She had no way of appearing and disappearing without a trace, so she could only deceive You Shuo visually.
When You Shuo was in a bad mood, he liked to find dark places to sit, and he liked to stay in his room without turning on the lights. As if, so long as the lights remained off and he was shrouded in darkness, he could pretend his parents were right beside him.
You Ling knew this habit of his. Today, You Shuo had been severely shaken — there was a good chance he wouldn't turn on the lights.
All that remained was to quietly appear behind him, but that was the hardest part.
You Shuo was an A-rank ability user, and the perceptiveness of an A-rank ability user was not to be underestimated. But he was You Ling's brother — they had lived under the same roof for eighteen years, long since accustomed to each other's presence and familiar with each other's aura.
You Ling could only bet on this one thing — that when facing her, You Shuo would let his guard down.
As long as he didn't detect her in advance, she could manufacture the eerie atmosphere of "suddenly appearing behind him."
Sure enough, You Shuo noticed nothing.
You Ling sighed inwardly. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she could sense fear radiating from You Shuo — fear so dense it had nearly solidified into something tangible.
You Shuo immediately cut his connection with his teammates, then rose from his chair and said slowly, "Why... are you here?"
Because this is my home. You Ling recited silently, while maintaining a perfectly entitled demeanor on the surface.
She folded her fan and began spouting nonsense. "Your soul is mine, and everything you have is mine. Your home is mine as well."
...
You Shuo had not forgotten him — the devil he'd struck a deal with. But he never expected him to appear so silently inside his own home.
You Ling was still in the room next door.
What should he do? What could he do? Use force? No, no, no — from the fundamentals of abilities, someone who could resurrect the dead was absolutely not a normal ability user. Resorting to violence would most likely only drag You Ling into danger.
Confronting a powerful ability user of unknown identity when he had no certainty of overpowering them — that was practically suicide.
And what he feared most was one possibility —
"Or perhaps... you want to go back on our deal?" The devil's emerald eyes were deep and fathomless. He tapped his fan lightly against the air. "Now that would be a rare thing. I seldom revoke deals, but if you really want to, it's not impossible. After all, it's not as if I'm some kind of villain..."
"I won't go back on it," You Shuo said at once. "What do you want me to do?"
What he feared most was the devil revoking the miracle. He couldn't accept that — absolutely could not.
The devil rolled his eyes upward to the right, then let them drift down to the left, tapping the fan beneath his own lips as he said slowly, "Oh, nothing much. You see, I've been terribly bored lately. Don't want to keep birds, don't want to keep dogs, and I've got nothing in common with those youngsters walking their birds and playing chess in the park. When boredom gets this bad, you've got to find something to do, right? The thing is, I don't have a guide."
His gaze sized You Shuo up, then he nodded. "You're fairly exceptional — but only a little bit. Following you around should prove more interesting. No need to be afraid of me. I'm very nice, and I won't restrict where you stay or tell you where you must go. My, aren't I generous?"
With that, he tilted his head and added unhurriedly, "So, are you just staying here tonight? Not going out?"
Who in their right mind would dare say yes?
The devil said You Shuo could do as he pleased, but the moment he decided to follow You Shuo, You Shuo could no longer do anything of the sort.
Did he dare stay home and let this devil of unknown identity remain here too? Under the same roof as You Ling?
Did he dare? He did not.
You Shuo felt as though he were facing an inescapable monster. But the moment he chose to pray for a miracle, he should have known he'd pay a price like this.
He was willing to accept his own fate, but he was terrified of You Ling being affected again.
You Shuo truly could not go through that a second time.
"I'll head out now and show you around." You Shuo sighed, righted his chair, and sat back down to send messages to his teammates. "Would you prefer the night market or a shopping mall?"
"The night market, then." The devil tilted his head in thought, then walked over to the nearby table and sat himself on top of it.
In that moment, he seemed almost harmless, but You Shuo knew it was all a facade.
This was a genuine devil from hell — a monster who toyed with life and death.
There was one more thing. You Shuo knew he probably wouldn't get an answer, but he had to ask. "What should I call you when we're outside?"
Who was he, really?
