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

Following the beautiful waitress into the sanatorium, Yasuhiro Onodera felt that the desolation of this place was a stark contrast to the wilderness outside.

After passing several muscular guards holding weapons and wearing infrared devices on their heads, the word "magnificent" is used to describe everything he sees. The three-story hall is decorated with ukiyo-e paintings of fierce ghosts and gods, the patterns on the walls leading inside are inlaid with gold foil, and the corridor walls are hung with decadent and expensive paintings.

Onodera, who couldn't help coughing as he walked, stopped in front of a painting and couldn't help but take a closer look. It was a painting of a white fox wedding dress, painted in the ink painting technique of the Kano school. The white fox bride wore a Tang-style phoenix crown, and her fair and slender hips were vaguely revealed under her twelve-layered red hakama. A cherry blossom petal rested in her sexy waist. The intertwined cherry blossom branches in the background also formed a projection of the outline of plump breasts and hips under the illusion of space, making people wonder whether to focus their eyes on the white fox girl or the cherry blossom branches.

As Onodera was absorbed in his observation, a crisp snap of fingers rang in his ears, which startled him back to his senses. He turned his head and noticed the waitress standing quietly behind him. "Does Lord Onodera like this painting?"

"Oh, sorry. Ahem. I was a little fascinated by it." Although the other person looked like a waitress, Onodera, who had just arrived, didn't want to cause any trouble, so he kept a low profile towards everyone.

"This painting was originally a collection of Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. According to legend, white foxes, as messengers of the Inari gods, marry humans in the form of young girls every hundred years in exchange for blessings of a good harvest. In the Edo period, shrine maidens would wear fox masks and have sex in the basement of the shrine to give birth to the gods' offspring. The woman in this painting is also a portrait of a beautiful shrine maiden, but this ritual was banned as an obscene ritual during the Meiji period, and related paintings were lost after the US bombing. This painting is probably the only work that proves that story."

The waitress's explanation put Onodera in a trance. He seemed to hear the sound of clothes being taken off and rubbing against smooth skin, and the cold low laughter of the shrine maiden with her hands covering her mouth echoed in the wide space. He suddenly turned around to look at the waitress behind him. The waitress in white wedding gown was still standing there quietly with her head slightly lowered, a gentle smile on her lips.

"Cough cough. Sorry." Onodera said while coughing hard with his head down.

The waitress said nothing, but turned around and continued to lead the way.

Twenty-four groups of micro drones cruised between the glazed tiles and the steel beams. The waitress led Onodera deeper into the building complex. Gradually, Onodera felt the moisture in the air becoming thicker and the temperature gradually rising, so he had to manually loosen his suit tie in order to breathe.

The spa hot springs in the sanatorium are all open, and each has a different decoration style. For example, the spa hot spring that Onodera is passing by now is like a miniature Japanese courtyard. Cherry blossoms are planted on both sides of the hot spring and extend inward. The surface of the spring where the petals fall is actually blood red. Several naked figures wearing shrine maiden headdresses are surrounding a few old men, drinking with them, and from time to time, they make seductive and teasing noises.

After passing several hot springs, the decoration styles were different: the ancient Roman style of Caracalla Baths, the Persian style of the restored Forty Column Palace in Isfahan, and the white marble bath imitating the Huaqing Pool from the Tang Dynasty. Looking at the columns, the gilded copper dragon holding a bell in its mouth, and the totem paintings inlaid with colored glazed bricks, Onodera was surprised to find that this sanatorium might have a more background than he thought.

"This..." Onodera looked a little dazed.

"Your Excellency, would like to know why the water in these hot springs is the same color?" said the waitress who was leading the way.

Onodera couldn't help but take another look at the blood-red water in the hot spring. The waitress was right. This was his biggest doubt. Ordinary sulfur hot springs should not be this color. It was so red that it was terrifying. The high-ranking officials and tycoons who were recuperating in the bloody water were like evil spirits bathing in human blood in the Ukiyo-e of hell, with their skin and teeth all blood red.

