Chapter 17: Fundamental Laws

Only after everyone at the bureau calmed down did they realize in alarm that they had narrowly avoided the gates of hell. If the Zhuyan’s spell formation had succeeded, no one present would have survived. The spell formation hadn’t succeeded, yet it had caused such a large explosion. Then, what kind of terrible power would it have if the spell had succeeded?

Chu Yu was in such fear that even his fish scales had made an appearance. He still couldn’t quite react upon hearing Zhuang Qing speak to him. “Boss?”

“Take him to complete the procedures for the subsidy,” Although Zhuang Qing felt that Fu Li’s gaze was a bit offensive, he might not have been able to protect everyone in the building if Fu Li hadn’t discovered the Zhuyan’s movements in time. Zhuang Qing regarded himself as someone who drew a very clear line between gratitude and resentment. Within the span of a few breaths, he suppressed the tiny bit of dissatisfaction at the bottom of his heart.

“Benefactor,” Chu Yu glanced at Fu Li as if he was an almighty figure of fortune. Even if he had to carry Fu Li over, he would do so with utmost willingness, much less speak of leading the way for him. “Please follow me.”

“Don’t be so polite, it’s fine to just call me Fu Li.” Fu Li shifted his gaze away from Zhuang Qing with some regret and spoke to Chu Yu, “I’ll have to trouble you to lead the way then.”

“It’s only right that I do so, only right,” Chu Yu led Fu Li out. Just as they passed by a small room, Fu Li suddenly came to a stop.

“Benefactor, what’s wrong?” Seeing Fu Li come to a halt, Chu Yu glanced at the room in curiosity. This room appeared tiny, but in reality was equipped with a space system. Several yao who had broken the law were imprisoned inside. As long as they repented properly, they would be released in six months’ time at the earliest, or up to ten years’ time.

Fu Li looked past the door and caught sight of a field dog inside who was puffing and blowing while working at a sewing machine. “It’s nothing, I just saw someone familiar.”

Chu Yu’s gaze followed Fu Li’s line of sight. “You’re referring to Seventh Uncle Sun?”

Fu Li nodded. “He told me about entering the city at that time, although he was already arrested by the time I went in.”

“Fortunately, he was already captured when you entered the city. This Seventh Uncle Sun is a habitual swindler who often cons those little yao who just entered the city,” Chu Yu shook his head. “Everyone says that yao cultivators from the dog clan are honest and considerate, but to me, the only honest and considerate thing this Seventh Uncle Sun has is his face. He’s been in and out of here multiple times; a frequent visitor.”

Fu Li could tell from the other party’s practiced movements that Seventh Uncle Sun must have frequently come to this place to do physical labor as part of rehabilitation.

“This time, he did something a bit more major – he helped a little yao from the fox clan create fake identification. The fox yao became some internet celebrity and was reported for selling face masks of dubious origin. In the end, investigations by the police revealed that the fox yao’s degree and residence permit were all fake. The entire matter caused a huge commotion that even lasted on the internet for two days.”

“Seventh Uncle Sun helped create fake identification for this sort of illegal yao immigrant, so he won’t be able to leave for three to five years.”

Fu Li, “…”

So, the many connections, grand residences and cars that Seventh Uncle Sun told him he had in the human world was all a lie?

As a yao from the countryside who hadn’t seen the world, Fu Li felt that modern yaoguai had more and more vanity. The yao in the past most liked to brag about how great their cultivation base was and how many little yao they had under them, but the yao today even used their houses as something to boast about. Really, they hadn’t learnt the human spirit of actively pursuing advancements nor their proficiency at inventing and innovating, yet they had mastered the art of bragging.

The field dog turned his head and saw Fu Li standing there with Chu Yu. He walked to the gate and spoke through the barrier, “Little Fu, you came in too?”

Fu Li, “…”

“Ai,” Human speech came out of the field dog’s mouth. “I told you long ago that the outside world isn’t good to live in. You just watched a few days of news broadcasts and wanted to rush out, aren’t you here now? Tell me, what did you do? Did you steal, swindle, or misuse spells and cause panic among the humans?”

