Inner Demons

Chapter 21: Huainanzi

The Cat Demon didn't understand, so she let out a soft growl, seemingly very uncomfortable.

Li Yunxin knew this was because she was possessing his body. Taoist priests, swordsmen, and Painting Daoists all practiced the Celestial Heart Orthodox Law and Mysterious Gate Internal Skill. Their bodies inherently possessed a strong Vast Righteous Qi, unlike ordinary mortals.

Therefore, when a Demon Spirit possessed such individuals, its spiritual body would be repelled and resisted, making it difficult. He stepped back a few paces: "Go back. You helped me, and I will be grateful. But now my Qi Sea is sealed, and I can't create a painting that would allow you to possess a body comfortably. When I find a solution later, I will come find you."

A cold wind swirled around Li Yunxin, and the Cat Demon grumbled angrily: "Huh? Later? Huh? How long will 'later' be? Ha... someone before... hmm, humph! Not later, I won't wait... huh?"

She suddenly fell silent, the tips of the grass a few steps away lay low, and the cold wind drifted away.

The Cat Demon seemed to have discovered something. Li Yunxin wasn't sure what this creature, lacking human understanding, was plotting. He simply looked in the direction she had come from. But two breaths later, he suddenly heard rustling sounds.

Someone was coming from that direction.

He frowned vigilantly, then stared in disbelief.

A girl stumbled out of the woods, flailing her arms, running unsteadily, and emitting a bell-like laugh, babbling incoherently: "Ah? Good, good, hahaha, this is mine, haha, huh, this is mine, hee hee hee hee—"

The girl had a beautiful face and a slender body, her skirt fluttering, bathed in moonlight. It should have been a beautiful sight.But when Li Yunxin heard that laughter, he felt a slight shiver down his spine.

Because it was Qiao Jiaxin.

The Cat Demon had possessed Qiao Jiaxin's corpse.

It had been about ten minutes since the girl died, and Qiao Jiaxin's living soul should have been taken away—if the Black and White Yama Kings he had never seen truly existed.

Such a corpse, still retaining some spiritual energy, perhaps due to a unique constitution and time, allowed this Cat Demon to possess it. Not only did she possess it, but she moved quite freely, almost as if the body originally belonged to her.

"Qiao Jiaxin" ran to Li Yunxin, stumbling and bumping into his chest. Li Yunxin frowned slightly and supported her. He wanted to scold her, but he didn't know what to say.

After all, he had only known Qiao Jiaxin for a day; they weren't very familiar.

After the Cat Demon rubbed against his chest for a while and finally stabilized, Li Yunxin sighed: "Alright."

"This can be considered your good fortune, and it's not in vain that you helped me. I've heard of such things."

"There have been instances of spirits possessing corpses, and even righteous masters have done so. After all, corpses will eventually rot; making full use of them can be considered the way of Heaven. However, there are a few things you need to pay attention to."

His parents had told him these things, and he remembered them all. He just never expected them to actually come in handy today. Such matters had certain rules and regulations. They might not have been enforced as strictly as modern laws, but there were always some boundaries. He hadn't fully understood them before, thinking they might be old-fashioned. But now that he saw this Cat Demon and Young Master Nine, he felt he understood.

Young Master Nine looked almost human. A human appearance, human attire, speaking human language. But he ate people as easily as a person would eat a chicken leg.

In the eyes of such a great demon, human ethics, etiquette, and education were all nonsense; humans were just for eating. There was no possibility of communication—just as people nowadays wouldn't communicate with pigs or dogs.

And there were no small animal protectors back then.

This Cat Demon, not possessing the immense power of Young Master Nine, lived in a temple attached to a statue. Perhaps she hadn't committed as much evil as Young Master Nine in the past, but judging by her words and actions, she didn't fully grasp human customs. These other-worldly beings were ultimately not human.

Cultivators often said, "Those not of our kind are sure to have different hearts," and in reality, there was some truth to it.

So there were some rules.

"You are a spirit. No one would establish a temple for you for no reason; you must have received help from a master. So that master back then should have also told you some rules. I'm afraid that after a long time, you might have forgotten, so I'll tell you again."

Li Yunxin looked at the familiar yet strange Qiao Jiaxin and said, "You knew I could help you, which is why you helped me. This is a life-saving grace to me, and we are now connected. Perhaps the person who helped you before has a similar identity to me. Just now, when you possessed me, you also witnessed my powers. So I can help you, and I can also harm you. It just depends on whether you can live well as a human."

