Inner Demons

Chapter 114: Understanding Creation

The Prefectural Office of Weicheng had a history of four hundred and forty-three years. Its predecessor was the "Capital Prefecture" of the previous dynasty, in charge of criminal and theft matters in the capital. After the current dynasty conquered Weicheng and established its government, it still set up the city's administrative center here.

This Prefectural Office had governed Weicheng for more than three hundred years and had long become a crucial part of the city's feng shui. Without this office, the flow of yang energy and human presence in the entire city of Weicheng would be blocked—thieves would run rampant, lawsuits would have no recourse, and the people's livelihood would be insecure. Therefore, in the feng shui of Weicheng, this office not only had a "suppressing momentum" but also a "birthing momentum."

The torrent of yang energy, structured into a delicate meridian cycle, came rolling in. Thirty-six of the thirty-seven golden divine lords had already thrown themselves into the thirty-six major acupoints, becoming the spirits that anchored them.

Only one divine lord remained, standing on the waves of the torrent, escorted all the way to the gate of the Prefectural Office.

What a divine lord! His appearance was seventy percent similar to Li Yunxin's, his face as somber as still water.

He wore golden armor, adorned with magnificent colors, like a true immortal, his golden light shining on all.

He was surrounded by yang energy, accompanied by the sounds of laughter and wailing, forming a chaotic dance of demons, serving as his armed personal guard, protecting him all around.

But though he reached the gate, he could not enter.

Because the main gate of the Prefectural Office suddenly swung open, and out walked a great general over a zhang tall, with both man and horse clad in golden armor. This general was flanked by several hundred personal guards, bows drawn and swords held, pressing close to Li Yunxin, shouting, "What yin spirit are you, to dare trespass on the important grounds of the Prefectural Office at night?!"

Li Yunxin did not speak, but the chaotic demons dancing around him all transformed into the likenesses of Weicheng residents. The voices of tens of thousands of men, women, old, and young merged into one, shouting in unison, "I have come with the human Dao's yang energy of three hundred thousand people of Weicheng. Today, I borrow this office to anchor my Spiritual Soul, secure my divine position, and reshape my magical body. How dare you stop me?"But the great general only said, "As the great general guarding the Prefectural Office of Weicheng, born from the city's feng shui and the way of heaven, I guard the city's main office from external evils. Why can I not stop you?"

The thousands of phantoms around Li Yunxin then shouted, "As the great general guarding the Prefectural Office of Weicheng, do you know that you are guarding the people of this city, the human Dao, and its fortune, and not this one office, this one yamen, this one person?!"

"If this Weicheng did not exist, if its people did not exist, if the human Dao and its fortune did not exist, what use would this main office and its guarding general be?! Where does the power of this main office, the power of the Son of Heaven, come from? It is the hundreds of millions of people in this world who have divided their power and fortune and entrusted it to your hands, asking you to protect the people of this city—now you stand in the way of my three hundred thousand people's human Dao fortune. Is the foundation of your magical body still intact!?"

As these words were spoken, the divine light around the golden-armored great general suddenly dimmed, and the personal guards by his side all fell silent.

After a short while, the great general silently moved aside, and his personal guards scattered and disappeared.

But the Prefectural Office gate remained tightly shut, and his magical body, constructed from Spiritual Power and yang energy, could not penetrate the solemn and majestic aura outside the gate.

Li Yunxin then shouted loudly, "Where is the beggar! Do you wish for eternal life!"

After shouting loudly three times like this, some changes finally occurred inside the Prefectural Office.

In the Prefect's study, the old man in the "Upper Yuan Diagram" heard this shout and began to move.

With the first shout, he stretched his limbs. With the second, his figure swelled and he walked out of the painting. By the third shout, he was like someone waking from a great dream. He turned around in place, his eyes suddenly wide, and only said, "...The Immortal promised me, the Immortal promised me!"

Then this figure from the painting ran straight towards the main gate—though it was a phantom, it was like the green-armored Sword Cultivator Li Yunxin had previously painted to kill people, and it could also be touched—he reached out and pushed open the main gate.

