Little Pink Starfish

On the very first day those demons arrived, Yuan Yuanyuan ran into a headache.

“Lord Seventeen, how did you get out of the well?”
All the newcomers were young and robust. They were deeply curious about how Yuan Yuanyuan had escaped the well, and they weren’t the least bit afraid of her turning hostile on them.

…I didn’t get out. I died in there. Yuan Yuanyuan wept internally. How was she supposed to answer that? Ji Qiu hadn’t even given her an excuse.

Before long, she was completely surrounded by the group and couldn’t get away.

These kids’ enthusiasm is a bit much…

Yuan Yuanyuan was nearly in tears. These young demons clearly trusted Seventeen wholeheartedly. They played around with her like equals, without the usual reverence or caution. Other demons never asked her these sorts of questions—but these ones did so without a shred of reserve.

“I can’t tell you,” Yuan Yuanyuan finally said. “If there’s a chance in the future, I’ll explain.”

“Aww, whyyy?” the young demons groaned.

“And also, don’t call me Seventeen in public. Call me Yuan,” she added.

“What a lively bunch,” the landlady said when Yuan Yuanyuan came out.

“Lively, huh…” Yuan Yuanyuan rubbed her temples. “I just hope they don’t bring trouble.”

“What trouble could there be? These little demons all inherited your illusion arts. They’re very useful,” the landlady replied.

Yuan Yuanyuan tried to say that wasn’t what she meant, but didn’t argue. She opened her phone to the latest issue of Demon Chronicles. Fa Ning was still in the northwest, mingling with the local demons.

Looking at the storyline, Yuan Yuanyuan felt a chill. Fa Ning probably still didn’t realize that those demons were deceiving him. Even she hadn’t realized it when she first read it. The demons just seemed too genuine. Maybe their suffering really did come from deep inside, which made their acting so convincing.

But in truth—they already knew Fa Ning’s true identity.

“We didn’t know at first either,” a young demon told her. “It was some of the relocated demons who gave us a few picture books. That’s how we found out. If it weren’t for those books, we wouldn’t have known you were still alive. Lord Seventeen, why didn’t you come see us sooner?”

“Wait—who gave you those books?” Yuan Yuanyuan seized on the critical point.

“It was some demons who had already moved to the settlement,” the young demon answered.

A whirlwind of conspiracy theories flashed through Yuan Yuanyuan’s mind. Maybe those demons had been infiltrated by spies… Maybe this was part of a long-standing plot that had been set in motion back when Seventeen was killed… Or maybe this young demon in front of her was lying, and wasn’t even from the northwest…

By the time Yuan Yuanyuan snapped out of it, she realized she’d already run through the whole scenario in her head. Only then did she become aware of just how tightly wound she’d been lately—her mind jumping straight to worst-case conspiracies.

…Or maybe she’d been pretending for so long, she was becoming a little too good at it.

Fine. In any case, she was a pro at this now—way better than when she first started pretending to be Seventeen. She began organizing the newcomers based on her recent theories.

First of all, she couldn’t let them into City C right away, contrary to what the landlady had suggested. Thankfully, she had a solid reason: Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t actually know the key mechanisms of the city’s barrier system, so she couldn’t guarantee their safe entry.

“You’re being overly cautious,” the landlady said. “Look at Nan Xing—he’s just like his father when he was young. There’s no way he’s an imposter.”

“Still, we have to be careful… I don’t even know what his dad looks like,” Yuan Yuanyuan muttered.

So the plan to bring the demons into the tavern was shelved for now. Yuan Yuanyuan quietly exhaled in relief.

Whew… Another crisis averted.

She really couldn’t keep this up much longer.

Yuan Yuanyuan had been plagued by doubt lately. Probably no one in the world could understand her conflict—everyone thought Yuan was that deep and cunning demon lord who had escaped death many times. How could he possibly be conflicted about anything?

But the version of Seventeen in the comics was totally different. Sometimes, Yuan Yuanyuan felt like the comic was showing events from a parallel universe, and she was the one who had somehow ended up inside the story.

Because otherwise, how could there be two such different people?

That idea had stuck with her for a while now.

The opinions online, and those in the real world, were completely different.

Not that such discrepancies were rare—there could be all sorts of reasons.

In theory, demons should understand the world best. After all, they knew the events in the comic were real. Most humans still thought it was just a normal manga.

After coordination between the Taoists and the government, they’d agreed not to break the current balance—so even now, most people still assumed Demon Chronicles was just a fantasy series.

Online, fans and haters kept arguing day and night. One day you’d curse someone out, the next day they’d curse you. But once everyone logged off, the comic didn’t really matter to them. Demon Chronicles was just entertainment.

But… if they knew it was real? Would they still fight like that? Maybe, maybe not. But at the very least, they wouldn’t argue so guiltlessly. There’d be some fear, right? Most people, even if they seem harsh on the outside, aren’t truly evil deep down.

Humans… their world was much smaller than the demons’. They saw less.

But sometimes, what came out of human mouths was more honest than what demons said.

Yuan Yuanyuan realized this after something that had happened a few days ago.

A young demon girl had been killed. At first, the rumor was that she was a spy. But later, things started to feel off.

The girl was gentle and delicate—she didn’t seem like someone who’d make a good spy. It didn’t add up.

As Yuan Yuanyuan was still wondering, the next day’s comic revealed the truth. Ji Qiu had drawn the whole event.

Turns out, a powerful local demon had taken a liking to the girl. She refused him, so they framed her for espionage and executed her.

Yuan Yuanyuan was furious when she saw that. Even after all she’d been through, she still had a fire inside.

But when she stepped outside that day, she heard demons gossiping about it.

Everyone still called the girl “that spy,” as if the comic had never shown the truth.

One person said it. Then another. And soon, everyone was calling her that.

Yuan Yuanyuan broke out in a cold sweat. Was she sleepwalking last night? Hallucinating?

But she checked her phone—yep, last night’s comic clearly showed the truth.

She looked at her phone. Then looked at the demons talking. Then looked back at her phone…

Great. Now I’m not just sleepwalking, I’m hallucinating too.

Later, she learned the real reason.

The night before, that powerful demon had issued an order across the district: everyone was to stick to one story. Anyone who said otherwise would be executed.

He had many underlings. Some tried to speak up—but they didn’t last the night.

By the time Yuan Yuanyuan got up that morning, the whole place had already been scrubbed clean.

She didn’t sleep that entire night. After killing that demon and tossing his severed head on the girl’s grave, she finally returned home.

She lay in bed, thinking about a million things.

But the next morning, it was as if none of it had happened.

In the comic, everything looked bright and cheerful. As if Fa Ning would soon defeat the Demon King and the head of the Li family.

The northwest demons and Fa Ning were getting along wonderfully—almost like a fairytale of human-demon harmony.

The readers were all smiles. It felt like the perfect happy ending was just around the corner.

But everything underneath was churning.

And this time, Yuan Yuanyuan felt like she was the one driving the undercurrent… Strange feeling. It was her first time in this kind of role. Before, she had always just gone with the flow.

A plan was slowly forming in her mind. Some conflicts really couldn’t be resolved easily… After all, who in real life could “talk-no-jutsu” their enemies into submission like Naruto?

Even Fa Ning—with all his sincerity—what was the reality of his efforts with the northwest demons? Did the story really progress like a traditional manga?

Not really.

But since the comic and real life were so different, Yuan Yuanyuan felt her idea might just work.

Because of certain circumstances, people would silently agree to speak with one voice.

Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all, Yuan Yuanyuan thought.