"Now I want to tell you, if you possess a human body and enter the human world, you must abide by human etiquette and education. You are a spirit, perhaps untamed by nature. But when you encounter something that angers you, you must think deeply for three breaths before deciding what to do."

"First, do not harm human lives."

"Second, do not marry a human."

"Third—"

At this point, "Qiao Jiaxin" suddenly knelt before him, looking up at him. A pair of big, dark eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, her face pious and serious, even with a hint of shyness.

Li Yunxin was slightly stunned, then realized that this was the little Cat Demon "listening to the Dharma."

For beast spirits, many things that humans took for granted were "Dharma" to them.

Humans found filial piety to parents natural and right, found not cannibalizing one's own kind natural and right, and found propriety and moral principles perfectly ordinary. But for beast spirits, these were the "Dharma" evolved from human ethics.

It seemed this little Cat Demon truly had been enlightened by someone before, otherwise, she wouldn't show such an expression now.

Li Yunxin suddenly felt a little better and smiled slightly.

"Third, have a correct worldview."

Qiao Jiaxin blinked, trying to speak like a normal person: "Huh? Three views? Ha? Is that a big temple? Are you going to build me three big temples?"

Li Yunxin chuckled: "Three views, well, they are one's view of life, view of the world, and values. You don't need to understand them completely now, just grasp the concept. You'll understand later."

"However, if you want to follow me, we still need to go to Weicheng. Your body... let's just say it's terrified to the point of losing its mind. After all, there's a place to stay there, so... we'll have to go take care of the others from the escort. Hmm, it's okay if you don't understand, just follow me. When I tell you to possess me, you come onto my body. We'll go save them."

"Quite a bold statement, young man."

As soon as Li Yunxin finished speaking, another voice rang out.

The voice likely belonged to another young man, around twenty-two or twenty-three. It was pleasant and magnetic, with a rising inflection at the end, carrying a hint of wild abandon.

Then, a young man in a cloud-brocade white robe emerged from the forest.

Li Yunxin frowned, his heart skipped a beat.

As the man walked out, a soft, self-contained force seemed to gently push away all the grass and trees around him, not allowing them to touch even a single thread of his clothing.

His footsteps were light, seemingly not even bending the blades of grass he walked on. Wherever he went, even the chirping of insects grew softer.

In the moonlight, his body was even enveloped in a faint glow, as if he were a celestial being.

Li Yunxin knew that this meant the ill-spoken young man before him practiced the Celestial Heart Orthodox Law and Mysterious Gate Internal Skill.

Just like his parents.

But the other party should be from the Daoist Orthodoxy or the Sword Sect.

Considering the events of this evening, his identity should be the chief disciple of the Lingxu Sword Sect, one of the Seventy-Two Schools, a fellow disciple of Kangcangzi and Chisongzi.

That is, the person who previously gave the Six Ghosts of Hejian the Flying Sword Scroll, instructing them to kill everyone there.

He should have come before but didn't. Now he was here.

Li Yunxin took a deep breath and smiled: "Good evening. It's an honor to have you come in person. Where are those people? Oh, by the way—what should I call you?"

The other party walked to a spot a dozen paces from Li Yunxin, glanced at the headless corpse of the swordsman on the ground, and shook his head slightly: "Mortal."

Then he looked up and surveyed Li Yunxin, smiling distractedly: "My Daoist name is Huainanzi. I saw a few on my way here, and I killed them. It's getting rather boring, this business. Transcending Tribulation is troublesome after all."

"You're a cultivator too, right? Hmm, you also cultivate the Celestial Heart Orthodox Law. Under which True Immortal's tutelage? Heh... certainly not. You had a conflict with my two junior brothers; your Snow Mountain Qi Sea was sealed, which is a technique of my Lingxu Sword Sect. A few days ago, I found both junior brothers dead. But it shouldn't have been you who did it, but some great demon."

"However, since it also involves you, and I am powerless to seek revenge on that great demon, I shall kill you. Firstly, it will serve as a memorial to my two junior brothers, and secondly, it will be my Undergoing Tribulation. Don't despair, you are actually also Undergoing Tribulation, merely experiencing a death tribulation."

"Here, farewell."