In the main comment thread, PinkViolets asked for someone to explain the difference between demons and deities in Dahuang since XL and TSJ each have animal forms (a nine-headed sea snake and a nine-tailed fox respectively) but one is always referred to as a demon and the other is referred to as a deity.
My answer is that TSJ is part demon. I figured this thread might be interested in the details, so I'm copying them here.
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A deity can be a mortal human who achieved quasi-immortality / longevity through cultivation or the offspring of a deity.
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A demon is a plant spirit or an animal that trained and evolved enough to develop a human form and the same kinds of powers and quasi-immortality / longevity as a deity. Or the offspring of a demon. In rare cases, a deity can become a demon (e.g., XY's mother unleashes the power of the sun, incinerates her goddess spirit, and briefly turns into a demon before becoming something else).
Demons (like Left Ear) can safely eat raw meat, while deities (like XY) cannot.
Plant Spirits: XY and ZX's aunt (the wife of their eldest uncle) was a wood spirit. She ran a spy network and brought Jin Xuan to ZX. Jin Xuan was also a wood demon and was one of ZX's most loyal people. When XY and FFB spend time together, they visit shops owned by flower demons. In chapter 42, FFYY mentions a water grass demon.
Animals: The snake that XY encountered in the mountains hadn't achieved a human form yet, but it had evolved enough to understand human speech. Chubby is the same. When XY knew Ah Bi as a child, he was a winged fox who had not achieved a human form yet. When she meets him later in the novel, he had trained enough to gain a human form.
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Chapter 15:
“This should be the manifestation of Auntie Zhu Yu who was a dogwood wood spirit who gained human form after thousands of years. She chose to kill herself to destroy the demon soul and remove all her god powers...
When Eldest Uncle was alive, he built a vast information network that Auntie Zhu Yu ran. When he died, the network only listened to Auntie... About a hundred years ago she did bring Jin Xuan to Gao Xing to find me. She handed the network to me per Auntie’s orders before she left for battle. Jin Xuan is also a wood demon...
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Chapter 9:
Later I talked to a snake demon in training but it didn’t want to talk to me. I stole its egg so it would chase me every day to kill me. I would run and talk to it. It understood what I was saying but hadn’t developed the ability to talk yet so I would talk for it and converse with myself.
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Chapter 10:
"...Also Ah Bi has now evolved into human form and he is called Sir Bi so when you see him be respectful.”
Xiao Liu remembered her childhood on Jade Mountain. Lie Yang was a demon bird that looked like a phoenix. His human form was that of a ten year old boy but he didn’t like to take his human form... Ah Bi was a winged fox demon but had not yet trained to evolve into human form back then... After so many years apart, Ah Bi now had a human form...
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Chapter 12:
Xiao Liu knew the demons who achieved human form were very reluctant to transform into their true form in front of people. But Ah Bi willingly transformed back to his true form so that Xiao Liu wouldn’t feel distant.
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Chapter 5:
Demons were by nature wild and untamed, refusing to follow rules and authority, and definitely no desire for status.
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Chapter 7:
...demons and creatures and monsters were all in the same world...
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Tushan Clan members are part deity and part demon. They are descendants of a nine-tailed fox that was a mythical beast like a phoenix.
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Chapter 8:
Jing said, “The Tu Shan clan aren’t simply from the God tribe. One of our ancestors was the far-reaching original nine-tailed fox. So the bloodline of the Tu Shan family can all transform...”
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Chapter 34:
According to ancient legend, the nine-tailed fox was a godly creature like the phoenix, but it was also a vicious beast that can devour beings. The Tu Shan clan’s god was an ancient ancestor’s spiritual essence keeping watch over its descendants, and since Yi Yang was a goddess, her blood to feed to the clan god would be precious and greatly beneficial to the Tu Shan clan.
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Chapter 50:
Demon class barriers were strict and the nine-tailed fox was the king of the fox tribe. When Sir Bi was around Jing, he used his strong powers to tamp down the instinct to be subservient to Jing.
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Chapter 33:
“My powers may not be as high as Xiang Liu, Feng Long and those top warriors in the vast wilderness, but I’m still a descendant of the nine-tailed fox. I learned my powers from childhood so it’s not low."
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Chapter 23:
The two elders placed a white nine-tailed fox lined coat around Jing which represented the king of the foxes and the Tu Shan clan being the ruler of the entire fox kingdom.
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Chapter 16:
“The Nine-tailed fox I killed, it wasn’t one of your relatives?”
“He probably was.” The Nine-tailed fox was very rare, and the few existing ones really were all relatives of the Tu Shan clan.
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Chapter 9:
“One day I met a man and he candidly admitted he was a demon... He hid me in a remote cave where he built a nest and a cage to raise me in. He said he was the Nine-tailed fox...”