Light descended.
Lu Mingfei closed his eyes, but even through his eyelids, his vision burned a brilliant red.
He knew the enraged Dragon King was about to deliver a killing blow.
Completely blinded, he would struggle to dodge at the right moment. Besides, his opponent's ability to trigger explosions at a distance was nearly impossible to guard against.
He was almost entirely on the defensive, with everything stacked against him.
Yet calm seemed engraved into Lu Mingfei's instincts. Through countless resurrections and battles, he had long since become a warrior of ample courage. The loser had not evolved overnight. In all those later moments of life and death that bordered on despair, the cruelty and coldness in his eyes had never wavered again.
He unleashed his killing intent once more.
Something changed within Lu Mingfei.
His bloodline grew purer still. High-pressure blood surged through his entire body, and incredible, minute changes reached into every cell. Power as rich as wine flowed through his veins. Fine hairs pierced through his skin, growing across its surface like a layer of iron-blue moss. Under a microscope, however, magnified hundreds of times, each of those "hairs" would have been shield-shaped, marked with patterns like tree rings and tipped with a point sharp as a sword.
These "swords" were piercing Lu Mingfei's skin, taking the shape of scales and covering his entire body. With each breath, they closed, opened, closed, and opened again. The flesh clinging beneath them released great clouds of blood-red steam as his body temperature soared, while the blood on the scales rapidly dried.
Second-Stage Blood Rage!
Red Skies trembled joyfully in Lu Mingfei's hand. Some "spirit" within it cheered and leaped with delight, making the blade hum.
His awareness expanded beyond his body, as though forming a domain within which he could perceive the outside world without eyes or ears.
Wind-violent, explosive wind-charged toward him like a cannonball tearing through everything in its path.
Lu Mingfei tilted his body, bending his right arm behind him at an extreme angle with Red Skies in his grip. From a crouch that gathered his strength, he burst forward toward the charging Dragon King.
Even with the searing dragonfire clearing the way burning almost against his face, he did not waver in his judgment. At the most precise instant, Red Skies swept upward from the lower right in an enormous diagonal slash.
This time, the attack was not deflected. The blade tore through the Dragon King's skin, flesh, and bone!
Lu Mingfei spun with the recoil of the slash and used its force to spring away, tracing a V through the air as he evaded the Dragon King's deadly charge.
He landed on the solid bronze floor.
Under the Dragon King's ferocious assault, the water had already almost boiled away.
The light dimmed, and Lu Mingfei's sight returned.
He saw horrifying masses of lava clinging to his body, burning slowly. His blue-black dragon scales cracked explosively, trailing wisps of smoke.
Half the Red Sky Sword had actually melted away. Some liquid clung to it, devouring the blade like concentrated sulfuric acid dissolving foam. Less than half its length remained.
Lu Mingfei panted heavily.
"Look, brother. Before power and authority, you can't even raise your sword. He didn't destroy it immediately because it reminded him of someone dear to him. Now you're going to face his fury."
That night, every student ranked A or above and every member of the Executive Department who was not currently on a mission received an urgent message from Norma.
"Emergency. Two Executive Department members and one S-rank student are trapped inside the palace of Norton, the Bronze and Fire King. A mechanism has been triggered, blocking all routes in and out. Their oxygen is dwindling with every second. We must find them an escape route as quickly as possible. Some of you trace your bloodline to him. Attached is an image of Dragon Script photographed by Executive Department member Jude Jiqu. We suspect it may be an inscription recording the construction of this bronze city. Please concentrate on reading it. If you experience spirit vision, immediately attempt to decipher the map."
The attachments included a vast blue-green dome assembled from numerous photographs, along with a three-dimensional model of the city's structure.
Separated by oceans and continents, daylight and darkness, elite dragon slayers scattered across the world meditated over the images on their phones and computers.
Beyond the door came the giggling of four women. Chu Zihang had ordered them a late-night meal.
He sat upright on his bedroom floor with his back against the wall, the lights off. On the screen before him was an intricate image of a luxuriant tree.
As the rhythm of his breathing changed, a pair of Golden Eyes shone in the darkness like gas lamps.
He activated his bloodline, hoping to discern words among those twisted branches and leaves and save three lives.
Chapter 31: Contract
At dusk, Genoa Bay lay encircled by mountains. Layer upon layer of sunset clouds stained the sky and water red. Seagulls gathered and wheeled low, settling in flocks on the wet sand left by the receding tide. The beach, littered with shellfish, crabs, and stranded little fish, was a lavish dining table for them.
