Countless Golden Eyes lit up-Chu Zihang, Caesar, Angers, Fingel... almost every face from Cassell College was there. People even crowded the flowerbeds, trampling the Shilan High School principal's prized flowers into a mess.
Together, they looked up, their eyes fixed on Lu Mingfei.
Chapter 95: Fierce battle, entering the fray
Lu Mingfei's bloodline was gradually awakening. The mastermind behind the scenes abandoned all regard for this alchemical world's rules and began increasing the enemy numbers without restraint. Even students from Shilan High School were granted dragon bloodlines and mixed into the ranks of Cassell College's Dragon Slayers.
The cracks in the world rapidly widened. The mastermind had decided to put out the fire by pouring oil on it.
Lu Mingfei leaped down, landing in the middle of the Hybrid army with its blazing Golden Eyes.
Zhao Menghua had a strange dream. A monster with Lu Mingfei's face descended from the sky, its reptilian eyes shining terrifyingly through the swirling dust.
He could not look it in the eye. Fear drove him to turn and flee, but the instant he turned, his body plunged into a horrifying sensation of weightlessness. His view spun wildly. After a dizzying moment, he saw his own headless body slowly fall to its knees, blood gushing like a fountain from the severed neck. Sword in hand, Lu Mingfei stepped over his head and rushed toward the next person.
Zhao Menghua opened his bloodshot eyes and bolted upright in bed, his body almost soaked through and his heart pounding as though it would leap out of his chest.
He sat in a daze for a long time before looking at the sky outside his bedroom. It was just before dawn. He stumbled into the living room to pour himself some water. The hand holding the glass shook again and again, spilling almost all of it.
At the same time, many people jolted awake from nightmares. The terrifying monster's afterimage still lingered before their eyes, and they no longer dared fall asleep.
Every acquaintance of Lu Mingfei who happened to be asleep was dragged into this shared nightmare. It should have been Lu Mingfei's nightmare, but he had fought and slaughtered his way through it, becoming the greatest nightmare in the entire world.
The sunset's lingering light passed through sparse branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows. When the wind blew, light and shadow danced and swayed across the ground like countless restless ghosts.
Lu Mingfei drove his sword through Lancelot, the Lionheart Society's Vice President, and suddenly felt a bone-piercing chill.
A murderous atmosphere spread in an instant, as though even the wind had frozen.
Lu Mingfei was using the Executive Department's standard-issue swords, forged from alloy. He had already ruined many of them. Even weapons made from specialized alloys could not keep hacking through bones strengthened by dragon blood for long. Their edges generally curled after killing around ten Hybrids. Fortunately, every controlled puppet carried fresh weapons for Lu Mingfei to use.
He pulled the alloy sword from Lancelot's body and held it in a forward grip before his chest, his palm facing himself, while bending his knees to gather strength.
A thin shadow flashed through the sunset's fading glow. All the leaves falling through the air directly in front of Lu Mingfei suddenly shattered.
He swung.
It was a small motion, much like swinging a shield. The blade swept an arc before him. The flickering swordlight seemed to cut nothing but air, yet an intensely shrill sound erupted in that instant, and sparks burst forth.
Angers appeared, knocked off balance. His Alchemy Folding Knife was embedded deep in the alloy sword's edge. Lu Mingfei smoothly drew another short sword, stepped forward, and turned, his blade becoming a storm.
Angers failed to dodge and suffered several wounds to his chest. Lu Mingfei stepped back half a pace, released the nearly broken sword, and let a handgun slide from his sleeve.
Steel-core armor-piercing rounds punched through both sides of Angers's chest. The final bullet struck his forehead. The Dragon Slayer who had lived for over a century fell, the golden radiance in his eyes slowly fading.
The battle had escalated long ago. Lu Mingfei's bloodline strength was already approaching the second stage of Blood Rage, and his opponents' weapons were no longer limited to the gentle Frigg Bullets.
A bomb containing refined sulfur mixed with a napalm core detonated at the boundary of Dust-Free Land. Everyone within a ten-meter radius was swallowed by flames. Human-shaped blazes rolled across the ground, yet not a single person cried out.
Countless figures stood outside the Dust-Free Land domain centered on Lu Mingfei. Even Angers, who had just fallen, rose again.
Lu Mingfei emptied the magazine of his semiautomatic pistol and casually discarded the firearm, its barrel smoking. Holding Angers's Folding Knife lightly in his hand, he unleashed a new domain.
To everyone watching, Lu Mingfei's figure suddenly became indistinct.
Golden flames blazed in Caesar's eyes, and the scales on his skin slowly opened and closed. He was the first to react.
Several bloodsucking sickles within the domain made the ripping hiss of thin paper consumed by fierce flames, and he immediately lost contact with those Kamaitachi. He raised his arms to shoot at once, but both wrists snapped off simultaneously. Before blood could spray, Dictator at his waist gave a sharp, faint ring. A moment later, his vision went dark.
Within the domain of Time Zero, Lu Mingfei calmly severed his hands, then drew the alchemical hunting knife and beheaded him. The entire sequence flowed seamlessly.
