There are more creatures in the Cultivation Realm than on the Mortal Realm.
For example, there are hardly any demons in the Mortal Realm, but they are less scarce in the Cultivation Realm.
The cultivators divided demons into two categories; plants and vegetation that evolve are called spirit plants, while animals that evolve become demon beasts.
The aura of the Cultivation Realm was much stronger than that of the Mortal Realm. Thus, more demons cultivated their spirituality quickly. However, since human cultivators dominated the Cultivation Realm, and with demons tending to avoid them, the demons went deep into the mountains where human cultivators don’t usually tread.
However, for those who cultivate the Dao, these spiritual beasts and plants were of great use.
(TNote: Dao = way/path/route; the fundamental concept of Chinese philosophy.)
Although there were some cultivators who didn’t want to harm these creatures, for most, they didn’t think much of it when killing someone that wasn’t of their race. They hardly felt a speck of guilt even if they killed these demons, much less when they did so to gain great benefits.
On one hand, the spiritual plants could be eaten raw or made into elixirs to improve cultivation.
On the other hand, the demon beasts were even more useful as the smaller demon beast could be raised as a mount or a guard while the bigger ones provided useful material from every inch of their body, from teeth to fur. Eating their meat could also take one’s cultivation higher.
All in all, they were treasure chests.
Of course, demons were unwilling to be treated like this. Thus, some demons hide in the mountains to cultivate with peace of mind, in anticipation of cultivating so high that no human cultivator could capture them, or ascending to the Heavenly Realm.
As for the rest of the demons, they started fighting back. They began eating practitioners to increase their spiritual power. Gradually, the demons’ reputation changed from ‘all parts are treasures’ to ‘all beasts should be killed’.
Large numbers of demons were hunted down in spite, and from then on, demons and human cultivators became blood enemies.
Unfortunately, the Cultivation Realm was full of cultivators, so the demons were always at a disadvantage.
Over time, more and more demons were killed, until only a few of them were left deep in the spiritual mountains where human cultivators were afraid to go.
Then, the demons faded into obscurity, with many of the remaining ones hiding in the deep mountains.
For safety, most of them made their appearance look human. Also, they were protected by the Tiger Demon. The Tiger Demon’s cultivation had reached the Divine Stage, and he set a barrier that ensured cultivators wouldn’t get into the mountain.
The Tiger Demon had requirements for the remaining demons to be protected by him. He didn’t accept demons who kill people or other demons, and only allowed demons whose hands were clean to stay within his barrier.
On this day, after making his usual rounds to ensure that the cultivators hadn’t discovered this demon’s abode, he went back to the lake in the mountains, and like usual, saw the little snake sleeping in the lake as he worried about it the whole time.
He found this little snake the same day he got the news that some cultivators had captured a group of demon beast cubs with the intention of concocting them to make pills, and he rushed out of the mountain to save them.
When he found her, she was bleeding from seven open wounds and was dying. She was obviously covered in aura but had no cultivation.
After checking the wounds and finding that they were all knife cuts, the Tiger Demon felt that it was probably just another little beast who had started to develop a little spiritual power, and was injured by the cultivators attracted by its aura.
Tiger Demons had an aptitude in divination. After calculating that this little snake had never harmed any living beings, with some hesitation, he brought her back and put her in this spiritual lake covered with spiritual stones to recuperate.
(TNote: in Chinese mythology, the general method of divination was by calculating, ex: date of birth, or meeting someone, etc.)
This spiritual stone lake could be said to be his favorite cultivation spot. After all, not everyone could be rich enough to pave the entire lake with spirit stones.
Also, since it was covered with spirit stones, anyone cultivating here would see an increase in cultivation speed, whereas injured people, when soaking in the lake for a period of time, would also quickly recover.
Initially, the Tiger Demon thought that since it was just a small snake, it would only take a few months for it to fully heal. Unexpectedly, she continued to sleep for more than 100 years, which then made him very worried about whether the snake scales, which had turned white and miserable over the years, would be so soaked they would fall off. However, time passed and the snake scales remained as they were, but the head of the small snake grew more and more deformed.
A few years ago, the little snake woke up for the first time. Although it kept falling back asleep for most of the time after that, the moments it spent awake showed the Tiger Demon that it was a female snake, and its character was rather pleasant. This made him care more for the little demon and sincerely helped it a little more.
Every time the Tiger Demon went to the lake, he was full of worries as he looked at the big bump on the top of the little snake’s head, thinking that she might have contracted some strange disease.
As they all know, for reptiles, only a dragon would grow horns, because it is said that the lord of the Heavenly Realm is a dragon. If a snake wants to become a dragon, it could only try to grow one. Even then, although they might display horns on top of their heads and morph to dragons, most of them looked ugly due to their less-than-pure blood origins. Therefore, many snakes usually change to their human form after finally turning into a dragon. After all, aesthetics is something that every species wanted.
Besides, the life span of this little snake was only in its early 100s, and it had been sleeping for the past 100 years too. Meaning, she was probably only in her twenties when the Tiger Demon first picked her up. For the demons, she was still a baby.
A baby that had been sleeping for a hundred years turning from a snake already growing horns and turning into a dragon?
It was more likely that the little snake was poisoned by a cultivator, catching some strange disease in the process.
He was quite certain of this conjecture.
If it weren’t for this strange disease, why would this little one, who had slept in the lake for 100 years, still be so sleepy after waking up? This mountain experiences spring all the year round, so there was no need for the demons to hibernate anyways.
Since the Tiger Demon was good at divination and was already at the Divine Stage, his calculations were usually accurate. However, every time he wanted to calculate this little snake’s life, he could only briefly calculate her future.
