Don’t Discriminate Against Species

Just as everyone thought that the questioning was coming to an end, Zhuang Qing abruptly fixed his gaze on the Suanyu. "You're lying."

The Suanyu's entire body stiffened. His gaze was a little evasive. "I-I'm not lying."

"What you said might be true, but you left out some of the facts," Zhuang Qing walked over and stood beside the Suanyu. He reached out a hand and tapped the table in front of the Suanyu. The table was made out of real wood, yet it emitted a dull sound upon the rapping of Zhuang Qing's fingers.

The Suanyu stared at Zhuang Qing's slender fingers, his head dipping even further.

"There's murderous qi on you. Even if you didn't eat any humans in your earlier years, there is a possibility that you've killed other yao," Zhuang Qing circled the Suanyu. The Suanyu unconsciously drew his arms towards his ribs.

"But all this occurred several thousand years ago, there's no benefit in pursuing it any further," Zhuang Qing watched the Suanyu secretly heave a sigh of relief before changing the topic. "But a fiend who was worshiped by humans and even recorded in the humans' ancient texts would not endure human noise underground for so long. What are you apprehensive about?"

Only then did the bureau's people see the light. They had been fooled by the Suanyu's simple and honest appearance. This was a famous fiend who had even been worshiped by humans, how could it have tolerated the humans' unbridled behavior? Unless, he had misgivings.

Were the yaoguai now… all so scary? Subjected to the stares of so many pairs of eyes, the Suanyu shook his head unceasingly. "I can't say it."

"En?" Zhuang Qing stretched out a hand, divine sword already in hand.

"Speak nicely if you have something to say, how can you break out into violence the moment there's a disagreement? The Suanyu was already aware that he wasn't a match for Zhuang Qing. "I can still consider it."

Fifteen minutes later, the Suanyu who said he would 'consider it' honestly voiced the truth he had concealed.

"Heavenly law doesn't tolerate the existence of great yao in this world," The Suanyu swallowed. "I once saw with my own eyes a Feiyi suddenly melting under strong sunlight, as well as a great yao who suddenly contracted an incurable disease, causing it to rot. In the end, that great yao suffered till its death. What fiend? What auspicious beast? When the time comes, we are merely sacrificial victims of heavenly law."

"Isn't it said that a Feiyi would bring about terrible drought? Why would such a great yao fear strong sunlight?" A chill wracked Chu Yu's entire body. Suddenly, he recalled the yao-beating whip Fu Li had lent to the management bureau. According to senior Fu Li, the yao-beating whip had landed in his hands because two great yao had died from thunderbolts in the midst of their fight.

"I thought of a creature," There was a slight tremble to Xu Yuan's voice. "Dinosaurs."

During the Jurassic period, dinosaurs were the hegemons of the whole world, just like the humans today. Yet now, other than a few fossils that served as proof of their existence, who had ever seen their true appearance?

If the ancient yao race ended up as such, then what about them humans…

Would they one day tread the same path as the dinosaurs and ancient yao race, vanishing within the long river of history?

"What are dinosaurs?" The Suanyu looked at Zhuang Qing in confusion. "Relatives of your dragon clan?"

"Our boss doesn't have such old relatives," Chu Yu patted the records in his hands. "Tell us about the great yao in the past. Are there any great yao who had a pair of wings on its back, a body of golden fur, eyes as big as the moon, a nose like that of a divine ox, feet like red clouds, a body as huge as a mountain, and a hiss that can shake mountains and rivers?"

"There are many great yao who fit those conditions individually, but for a great yao to have all of them…" The Suanyu thought carefully. "Then how ugly would he be?"

Speechless, Chu Yu rolled his eyes towards the sky. This Suanyu was also quite shameless.When he called others ugly, did he ever think about his own appearance?

Didn't all these ancient great yao have a bit too much confidence in their looks?

At the Affinity Moon Hotel, Fu Li changed out of his work attire and was on his way out when he was called to a stop by one of the girls at the front counter.

