Night of the Dancing Black Dragon (II)

"At first, I was scared. Even after so many friends died, I was still scared. But after being scared for so long, I saw myself clearly. Since then, I'd kept forcing down my anger. The anger made me wake up at night, too ashamed and irritated to fall asleep again. I only had this little bit of space—why couldn't it be a little better?"

As he spoke, a Serpentine Deadpool at the very front twisted its body and coiled toward him. Lu Mingfei turned his head regretfully and twisted hard as he continued talking.

The long blade split open the monster's belly. Dark-red organs spilled out, and black blood splashed all over him:

"There was a girl I liked in middle school. Later, once I understood more, I didn't like her that much anymore. Swimming out of the world of a girl who didn't like me was painful. I swam like a headless fly, but it was still progress."

Covered in blood, Lu Mingfei mechanically and efficiently swung his blade, carving through his enemies. Crimson in the blazing firelight, he looked like a reaper from the land of the dead as he recounted his memories.

There was no discernible technique in his blade work. If he could whirl a heavy weapon like the cavalry saber Wrath into an impenetrable dance, he no longer needed any particular style or technique.

"I've seen truly outstanding people. You're Vodka, you're Brandy. At worst, there's watered-down counterfeit liquor in this world. But at my core, I'm orange soda produced and sold in Binhai Town. How could you ask people not to taste wine and drink soda instead...?"

As he stepped into the Deadpool horde, Lu Mingfei rambled on and gradually drifted off-topic. By the time he realized his old habit had struck again, he had already said far too much.

He wanted to scratch his head, but that was difficult with a weapon in hand on the flaming, blood-soaked battlefield of the Mural Hall. So he could only casually chop off the head of another Serpentine Deadpool beside him to hide the embarrassment of going off-topic.

"What are you even talking about? Is this the place for us to bare our souls and reminisce, you artsy boy?!" Caesar fired wildly in confusion, dazedly helping Lu Mingfei relieve the pressure... though the ones under pressure should really have been the Deadpools. Lu Mingfei was so chatty that it felt like he was having afternoon tea at a tea party.

"So what if my verbal skills are limited?" Lu Mingfei looked embarrassed. "Come on, I'm only in my senior year of high school. It's perfectly normal to be a melodramatic, pretentious teenager..."

He was not merely in his senior year of high school. He had spent most of high school without a proper night's sleep, much less experienced youth or grown out of his adolescent angst. Instead, he had been stuck in this building chopping up Deadpools.

"What the hell? Aren't you a sophomore? And that's prejudice. I've seen plenty of cute girls who don't drink wine and only drink soda. There are tons of them in the Cassell College Student Union!"

"Though I do prefer girls who drink... That isn't important. If you like a girl, pull out your hunting knife and give it to her to open bottle caps. At least that proves you're a carbonated drink that knows how to draw a blade."

Lu Mingfei's words sounded far too depressing, and Caesar strongly disagreed.

The weakened Chu Zihang opened his eyes and reached for his gun. He forced himself onto his side, his expression unchanged. "I don't really understand either."

After a pause, Caesar hesitated before speaking in the tone of an experienced old hand who understood everything. "Listen, I think you've been suppressing yourself too much. Right now, you look amazing to me."

"I knew you had a scholarly side before, but I never expected you to be this scholarly. That fat woman at Takamagahara should have been left for you to embrace openly. Your path of manhood hasn't yet been tempered by suffering."

Before the big-brotherly comfort was even finished, the slightly distracted Caesar nearly had his neck touched by the claws of a sneak-attacking Deadpool. He promptly leaned back and rolled away, swearing as he pulled out his hunting knife.

Fortunately, that Deadpool had actually been drawn over by Gen Chisei's blood and had no intention of wasting effort on Caesar. When its strike missed, it tried to leap over him and continue pursuing its target.

Calmly reloading, Chu Zihang frowned slightly. "Next time we return to Shilan, I'll go see that girl named Chen Wenwen with you."

Holding up his gun to help Caesar and Gen Chisei deal with the danger of Deadpool ambushes, Chu Zihang added, "If you need me to."

