After Transmigrating into an Evil God - Chapter 35

Ding Qin’s fingers brushed through the spiritual essence in the air. The wind suddenly tightened, forcing a dark shadow out from behind a tree.

The figure tumbled out awkwardly from behind the tree. He had arms, legs, and a complete head and body, looking like a person, yet his entire body was pitch-black, rough and covered in growths, appearing quite frightening.

“What are you doing there?!” Ding Qin shouted.

The dark shadow fell to his knees with a thud, pleading in panic, “I was just curious and came to look! I didn’t do anything!”

“What kind of demon are you? Why are you spying on us?”

“My name is Mutou. I’m a piece of wood that became a spirit. Few people come here. I heard noises and got curious, so I came to look. I didn’t mean to do anything.” The dark shadow curled up his body carefully, seeming to know he was ugly. He didn’t dare raise his head, afraid of provoking disgust and being cut down with a sword.

Ding Qin looked closely. The rough, lumpy places on Mutou’s body did indeed look like tree bark and tree burls. But whether he was lying or not, Ding Qin couldn’t be certain.

Ding Qin lacked experience and didn’t know how to continue questioning. Jin Yan flapped his wings and flew closer, demanding, “You sneaky fellow, you’re definitely not a good demon! Speak! How long have you been following us? Why did you poison us?”

Mutou frantically explained. “I didn’t harm anyone! I didn’t poison you! I was just curious and came to look! The poison is naturally in the mountains!”

“Raise your head!” Jin Yan shouted.

Mutou timidly raised his head.

Goodness! He was too ugly!

Jin Yan was startled and shuddered. That pitch-black face was covered in bumps and lumps, with growths of various sizes. His features were disproportionate, barely distinguishable as eyes, nose, and mouth.

So Mutou lowered his head again.

Jin Yan stared at him for a while, then whispered to Ding Qin, “I think he’s not lying. Should we question him more?”

Ding Qin nodded, so Jin Yan asked again, “You said the poison is naturally in the mountains. What do you mean?”

Mutou, afraid they would misunderstand, quickly explained. “Inside this mountain there’s a large cavity. In the cavity is a large marsh with poisonous gases and sludge that produce many toxic miasmas. When it’s cold, it’s fine, but once the weather warms up, the toxic miasma in the cave grows and spreads, slowly seeping out through the mountain. The poison that seeps out is weak and hard to detect, but staying in the mountains for a long time, one inevitably gets harmed. This is a natural feature of this place, not something I did!”

But Jin Yan didn’t believe him. “We’ve been in these mountains for less than half a day and have already crossed through most of the forest. How big can this poison cave be? Could it really hollow out the entire mountain? And how potent would the poison have to be to penetrate through layers of rock and soil and poison us all in less than half a day? If the poison is so fierce, why is the mountain lush and green without any withering?”

Mutou said urgently, “The poison swamp does exist! I can take you to see it! The nearby residents know about it too—they never come here. The poison pool has existed for ages. The plants in the mountains have long adapted to this poison. Though they can neutralize the toxins, the roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of these plants all carry poison. You must have eaten fruit from the mountains, which is why you were eroded so quickly!”

Mutou’s voice was normally dull, but now it showed some sharpness. He seemed to be both anxious and frightened to the extreme.

Ding Qin activated her Spirit Eyes and looked down at her feet. Upon close observation, she discovered that the spiritual essence in the mountains was indeed somewhat strange.

All things’ spiritual essence has its own characteristics. Wind’s spiritual essence is light and nimble, earth’s spiritual essence is heavy and stable. When Ding Qin observed this mountain’s earth spiritual essence, she felt it was vaguely insubstantial. Ding Qin looked even more carefully into the depths, and dimly saw some strange aura hidden deep in the earth. She couldn’t see it clearly, but only felt it was obscure and ominous.

Jin Yan wanted to continue pressing Mutou, but was stopped by Ding Qin.

She shook her head slightly at Jin Yan, then turned to Mutou and said, “I believe you. Please stand up.”

Mutou timidly raised his head to observe her expression, seeming to carefully gauge whether she was sincere. Only after confirming did he get up from the ground.

“We’re new to this place and misunderstood you. We’re truly sorry. We’re leaving now, but please don’t follow us anymore.” Ding Qin’s tone was gentle, but though she said this, she didn’t completely believe Mutou’s words.

What she saw underground could only serve as partial evidence, and couldn’t fully verify Mutou’s claims. However, whether what Mutou said was true or false, they were only passing through. They just needed to leave quickly and safely—there was no need to get to the bottom of it.

But upon hearing this, Mutou seemed touched by something. He carefully peeked at Ding Qin, bit his lip slightly, and said, “That poison… isn’t so easy to resolve. I have a way to completely solve it, if you’re willing to trust me…”

His voice grew smaller and smaller, and his body involuntarily shrank back and hunched over, as if by making his voice a bit lower and his form a bit smaller, he could avoid being noticed.

Ding Qin hesitated, then carefully extended her divine power to probe Wen Qianzi’s body. She didn’t detect any problems, but when she observed Wen Qianzi and Jin Yan with her Spirit Eyes, there was indeed some indescribable abnormal sensation.

“Why is the poison hard to resolve? And what is your method?” Ding Qin asked.

“If you’ve only been eroded and poisoned, it’s not serious—it might heal on its own after a while. But if you’ve eaten things from the mountains and then been eroded and poisoned, because the mountain fruits are infused with this poison, the poison will seep into your bones and merge with your body, making it difficult to remove.” Mutou explained in a low voice. “At my dwelling, there’s an old vine that can grant others the same poison-neutralizing ability as the mountain’s living creatures.”

