The Bureau of Folk Customs and Unusual Phenomena

Ignorance and foolishness keep spreading,

while madness and superstition gather in the shadows.

And so calamities are born...

When superstition reaches a certain threshold, monsters from folk legends and strange tales come into being. They are collectively known as calamities.

The Bureau of Folk Phenomena is humanity's only line of defense against calamities.

Shen Xuezhao is the captain of Team One at Bureau headquarters. After three years as an intern, he leaped straight to captain, and has long been criticized as a "sickly weakling" and a "nepo hire."

Everyone who joins his team without knowing the truth thinks they're about to die on the job. They can't stand this useless man who loves to pontificate and only holds them back.

Until...

They see Shen Xuezhao effortlessly exterminate Tiger Granny; use a bone whip to crush a wild man's head; shut the gates of the Midnight Opera and beat the ghostly spectators in the stands to a pulp; and, during the Night Parade of the Gods, brazenly climb onto the shrine to enjoy the incense in a god's place...

Wait... Bro, you're actually this badass? And all those excellent mission ratings were real?

In his fourth year on the job, Shen Xuezhao finally gets his first vacation. He catches a mermaid while fishing by the sea, refuses the Bureau's offer to return it, and secretly keeps it. He intends to...

forge the sharpest blade of all.

Shen Xuezhao teaches the deity about the world, and about love and hate. The compassionate, innocent god enters the mortal realm, but Shen forgets that this was never a blade to begin with. Their twisted love has already given it flesh and blood.

A fish tail coils tightly around his slender body. It is the sea demon's whisper.

"You taught me this: love can only be repaid with love."

At first, I wanted to eat you. Now... I want to savor you.

Later, when a lurking merfolk launches an attack, the Bureau's employees look on in despair.

Shen Xuezhao, long since fired and now a dissolute alcoholic, clutches a white bone braid and strangles the merfolk's already-dead body. His clothes conceal the twisted scales growing unchecked across him.

"A blood feud can only be commemorated with blood."

"Here's to our victory, even if we both go down!"

Reader's guide:

A frail-looking nepo hire who coughs up blood every three steps but is actually brutally strong top × a dark, damp, crawling mermaid bottom.

An unconventional romance, rather twisted and warped. The top and bottom are made for each other.

Theme: Reject feudal superstition