Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan had no idea what decision Li Lord had just made. She had been thinking a bit, but somehow she felt it was all too simple.

At the moment, she and Fat Cat both thought Li Lord had done it out of spite.

After all, not many knew about what had happened in Red Sand Well. The Taoists, for example, had absolutely no information about it.

This was considered a taboo among demons, and as time passed, even the demons who once knew of it had grown few in number.

Yuan Yuanyuan and Fat Cat belonged to the group that had no clue whatsoever. The fact that even they didn’t know said a lot about how few were aware of it.

Although they had already told the successful demons to be mindful of their food and water recently, Yuan Yuanyuan still felt uneasy. She was the type to overthink, and right now she just wanted Fa Ning to resolve things quickly. The longer this dragged on, the more she felt something was going to go wrong.

The city remained oblivious for now. Across from Liu Niang, the old woman was still cooking, and children were running around the house. No one had a clue what was about to happen. Everyone seemed to believe that as long as they shut their doors properly, nothing bad would occur. Even if something did happen, they figured hiding would be enough.

And so, a whole day quietly slipped by. By Tuesday morning, Yuan Yuanyuan received a message from the humans. They had gotten her word from the previous night. Although they still didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, they were already making preparations. In this era, it was difficult to suddenly evacuate an entire city, so they could only reinforce precautions.

Yuan Yuanyuan knew that the military resources on the human side were still said to be plentiful… Perhaps because of geography, or maybe they had always kept guard against the demons here.

Patrolling police had begun to appear on the streets, and there was no telling how many plainclothes officers were mixed in. Around noon, Yuan Yuanyuan saw an orange weather alert on her phone, warning of heavy rain and advising citizens to stay indoors.

That was actually a good way to handle things. She recalled hearing before that in order to prevent innocent humans from getting caught in battles between demons and Taoists, the authorities sometimes used the excuse of major man-made or natural disasters in certain areas to keep people away… Even if such measures caused a stir socially, in times like this, it was undeniably effective.

But that was a last resort. For now, the human side was still observing and hadn’t yet taken direct action.

Yuan Yuanyuan kept watching the street below, worried she might suddenly witness some sort of collapse. But she waited from morning until night, and nothing happened.

Tuesday passed with eerie calm, as if absolutely nothing was wrong.

This made Yuan Yuanyuan vaguely anxious.

She called back the demon who had brought her the tip-off yesterday and asked, “Was that intel you gave me yesterday accurate? There hasn’t been any change at all.”

“…I think… It wouldn’t be strange if something went wrong. But this time we really went through a lot to get that information,” the demon in front of her said.

As the two of them were talking, a thunderclap suddenly boomed overhead, startling them both.

They turned to look and saw a mass of red clouds had appeared in the sky at some point.

Bright red clouds, distinctly different from ordinary dark ones.

The clouds were nearly stacked up like a pile, resembling a sheet of red silk. But it was far from pleasing—when Yuan Yuanyuan saw it, her heart tensed.

When had those red clouds appeared?

She looked downward, and realized that the red clouds were hovering directly above the residence of the King of All Demons.

“This weather forecast was really accurate. Said it’d rain, and now it really will.” Someone murmured on the street, “But it looks like a torrential downpour is coming. Why’s it only an orange alert?”

Just as he finished speaking, his phone rang. When he checked, it had upgraded to a red alert.

Huh? That update was quick.

But come to think of it, hadn’t those red clouds appeared a bit too fast too? He was sure that just a moment ago when he looked up, the sky had been clear.

Everything felt strange from start to finish. As thoughts raced, people on the street began hurrying home.

Humans and demons alike were now staring at that red cloud in the sky.

Yuan Yuanyuan thought, this time the human side would probably have to make a bigger move.

…

Yuan Yingli hadn’t found Fat Cat.

The two demons he had sent to retrieve Fat Cat had finally woken up the night before. The first thing they experienced after waking was being dragged out by Yuan Yingli and questioned about what had happened.

Although the two demons didn’t understand why Yuan Yingli was so anxious, they still told everything they knew. After they finished, they saw Yuan Yingli’s face change.

Whoever had knocked them out midway must have known Fat Cat’s identity. Most likely, it was someone under Li Lord, sent to search for Fat Cat and stumbled upon him.

