Internal Devils - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Help Me Out

When he was young, when his parents thought that he was still a child and didn’t know much, they had told him lots of stories, which were mostly about demons and ghosts. They were like, at summer nights, when the villagers chilling under the trees at the entrance of the village waved their fans to cool down, the stories they told to the children.

However, Li YunXin knew that all that his parents had said were real, because there were many clues which could prove their words - They also had their own stories. And that’s why he knew where the demons were from.

Dao is formless, but everything in the world has their spirits. Even a rock or a chair, could acquire intelligence and a body formed of spirits by chance.

The most common ones were the creatures which were close to human. Humans were the spirits of the spirits, they had acquired their intelligence very early, and knew manners and rules. Those which stayed long by humans’ side, would sometimes become intelligent if they were lucky enough. Besides, those which had lived long enough in the wilderness, and those which listened to the scriptures and breathed the incenses around the temples, also could easily become demons.

However, becoming a demon with intelligence, and knowing something about the world, didn’t mean that they would understand the emotions and rules of humans.

Being left in a wolf pack, even a human baby could grow into a beast in the shape of a human. The demons were non-human from the very beginning.

Some demons gained power, but didn’t abandon their animal nature. They committed crimes, even ate people. Some others used their powers and spells to control people’s minds, and disrupted the morals and laws.

There were also demons which knew the rules and devoted themselves to their cultivation, but it was rarely seen.

Therefore, when the disciple of the talisman sect or the sword sect came to the secular world to pass their trials, they would eliminate the demons. It was regarded as a good deed.

Li YunXin’s parents were enlightened, but they also didn’t like demons – Asking whether if it has harmed villagers before killing it, was a rare action of tolerance.

However, Li YunXin himself was...quite interested in them. In his era, most people had dreamed of the love between a scholar and a fox spirit. “It’s more aromatic when you read a book with the companion of a red sleeve[1]”, that was the dream of all the writers and poets.

↑DaJi, the consort of the last king of  Shang Dynasty, one of the most famous fox spirits in the legends.
Fox spirits often turned into the form of a handsome man or a beautiful woman when they acquired the ability to, and there were many stories about the love between fox spirits and humans.

Not to mention that, his parents had told him that demons liked pigment priests best.

A pigment priest of Materialization Realm, already had the power of creating real things. For those demons which already cultivated to become a spiritual form but didn’t have a real body, and could only find somewhere to attach their souls, receiving a body from a kind priest would be a great fortune.

That’s why at first Li YunXin thought that the demon sensed the unusual spiritual power of the painting array, and followed its instinct to help him.

It created the illusion of a female ghost, and did the trick of “ghost building walls”. It could be seen from these that it did have some powers. Although its tricks may seem worthless before the disciples of the talisman sect or the sword sect, they were enough to be used against ordinary people - even those swordsmen who took strong pills to trade their vitality for powerful inner strength.

However…

How did the demon know about pigment priests?

The disciples of the talisman sect and the sword sect couldn’t be kind enough to tell it about this. After the painting saint’s fall 2,000 years ago, even the term “pigment priest” almost disappeared from the secular world.

There must be a story behind this demon.

Judging by its awkward speech, it should know something about the human world, but didn’t fully understand the proper manners.

What are the three sacrifices? A cow, a sheep and a pig, which was the highest level of a royal sacrifice, also called a “great stable” - and this stupid demon was asking him if he had brought it the three sacrifices.

As expected, it was a silly demon which only knew a little of the world.

Li YunXin smiled, and touched the clay sculpture with his hand: “What a big stomach this little cat demon has.”

It suddenly became silent in the temple. After a while, Li YunXin heard it saying: “Ah? A cat demon? Aiya, I’m not a cat demon, em? I’m SanHua the goddess. Ya...Goddess SanHua. How dare you! Eh? How did you know that I’m a cat demon? You tell me? Ah? I’m Goddess SanHua!”

“Your title...Goddess SanHua, doesn’t it just mean that you are a tricolor cat? What’s more, you talk like a nut - an entire race of nuts, isn’t that cats?” Li YunXin curled his lips, “You little cat demon, you want meat and incense, it’s not a problem, but you need to deal with that guy out there for me. Did you create that ghost from before? It was not bad, but I can teach you something more fun.”

Li YunXin had walked in for a while, the swordsman should have arrived, too.

In spite of that, he shouldn’t dare to come in. What happened before made him understand that the young man was different from those of the escort team, he needed to be taken very seriously - If the swordsman wanted to kill him, he must make sure to kill him dead.

Li YunXin peeped outside, and found that the swordsman had rushed out of the forest as he expected. However, he seemed surprised and confused about the ruined temple which showed up unexpectedly. After waving his thin sword in front of him, he started to slowly move towards the entry of the temple really carefully - using a kind of mysterious movement that needed internal power.

Which however made him look like a street dancer.

“Em? Fun? Aya, great, great! Humph, no three sacrifices, this goddess...em? Give me a...emm...a body first? Ee, and then this goddess would help you, humph...what’s fun? Em?”

Li YunXin suddenly felt a breeze appear beside him. It blew around him, and stirred some dust from the ground.

It should be the spiritual body of the demon.

When a demon cultivated to gain magical power and intelligence, but not having pills or special methods to strengthen its body like humans did, its body would die. When its body died, but its soul didn’t vanish, it became something like a ghost of a dead person, which is called its spiritual body.

This little cat demon did have a big gallbladder[2] - Instead of staying in something that contained enough spiritual power, its spiritual body came out and wandered in the air. If a thunderbolt coincidentally fell nearby, its soul would be completely destroyed.

“Stupid cat. That man wants to kill me. How am I going to help you later if you don’t help me first.” Hiding behind the collapsed door, Li YunXin stared at the swordsman, “This idiot just killed a girl, and I’m not happy about that, I want him to die. You help me kill him, and I’ll draw you a portrait for possessing after that. You can find any temple to to be worshipped, and feed on the incenses and candles there. Whether you could cultivate to reach immortality, would be up to yourself.”

The cat demon murmured: “Ee? Incense? Aya, that’s great. Em? No, humph, firstly, give me a body, humph...”

“You fool!” Li YunXin frowned and shouted in a low voice, “You are only a demon, how dare you bargain with me!? Don’t you know that I’m a pigment priest? A great fortune is right before your eyes, and you don’t even want to catch it? Em?”

The cat demon remained silent for a while: “Aya...Aiya, Ah...then the thing you said ...the fun, emm...”

It sounded so upset, like a kitten which lowered its ears after being slapped. Also like a child who got beaten after asking for candy.

But that’s what demons were like, they were different from human after all.

Li YunXin furrowed his eyebrows again, and asked quietly: “Listen to me. Do you know how to...”

Translator’s notes:
[1]Red sleeves红袖: A beauty.
[2]Gallbladder胆: Guts, courage.