Ding Qin was somewhat suspicious. After consulting with Wen Qianzi and Jin Yan, they still decided to follow Mutou to take a look. First, there really was something wrong with their bodies. Second, Mutou didn’t seem strong, and his aura wasn’t violent and bloodstained like turbid demons.

Mutou’s dwelling wasn’t far. They reached it after a short walk.

It was a small grass hut built below a cliff face, with green grass in front, tall trees providing shade behind, and old vines climbing the stone wall—fresh and lovely.

Mutou plucked a large leaf, rolled it into a leaf cup, cut some sap from the old vine, and collected a small cup. “After the vine sap leaves the vine body, it only remains effective for less than half a cup of tea’s time.”

Ding Qin took it. The vine sap was translucent green, looking cool and refreshing, with a pleasant plant fragrance. She didn’t detect any problems with it, and her gaze fell on Wen Qianzi and Jin Yan. With her divine power protecting her, she didn’t need this. Between Wen Qianzi and Jin Yan, who should go first?

Wen Qianzi squeaked a few times and grabbed the leaf cup.

He was the weakest. Even if there was a problem with the vine sap and he drank it, Ding Qin and Jin Yan could still save him in time. But if Jin Yan was drugged, he couldn’t help much.

Wen Qianzi stuck his head in and gulped down the pale green vine sap.

After swallowing it, Wen Qianzi immediately gagged. His rat face wrinkled pitifully as he said, “Fills the mouth and stomach.” Then he shook his head vigorously.

This meant it tasted terrible. Jin Yan was amused and asked, “How do you feel?”

Wen Qianzi twisted around, carefully sensing his internal condition, then nodded.

After another moment, watching Wen Qianzi, Ding Qin also felt that the indescribable abnormal sensation about him had disappeared.

Only after they had confirmed this did Mutou cut a second cup of vine sap. This time Jin Yan boldly held his breath and downed it in one gulp.

“Ugh!” Jin Yan flapped his wings vigorously and hopped around. “It smells good, but why is it so bitter and spicy when you drink it?!”

A hint of amusement appeared in Ding Qin’s eyes. She looked at Mutou beside her, feeling guilty.

He had treated them kindly, yet they had interrogated and frightened him earlier. Though they apologized later, because she was still wary at the time, her apology wasn’t sincere.

“Thank you for helping us.” Ding Qin earnestly bowed to him. “We misunderstood you before and behaved rudely. I’m sorry.”

Despite having helped them, Mutou still appeared timid and careful. He shook his head and waved his hands. “It’s not your fault. I look so ugly and frightening that anyone who sees me would be afraid and wary.”

Ding Qin said earnestly, “That’s not true. Beauty and ugliness aren’t real conceptual standards to begin with—they’re things people define and imagine themselves. My teacher once said that Liang Kingdom considers slender figures beautiful, Sui Kingdom considers robust fullness beautiful, Lu Kingdom considers fair skin with faint visible blue veins beautiful, while Min Kingdom considers wheat-colored skin with rosy luster beautiful. Every place has different standards of beauty. A beauty in one place might be considered not beautiful in another. This shows that beauty is inherently undefined.”

But Mutou remained self-conscious, “But no matter where I go, I’m ugly like this.”

Jin Yan snorted. “When I wanted to repay a child who saved me before, I carefully selected an especially beautiful hairy caterpillar to give as a gift. I thought the insect was plump and cute, but it ended up scaring the child to tears. You’re also cultivating—how can you be trapped by beauty and ugliness?”

Ding Qin nodded. “Our cultivation is precisely about shedding the shackles on ourselves. Heaven and earth don’t define beauty and ugliness, so we shouldn’t put baseless shackles on ourselves either.”

Light shone in Mutou’s eyes. “You’re saying… I’m not ugly?”

Jin Yan smacked his beak. “Let me put it this way—we shouldn’t deceive you either. Right now when I look at you, I do think you’re a bit ugly. But that’s not your problem, it’s that my own cultivation isn’t sufficient. But this isn’t a big problem. When I first saw humans, I thought those creatures without fur who couldn’t fly all looked strange and ugly! But now I don’t think they’re that ugly anymore. It gets better the more you interact.”

Mutou scratched his fingers that looked like withered tree roots, looking at them carefully and hopefully. “Then… would you be willing to stay and keep me company?”

He added pleadingly, “Almost no one comes here, and there are no other spirits who’ve cultivated into demons—just me alone. People outside are also very afraid of me. It’s been too long since I’ve seen anyone who could chat with me.”

Ding Qin felt compassion. “We have urgent matters now. After we finish, we’ll come back to see you.”

Jin Yan flapped his wings. “Don’t worry! From now on, we’re friends!”

Mutou seemed both happy and reluctant, pleading, “Can’t you stay?”

Ding Qin was troubled. “We really do have urgent matters, which is why we’ve been traveling so quickly. After things are settled, we’ll definitely come back to see you.”

Jin Yan added: “Why don’t you come with us? If you’re worried about your appearance scaring people, you can use an illusion!”

Ding Qin nodded too. Li Feng’s illusions were the best, and she had already learned them well. She could guarantee that people wouldn’t be able to see Mutou’s original appearance.

But Mutou said dejectedly, “I can’t go too far from this mountain.” He lowered his head and asked again, “You really won’t stay?”

Hearing this, Ding Qin felt something slightly strange rise in her heart. Before she could react, she heard Mutou’s low voice say again:

“I’m sorry.”

Mist suddenly arose.