Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR IS A CRUEL VOICE IN MY HEAD

[Tan Liansi: I'm sending this conversation to Xin Hulei, if something happens to me he'll know it was you]

[Little Menace: do what you want. Just come over]

While Tan Liansi is on the way, he picks up the two-way mirror Xie Bian gave him.

He's confused as to how it's supposed to work, so he holds up the round gold mirror in front of his face and taps the surface. "She's coming."

Only his own confused face shows up in the gold reflection. Yao Shen taps it again. "Hello?"

"Simple-minded creature, I heard you the first time," an annoyed voice snaps from behind him, almost startling Yao Shen into dropping the mirror.

"I didn't hear you," Yao Shen says, his tone slightly accusatory.

Xie Bian takes the mirror from his hands and sets it down. "I'm a ferryman of souls, do you expect fireworks to go off whenever I enter the mortal realm?" He raises one elegant eyebrow in mockery. "That would defeat the purpose of my role."

Moments later, a flurry of snowflakes whips up in the middle of Yao Shen's living room bringing with it Tan Liansi and her disdainful scowl.

She takes an unimpressed look around Yao Shen's living room, and then asks him. "You live like this?"

He didn't ask her here for her to judge his place. Waving between her and Xie Bian he makes some quick introductions, and adds, "but I believe you already know each other."

"Unfortunately," Tan Liansi says, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Well, you'll have to work together now," Yao Shen says, rubbing his temples. "Xie Bian needs us to get the flower that will heal Fan Wujiu, and we need Fan Wujiu to remove Xin Hulei's seal."

"I'm still not entirely certain on what your goal is with all this," Tan Liansi says, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I want to make the ghost kings pay for what they did to me, and Xin Hulei..." he chances a sideways glance at Xie Bian," and everyone else...A lot has gone wrong in Youdu."

"On that much we agree," Tan Liansi says.

Xie Bian fans himself with a sigh. "Can we hurry this up? I don't have all day."

After a tense moment of silence, Tan Liansi finally nods. Xie Bian bridges the distance between them and nods at her chest.

She pulls down the collar of her shirt, revealing the twisting red seal burned into her chest, similar to Xin Hulei's.

Xie Bian draws a figure in the air in front of her, and when it coalesces into a geometric form he sends it forward towards Tan Liansi. She staggers backwards with the impact, a thin trickle of blood running down her lips.

Slowly, the seal on her chest starts dissolving until disappearing entirely.

She clutches her chest with a gasp. "That hurt like a bitch."

Xie Bian shrugs. "I never promised I'd be gentle about it."

"Can we go now? Will you help us?" Yao Shen asks.

There are too many sides to this conflict, between the remaining ghost kings, Si Wang's double-crossing schemes -- the sooner the sealed kings return the better.

"Fine, let's find that stupid flower," Tan Liansi says, her eyes filled with contempt.

---

This time, Yao Shen forgoes his convenient doorway and Xie Bian takes both him and Tan Liansi directly to the Howling Plains.