After Transmigrating into an Evil God - Chapter 6

Li Chi remained silent for a long moment.

Jin Yan grew anxious. “Don’t disbelieve me! Houses can become spirits too!”

“Let me tell you, while it’s rare for inanimate objects to gain sentience, it does exist. Because it’s so difficult, they’re actually more formidable! That guy is particularly hard to deal with on his own territory! Think about it—he’s an entire mansion. Unless you tear down the house, there’s nothing he’s afraid of!”

“But we only have a small dispute. Can we really tear down someone’s house? Of course not!” Jin Yan chattered on, “But if you fight on his territory, how could you possibly win? However, this time I’ve cultivated painstakingly for decades, and I must show him my power!”

Li Chi listened to this fellow’s nonsense all the way. This dove demon’s mouth never stopped—finishing one topic, then starting another. In doing so, he revealed quite a bit about the situation of nearby demons. Li Chi listened and remembered, and before he knew it, they had arrived at their destination.

“We’re here,” Jin Yan stopped talking, smacking his lips with lingering satisfaction.

Li Chi looked up to see the two large characters “Li Manor” hanging above. Before he could speak, Jin Yan was already shouting loudly, “Manor spirit! Manor spirit! Come out! Your Grandpa Jin Yan has come to find you!”

The Manor Spirit Hou Li was currently cleaning. Previously, his spiritual body had been on the verge of dissipation, completely unable to clean his own physical form, only able to let weeds grow and dust accumulate.

The root systems of those weeds and wild vines were damaging the mansion’s structure. The Manor Spirit had no other choice but to ask small animals with spiritual nature to help.

Now that he had finally re-solidified his spiritual body, he naturally couldn’t let the mansion continue in such a state.

The mansion was his physical form, so cleaning it was relatively easy for him. Before long, all the heavy dust, spider webs, withered branches and dead leaves were piled up in the flower beds. The delicate blue bricks and black tiles revealed their true appearance, making the entire mansion appear refreshingly clear.

Hou Li walked to the courtyard and sighed as he looked at the trellis covered with old vines. The courtyard had originally been planted with many exotic flowers and trees, but they had all withered beyond saving. Even the old pine by the gate had lost its vitality. Only this old vine had managed to survive.

He walked to the large pool. This spiritual spring had nearly dried up completely, but in recent days it actually showed signs of recovery.

Although Hou Li was delighted that his life was now free and he had escaped the constraints of human vital energy, he subsequently felt regret. High God Li Chi was gentle and kind. Now that he no longer needed to depend on the spiritual qi emanating from the High God’s cultivation to sustain his life, he had lost one reason to beg the High God to remain here.

A small mouse with purple-gray fur emerged from behind the large bluestone by the pool, squeaking greetings to Hou Li.

Looking at this naive little mouse who could always stay close to Li Chi to cultivate, Hou Li actually felt some envy. If only his physical form weren’t a mansion and he could leave this place, then he could request the High God to let him follow. Hou Li knew he was being greedy, but faced with such a rare opportunity, how could he not be moved?

But what did he have in his hands now that would be worthy of making the High God stay?

Perhaps only the items in the Li family storehouse still held some value.

If the Li bloodline had ended, that would be one thing—he had developed self-awareness and wasn’t as rigid as before, so he could dispose of these things himself. But the Li family still had descendants living in the world, so these things had owners, and he shouldn’t give them away carelessly. Moreover, even if he offered them, High God Li Chi might not accept them.

While Hou Li was troubled, his hands weren’t idle. Currently, the High God’s residence only had one set of table and chairs and a wooden bed, with the book chest he had sent placed beside the table—it looked far too shabby.

Previously, when he was weak and powerless, it couldn’t be helped, but now that he had the ability, he couldn’t continue to treat his guest poorly.

Hou Li waved his hand and moved wooden shelves, cabinets, small stoves and other furniture from other rooms, along with a set of writing materials, tea sets, candles and candlesticks, and other miscellaneous items in the cabinets.

His thinking was now agile and open-minded. While he couldn’t touch the important items in the Li family storehouse, these other miscellaneous things had only been stored away because they were inconvenient to carry—using these would be harmless.

Later, he did think about adding some cushions, soft mats, tea leaves, and incense, but after more than two hundred years, while the Manor Spirit initially had the ability to maintain these things, later when he could barely protect himself, these perishable items had long since rotted away.

Hou Li left these things in the courtyard and brought over another chest of books. He began to think hard about how to make the High God stay longer, or find a way for himself to leave the mansion and move around.

