Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan borrowed the stealth arts book and spent the whole night reading it.

She even brought it with her while working at the tavern, flipping through it whenever she had a moment. After going through the whole thing, she more or less understood everything in it.

But that wasn’t because she read fast—it was because she was already too familiar with much of the content.

The book was roughly divided into several sections. The first focused on movement techniques and footwork.

In that section, Yuan Yuanyuan spotted the very familiar twelve basic demon techniques derived from Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend—the foundation of all movement techniques.

Unlike the Blood Jade Demon Manual, which simply listed the twelve moves, this book explained them in much more detail. To Yuan Yuanyuan, who already had a solid grasp on Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend, it felt… overly complicated.

To use a simple analogy: it was like reading a full page explanation of a quadratic equation when you could already solve it in your head without scratch paper. It was just… excessive.

She could mix and match the twelve moves freely and feel perfectly in control. But this book even outlined specific pairings or trios and what kind of effects they would create.

One of the combos detailed was the move she used that day—what others had called the Ghost War Dance. As it turned out, it was one of the hardest combinations to execute.

Now she finally understood why everyone had reacted so dramatically when she used it.

The rest of the named footwork techniques sounded elegant—like Ghost Wind Step, Ghost Kill Step, and so on. But Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t help thinking none of them sounded as cool as Heavenly Gang or Earth Fiend.

The rest of the book included sections on illusion transformation, charm techniques, illusions, curses, offensive magic, object identification, miscellaneous techniques, and a final biography section. All leaned toward the darker side of demoncraft.

She was basically self-taught when it came to illusions. She skipped the charm and curse sections even in the Blood Jade Manual. She already knew one advanced illusion—One Leaf Screen—and she’d practiced plenty of offensive spells.

The “miscellaneous” section was for anything that didn’t fit neatly elsewhere—techniques unique to certain demons, strange powers, and obscure side skills. Since demons were so varied, this was inevitable.

She was actually most interested in the object identification section.

The demon world lacked standardized knowledge, and she sorely needed common sense. Although most of the “objects” listed in this part of the book were… unsettling in design, it still helped fill some gaps in her understanding.

But then came the final section—the biography—which left her scratching her head.

She’d read at least twenty demoncraft books by now, ranging from powerful manuals like the Blood Jade Demon Manual to cheap knock-offs sold on street corners.

They all had one thing in common: if the main content took up two-thirds of the book, the last third was always the author’s personal story. Apparently demons loved to ramble.

So she expected the same here. But when she flipped to the back, she found only a single page.

And it didn’t read like a typical demon biography. It barely used the word “I.” It felt like no one was speaking. Just a scattered, disjointed diary entry.

Her classical Chinese wasn’t great to begin with, and this weird half-modern, half-classical mix made it even harder. After squinting at it for a while, she realized it was describing a daily routine.

A dark, brooding one.

Wake up. Train. Go to lunch. The “author” wanted shrimp-egg cake from the mess hall but it wasn’t available that day.

So they got angry. Like, deeply angry.

They picked a fight with the kitchen staff. Then with their subordinates. Then with their superiors…

Uh…

By the time Yuan Yuanyuan reached the last line, she seriously questioned if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

This isn’t a biography. It’s just complaining!
You think using classical Chinese will make me miss the sarcasm?!

Also, what kind of military unit is this? No shrimp-egg cake? Just how broke are you?

Yuan Yuanyuan set the leaf-book down, defeated. She didn’t have the skill to write like that herself—at least not in ancient prose.

Just then, her phone buzzed. A message came in—from Fat Cat Ji Xiangyu.

They said something about “a big mission.” Yuan Yuanyuan had ignored the details, figuring it was just another one of their antics.

Now, a new message popped up:

[Qun Leader]: Circle, circle, we couldn’t find Fa Ning.

[Circle]: ?!!

Yuan Yuanyuan blinked.

Wait, you guys actually went looking for Fa Ning?!

[Qun Leader]: He just seems weird. That Yuan from ancient times? Super strong. Hiding his power, I get. But Fa Ning? He’s obviously weak. No way he’s got that much to hide… So I figured I’d try taking him out.

[BlackRed]: We searched everywhere. Checked all our top suspect spots. Nothing. Nada. The manga says Fa Ning ranked top ten in the last Sanqing tournament. We looked into it—five of the top ten are dead. The other five? Three girls. Two guys. Neither guy matches.

[Circle]: … You two actually went looking?! Get your butts back here before you die doing something stupid!