Seeing that Fu Li still wasn’t speaking, Seventh Uncle Sun thought that Fu Li had little courage and was still frightened. Therefore, he directed a fawning smile at Chu Yu. “Great immortal Chu, this is one of my juniors from the countryside. He didn’t see much of the world in the past and doesn’t know about the rules and laws of the human world. Why don’t you shut him in this prison cell of mine and let me give him a good talking to about the human world’s laws. He’s an honest yao and definitely won’t re-offend in the future.”

“An old fox like you still wants to teach others not to commit crime, why not count how many times you’ve been here?” As a fish, Chu Yu wasn’t very fond of cats and dogs by nature. His eyelids twitched. “Don’t worry, Mr Fu is an esteemed guest of our bureau. You won’t be able to stay together with him.”

“Esteemed guest?” Seventh Uncle Sun’s eyes shone. He looked at Fu Li as if he was a treasure. “Little Fu, you’ve matured, even stepping on the path of the bureau?”

The cultivation world’s bureau was in charge of all cultivators in the human world, regardless of whether they were human or yao. As long as one walked the path of cultivation, they would have to bow their heads to those from the bureau to some extent. Thinking of this, Seventh Uncle Sun told Fu Li in a low voice, “Little Fu, why not you speak to the bureau’s people and ask them to reduce my sentence. When Seventh Uncle is out, I’ll definitely let you lead a plentiful life with an abundance of food and drink.”

“Seventh Uncle, those who say such things in television dramas usually don’t have very good endings,” Fu Li had been watching television in the security guards’ restroom for the past few days and had already obtained some experience in this area. For instance, those who spoke too complacently would usually encounter terrible luck.

Seventh Uncle Sun, “…”

A yao from the countryside who had never seen the world now also knew how to keep up with television dramas?

“The society today is a lawful one. Since you’ve committed a crime, then it should be handled as such.” Fu Li then added, “But don’t worry, I’ll definitely visit you in the future.”

“Forget it, forget it,” Seventh Uncle Sun was also open-minded. Seeing that he couldn’t get out through Fu Li, he settled for the next best option. “The next time you visit me, bring more pig trotters. Gnawing on pig thigh bones are the best.”

“Okay,” Fu Li watched Seventh Uncle Sun maintain his original form and return to his seat by the sewing machine. He turned and asked Chu Yu, “Why do they need to make clothes?”

“Re-education through labor. There are so many convicts locked up in the prisons and they still need to be fed and clothed after all. Our bureau isn’t rich either, right?” Chu Yu explained with a broad smile. “This was learnt from the humans. It’s quite a good method.”

“You’re right, work is the worthiest of respect,” Fu Li nodded in approval of Chu Yu’s statement.

Seeing that Fu Li hadn’t pleaded for leniency on Seventh Uncle Sun’s behalf, Chu Yu didn’t mention this matter anymore. He brought Fu Li to the office to fill in the application form, and upon completion took out a medicinal bottle of pellets from the drawer. “Benefactor, take this bottle of Spirit Gathering Pellets.”

He would remember his benefactor’s grace for as long as he lived. He didn’t have anything else that was of much use, and since the spiritual qi nowadays was sparse, it might be better for him to give his benefactor Spirit Gathering Pellets. Perhaps they would be of help towards his cultivation.

Fu Li took the medicine bottle, wondering somewhat dubiously if the bureau’s people had a habit of gifting medicinal pellets. Rather than giving him this sort of tiny pill that wasn’t very effective, it would be better if they gave him a few university textbooks.

After collating the application forms Fu Li had filled in, Chu Yu couldn’t resist asking, “Benefactor, did you bring your registration form?”

“What registration form?” Fu Li asked in confusion.

“The registration form for our bureau’s recruitment. There were quite a few cultivators who signed up today; there were a total of more than a thousand registration forms. But if you were to put yourself forward, there definitely won’t be a problem,” Chu Yu presented a registration form to Fu Li. “Whether or not you’re willing to come here, you can count it as participating in an exam. Just treat it as a way of adapting in advance to the atmosphere of the university entrance exams.”