The first idea ultimately depended on the High God; the second method was something he could control himself.

Object spirits could indeed move on their own. He had heard that some scroll spirits could even jump out of paintings carrying their scroll axes, and some small jade and sword spirits could also move—they just moved while carrying their physical forms.

So his inability to move wasn’t because he was an object spirit, but because of his physical form. But with the mansion’s foundation rooted deep in the mountain, how could he leave?

He had heard that some great demons possessed the ability to move peaks and carry mountains…

Just as Hou Li’s thoughts were soaring, he suddenly heard a familiar voice making strange calls outside.

His brow furrowed, and his form instantly materialized at the main gate.

After seeing Li Chi, Hou Li was about to speak when he was interrupted.

“How did you become so much stronger?!” The loud-voiced dove demon was startled.

Decades ago when he fought with the Manor Spirit, the Manor Spirit’s spiritual body wasn’t nearly as solid as it was now. How had this fellow become stronger after all these decades?

“What are you doing here again, bird demon?” Hou Li said with a headache.

“Stop calling me bird demon,” Jin Yan complained. “I have a name. Can’t I come see you?”

While speaking, he flew to the withered pine tree, looking down at the Manor Spirit from his high perch. “I come to see you, and this is how you treat guests?”

“Whose grandpa are you?” Hou Li asked expressionlessly.

Jin Yan’s round black eyes darted around, and his two claws shuffled slightly toward the courtyard wall as he said, “You misheard. I’m the grandpa of all the little dove chicks in this mountain forest. I was calling my descendants.” His cowardice was performed with grace and decisive determination.

“Oh,” Hou Li looked at him with deep eyes, “Then who were you calling ‘manor demon’?”

“Certainly not you. Can’t I have a descendant with that homophone?” Jin Yan hopped on his claws, again inconspicuously moving closer to the courtyard wall.

“Oh? Then what do you call me?” Hou Li pressed aggressively.

“Look what you’re saying—you don’t have a name, so there has to be some way to address you, right? Aren’t you a house that became a spirit?” Jin Yan chattered, “If you don’t like ‘manor demon,’ how about ‘house demon’? ‘Building demon’? ‘Mansion demon’? ‘Residence demon’? ‘Dwelling’…”

His mouth wouldn’t stop, and his claws kept hopping around. Taking advantage of a gap, he whooshed toward the inside of the courtyard wall.

Li Chi laughed out loud.

Hou Li raised his hand, and Jin Yan crashed into an invisible air wall with a “thud,” falling dizzily downward. Before falling far, he spread his wings and was about to fly away. “You manor demon don’t recognize good demon hearts. I’ll come see you again next time…”

“Don’t bother with next time.” Hou Li reached out and pulled him down, letting the dove demon stare stupidly in his palm.

“How is it possible for you to catch me? When did you become this strong?” Jin Yan shouted.

Hou Li ignored him and respectfully said to Li Chi beside him. “I’ve made the High God witness a joke.”

“What’s going on here?” Li Chi asked with a laugh.

Jin Yan was shocked. “How do you two know each other? Are you in cahoots? Did you deceive me?”

Hou Li grabbed his beak. “This dove demon has always had designs on Li Manor, wanting to make this place his own cave dwelling. I’ve driven him away several times. Other demons have long given up, but he continues to pester endlessly.”

“His persistence is quite admirable,” Li Chi said with a smile.

Jin Yan struggled his beak free. “This house is empty with no one living in it. What’s wrong with me occupying one room? I can even help you weed—isn’t that better than those wild beasts that aren’t even demons?”

Li Chi also looked curiously at Hou Li.

“Birds are all straight-boweled,” Hou Li explained.

Birds cannot control their excretion—they defecate wherever they fly.

Jin Yan struggled free of his hand and didn’t run away, angrily saying, “Stop insulting demons! I’ve cultivated into a demon! You’re just petty! Stubborn! Rigidly following broken rules without flexibility! You just can’t fly, and if you could fly you’d crash into trees and become an idiot! The Li family might all be long dead—are you guarding this place to be buried together as an ancestral tomb? If I lived here I could even provide you with some demonic qi to help you last a few more days.”

Hou Li’s expression didn’t look good, and he said mockingly, “Is that why you want to enter Li Manor?”

Jin Yan shrank his neck.

Li Chi found it amusing and was also considering that bird demons could come and go freely without attracting attention, loved gossip, and knew a lot of information and intelligence. The Manor Spirit was trapped in place, and he himself was newly arrived and not very familiar with this area. With Jin Yan’s help, he could save a lot of trouble.

