VGAB Chapter 62

Hu Ling, with the crazy Taoist in tow, gave Qin Luo a call and briefly explained the situation.

“Who do you think saved you?” Qin Luo tapped his ear, suspecting he misheard.

“It’s your great-uncle,” Hu Ling proudly replied. “Believe it or not, I was quite surprised too. Oh, by the way, the big shot asked me to bring this crazy Taoist to your management bureau.”

“Then bring him over,” Qin Luo covered the phone. “Our boss just got back; if you bring him over, maybe I can score some bonus points.”

Even though it was his great-uncle who intervened, Qin Luo didn’t mind helping out the family elders to claim the bonus.

“Sure, I’ll bring him over.” Hu Ling raised his hand, trying to hail a taxi. “The big shot erased the memories of those people, but there are still cameras here. I almost revealed my true form; I’m afraid the cameras might catch it—”

“Cameras?” Qin Luo was puzzled. “Hold on, let me check for you.”

An empty blue taxi stopped in front of Hu Ling. He got in, provided the address of the management bureau, and as he listened to the sounds from the phone, roughly three or four minutes later, Qin Luo returned.

“Hu Ling, I just talked to Liu Ge. They said they can notify the relevant department to cut off the video from this period.”

“That’s good, I’ll be there soon,” Hu Ling breathed a sigh of relief. “Come out and pick me up.”

“Huh?” Qin Luo was puzzled. “Can’t you just come in directly? There’s no security at our entrance now.”

Originally, there were two security guards on duty, but their boss argued that mortal security couldn’t protect them, so they quit, and now internal personnel conducted regular patrols.

Of course, in Qin Luo’s eyes, this was clearly just an excuse concocted by the stingy dragon to save money.

“You’ll see when you come out,” Hu Ling said, cutting the call before Qin Luo could react.

The driver in the front repeatedly turned around, and Hu Ling frowned slightly. “Mister, driving like this, turning back so often, it’s easy to have an accident.”

“Sorry,” the driver turned to face forward, “I just feel you look a lot like a celebrity.”

Hu Ling raised an eyebrow and touched his face, “Really? Many people also say I look handsome like a celebrity.”

The driver in the front chuckled, “Yeah, young people nowadays love your type, fresh and handsome. If you enter the entertainment circle, you’ll surely become popular.”

The now popular Hu Ling laughed triumphantly, “Mister has a keen eye.”

“I heard you say on the phone that you asked your friend to come out and pick you up?” The driver casually asked, “Could it be that you didn’t have money with you?”

“Yeah, I didn’t have my wallet when I came out,” Hu Ling casually admitted, only to hear a screech of brakes. The door was opened, and Hu Ling was ushered out.

“Poor beggar still dares to take a taxi!”

With a heavy slam of the door, the driver sped away.

Hu Ling: “…” Damn!

These fickle humans, just a moment ago, were praising him for looking like a star, and as soon as they heard he had no money, they immediately turned hostile.

Hu Ling walked a distance and spotted an empty taxi passing by. He quickly raised his hand to hail it, this time not daring to speak, afraid of being abandoned again.

Upon reaching the destination, Hu Ling could see Qin Luo standing at the gate from a distance. He quickly spoke, “Mister, just stop over there in front.”

The car halted, and Hu Ling hastily opened the door and got out. He waved towards Qin Luo, signaling him to come over, then turned to ask the driver, “Mister, how much in total?”

The driver glanced at the meter, “Fifty-two yuan in total, but I’ll take fifty from you.”

“Why did you ask me to come out and wait for you?” Qin Luo walked up to Hu Ling. Hu Ling grinned and patted his shoulder, “Qin Ge, help me pay for the fare, it’s only fifty yuan.”

Qin Luo: “…”

He gritted his teeth, took out a hundred yuan from his pocket, and handed it to the driver. The driver returned fifty, then drove away.

“You called me out just to pay for your fare?” Qin Luo swatted away Hu Ling’s hand. “You, the red-hot big star, can’t even afford fifty yuan now?”

“It’s because I forgot my wallet during the escape,” Hu Ling scratched his head. “Lucky I ran into the crazy Taoist when my scenes were all done. Otherwise, today’s hot search might be about me acting high and mighty, leaving the crew without permission or something.”

“What about the crazy Taoist?” Qin Luo asked.

“Oh!” Hu Ling slapped his forehead. “I almost forgot about him. I tossed him in my pocket. Hope he didn’t suffocate?”

He hastily pulled out the shrunken and motionless crazy Taoist from his coat pocket.

Seeing the veins on the crazy Taoist’s forehead and the eyes filled with anger and hatred, Hu Ling actually breathed a sigh of relief. “Luckily, he didn’t suffocate.”

Qin Luo silently lit a candle for the crazy Taoist. “Let’s go, let’s head inside. The boss said he wants to see you.”

Hu Ling was stunned, pleasantly surprised. “Why, why would your boss personally deal with such a small matter?”

Although both were endangered races, the dragon race, due to its symbolic significance of imperial power, had always been revered on the altar of gods. Even if they revealed their true form publicly, it would be considered a miracle.

Unlike their Nine-Tailed Fox clan, plagued by the misdeeds of unscrupulous fox demons for years, once they revealed their true form, they were met with hostility from everyone.

And now, the Dragon Lord atop the altar would personally handle his affairs. This inevitably made Hu Ling feel a bit floaty, and he couldn’t help but entertain a possibility.

Could it be that the Dragon Lord was also his fan?

Qin Luo didn’t answer him. Instead, he led him to the top-floor office. The spacious office was filled with shiny gold and silver jewelry. The elite and noble Dragon Lord, as Hu Ling imagined, had transformed into his true form and was sleeping on these treasures.

