After Transmigrating into an Evil God - Chapter 28

The old wisteria in the Li Manor had bloomed. The white petals at the tips of the flower clusters unfurled, trembling in the wind like butterfly wings. The clusters gradually deepened to pale green toward the bottom, ending in jade-like tender buds. The fragrance was elegant and refined, attracting bees and butterflies.

The mountain was peaceful and free from worldly troubles, as if isolated in another realm.

Over these past days, Li Feng had calmed his emotions, harmonized his qi, and prepared for transformation.

There were countless cultivation methods in the world, and demon cultivation could be roughly divided into two categories.

The first type did not cultivate a human body or require transformation, taking the original form as the natural truth and following the ancient demon cultivation path. Though they could appear in human form, it was merely an illusory technique. Their demon bodies were powerful but did not comprehend the laws of heaven and earth’s operations. When facing calamities, they mostly forced their way through with brute strength.

The second type transformed into human form, comprehended the human heart, used the human body to learn thinking and writing, and cultivated the immortal and divine path. Though their original forms were slightly weaker, they could understand how to avoid and respond to calamities, without having to endure them head-on like the former, which was far more dangerous.

The former faced bodily tribulations, the latter faced inner demon tribulations. These two cultivation paths each had advantages and disadvantages, with neither clearly superior.

Li Feng originally followed the second cultivation path. Calamities could be avoided, but one’s own heart could not be avoided.

He refused to give up Qiuning and avoid the calamity, so he made up his mind to face this unavoidable calamity head-on!

Even if the path ahead was perilous, it was his choice.

Li Feng came to Li Chi’s courtyard. Under Li Chi’s protection, he closed his eyes and sat cross-legged beside the spirit pool, his mind sinking inward to visualize a human form, his qi flowing and gradually transforming.

The initial transformation was not difficult. He considered that he had cultivated for several hundred years and had long developed a human heart. What separated him from transformation was merely two or three hundred years of cultivation. With High God Li Chi by his side, what did he have to worry about?

Calming his mind and settling his energy, his body followed his will. As Li Feng visualized a human form, around the red fox sitting cross-legged, a figure of a young man in brilliant red robes gradually materialized according to his will.

Once this form fully solidified, Li Feng’s transformation would be successful.

However, when the youth’s form was still half-illusory and half-solid, not yet stable, Li Feng’s demon power was about to be depleted. He ultimately lacked two or three hundred years of cultivation, and at this moment could no longer sustain it.

Just then, Li Chi, sitting opposite him, raised a finger. Spiritual mist suddenly arose all around, condensing and flowing into Li Feng’s body.

Nourished by this, Li Feng’s body regenerated power. The red-robed youth’s form became increasingly clear, just one step away from success.

As the transformation neared completion, the inner demon tribulation emerged.

“He is a fox!” Madam Wei’s voice suddenly rose from the depths of his heart.

The red-robed youth’s form wavered in chaos.

Li Feng regained his composure and attempted transformation again.

“Fox and human are ultimately different.”

The newly condensed form dispersed.

……

Li Feng attempted several times but remained stuck at the final step, unable to succeed. He grew anxious.

Was the difference between fox body and human body really that great?

Li Chi glanced at him, then turned to look into the spirit pool.

A silver spirit fish was leisurely swaying its tail, quite curiously watching Li Feng on the shore as he attempted transformation.

Li Chi reached out and stirred the pool water. “I’ll borrow your spirit pool.”

The silver fish affectionately nuzzled his fingertip, its silver tail fin like silk ribbon parting the water as it swam away.

After Li Feng failed again, his confidence wavered and he began to retreat. High God… he wanted to ask for help but couldn’t speak.

Li Chi only watched silently without intervening.

After several failed attempts at transformation, the red-robed youth’s brows furrowed tightly, becoming increasingly unstable.

The more rampant the inner demons, the more unstable the transformation body became.

“You and I are not of the same race—how can we speak of marriage?”

“If Brother Li were human, why would I need to play this villain?”

……Madam Wei, Qiuning……

“Our clan has so many beautiful women—why must you fancy a human girl?”

“So what if you’re a fox? I only like you!”

Fox, fox, fox……

He was born a fox, but now he wanted to become human!

The inner demons raged fiercely.

“What’s wrong with being a fox? Has the clan wronged you?” An elder from the clan raised his brows and sneered coldly.

No, there was nothing wrong with being a fox. His days in Qingqiu—how joyful and carefree they had been!

“Brother Li, humans and foxes cannot be together.” Wei Yu stated calmly.

Fox body, human body, fox body, human body……

The red-robed youth’s energy grew chaotic, his form about to dissipate.

“Li Feng.” Li Chi suddenly called out. “Look at the spirit pool.”

Li Feng opened his eyes. In the spirit pool reflected a red fox sitting cross-legged, struggling to imitate humans. Though it tried its best to sit properly, in its beast body, such a posture inevitably appeared ridiculous and comical.

Li Feng’s spirit was greatly shaken. Suddenly he felt a pushing force from behind. Before he could react, he was pushed into the pool.

