Until he defeated the "Mimic Tear."
The "Mimic Tear" was a perfect Lu Mingfei, yet he lost to Lu Mingfei's pure will to fight.
Lu Mingfei later learned that this state was called "flow state": stripping away the sheath called "reason" and throwing himself completely into the battle before him.
In many desperate battles afterward, Lu Mingfei turned defeat into victory through this beastlike state of combat.
After returning to Earth, Lu Mingfei awakened the other self hidden within his "flow state" for the first time.
The faint Alchemical Domain, the unusual ripple of mental energy within the crack in time, and that elusive "loosening" as the world flowed backward were all magnified dozens of times in his perception.
It was like activating Time Zero to catch a flash of lightning that vanished into the darkness in an instant.
The moment the opening appeared, Lu Mingfei's body was already moving. He opened his eyes within the crack in space and time!
Lu Mingfei approached Norton, step by step.
Norton's time remained frozen at the moment he noticed the "Fell God Flame." He was carrying out the final step in forging his long blade, surrounded by iron filings and flames. The beautiful, mirrorlike blade reflected his indifferent Golden Eyes.
At that moment, the monarch seemed certain of victory.
Lu Mingfei walked up to him and delivered nothing more than a simple slash, bringing a greatsword down from Norton's shoulder at a speed beyond the limits of any human swing. Norton's scales shattered, followed by his shoulder blade, sternum, ribs, and spine.
Beneath the alchemical greatsword's edge, every scrap of living tissue was pulverized.
Then time resumed.
Norton's pupils shrank to pinpoints. His body instantly sensed the threat of death, and his nervous system ordered his heart to accelerate, his adrenaline to surge, and his muscles to contract into a defensive posture.
But it was already too late. The tissues and organs receiving those orders from his nerve endings had already been destroyed.
The Dragon King crashed to the ground.
Dragon blood spurted from his vessels under immense pressure, splashing across the ground like black ink and quickly gathering into a pool.
"Lu Mingze." Lu Mingfei left his flow state, wearily planted the greatsword in the bronze floor, and called softly.
In an instant, time, which had only just resumed, stopped again.
Dressed in his little evening suit, Lu Mingze crouched beside Norton, whose pupils had lost focus from excessive blood loss, and toyed with the fine scales on his face with interest.
"Brother, aren't you going to use that power of plunder yet?" Lu Mingze asked.
Lu Mingfei looked at Norton's body. He could indeed see the faint outline of a Great Rune, but this time, he did not intend to take it immediately.
He did not understand the relationship between Great Runes and Dragon Kings, how Great Runes appeared, or the threshold at which he could extract one.
This time, he could observe.
With time stopped by Lu Mingze, Lu Mingfei crouched beside Norton to examine him.
Norton's domain had already collapsed, leaving only his ruined dragon body. There were no fluctuations of fire elements around him, nor any mental energy radiating outward.
The outline of the Great Rune lay hidden within the Dragon King's chest and abdomen, like a phantom that did not overlap with his physical form. It had no strong connection to the matter or elements of the real world.
"What state is Norton in right now?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"He hadn't had time to create an 'egg' for rebirth since his latest awakening. His life is about to run out, and his spirit will become a Dragon Bone Cross along with his remains," Lu Mingze replied.
"How does that compare to Constantine's condition last time?"
Lu Mingze seemed to notice his intent. "Brother, do you want to know how a dragon's power can be plundered and devoured? I can tell you."
Lu Mingfei had not expected Lu Mingze to answer his questions so obediently this time, let alone volunteer more information. He nodded.
"Dragons steal power from one another by devouring bones and blood. That process is essentially the plundering of genes," Lu Mingze stated indifferently. "But Dragon Kings are different. The throne a Dragon King leaves behind after death is a Dragon Bone Cross. Devouring it means devouring not only the Dragon King's genes, but also the spiritual beacon corresponding to their elemental authority."
Chapter 66: Bloodhound's Fang
"I understand," Lu Mingfei said. "A Dragon King's complete body and spirit are essentially a vessel. When they die, what they carry doesn't disappear."
