Lame Toad

Old Gouzi, having turned defeat into victory, strutted like a petty man drunk on success.

His mouth never stopped spewing curses.

"Fuck your mother! You still trying to act tough in front of your Dog Lord? Huh? If you've got the guts, get up! Come on! Fuck your mother! Fuck your mother! I'll kick you to death!"

Old Gouzi's feet did not stop for even a moment as he kicked Wu Sheng's body like mad. His legs were kicking so fast they nearly left afterimages.

If Fourth Brother Nicholas had come and seen this scene, he probably would have had to bow in admiration.

In the end, I stepped forward and pulled him back.

"That's enough, Old Gouzi. That's about enough. Ask what this thing is first."

"Old Ghost, don't stop me! Fuck, I'm kicking him to death today!"

"Fuck your mother, you freak! I'll let you keep kicking my ass!"

Even with me holding him back, Old Gouzi still unhappily landed several more heavy kicks before finally stopping.

Come to think of it, when Old Gouzi had been getting kicked just now, I, his big brother, hadn't helped him. But now that he was kicking someone else, I was stopping him. Of course he was bound to feel a little unhappy about it. That was understandable.

I patted Old Gouzi on the shoulder, meaning to comfort him.

Then I asked Wu Sheng,

"Why don't you introduce yourself?"

("Introduce yourself" was underworld slang for declaring your background.)

"Fuck! I am Great Immortal Golden Toad of Setting Sun Cave on Qiankun Mountain! If you know what's good for you, release me at once, or else, heh heh!"

Huh? He'd been beaten into this sorry state and was still acting arrogant?

Some of you might not have understood what he meant, so let me explain.

Qiankun Mountain referred to above and below, while Setting Sun Cave meant the place barely saw any sunlight. As for Great Immortal Golden Toad, it meant he was a toad spirit.

In other words, he was really just a toad from the bottom of a well.

In Northeastern slang, that was called a lame toad.

After hearing him declare his background, I smiled and said,

"What's your relationship with that Xue Pan from yesterday, brother?"

The moment the lame toad heard me mention Xue Pan, outrage immediately spread across his face.

"Fuck your mothers! You human cultivators who call yourselves righteous are simply vicious beyond measure! You actually beat my second brother without distinguishing black from white! I definitely won't let this go!"

Hearing that, I was completely bewildered. What the fuck was this supposed to mean?

So you possessed people and harmed them, and when I stepped in, somehow I became the one in the wrong? Fuck, were evil things all this unreasonable now?

Still, out of curiosity, I patiently continued asking,

"What do you mean, Toad? Going by what you said, you possess people and harm ordinary folk, and you're the ones in the right? Not to mention anything else, all beings under heaven, whether spirits, monsters, ghosts, or gods, seek to cultivate the Great Dao through merit. Why are you lot doing the exact opposite?"

The lame toad spirit instantly became unhappy when he heard that.

"Fuck off! When have filthy humans like you ever treated us as equal living beings? Do you know how many of our toad clan are killed by you every year and turned into medicine? And you still stand there preaching about righteousness and merit! Humans are the most vicious creatures in this world! Pah!"

"Fuck your mother! You freak! You still dare spout such shameless nonsense? You're cursing my brother and me! I fucking—"

After hearing what the lame toad spirit said, I was still wondering whether there might have been some misunderstanding.

Old Gouzi, who had been holding back for ages, showed him no mercy at all. He directly pulled out dog shit and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Wuwu! You humans! Wuwu! You! Croak croak croak..."

Seeing that Old Gouzi was nearly feeding the lame toad to death, I hurriedly shouted,

"That's enough! Wait until I'm done asking!"

Looking at the scene, I knew that if I didn't stop him, it would be over. I didn't know whether the lame toad would die, but Wu Sheng's body might very well be ruined by Old Gouzi's feeding! There was cinnabar mixed into that dog shit! Even small accidental doses of cinnabar could cause poisoning. If he fed him too much, there would be no need for any evil thing to harm Wu Sheng—Old Gouzi would feed him to death himself!

At my shout, Old Gouzi shuddered all over and stopped what he was doing. At the same time, cold sweat ran down his cheeks.

He secretly glanced at me. Only after seeing that I wasn't truly angry did he finally relax.

To be honest, Old Gouzi was quite afraid of seeing me angry. He had once seen my killing intent.

In Old Gouzi's words, at that moment, I had become someone utterly unfamiliar, and even the air had felt so cold it seemed to cut to the bone.

I grabbed the lame toad, whose eyes were rolling white, and shook him.

"What do you mean by that? Explain yourself clearly."

"Croak croak, croak croak croak..."

I...

Fuck, it was over. Old Gouzi had fed this bastard so much that he couldn't speak human language anymore.

Half an hour later, after Old Gouzi and I kept pouring water into him and flushed the dog shit down Wu Sheng's body, the lame toad finally regained the ability to speak human language.

"Croak croak, you hateful humans harm the innocent. You even bully your own kind. You are the most vicious species under heaven!"

Smack!

Sorry, but fuck, I really couldn't hold it in anymore. Why couldn't this bastard learn to speak properly? He was still cursing us. I'd really spoiled him too much—fuck him!

After a slap backed by the strength of ten men,

the lame toad spirit finally learned how to speak properly.

Fuck, it was just asking for it.

"You... do you know what this Wu Sheng has done?"

Hearing that, Old Gouzi and I were left utterly confused.

We looked at each other. Seeing Old Gouzi's blank, dumbfounded face, ahem, there was no need to ask—this guy definitely didn't know.

I took out a cigarette and handed one to the lame toad.

"Can you smoke?"

The lame toad seemed to realize I bore him no ill will and reached out to take it.

After lighting it for him, I lit one for myself as well.

"Come to think of it, brother, you've really stumped me with that question. But as the saying goes, those who don't know cannot be blamed. Tell your brother here what happened."

The lame toad took two puffs of smoke, and his mood improved slightly. He slowly said,

"Sigh... this Wu Sheng, fuck! Back when he was a teacher in town, he assaulted a female student in his class named Li Meng. After Li Meng reported it to the police, Wu Sheng was not convicted due to insufficient evidence. Because of this, Li Meng developed severe depression and lived every day in endless torment. In the end, unable to bear it any longer, she began to think of ending her life. One day, when her family failed to keep watch over her, she secretly ran out and climbed a tall building. Sigh...

Originally, if someone had tried to talk her down, perhaps the girl would not have died. But what was hateful was that the people below who were watching the spectacle and feared no trouble kept shouting for Li Meng to jump already. In the end, Li Meng lost control of her emotions and jumped."

Hearing this, Old Gouzi and I gritted our teeth until our gums creaked. Fuck, was that something a human could do? Those were fucking beasts! Fuck! No wonder he could fuck a sow pregnant! Fuck!

Though the flames of anger in my heart had already burned to my core, I did not interrupt Great Immortal Golden Toad. I clenched my back teeth and continued listening.

"Later, when Li Meng's family was sorting through her belongings, they found a suicide note. It recorded the entire process of Li Meng being assaulted. In order to clear Li Meng's name, her father made the suicide note public.

This matter stirred public opinion. Under pressure, and in order to restore Li Meng's innocence, the police used that suicide note as evidence, directly prosecuted Wu Sheng, and sentenced him to five years in prison. Sigh, five years. Only five years. He was only locked up for a short five years.

And do you know how Li Meng spent those five years? Because Li Meng had committed suicide, she had to relive the scene of her suicide every day, over and over, until the end of her natural lifespan before she could report to the underworld! Sigh..."