Chapter 46: The Kunpeng's Weakness

“I don’t quite understand Dragon Lord Qing Yan’s words,” Zhuang Qing pulled Fu Li out of his hiding spot behind the cushion, pinning him to his side. “Fu Li is a very good colleague. I feel assured handing him things to do.”

“Since that’s the case, I can be at ease,” Qing Yan didn’t mind Zhuang Qing’s cold expression and continued smiling. “I came today to request for your help.”

Zhuang Qing lowered his head and rubbed the fur on the rabbit’s back. Fu Li’s fur was both smooth and soft, possibly because he had been raised well as a child. His fur felt exceedingly nice to the touch. Zhuang Qing had originally only intended to casually touch his fur a few times, but ended up unable to stop.

As an elder, Fu Li wasn’t very happy at being touched here and there by an underaged yao. He stepped on Zhuang Qing’s hand with his hind legs. Impudent!

His body might be small, but he had plenty of strength. Zhuang Qing rubbed his hand that was aching from being stomped on and shifted his seat, leaving a ten centimeter gap between them.

Despite being ignored by Zhuang Qing, Qing Yan didn’t reveal the slightest bit of dissatisfaction. He took out a jade box from his sleeves and placed it on the table.

The ears drooping by the sides of Fu Li’s head pricked up. This situation – was it bribery? He hadn’t expected Zhuang Qing to be such a yao.

“I heard a rumor,” Qing Yan opened the lid, revealing several pearls of an unparalleled size. “It’s said that the Kunpeng has awoken?”

Having just received a rainbow made out of gems, Zhuang Qing was extremely calm upon seeing these large pearls. “Why does Dragon Lord Qing Yan ask this?”

“Our dragon race is in possession of ancient records. Not only does the Kunpeng eat fish and shrimp, it also has the habit of feeding on dragons. You should pay attention to your safety,” Hearing Zhuang Qing’s tone of voice, Qing Yan understood. It seemed the Kunpeng truly had awakened.

He had assumed that all these great yao had lost their lives during the major calamity. Yet, they had actually reappeared.

“The Kunpeng is very reasonable, there is no need for Dragon Lord Qing Yan to worry,” Zhuang Qing pointed at the clock on the wall. “It’s my rest time.”

Qing Yan was aware that Zhuang Qing had little desire to attend to him, so he stood up. “I’ve interrupted Chief Zhuang’s rest, goodbye.”

“Take care,” Zhuang Qing raised a hand and the main door to the villa opened automatically. There were even two members of the azure dragon clan outside the door. Zhuang Qing sneered, “The next time Dragon Lord Qing Yan brings your clanmates, let them enter and sit down as well. Although I don’t have good tea or water to receive guests, I can still find an area for them to sit.”

“I dare not disrupt Chief Zhuang’s rest. They are young and strong, waiting outside for a while is not a problem,” Qing Yan walked down the steps. He glanced back and saw the rabbit that had previously been lying on the sofa leap off the couch and walk over to Zhuang Qing’s feet. Its golden eyes were fixed on him.

There was a strange feeling in his heart. Even after setting up a barrier and flying into the sky, he still felt that something wasn’t quite right.

“Dragon Lord, what’s wrong?” The azure dragon clansmen saw that Qing Yan had an odd expression on his face and thus asked, “Did Zhuang Qing behave unreasonably towards you?”

Qing Yan shook his head. Zhuang Qing had never been very polite to him.

What exactly was wrong?

He turned his head and looked at his clanmates. “How do rabbits walk?”

“Ah?” The clanmates hadn’t expected Qing Yan to suddenly ask such a trivial question. After staring blankly for a moment, they answered with some hesitation, “Don’t they walk on four feet?”

“Really?” Qing Yan furrowed his brows. Had he seen wrongly?

“I knew it was you dragons!” A slightly plump man appeared in the clouds all of a sudden. He looked at Qing Yan. “You’re from the azure dragon clan?”

Seeing as this individual’s purpose for approaching them was unclear, coupled with the fact that he couldn’t make out the other party’s cultivation and original form, Qing Yan went forward and bowed. “May I know who this senior is…” He hadn’t even finished his statement when he was sent flying by the Kunpeng’s palm, whirling 720 degrees in the air before falling back onto the clouds.

