Inner Demons

Chapter 137: The Sentimental and Righteous Li Yunxin

Imagine a time when you are very hungry but not thirsty.

First, a piece of hot, tender, and savory beef, coated in a delicious sauce, is picked up with chopsticks and tremblingly brought to your mouth.

Then, a mouthful of equally hot, distinct-grained, yet fragrant, sweet, soft, and springy white rice enters your mouth.

The aroma of the beef is steamed up by the rice and mixed together, permeating the gaps between every grain of rice. With a bite, the savory juices burst forth in your mouth with a smooth texture—

And you are filled with joy and a sense of well-being.

Li Yunxin had once thought he would never experience this feeling again. Because this body did not feel hunger. When you don't feel hungry, it's hard to appreciate the deeper flavors of food—and so he also understood why Dongting Jun had so many particularities when it came to satisfying his appetite.

Yet now, this feeling had appeared once again.

People were worshipping the golden statue of the "Vast Sea Chiwen Dragon Prince."

The Cat Demon attached to it and Li Yunxin were sharing the spoils—he was, after all, the one and only Chiwen. The mortals didn't know that this Chiwen was not that Chiwen, but there was only one Chiwen divine status in the world. Who cared if he was the Vast Sea Dragon Prince or the Wei River Dragon King?

The powerful figures near the Wei River all believed Chiwen was dead. Only Li Yunxin himself, leaning against a plain wooden pillar, sat in a wooden pavilion at the head of Bailuzhou…Enjoying the satisfying, joyous, and happy feeling of the power of incense offerings flowing into his body like a trickling stream, while throwing salted fish into the water.

It was noon, and the sun was fierce. There were few people near the Dragon King Temple.

The cicadas shrieked themselves hoarse in the trees, and dragonflies perched on the wilting tips of grass. It was only early summer, but the air near the ground was already shimmering with heat.

Beside Li Yunxin was a bamboo basket containing a dozen or so salted fish. The fishy smell had attracted a few flies, which buzzed around him from a zhang away, but they dared not approach due to an instinctive fear.

The shallow waters of Dongting were right at his feet. At this moment, he held a salted fish by the tail, and with a release, it plopped into the water.

So he chanted, "One salted fish, one mouth, plop, into the water it falls…"

He picked up another and threw it into the water. He chanted, "Two salted fish, two mouths, plop, plop, into the water they fall…"

After a while, he looked at the water's surface, but there was still no movement.

So he picked up the silver wine pot on the railing beside him and poured a thin stream into his mouth. Squinting at the sparkling lake surface, he threw another salted fish into the water.

“Three salted fish, three mouths, plop, plop, plop, into the water they fall.”

He slowly threw all the dozen or so salted fish into the lake, kicked over the bamboo basket, tossed the wine pot aside, and leaned against the pillar, slowly sitting down on the pavilion floor and closing his eyes.

In the long, drawn-out chirping of cicadas and the gentle cool breeze, Li Yunxin took a short nap for a quarter of an hour. Then he opened his eyes.

He saw a pair of small red shoes with gold embroidery and a red skirt of thin gauze on the floor in front of him.

So he tilted his head, half-closed his eyes, and raised a hand in a casual wave as a greeting. "Yo. Miss Li. How has married life been treating you?"

The woman in the red dress did not speak. With her hands behind her back, she walked a few steps silently in front of him, then looked out at the lake beyond the pavilion and asked, “For no reason at all, why are you throwing that stuff into my home?”

Li Yunxin squinted, tilted his head up, and smiled at her. “This humble student saw the young lady that night and fell in love at first sight, unable to forget her. Today, my heart is filled with sorrow, so I came to drown my sorrows in drink. I also heard the young lady’s story, so I bought a basket of salted fish and threw them into this lake, just for another glimpse of the young lady’s beauty. I even wrote a poem for the young lady—One salted fish, one mouth…”

But the Red Lady was already annoyed. "How dare you make fun of me with this?! You, a mere ghost cultivator, a yin-spirit—"

But halfway through her sentence, she suddenly stopped.

Her fine brows furrowed slightly, her bright eyes shifted, and the expression on her face became indifferent again. She just said, “Oh, so that’s how it is. Hmph, that Scholar Du… before he died, I thought he was an interesting scholar who studied hard. But after he became a ghost and I wanted him to be a ghost cultivator, all he did all day was chant, my blessings have come, my blessings have come—so foolish and dazed. The moment he saw me, he would cry and make a fuss, saying something like, my lady, you have been a great benefactor to me—truly uninteresting. You ask me how married life is? Hmph, not good at all!”

