The infinite sword system has been mastered, and you say this is the dragon clan?

Chapter 453 Academy Style, Though Late, It Arrives
Young Meneke Cassel was unaware that the most horrific murderer in human history had quietly visited his estate.

He was simply waiting for a great moment to arrive.

Late tonight, the British freighter Queen Mary carried an ancient artifact from the Qing Dynasty in the Far East—an ancient tomb coffin that could potentially uncover significant secrets about dragons. If properly studied, it would undoubtedly reshape the world of dragon slaying and pave the way for the unfinished work of our predecessors in the Secret Society!

They chose to pick up the package at the Port of Liverpool; the old coffin cost them a full 50,000 marks.

The original handover point was supposed to be the port of Hamburg, Germany, but for some reason, Friedrich von Long, a colleague of the Lionheart Society who had sent goods during the Qing Dynasty, couldn't book a cargo ship to Germany. Fearing that things might change if he was late, he had no choice but to choose a British cargo ship that was about to set sail and see if he could pay extra to make an extra trip to Germany.

However, even with the "offering more money," the Queen Mary refused to change its itinerary. The crew regarded the coffin as an ominous object and wished they could immediately throw it into the Ganges or the Indian Ocean. During the handover, Menek nonchalantly retorted in broken Chinese:
"Haven't you heard? Coffin, coffin, means promotion and wealth!"

Lu Shanyan was surprised to hear this from the foreigner.

The burly young men of the Lionheart Society chose to carry the coffin to the underground wine cellar of a manor in London. The Cassel family, from Menek, was not short of money, and they were willing to spare no effort to contribute some of their wealth to support the investment in this young leader of the Secret Society.

Moreover, the three elders of the Secret Service, Lord Mayek, Marquis Gambet, and Viscount Charlotte, were financial magnates who controlled nearly half of Germany's wealth. Buying an identical manor in London to supply the Lionheart Society with their activities in Kassel would be a piece of cake for them.

Inside the cellar, there was still a team of doctors and nurses hired by the Secret Service. Young Angers stood behind the chief surgeon, acting as an assistant as he vigorously wielded a folding knife to dispose of the corpse.

Behind these people, Lu Shanyan, along with several other original Lionheart members including "Tiger" Jamal, "Chief" Brendan, "Ash," and "Ghost," were intently watching the scene. Only Menek remained completely calm, sitting to the side listening to the rain outside the window, exuding an air of nonchalance.

On the upper staircase outside the wine cellar, three elders were chatting and smoking in hushed tones as they watched. Viscount Charlotte, tall and thin like bamboo, said, “Menek is right. I’m old. When I was young, I would have stood excitedly next to the doctor, rubbing my hands together, ready to help.”

"You're old, it's time for you to die."

Lord Mayek was scathing in his assessment of Charlotte, but he showed a different face when it came to the younger generation—he smiled with satisfaction, “As for Menek, though he’s playful, he has a group of intelligent and brave companions, just like we were back then. Perhaps it’s time for him to become the next leader of the Secret Society, replacing our elders.”

The two old partners silently agreed.

Lord Mayek then laughed and said, “My next proposal is, why don’t we establish an academy? One that remains secret, admitting a limited number of students, but they are the most outstanding, the most elite, the best! With them, we will win a great war!”

Viscount Charlotte sighed, "Mayek, you say I'm old, but your own great-grandson can already ride a bicycle, while you, this old man, are still unwilling to lie down and wait to die peacefully."

“There’s no other way. To win that enormous war, we must cultivate unparalleled elite talent and a powerful and reliable ‘savior team,’” Mayek said, spreading his arms. “And education can make the children on whom we place our hopes even stronger!”

Viscount Charlotte was clearly tempted. "Alright, you've convinced me again!"

Marquis Ganbeining asked curiously, "Then what should the academy be called?"

"Call—" Lord Mayek was about to speak when he suddenly heard the rain outside the window stop abruptly. He glanced over instinctively and vaguely saw some figures approaching from outside the manor.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Oh my God!"

The moment Angers lifted the coffin lid, the doctor exclaimed in astonishment, feeling as if he had witnessed a medical miracle! Even the Lionheart members behind him looked on in surprise.

Lying in the coffin was a boy from China with soft skin and lustrous black hair. Although he was completely lifeless, his body dry and dehydrated, his muscles atrophied, there was no doubt that the boy's face was completely undamaged. Even the best-preserved ancient corpse specimens in the world couldn't achieve this; the boy hadn't even lost a single eyelash!

