Chapter 65: Jade Plaque

The white dragon’s roar startled the cultivators secretly watching Zhuang Qing and Fu Li from their hiding spots in the clouds, to the extent that they no longer wanted to leave. They hid within the clouds, pretending as if the people involved in the actual matter were unable to discover their presence.

Reality proved that uninquisitive species had long gone extinct during the course of earth’s transformation. The remaining species all yearned to explore, learn, and create. However, this inherent thirst for nature resulted in some creatures losing their lives due to curiosity. Risk and gain could be said to coexist.

Anyone who watched the cautionary video released by the management bureau would know that this new Senior Fu Li was an expert that the average yao could not afford to provoke. What’s more, he had something unspeakable going on with Chief Zhuang. Creating excessive trouble would result in embarrassment.

“How may I help you?” Fu Li didn’t intend to let Zhuang Qing handle this matter in his place. Zhuang Qing was the boss of the management bureau; if it got out that Zhuang Qing took the initiative to fight with these dragons, it wouldn’t be very pleasing to the ear. But it was different for him. If worst came to worst, he could resign, go back to being a security guard at Affinity Moon Hotel, study, and get into university.

“Get lost, our dragon clans want to talk to Zhuang Qing. Irrelevant yao shouldn’t butt in.” The white dragon wasn’t even willing to spare Fu Li a glance and directly spoke to Zhuang Qing, “Remove the immobilization spell from Zi Xiao. Quick.”

Zhuang Qing crossed his arms across his chest and answered at a measured pace, “You come to me for everything. If you fall down in the future, are you going to blame me for tripping you too?”

“Don’t discuss who’s right or wrong with an idiot,” Fu Li patted Zhuang Qing on the shoulder. “Let me resolve this.”

Zhuang Qing: ……

Then what would it be if you were the one discussing it?

“I don’t speak to dog legs…”

The red dragon tugged on the white dragon’s sleeve and said softly, “I heard he’s a rabbit.”

“Shut up,” The white dragon couldn’t stand the red dragon with poor brains. His elder brother was clearly quite intelligent, so why was it that when it came to him, he was so stupid that he was beyond redemption?

Did his parents use up all the IQ when giving birth to his elder brother?

The red dragon rolled his eyes towards the sky after being yelled at by the white dragon. He towed the purple dragon to the side and sat down. If they got into a fight, by no means would he help.

“No worries, it’s okay for me to be the one speaking,” Fu Li’s gaze landed on the purple dragon’s neck. That area of skin was so tender he could even make out the veins beneath. With lightning speed, he shifted his line of sight. “Whether you’re human or yao, you’ll have to pay a price for doing wrong. Being young and not sensible isn’t something that you can just use as an excuse as and when you like, understand?”

“After this long, you’re actually still standing up for Zhuang Qing,” The white dragon sneered. “Are you his dog? A dog that barks even when the owner hasn’t called for it?

The cultivators concealed in the clouds sucked in a breath of cold air. These words were too offensive. Just as everyone thought that Fu Li would be unable to hold back his anger and start fighting with the white dragon, Zhuang Qing, who had been standing expressionlessly at the side, suddenly moved into action. Nobody managed to get a clear view of his actions; all they saw was an oppressive shadow flying past. The white dragon who had just been speaking overbearingly to Fu Li was sent flying a great distance, resembling a steamed bun that had been tossed out.

“It’s not that I won’t bicker with you, I’m just lazy.” Thick clouds automatically converged to form an arched bridge under Zhuang Qing’s feet. Stepping onto the bridge, he walked to the white dragon, leaned over, and hauled him up from the clouds. He stated expressionlessly, “Don’t challenge my patience.”

The white dragon attempted to push Zhuang Qing’s hand away, but failed no matter how much he tried. He spat out a mouth of blood, before suddenly saying in a low voice, “Don’t you want to find the jade plaque your mother gave you that year?” He wiped the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth. “If you apologize to me and let me hit you thrice, I’ll give the jade plaque to you.”

