Don’t Discriminate Against Species

Chapter 10 - Shameless

“Fu daoyou.”

Zhuang Qing still had an impression of Fu Li. A yaoguai who could transform into human form by the will of the heavens and even pick up the yao-beating whip could be considered the darling of heavenly law. Heavenly law had always favored humans. In comparison to humans, the yao were merely complimentary products that came along with the humans. So, their fate and fortune were much poorer in comparison to human cultivators.

This Fu Li could probably be counted as an unusual existence among the yao.

“Zhuang daoyou,” Fu Li revealed a smile. “Many thanks for the prize money given by Zhuang daoyou.” Although the Spirit Cultivating Pellet didn’t have much use, the prize money was equal to two months of his salary.

“No need for thanks. It was taken from the funds allocated by the country; it’s not my money,” Zhuang Qing was very calm. “If you hadn’t lent a helping hand then, my teammate would have lost his life to the Zhuyan.”

“This is a harmonious society; help should be given proactively during moments of injustice,” Fu Li tugged on his backpack. “Goodbye.”

Zhuang Qing nodded and took a step to the side. Just as Fu Li was about to walk to the stairs, he stopped Fu Li. “Don’t let others know about Fu daoyou’s yao-beating whip.” This sort of formidable magic tool had enormous allure in the cultivation world. If someone were to have the intentions of snatching this treasure, this yaoguai called Fu Li might not necessarily be able to protect it.

“You mean this thing?” Fu Li took out the yao-beating whip and presented it to Zhuang Qing after a moment of contemplation. “For you.”

Zhuang Qing furrowed his brows, not quite understanding Fu Li’s intentions.

“I heard from a yaoguai before entering the city that your bureau functions as a bailiff in the cultivation world. I don’t have much use for this yao-beating whip even if I carry it on me, so I might as well give it to you and let it be put to good use,” Fu Li stuffed the whip into Zhuang Qing’s hands. “Morality in this world is much better now compared to the past, but bad humans and yao will never go out of existence.”

For this mixed-blood dragon to have reached such a high position, he must not have had it easy either. Seeing as how he had specially given him the prize money, he would give him the whip and help him attract the will of the people.

“I don’t need it,” Zhuang Qing didn’t quite understand the way this little yao thought. He was so poor that he even needed to pick up plastic bottles in exchange for money, yet he so readily gave away this priceless magic weapon. Was he right in the head?

“If you don’t need it, you can give it to your teammates to use,” Fu Li felt that this mixed-blood dragon was a little slow. Without giving his underlings some benefits, would his position be stable? In the mountain he had resided in a few hundred years ago, the king of the mountain was a pig yao. After the pig yao became the king, he still knew to let the yaoguai on the entire mountain drink and nibble on some sheep meat every few days. “Take it.”

This mixed-blood dragon must have put in significant effort in order to climb to this position. Fu Li admired this sort of yaoguai who possessed such energy and vigor.

Zhuang Qing silently held onto the yao-beating whip for a long time before plucking two strands of hair from his head. When the strands of hair landed on his palm, they morphed into two dragon’s beards that emanated golden light. The dragon’s beards flew onto Fu Li and very quickly vanished without a trace.

Fu Li could vaguely feel a strand of dragon qi attached to his body. There was even a nearly imperceptible wisp of virtue. No wonder he couldn’t make out this dragon’s cultivation base. It turned out this mixed-blood dragon had not only taken on a leader’s position in the cultivation world but had even secretly joined with the fate of the nation.

He really hadn’t realized that Zhuang Qing was a cunning dragon!

Humans were the darlings of heavenly law, the chief of all living creatures. Therefore, no matter whether one was human or yao, one’s cultivation base would increase by a large amount if one received human recognition and worship. But, the number of yao within the past five thousand years who had received the recognition of the fate of the nation didn’t amount to even a few. If this sort of major chance actually appeared, the dragon clan would definitely have fought for it till blood flowed. How would a mixed-blood dragon have obtained the chance?