"This is the biggest secret and the biggest signature of our sanatorium, the red soup that can cure all diseases and bring new life to people." The waitress said, "Have you heard of the legend of the Tama River? My grandmother was the last generation of snake-guarding priestess. She said that the Yamata no Orochi was not completely dead back then, and the resentment of the eighth head had actually been coiled around the Tama River. The bones of the serpent were buried deep in the earth, and because of groundwater and volcanic activity, the divine blood in those bones was soaked out, and it became the red soup we see now."

"In other words, this red soup is actually the blood of Yamata no Orochi?" Onodera smiled awkwardly. He didn't believe in those superstitious things. The folk culture of any village in Japan would more or less involve the myths of Yamata no Orochi, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi and so on. As the director of the Environment Bureau, he had been to various places and was more or less immune to them.

The waitress didn't seem to notice the perfunctory tone in Onodera's words, and continued to explain, "The blood of the Yamata no Orochi can cure all diseases in the world. The blood from its different parts has different effects, so the hot springs in the sanatorium are divided into many pools. Mr. Onodera, the purpose of your visit is to treat your cancer, so you need a strong medicine. The previous pools are not suitable for you. Since you have spared no effort to help the fierce ghosts, a special blood pool will be opened for you."

"Can these hot springs really cure my illness?" Onodera couldn't help but ask.

He was still suspicious, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had never heard that soaking in a hot spring could cure cancer, especially the particularly tricky lung adenocarcinoma.

"Haven't you noticed that you haven't coughed much since you went deep into the red soup area?" asked the waitress.

Onodera was stunned for a moment, then he found that he didn't seem to cough much. He sniffed the rich and sweet mist in the air. The heaviness in his lungs seemed to be relieved a lot for no reason, making him feel inexplicably relaxed and refreshed.

Is this an illusion?

Onodera didn't know it, but this sudden feeling of "healing" was undoubtedly like a wildfire that instantly ignited his dead heart, making him unable to help but want to believe the waitress's words without any bottom line and madly.

"If you can really cure me, I swear I will--"

"Sir Onodera." The waitress gently interrupted the aspiration that Onodera wanted to make. "We, the Oni Clan, always do things on an equal footing. You are willing to trust us and help us, so we offer you a ticket. There is no such thing as who owes whom, and you don't need to think that we will threaten you with this. In the sanatorium, we always welcome friends who support us. This is the basis for continued good cooperation in the future. Your high position will always be able to help us in the future. When the time comes, we will propose new ones, and it won't be too late for both parties to cooperate happily."

After saying that, the waitress stopped in front of a huge Ukiyo-e wall door with Onodera in a daze. The bodyguards on both sides, who were as stern as samurai, let her pass after seeing the pass presented by the waitress and the password.

Behind the door was a dark corridor with the faint light of fireflies on both sides of the cracks in the ground pointing the way. Onodera listened to his own breathing and footsteps and followed the waitress to the exit of the light at the end. What he saw was a wide open-air blood-red hot spring pool surrounded by a dry landscape with Hatan red stone on the shore. A miniature version of the shrine torii stood in the pool, and the bottom of the pool was paved with anti-slip stone slabs with Echizen washi paper patterns. After soaking in the blood-red hot spring water, a vague pattern of patterns appeared that could not be seen at a glance.

In addition to the subtle sweetness of the blood spring water, there was also the scent of burning incense in the air. The maidservant, wearing white socks, walked to the poolside and added new incense sticks to the red lacquer incense burner. The smoke condensed into a light red mist when it met the water vapor, making the whole space appear faintly bloody.

Onodera admitted that the scene was indeed very intimidating. He was standing by the pool in a suit, staring at this private open-air blood spring. Suddenly, he heard the sound of water. He turned his eyes and saw a figure standing on the side of a rock in the pool next to the blood-red torii. Due to the red mist, he could only vaguely see the figure's back. Although he was shirtless, his back was covered with hard substances like scales, which continued to expand and contract with the surge of mist.

