Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan narrowed her eyes for a long time, trying to figure out what was happening in the area where the lights had first come on.

Next to her, Liu An almost immediately stripped off his outer clothing and threw it into the crowd. Yuan Yuanyuan instantly suppressed her demonic aura, making herself seem like just an ordinary little demon.

Actually, Yuan Yuanyuan had been suppressing her aura ever since she entered, worried that if another demon was hiding among the humans, she wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. So, she simply hid her aura to avoid attracting attention. But she was also afraid Liu An might notice something odd about her, so she hadn’t completely concealed it.

As she was suppressing her aura, she and Liu An briefly exchanged glances. He pulled a tissue from his pocket and wiped the lipstick off his face.

Yuan Yuanyuan watched him lower his head and thought, As expected of my employee… just like me.

It was still a little hard to see clearly with just the naked eye, so Yuan Yuanyuan thought about pulling out her smoking pipe to take a puff. But just as she lit it, she suddenly found her smoke pinched out.

Huh? Yuan Yuanyuan was bewildered. Who… who on earth snuffed out my smoke?

She looked nervously in that direction—and saw a small, very spirited girl staring back at her with a stunned expression, one finger still awkwardly pointing at her.

Yuan Yuanyuan froze for a second, then turned her head away quickly.

Damn… that scared the crap out of me, she thought.

She blinked a few times, her eyes a little sore from staring at the greenish glow ahead, but she was starting to figure out what was going on up there.

According to the information sent back by Qipan Jue, there was a powerful demon up ahead leading a group of smaller demons. There were over ten little demons—and none of them gave Yuan Yuanyuan a good feeling.

Their aura all had that shady, sinister quality.

What are they doing here? she thought. It’s just a regular comic convention… There’s nothing here that should attract them. It doesn’t make any sense.

In fact, among demons, there were certain unspoken rules. Since their defeat in the wars with humans long ago, demons had signed agreements with humans—one of which was that demons were forbidden from appearing in large groups in front of humans.

Therefore, most demons were very careful to restrain themselves. The desire to attack humans hadn’t vanished, but the number of demons acting together had to be strictly limited. Otherwise, they would trigger heavenly punishment.

To enforce this, demons even had special departments tasked with hunting down those who violated the rules. Of course, there were still demons who attacked humans, but usually it happened in secret or within powerful factions, with others turning a blind eye.

But a convention was a highly public venue—easy for information to leak out. And the lead demon up ahead wasn’t strong enough to make the other demons willingly overlook the rules. So there must have been a reason for him to act here.

And what exactly is that reason?

Yuan Yuanyuan leaned forward again and suddenly noticed something strange. She squinted and finally realized what she was seeing—

There were… a few people.

A few people with terrifyingly strong spiritual power.

They were surrounded, and it seemed a few of them had originally used charms to conceal their auras, but now those charms had been removed.

Yuan Yuanyuan frowned, and while she was still observing, she saw the little shadowy figures fluttering around. One of them suddenly locked eyes with her—and froze in mid-air.

She immediately pushed Liu An behind her. After a brief pause, the little shadow darted off toward the front again.

Liu An stirred slightly, and Yuan Yuanyuan whispered in his ear, “If that big demon comes this way, use that illusion technique you invented to hide yourself. They won’t be able to detect you.”

Liu An quietly answered “Mm.”

Yuan Yuanyuan continued watching the situation ahead. Suddenly, she felt someone sneaking up on her. She tilted her head to the side—and saw a girl, about a head shorter than her, standing there anxiously.

It was the same girl who had pinched out her smoke earlier.

Under the eerie green light, everyone’s faces looked a little distorted. Yuan Yuanyuan took three seconds to remember who the girl was. Just as she was thinking, the girl spoke.

“Boss!”

Ah… it was that girl.

With that one “boss,” Yuan Yuanyuan immediately remembered.

“Boss, what’s going on?” the girl asked, still standing about a meter away as if afraid to get closer.

Yuan Yuanyuan looked the girl up and down. Honestly, for someone with such a soft voice, she seemed pretty gutsy to approach.

But no matter how curious she was, Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t stop the weird, bitter feeling inside her. While she was still wondering why people were so scared of her, Liu An tugged on her sleeve and gestured with two fingers: “Eyes, eyes…”

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t immediately get it. She held her hand up to her face and saw red light reflecting off her skin—giving herself a fright.

“What the… where’s all this red coming from?”