So, what was so extraordinary about that dragon clan that turned up their noses to the yao and acted wantonly in public? At that time, they had even mocked him for having an ugly appearance and low cultivation. If they were so capable, why did they still lose to a mixed-blood dragon when it came to vying for this major opportunity?

Fu Li, who had originally only admired Zhuang Qing for his dauntless spirit, had now kicked Zhuang Qing out of the dragon clan’s circle.

“With the protection of my dragon qi, other yaoguai won’t dare to touch you,” Zhuang Qing decided to accept the yao-beating whip. “Just regard our management bureau as having borrowed this yao-beating whip. We’ll return it to you again when you need it.”

With a flip of his hand, an additional jade box appeared in Zhuang Qin’s hands. “This is the rent.”

Fu Li took the jade box. The box contained a Spirit Gathering Pellet of the highest quality, which was emanating lines of golden light. He thought about it and handed the jade box back to Zhuang Qing. “I don’t want pellets, give me money instead.”

Zhuang Qing, “…”

Did this little yao have such low cultivation not due to a lack of knowledge but because there was an issue with his brain?

Nowadays, panacea was rare and refining a top-quality Spirit Gathering Pellet was also difficult. Yet, the other party didn’t want the pellet, but instead wanted money? Zhuang Qing, who was rarely this generous, couldn’t help doubting internally if it was him who was the fool, or if was this little yao who was the fool.

Fu Li noticed the odd look on Zhuang Qing’s face and assumed that he couldn’t bear to part with the money, so he heaved a sigh. “Forget it, forget it.”

The yaoguai were all keeping up with the times, only the dragon clan’s stinginess hadn’t changed no matter the number of years that had passed. Out of the ten dragon clans, nine of them were stingy, and one out of these nine was immensely stingy. It wouldn’t be good for him to haggle with this sort of younger generation.

Moreover, the other party had already joined with the national fate; he couldn’t afford to provoke him.

For some reason, Fu Li’s ‘won’t haggle with you’ expression caused Zhuang Qing to choke up till he nearly couldn’t breathe. Zhuang Qing turned and left, not wanting to continue talking with this sort of little yao who didn’t want to work hard and only thought of using human money to enjoy a life of debauchery.

Fu Li didn’t sense the abnormality in Zhuang Qing’s attitude. He exited Chang Long biotechnology research company through the main entrance and then went in search of the nearest public transportation station.

Zhou Chang had been very gloomy lately. After much difficulty, he had finally done something praiseworthy in the eyes of his family members. But in the end, he didn’t manage to find the so-called Ranyi meat even after going to the various large medicinal stores, causing his family members to think of him as an unreliable liar.

In all honesty, he might not attend to his proper duties and was happy to partake without doing any work, but he wouldn’t make fun of his family members.

He was so angry that it became unbearable, so he specially invited an expert in Chinese medicine and inquired if there was indeed something like the Ranyi meat in this world.

The expert finished listening to Zhou Chang’s description and remained silent for a long while before saying, “Mister Zhou, there is indeed a fish called Ranyi in our country’s ancient texts. The legends say that this type of fish meat has the mysterious effect of warding off evil spirits and calming the spirits.”

“It really exists?” Zhou Chang was shaken. “Where can it be bought?”

The expert was very tolerant towards such ignorant rich second generations, because the reward the other party gave was very high. Thus, no matter how stupid the question the other party asked, he would still reveal a mild and polite smile. “Mister Zhou, this type of medicine cannot be bought.”

“Why?” Zhou Chang was unhappy again. If it couldn’t be bought, then what was the thing he received the other time?

“Because Ranyi fish meat doesn’t exist; it only exists in the legends. There is no such mystical animal in this world,” The expert pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, a trace of sympathy concealed in his eyes. “I think you might have met a liar peddling fake medicine. The effect that you assumed it had was merely the effect caused by other medicine, and not the supposed Ranyi meat.”

“The fake medicine peddlers nowadays have particularly huge guts. They dare to say anything – their bragging can turn beef into dragon meat, a mountain chicken into a phoenix, and any roadside grass into a product of the Jade Lake,” The expert sighed. “In recent years, there were countless people who fell for such things, so the country has started to take severe measures against these illegal acts during the past few years. Information on such things has also been disseminated to large communities, so very few of such liars have been seen the past two years.”