It looked as though Caesar had suddenly "come apart" in a slightly cool breeze. He had only had time to sense a trace of cold killing intent emanating from Lu Mingfei.
But Lu Mingfei also began panting heavily. His lungs felt as though they had filled with pepper water, and his face rapidly paled.
The domain of Dust-Free Land could not withstand the speed of Time Zero. Once he left Dust-Free Land, he inevitably inhaled mercury vapor. It was highly poisonous to dragons, and equally poisonous to him as his bloodline continued awakening.
Just then, a figure suddenly accelerated to a speed matching Time Zero.
Chu Zihang.
He hummed an ethereal melody, like the chanting of an ancient monk. A domain silently unfolded. Bloody dragon scales sprouted across the bodies of every Hybrid present, while the muscles beneath their skin swelled like inflating balloons. Countless heartbeats thundered like war drums. Their physical capabilities multiplied several times over in an instant.
The rule of this alchemical world was "plausibility," yet Chu Zihang had unleashed a Word Spirit other than King's Flame. King's Attendant, sequence number 28, could enhance the physical capabilities of living beings within its domain.
In ancient times, dragons had used this Word Spirit to inspire the humans and even beasts loyal to them, strengthening them into armies.
At the same time, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt power equivalent to roughly half a Great Rune awaken within him.
He looked at "Chu Zihang."
The Dragon King behind the scenes had entered the fray in person, causing his awakening to leap forward.
Phantom flames rose from his body. Blue-black scales, bones, and dragon wings burst through his flesh. He straightened and swung Dictator. The swordlight of Bloodflame Slash shot forth like a torrential downpour, piercing every soldier beside "Chu Zihang."
"Chu Zihang" watched him with deep, unfathomable eyes, the tip of Murasame lightly touching the ground. "In a battle to the death between kings, all that remains in the end is... fighting alone. You understand that well."
Lu Mingfei immediately drew all the alloy swords he had collected and tossed them into the air one by one. The sharp weapons, varying in length and model, were engulfed in flames. They hovered motionlessly, then began spinning like drill bits.
He kept only Dictator. Then his bony wings spread, raising a gale as he charged toward "Chu Zihang." The "flaming drills" behind him shot forward in unison, their meteor-like trajectories sealing off every avenue of escape.
An advanced form of the Word Spirit Sword Control should, by the conventions of Word Spirit studies, have been named by Lu Mingfei. But it actually had a name of its own-Oerh Sword Dance.
Chapter 96: Sky and Wind, the finger witch
Shilan High School had been almost completely destroyed. The classroom building looked as though a hurricane had ravaged it, half its floors violently erased. Nothing on the ground remained intact. When the upper floors shattered, the high-speed rubble became part of the hurricane, like blades riding the wind, freely slicing through everything in their path.
At the center of the storm were two figures. They collided, then darted backward at the same time, raising astonishing storms of air.
Dictator in Lu Mingfei's hand was covered in cracks. He gently ran his hand over the blade, and roaring flames immediately erupted from the hunting knife. Pure and fierce, they radiated an awe-inspiring majesty and power. The flames engulfed the entire knife, gradually melting its blade into a flowing mass of liquid metal.
He blew gently. The flames immediately dispersed, and the liquid metal coalesced, reforged into a brand-new blade.
Murasame in "Chu Zihang's" hand had broken in two. He unfolded the domain of the Word Spirit Heaven and Earth as the Forge. White-violet lightning crawled over every piece of metal within it-broken swords, steel reinforcement bars, window frames, doorframes, railings... the molten metal rose into the air and fused together, becoming an enormous, strangely shaped weapon, like a scythe for harvesting lives.
Both of them had gained new weapons.
Lu Mingfei held his new blade and gave it a gentle swing. A clear ring sounded from it, echoing without end.
The blade was named "Longfang."
Its blade was exceptionally long, forged like a spear, and fearsome to behold.
There were no survivors left in the alchemical world. The minds of a few unfortunate souls with strong wills had endured the slaughter amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but they were no longer qualified to participate in the battle. Their consciousnesses had no hosts and could only drift among fragments of the dream-wind, rubble, trees shredded into willow-fluff-like wisps. They existed in a haze, not understanding what had happened. They only felt a vast will pressing down on them until they could barely breathe, leaving them needing all their strength even to tremble.
Zhao Menghua should have been grateful he had woken early. With his capacity to endure, if he had held on until now, he would most likely have gone insane upon waking.
An elemental storm was forming within the alchemical world. The distant cityscape flickered and dimmed, revealing the world's boundaries. Pure darkness replaced the sky. There was only emptiness within that darkness, not a night sky.
This world was actually only a little larger than a residential complex, barely enough for two Dragon Kings to stretch their limbs. Now that both of them were serious, the world could only devote all its efforts to maintaining the laws of physics within the rendered area, stripping away every texture and unnecessary detail.
Every collision between "Chu Zihang" and Lu Mingfei produced a deafening boom. Abyss-like fissures opened in the earth, and flames rose from within them.
Longfang and the Reaper's Scythe clashed countless times in an instant. Lightning pierced the air, producing overlapping booms like thunder upon the ground.
