“You’re kicking someone while they’re down!” Zheng Hualong threw a finger in his face.
“That’s the whole point. Why wait for you to beef up and feel sorry for myself then? Do I look stupid to you?”
Zheng Hualong snapped, “I refuse the wager!”
“You can, of course. But by the personal wager’s rules, refusing means losing. That means the winner gets to pick an item off the loser!”
“Come and get it!” Zheng Hualong countered.
Li Mo walked to him and yanked his sleeve off.
Zheng Hualong’s face changed.
“Go back to your clan and tell that waste who refined the Human Origin Pill to never make it again if he knows what’s good for him. Or one day I’ll bang his door and use the same refining method on him.”
Zheng Hualong shuddered and stared blankly at him.
He soon recovered, however, having the misguided notion Li Mo would never detect the hidden Human Origin Pill in his sleeve. But Li Mo not only found this secret but even knew its name.
Sweat trickles down Zheng Hualong’s spine.
Li Mo threw the sleeve to the ground.
…
At night, Li Mo was refining his magic weapon when Wang Huan popped from the ground. He placed two items at Li Mo’s feet.
A herb akin to a dragon, and a palm-sized cauldron.
“Farmer God Cauldron and Dragon Herb.”
“Thanks.”
Wang Huan smiled, “Try and guess what else I found there?”
Wang Huan unrolled a yellow painting for Li Mo. It depicted a youth with a large nose and pin-sized eyes, frog-like lips, a round face, and filled with pockmarks.
“This is the portrait of Wang clan’s ancestor, ha-ha-ha. I almost died of laughter. Such a venerated man spouted that whole hypocrisy about handsome and ugly, ha-ha-ha…”
Wang Huan cried from laughter.
Li Mo was speechless.
Wang Huan was always sullen for years. He’d been hunted down all his life for what he thought to be an excuse. Now that it all came to light, it was hard for him to come to terms with it.
“Blast it! God, I wish I can get my hands on this bastard and tear him a new one!”
Li Mo stood, “Perhaps it’s best if you leave the painting to me.”
Wang Huan did just that.
Li Mo took out the Staff of Origin and both it and the painting shined.
Whoosh~
A time-space rupture appeared.
“This is…”
“Go in.”
Li Mo was the first to enter, with Wang Huan right behind him.
Time-space rupture’s world was that of a flourishing village with a mountain far in the distance. It was without a doubt Huanglong Mountain.
“Are we… in the olden times?” Standing in the street, Wang Huan watched it all in shock.
“Grotesque fiend, are you begging? Cover your face. It makes me sick!”
“Get lost, grotesque fiend! You’re scaring my child!”
“Grotesque fiend, how many times have I told you to cover your face! You can’t understand even this?”
“Beat him up!”
At the side, a bunch of small beggars were beating the s*** out of another small beggar, who was huddled and crying.
“Li Mo, this isn’t the real world?”
“This is a different time and space. Consider it a movie.”
“Does that mean we can do anything? It won’t even affect reality.”
“Break it up!”
Wang Huan’s hands shined with earth qi, jumping among the small beggars and scattering them.
“Wang Fanzi, lift your head!” Wang Huan shouted at the beaten up beggar.
The small beggar trembled his head upward. He looked to be the spitting image from the portrait.
“Ha-ha-ha…”
“Thank you savior, thank you!” The Wang ancestor kneeled before Wang Huan.
“Go to hell!”
Wang Huan’s kick sent him flying.
Far away, Li Mo covered his face.
It was now Wang Huan’s turn to clobber the ancestor. His hits packed quite a punch too, and didn’t stop until the ancestor was crying for his mommy, lying paralyzed on the ground.
Li Mo walked over, “Don’t kill him…”
Wang Huan was indifferent, “Why not? It’s a movie, right? This didn’t really happen anyway. “
“That may not be the case. This time-space rupture may be a reflection of an ancient event, but who can tell fake from real? If it is fake, what are we even doing?”
Wang Huan froze.
“Am I handsome now?” Wang Huan spoke to the ancestor from above.
“Gorgeous!”
“Are you mocking me? I’m clearly ugly as hell!”
“Please let me go, I won’t do it again!” Wang ancestor cried.
“What again?”
Wang ancestor froze, ‘Yeah, where did I go wrong?’
“Because you’re ugly. No other reason!”
“Ugly is bullied, ugly is beaten, ha-ha-ha. Go to hell!”
Wang Huan kicked the ancestor away as he laughed and cried.
Hum~
A sudden light came and made Li Mo and Wang Huan transparent.
“What’s going on?” Wang Huan was shocked.
“The law of this world. We don’t belong here and the law rejects us. We are now reduced to mere witnesses of this period of history.”
Wang Huan was stunned.
He had no idea why this happened. Li Mo took out the Staff of Origin.
“Ahhhh~, don’t hit me! I was wrong~”
Wang ancestor cried as he ran out of the village.
Wang Huan went after him.
Wang ancestor ran all the way to Huanglong Mountain. He wondered the mountain for a few days and at some point stumbled upon the ancient site.
Wang ancestor used the herbs withing to strike it rich in less than a year. As his business grew and grew, he became among the top herb supplier in the nation after just a decade.
Wang ancestor had thirty-odd concubines, each prettier than the last. Among the countless offspring, those that were gorgeous stayed, while the ugly ones were cast out at their five-year assessment.
“Wang ancestor’s teaching: every ugly descendant of mine shall either be driven out or killed!”
Whoosh~
Li Mo and Wang Huan returned to the original world.
“Wang clan’s ancestral teaching…”
Wang Huan watched the painting dully, finding extra words on it.
“The ugly are rotten, the pretty are righteous. Any descendant that meets an ugly person, he is to put that person down and rid the world of this evil!”
Wang Huan laughed dryly, “The Wang clan’s ancestral teaching changed. Did I have something to do with it?”
“It’s likely.”
Li Mo pondered.