His words were brief, spoken after a moment of serious thought. They were less comfort than a promise.

His theoretical experience in this area was far inferior to that of another brother from Cassell.

Chu Zihang's words reminded Lu Mingfei of an old television drama he had watched before, a youth entrepreneurship show from a bygone era. That day, Lu Mingze had taken over the computer, so he could only watch television in the living room. The old TV could barely receive any channels; aside from that show, the others were mostly rural romance stories.

He still remembered a conversation between two characters in it. At first glance, both had the appearance and bearing of righteous, upright men with thick brows and bright eyes.

Character A said he disliked someone. Character B silently listened as A listed that person's faults and vented his emotions. A asked, "Why do you keep nodding? Don't you have any opinion of him?" B said, "I don't know the person you're talking about, and I can't make an objective analysis based on your emotions. It's enough for me to remember that we both dislike him."

That person was not actually so righteous or objective. He was incredibly protective of his own people.

"I can go with you two as well. By the way, who is Chen Wenwen? I think I saw that name in Fingel's 'Shocking: The Fallen Past of an S-Rank.' I read it ages ago. From your tone, Chu Zihang, it sounds like you're going to assassinate her. If so, count me in." After an awkward roll, Caesar spat out a mouthful of blood and raised his gun to show that he wanted in.

After saying that, he viciously closed the distance and shot away the lower jaw of the ambushing Deadpool. He joined Gen Chisei in taking down the shadowy creature, striking with such ruthlessness that it was like offering a pledge of allegiance.

Takamagahara, fat woman, path of manhood... Gen Chisei silently processed this astonishing information about the students from headquarters.

Why did these three headquarters guys seem to be about to start chatting in the middle of a Deadpool horde? He could not follow their train of thought at all.

Was he supposed to join them in assassinating that... Chen Wenwen?

"Listen to me! I'm serious! Chen Wenwen was part of the irrelevant off-topic stuff. This has nothing to do with girls right now." Lu Mingfei snapped off a Deadpool's arm and tossed it aside, rolling his eyes at them helplessly.

A tremendous boom nearly drowned out his voice. Explosives roared from the far end of the Mural Hall, and flames raged toward the dome of the Buddhist temple. The first wave of explosions had begun.

Having expected it, Lu Mingfei retreated several steps toward the elevators, the hem of his clothes slightly dirtied.

The blast radius of that round was truly limited. He leaped up and kicked away an unlucky Deadpool blasted toward him, then took the chance to release his Word Spirit.

Black currents of wind wound through a circle ten meters in diameter, then contracted to Lu Mingfei's side. Shattered streams of air rushed into the wounds of two Deadpools beside him, as though countless invisible little beasts had opened their mouths and begun tearing at them.

Word Spirit: Blood Sickle.

The caster could establish a domain of wind centered on himself, manipulate the airflow to a certain extent, and scatter dozens or even hundreds of transparent, razor-sharp fragments of air in every direction.

These fragments were "dead Kamaitachi." They could be compared to rapidly moving, non-disposable air bullets. Their individual lethality was limited, but not weak; they could easily slice through the surface skin of most creatures, and when locked onto a target, quickly leave dense, fine cuts.

When the density of these fragments became too high, they could even knock down a volley of crossbow bolts or sever major blood vessels, causing enemies to bleed continuously until death, as though he were commanding a swarm of mythical bloodsucking wind demons.

Blood Sickle was an advanced Word Spirit of Kamaitachi. Like Kamaitachi, it enhanced hearing, but its killing power came at the cost of reduced auditory range.

Under normal conditions, the limit of Lu Mingfei's domain was a circle fifty meters in diameter. After injecting the Evolution Potion, it could probably reach nearly a hundred meters. That was also the range in which the air fragments could move.

There was no need for this Word Spirit to pursue a wide range. Doing so would greatly weaken its close-range lethality, since the total number of air fragments it could release remained basically unchanged.

Blood Sickle should have been transparent spinning blades of air, transparent little scalpels whirling through the air. But Lu Mingfei's Blood Sickle was slightly different.

The monarch's King's Domain spread out; the Word Spirit was merely a gift.