If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

"It seems that your action is not going smoothly." Sakurai Kogure said with a smile as he looked at the shocking scars on Sakurai Akira's body.

"It's just within expectations." Sakurai Akira didn't care about the severe burn marks on his body. His attitude was not forced or meant to be cool. Sakurai Kogure could see that he really didn't care whether his body would be left with lifelong sequelae. It seemed that the one who was hurt was others, not himself. There was a weird sense of cold-bloodedness in him.

"Does it hurt?" Sakurai Kogure looked at him and asked.

"What is this, a sister's belated concern for her brother?" Sakurai Akira looked at the woman in the black kimono and asked with a low smile.

Sakurai Kogure said nothing, but just looked at him silently through the mist of the blood fountain, looking at this handsome boy whose eyebrows were somewhat similar to hers.

Even among the fierce demons, few people know that Ryuma, who has always been with the general and the dragon king, is the daughter of Sakurai Kosaburo of the Sakurai family of the Snake Eight Families. Even in modern times, with the power and social status of the Sakurai family, it is not an exaggeration to call Sakurai Kogure a daughter.

But this girl who should have everything was confirmed to be of dangerous bloodline at the age of 5. After being secretly imprisoned for several years, she finally seized the opportunity at the age of 14, killed her caregivers and guards, and defected to the ghost group.

After knowing this, Sakurai Kozaburo never publicly expressed his opinion, as if this daughter never existed. If someone mentioned Sakurai Kogure in front of him, the old man would even show a ferocious look as if he wanted to kill that person, as if he regarded it as a shame in his life and a disgrace to the Snake Hachika.

Some people may have thought that Sakurai Kozaburo was making a big deal out of nothing. After all, which family among the Eight Snake Families had not had children with dangerous bloodlines?

But what if Sakurai Kogure is not his first child to be judged to be of dangerous bloodline?

Yes, before Sakurai Kogure, Sakurai Kozaburo had an illegitimate son named Sakurai Akira, but when Sakurai Akira was born, he was judged to be of dangerous bloodline. When Sakurai Kogure was about 3 years old, Sakurai Akira was sent out of the family for boarding training. Being judged to be of dangerous bloodline, he never received any love from his family, and his mother was abandoned by Sakurai Kozaburo and her whereabouts are still unknown. She is not even worthy of a status in the family.

So Sakurai Kogure is actually Sakurai Akira's half-sister. They are siblings but have never recognized each other. If they had stayed in the Snake Eight Clan, they might not have had the chance to know each other's existence until they died. But after they defected, fate made them recognize each other by coincidence.

The concern of the head of the family, Tachibana Masamune, about "the blood of the Oni Clan and the Snake Eight Clan is the same" is not a woman's mercy on his fellow countrymen, but many members of the Oni Clan are indeed from the blood of the Snake Eight Clan. Who can bear to step onto the battlefield and find that the faces holding knives and guns to fight with him are his former children or family members? Therefore, there are many who defected to the Oni Clan, so the plan to eliminate the Oni Clan was postponed again and again.

Sakurai Kogure's attitude towards Sakurai Akira has always been ambiguous. Although they are brother and sister recognizing each other, neither side has the real joy and ceremony of recognizing each other. As for the fact that they have the same father, they all confirmed it from the information of others, and their reaction at most was a slight surprise before they no longer cared.

Both of them were abandoned by the same father, and the bond between them was denied by themselves, so what is the connection between them? Is it sympathy for the same abandoned people?

Too weak and unpleasant.

"Is it just a condolence between colleagues? After all, we are all working towards the same ideal and have the same aspirations - according to the Eastern great country, this should be considered as care between comrades, right?" Sakurai Kogure had a formal smile on his face.

"I never knew you could tell jokes, especially such cold ones." Sakurai Akira shook his head. "Why are you here instead of following the Dragon King? Are you here to make sure I'm dead or alive? Or is this an order from the person you serve?"