"Fu Li, wait a moment, let's leave together," The little girl slung her bag over her shoulder and chased after Fu Li. An ambiguous smile appeared on the faces of several workers in the hall.

Fu Li didn't understand. "Our homes are in different directions, how are we going the same way?"

The little girl’s face turned red. Her fingers clutched the straps of her bag tightly. “I heard from Zhang Shan that you have some knowledge on the supernatural. I’ve been having nightmares very often lately, and even experienced sleep paralysis. Can you send me home and help me think of a way to resolve it?”

Fu Li meticulously examined the girl's complexion but didn't discover any bad luck on her. However, a small number of boys these days didn't follow good examples and would commit bad deeds upon seeing pretty girls. Since it was this late, it would still be safer for her if he sent her back.

Thus, he nodded in agreement. "All right."

The little girl heaved a sigh of relief and revealed a brilliant smile. With a distance of two to three steps between them, they walked out of the hotel's main entrance together.

The moon shone brightly in the late August night. The night couldn't be considered too hot. The little girl stole a look at the good-looking boy beside her and tried very hard to find a conversational topic. "Did you always live in the countryside in the past?"

"En," Fu Li nodded. "This is my first time entering the city."

"It's fine even if it's your first time in the city. You'll gradually get used to it," The hand clutching the straps of her bag relaxed and then tightened again. "Have your family members ever thought about the kind of girlfriend you should look for?"

Fu Li shook his head. "I don't have family."

"S-Sorry," The little girl looked upset. "I shouldn't have spoken to you about such things."

"It's okay," Fu Li felt that humans were very likable. Their bodies were clearly very frail, yet they had a miraculous brain and an adorable spirit.

The little girl was silent for a moment before taking out a piece of chocolate from her bag. "For you to eat."

A slight flush colored her cheeks. The advertisement said that this chocolate represented the emotion of love. Would Fu Li understand her intentions?

"Thank you," Fu Li, who practically had zero understanding of the mechanisms behind advertisements, tore open the packaging and swallowed the candy that was so sweet it bordered on greasy. Turning, he saw the little girl's eyes still fixed on him. "What?"

"Nothing." The little girl tucked her hair behind her ears and pursed her lips into a smile. "I wanted to ask what kind of girl you like."

Fu Li felt that he quite liked most humans, but he wasn't very sure why this human girl would ask such a question so directly.

The little girl was a bit disappointed at not receiving an answer from Fu Li. After walking for a distance, they reached her house. She couldn't help asking, "Do…do you think I would be suitable as your girlfriend?"

Fu Li hadn't expected this human to desire to make love with him. He shook his head, replying, "We're not suitable."

"Why?" Tears welled up in the girl's eyes. She'd had to muster all her courage before daring to say this statement, so the instant she was rejected, the entire world felt like it was crumbling.

"We're just not suitable. I've never thought about spending a lifetime with someone," Their life expectancy and age differed too greatly; they wouldn't be happy together. It was similar to how humans admired butterflies for their beauty but would never fall in love with one. In his eyes, these cute humans were akin to beautiful butterflies. The thought of making love with one had never crossed his mind.

"You're very good. You have cute looks and a kind heart. It's me who doesn't want to have sexual relations."

"Did I just receive a good person card?" The little girl rubbed her eyes, forcing her tears back. She smiled and chided, "Unless a person is frigid, who wouldn't have sexual relations throughout their lifetime? Even if you want to reject me, you have to find a nice-sounding reason."

Fu Li, "…"

He was speaking the truth.

"I have a registered residence in the capital and I'm an only child. My family's houses and cars are all mine. You really won't consider it?" The little girl asked once again. She was already at her baseline.

Fu Li continued to shake his head.

"How silly are you?" The little girl was both angry and amused. "Another boy might have already agreed."

