The negative energy filled him to the brim. After briefly worshipping the Bad Woman for a few days, he was soon filled with negative energy again. The Small Fishing Village was getting better day by day, but it had little to do with Pei Zheng.
Even the best temper couldn’t withstand endless nagging.
“Can you be any dumber? Neighboring Dahuang’s stance is more standard than yours!”
Whenever Pei Zheng was so exhausted that even breathing felt tiring, what he expected was always a scolding.
“Can you be any slower? A Snail is faster than you!”
One sentence after another.
“Enough, Shifu! Can’t you say something nice for once?”
Pei Zheng finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Thousand Master, won’t you rein in Master Water? She’s going too far!”
Thousand Master referred to Qiao Xiaoxian. Under Qiao Xiaoxian’s forceful demand, the title “Shiniang” had only lasted half a day before becoming “Thousand Master.”
Pei Zheng keenly noticed that there was an invisible war between Jiang Ke’er and Qiao Xiaoxian—both sides wanted him to call the other Shiniang—so he decisively decided to benefit from the conflict like a fisherman.
Actually, he wasn’t that much of a fence-sitter… He still clearly leaned more toward Thousand Master’s side, because the experience Master Water gave him was truly terrible.
If he weren’t afraid of Master Water secretly getting back at him out of spite, he would have openly supported Thousand Master long ago.
Besides, Thousand Master never disgusted him.
But this time, Thousand Master didn’t speak up for him.
“Your Master Water is doing this for your own good. If you want to participate in the imperial examination, you must hold yourself to high standards,” Qiao Xiaoxian consoled him. “Your Sword Dao will face geniuses from all across Shenzhou…”
Qiao Xiaoxian’s face flushed red. “I do have some areas where my stances aren’t standard, but I’m not that bad…”
“But don’t say I train worse than neighboring Dahuang anymore!” Pei Zheng said urgently. “I’m not worse than an Awakening of Intelligence-less yellow dog!”
Hmm?
Looking at the furious Pei Zheng, Jiang Ke’er fell into thought, unable to understand why Pei Zheng was so angry.
Perhaps with more people in the village lately, Pei Zheng had started caring about his dignity, afraid these negative comments might be heard by young girls?
Possible.
Then as Pei Zheng’s Shifu, she should respect and feel gratified by his youthful sensitivity.
So she said matter-of-factly, “You can’t even compare to half of neighboring Dahuang.”
“But you really are inferior to neighboring Dahuang!”
Jiang Ke’er raised an eyebrow.
Pei Zheng was truly furious now. He gritted his teeth in anger and slammed the door as he stormed out.
Though it wasn’t like he was running away from home or anything.
It was just that his stubborn temper had flared up, and he absolutely had to prove a point.
“Am I really that bad?!”
He jumped over the wall into the neighbor’s yard and happened to see an innocent-looking Dahuang crouching in the Courtyard, barking in fright at this wall-jumper.
“Dahuang, come with me, be good…”
Pei Zheng was going to kidnap this mutt and bring it before his Shifu to have a contest, leaving her with nothing to say.
He nimbly circled behind Dahuang, reached out his arms to hug Dahuang…
“Woof (here I come)~”
“Boom!!!”
Pei Zheng lay dazed in a pit.
What just happened?
When he opened his eyes, he saw that brown-yellow figure.
“Ouch, my back…”
It seemed that the moment he hugged Dahuang, a pair of dog paws had simultaneously… gracefully… Pei Zheng’s mind went blank.
There stood Dahuang, standing on one paw, facing away from the sunlight in a perfect white crane spreads wings stance.
“Brother Huang, Brother Huang, I know I was wrong… ah—”
Pei Zheng’s face hurt as he spun and flew out of the yard.
Face bruised and swollen as he lay sprawled on the street, Pei Zheng wanted to cry but had no tears.
“Shifu… wasn’t lying…”
“No, I refuse to believe it!”
Pei Zheng suddenly steeled himself.
“Can a Snail really run faster than me?”
He turned his head toward the corner of the wall, where a conspicuously large Snail was slowly crawling along.
Heh…
Pei Zheng sneered as he grabbed the snail shell, trying to lift up this poor little thing.
“Huh? What’s going on… why can’t I lift it…”
Were the suction cups too tight?
No, such a small thing shouldn’t be this heavy no matter how tight the suction cups were.
“Hah… ahhhh—”
Clearly just grabbing a Snail, Pei Zheng was somehow pulling with the miraculous feeling of drawing a stone sword!
He used every ounce of strength he had, but the Snail didn’t budge an inch, and…
“What’s that look in your eyes? Are you looking down on me? Don’t glare!”
Pei Zheng didn’t know how he sensed contempt from the Snail’s two tentacles, but he definitely felt it, so he began maliciously poking those two little tentacles.
Finally, as the two tentacles retracted, he could no longer feel that shameful disdain.
Then… he saw the “Wanjun” label stuck on the snail shell.
Jun was a unit of weight.
One jun equaled thirty jin.
Pei Zheng counted on his fingers…
The earlier battle with Dahuang was still fresh in his mind, and this time he’d learned to be smarter.
“Gulp.”
He swallowed nervously.
No more wishful thinking…
So he turned tail and ran!
At least speed was always the Snail’s weakness. Pei Zheng stole a glance back—the Snail was still in its original spot…
Huh?
Then he saw the Snail slowly rise, extending two muscular, steel-like arms from its shell, grabbing the shell and gently pulling it off.
“Pop~”
With a soft sound, the Snail’s gray-green, muscular, fitness-model butt was exposed to the air, followed by two terrifying legs that rivaled the protein queen’s, like towering pillars.
The completely JO-fied Snail sneered and crouched low, assuming a starting position, but didn’t rush to move.
Pei Zheng understood the meaning—I’ll let you run ahead for a bit.
He was so scared tears burst from his eyes.
“Shifu, save me!!!”
“Whoosh—”
A gust of wind from nowhere suddenly blew Pei Zheng’s entire body off balance.
When Pei Zheng opened his eyes again, the Snail was already standing calmly before him, even holding its shell.
Suddenly, the Snail’s figure vanished.
Then, accompanied by a sharp pain in his rear, Pei Zheng screamed as he flew high into the sky.
He flew toward the forest like a bowling ball.
After a merciless aerial combo, Pei Zheng was rolled into a ball. The next morning, with half his hair gone and his face covered in bruises, Pei Zheng hobbled back to the small Courtyard leaning on a cane.
“Ding-dong—”
“I’m trash.”
“Shifu, I know I was wrong.”
He said numbly and hollowly.
“I told you long ago that this world is very dangerous.”
Jiang Ke’er smiled as she held her teacup, casually rubbing the fat Cat on her lap—the Cat’s name was Klaus.
As a powerful deep-sea Demon with tremendous strength, Klaus had the ability to transform into other species.
But strange—she had told Klaus to hold back, so why did it hit so hard…
Klaus looked utterly innocent.
She had indeed transformed into Dahuang yesterday, but at the time she had only tossed Pei Zheng out, which couldn’t have hurt him this badly.
As for what happened afterward, she had no idea.
“Never mind.”
Jiang Ke’er assumed Klaus just hadn’t held back enough, but a memorable lesson was fine too.
At least Pei Zheng now knew how weak he was—she had gone through the same thing herself back then.
But… was it a bit too much?