Don’t Discriminate Against Species

At the entrance to the human Disease Prevention Branch, two men wearing black jackets were squatting on the ground. The occasional car that passed by them would spray their faces with exhaust.

Wiping his face, the man who was as plump as a ball said with resentment, “The air is turbid, spiritual qi is sparse, and metal boxes run amuck on all streets – how did the human world become like this?”

“King, this must be the work of those silly humans,” The slightly plump man said unhesitatingly. “This must be their plot.” He just made this statement when a sprinkler truck passed by, nearly wetting his shoes. The slightly plump man pulled his feet backwards, his gaze fixed on the sprinkler truck that had driven off without a thought for those behind. For a good while, he couldn’t say anything.

“I don’t want to have an injection!”

“Wooo!”

The two people watched an adult carry a human child whose cries could shake the Heavens through the main doors. Both men simultaneously directed reverent gazes at the building behind the doors. What sort of godly force was inside that could strike such fear in the hearts of children yet render them immune to all diseases once they came out?

“King, are we going to go in?” The slightly plump man had a grave expression. “The humans’ secret weapon must be inside.”

“Yes. If there really is one, we’ll snatch their secret weapon,” The man who was as plump as a ball stood up and patted the dust on his body before waving a hand towards the main door. “Fei, walk in front.”

The slightly plump man called Fei hesitated. “King, I…”

“Cut the bullsh*t, get in!” The man who was plump as a ball kicked Fei in with a single leg. Only when Fei stood up straight without being subjected to any attacks did he straighten his collar and stride through the main doors with his feet splayed outwards.

The guard who had been surveying them for a very long time picked up his phone and dialed the police after they walked through the doors of the Disease Prevention Branch. These two men spoke in a very bizarre manner and even occasionally watched the children passing by the road. He suspected that they were child traffickers.

“King Hundun…”

“Shut your trap,” The plump as a ball man named Hundun interrupted Fei. “Quick, get over there and take a look.” He pointed to a corridor where all manner of sobs sounded. The children were shouting themselves hoarse, their shrieks unceasing. From time to time, the bellows of adults could be heard.

“The humans… can’t be killing children or experimenting on living people, right?” Fei swallowed. No matter how ruthless their yao clans were, they still very rarely laid hands on children. It seemed like humans were even more ruthless than yao.

Just as they thought this, a seven or eight year old child suddenly charged out of the corridor. Half the child’s arm was bare, and multiple adults were hot on the child’s heels. Shrieks, angry curses, and sobs rose and fell in succession.

“I don’t want to get an injection!”

“Not allowed, you have to. I’ll beat you to death at home if you don’t,” Reality proved that adult men had greater combat ability. The child that escaped with much difficulty was hauled up by an adult man. With a face full of anger, the man brought the child sobbing in despair back to the room saturated with cries of fear.

Even more terrifying was the fact that the surrounding adults all wore cheerful smiles, as if this was an extremely interesting affair.

W-What horrifying degree had humans evolved to?

Hundun and Fei glanced at each other. Hundun said, “We lack the strength to overcome this predicament. When this king finds other subjects, we will investigate this place once more.”

Fei was ecstatic upon hearing these words. “King is wise!”

The two yao turned and made for the door. When they reached the entrance, an old fellow dressed in blue stopped them. “The two youngsters, wait a moment.”

Hundun squinted at the elderly human man. “What about it?”

“Youngster, sorry, according to our Disease Prevention branch’s guidelines, foreigners have to have their identification cards checked before entering. Trouble you two to let me have a look at your identification cards,” Despite the kindly smile on the elderly uncle’s face, his body was blocking the entrance, preventing Hundun and Fei from leaving.

“Identification card?” How could Hundun know about something like an identification card? He turned towards Fei. “You take it out.”

Fei was at a loss. How could he have such a thing?

One glance at the two men’s expressions and the elderly uncle knew that there was definitely something off about them. Seeing that police cars had already come over, his kindly face instantly turned cold. “Seeing how robust your bodies are, you don’t lack strength, so why do you not take the correct path and insist on reaping benefits without working for it? That won’t be so easy!”

Hundun, Fei: …

Why was this old geezer changing faces so casually? Why was there no sign of it?

Two or three police cars swept by, tightly blocking the main doors of the Disease Prevention Branch. Close to ten police officers got out of the cars and surrounded Hundun and Fei without a single word.

“Raise your hands and take out your identification cards,” The police officer holding up a gun stared at Hundun and Fei, not daring to be sloppy in the least. “Quickly.”

Fei glanced at the pitch-black pistol in the police officer’s hands and laughed out loud. “There are no talismans on it and no spiritual qi. What can such a small toy do?”

