Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Xiao Yao was a little surprised when he heard Bai Ju say there was an auspicious beast.
All auspicious beasts in China were connected with Shintoism; now that Shintoism in China had declined, the auspicious beasts had also gradually disappeared. Occasionally, there were one or two that were still active, but their tempers were also arrogant; as auspicious beasts, although they were not ruthless killers, they also regarded people as insignificant and were not willing to condescend to communicate with ordinary people, let alone come out to maintain the stability of the demon world – this was also one of the reasons why the Demon Management Bureau did not invite the auspicious beasts, but instead found Old Dog Bai.
“If we can find an auspicious beast to take action, it would naturally be the best.” Xiao Yao nodded, and then asked curiously, “Brother Bai, can you really find the auspicious beast?”
Bai Ju nodded, crossed his fingers, and thought for a while: “There are traces, but I haven’t made a special visit to confirm it in the past six months since I woke up. The two plant spirits I left outside my retreat cave reported on the outside world. The Shinto path has declined over the years, and my former friends have mostly been killed or injured, with several even passing away. There aren’t many left alive… I’m not sure if they’d be willing to resurface.”
“But I think I can find a River Dragon King,” Bai Ju said. “We knew each other back when he was a little koi. He was nearly roasted by lightning while jumping over the Dragon Gate, but I happened to be nearby and attracted some lightning, helping him barely make it over. So he’s indebted to me… Asking him to help now, even if I can’t get him to come out in person, at least I can get him some help.”
Xiao Yao was stunned. “It’s the Dragon King? There doesn’t seem to be any record of such a thing in our sorcerer world.”
Bai Ju stroked his chin. “It’s quite normal that there’s no record. After all, he wasn’t born a dragon. Since achieving his wish, he’s been living his life at the bottom of the river and hasn’t received any blessings from heaven. You could say he’s barely appeared in public.”
Xiao Yao laughed. The style of this old dog’s friend was mysteriously consistent with Bai Ju’s: “I originally thought that koi leaped over the dragon gate in order to become gods. After all, once you achieve the body of a dragon, you are implicitly a creature of the fairyland.”
Bai Ju shook his head, casually poured two cups of tea, and handed one to Xiao Yao: “This is a misunderstanding of us by you sorcerers… In fact, many times, demons don’t necessarily practice to become immortals or gods; for some special demons, practicing evolution is almost an instinct, a common way of progress, and it can even be said to be inevitable.”
“Like koi, snakes, and dragons all aim to evolve into dragon bodies. Let’s look at this matter with the simplest truth. It’s just because dragons live longer than these original bodies.” Bai Ju stroked the rim of the cup with his fingertips, and his voice became a little lower. “But, at the same time, it is undeniable that any evolutionary direction means more powerful power, and this power itself is fascinating.”
The topic stopped here.
Bai Ju and Xiao Yao both knew that if they continued to talk along this line, all they would uncover would be some irreconcilable contradictions between the demons and the sorcerer world. Even if these contradictions did not affect the current management system, they would still be a knot, and it would not be a pleasant thing to talk about.
Xiao Yao drank two sips of the tea handed to him by the old white dog, then raised his wrist to check the time: “There are still ten minutes left, and these two little guys should wake up soon.”
Bai Ju turned his head to look at the two Huang Daxians lying curled up beside him, stretched out his fingers and gently scratched their backs against their fur: “What are their names?”
Xiao Yao leaned over to take a look, pulled one of Bai Ju’s hands, wrote on the palm of his hand and introduced: “The older one is Liu Wangshu, and the younger one is Liu Yingxing; they both used to have the surname Huang, but then they experienced that incident… After they left the village, they asked the Liu family, who had protected their family for generations, to borrow their surname, as a remembrance.”
Bai Ju held Xiao Yao’s fingers, pinched the fingertips of his boyfriend and played with them: “The name is very good.”
Huang Daxian worshipped the moon to practice, and these two names were obviously given with high hopes. It was a pity for their family members and elders. If they were still there, they would definitely be more useful than these two kids.
Bai Ju lowered his eyelashes. He was now a demon and no longer a small wild god with a divine position, but perhaps it was a habit, or perhaps it was because he had concerns in the human world, all his thoughts and all his considerations could not help but move closer to humans and safeguard the interests of humans.
This may also be a benefit… At least he stood in the open and took the initiative to safeguard the interests of mankind, so he would not be inexplicably targeted like before.
Old Dog Bai was still thinking about living a good life with his boyfriend in the future, so naturally all the difficulties in front of him must be properly resolved.
After chatting with Xiao Yao for a few more words, Bai Ju had a general understanding of the two Huang Daxian.
As the guardian deities of the family, the weasels generally required the protected family to regularly offer some poultry, and they would then help the family in all aspects, from beginning to end.
Whether the family offering poultry was sincere or not would also affect the amount of power that Huang Daxian could obtain; the offered poultry was not so much food as a medium for prayer, and people who were not sincere could only naturally obtain smaller level of protection. On the contrary, those who served sincerely would not have everything go smoothly, but at least they would rarely encounter unexpected disasters or diseases.
In this way, the guardian deities gave people the impression that they were sometimes effective and sometimes not. But if you really wanted to find out why it was not effective, the person concerned should have some idea in his mind.