“Boss…” the girl, Gao Ling, whispered, “I… I came here with a few friends. I can’t find them now, and I’m scared something happened…”

“Your friends?” Yuan Yuanyuan quickly thought it over and glanced again at the girl. She could see a red string tied around her neck.

“Are your friends also carrying strong spiritual energy?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked.

“Yes, yes,” Gao Ling eagerly nodded. “Hey, Boss, how did you know? Shouldn’t it be—”

“Shouldn’t be obvious?” Yuan Yuanyuan scratched her head and said lightly, using the little knowledge about charms she had picked up recently, “Actually, when a group of people with strong spiritual energy all go out together, if even one of them is exposed, the whole group gets dragged down. You’re probably next.”

Gao Ling jolted.

Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t help but complain inwardly—Which idiot gave them these charms? Totally clueless, just like Tang Shi’s careless style.

Still, seeing the girl looking so pitiful, she kindly added, “Your friends… if I’m not mistaken, they’ve already been taken to the front. It’s better not to try looking for them now. I’ll add a few strokes to your charm later so you’ll be a little safer.”

“Ah?” Gao Ling looked dumbfounded. She stammered, “But… but…”

Of course Yuan Yuanyuan knew what she wanted to say. But rescuing those people couldn’t be rushed. She had to wait and assess the situation.

With so many humans around, any big commotion would be disastrous… Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t want half the city to wake up tomorrow and find out there had been a demon at the con—a demon who looked suspiciously like Yuan from the comics…

“Take out your charm,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, reaching out her hand.

Gao Ling quickly pulled out the charm tucked under her collar.

Without even untying it from Gao Ling’s neck, Yuan Yuanyuan bit her fingertip and began sketching additions to the charm with blood, all the while thinking about how the group ahead might end up.

Just as she was drawing, a wonderful fragrance spread through the air.

The scent was oddly familiar.

Yuan Yuanyuan froze.

“What… what’s that smell?” Gao Ling whispered.

“It’s… floral,” Yuan Yuanyuan replied softly.

“Flowers?” Gao Ling repeated.

“Not good,” Yuan Yuanyuan muttered—and immediately pulled Liu An and Gao Ling down with her. The moment they hit the ground, the crowd around them began collapsing one after another.

The whole venue fell like a field of wheat, dominoes toppling one after the other.

Looking down from above, it would seem as if an entire sea of people had been flattened.

Pushed down by Yuan Yuanyuan, Liu An and Gao Ling were stunned. Yuan Yuanyuan desperately suppressed her aura. She couldn’t care about exposing herself now—it was a matter of survival. She pulled Liu An tightly under her coat.

Liu An, eyes darting inside the coat, was frantically trying to figure out what had happened.

Someone had cast a demonic spell on the entire crowd—a large-scale spell meant to make humans faint.

Such techniques were rarely used, because demons were forbidden to expose themselves. But in emergencies, demons sometimes used this kind of spell. It was similar to the mass sleep genjutsu in Naruto exams.

Liu An remembered reading about it when he was a young exorcist. The memory was deeply etched into his mind—he would never forget it.

He glanced toward the boss pressing down on him—and suddenly understood why Yuan Yuanyuan had acted so quickly.

She must have worried that if Liu An and Gao Ling stayed standing while everyone else collapsed, they’d become glaringly obvious—and attract deadly attention.

Liu An sniffed again at the scent in the air. It felt so strangely familiar…

As he struggled to recall, an image flashed through his mind:

A large, tightly sealed box with a pink seal on top, heavy to lift.

Back then… someone in white had handed it to him.

When the box was opened… this exact scent had wafted out.

Liu An suddenly turned to look at the boss.

“Those people… are above us,” Gao Ling whispered to someone nearby, not even sure whose shoulder she was leaning against. She stared fearfully at the black shadowy figures above.

“What are they going to do? Are they going to kill us?” she asked.

“Boss, I… I beg you… save those people up front…”

After speaking, she waited, but there was no response.

She turned her head—and saw the boss quietly closing his eyes, the red light in them completely hidden.

But a cold smile curled on his lips—a smile so chilling it pierced to the bone.

What’s… going on?

So this… is what demons are really like?

“Boss?” Liu An called softly.

He suddenly sensed a faint fluctuation of illusion magic, and the weight pressing down on him briefly lightened, then grew heavy again.

Liu An turned again toward the “boss” beside him.

That face still looked exactly the same—but now, it had lost all signs of life.