DNDAS

Chapter 77: Choice

"I..."

Fu Li looked up at the man bathed in streetlight. He stood tall and handsome, possessing a steadiness that many yao in the yao world fell short of.

Zhuang Qing crouched in front of him. "You're squatting here in the night to count ants?"

"What ants can there be at night?" Fu Li hugged his knees tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that," Zhuang Qing stood up, hauling Fu Li up from the ground. "We're outside my house."

The lights in the villa shone brightly, its radiance penetrating the windows and illuminating the area outside the house. Fu Li stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants. His shoulders shrank back in the autumn wind as he smiled, "I was just walking around randomly."

"You were walking around randomly and then reached my place?" Zhuang Qing felt around his body. "Wait here for me."

Fu Li watched Zhuang Qing swiftly return to his house before very quickly coming back out. In a blink of an eye, he was back in front of him. "What's wrong?"

"I'll send you back." Zhuang Qing emphasized, "Remember not to run about recklessly." Then, he ran back to the garage to start the car. Fu Li watched Zhuang Qing from behind as he hurried along. Suddenly feeling that this scene before him was a bit funny, he couldn't help letting out a laugh.

Zhuang Qing stopped the car in front of Fu Li, opening the window. "Get on."

Fu Li obediently got into the car and buckled his seatbelt. He told Zhuang Qing abruptly, "Thank you."

"I didn't see you being so polite in the past," Zhuang Qing drove out of the neighborhood. As he was turning out of the gate, he saw an elderly couple opposite crossing the road. Stopping the car, he lowered the brightness of the car's headlights. Only when the elderly couple had completely left the road did he proceed.

Streetlight would occasionally shine on Zhuang Qing's face through the motley of tree leaves. Fu Li suddenly realized that the yao seated beside him was not an underaged dragon, but a steady man that propped up the entire domain in which the cultivation world survived. He should not evaluate the current situation with the standards of the yao world thousands of years back.

Many of the things he had taken to be true was nothing more than him being stuck in his old ways, not having walked out of Reflecting Mist Mountain.

The world changed as time went by. That was all.

The elements changed in a split second. Heaven and Earth's spiritual qi surged forth, converged into an enormous whirlpool of spiritual qi, and barreled towards Zhuang Qing's car.

Noticing the abnormalities in the skies and earth, Zhuang Qing glanced at Fu Li, who had already entered a meditative state beside him. With a pull of the seatbelt and a smack of the steering wheel, the car was driven into a tiny, secluded alley, where it came to a stop.

A gale swept up the dead leaves on the ground. Zhuang Qing took off his blazer, pulled open the car door, and walked out. Countless yao beasts appeared in the darkness, a strange light flashing in their eyes. Zhuang Qing looked at the various animals surrounding the alley. His natal sword appeared in his hands.

"I, Zhuang Qing, stand here today. Who dares to step forward?" He narrowed his eyes halfway, his icy, severe gaze sweeping around his surroundings. In a flash, a great half of the yao beasts left.

A leopard yao stood on a wall. Its three tails were curled up slightly, and its upper body leaned forward. It didn't seem resigned to leaving. Spiritual qi was thin in the yao world, so yao cultivators in the midst of a breakthrough were the world's greatest spiritual qi vessels. If one ate a 'spiritual qi vessel', they would gain immeasurable cultivation. Yao cultivators who kept within their bounds wouldn't dare to have such thoughts, but to evil yao, it was a temptation they had no way of rejecting.