"Exactly, brother." Lu Mingze snapped his fingers and smiled in satisfaction. "Dragon Kings and their authority are fundamentally separate things. Authority and power don't live and die with the Dragon Kings. Those dragons aren't worthy of that!"
Lu Mingfei felt that Lu Mingze was unusually talkative today, as though some different emotion lay concealed beneath his teasing expression.
"What about you? Are you a vessel for some authority, too?" Lu Mingfei immediately asked.
"I should have been."
Lu Mingze's tone was light, but the instant his words fell, an invisible storm of blood swept over them, and faint sobbing echoed through a dark abyss.
"Brother." Lu Mingze pressed a hand against Lu Mingfei's.
Only then did Lu Mingfei realize that he had drawn his greatsword and assumed an attacking stance.
"Seeing you like this really puts me at ease." Lu Mingze offered another cryptic remark.
Lu Mingfei did not know what had happened. In a daze, he had merely seen a pair of enormous Golden Eyes open, while roars and fury tore through his body like electric currents.
It seemed that a single sentence from Lu Mingze could stir something deep within him.
"Are we... twins?" Lu Mingfei frowned.
During his battle with Norton, he had not only found the "loosening" in the world's dimensions as Time Reversal flowed backward, but had also remained completely unaffected by the so-called heart of slaughter or Dragon King's Heart when he first entered Third-Stage Blood Rage. All of this proved that he was special—even more special than a First-Generation Dragon King.
According to Cassell College's intelligence, only the Black King and the White King stood above the Four Great Monarchs.
"The Black King or the White King?" Lu Mingfei narrowed his eyes.
Lu Mingze met his gaze in silence. "Neither. But one day, we will face that black dragon. That is the shared destiny of all history. He is the sum of all history before Ragnarök. No one can escape."
"It sounds like we're on the same side," Lu Mingfei remarked. "But being partners requires honesty."
Lu Mingze nodded in agreement. "One day, you will see everything about me with your own eyes. Before then, will you let me get to know you first?"
Lu Mingfei looked puzzled. "You want to hear a story?"
"Of course. You've already proven that story's truth with one complete Four Great Thrones." Lu Mingze spread his hands, looking like both a charlatan and an impassioned orator. "Brother, I probably can't take that great soul of yours anymore. So could you share a king's journey with me? Let me see the path to kingship you want to walk!"
"If you want a story, I'll tell you properly when I have time." Lu Mingfei did not mind recounting his experiences in the Lands Between. "As long as you can be honest with me after you've heard it."
"No, no, no." Lu Mingze gave an unrestrained smile. The light in his golden eyes instantly blazed as though they were burning. "I'll enter the dream woven from your memories. I just need your permission, brother... will you grant it?"
Lu Mingfei remained wary.
Lu Mingze had once tempted him with power to make him sign a contract. That meant what Lu Mingze needed was "consent" to seize something called a "soul."
"Don't worry, brother." Seeing Lu Mingfei remain silent, Lu Mingze had no choice but to press a hand to his chest and promise, "I'm only going to enter your memories. There are no other traps. If anything, I'm the one in danger, because I'll lose my power there as well, and I could very easily become lost."
After thinking for a moment, Lu Mingfei decided to trust him.
There were no verbal traps in Lu Mingze's words. If Lu Mingze could invade through a simple statement of permission, there would have been no need for a complicated contract. He would only have needed to coax Lu Mingfei into saying those words-not necessarily in Chinese, but even something that sounded like them in another language.
"I grant you permission," Lu Mingfei said.
Lu Mingze nodded, produced a pitch-black umbrella from somewhere, and opened it over his head. "Brother, my business is done. Use that miraculous power of yours on Norton."
Having learned what he wanted from their conversation, Lu Mingfei waited no longer. He reached out to touch the Great Rune within Norton's body.
Norton's Great Rune differed from Constantine's. Not only was its color paler, but there was no design inside the ring at all. It was empty.
At the moment of contact, the same mighty power descended from above and poured into Lu Mingfei's body.
Lu Mingfei felt the two Great Runes instantly attract each other and fuse together!
In an instant, the world looked completely different to Lu Mingfei. Fire elements became clearer in his vision, while other, sparser elements also appeared: earth, water, and wind. Information about numerous Word Spirits flooded his mind, as though he had wielded those authorities countless times in ages long past. They were utterly familiar, as natural to command as his own limbs.