Qing Yan lay sprawled on the clouds and spat out a large mouth of filthy blood. Frightened, the two clansmen went forward to help him up. “Dragon Lord, are you okay?”

“My grudge with your azure dragon clan is tens of thousands of years old. In the future, I’ll give you a beating every time I see you,” The Kunpeng clapped his hands, his face brimming with disdain. “You can’t even take one slap from laozi. Truly, every generation can’t compare to the next. All are spineless cowards.”

Qing Yan wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth and stood up. “May I know who this senior is? Why do you consider our azure dragon clan your enemy?”

“Five thousand years ago, your azure dragon clan might just barely be considered my enemy. But now…” The Kunpeng scoffed. “You had better hide your fishtails. Don’t let laozi see them, otherwise I’ll beat you up the next time.”

With a wave of his sleeves, the Kunpeng flew off into the clouds, leaving behind three azure dragons who had turned pale from anger.

“Do all rabbits walk like you?” Zhuang Qing looked at Fu Li’s tiger-like walking posture, feeling uncomfortable from head to toe. Didn’t rabbits walk by jumping and hopping?

“I’m a rabbit spirit, there’s nothing strange about walking in a more special way,” Fu Li picked up a large pearl from the box given by Qing Yan. Placing it on the table, he rolled it about playfully. “What’s so good about resembling leopards? Tigers walk so majestically.”

“The mountain you lived on even had a tiger yao?” Zhuang Qing couldn’t help suspecting that the mountain had some attractive force for all sorts of animals with different biological characteristics to gather on it. Not only that, it managed to even produce such a stupid rabbit?

“Yes,” Fu Li nodded.

“That tiger has quite the heart to be able to hold itself back from swallowing you,” Seeing that Fu Li was about to roll the pearl off the table, he hastily reached out a hand and caught it. “The sky’s dark, I’m going to sleep.”

So you should return to wherever you need to return to.

“Oh,” Fu Li jumped off the side table. His front legs stood upright, and he transformed into a handsome youth wearing a white brocade gown and jade band.

“My mistake, my mistake,” Fu Li looked down at the clothes he was wearing. “I still haven’t changed my past habit.” He patted the brocade gown and it turned into a white shirt and jeans. His hair also turned into that of a modern man.

The image of Fu Li in ancient attire was short-lived. For a moment, Zhuang Qing was dazzled. The Fu Li in ancient attire was much better-looking than his current appearance. Just like… a noble prince that had been pampered and spoiled since childhood, with a purity and ignorance borne from innocence.

“Many thanks for your care today,” The Fu Li in his human form seemed to have withdrawn back under the shell of human virtue and law; he became a lot more solemn. “Rest early, I’ll head back.”

“En,” Zhuang Qing nodded. Sending Fu Li to the door, he helped him pull open the door with a straight face. “You’re not allowed to drink on the job in the future.”

“I’ve memorized it,” Fu Li was in the wrong, so anything that Zhuang Qing said was right.

He walked out of the luxurious villa and strolled along the streets. The streetlights lengthened Fu Li’s shadow till it formed a long, long line, just like a matchstick that had taken on human form.

There were few pedestrians along the roads. The residents of this area were all wealthy people who had cars to get around, so there were very few people who walked outside like Fu Li. After walking a great distance, he still didn’t encounter a taxi. Pedestrians would pass by him occasionally, but they were all strolling or jogging.

Fu Li hadn’t reached the end of the street when he realized that a young girl had already passed by him three times. Coming to a stop, he watched the girl run from the end of the road to the forest opposite. Not long later, she ran over from the end of the road once again and followed her original route, running into the forest.

There was an artificial lake in the forest. The scenery and air was also very good.

The fourth time. The fifth time.

Fu Li watched the girl’s ponytail swinging back and forth at the back of her head. Sighing, he ran after her.

Upon entering a tiny, shaded path in the woods, Fu Li heard the girl’s frightened shrieks. He pushed aside the shrubbery and saw the girl lying in a pool of blood. She reached out a hand towards the pedestrians on the walkway by the lakeside, her eyes wide. Her cries for help sounded over and over again.

Her voice weakened bit by bit. Her hand slowly lowered.

“Save me, I don’t want to die…”

The girl lowered her hand in despair. Just as her hand was about to fall to the ground, a warm hand grabbed hold of it. Her eyes widened as she stared dazedly at Fu Li.