"Sakurai Akira, watch your words. As members of the Demon Clan, we are all serving 'that person' you mentioned." Sakurai Kogure put away his smile and spoke slowly.

"General Wang? Maybe. If the Ghost Clan is really fighting for the same ideal, then why do we insist on who we are serving? At most, we are just moving in a certain direction under someone's leadership. Over-emphasizing the importance of the leader goes against your previous remarks, proving that the Ghost Clan has been a dictatorial organization from the beginning and has never had any common ideals. The direction we are moving in is just where the dictator wants to go." Sakurai Akira did not show weakness, but calmly stated his thoughts.

"Furthermore, Sakurai Kogure, my half-sister, although I don't know much about you, from the time I've known you, can you personally say that all your efforts among the demons were for the ideals of the king?"

Sakurai Kogure had no expression, he just looked at Sakurai Akira and reminded him lightly, "I hope you don't forget that it was the Demonic Clan who saved you from that cage. It was us who gave you your freedom."

"It was that adult who saved me and gave me freedom," said Sakurai Akira.

"But she you mentioned is just a member of the ghost group. Don't forget who gave you your current identity and status." Sakurai Kogure said.

Sakurai Akira paused for a moment, then looked at Sakurai Kogure and asked a strange question, "Sir Ryoma, I have a question I have always wanted to ask you, and today is the chance, I hope you can answer it for me."

Sakurai Kogure remained silent, and Sakurai Akira continued, "There has been a rumor circulating among the demons that as Ryoma, one of the king's right-hand men, you were able to reach such a high position not because of your noble bloodline, but because of the immortal daughter of the Sakurai family. It was simply because the king saw your true nature. When you were only 14 years old, you killed several guards guarding you, drowned your teacher and adoptive mother in the toilet, and fought your way out of the Sakurai family's most secure cell, showing amazing fighting ability and ambition for freedom."

"Are you questioning the truth of this?" Sakurai Kogure lowered his eyes slightly and said softly, "Perhaps as someone who has been imprisoned until adulthood and has never tried to escape from the sanatorium in the mountains, you cannot accept that there are still people in this world who choose to resist under the constraints of the Snake Eight Families and succeed, right?"

There was no answer from Sakurai Akira in the blood fountain. When Sakurai Kogure raised her eyes, she suddenly found that the man was no longer in the blood fountain. She did not look around, but her hands hanging in front of her and tucked into her sleeves immediately grabbed something. Just when she was about to pull it out, an arm as if made of steel stretched out from behind her, and its five fingers firmly grabbed her wrist to stop any movement.

"I am not questioning the truth of this matter. I am simply questioning how Lord Ryoma can seek greater benefits for the Oni Clan on the battlefield." Behind Sakurai Kogure, naked and bathed in blood, Akira Sakurai stood with his back to her, his golden eyes shining under his wet hair. "Or is it just like what the other rumors say, Miss Kogure's greater role is actually managing the Oni Clan's financial affairs, acting as a tool for making money and a logistical role to relieve the leader's pressure."

"What do you think, Sakurai-kun?"

Sakurai Akira saw from the corner of his eye that when Sakurai Kogure turned his head, his golden eyes were no less bright than his own. There was no anger in them, only a frightening calmness.

"I just think that maybe the rumors are not groundless, but they have a certain degree of reliability, but they are not completely correct, right?"

Sakurai Kogure was silent for a moment and then asked calmly, "Have you ever thought that the person who gave you the opportunity may have never cared about your existence?"

Just as Sakurai Akira was about to answer, he suddenly raised his hand and caught a wooden basin flying from a distance. It was this accident that interrupted their communication.

Two figures walked in from another entrance near the blood spring. When they got closer, they could see that they were two women.

