Don’t Discriminate Against Species

Chapter 63 - Hundred Birds

Zhuang Qing filled Fu Li’s cup to the brim with fruit juice purchased from the Fields Sect. Not only was it fresh, it also contained spiritual qi, unlike some black-hearted merchants in the human world who extracted juice from rotten fruits and even diluted it with water.

After pouring the juice, Zhuang Qing looked up only to see everyone at the table looking at him. Placing down the bottle of fruit juice, he raised his brows and met the purple dragon’s gaze head-on. “Sorry, do we know each other?”

The yao cultivators who were watching the show nearly burst into laughter. This purple Dragon Lord clearly hadn’t spoken with good intentions, but Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing was unexpectedly even more vicious and showed a complete lack of regard for him. The current era differed from the past – although the dragon race still flaunted their offensive power in the cultivation world, much of it had dwindled the past few years since the appearance of the management bureau. The lives of the little yao at the bottom of the ladder had also improved by quite a bit. Were these yao clans on bad terms with Dragon Lord Zhuang Qing because of this?

As members of the yao race, they’d had to pay a bit more attention to how they spoke and acted ever since the management bureau came into existence. But their lives were far better now compared to the past. They didn’t have to worry about being captured by human cultivators for pill-concoction, nor did they have to worry about being bullied by unreasonable yao. They could even receive human identity cards and lead their lives in the human world.

Subconsicously, they were emotionally more inclined towards Zhuang Qing.

“In the many years we haven’t met, Little Zhuang has even become a leader in our cultivation world. It’s normal not to remember us,” The purple dragon let out a laugh. “When your mother died of illness that year, it was our three clans who adopted you.”

The three clans the purple dragon spoke of were the purple, red, and white clans. The blue and black dragon clans lived their lives in isolation, caring for nothing. They would only reveal their faces on major occasions and definitely wouldn’t rashly leave the ocean at other times. Due to their low population, and to avoid enemy invasion, it was said that the blue and black dragon clans had even shifted their dragon palaces to the same area of the sea.

In the yao world, other yao would collectively call them the ‘dragon clan’ regardless of the color of the dragon. But only the dragon race was aware that they were not as united on the inside.

The yao cultivators were astonished upon hearing the purple dragon’s words. What unexpected relations.

“You were the bear children who bullied Zhuang Qing those years because he was an orphan and had no parents?” Fu Li put down his chopsticks and wiped the corners of his mouth. “It’s the birthday banquet of Sect Leader Zhao today, so I won’t bicker with you despicable people. I will personally call on everyone’s dragon palaces tomorrow.”

Seeing Fu Li in such a rage, the yao cultivators instantly understood. It turned out these Dragon Lords had bullied Dragon Lord after seeing that he had no elders. No wonder the rumors involving Dragon Lord Zhuang were all about the evil yao he had killed in the human world. Practically no one had heard anything about him in relation to the dragon race.

“Fu daoyou has gone overboard with such words. Our three clans took care of his food and drink, how did it turn into bullying him?” An indignant look appeared on the purple dragon’s face. “Even if you are colleagues, you can’t deliberately distort the truth.”

“You should be glad that it’s Sect Leader Zhao’s birthday banquet today.” Fu Li couldn’t be bothered to pay any attention to the purple dragon’s affected manner and directly said, “Such strong abilities to lie through your teeth, have all you dragons taken advanced studies in palace intrigue? There isn’t even any emperor for you to fight over, what are you wasting so much energy for?”

“You!” The purple dragon stood up with a slap of the table.

“Sit down!” Fu Li berated him sternly. “Haven’t your elders taught you any rules?”

The purple dragon wanted to retort, but discovered that he was unable to open his mouth. He also involuntarily sat back down, his body no longer listening to his directions. His eyes widened in alarm and he attempted to seek the help of the red and white dragons. However, the red dragon only knew how to perform the simple-minded act of eating, whereas the white dragon thought that the purple dragon feared Fu Li’s imposing manner and was looking down on him inwardly. The white dragon had absolutely no idea that something abnormal had happened to the purple dragon.

“The juniors nowadays have been pampered by their clan’s elders till they have no discipline; truly an upsetting affair,” Fu Li turned to look at the other yao cultivators. “It’s also because the current cultivation world is peaceful and stable. If this were the past, someone with such a temper would have long been killed.”

