Chapter 744: Price

From the clouds to the abyss, from light to darkness, from hope to despair... How unlucky must a person be to experience all of this in less than five days? My sword has already been chipped all over. Cracks have spread across it, just like my heart.

Five days ago, my master and I, disguised as ordinary people, left Silent Lake and Mount Hakutou and arrived in the bustling city of Sapora.

I was born in Hokkaido, but I had never left that small village before the age of ten. I remembered it was the day after my eleventh birthday. It had been cold, and the dark clouds had hung low in the sky. I had been dragging a net along the beach and was digging for crabs.

An old woman had been walking by the sea, her legs trapped in the black mud. The tide was rising in the distance... I had rushed over without hesitation and pulled her from the edge of the beach onto the rocks by the shore.

Having lived by the sea for years, I knew all too well how dangerous it was for an eighty-year-old woman to get stuck in the muddy shore just as the tide came in. The old woman had looked at me and gently stroked my hair.

"Why didn’t I meet you earlier..." she said. There had seemed to be flames burning in her eyes as she looked at me, her voice carrying a long sigh and a faint tremble.

On the third day, the old woman appeared at our doorstep. The morning air had still been cold. Sunlight had streamed over the horizon, dyeing the adonis flower at the doorstep red, like leaping, burning flames.

Dad, Mom, my sister, and my younger siblings were all very surprised. I was surprised too. Because the old woman was dressed in extremely luxurious clothing, just like one of those legendary nobles. She was adorned with glittering jewels that made it hard to keep one's eyes open.

Several police officers stood behind her, along with the village chief. I thought the old woman had come to thank me for saving her life. If she could take me to eat a meal at the McBonald’s in town, that would have been amazing.

“I want to take her as my disciple.”

“I am from the Sword Sect of Mount Hakutou.”

“They can vouch for me.”

The old woman spoke, one sentence at a time.

The village chief quickly gave my parents a look, urging them to agree right away. My parents hesitated. Though they were poor, they had never wanted to sell off their children. They shielded me tightly behind them, as if afraid the old woman might snatch me away.

Fortunately, the old woman patiently explained. As the town’s police and the village chief repeatedly assured them, my parents finally understood that I was going to learn a craft and it was not just any craft, but a noble one.

The village chief’s authority eventually persuaded them. I remembered that morning well. The sunlight had grown brighter and brighter, and the sea had turned red under the glow of dawn, as if it were set aflame. The adonis flowers blooming in front of the wooden cottage had all turned red, one after another...

My mother once said that adonis flowers represented reunion and happiness. She said they could even summon good luck. So before I left, I plucked a tightly closed adonis bud and tucked it into my coat pocket. I thought, if I took good care of it, perhaps it could bloom by the lakeside of Mount Hakutou too.

Back then, I had never imagined that it wasn’t just the morning glow that could dye the sea red, nor the adonis flowers. Blood could do the same.

After changing my name to Yamamoto Masami, I traveled alone to Rebun Island, back to the small fishing village of my childhood. Even though I was no longer Ishihara Masami, I was still a child of this place.

I had prepared many gifts. I bought the best medicine and health supplements for my parents, a car, a piano for my sister’s child, clothes, cosmetics, shoes, phones and laptops for my younger siblings...

I had changed my surname but not my heart. When I returned home, no one came to greet me. I was a little confused. Because I had called home before I set out.

Then, at the entrance of the old house, I saw adonis flowers dyed red with blood, saw my nephew Kōji lying in a pool of it, saw my sister and brother-in-law collapsed by the doorway...

Dead. They were all dead. Then, behind the bodies of my entire family, I saw a man standing by the sea, smoking a cigarette. I recognized him. His name was Yamamoto Tamaki.

He was the son of Yamamoto Jōichirō, president of the Zoro Group. An executive director of the Zoro Group. And the man I had only recently met. My so-called... brother.

"You came?" asked Yamamoto Tamaki. He took a drag of his cigarette and looked at me.

He appeared to be around thirty years old, tall and slender with excellent proportions. His long, curly black hair framed a handsome face, giving him the look of a movie star who had stepped out of a screen.

I remembered meeting him before at a Zoro Group banquet in Sapora. The handsome man had left a deep impression on me. He was refined, gentle in speech, like a cultured nobleman. Back then, he had treated me kindly, like a warm and caring older brother.

Even now, standing in the sea breeze and smoking, he looked striking. I simply stared at him in a daze. In his hand, he held a blade with blood dripping from its tip.

He flicked away the cigarette butt. The sea wind tousled his stylish, curly black hair as he spoke calmly, "I didn’t expect you to return at a time like this. My dear sister, no need to thank me. Some burdens are too difficult for you to deal with yourself, so I handled them for you. From now on, you are—"

Before he could finish his sentence, his head flew into the air. Blood spurted from his severed neck like a fountain, painting blooming red flowers in the sky. The handsome head still wore an expression of shock and disbelief as it soared through the air.