Now that Fat Cat had fallen into their hands, the situation didn’t look good.

Yuan Yingli was burning with urgency, desperate to find Fat Cat, but right now he had no idea where to even start. And even if he did find a lead, with the current circumstances…

He could only force himself to set that anxiety aside and wait for Fat Cat to emerge on his own—or for something else to happen.

Fat Cat, meanwhile, remained at Yuan Yuanyuan’s place. He had no intention of leaving, nor had it crossed his mind.

He simply opened his big cat eyes and scanned his surroundings.

Fa Ning was continuously scouting around the mansion. At this point, he had no choice but to go in himself. Li Lord’s defenses were too tight. Even with the city gates wide open, they only allowed minor demons inside. Fa Ning’s team was completely stuck outside.

He had no choice but to investigate in person. The two people he brought with him weren’t particularly good at stealth. He was more capable in that area.

The residence of the King of All Demons was no easy place to sneak into. Fa Ning had failed twice already. Fortunately, he hadn’t been caught. Still, he had only managed to stay at the gate and couldn’t get inside.

He had noticed something strange: the guards at the gate came and went frequently, but few ever came back out. If he remembered correctly, this mansion wasn’t actually that big—it had been built a long time ago. Back then, the scale hadn’t been as grand as it was now. The King of All Demons prioritized safety, so the number of hiding spots was quite limited.

With each person that entered, the red clouds above thickened further.

Fa Ning was closer to the mansion now, and could feel the oppressive aura of those red clouds more intensely.

It was hard to describe—it felt as though something inside the cloud was watching him.

In his growing anxiety, Fa Ning suddenly glanced at a nearby puddle. He froze.

There seemed to be a faint line of text reflected in the water.

He leaned closer to look.

The puddle mirrored like a small mirror, reflecting a line: 【Be careful of the well.】

Fa Ning: “…”

He leaned in again for a better look, but a light breeze stirred the surface, distorting the letters until they became illegible.

“…Bro, you’re way too stingy,” Fa Ning muttered to himself. No one else was around—he didn’t even know who he was talking to. “You only ever give me one sentence each time, and it’s always something cryptic. How long will it take me to figure out what this means? By the time I understand, it’ll be too late.”

He casually swiped a hand through the water, and the line of text instantly vanished. He didn’t seem too surprised—it was as if this kind of thing happened often.

He kept staring at the water’s surface until another sentence slowly emerged: 【Go ask Changsheng.】

Fa Ning’s eyes widened and he shot to his feet. “Damn it, why didn’t you say that earlier?”

He sprinted back toward his quarters. Changsheng had been staying inside for days and hadn’t come out. Fa Ning wanted to quickly talk to him—apparently, the key to all this lay with Changsheng, and he had missed it all along.

When he got back, he wasn’t sure how to even bring it up. After all, he couldn’t exactly say he read it off a puddle. So he simply said, “Changsheng, I just realized something. A lot of people went into the King of All Demons’ mansion, but none of them came out. The sky’s full of red clouds, and I overheard the guards mention a well…”

“A well…” Changsheng frowned. “What well?”

He began pacing back and forth, looking visibly uneasy. Fa Ning had rarely seen him like this. Changsheng was normally calm and easy-going.

After pacing for quite a while, Changsheng finally turned and said, “Take me there. I have to see for myself.”

“Huh?” Fa Ning blinked.

“I need to see it to understand what’s going on,” said Changsheng. “This might be serious. I can’t speak carelessly—it involves a private matter among the demons…”

He glanced at Fa Ning with a hint of worry, but turned away before Fa Ning could catch the flash of emotion in his eyes.

Fa Ning couldn’t help wondering—what was going on? Just how serious was this?

Changsheng was usually so steady. If even he was acting like this… could it be some deep secret of the demons?

In truth, while this could be considered a demon secret, the reason Changsheng hadn’t told Fa Ning had little to do with confidentiality.

He just worried that once Fa Ning found out, he’d be devastated.

—Because the last person who had been tasked with suppressing the well… was Yuan.

“By the way, how exactly did you learn about this?” Changsheng suddenly asked on the way, his tone cautious. “There’s no way you overheard some guard or maid say it out loud. If you had, it’d be raining red already.”

Fa Ning rubbed his nose awkwardly. Changsheng studied his reaction, but in the end said nothing.