Chapter 62: Dragon, Dragon, Dragon

Fu Li took a look at the public workspace. Sure enough, his colleagues were all specially dressed in splendid attire. Zhang Ke and Wei Cang had taken leave today to return to their sect in advance and help with internal sect matters.

“Fu ge is very handsome in these clothes.” Chu Yu shot a glance at Zhuang Qing, who was standing outside, before adding, “Worthy of the boss having accompanied you to choose clothes, good taste.”

Fu Li stroked the fabric of the suit and beamed, nodding. “En.”

Chu Yu glanced out again. The boss had already returned to his office. He heaved a long sigh of relief, looking at Fu Li’s clothes with a lowered head. He wanted to say more, but then felt that he shouldn’t say too much and thus swallowed the words.

Qing Xiao Sect’s monastery was built on the peak of a mountain. The mountain was shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, so there was an additional barrier on the outside. Therefore, it was impossible for ordinary people to discover the ancient, scholarly-looking building at the summit of the mountain.

Once in a while, invading enemies would break the barrier, allowing ordinary people to discover the building at the top of the mountain. The relevant departments would then all use the extremely scientific phenomenon ‘illusion’ to explain this. Having undergone so many years of scientific education, everyone’s first action upon witnessing such a thing was to take pictures and stare at this marvel. There really hadn’t been more than a few people who felt that it was the dwelling of cultivators or immortals.

From time to time, there would be a few people who had such a thought, but others would tell them that it was an illusion, and that supernatural entities and whatnot didn’t exist in the world, thereby changing their thinking.

It was still those words – ‘maintain a scientific outlook on development, persevere in the way of science’.

Since it was the birthday banquet of the sect leader of the Qing Xiao Sect, a major sect in the cultivation world, all the high-ranking human and yao cultivators in the cultivation world would offer their congratulations as well as a gift. Even the azure dragon clan, who hadn’t dared to leave their palace of late, had sent an envoy to deliver a present.

All the guests gathered in the main hall. Regardless of whether one was a human or yao cultivator, if they could be seated here, then they were all well-known figures in the cultivation world. Thus, nobody dared to say anything they shouldn’t in this setting. The dragon race’s numbers had been low the past few years, but apart from the golden dragon clan and the azure dragon clan, the rest had personally dispatched their clansmen over.

The azure dragon clan hadn’t dared to come out of fear that they would encounter Fu Li or the Kunpeng and be given a fierce beating in front of the numerous guests. If that were to happen, their azure dragon clan would have no face left. Hence, they simply prepared generous gifts and didn’t show their faces. As for the golden dragon clan… the entire cultivation world knew that the golden dragon clan had already died out. The only golden dragon remaining was half-dragon and half-human, and had never been fond of attending the various events.

Some cultivators realized that the birthday banquet had been done up particularly grandly, even more so than the birthday banquet held when Zhao Xiu turned a hundred years old. The tea, fruits, and pastries were top-rate products purchased from the Fields Sect. The water used for tea was also natural spring water containing zero tap water.

The hearts of the other sect leaders ached. The Qing Xiao Sect had become increasingly prosperous the past few years – their disciples were talented at cultivation and they had also been rather successful in the arena of pill concoction and tool refining. Their Qing Xiao Sect occupied one-third of the market for medicinal pills in the entire cultivation world while the remaining two-thirds were virtually all taken up by the pill-concocting sects.

Tool refining was the comparatively larger business of the Qing Xiao Sect and was the industry that practically brought them a windfall.

With the current ways of the world, being broke would put one in an extremely difficult situation.

“Please enter, elder of the Wanyue Sect.”

Hearing this greeting, the sect leaders of the small sects continued sighing in their hearts. Here came yet another wealthy sect. If the Qing Xiao Sect had earned a considerable amount from the cultivation world, then the Wanyue Sect was second-best in the cultivation world at profiting from humans.

Ranked first was the management bureau. Nobody dared to strive for this spot.

