Internal Devils - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Black and White Yamas

The Black and White Yamas' existence had no proof, bu Li YunXin tended to believe it.

It could be traced back to the cultivation system of this world.

It was said that there was neither life, mountain nor river but many shells in this world. Then the celestials showed up, and used their supreme power to put the shells together into a giant sphere. They wanted their work to be perfect so they named the sphere HunTianQiu[1].

It was after that when plants, animals, mountains and rivers appeared in this world.

Then the celestials created mortals, and shared their powers with them. However, acquiring the powers, the mortals dared to challenge the celestials, and that’s why the celestials wiped them out and recreated the present mortals. The celestials saw that people were living hard lives without power, especially when threatened by brutal demons, so they passed on the methods of cultivation to the mortal world.

This particular method was called “the True Celestial Taoism” by the cultivators.

Basing on the 3 powers of the True Celestial Taoism, 3 sects were formed. There were the Talisman Sect, the Sword Sect and the Painting Sect. It was said that by reaching a certain level in the True Celestial Taoism, a cultivator could develop feathers and become a celestial himself.

Nowadays the Painting Sect were Little-known. However, even among the well-known Talisman Sect and Sword Sect, none had been heard to ascend.

The Talisman Saint and the Sword Saint were on top of the cultivation world, they were said to have lived for about 3,000 years. In the eyes of mortals, they were not only gods - they were gods that were too legendary to believe.

Even the most powerful two in the world hadn’t managed to develop feathers and ascend.

Rumor said that the saints were strong enough to take their final step, they were just waiting for something. However, the truth remained unknown.

Although all cultivators strongly believed the existence of the celestials and some even claimed to hear the voices of them, in more than 3,000 years, no one had ever seen a celestial in flesh.

Anyway, people also believed that there were a Yamas’ Palace in the underworld. It was said that after the creation of the world, 2 celestials sacrificed themselves and entered HunTianQiu - the mortal world - to become the Black and White Yamas, and took up the duty of capturing souls and helping with their reincarnations.

Which meant that the Yamas were also celestials.

Compared to the celestials who lived high in the Ninth Heaven[2], the Yamas were much more familiar to people. When the Yamas needed to communicate with someone, they would show up in their dreams.

Sometimes, when a cultivator had acquired the power of getting out of their body or being aware of dreaming, they could also meet the Yamas in their dreams sometimes.

However, there was nothing good about it.

Most of the times, the Yamas were just delivering the immortals the message of “Your life in the world of livings has run out, we’ll come for you after 3 days.”

Somehow, the stories of the Yamas spread, and the Yamas were commonly known and believed by people.

There were similar stories in the world where Li YunXin was from, while in that world they were called “Black and White Impermanence”.

This was the only thing he was thinking about along the way, and he thought that in that dream he might have really met the Yamas.

Maybe they were here for the soul of Qiao JiaXin.

Did that mean that Qiao JiaXin’s soul was still wandering somewhere in this world?

Did that mean that the souls of all those who were related to him would stay in this world after their death?

He didn’t know if the condition of the cat demon was also related.

The Yamas also mentioned that 2,000 years ago someone broke into their palace...

Who was that? Were they really that powerful? What do they have to do with himself?

When he was about to draw the conclusion, they arrived at Wei City.

It took them 8 hours to get to Wei City from where they joined Yu Meng. Yu Meng didn’t talk much along the way, he just focus on driving. Sometimes he glanced at Li YunXin. He wanted to get closed to Li YunXin, but he was afraid that Li YunXin was just like all the others he had met before.

Li YunXin saw that clearly in his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. Old Priest Liu was the only one who was talking. He told Li YunXin many stories of Wei City.

The old man knew that they were in big trouble. He was scared that what happened in the woods would be known by more people. He warned Li YunXin many times that he should never mess with some people in the city. Li YunXin might be able to get away with it, bu if he does so, Liu would be a dead man for sure.

For example, there were 2 stations of the Taoist schools in the city.