“Are you okay?” Fu Li crouched in front of the girl. “I’ll call the ambulance for you.”

“Thank you,” The girl gripped Fu Li’s hand tightly. The blood-red tinge to her eyes gradually lightened, eventually morphing into glistening, translucent teardrops. “Thank you.”

“Finally… Finally someone came to save me,” A glorious smile blossomed on her face. The bloodstains and wounds on her body vanished completely, turning her into an adorable girl with a single ponytail, dressed in a set of white sports attire.

“Thank you,” The girl bowed to Fu Li, turned, and walked out of the shrubbery.

Fu Li walked out of the shaded path in the woods and stood for a while under the streetlamps. This time, the girl didn’t appear. When he walked out of the street, he heard the faint sound of the yinchai’s bells.

The yinchai was ferrying souls again.

Upon reaching home, Fu Li fished out his phone and searched online for the incident involving that girl, typing in a very unpracticed manner.

Seven days ago, while jogging, this young human girl was dragged by a hoodlum into the shrubs and murdered. All the jewelry she had on her was snatched. Her corpse was only discovered the next morning when the cleaners went to sweep the leaves in the woods. Two days later, the police arrested the murderer. He had robbed and murdered the girl around ten o’clock at night, while the girl’s time of death was approximately eleven o’clock. There were also traces on the ground indicating that someone had crawled.

Which was also to say that she had not immediately passed on after suffering the injuries. She simply hadn’t been found by anyone. In the end, it was in the midst of despair that she stepped onto the path to death. There was less than ten meters between the shrubs and the walkway by the lakeside. It was unknown how many people had passed by at that time, but this girl could only watch them pass by her one by one till… she died.

Fu Li logged out of the browser and placed his phone back onto the table. It was said that the death of a person who died with resentment would play out repeatedly on the seventh day following the actual death. If someone released her from her unwillingness to accept the situation, she would be able to forget her previous fate and be reincarnated.

If she couldn’t, she would either become a vengeful ghost, eaten by other malicious spirits or evil yao, or turn into a malicious spirit that took revenge against innocent humans at the area of her death.

The air of resentment on that girl had been extremely thick. Had she truly not been found by anyone? Or… had someone actually found her, only to leave on the sly out of fear of bringing trouble to themselves?

Fu Li pushed open the windows and looked at the tiny garden outside the dormitory. The streetlights shone down on several little yao playing on the grass. These yao couldn’t even make a complete transformation into their human forms. They were likely the children of internal staff. Other adult yao didn’t have much courage to leave their rooms out of fear of the Kunpeng. Only these little yao feared nothing; no one could stop them from playing to their heart’s content.

As these thoughts ran through his mind, Fu Li saw the Kunpeng flying down from the sky with a satisfied smile on his face.

“Uncle, are you my father’s colleague too?” A tiny girl with two green leaves on her head latched onto the Kunpeng’s thigh, her round, large eyes filled with curiosity. “Why haven’t I seen you before?”

“I’m new,” The Kunpeng’s entire body turned rigid as he looked at the little ball of flesh hanging from his leg. He wanted to reach out and pick her up, yet feared harming the child due to excessive strength.

“I know, I know,” A boy with cat ears held onto the Kunpeng’s other leg. “My mum said that quite a few powerful, high-level staff were recruited this year. This uncle must be one of them.”

“L-Little child, release me,” The Kunpeng stared worriedly at the two things hanging on both sides of him. He was most afraid of coming into contact with little children and wouldn’t lay a hand on children even if it was his most hated azure dragon clan.

“Uncle looks so strong, was your original form a tree?”

“As if,” The catboy refuted. “Uncle looked so handsome when flying down, it’s obvious he’s a formidable yaoguai like me.”

“Tree!”

“Tiger!”

“Shameless, what link does a tiger have with you cats?”

“My mum said that tigers and cats are both feline species!”

The Kunpeng’s head ached from the children’s bickering. He wanted very much to pick up a child in each hand and toss them a kilometer away. In this short span of the time, the two children actually burst into tears. The piercing devilish sound made him recall the nightmare four thousand years ago when he was awoken by crying children.

