Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 122 Hunting
"Alright, alright," Lu Mingfei muttered, "Why are you talking so much now?"

"Huh? You have no right to talk to me like that!"

Natsuki Subaru retorted without backing down, habitually putting his hands on his hips.

Actually, before Lu Mingfei joined this group, Natsuki Subaru was the undisputed "tsukkomi" (straight man) of the group.

But ever since Lu Mingfei appeared and became familiar with everyone, his hidden "talkative" nature has completely erupted in front of acquaintances.

With his unparalleled and exceptionally gifted ability to spew out trash talk, Lu Mingfei successfully left Natsuki Subaru far behind, not even able to see his taillights.

Similarly, Natsuki Subaru, who was originally portrayed as "resisting while complaining," could only admit defeat in the face of Lu Mingfei's unparalleled attitude of avoiding battle, the "cowardly lizard."

"...Dude, I'm too lazy to explain to you..."

Lu Mingfei muttered to himself as he walked straight toward Feilong's chest.

He drew his hunting knife from his waist with a "whoosh," gripped it tightly with one hand, and with a flash of cold light, plunged it deep into the black dragon hide. The blade tore through the tough scales, sliced ​​through the thick fat and fascia, and sank deep into the muscle layer. Finally, with a forceful downward slash—

scoff!

A huge wound was forcibly opened, and pungent dragon blood gushed out.

Lu Mingfei eagerly peeked inside—

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment.

Then his eyes widened suddenly, filled with disbelief.

empty.

He reached in and rummaged around in the air, only to find warm inner walls and ruptured fascia and blood vessels. He then realized that this was not a hallucination.

"Impossible, right??"

He tore the hole in the dragon's chest even bigger, looked around, trying to find its heart, and eventually squeezed half of his body inside.

Natsuki Subaru was completely bewildered by his delirious state.
"Hey, Lu Mingfei, what are you up to?"

Lu Mingfei suddenly emerged from the bloody hole, his helmet visor covered in thick dragon blood, which dripped down.

He looked as if he had seen a ghost, his voice filled with bewilderment:

"Empty... Subaru, it's empty inside! Where's the heart?!"

Natsuki Subaru was also taken aback.

"How can it be"

He planted the greatsword of the hunting gods into the ground beside him, walked a few steps to the dragon's body, looked at the bloody wound, and hesitated.

But remembering that he was the one who brought Lu Mingfei here, he gritted his teeth. To get a better look, he even squeezed half of his body inside, and his black flame cultivator robe was instantly soaked in thick dragon blood, turning it dark red.

"Fuck..."

A moment later, Natsuki Subaru emerged, also with a look of utter disbelief, his voice trembling:
"...It really is empty..."

The two brothers stood there dumbfounded in front of the enormous dragon corpse, completely bewildered by this bizarre discovery.

A deathly silence lasted for a long time. Then, as if suddenly snapping back to reality, Natsuki Subaru abruptly turned his head and asked Lu Mingfei:

"Are all dragons' hearts located inside their chest cavities?"

Lu Mingfei also paused for a moment, then said somewhat uncertainly:

"I think so?"

Natsuki Subaru scratched his head:
“I know that some animals are different in reality. For example, squid have three hearts, one main heart and two gill hearts. Didn’t you say that gyrfalcons have a strong ability to adapt and can change themselves according to the environment?”

"Could this guy really be like that?" Lu Mingfei scratched his head as well.

"Makes sense."

So, the two skeptical guys immediately transformed into temporary butchers.

Wielding hunting knives and greatswords, they conducted a more thorough "anatomical study" of the massive dragon carcass, deeply "studying" the complex internal structure of this four-legged, two-winged creature. Scales, fascia, muscles, bones... they turned it over completely.

Ultimately, the cold, hard truth was laid bare before them: this guy simply didn't have a heart.

Moreover, when Lu Mingfei tried to use his sensory abilities to investigate, he was shocked to discover that the dragon's soul was also incomplete, as if a piece had been forcibly removed, or perhaps it never existed at all, lacking the "spirit" that a living being should have.

"This is bizarre, so bizarre..."

Lu Mingfei murmured.

"One more, please!"

Natsuki Subaru's competitive spirit was completely ignited:

"I don't believe it! Maybe that one was just an accident. Surely all these dragons here can't be like that, right?"

The two exchanged a glance and quickly reached a consensus.

They repeated the process, carefully luring over another dragon of similar size. After a fierce battle, the second dragon also collapsed to the ground.

Once again, the two transformed into dragon-slaying anatomy experts, dissecting the chest cavity of the second dragon corpse with heavy hearts—mainly disgust and intense curiosity.

The result is exactly the same.

An empty chest cavity, warm flesh and blood, a broken soul.

It was as if these powerful creatures were merely empty shells driven by power.

"What the hell..."

Lu Mingfei murmured:

"The soul and will of the dragon reside in its heart. Without a heart, how do they live? Or rather, are they truly born of a mother?"

Even creatures from border areas should be born of mothers!

He subconsciously turned around and looked at the "Dragon Tomb" not far away, which exuded a terrifying pressure, in the direction where the being known as "Guier" was located.

Just then, his brow furrowed sharply beneath his helmet.

“Wait… Subaru,” Lu Mingfei said in a strange tone, sniffing hard as if he had caught some subtle changes, “Don’t you feel… that thing’s aura… seems… much weaker?”

Natsuki Subaru was wiping his greatsword with a relatively clean cloth when he heard this. He looked up abruptly and followed Lu Mingfei's gaze. He focused his mind and activated his not-so-sharp senses.

However, the intense, almost tangible, dragon-like pressure emanating from the gray-white "hill" in the direction of the Dragon Tomb still weighed heavily on his mind, without diminishing in the slightest.

He blinked, puzzled.

That's for sure.

If Lu Mingfei's "sensory perception" has a value of 25 or even higher, enabling him to keenly capture subtle changes in environmental energy, then Natsuki Subaru in this regard probably only has a pitiful 8 or 9 points.

Unlike Lu Mingfei, he is not the type who is good at precisely manipulating power.

Similarly, compared to Emiya, both of them are "9-Intelligence Warriors" who are quite bad at sensing and using magic.

"Uh……"

Natsuki Subaru scratched his blood-stained hair and looked at Lu Mingfei somewhat awkwardly:
"Weaker? Really? I... I didn't feel anything? Isn't that thing still so suffocating?"

(End of this chapter)