They had come from all corners of the world and independently entered this dangerous, disreputable line of work. The real reason was the "call of their blood"-most of them had some dragon ancestry.
Cassell College had detected the existence of this hybrid organization twenty years earlier, but had never fully understood it. The college had no desire to bring these stragglers into its ranks, since their bloodlines were usually impure. Still, it kept an eye on them. Executive Department members stationed around the world registered every hunter they found, and the hunter files already contained records of several thousand people.
Lu Mingfei was interested in this strange website because, before awakening as a Dragon King, Old Tang had taken jobs through this "Hunter Market" to earn money as a professional hunter.
Further investigation revealed that the website used very unusual technology. It did not even have a fixed server, instead constantly drifting through the worldwide internet... like a ghost.
Moreover, among the materials Su Enxi had sent him, one incident was connected to this website-the Greenland incident.
Even Norma's database lacked detailed records of that incident. A hunter with the ID "Crown Prince" had posted online that his tugboat had dredged up strange bronze fragments from the depths of the Greenland Sea. He published photographs showing intricate ancient writing on the fragments, which matched the Ice Sea Bronze Pillar Inscription secretly held by Cassell College.
Cassell College contacted him and obtained the fragments and salvage coordinates. The Executive Department sent an elite team of six hunters with A-Rank bloodlines. They found no dragon ruins underwater, but detected a heartbeat on the seabed. It came from an ancient dragon embryo.
The Board of Trustees knew the risks posed by an ancient dragon embryo, yet still ordered the Executive Department team to dive. An accident followed.
Cassell College later suspected that the bronze fragments and coordinates provided by "Crown Prince" had been bait. Perhaps he had released those photographs to lure the Secret Party into the icy Greenland Sea to find that embryo. But after the Greenland incident, "Crown Prince" vanished completely from the internet. No one had ever seen him. All they knew was that he was an outstanding hunter.
The whole incident reeked of conspiracy. Aside from the greedy Board of Trustees, the involvement of both "Crown Prince" and the hunter website seemed far too deliberate.
All the information on this person amounted to a single ID. Lu Mingfei could only make bold conjectures.
If everything had been a carefully laid trap, whoever set it first needed to know about the ancient dragon embryo on the seabed. They also had to be intimately familiar with Cassell College or the Secret Party, while maintaining an untraceable identity on the hunter website. This was someone who understood dragons, hybrids, and humans exceptionally well-and who would welcome seeing humans and dragons destroy each other.
Putting together Su Enxi's intelligence and Norton's mention of a suspected Dragon King aboard the Greyhound, Lu Mingfei gradually arrived at a terrifying conclusion.
A Dragon King had awakened long ago, but rather than rushing to destroy the world or restore the dragons, he had quietly hidden himself in modern human society, waiting for his chance. Before open war began, he wanted to weaken every enemy as much as possible, whether hybrids or other Dragon Kings.
Lu Mingfei changed the color of the sticky note for the hunter website.
He replaced the white that represented humans with the red that represented a suspected Dragon King-level threat.
For now, it was only a theory, with no concrete evidence. All Lu Mingfei could do was ask Su Enxi to pay closer attention to the website and try to track down "Crown Prince."
He glanced at the intelligence linked together like a spiderweb across the whiteboard, then drew its dust curtain shut.
For the past few months, he and Old Tang had stayed in this house, with Su Enxi's team regularly delivering food and supplies. Outside of training, meditation, and rest, he spent his time poring over the intelligence Su Enxi sent him, waging battles on paper. He even found himself missing Lu Mingze. Although that guy always spoke in deliberately vague terms, the secret information he occasionally revealed was immensely valuable.
A knock interrupted Lu Mingfei's thoughts.
"Bro, the president of Cassell College is calling you. You'd better come take a look." Old Tang poked his head in.
Lu Mingfei was a little surprised. Angers had always contacted him through calls encrypted by Norma. Was this time different?
He went over to the computer. Angers had sent a video call directly through Norma, without encrypting his account.
He opened the call, and the scene on Angers's end immediately appeared in the pop-up window.
The background was a place Lu Mingfei knew well: Angers's elegant office. Dawn was just breaking outside the window, and the faint morning light fell over the silver-haired old man, making him look like a motionless statue.