"Oh…" Fu Li recalled the words the female lead in a television drama had said when rejecting a man and decided to put it to practical use. "Because I sell my abilities, not my body."

This statement caused the little girl to break out into a smile. "What is this about selling your abilities and not your body, you really are shameless…" She had just started speaking when someone behind her called her name. She glanced back and saw a wizened, unfamiliar old man who was walking somewhat unnaturally.

"Lu Yi."

The old man's footsteps were unsteady, and his tone of voice contained longing and eagerness, as if the little girl was someone very important to him. Only, his ability to walk wasn't quite there, so he couldn't chase after her. Seeing the little girl turn her head, the old man revealed a grin. For some reason, the little girl felt that this old man's smile appeared a little frightening. Moreover, the way he walked bore some resemblance to the baboons at the zoo.

A fear difficult to put into words besieged her heart.

"Ignore him," Fu Li pulled on the straps of her bag. "I'll send you back."

"O-Okay," The little girl regained her wits and hastened her pace, walking towards her neighborhood. As she entered the entrance to her neighborhood, she glanced back. That old man was still calling out to her continuously. The shadow reflected on the road resembled a strange monster who was making threatening gestures.

"Fu Li, you better rest at my place tonight," She lowered her voice. "There's… something fishy about that old man."

"It's all right, it's just an ordinary old man. You can go back," Fu Li smiled. "I have a strong and sturdy body, why would I be afraid of an old man who can't even walk steadily? But…"

He wiped the shoulder strap of the girl's bag. "If someone calls your name late at night or in the early morning, don't be too quick to respond."

"Okay," The little girl wanted to say something but hesitated. Thinking that Fu Li didn't want to get too close to her, she could only enter her neighborhood dejectedly. After walking a distance, she gazed in the direction of the area outside the gate. Both Fu Li and that strange old man were no longer around.

Fu Li walked in front while the staggering old man followed him at a moderate distance away. His not-too-quick legs didn't seem to affect the speed at which he advanced. When Fu Li reached an area without people, he came to a halt and turned to look at the old man who had followed him over.

The old man approached him bit by bit. His huge lips made up almost one-third of his entire face. Strands of saliva hung at the corner of his mouth, giving off a faint fishy stench.

All of a sudden, the old man's mouth gaped open. He rose steeply from the ground and lunged at Fu Li's throat. Fu Li dodged, turned, and thrust out a palm. The old man slammed into the wall and landed on the ground, turning into a black-furred monkey. The monkey crawled up in an attempt to escape, but Fu Li stepped on its tail and picked it up.

"Mountain Imp?" Fu Li shook the extremely ugly monkey in his hands. "What did a mountain-dwelling yaoguai like you run out for?"

Kacha.

There was movement on the wall. Fu Li looked up and saw someone lying on top of the wall. The two people's gazes met, and Fu Li lifted the ugly monkey in his hands a little higher. "You wanted to catch this thing?"

Ning Xuan leapt off the wall, trussed up the babbling ugly monkey, and then thanked Fu Li.

"No need for thanks, are the results of your recruitment out yet?" Fu Li couldn't stand the smell of the Mountain Imp's fur, so he used a purification skill on himself and even cordially purified Ning Xuan's hand.

"We're still evaluating the examination papers. The recruitment this time places a lot of emphasis on combat results, so given your cultivation, you'll be accepted as long as the results of your written exam aren't too poor," Ning Xuan stuffed the Mountain Imp into a sack. "This Mountain Imp moves especially quickly; I've been chasing after it since yesterday. Fortunately, he was blind today and coincidentally ran into senior."

As someone whose original form was a sword, Ning Xuan had an innate reverence for great yao with high combat ability. Therefore, he forcibly dragged Fu Li to eat grilled skewers and then took a picture together before contentedly bidding goodbye to Fu Li.

While Ning Xuan and Fu Li were blissfully eating grilled skewers, the bureau employees who were in charge of evaluating the exam papers were about to go crazy. Yao cultivators in the cultivation world paid very little attention to cultural lessons. The majority of their answers to the exam questions were in a mess, filled with incorrectly written characters.