Yet Lu Mingfei was actually being forced back by "Chu Zihang."
His opponent possessed some form of authority within this world. The heavy, powerful slashes of the Reaper's Scythe suddenly became as elusive as feathers. In a thousandth of a second, the weapon turned into a phantom, slipping past Longfang's interception to leave gaping wounds on Lu Mingfei's body. When Lu Mingfei attacked with Longfang, it sometimes felt as though he had struck some kind of absolute defense. His blade stalled, and the Reaper's Scythe immediately struck Longfang's slender blade with precision, creating an opening.
Most striking of all was "Chu Zihang's" fistwork. He threw a punch every time Lu Mingfei was momentarily locked in place.
In those instants, Lu Mingfei felt an avalanche-like destructive force rampaging through his body. His bones and organs seemed to be pulverized in a blender.
Whenever that happened, Lu Mingfei could only retreat quickly, barely parrying "Chu Zihang's" pursuit while rapidly repairing his injuries. His external wounds healed extremely fast, but the damage inside his body needed time.
Even so, "Chu Zihang" could not find an opportunity to defeat Lu Mingfei in a single stroke.
Odin was in just as sorry a state as Lu Mingfei. Even his gaze had grown somewhat vacant.
In the distance, "Lu Mingfei" picked up his severed arm. Golden flames burned in his hand, reducing it to ashes.
After all this time, Odin had discovered only one thing: the current "Lu Mingfei" was actually using short-blade techniques. After each slash, he reversed the cut at extreme speed, inflicting rapid, repeated damage. And that graceful footwork was not an elegant hunting technique at all, but an assassin's art of concealment.
If the battlefield had been somewhere with complex terrain, every time "Lu Mingfei" landed, he would have positioned himself somewhere concealed or in his enemy's blind spot whenever possible. Every attack would have been an assassination.
His misjudgment had cost Odin dearly. He had sought a head-on duel with "Lu Mingfei"-a one-on-one battle to the death like the "Wild Hunt." He had gotten his one-on-one fight, but "Lu Mingfei" refused to trade blows with him at all. Instead, he relied on agile footwork and exquisite bladework to tear his wounds open piece by piece, constantly bleeding him and accumulating injuries.
He had no doubt that "Lu Mingfei" would inflict a fatal wound when the time was right, and that it would surely come from behind, the blade slipping into his chest like a gentle caress.
Mist rose from every direction across the sea. As Odin's life force drained away, the temporary Nibelungen was gradually losing its stability.
He had to admit that the hunt had failed.
Preparations sufficient to kill the complete King of Fire had, incredibly, been countered one by one.
"Who exactly are you?"
He stopped trying futilely to restore his arm. As he asked the question, he prepared to withdraw, never expecting an answer.
Yet upon hearing those words, "Lu Mingfei" suddenly stood straight. Bloodhound's Fang swung lightly in his hand, and the flames along its blade surged in an instant. At that moment, he was the very embodiment of majesty, his voice indifferent and imperious.
"In the name of the Finger Maiden, I stand here to safeguard the king's majesty."
Odin's eyes suddenly widened, revealing an astonishment he had never shown before. But that flash of vivid emotion passed in an instant, and the Golden Eyes beneath his mask soon regained their indifference.
He slowly sank beneath the water. At the same time, the ocean between heaven and earth began closing in.
"Chu Zihang," locked in fierce combat with Lu Mingfei, suddenly froze for a moment, retreated at tremendous speed, and looked up at the sky. It was a tremendous opening, but Lu Mingfei truly had no strength left to pursue him.
Horrific wounds covered his body. In the worst places, the severed edges of scales, flesh, and bone were clearly visible. He had almost bled dry. His blood-producing system frantically squeezed out his life force to create fresh blood, while his heartbeat had grown extremely slow. At first, blood had sprayed from his wounds like fountains under his extraordinarily high blood pressure. Now, only thick black blood slowly seeped from the wounds across his body, flowing along the gaps between his scales before the intense heat turned it into vapor.
"Chu Zihang" turned back, looked at Lu Mingfei, and suddenly sighed. "Why bother? Your sense of pain has been amplified threefold. Even if you hold on, no one may come to save you. Why suffer all this torment before you die?"
Lu Mingfei swung Longfang, its blade slowly tracing an arc. The dim flames upon it flared again, burning away the blood clinging to it.
"Chu Zihang" actually felt a measure of majesty emanating from the battered figure before him.
"When you choose some things, you give up others. That's all," Lu Mingfei said, his voice tinged with exhaustion.
"Chu Zihang" looked thoughtful, then suddenly raised his head. "Fine. You win. But remember this: the one who sought to kill you bears the exalted title Sky and Wind. We will meet again."
Without waiting for Lu Mingfei to react, he raised his blade to his own neck and beheaded himself with a single stroke.
Time in the world stopped for an instant.
The next moment, the sky shattered. From the dark fissures, searing white light pierced the collapsing illusion. Everything reflected a kaleidoscope of colors, as though that intense white light were breaking down all matter. Lu Mingfei felt his perspective leave the ground and float high into the air, merging into the white light that enveloped everything.