Reincarnated Again as a Demon

At the docks of Emerald Creek Island, a territory of the Xi Household, a cultivation clan in the Yue Nation.

Dressed in a straw rain cape and hat, Tang Yuan carried his catch off the little fishing boat that had just come to a stop and headed for a fish stall at the docks.

An elderly male cultivator was dozing behind the counter.

Tang Yuan rapped his fingers on the counter, and the elderly cultivator woke, his eyes bleary with sleep.

"Well, Old Man Kang, you buy catches on the side too?" Tang Yuan set his catch on the platform scale.

"Ahem, it's all for a few scraps of silver.

"If I stand duty for ten days in total, I can earn one spirit sand." Old Man Kang yawned. "Tang Yuan, how much did you catch on this trip?

"Did you catch any Red Spirit Eels?"

"My luck was pretty good this time. At least I didn't get skunked.

"I caught about twenty jin of assorted spirit fish, but not a single Red Spirit Eel." Tang Yuan pursed his lips...

In his previous life, Tang Yuan had lived in the Hua Nation on Blue Star. While fishing on a weekend off, he had gone into the water to retrieve his catch and accidentally been sucked to the bottom by a whirlpool. When he woke again, he had come to this world of cultivation, becoming the son of a mortal farmer.

At three, he had pierced the mystery of the womb. At nine, he had been forced to seek an entrance into cultivation and embark on the path.

But after taking part in the Purple Sword Sect's entrance selection alongside a group of immortal seedlings, he had ultimately failed to make the cut.

After many twists and turns, Tang Yuan had become a contracted spirit worker for the Xi Household, a cultivation clan: a fisherman...

"Red Spirit Eels aren't so easy to catch...

"Nineteen jin and eight liang of assorted spirit fish. I'll round it up to twenty jin and give you two spirit sands.

"What cultivation are you at now?" Old Man Kang asked, concern written all over his face.

"Last month, I finally managed to take a wisp of upper sixth-grade Spiritual Qi and broke through the fourth Meridian Opening layer, the Qi-Bearing Stage. Now I'm at the fifth Meridian Opening layer, the Upper Yin Stage." Tang Yuan accepted the spirit sands and turned to leave.

"Remember, if you want to cultivate faster and reach Qi Refinement as soon as possible, you still need to take and absorb fifth-grade Spiritual Qi in wisps.

"The higher the grade of the Spiritual Qi you take and absorb, the better. It'll determine whether you can cultivate a Dao foundation and successfully reach Foundation Establishment later," Old Man Kang reminded him.

"I borrowed the money for that Spiritual Qi from my employers at an exorbitant interest rate.

"I don't dare hope to cultivate a Dao foundation and reach Foundation Establishment.

"If I can reach the Qi Refining First Layer before I'm eighty, I'll thank heaven and earth." Tang Yuan smiled bitterly, stepped onto a bamboo-leaf flying boat, and headed northwest through the air.

After flying for more than half a shichen, he arrived at his residence on the northeastern edge of the Xi Household's Ten Thousand Snakes Island.

Tang Yuan hung up a wooden sign that read "In secluded cultivation. Please do not disturb," bolted the courtyard gate and his room door from the inside, then crawled under his bed and into a hidden cellar.

He lit a stub of candle and sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

Circulating his spiritual power, he brought a tiny black soup spoon out of his sea of consciousness and into Tang Yuan's hand.

The little spoon was about three and a half inches long and black from end to end.

It was neither metal, wood, nor jade, but it was incredibly hard and reflected a cold metallic gleam.

The eight runes engraved on it were already glowing red.

Tang Yuan knew that he could now use the little black spoon to travel to another world of cultivation.

The black spoon was the very "catch" Tang Yuan had fished up on Blue Star in his previous life. For some reason, it had accompanied him to this world and remained hidden in his sea of consciousness.

At nine, he had been led onto the path of cultivation by a cultivator surnamed Gou.

After cultivating under Daoist Gou for five years, he had taken the Purple Sword Sect's entrance test with a group of immortal seedlings at fourteen.

In the end, Tang Yuan hadn't made it into the Purple Sword Sect and had instead become a contracted spirit worker for the Xi Household, a cultivation clan of the Ancient Yue Nation.

He had become a spirit worker for the Xi Household at fourteen, and ten years had passed in the blink of an eye.

One night more than four years ago, beneath the bright moonlight, Tang Yuan had seen the eight runes on the Mystic Spoon glow red for the first time.

After experimenting on his own, Tang Yuan had discovered that he could use the Mystic Spoon to travel to another world of cultivation.

Only, all Tang Yuan could see before him was an endless expanse of empty darkness, and the surroundings were unbearably hot.

