King and Rebel Minister (I)

[Jormungandr (Dragon Bone Cross removed / weakened / moderately damaged)]

[Rank: First-Generation Species (King of Earth and Mountains / Authority)]

[Identity: Dungeon BOSS Unit]

[Authority: Earth Authority 60.7%, Mind Authority 2.9%]

[World-Destroying Word Spirit: Shiva's Dance (severely restricted)]

[Luck: A+ (even when encountering disasters and other accidents, has a chance of surviving through luck)]

[Offense: SSS- (beyond the reach of non-humans) / (slightly reduced while weakened)]

[Speed: SS+ (far beyond the actual limits of pure-blooded humans) / (reduced while weakened)]

[Constitution: SS+ (far beyond the actual limits of pure-blooded humans) / (reduced while weakened)]

[Combat Skills: SSS+ (a supreme master of exquisitely brilliant techniques, utterly incomprehensible to humans)]

[Firearms Skill: S+ (among the world's most elite)]

[Evaluation: A perfect creature whose current true strength lies between a First-Generation Species and a Second-Generation Species; a hexagonal dragon warrior with almost no obvious weaknesses. The one who holds authority upon the Twin Thrones. According to legendary records, possesses world-shaking wisdom beyond ordinary comprehension. The gap between you and her is as vast as a chasm.]

Earth Authority, 60.7%... If he had seen correctly, Fenrir's Earth Authority was 29.3%. Even combined, they did not add up to one hundred percent.

Could there be a third King of Earth and Mountains?

The domains of wind and fire collapsed. Xia Mi could no longer sustain Word Spirit: Eye of the Wind King. She closed her eyes, her face pale with release and breathtaking beauty, and fell straight down.

Chu Zihang noticed her condition. He turned and lunged forward to catch her. The girl was as light as a falling leaf, while her boy came bloodied through thorns and brambles.

The world seemed about to freeze at the moment of their embrace.

It was a beautiful scene. If the Italian painters who worshipped Baroque art four centuries ago had seen this visually striking, dramatic tableau... they would surely have wept as they drew their viols.

At the most crucial moment, just as the male and female leads were about to embrace and weep... an unprecedented super-sized third wheel entered the battlefield. A figure in a black trench coat flashed past at high speed.

Lu Mingfei burst into the fastest sprint of his life. At a time like this, there was no need to hesitate over questions like, "What if Xia Mi is a good girl, a good Dragon King?"

He was not especially good at thinking through complicated problems, but he knew perfectly well that someone like him could not afford wishful thinking.

His left eye burned molten gold. With one hand, he held down Chu Zihang, who had entered Blood Rage for the second time, then leaped off Chu Zihang's back and delivered a standard, utterly merciless spinning flying kick.

The angle was perfect. Xia Mi, who should have fallen like a cherry blossom, instead flew away along a parabola like a golf ball that had been struck.

She was headed toward Fenrir's "toy box," piled high with Arctic Ocean bottle caps, cigarette-paper cartons, compasses, chip bags... It really did look like the secret base of a child who loved staying at home.

Dust billowed everywhere.

"Mm..."

After rolling across the ground, Xia Mi rose amid golden powder and ash, her body flecked with coldly gleaming scales.

She was not unscathed. The wounds on her body had not come from the fall, but from bones growing out of her own flesh. She stared curiously at Lu Mingfei.

"How did you figure it out?" she asked with great interest.

Lu Mingfei did not answer her question.

"Your true name." Chu Zihang's body trembled faintly as he asked, removing the Seven Sins sword case from his back.

By now, anyone could see that something was wrong with Xia Mi. The dragonization appearing on her was vastly different from Blood Rage. The latter was bought by burning life and bloodline in a desperate roar; the former was merely the casual tearing away of a disguise.

"Jormungandr." Xia Mi raised her head. "The Midgard Serpent you speak of."

The girl before them could no longer be called "Xia Mi." All manner of draconic traits appeared on her body, along with the majesty of a monarch.

Her once cloud-like Bohemian dress was torn apart by scales and bone spurs, exposing muscles hard as steel.

Jagged bones protruded from her forehead and jaw. Her knee joints bent backward at an unnatural angle. Her once-delicate calves should now have been called powerful hind legs. She had used those very legs to accelerate suddenly just now, until the naked eye could no longer catch her shadow.

Scales, bone spurs, protruding bones, claws, dragon wings... every terrifying feature unrelated to humanity appeared on the girl's body.

She was a Dragon King, the Dragon King Jormungandr.

"Wow, Junior Sister, that background sounds terrifying. In Norse mythology, your overall combat power ranks second... Did you bribe the myth's author or something?" Lu Mingfei clapped obligingly, while casually glancing a few extra times at the Seven Sins sword case now in Chu Zihang's hands.

It was a saber case, and also a sword case. Inside were seven exquisite alchemical blades. Chu Zihang lifted a hidden latch with his finger. Accompanied by a crisp, beautiful chime, the mechanisms within slid out, ejecting seven blades of entirely different designs.

These seven weapons were vicious things suspended somewhere between the dead and the living. The wielder needed to draw them through the power of their own bloodline. Lu Mingfei found two of them rather familiar. He lowered his head and looked at the Wrath and Lust in his hands.

Why was this damn game so stingy?

It gave him a complete equipment set in seven separate pieces... Lu Mingfei grumbled inwardly.

Come to think of it, after clearing the dungeon, could he casually loot this seven-piece set and take it away... Probably not. If it was not obtained as a reward, it did not count as an item and could not be taken out of the dungeon. Whoever made this game was crafty, extremely crafty. Even an iPhone could not be taken out, so there was no point dreaming about good weapons and equipment.

There was no time for his mind to wander. The teammate beside him had already unleashed his killing intent.

The domain of Jun Yan began burning around him once more. Chu Zihang raised his blood-soaked hand and slammed it heavily against the black case. The Han Bafang ancient sword Pride and the katana Envy sprang out and were caught in his hands. He drew both with all his strength, paying no heed to the scales popping up from the hilts and piercing the flesh of his palms.

"Doesn't everyone usually chat and have a heart-to-heart first?" Lu Mingfei glanced at Chu Zihang, who seemed unwilling to speak with his "former lover." The gossiping spirit within him gradually died down, replaced by a touch of melancholy as he charged forward with Wrath and Lust in hand.

He was not an idiot. He could tell there had been something between those two.

So even people who had once been so close would immediately turn their blades on each other, as long as one of them belonged to another race and had deceived the other.

Unlike the two proud and unruly sins that resisted Chu Zihang, the Wrath and Lust in Lu Mingfei's hands behaved as obediently as a big yellow dog and a tabby cat in the countryside seeing their old master return from working the fields.

"Activate, showhand."

At Lu Mingfei's command, every cloud pattern on the two sins lit up. Dark gold radiance flowed to their tips, releasing deafening dragon roars.

With their master's permission, they finally revealed their true forms today.

Word Spirit: Blood Sickle.

Transparent, razor-sharp currents scattered densely from Lu Mingfei's side, like hundreds or thousands of invisible short arrows bursting forth.

Rapidly flowing black winds coiled around Lu Mingfei. Without holding anything back, he fully unfolded his Nascent Forbidden Domain as well. He and Chu Zihang swung their blades at Jormungandr from opposite sides.

The once-unrivaled King of Earth and Mountains actually chose to evade. Frowning tightly, she retreated, leaping backward onto the highest outcropping of the rock wall.

"King's Domain?!"

"Which one of the throne are you? Which of my... siblings?" Jormungandr scrutinized Lu Mingfei uncertainly, her gaze blazing as though she wanted to see straight through him.