The other yao cultivators laughed dryly as they nodded. Those seated at this table had to have relatively high cultivation bases. Naturally, they could tell that Fu Li had controlled the purple dragon’s body. But who would want to offend someone from the management bureau? Moreover, the depths of Fu Li’s cultivation was immeasurable – without them even sensing any spiritual force, the other party had already taken control of the purple Dragon Lord. Who would dare to offend this sort of great yao?

More importantly, they were all little yao spirits who worked hard the entire way to make it to this level, and understood what it meant to ‘give and take’. Who would dare to arrogantly lose their temper at any time and place like the dragon race? If this were to occur a thousand years ago, the purple Dragon Lord would have lost his life very early on.

The green-haired tortoise was the most miserable of them all with how he was shaking all over. He had noticed something off about the purple dragon, but didn’t dare to even breathe heavily. After the incident where this senior Fu made trouble for the azure dragon clan, Elder Qing Yan lost his tail. Even in his human form, he didn’t have his legs. This wasn’t the most wretched part. Ever since that incident, Elder Qing Yan developed a fear of thunder and an ever greater fear of furry creatures.

Elder Qing Yan was formerly of such outstanding looks and bearing, yet all he dared to do now was shut himself within the palace, unwilling to even step out the door.

Everyone knew that Elder Qing Yan was now basically a waste.

Since then, Fu Li turned into a great demon in the hearts of all the azure dragons. They dared not even think of seeking revenge and would flee on first sight.

Without the meddlesome, blabbering purple dragon, they could finally eat their food. When Sect Leader Zhao personally came over to toast them and express his thanks, Fu Li and Zhuang Qing had already tried all the dishes on the table.

“Everyone, you have honored me with your presence and brought light to this lowly sect’s dwelling. If there were aspects of your treatment that were not to your satisfaction, please forgive me.” Sect Leader Zhao smiled with great delight and drank the wine without fuss.

The purple dragon seated at the side realized that his body had moved again, involuntarily picking up the wine glass. His eyes bulged out in fear as he stared at the wine glass in his hands. He didn’t dare to believe that he could be so easily controlled by a yao cultivator. What sort of sorcery had Fu Li cultivated?

“Sect Leader Zhao is too modest. It is the joy of your great birthday today, it is only right for us to toast you,” Zhuang Qing stood up and raised his wine cup. “Please.”

“This humble one can’t thank Chief Zhuang enough for taking the time to come amidst your busy schedule,” Sect Leader Zhao smiled even more happily, his eyes shining as he looked at Zhuang Qing. This was a dragon who had joined with the nation’s fate, a dragon whose entire body was covered in a halo.

At the side, a Qing Xiao Sect disciple responsible for taking pictures hurriedly lifted up the camera and took multiple shots in succession of Zhuang Qing and Sect Leader Zhao toasting. After some editing, these could even be hung up in their sect’s hall of fame.

The videographers and cameramen all positioned themselves and started taking pictures or videos. Several cultivators even secretly took out their phones and snapped a few shots.

Some adjusted the angle, allowing them to take a perfect ‘wefie’ with Zhuang Qing. Afterwards, they forwarded the photo to their friends and family, and engaged in a very robust round of bragging.

The melon seed-eating cultivator netizens were even more vicious. They posted photos of Zhuang Qing appearing at the birthday banquet onto the forum and urged the instigator cultivator to quickly buy Pear X as well as Two-Star 8 so that they could livestream their phone meal for everyone to see.

In addition to eating melon seeds, some people were also curious why Zhuang Qing suddenly decided to attend the birthday banquet. Was it because two high-ranking employees in the bureau were from the Qing Xiao Sect and because he had seen the huge clamor on the internet, so he specially gave his employees face?

Put in such a manner, Chief Zhuang really was a good leader.

An employee of the management bureau very quickly disguised themselves and replied: Stop having those wishful thoughts. Our boss hardly looks at the forum; he has zero knowledge of all these arguments on the internet. You guys should take a look at the person he went with.