Pool water engulfed his mouth and nose. Completely unprepared, Li Feng panicked, forgetting his earlier shock. He flailed desperately in the pool water, churning up waves on the surface.

The silver fish disdainfully flicked its tail and swam to the distance to avoid the current, continuing to observe Li Feng from underwater. That red figure thrashing in the water looked both like a human and like a fox.

After pushing Li Feng into the water, Li Chi merely looked down at his struggles, sitting upright on the stone with no intention of reaching out to rescue him. His voice was light. “What do you see?”

The voice transmitted to his heart.

Li Feng struggled in the water. What did he see? The entire pool surface had been churned into fragments by him, reflecting nothing.

The violently surging water surface suddenly began to calm. A naked red-robed youth climbed out of the pool.

Li Feng’s eyes were bright and joyful. Fox body or human body—weren’t they both him?

He waved away the moisture from his body and bowed to Li Chi. “Thank you for High God’s assistance!”

Li Chi nodded. “Go regulate your energy.”

Li Feng bowed again before departing.

His heart was full of joy. This transformation had excellent results—the transformed body had almost no defects.

Without High God Li Chi’s assistance, he probably would never have overcome the two obstacles in transformation. Once to supplement his lacking cultivation, another time to help him break through his inner demons. Li Feng had been prepared to be injured, but Li Chi’s two interventions not only left him unharmed but even elevated his mental state.

Twenty days had passed. Once he finished regulating his energy, he could go to the Wei clan and tell Qiuning this news!

Li Chi watched his departing figure, gently brushing his fingers through the void.

At the moment Li Feng made his decision, a Seven Emotion Trigger had already condensed on the pink karmic thread of affection. However, Li Chi did not pluck it.

After a Seven Emotion Trigger was plucked, the karmic thread bearing it would fade for a time, but those threads tainted with misfortune would not.

Li Chi wanted to try using this pink karmic thread to resolve Li Feng’s calamity. If the calamity passed, it would not be too late to harvest the Seven Emotion Trigger.

The pink karmic thread and several inauspicious karmic threads of the same origin immediately became entangled. The gray-black karmic threads trembled violently, about to break them, but the pink karmic thread was resilient and strong, resisting them.

Li Chi withdrew his gaze but did not close his eyes to cultivate. He said lightly, “You’ve been watching for so long—come out.”

“High God.” Ding Qin walked in from outside the courtyard, looking rather embarrassed.

A small monkey crouched on her left shoulder, a little mouse perched on her right shoulder, and a turtledove rested on her head.

“We were afraid of disturbing Li Feng’s transformation!” Jin Yan laughed sheepishly.

“High God, did Mister Li’s transformation go smoothly?” Ding Qin asked.

Li Feng had taught her for quite some time, always devoted and diligent. How could she not worry for him? Jin Yan had been good friends with Li Feng all along and had been concerned for him. The little mouse Wen Qianzi had been sitting in on lessons and now also looked up at Li Chi with concern.

Only the white-cheeked monkey had come to join the excitement. It didn’t understand anything yet, having just watched wide-eyed as a red fox transformed into a handsome youth. Extremely excited, it also imitated the others by looking up at Li Chi.

Li Chi shook his head with a laugh. “He’s fine.”

Jin Yan’s eyes rolled around as he probed, “Then… will he have any problems in the future?”

Li Chi looked at each of them in turn and said, “Since you’re worried, follow along and watch. Perhaps you can even assist him.”

Jin Yan’s eyes lit up. Ding Qin, however, was concerned. “What if Mister Li doesn’t want us to follow?”

“Just follow secretly without letting him know!” Jin Yan said excitedly.

He was truly delighted. Since High God had given permission for them to follow, it surely meant intervention had been made. Though Li Feng faced a calamity, he would not fail to survive it.

Moreover, Ding Qin was High God’s divine messenger. Though she had not yet grown up, the aura of divine power from High God Li Chi was already enough to intimidate. No one would willingly make an enemy of such a deity. And Ding Qin carried good things with her!

Jin Yan had sensed the three wooden talismans on her body. Those talismans concealed their auras without releasing them, appearing from the surface as ordinary wooden plaques.

He had once curiously asked Ding Qin to slightly activate them so he could sense them. Just the slight aura leaking out had made all his feathers bristle, especially the aura from the sword talisman, which made him unable to even think of fleeing. If he ever truly faced such power, he could only close his eyes and await death.

With these three wooden talismans for protection, what did a trip to the Wei clan matter?

“Is this really okay?” Though Ding Qin was tempted, she still hesitated.

Li Chi patted her head. “Go on.”

Only then did Ding Qin feel at ease. Jin Yan happily flew several chaotic loops in the sky. The little mouse squeaked beside them, wanting to go along too.

The white-cheeked monkey joined in the excitement but was forcibly grabbed away by a large monkey from the tree, flailing its arms and legs in midair. The large monkey forcibly pressed it onto the tree and roared with bared teeth.

The others had real business—what was a monkey with unopened spiritual intelligence doing joining in?