Beyond that, he also felt that his control over fire elements had deepened.
He snapped his fingers. Before time stopped, the "Fell God Flame" had absorbed the aftermath of the two fire kings' battle, gathering a terrifying aura. Now it suddenly brightened, then abruptly went out, as if blinking. Several orderly pathways separated from the tangled mass of raging fire elements at its core, allowing them to disperse rapidly.
In the end, only a mass of incredibly dense metal remained at the center of the fireball. Even pressure had rounded it into a smooth sphere, gleaming with a pitch-black metallic luster.
Lu Mingfei then picked up Norton's half-forged blade and the greatsword that Red Skies had become. All three floated before him as pure fire elements formed a small domain and began smelting them. The sphere melted into a hot stream that joined the molten greatsword in a blazing orb. Throughout the process, impurities and waste were continually expelled, dripping away.
In the end, Lu Mingfei obtained a mass of purer regenerated metal.
He fused this material into the unfinished long blade, reinforcing it while rebuilding its incomplete sections.
He could not complete the half-finished "Alchemical Domain" Norton had engraved within it. Although the evolution of his authority had deepened his understanding of the essence and impurities of metal, he had gained no knowledge of the "Alchemical Domain" founded on alchemy. That was Norton's individual wisdom, unrelated to his authority.
The finished weapon was a curved blade nearly two meters long. Two graceful, wavelike undulations formed its blade; otherwise, it was utterly plain, with only a blood groove for decoration.
In the Lands Between, this weapon was called Bloodhound's Fang.
"A large curved sword with a gently undulating blade, wielded by Bloodhound Knights."
It was a true offensive sword, capable of delivering rending attacks in battle.
Chapter 67
While Lu Mingfei forged the sword, Norton's body had shed its draconic transformation.
The man lying there now was "Old Tang," his bare backside exposed. Holding the umbrella in one hand, Lu Mingze took out a piece of clothing with the other and tossed it over him in disgust.
"Will he become 'Old Tang' when he wakes up?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Who knows? Constantine's current personality was pieced together from fragmented memories, because neither his human personality nor his dragon personality was complete when he awakened," Lu Mingze said carelessly. "But Ronald Tang and Norton both possessed lucid, complete consciousnesses. The two could never coexist. In theory, Ronald Tang died the moment Norton awakened. Norton was right about one thing: compared to dragons, humans are so weak they're almost illusory."
Lu Mingfei nodded and waved his hand, shaping bronze into a cage around "Old Tang."
The Bronze City began to shake violently. Enormous blocks of bronze fell from above, the ground split open, and fierce gales surged out of the pitch-black fissures. The crashes of colliding metal mingled with the teeth-grating groans of metal buckling under fatigue, like ten thousand great bells ringing at once.
"The Nibelungen is about to collapse." Lu Mingze tilted his face upward.
Countless broken sections of the Bronze City's structure fell from the darkness, but every fragment veered off course just above the three of them. Beyond the invisible domain lay a devastating catastrophe; within it, everything remained so calm that there was not a breath of wind.
This time, it was not Lu Mingze's doing, but Lu Mingfei's.
"Beautifully done, brother," Lu Mingze praised.
Seeing how untroubled he looked, Lu Mingfei knew that he had a way out.
"Where's the exit?" Lu Mingfei held Bloodhound's Fang in one hand, while the cage imprisoning Norton hovered beside him.
Lu Mingze smiled and pointed upward. "Every Nibelungen is built upon reality. This place seems like endless hollows and passageways nested together, but its boundary is actually right above us, at the Three Gorges Reservoir."
Once Lu Mingfei knew that, he wasted no more time. He immediately moved upward, taking the domain with him. More and more metal fragments fell along the way, like a swirling blizzard of blue-black metal.
After an unknown length of travel, the fragments grew less dense and gradually thinned out.
Other things began to mingle with the falling debris, sparse at first, then dense. It was rain. By the time Lu Mingze told him to stop, the downpour had swallowed almost everything. Thick curtains of rain surrounded them and covered the sky, and the roar of water sounded like a gigantic waterfall crashing endlessly beside his ears.