<h4>Chapter 7 - Changing Jobs</h4>


    Zhuang Qing didn’t return home; he got Chu Yu to drive directly to the Bureau.


    Upon hearing that their boss was returning, the bureau’s people put away the tables and shifted the stools. The disorderly documents fluttered in the air, very quickly bing neat and tidy. The workers who were sprawled over their tables all sat up straight as if they were soldiers waiting for an inspection by a senior official.


    <i>Tap tap tap.</i>


    As the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder, the expressions on everyone’s faces became more and more serious. The moment Zhuang Qing appeared, everyone called out ‘Hello, Captain’ in unison.


    Zhuang Qing’s gaze swept across everyone. Only a whileter did he open his mouthzily. “All of you know how to be scared now?”


    Everyone lowered their heads in shame. Quite a few people had died this time in the chaos caused by the evil yao. Ultimately, it was their fault for not having cultivated well enough. The nation was vast and there was a great number of people, but that didn’t mean they could be treated as rations for yao.


    Chu Yu thought about the girl whose heart had been eaten and how she had only been twenty over years old. After that girl’s mishap, her family members had nearly fainted from crying. Thinking of this, Chu Yu felt exceedingly distressed.


    “I’ll go see this ancient yao,” Compared to when he was scolding people, Zhuang Qing was even scarier when he showed no emotion. There was not a single person in the management teams who breathed loudly. Hearing that Zhuang Qing was going to interrogate the Zhuyan, Old Huang hurriedly revealed a fawning smile and walked in front, leading the way.


    There was a spirit lock formation in the basement of the bureau that was specially meant for imprisoning cultivators who had broken thew. This formation was drawn using Zhuang Qing’s blood and talismans that suppressed yao qi were also ced at all four corners. Yao who had poor cultivation would feel difort all over even if they entered this ce, much less enter the spirit lock formation.


    The Zhuyan had been locked in this ce for quite a few days, but his arrogant attitude hadn’t diminished. Seeing people enter, he proceeded to mock, “Ipetent humans and yao.”


    Zhuang Qing took off his zer that was suffused with the scent of the elite and handed it to Chu Yu, who was behind him. “Hold it properly, don’t let blood get onto it.”


    Chu Yu was very obedient. Carrying the zer, he took multiple steps back. Fortunately, a barrier had been set up in front, thereby guaranteeing that no dirt wouldnd on this branded suit.


    “Zhuyan,” Zhuang Qing stepped into the spirit lock formation, looking at the Zhuyan who couldn’t maintain his human form nor move a single finger. “Ancient yao.”


    “Even the dragon n’s younger generation dares to show off their ws in front of this king,” The Zhuyan nced at him from the corner of his eyes, contempt emanating from him. “All you ignorant young ones have truly caused the might of my yao n to degenerate.”


    Zhuang Qing turned a deaf ear to his nonsense and stretched out a hand, tugging on the yao-beating whip. The whip fell off the Zhuyan’s body. Seeing that the thing binding him had been released, the Zhuyan’s body morphed into a ray of light, about to fly out of the spirit lock formation. The Zhuyan had always been very confident in his speed. During those years when ancient yao were as numerous as dogs, he had relied on his exceptional escape ability to survive to this day.


    Yet, he miscalcted. Just as he was about to fly out of the door, golden light shed past, locking him heavily back into the spirit lock formation as if his entire body had been struck by a thunderbolt.


    “Did I say you could leave?” Zhuang Qing’s arms were crossed across his chest as he towered over the Zhuyan. “ording to the neww of the yao world’s management bureau, you havemitted a huge offence by consuming humans as food.”


    The Zhuyany slumped on the ground. The single attack just now was too powerful; he still hadn’t fully regained his senses. The Zhuyan was a yao with plenty of tact; whenever he encountered an opponent he really couldn’t defeat, he would always choose one of two choices – kneel and acknowledge the opponent as king or turn and flee.