The police officers were struck dumb by the Fei’s provocative words. They had seen savage hoodlums, but hoodlums who didn’t even show the slightest bit of fear upon seeing guns were still seldom seen.

The police officers issued repeated warnings for Fei and Hundun to take out their identification cards and go with them to the police station. Unable to understand what they were saying, Fei and Hundun eventually grew tired of seeing these humans bellow here and there, and thus turned to leave.

“Stand still, don’t run,” A young police officer fired a shot at Fei’s leg. But despite the bullet landing on Fei’s leg, he showed no reaction, not even lowering his head.

All the police officers were stunned. The young police officer wore a slightly blank expression, thinking that he had shot a fake bullet.

“Everyone, be careful,” The older police officer had more experience in handling sudden turns of events and had also encountered certain supernatural occurrences that could not be explained with science. Hence, he reminded all the police officers to retreat behind the police car.

Sensing that these humans were finally viewing him with veneration, Hundun nodded in satisfaction. “Wouldn’t it be good if you’d been like this earlier?” Too lazy to argue with ignorant humans, he waved a hand at Fei. “Let’s go.”

“King, do you want to kill these hindrances?” Fei’s tone of voice was calm, as if he was discussing stomping a few ants to death.

“Kill, kill, all you know is to kill people!” Hundun fiercely rapped Fei on the head several times. “Can’t you think about something else?”

Covering his head, Fei didn’t dare to refute Hundun’s words. Listening to the howls emitting from the building behind him, he told the very vigilant police officers standing at the main doors, “All of you retreat and I won’t kill you.”

But what surprised him was that these clearly fearful police officers didn’t leave but instead tightened their grip on the black toys in their hands.

Hundun furrowed his brows. Grabbing Fei, who was by his side, he leaped out of the police officers’ encirclement.

“Mommy, those two people jump really high up, are they Sun Wukong?” A child’s mouth gaped open. The tear stains on their face hadn’t even dried as they looked up at the figures leaping midair.

The child’s mother felt her brain short-circuiting. “With how fat they are, they’re more like Zhu Bajie.” Upon finishing this statement, she jolted in alarm. How could humans leap that high?

Were wire stunts being filmed outside? But if that was the case, it shouldn’t be taking place at the entrance of the Disease Prevention Branch. 

At the golden dragon palace in the East Sea, the other aquatic yao cultivators had already left, save for the dragon clans.

“Fu Li daojun was right at that time. Those years, Your Majesty’s ancestors had the best innate talent and highest cultivation among the seven dragon clans,” The now handicapped Qing Yan no longer gave off the aura of superficial perfection; his entire dragon being had now become much more lowkey and down-to-earth.

“But starting from four thousand years ago, the elders of the various clans deteriorated ahead of their time. Many infant dragons perished before even leaving their shells. At that time, we thought that the other dragon clans were stirring up trouble, so the relationships between the clans became very unpleasant.” It was precisely because of this reason that after the extinction of the golden dragon clan, no dragon stood up for the young half-human and half-dragon Zhuang Qing despite the constant bullying by the other young dragons. 

But the dragon race’s reproduction situation became increasingly worse – there was not a single newborn dragon in the last five hundred years. The occasional dragon egg would be produced with much difficulty, but even those could not be successfully incubated. Only at that juncture did they see the truth – this was a punishment from the Heavens.

Because of the Heavens’ punishment, the dragon race had no newborn dragons. Because of the Heavens’ punishment, the dragon race’s elders deteriorated increasingly quickly, while breakthroughs in the cultivation of the younger generation were few and hard to come by.

The Heavens wanted to extinguish the dragon race, so how could the dragon race resist?

To the dragon race, Zhuang Qing’s successful transformation and his acknowledgement by the Heavens and Earth was akin to finding the sole light after walking in the darkness for a long time.

Zhuang Qing’s mood was especially calm when listening to Qing Yan speak of the dragon race’s past stories. During his childhood, he had once wondered why he didn’t have the protection of elders and why no elders descended from the skies to protect him during his most painful moments.

But yao and humans were alike in that they had little interest in many things after reaching adulthood, one example of which was the vicissitudes of life experienced by the dragon race in the past. He was well aware of the thoughts these dragon clans harbored in their hearts.

“I know…” Zhuang Qing caught sight of a paper man flying into the palace hall and reached out, grabbing a hold of it. The paper man swiftly morphed into ashes at his fingertips.

“What happened?” Fu Li stood up. His originally careless expression had been retracted.

“Song Yu sent a message saying that an urgent case has come up in Linhai City. Two men without any fear of bullets leaped several tens of meters high in front of many people, escaping from the police officers’ encirclement. Many ordinary city residents filmed it with their phones.” Zhuang Qing spoke to the dragon clans, “I understand your concerns. I already said just now that as long as I remain the chief of the management bureau, I won’t turn a blind eye to you.”

