Chapter 338: Not Being Intellectual Doesn

Watching Bai Yi hold the tiny white mouse, Feng Xue felt a deep urge to complain but couldn’t find the words—until he led them inside, unwrapped the sealing around Su’e Huiye’s jade statue, and let Bai Yi handle it herself, at which point he finally blurted out:

“Aunt Bai, I have a bold question I’d like to ask you.”

“What’s bold or not? Just ask. Whether I answer is up to me.” Bai Yi carefully brought the white mouse close to Su’e Huiye’s jade statue, afraid she might accidentally touch it first—the mouse looked utterly defeated, clearly gripped too tightly.

Then again, that made sense: Diliujiang was, at its core, a special form of wish-energy, highly prone to corruption, so it couldn’t be bound by immobilization spells—only brute force could contain it.

Seeing this, Feng Xue now understood why, despite Diliujiang appearing once every sixty years, there were still so few transformed demons: even if an ordinary animal were forced into it, it was nearly impossible to perfectly absorb the energy!

At this critical moment, Feng Xue dared not speak—until the little mouse finally touched Diliujiang and its body began to glow faintly, when he finally asked:

“So, when a transformed demon has a child, is the offspring an animal or a human?”

“?” Bai Yi gave him a strange look; Feng Xue grew embarrassed and quickly explained:

“I mean, no offense—I just know my wife is a snake demon, so I’m curious, curious. What if she lays an egg and the timing’s all wrong… Anyway, you know what I mean?”

Seeing Feng Xue’s expression, Bai Yi laughed, holding the mouse’s tail to keep it from wriggling free, then said:

“You don’t need to worry too much. Normally, when a human and a transformed demon have a child, the offspring is human—maybe with minor demon traits, like scales on certain body parts or unusual hair color—easily fixed with cultivation.”

“Even if two transformed great demons mate, as long as they reproduce in human form, their child will be born already transformed. Only when demons mate in their true forms do they produce offspring in their original shapes.”

“But this girl’s unlucky—born in Yi Si year, clashing with Tai Sui, forced back into her original form. Yet her talent is exceptional, and you just happen to have this opportunity—Heaven hasn’t completely closed the door on her.”

Here, Bai Yi added:

“Even if you can’t obtain Diliujiang again, your method of storing it is an incredibly advanced technique—but don’t try selling it to demons. I only happened to run into this. Normally, transformed demons don’t need it much, and untransformed ones can’t even speak—they’re unlikely to have anything valuable to offer.”

“If you really need to, go north to the Outriding Immortals. If they die without enough incense to become ghost immortals, they’re forced into the animal realm to cultivate as demon immortals. Even if they time their rebirth carefully, they often miss Diliujiang. Find them—even if they don’t want to buy, their ancestors queued up underground for rebirth will make them pay.”

“...” Feng Xue didn’t know how to respond to Bai Yi’s words, but Liu Yunxi, who had “accidentally” passed by, leaned over and asked:

“Don’t transformed demons have untransformed relatives? Don’t their offspring have gaps?”

“You remember where your siblings from the same nest ended up?” Bai Yi rolled her eyes. Liu Yunxi replied:

“What about those who gained sentience before transforming, then gave birth? Or those who gained sentience right after giving birth?”

“There are cases, but their mindset is hard to explain. In practice, most demons, once enlightened, focus solely on cultivation and don’t casually reproduce. Even if they do, most offspring don’t survive to the next sixty-year cycle.”

“In our lineage, only three of my siblings absorbed Diliujiang and truly began cultivation. Since then, my nephews and nieces number over a hundred, my grandchildren number in the thousands, and even now, my youngest grandson hasn’t transformed yet. Do you know how many pups he sires each year? Who has time to care for them all? Even the most conscientious just send their pups to Outriding Immortal families as messengers—better than being left to die.”

Bai Yi shrugged, delivering a harsh truth—but upon reflection, it made sense: different species have different reproductive strategies. At the extreme, does anyone expect a pufferfish, which lays hundreds of millions of eggs, to nurture each one individually?

Feng Xue stopped asking, but Liu Yunxi clearly still had questions—when suddenly, the mouse, having finally absorbed Diliujiang, stood upright on its hind legs, raised its tiny paws, and made a gesture Feng Xue found disturbingly familiar…

“What’s going on?” Feng Xue rolled his eyes, but Bai Yi—who could understand the mouse—was even more bewildered:

“What exactly is in this Diliujiang?”

“What?” Feng Xue watched the mouse’s gesture and felt a bad premonition. Bai Yi said blankly:

“This girl just started reciting poetry…”

“...” Feng Xue didn’t need to ask—he knew exactly what poem. But Liu Yunxi didn’t, so she naturally asked:

“What poem did she recite? Did she compose it herself, or is it a famous one?”

Bai Yi clicked her tongue:

“That one by Blacksmith Zhang: ‘Suddenly a madman grinds his blade at night, the Emperor Star wobbles, Mars burns high.’ Could this Diliujiang not come from the moon, but from Mars? That might explain why it appears on New Year’s Eve…”

“I think it’s just a database issue…” Feng Xue muttered to himself, but didn’t say it aloud—instead he asked:

“Ask her what else she knows.”

Bai Yi thought for a moment, then emitted a sound inaudible to human ears. The mouse, hearing it, sat upright, head raised, paws clasped as if a refined lady—yet Bai Yi grimaced:

“She wants a dragon’s pearl… Why not ask for a peach of immortality?”

“What did she say now?” Liu Yunxi’s curiosity burned fiercely. Bai Yi sighed, then replied:

“She says to marry her, you must offer a dragon’s pearl as dowry… This child is unmarriageable!”

“Pfft…” Liu Yunxi burst out laughing. She realized now—this was exactly the story used to fill the legend of the Moon Goddess back in the He Concession! So that “Emperor Star wobbles” line must’ve been the resistance’s ideology from the He Concession.

Feng Xue glared at her, concerned:

“Could this be a problem?”

“No problem at all. Diliujiang sometimes retains fragments of knowledge—usually from contact with impure wishes during its fall. Harmless, even beneficial for awakening sentience. When I first gained awareness, I couldn’t even form a complete sentence!”

Saying this, Bai Yi grabbed the mouse, now in a new pose, to stop it from embarrassing itself further, then looked at the jade statue of the goddess with rabbit ears:

“I’ll take her back to her parents. No need to stay longer. If you need me, come to my place—West Building, Unit 3, Apartment 207, Chickencoop Village!”

(End of Chapter)