This was the strangest fate he had ever encountered. People and demons in the cultivation world knew that every cultivator who wanted to ascend to the Heavenly Realm would have to pass through a tribulation, and the tribulation was usually a thunder tribulation. On top of that, before one wanted to ascend from tribulation, one still needed to undergo and overcome calamity and hardship.
Calamity came in many forms, with some being nothing more than a few love affairs and feuds.
A cultivator who had lived for thousands of years preparing to ascend to the stage of tribulation might recall an unresolved conflict that occured thousands of years ago. Perhaps, they had shamed one or owed another while they were still a mortal. Once these memories arise, if they don’t resolve it, these unsettled grievances will haunt them and cause them to fail the tribulation to come. At best, their cultivation would decrease by a stage, and at worst, their body would be crushed to pieces.
Demons, on the other hand, don’t pay so much attention to sentimental grievances like this. Even if demons turn into humans, they are still demons in their roots. To kill is to kill, and to be evil is to be evil, and they felt no remorse for it.
For demons, their calamity was mostly vengeance.
As the little snake woke up to realize she had no memory and was completely ignorant of the world, the Tiger Demon, who felt that he was also half an elder to her, told her many stories.
Just as the Tiger Demon was pondering what story to tell her today, the little snake woke up.
The small silvery-white snake in the lake stirred and opened her eyes somewhat wearily.
The first thing demons usually did when they opened their eyes was to absorb aura. However, since the pain this little snake felt was so miserable, the only thing she could do when she opened her eyes was shudder in the pain from her seven wounds. The pain was excruciating, and each time, it felt like her whole body was being split in half, so much that she couldn’t even move, and could only curl her tail as she trembled through the pain.
Sensing the changes in the aura around her, the Tiger Demon hurriedly lowered his head and raised his paws to put them on the bump on the little snake’s head that grew out, rambling a story to distract her.
Today, they were going to talk about the calamity of demons.
The purpose of his stories about calamity was to tell the little snake that if she made enemies, she should finish them off quickly, and not put it off until the last step before facing tribulation. If she did so, she would still have to go to the trouble of finding the enemies from thousands of years ago.
For example, if there was a demon who was almost killed by a cultivator when he was 300 years old, he had to find a trace of the cultivator. If the enemy dies before he kills him, he can let go of this vengeance. If the enemy was still alive, he had to kill his enemy before he could ascend with peace of mind.
For example, there was this demon who had lived for thousands of years, and one day he suddenly remembered that when he was just a year old, he was almost taken away and eaten by a weasel. Upon remembering it, his wish was to eat the weasel instead, so he had to hurry back to the place where he was born and look for traces of the weasel.
This example was also seen by the Tiger Demon personally. It was a Chicken Demon born in the Mortal Realm. It didn’t know what fate had given birth to its consciousness, but when it was ascending, it recalled this life and went back to the place where it was born to look for the weasel from that year.
It didn’t really hold much hope since thousands of years had passed by then. How could the weasel still be alive? As it turns out, the weasel not only lived, but had also become a Weasel Demon and was attempting to ascend at the same time as it did.
Coincidentally, the Weasel Demon’s calamity was also the Chicken Demon.
However, the nature of calamity faced by the weasel wasn’t quite the same as that of the chicken.
In truth, the Weasel Demon achieved spiritual wisdom much earlier than the Chicken Demon. At that time, it suddenly thought to find itself a female partner, but the weasel, after scouring the whole mountain, couldn’t find one. Then, it discovered that this chicken was turning into a demon, the same as itself, and the weasel thought to make the chicken its partner. Once the thought formed, its mind was full of taking this pure and unpretentious chicken back to its lair.
Unfortunately, the chicken thought it was going to eat it, and it fiercely resisted. The weasel was then found by the mortal, who kept the chicken, and was beaten away.
By the time the Weasel Demon got up the courage to return, the Chicken Demon had fled in a panic because it realized that ‘the owner ate my mother hen’.
When they finally met again, the two were about to advance in tribulation toward the Mahayana Stage, they met as demons and fought for three days and three nights.
After listening to the Tiger Demon’s story for a while, the little snake’s pain started to ease. Relieved from the pain, she looked up slightly and pondered, “And then what happened? Did they fall in love and get married?”
The Tiger Demon touched her little bump with a smile. “You’ve been listening to those mortal stories from that lizard again, haven’t you?”
“How can it be as simple as them getting married? After all, they were still small at that time, and their views on right and wrong weren’t clear.”
The little snake was puzzled, but she didn’t know why. She always had a trace of love in her heart.
Even after waking up, all she could think about was that she was looking for somebody.
She was looking for someone … who was very important to her.
The Tiger Demon expressed sympathy for the snake. “Silly girl, you might be confusing love for revenge on the cultivator who hurt you. Practice well, so when the time comes, you can defeat that person later.”
Regardless of what the Tiger Demon said, the little snake always felt otherwise.
She couldn’t remember who that person was, his visage, or his name, but every time she thought of him, her heart seemed to be divided into two halves. Half of it felt sweet as honey stolen from a bee demon, and the other half felt sour, astringent and bitter, and she couldn’t help but shed tears.
Every time she cried, she wiped away her tears and resolutely told the Tiger Demon, “I must like that person very much. The Lizard Demon said, this was love.”
“Nonsense.”
The Tiger Demon looked at her eyes with a little more pity. “You must have been hurt in the head by that cultivator, so badly that you were even beaten back into your true form. How can your heart not hurt? It’s not easy for us demons to cultivate.”
The little snake, finally discouraged by his dissent, avoided the topic and asked, “So the Chicken Demon and the Weasel Demon really didn’t get together? They were each other’s fated calamity, this should be destiny ah…”
The Tiger Demon sighed.