“Your Majesty…”

“I’m still more used to you calling me Chief Zhuang,” Zhuang Qing interrupted Qing Yan. He turned towards Fu Li, “Fu Li, let’s go.”

Fu Li silently followed after him. Zhuang Qing transformed into a dragon, Fu Li jumped onto the dragon’s head and sat down, and in a blink of an eye, the two people flew out of the golden dragon palace. Watching Zhuang Qing leave hastily, the other dragons furrowed their brows.

There was trouble in the human world again?

They didn’t think much of it in the past, but only now did they come to realize – why was there so much trouble in the human world?

Linhai City’s police officers had already stepped in to clarify that the video of two men in Linhai City leaping several tens of meters in the air was a product of a certain drama crew while filming. But even then, many netizens suspected that these two men possessed supernatural powers and that the police were concealing the truth.

Even several forces abroad had started to keep tabs on this matter.

When Fu Li and Zhuang Qing rushed to the Disease Prevention Branch, there were many people crowding outside and watching the excitement. Although nothing could be seen by running over to the Disease Prevention Branch at this juncture, this had no effect on their passion for gossiping. Fu Li overheard a few conversations; the rumor had already transformed into two men turning into birds and flying off.

The two of them directly made their way to Linhai City’s Public Security Bureau and watched the surveillance footage taken from the Disease Prevention Branch. The two suspects had very ordinary looks and for whatever reason, didn’t enter the vaccination room despite nearing it. But from the way the two people moved, they definitely hadn’t gone to the Disease Prevention Branch to receive an injection or pick up children.

“Comrades, this is the bullet and bullet shell that hit the suspect’s thigh,” The Public Security Bureau offered the evidence bag to Zhuang Qing. Zhuang Qing wasn’t wearing gloves and didn’t touch the evidence, but there was an indent on the head of the bullet that was visible to the naked eye.

“Were these two people’s traces discovered by other surveillance systems?” Zhuang Qing looked at the densely packed surveillance points on the wall and couldn’t help rubbing his eyes.

“No discoveries at the moment.”

“Got it,” Zhuang Qing nodded. “It’s been hard on you, we’ll search for evidence elsewhere.”

After leaving the Public Security Bureau, Zhuang Qing pulled Fu Li towards the car. He took out a small bowl from the icebox and poured water into the bowl. As the Aquatic Emperor, he could maneuver the spiritual qi in all water bodies and search for the two yao cultivators of unclear origin according to their water trails.

At a riverbank where water flowed rapidly, Hundun told Fei, who had changed back to his original form, “This is your last chance. If the plagues have no effect on humans, I’ll eat you in one mouth.”

“King, please rest at ease. With this plague, the humans will not be able to die even if they plead for it,” Fei let out a long hiss towards the sky. His snake-like tail suddenly swelled. Just as he was about to fling his tail into the water, Hundun abruptly slammed a palm towards the water. “Who is peeping at this king?”

An enormous splash of water landed on Fei. Before he could even spit out the water in his mouth, he was sent flying a good few meters by something that leaped out of the water abruptly.

Fei’s body smashed into the ground, creating a deep pit. His lengthened tail was retracted amidst the intense pain.

Hundun wasn’t in a much better state than Fei. He evaded the attack while cutting a sorry figure, laughing coldly upon seeing the golden dragon whose head had emerged from the water. “This king was wondering what it was, turns out there’s a worm in the water.”

Fu Li jumped onto shore and shook the water off his body. He stamped a foot on Fei. “Single eyed, body of an eye, tail of a snake – you are the fiend Fei?”

“What are you?” With the tiny strange creature that resembled both a dog and a rabbit stomping on him, Fei couldn’t even muster the strength to climb up from where he lay collapsed in the pit. He stared at Fu Li in disbelief, as if he was looking at a monster.

“And what are you?” Fu Li jumped a few times on Fei, who felt like he was being viciously pounded several times by a huge mountain. The vision in both his eyes dimmed, and his organs felt like they had all shifted locations.

Hundun glanced at Fei before suddenly roaring at the golden dragon, “Scram, you have no business here.”

The golden dragon flipped over in the river water. Under the shine of the setting sun, the golden dragon’s tail emanated a dazzling light.

Hundun saw the glittering golden light of virtue and thick purple qi on the dragon. “The dragon of national fate…”

The setting of the sun in the west was also the time of evil encounters, when golden light filled the sky. But in the western horizon, black clouds were churning, as if something hidden in the clouds was on the cusp of breaking through.