The moment Fu Li heard that it would increase his exam experience, he picked up a pen and smoothly filled in the form. He inquired lightly, “How many of the more-than-thousand applicants are you guys going to accept?”

“We’re recruiting two times more the number of people this year compared to last year.”

Fu Li, “How many was accepted last year?”

“One.”

Fu Li, “…”

So, was he here to make up the number?

After completing everything, Chu Yu insisted on sending Fu Li home. It wouldn’t be good for Fu Li to decline, so he could only agree. When they passed by a bookstore on the way back, Fu Li caught sight of specially discounted books, and thus went in to pick out a few university textbooks.

Chu Yu glanced at the list of books – , , and so on. He could feel a headache coming on just from looking at them. It was no wonder that the humans advanced so rapidly; not only were they hard on themselves, they were also hard on their children. They clearly only had a life span of approximately a hundred years, yet they spent the majority of their time on learning and working. They would invest large amounts of capital for the purpose of enabling their later generations to amass even greater knowledge. This sort of thirst for knowledge would not manifest in any other race other than the humans.

However…

Chu Yu stole a peek at Fu Li, who was carrying the books and exam papers into the car. A yao cultivator who had the courage to compete with the humans to enter university was probably also an oddity in the yao world. He remembered that the younger generations of the cultivation sects all had poor grades, so any sect with a disciple who managed to enter an undergraduate course couldn’t wait to hold a ten-day grand banquet and announce the news to the entire cultivation world.

In the depths of the night, many people had already sunk into dreamland. At the coast, the tide beat against the sand, the seemingly bottomless water appearing as if it would engulf everything. The bottle gourd in Zhuang Qing’s hands shook violently as if something wanted to break out of it.

The sea breeze blew against Zhuang Qing’s hair. The next moment, an extremely large wave surged forth. An incomparably large golden dragon swiftly flashed across the surface of the sea. Very soon, the surface of the sea regained its calm, leaving only a tiny tortoise that persisted in its slow climb towards the sea.

After entering the water, the golden dragon moved at the speed of lightning. All it took was a mere few minutes for it to plunge into the deepest valley of the sea. The floor of the valley was pitch-black without a single speck of light. The only ray of light was the golden radiance of virtue emanating from the golden dragon. Several casual-looking deep sea creatures didn’t seem to be able to adapt to the presence of light and fled into the distance with a flick of their tails.

Zhuang Qing changed into his human form, threw the Zhuyan out of the bottle gourd, and then sealed him in a formation at the bottom of the ocean.

The Zhuyan was an aggressive beast on land, but when it was at the bottom of the ocean, it lacked even the strength to struggle free of the seal, much less wreak havoc. Roaring, its eyes glared at the man in front of it whose entire body was shrouded in the golden radiance of virtue. It hated that it couldn’t swallow him into its belly in one mouth.

“Zhuyan,” A jade ornament appeared in Zhuang Qing’s hand, emitting two rays of soft, violet light. “You have a predestined total life span of 23121 years. You have slaughtered countless yao, eaten millions of people, and incited the chaos of war in nearly a hundred cities. Today, you will be imprisoned at the bottom of the sea. You will be able to leave the city when the seal has dissipated.”

The Zhuyan’s gaze landed on the jade ornament in Zhuang Qing’s hands, extreme fear appearing on his face.

This was… the Heavenly Book of Virtue?

Exactly how many hundreds of lifetimes of supreme virtue did this golden dragon accumulate to dare to use the Heavenly Book of Virtue? Not only that, he could even use his less than two thousand years’ worth of cultivation to suppress an ancient fiend till he was completely unable to resist?

In the current cultivation world, did the levels of cultivation not even adhere to the fundamental laws anymore?

Despair filled the Zhuyan’s heart and face. Was he going to be stuck at the bottom of the sea for an eternity?

“So what if you have the Heavenly Book of Virtue? I am still an ancient fiend recognized by heavenly law. So what if I ate millions of people? You can only imprison me, not dare to kill me.”

Thinking of the possibility that he would have to remain at the bottom of the sea for countless years on end, the Zhuyan’s immense fear morphed into infinite rage.