Upon seeing Li Yunxin, he fell to his knees and prostrated himself. "The Immortal promised me eternal life!"

Li Yunxin held his head high and walked straight through the gate, saying, "There will be rewards for you in the future."

Then he crossed the front courtyard and entered the Prefect's main hall. After a brief inspection, he walked to the official chair behind the main desk…

And sat down.

At that moment, the golden light, human figures, and sounds of laughter and wailing surrounding him suddenly disappeared, like a cloud of mist, all absorbed into his body in an instant!

And this divine lord's phantom also condensed from a transparent light shadow into a substantial stream of light. This stream of light then flowed and surged within his body… finally solidifying into true substance.

And so this newborn Li Yunxin, who looked no different from his previous life, slowly picked up the gavel on the desk and, with a loud crack, slammed it on the tabletop!

With this one sound, all the torrents of yang energy in Weicheng surged into his body.

Borrowing the solemn and majestic aura accumulated in the Prefectural Office over four hundred years, his spirit and soul were finally settled. The portrait of Li Yunxin, formed by the streets and alleys of the entire city of Weicheng, trembled fiercely at this instant, as the heartbeat from this gavel moved the vital energy of three hundred thousand people.

And so…

The people woke up.

Li Yunxin sat alone in this dark and empty main hall, silent for a moment, before speaking again. "By using this opportunity to reshape my magical body, I have already solved your problem. Don't forget to thank me in the future."

Then a Great Ghost with a face like a melon rind stooped and entered the main hall, saying in a booming voice, "Why does the lord say such things? I am the supreme one, how could I go back on my word."

Li Yunxin then pointed at the ghost of the old beggar who had been waiting outside the door. "You are of the same kind. I previously promised him eternal life. In that case, I cannot let him be a lonely soul and a wandering ghost. My magical body is newly formed, and I have not yet returned to the divine position of the Dragon's Son. I need many days to recuperate and accumulate magical power. Since you have now recovered your former memories, I will temporarily entrust him to you. When you accomplish that matter in the future, enfeoff him as a local land god. It will not be in vain that he formed a karmic bond with me—is this possible?"

The Great Ghost's voice was like a great bell. "Naturally, it is possible. The lord can rest assured."

Li Yunxin then stood up and walked down from the main hall. "Then go quickly. Don't delay your business. I have my own business to attend to."

After saying this, he went straight out the door.

There was one last thing to do.

People live because of that yang energy. The vital energy circulates endlessly within the body's meridians, giving birth to yang energy, and thus people can walk and jump, and even refine yang energy into spiritual energy—these are cultivators.

He had used Weicheng as a scroll, and over three days, had "painted" a bit of his own spirit into this city.

This was in preparation for his own death. When a person dies, their physical body is destroyed, and their Spiritual Soul becomes a ghost. Even if one were to cultivate again as a ghost, they would be as muddled as that Great Ghost, not to mention he knew that Liu Ling would never let his ghost go.

Therefore, in those three days, he had actually used the entire scroll of Weicheng to paint another version of himself.

To die and be reborn, seizing the creation of yin and yang. He used the scrolls he had distributed in those days as a catalyst, drawing out people's seven emotions and six desires along with their yang energy, circulating it within the painting, which in fact constituted the body's vital energy.

Then he summoned back the spiritual energy clones filled with the villagers' willpower. At this point, the body was complete. Then, by having the beggar who sought eternal life open the Prefectural Office gate, and with his slam of the city-anchoring gavel—

The "heart" of this new body began to beat.

With the yang energy of three hundred thousand people of the entire city and the willpower of countless villagers, he had finally seized the creation of heaven and earth, forcefully reshaping a magical body for himself.

This was the method the White Yama King had told him that night. And knowing this method, he had spent several days laying his plans and had finally accomplished it.

