The waiting hall was actually quite small, and there were hardly any people in line.
They quickly found the boarding gate for their bus. There was no real security screening; a man in uniform simply checked their tickets and let them through.
The huge, muscular vehicle stood in the parking lot, tall and silent, painted blue, red, white, and gray. The word "GREYHOUND" on its front was where the familiar name Greyhound bus came from.
After stowing their luggage, they climbed the short flight of steps at the front door. Inside, all the seats were black, with pairs on either side of the aisle and fairly generous space between the rows.
There was no one on the bus. Lu Mingfei and his companions were the first passengers to board.
All four took window seats on the same side, placing their backpacks on the empty seats beside them.
Even by departure time, few other passengers had boarded. Apart from Lu Mingfei's group, there were only three people, so everyone could claim both their own seat and the one beside it.
The Greyhound pulled out of the parking lot and merged into New York traffic. Skyscrapers and bustling streets swept backward on either side. Soon they reached the suburbs, where there were only lush roadside trees and almost no tall buildings. Perhaps the old driver's home was somewhere around here. The sunlight blazed overhead, straining their eyes even through the Greyhound's darkened windows.
When Fingel learned that Old Tang had brought plenty of snacks, he moved to the seat beside him.
Old Tang's backpack was stuffed full of bread crisps, cheese sticks, potato chips, crispy coconut chips, corn chips, and even Oreos-all high-calorie snacks. As Fingel tore open a bag of chips, he made sure to share some with Lu Mingfei and Constantine.
After several hours on the road, it was already dusk when they reached the first rest stop. Everyone on the bus was tired and drowsy. They were allowed only twenty minutes off the bus here, so Old Tang called Fingel along to buy chicken wraps and Coke at a fast-food place.
But not all the passengers returned. As Old Tang and Fingel ran back carrying their wraps and Coke, two of the other three passengers were outside, apparently beating the living daylights out of each other.
In the end, the driver contacted the company and canceled their tickets. Even without the cancellation, neither could have continued the journey. They clearly needed an ambulance more.
The journey continued.
There were no roadside trees along the next stretch. They seemed to have reached an American highway, where the asphalt had no guardrails and bordered an endless grassland. Low mountains stood in the distance, like black silhouettes against the red glow left after sunset. Clouds stretched in bands across the sky, their overlapping layers sharply defined, making the sky seem almost pressed against the earth.
The dark land, the gray clouds, and the cool breeze outside the window.
Fingel commandeered one of Old Tang's earbuds and hummed along to the stirring melody as he chewed his chicken wrap.
It was a song Old Tang had picked at random to keep himself awake, called "Easy Rider."
Over the fierce instrumental backing, a wild voice poured out the passion of his burning journey.
Something in it seemed to strike a chord with Fingel. He took a huge gulp of Coke to rinse his throat, then began singing along.
Start the engine now
Start the engine right now
Broke the heaven,sail to hell
Break through heaven, head for hell
As fire of freedom burn all
The fire of freedom burns everything
We are the last hunter
We are the last hunters
We are Easy Rider
We are Easy Rider
I will not sink here
I will not fall here
But I can drunk tonight
But tonight I can lose myself in drink
We will reach the crazy shore
We will reach the shores of madness
There are Burning Road
That is a burning road
It was his first time hearing the song, and his singing was barely in tune. But he soon dragged Old Tang into singing with him, turning it into a duet. Somehow, their uneven voices made twice the off-key singing sound harmonious.
Still, none of the original singer's soul-deep cry remained. Old Tang's voice even cracked on the drawn-out high note of "rider." Fortunately, their only audience was a stranger sitting at the back and the driver, so he did not feel too embarrassed. Copying Fingel, he rinsed his throat with Coke and kept following Fingel's rhythm.
Chapter 56: Sword of Victory
The sun had set completely. Residual heat rose from the earth, while the chill that had hidden in the daytime shadows spread with the deepening night, toward the dark blue sky and the shifting colors of the clouds. The breeze roamed freely, carrying both the warmth and the coolness of evening.
With the off-key song beside his ear, everything felt so comfortable.
But Lu Mingfei had given up comfort long ago.
A message arrived on his phone.
"Have you confirmed his identity?" The sender was Angers.
Two days earlier, in the principal's office.
Lu Mingfei and Angers sat facing each other across the desk, steam curling from their teacups.
"Would a Dragon King hide among humans?" Lu Mingfei held a large envelope containing a photograph of Old Tang. In it, Old Tang was playing cards with a group of people around a table in a café. Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, lending a bright glow to his young face.
"We actually have no information directly related to the Dragon Kings, First-Generation Dragons, or the 'Four Great Dragon Kings,' as they're also called. Even their existence was inferred from the Ice Sea Fragments," Angers said. "They are the ultimate life-forms, capable of returning from death. Changing their form might be a mere parlor trick to them."
"Real name, Ronald Tang. An American of Chinese descent, an adopted orphan. No one knows who his biological parents are. He dropped out of high school, lives in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and takes secret jobs to make money." Lu Mingfei picked up the documents again, quietly repeating their contents. "With the kind of power a Dragon King possesses, he could live a much better life."
"Perhaps he hasn't awakened yet?" Angers said mildly. "Let's suppose that after reviving, a Dragon King has to go through a process of sensing and awakening his bloodline, just like a hybrid."
"Then now is the best time to kill him," Lu Mingfei said at once.
Angers smiled approvingly, but rejected the idea. "No. If he's still manageable, we can take him somewhere uninhabited and deal with him there. After all, we need to consider safety, cost, and certain unpredictable factors."
