Chapter 86: Eating Yao

The rabbit sprawled on the couch was playing Jewel of Atlantis on the tablet. However, his dispirited tail revealed that he was not in very high spirits at the moment. Even so, he still persisted in playing mobile games for an entire afternoon till Zhuang Qing finished preparing dinner.

Smelling the fragrance of food, Fu Li shook his ears, kicked the phone to the side, and jumped off the couch.

Zhuang Qing saw that Fu Li had already obediently seated himself on the chair, his bowl and chopsticks laid out properly. Wasn’t he in a bad mood? Why was he in such good spirits when it was meal time? Zhuang Qing thought in a huff. He thought about how he had even hid in the kitchen and used his phone to search about the types of food that could lift a person’s mood, and felt like his brain had been infected with Fu Li’s stupidity.

What spice or sweet food? It was purely about eating till one was full to bursting.

Fu Li sat on the stool for a long time. Seeing Zhuang Qing glare at him continuously, he asked curiously, “Is the food not done yet?”

“It’s done.” Zhuang Qing wanted to taunt him a bit more, but the words that came out became, “Some dishes are very spicy, can you handle them?”

“We’ve even eaten many plates of mala crayfish together, what else is there that I can’t eat? It’s not like I’m picky,” Fu Li swung his short tail. His tail swiped back and forth across the back of the chair, as if it was a brush.

“Yup, you’re not picky at all, you just have too many things you dislike eating,” Zhuang Qing was angered into laughter by his words. The dishes he carried out from the kitchen covered the entire table. Several dishes that featured fish or shrimp as the main ingredient were placed closest to Fu Li.

Fu Li was stunned by the entire table of dishes. He transformed into his human form. “Zhuang little dragon, were you given prize money?”

Zhuang Qing had just put down the last plate of fruits and sat down when Fu Li uttered these words. He responded expressionlessly, “Ever since working with all of you, I haven’t taken any prize money in a very long time.”

Fu Li could tell that Zhuang Qing was mocking them, but he wasn’t angered. Instead, he revealed a smile. “Thank you.”

Although his mouth was harder than anything else, his heart was softer than even cotton candy.

“Don’t overthink. I cook like this even when you’re not around,” Zhuang Qing picked up his chopsticks and deliberately chose an incomparably large, fat shrimp right in front of Fu LI.

But this time, Fu Li didn’t scramble with him for it and even voluntarily gave him a good number. Zhuang Qing suddenly felt somewhat unaccustomed to it. He directly placed the peeled shrimp into his mouth without any sauce.

Fu Li didn’t notice that he had momentarily forgotten himself. Taking a sip of fruit juice, he told Zhuang Qing, “Zhuang Qing, thank you.”

Zhuang Qing’s lips moved, but he didn’t speak.

“I don’t know why the elders from the mountain lied to me, but they treated me very well,” Fu Li didn’t move his chopsticks. He gazed at the moon outside the window, his train of thought drifting back four thousand years ago.

From birth, he seemed to have understood the languages of all living things in the world. Coupled with the fact that he had gained intelligence, he could be considered knowledgeable from birth. In the past, it was unknown if Elder White Ape had intentionally misled him into misunderstanding the true forms of the yao cultivators on the mountain. Moreover, after he misunderstood, everyone lived in a manner consistent with what he had imagined.

Just like… they hoped he would misunderstand their identities.

Fu Li didn’t understand why they would do so. But all he needed to understand was that the care and concern his elders showed to him was real. That was enough. Pursuing an answer for everything may not always result in happiness.

The destruction of Reflecting Mist Mountain was the knot in his heart. Perhaps the many interesting yao cultivators he had gotten to know in this period had allowed him to gradually walk out of the sorrow that was Reflecting Mist Mountain. So when this knot was untied and he glimpsed the truth within, he was not overly angry or disappointed, to the extent that he rejoiced at the fact that everyone did not possess defects at birth and that they were auspicious creatures revered by all.

Elder White Goat once said that he would have truly grown up when he no longer obsessed over the past and learned how to reflect.

Or perhaps it was because there was a reliable friend beside him when he discovered this truth that his ability to endure psychologically was strengthened. This table of dishes that was even more sumptuous than the past represented the other party’s kind intentions.

He picked up a mala chicken cube with his chopsticks. The chicken meat was very spicy, so spicy that he gasped for breath. Even the rims of his eyes felt hot. Fu Li silently picked up multiple chunks of chicken meat and delivered them to his mouth. His tongue felt like it was on fire.

“That’s it,” Zhuang Qing put down his chopsticks. With a terrifying expression on his face, he made a weak statement after a long while, “Eat something else.”