But Tang Yuan could hear scattered words of human speech that he understood, and he sensed that the Spiritual Qi in that world of cultivation was relatively dense, though he couldn't draw it in and absorb it for the time being.

Over the past four years, Tang Yuan had entered the Mystic Spoon more than fifty times and had become somewhat familiar with how to use it:

First: the Mystic Spoon could hide in Tang Yuan's sea of consciousness and accompany him, transporting his physical body to another world of cultivation; at each full moon, it could absorb the essence of moonlight and gather a wisp of middle sixth-grade Spiritual Qi, Moon Jade Radiance; the Mystic Spoon could be used the day after each full moon, and Tang Yuan had to return within fifteen days.

As for whether the Mystic Spoon had any other uses, Tang Yuan had no way of knowing yet.

The moon had been full last night, but today was an excellent time to fish, so Tang Yuan had had no choice but to go out to sea first that morning...

Tang Yuan concealed the Mystic Spoon in his sea of consciousness and checked the supplies he had prepared inside it. With a thought, everything before his eyes turned to nothingness, and he vanished from the cellar...

In an instant, Tang Yuan's heart leaped with joy: the empty darkness before his eyes had been replaced by light.

It was so dazzling that Tang Yuan had to open his eyes slowly.

But the moment he did, his hair stood on end and fear seized him. Before him was a toad half a person's height, its whole body covered in revolting black-and-yellow lumps of flesh that made his blood run cold.

The horrifying toad gaped its bloody maw and drooled as it stared at him with eyes as big as goose eggs.

"Ugh, you're ugly!" Tang Yuan couldn't help exclaiming.

"Tch, eldest senior brother, you're no better-looking than me." Disdain filled the toad's face.

What the fuck!

The toad can talk. Damn it, it's gained sentience and become a demon!

Huh?

Wait, that's not right?

Why did it call me eldest senior brother?!

Why did it say I'm no better-looking than it is?!

Could I be a toad demon too?

In the pupils of the toad demon opposite him, Tang Yuan saw himself, and joy and sorrow struck him at once.

The joy: Tang Yuan wasn't an incomparably ugly toad in this world.

The sorrow: Tang Yuan wasn't human in this world either, but a snake about half a zhang long and black from head to tail.

On each side of his snake head were four red markings that looked uncannily like human faces.

I, Tang Yuan, have reincarnated as a demon this time, and a rather sinister, terrifying snake demon at that.

Why? What did I do to deserve this?

Is the Heavenly Dao punishing me just because I caught a few ordinary snakes on Ten Thousand Snakes Island and ate snake soup a few times?!

"Eldest senior brother, I was going to wait another thirty years until we both took human form, then marry you. We'd be husband and wife for twenty years, and I'd have lots of babies for you.

"Looks like there's no hope for it in this lifetime." A sultry woman's voice sounded by his left ear.

"Yes, eldest senior brother, I was thinking that once we both took human form, I'd be your little lackey for life, forever the man behind you.

"Eldest senior brother, you must be hungry.

"Here, eat my tail.

"Every extra day you live will be another day of happiness for me." An effeminate male voice sounded by his right ear.

The corner of Tang Yuan's mouth twitched, and his snake eyes shifted slightly. To one side was a large mottled spider; to the other, a large gray gecko.

His head swam slightly as a flood of memories came: I, Tang Yuan, am a two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old snake in this world.

A hundred years ago, I gained sentience. The toad, gecko, and spider beside me, along with a centipede and a scorpion, one after another became disciples of a monkey demon at the Qi Refinement Seventh Layer, as did I.

Fifty years ago, I condensed my natal demon core.

Ten years ago, I grew a hyoid bone and became able to speak human language.

Half a year ago, I had just become able to refine myself into human form, but I still wasn't skilled at it.

Where's my monkey master?

Oh, monkey master was betrayed by my third junior brother, the centipede, and fourth junior sister, the scorpion, and killed by a male human cultivator surnamed Duan.

Now my second junior brother, the toad, my fifth junior sister, the spider, my sixth junior brother, the gecko, and I are locked in an iron cage. The male cultivator surnamed Duan is going to refine the four of us demons into pills.

Boom!

A thunderous sound rang out.

Tang Yuan looked over with his snake eyes. More than three hundred zhang away, in the air above the Gobi Desert, the male cultivator surnamed Duan was locked in a fight to the death with a female human cultivator.

Flying through the air with their physical bodies, without relying on Law Artifacts-those two are definitely Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Looking at the black iron cage that held him, Tang Yuan's red vertical pupils glinted coldly:

I can't die.

I don't want to be refined into a beast pill and turned into poop.

My virtuous, beautiful wife needs me to love her, and my four adorable children still need me to care for and raise them....