Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In the year our little junior sister, Song Fuyao, first came to the Demon-Slaying Bureau, she was very popular.

Her reputation was excellent.

Mine was atrocious.

Everyone said I was inferior to her.

I didn’t care.

A beauty was a beauty. I liked beauties too.

Later, they had the nerve to say that in the future, she would definitely be far stronger than me.

Holding my sword, I lazily cast a Silence Spell on the person spreading that rumor the loudest.

“You said something I don’t like hearing, so you get punished.”

Stealing my title as the number one beauty? Fine!

Stealing my title as the number one fighter? Absolutely not!

As for why I only punished one of them…

Obviously, it was so he would be isolated and helpless, without even a chance to find someone to share his righteous outrage.

If I punished a whole group, they would band together and turn against me as one.

As if I’d let that happen. Hah.

Song Fuyao’s eyes reddened slightly as she said timidly, “Commander, I didn’t mean it that way.”

I smiled and said mildly, “I know. Otherwise, I would have punished you too. I know you’re a good girl. They were the ones stirring up trouble, weren’t they?”

Song Fuyao’s expression turned unreadable, and she said nothing.

My gaze drifted, almost imperceptibly, over the top of her head.

There were several strands of Red Thread above her head, each winding its way toward me.

I had slowly figured out what some of them represented: familial love, friendship, romantic love. There were others I still couldn’t understand.

This meant that between her and me, there was ill-fated karma.

That year, the Red Thread above her head that represented friendship was bright and vivid.

On my end, it was extremely dim.

By ordinary logic, I should have been anxious. I should have been thinking of ways to fight for it.

After all, between the two of us, one’s gain was the other’s loss. If I didn’t fight, I might end up deserted by everyone.

But I didn’t care.

What I sought was immortality. The Great Dao.

Sooner or later, I would have to sever these bonds anyway.

If she helped me cut them, all the better.

I was merely curious. Why had this kind of situation appeared between her and me?

After all, on anyone else, I could at most see a single Red Thread.

A few years ago, I followed a Rat Demon into the Matchmaker Temple.

Inside the temple, the Rat Demon knelt devoutly before the Old Matchmaker and made a wish.

It said it had taken a fancy to the daughter of Zhang Yuanwai in the city and wanted to pray for a marriage bond.

It took out offerings and placed them on the altar.

Very soon, the offerings vanished.

A Red Thread appeared around the Rat Demon’s ankle. The Red Thread wound its way out of the Matchmaker Temple and tied itself to the foot of Zhang Yuanwai’s daughter.

The Rat Demon was overjoyed. It transformed into human form, knocked on the door, and said it wanted to beg for a bowl of water.

Miss Zhang shyly agreed and invited the Rat Demon into her home for a drink.

One human and one demon walked one after the other, exchanging smiles from time to time, all tender and lingering.

Just as the two of them were about to use a spilled cup of water as an excuse to fall into each other’s arms…

I knocked Miss Zhang unconscious with a chop to the neck, grabbed the Rat Demon, threw it into the Matchmaker Temple, and told the Old Matchmaker to get the hell out.

Naturally, the Old Matchmaker refused to get the hell out.

It turned into a streak of red light and tried to flee, only to crash into my Demon-Catching Net.

It was a Bug Demon with huge eyes, tiny in size. It wriggled and tried to escape, but it couldn’t break free of the Demon-Catching Net.

The Rat Demon fought desperately to break out of my grip. Its sharp claws tore open the Demon-Catching Net and allowed the Bug Demon to escape.

When I seized it by the neck, the Rat Demon still looked utterly defiant.

“Kill me if you want, but don’t even dream of catching the Old Matchmaker.”

I spread my five fingers and made a light grabbing motion. The Old Matchmaker came wriggling into my palm.

After catching demons for so many years, I had plenty of experience.

I had laid down two layers of Demon-Catching Net.

Even if one layer was torn open, there was another not far away.

The Rat Demon cursed furiously. Squeak squeak, chirp chirp~

I slapped it twice across the face to clear its head.

With red eyes, the Rat Demon said, “We demons have feelings too. Are demons not allowed to fall in love? I fell for Miss Zhang. I would treat her well for the rest of her life. Is that not allowed?”

Right on cue, the Bug Demon showed me an illusion:

Miss Zhang had no true fated match in this life, only one ill-fated bond.

She would marry the scholar chosen by her father, and her whole family would support that scholar so he could go to the capital and take the imperial examinations.

The result was exactly like one of those clichéd storybooks: the scholar passed the examination and became a jinshi, but then married a nobleman’s daughter instead. He even used his power and connections to destroy Zhang Yuanwai’s entire household.

Furious, Miss Zhang went to the capital to demand justice, only to die halfway there. A demon occupied her body, fulfilled her last wish by killing the scholar and the noblewoman for her, and then used her identity to begin its own path toward immortality.

The Bug Demon said proudly, “I was saving her.”

I slapped it too, hard enough that its huge eyeballs spun wildly.

I said coldly, “Human affairs are none of you demons’ business.”

People always glorify their own actions.

Even the most evil person will think they were forced by others into murder and arson.

Demons are the same.

I’d sooner believe a ghost than believe it.

The reason I had come here to catch demons was because, recently, strange incidents had been happening throughout the city:

Monks were falling in love with courtesans.

Noble ladies were falling in love with beggars.

Every single one of them loved with earth-shattering passion, ready to live or die for it.

So it turned out this Bug Demon had occupied the Matchmaker Temple and was making trouble here.

I stuffed the Rat Demon into a Demon-Catching Pouch, planning to take it back and toss it into the Hell-Suppression Department for judgment and punishment.

As for the Bug Demon, it rapidly collapsed its outer shell, transformed into a butterfly, and escaped through the skylight in the roof.

Before it left, it even glared at me.

It wouldn’t live long.

Bug Demons have longer lifespans than butterfly demons.

It had dragged its feet and refused to transform into a butterfly, probably because it wanted to take human form while still in its bug body.

But I had interrupted it halfway.

Its bug sac burst open, and the wisps of Red Thread in its huge eyes tried to flee with it.

I reached out and grabbed them. Unable to break free, the Red Thread reluctantly melted into my palm.

I guided the Red Thread into my eyes.

In that instant, my eyes were lit by a strange power.

From then on, I could see the Red Thread between people, and I gained the ability to tie Red Thread for others.

But I was too lazy to tie any.

Tying Red Thread consumed magic power and brought karmic consequences.

It would also make my eyes grow bigger and bigger, until I finally became a big-eyed freak.

Far too ugly…

I originally thought that was the full extent of the Red Thread’s function.

Until Song Fuyao appeared.

Only then did I abruptly realize that Red Thread could be divided into such fine categories. Now that was interesting.