Zhuang Qing’s birth mother was a princess in the Eastern Han dynasty who was not favored by the emperor. After her pregnancy with Zhuang Qing, her physical condition deteriorated day by day. Zhuang Qing was not yet ten years old when she was at death’s door. When he was brought back to the dragon clan, he only had a few items from the human world with him.

How could the people in the dragon palace fancy things from the human world? Coupled with the lowly human blood flowing in Zhuang Qing’s body, he was not only bullied by the young dragons at dragon palace, but also publicly looked down on by the great aquatic yao. The majority of the things he brought from the human world were either destroyed or thrown out. In the end, the only thing that remained was the jade plaque around his neck.

That jade plaque represented Zhuang Qing’s identity in the human world, and was the noble rank that his birth mother had dragged her ailing body to the palace to plead for countless times. Fearing that her child would be bullied by the other nobility after her death, she had requested for a noble rank to protect him.

But this human princess had not known that the dragon race had suffered an enormous disaster, resulting in the deaths of countless dragons either by illness or lightning. As a result, if they discovered anyone with dragon blood stranded outside, they would take them back to the dragon clan to be brought up. Therefore, before Zhuang Qing could even enjoy the noble rank she had begged for with all her heart and connections, he was forcibly brought back by the dragon race to the dragon palace at the bottom of the sea.

Even if the golden dragon clan only had one dragon still around, Zhuang Qing wouldn’t have had such tough days at the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, the entirety of the golden dragon clan had lost their lives. Even his birth father had staked his last breath to touch the heart of his birth mother, leading to her pregnancy. He had turned into dust after that, vanishing into the world.

The jade plaque was the sole emotional attachment Zhuang Qing had had in his childhood. Later on, even that jade plaque had been lost.

Standing on the other end of the cloud bridge, Fu Li’s eyelids moved. He didn’t seem to have heard the white dragon’s words, yet also seemed to have heard it clearly.

Zhuang Qing released the white dragon and looked at him expressionlessly.

The white dragon patted the lapel that was wrinkled from Zhuang Qing’s grip. He smiled with delight. “How is it? Have you thought about how you want to apologize?”

“Apologize your ass! You’ve watched too many dog blood dramas in the human world. Allow you to hit me thrice? Are you an idiot?” Zhuang Qing gave the white dragon a vicious kick. In a flash, the white dragon tumbled countless times through the clouds like an egg before lying paralyzed on the clouds.

The cultivators hiding in the clouds and watching the show pulled their heads back. They were afraid yet curious about what exactly the white Dragon Lord had said to anger Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing to such an extent. Although Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing looked stern, he definitely wasn’t someone who would attack without thought. The fact that he was this angry had to be entirely the fault of the white dragon.

Among the cultivators standing around watching, the bat yao had the best hearing ability. Moreover, he had been cultivating for over a thousand years. The two Dragon Lords hadn’t erected a barrier and blocked out their voices when they were talking, so the bat yao should have clearly heard what they were saying given his cultivation.

Therefore, everyone cast their gazes towards the bat yao.

“What are you looking at me for?” The bat lowered his voice, scared that he would be discovered by the Dragon Lords.

“What did the white dragon say to anger Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing to this point?”

The cultivators’ burning gazes scared the bat yao into shrinking his neck back. If he’d known things would progress like this, he wouldn’t have stayed behind to watch the drama. Seeing that he was unwilling to answer them, the other cultivators half-threatened and half-promised the bat yao benefits. Finally, the bat yao was unable to withstand the pressure and revealed the truth.

“White Dragon Lord seems to have taken a certain important item Dragon Lord Zhuang’s mother left for Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing when he was very young. He used it to threaten Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing and insisted that he apologize to him and allow him to hit him thrice, otherwise he won’t return the item to him.” Seeing flames on the verge of erupting from the cultivators’ eyes, the bat yao stammered out, “T-Then, Dragon Lord Zhuang got angry.”

He even cursed!

