Little Pink Starfish

“What exactly are they trying to do?” a middle-aged man said angrily. “Are they deliberately provoking conflict?”

“…Honestly, that’s exactly what it looks like.” A younger woman beside him replied calmly, “Our guess is that their goal is to enrage us and spark a war. Saying they’re ‘provoking conflict’ is being way too gentle.”

As soon as she finished, she caught the man glaring at her.

“What?” she said, “We’re not even allowed to speak the truth anymore? Things have already reached this point, shouldn’t we be thinking about what to do next?”

“Who’s leading that group of demons?” Fa Ning suddenly asked from the other side of the table.

“It’s Yuan,” the girl replied. “Some of our people already encountered him… in the sky.”

The moment she said that, Fa Ning slammed the table in fury. With a loud thud, a massive dent appeared in the surface, accompanied by several cracks.

…A few seconds later, Fa Ning grimaced and shook out his aching hand.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked flatly, unfazed.

……

Yuan Yuanyuan had come to realize something quite strange: if you kept walking long enough, you really did get bolder.

At first, she didn’t even dare to lead the demons out of one city. But gradually, she started getting more reckless—north to south, east to west—everywhere.

This Hyakki Yagyō didn’t have a fixed destination. She’d started from the city where the former Hundred Demon King had lived. After making a few loops inside and outside the city, she’d run out of places to go… so she simply headed toward the neighboring city.

Yuan Yuanyuan honestly didn’t know what the “usual” scale of a Hyakki Yagyō was, or whether crossing into another city was even allowed. But she did it anyway.

From up above, she could see clusters of red dots rising up from below, slowly joining the tail end of her procession.

She’d seen that kind of ascent before—from the ground—but never from above. It was… a very different perspective. Standing atop it all gave her a kind of detached calm, even a vague sense of déjà vu. It felt like something she’d once dreamed about.

“I swear I’ve never seen this before, but why does it feel so familiar?” Yuan Yuanyuan muttered. After thinking for a while, she suddenly slapped her thigh.

This… looked suspiciously like that biology documentary she saw during a college elective years ago…

No, no, no! This is a serious moment—why are you suddenly thinking of something so ridiculous? She gave herself a mental shake.

A demon cautiously approached her. “My lord, should we keep moving?”

“Of course we move. Why wouldn’t we?” Yuan Yuanyuan replied. As long as Fa Ning didn’t come find her, they had to keep moving. The longer they marched, the more they could delay the start of the war. Treat it like a stroll. Anyway, this many demons couldn’t just be dispersed on the spot. If they didn’t keep moving… then there’d really be trouble.

“You’re amazing, my lord!” The nearby demon looked at her with starry eyes, his voice full of admiration.

Lord Yuan dared to march this far during such a tense time—it was a direct slap in the face to those Daoists!

Yuan Yuanyuan thought: yeah, she wasn’t just good at stalling for time—she was also great at redirecting aggro.

How many Daoists had she pissed off already, just walking through those two cities?

Floating around in the sky like this was basically the most blatant form of provocation. Though it was true that demons rarely showed themselves to humans, Yuan Yuanyuan had pretty much let go of all restraint at this point.

Seen or unseen—it didn’t matter. If they were going to provoke people, what difference did it make?

Just as she was about to lead the procession forward again, a demon leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

Yuan Yuanyuan turned around slowly.

That demon had just told her—someone was coming.

And for it to be that “someone,” it definitely wasn’t just any ordinary person. She’d already encountered quite a few Daoists over the past few days, and her approach to all of them had been the same as on the first day: just walk right past them.

Most of them, seeing the size of this demon horde, figured it might really be a Hyakki Yagyō. After all, demons had been dormant for many years without any organized gatherings. Yuan Yuanyuan was probably the first to trigger such a massive response.

The demons behind her were from at least two cities—definitely not a small number. When she glanced back, the demonic aura was so thick it dyed the sky a deep violet.

Up ahead, someone appeared.

Yuan Yuanyuan’s steps faltered slightly when she saw him. Unlike the previous encounters, she didn’t simply barrel through.

Fa Ning.

Fa Ning looked at her, seemingly full of things to say—but unable to say them.