Wang Cuihua, the elder of Wanyue Sect, smiled wordlessly upon entering. After greeting everyone, she sat down at the spot arranged for her by the Qing Xiao Sect. Her seat was adjacent to the elder of the Fields Sect k2013; the two of them had been mahjong friends for many years and started chatting upon meeting each other.

“The youngsters nowadays just can’t keep their cool. They use fierce words on the internet whenever they feel like it without fear of not having a way out,” As they chatted, the topic shifted to the excitement online. The elder of the Fields Sect stated, “It’s a perfectly good birthday banquet, but these juniors can’t even restrain themselves. They made too ugly a fuss, and now nobody has any face.”

“What if Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing really comes?” Wang Cuihua casually asked, though it was clear she didn’t believe in it either. She had been in a very good mood lately – her mahjong-playing went very smoothly every day, and she could get all in the same suit even if she played mahjong with her eyes closed.

“That’s imp…”

“Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing and Cultivator Fu Li has arrived,” Someone outside shouted.

“Truly inconceivable,” Forgetting himself, the elder of the Fields Sect stood up, his gaze directed at the door. He wasn’t the only one; many cultivators present were looking out curiously. The entire main hall was exceedingly quiet.

An elder from the Qing Xiao Sect strode forward and welcomed them, smiling as brightly as a chrysanthemum.

“Dragon Lord, Cultivator Fu, please sit,” The elder bowed deeply to the two people. Zhuang Qing and Fu Li returned a half bow and gave the prepared gift to the elder.

“I wish Sect Leader Zhao a happy birthday. May his cultivation reach a greater level.”

“Your auspicious words are received. Please, sit,” The elder brought Zhuang Qing and Fu Li to the table for honored guests. Those at the table were yao cultivators with at least three thousand years of cultivation. Present at the table were also five dragons of different colors.

As fellow members of the dragon race, it would only be right for these five dragons to express some amiability upon seeing Zhuang Qing. Yet, Fu Li discovered that they wore obscure expressions. Zhuang Qing was also too lazy to give them another look, and merely lowered his head to drink tea.

The azure dragon clan’s envoy was seated beside the blue dragon. After catching sight of Fu Li, the hand gripping his teacup shook nonstop. The table was so quiet that it bordered on strange, so the entire table of yao could hear the clattering sounds produced by the collision between tea cover and teacup.

Fu Li glanced at the green-haired tortoise in confusion. The green-haired tortoise’s hand shook even harder. The teacup in his hands landed on the ground, breaking into pieces.

Frightened, the tortoise in human form stared at Fu Li with his not-very-large eyes, seemingly afraid that Fu Li would eat him in one mouth.

Fu Li turned his head and said into Zhuang Qing’s ear, “They’re all tortoises, but our bureau’s Huang Hou and Lin Gui are much more mature than this one.”

“He came out from the bottom of the sea and hasn’t seen the world, don’t lower yourself to his level,” Zhuang Qing took a dish of pastries and placed it in front of Fu Li. “You don’t have to pay any attention to them. Let’s leave after eating.”

Although the dragons at this table weren’t very pleasing to the eye, he had already given the gift, how could he leave without eating?

The other yao seemed to have noticed the churning undercurrents between the dragons and remained silent as they lowered their heads, nibbling on melon seeds and drinking tea. They would exchange the occasional look as they watched the show. They weren’t aware in the past, but it turned out Chief Zhuang had very ordinary relations with these people of the dragon race. Neither side was willing to even greet each other. Those not in the know might even assume that there was some sort of misunderstanding among their race.

If they weren’t scared of stirring up trouble, these few yao would have even taken out their phones and ran to the cultivators’ forum to gossip.

Was there anything more amusing than watching the dragon race make fools of themselves?

None!

Zhang Ke bustled back and forth as he received guests. Only after the sky had turned completely dark did he have the time to drink a mouth of water. He turned and asked another disciple, “Has our boss and Fu Li arrived?”

“Dragon Lord and Senior Fu Li have already arrived. The Great Elder personally received them.”