They were the Supreme Clarity Alchemy School of the Talisman Sect and the Above-the-Clouds Sword School[3] of the Sword Sect. Of course the 36 grotto-heavens and the 72 schools are all “immortals”, but not all immortals fed on clouds and afterglows. Food, drinks and the disposal of their remains, all cost silver.

Apart from the Great Qing Empire, many other governments were also paying the Taoists tributes, but they could always use more wealth. Besides, demons were still trying to disturb the mortal world sometimes, and when that happens, it would need the professionals to fix it.

Thus the grotto-heavens and the schools established their stations in the major cities of the mortal world. Those who thought that they couldn’t advance in their cultivation any more, and those who needed to pass their trials in the mortal world would go to one of the stations. Their job there would be purging the demons, receiving the tributes, picking new disciples and many other secret businesses.

Even the local government wouldn’t dare to displease the stations of the schools. If the county magistrate got any problem with the legal cases which were solved by the professionals of the schools, he must report to the provincial government before he takes action.

In addition to the stations, the several noble families in this city also deserved attention. Wei City was neither the capital of the empire nor the capital of the province, but it was the capital of the previous dynasty. The previous dynasty had held this city for 60 years after all other territories were captured by the Great Qing. When the Great Qing army finally broke the gate of the city, they slaughter the city for 3 days. The nobles of Qing considered Wei City as a jinxed place, so they relocated their capital to JingHua.

However, Wei City was the place where the rivers met each other and where trades took place. About a century after the foundation of the Great Qing, the city flourished again. Many retired officials and merchants had chosen here to settle down. Now the city had become a den of tigers and dragons - even the officials from the capital wouldn’t want to cause any trouble here.

Li YunXin wasn’t patient enough to remember the names of the families when the old priest told him. He never thought about making any trouble here, all he wanted to do was to break the seal upon his sea of qi, and focus on the research of the Illuminated Jade Slips. Not only because of his curiosity of its power, but also because he wanted to figure out the history of his family.

He thought the Painting Saint must be someone special to him.

While entering the city, Li YunXin found that all 4 guards of the city gate looked strong. Their armors were also clean and shiny, which looked much better than the constables of QingHe County.

He also noticed the attitude of the guards when seeing Yu Meng was quite different

They showed no interest in the travelers instead of the wealthy-looking and unfamiliar faces. When someone attracted their attention, they would ask them questions and charge them for variable reasons.

As soon as they saw Yu Meng, they stood up straight, grabbed their blades and spears, created a path for him in the crowd very quickly by shouting at them. When they got closer to Yu Meng and saw the fainted Qiao DuanHong and Qiao JiaXin who was covered in blood, they opened their eyes widely and shouted in a quite exaggerated way: “Dragon Head! Which blind fool hurt your people? I’ll go get him with my brothers right away!”

They put on really serious faces and walked by the cart while speaking,.

Li YunXin frowned - He knew that they wanted to please Yu Meng, but they were not even trying to sound sincere.

Soon he understood why.

Yu Meng also frowned and waved to them: “Back off! It’s none of your business! It was just tigers and leopards! Now go away!”

However the rascals simply ignored that and kept on clearing a way for him through the crowd.

Yu Meng seemed angered by that, so he took out some silver and threw them onto the ground: “Tips for you. Now get out of my way!”

Li YunXin got sharp eyes and he saw that it was 3 ingots and 5 teals of silver.

Which was 15 teals in total. Calculating by their purchasing power, 15 teals of silver roughly equal to 30,000 CNY in his world.

He just threw away 30,000 CNY on the street without a second thought…

It was what the guards wanted. It looked that it was not the first time they did that to him. The Yu family was a big name in Wei City, and it’s only heir got bullied so hard here.

Maybe he just didn’t take these as bullies.

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Translator's notes:
[1]HunTianQiu浑天球：Name of the world, "the Sphere Under a Perfectly Round Sky".
[2]the Ninth Heaven九天：the highest layer of the sky
[3]Above-the-Clouds Sword School凌虚剑派：One of the 72 Taoist schools.