground.
“Zhuyan.”
The spirit lock formation was forcibly torn open. Fu Li walked in easily, though at this moment the Zhuyan didn’t dare to move rashly. He watched Fu Li, concealed alarm in his eyes. This sort of blood-triggering technique could not be terminated once it started. If someone interrupted it midway, they would definitely be attacked by baleful qi. Even if they didn’t die, they would lose up to a thousand years of cultivation. Yet, why was this yaoguai completely unharmed?
The spirit lock formation was only ever used to contain evil-doing, man-eating great yao. For nearly a century, no yao had ever managed to escape from it, let alone counterattack it. The bureau was secretly shocked. How strong were these ancient yao?
If the Zhuyan was capable of destroying the spirit lock formation, then how terrifying was the yao emperor he spoke of?
Thinking of this, the expressions of the bureau’s people and yao turned rather ugly. They looked towards Zhuang Qing simultaneously. However, Zhuang Qing was watching Fu Li and the Zhuyan expressionlessly.
Even though Fu Li had once rescued Zhang Ke and Chu Yu, his harmless appearance and mild, nearly human-like aura prevented everyone from viewing him as an ancient yao. Only at this moment did they clearly realize that the other party was a great yao who had lived for four thousand years.
“Who exactly are you?” Seeing Fu Li approach him, the Zhuyan was so frightened that he retreated again and again. However, the wall was behind him; there was already no way out for him.
“This little yao is called Fu Li,” Fu Li glanced at the Zhuyan’s still-bleeding arm in puzzlement. “The moment this sort of blood-triggering explosive formation succeeds, the activator of the formation will be punished severely by heavenly law. Why would you give yourself that kind of trouble?”
“Heavenly law?” The Zhuyan turned back into his human form and laughed icily. “Heavenly law is unjust; it actually allowed humans to become the most intelligent of all living creatures. These few years, humans have been occupying all the mountains, rivers, and oceans without the slightest scruple. Aren’t they doing so by relying on the heavenly law’s bias towards them? I was a dazzling existence for ten thousand years, why should I bow my head to the humans?”
Fu Li looked at the Zhuyan’s deathly white complexion and shook his head a long while later. “I may not know how dazzling the yao clans were in the past, but I’ve heard of the various kings’ fighting prowess. They consumed human flesh as food and supplied themselves with the pleasures of life by frequently ordering humans to sacrifice virgin males and females to them. Even the river yao used the threat of floods to obtain young human women. When all of you were treating humans as fish meat, you never felt that heavenly law was unjust, so why complain now?”
“Evil-doing yao will completely lose their virtue. The moment Heaven and Earth’s spiritual influence is exhausted will be the moment humanity prospers,” Fu Li didn’t understand why the Zhuyan couldn’t comprehend this one point. “Humans may have weak bodies, but they are intelligent. They can create their own culture, ideologies, and know how to pa.s.s them down from generation to generation. Just by relying on their own capabilities, they have invented many new things. With such spirit, isn’t it fair that they can now be the most intelligent life forms?”
“The humans have a good saying – thirty years of the eastern river, and thirty years of the western river,” Fu Li patted the Zhuyan. “Why don’t you take your time to ponder over it?”
“Then what about those humans? They wantonly exploited mother earth and poured toxic waste products into the rivers and lakes,” The Zhuyan retorted. “They’re merely the most intelligent of all living things, not the master of all living things. Don’t tell me the rivers, lakes, and mother earth can only belong to the humans?!”
For some strange reason, Xu Yuan, Zhang Ke, and the other human cultivators turned a little red after hearing these words.
Fu Li smiled. “That’s why you don’t need to worry. If the humans continue to court disaster, they will end up even more miserable than our yao race. Why don’t we wait and see for a while longer? Don’t go out and cause trouble. Maybe after a few hundred years, the humans will be as equally out of luck as our yao race.”
The two human cultivators Zhang Ke and Xu Yuan, “…”
Was this Fu Li helping them or was he here to watch human drama?
“Really?” The Zhuyan wasn’t resigned yet and continued to ask.
Swish.
A golden dragon tail swept past and the Zhuyan smashed heavily against the wall, reverting to his original form upon falling to the ground.
“So much nonsense, do you think you’re facing a hundred thousand clueless kids?” Zhuang Qing fished out a magic device expressionlessly and absorbed the Zhuyan into the magic device.
Since he was so capable at blood-triggering techniques, then he would seal him at the bottom of the ocean tonight. Even if he bled himself out, he wouldn’t be able to harm a single living creature.
Fu Li turned his head, glanced at the deep hole in the wall, and silently shifted to the side. This sort of virtuous golden dragon who had joined with the national fate was truly too scary. Fu Li resolved to never let the other party know that he wasn’t very fond of the dragon clan.
King Ganglie said before that it was most important for a yao to know how to give and take.
Although all he had been doing the past years was cultivating in seclusion or sleeping, he still remembered this statement.
“What are you looking at?” Zhuang Qing noticed that Fu Li was looking at him, so he turned and looked towards him after handing the magic device to Chu Yu.
“Nothing much,” Fu Li shook his head.
He was just a bit curious whether Zhuang Qing’s pants would drop or tear when his dragon tail came swinging out.
If it didn’t drop or tear, then how did he do it?
Did he manifest it using some technique?
Zhuang Qing turned and walked out, telling Chu Yu in a cold voice, “Take him to fill in the application form for the special welfare money.”
Fu Li was a perfectly good male yao, what was he doing staring at the area below someone else’s waist?!
T/N: Wellk2026; at least FL didn’t say it out loud this time. Is he making progress? k1U914;