That was Dragon Lord Zhuang. The cold and noble Dragon Lord Zhuang whose clothes were always neat and tidy actually knew how to say such vulgar profanities. Every inch of the bat was in a state of stupefaction.

“That’s too shameless,” An enchanting willow tree spirit scolded softly. “My heart aches so much just thinking about how Dragon Lord Zhuang was bullied by them during his childhood.”

“That’s enough, your heart aches for all good-looking male yao,” The banyan tree spirit at the side ridiculed. “If you have the ability, help Dragon Lord Zhuang get justice.”

The willow tree spirit gave the banyan tree spirit a glare. With a twist of her waist, she went to another cloud to continue watching the show.

“Zhuang Qing!” The white dragon only managed to get up with difficulty after a great deal of time had passed. “Since you don’t care about the jade plaque, then I’ll go back and destroy it.”

“Up to you,” Zhuang Qing left the miserable-looking white dragon behind and left. The cloud bridge under his feet vanished bit by bit. By the time he reached Fu Li’s side, the cloud bridge had already completely vanished.

Nothing connected the clouds he and the white dragon were on.

“A five thousand fine for fighting,” Zhuang Qing gave himself and the white dragon a violation ticket, and then passed the white dragon’s ticket to the stunned red dragon at the side. “Remember to pay the fine before the deadline.”

“O-Okay,” The red dragon clutched the violation ticket and nodded foolishly.

“Do you still have something to ask me about?” Zhuang Qing patted the dust off the sleeves of his suit as he looked expressionlessly at the red dragon.

“No, no,” Terrified, the red dragon hid behind the purple dragon. He shook his head repeatedly.

“Good.” Zhuang Qing spoke to Fu Li, “Can’t bear to part with the night view here?”

“Ah?” Fu Li looked up at him blankly.

“Still not leaving?” Zhuang Qing threw down these words and then flew into the distance on a cloud, the speed at which he flew the complete opposite of his previous exasperatingly slow pace.

Fu Li glanced in the direction Zhuang Qing left. He tapped the forehead of the purple dragon called Zi Xiao once, saying in a low voice, “Bear child, if you cause trouble again, then you can just be a paralyzed dragon for your entire life. At least you won’t bother others that way.” Leaving behind these words, Fu Li removed the surrounding soundproof barrier before chasing after Zhuang Qing with a broad smile.

“You…” Zi Xiao wanted to swear without reservations, but upon recalling the words Fu Li had uttered, he felt an indescribable fear and was unable to voice the curses.

“Zi Xiao, you can talk?” The red dragon walked out from behind him without feeling the slightest bit of shame at hiding behind his back. “What did Fu Li tell you? Why did you suddenly return to normal?”

“Stay away from me,” The purple dragon took a deep breath and reminded himself not to get angry with a fool. “If you have the time to bullshit with me, why don’t you help Little White up?”

“Oh,” The red dragon turned and went to help the white dragon up. He thought somewhat unhappily that the white dragon and purple dragon had bad tempers and created trouble every time they came out, so he wouldn’t go out with them in the future.

After the white dragon was sent back to the dragon palace, his clanmates found out that he was injured and was greatly incensed, ready to settle accounts with the assailant. However, upon hearing that the attacker was Zhuang Qing, they fell silent.

The things they had done those years were indeed not stellar. To add on to that, Zhuang Qing had now joined with the nation’s fate and was held in high esteem by cultivators. They didn’t have the courage or confidence to look for trouble.

The white dragon threw a fit after seeing that his clanmates didn’t intend to help him vent. After eating a medicinal pill, he went to sleep. It was already midnight when he woke. All of a sudden, he thought of the jade plaque he had thrown into the junk box. Thus, he clutched his chest and climbed out of bed. Only after spending close to two hours did he take out a dust-covered jade plaque from a box that was neither old nor new.

The jade plaque wasn’t big. The five words ‘Wen An Marquis, Shang County’ were carved on it in seal script. The symbol of the imperial family was displayed right at the top.

“This is the jade plaque you stole from Zhuang Qing?”

A voice suddenly sounded from behind.