So he smiled and asked Hou Li, “What else has he done to make you dislike him so much?”

“He’s too noisy,” Hou Li said helplessly. “Other creatures can hide from him, but as a Manor Spirit, if he wants to live here, I can only endure it.”

Jin Yan immediately fell silent, blinking as he looked at Hou Li. “Just let me stay, okay? I’ll only be here when I’m sleeping, and I don’t talk in my sleep.”

“You must be so bored here by yourself, and you can’t go anywhere. If you want to know something, just ask me—I can fly there right away. When I’m free, I can even pick up some new tiles to replace the old ones.”

“That’s stealing,” Hou Li retorted. However, having been nourished by human vital energy for so long, his mind was sharp. With a quick turn of thought, he guessed that Li Chi intended to keep this dove demon, so his tone became less resolute. “It’s not impossible to lend you a room.”

Jin Yan was delighted, flapping his wings and promising, “Tell me! What do you want me to do?”

Hou Li turned to look at Li Chi, and Jin Yan also looked over.

Jin Yan could see that of these two, Li Chi was the one who could really make decisions. For some reason, this stubbornly rigid Manor Spirit showed such respect to this seemingly ordinary cultivator. Could he be a Li family descendant?

Thinking of this, Jin Yan suddenly understood—no wonder the Manor Spirit’s spiritual body had become much more solid. The homeowner had returned and replenished his human vital energy.

Li Chi asked with a smile. “You know a lot of things?”

Jin Yan nodded vigorously. “There’s nothing in this area I don’t know! Even if I really don’t know something, I can find out!”

“Could I trouble fellow daoist to clear out a room?” Li Chi asked Hou Li.

“No trouble at all,” Hou Li said quickly.

Jin Yan, thinking he had guessed correctly, struggled out of Hou Li’s hand and flew to Li Chi’s hand, saying arrogantly, “Did you hear that? Clean out a room for your master!”

Hou Li “hmph”ed: “Live in the woodshed then!” His form dispersed and disappeared.

Jin Yan’s eyes widened. Following Hou Li’s words, he felt the mansion suddenly impose some kind of restriction on him. He tested it and found that he indeed couldn’t fly into any room except the woodshed.

Li Chi smiled. “I’m not the master here, just borrowing a place to stay.”

Jin Yan didn’t believe it. “That guy’s brain is rigid as stone—how could he possibly let others stay here?”

Li Chi didn’t explain further and asked, “Liquan Village at the foot of the mountain—do you know it?”

“I know it,” Jin Yan nodded. Without Li Chi needing to ask more, this chatterbox bird spilled everything he knew. “Great King Yishan protects that place. He’s a real great demon, almost cultivated into a Demon God! You know what a Demon God is, right? Let me tell you…”

Li Chi showed no impatience. He had chosen Jin Yan precisely for this trait. The matter of transmigration couldn’t be told to anyone, and he lacked knowledge of many common things. If he only waited to trigger understanding, that would be too passive, but he couldn’t ask others directly.

Jin Yan’s boastful chatterbox personality was perfect—he could help fill in many gaps in common knowledge.

Divine beings was a general term for those who practiced the divine path. Gods formed from gathered faith were called Spirit Gods, gods achieved by humans were called Human Gods, gods achieved by ghosts were called Ghost Gods, and gods achieved by demons were called Demon Gods.

There were countless cultivation methods in this world, and divine path cultivation was the most widespread.

It wasn’t that divine path cultivation had any advantage over other cultivation methods, but because proper techniques were hard to come by.

Almost all inheritances that mastered cultivation methods held to the principle that techniques should not be lightly transmitted. But divine path proper techniques were cultivation methods available to everyone.

As long as cultivators acted according to divine path regulations, they could receive the Divine Court’s seal, which contained divine path proper techniques. For mountain and wilderness demons like them who had no inheritance, this was an irresistible temptation.

After all, who knew whether the crooked paths they figured out themselves might lead to explosive death at some step? Even if they were fortunate enough to obtain other inheritances, they were almost all damaged, and there would always come a day when the cultivation path was cut off. But as long as they obtained the Divine Court’s seal and acted without violating Divine Court principles, they could gradually obtain subsequent divine path proper techniques from the seal.

“…The Divine Court is really wonderful,” Jin Yan said without getting dry-mouthed, smacking his sharp beak enviously. “Passing down proper cultivation techniques to all divine beings—so much better than those petty inheritances!”

Li Chi’s face remained calm, but his heart was filled with stormy waves.

He too was a divine being, but on his body, there was no so-called “Divine Court seal.”