[Qun Leader]: We weren’t doing anything reckless. Just curious. And besides, if I don’t do anything stupid, I’m going to die bored anyway.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the screen, cold sweat gathering. She’d suspected that some people might be looking into real-life connections to the manga—but she hadn’t expected this many.

If even two people this close to her were already snooping, how many more demons across the world were trying to find “Fa Ning”?

Then BlackRed chimed in:

[BlackRed]: So we think Fa Ning might’ve been hidden by some powerful demon… or had his trail erased.

[Qun Leader]: “Ji Qiu” might be the one hiding him. He’s on my list. Also, I kind of suspect Yuan. He gives off total ‘soft-boy with secrets’ vibes.

[Circle]: …Excuse me? What’s wrong with soft-boys?! And what does looking like a soft-boy have to do with hiding people?!

[Qun Leader]: Don’t say ‘dead’—I’m sensitive about that. I didn’t say being soft is bad. Just… he seems meticulous. And he used to have ties with certain demons. These days? Who knows.

[BlackRed]: Honestly? The fact that Demon Chronicle’s protagonist is human already gives me bad vibes. Chosen one and all that. Makes me real nervous. So I’m fully behind taking Fa Ning out first. As for Yuan—his stance lately is super unclear. Doesn’t seem loyal to demon kind… but also doesn’t follow orders from up top. Maybe neutral?

[Qun Leader]: I don’t buy that. Could be a smokescreen. Every time I see that guy—Yuan, I mean—I feel like he’s up to something. Back in the day, wasn’t that his line of work anyway? Who knows what he’s doing now.

[BlackRed]: Yeah, what if he’s another Aizen-type? All polite and neutral on the outside, but scheming as hell underneath? That’d be terrifying. Aizen’s fine in 2D. In real life? Nope.

[Qun Leader]: Don’t forget—we, demons, are technically the villains in this story. Even if Yuan betrays us and sides with humans, he still looks like the good guy.

[Circle]: …Why does he look shady to you, anyway? Seriously, Fat Cat, you’re asking for a beating today.

[Qun Leader]: OH! That’s why! His expression is exactly the one you use when you’re messing with me! I knew I’d seen it somewhere before!

[Circle]: …

Yuan Yuanyuan had pondered these things before too. But as a half-demon, her perspective was always a bit different.

She stood at the blurry boundary between humans and demons, though her heart leaned more toward the human side…
Of course, she’d never admit that out loud. Still, to say she felt no attachment to the demon world? That would be a lie.

Just then, Tang Shi appeared beside her.

She was wearing a black outfit today—quite different from her usual casual look. Normally she acted like she’d had half her brain removed, but today she looked sharp, even tying her hair up in a neat ponytail.

“Whoa—what’s the occasion?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked.

“Stealth arts tutoring!” Tang Shi grinned. “I told my dad. He picked out these clothes for me. He was so happy when he heard you’d be tutoring me that he even prepped payment for you—uh, ‘tuition.’”

Tang Shi handed over a small pouch.

Yuan Yuanyuan took it, confused and slightly flustered.

“My dad wasn’t sure at first, but once he heard it was you teaching me, he was super relieved,” Tang Shi said.

You sure your dad’s relieved? Yuan Yuanyuan thought. I’M the one freaking out. I’m self-taught—I don’t know what I’m doing.

She looked at Tang Shi across from her, then awkwardly asked, “So, uh… what have you learned so far?”

“I suck at charm and illusions. My best subject’s curses—got in trouble for using them back in the day… cough. As for movement techniques, I only learned two. But those are the ones we’re tested on!”

“You learned two?” Yuan Yuanyuan blinked. “Which two?”

“The first and second,” Tang Shi said.

Yuan Yuanyuan flipped the book over and pointed at the first two of the twelve foundational techniques.
“…These two?”

Tang Shi nodded confidently.

Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly felt her brain short-circuit.

Oh god…

Meanwhile, back on the student forum, that video continued to circulate—and something unpredictable began to happen.

These kids all had families. Even if their parents were like Tang Shi’s and rarely showed up, some of them had serious connections.

They might not know the name “Yi Qi,” but they recognized ‘Yuan.’

One person showed the video to another. Word spread fast. Eventually, someone even used a demon illusion tool to record and distribute it more broadly…

And every demon who watched it felt a chill.

With the video came the nickname “Ghost Demon.” What started as a silly student in-joke began spreading through the entire demon community.

Until one day, a Taoist commission office saw the video too.

“Huh? What’s this?” Fa Ning returned from a job and saw something new on the commission list.

He rubbed his eyes, looked again—and again—and again.

The name was still there.

Along with something new.

[Ghost Demon, Yuan — Bounty: 3,000,000]