    Now that he couldn’t flee, he could only very tactfully concede defeat.


    He no longer side-eyed Zhuang Qing, the icy smile on his face disappeared, and he obedientlyid curled up on the ground and pretended to be an ordinary ape, albeit one whose appearance was a little strange.


    “Who is the yao emperor?” Seeing that the Zhuyan had be well-behaved, Zhuang Qing patted the leg of his pants, his mood taking a turn for the better.


    The Zhuyan’s eyes met Zhuang Qing’s eyes before evading his gaze somewhat guiltily. “Act- Actually, I haven’t seen that yao either.”


    Chu Yu spoke from the corner, “Boss, he’s lying to you. Before you came back, he was still harping about how his emperor had returned. How could he have never seen this emperor before?”


    <i>Bang.</i>


    The Zhuyan mmed into the wall beforending heavily on his original spot. Somebody who didn’t know what was going on would even assume that Zhuang Qing was ying a game of boomerang.


    <i>Heavens’ Justice, how was the dragon n cultivating now, why was their cultivation so profound?</i> The Zhuyan spat out a mouthful of blood. Fearing that Zhuang Qing would continue to hit him, he said hastily, “I didn’t lie, I really haven’t seen the yao emperor before. I’ve only heard of the rumors surrounding him.”


    “Speak.”


    “A long time ago, the Zhongdiao and Zheng didn’t get along and got into a fight at the Wei River. Unexpectedly, they enraged the yao emperor, and in one move, the yao emperor stripped the two yao kings of their near ten thousand years’ worth of cultivation. From that moment onwards, these two yao kings vanished without a trace, never appearing again in the human world. It is rumored that the yao emperor has profound cultivation and an unstable mood. Nobody has ever seen his original form, but those who have either lost their lives or didn’t dare to mention a single word rted to it. To express our reverence towards him, our yao world addresses him as emperor. A thousand years ago, a rumor spread in the yao world that a thousand yearster, the fate of the country on thisnd will prosper and the yao emperor will reappear.”


    “This rumor... why have I not heard of it?” Old Huang retorted.


    “Hehe,” The Zhuyan side-eyed him. “What does a tiny youngster like you know?”


    Old Huang stroked his beard and smiled mildly. “Boss, I don’t think he’s saying the truth. Give him another beating.”


    “Everything I said was the truth!” The Zhuyan looked down on Old Huang, but feared Zhuang Qing very much. “Oh right, I remembered something else. Two thousand years ago, there was a dragon who went down south and caused countless rainstorms. At that time, he didn’t know the yao emperor was nearby. He flooded the localnds and even the yao emperor’s immortal residence. Subsequently, the yao emperor broke the ends of that dragon’s horns and scraped off his dragon scales. After that, multiple people from the dragon n went to seek revenge for him. In the end...”


    He shot a nce at Zhuang Qing. Thinking that he was also of the dragon n, he chose to phrase his words more tactfully, “In the end, they suffered quite a few losses.”


    How could it just be a few losses? The dragon n had practically been subjected to extraordinary shame and humiliation. It was said that the dragons who went to fight with the yao emperor came back bald and didn’t have the nerves toe out of the sea even after a hundred years had passed.


    In the Nurturing and Rxation Club for Elderly, Fu Li was seated beside the not-new-yet-not-old wooden table with a bag on his back as he watched a few elderly men and women y mahjong. These elderly men and women were the cultivation world’s retirees. When they yed, they even resorted to pinching their fingers together to tell the future and using the Heaven and Earth Great Shift.


    “Little Fu,” Wang Cuihua was in a good mood frompleting a winning hand. Ever since Fu Li sat beside her, she felt that her luck had be quite good, so she gave a melon seed to Fu Li. “I heard you don’t want to work at the construction site anymore?”


    “En,” Fu Li nodded. “I used medicine from the mountain and helped cure a human child of illness. I’m scared it’ll invite trouble, so I resigned.”