He pushed the extremely spicy dishes to the side.

Fu Li looked blankly at him. His raised chopsticks hung in the air motionlessly.

“Wasn’t it you who told me in the past not to insist on holding on even if I’m upset?” Zhuang Qing poured a glass of fruit juice for him and held it out to Fu Li’s mouth. “Take a sip.”

Fu Li obediently took a sip.

“It’s very normal to be in a bad mood when the people closest to you lie to you.” Zhuang Qing watched Fu Li take multiple sips of the fruit juice before continuing, “Your angry look is also much better-looking than the way you look when you stubbornly insist on holding on.”

The corner of Fu Li’s lips puckered up. “Elder White Goat said that adult yao must learn how to master control over their emotions and remain rational.”

“Rational my ass!” Even when cursing, Zhuang Qing, who was dressed in a top and vest, still gave off a noble air. “A yao who isn’t upset when encountering sad things isn’t an adult but a fool!”

“R-Really?” Fu Li had already unwittingly drank half a glass of fruit juice.

“I’ve had dealings with humans and yao cultivators from young. Although I’m not as old as you, even ten of you won’t be able to compare to me when it comes to life experience,” Zhuang Qing put down his glass of fruit juice. Lowering his head, he looked at Fu Li. “Anyway, there’s no one apart from me here. If you want to be happy, then be happy. If you want to be angry, then be angry. I don’t have any interest in telling other yao about your matters.”

The smile on Fu Li’s face collapsed. His entire person was listless, looking like a deflated balloon from head to toe. “I just don’t understand why they lied to me.”

To him, they were his most trusted elders who had been by his side since the time he gained awareness. It was them who taught him magic skills and the way to concoct pills. It was them who taught him the principles of being a yao. It was them who raised him from young. Even if they told him that the sun rose from the west and that he felt the sun rose from the east only because there was something wrong with their mountain’s qi field, he would also believe them without a doubt.

Everything he possessed – knowledge, cultivation, and maturity, were all bestowed on him by them. Without them, there would not be the current Fu Li.

Therefore, he had never once thought that they would lie to him, and that this lie had been planted when he first arrived at Reflecting Mist Mountain. No, not right. They hadn’t lied to him, just intentionally misled him into thinking that their true forms were of ordinary animals, animals that could be seen anywhere in the world.

“Zhuang little dragon, if all the yao cultivators on the mountain were not like what I had imagined, then what exactly are their true forms?” Fu Li bit his lower lip. “They might have deliberately misled me because they had no other choice?”

“Were they good to you?” Zhuang Qing answered his question with a question.

Fu Li nodded. “No other yao could be better than them.”

“Since that’s the case, you can directly ask them when you find them in the future. What use is there in letting your imagination run wild on its own?” Zhuang Qing looked out the window, his expression grave. “Besides, I think that you’re right. Perhaps they didn’t have any choice.”

“I feel much better now that you said that,” Fu Li yawned. Shrinking back into a rabbit, he lay on the dining chair and directly fell asleep.

Seeing that Fu Li had inadvertently fallen asleep, Zhuang Qing crouched down, staring at the fat rabbit. The worry in his heart intensified. There was something very wrong with Fu Li’s current condition. How could a yao cultivator sleep at the drop of a hat?

If he ran into some evil-hearted yao who took this opportunity to dig out his yao core, what would he do then?

Reflecting Mist Mountain’s yao cultivators had really spoiled him rotten.

Stretching out his hands, Zhuang Qing placed the rabbit in the crook of his arm before carrying it to the couch. After a moment of hesitation, he turned and went upstairs. His bedroom was very large and very grand. Most importantly, there was a huge safety formation set up inside. Any foolish yao who barged into the formation might lose their lives.

Placing the rabbit on the bed, Zhuang Qing covered him with a small blanket. A tiny sigh escaped his lips.

Why did he, a dragon who wasn’t even two thousand years old, have to worry about a rabbit who was more than four thousand years old?

His phone rang at this moment. He glanced at Fu Li, who was dead to the world, and walked out of the room. “What happened?”

It was Chu Yu on the other end. His voice was anxious. “Boss, there’s trouble.”

“What trouble?” Zhuang Qing pinched the bridge of his nose. For trouble to have occurred in succession, the fengshui today probably wasn’t very good.

“Two yao cultivators were attacked by an unknown evil yao. Their entire body was drained of blood, leaving only a layer of skin and their skeletons,” An involuntary shiver snaked up Chu yu’s spine upon thinking about the miserable state the two yao cultivators were in post-death. “The yao on the forum are panic-ridden now, and many yao don’t dare to leave their houses. There are even some with less courage who have already run to our management bureau’s hall to make their bed and hide.”

