Chapter 118: New Man

The exceptional liveliness on the forum almost paralyzed the server. Just as the communications department was frantically rescuing the server, a post made by ‘Mighty and Majestic Rabbit’ appeared soundlessly on the forum.

Mighty and Majestic Rabbit: It’s my first time on this forum, but I didn’t expect power, status, and rank to be the only things in the minds of so many juniors nowadays. I am extremely aggrieved about this. Why can’t you let your heart be a bit purer, a bit more free?

Panda’s Tail: …

“What is this Fu Li trying to do by sending this pretentious comment? Does he think those yao cultivators haven’t had enough of cursing him?”

One Cent Steamed Bun: Is OP an idiot? He even wants our hearts to be a bit purer. If you’re so pure, then go back into hiding in the depths of the mountains, why run to the internet? Be frank and admit it if you don’t have more than a few cents in your pockets, what are you doing talking about the heart? Who in the current times still drinks your kind of sour and stinky chicken soup?

Cat King: OP, don’t lower yourself to these little yao. They’ve long been blinded by the flourishing humans.

Sliced Pork with Black Fungus: The cat yao upstairs, scram to the side. Talk less of all this ‘flourishing’ stuff. Since OP holds money and status in such contempt, do you have it?

No Need to Bring Rations: Based on OP’s name and his ‘regarding money as dung’ attitude, he can’t possibly be Fu Li daojun, who got together with Chief Zhuang after he became the Dragon Emperor, right?

The instant ‘No Need to Bring Rations’ put forth this suggestion, it garnered the approval of many netizens who had cursed Fu Li. The comments on the post very quickly exceeded a hundred, the majority of which were mocking Fu Li for being shameless, putting on a display of innocence after reaping the benefits, and the like. While these people were cursing, a sense of responsibility actually took root within their hearts, as if they were engaging in this unrestrained abuse for Zhuang Qing’s sake.

One Cent Steamed Bun: You claim not to have gotten together with Chief Zhuang for his benefits, do you have evidence?

‘Mighty and Majestic Rabbit’ once again made an appearance after being cursed several hundred times on the cultivators’ forum.

Mighty and Majestic Rabbit: What benefits? Are you referring to magic devices? Medicinal pills? Or money and valuables?

Sliced Pork and Black Fungus: Can you take them out?

Mighty and Majestic Rabbit: Are all of you talking about these?

‘Mighty and Majestic Rabbit’ then sent out many photos of magic treasures, eighteen types of magic weapons, flying boats, magic clothes, and so on.

Mighty and Majestic Rabbit: I still have plenty of these magic tools, though most of them aren’t convenient to use, so I’ve been throwing them away.

The netizens: …

Next, he posted countless bottles of medicinal pills.

Mighty and Majestic Rabbit: Cultivating one’s moral character and heart is most important in the path of cultivation. Relying on medicinal pills to build up cultivation is not a good thing, so these medicinal pills have been lying in my Qiankun pouch untouched for a few thousand years.

All kinds of gemstones and gold followed soon after. The gold, silver, and jewels formed a mountain in the photo, glinting with an enchanting radiance.

The cultivators surrounding the post were struck dumb. For a moment, no one dared to reply to the post.

Panda’s Tail: I’ll be honest with you guys. I suffered an injury a few days ago and Fu Li daojun casually threw me a Replenishing Qi Pill. Do you know what mood I was in when swallowing that Replenishing Qi Pill?

Cat King: The yao upstairs who benefited from the nouveau riche, please do not show off.

Sliced Pork and Black Fungus: Impossible, this is fake! There’s no way a yao cultivator who was even a security guard at a hotel for a while could have so many good things. I don’t believe it!

Century Old Snake: Believe in it if you want, don’t believe in it you don’t want to. Can’t a nouveau riche come out and experience life?

Oranges Are Very Sweet: Fu Li daojun, requesting for a Replenishing Qi Pill, I’m willing to be your villa’s gardener.

Watermelons Are Not Watermelons: Fu Li daojun, please take me in, I can work the land!

The post that had originally been replete with curses turned into a thigh-hugging ocean after Fu Li flaunted his wealth.

“All these shameless cowards. They were cursing even harder than me just now, but in a blink of an eye, they started hugging his thigh. Bah, shameless!” Zhang Qiang swore as he looked down at his phone from where he was seated on a flight of steps. “Who knows whether this Fu Li took Zhuang Qing’s items to flaunt? F*ck, he’s truly worthy of being a rabbit, every inch of him is Lord Rabbit.”

