Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan stood at the door of the target demon’s home, thinking to herself: This one’s weird too… actually living in a regular human residential complex.

Below was a tiny flower bed and a big decorative statue, the statue engraved with the words “Ji X Community.” Right beside it was a huge garbage bin.

She went up to the fourth floor and knocked a few times. A head peeked out from behind the door, gave Yuan Yuanyuan an impatient look, then pointed at a symbol on the door. “See that? This is Miss Jin’s turf. Wherever you came from, go back. Don’t come here and bother me.”

And with that, bang—the door slammed shut, leaving behind a security door with a golden pattern stamped on it.

Yuan Yuanyuan stood there speechless for a while. Damn, why did this scene seem so familiar? Oh right, she’d done the exact same thing once—except back then, she was the one behind the door.

Of course, Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t about to just leave. She knocked again. The girl opened the door again, still just as annoyed. Yuan Yuanyuan barged in decisively, knocked the girl out, destroyed the charm at the door, and was ready to run.

Time was critical. Once the charm was broken, she had maybe two or three minutes to escape.

Yuan Yuanyuan figured carrying this girl out in under a minute would be a piece of cake. She’d run fast before—even while carrying a fat cat.

That had been her plan. She picked the girl up in a princess carry. The house was clearly wealthier than hers—just the vanity covered in high-end cosmetics made Yuan Yuanyuan click her tongue twice in envy. Then she carried the girl out, ready to bolt.

“Didn’t expect to see something this interesting today.” A voice suddenly came from behind her.

Yuan Yuanyuan, crouching by the window with the girl in her arms, turned around and saw three people standing there. She had no idea when they’d shown up.

Who the hell are these three? She glanced at them. Behind them, the door had a hole burned through it, and she could feel the overwhelming demon energy wafting in from outside—it was intense.

Turns out the demon world’s protection systems for lower demons were actually pretty solid… Good to know—if someone ever tries to break into her place, maybe she wouldn’t have to worry too much.

Yuan Yuanyuan looked at the three and muttered, “You guys have a death wish or what?”

“N-Nope,” said a stunned-looking young man beside her.

“Then run already!”

She leapt out the window and sprinted down the empty street, heart pounding wildly in her chest.

Because of those three, she’d lost her optimal escape timing. And if she wasn’t mistaken, they were all Taoists… What the hell were three Taoists doing here?

“Wait, didn’t you say we were here to check out the descendant of some famous demon bloodline?” one of them said from behind. “Why are we suddenly running?!”

“How would I know some lunatic would come smashing in like this?!” the leading demon yelled. “What’s that guy planning, taking the demon girl away?”

“That guy’s not a lunatic. He’s actually pretty well-known,” said one of the younger Taoists. “Should we follow and check it out?”

The older Taoist hesitated, glancing at the two eager younger ones. He looked worried, but with them staring at him expectantly, he had no choice but to say, “You two stay here. Don’t come looking for me.” Then he turned and chased in the same direction Yuan Yuanyuan had gone.

Not even ten seconds later, the two younger Taoists forgot all about his warning and ran after him too.

Yuan Yuanyuan dashed toward City C, still carrying the girl. City C was chaotic and full of places to hide—once she got in, no one could find her. But just then, one of the Taoists caught up. Yuan Yuanyuan rolled her eyes. Seriously? How is he this fast?

She turned and saw that the guy was riding some kind of snowy white animal. She couldn’t tell what it was—just a fluffy white blur. Great. He’s got a cheat mount.

“Hey demon up front! Why did you take her?” the Taoist yelled.

“Why do you even care?” Yuan Yuanyuan shouted back. “You two know each other or something?”

The Taoist quickly caught up. Yuan Yuanyuan gritted her teeth, grabbed her dagger, and swung at him—but he dodged it.

She wasn’t really focused on fighting—she just wanted to hurry back to City C. Because of that, she took a few hits and winced internally in pain, but forced herself not to show weakness. She was scared that if she did, it’d just fire up her opponent even more.

She suddenly turned and ran straight back the way she’d come, tossed the girl at the oncoming demons, then turned and kept running.

Screw this. You guys deal with it. I’m done.

Now that her hands were free, she launched a full attack on the Taoist behind her.

“Hey! Wait!” The Taoist was caught off guard by Yuan Yuanyuan’s sudden shift to full offense. Serves you right, she thought. You attacked me while I was holding someone! You really forced me into this!

“Teacher Hua is calling—” The momentary distraction cost Yuan Yuanyuan a second. The person in front escaped.

But she quickly chased after him, dagger ready. Just as she was about to strike, she suddenly heard a bang. That dagger—

A familiar energy wave burst behind her—the kind she used often. It was the Blood Jade Demon Technique.

She looked behind her and instantly realized who the person was. But then she was surrounded by demons.

“Hey,” Yuan Yuanyuan called out. “Come out, Little Not-So-Good.”

A Taoist poked his head out—it was a familiar face. Yuan Yuanyuan had been too busy running to notice earlier.

But now, she finally saw clearly. The Taoist behind her really was Fa Ning.

Fa Ning peeked out, then quickly ducked back down. Yuan Yuanyuan gave a weird look to the man next to him—he had to know that was Fa Ning, right? Fa Ning had his real face out… Was he not surprised?

Or maybe he knew Fa Ning’s true identity all along—and just didn’t say anything?

What a coincidence, Yuan Yuanyuan thought. We keep bumping into each other… Though she suspected it wasn’t just coincidence. That Taoist was absurdly strong—even more so than the one she’d met in the north.

She vanished in broad daylight, so thoroughly that no one could track her—only a faint red mist lingered in the air.