Hearing this, Li Yunxin’s eyes lit up. He snapped his folding fan shut and stood up. “Yes, yes. The soul of a mortal becomes damaged after being separated from the body for a long time. Once it’s damaged, it becomes foolish and dazed, with only a single obsession left! That Scholar Du is just a mortal, after all. But I, I am…”

The Red Lady burst out laughing. "Since you say you have feelings for me, are you willing to go with me to White Tree Forest Red Flower City and be my husband?"

Li Yunxin was stunned for a moment, as if he couldn't believe this had happened so easily. But after only a moment, he quickly stood up. He stammered, “I, I, I am willing, I am willing, I…”

The Red Lady’s bright eyes sized him up and down for a moment, and the smile on her face suddenly disappeared. She abruptly retreated, flying backwards to sit on the railing, her slender legs dangling in mid-air, revealing the faintly visible snowy white ankles under her skirt.

"Hmph, do you take me for a fool?" The Red Lady pouted slightly, glancing at Li Yunxin. "That night you saw me, you only heard people call me Red Lady. Did anyone ever mention my surname was Li? Just now you called me Miss Li, don't you know you've already given yourself away?"

Hearing her words, Li Yunxin was instantly dumbfounded, standing there and stammering, unable to say a word.

Seeing him like this, the Red Lady finally smiled with a hint of triumph. "Hmph, you are quite clever, knowing that I am the daughter of Dongting Jun, and also knowing that the Taoist Priest Li on Jun Mountain is my father."

“I have already heard about you from my father.” She narrowed her eyes slightly, a dangerous smile on her face. “You are a friend of that Dragon's Son. Since you are a friend of that Dragon's Son, don’t you know how I was beaten back to my original form, turned into a red carp, and how I suffered?”

At this point, Li Yunxin had already wiped the feigned look of admiration from his face and become serious. He frowned slightly and gritted his silver teeth. “I know.”

The Red Lady tilted her face up slightly, glancing at him. “Since you know, you should know how much I hate that Dragon's Son! Although because of my father… hmph, but you putting on this act, humph, you think I don’t know your intentions?”

“You guessed that Scholar Du and I are not on good terms, and you think I showed some affection for you that night, so you planned to use your good looks to seduce me. What love at first sight, what unbearable sorrow—do you take me for one of those mortal women? Your tricks are far from enough to deceive me!”

“Tell me honestly, were you really planning to become my husband, to bewitch my father into avenging your Dragon's Son friend, is that it!”

Li Yunxin was silent for a moment. He took a deep breath. “So what if I was!”

The Red Lady snorted coldly again. “Aren’t you afraid that I, knowing you are a friend of that Dragon's Son, will kill you out of hatred for him?!”

Li Yunxin was silent again. After a moment of silence, he suddenly burst out laughing. “Hahahaha! So what if I die?!”

He suppressed his smile, his face looking somewhat ferocious as he looked at the Red Lady. “My friend was killed, and your father, Dongting Jun, was also his friend! But when I told him about these things, he wanted to harm me! Harming me is one thing—but all these days!”

“All these days!! There’s been no movement!!”

“He, Dongting Jun, a three-thousand-year-old great demon! The Dragon's Son died right by Dongting Lake, yet he remains indifferent! Do you know about the recent emergence of a Divine Dragon Cult?! Worshipping the Dragon's Son! Worshipping Chiwen! Is there any greater humiliation?!”

As Li Yunxin spoke, he became more and more agitated. “I am just a yin-spirit on the verge of forming. What can I do against the Daoist Orthodoxy and great demons? You ask what the Divine Dragon Cult is all about? I say, isn’t it just something cooked up by the Daoist Orthodoxy and that demon?! Using my Dragon's Son friend’s name to absorb incense and faith power, but it’s being absorbed by other demons! And they are cruelly humiliating him again! After! He! Is! Dead!”

“How can I endure such a great shame!” Li Yunxin flicked his sleeve fiercely. “I have no other options. To get this revenge, so what if I offer myself to you? So what if you kill me? This is my last chance!!”

After he finished speaking, he stared straight at the Red Lady. But although he looked fierce, he seemed to be afraid deep down—the hand holding the folding fan gripped and released, and he even deliberately tilted his head up slightly, clearly trying to give himself courage.

The Red Lady looked at him calmly for a while, then suddenly shook her head slightly and smiled.

First, she raised her hand to tidy her hair at her temples, then squinted at the thousand-li expanse of Dongting in the distance. Then she turned to look at Li Yunxin. "Look at you, do I look that fierce?"

“Offer yourself to me—what kind of nonsense is that? My looks and temperament, am I not good enough for you?” She pursed her lips and smiled, sizing Li Yunxin up and down. “I like your personality. You are loyal and righteous, yet you know how to be flexible.”