If he hadn’t been awoken by an unknown child’s howls that year, he wouldn’t have left the East Sea to get to the bottom of the matter. If he hadn’t left the East Sea, he wouldn’t have been caught and beaten up by the Dangkang’s group of four. Everyone said that divine beasts were humane, but to him, all of them were good-for-nothings. He wouldn’t complain about them making use of their numbers to bully him, but they even sealed him at the bottom of the sea for four thousand years after beating him up. As a fiend, he had to bow down to this shameless manner of conduct.

Who said he, the Kunpeng, had no natural enemies? These children who wailed at the drop of a hat were his natural enemies.

“Don’t cry. If any of you continue crying, I’ll eat you.”

The two children’s cries halted suddenly. After a glance at each other, they raised their necks abruptly and continued howling at the sky. Their cries were even louder than the previous time.

“My god, can you two children stop crying? Anyone who didn’t know better would think that I was killing children,” The Kunpeng peeled the two children off his legs, each hand cradling a child. “I’ll bring you guys up to the clouds to play, deal?”

Please, for the love of god, shut these mouths that produced the devil’s sound!

Sure enough, the two children stopped crying. With a shake of his giddy head, the Kunpeng erected a barrier around his entire body to prevent the wind from buffeting the two children.

Just as the Kunpeng was flying into the skies with the two children, a shriek suddenly burst out from the dormitory.

“The Kunpeng’s kidnapping children!”

Fu Li slumped over the windowsill, his laughter nearly sending him tumbling down. The majestic Kunpeng daren was actually afraid of crying children. How interesting. The yao cultivators on the mountain had always praised him for his competence, so he had certainly never been as annoying as these little kids.

The two yao children and Fu Li testified for a whole night before everyone understood that the Kunpeng had not been kidnapping children but bringing them out to play. Though, after this incident, everyone no longer mentioned the Kunpeng with as much fear. At least, they wouldn’t deliberately lower their voices when mentioning him.

The Kunpeng’s mighty, valiant image might have started falling apart the moment he flew around the sky carrying children. After that night, the sound of yao children knocking on the Kunpeng’s door and pestering him to ‘fly high’ became a daily affair. The Kunpeng didn’t dare to make them cry and could only agree time after time to their request. Eventually, all the children in the dormitory approached him and he had no choice but to transform into his bird form, throw the children onto his back, and carry them off to play after putting a barrier in place.

Nobody had expected an ancient, famed fiend to be the most welcomed by children.

From this, it could be seen that the most powerful weapons in the world were actually spoilt, playful children.

“Seriously, those children are so annoying,” Three days later, the Kunpeng hid in Fu Li’s room and started complaining. “Their cultivation base is nothing great and their foundations are poor. How can they be so fond of playing?”

Fu Li gave the Kunpeng two spicy sticks. “They are indeed a little noisy.”

“Anyway, I won’t care about them anymore. Just listening to their crying makes my head hurt. They’re probably those ‘bear children’ that humans talk about,” The Kunpeng tore open the packaging around the spicy sticks and polished off the entire packet in one mouth.

The spicy sticks had just entered his tummy when the sound of children crying came from the floor below. Fu Li watched the Kunpeng who claimed to not care for children leap out of his window and, with an impatient face, pick up the cat-eared boy who had taken a huge tumble.

“Your mouth says you aren’t willing, but your actions tell the truth,” Fu Li picked up the spicy sticks the Kunpeng had thrown onto the floor. He shut the window in passing, blocking out the sound of wailing children.

At any rate, given the situation, the Kunpeng wouldn’t be able to return till the children fell asleep.

The next morning when Fu Li went to work, he received a report from a lower-level department stating that a Dragon Lord from the azure dragon clan had been attacked by an unknown yao a few days ago. The injuries suffered were grave and they hoped that the management bureau would capture the culprit.

This matter was under the jurisdiction of the cultivators’ department, so it had ended up in Fu Li’s hands.

“The incident happened five days ago, but they only reported it now?” Chao Yun felt that something was wrong after reading the report. The dragon race had always turned their noses up at the management bureau. Other than incidents where the management bureau fined them for their wrongdoings, there was virtually zero contact.

