After Transmigrating into an Evil God - Chapter 49

The enormous black dog hid within a mountain cliff cave.

On the hard stone ground, a stone pit had been dug out, filled with pond water cold with yin energy. Within the pond water, a bell-shaped black flower was immersed upside down, its stamen slender as a needle.

The black dog opened its mouth, carefully inhaling and exhaling yin energy to refine the flower stamen.

This pond water came from the Black Water Pool below Shekou Cliff. The Black Water Pool was where the Ghost King secluded himself in closed-door cultivation. Over time, the pond water had become infused with the Ghost King’s power and aura—yin-cold and baleful, its imposing presence heavy. Ordinary creatures could hardly even approach it, let alone make contact. Only beings like the black dog—also a ghost creature with deep baleful energy—dared to approach and use it.

By using the pond water for refinement, the black dog was planning to borrow the Ghost King’s yin-baleful power to break through the Yun family’s protective talisman.

The Ghost King was currently in closed-door cultivation, and the black dog was doing this secretly. Otherwise, the Ghost King would certainly not agree to let him enter Shuigu Town like this. But Mu Chao was his obsession that kept him from entering the cycle of reincarnation after death and becoming a ghost—how could he let it go?

The Ghost King’s closed-door cultivation lasted for uncertain periods—even after several decades or more than a century passed, Mu Chao’s current life might end. He couldn’t wait for the Ghost King to emerge from seclusion.

The flower stamen in the pond water gradually condensed into a pitch-black fine needle. Only plants that grew beside the Black Water Pool could temporarily preserve the Ghost King’s power.

The black dog carefully put away the fine needle, his eyes complex as he looked toward Shuigu Town.

Mu Chao…

…..

Shuigu Town, in the Earth God Temple.

Mortals came and went before the temple offering incense; the deity sat above in the hall, eyes lowered, unknown to anyone.

Because of the Dream-Eating Tapir incident last time, the earth qi consumed in Shuigu Town had still not fully recovered. For this reason, the Earth God had been sitting at the center regulating the earth qi. Aside from that one visit to pay respects to Li Chi, he had not left the Earth God Temple.

In the pale green smoke, beyond mortal sight, the Earth God sat with lowered eyes, listening carefully to a guardian deity’s report.

“…The traces go southward, seemingly entering the Daqing Mountain range.”

Upon hearing this, the Earth God frowned slightly.

These past few days, he had detected a ghost creature entering and leaving the town, but this ghost creature was skilled in concealment techniques, revealing almost no energy fluctuations. Though the Earth God was aware of it, he had been unable to find its trail.

Though the ghost energy left by this creature was barely detectable, it was extremely pure. To sneak into town so secretly, it must have some purpose.

The Earth God ordered a guardian deity skilled in tracking to search for traces of the ghost creature around the town, but the other party was too cautious, leaving almost no clues. The guardian deity had only tracked it to near the Daqing Mountain range before losing the trail.

The Earth God knew that in the Daqing Mountain range, a Ghost King held dominion, deterring thousands of demons and hundreds of ghosts from causing trouble. Though he didn’t cultivate the divine path, he had merit to his name and also belonged to righteous cultivation.

Could this ghost creature have come from the Ghost King’s domain? But if so, why did it act so furtively, hiding and concealing itself?

Whatever this ghost creature wanted to do, the Earth God didn’t intend to let it enter the town again.

Shuigu Town could not endure another incident like the Dream-Eating Tapir.

“Go summon Lord Qiaolu,” the Earth God said, then closed his eyes again.

Lord Qiaolu was also a guardian deity under the Earth God, most skilled at setting up formations.

After paying respects, the guardian deity quietly withdrew, sighing inwardly that this year, Shuigu Town was truly too lively…

…..

At the Yun family home, Yun Ling’s room was also very lively.

Besides her and Ding Qin, Yun Ling’s parents had also gathered in the room.

After having last night’s dream and remembering her past life as Mu Chao, Yun Ling couldn’t help but want to talk with that black dog named Little General.

This terrified her parents. No matter if their daughter had been a mighty general who could lift a cauldron in some past life, she was now their delicate daughter raised with care, who had never even killed a chicken. How could she go meet with that vicious ghost creature?

Never mind past life connections—that was all hundreds of years ago. Their Yun Ling had never been sick since birth, but as soon as this ghost creature came, she fell ill for the first time. That day’s fever was so dangerous! If Ding Qin hadn’t happened to arrive, with her high fever repeatedly returning and not subsiding, what if she’d been burned stupid? She wasn’t very smart to begin with!