She was silent for a moment and sighed softly. “Am I not the same kind of person as you? I married that Scholar Du, also just to repay a kindness. I am a yin-spirit, so I could only have a ghost marriage with him. Who knew… he would become a completely different person.”

This turn of events seemed to stun Li Yunxin again.

He stared blankly at the Red Lady, the resolute and sorrowful expression on his face not yet gone, making him look extremely awkward.

He was stunned for a good while before taking two steps back and stammering, “Red… Red Lady, you are… ah, I…”

The Red Lady shook her head, squinting at the misty waves of Dongting in the distance. “Although that Scholar Du is not likable, he is, after all, my husband. That night, and these past few days, I have not paid him any attention. I probably won’t in the future either—I’ll just let him stay in Red Flower City. Consider it supporting him. But since he exists, and I am not so shameless a person, I will certainly not promise you anything more. You should give up on this thought.”

“As for that Divine Dragon Cult, how could my father not know.” The Red Lady looked at Li Yunxin seriously. “You don’t know the relationship between my father and that Dragon's Son, so it’s not your fault you have this misunderstanding. But rest assured—my father will absolutely not stand by and do nothing about this matter. It’s not convenient to tell you the details, but you should wait patiently. My father also suspects that the Divine Dragon Cult was created by the Daoist Orthodoxy and that Bai Yunxin, but it is precisely because of this that he must remain still—let’s see the Divine Dragon Cult’s power grow, and when it really creates a great demon, how will the Daoist Orthodoxy be able to sit still.”

She thought for a moment and sighed again. “It’s also because my father got that… sigh. In my opinion, it’s a big trouble. That woman…”

Li Yunxin immediately said, “Ah… I did hear from Dongting Jun that he took another concubine. It’s just…”

“What concubine? She’s a trouble. Now the Taoist priest in Weicheng is unwilling to leave.” After saying this, the Red Lady said no more, only sitting on the railing of the wooden pavilion, resting her chin on one hand and looking out at Dongting Lake, it was unclear what she was thinking.

Her red sleeve slid down, revealing a half-length of a snowy white arm like a lotus root.

Li Yunxin also said nothing, just stood there.

The pavilion fell silent. The cicadas, which had been scared into silence by the two of them, started chirping again. A white egret skimmed over the water’s surface, looking for small fish to eat.

A small boat slowly rowed across the lake.

There was only a thin white line of cloud in the sky.

The distant mountains were a tender and vivid green.

After being quiet like this for a while, the Red Lady let out a breath and revealed a smile. "This is really nice. Not like Red Flower City."

After saying this, she leaped down from the railing and tossed a small bell to Li Yunxin.

Li Yunxin caught it and found that the bell seemed to be made of gray iron. It was misty, and when he shook it, it made a strange sound—not crisp, but a bit sharp, much like a small bird chirping.

The Red Lady pointed at the bell. “That night, you sent me the soul of a Taoist priest, saying it was a congratulatory gift. I thought you must have done something to it, so I refined the Taoist priest’s soul and turned it into this bell. It’s actually quite interesting, the Taoist priest’s soul hasn’t completely dissipated, and it has consciousness right now. But when you pinch this bell, it’s like pinching his ghost soul. When a thing like a ghost soul is pinched, isn’t it very painful—so it screams like this with just a touch, you can use it to relieve boredom.”

She said this while smiling gently.

After she finished speaking, she rested for a while, then suddenly asked out of the blue, "So, do you really admire me?"

Hearing this, Li Yunxin was stunned.

Then he blinked. “Ah… I…”

"You still know how to be shy." The Red Lady smiled, leaped out of the wooden pavilion, and went straight into the water. "I'll explain things to my lord father for you, you'd better remember my kindness."

Li Yunxin watched her go, and it was a good while before he finally let out a breath.

"That little demoness… she actually dared to flirt with this great king." He blinked, smiling with a hint of amusement.

That Dongting Jun was like a human, and his daughter was even more like a human. If it weren't for the circumstances… he really would have liked to tease her slowly.

It was… extremely interesting.

Such a clever little demon.

He smiled like this, gently tapping his hand with his folding fan, and slowly walked along the road, thinking about things as he went.

He passed through Bailu Town, then turned into a wild forest, heading towards Weicheng.

Suddenly, he saw a man in colorful clothes coming towards him, running with flailing arms and shouting at him, “Great King, Great King! Disaster, disaster!!”

The man was running and flapping his arms, like a child playing, but the expression on his face was terrified and urgent—although it was a slightly protruding, strange-looking face.

When he got closer, Li Yunxin frowned and kicked him to the ground, scolding him head-on, “Disaster my ass! Only the underlings of villains shout like that, don’t you understand?”

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