The man nodded with a smile.

“So you’re from the same hometown as him,” Zhang Qiang lifted his chin and let out a snort. “Who knows which hometown Fu Li’s from? He hooked the aquatic race’s Dragon Emperor by relying on his face and still ran over to the forum to show off. How can a country bumpkin who hasn’t seen the world have so many things to flaunt? It’s just him depending on the Dragon Emperor who blindly took a fancy to him.”

“What did he flaunt?” Inquisitiveness appeared on the man’s gentle face.

“Look!” Zhang Qiang held his phone out to the man, who merely stared at the screen without touching it, seemingly not very used to phones.

“How impoverished was the mountain you lived on to not have even seen a phone?” Zhang Qiang grew even more arrogant, as if he was certain Fu Li was not in possession of any good things and that the items in the photos were all things Zhuang Qing had given him so that he could prop up his reputation. He tapped the phone, allowing the man to get a clear look at the things in the photo. “See this? This is called a phone. The latest model costs more than nine thousand, you won’t be able to buy it even if you see it.”

“Then do you know where Fu Li is now?” The man glanced at the overcast skies, disappointment in his eyes.

“The cultivation world’s management bureau?” Zhang Qiang put his phone back into his pocket with a sneer. “Truly someone from a mountain. A single yao made it big, and the entire mountain runs over to fish for money.”

The man flashed a gentle smile upon hearing these words. “You’re a small yao spirit with low cultivation, but you have quite a scathing mouth. You’re unable to even make out my true form or cultivation, yet you still behave so egotistically and rudely. It seems like the current cultivation world is very peaceful.”

Thinking that the man wanted to act against him, Zhang Qiang said hurriedly, “You’d better not act rashly, the current cultivation world prizes peace and opposes violence. If you dare to do anything to me, I’ll make a report to the management bureau for them to catch you.”

“You just said that Fu Li is at the management bureau, and you’re now saying that the management bureau will help you out if you make a report to them,” The man calmly stuck his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker. “Such behavior is truly inappropriate.”

He stretched out a thumb and tapped Zhang Qiang once on the forehead. Without even the slightest bit of resistance, Zhang Qiang turned into a cockroach the size of three fingers.

“It is an inherently difficult matter for a tiny pest to cultivate into a person. But what use is there in becoming a person if you do not hold on to the heart of Dao after cultivating into a person?” The man fished out a piece of silk fabric to clean his fingers. “Maintain your original form for seven days and have a good think about the original intention of cultivation.”

After throwing the silk fabric into the rubbish bin, the man turned and left. He walked no more than a few steps before hearing the sound of girls shrieking.

“Cockroach!”

“Quick, kill it.”

“It squeezed into the sewer.”

At the management bureau, the common work area was enveloped in joy.

“Fu ge is so cool!” Zhang Ke was splayed out on his desk as he scrolled through Fu Li’s ‘wealth-flaunting’ pictures. “What is this about Fu ge hugging the boss’ thigh? It’s clearly the boss who’s hugging Fu ge’s thigh.”

He sat up straight and asked his other colleagues, “Say, don’t you think that’s the case?”

Unfortunately, his other colleagues were still engrossed in Fu Li’s show of wealth and didn’t have the time to pay any attention to Zhang Ke’s question.

“I don’t understand the world of wealthy yao very well,” Chao Yun shivered, a Tang dynasty cup used by the emperor clasped in her hand. “I’ve always known that Fu ge has many good things, but I didn’t expect him to have this much.”

“All of you…” Huang Hou had joined the management bureau the same time as Fu Li, but due to his lazy nature and the fact that he hadn’t joined any prestigious orthodox sect, he was particularly unremarkable among the group of new employees. “Have you ever had the thought that Fu ge isn’t an ordinary rabbit yao at all?”

Could a rabbit yao defeat the God of Pestilence, battle the Kunpeng for that long, and beat up the ancient famed yao Song Yu till feathers filled the sky and he was beyond recognition? Also, those treasures he had on him as well as his money-generous elders. Which one of these seemed simple?

The Kunpeng’s name had resounded across the yao world for innumerable years. Even today, his name still sent countless yao cultivators into shivers. However, he continued to obediently remain at the management bureau. Song Yu was even more direct – he straightforwardly addressed Fu Li as ‘boss’ in front of the entire cultivation world. In addition, the son of the divine beast Blue Dragon, Gong Fu, was also very close to Fu Li. Even the three-headed clansmen downstairs who looked at people with their necks were only close to Fu Li. Where in the world would there be such a coincidence?

