Chapter 1048: Miss Little Liang

　　Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

　　Wang Ling’s swat frightened Cockroach Wenqiang so much it passed out on the spot. At the same time, cultivators at the Songhai Earthquake Monitoring Center bustled about – the incident had happened suddenly and the monitoring magic devices were broken before anyone could react. Everyone was baffled as they stared at the spinning gauge pointers. What the heck was this?

　　The director of the monitoring center frowned deeply.

　　This sudden event had lasted for less than three seconds, which hadn’t caused any actual damage to Songhai city. Another city, however, might have been reduced to rubble. The anti-quake technology in major cities was at the highest standard. Every building basically had an automatic stabilizing barrier which could cause everything inside to become weightless.

　　That was to say, if the building collapsed, the falling rocks and debris, and even the people inside, would float, so no one would get hurt.

　　But this sort of emergency protection technology was only found in big cities like Songhai city and Jinghua city. Because of how expensive the technology was, it would still be roughly three years at the very least before it covered the entire nation.

　　“Director…”

　　“Write up a research report for President Qi immediately. This happened too suddenly, and I’m worried that it’ll have a significant impact on the living environment of cultivators.” Director Zhang of the research institute had a grim expression on his face. In many cases, this sort of event suddenly happening without warning tended to be a sign of an even bigger catastrophe.

　　Over the years, resources in the cultivation world had been overexploited, and many creatures had become endangered species; such unrestrained exploitation was bound to take a toll on the ecology. Environmental protection was an issue for all of humanity, which had to do with the life and death of all cultivators as well as the future development of large-scale projects against the backdrop of an age of national cultivation.

　　Director Zhang Qiuhua had no choice but to pay close attention to the matter.

　　Added to that was the rapid consumption of spiritual qi in the last few years. It was estimated that it would still be several thousand years before spiritual qi dried up completely, but since the problem had already made itself known, it was something that all the cultivators of the world had to face.

　　And this was what Director Zhang Qiuhua did: call for everyone to start thinking about environmental protection.

　　The next Global Environmental Protection Cultivators’ Summit was coming up, and Director Zhang Qiuhua decided that he had to bring this abnormality up as a focal point during the summit.

　　And so, Wang Ling’s swat this time led to a push in awareness about environmental protection among cultivators, which was something he hadn’t expected.

　　On top of that, even Wang Ling himself could never have expected that his swat would actually result in freaking extra summer vacation homework… After Wang Ling was done with the operation and went home, Teacher Pan sent a message in the class chat group, telling everyone to write an essay of no less than three thousand words on the topic of environmental protection.

　　Wang Ling regretted it… If he had known earlier, he definitely wouldn’t have used so much strength.

　　Of course, it was too late now…

　　…

　　Half an hour or so later, Cockroach Wenqiang regained consciousness. It could only be said that Little Qiang deserved its name 1 – it was certainly tenacious. Moreover, this cockroach had grown up eating the crumbs of Wang Ling’s crispy noodle snacks, so it had a lot more vitality than the rest.

　　Although Wang Ling’s swat hadn’t landed directly on Cockroach Wenqiang, the wind pressure it created in the three seconds as it fell had already flattened Cockroach Wenqiang into a pancake… Despite that, Cockroach Wenqiang was still alive and kicking, and after half an hour, Wang Ling saw its body fill up bit by bit like an inflatable doll.

　　“Am – am I still alive…” When it recovered, Cockroach Wenqiang had lost all its earlier confidence after feeling like it had almost died… It was very confident in its invulnerability, but it had actually seemed to see its life flash before its eyes under that swat just now.

　　It even recalled its mom in heaven in that instant. Back then, its mom had been stomped on 3600 times by a cultivator and had died in pain.

　　Losing a mother at an early age – was there anything more miserable than that?

　　And so, Cockroach Wenqiang started to become tougher by nature. For its dead mother’s sake, it decided to live on. It and its siblings hid under their mother’s flattened body, and only after the cultivator left did they drag their mother into the sewer to be buried. Cockroach Wenqiang had already vowed to live on; it ate whatever it could, and it swore to grow into a cockroach that couldn’t be stomped to death no matter what.

　　The scenes that flashed before Cockroach Wenqiang’s eyes were of its wretched life since young.

　　Cockroach Wenqiang was clearly a cockroach with a story, but now wasn’t the time for it to recall the past – in its experience, ten thousand words might not be enough to finish narrating what it remembered.

　　How much did people hate flashbacks? Like with the migrant worker manga 1 Naruto, which stuck in flashbacks before pivotal plot moments and made people burn with impatience. Hence, using flashbacks would get you nowhere, and readers would suspect you of padding your word count.

　　“Are you going to help or not?”

　　Wang Ling’s question rang out in the next moment, and Cockroach Wenqiang trembled all over at the sound. Just one swat from Wang Ling, which hadn’t even made contact, had already given Cockroach Wenqiang trauma.

　　It was just a normal question, but in Cockroach Wenqiang’s ears, it sounded like an aggressive interrogation, and it shuddered.

　　“I… I’ll help,” Cockroach Wenqiang replied shakily; it knew that at that moment, it already had no other choice.

　　…

　　On the other side, Odd Zhuo soon received the news from Wang Ling.

　　“As expected of shifu; he was actually able to find a new witness in this situation.” Odd Zhuo couldn’t be any more excited; a few minutes ago, Wang Ling had texted him to say that he had found a new witness.

　　Odd Zhuo then told everyone else the news.

　　All the police as well as the school leaders and teachers of Magic Treasure Development University who were at the scene were astonished when they heard it.

　　“A new witness? There’s a new witness?”

　　Principal Zhou Dongye found it hard to believe.

　　The most important witness, Liu Yi, was already dead, and it was very likely that it was Father Zheng who had killed him – how could a new witness appear, in a room that had been completely closed off?

　　“Mr Zheng, the police have already found a new witness who can prove your innocence as well as the truth of the suicide three years ago. So, Mr Zheng, please immediately let go of all the students inside; the police will definitely give you an explanation after this.” There was no time to lose; Odd Zhuo started the final round of negotiations with Father Zheng.

　　The scene was silent for a few minutes.

　　The door of the auditorium opened slowly.

　　With tears in his eyes, Father Zheng walked out of the auditorium with both hands up.

　　Three years ago, the police had wronged his son.

　　Three years later, he chose to believe that the police could still clear his son of wrongdoing and let the world know the truth.

　　No matter how they thought about it, no one could figure it out.

　　“General Director Zhuo, what on earth is going on?” asked Gao Tian.

　　“A young lady called Little Liang has just been found, who says that she saw Liu Yi killed with her own eyes,” replied Odd Zhuo.

　　“Who is Miss Little Liang…”

　　“A blattaria order of insect, aka: a cockroach.”

　　“…”