The little mouse Wen Qianzi’s spiritual intelligence had opened, and being small in size, bringing it along wouldn’t be troublesome. But Ding Qin looked toward Li Chi. “High God, what about you?”

“I’ll remain here.” Li Chi said.

Ding Qin exclaimed “Ah!” and immediately felt this was inappropriate. “I’ll stay to keep you company.”

Li Chi only smiled. “Go pack your things. I can also have a few quiet days. Remember to avoid Shuigu Town on the road.”

After they left the courtyard, Li Chi beckoned to the monkeys in the trees.

When these monkeys came down, Li Chi told them: “Don’t come to cultivate these next few days. I won’t preach, and you needn’t send wine either. Come again after ten days.”

The monkeys nodded in agreement and scattered into the forest. The courtyard suddenly became empty and quiet, with only the fish shadow in the pool swaying its tail between reality and illusion.

Li Chi raised his hand and caught a leaf falling from the tree.

Hou Li materialized. “High God.”

Li Chi turned to look at him.

The words in Hou Li’s throat went through once before he carefully asked, “Is something about to happen?”

High God having Ding Qin take Jin Yan and Wen Qianzi to distant Langyue City was not like High God’s usual conduct. Moreover, High God had told the monkey group not to come these next few days.

Li Chi looked toward Shuigu Town, his gaze distant. “Indeed so.”

He was looking at his own karmic threads. After staying in this place for so long, Li Chi’s body no longer had sparse karmic connections as at the beginning. Now many karmic threads extended from him, most scattered and not solid.

However, now several karmic threads extending into Shuigu Town were trembling at a common frequency, about to condense.

Something that affected all of Shuigu Town was about to happen, or had already happened, and was about to involve him.

Li Chi roughly knew what it was.

Twenty days ago, when Li Feng returned, he had reported to Li Chi about encountering a dream demon and a gray-robed old Daoist in Shuigu Town that night.

Only then did Li Chi learn that the old Daoist who had brushed past him outside Shuigu Town that day had come to catch demons.

Over the following days, Li Chi had kept Ding Qin restrained, telling her not to go to Shuigu Town recently.

Among all the people Li Chi had encountered, except for the Huai River Divine Lord trapped in the Shuigu Well, that gray-robed old Daoist had the most profound cultivation. Even a demon that was troublesome for him would no doubt be extremely difficult to deal with.

Li Chi had measured his own capabilities. Even though his original body was a divine god equivalent to the Flame Lord, already a deity before the Divine Court was established, with less than ten percent of his divine power and this insubstantial divine body, in his state of complete memory loss, how much strength could he actually exert?

Compared to Hou Li and Jin Yan, he was indeed stronger, but one was a Manor Spirit that had nearly dissipated, the other a small demon not yet able to transform—what did comparing with them amount to?

Moreover, the great enemy who had severely injured this body still lurked unknown somewhere. It was better to be cautious. After that old Daoist of profound cultivation resolved the trouble, it wouldn’t be too late to enter Shuigu Town.

Li Chi had originally thought this way, but over these past days, his own karmic threads indicated that events were not developing as he had anticipated.

He couldn’t ensure he could protect the living beings in the Li Manor in what was to come, so he took this opportunity to have them temporarily avoid the situation.

Li Chi couldn’t even ensure he could protect himself. Compared to the Huai River Divine Lord, though the gray-robed old Daoist’s aura was slightly weaker, he had a sound body, while Li Chi was severely injured.

Even a dragon, trapped in shallow waters, is mocked by shrimp—so who could he possibly be stronger than now?

It was just unfortunate that the fish shadow and Hou Li could not avoid this. The fish shadow existed between reality and illusion and could hide in the spring source, but though Hou Li’s spirit body could leave, his true form was rooted here.

Though Li Chi could leave, quite a few people knew he lived here. If he left, the karmic connection that would find its way here sooner or later would likely cause trouble for Hou Li.

He might as well remain here. If someone came looking, they could see him, the actual party involved.

Li Chi withdrew his gaze and said, “These next few days, hide yourself in the Li clan storehouse. Don’t fall asleep.”

Hou Li’s heart was troubled. He was the only one besides Ding Qin who knew High God Li Chi was injured.

Ding Qin was young and weak, Jin Yan didn’t know about this, not to mention small demons like Wen Qianzi who hadn’t even refined their transverse bone. What could they do?

High God had shown him great kindness. Hou Li thought of the arrangements in the Li Manor storehouse, bit his teeth, and said, “High God……”

But Li Chi waved his hand to interrupt him. “Go.”

His mind was made up and would not be changed.

After Ding Qin, Jin Yan, and Wen Qianzi, who knew nothing of this, packed their things and departed, the vast Li Manor seemed to return to the beginning, with only the hidden Hou Li, the fish shadow, and Li Chi himself remaining.

The wild grass had been cleared, broken tiles replaced with new ones. The vegetable seedlings in the garden plot were full of vitality, and the new pine by the gate stone reached upward vigorously.

Li Chi surveyed this empty manor, swept his robes and sat cross-legged on the blue stone beside the pool, quietly waiting.

With each breath, clouds and mist surged forth, concealing the deity’s form.