Little Pink Starfish

Recently, many demons have died in the demon realm. These demons shared a very peculiar common trait: they were all killed with a single strike.

What’s worth mentioning is that each of the dead demons had a bloodstained flower on their neck.

This unique method of death quickly caught people’s attention. However, because most of the deceased were insignificant nobodies or troublemakers to begin with, it didn’t stir up too big of a commotion.

Yuan Yuanyuan had been using these demons for practice. She vaguely felt like she was starting to get the hang of how to handle this thing. Actually, the first time she sensed something was off was during that escort mission, when she was taking the goddess home. She realized she seemed oddly used to doing things that, from her perspective, were essentially suicide missions. And not just once or twice… but every single time.

Every time Yuan Yuanyuan thought of this, she would feel the urge to prop her chin on her hand and fall into deep thought.

At first, she was a little scared, but everything boils down to probability eventually.

The first time, she might have panicked. But after doing it a hundred times and still not dying, all she had left was sarcasm…

At this point, Yuan Yuanyuan could even summarize a few… maybe “experiences” would be the word—like which demon arts to use first to make the suicide mission go smoother later.

She was sitting across from Fat Cat eating, while scrolling on her phone, trying to see if there were any demons nearby she could “experiment” on. She’d just been to one of those places where people trade lives for money, took a few photos, and brought them back to look through.

“What are you looking at?” Fat Cat moved over and said, “Quit staring at your phone and eat.”

Yuan Yuanyuan quickly turned off her phone. Fat Cat said, “I might have to head out after dinner. Don’t wait up for me tonight.”

“Where are you going?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked while munching on her food.

“There’s a new update in Demon Chronicle,” Fat Cat said while eating. “A group of humans has organized to kill Yuan. Probably tonight, maybe tomorrow. I’m going to check it out.”

“Oh. Then go ahead. I won’t make cat food for you tonight. I’ll just eat something random and go to sleep.” Yuan Yuanyuan replied.

Three seconds of silence followed in the room.

…

“Wait—what the hell did you just say?!”

Snapped out of her daze, Yuan Yuanyuan almost choked on her food.

She had asked that question casually, never expecting an answer like that.

Wide-eyed, she asked, “Wait, what? Damn it—what happened in Demon Chronicle while I wasn’t reading?”

“What happened?” Fat Cat replied, “Honestly… a lot. Too much to explain. You should read it yourself. I’m heading out.”

“Wait! You haven’t told me anything yet!” Yuan Yuanyuan tried to grab Fat Cat with both hands, but he left without even turning back, leaving her standing there dumbfounded. She quickly tried to catch up on the latest issue of the comic. But she had missed way more than just a few chapters, and catching up now wasn’t exactly easy.

She flipped to the latest issue and, just like Fat Cat said, there was indeed a group of people planning to kill Yuan. She didn’t know the background or the aftermath—just that this plotline now existed.

What caught her attention was that these people had located Yuan using… fortune-telling.

What the hell? Fortune-telling works like that?

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t know whether to mock it or take it seriously, but she carefully read that part. According to them, fortune-telling indicated Yuan would appear somewhere near a river.

The river in C City… well, in the generally dry climate of C City, there was one up in the mountains. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t really a river—more like a stream—but if you didn’t nitpick, it counted.

Yuan Yuanyuan put down her bowl and thought oh crap while chewing.

She had planned to go to the river tonight. There was supposedly a water demon there—a test subject for her little experiments—so she thought she’d try her luck.

Ugh… what is this nonsense? Fortune-telling is this accurate?

Wait, that’s not the point. The point is—should she still go?

She stared at her phone for a while, inexplicably feeling as if she were carrying the expectations of countless people…

After some thought, she put down her phone and decided to finish eating first. But just as she was mid-meal, someone pounded frantically on her door. When she opened it, she found Xiaoying and a long-lost girlfriend standing there. They hadn’t seen each other in ages, and Yuan Yuanyuan had no idea what they were doing here at this moment.

“Yuanyuan-jie, are you going to work tonight?” Xiaoying asked.

“No. What’s up?” Yuan Yuanyuan replied.

“We want to go somewhere, but we need a chaperone. Yuanyuan-jie, can you take us up the mountain?”

“……”

Yuanyuan-jie’s large eyes stared blankly at them.

Then she marched next door and pounded furiously, yelling, “Auntie! Your daughters are trying to skip cram school and run away! Get them back!”

The whole corridor echoed with her loud banging and the girls’ shocked “Ahhhhhh!”s.

Faced with the pair of stunned girls whose eyes screamed “You villain!”, Yuan Yuanyuan remained unmoved. She just kept pounding until Xiaoying’s mom came and dragged them off for a scolding. Yuan Yuanyuan sighed in satisfaction and went back inside.

What the hell? How come the entire world seems to know she’s going to fight tonight—except her?

