Inner Demons

Chapter 95: Large Livestock

White Yama King let out an inexplicable, sharp laugh, as if he had found a way to vent his anger: "As for a method, yes, there is. ±Dingdian Novels,"

He looked at Li Yunxin sideways: "Do you dare to die?"

Li Yunxin's expression was normal: "And then?"

"Then, I won't collect your soul, and you can seize a body!"

"Sounds like a trap to me," Li Yunxin said calmly, "I know several situations for body seizure. But the most optimistic is like Qiao Jiaxin—the physical body becomes an uncorrupted Human Skin Bag, but loses its five senses. Not to mention cultivating the Snow Mountain Qi Sea again."

White Yama King cackled at this, his voice sounding full of malice: "Why be human? Since you can accept being a ghost, can't you accept being large livestock?"

"..." Li Yunxin sighed, "Grandpa, I was wrong. Let's talk properly. What exactly are you suggesting?"

White Yama King laughed again: "It really is to become large livestock. Think of the Dragon's Son, whose true form is as big as a small mountain—isn't that large livestock?"

"You..." Li Yunxin frowned slightly, "Seize the body of a Dragon's Son?"

"You can only seize the bodies of those things," White Yama King smoothed his tongue, "Those... so-called divine beasts, hum. Dragons? Golden-Winged Great Pengs? Dragon's Sons? Or what about Qilin? Tsk tsk. To me, they're just large livestock. You should know that they originally..."He stopped here, seemingly feeling he had misspoken, and abruptly cut off his words.

Li Yunxin keenly noticed that White Yama King, the controller of life and death in the world, had a very strange emotion when mentioning those "divine beasts" that he scorned as "large livestock"...

It was probably that slightly sour taste of "Heh, so what if you have a bit of money, what's so great about it? Your husband still found a mistress."

If understood this way...

It didn't seem like a bad choice?

"But why?" Li Yunxin asked humbly, "Is there a difference between seizing their bodies and seizing the body of a monkey? And humans?"

White Yama King sneered disdainfully: "All things in the world have spirits. As for humans, the body and spiritual soul are one; if either is lacking, it's incomplete and damaged. Therefore, seizing a human's body means losing the five senses, leaving only an empty shell."

"As for those beasts without developed intelligence... how can such a delicate thing as a human soul be contained within them?"

"Huh?" Li Yunxin frowned, "But aren't dragons, Qilins, and Great Pengs actually beasts to begin with?"

"Hmph, what do you know. This, I cannot say. And I'm not willing to tell you," White Yama King impatiently smoothed his tongue. "You just need to know that when a human dies, only their physical body remains. But when those large livestock die, they leave a void."

"...Leave a void?" Li Yunxin really couldn't understand this explanation, "What kind of void?"

Yama King grew unhappy again and frowned: "You young whelp are so troublesome! A void... is just a void! When other things in this world perish and die, they are simply gone and dead. But when these large livestock die, although their bodies are gone, there is still a void! A void that your Spiritual Soul must fill! Hey, you'll know when the time comes!"

Li Yunxin pondered for a moment after hearing him say this... and then understood.

Perhaps White Yama King was unwilling to explain it that way, or perhaps there was no such concept in this world. Li Yunxin felt that the "void" he spoke of, when replaced with a term he could understand, was actually... "divinity."

These so-called "large livestock"... indeed seemed to hide a profound mystery...

Thinking of this, he felt even more at ease and respectfully bowed to White Yama King: "Please continue to teach me what to do, Your Lord."

His transformation from "Oh, you're so useful to me, so I'll kneel immediately" seemed to slightly startle White Yama King. But after the surprise, he cackled in a sharp voice: "You young whelp, you're truly an interesting fellow. You're just like that Demon King. Heh heh heh... Then I'll teach you—listen closely, I'll only say it once. If you mess up then, even I won't be able to save you!"

He spoke quickly, and his voice was sharp. But Li Yunxin was intelligent and remembered it firmly after only one listen.

But after memorizing it, he deliberately asked a few more questions.

That Yama King seemed impatient, only dismissing him with words like "think for yourself."

Seeing that he couldn't get any more answers, Li Yunxin shook his sleeve and asked the ghost within.

To his surprise, White Yama King actually knew about it.

It waved its hand: "Why bother this thing? This thing, it's more than two hundred years old? Counting it now, it's been in this Weicheng for over four hundred and sixty years! It doesn't usually do evil, although it devours souls, it only devours the souls of birds and beasts, never harming people. You ask why it harmed livestock a few days ago? That's because all the larger birds and beasts near Weicheng have been eaten by it, so it went after livestock!"

"You said the Dragon's Son was looking for it? Hahaha. That Dragon's Son is like a wild beast, living here, only thinking that the area around Weicheng is its lair—so when this centuries-old Great Ghost devours birds and beasts, it naturally seeks to capture it! But this thing has some skill—it has evaded capture for three or four hundred years, and the two of them often cause trouble like this... Heh heh, interesting."

"Why don't I restrain this Great Ghost? Heh heh... Can't I, Your Lord, have some fun? I find it amusing, so I keep it for entertainment."

Li Yunxin's eyebrows subtly raised. This Yama King... seemed to be speaking insincerely. But he didn't ask further, only saying, "But recently, it has killed people."

White Yama King rolled his eyes: "In over four hundred years, it's bound to harm a few lives occasionally!"

"Your Lord... seems to have a hidden reason," Li Yunxin understood the inclination revealed by his attitude. "Then one last question—since this Great Ghost was sought by the Dragon's Son in Weicheng, and devoured all the nearby birds and beasts... why didn't it leave?"

"Why are you so noisy?" White Yama King raised his eyebrows. Li Yunxin could tell he was genuinely impatient, "Why do you care what it does? When you've had enough fun, just release it, don't harm it!"

After saying this, as if fearing Li Yunxin would continue to pester him, he flashed and disappeared.

Only Li Yunxin remained standing at the alley entrance.

After standing for a while, he slowly took two steps to the wall.

Then he slowly leaned his back against the wall, tilted his head back. He just silently looked at the sky for a long time.

The night sky above had just been washed by the wind and rain, with not a single cloud in sight, and the Milky Way shone brightly. Li Yunxin gazed at the nearly iridescent galaxy and the familiar Big Dipper, then at the silver-disk-like moon, letting out a long breath.

The night sky of this world was almost identical to his previous one.

It was... almost.

Because at dawn every day, he couldn't see the Morning Star—never. At dusk, he couldn't see the Evening Star—never.

Morning Star and Evening Star... are Venus.

A world where everything was familiar, yet always, in the details, there was a hint of strangeness.

He was going to... seize a body.

"Screw it," Li Yunxin exhaled again, pushed off the wall with his palm, and sprang up, straightening his back, continuing to stride forward.