The him of now was just like that "Green-Armored Sword Cultivator," painted by himself. With his unparalleled understanding of his own details, vital energy, and the flow of spiritual energy within his body, using the yang energy of three hundred thousand people as ink and the great city as a scroll, he had achieved a magical body.

But such a magical body could not last long.

The existence of all things in the world is preordained; he was now a figure created out of thin air. He needed a "void."

Namely, the Dragon's Son's "void," or perhaps… "godhood."

The entire city of Weicheng had already woken up. Everyone gradually realized that an extremely strange event had occurred tonight—they had all fallen asleep at the same time. But in the future, people would attribute this to gods and demons, or that Dragon King.

They might even, long after the fear had dissipated, use this as a story to show off to outsiders.

But tonight was ultimately a bit chaotic. They first woke up and stayed at home, checking if their family members were alright.

Only then did they dare to slowly go out onto the streets… because in the northeast of Weicheng, the rumbling and the firelight had not yet ceased.

They didn't know that it was a cultivator at the peak of the Manifestation Realm, armed with numerous magical treasures, fighting against an incomparably powerful great demon. But they would gradually discover that the source of the firelight was actually very, very far from Weicheng.

Then…

Naturally, they wanted to watch the excitement.

On this night, a strange, lively atmosphere filled the streets.

And amidst this lively atmosphere, a handsome man in white robes passed through the streets and alleys, soon arriving at the half-collapsed Taoxi Road.

Many people had died here. Even not counting the officers killed by Bai Yunxin earlier—the collapsed houses afterward had also buried quite a few people. But such a scene of carnage was not at all deserted at this time; in fact, there were more people here than elsewhere.

There were those who came to watch the excitement, relatives who lived here helping out, those thinking of rescuing people, and also, those wanting to take advantage of the chaos to find some property from the dead.

As Li Yunxin walked through the crowd towards the ruins of the Dragon King Temple, he saw a ground full of departed souls.

Their deaths were gruesome, almost reduced to meat paste. They wandered aimlessly on the ruins, lost in thought. A few would lunge at people they saw, but could never touch them.

He paid them no mind and, after a few more steps, saw the ruins of the Dragon King Temple.

The small pond was filled with rubble, and a corpse lay on the ground.

A few loafers were rummaging through something in the ruins of the Dragon King Temple's main hall, but it seemed they found nothing.

Li Yunxin then walked to the corpse and, by the light of the moon and the torches in the hands of the loafers, examined it carefully.

After staring for a while, two of the loafers noticed him and came over. "We haven't touched this one yet. It's not your stuff, so if you know what's good for you, get lost!"

But Li Yunxin ignored him and continued to stare at the corpse. After watching for a while, he let out a sincere, low sigh of admiration.

The two loafers exchanged a glance, about to beat him and drive him away. But hearing him say this, they couldn't help but frown. "What did you say?"

At this moment, Li Yunxin, who had been looking down at the corpse's face, twisted his neck one hundred and eighty degrees and showed the two loafers a row of snow-white teeth, saying softly, "I said, so, handsome."

The two were stunned at first. Because this face, and the face of the corpse on the ground… were identical.

Then they noticed a fact—this person had originally had his back to them. But now, his body hadn't moved, yet his face was facing them.

A numbing chill shot up from the base of their spines to the top of their heads. The two were so scared they couldn't even make a sound, turning and running!

But Li Yunxin reached out and grabbed one of them, slamming him unconscious on the ground.

The other men didn't know why that person had suddenly started fleeing from the ruins on all fours. But they only saw Li Yunxin knock the other one out. For a moment, they knew something had happened, but they couldn't decide whether to leave or not—after all, they hadn't fought with the attacker over anything. So they just stood watching from a distance, to decide what to do next.

They saw the young man in white squat down and grope around on the corpse for a while.

Then, with a forceful tug, he pulled out a dark, soft suit of armor from under the blood-soaked clothes of the corpse. The corpse was jostled by his rough movements, its head lolling to the side, eyes open, staring blankly at the few men nearby—making their scalps tingle.

