Striving for Science C93 pt2

"What my people do doesn't need your input." Dao Nian looked at the little pig yao expressionlessly, "The grievances between your three clans, I don't care if you kill each other, but why are you dragging my human cub into this?"

The Beast yaos came to their senses and quickly restrained the little pig yao, preventing him from talking nonsense.

"Lord, this child is a pig, his brain isn't very good, he doesn't think before he speaks. Don't take it to heart." Elder Fox pressed down on the little pig yao tightly, "I've seen Mr. Shen's demeanor. Not only does Long Guang and the Bird clan want to befriend him, but I also want to be friends with Mr. Shen."

Elder Peacock looked at Elder Fox with disdain. He thought the Beast yao clan had some backbone, but they were even more shameless than them when it came to groveling. Elder Pig's body was still here, his bones hadn't even cooled yet, and they were already saying that Elder Pig was stupid. When it came to being able to bend and stretch, the fox was still the best.

Long Guang didn't speak. He had a feeling that there was already some kind of rift between Elder Fox and Elder Pig.

He didn't want to say these things in front of the Beast yao clan, lest it cause internal strife, but now that they were being accused of killing Elder Pig, he had no choice but to tell the truth.

"Since the Beast ya* clan suspects that Elder Peacock and I are the beasts who killed Elder Pig, then Elder Peacock and I have to prove our innocence." Seeing a hint of reluctance on Elder Peacock's face, Long Guang sighed, "We didn't want to say this in front of you because there was no evidence, but now that it's come to this, we have no other choice."

Long Guang took out a crystal bead. This kind of artifact could record images, but it consumed a lot of spiritual energy, so only great yao with high cultivation could use it.

He tossed the crystal bead into the air, and it transformed into a projection in mid-air. All the Beast yaos recognized the background of the projection, it was their Beast yao clan's temple, and the three great yaos standing together talking were Long Guang, Elder Peacock, and Elder Pig.

In the image, the three yaos sat on the ground, Elder Peacock's face was very ugly.

"Old Pig, we've been friends for thousands of years. Tell me honestly, is the disappearance of the little fox from your clan related to you?"

"What do you mean by that, Elder Peacock?" Elder Pig looked at Elder Peacock in surprise, "Hu Ming is the hope of our younger generation, how could I possibly harm him? You've been listening to someone's nonsense and come to question me? Do I, the elder of the Beast yao clan, not care about him as much as you, a bird from another clan?"

"Old Pig, don't try to pull this on me. You should know that my ancestors were descendants of the Phoenix." Elder Peacock sneered, "The Phoenix can be reborn from the ashes, transcending life and death. While I may not possess the abilities of my predecessors, I can still sense where someone's aura disappears."

"A junior of mine had some connection with Hu Ming, so he took its fox fur for me to calculate. To my surprise, the place where its yao energy disappeared was your beast-yao clan's temple." Elder Peacock looked coldly at Elder Pig, "You've been guarding the temple for years, it's impossible that you wouldn't know if your own junior had an accident here."

The image stopped here. The beast yao cultivators were all stunned. They stared blankly at the corpse in the jade coffin, then turned to look at the cold-faced fox elder. Suddenly, they remembered that the fox elder had argued with Elder Pig several times in the past month. Could it be that the fox elder already suspected Elder Pig?

The image continued. 

Seeing that Elder Pig refused to admit it, Elder Peacock also felt a little disheartened: "Old Pig, I don't care what you want to do, but the yao clan has had a hard time these years. Don't put yourself in a hopeless situation."

"I don't need you to teach me how to be a yao."

"Do you think I want to teach you?" Elder Peacock retorted, "Our bird yao clan cherishes every descendant who has awakened their spiritual intelligence. You, on the other hand, actually hurt your own people. For the sake of our friendship over the years, I'll give you some face. Go and explain yourself to your clan…"

"Our beast yao clan's affairs don't need you bird yao to manage." Elder Pig sneered, "You say I killed Hu Ming, do you have any evidence? With your little bit of calculation ability, can you compare to the once glorious Phoenix? Don't think that just because your clan has a Phoenix, you can lord over our beast yao clan. Stop with this act. A species that should have been extinct long ago, it's not even certain if you can survive."

As soon as these words came out, Elder Peacock started arguing with Elder Pig. The hot-tempered Long Guang, seeing that he couldn't stop them, joined in the argument.

For a moment, the yao cultivators watching this image were silent.

Dao Nian had somehow conjured a sofa for himself. He leaned back lazily and was about to speak when he heard Elder Pig roar from the image: "The most shameless are you bird- ao. To please that treacherous concubine Shen Chang'an, you'll do anything? At first, you weren't all calling him scheming and a seducer? Now that you've latched onto his leg, you're all calling him Mr. Shen. I think you should stop calling yourself a peacock and just call yourself a dog, a damn lickspittle."

The dog yaos kneeling on the ground twitched their ears. What had they done wrong again?

But for them at this moment, the biggest problem wasn't Elder Pig discriminating against dogs, but whether Heavenly Dao Lord would be angry if he heard them mocking Shen Chang'an.

They all turned their heads silently and cautiously, looking at Dao Nian. They saw Heavenly Dao Lord leaning calmly on the sofa, his face clearly saying, "I'm not angry, I didn't hear anything."

But the next second, the sky began to thunder and lightning, with rain pouring down. The rain hit their faces, stinging painfully, like someone was constantly slapping them.

All the yaos: "..."

Long Guang trembled and wanted to retract the glass bead. He was afraid that if this image continued to play, the lightning would split the beast yao clan's temple.

"Continue." Dao Nian waved his hand to stop Long Guang's action, saying calmly, "I think this argument is quite interesting.