Too little time had passed for You Shuo to investigate him, but based on his own understanding of the Hidden World of abilities, he had never encountered anyone like this.
If the dead could be resurrected through a mere wish, the world would not hold so much sorrow.
It was a miracle — and an impossibility that should never have occurred.
The anomaly narrowed his emerald pupils and chuckled softly. "Many people in this era want to know who I am and where I come from. But sometimes, ignorance is the only blessing. As for you — you don't yet have the qualifications to know me."
"A name? Call me whatever you like. If you insist on calling me 'devil,' I don't mind." He was utterly at ease, but You Shuo had not had a single moment of ease since his appearance.
The fact that he'd been calling the creature "devil" in his head had been found out — it really was as if he could read minds.
You Shuo looked up at the devil, and the devil gazed back at him with a serene, amused smile.
Perhaps he should have been more wary, but he truly sensed no threat from him. For the time being, the devil had no intention of killing him.
Then he would simply follow his demands. There was nothing else to be done.
"Your eyes look like gemstones," You Shuo said. He stared at the devil's eyes — even in the profound darkness, they still shimmered with that verdant hue. "Can I call you Bi Xi?"
"Of course you can." The devil said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world, just as he'd claimed — he didn't mind.
A name was a symbol of one's identity. If he didn't even care about that, You Shuo had no idea what he actually cared about.
He knew absolutely nothing about him.
You Shuo threw on his jacket. As he passed through the living room, You Ling's door showed nothing but darkness through the crack — no light at all. She appeared to already be asleep, so there was no need to knock and wake her.
He hoped everything would go smoothly.
...
【Host's remaining activity time: 16:38:16】
Everything was going smoothly.
You Ling rarely got to browse a night market with her brother. When they'd been poor, You Shuo was busy making money; when they had money, You Shuo was busy with work. The siblings seldom had the chance to go out together.
This particular opportunity had arrived in a rather peculiar way, but it had arrived all the same. She stopped in front of a tanghulu stand, tapping her fan against the glass display case at a yogurt-filled tanghulu. "I want this one."
Then she looked at You Shuo, and You Shuo looked at her.
You Shuo's face went blank. He took a deep breath and stepped forward. "I'll pay, boss."
The vendor laughed cheerfully. "I know, I know — this is one of those cosplay commission things, right? I used to love doing stuff like that when I was young!"
You Shuo opened his mouth, wanting to explain but having no idea what to say. In the end, he settled for self-deprecation. "He's my master. I'm just accompanying my master while he shops."
The vendor was utterly astounded.
You Ling took her tanghulu and continued strolling through the night market at a leisurely pace.
Granted, she should have been working overtime to push the plot forward — things like 【Jiao Tu】, the villains, the exposure of Nightwatch information, and the like — but she genuinely didn't have enough intel at the moment. Forcing progress would most likely blow up in her face.
So she could only focus on establishing her character. In manga, the most important thing was still characterization.
And what was the most important element of characterization? If she could draw it on a blackboard in big white chalk letters, she'd write one word — Contrast!
The "strongest" persona had already been established from her very first appearance. In You Shuo's eyes, she was already formidable, so now she could appropriately display some contrast.
For example, loving sweets — the strongest character having a sweet tooth seemed to be a standard manga formula.
What else was there? A terrible sense of direction? A perpetual poker face? No, no, no — none of those would work.
You Ling bit into the sugar coating of the tanghulu, the candy crunching between her cheeks, thinking all the while.
When You Shuo wasn't talking to her, he was essentially communicating with Nightwatch members. You Ling had no intention of stopping him — her most important task right now was establishing her character.
Loves sweets — check. Frequently has battle damage — check. Or maybe the character gets massively nerfed because the author can't handle the power level, or even gets forcibly written out of the story entirely.
...It really was too hard. She simply hadn't read enough manga. All You Ling had in her head were stock formulas and nothing remotely original.
You Ling took another bite of the sugar coating, not touching a single bit of the sour hawthorn inside.
You Shuo quickened his pace and caught up from behind — he'd probably finished delegating tasks. He started making conversation. "Bi Xi, why did you say I'm special?"