“Maybe they already went in search of this person, but wasn’t successful,” Ning Xuan read out the criminal suspect’s information provided by the azure dragon clan. “Slightly fat. Profound cultivation. Rough voice. Also said that there was an old grudge between them…”

The more Ning Xuan recited, the quieter his voice became. He looked at Fu Li. “Fu ge, could this be…”

Fu Li looked blankly at Ning Xuan. “The information provided by the azure dragon clan is too vague, I fear it won’t be easy to find the individual. Do you know any yao or human cultivators who matches this description?”

“No.” Ning Xuan placed the information on the desk and said sternly, “I’ll bring a team out to investigate right this instant.”

In the azure dragon clan’s Crystal Palace.

The Head of the azure dragon clan was looking at Qing Yan, who was lying on the bed. The Head took out a Hunyuan pill and fed it to Qing Yan. “Qing Yan, rest a bit more during this period. Don’t use your magic powers recklessly.”

“Head, have we reported the case to the management bureau?” Qing Yan struggled to sit up on the bed, saying with a pale face, “I suspect that the man who attacked me is very likely the Kunpeng that was subdued by Zhuang Qing. In the current cultivation world, no one other than the Kunpeng can injure me so easily.”

He knew that it was the Kunpeng who attacked him, but had no evidence. Thus, he could only intentionally report it to the management bureau and let Zhuang Qing keep it in mind. Since he couldn’t do anything much, he could only embarrass them.

Didn’t the management bureau brag about being fair and just? They should pursue justice for him then.

“That Fu Li’s identity is unknown, and now there’s an extra Kunpeng,” The Head made a pained face. “The dragon race has already reached this stage. Is heavenly law still unwilling to let us off?”

“Fu Li is capable of breaking Elder Qing Yuan’s horn, he definitely isn’t an ordinary yao cultivator,” Qing Yan covered his mouth and coughed a few times. “That hateful Zhuang Qing has such tight control over the management bureau, we can’t even squeeze in one spy.”

“Since he has no intention of deliberately opposing us, let’s leave this matter as it is,” The Head shook his head. “With the Kunpeng’s reappearance, our dragon race is already in a very difficult situation. Don’t provoke them and create another enemy.”

“Don’t worry Head, I definitely won’t clash with Fu Li openly,” A smile took shape on Qing Yan’s wan face. “All living creatures have their weaknesses - nobody in the six realms can escape from this.”

At the management bureau, everyone was still thinking about how to resolve the issue involving the azure dragon clan.

Unless the Kunpeng didn’t go out in the future, the cat would be let out of the bag sooner or later. Fu Li watched his colleagues come up with all sorts of plans and cocked his head, asking, “What is there to discuss? It’s not like the Kunpeng is an employee of our management bureau. If there’s a conflict between both parties, we’ll punish whoever should be punished and mediate whatever needs to be mediated.”

“If they anger the Kunpeng and their Crystal Palace gets wrecked, that would be considered a private grudge,” Fu Li put down his teacup. He spoke as lightly as a feather, “At that time, perhaps the azure dragon clan will no longer dare to send any more reports.”

“F-Fu ge,” Chu Yu was scared stiff by Fu Li’s words. He swallowed his saliva. “You don’t seem to like the azure dragon clan very much?”

Otherwise, why would the law-abiding him say such words? He seemed like an entirely different yao, with the way he so casually uttered what they dared not even think.

If the azure dragon clan’s Crystal Palace was wrecked, not only would the azure dragon clan go crazy, the other dragons probably wouldn’t just sit and watch either.

“You might not know this, but when the Kunpeng was at his peak, dealing with these dragons was as easy as playing with a ball of string,” Fu Li said in a low voice. “If the Kunpeng were to be enraged, not only would the dragon race be out of luck, even the humans would be implicated.”

“That is the azure dragon clan’s intention,” Zhuang Qing walked in, his tone calm. “Everyone shouldn’t take this matter to heart, I’ll handle it.” He glanced at Fu Li before swiftly looking away.

“Boss!” Huang Can rushed in. “I just heard the Kunpeng going on and on about putting the azure dragons in their place. Then, he suddenly changed into a huge bird and flew towards the sky. The moment his wings unfolded, half the sky turned dark!”

Ordinary humans were not aware that the occasional sudden darkening and clearing of the sky may not necessarily be caused by dark clouds blocking the sun, but could also have been caused by a gigantic bird flying past.

Ilyz: Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a safe and healthy 2021 with lots of good food, laughter, and stories to read