“This kind of question isn’t important,” Chao Yun looked at Huang Hou like he was naïve. “What his true form is isn’t very important. In any case, he’s the boss’ family, which makes him the equivalent of our boss. Naturally, the more powerful our boss is, the better.”

Huang Hou: …

He really hadn’t expected these seniors to be so casual.

At the management bureau’s dormitory, the Kunpeng was watching Gong Fu, who was seated cross-legged beside the window drinking tea. Scratching his head, he said impatiently, “You drink tea the whole day. It’s just water boiled with a few tree leaves, what’s so special about it?”

“How can a simple-minded, all-brawn yao like you understand this sort of spiritual enjoyment?” Gong Fu put down his teacup. “Why so anxious?”

The Kunpeng furrowed his brows. “You don’t feel it?”

Gong Fu looked out the window in silence.

“The spiritual qi in the Heavens and Earth is in chaos and yao qi is surging in all directions. The deeply-asleep yao are all on the brink of waking,” The Kunpeng’s expression was grave, seemingly envisaging the moment the earth sank into chaos.

“No.”

“What?” The Kunpeng looked in amazement at Gong Fu. As the son of the divine beast Blue Dragon, Gong Fu’s sensitivity towards Heaven and Earth’s spiritual qi ought to be even stronger than he, who was a fiend by nature. How was it possible for him not to feel it?

“I no longer have the qi of the divine dragon left by Father,” The teawater that trickled down his throat was slightly chilly. “I was born through resentment and my true body was reconstructed from a corpse. I’ve long lost the identity of an auspicious beast.”

“No wonder you had to strain so much when fighting the Taowu,” The Kunpeng had on a somewhat complex expression. “And I still thought that I wasn’t able to sense the qi of an auspicious beast because your cultivation advanced.”

Gong Fu laughed in a neither servile nor overbearing manner. “Heaven and Earth is just, going against heavenly law requires a price to be paid. Great yao have been appearing again and again, but don’t forget that Zhuang Qing is here.”

“What can a little dragon less than two thousand years old do?” In the Kunpeng’s eyes, Zhuang Qing might have high cultivation and the enhancement of virtue, but at the end of the day, he was too young. If a calamity were to really occur, would he be able to ward it off?

“Who knows?” Gong Fu merely continued smiling. “Before Heaven bestows great responsibility, it must first expose us to starvation and poverty, and exhaust our muscles and bones. Zhuang Qing’s honorable father was a golden dragon and his mother was of the human imperial clan. The myriad of experiences he subsequently encountered is the whetstone for his fate. The moment fortitude is borne from fate that has been honed, a sharp blade will be unsheathed.”

“No son of heavenly law accomplished great things without undergoing torment,” Gong Fu gazed at the gray sky outside the window with squinted eyes. “Let’s take our time and see how it goes.”

The Kunpeng thought about the novels involving immortals in the human world. The main characters also all underwent trials and tribulations before eventually becoming the strongest king or the world’s savior.

“This… is also good.”

“Don’t you often say that you’re a fiend and can’t be bothered about the life and death of all the living creatures in the human world?” Gong Fu seemed to be smiling yet not smiling. “Why worry now?”

“Can’t I just ask a random question?” The Kunpeng’s cheeks were a subtle shade of red. He turned his head, saying, “Who cares whether they live or die.”

“Oh, so that’s the case,” Gong Fu nodded in a very perfunctory manner.

“What kind of expression is that? That’s the way I think…” The Kunpeng stopped abruptly. Sniffing, he suddenly exclaimed, “The Baize’s scent!”

“Baize?” Gong Fu stood up as well. The tea on the water sloshed onto the ground, wetting the carpet. “You didn’t smell wrongly?”

“Not possible, I’ll be able to sniff out that vile character’s scent even if he sprayed cologne,” The Kunpeng turned and walked out.

“Wait,” Gong Fu stopped him.

“What do you want?” Anger surfaced on the Kunpeng’s face.

“What are you going for? To fight with the Baize at the management bureau?” Gong Fu lifted his chin. “Are you really taking Zhuang Qing and Fu Li as people without half a temper? If you could only fight the two of them to a draw when you first left the sea, then now…”

One was the emperor of aquatic races and the other was a Hou formed from Heaven and Earth’s spiritual qi, and the Hou even had a protective Vermilion Bird behind him. If the Kunpeng were to infuriate these two juniors, he would probably be beaten till he was half-dead.