Huang Can took a sip of concentrated tea and continued to thumb through the next exam paper. The answers written on it were so wrong he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

What should one do if they encountered evil qi?

The correct answer was to sit and meditate, yet 'wear jade from Mountain Mi' was written on this paper.

What kind of thing was jade from Mountain Mi? This examinee probably had a similar ailment as Ning Xuan and liked to read those messy Xuanhuan novels.

What should a yao cultivator do if they were unable to expel a highly toxic poison?

The correct answer was to invite someone with profound cultivation to clear their meridians; the poison could be expelled by circulating spiritual qi borrowed from them. However, according to the paper, the answer was to… consume either a mouse's ear or Yansuan grass.

So, this examinee wasn't here to take an exam but to make fun of them?

This paper's answers to questions on handling certain emergency situations in the human world wasn't too unreasonable. But other than those, any answer to a question related to the cultivation world lacked such common sense that it would put one between laughter and tears. After reading through this exam paper, his spirits lightened.

"Old Huang, what are you laughing about?" The colleague beside him saw Huang Can laughing unceasingly. "Did you find a once-in-a-millennium genius?"

"Not a genius, but a lover of novels," Huang Can passed him the exam paper. "The little yao today really have no ambition. Not only are their answers all over the place, they even have an abundance of imagination."

The colleague finished looking through it and laughed along with him. The colleague lamented, "During the times we cultivated to take on a human form, who didn't conceal themselves for fear of being caught by the Buddhist monks or Daoist priests and losing their lives? Unlike the yao cultivators these days who become internet celebrities, great stars or whatnot. If our management bureau didn't have rules, there might even be people who earn a living by being a sports celebrity."

The Buddhist and Daoist cultivators in the room raised their eyebrows one after another.

"I'm talking about the past, the past! This is a historical legacy and has nothing to do with everyone, please don't misunderstand," The colleague hurriedly waved his hands, indicating his innocence.

The Buddhist and Daoist cultivators continued evaluating the exam papers with lowered heads, though with pricked ears.

"The little yao lead such good lives now. As long as they have intelligence, the Yao Union will protect them. If they can cultivate a human form and aren't evil, they can receive the good yao identification and a human identity card. As long as they don't break the laws, they can live their daily lives in a carefree manner," The colleague shook his head as he handed the exam paper back to Huang Can. "How long has it been? Yet they've already forgotten the skills to survive."

"Isn't that why it's important for the management bureau and the Yao Union to exist?" Huang Can was quite open-minded. "It isn't an easy thing for the cultivation world to have the current peaceful days. Everything is fated. There is no basis for envy." Saying this, he drew a few large crosses on the exam paper and wrote the number 28 in the box for the total score.

He had originally wanted to award some points for handwriting and help this examinee to get a round figure. However, the characters were simply too ugly - he had no way of going against his conscience to give out those two marks.

Two days later when the acceptance list was placed in front of Zhuang Qing, Zhuang Qing asked one question after glancing at it, "Why is Fu Li not on it?"

Fu Li was number one in the combat test, so why had he failed to enter even the top ten?

"Maybe… he scored too badly in the written exam?" Xu Yuan also hadn't expected Fu Li to fail to make it to the last round. This was truly too comical.

Two hours later, Zhuang Qing found Fu Li's paper among a pile of sealed papers. Upon seeing the total score on the paper, Zhuang Qing was silent.

With such ugly handwriting that people couldn't even look straight at, as well as this kind of exam results, how did Fu Li have the confidence to participate in the university entrance exam and civil servant exam?

By relying on illegal confusion methods?

At this instant, Zhuang Qing finally believed that Fu Li truly was a countryside yao who hadn't seen the world.

He had lived to a ripe old age of 4000, yet he couldn't even write well. Did he still want face as a yao cultivator?