After Transmigrating into an Evil God - Chapter 7

“It seems you also have some understanding of the Divine Court?” Li Chi asked.

Jin Yan hemmed and hawed for a couple of sounds, then muttered quietly, “Look at what you’re asking – if I knew about it, wouldn’t I be a demon god myself?”

Although the Divine Court broadly opened the path of cultivation, it wasn’t without thresholds. To achieve what the Divine Court’s laws required, one would at least need to be a great demon capable of protecting a region, like the Great King Yishan in Liquan Village.

Li Chi felt somewhat regretful, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Instead, Jin Yan began speaking evasively, “Let me go check out my room first, we’ll chat again next time.” With that, he flapped his wings and flew away.

Li Chi shook his head, not minding it. He returned to his own courtyard, and seeing the furniture that Hou Li had left in the yard, couldn’t help but smile. He sent them into the room to arrange properly, then began reading through the new books Hou Li had delivered.

On the other side, Jin Yan was wandering aimlessly around the courtyard. What was there to see in a woodshed? He didn’t want to go there!

The manor spirit was just petty! Li Chi was quite nice though, able to listen to his chatter for so long without showing impatience – much better than those impatient fellows! Jin Yan hadn’t been able to chat so freely in a long time.

He was just thinking about when to find Li Chi for another chat when he suddenly saw the manor spirit beckoning to him from ahead.

Jin Yan originally wanted to pretend he hadn’t seen, but was afraid this fellow would just directly grab him down. After pondering for a moment, he obediently landed.

“Manor Spirit, what do you want?”

Hou Li frowned. “I have a name now, I’m called Hou Li.”

“Eh?” Jin Yan said in surprise, “How did you stubborn fellow suddenly give yourself a name?”

Hou Li glared at him.

“Hou Li, Hou Li,” Jin Yan quickly called out, “Then you’ll have to call me by my name too from now on. There are so many bird demons here, who knows which one you’re calling?”

Hou Li hesitated for a long while, unable to call out his name, and asked, “Who gave you this name?”

Jin Yan cackled. “What’s it to you? As long as it sounds good!”

Hou Li couldn’t be bothered to ask further, saying, “Weren’t you curious about how I recovered?”

Jin Yan’s round bird eyes widened, staring at him curiously without blinking.

“It was the High God Li Chi who returned with you today who enlightened me. This is a truly powerful deity – don’t offend him,” Hou Li warned.

Jin Yan’s mouth hung open for a long time without closing, then suddenly snapped shut as he asked suspiciously, “You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“When the High God cultivates today, you’ll naturally know. I don’t know how you gained the High God’s favor, but remember my reminder – watch that mouth of yours,” Hou Li said.

Jin Yan cackled. “Anyway, before your reminder, I already chatted with him. Maybe he just likes listening to my chatter!”

Hou Li couldn’t be bothered with him and directly dissipated from sight.

Jin Yan rolled his eyes, flew back to the vicinity of Li Chi’s courtyard, picked a comfortable tree branch to perch on, standing there while preening his feathers and waiting.

Li Chi wasn’t planning to cultivate yet – he was reading through the books Hou Li had given him.

Though there were quite a few books, few mentioned the Divine Court. Li Chi flipped through them all and only found one sentence related to the Divine Court in a book called “Examination of Mountain and Wilderness Oddities”:

“Though the Divine Court is established, in this world, immortals and demons have no real difference.”

Though the Divine Court is established… The Divine Court wasn’t naturally born from heaven and earth, but established later?

Who established the Divine Court?

How did the Divine Court’s seal come to be placed on deities? Does every deity receive one, or are there certain conditions? Or is there some other way to avoid the Divine Court’s seal?

Could the Divine Court’s seal have other functions as well?

Li Chi flipped further back, but this book contained no other records related to the Divine Court.

The author of “Examination of Mountain and Wilderness Oddities” called himself Qianhao Sanren. The book mostly contained various strange events and anomalies he had investigated. However, besides investigation, Qianhao Sanren also had a habit of making judgments and assessments about these strange events, though his judgments were always rather harsh – whether from hatred of evil or a stern disposition was unclear.

As the sky gradually darkened, Li Chi placed the book on the shelf, planning to read it slowly in the future.

In the courtyard, the small mouse with purple-gray fur was already waiting by the large bluestone.

Li Chi sat cross-legged with eyes slightly closed, and a breath of air slowly exhaled from his chest, transforming into a white silk ribbon that lingered in the air for a moment before scattering into points of fluorescent light.

Jin Yan, who had been waiting boredly in the tree, was startled and widened his eyes, accidentally plucking out one of his own feathers without noticing.

After Li Chi began cultivating, his aura was no longer restrained. His entire being transformed – his aura became lofty and ethereal, as if merging with the surrounding heaven and earth.

His refined, otherworldly face became indifferently transcendent, his half-closed eyes gazed down upon the mortal world, faint spiritual mist emerged from around him, and the deity’s form appeared half-hidden, as if seated on clouds.

Seeing the little mouse beside him had closed its eyes in cultivation, Jin Yan hastily focused his mind to grasp this rare opportunity. A breath of spiritual energy, clear and pure, gradually calmed his restless demon heart.

The moon rose to the center of the sky, and its reflection appeared in the pool.

The clear, waveless pool water slowly rose, and the shadow of a silver fish condensed from the moon’s reflection, bathing in moonlight as it slowly swished its tail, stirring up some illusory ripples.

Li Chi opened his eyes and looked at the moon’s reflection in the pool.