This strange scene made Onodera think that he was dazzled. When he wanted to rub his eyes to see more clearly, the figure suddenly turned his head, and his red-gold pupils stared at Onodera across the distance of the blood pool. In an instant, a huge fear and pressure hit Onodera's mind, and he almost fainted.

"Mr. Onodera."

A friendly voice was heard, as if a breeze had blown away the depression and panic. Onodera took a few steps back and took a deep breath. He turned around and saw the extremely beautiful Yamato Nadeshiko standing beside him in a black kimono, with her hands folded in front of her and looking at him with a faint smile.

"Who are you?" Onodera subconsciously turned his head to look at the blood pool, but he could no longer see the figure.

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"Sakurai Kogure, I've spoken to you on the phone before." The woman said, "We are very pleased that you arrived on time, but since it is still early, the red pool has not been prepared yet and the water temperature is a little too high. Could you please follow Sakurako to the side room to take a bath, change clothes, rest and prepare for a while?"

"But I clearly saw it just now." Onodera tilted his head and looked at the blood pool in a daze.

"In the side room, Sakurako will help you make some preparations before curing your illness. If you find the waiting time boring, Sakurako will also accompany you for some fun. Please forgive us for our poor preparations." The woman in the black kimono said gently.

Onodera's sight moved to the side of Sakurai Kogure. The maidservant in white was now kneeling beside her with her hands pressed on the ground in front of her head. From his perspective, the white dress was tightly attached to the body of the maid named Kogure, outlining the curves of her waist and hips clearly, full and round, which made him feel dry in the mouth.

Or perhaps he had been fantasizing about her back since he followed the waitress from the very beginning. The joyful sounds of the big men making love in the blood pool and the strange sweet smell in the air made the fire in his heart smolder. However, due to his inexplicable fear of the unknown ghosts, he had been suppressing everything in his heart.

"Okay, I'll go and wait with Miss Sakurako, it's no problem." Onodera said.

Sakurai Kogure lowered his eyes and saw Onodera's throat moving obviously and his pupils slightly bloodshot. He did not show any emotion, but just smiled and said, "That's good. Thank you for your understanding."

Sakurako stood up and led Onodera from the blood spring to the deep passage. Sakurai Kogure stood there and bowed slightly until their backs completely disappeared. Then he slowly raised his head, turned around, looked at the blood pool and said softly, "The outsiders have left."

After a while, the sound of water was heard from behind the huge rock next to the torii gate, and a naked man walked out, facing Sakurai Kogure on the shore. He was actually Sakurai Akira who had appeared in Roppongi Center earlier.

However, his condition at the moment was not good at all. Under the silent gaze of Sakurai Kogure, his naked upper body was covered with asphalt-colored eschar from the right clavicle to the left side of the abdomen, and the surface was covered with cracks like cooling magma. The skin below had a color contrast due to rapid self-healing, and a few pieces of dead skin peeled off like weathered rock layers and floated on the surface of the blood spring.

"It looks like tonight's event wasn't going so smoothly, Mr. Candletooth." Sakurai Kogure greeted.

[Candle Fang] corresponds to [Fragrant Chariot] in Shogi. In Shogi, [Fragrant Chariot] can only charge forward and cannot retreat, symbolizing the vanguard army's destructive offensive will. Among the fierce ghosts, this is a rare official code name similar to [Dragon King], [King General] and [Dragon Horse].

"Good evening, Miss Kogure. If possible, I would like you to call me by my name. After all, no matter in terms of surname or organization, we are a family. There is no need to be so distant." Sakurai Akira greeted Sakurai Kogure politely by the pool.

Sakurai Kogure's eyes fell on the burns on Sakurai Akira's body and said, "It seems that the headquarters team has left a deep impression on Sakurai-kun. Is this injury caused by Chu Zihang from the headquarters?"

"These? No, they were not left by him." Sakurai Akira looked down at the burns on his body with a calm expression, "These injuries were left by Lu Jun. He almost killed me right there!"