Every year, Caesar spent the hottest few weeks in Portofino, staying in a suite he rented year-round.
It should have been time for a leisurely dinner after a swim, but Caesar sat alone before his computer screen. Pazzi, secretary to the Board of Trustees, stood at his door, preventing anything from entering the room and disturbing his meditation.
The scarlet glow of sunset poured into the room through enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, falling across the expressionless face of the blond young nobleman. A trace of pale gold flickered deep in his eyes, like the last remnant of a brilliant midday sun.
Late at night, in a rundown residential complex hidden behind towering buildings.
In Building 31, inside a room converted from an electrical room.
A slender girl sat cross-legged on blue bedsheets, facing the window and humming the theme song of an anime. The stirring melody sounded strangely ethereal on her lips, as though it had echoed down from primordial times.
Beside her lay a phone with its screen lit. The great tree reminded her of an old acquaintance.
The wind lifted her hair. Her black eyes were as dark as deep wells.
"We've got visuals again!" the woman in the earpiece shouted. "Good thing this camera was far enough away."
"Tell me, what's happening in there?"
"The human's gone. Now it's two dragons beating each other up."
Inside the Bronze Hall, Lu Mingfei's figure ricocheted rapidly between the floor, walls, and bronze pillars like a black meteor.
Behind him pursued a figure with wings of flame spread wide. The Dragon King's skeletal wings had torn through the flesh of his back and erupted from his body, pouring out heat in blazing torrents. Wherever he passed, bronze structures and statues of snake-faced men melted instantly into glowing red fluid, like cheese meeting a hot knife.
Lu Mingfei was barely using his eyes to fight. He could only rely on his mental domain to predict attacks as best he could.
Scorching flames kept erupting around him. Every explosion's red-hot blast disrupted his trajectory and left fleeting burns on his body. Though the volatile dragon blood within him swiftly repaired those injuries as he breathed heavily, he could clearly sense what was happening to him: his life force was being consumed, his mental strength overdrawn.
Within his mental domain, he could vaguely anticipate the Dragon King's fiery attacks. Heat sources suddenly lit up in the air around his body, followed by violent eruptions. Without this ability, the Dragon King would have melted him long ago.
In the space of a breath, what appeared before his eyes might be an eruption of flame-or death.
The Dragon King approached again, bearing surging waves of heat.
As he had done countless times before, Lu Mingfei sensed the attack in advance, stamped hard against his foothold, and swiftly changed direction.
But this time was different. The Dragon King did not follow. Within Lu Mingfei's mental perception, that mass of heat slammed straight into a bronze wall and burst apart.
It was a false body formed from flame. At some unknown moment, the real Dragon King had concealed himself, waiting for the exhausted Lu Mingfei to make this one mistake.
A fierce sense of danger coursed through Lu Mingfei like an electric current. With a savage snarl, he raised his arms and crossed them before his chest, trying to withstand the coming attack.
It was already too late. The Dragon King tore away his arm and shoulder.
The arm that did it was slender and pale. Its owner was almost pressed against Lu Mingfei as he attacked: a delicate-looking boy who appeared no older than sixteen or seventeen, with a small face, faint eyebrows, and uniformly black eyes. He wore that small, snow-white, deep-hemmed robe. God knew how its material had withstood the terrifying heat.
He looked just like a sect's junior disciple stepping out of a cultivation drama-if not for the hideously jointed dragon wings behind him and the wound on his left arm exposing stark white bone.
Lu Mingfei flew backward, struck the bronze wall, and fell, slumping into the corner. Blood gushed from the enormous torn wound and ran down the searing bronze wall, hissing and releasing white vapor.
The signs of draconic transformation on his body were fading. The hard blue-black protrusions on his face and the capillaries spreading like plant roots receded.
Sound grew distant. His vision dimmed.
That familiar death, untasted for so many years, caught up with him once again from the depths of memory.
"Brother, I told you. You couldn't hold out."
Lu Mingze crouched before Lu Mingfei, studying that monstrous, dying face.
Time stood still inside the Bronze Hall. Flames were rekindling over the Dragon King's body, and glowing red bronze rose from the floor around him, beginning to enclose him like a flower bud. Threads of heat filled the space between the dome and the floor like spider silk. Red-hot lava dripped from half a statue of a snake-faced man, suspended in midair.
Everything had frozen at the instant Lu Mingze spoke.
Lu Mingfei felt his vision clear again. Death seemed to be receding.
"Can you tell me what you really want now?" A moment ago, he had been about to sink into an eternal sleep of darkness, yet his tone was now light.