They had already felt that this person searching the corpse had a demonic air about him and were planning to leave… but then they suddenly saw him shake the soft armor in his hand.

It didn't change.

The man thought for a moment, then shook it a few more times.

Finally, with a flash of green light… the soft armor disappeared!

Seeing this, the few men were astonished. They really wanted to see how he had made such a large object disappear—perhaps it was just the dim light of the night, and their eyes were playing tricks on them.

Then they saw the man in white open his hand, and on it appeared a dark, scale-like object.

He let out a sigh of relief, tucked the object in his hand into his robe, seemed to press it firmly, and put it somewhere.

Then…

He squatted down.

The torch from the hand of the man he had knocked out had fallen to the ground, landing on a clump of thin bamboo. Although it was late spring and the bamboo was green and lush, and the ground was muddy, the torch was made with tung oil. In that short time, the torch had already set the thin bamboo on fire…

It was like a bonfire.

They saw that the expression on the man in white was a bit strange. It was as if something inside his body, under his skin, was about to grow and break out, but he was trying hard to suppress it.

He opened his mouth with some difficulty, but then, as if afraid his jaw would dislocate, he supported it with his hand and pressed it back.

Then… as if from between his fingers, a small, white, curved blade popped out. But with the growing bonfire and some smoke between them, it was hard to see clearly.

He held this small knife, and with his other hand, he grabbed one of the unconscious man's arms… and made a cut.

He sliced off a piece of bloody skin and flesh.

This time, the men saw it clearly!!

Immediately, two of the braver ones, holding torches, took a few steps forward and shouted, "We're all here to get rich off the dead, why take a life!"

But the man ignored them. He skewered the piece of flesh with the curved blade in his hand and actually roasted it over the fire!

The two were dumbfounded. After a long while, they stepped forward again, wanting to kick him away and save the man, saying, "You mad—"

But after taking two steps, they didn't dare to go any further!

Because they finally saw clearly that the "curved little knife" in the man's hand… was actually a sharp and ferocious nail that extended from his finger! And at this moment, he brought the piece of meat skewered on this nail to his mouth… and with his set of white, slightly sharp teeth…

Took a bite!!

The two men's souls nearly left their bodies. They wanted to turn and run, but their legs wouldn't obey at all. They only felt their lower abdomens contracting, as if they were about to lose control of their bladders from fear!

Because they also saw the man's pupils turn golden-yellow, with only a thin black line in them!

It's a monster!!

But in the next moment, in the ruins of the temple, by this bonfire…

The man threw away the piece of meat.

The ferocious nail retracted, the sharp teeth in his mouth became flat, and his eyes turned black again. He sighed, "Good… I don't want to eat people."

Then he stood up and with a wave of his hand, the corpse on the ground, which originally belonged to him, was smashed into a bloody pulp.

The two trembling men, their teeth chattering, felt a warmth in their groins at this sight and fell to their knees with a thud.

And those further away, only wishing their parents had given them two more legs, ran away in terror, not caring about tripping and bruising themselves in the ruins.

The two knelt on the ground, kowtowing ceaselessly, only saying, "Great Immortal, spare our lives, Great Immortal, spare our lives, I have elders and children at home, my family…"

But after kowtowing for a long time, there was no response. When they dared to look again, there was no one in front of them.

That man…

Had already left the city and was standing by the surging Wei River.

The Wei River at night looked even more majestic.

The firelight from the northeast made the river glow faintly. The rushing, roaring water stirred up a thick mist, shrouding the boundless river surface like a phantom realm.

The water vapor, rising from the lush green reeds, calibers, and fine-leafed water clusters on both banks, gave off a rich, fresh fragrance in the night wind. The sound of the flowing water filled the entire world, making even the rumbling from the distance sound faint and inaudible.

The great river, flowing a thousand li in an instant, nourishing all things. Now…

It was his.

Li Yunxin stood on the gentle slope over there, letting out a light breath in the night.

"I am…"

"The Wei River Dragon King."

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