After Hongmao's shocking statement, the group chat instantly erupted.
[True Love Is Agumon: Am I seeing things? Someone refused the Boss's gift pack?]
[This Queen Is So Beautiful: Hmph, boring pride. Men always get hung up on these superficial things.]
[The Archaeologist of Ohara: @Master of the Changhong Sword, Group friend, although I don't know what you've been through, you should accept it first. The Group Owner won't harm us.]
[Cat Burglar: Right, no matter what principles you hold in your heart, the benefits are real. Even if you don't end up darkening, accepting the gift pack won't affect anything.]
Seeing the group members' attempts to persuade him, Hongmao smiled bitterly and shook his head.
[Master of the Changhong Sword: I am a righteous person, with inner principles to uphold. Since the 'darkening' the Group Owner wants is something I cannot do, I absolutely will not accept the gift the Group Owner offers.]
[Master of the Changhong Sword: @Dark Group Owner, Group Owner, please forgive my rudeness. It's just that our paths differ, we cannot work together. I truly don't wish to darken. If this causes trouble or difficulty for the Group Owner, I will quietly leave the group so as not to affect everyone's enjoyment.]
[Dark Group Owner: Leaving the group isn't necessary, I'm not in a hurry. I'm just reminding you, Hongmao, if you don't accept this gift pack, the path ahead will be extremely difficult and arduous. Are you sure you want to persist in going your own way?]
Lying on the sofa, Hattori felt he had done his utmost.
He was inherently averse to trouble.
If anyone else spoke to him like this, Hattori would have kicked them out long ago.
But for Hongmao, a character that left a deep impression on his childhood, Hattori couldn't bear to do so.
'Let's see his choice.'
'If, after days of countless frustrating experiences, Hongmao still insists on his pedantic chivalrous path and is willing to endure humiliation, then I have nothing more to say. I'll just let him be.'
[Master of the Changhong Sword: Thank you for the Group Owner's understanding, and thank all group friends for your advice. If I have the chance to meet everyone in the future, I will definitely share a drink to apologize.]
At this moment, under the Fountain of Youth, the group chat interface before Hongmao's eyes gradually dissipated, and his gaze became resolute.
Hei Xiaohu's words had reinvigorated him.
He was the leader of the Seven Heroes, the Master of the Changhong Sword.
Back then, facing such a powerful Demonic Sect, they could still persevere and defeat the strong enemy.
Now, it's just starting over.
What is there to fear?
"Chirp, chirp chirp chirp!"
Just as Hongmao thought this, a sharp, piercing bird cry suddenly reached his ears.
"Oogoo, oogoo, it hurts so much! These Seven Swords are too persistent. So what if I impersonated Little Phoenix and swindled some money? Do they have to be so relentless towards me?"
A small black bird, completely black, with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, a sparse tuft of yellow hair on its head, and a purple-red striped eggshell wrapped around its waist, staggered out from under the Fountain of Youth, muttering discontentedly.
"It's you?!"
When Hongmao saw its appearance clearly, his pupils instantly contracted sharply.
A wave of grief and indignation surged from the depths of his heart.
Even with his temperament, he desperately wanted to raise the Changhong Sword and chop this black bird into pieces.
This black bird before him was named Little Black.
He was the chief culprit who caused the Seven Swords to become infant, Hongmao to lose all his martial arts, and Lantu to lose her memory and go missing!
Posing as the divine beast 'Little Phoenix', he swindled people outside.
The Seven Swords received the news and came to arrest him.
During the chase, they accidentally fell into this desperate place, the Fountain of Youth.
"Oogoo! Hero, spare me! I don't dare anymore, I really don't dare anymore! Please spare my life! I only swindled a little money, my crime doesn't warrant death!"
On the other side, seeing Hongmao wake up, Little Black was so scared his black feathers trembled wildly, even shedding a few strands of his sparse hair.
He quickly prostrated on the ground, continuously kowtowing and begging Hongmao for mercy.
However, the moment he kowtowed, a sly curve lifted the corner of Little Black's beak.
'Hehe, these righteous heroes are all incredibly upright.'
'As long as I act pitiful enough and kowtow vigorously enough, no matter how great their grievance, they'll swallow it and give me a 'fair' outcome.'
'Such guys are way too easy to fool. Even if caught, there's nothing to fear.'
Little Black thought to himself secretly.
"You!"
Hongmao had raised the Changhong Sword halfway, then stopped.
His grief-stricken face showed a trace of reluctance to harm.
Yes.
Strictly speaking, Little Black's crime was just fraud, and it didn't deserve death.
And the Seven Swords' current predicament was purely due to their own bad luck.
Little Black wasn't evil by nature, just a bit greedy for fun.
"Forget it, I won't kill you. But you must come with me. I will restrain you so you won't swindle people outside anymore!"
Hongmao's right hand trembled. In the end, he shook his head helplessly and lowered the Changhong Sword.
His chivalrous code, his righteous heart upheld for over a decade, made him resist the urge to kill Little Black to vent his anger.
However, the words Hattori said earlier, like a haunting voice, kept echoing in Hongmao's heart.
See someone who displeases you? Kill! Encounter something that upsets you? Kill!
Anyone who stands in your way, hurts you or your loved ones?
Kill! Kill! Kill!
Kill them all, spare no one!
'If...'
'If I really had the possibility, even the slightest possibility, of darkening, would doing these things make me feel better inside?'
Hongmao shook his head vigorously, trying to cast Hattori's voice out of his mind.
"Yes, yes! Whatever Hero Hongmao says, this humble one will definitely obey!"
Little Black climbed to his feet, smiling obsequiously.
But behind his back, a gloomy light flashed across his face.
'Hmph.'
'What hero.'
'Don't think I don't know… after falling into the Fountain of Youth, you have long lost all your martial arts.'
'Right now, you're just a good-for-nothing with empty internal energy.'
'Once we're out of this desperate place and find a densely populated city,'
'I have ten thousand ways to play you like a fiddle.'
"Sigh."
Hongmao sighed softly, suppressing the emotions of grief and indignation and frustration deep in his heart. He picked up the crying Seven Swords around him.
"One, two, three, four... Wait, besides me and Lantu, why is there one missing?"
As Hongmao wrapped the infant Seven Swords in cloth and tied them to his body, he counted silently in his heart and suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Daben is missing too, along with Lantu?!"
Discovering the missing member of the Seven Swords, Hongmao's pupils instantly contracted sharply, and a bad premonition arose in his heart.
Meanwhile, across the sea, astorm, carrying howling lightning, lashed against the reefs on the shore.
A young woman with flowing blue hair, skin like jade and bones like immortal ice, an ethereal and transcendent aura, lay quietly on the reef.
Her eyes were tightly closed, a pained expression between her brows.
Only her right hand clutched a cloth bundle tightly, not letting go even in unconsciousness.
"Waa! Waa!"
The infant crying within that cloth bundle was none other than the missing member of the Seven Swords…
Daben!