Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 152 Arrival (Bonus Chapter for 300 Monthly Tickets)

Lu Mingfei gently put Zero down.

The girl lightly touched the mud with her toes, landing gracefully on her feet. Her golden eyes swept lightly over the surroundings, her movements natural and fluid.

He loosened Eberhard's collar, and the latter collapsed onto the muddy lawn like a rag doll, as if trying to blend into the mud. His unconscious murmurs were completely drowned out by the wind, rain, and the rumble of the earth.

Lu Mingfei wiped the rain off his face, his chest rising and falling slightly, as he completely withdrew his Dustless Domain.

The moment he pulled his arm back, an extremely strange feeling gripped his heart.

Wasn't that too natural just now?
The moment this thought arose, it was as if a gentle breeze had dispelled the fog in his heart.

He suddenly recalled the scene of rushing out of the villa:
He pulled her into his arms, and she offered no resistance or struggle, simply curling up quietly and obediently in his embrace as he carried her as they ran through the collapsing building. His act of putting her down was even more natural.

He couldn't help but steal a glance at Zero beside him.

The girl was intently observing the collapsed surroundings. Rain dripped from the ends of her golden hair, and her delicate profile was sharply defined in the dim light, like a beautiful porcelain doll. She seemed completely unaware that there was anything wrong with their recent intimate contact, or perhaps she simply didn't care?
This feels... kind of like... an old married couple?

The moment this horrifying thought popped into his head, Lu Mingfei almost choked on his own saliva. He shook his head violently, trying to shake off this absurd idea.

But why... why did everything just happen so naturally? He instinctively hugged her, and she instinctively accepted; he put her down, and she instinctively steadied herself. There was no verbal exchange, no awkward resistance, not even a fleeting glance. That tacit understanding, that unspoken "cooperation," was simply...

Lu Mingfei's heart began to race uncontrollably again, not from nervousness, but from confusion.

Could it be that Ling... he...? No, impossible! Lu Mingfei immediately rejected this even more terrifying idea.

How could Ling possibly have those kinds of feelings for him? Her gaze towards him was always calm and undisturbed, at most... at most sometimes carrying a complexity he couldn't understand.

So what exactly happened? Was it because they went through life and death together?

Or... is Zero's personality simply different from ordinary people, and he doesn't care about physical contact at all?

Or... in her eyes, the princess carry in that situation was essentially no different from picking up a piece of luggage?

This thought made Lu Mingfei feel inexplicably choked up, and even gave rise to a sense of loss that he himself was unaware of.

He would rather have coldly retorted with a few words afterward than feel this utter indifference. This "naturalness" only made him feel more unnatural, more... flustered.

It was as if this was how it was supposed to be between them.

It's like... I've gotten used to it.

This feeling seemed to permeate the entire process of Zero and his acquaintance.

From that inexplicable dance together, to their many meals and encounters after returning to school, and even later, when Lu Mingfei was used to hiding alone in the Norton Hall for special training, Caesar and Chu Zihang would always have Zero deliver messages for him. It was as if Zero was the only one in the entire school who was not afraid of him, did not regard him as a monster of extremely high bloodline, nor did she worship him as a hero who slays dragons. She continued to get close to Lu Mingfei as always.

In her eyes, he seemed to be Lu Mingfei, and not any of those other messy identities, nothing more.

He forced himself to look away from Zero's overly calm profile, refocusing his attention on the apocalyptic scene before him and the increasingly violent pressure emanating from the depths of the earth. Yet, this complex feeling within him clung to him like a ghost, or like an invisible thread, inexplicably binding him and the blonde girl together in a knot that seemed impossible to untie.

"What a horrible weather."

He muttered something casually, as if he wanted to completely forget about what had happened earlier.

Lu Mingfei sensed the increasingly violent and clear pressure emanating from deep underground, his golden eyes shining astonishingly bright in the rainy night.

Just then, Ling's clear, cold voice pierced through the wind, rain, and earth-rumbling, ringing clearly in his ears:

“This secondary species…it is very likely a descendant of the ‘King of the Earth and Mountains’.”

Lu Mingfei paused slightly, turning his gaze away from the sky and towards the blonde girl beside him, raindrops sliding down her delicate jawline.

He was somewhat puzzled:
"Earth and mountains? Such heavy rain, such a commotion... Why not the 'King of the Sky and Wind' or the 'King of the Ocean and Water'? They would feel more fitting."

Zero didn't look at him; her gaze remained fixed on the trembling ground beneath her feet, as if her eyes could see many things that Lu Mingfei couldn't, silently analyzing them.

"Beneath the elemental turbulence, torrential rain and fierce winds are the most common celestial phenomena when second-generation and first-generation species awaken, disrupting the balance of nature. However..."

She paused, then said calmly:
"The wrath of the 'Earth' is the authority of 'Power'. Among these four monarchs, only the 'King of the Earth and Mountains' who holds the power of 'Earth' and 'Power' and his direct descendants can trigger a geological disaster of this scale."

As soon as she finished speaking, as if to confirm her judgment, a roar that seemed to come from the deepest hell tore through the rainy night!
"roar--!!!"

This was no longer a mental shock; this was a real, pure dragon roar!
The ground beneath their feet suddenly arched upwards, like a sleeping dragon turning over.

"careful!"

Zero's voice carried an unusual urgency.

Without a second thought, Lu Mingfei grabbed Ling's arm and leaped backward with her!
boom--! ! !
Right where he had just stood, the lawn behind the manor was torn apart by an unimaginable force, like a fragile curtain, and soil, turf, and broken concrete shot into the sky like a fountain!

A massive, terrifying crater, more than ten meters in diameter, was formed in an instant.

Then, a huge head slowly emerged from the crater that was spewing mud and steam.

The dark blue head, with its bulging, still-wriggling muscle fibers, looked as if it had just grown out and was not yet fully formed, covered with large patches of dragon scales.

The enormous, lava-like vertical pupils burned with golden flames in the torrential rain, filled with endless pain and savagery, looking down at the ants before them.

The gaping maw, splitting open to the back of the skull, revealed layers upon layers of sharp teeth as sharp as steel.

"Dust and bones".

—The offspring of Jormungandr, whose slumber was forcibly interrupted and who suffered immense mental anguish, descended upon the torrential night in their most ferocious form!
(End of this chapter)