Lu Mingze sighed, stood, and looked down at Lu Mingfei. "In the end, you still need my help, brother."
"You've read Faust, haven't you? The devil Mephistopheles makes a wager with Faust and becomes his servant. Once Mephistopheles makes Faust content with worldly pleasures, their master-servant relationship ends, and Faust's soul belongs to the devil. My terms are similar. You sign a contract with me, and I grant your wishes..."
Chapter 32: I won't sign
"Looks like I guessed right." A harsh rattling accompanied Lu Mingfei's breathing. The Dragon King's attack had ruptured his organs, and something had gotten into his windpipe. He gave Lu Mingze a miserable smile. "Now I know what you want... Devil?"
"So what?" Lu Mingze remained unconcerned. "No matter how strong your will is, brother, you can't change your cruel fate. Just accept my deal. You're already dying against a mere incomplete member of the Four Great Dragon Kings. Relying on yourself is useless. Accept the contract, and I can do almost anything for you. That Dragon King will only be the appetizer. I'll throw in his brother as a bonus."
Lu Mingfei struggled to his feet. Inside Lu Mingze's dream, death seemed truly shut out. But he knew it was all an illusion. Perhaps the instant Lu Mingze left, he would collapse.
"Lu Mingze? Or a devil? You've shown your hand." His eyes held the ease of someone who had solved a mystery. "Whether you covet my soul or my body doesn't matter. What matters is that you've revealed something to me-I myself am the strongest weapon. Strong enough that even someone like you, who uses Dragon Kings as pawns, needs a contract to claim me."
Lu Mingze frowned. A trace of unease stirred within him as he silently watched Lu Mingfei grip his wound, squeezing the bleeding vessels tightly shut.
"I was never sure what lay deeper within the so-called 'killing heart' of dragons. But now I know." Lu Mingfei smiled faintly, just as he had when speaking of death on the train. His Golden Eyes lit up again. "This is a trap. You saw that I'm the sort who presses toward the unknown and greater heights, so you deliberately left a clue to provoke me. But you got one thing wrong, Lu Mingze. I've never been a king. At most, I've sat on a throne. Those who wield power might accept a devil's bargain to achieve their ends, but I am Tarnished-a warrior!"
As some power welled up within him, his voice became a roar in his throat.
"We Tarnished are born with nothing. Light and darkness both lie ahead; power and curses alike descend upon us. Never think a Tarnished has failed, even when his life has reached its end, even when his enemy stands like an insurmountable mountain!"
Third-Stage Blood Rage!
Dense scales grew back, along with blood-drenched bone spurs. Beneath the scales, his muscles rippled like water before suddenly tightening into shape. His bones cracked deafeningly, and his knees bent backward. A pair of savage blue-black wings tore through the flesh of his back and spread abruptly, raising a gale.
At the wound where the Dragon King had torn away his arm, blood vessels and nerves grew along newly formed bone, dripping with blood. At last, flesh proliferated and scales covered it. The blue-black scales opened first, then locked together, dark and glossy.
Lu Mingze's dream ended, but he remained in the corner, his face expressionless as he silently watched Lu Mingfei walk toward the Dragon King.
The Dragon King sensed danger. The human before him was completely different now. With an enraged growl, he summoned flames and scorching currents of metal once more.
Lu Mingfei bent slightly, then shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, moving so fast that his dark silhouette distorted.
He struck the Dragon King, and the two became entangled, crashing into the thick bronze wall. The Dragon King's struggles rapidly melted the bronze. Soon, a section of the wall caved inward. Glowing red fluid flowed around them, held back by an invisible domain.
Lu Mingfei seized the Dragon King's wings with his finely scaled hands and violently tore them off. Bones snapped, and gold-tinged blood gushed out.
The Dragon King's terrifying howl echoed through the hall.
Flames erupted all over Lu Mingfei's body. The Dragon King attacked with everything he had, and countless simultaneous explosions blasted Lu Mingfei away.
With the Dragon King's fury, thick bolts of brilliant purple lightning surged throughout the Bronze Hall. Everything cast in bronze melted into fiery serpents that seemed to come alive. Moments later, densely packed swords and blades of molten metal formed in the air and fell toward Lu Mingfei, points first.
It was a rain of swords meant to destroy everything.
Even the floor became liquid like magma, rising into a cage.
Staring at the frenzied, savage Dragon King, Lu Mingfei suddenly understood. His opponent's mind was immature. He was like a child playing with a bug. At first, seeing the bug carrying his brother's weapon, he had splashed it with a little hot water to test it. Then the bug had suddenly bitten him, so he had angrily torn off its limbs.