Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Chapter 489 Zero: I’m Afraid of Pain
On board the Moniah.

The count on the decompression chamber was slowly decreasing, which was a sign that the gas in Aki's body was slowly being discharged. Divers who quickly came ashore from the bottom of the water would suffer from decompression sickness, so after Aki, who was holding the diving tank, was pulled aboard by everyone, he was immediately sent to the diving decompression chamber for decompression treatment.

Everyone gathered around the decompression chamber, waiting for Aki to wake up. Mans and Guderian stood side by side, looking worried.

"Her internal pressure has returned to a safe range." Zhou Li, who was standing behind Mans, spoke up, withdrawing her eyes from the reading table in the decompression chamber. She looked very mature in her white coat, like a doctor.

Mans nodded. At this time, a voice came from the decompression chamber: "Professor..."

Mans turned his head subconsciously, and then saw Aki in the glass cabin struggling to open his eyes, his lips trembling, and no color on his delicate face.

"Aki, you're awake. How is your body? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?" Mans asked immediately.

Aki did not answer Mance, but turned his head to look at the decompression chamber beside him.

"...Where's Lu Mingfei?"

"..."

Mans was silent for a moment and then spoke: "Don't worry, Lu Mingfei's lifeline might have been broken during the pulling process. I have asked Ye Sheng and Selma to carry spare oxygen tanks to the No. 2 cave of the 'Eye of Kuimen' to support him."

"Lu Mingfei's lifeline is broken?" Jiude Aki was stunned for a moment, and suddenly became excited. He supported his body with his hands and tried to sit up in the decompression chamber, but his head accidentally hit the glass cover of the decompression chamber.

Guderian comforted her: "Don't worry, Aki. You have been diving for less than an hour, and Lu Mingfei has more than enough oxygen left. Following the guide rope, Ye Sheng and the others will be able to find Lu Mingfei's location quickly."

"No... Lu Mingfei gave me his oxygen mask! He is now in a state of hypoxia!"

"what?"

……

In the underwater cave hall, Lu Mingfei looked in the direction of Ling's finger.

At first, Lu Mingfei thought it was just a huge, flat stone wall with unnamed plants growing in the traces of time.

This oppressive scene reminded Lu Mingfei of the ancient city wall ruins he had visited before.

As Lu Mingfei focused his attention, he discovered something strange about the stone wall. Under the spotlight, the traces of water erosion and wind carving on the wall reflected a metallic reflection. The unevenness and mottled pattern on the wall outlined a similar...

The shape of the facial features?
"Huo Ling?" Lu Mingfei said the name subconsciously.

"You know?" A hint of surprise finally emerged in Ling's cold voice, and she nodded: "Yes, this door is actually a living spirit.

"I've taken the Alchemy Biology course at Kassel College's preparatory class." Lu Mingfei made up an excuse, looking away from Ling, who was only wearing a sports bra, and looking at the wall: "You said this is a door?"

"I guess so."

Zero stared at the wall and said, "Most living spirits are created to be 'gatekeepers'. Living spirits are 'killed' metals. After removing impurities from the metal and 'resurrecting' it, this recycled metal can be obtained."

"This recycled metal has very pure properties, but if you want to make it a living spirit, you need to imprison its soul. In ancient times, there was a saying that swordsmiths would use living people to forge swords in order to forge peerless swords. In fact, this is using the souls of living people to feed the 'recycled metal'."

"But 'living spirit' is just a definition in alchemy. In reality, it is a dead object. Its consciousness has long died. It is just rigidly executing orders according to the rules set when the 'living spirit' was cast."

Lu Mingfei had also come across similar knowledge in the "Alchemy Biology Class" at Kassel College. This cruel technique of casting "living spirits" was said to be exclusive to Tyrant Norton among the four monarchs, because Dragon King Norton mastered the power of fire and was the strongest alchemist among the four monarchs.

Later, human hybrids also learned similar alchemical techniques, using flame words such as "Jun Yan" to forge alchemical weapons, in order to learn from the barbarians and defeat them in the fight against the Dragon King.

"So this is something made by the King of Bronze and Fire?" Lu Mingfei frowned.

What he originally wanted to ask was, "Is this the Bronze City of the King of Bronze and Fire?" In his opinion, only the Tyrant Norton had such great power to build a city under the Yangtze River and use living spirits to guard the gate.

But what has happened so far is somewhat different from his memory.

First of all, the coordinates are wrong. Although the "Eye of Kuimen" and the Bronze City are both near "Kuimen", the location of the Bronze City is not the same as the "Eye of Kuimen".

