When the delinquent took the white paper from the girl's hand, Li Ming curiously leaned in to glance at the symbols on the sheet.
However, Li Ming admitted he couldn't make sense of anything—the symbols meant nothing to him.
Only after the girl's hurried figure vanished into the back alley did Li Ming clear his throat and step out of his concealed state, asking, "Hey kid, got a question for you."
Li Ming's sudden voice clearly startled the delinquent.
The boy instinctively took a few steps back, drawing a short blade as he glared warily at Li Ming and demanded sharply, "Who are you?"
As he spoke, the delinquent narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Li Ming—whose entire body, save for his head, was shrouded in a black cloak—and asked, "You can see me?"
"Isn't that obvious? If I couldn't see you, I'd be talking to thin air." Li Ming rolled his eyes, calmly pressing his palm down to signal the delinquent to stay calm. "The world is so beautiful, yet you're so aggressive. That's not good, young man. You've got quite the temper."
While lecturing the delinquent about keeping calm, Li Ming casually conjured a Fireball in his other hand, letting the delinquent feel its scorching heat. In a composed tone, he said, "Don't be nervous. I mean you no harm. I just want to know who you are."
The delinquent's eye twitched as he stared at the Fireball. He wanted to ask: Who's the aggressive one here when you're threatening me with magic the moment we meet?
At the same time, the blazing Fireball made it clear to the delinquent that the person before him wasn't someone he could mess with given his current strength. Otherwise, the Fireball wouldn't just be floating in his palm—it'd be smashing into his face.
"Lance," the delinquent, knowing he was no match for Li Ming, lowered his blade toward the ground, pretending to be harmless. But Li Ming could tell the boy's muscles were still tense.
Not that Li Ming cared about his wariness. Come on, he had his Shield up the whole time. If the delinquent foolishly insisted on attacking, the only one getting hurt would be himself.
Lance? Never heard of him. Li Ming pointed at himself and introduced, "I'm Austin, a traveling Mage."
Mage? Not a Warlock? The delinquent hesitated before asking, "What brings you here?"
Li Ming shrugged, extinguishing the Fireball to show he meant no harm. At the same time, he secretly activated the Mind Stone to cast a spell of persuasion while asking curiously, "What's your profession? Why were you hiding?"
The question caught the delinquent off guard: How could there still be supernatural beings who didn't know about Shadowhunters?
Under Li Ming's spell, the delinquent inexplicably felt that Li Ming truly bore him no ill will. After a moment's thought, he slowly sheathed his dagger and said, "I'm a Shadowhunter, a Nephilim—half-angel, half-human. We usually train and study at an institute..."
As the delinquent elaborated, Li Ming learned that Jace was a warrior specialized in hunting Demons.
At the same time, Li Ming finally realized where he was.
Mortal Cup · City of Bones.
But knowing which world he was in only made Li Ming more frustrated. He had watched the 'Mortal Cup' movie, but embarrassingly enough, when he saw the 'Mortal War' film, he had been utterly confused, unable to grasp what the story was about even after watching for a long time.
All he knew was that the plot revolved around a certain Mortal Cup. As for what exactly the Cup did—sorry, Li Ming hadn't figured that out.
And the finer details of the movie? Yeah, he didn't remember much of those either. As for the two main characters in the story—the young girl Clary seen earlier and the current Jace—whether they were lovers or siblings remained a complete muddle in Li Ming's mind, utterly confusing to distinguish.
He'd only seen many netizens online saying these two ended up as "lovers turned siblings."
After Jace finished his introduction, Li Ming also concluded his spellcasting at the same time. There was no helping it—the cost of using the Mind Stone wasn't light. At least before becoming a demigod, Li Ming didn't think he could wield this thing for long.
Seizing the chance to scratch his head, Li Ming took a few deep breaths to steady the fluctuations of his mana and said, "From what you're saying, it seems your academy has quite a mature application of Rune Inscriptions. Would you mind if I visited your academy for some exchange and learning?"
Unaffected by the Mind Stone's interference, Jace glanced at Li Ming. From the bottom of his heart, Lance was reluctant to bring Li Ming back to the academy.
The other party was a Mage, while he was a Shadowhunter. They neither belonged to the same system nor were they family. Why should an outsider be allowed into their academy to learn their precious knowledge?
But Lance had to admit he was no match for Li Ming—especially when he unexpectedly sensed a strange Shield materializing in front of the man during his deep breaths. This extinguished Lance's initial thought of testing him first before talking.
Without special equipment, he couldn't break through the other's defenses.
"And besides, I have another mission to attend to..." Jace wore a troubled expression as he said, "My apologies, Mr. Austin, but I have matters to handle now—"
Before Jace could finish, Li Ming waved dismissively and interrupted, "No problem. I'll tag along first, and once you finish your mission, we can head back to the academy together."
Jace's eyelid twitched slightly as he silently cursed inwardly: Bro, are you dead set on following me to the academy? You're a Mage, a scholar—how come you didn't catch the refusal in my words? Where's your dignity? Did you lose it while casting spells?