“Mother——” Yun Ling drew out the word.

Her mother glared at her. “You’re smart, so you go toward ghost creatures! Even a three-year-old knows to stay away from them!”

“But that’s from my past life…”

“What does that have to do with you! Look at yourself, so delicate and weak—where do you look like a general? Such a fierce big dog, and it’s a ghost creature, its claws even scratched your neck! I was scared to death! Don’t you know to be afraid?”

Yun Ling’s mind unconsciously recalled that night when she opened her eyes to see a ferocious head baring a mouth full of sharp fangs. She couldn’t help but shiver.

“See! Since you’re afraid, why try to approach it!” Yun Ling’s mother said in exasperation.

Yun Ling pursed her lips. “But…”

“Enough,” Yun Ling’s father suddenly interjected. He looked at Yun Ling and slowly said, “Can you guarantee that if you go see it, you’ll definitely return safely and completely unharmed?”

Yun Ling opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.

She couldn’t guarantee it. No matter how she thought, she couldn’t remember how Mu Chao died in that life, couldn’t remember how Little General died, and couldn’t remember why Little General came to find her full of resentment.

Ding Qin had said that ghost creatures all had deep obsessions, often with extreme temperaments, and losing reason and being unable to communicate was not uncommon.

After all, she was also afraid of Little General. It was just that in her dream she had felt the emotions of being Mu Chao, so she had gathered the courage to want to resolve this matter.

“Since you’re not certain, if something happens, what would your mother and I do?”

Yun Ling was silent for a long while, then let out a soft breath and said no more.

After leaving Yun Ling’s room, Yun Ling’s father asked Ding Qin, “This matter… may I ask if there are other ways to resolve it?”

He didn’t specify what kind of solution, but Ding Qin understood his meaning—ideally, let Yun Ling have no contact with that ghost creature and get through this matter safely.

But Ding Qin could only shake her head. “Cause and effect are intertwined. Even if she doesn’t face it now, there will eventually come a day when it must be resolved.”

Yun Ling’s mother wrung her hands tightly together and bowed to Ding Qin in supplication. “No matter what, I beg you to protect her life. If that ghost creature has any demands, as long as we can fulfill them, we will not refuse!”

Ding Qin supported her and said seriously, “The High God told me that Yun Ling’s karmic connection is not malevolent and unsolvable.”

After comforting Yun Ling’s parents and sending them away, Ding Qin slowly pressed her lips together tightly. Because of the Dream-Eating Tapir incident, though the Yun family had never seen the High God’s appearance in their dreams, they had learned some things from Medicine Divine Lady Wangyue. They therefore also trusted Ding Qin greatly, and she needed to be worthy of that trust.

Before that black dog-shaped ghost creature came again, she needed to prepare to face various situations.

…..

As day faded to evening, the sun set in the west. Between heaven and earth, yang energy descended while yin energy grew—the best cover for yin creatures.

The black dog rushed through the vast night, his entire body’s yin energy bone-chillingly cold, his pair of black eyes unfathomably deep.

You locked me in the separate courtyard and told me to wait for you. When I was alive, I waited for you for three years. Three years later, skinned and flesh cut away, my broken bones sank in the pond. That river water was so cold, seeping bit by bit into the bone crevices, soaking into the marrow, making even my soul freeze with icy cold.

After I died, I waited for you another three hundred years and searched for you for five hundred years. Now, how can you refuse to see me?

…..

Under the night, the black dog rushed forward, the karmic connection on his body about to solidify, the black-red and blue-white colors shifting ever more frequently and wildly.

In the Yun family house, lamps blazed brightly. Yun Ling’s brow was tightly furrowed, her heart in turmoil, unable to sleep.

Outside Shuigu Town, a net wove together. The Earth God gazed down from afar, quietly waiting for the rule-breaking ghost creature to throw itself into the trap.

In the Li Manor among the mountain foothills, the deity’s fingertip lightly tapped the book pages, the rhythm stirring fluctuations in the rhythm of heaven and earth. In eyes seemingly open yet not open, vast fog spread.

In this world, not only humans and demons have souls—the hundred beasts without awakened intelligence also have souls. If their obsessions are deep, they transform into ghost creatures.

Grievance, sorrow, resentment, and malevolence spread out into vast karmic connections, waiting for the day when that karma solidifies.