Of course, there were very few fools who fell for it in the first place.

Unaware that the expert had felt sorry for his IQ, Zhou Chang walked out of the expert’s office with complex feelings. He didn’t want to admit that he had mistaken fake medicine as a panacea yet couldn’t persuade himself that such a mystical object actually existed in this world.

He drove aimlessly all over the place. After the gloominess in his heart had finally dispersed a little, Zhou Chang parked the car at the roadside and took out his phone in preparation to give his parents a call and explain that such medicine couldn’t be bought. He still felt somewhat unwilling to admit that he had been cheated.

His call hadn’t gone through yet when he caught sight of a person along the sidewalk. That person was the one who had given him the Ranyi meat.

Hanging up, Zhou Chang pulled open the car door and chased after him. He didn’t even have the time to lock the car.

“Wait!” Zhou Chang ran for a while before he started to gasp for breath. This young man didn’t seem like he was walking very quickly, but why was it so hard to catch up to him?

Fu Li had just reached the public transportation station. The bus hadn’t arrived. Fu Li was just thinking about sitting down to wait when his shoulder was grabbed a hold of. Turning around, he realized that it was the young man he had bumped into when he first entered the city.

“It really is you,” Zhou Chang held onto Fu Li and refused to let him go. He panted a few breaths before telling Fu Li, “Come with me.”

“Young man, kidnapping is illegal,” Fu Li didn’t move a single bit. With just that bit of strength, kidnapping him wasn’t very probable.

“What would I kidnap you for? To cut out your kidneys and use it for stir-fried kidneys?” Zhou Chang pointed at the car parked in the distance. “My car is still over there. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“But I need to take public transport back…”

“I’ll send you back!” Zhou Chang cut him off. “Go go go. If we still don’t leave, the police will come over and give me a violation ticket.”

Fu Li was dragged into the car by Zhou Chang and then given a cold smile. “You really dare to get into the car. Aren’t you scared that I’ll drag you to the police station?”

“Why?” Fu Li didn’t understand him. The thoughts of humans were truly difficult to guess.

A long time ago, he had rescued a human. Afterwards, that human remained in his cave dwelling and refused to leave. Fu Li had always been magnanimous and easy to deal with, so he didn’t chase him away and simply thought of him as a pet he was raising. Then, the human fell ill. Perhaps his lifespan was up, because the medicinal herbs the human physician found for him didn’t have much effect.

That human did not fear death. Even when the medicine was ineffective, he didn’t cry or make a fuss. Yet, he uttered a few complaints as he was facing death’s door, seemingly dissatisfied with the fact that Fu Li was yao. Yet in the end, he said that he hoped he would not be human in his next life.

That was several thousand years ago. Fu Li could no longer remember what the person looked like or what his name was, but still remembered the fickleness of humanity. However, human males were also quite strange. They were clearly as fickle as females, yet they were most fond of calling women the ficklest creatures.

Human men were probably the most practiced at hypocrisy.

“You cheated me using fake medicine and still have the nerve to ask me why?” Zhou Chang was stupefied by the other party’s calm shamelessness.

“I don’t do things like cheating other people,” Fu Li was very confident in his moral conduct.

“Then why did you lie to me about that Ranyi meat. The expert told me that there’s no such thing as Ranyi meat in this world!” Zhou Chang stepped onto the brakes, stopping the car along the roadside. “You knocked into my car and I didn’t ask you to compensate me. But you can’t be so shameless as to use fake medicine to cheat me. What would happen if something happened to the person who ate the medicine?”

Fu Li furrowed his brows without uttering a word. The other time he looked at this young man’s facial features, he had seen that his family’s elder would be… stricken with disaster, which was why he gifted him the Ranyi meat. Now that he took another look at his facial features, the disaster characterized by illness had already been eliminated.

The medicine was effective, yet he still lied through his teeth. Humans could be said to be becoming more and more shameless.

“Are the words of an expert always trustworthy?”

T/N:

Fu Li: *says something*

Everybody else: ?????