Holding his head, I walked to the blood-red adonis flowers by the sea and placed it before my parents' graves. Then, the manhunt from Zoro Group, the police and the Sword Sect came crashing down like a raging flood.

***

"That’s everything that happened in the past five days," Ishihara Masami took a sip of water.

Li Xiaofei couldn’t help but sigh after hearing everything. The Yamamoto family truly had a talent for digging their own graves.

Perhaps they were so used to looking down from above and manipulating the lives of those below, that they actually believed once Ishihara Masami became one of their own, she should completely sever ties with her past. They decided her biological parents no longer had the right to live in this world and wanted to wipe out that pitiful family to the last.

Sometimes, Li Xiaofei truly couldn’t comprehend the twisted logic of these conglomerates. They had received, for free, the daughter of a Sword Sect’s heir. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to forge a powerful alliance. Such a connection would make their future limitless.

But no, they wanted more. Perhaps they had never truly valued Ishihara Masami in the first place. From the very beginning, they had treated her as nothing more than a tool. That was why they acted so presumptuously and arrogantly.

The arrogance of the powerful...

“How do you want me to save you?” Li Xiaofei looked down at her and asked.

The girl raised her head, meeting his gaze directly, and said, “Please take me in. Shelter me. I haven’t avenged my family yet. I don’t want to die.”

“How do you plan to get your revenge?” Li Xiaofei asked again.

Ishihara Masami replied, “They killed my entire family. I want to kill theirs.”

“You’re not seeking shelter,” Li Xiaofei said. “You’re seeking an accomplice.”

Ishihara Masami said, “As long as you protect me for three years, I’ll have the strength to take revenge.”

“Everything comes at a price,” Li Xiaofei said.

Ishihara Masami answered, “I’m still a virgin. No one’s ever touched me.”

Li Xiaofei laughed. “There are many virgins in this world who are more beautiful than you, with better figures, higher status and nobler bloodlines. That price isn’t high enough,” he said.

“I am the strongest of them,” said Ishihara Masami.

“Strength?” Li Xiaofei chuckled again. “Even the strongest of ants is still just an ant. Would you see that slightly stronger ant in a different light?”

Ishihara Masami was stunned. The day she had first met Li Xiaofei, she had already felt a deep curiosity stir within her when she saw how Kojirō and even her master treated him with both respect and fear.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

After looking into Li Xiaofei’s background, that curiosity turned into profound admiration. It was an instinctive reverence for power. The image of his back in that simple Hongxing Erke tracksuit remained vivid in her mind.

So, after killing her pursuers and dragging her severely injured body to safety, she had chosen to seek help from Li Xiaofei, who had appeared nearby for reasons she still didn’t understand.

She was confident in her beauty. For the sake of revenge, she was willing to give everything. But she hadn’t expected Li Xiaofei’s response. His gaze was clear, calm and unshaken. It wasn’t an act.

He truly looked at the world like a god watching from high above the heavens, regarding the ants crawling below with indifference. In that instant, Ishihara Masami suddenly realized just how small the things she had once taken pride in truly were.

“Get up,” said Li Xiaofei as he reached out and helped her to her feet. “Stay here and recover. Then take some time to seriously think about how you’re going to take your revenge.”

“You’re agreeing, my lord?” Ishihara Masami asked in surprise and joy.

Li Xiaofei nodded slightly, but added, “But remember, everything you receive today has already been marked with a price by fate. One day, you’ll have to pay for it in full.”

Li Xiaofei turned around and a faint shimmer flashed. He vanished from where he stood. Ishihara Masami remained in the wooden cabin by the sea.

A few hours later, several Awakened, swordsmen and special police arrived in the area and began a thorough search. But it was as if they couldn’t see the cabin or Ishihara Masami at all. Even when they passed within two meters of her, they remained completely unaware.

She even tried to make noise on purpose, but they couldn’t hear a thing. She felt a deep sense of awe. This was truly the work of a god.

Three days later, Ishihara Masami had fully recovered from her injuries and Li Xiaofei appeared once again.

“Let’s go,” he said, looking at the girl before him. “I’m taking you to get your revenge.”

“Alright,” Ishihara Masami answered without hesitation.

No matter what price the god of fate demanded, she would pay it without regret. Because she had to avenge her family.

Moments later, the two of them appeared in the heart of Sapora City. The Zoro Group’s headquarters towered in the city skyline. Jiepeng, being an island nation located on a high-frequency seismic belt, rarely had buildings taller than eight stories due to the constant threat of earthquakes. But the Zoro Group’s headquarters was clearly an exception.

“Go all out,” Li Xiaofei said.

Ishihara Masami gripped her blade and stepped forward slowly. After ten steps, she leaped into the air. Like a single, razor-sharp arrow, she shot straight toward the top floor of the building.