But doesn’t boss need a mountain-aligned demon? Lei Jiang asked. What will we do if it isn’t?
Huxian shook his head. It doesn’t matter. We’ll take him in as our friend regardless. We owe the mountain elemental that much. I just hope it’s not something wimpy like a pet rock or a clown fish. Or worse, something feline. The others hissed.
As though sensing something, the violet mist shifted. It took the appearance of many things at the same time. A cat without ears. A giant earthworm. A silver fish. An eel. A tree demon. A mighty serpent. It shifted through many forms, never settling on one. It was like rolling a dice with more than a hundred facets. Huxian’s inner gambler sweated as he waited for the inevitable, unchangeable result.
Finally, the shifting began to slow. Ten forms a second became one per second, and then one per five seconds. The illusory demon could settle on any one of these shapes. The first one, surprisingly, was a many-tailed fox like Huxian. But instead of his bagua variation, it was just a normal many-tailed fox. The next one was a falcon, tall and proud.
Any one of these would be all right, Huxian thought. Until it turned into a mountain cougar, a feline creature of earth and stone. Anything but a cougar, he thought, shuddering. Then it became an orca. On second thought, cougars are wonderful creatures. Anything but an orca.
A few more forms passed by. It became a hammerhead shark, likely due to their recent contact. Then it became a demonic flower that resembled the seabreeze lily.
Finally, it shifted one last time. It was obviously the last, because this time a cloud of violet smoke erupted all around it and began to drink in the surrounding demonic energy. Even through their enhanced demonic senses, they still couldn’t see anything. It was the necessary drama that came with a demonic transformation.
They gulped as the violet mist took its time to clear. First, it revealed a rocky horn at the edge of the mist, which was a good sign for Huxian since he wanted something mountain aligned. Then his eyes narrowed in confusion as the horn became larger and larger, eventually making up half of the mist.
What the... he started. And then it hit him. It wasn’t a horn. It wasn’t a claw. It wasn’t any kind of lethal appendage on a self-respecting demon.
It wasn’t a demon at all, in fact. It was a mountain. The egg had been kept by a mountain elemental on a giant mountain, where it drank in demonic mountain energy every day. Then it drank in the seabreeze lily’s essence, which was effectively leeched from a mountain for thousands of years. The creature’s final form, which was a forty-foot-tall initial-purification demon, was a perfectly conical mountain.
Hello? Huxian asked, cautiously greeting the newborn creature. I’m Huxian.
His friends held their breaths as they waited for the creature’s response. It might have just been born, but it was born as an initial-purification demon. Moreover, it was an illusory demon. They were confident it had tons of ancestral memories to draw from.
I… the mountain started.
They edged forward expectantly.
I… the mountain said, just a little louder.
I am a mountain! it finally said. Its weight increased, and Silverwing cawed in shock as he plummeted down toward the sea floor.
I am a mountain! the illusory demon shouted, and the four demons wailed as they were propelled to the deepest depths of the ocean.
I am a mountain! it yelled again.
This time, Huxian responded.
We get it, you’re a mountain, he said. We got that. But we’re falling fast, and this isn’t the best place to crash, if you get what I’m saying.
I am a mountain! it yelled in acknowledgement.
Huxian facepalmed. He really hoped this wasn’t a case of demonic retardation, where the demon barely had the intelligence of a three-year-old human.
I get it, you’re a mountain, Huxian thought, trying to guide the newly born creature. But you can stop being a mountain sometimes, right?
Illusory demons could shift between corporeal and incorporeal. Maybe this was something it could remember despite its childish mind.
I am… the mountain started. Not a mountain! The forty-foot peak that had been weighing down Huxian and friends suddenly vanished. It floated over to Huxian and nuzzled against him. They breathed in a sigh of relief.
Well, that was interesting, Silverwing said, adjusting their trajectory to return to Haijing. Maybe we could teach it to do that on command?
Maybe, Huxian said, looking at the violet mist uncertainly. Then, recalling what had transpired on the mountain, he retrieved the blue orb they’d recovered. The previously immaculate orb was covered in burn marks, but otherwise it seemed perfectly fine. Or that’s what he thought until he noticed its glow had diminished.
Demon farts. He wasn’t trying to destroy the core. He cut straight to the chase and destroyed the marrow.
Is that really a big deal? Lei Jiang asked. Won’t more marrow grow back?
Huxian shook his head. It’ll take too much time, he replied. Cha Ming and I might share a lifespan, but it takes tens of thousands of years to generate source marrow. To make matters worse, a mortal plane probably won’t have more than one of these cores inside it. He sighed. Zhou Li did exactly what he planned to do. He distracted us with the orca to slip a wisp of sin flames into the Water Essence Core and burn away at the marrow while our new friend hatched. It was meticulously planned and perfectly executed.
Huxian sighed. We can only deliver the bad news for now. On the bright side, we got something Brother needed. We got three peak-demon bone relics, an essential component for the Nirvana Pill. With any luck, the Water Source Marrow won’t matter.
Despite his reassuring words, the young fox knew deep down that it wouldn’t be so simple. If Zhou Li was clever enough