In recent years, hardly any of such incidents had occurred. Even when the Zhuyan was stirring up trouble, he had eaten humans and not yao cultivators. For such an incident to occur abruptly after such a long period of peace, it was very normal for some yao to be afraid.

“Who are the deceased?”

“One of them is a flower yao who transformed into its human form not too long ago, and the other is a half-yao that has a hundred years of cultivation.”

These two yao didn’t have high cultivation, so most of the anxious yao cultivators on the forum were those with low cultivation.

“The suspect shouldn’t be a great yao with high cultivation. If they wanted to eat yao, they definitely wouldn’t choose this sort of little yao,” Zhuang Qing stated. “Look through the Yao Union’s database – look out for yao with blood-sucking abilities, and investigate the recent entrance and exit records of foreign yao. Don’t let off any suspicious yao. Most importantly, send a safety warning to every cultivator. I’m worried that the suspect will target the blood of not only yao cultivators, but also human cultivators.”

“Got it, Boss. I’ll get on it straight away,” Chu Yu was also aware that this matter could not be delayed. Covering it up was even more out of the question. They should then strengthen their safeguards. On the Yao Union’s side, they received funds from the country every year. This time, they wouldn’t be able to pocket the money without working.

Zhuang Qing hung up and returned to the room, looking at the rabbit that was sleeping like a pig. He wrote a note and stuck it on the rabbit’s head before leaving the villa with large strides.

The rabbit on the bed kicked out its hind legs and spread out its limbs. Its sleep was carefree and worry-free.

Fu Li had a very beautiful dream. In his dream, he was wrapped in something nice and cozy. There were people beside him crying, laughing, and flaring up in anger. All the emotions converged on him.

These emotions did not distress him but instead strengthened his body.

There was a human wearing animal skins who hoped that their tribe would be able to avoid the onslaught of winter ice and snow.

There was a skinny, shriveled woman wearing a shabby sackcloth who prayed to the Heavens not to take her child away from her.

There was also a tiny child with messy hair and a dirty face standing on barren land, praying to the Heavens to grant him food.

Yet, the human wearing animal skins did not escape the onslaught of wind and snow. Countless elderly people and children froze to death. In the end, even the man in animal skins was buried in the frozen land. Before his death, his eyes were wide open, seemingly questioning the Heavens why it had seized the lives of so many people.

The skinny, shriveled woman’s child still passed away. She hugged its swaddling clothes as she cried and cursed the Heavens for lacking vision, demanding to know why it had taken her only child.

The tiny child with messy hair and a dirty face eventually starved to death in the last round of winter snow. He was barefoot when he passed away. On his dirty and dry face, his reluctance to part with life could be seen. He hadn’t yet looked upon the prosperous and beautiful side of this world before painfully passing on from hunger and cold.

The devotion of the human wearing animal skins, the pitiful state of the skinny, shriveled woman, and the innocence of the tiny child – none of these made the Heavens benevolent. Countless humans passed on in pain every day, and there were also many humans who bawled at birth every day. Many people cursed the Heavens for being merciless, yet there were also many people who uttered ‘many thanks for the protection of the Heavens’. There were all sorts of people in the human world, but none of them would escape life and death.

“All life and death is karma. One must never be demanding. The demander will suffer, and the obeyer will be blessed.”

A voice with concealed bitterness rang beside Fu Li’s ears, so faint that neither its gender nor age could be distinguished. Fu Li asked curiously, “Who are you?”

The voice did not answer him and merely repeated the phrase ‘never be demanding’.

When Fu Li opened his eyes, a roof full of inlaid gemstones entered his vision. He shook his head. A slip of paper fell off his head.

“Something to settle at the management bureau. I’ll rush over first. Zhuang Qing.”

Fu Li leaped off the bed. Turning into his human form, he cast a purifying spell on himself and then swiftly set off for the management bureau.

Inside the barrier, the management bureau’s hall was filled with tents. On one end, a dog and cat yao nearly broke into a fight over territory, while on the other end, a parrot yao and crested myna yao were eloquently trading insults.

To discuss whose water basin was better looking, two fish yao transformed into their original forms and shook their tails.

A white mouse yao had arrived too late and had no alternative but to share a tent with a cat yao. The fear left him shaking from head to toe. When a dog yao arrived at his side, he was so thoroughly frightened that he turned into his original form.

Two flower yao were flattering each other, but behind their gentle appearances was their ruthless denigration of the other. On their pretty, flirtatious faces was infinite charm.

The Kunpeng and Gong Fu stood on the floor above, looking down at the tents densely packed together and the yao of all varieties who interacted peacefully despite squeezing together. If this were a few thousand years back, it would be impossible to see such a sight.