The person he went with? Wasn’t it Fu Li daoyou, the main lead of the cautionary film that had recently pervaded the cultivation world? Fu Li daoyou had profound cultivation and even dared to fight against Oujiang. He wouldn’t be considered unfit for Dragon Lord Zhuang’s status even if he went with him?

Cultivator daoyou A: I seem to have understood something.

Cultivator daoyou B: I seem to have understood it too.

The cultivators were baffled by these few people’s manner of speaking. What had they understood?

Cultivator daoyou A: I’m timid and don’t dare to say it.

Cultivator daoyou C: The two of them seem to be wearing a couple outfit. Is that what you mean?

Cultivator daoyou A: The daoyou above is new, right? I didn’t say anything, you remember to have a good meal. I ask all the cultivators and moderators to witness that the above comment has nothing to do with me.

Daoyou A didn’t appear again after making this reply. Clearly, this individual didn’t dare to continue saying so much.

But whether she appeared or not was no longer important. What was important was that the numerous melon seed-eating daoyous were struck dumb. It was not odd for these two great masters to appear together, but if they wore a couple outfit in addition to that, then it was a bit hard to fathom.

Could Dragon Lord Zhuang and Senior Fu Li…

The daoyou netizens were still eating melon seeds, but it was already nearing the end of the banquet. After the meal, the Qing Xiao Sect had even prepared various singing and dancing performances for the enjoyment of the guests. The main hall in which clouds and mist were adrift seemed like a fantasyland.

As Fu Li watched the Fenghuang Feather Dance onstage, he suddenly remembered something from his childhood. At that time, he had been frightened to tears by a Feiyi and cried for days on end after returning to the Reflecting Mist Mountain. Nobody could stop his crying. Later on, the sparrow living at the entrance of his cave as well as Sister Pheasant brought many pretty birds with them and performed many beautiful dances at the entrance of his cave.

The unable-to-transform sparrow had even pretended to be a Fenghuang then, accepting the worship of a hundred birds. Only when he asked the sparrow how she had done it did he discover that she had used the spiritual rice grown by King Ganglie to bribe the birds into accompanying her to perform the dream-like show.

Although he felt that Little Sparrow’s dream wasn’t very reliable, the ‘Hundred Birds Worshipping the Fenghuang’ dance was indeed very nice to look at. At that time, he had used the fact that he was young, as well as the sparrow’s fondness for performing such shows to cart many bags of spiritual rice out of King Ganglie’s place. With those bags, he had invited the birds to perform numerous times.

The people invited by the Qing Xiao Sect to perform the Fenghuang Feather Dance displayed beautiful poses and the lighting was also dazzling. Perhaps the memories of his childhood were too beautiful, but he still felt that that year’s ‘Hundred Birds Worshipping the Fenghuang’ was even better-looking, even if… the tiny, tiny sparrow flying right at the front was not eye-catching in the least.

Nothing could be more brilliant than the multi-colored feathers of the birds and their sweet chirping sounds.

“Sect Leader Zhao put in a lot of effort this time, he actually invited a Kongyouto perform,” A cultivator seated at the back exclaimed in admiration. “A Kongyou’s performance of a Fenghuang is reportedly the closest to the real thing.”

Kongyou?

Fu Li looked at the beautiful woman dancing lightly and gracefully on-stage. Wasn’t that a peacock spirit? Also, this peacock’s actual form was male.

A Fenghuang’s dance could take the breath of all away, attracting the worship of a hundred birds. This was why the <Fenghuang Feather Dance> was also called <Hundred Birds Worshipping the Fenghuang>. However, the yao cultivators of the peacock race felt that they couldn’t shoulder the name <Hundred Birds Worshipping the Fenghuang>, and thus decided on <Fenghuang Feather Dance> as the title of the dance.

However, Fu Li felt that the beauty of <Hundred Birds Worshipping the Fenghuang> lay not just in the Fenghuang’s dance, but also in the splendid unity between the Fenghuang and the hundred birds. The birds who had worked in exchange for spiritual rice that year had taken even more care than dancers who had performed on stage for a hundred years.

Ai, the juniors of the modern cultivation world were protected by the management bureau. They didn’t lack that bit of food, so they naturally didn’t need to work themselves to the bone like how those birds did that year.

Sure enough, an easy life made for lazy yao.