He reached his hand into the pool water. The silver fish swam over and nibbled at his fingertips, creating a circle of illusory ripples before disappearing.

This swimming silver fish wasn’t a physical entity, but a shadow formed by gathered spiritual essence. Usually hidden in the spiritual spring, it only appeared in the moon’s reflection when moonlight gathered. How it formed was unknown – neither living nor dead, quite wondrous.

I’ll ask Hou Li tomorrow, Li Chi thought, getting up and returning to lie on his side on the bed in his room with eyes closed.

As the deity entered sleep, pale white cloud vapors spontaneously generated in the void, gradually thickening to conceal Li Chi’s form.

Unlike the spiritual mist generated during his cultivation, these clouds didn’t dissipate but only swirled within three feet around him, extremely resilient, blocking all living beings from approaching and spiritual consciousness from probing.

Beneath the clouds, a patch of purple-gold hidden scales slowly emerged below Li Chi’s left eye.

Li Chi was usually dreamless when sleeping. His daily drowsiness was likely a result of his divine body’s severe injuries, not true sleep, so being dreamless was normal.

But today, something triggered recognition in the depths of mystery, causing Li Chi to fall into dreams again.

…Willing to offer blood and flesh as divine nourishment… Pray for forgiveness of sins, humbly hoping for acceptance.

The prayer droned on, quite irritating to the ears.

The deity gazed down indifferently at the altar below. Built of wood and stone, decorated with fine jade, with pure water, fragrant flowers, fruits and sacrificial animals… silk-clad people gathered in great numbers, praying for the deity to resolve their disasters.

The crowd below the altar knelt and kowtowed. In the deity’s left eye, layers of gray-black blood-stained threads of karma enveloped them, filthy and disgusting.

This sacrifice was unusually grand, but these weren’t the main offerings.

On the altar, four young men and women lying supine holding bowls were. They had long lost their breath, their bowls each containing a freshly cut heart, red and hot.

Repentance?

The deity’s gaze was cold, chilling. He slowly raised his hand, holding a brush with a black and white tip and a body white as bone.

The brush tip fell toward the altar, soaking up the bright red fresh blood, then descended toward the kneeling crowd below the altar.

The scattered karmic threads instantly condensed, and the four corpses on the altar generated eerie ghostly energy that rushed straight along the blood-red karmic threads!

…..

Li Chi opened his eyes and pressed his hand below his left eye, where the smooth, hard scales were slowly fading away.

He sat silently on the bed, recalling what he had seen in the dream.

Another sacrifice – this one far more lavish than the sacrifice seen in the previous dream. However, the previous worshippers had sought vengeance for wrongs, while this time the worshippers sought to resolve their own karmic debts, even going so far as to use humans as sacrifices, but this only hastened their retribution.

Deities cannot be exploited; deities have their own judgment.

Li Chi rubbed the skin below his left eye, feeling pity for this already-dissipated deity, and couldn’t help but sigh.

He recalled the brush from the dream – undoubtedly a magical artifact related to karma. When holding that brush, he could feel the surging, powerful force within it that resonated with him.

But after Li Chi’s transmigration, he had nothing on him except a set of clothes.

He wondered whether that brush was lost or hidden somewhere. If he could find it, given his current state of severe injury and weakness, having such a powerful weapon would undoubtedly make him much safer.

Even if not, this dream had opened up a line of thought for him. Besides recuperating and recovering his divine power, he could also use magical artifacts to enhance his safety.

He had two choices: forge one himself, or find a way to obtain an already-formed magical artifact.

The advantage of self-forging was compatibility with himself – he could start crafting once he determined the direction, though growth would be slower. Ready-made artifacts would save time, but he had no corresponding leads.

There might be some in the Li family storehouse, but Li Chi didn’t want to trouble Hou Li.

He still needed to maintain some of his own principles.

After settling on this plan, Li Chi got up and opened his room door.

By the threshold was a gift from the little mouse – this time, several pine nuts.

Li Chi cracked them open and put a pine nut in his mouth.

Divine bodies are self-sufficient, neither hungry nor defiled. He didn’t need to eat, but he vaguely remembered the sensation of eating from before his transmigration.

It wasn’t the season for pine nuts to ripen; these should be from last autumn’s reserves. Though several months had passed, they were still plump and oily, spreading a clear fragrance with subtle sweetness in his mouth.

The pine nuts also contained some spiritual energy that nourished his divine body when absorbed, though this bit of spiritual energy could only be considered better than nothing. The sensation of eating, however, stirred some sentiment in Li Chi.

Though he had no memories from before transmigration, since he had impressions of eating, he probably had been mortal. Now suddenly becoming a deity but entangled in complications with all past forgotten – he wondered if his pre-transmigration self had died or encountered some other fate. From mortal to deity, this step to heaven – who could say clearly what the gains and losses were?

Dawn had not yet broken, and the little mouse lay by the large bluestone cultivating.

Li Chi didn’t disturb it, quietly sitting back on the stone to wait for sunrise and swallow the first ray of harmonious yang energy.

Moonlight was clear, cold and gentle; wood energy contained vitality. Different spiritual energies had their own characteristics. Though Li Chi wasn’t picky, he felt this ray of harmonious yang energy was most compatible with him.

As the east grew bright, a breath of harmonious yang energy was swallowed into Li Chi’s belly, then transformed into warm, vitality that permeated around him, dispelling some of the desolate qi from the small courtyard.

Li Chi looked at the flourishing vegetation in the garden and the increasingly abundant spiritual spring, flicked his sleeves, and left the courtyard.

He was going to ask the manor spirit Hou Li about the fish shadow in the pool.