Tao Shaozhong, a scholar from Lin'an, has the “Exquisite Heart,” a sacred relic of the demon realm kept hidden within him for a hundred years. But the demon A Li, a little cat spirit who can take human form, drives him into a corner, declaring that she will take his heart and ascend to immortality. Yet when a series of murders blamed on a “cat demon” occurs, they are forced to join forces. A Li uses her demonic power to sniff out obsessions, while Tao Shaozhong relies on his bloodline of demon slayers to unravel the mysteries. From the heart-ripping case at the Embroidery House to the puppet calamity that strikes a traveling opera troupe, every murder points back to the old grudge behind the “Demon-Slaying Decree” of a hundred years ago. As they become ever more entangled in the headmaster's schemes at the academy, they realize that A Li's origins are tied to the demon king's lingering soul, and that the truth behind the Exquisite Heart is a thousand-year-old scheme by the demon clan to force humans and demons into coexistence. Behind the pact between humans and demons lies either a fate that will destroy them both, or a glimmer of hope that they might save each other.
