What Price Must I Pay?

Zhu Zhuqing took another careful look.

There he was.

Cao Kun wore loose, comfortable white clothes, his sleeves rolled up. With long chopsticks in one hand, he swished slices of meat through the hotpot.

In his other hand was a translucent jade cup.

Amber liquid rippled inside it. The aroma of wine mingled with the hotpot's spicy fragrance, filling the room.

He looked completely at ease.

He was nothing like the sharp-tongued man who had held court earlier that day.

He looked more like a wealthy young man enjoying a meal.

Hearing footsteps, Cao Kun looked up at Zhu Zhuqing in the doorway. A faint smile touched his lips.

"You're here."

Cao Kun set down his chopsticks and wiped his hands with a cloth. His tone was as natural as if he were greeting an old friend.

"Looks like you've made up your mind."

Zhu Zhuqing stood in the doorway, unsure how to respond.

This was nothing like the solemn, mysterious, perhaps even dangerous meeting she had imagined.

The contrast caught her off guard despite her taut nerves.

Cao Kun seemed to notice her discomfort. He gestured to the seat across from him. "Don't just stand there. Come sit down. Yan'er, bring another place setting."

"Yes, young master."

Dugu Yan answered and soon brought over a clean set of white jade tableware. She placed it across from Cao Kun and poured Zhu Zhuqing a cup of tea.

Zhu Zhuqing hesitated, then walked in and sat opposite Cao Kun.

She touched neither the food nor the tea. Sitting with her back straight, she fixed her cool gaze on Cao Kun and asked, a barely perceptible tension in her voice:

"Cao Kun... senior brother. You said you could change my fate?"

Instead of answering his question, she had put her deepest concern to him.

She needed to know this was neither a joke nor a trap.

Cao Kun did not answer at once. He picked up a paper-thin slice of marbled beef, cooked to perfection, rolled it through the dipping sauce, and placed it in his mouth. He chewed slowly, satisfaction showing on his face.

As though the question of changing her fate mattered less than the beef.

His indifference drew Zhu Zhuqing's nerves tighter. A flicker of anger rose at being treated so lightly.

Only after swallowing the beef and taking a sip of wine did Cao Kun look at her again. His eyes regained the penetrating depth she had seen earlier that day.

"Fate?"

He chuckled softly. His voice held an indescribable certainty—and indifference.

"To most people, fate is a shackle they cannot break. All they can do is drift with the current."

"But for those who can glimpse the Rules and wield power..."

Cao Kun paused, then went on. "Changing fate is a trivial matter!"

The next moment,

Cao Kun glanced at Dugu Yan, who stood respectfully to one side.

"Yan'er, tell her your age and Soul Power Level."

Dugu Yan stepped forward and smiled faintly at Zhu Zhuqing. She released no oppressive surge of Soul Power; light merely flashed beneath her feet.

Yellow, purple, purple, black, black!

Five Soul Rings appeared beneath her feet in succession, slowly revolving like wheels of light!

The third ring was already a deep purple, while the fourth and fifth were a chilling black!

That Soul Ring Configuration far surpassed an ordinary Soul King's!

"A... Soul King?!"

Zhu Zhuqing's pupils contracted, and she cried out despite herself.

She had guessed earlier that Dugu Yan might be at level thirty or forty. She had never imagined she was a Soul King!

And judging by those rings, she was no newly advanced Soul King. She had to be at least level fifty-five!

"Yan'er is eighteen this year," Cao Kun added calmly. "When she first met me three years ago, she had just turned fifteen. Her Soul Power was... level twenty-one. Her Martial Soul was the Jade Phosphorous Serpent. She had talent, but its flaws and backlash had stalled her cultivation and left her future bleak."

Eighteen years old and a Five-Ring Soul King?! Only level twenty-one three years ago?!

A storm surged through Zhu Zhuqing's heart!

That rate of cultivation defied belief!

She was twelve and level twenty-seven, already outstanding among her peers. But compared with Dugu Yan...

"She has been with me for three years," Cao Kun continued, as if recounting something inconsequential. "I taught her a cultivation method, helped her overcome her Martial Soul's backlash, supplied her with resources, and guided her Martial Soul through... a second evolution."

"Her Martial Soul is no longer the Jade Phosphorous Serpent. It is the Demigod Level Three-Headed Poisonous Flood Dragon."

"At level fifty-three, with her evolved Martial Soul and the combat techniques I taught her, she can contend with a Soul Emperor."

A second evolution of her Martial Soul!

Demigod Level!

Able to contend with a Soul Emperor!

Every phrase struck Zhu Zhuqing like a hammer blow!

It lay entirely beyond anything she knew!

In her world, a Martial Soul's nature was fixed at its awakening. Its quality was nearly impossible to change afterward!

Let alone evolve it to Demigod Level and challenge someone of a higher rank!

If... if all this was true... then Cao Kun's claim that he could "change fate" was no empty boast!

She looked at Dugu Yan, disbelief filling her eyes, along with a trace of longing she herself had not noticed.

Dugu Yan met her gaze with a gentle smile. She withdrew her Soul Rings and stepped back to her place, as though that astonishing display had never happened.

"So, what do you think now?"

Cao Kun picked up his wine cup and gently swirled the amber liquid. His gaze returned to Zhu Zhuqing. "Is changing a Soul Master's fate so difficult?"

Zhu Zhuqing drew a deep breath and forced down her shock. A faint tremor ran through her cool voice. "What... price must I pay?"

Nothing came free.

An opportunity this extraordinary had to carry an unimaginable price.

She had prepared herself, even if it meant selling her soul—or worse...

Yet,

Cao Kun's answer took her by surprise.

He looked her up and down. His gaze was calm, but Zhu Zhuqing felt as though he had seen straight through her, inside and out, leaving no secret hidden.

Then Cao Kun shook his head, that enigmatic smile returning to his lips.

"The price? Right now, you're too weak, too young..."

"You're not even in a position to discuss a 'price.'"

His words were blunt to the point of cruelty.

"What little you could offer means nothing to me."

Zhu Zhuqing went pale, her fingers clenching.

She bristled at being dismissed so completely, yet felt an uneasy relief—and even greater confusion.

"Then... why did you seek me out?" she could not help asking.

"Because it interests me."

Cao Kun's answer was as inscrutable as ever. "The Hell Spirit Cat—an assassin of the shadows—should be a blade that walks the edge of life and death."

"Yet so-called 'fate' has bound her, turning her into a frightened kitten with nothing but a cold shell to protect herself."

"I thought... that was a shame."

He paused, set down his cup, and leaned forward slightly. His gaze grew intent, as though he were studying a piece of uncut jade worth shaping.

"I can give you a chance."

"A chance to break free of the path laid out for you and truly take hold of your future."