Angers looked closely and saw that the boy was wearing a white silk robe embroidered with dragons, phoenixes, peacocks, lotus flowers, and tassels. He wore a narrow-sleeved jacket made of gold brocade over it. He had a Tangut hairstyle on his head, and a silver plaque at his feet had what appeared to be Western Xia script, which Angers couldn't quite understand.

Lu Shanyan glanced at it twice and read it aloud: "'Five Thunder Generals, Fire Chariot General, overturning heaven and earth, driving thunder and rushing clouds, facing thousands, commanding divine soldiers, raising the flag and summoning urgently, without delay, so be it!'"

Menek was stunned. Although he could speak a few words of Chinese, Lu Shanyan's words sounded like gibberish to him. "What did you say?"

"The inscription on the silver plaque is roughly a Taoist flag-opening incantation, used to ward off evil spirits." Lu Shanyan scratched his head, racking his brains for some basic knowledge of burial. "If the corpse buried here were a demon, it would probably be covered in soul-locking nails smeared with chicken blood."

"Let me see!" Menek craned his neck like a curious child. He immediately noticed that under the boy's robe, there were metal handcuffs deeply embedded in his flesh, and many iron nails were stuck in his limbs, bones and even his head. In addition, the most conspicuous thing was a blue nail, half a meter long, piercing through his heart and chest cavity.

The doctor, unaware of the truth, felt pity upon witnessing the young boy being tortured. He took the forceps from the nurse and prepared to remove the long nail from the boy's temple.

"If I were you, I would choose to leave those long iron nails alone, or better yet, keep them completely still."

Suddenly, a strange man spoke from behind.

Almost everyone present was startled; the voice didn't belong to any of them. The unique voice sounded like dozens of people speaking simultaneously from the same mouth, with complex tones—cold, rough, playful, and peaceful—overlapping and echoing in the small underground wine cellar, sending chills down their spines.

The doctor stared wide-eyed, utterly incredulous as he watched a white-haired man, dressed in an ancient robe tied with crimson ropes and tassels, his skin dark and his hands adorned with the Ten Commandments, casually walk toward the coffin. The man brushed the dust from the side of the coffin and, in a reminiscent tone, spoke a chilling secret:

"It's been over a thousand years. How have you been... my former brother. Indeed, like those brothers, you too have left your mark on these trivial human histories."

"Li Wuyue, younger brother of Li Yuanhao, the founder of Western Xia, whose given name is Wuyue? It's a pity that you, with the same noble bloodline, had the opportunity to regain your crown... You shouldn't be here. This is a wrong history, a battlefield that is too cruel."

A thousand years... Brothers... This suddenly appearing man and the boy in the coffin are both immortal dragon kings, the first generation of beings who also possess the elemental crown rank!?
Angers and the entire Lionheart Society seemed stunned, staring blankly at the man as he calmly recounted his actions without uttering a word or interrupting him.

Of course, it wasn't that they were truly dumbfounded, but rather that they were completely unable to move or speak, as if they were tightly bound to the spot by invisible air cage chains, unable even to recite dragon script to activate their incantations.

In their eyes, the white-haired man wearing the Ten Commandments was surrounded by elemental concentrations exceeding those of the ocean, like a vast and awe-inspiring abyss with no bottom in sight. They couldn't imagine what such an energy level would look like if it were converted into a cataclysmic disaster.

"King!" The thought that had just arisen was abruptly interrupted. The Lionheart members were astonished to see an astonishing darkness surging around the man of the Ten Commandments, swallowing up even the slightest light. Within that darkness, a terrifying phantom formed from dense eyeballs:
"...Our King, the Holy Grail has arrived and is about to be activated. Servants will soon be drawn here. It is time for this spacetime to dedicate its great cause to us. The time of birth has come; let us rectify this..."

"Wait a minute."

The king of the Demon God Pillar looked at the boy in the coffin, reached out his hand, and said, "Wait a little longer, until I disperse... and express my final feelings for my former kin."

"……Yes."

The Demon King's heavy hand seemed to be about to touch Li Wuyue's sleeping face, but just as he was about to touch her, the boy in the coffin suddenly disappeared.

Both the boy and the long nail were replaced and disappeared without a trace. In their place was a bizarre "human-shaped tree branch" formed by the atrophy and disappearance of the skin and flesh, and the dense entanglement and growth of blood vessels and meridians.