“He got away again.” The older Taoist pounded his sword angrily.

Seeing the group of demons pouring in from behind, he turned quickly and led the two younger Taoists away before they could be surrounded.

Yuan Yuanyuan quietly followed. She didn’t want to give up just yet and was trying to find a way to rescue the girl. If she failed, she’d probably be harassed endlessly again. So she slithered along like a snake in the shadows. The demons chased the three Taoists all the way to the edge of City C before finally giving up.

On their way back, Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly ambushed them and took the girl again—prompting a whole wave of shocked shouts.

Of course, she didn’t hear any of that. After it was all over, she went home, collapsed on her bed, and let out a long sigh.

She could finally relax for now. No more drama for the moment.

As she lay there, she started wondering—what exactly had Fa Ning come here for? Was he looking for something? Sightseeing?

She remembered, just before she left, Fa Ning had suddenly appeared beside her, glaring at her fiercely. That brat really looked like he was asking for a beating.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” she’d asked him, curiously. “Hey, how’d you even get close? Even your teacher couldn’t find me.”

Fa Ning didn’t reply. He just clenched the talisman paper in his hand. But Yuan Yuanyuan snatched it away and said, “Don’t get worked up. No need for that. I already told you—come kill me when you’re stronger. Right now? You’re not there yet.”

She looked at the struggling Fa Ning, sniffed once, and said teasingly, “I thought this energy felt familiar… You’ve actually started training in this technique? Who taught you?”

Fa Ning suddenly calmed down. “Do you know who created it?”

“Of course I do,” Yuan Yuanyuan said. “I’ve lived a long time. I know a lot of things.”

“Then… could you tell me?” Fa Ning asked.

“Eh~” Yuan Yuanyuan laughed. “Why should I tell you, little Taoist? You can’t beat me. You can’t force me.”

“But training in this technique ends badly,” she warned. “Really badly. You’ll die a miserable death.”

After scaring Fa Ning, she tossed the stunned little Taoist aside and went home. Whatever the two of them talked about—only the two of them knew.

Lying in bed, Yuan Yuanyuan turned over. Honestly, she had her own little agenda… She wanted more people to know about Seventeen’s story. Telling Fa Ning was like planting a seed of curiosity in the protagonist’s mind. Maybe Fa Ning would start digging—and drag the readers’ attention with him.

Just a small, sneaky thought.

She scrolled on her phone a bit, found nothing interesting, and prepared to sleep. She drew the curtains—outside it was another night of Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons), noisy as ever. She had no choice but to block it out.

Meanwhile, a group of people were flipping through a notebook, snacking on chips and sipping soda while whispering.

“What is this?” Gao Ling asked. “Where’d you find it?”

“My teacher’s shop—he’s been missing for almost a month,” Tang Shi said. “I couldn’t see him anywhere, so I figured maybe he died out there.” Though her face didn’t look particularly serious.

“Didn’t Uncle Tang say you’re not supposed to go to the shop?” Qiu Ling asked timidly. “Why didn’t you listen?”

“If I hadn’t gone, would we have found something this cool?” Tang Shi said. “Look at my arms and legs—all scratched up by brambles. I knew the boss’s notebook must have something important in it. He never let us read it. So I snuck it out while he was busy running for his life. Otherwise, we’d never get a chance.”

“But we can’t understand anything in it…” Qiu Ling said. “It’s all diagrams and numbers. We can’t read this stuff…”

“No no no—this is the one I wanted to show you.” Tang Shi flipped to a page covered in symbols. “Look at this—don’t you think it means something?”

She pointed at a “17,” then at a “0.” “I’m giving you three seconds. What do you think it means?”

Three seconds passed…

“Today… he ate 17 salted duck eggs?” Gao Ling said hesitantly.

“No, you idiot!” Tang Shi roared. “It’s Seventeen! This is ‘Yuan’! Doesn’t this mean Seventeen equals Yuan?!”

She smacked Gao Ling on the shoulder. “Didn’t you keep asking how Yuan could be called the king of illusions when Seventeen’s still around? I flipped through the notebook and found this clue!”

Gao Ling looked at the page. It was filled with symbols like “%\$♀￥…‖&” and random letters. It looked like something someone had scribbled while sleepwalking.

She lowered her head to hide the emotion in her eyes.

Goddamn idiot.

“Aha! I see!” she and Qiu Ling had no choice but to humor the smug Tang Shi, praising her like she was a genius. Tang Shi laughed maniacally and said, “Now that we’ve discovered this huge secret, we can start predicting the next plot twists!”

Gao Ling silently shut the notebook and tossed it aside. This monster girl—rumored to have excellent intuition and a very simple brain—was the demon friend of their chat group’s admin. Today she’d dragged them over to hang out.

Suddenly, Gao Ling had a weird thought. If Yuan really couldn’t clear his name… and if he was Seventeen… then this whole story would take a completely different turn.

Sigh… too bad it’s just wishful thinking. Mashing two characters into one was kind of disrespectful, wasn’t it?

As she pondered, Qiu Ling pointed to the notebook and joked with Tang Shi: “What’s this?”

“That’s the boss going broke today and having to bartend to make money. Then he ran into a sleazy customer!”

“…And this?”

“That’s the boss being chased by some girl! He got annoyed and pulled a knife on her!”

“Stop spouting nonsense,” Qiu Ling said, looking disgusted. “At least make it believable. A guy like our boss—who’d harass him? And where would he find a girl to scare off? Girls won’t even go near him.”

Tang Shi yelled, “Believe it or not!” Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan rolled over in bed.

Tonight was… strangely peaceful.