If only I could take him on...
With resignation, Lance sighed inwardly and consoled himself: Hopefully, Headmaster Hodge can deal with this Mage...
Maintaining a poker face, Lance gave a slight nod and said, "Fine. Let's go find that girl from earlier—I sense she's in danger."
Li Ming raised a brow and gestured for Jace to lead the way.
Just as Jace brought Li Ming to the foot of Clary's apartment building, a violent explosion suddenly erupted from her home.
Amid the flames of the blast, Li Ming caught a familiar scent—the foul stench of a Demon.
"Seems the little lady is quite hospitable, even warmly welcoming Demons," Li Ming remarked. As he spoke, he transformed into black mist and slipped through the window into Clary's apartment.
Inside, Clary had fallen helplessly to the floor, staring in terror as an unspeakably hideous Demon lunged at her.
Li Ming curled his lip at the sight and flicked his wrist, launching a Fireball that reduced the grotesque Demon—ugly enough to make one vomit last night's dinner—to ashes. At that moment, Lance kicked the door open and rushed to Clary's side in a few strides, helping her up while gently reassuring her, "It's alright now, get up."
Clary, who had just survived a Demon attack, seemed utterly disoriented, her eyes filled with confusion.
She didn't understand what was happening to her—first seeing things ordinary people couldn't perceive, then witnessing an 'invisible man' murder someone in a bar before casually walking away as if nothing had happened.
After watching this 'murder performance,' she was so terrified she began to wonder if she was suffering from some hallucinatory mental illness.
But that wasn't all. When she returned home, she found herself uncontrollably drawing a strange symbol—not just once but covering her entire room with sheets of paper marked by it.
Just as she felt she was losing her mind, the same 'invisible man' from the bar showed up at her door to talk. Then, out of nowhere, she received an unusually frantic call from her mother, startling her so much that she abandoned her search for the symbol's meaning and rushed home in a panic.
But upon arriving, she was met with a scene as if her home had been ransacked by robbers—and her mother was gone. She nearly broke down.
Initially, Clary assumed someone had kidnapped her mother and planned to call the police for help. But when she saw a vicious dog suddenly mutate into an indescribable monster, she realized it wasn't her who had gone mad—it was the world that had changed.
After watching Li Ming reduce the mutated beast to ashes and feeling the warmth of Lance's embrace, Clary finally regained a shred of composure, stomping furiously on the Demon's remains in a fit of rage.
Beside her, Lance pulled her close again, patting her back gently as he soothed, "Enough. It's dead now."
Buried in Lance's arms, Clary asked in a trembling, fearful voice, "What was that?"
Li Ming, watching the two inexplicably clinging to each other, silently prayed for 'lovers to end up as siblings' before answering, "That thing was a Demon." After a pause, he added, "A weak little one, not even worth my time."
Lance suddenly interjected, "And what you saw in the bar earlier was also a Demon. Demons can possess anyone, so you shouldn't trust anyone, not even those you think you know."
Clary broke free from Lance's hold, glanced at Li Ming, then turned to survey the wreckage of her home. "I don't believe in Demons, and I don't believe you either," she declared.
As she spoke, she seemed to remember something and hurried downstairs.
Exchanging a glance, Li Ming and Lance followed at a leisurely pace, watching as Clary frantically pounded on the door of the downstairs neighbor, shouting, "Rosie, open up! Please!"
In no time, the door was opened by a black woman wearing thick glasses. Before Clary could ask what had happened in her home, Rosie took one look at Lance and promptly shut the door, clearly refusing visitors.
Clary froze for a moment before pounding on the door and shouting, "Do you know what happened to my mom?"
A moment later, Rosie opened the door again, ignoring Clary's question and staring impatiently at Lance before turning a puzzled gaze toward Li Ming.
Following Rosie's line of sight, Clary glanced at Lance and Li Ming in surprise. "You can see them?"
"Of course she can. She's a Witch," Lance said bluntly, clearly familiar with Rosie. "Why did you move from the gingerbread house to such a shabby place?"
Clary had no patience for Lance's reminiscing. She barged into Rosie's home and demanded, "Do you know where my mom went?"
"I don't know," Rosie admitted helplessly, her identity now exposed.
Before Rosie could finish, Clary cut in, "My mom mentioned someone named Valentine. Do you know who he is?"
Clearly, the name 'Valentine' unsettled Rosie. If possible, she would have politely but firmly shown everyone the door.
Unfortunately, Clary, who had begun to believe in the existence of Demons, was now certain that Rosie knew something after discovering her downstairs neighbor was a Witch. She stubbornly refused to leave, determined to pry answers from Rosie.
With a resigned look at the 'stubborn' Clary, Rosie quietly closed the door, then pulled out a stack of hand-drawn Tarot Cards from a drawer and placed them on the table. In a calm tone, she said to Clary, "Let's see what the Tarot Cards have to say."