Little Pink Starfish

Fa Ning felt his mind go a little blank. In front of him, Yuan casually pushed the Li Family Head aside. Li Wangzhu, clutching his neck, failed to stay on his feet and collapsed to the ground, gasping with a raspy “sshh” sound.

But Yuan didn’t even look at him. He walked straight over to the Red Sand Well and stared into it.

This well was clearly smaller than the one in the Northwest. Yuan Yuanyuan guessed it was because there weren’t many corpses inside yet. Back during the war, they had more bodies than they knew what to do with. Now, they had only a fraction—just the demons secretly gathered in this city. It hadn’t escalated to the level of a massacre.

Most of the corpses inside were the maids and guards from the King of All Demons’ residence. No matter how many there were, it couldn’t compare to wartime. Yuan Yuanyuan glanced at Li Wangzhu, thinking to herself that this guy was either out of his mind or had long known this would end in disaster.

Li Wangzhu’s fingers trembled as if he wanted to point at Yuan, but he didn’t even have the strength to lift his hand. Yuan had looked at him only once since arriving.

He stood by the well for a long time. Fa Ning, watching from behind, felt a strange sense of dread.

He wanted to pull Yuan away.

But when he got closer, he realized—he couldn’t say anything to stop him.

Yuan stood at the well for a long while, expressionless, then turned away and walked over to the young King of All Demons. Behind him, Li Wangzhu struggled frantically but couldn’t get up.

Then Fa Ning watched as Yuan calmly slit the young king’s throat.

The red clouds in the sky shook violently, as if something up there was furiously charging downward. Even Fa Ning instinctively ducked, afraid the whole sky would fall.

The cloud trembled again and again. The people below stared up in shock and awe. Then, at some unknown point, a sliver of light broke through the red.

Those clouds that had blanketed the city for who-knew-how-many days—all vanished in seconds after that first beam of light.

Fa Ning raised his head, blinking as the sudden brightness stung his eyes.

Across from him, Yuan casually sheathed his blade and turned to leave.

“Hey, wait!” Fa Ning called out to the retreating figure. But Yuan never turned back, continuing forward as if he hadn’t heard.

“Wait, when did you even get here?” Fa Ning asked. He had a thousand questions—when had Yuan arrived? How long had he been here? Where had he been?

When Yuan still didn’t respond, Fa Ning—now convinced his brain was malfunctioning—ran a few steps forward and grabbed his arm.

Only then did Yuan react. He turned to Fa Ning, who suddenly became… awkwardly flustered. For a moment, he couldn’t speak.

Just then, people began rushing into the courtyard. Fa Ning glanced back and realized that the sudden dispersal of the red clouds had drawn everyone’s attention—they’d all come to see what happened.

And what they saw… was a bloodbath. Bodies of maids and guards lay strewn everywhere. The gate had been left wide open, with no resistance at all.

The brave among them had followed the trail of blood—and what they saw in the courtyard left them speechless.

Fa Ning was still holding onto someone’s arm, and right there, barely alive on the ground, was the Li Family Head. Both of them looked up at the newcomers.

“You’re… Lord Yuan?” a demon asked, stunned.

Yuan didn’t respond, but gave a slight nod. Fa Ning instinctively let go of his arm.

The scene spoke for itself.

The corpses of maids and guards, the young King of All Demons lying lifeless, and the half-dead Li Wangzhu—all of it pointed to the end of an era.

Yet Li Wangzhu still glared at them from the ground. Fa Ning noticed and thought, Well, that’s better. That guy’s previous calm and collected look had always irritated him. This glare, though—this was better.

“It was Lord Yuan who saved us!”

“Yuan killed the King of All Demons?”

“Looks like Li Wangzhu’s dying too. He’s barely breathing.”

“I’ve been wondering why no maids came out lately. Must’ve been killed by the King or Li Wangzhu. It’s been days…”

Voices erupted throughout the courtyard like a noisy market. The hellish atmosphere eased up a bit. People began chatting, and Fa Ning actually found it kind of absurd.

He saw that Yuan was now completely surrounded. Somehow, Fa Ning had been pushed off to the side. But he didn’t mind. In fact, he was in a pretty good mood.

Looking at the people crowding around Yuan, Fa Ning thought—maybe it’s for the best.