“You… wait,” Fa Ning shouted. “Can we please talk this through?”

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at him for a long, long time, her face expressionless. As the silence stretched on, Fa Ning grew visibly anxious—but also a bit hopeful.

The fact that she hadn’t acted yet… meant she was hesitating.

And hesitation meant there was still a chance.

Fa Ning gazed at her hopefully, but after a long moment, Yuan Yuanyuan merely gave a slight nod—then quietly walked past him.

The vast demon army followed her closely, sweeping past his sides.

Fa Ning stood there, eyes slowly turning blank, and then, finally, he knelt down.

……

【Ahhh what kind of soul-crushing plot twist is this?! Do you guys have no heart?!】

【Are they breaking up my master-disciple CP? It’s over, over… someone tell me they’re not really heading for a bad end?!】

【Actually… I kinda like this vibe. Angsty love-hate dynamics… well, I’ve always had weird tastes anyway. Just ignore me.】

【Fa Ning and Yuan are locked in now. Off to hell together. I hope it all ends in a full-scale tragedy.】

Foolish children. Yuan Yuanyuan looked at her phone screen with a kind of maternal tenderness.
The so-called “full-scale tragedy” they were talking about? That didn’t mean just her and Fa Ning dying.
It meant… the entire world would go down with them.

If they were going to hell, they’d go together. Who could escape now?

So many people had once loved those classic shounen manga stories—not because of the hot-blooded battles or underdog triumphs—but because of the subtle, burning chemistry between protagonist and rival, or between main and side characters.

Yuan Yuanyuan’s own tastes had always leaned that way. She wasn’t into explicit shipping or cheap fanservice—
She preferred that kind of… ambiguous, emotionally complex “bromance” found in old-school shounen manga.

That kind of brotherhood between men—was such a strange, fascinating thing. Sometimes you couldn’t even tell if it was friendship or love.

Long ago, she’d believed that friendship and love weren’t all that different. That they could shift and blur into one another. That if friendship grew strong enough, it became indistinguishable from love.

This lovely illusion had held fast for years—
Until today, when she saw all the fans screaming online.
And suddenly, it felt like she was looking at a younger version of herself, and the whole thing pulled her completely out of the story.

You guys… have such keen eyes.
You can see the romantic subtext between us? Yuan Yuanyuan could only grumble internally.

But really now—just gender alone should shatter the illusion. She was a girl, after all. How could there be that kind of masculine friendship like in shounen manga?

Total misreading, honestly…

To put it plainly, what was left between the two of them was just a master-disciple bond. Maybe a little… comrade-in-arms sentiment, a shared hope for peace.

Though, to be honest, Fa Ning probably didn’t even see her as a comrade right now.

After what had happened a few days ago, he’d be generous to not see her as the enemy—never mind a war buddy.

Yuan Yuanyuan closed the comic she’d been reading.
As she’d predicted, the moment she revealed her true card, everyone lost their minds. The readers were basically treating it like New Year’s Eve.

Except for a handful of hardcore Yuan stans, most Demon Chronicles fans were thrilled.
They couldn’t believe it—after all this buildup, the final boss turned out to be Yuan?

Yuan!

By now, readers had mostly figured out Yuan’s backstory—even though what they’d pieced together was mostly about Seventeen.

They were all wondering what Yuan’s true feelings were.
From their perspective, even if he was now the big boss, he was a boss with real style.

Qi Qiu had drawn parts of the story set in the northwest, highlighting the hardships of demon life. It painted a poignant picture and stirred sympathy in the readers.

This made Yuan’s current position feel even more difficult.

Should he stand with the demons? Or with his disciple?

When it came to questions of loyalty and righteousness, fans got the most excited. Theories about Yuan exploded online.

Many believed he would eventually be forced into a final confrontation with Fa Ning.

But a few still believed Yuan wouldn’t go that far. Their reasoning? Yuan’s earlier attitude toward Fa Ning.

“Master will die by his disciple’s hand,” one reader declared. “I had a bad feeling back when he faked his death the first time.”

So—
What would the final outcome be?

Fa Ning slowly regained consciousness, only to get slapped across the face by the girl next to him.

“Get up already! If you don’t, your master’s going to wipe us all out.”