Secondly, the Bronze City is not in such deep waters. It is only about 100 meters underwater.

Then there was the "living spirit" in front of him, which was also different from the "living spirit" guarding the Bronze City that he had seen at that time.

"No." Ling said, "This is probably... something left behind by the Emperor of the Restoration."

The Emperor of Restoration?

As soon as this thought came to Lu Mingfei's mind, the face on the wall in front of him suddenly twisted, and traces of wind erosion on the surface of the wall fell into pieces.

Lu Mingfei immediately realized that something was wrong... This was the judgment of a specialist with rich experience in carrying out tasks. Although he didn't know what was going to happen.

He immediately wanted to turn around and grab Ling's hand, but Ling held his hand before him, and a cool and delicate feeling instantly came from his palm.

"Put on your breathing mask and cover your ears. Let's hide behind that big rock. 'It' is going to breathe."

Ling pressed a respirator with a portable oxygen tank on Lu Mingfei's face, and then dragged Lu Mingfei behind a boulder without saying anything, and squatted down with his knees hugged like a hide-and-seek. The powerful blow was like a jaw-dropping finisher in WWE, and Lu Mingfei was almost knocked unconscious by the slap.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to ask what "breathing" meant, he saw the face on the wall open its mouth. The rust on the surface cracked and opened, revealing the silver-white inscription underneath.

It turned out to be a wall of silver!
"Suck--"

The airflow in the underwater cave hall suddenly became turbulent, as if a tornado suddenly blew up on flat ground. The river water that had been kept out of the cave hall and the airflow in the cave hall were instantly rolled into a ball. Lu Mingfei only felt the wind and water surge wildly, as if he went out in a heavy rain in a level 12 typhoon.

If they hadn't been hiding behind the big rock behind them, he had no doubt that he would have been blown away by the violent airflow.

"call--"

It seemed like a century before the face on the wall exhaled a huge breath before closing its mouth again. The river water that poured into the underwater cave hall was instantly pushed out of the cave hall.

After feeling that the tornado-like turbulence had finally ended, Lu Mingfei opened his eyes and looked at Ling beside him.

Ling was huddled beside her, his smooth skin covered with water droplets, even his sports bra was soaked, his whole body was wet, like a kitten that had just walked out of a heavy rain.

Ling also opened his eyes at this time and was about to turn around and tell Lu Mingfei that he could stand up, when he suddenly felt a piece of clothing covering him.

"Put it on. I feel cold just looking at you." Ling was stunned for a moment, looking at Lu Mingfei in front of him. The dim light in the cave dimly outlined the boy's clear muscle lines. His lips moved slightly and he said softly, "Thank you."

There was a rustling sound coming from the side, and only after Ling put on his T-shirt did Lu Mingfei's eyes, which had nowhere to go, finally fall back on Ling.

Damn... Ling obviously looks like he hasn't developed yet, how come he is so hidden... He has more body than Junior Sister. Junior Sister has obviously been touched by me a lot recently.

Is it possible that Junior Sister is really the youngest one?

Of course, the pinky here definitely refers to age! Don’t get the wrong idea!

However, the clothes of Lu Mingfei, who was over 180cm tall, looked a little too big for Ling, a petite middle school student. It was as if the skirt did not reach Ling's thighs, just covering her buttocks, which were more fertile than Xia Mi's, making her look like a primary school student who stole her college brother's clothes.

But in this way, Lu Mingfei could focus more on looking in the direction of Zero.

The two men walked to the wall and looked at the face that had become quiet again. The silver-white wall they had just seen was covered by yellow and black rust again.

It was only then that Lu Mingfei realized that those uneven surfaces were not the mottled surface of the stone, but protrusions that looked like inscriptions.

Dragon text.

"Was it this 'living spirit' that was breathing just now?" Lu Mingfei asked Ling.

"Yes."

Ling nodded. "The suction you suddenly felt underwater was caused by the breathing of this 'living spirit'. It 'breathes' every certain period of time. Why can't the river water flow into this underwater cave? Because this underwater cave is completely sealed. It is full of gas expelled from its breathing. The gas forms a huge bubble in the cave, isolating the river water from the outside."

Zero's words solved many puzzles. Why didn't he and Aki Shude feel anything unusual when they first entered the cave? But when they entered the cave today, a strange suction force suddenly appeared, pulling them down.

I guess the accidental shot before
"Isn't the 'living spirit' a dead thing? Why does it still breathe?"

"Maybe it's not that dead?" Ling said in an uncertain tone, "This is actually the first time I've seen this happen."

