Chapter 229: Karma

When Lei Yin arrived at the bus stop outside, he saw a stunningly beautiful woman standing there, anxiously scanning the surroundings as she waited.

The moment she spotted Lei Yin, her whole body trembled, and she immediately ran toward him at full speed.

Gently caressing Naoko’s silky hair, which felt like the finest silk, Lei Yin said softly, “I’m sorry for making you worry. Everything is fine now.”

Naoko didn’t speak; she just held him tightly, as if he would vanish the moment she let go.

Lei Yin knew that what truly troubled her was not the man, but the cursed blade. This was something even she might not be aware of. Her instinctive fear of the blade was what made her so anxious about him.

A feeling of compassion filled Lei Yin’s heart, and he couldn’t help but hold her tightly, soothing her.

After a while, Naoko finally started to relax, then pressed her face against his chest, sobbing softly.

Lei Yin made no effort to stop her; instead, he gently rubbed her back.

When Naoko gradually recovered, Lei Yin noticed that she was only wearing socks and remembered that she had not had time to put on shoes when he had carried her out of the window earlier.

“Get on my back. I’ll carry you,” Lei Yin said, turning his back to her.

“No, I can walk on my own,” Naoko replied.

“Be obedient, get on.”

Naoko looked at him with a gentle expression, then walked over and put her hands on his shoulders.

It was the first time he had carried her, and Naoko felt a strange warmth rise in her heart. Without thinking, she moved her hands from his shoulders to his neck and rested her head against it, feeling his warmth.

“Lei,” Naoko whispered in his ear.

“What is it?”

“Let’s never be apart for the rest of our lives, okay?” Naoko gazed at his profile with a longing look.

Lei Yin turned his head around and gently kissed her cherry lips.

Naoko closed her eyes and responded tenderly.

When they separated, he looked at her calmly. “I’ll take care of you for the rest of our lives. When we die, our ashes will be mixed together. We’ll never be apart, even in death.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as Naoko leaned in to kiss him once more…

Time passed unnoticed until Lei Yin suddenly said, “Naoko.”

“What?” Naoko, her face flushed red, looked at him with playful eyes.

“My neck is a little sore.”

“Don’t turn away,” Naoko said mischievously as she pressed her soft, red lips to his again.

“Hey…”

Everything returned to stillness.

※※※

“I never expected that the cursed blade, which my husband’s friend regarded as a family heirloom, would eventually harm his descendants. Now I finally understand why that man warned my husband so specifically that, aside from himself, even his descendants should not be given the blade. Perhaps that blade never should have existed in this world,” Naoko’s grandmother said with a soft sigh after listening to Lei Yin’s explanation.

Most of what Lei Yin said was true, but only in regard to the man. He kept silent about the part where the cursed blade possessed the man. Such a thing was too incredible, involving too many secrets and questions, so Lei Yin deliberately concealed it. He only said that after the man was injured, the blade detached from him, and he gradually regained his sanity, revealing everything. In the end, Lei Yin let the man go.

Lei Yin said calmly, “It’s not the cursed blade that causes harm, but people. If no one had forged that blade, it would never have appeared in the world. If that beast hadn’t interfered with another man’s wife, he wouldn’t have met his own demise. A kitchen knife can be used to chop vegetables, but it can also be used to kill; it all depends on the one who wields it. At this point, it’s no longer your concern, so please don’t dwell on it.”

Naoko’s grandmother remained silent for a while before finally asking, “What happened to that man now?”

“He’s recovered and should have already left Nagoya.”

The old woman fell silent once more.

Naoko, who was massaging Lei Yin’s shoulders, comforted her, “Grandmother, it’s all over now. Please don’t think about it anymore.”

The old woman gently patted Naoko’s hand.

After having dinner at Naoko’s grandmother’s house, Lei Yin and Naoko returned to the Gero Hot Springs district. However, they were not staying at the same inn as before but had moved to a different hot spring inn quite far away.

When that man had seen Lei Yin and chased after him, the casualties were relatively limited. Among them were Asou Kiku and another male writer. In total, seven guests, including those staying in nearby rooms, were killed by that man. However, Akagi Miho and the president of the Young Writers Association were fortunate enough to escape unharmed.

It wasn’t just Akagi Miho—every young writer from Tokyo who had been there was so terrified by the bloody scene that their spirits were shattered. After giving their statements at the local police station, they immediately booked flights back to Tokyo. Not one of them wanted to return to the inn to rest; they preferred to sit at the airport terminal waiting for their flights.