Ordinary life and death rarely produce delusion strong enough to resist the turning of the wheel of reincarnation. Obsession arises from emotion; the deeper the seven emotions, the harder it is to let go of life and death. Those beast souls that linger in the human world unwilling to leave are the same.

“When you liked me, you doted on me in every way, held me in your arms daily, never tired of affection. When you tired of me, you didn’t want to see me even once, had servants throw me far into the water.” The odd-eyed cat’s soul lingered on.

“He was moving away. The new house didn’t need me to guard the gate and watch the yard.” The big yellow dog missing half an ear wandered as a lonely soul.

When grievances cannot be resolved, obsessions don’t dissipate; when obsessions don’t dissipate, one cannot enter reincarnation. But where should these homeless souls go?

Deep in the Daqing Mountain range, the Ghost King took in these lonely souls who couldn’t enter reincarnation and had no one to make offerings to them. Those beast souls were placed under the black dog’s command.

People in the world are mostly heartless. When they love, their feelings are deep, seeing them as family. When they tire of them, they think: how can livestock be the same as people?

Just a dog. If it blocked his path, how could he hesitate and not remove it?

Besides Mu Chao, who could order those servants to enter the courtyard, who would dare have them kill him?

The enormous ghost dog’s gaze was profound—hatred and confusion, longing and suffering, tangled into unbreakable obsession.

Mu Chao, was it you who wanted to kill me?

…..

Outside Shuigu Town, in the quiet night, the black dog transformed into a dark shadow, suppressing his energy and concealing his form, stealthily sneaking toward the town.

Just as the shadow was about to approach the city wall, a thin thread hidden underground suddenly trembled. The next instant, the formation activated!

Below the earth, on the city walls, in mid-air—the hidden net suddenly revealed its traces, overwhelming the sky and covering the earth as it tightened around the shadow!

The black dog was startled and instinctively transformed into an incorporeal ghost body, but attached to those silk threads was a peculiar demon power that could actually touch his ghost body.

Spider demon!

The black dog howled, his surrounding cold ghost energy climbing onto the spider web. The brittle web lost its stickiness and toughness, torn and shattered by him.

The silk formed a formation, endless and inexhaustible. When he tore and shattered one layer, another layer wrapped around him again. This spider demon was no match for him, but those silk threads also carried the Earth God’s divine power, causing his tearing speed to fall short of the speed at which the spider web entangled him.

…..

Eight hundred years ago, iron wire twisted into a net trapped him within. In people’s eyes were fear and satisfaction as they shot arrows into his body from afar.

The separate courtyard where he had waited for three years ultimately became the trap where he died!

…..

Why would the Earth God lay a trap here in advance? Mu Chao, Mu Chao—is it you?!

The black dog’s gaze seemed about to weep blood, his resentful malevolent energy steaming and erupting!

However, layer upon layer of spider web overlapped, the poison secretly spread on them beginning to erode his power bit by bit.

…..

In the separate courtyard, the servant who brought him food and cleaned as usual came carrying a basin, but his gaze dodged, not daring to meet his eyes. The hands holding the basin trembled slightly. After he stood up, the servant was so panicked he nearly dropped the basin on the ground, then scrambled and crawled out of his range of movement.

The deer meat in the basin had splattered out a bit. He sniffed it—there was a strange smell in it.

Was it poison?

…..

Lord Qiaolu hid in the background. No matter how the black dog howled endlessly, he was a spider-turned-demon, most patient of all. He would wait until this ghost dog was exhausted of strength by the poison and web, then he would capture it and bring it back to the Earth God for questioning.

The transparent spider web overlapped layer upon layer, gradually wrapping the ghost dog in the center into a pale white cocoon. Though it still struggled endlessly inside the cocoon, it could only make the cocoon slightly deform, no longer able to break through the spider web.

When the struggling inside the cocoon gradually weakened, Lord Qiaolu finally revealed his form and slowly approached, preparing to bring the ghost dog back to the Earth God Temple.

Halfway there, intense yin energy suddenly erupted from within the cocoon. Lord Qiaolu inwardly cursed and quickly retreated.

What madness had seized this ghost dog, to suddenly fight desperately like this?!

The yin energy in the cocoon exploded with a roar, forcibly shattering the silk cocoon.

The enormous black dog’s eyes were filled with chaotic blood energy, no longer showing any clarity. He raised his head and howled, charging toward the town.

Mu Chao!