The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Roselle, who was standing next to him, naturally moved closer and looked at the thin newspaper with only one page in Su Qi's hand.

"Shocking! A seventeen-year-old girl has turned into an eighty-year-old woman overnight!"

The thick, black newspaper headline immediately caught Su Qi's attention. Looking further down, a high-resolution color photograph appeared before him. The background of the photograph was the eaves of an old Japanese-style wooden house, and the main subject was an elderly woman wearing a purple evening gown, sitting on the eaves sunbathing.

She had dull, dry blonde hair, wore a white soft cap that resembled a nightcap, was thin, had dry, hard skin, a face full of wrinkles and age spots, and dull, lifeless eyes. She looked like a lifeless doll.

"Holy crap, Zi Mei has really turned into Grandma Zi."

Su Qi immediately recognized the person in the photo as Yakumo Yukari, one of the founders of Gensokyo and a youkai sage who had lived for at least a thousand years.

The state of Yukari Yakumo in the photo is obviously abnormal, which is very likely caused by this unknown anomaly. As one of the strongest, Yukari Yakumo has become like this, so it is conceivable that this anomaly must not be simple.

"I originally thought Gensokyo was a relatively peaceful world, but now it seems that this mission won't be easy either."

Having reviewed Su Qi's memories, Roselle naturally recognized the seriousness of the problem at a glance.

"Yes, I never thought that Yukari, who was always the scapegoat of Gensokyo, would be framed by someone else. If we can't solve her problems first, we might lose a helpful ally."

Yukari Yakumo is not only the founder of Gensokyo, but also its maintainer. She would have been a natural ally if the incident had been resolved, but now it seems that may not be possible.

"And that's not the only bad news..."

Su Qi continued reading, and the second news headline was... "Even more shocking! The righteous Hakurei Shrine Maiden has turned to banditry, robbing everyone who passes by near the shrine! Is this a distortion of humanity? Or a decline in morality?"

The accompanying image shows a girl dressed in a red and white shrine maiden outfit with exposed armpits, wearing a red Hannya demon mask, and carrying a huge money box on her back, swinging a gohei (a type of shrine offering) and knocking a horned loli (another type of shrine maiden) into a shooting star in the sky on the approach to the shrine.

"Is that... a witch?"

Having seen most of Su Qi's memories, Roselier also recognized that being.

Su Qi sighed softly, "Judging from the appearance, if it's true, we might be in trouble."

The so-called Oni Shrine Maiden originated from a Touhou Project fan comic and was later introduced into the fighting game platform MUGEN. Her origin is a corrupted version of Reimu Hakurei, another maintainer of Gensokyo and the original protagonist. In the fan comic, she is invincible, and in MUGEN, she is one of the strongest characters.

In short, it's strong, incredibly strong, and becoming an enemy would be extremely troublesome.

Roselle frowned slightly. "In this way, two powerful allies who could have been our helpers have been sealed away."

"Moreover, given the Witch's berserk and all-consuming style of attack, encountering her could turn her into an enemy..."

As Su Qi spoke, he glanced at the newspaper in his hand again, making sure it only had one page and contained only these two news items, before casually adding it to his personal space.

"Should we go after Aya Shameimaru next?"

"Hmm, let's see if we can find out anything else. The newspapers don't have enough information."

He looked up and gazed in the direction of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. His vision was far beyond that of an ordinary person, and he could clearly see that the figure from before had left the sky above the Scarlet Devil Mansion and was heading in another direction.

"Anyway, I'll catch up first, you can follow later."

Su Qi greeted Roselle, then with a thought, he enveloped his body in his mental energy, instantly rising into the sky and transforming into a blur as he shot towards his target.

Just over ten seconds later, Su Qi successfully caught up with his target and arrived not far behind him.

But at that moment, the other party seemed to have noticed that someone was following them, and suddenly accelerated, instantly widening the distance between them.

Wow, that was fast. Although I'm an Eastern reporter, I'm just as good as the legendary Western reporters. But I'm the kind of man who can circle the earth in a second. How could I be easily left behind?

Su Qi was slightly surprised and immediately sped up, chasing after her while shouting, "Miss Karasu Tengu ahead, please wait!"

The other party not only ignored them, but also sped up again, widening the distance between them even further.

Su Qi accelerated in sync and said, "Miss Aya Shameimaru, the only designated reporter of Gensokyo, please stop for a moment. I have something important to discuss with you. I have absolutely no ill intentions."

