The stars were twinkling in the night sky and the full moon was shining brightly. A warm breeze carried the scent of flowers and grass.
Ming Yue walked out of the bathing house while drying her hair with a towel.
She saw Jun Xi sitting under the small stone pavilion in the courtyard, drinking warm wine and reading a book. He had changed into a black robe that he wore loosely, leaving a generous gap in the front which showed off his seductive chest muscles.
Ming Yue swallowed hard and licked her lips as she hesitantly moved over to join him.
"Y-you figured out how to change me back into human." She said, voice stuttering, her eyes trying to resist the magnetic pull of his man-cleavage.
"En. However, I'm not sure if it's the water or the drowning that causes the change. But it seems once you've turned human you'll only keep your human appearance for 2 days." Jun Xi replied without looking up from the book.
"So I have to go through this process every two days? Is there no other way?" Ming Yue asked.
Jun Xi closed the book he was reading and handed it to Ming Yue.
"What's this?" She read the title: The Four Pillars of a Happy Marriage. She was stunned! Then her cheeks grew a little warm as she shyly glanced up at Jun Xi.
"Read it." Jun Xi casually said as he took a sip of wine.
"Oh."
She opened it up and casually flipped through the pages. There were mostly diagrams of acupuncture points in the body and lines that connected them and arrows pointing in this and that direction.
She was utterly confused. How would any of this make your marriage happy?
"It'a a cultivation manual for demons. It should suit you. Once your cultivation level gets higher you should be able to control your transformation by will." Jun Xi explained.
"But—"
Jun Xi hesitated for a moment, then said, "We're a righteous sect, of course we can't keep demonic cultivation methods around. Don't let anyone see the contents!" Inside he was cursing that old foggy, couldn't he think of a better title?
"Try to read it and put it to practice as soon as possible. If you have any questions you can ask me." Jun Xi continued.
"En!" Ming Yue happily responded.
She felt very happy at the moment, her human form was back and she'd received a cultivation manual so that she would eventually be able to control her transformation, but most importantly of all the title of that book must be a hint, oh and that alluring man-cleavage... drool began to form by the corner of her mouth.
No, take control over yourself! She reached for the wine jar and poured herself a cup which she quickly emptied. She was hoping to cool her heart, but forgot that it was warm wine in the jar and got the opposite effect instead. Her cheeks immediately gained a drunken flush, but she wasn't drunk on wine at all!
"Don't drink too much. Tomorrow, you'll start training."
"Training?"
"En. I've arranged for you to join one of the teachers classes. By learning martial arts your chances of dying and killing me in the process will be lowered." Jun Xi stated.
"Am I not your disciple? Can't you teach me?" Ming Yue asked.
"I'm busy."
"Please... pretty please..." Ming Yue begged, batting her big eyelashes.
"It's getting late. You should go to bed early." He said before getting up and leaving.
Ming Yue pouted as she watched his back disappear into the pavilion.
Then she poured herself another cup as she opened the book to read again.
According to the introductionary pages, demonic cultivation was broken up into several realms: mortal, earth, heaven, divine, sacred, and god.
Each realm had three grades: low, middle, and high.
However because demons of the first three realms were the most common, they were grouped into a single stage called the foundation stage and had 9 grades.
So most demons were referred to as 1st grade demon, 2nd grade demon... 8th grade demon, and 9th grade demon. Meaning grade 1 to 3 of the foundation stage belongs to the mortal realm, grade 4 to 6 of the foundation stage belongs to the earth realm, and finally grade 7 to 9 belongs to the heavenly realm.
Reading on, she then found out that typically demons gain human-level intelligence at the divine realm and could take on human appearance at the sacred realm.
She found this interesting as she had both and she hadn't even begun cultivating yet. Must be because she had transmigrated, she thought. However, it made her worried. What if she couldn't control her human transformation until she reached the sacred realm?
After reading the introductionary pages and felt she understood most of it she began to examine the diagrams.
From what she understood they showed the acupoints and the meridians in the body and how you were supposed to activate the various acupoints to control the flow of spiritual energy in order to refine the spiritual energy into demonic qi which would eventually form a core in your dantian.
As it was near impossible for beginner cultivators to activate the acupoints by thought alone, there were several drawings of various moves similar to Tai Chi were each move activated a specific acupoint.
This information was really interesting and she decided to try it immediately.
She decided to try activating a acupoint in her right hand at first to see if she could feel it. So she performed the movement for that particular acupoint a few times and by the third attempt she felt her right hand heat up.
Then she tried another movement for an acupoint in her leg and again by the third attempt she felt her leg heat up.
"Amazing stuff!" She exclaimed. Now she was curious if she had known this in her previous life, would she have been able go cultivate back on earth too?
She realized it was late and there was no way she'd be able to memorize all the moves necessary to refine demonic qi tonight, so she drank one last cup of warm wine and then went to bed.