—Code name: Subject E.

Suddenly, a thought popped into everyone's mind... What is this thing?
"This is...a scam!"

Anger suddenly surged on the Demon King's perpetually icy face. His eyes darted around, and he spotted a shipping manifest among the papers pressed against the coffin: "Transaction number 19010666...Sender...Lin Fenglong."

The name Lin Fenglong seemed to possess a magical power; under Geitia's gaze, the character "Lin" instantly twisted and transformed, becoming another name: Friedrich von Long...

But the changes continued. "Fenglong" first became "Feng Long", then it was distorted into the characters "Fenglong"...

In the end, both the surname and the given name disappeared, leaving only Odin's full name.

With a sharp squeeze from a distance, the coffin's shipping manifest and the ancient coffin itself instantly shattered into dust!

That alien one, what a cunning schemer…! Did he anticipate their demon god's target location and thus lay the groundwork in advance?

No, the other side had long realized that Li Wuyue was connected to a major historical event, so they immediately set up a trap, like a carefully woven spider web, just waiting for the unsuspecting opponent to walk into it!

"Your Majesty...?" The Demon Pillar in charge of the execution reacted a little slowly, not yet realizing what had happened.

It was at the very moment the coffin shattered that an astonishing sound and tremor suddenly came from outside the Kassel Manor. The sturdy cellar almost collapsed, and a white light shook the sky. From the window, one could vaguely see a huge, towering tree standing majestically in the dark night in the distant distance!
Upon seeing this, the Demon King snorted coldly, and his figure disappeared into the darkness.

"Cough cough cough!" The young members of the Lionheart Society, who had been bound in place for a long time, were finally able to catch their breath. Their breathing had been suppressed just now. If it had lasted any longer, these half-bloods would have been suffocated to death by the Demon King who did nothing.

They were inexplicably caught up in a crisis but unexpectedly survived, yet their condition still seemed dire... These young elites were in a bit of a daze.

Multiple dragon kings... eyeball monsters... and corpses that have disappeared and been suddenly replaced with tree branches, and giant trees that have appeared out of nowhere outside, what are all these things!

Menek was the first to react, "Let's go outside! Let's check on the elders!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

what is this?
Emiya held the four treasures containing the power of flowing elements in his hands, somewhat bewildered.

A silver sword inlaid with fiery red gemstones, radiating heat yet gleaming with a cold light.

A golden cup shaped like the Holy Grail, but with two delicate handles that emit a faint, earthy yellow light.

An ancient crown adorned with diamonds, exquisite yet slightly somber, with light, wind-like elements flowing within its structure.

A slightly heavy gold-plated pendant box, with a winding snake inlaid with many small emeralds, reminiscent of wet water.

He vaguely remembered that the last time he saw these things, they were in the form of huge dragon claws. Now the research team has transformed them into this shape.
"Don't tell me your next script is Harry Potter."

Somewhere on the battlefield, Emiya put away the four treasures that exuded the aura of elemental authority. "Also, don't the original owners, Drake and the others, object?"

"Ha, what can they possibly object to?"

Nuwa descended from mid-air on clouds and landed beside Wei Gong. "These large-scale dungeons are all about fair competition. Now that we've finally opened up a boss fight event with double experience and points, we definitely need to give everyone a chance."

“Those Riders already had the advantage of mobility, and with the Elemental Authority, they would basically be guaranteed a top ten spot in the event! So I gave them two choices: either continue to keep this thing and be responsible for transporting all Servants without being able to farm points, or hand it over to me to be modified into an item and they could continue to participate in the event. Almost everyone chose the latter without hesitation.”

Emiya nodded. Maintaining game balance is a crucial aspect that any competent event planner must consider. If it were Prellati...

Haha, she's different; she only cares about having fun.

“As for Harry Potter,” Nuwa joked, “we think Chaldea also has an Eastern version.”

"Liaolu, right? Old Tang told me that unless he's in dire straits, he'd rather die than go to the front lines. Don't count on him..."

Emiya shook his head, thinking to himself that finding actors from the Weasley family would be quite easy; there was a whole bunch of redheads right there in front of him.

"Yeah, so it's just wishful thinking! Don't take it too seriously. It's not like the next singularity will actually be some kind of academy-themed story, right?"

(End of this chapter)