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The former looked like a Japanese high school girl who had not yet graduated. Her body was covered with band-aids that could be bought everywhere in drug stores. Her skin was slightly bluish-gray and she had dark circles under her eyes. There was a shallow scar from a burn on the end of her right eyebrow. Even in the steamy and hot sanatorium, she wore a thick long-sleeved sweatshirt that covered every inch of her skin. She walked with her hands in her pockets and a strange smile on her face.

The latter girl seemed very quiet, just like her face and people's first impression. The exposed pale and almost translucent skin was particularly conspicuous in the blood fountain. The light blue blood vessel network visible under the skin was as beautiful as the patterns on kilnware. The cold bones and the outline under the slightly drooping eyebrows were lovable. The only shortcoming was probably the slightly cracked pupils which were a bit creepy.

"Ah, I caught it. It looks like you're not as badly injured as I thought. I thought you were beaten half to death by those guys from the secret party." The JK-like girl looked at the naked Sakurai Akira with a smile. She licked his naked body without hesitation and pursed her dry and cracked lips from time to time. "What are you doing? After the sister and brother finally recognized each other, they couldn't help but want to shoot a video in the hot spring? Did I delay your good thing?"

"Yuno, don't tease Lord Zhuya." The girl in white whispered behind the JK girl.

"Lian, it's okay. Master Zhuya won't mind the teasing of little people like us." The JK girl named Yuno said to her companion named Lian behind her with a smile, "It's just that seeing that Master Ryoma of the Oni Clan and Master Zhuya have such a good relationship in private, I couldn't help but join in the conversation and want to hear what they are talking about."

"Len, Yuno, who asked you to come here?" Sakurai Akira released Sakurai Kogure's wrist and threw the wooden basin in his hand to the ground, which made a few thuds and rolled to the surface of the blood spring and floated.

"Len asked me to come! Lian and I were shopping in Ginza before. No, it was the law enforcement officers of the hunting main family. Yayoi called and told me that you caused quite a bit of trouble in Roppongi and seemed to be injured, so I came to see you specially - well, it was mainly Lian who asked me to come and see if you were okay." Yuno said with a smile.

"Yuno, don't talk nonsense." The girl called Lian gently pulled the sleeve of her companion in front of her and said with her head down.

"By the way, where is that adult? Why didn't I see that adult? I heard from Yayoi that the commotion in Roppongi seemed to be caused by that adult - how powerful! He must have dealt a heavy blow to the prestige of the secret party and the eight Snake families! He must have killed several of their family heads? Was that arrogant Amaterasu killed by that adult?" Yuno asked excitedly.

"This is not something you should be concerned about. Some things should be discussed privately," said Akira Sakurai.

Yuno raised an eyebrow and glanced at Sakurai Kogure who was facing away from them, then put her hands behind her head and said, "Ah, that's fine. But your injuries don't look light, will they affect the next action planned by that adult?"

Sakurai Kogure raised his head slightly when he heard Yuno's words, while Sakurai Akira frowned and said, "Yuno, you talk too much."

Yuno pouted and stuck out her tongue, a look of impatience flashed across her face, and she turned and left, "Who cares about you? Just accompany Lian to see that you are not dead. Hurry up and deal with the troublesome woman next to you and come to us. Yayoi said that there are some instructions from the adults, so let's gather for a meeting."

Lian nodded slightly and exchanged glances with Sakurai Akira as a sign of consolation, then quickly turned around and followed Yuno.

"It seems that you have a plan that we don't know about and are ready to implement?" Sakurai Kogure said, "I will report to the Lord General about what I saw and heard today."

"It's up to you." Sakurai Akira said calmly. Just before he was about to leave, he paused. Without looking back, he said indifferently, "There is one thing that may interest you. That adult met the 'Dragon King' earlier in the Roppongi Incident. They seemed to have discussed some issues about the future development of the Oni Clan, and they had a good chat. As Ryoma, as the right-hand man of the King, will you report this information truthfully?"

After saying that, he left without looking back, leaving Sakurai Kogure standing alone by the blood fountain, staring at the man's back through the red mist.