He wore a well-tailored suit, sitting straight and elegant, already drinking black tea so early in the morning.
"Mingfei, Norma has bought your tickets," Angers said.
Lu Mingfei watched him lift his bone china teacup, steam curling above it. He could almost imagine the faint scent of tea filling the office; he had drunk it too many times himself.
Angers had previously told him that he might need to attend a meeting of the Board of Trustees. Apparently, the time had come.
This call was not encrypted. That meant the Board of Trustees had the clearance to record the entire conversation and place it on the desk of every distinguished family representative.
"In what capacity am I returning?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"As a hero, of course," Angers said firmly. "A hero who fought a Dragon King."
Lu Mingfei nodded. "I'll leave soon."
He understood Angers's intent.
"The Executive Department won't be picking you up this time. Winter break has just ended, so you can take the train with the students returning to campus," Angers added. "I look forward to your return."
The call ended.
Lu Mingfei knew that, given his circumstances, as soon as his survival and location were confirmed, the Executive Department and a medical team should theoretically come by helicopter to escort him back and take him into their care.
Did Angers mean that this time, not even the entire Executive Department could be trusted?
Lu Mingfei rose, went into the master bedroom to take down Bloodhound's Fang, placed it in a specially made long black case, and began packing.
"Bro, are you going back to the college?" Old Tang came in to help.
"That's right. It might be a while before I come back. Thanks for holding down the fort here on your own until then."
Chapter 85: Xia Mi
At the same time, Lu Mingfei's status in Norma's database changed from "missing" to "enrolled." Just seconds later, all his records as an enrolled student were automatically deleted, while a high-ranking executive officer appeared on an Executive Department mission with an extremely high security classification.
The Gattuso family, which had been investigating the Panhandle Plateau incident all along, received the news first. Frost immediately obtained all the new intelligence, from the IP address Lu Mingfei used to log back into his student account to the changes in Norma's database, and even the new S-Rank mission.
Frost opened the almost blank mission briefing and nearly laughed in anger.
"Is Angers trying to destroy the evidence?" He flung the S-Rank mission document, which was practically wastepaper, onto his desk. "Notify the nearest Executive Department branch. Get Lu Mingfei under control before he returns to campus. Whatever secrets he carries that warrant such an elaborate effort from Angers, we must uncover them before the next Board of Trustees meeting."
"We already tried, but Schneider violated operational regulations and refused to deploy a field team," Pazzi replied.
"Very good." Frost's gaze turned icy. "One Lu Mingfei has flushed out quite a few restless troublemakers. Do they really think they can cover up news like this? Send Norma's data to our people in the Executive Department and have them intercept him."
Pazzi paused, his expression turning subtle. "Angers hasn't covered it up. He announced Lu Mingfei's triumphant return on the college discussion board. Several pinned, popular threads show signs of covert manipulation. The head of the News Department, Fingel, used to be Lu Mingfei's roommate."
"Then send another investigation team directly to the college to take him into custody." Frost calmed down, realizing that Angers's intentions were not so simple.
"Angers has presented Lu Mingfei as a dragon-slaying hero and released details of the first dive mission at the Three Gorges Reservoir. Lu Mingfei's standing among the students is now higher than ever. Angers may intend to use that as leverage against us," Pazzi analyzed.
"Leverage?" Frost's expression did not change. "Cassell College has never been merely a school. Its true core is those people underground. As long as they agree that Lu Mingfei needs to be placed under control and investigated, the students' opinions are irrelevant."
Pazzi's expression shifted slightly. He took his phone from his pocket, checked it briefly, and looked at Frost.
"Judging by your expression, has something unexpected happened?" Frost asked.
Pazzi nodded and relayed the message. "Angers has requested a Board of Trustees meeting and specifically stated that he will bring Lu Mingfei with him."
"Use the family's influence to have the meeting held on our territory."
"Yes." Pazzi turned and left.
With only a backpack on his shoulders, Lu Mingfei once again entered the hall of Chicago Union Station. He looked up. The magnificent vaulted ceiling had not changed at all.
No one could imagine what this young Asian traveler gazing upward had experienced between his two visits here.