    Wang Cuihua suddenly understood. It was very normal for countryside yao who lived deep in the mountains to have some good medicine like ginseng, but it was indeed inconvenient to be asked about it. She picked up a few good tiles consecutively and said, “One of my n’s younger ones is a manager at arge supermarket. I’ll help you ask if he has any good job openings there.”


    She nced at Fu Li. “You’re good looking; finding a job shouldn’t be very difficult.”


    “Zhao ge said that yao like me who don’t even have a high school certificate will have difficulty making a living,” Fu Li recalled how Zhao Sanxiang had asked him to return to the countryside when he left the construction site, and felt that he had been looked down on.


    “You have good looks; you can go learn from those little yao and be...” Wang Cuihua suddenly paused andy down the tiles in her hand. “Same suit.”


    Amidst theints of the people at the same table, Wang Cuihua was a little delighted. She pressed the money she had won under the tablecloth and turned, continuing to speak to Fu Li, “It’s said that those inte celebrity things can earn quite a bit. All you yao have lived for at least a few hundred years and should know some of the four arts. Even if you’re no good at them, you can still identify antiques. That’s also a way to make a livelihood.”


    Fu Li shook his head. “In the past, there were some yaoguai around me who knew those, but I don’t know them.”


    Wang Cuihua stared nkly for a while. She sighed meaningfully. “Young yao should learn a few different skills. As the saying goes, more skills will never hold one back; one will be able to live well no matter where one lives. You can’t continue like this.”


    Fu Li pressed a hand to his face in distress, hisrge eyes staring straight at Wang Cuihua. His obedience didn’t allow her to say a single angry word.


    “You can’t be med for that either. Perhaps the ce you lived at was an old forest deep in the mountains. You didn’t have the opportunity toe into contact with such things, yes?” Wang Cuihua patted Fu Li’s shoulder. “Leave the job-finding to me, I’ll get someone to open the back door for you.”


    “Thank you, cultivator Wang,” Fu Li nced at the table and smiled broadly. “I hope you’ll win every day for the next few days.”


    “A piece of cake, a piece of cake,” Wang Cuihua’s smile became even more kindly. After growing older, she couldn’t stand seeing these good-looking and obedient youngsters being wronged. It was no wonder that there were sayings of ‘yao-like enchanters’ in ancient texts. Even she, an olddy in her seventies, had no resistance against them.


    The news of a child patient with a malignant tumor in the stomach making a full recovery after consuming some unknown medicine started to circte within the hospital. However, anyone who had even a bit of understanding of medicine knew that such a thing was impossible. There was a probability of eight or nine tenths that there had been an error in the hospital’s check-up, and they were now intentionally releasing this sort of news to deceive themon people so that they could retain the hospital’s dignity.


    The doctors from other hospitals secretly cursed this hospital for itsck of moral principles. Coming up with such a lie just for fame; they didn’t have any medical ethics nor moral standing!


    Peng Hang also nearly believed that the youth had fed the child some mysterious spiritual medicine. But when he went to the construction site in search of him, he realized that the youth had already slipped away. Moreover, after the exnation a doctor-friend gave him, he too felt that this was just a coincidence.


    Perhaps the real reason was that the damned hospital had made an error in its examination, while that youth was aware that he had cheated others, so he fled out of guilt. If that medicine was truly so magical, why would he run off? He could casually take out a bunch to sell and he would be a millionaire, why would he still need to do manualbor?


    Wang Cuihua deserved to be called a senior of the cultivation world. Within two days, she helped Fu Li find a new job as a security guard at a hotel set up by one of the cultivation world’s younger generations. Because the cultivation world had a policy of assisting job-finding yaoguai from the countryside, Fu Li’s sry was the same as the other security guards despite not having a high school graduation certificate.


    On the first day of work, Fu Li put on his uniform and stood in the lobby of the hotel. Immediately, the security guard opposite him looked like a pumpkin in contrast.