Qin Luo and Hu Ling exchanged a glance, both seeing a bunch of lemons in each other’s eyes.

The giant dragon opened its eyes, the golden and profound gaze devoid of any emotion, staring at Hu Ling. “You’re the innocent Nine-Tailed Fox that was attacked?”

Hu Ling nodded busily, presenting the crazy Taoist. “Dragon Lord, this is the Taoist who attacked me.”

The giant dragon narrowed its eyes, looking at the thumb-sized Taoist. After a moment, it concluded, “Too small, can’t see clearly. From the aura, it doesn’t seem to be a practitioner of dark arts.”

The giant dragon transformed into an exceptionally handsome young man, elegantly descending from the gold and silver treasures. “Let him explain why he was trying to kill you.”

With a raised hand, he lifted the restrictions on the middle-aged Taoist. Hu Ling felt a weight in his palm, and with a thud, the middle-aged Taoist returned to normal size, falling to the ground.

The middle-aged Taoist remained motionless. Hu Ling poked him and then looked up, “Dragon Lord, I forgot to mention, he’s under a paralysis spell.”

“Paralysis spell?” The handsome young man looked slightly surprised. Such spells were rare in today’s Daoist practices. He raised his hand and lifted the paralysis spell from the middle-aged Taoist.

The middle-aged Taoist felt the ability to move returning and got up from the ground, still glaring at Hu Ling.

“Dragon Lord, look, he shows no remorse!” Hu Ling immediately turned to complain. “By the way, he also said before that everyone in our management bureau is foolish, believing that there are good spirits among demons.”

Hu Ling strategically used “our” to align himself with the Dragon Lord.

The handsome young man sneered, but the middle-aged Taoist showed no signs of backing down. “Different species, different minds. It’s just that the Daoist sect is now controlled by this long worm of yours. Those Daoists just can’t see the truth.”

Qin Luo took in a sharp breath; it was the first time he had seen someone so audacious, daring to compare the Dragon Lord, the only one in the world, to a worm.

Qin Luo quickly pulled Hu Ling a few steps back, and as expected, the next moment, the middle-aged Taoist’s body was slammed against the wall, firmly pinned there.

“Take him down and let Liu Neng and the others interrogate him.”

Qin Luo quickly complied. Together with Hu Ling, they pried the middle-aged Taoist off the wall. The middle-aged Taoist had already been knocked unconscious from the impact. Qin Luo and Hu Ling each took hold of one of his arms, dragging him to the elevator.

The elevator doors opened, and Qin Luo pulled the unconscious Taoist inside. Due to the dragging, the middle-aged Taoist had regained consciousness, but his injuries were severe, and he couldn’t exert any strength at the moment.

Qin Luo crouched down, “Can you explain why you were trying to kill Hu Ling?”

The middle-aged Taoist sneered, “Fox spirits charmed kings, causing chaos in the court. Not everyone can let them live.”

“You’re out of your mind!” Hu Ling exclaimed in frustration. “It’s the modern era; where is there an emperor for me to charm? Besides, I am a noble Nine-Tailed Fox. In the past, we were legitimate celestial foxes, and we wouldn’t deign to use seduction on a mere mortal!”

Even if they were emperors, they were just ordinary mortals. The Nine-Tailed Foxes were born as celestial foxes and didn’t need to absorb any dragon energy for cultivation.

Hu Ling gritted his teeth, blaming that white fox from hundreds of years ago. It had used a fake tail to impersonate a Nine-Tailed Fox and engaged in a romantic relationship with a human emperor, tarnishing the reputation of their Nine-Tailed Fox clan.

The elevator stopped on the ground floor, and just nearby, Liu Neng was passing by, holding a thermos. Qin Luo quickly called out, “Liu Ge, Liu Ge!”

Liu Neng halted, looked around, and, spotting them, walked over quickly. When he saw the Taoist on the ground, he froze, “Junior Brother Tan? Is that you?”

Qin Luo was also surprised, “This crazy Taoist is Liu Ge’s junior brother? What a coincidence. The boss asked me to bring him down for you to interrogate, Liu Ge.”

Liu Neng suddenly realized, blaming himself for not recalling. Since the coexistence of humans and demons in the last era, radical Taoists who would indiscriminately kill even innocent spirits were now rare.

“He’s called Tan Zheng. However, he disappeared nearly ten years ago. I didn’t expect the Taoist you mentioned would be him. By the way, how did he end up like this?”

Even the injuries of the nearby victim, Hu Ling, seemed less severe compared to Tan Zheng.

“It turns out he’s Liu Ge’s junior brother, so I’ll just be straightforward.” Qin Luo raised his hand, pointing upstairs and then at the middle-aged Taoist. “He’s in this state because the boss beat him up.”

“W-Why?” Liu Neng was taken aback. Their boss, although frugal, usually avoided getting involved personally due to laziness and would rather instruct others.

“Because he called the boss a long worm,” Qin Luo whispered, getting closer to Liu Neng.

Liu Neng’s hairs stood on end, and he jumped three feet away. “I just remembered I mistook him for someone else. He’s not my junior brother. You take him down for interrogation.”

Referring to the Dragon Lord as a long worm, he didn’t want to be implicated by Tan Zheng and face the Dragon Lord’s wrath.

Liu Neng quickly ran away.

Hu Ling, holding his broken heart, sighed softly, “Qin Luo, are all the masters in your management bureau like this?”

He remembered how he admired Liu Neng, who could work under the Dragon Lord when he first registered. But now…

To maintain the image of the management bureau, Qin Luo hurriedly denied, “Don’t misunderstand. This is just an exception.”

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