He swiped his S-Rank student card and entered the VIP waiting area again.
Nothing much had changed here either, but as soon as he entered, a girl waved at him.
"Senior! Senior!" The sleeves of her white down jacket looked like fluffy cotton candy.
Lu Mingfei was puzzled. He did not think he looked particularly old. He was a freshman, and in theory, no one should be calling him "senior" before the next semester.
Yet the girl sounded so certain. Even if she had seen his student card, she should have played it safe and addressed him as a fellow student.
He walked over and suddenly noticed a familiar figure beside her.
Chu Zihang, president of the Lionheart Society.
"Hello, senior. I'm Xia Mi, a preparatory student." The girl with the high ponytail greeted him first.
She wore a thick down jacket over a beige hoodie with a cute little bear printed on the chest, along with skinny jeans and a pair of white snow boots.
So she was a preparatory student. No wonder she could call any Cassell College student "senior."
"Hi, I'm Lu Mingfei. Why is a preparatory student coming to college at the end of winter break?" Lu Mingfei sat down on Chu Zihang's side and asked curiously.
"I contacted a professor in the Alchemy Department, so I'm using my high school winter break to work on some simple projects in the college laboratories. It'll help me get used to the place in advance, too," Xia Mi said openly.
Lu Mingfei nodded.
Some professors at Cassell College who were short of students did indeed contact preparatory students with exceptional bloodlines ahead of time.
"What about you?" Lu Mingfei turned to Chu Zihang.
"Norma booked my ticket. Returning to campus," Chu Zihang said succinctly.
"Hey, hey, Senior Lu, are you the Student Union president?" Xia Mi leaned forward.
"Why do you ask?" Lu Mingfei was having trouble keeping up with her train of thought.
"Senior Chu is the Super A-Rank president of the Lionheart Society, but he seems really respectful toward you. I heard the Student Union is the only group at school that can outshine the Lionheart Society, so I figured you must be the Student Union president." Xia Mi's face was full of curiosity.
Lu Mingfei turned to Chu Zihang, his eyes asking, How did she dig up everything, right down to your bloodline and your position as Lionheart Society president?
His confusion was not unfounded. Xia Mi did not know that the Student Union president was Italian, nor did she recognize Lu Mingfei, the S-Rank. By the same logic, she should not have known Chu Zihang's bloodline or position either. She could only have learned them during their conversation before Lu Mingfei arrived. Yet given Chu Zihang's personality, how could he have discussed matters bordering on confidential with a strange girl who had not even enrolled?
To put it kindly, his social style was polite and distant. In reality, he was a clam.
Chu Zihang looked away.
Clearly, before Lu Mingfei arrived, Xia Mi had been steering their conversation.
"The Student Union president is Caesar Gattuso. He's Italian," Lu Mingfei explained to Xia Mi.
"Then are you an upperclassman, Senior Lu?" Xia Mi's eyes still sparkled. "I heard juniors and seniors mostly take part in field assignments for their practical courses. You must be really amazing, right?"
"I'm a freshman." Lu Mingfei shook his head.
"Lu Mingfei is also a visiting professor. He teaches an elective," Chu Zihang explained. "Caesar and I both signed up for his class."
"A professor?" Xia Mi's eyes widened. "You're that S-Rank Lucky Star?"
She suddenly sprang up and swung a hand toward Lu Mingfei to give him a slap. But her vision blurred, and she found her wrist caught in his grip.
Chu Zihang saw what happened in that instant.
Lu Mingfei had moved fast enough to blur before their eyes, though all he had actually done was turn his hand over and catch Xia Mi's wrist.
"What are you doing?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Wow, senior, you really are amazing." Xia Mi blinked innocently. "I just wanted to touch the Lucky Star. My year's selection exam is only a few months away, so I thought I'd borrow a little luck."
"Lucky Star?"
Chu Zihang knew something about it. "The discussion board has accounts of the two times you're suspected of having faced a Dragon King. Some people think your ability is super luck, so they call you the Lucky Star."
"I see." Lu Mingfei released Xia Mi. "Well, now you've touched me."
"You'll never get a girlfriend acting like that, senior." Xia Mi stuck out her tongue viciously and rubbed her wrist.