“I won’t fight him, but going out for a look should be okay, right!” The Kunpeng strode out in a huff. This time, Gong Fu didn’t stop him. He had warned the Kunpeng on account of their few days of friendly relations, but as for whether or not the Kunpeng listened to him, that was something he would have to decide for himself.

“Chang Long Biotechnology Company?” The man stared at the dazzling sighboard at the entrance. To an ordinary human, this was a large, lavishly-decorated corporation with tight security and widespread fame across the country. But to the man, this place had thick yao qi and countless layers of space formations. Even the security guards at the entrance were yao cultivators of the aquatic race.

“Hello mister, may I know who you’re looking for?” A security guard whose original form was that of a yellow croaker walked through the gate, a professional and courteous smile on his face.

The yellow croaker didn’t have very high cultivation, but because of overfishing by humans, the number of yellow croakers were increasingly dwindling. Since a yellow croaker managed to cultivate a human form after much difficulty, the management bureau employed him as a security guard on contract basis. The yellow croaker was also very grateful to the care shown to him by the management bureau, so not only was he diligent and responsible in his work, he always served with a smile. The frequent praises he received from the management bureau made him the subject of much jealousy from the other security guards.

“Hello, sorry for the disturbance,” The man pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses – that he had just manifested – on the bridge of his nose. “May I know if Fu Li is here?”

The moment the yellow croaker heard he was looking for Fu Li daojun, he hurriedly nodded. “Yes, may I know who you are?”

“I’m his uncle, my surname is Bai. Would I be able to go in to meet him?”

Only then did the yellow croaker realize that the handsome man was also a yao cultivator. He fished out his intercom, smiling at the man. “Bai daoyou, please wait a moment. I’ll contact the front counter this instant.”

“Sure, thank you for the trouble.”

Fu Li was nestled on the couch reading through the countless forum comments wanting him to be their godfather. Shaking his head, he sighed. “The young yao nowadays really aren’t reserved at all.”

“En, I’m still young and don’t want you to carry a godson or goddaughter back,” Zhuang Qing glanced at the photos Fu Li had shown off online. After discovering that all the things Fu Li had chosen were all not very valuable toys, he allowed Fu Li to continue messing around.

Shortly after, Fu Li’s phone rang. Zhuang Qing discovered that Fu Li’s expression became a little off after picking up the call.

“What’s wrong?”

“The front counter said that my uncle with the surname Bai is looking for me.” Fu Li leaped up from the couch, stammering, “Do you still remember the Uncle White Goat I told you about? He’s surnamed Bai.”

“I’ll go take a look,” Fu Li threw down this statement, turned, and ran out. Because he was too anxious in his running, he even broke Zhuang Qing’s flower pot at the door with a kick.

“The Baize…” Zhuang Qing cast a glance at the shattered flower pot and ran over as well.

“Mr Bai, the front counter has already done the verification, please enter,” The yellow croaker let the man through the door.

“Many thanks,” The man rifled through the pockets of his windbreaker, took out two medicinal pills, and placed them in the yellow croaker’s hands. “Take these, you can eat them for fun.”

Cradling the two Vitality Pills, the yellow croaker’s legs nearly went soft from shock. “Mr B-Bai, these medicinal pills are too valuable, I can’t accept them.”

“What’s so valuable about this sort of toy?” The man waved a hand and left.

The yellow croaker was now one hundred percent certain that this Mr Bai was Fu Li daojun’s elder, because other than Fu Li daojun’s elders, no one in the cultivation world was this liberal with their money.

It was said that the two daojuns Qing Xu and Wei Cang had each received a large bag of gemstones worth cities when they met Fu Li daojun’s elder while accompanying him out on official business. This news had pervaded every inch of the management bureau.

Who would have expected him to also encounter such good stuff.

The moment the man took one step through the management bureau’s barrier that could only be entered by yao cultivators, he saw the little yao playing on the grass, as well as the human cultivators amusing the little yao in play. He even saw a ginseng spirit riding on the neck of a human cultivator.

This was the current state of the human and yao cultivators?

“Baize, it really is you!”

The man looked up and raised a brow at the yao who was running straight for him. “Oh, Kunpeng, you got out of the barrier?”