The death was not so complete. This sentence sounded light and flirtatious, but it was inexplicably mixed with some terrifying meaning.

If this "living spirit" imprisoned a soul that was not completely dead and still had some consciousness left, then wouldn't this soul be imprisoned alone under the Yangtze River for thousands of years?
A soul that died a miserable death?

"Give me your hand." Zero said.

Lu Mingfei didn't understand why, so he handed his hand to Ling as he was told. The white, almost transparent little hand pulled his wrist and pressed it against the wall. It felt as cold as metal.

An ominous premonition immediately arose in Lu Mingfei's heart.

Sure enough, the next moment he saw the face on the wall move again. The face emerged from the wall and moved from the center of the wall to Lu Mingfei's palm as if it had automatically identified the target position. It bit Lu Mingfei's hand with its sharp white teeth.

A slight pain like having blood drawn in the hospital came from my fingertips.

"..."

"As a gatekeeper, the 'Living Spirit' is actually very stupid and can only execute a certain order. It can't even tell whether the one in front of it is its master or not. As long as you feed the 'Living Spirit' with high-purity dragon blood, the 'Living Spirit' will open the door." Ling explained to Lu Mingfei.

"...I know." Lu Mingfei said in silence: "I just want to ask, why don't you use your own blood to open the door? Ling, your bloodline is actually very high, right?"

Zero's answer was direct: "Because I'm afraid of pain."

"..."

Well, that was a good reason. He agreed.

But even if Ling didn't hold his hand and press it against the wall, as long as he told him, he would feed the 'living spirit' with dragon blood. After all, Lu Mingfei really couldn't bear to let such a petite Ling donate blood. She didn't have much blood in her body, right? She was still so young, it was time for her to grow up!
"So just now in the cave, when I was about to be sucked away by the suction force, you saved me?"

"That's it."

"Where's Senior Sister Aki?"

"She should have been pulled back to shore by the lifeline. I removed the oxygen tank from your diving suit and gave it to her. Then I used a knife to cut your lifeline and brought you to this underwater cave."

"…So I can actually be pulled back to the ship by Professor Mance and the others?"

Ling shook his head. "The underwater turbulence in the cave is too turbulent. You can't complete the exchange of oxygen masks underwater. I can only take you to this cave hall full of oxygen.

While the two were talking, the spirit on the wall suddenly stopped "biting" Lu Mingfei, and its face tilted, with its sharp white teeth bared, just like Nintendo's classic game character Kirby found an enemy that it could swallow. Its mouth grew bigger and bigger, and its mouth was filled with silver color...

Lu Mingfei's eyes went dark and he subconsciously grabbed Ling's hand. Both of them were sucked into the big mouth at the same time.

……

Lu Mingfei covered his head and opened his eyes again. The first thing that caught his eye was a vast expanse of white.

Not the white of heaven, but the white of silver.

Yes, silver. The first thing that appeared in front of Lu Mingfei was a silver corridor that went straight up. The corridor walls were also made of silver, with intricate inscriptions and paintings similar to the Dunhuang murals. The spotlight in Ling's hand shone along the corridor.

Ling stood up from the ground: "Is this the Silver Mausoleum built by the Yin Family?"

"The Tomb of Silver?"

Lu Mingfei frowned. He had only heard of the Bronze City of Dragon King Norton.

"You should also know about the dragon-slaying war between Liu Xiu and the King of Bronze and Fire. The Dragon King Norton launched the world-destroying word spirit 'Zhulong' at the cost of both of them perishing, and wiped out thousands of hybrids in one fell swoop. The dragon servant Samson took advantage of the chaos and escaped with the bone bottle containing the Dragon King Norton's 'egg'."

"Legend has it that after this, Liu Xiu sent many people to look for the hiding place of Dragon King Norton. They spent a lot of manpower and resources, but they still couldn't find the whereabouts of Dragon King Norton. In fact, they have found the bronze palace of Dragon King Norton, which is the real 'Baidi City'."

"But there were no modern scientific and technological means at that time. Facing the Bronze City a hundred meters underwater, the hybrids at that time were completely helpless. At this time, Yin Lizhen, the patriarch of the Yin family, stood up and said that since we can't open the Bronze City to kill Norton, why don't we completely seal the entrance to the Bronze City so that Norton can't escape. In this way, even if he wakes up again, he won't be able to harm the world."

"The leader of the Restoration adopted Yin Lizhen's suggestion and gathered a group of the most elite alchemists in the country. Using the method of burying the earth as a tomb, he built this silver mausoleum outside the bronze city with layers of silver."

……

(End of this chapter)