The inn where Lei Yin and Naoko were now staying was also traditional and charming, similar to the previous one. It featured a Japanese-style garden design, with a large cherry blossom tree near a pond in the middle of the courtyard. Two wooden swings were tied to the sturdy trunk, creating the impression of a traditional Japanese family backyard.

Naoko immediately fell in love with the garden as soon as she saw it because it reminded her of the old house in her hometown of Izumo.

Back in their room, Lei Yin sat on the sofa and casually turned on the TV with the remote. Naoko hummed a song as she unpacked and hung up the clothes from her bag, arranging them in the wardrobe.

Lei Yin thought to himself with a small smile while watching TV, I never expected that even that bastard, Crazy Blade, would come back to life. Things should be more interesting from now on. 

Though Crazy Blade was a rough character, he was an unparalleled martial arts genius.

The name “Crazy Blade” was one that he had given himself later. Originally, he was an orphan who had been abandoned at the foot of Mount Song. He was later taken in and raised by monks from the Shaolin Temple. His innate martial arts talent quickly drew the attention of the elders at Shaolin, and they all had high hopes for him. However, good times didn’t last. One day, his naivety led him to be tricked by envious secular disciples who took him to a brothel. This inevitably led to a scandal being exposed, and no monk who violated the precepts of chastity could be protected. In the end, he was expelled from the Shaolin Temple.

After being expelled, the young man, who had no experience in the world, was deceived into becoming a mountain bandit. But luck was not on the side of those bandits. During his first mission with other bandits, he witnessed them robbing a rich merchant and killing him to cover up their crime. To make matters worse, one of the bandits even raped the merchant’s ten-year-old daughter.

The boy, who had never before seen human malice so venomous, suddenly lost control and killed all the bandits. But what he couldn’t bear the most was that it was his own martial arts, which he had painstakingly developed, that had defeated the merchant’s bodyguards and given those bandits the opportunity to attack.

After that incident, the once honest and kind-hearted boy underwent a drastic change in character. He began seeking out experts to challenge, and many people thought he was a fool. However, as more and more martial artists were defeated by him, no one dared to call him foolish anymore. Within just two years, many renowned martial arts masters had fallen to his blade, yet no one knew that the boy was only searching for someone who could kill him.

In the battles of life and death, the boy’s martial arts grew rapidly, despite his increasing wounds. His incredible talent became the very obstacle that kept him from dying.

Until one day, he met Lei Yin, a boy three years younger than him.

Then, Crazy Blade lost—badly, and it only took one move from his opponent.

After that, he stopped seeking challenges and disappeared completely from the martial world.

Ten years later, he reappeared, calling himself Crazy Blade once again. But this time, he did not seek out any opponents; he simply sat by the Misty Rain Pavilion, as if waiting for someone.

At this time, some martial artists seeking fame and others wanting revenge for the deaths of their relatives at his blade came to challenge him, but all were defeated. Those who witnessed him fight finally understood why he had called himself Crazy Blade.

He waited for six months, during which countless people came to challenge him, but all were defeated. The name Crazy Blade shook the entire martial world.

Until one day, a young man, roughly the same age as Crazy Blade, appeared before him.

The young man said only one thing, “Come with me.”

Crazy Blade said nothing and quietly followed him away.

No one knew who the young man was, but those who followed were surprised to see Crazy Blade, who had not been defeated in half a year, fall to him.

No one had witnessed such a battle; both men wielded long blades, but those watching nearby felt as if thousands of soldiers were clashing in battle.

After the fight, the young man and Crazy Blade went up to the Misty Rain Pavilion. They drank the finest wine and ordered the most expensive dishes. After getting drunk, the two top martial artists, seen by others as unrivaled, began shouting insults at each other like hooligans and ended up fighting.

When they leapt out of the window of the Misty Rain Pavilion to leave, all that remained was a floor covered in broken dishes and a boss who was almost in tears.

Remembering that fight at the Misty Rain Pavilion, Lei Yin couldn’t help but smile.

Except for the two of them, no one knew that it had all been an act because they didn’t have enough money to pay the bill. For Crazy Blade, who was solely focused on practicing martial arts and poor as could be, he had never intended to pay. And Lei Yin, for reasons of his own, didn’t have much money on him at that time either. After a battle like that, the two of them hadn’t cared much about anything else—eating and drinking to their fill came first.

As Lei Yin was lost in thought, a pair of soft, fragrant arms wrapped gently around his neck, and a voice as smooth as silk whispered in his ear, “Lei, let’s go soak in the hot springs.”

Lei Yin turned and smiled at her.

Naoko lowered her head, too shy to look him in the eyes, her face red as if it would bleed.