The villagers of Liujia, located in the suburbs of Beijing, were among those who had been sincere for generations. The Liu family ancestral hall was located in the back mountain of the village, and the tributes to Huang Daxian would also be sent to the ancestral hall along with the ancestors of the Liu family. In this way, Huang Daxian were actually placed in a very high position by the Liu family and would thus follow the Liu family. Offering incense to all the ancestors together naturally seemed more effective than offering it to the ordinary Wong Taisin deity alone. Of course, this approach was risky. To curry favor with Wong Taisin, such tributes could easily anger the ancestors reposed within the ancestral hall, and if things got out of hand, neither side would benefit.
Sisters Liu Wangshu and Liu Yingxing had never properly experienced the Liu Family Ancestral Hall’s incense offerings; the true guardian deities bearing the Liu family’s prayers were their fathers and grandfathers.
Fortunately, due to this situation, the two little creatures were able to escape from Liujia Village and be taken into custody by the Demon Management Bureau. Otherwise, they would have had to repay their debts in the village for another ten or twenty years.
“They are waking up.” Bai Ju rubbed his fingertips against the fur of the two little creatures. After a moment, he could feel the hearts beneath his hands quicken slightly, their body temperatures rise.
The two Wong Taisin deities’ fur trembled slightly, their black bean-like eyes blinking open, staring blankly in Bai Ju’s direction.
“Pretty cute, aren’t they? “Xiao Yao’s smiling voice sounded in his ears, Bai Ju responded softly, and moved his fingertips to scratch the fur behind one of the ears, which unexpectedly made the little weasel’s ears tremble.
“They are very cute.” Bai Ju had always liked little cubs, so his expression was gentle, and he turned his head to look at Xiao Yao as if he remembered something, “You are not allowed to scratch, you have me.”
Xiao Yao: “…”
Xiao Yao coughed lightly and was shocked by the old dog Bai’s sudden line that seemed to declare sovereignty. He then looked away a little uncomfortably: “…Okay, I will only touch you, the furry one, in the future.”
Bai Ju tilted his head and felt that it was not possible.
His little boyfriend liked furry things, and when he saw cute cats and dogs, he would feed them some food and touch their fur. This was basically a conditioned reflex for a fur-con. It seemed too uncomfortable to endure it every time.
“Hmm…you can pet other furries,” Bai Ju blinked. “But you’ll have to keep a record of every time, and then you’ll have to compensate me.”
Xiao Yao was a little confused. He didn’t think Old Dog Bai’s rank was that high. He didn’t think a single touch would bring harmony to another life—so he leaned over and tentatively kissed Bai Ju’s chin, whispering, “…how do I compensate you?”
Old Dog Bai: “…”
He had a vague feeling there might be some kind of benefit, but he didn’t know what it was. He said uncertainly, “Hmm…you can pet them once, and I get to pet you twice?”
Xiao Yao smiled perfectly, and responded crisply, “Okay.”
Old Dog Bai immediately felt wrong.
But before he could think any further, the two little creatures under his hands fluttered, drawing his attention back. Lifting his grip slightly, Bai Ju gently nudged the two little creatures, signaling them to get off the ground. In a flash, two ochre-colored streaks of light flashed across the empty space before them, and two little girls appeared.
Their light brown hair was cropped short, till ear-length. Each of them had meticulously pinned a light blue bow hairpin on either side of their hair, giving them a delicate look.
The two little girls, transformed, looked no more than eight or nine years old, still in elementary school. They still wore goose-yellow dresses with white floral prints, resembling tiny sunflowers.
“Little demons Liu Wangshu and Liu Yingxing, paying greetings to Bai Wang and Director Xiao.” The two little demons stuttered, trying to salute properly, but unsure whether to kneel, bow, or shake hands. Finally, they glanced at each other, straightened their bodies, puffed out their chests, raised their arms, and gave a standard Young Pioneer salute.
Bai Ju was generally kind to the little demons. So he didn’t laugh at them, but nodded slightly, looked them in the eye respectfully, and said gently, “Well, hello.”
The two little demons’ faces immediately lit up with visibly brightened joy.
Unlike humans like Ling Yun, the two little demons instinctively chose the Demon King, Bai Ju, over Xiao Yao, Director of the Demon Management Bureau, when deciding between Bai Ju and Xiao Yao.
Bai Ju’s tolerance and recognition were the greatest compliments to the two little demons. Director Deng’s requirement from Beijing, “to make them convinced, and preferably a little afraid,” was practically a matter of passing the time for Bai Ju.
Xiao Yao, watching from the side, was pleased to see this happen.
The falcon from Mengdu and the flying corpse from Xiangcheng were also arriving that afternoon; these two would be far more difficult to manage than Wong Taisin. Liu Wangshu and Liu Yingxing’s willingness to obey Old Bai from the outset saved them considerable trouble.
Bai Ju caught Xiao Yao’s eye and knew he was giving him full control. Without hesitation, Old Bai confirmed that the one wearing the hairpin on the left was the older sister and the one on the right was the younger sister, and then he engaged them in a gentle conversation. After a few questions and answers, Old Bai began to talk to the two girls about demon cultivation.
Xiao Yao sat on the sofa next to Bai Ju, chin propped up on one hand, intently gazing at Old Dog Bai’s profile. He thought the seriously teaching Old Dog Bai was so handsome.
The author has something to say:
The plane just landed, update complete~
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Continuously working overtime, can’t hold on any longer, so I’ll update a small half of it first.
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