Scratching her face, Yuan Yuanyuan found the whole thing puzzling. Honestly, after reading that comic, she didn’t really feel like going anymore. But then again, she had originally planned to fight someone today… fighting a Taoist counts as fighting too, right?

Also, how did those Taoists get in? Doesn’t C City care at all? Just letting people barge in and start fights like it’s nothing?

Yuan Yuanyuan grumbled while deciding to nap first—she might head out tonight, so best to rest up. She had a feeling those Taoists were targeting her because of the recent fallout from the “pureblood” revelation. Even if they didn’t know the full story like Fat Cat did, Taoists naturally disliked the concept of “pureblood.” So if they came to hack her down, it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

She’d only skimmed a few pages, but even then she’d seen comments like “disgusting beliefs,” so her guess probably wasn’t far off.

Still, maybe because she was mentally prepared or maybe because her sleep schedule had stabilized, Yuan Yuanyuan surprisingly wasn’t nervous at all—fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

While she slept peacefully, others… weren’t so lucky. Basically, everyone except her was stressed.

Gao Ling walked while carrying a huge suitcase, talking on the phone, “Hey? You flying in today? Need me to pick you up?”

“No need. I came last time too,” the girl on the other end replied. “I’ll arrive at eight. Let’s hope they’re late.”

“We’ll be with some demons,” Gao Ling said. “Don’t be scared. They’re all students from nearby schools. They said they’d save us a spot.”

“You think he will really show up?” the girl asked doubtfully. “Seems like everyone’s just there for the drama… Oh, and I invited a few more people too.”

“…What? You invited more people?” Gao Ling was stunned. “Weren’t we the only ones who knew?”

“I figured if we’re going, might as well make it a real event,” the girl replied. “Don’t worry, I only invited reliable ones. Nothing will go wrong. I’m fully prepared, you don’t need to worry.”

“Okay… I guess.” Gao Ling hung up, still worried. She didn’t feel all that confident in how “prepared” the girl claimed to be.

She admitted she was kind of a coward. So even though she knew some things, she didn’t dare spread them around. That other girl, though, was bolder—outspoken and completely different from her.

Gao Ling kind of admired people like that, who could do things she couldn’t. But lately, the comments on Demon Chronicle had been unbearable. Now she even had to skip around while reading—and definitely never check the comments.

How to put it… things were getting really rough for Yuan. Every time Gao Ling read the comic, she broke into a cold sweat, wondering whether Yuan could survive.

First, the “pureblood” thing started gaining attention. Then more and more things from the past were revealed. And now this. All of it was a domino effect.

If it were her in Yuan’s position… she’d probably have a mental breakdown. Though she didn’t know exactly what Yuan was going through, she could imagine it wasn’t pleasant.

It felt like, through a comic, she had glimpsed the surface world—and through that, seen into the hidden world behind it. She wasn’t sure whether that made her feel good or not.

When she reached the mountain, she was stunned by the scene. “Crowded” wasn’t even enough to describe it. She quickly called Tang Shi to meet up. Tang Shi led her through the crowd and warned, “Stay close. There are too many demons here. I’m worried something might happen.”

They walked among the crowd of demons. Gao Ling started to feel a little suffocated. So many demons… She finally asked Tang Shi, “You really think Yuan will come?”

Honestly, she had doubts. With a scene like this, it seemed unlikely.

“Of course he’ll come,” Tang Shi replied with absolute certainty.

Gao Ling knew this girl had the straightest, most unshakeable logic ever… and a big heart. She sighed and decided not to argue.

“Think about it,” Tang Shi continued. “Ji Qiu never draws scenes this detailed unless he wants people to come see them.”

Gao Ling looked up at her.

“C City. River. When has there ever been such a specific hint?” Tang Shi reasoned. “No one even knows who Fan Ning is right now. The only reason everyone is here is because they know Yuan will show up.”

Gao Ling couldn’t help laughing. Tang Shi’s reasoning was so simple… it left her speechless.

She looked up and wondered—would Yuan really come? If he saw this scene, surely he’d just leave. Why would he stay? Let everyone watch him fight?

No way. He’d never…

Then Gao Ling suddenly froze.

“Hurry! The big demon’s about to appear!” Tang Shi said. “We got a great spot—we can get closer.”

“Oh.” Gao Ling nodded absentmindedly, feeling uneasy.

She turned and saw another student leading a girl over. The girl had a large backpack, which she tossed at Gao Ling.

“Catch. Yours.”

“What is it?” Gao Ling asked.

“Battle robe and banner!” the girl shouted.

“…What?”

Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan had woken up, yawning as she boarded a bus toward the mountain suburbs. The last time she’d fought, it was also on a mountain… Since this was her second time, she felt oddly calm.

As soon as she got off the bus, she saw demonic energy blanketing the mountain. Calmly, she slung her bag over her shoulder, stepped off the bus, tied her shoelaces, and got ready to climb the mountain and work off some food.

Ah… every time. Every damn time.

Other people fought, and they—this crowd of spectators—came along just to join in. Why?