"What if he isn't a Dragon King?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"We'll brainwash him and send him back, following the Academy's procedure for ordinary people," Angers said. "That would mean there's no inherent attraction between Dragon Kings-in other words, blood sorrow. Afterward, we won't need to go to such lengths to rule out everyone Constantine comes into contact with. But until then, whether he's human or dragon, Ronald Tang must be handled with care."
"What's the plan? Will conventional weapons work on Norton?"
"A trap. Science has given us the means to weaken dragons, while alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone will deliver the killing blow." Angers handed Lu Mingfei a file describing a small Alchemical Matrix filled primarily with mercury. "A little contraption designed by the Vice Principal. We'll be using it on this mission."
"Good." Lu Mingfei nodded.
"Before that, all you need to do is bring him to the designated location." Angers smiled.
"He may have blood sorrow. We haven't confirmed that he's a Dragon King, and we haven't attempted any more aggressive tests. The bus is approaching the mission area," Lu Mingfei replied.
The mission location had been finalized after Lu Mingfei's group set out. Originally, the "hunt" was to take place among the deserts and hills of Arizona. But given the long journey and the distribution of the Executive Department's supply depots, they had chosen the Panhandle Plateau in northern Texas, relatively closer to New York. Apart from sand and rock, there were only a few drought-resistant plants there, making it a suitable battlefield.
The mission's final code name was "Sword of Victory"-the Sword of Victory Plan, rated S.
Lu Mingfei and the others needed to get off at the Greyhound transfer station in Amarillo and bring Old Tang into the trap prepared by the Executive Department.
At the moment, the mission's central figure, Old Tang, had already fallen asleep from exhaustion. He leaned against the window, drool trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Fingel had also returned to his own seat.
There were no lights on inside the bus, leaving it pitch-black. The wilderness raced past outside the windows, and what looked like city lights shone in the distance.
About two hours later, the Greyhound pulled into another parking lot marked with a "Greyhound" sign. On it was a lean gray hound, lunging forward in a running pose.
They had an hour's break at this stop.
Everyone had to take their luggage and get off. This was a transfer station, with plenty of drink and snack vending machines. Its vaulted ceiling stood three stories high, and the hall was noisy.
The four of them claimed a row of seats. Apart from Lu Mingfei, they all looked rather drained. After a whole day on a bus, aching backs were inevitable.
"I just saw a McDonald's. Do you guys want anything else to eat?" Old Tang asked.
Lu Mingfei and Constantine both shook their heads.
To Old Tang's surprise, Fingel turned him down too. All he could say was, "All right, I'll go on my own."
He stood up and headed toward the McDonald's counter, pounding the shoulder he had leaned against the window while sleeping.
"Junior, want to take a walk outside?" Fingel asked Lu Mingfei the moment Old Tang disappeared around the corner.
Lu Mingfei nodded and told Constantine, "Wait here for us."
This was a Greyhound transfer station, and its surroundings were much like a highway rest stop. The only lights in the distance came from a few low buildings. Apart from those, only the Greyhound transfer hall and the gas station were brightly lit.
Lu Mingfei and Fingel walked along the edge of the parking lot. In the distance, they could see workers cleaning and servicing the Greyhound buses.
"Junior, I've been testing Old Tang all along, and I haven't found anything wrong with him. At most, he's an unaffiliated hybrid, but half the losers in this world could be unaffiliated hybrids," Fingel said quietly. "Every disguise has flaws, especially holes in its logic. But I've already figured out all his kinks from his bookmarks, and I still haven't found a crack. It's nothing but busty girls with long legs. Judging by how often he visits those pages, it doesn't look like something he put together at the last minute to fool us, either."
"Angers said we don't understand dragons." Lu Mingfei was thinking it over too.
That night, listening to Old Tang talk, he had also found it impossible to connect him with a creature like Constantine in his rage.
"If dragons are all guys who love fries and Coke, dragon-slaying would be way too easy," Fingel complained. "Besides, why would he need to put on an act for us? He even bought us dinner... If it were me, I'd just kill us, take the loot, and run."
"What loot? The Philosopher's Stone?" Lu Mingfei asked, puzzled.
"Your credit card, obviously. It's got a hundred-thousand-dollar limit. Can't let that go to waste," Fingel replied.
Lu Mingfei stopped paying attention to him. He mentally reviewed every aspect of Old Tang's character that he had seen on their journey, along with the details of their earlier online conversations.
"By the way, Junior, you brought Wang Wei along too. Is his Word Spirit Bloodline Kekkai?" Fingel added.
Lu Mingfei glanced at him. "Are you sure you want to know who Wang Wei is?"
"Never mind, never mind. If you're putting it that way, there's definitely something fishy about it." Fingel waved a hand. "I don't want to know anything."
Chapter 57: The Hotel
When Lu Mingfei and Fingel returned to the transfer hall, Old Tang was already back. He held a portion of piping-hot fries and was sharing them with Constantine, each taking one in turn.
"Where did you two go?" Old Tang waved them over.
"We'd been on the bus so long it was getting a little stuffy. We went out for some air," Fingel said.
Old Tang yawned, looking a little dazed. "There's nothing much to see along this stretch. Later, we'll find somewhere scenic and spend a few days having fun. For now, we'll just have to put up with it."
"Looking forward to it." Fingel nodded and sat back down with Lu Mingfei.
The four rested there for a while, then returned to the Greyhound bus when the hall's departure board prompted them.