My Evil Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox

Li Fei'er wasn't sure of what just happened. Was this Shen Minyao's plan all along? Was she planning to use herself as bait? No, this couldn't be! How could Shen Minyao allow herself to be taken by the mirror demon? What was she and Lord Hell supposed to do to help her? 

Once the blinding light vanished along with her classmate, silence ensued within the room, leaving her with Mu Qing and the spirit orbs in companionable silence. It was as if nothing had happened with the mirror returning to normal after taking Shen Minyao. 

"W-what…?" 

"She went inside," Mu Qing stated the obvious, "This is what she has been planning from the start. 

"You realized that, but you didn't bother to stop her? Why?" 

To break the mirror from the inside would surely kill the demon, but that also meant that Shen Minyao wouldn't be able to come back if that happened. She had no idea Shen Minyao could be reckless like this. 

Li Fei'er stepped forward, intending to exorcise the demon while hoping for a possibility of being able to extract Shen Minyao from the mirror. Her eyes shone with determination to save Shen Minyao this time. However, Mu Qing held her wrist, stopping her.

"No, it's not safe yet." The grim reaper shook his head, while his right hand gripped the hilt of his word with anticipation. Of course, he knew what Shen Minyao's real intention was this time. 

"But we need to save my classmate!" Li Fei'er argued with him. Shen Minyao had saved her life twice now, and she felt the need to return the favor at any cost. 

"You worry too much. Don't you trust your friend? She was aware of the consequences of her actions, yet she chose to go inside. If you want to help her, you better make sure to pull her out of the mirror before it breaks completely," Mu Qing replied before releasing his hold on her wrist after making sure that she wouldn't blindly attack the mirror demon this time. 

"You mean to say… she planned this?" Li Fei'er's eyes went wide upon seeing how calm the grim reaper was. Why would Shen Minyao want to be trapped inside the mirror? 

The grim reaper sighed and looked around the spirit orbs around them. He should be leading them to the netherworld, but he chose to stay for now. He was curious as to how Shen Minyao planned to defeat the other demon on her own. 

Shen Minyao's demonic energy had been dwindling. It wouldn't be too long before she succumbed to her instincts to protect herself by consuming human livers, killing them in the process. 

Mu Qing was aware that she wasn't a low-ranking demoness, considering how she was able to possess a human body. It would be troublesome if she lost control and killed humans in blind hunger. 

Shen Minyao might have been aware of her circumstances; hence, she allowed herself to be taken by the mirror demon. She hoped to replenish her strength by absorbing its power from the inside. Still, how confident was she, to be sure that she would be able to overcome the mirror demon on her own?

"You have to trust her. She's not that weak to begin with," he assured Li Fei'er before giving her a reminder, "What's important now is for us to break the spell that keeps the spirits here." 

Li Fei'er stared at the mirror for a moment before nodding in agreement. She had a feeling that Shen Minyao wasn't a normal human since the first time she'd seen this classmate. A normal human wouldn't be able to overcome the negative energy of the wraith they dealt with before, but Shen Minyao was able to withstand it without breaking a sweat. 

"Then, what should we do?" She asked the grim reaper who was now busy testing the barrier keeping them from the outside world. 

"The barrier is weakening," he told Li Fei'er. "I will break it, but you have to keep an eye on the mirror… as we need to exorcise it as soon as possible." 

"But what about Shen Minyao?" She questioned him.

There was no way Li Fei'er would abandon Shen Minyao like this. 

Mu Qing didn't want to tell her the truth about her classmate, but they should give Shen Minyao enough time to devour the energy of the demon before they could exorcise it. 

"She'll weaken the demon from the inside. Until then, we should wait for her to finish before we could start exorcising it," he explained. 

As soon as Mu Qing broke the barrier, the spirit orbs vanished, returning to the places where they were bound. He continued to sense the mirror demon weakening and wondered what was going on the other side of the mirror. 

Once the spirits had been freed, he and Li Fei'er stood at a safe distance. Earlier, Li Fei'er placed her protective spells around the room to make sure the demon wouldn't be able to escape once she started the exorcism. 

Still, she couldn't help but feel worried about Shen Minyao. The classmate had been inside the mirror for over ten minutes now, and neither he nor Li Fei'er could sense her presence. It was as if she had never been with them since their arrival. 

"What's taking her so long?" Li Fei'er asked worriedly while holding her bells. She kept them in her hand in preparation for the exorcism to force the demon outside the mirror. 

Everything was ready for her exorcism ritual, but Shen Minyao and the mirror demon remained silent. Every passing second made Li Fei'er worry about her classmate. If only she was smart and strong enough, she would be able to help Shen Minyao and Mu Qing defeat the demon. 

As a shaman, she should be able to cast away the demon without Shen Minyao putting her life in danger. Li Fei'er started to think about it: if Shen Minyao was not a shaman or an exorcist, then what was she?