The other party continued without stopping, accelerating once more and widening the distance.

There's no other way...

Su Qi also sped up to catch up, and blurted out the last invitation, "Shameimaru Aya, I have some big news to break!"

Sure enough, no reporter could resist the temptation of a big story. Before he finished speaking, the other person immediately turned back, flashed in front of him with teleportation speed, and then suddenly stopped.

Su Qi's pupils contracted slightly, and a massive surge of mental power erupted simultaneously, forcibly fixing his body in place.

The next moment, both of them froze, the swirling air burst apart, and the two were less than a meter apart, almost colliding on the spot.

"Wow, that's amazing..."

The being that hovered effortlessly in the air and spoke resembled a human girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, but had a pair of black wings on her back, wore a small red hexagonal hat, a white sleeveless shirt and a black short skirt, and a pair of peculiar red leather shoes with Mary Jane-like uppers and high-heeled clogs on the lowers.

"How can someone who looks like just a human keep up with me, who is actually a tengu?"

She was beautiful and had a refreshing demeanor. She had short black hair and red eyes. She slowly circled around Su Qi while scrutinizing him with great interest.

Su Qi stood still, unmoved, and simply smiled and said, "This question is very simple, because I am not an ordinary person."

Shameimaru stopped in front of him, seemingly curious, and asked, "A sage?"

Su Qi shook his head.

"Celestial beings?"

Su Qi shook his head again.

"Alright, I'll give up guessing and just tell me directly, okay?"

"Strictly speaking, I am still human, but I possess certain abilities that surpass those of natural humans. These abilities are not acquired through ordinary cultivation like those of immortals or celestial beings, so if I had to categorize them, I would say I am more like a superhuman."

"I see... A superpowered person? That's a rare type."

As he spoke, Sheming immediately took out his Wenhua Notes and jotted down a few notes. Then he said, "So, let's get back to the main topic. You seemed to have mentioned some big news to share. Could you tell me more about it?"

"Well..."

Su Qi's mind raced, and he quietly activated the Intelligence-Lowering Aura and the Illusionary Feathers, smiling slightly as he said, "Actually, I'm not from Gensokyo, nor am I from the outside world, nor am I from any other world in this universe like the Underworld or the Demon World. I'm a transmigrator from another universe. Is that big news?"

To avoid any accidents or being discovered later, he did not control her through direct hypnosis, but rather subtly interfered with her consciousness.

"Transmigrators from other universes?"

Aya Shameimaru frowned slightly. Gensokyo was connected to other worlds, such as the Demon World, the Underworld, the Law World, and the Heavenly World, so a visitor from another world, even if he was a transmigrator from another universe, could be news material, but it wasn't exactly big news. However, under Su Qi's subtle interference, she unconsciously became conflicted in her judgment.

"Well, transmigrators from other universes are also quite novel, and maybe some people will be interested. That could be considered big news."

After a moment, under Su Qi's influence, Sheming finally agreed and then perked up, saying, "Can we start the interview now?"

"I'm sorry, I have more important things to do, so could the interview be postponed for three days?"

"Huh?" Aya Shameimaru was slightly taken aback, then quickly realized, "In that case, do you have something else to discuss with me?"

"That's right, I want to ask you some questions."

The tengu girl narrowed her eyes slightly, still wearing a professional, faint smile, but her gaze had subtly turned cold as she complained, "Oh dear, that's fraud."

"Okay, okay, how about we start the interview now?"

"Well, that depends on what kind of information you want to find out."

"Anomaly."

Su Qi said, "I want to know if there's anything particularly unusual about Gensokyo lately, like those two news articles you wrote in the newspaper."

"Huh? You want to resolve this incident? But the incident in Gensokyo shouldn't have anything to do with you, as a transmigrator, right?"

He said with a serious face, "In fact, the reason we came into this world is because of the source of this anomaly. We suspect it is related to an enemy we have been pursuing for a long time."

"is that so……"

As Aya Shameimaru spoke, she suddenly paused slightly, looked behind Su Qi, and her eyes gleamed.

Su Qi's heart skipped a beat, and he turned his head to look, only to see Roselle arriving just in time, the very person Aya Shameimaru was watching.

"By the way, is that lady your companion?"

"That's right, so what?"

"that is really good!"

Shameimaru Aya finally turned her gaze to Su Qi, and said excitedly, "Please let me take a set of photos for that beautiful lady!"