He'd already started using the name, just like that.
You Ling genuinely had no objections to the new name. Her character was meant to be the strongest of a previous era, but that kind of information might very well exist in written records that had survived to the present. Even more likely, there could be long-lived ability users still around. What if she casually gave a name and it turned out nobody had ever heard of it?
"Oh, what a coincidence — you don't recognize it either?" "Right, I've never heard of it either." "Hold on, none of us have heard of it?" "Then it's obviously made up!"
So she would absolutely never volunteer a name on her own. You Shuo naming her actually gave her a graceful way out.
She could be called by any name, but she must never be the one to reveal her identity first.
As for the question You Shuo had raised — how many "whys" could there really be? He was the manga protagonist, after all.
Mm-hmm, Clip Bro — the whole internet already knew about that affected little voice of his.
You Ling thought for a moment, then deliberately said something menacing. "The scent emanating from your soul... is more delicious than other people's."
Parents frightened children by telling them there were scary strangers outside who ate people. She was doing the same thing to her own brother — telling him she ate people.
Children believed it, and her brother believed it too.
You Shuo's expression was quite something to behold. You Ling glanced at him and continued, "You're also more interesting than other people. Most wouldn't keep a burden around, and even fewer would trade their own soul to me for the sake of that burden. You're... rather stupid, aren't you?"
"My sister is not a burden." You Shuo said. He was visibly displeased.
"Oh, what are you getting upset about? Suit yourself." You Ling shrugged, her peripheral vision catching a trash can by the roadside. She squeezed her eyes shut, scrunched up her face, and forced down the remaining hawthorn, then casually tossed the tanghulu stick into the bin.
Her gaze turned forward. The stalls lining both sides of the night market road made the path narrow and crowded, but the congestion up ahead seemed excessive.
There were even shouts coming from that direction — it sounded like someone berating another person for bumping into them.
You Shuo's phone started ringing as well. He had been looking at You Ling, clearly wanting to argue further, but the moment the ringtone sounded, his expression changed. He picked up the phone and answered.
You Ling recognized it as his work ringtone — something had clearly come up.
The night market You Shuo had chosen was close to their Jinli City Nightwatch base. If You Shuo was receiving word too, then this was most likely Hidden World business — and You Ling, who had no abilities, was better off staying out of it to avoid things going sideways.
I need to make my exit, she thought.
She'd already gotten her screen time, and she'd eaten the tanghulu for character-building purposes — there shouldn't be anything else she'd forgotten...
Suddenly, her gaze froze.
In the crowded throng, a figure with his head down was sprinting through the crowd, coming from the opposite direction on her left. He had been using his hood to hide his face, but he suddenly turned and looked straight at You Ling. At barely a meter apart, it was more than enough for her to see his features —
The bastard who had stabbed her to death.
You Ling's mind went blank for an instant. In that split second, the scene from that afternoon flashed before her eyes.
【"Little girl, if you want someone to blame, blame that good brother of yours."】
It was him — without a doubt!
"What? The suspect escaped?" You Shuo's voice rose involuntarily from shock, loud enough for You Ling to overhear.
The criminal who had killed her — the one Nightwatch had captured — had escaped.
In the instant they brushed past each other, the criminal spotted You Ling as well, and inexplicable terror surfaced across his face.
How strange. He had never seen Bi Xi before. Why would he look at her with that expression?
His eyes went wide in those fleeting seconds, his mouth falling open of its own accord. He even stumbled.
You Ling was certain that was fear. She didn't understand why, but in that very instant, she saw thin threads extending from her fingertips. Bright golden threads visible only to her eyes — like sharks catching the scent of blood, they surged toward him.
One. Two. Three.
Before You Ling's eyes, the threads sank beneath his skin.
The next instant, they passed each other completely, yet the three threads continued to stretch endlessly, as though they would never break.
The threads would never break. They would remain connected to him forever.
You Ling changed her mind.
She turned her head slightly, and the man who had killed her was still watching her with that expression of terror on his face.
She raised her closed fan and waved it at him gently, her lips parting without sound: "Run."
He had better pray she never caught him. Otherwise... she could be very, very vindictive.