The cat yao actually didn’t eat the mouse yao, nor did the snake yao eat the frog yao. A wolf yao even called a pig yao ‘brother’ and gathered together to play cards. This was simply a miracle.

“I don’t understand the trends in the current cultivation world,” The Kunpeng pointed at a happy couple at a corner. “Isn’t that a Siberian weasel and a chicken? Those two can actually get together?”

Gong Fu was looking on with keen interest. He rolled his eyes at the Kunpeng. “Isn’t it said that the times are progressing and that the yao world is improving? Isn’t it very good that they can be together in such harmony and love?”

He had just voiced these words when noise sounded from below.

It turned out that the crested ibis was quarreling with a spider, and it was quite a serious quarrel too. When the nearby yao saw them, they revealed expressions indicating that this was expected.

The grudge between the crested ibis and spider yao went all the way back to many years ago. That year, there was a disagreement between the crested ibis and the spider yao, so the crested ibis deliberately framed the spider yao for illegally capturing a wild endangered animal. Because of this, the spider yao was arrested by the human police and imprisoned for many years.

The spider yao demonstrated excellent behavior in the human prison and successfully left jail this month after much difficulty. Now that he bumped into the crested ibis, this shameless enemy of his, he could already be considered very restrained for not beating the other party up.

The crested ibis’ outrageous behavior had long incurred the loathing of many yao, so when the argument occurred, all the yao stood on the side of the spider yao. With so many yao against him, the livid crested ibis left the hall.

“So what if you’re an endangered animal? If not for laozi being unable to find evidence of you framing me, I would have long gotten the management bureau to arrest you,” The suppressed anger in the spider yao’s heart abated a little at long last. “Truly a scum among birds!”

Hearing his words, the other yao comforted him. Some yao even stuffed some delicious snacks in his hands.

The spider yao held the delicious dried meat and licked his teeth.

The crested ibis silently ran out and then bumped into the management bureau’s Fu Li head-on.

“What are your eyes for, farting?!” The crested ibis got up from the floor and started cursing. But when he saw that he had bumped into Fu Li, his voice instantly lowered in volume by eight-tenths. He remembered the sense of fear he had felt when he was sent flying by Fu Li’s palm.

With a humph, the crested ibis patted the dust that had gotten on his body before running off into the distance without looking back.

“Ai…” Fu Li looked at the wallet on the ground. Stooping over, he picked it up. He took out his phone and called Zhuang Qing. After confirming that his help wasn’t needed at the moment, he took the wallet and chased after the crested ibis.

Although the bird wasn’t very likable, Fu Li would send his wallet to him on account of the fact that he was a national bird treasure, so as to avoid the dignified national treasure making it onto human news because he didn’t pay for the things he bought.

The crested ibis was a yao who valued face. How could he tolerate being scolded by so many yao? In one breath, he ran tens of kilometers, only stopping at a river. He picked up a pebble beside his foot and flung it into the river. Unresigned, he cursed, “How shameless, who was it who deliberately got him arrested by the human police?”

It was clearly that yao with impure motives who wanted to capture him for sale after seeing his pretty feathers, okay?

He hadn’t expected the yao he had come across to say that he had deliberately framed him. He couldn’t believe there was actually such a shameless yao in this world. Those yao cultivators who stood up for him too – they were all morons. All of them just assumed that they were standing on the side of justice without even looking at the trash they were helping.

He was a dignified crested ibis. He had no need for human aid if he wanted to take revenge on a spider.

A-Although, he had indeed relied on human help in the end to escape from the clutches of the spider yao. But that wasn’t important. What was important was that he wouldn’t use such underhanded means.

“The sun today is so good, why is mister admiring the scenery on your own by the river?” A man wearing a suit and necktie stood not too far from the crested ibis. He had black hair, blue eyes, and deep facial features. He was very handsome, but clearly didn’t look like a human from this country.

The crested ibis was a yao with an explosive temper. Seeing that the man was putting on an act, he directly said, “Is it any of your f*cking business what laozi is standing here doing!”

The handsome man stared blankly for a moment before very quickly restoring his elegant smile. “Is mister not afraid of running into bad guys when standing here alone?”

The crested ibis rolled his eyes heavily at the sky. “Scram!”

Laozi relies on beauty to move unhindered through the world of yao cultivators. All he needed to do was transform into his original form, and countless people would kneel and call him daddy. There was no need to be polite.

“Mister, this sort of attitude makes me very unhappy,” The handsome man’s face sank. The blue shade of his eyes deepened due to rage. “Disobedient little things are better off eaten.”