Since he couldn’t get near, he turned toward Li Wangzhu. He crouched down, studying the man with interest. “So it’s really over… huh.”

Come to think of it, Yuan’s strange trickery had definitely gotten more impressive. Did he develop a new technique? Otherwise, how had he managed to sneak in without either him or Li Wangzhu noticing?

Fa Ning leaned in, meeting Li Wangzhu’s gaze. The man was still staring at him, but couldn’t speak.

“What’s on your mind?” Fa Ning asked with a smirk. “Wanna say something?”

He thought maybe this moment would be fun enough for Ji Qiu to draw into a comic.

Fa Ning had long been curious about Li Wangzhu’s mindset. The man was full of contradictions—emotionally cold, yet weirdly obsessed with certain things.

He had betrayed Yuan and his own sister without hesitation, yet remained fanatically loyal to the King of All Demons.

Now, seeing him like this, Fa Ning really wanted to understand how his mind worked—though it was clear he could no longer speak.

“It’s over,” Fa Ning muttered softly, standing beside Li Wangzhu’s cooling body.

Just then, he looked up and realized something—Li Wangzhu’s eyes were no longer fixed on Yuan.

They were locked on him.

Blood vessels had burst in them, and holding that gaze clearly required great effort.

Then Fa Ning noticed something chilling.

—Li Wangzhu was smiling.

That eerie, twisted smile would be his final expression.

Fa Ning tried to reassure himself. Probably just muscle spasms from dying…

But the image of that smile stayed with him.

What had he been thinking, to die with a grin?

Fa Ning didn’t know. Looking into those eyes sent shivers down his spine. He reached out and gently closed them. It made things look a little better.

…

The Saturday issue of Demon Chronicles felt a bit more lighthearted—though of course, sales were through the roof. The comic’s editor had long since given up trying to understand one thing:

—In an era where print was nearly dead, why were Demon Chronicles’ physical sales so unreasonably good?

Well, it was mostly because very few demons used smartphones. Most preferred print. And with recent dramatic events, everyone wanted to know what had happened—turning the physical issue into a hot commodity, nearly impossible to find.

Fa Ning flipped through the comic. The content matched what Yuan Yuanyuan had seen on her phone that day.

Saturday’s issue covered his and Changsheng’s discussion about Red Sand Well. The two of them had laid out the entire mechanism behind it, so by now, most readers were in on the “secret.”

In addition to that, there were a few other scenes: Li Wangzhu and a certain unlucky guard (who got thrown into the well, eyes still wide open), and another bit where Fa Ning disguised himself as Liu Niang. He had already come to terms with it—he knew at the time that Ji Qiu would probably draw it. Now, he had a kind of “whatever” attitude.

The Monday issue depicted the start of that fateful night. His fight with Li Wangzhu, and that final moment when Yuan appeared like a god descending from the heavens.

And with that line he’d said…

Alright, Fa Ning admitted—even he, like many readers in the comment section, felt his heart thumping.

As for that fat cat—what was his deal? Fa Ning had heard Yuan Yingli mention the cat once or twice. But how had he ended up as Yuan’s personal pet?

Now, Fa Ning lay on a lounge chair, reading the comics and casually scrolling through the comments—especially the ones praising him and Yuan for being handsome.

Honestly, there wasn’t much going on now. But Fa Ning felt like he was on vacation. His mood was great, and he had nothing to worry about.

Even the weather had been unusually pleasant lately. He nearly drifted off when suddenly, hurried footsteps approached, accompanied by heavy breathing.

“What’s going on?” Fa Ning asked lazily. “What’s the rush? Sit down and talk slowly… We’re all heading home now. If that old lady from the other day shows up asking if I’m Liu Niang, just tell her no…”

“It’s not the old lady,” the demon stammered. “It’s something else… Have you heard the news?”

“What news?” Fa Ning asked.

“Didn’t Yuan kill the King of All Demons and Li Wangzhu? Well, lately the demons have been acting all fanatical about him. They… they’re thinking about making Yuan…”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Fa Ning waved dismissively. “Where are you getting this nonsense?”

He lowered his head and went back to his comics and comment section, mostly looking at compliments about his own looks—and Yuan’s.

This kind of thing… someone like Yuan?
No way he’d ever get tangled up in something like that.