All the beast yaos trembled.

No, it's boring, this is not interesting at all.

It's all our Beast Yao tribe's fault, it has nothing to do with Long Guang or Elder Peacock. You should just leave!

However, there's a saying that it's easy to invite a god but hard to send him away. They felt that Heavenly Dao Lord wouldn't leave until he finished watching this image.

"Mr. Shen is a man of noble character and extraordinary wisdom. It's an honor for our children to be his pets." Elder Peacock in the image seemed to have taken the wrong medicine. In this situation where there was no one else around, he still insisted on relentlessly licking Shen Chang'an's boots. "You're jealous! What's the big deal about a junior being Mr. Shen's pet? Our entire tribe is willing to serve Mr. Shen."

Seeing this, the Beast Yao felt a strange sense of unease, as if the Bird tribe who had been relentlessly badmouthing Shen Chang'an half a year ago never existed.

To be a lickspittle to this extent, no wonder they can cling to Shen Chang'an's thigh.

Who says the Bird tribe is small-brained and stupid? When it comes to licking someone's boots, they're very professional.

Elder Peacock felt a little embarrassed, but Shen Chang'an was the one who helped them find their peacock eggs and even had Heavenly Dao Lord take in the phoenix. How could he tolerate other yaos speaking ill of Shen Chang'an in front of him?

All those things before were because our Bird tribe was ignorant, it had nothing to do with Mr. Shen.

The next part of the image showed Elder Pig's vulgar insults towards Shen Chang'an, and Elder Peacock, unable to bear it any longer, picked up the teacup on the table and smashed it against Elder Pig. Finally, the two of them started brawling on the spot.

In the end, it was Long Guang who separated the two. As they left, Elder Peacock said, "I'll give you three days. If you don't explain yourself, I'll tell the other elders of your Beast Yao tribe. What they do to you then won't be my concern."

The image ended, and the yaos felt the thunder in the sky was even louder, and the rain hitting them was even more painful. They even suspected that what was falling from the sky wasn't rain, but needles that pricked.

"It's quite lively." Dao Nian glanced at the jade coffin containing the pig, his eyes slightly lowered.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the sky struck a little off-target, accidentally shattering the jade coffin into four pieces, and the pig inside turned into a pile of black ash.

The yaos all held their breath, and Elder Fox even had a hint of satisfaction on his face. The other Beast Yao elders looked a bit complicated. They never imagined that Elder Pig would actually kill a young member of their tribe.

Long Guang and Elder Fox didn't kill Elder Pig in that situation, so how could they have secretly snuck into their Beast Yao tribe's temple and assassinated him?

So, who exactly killed Elder Pig, and why did Elder Pig kill Hu Ming? And why did he seem to be pinning the blame for some of the things that happened to the Beast Yao tribe on Hu Ming, who was already dead?

The fox elder stood up and bowed to the peacock elder, his lips trembling as he uttered two words: "Thank you..."

As a fox yao, the fox elder treated Hu Ming as his own grandson. After Hu Ming was killed by the pig yao, he was also subjected to various bad speculations. It was no wonder that the fox yao was so heartbroken.

"You... mourn..." The peacock elder sighed and returned the bow.

"Mourn what?" Dao Nian didn't even look at the pile of ashes, he said calmly, "Isn't that fox still alive and well?"

"Lord?" The fox elder knelt before Dao Nian, his face filled with joy, "Please, Lord, show me the way."

"Now is not the right time for you to reunite." Dao Nian remembered that Chang'an would be going to see the fox, who was as fat as a pig, during the Spring Festival, "We'll talk about it after the Spring Festival."

"Thank you, Lord." The fox elder excitedly bowed deeply to Dao Nian, "Thank you, Lord."

The beast yaos of the water and bird tribes, who had previously felt that Dao Nian favored them, instantly felt that Dao Nian was radiating brilliance, and they all prostrated themselves in worship, their hearts filled with gratitude.

Suddenly, Dao Nian, who had been sitting lazily on the sofa, raised his head and looked at a certain cloud in the sky.

The cloud seemed to sense something, and a mocking laugh came from within: "Your senses are sharp, you noticed me right away."

"Come out." Dao Nian stood up with a cold face, "What else can a waste like you do besides hide?"

The cloud paused for a moment, then let out a cold snort: "If I were you, I wouldn't be so arrogant until I knew what the other person had in their hands."

Shen Chang'an, held in the gray-clothed man's hand, watched the men and women kneeling in the rainstorm, and Dao Nian standing before them, his presence commanding, and inexplicably felt that Dao Nian was like a high and mighty emperor, while everything in the world was his subject.

However, before he could take a closer look at Dao Nian's valiant appearance, the man holding him suddenly let go, throwing him down from the clouds.

As Shen Chang'an fell from the clouds, he saw the man in gray's merciless sneer.

The man in gray opened his mouth, as if to say—

He's just using you.

The wind howled in his ears, the piercing cold constantly seeping into his limbs, Shen Chang'an felt that before he crashed to his death, he would be frozen to death by the high-altitude chill.

It turned out that when a person is rapidly falling and about to face death, they can't scream at all.

"Chang'an!"

Someone hugged him, a large blanket covering him from head to toe. His vision was filled with darkness. But the wind stopped, and the cold was blocked by the blanket.

His mind kept calculating. How much impact force would an adult experience when falling from thousands of meters in the air? How is kinetic energy calculated?

Mass x gravitational acceleration x height?

"Chang'an, actually…"

"What if I told you I'm a panda spirit who's been cultivating for a thousand years, would you believe me?"

Shen Chang'an: "?"

All the yao cultivators: "..."