Zhang Ke nodded. That was more suitable. The boss had really given his sect a lot of face by coming to his Qing Xiao Sect. This was the boss’ first time publicly attending their sect leader’s birthday banquet, and would be enough for them to brag about for many days on end.

“Then which table were they arranged to sit at?” Zhang Ke asked a completely unnecessary question.

“Second Elder said that Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing doesn’t usually attend gatherings, and was worried that the Dragon Lord would feel uncomfortable with other people, so he specially arranged for him to sit with the other Dragon Lords to put him a bit more at ease.”

Could the boss be at ease when seated with the dragon race? Outsiders weren’t aware, but their management bureau was very clear that the boss wasn’t on good terms with the dragon race at all. But these were the boss’ private matters, so he wasn’t in the position to tell his sectmates. He had no choice but to suppress the worry in his heart and run to the front to observe the atmosphere at the Dragon Lords’ table.

At this point, the Qing Xiao Sect’s marketing department had already spent a huge sum and bought posting rights on the cultivators’ forum. They wrote a very long thank-you name list to express their deep feelings of gratitude, on which Zhuang Qing’s name was impressively written at the very front.

When the melon seed-eating audience saw this thank-you name list, an uproar arose among all of them.

Chief Zhuang Qing really went?

That Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing on the name list couldn’t possibly share the same name and surname, right?

Melon seed-eating daoyou A: Where’s that daoyou who said they’ll eat phones? Have you bought the latest Pear model?

Melon seed-eating daoyou B: Eating Pear’s phones is equivalent to eating money. Eating Two Star 8’s phones is equivalent to giving up your life. Daoyou, you’d better go to a pill-concocting sect and buy some quick-acting medicinal pills or something. They might save your life.

Melon seed-eating daoyou C: So the question is, when will the phones be eaten?

Instigator disciple: Eat what damned phones. Just because the Qing Xiao Sect said Chief Zhuang went, does that mean he really went? Without a video, it’s not true.

A certain Qing Xiao Sect disciple: Hehe.

The birthday banquet officially commenced. Qing Xiao Sect’s sect leader was already a hundred and fifty years old, but still looked like an extremely spirited middle-aged person. He first expressed his gratitude to the guests before downing a glass of wine, instantly setting the atmosphere on fire. The Dragon Lords’ table was the only quiet one, where there wasn’t much talking apart from the lifting of glasses.

The red dragon wanted to speak a few times, but seeing that Zhuang Qing didn’t even give them a single glance, he had no choice but to scratch his head and drink his wine with a lowered head. However, he was clearly not the type of person who could sit still. Stifled by the silence, he would play with the wine glass one moment and touch the decorative pattern on the bowls the next.

Fu Li suddenly let out a laugh, attracting the gazes of the entire table of people. During an endless silence, any individual who acted in an unusual manner would be the string that pulled everyone out of the state of awkwardness and boredom.

“What are you laughing at?” Zhuang Qing removed the wine glass in front of Fu Li and replaced it with fruit juice.

He didn’t want to take care of a drunk rabbit ever again.

Fu Li whispered into Zhuang Qing’s ears, “That dragon opposite me is a minor, just like you.”

Zhuang Qing touched the ear close to Fu Li. The corners of his mouth drooped a little. “Oh.”

“Although he doesn’t look very different from you in terms of age, he isn’t as mature and steady as you. It seems he’s been spoiled at home,” Fu Li glanced at the red dragon before taking another look at Zhuang Qing. “But you’re cuter than him.”

One’s own dragon would always be more pleasing than an outsider dragon. Yao and humans were the same in that biasness was in their nature.

“Being cute isn’t anything good,” Zhuang Qing’s expression was indifferent. Only the inconspicuously-raised corners of his mouth revealed his emotions.

“Little Zhuang still doesn’t like to speak, just like those years,” The arrogant-looking purple dragon spoke all of a sudden. Fu Li didn’t know if it was his misconception, but he felt an almost imperceptible sense of superiority in the other party’s tone of voice.

Fu Li couldn’t help furrowing his brows upon having such an inkling.

Ilyz: I can’t be the only one who laughed so hard at that chrysanthemum part…