Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 159 Mom! The ship I ship is real!
The dust has settled.

The enormous serpent had become a corpse.

Meanwhile, the victor was fast asleep in his princess's arms.

Lu Mingfei slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Zero's exquisite face, which was very close to his.

She looked extremely haggard. Her long, pale golden hair had lost its usual luster and was completely soaked by the rain, with a few stray strands clinging miserably to her forehead.

The black standard combat uniform was tattered, revealing milky white skin through the tears, but it was covered by large patches of mud and Lu Mingfei's bloodstains, obscuring the beautiful skin beneath.

She was kneeling in the mud, carefully placing Lu Mingfei's head on her knees, forming a gentle "lap pillow".

Her forehead drooped slightly, and her indifferent gaze fell silently on Lu Mingfei's pale face.

"I've passed out?"

Lu Mingfei asked in a low voice.

"Ah."

Zero replied softly.

"How long?"

"five minutes."

"Is it?"

Lu Mingfei struggled to get up, but the excruciating pain throughout his body almost made him faint again. It felt as if a thousand ants were gnawing and crawling deep within his bones, and countless blades were relentlessly cutting and torturing his muscles and nerves.

Is this... the price of playing the hero?
The excessive boiling of dragon blood eroded his body, which was not yet strong enough to match his current strength; his physical strength and vital energy were overdrawn, resulting in a slower recovery speed; and his mental energy was greatly depleted, as if his entire soul was trembling.

He probably needs to rest for a while.

Lu Mingfei completely relinquished control of his limbs, resignedly collapsing to his fate, surrendering his weight entirely to the softness beneath the pillow. The scent of rain, mud, blood, and a faint, cool, girlish fragrance filled his nostrils.

Where is the snake?

His eyes were closed, and his voice was extremely tired.

"died."

Zero's answer remains the same.

"Totally dead?"

"Ah."

Lu Mingfei's tense nerves finally relaxed completely, and he let out a long sigh, as if he wanted to expel all the pain and exhaustion with this breath.

The atmosphere fell into silence.

Only the cold raindrops fell tirelessly from the pale gray sky, pounding on the ruins, washing away the bloodstains, and soaking the two people who were nestled together.

On this land that had just experienced a hellish battle, they maintained this strange posture—the wounded dragon slayer resting his head on the equally disheveled princess's lap.

For a long, long time, only the sound of raindrops falling echoed monotonously between heaven and earth.

"Would you lie to me?"

Lu Mingfei suddenly spoke.

These words came abruptly, breaking the silence woven by the rain curtain.

Ling was slightly taken aback; strands of pale golden hair swayed gently at her damp temples, as if brushed by an invisible breeze.

She didn't know where this seemingly random question came from; perhaps it was just rambling in her grief. But her expression remained calm, with only her long eyelashes trembling slightly in the rain.

"No." She answered crisply and decisively, as if without needing to think or hesitate.

“Just now, during the blood surge,” Lu Mingfei said softly with his eyes slightly closed, “it was the moment I turned into a monster. Strangely, I saw something.”

He didn't pause, nor did he wait for Zero's response. Seemingly immersed in a lingering, drifting illusion, he continued to mutter to himself, his voice tinged with a weary confusion:

"Some inexplicable, chaotic fragments of memory. Like... like two perspectives forcibly mixed together, tangled up and completely inseparable, like having a nightmare that gives you a splitting headache."

"Among those fragments... I saw a place that looked like an abandoned... foreign military base? It was cold and desolate... with many strange Slavic faces wearing thick old coats."

And there was snow… endless snow, a vast expanse of white, chilling to the bone… Huge shadows, like fighter jets, roared across the sky… And I… I felt as if I were sitting on a dilapidated sled, speeding across the snowfield, being violently jolted…”

Lu Mingfei's voice grew softer and softer, carrying a deep sense of confusion:

"That's strange. It's really strange."

Zero heard him say:
"And... I think there was another one at the ball... it was very brief. I saw someone... she looked... a lot like you."

Zero's breathing fluctuated almost imperceptibly.

Although it was very subtle, Lu Mingfei still felt it; the fingertips covering the stray hairs on his forehead trembled slightly for a moment.

Her lowered eyelids concealed any possible emotional fluctuations, only rainwater streamed down the contours of her face, dripping onto Lu Mingfei's cheek.

He suddenly felt that there was no need to ask any more questions.

Time seemed to freeze again, and the sound of rain became the only background noise between the two.

A few seconds later, Zero's voice rang out, still indifferent and calm:
"understood."

Lu Mingfei seemed unsurprised by the answer, or rather, he was too exhausted to delve into it at the moment. The intense pain and exhaustion surged over him once more like a tidal wave.

But in the last moment before losing consciousness, Lu Mingfei used his last bit of strength to ask Zero one last question. His voice was weak, but it carried a stubborn expectation.

"Just now," he asked, barely breathing, "was I...handsome?"

A brief moment of silence.

"Ah."

Zero's voice was very soft, like a weightless feather falling, yet it clearly landed in Lu Mingfei's consciousness as he was about to sink into oblivion.

Lu Mingfei grinned, revealing his blood-stained canine teeth. It was a smile mixed with blood and mud, just like that of a twenty-year-old boy.

He seemed to have finally gotten the answer he wanted. His eyelids closed heavily, and his consciousness, like a kite with a broken string, sank once again into boundless darkness.

Zero maintained her bowed head, her golden eyes fixed on the boy in her arms who had fallen unconscious again. Rain dripped down her delicate jawline, splashing onto Lu Mingfei's bloodless cheek, leaving a small wet patch.

Above the ruins, the rain fell endlessly. Only she remained, like a lonely island, guarding the only warmth in her arms.

"Go to sleep..."

A soft whisper, like a sigh, melted into the patter of rain, unheard by anyone.

Several hundred meters away, behind a relatively intact thicket of bushes, was the temporary observation point for the team.

Wow!

Red Sparrow let out an uncontrollable gasp, her eyes widening as she observed the incredibly impactful scene on the battlefield through her binoculars.

"Team... Captain! Look over there! Zero... Zero is holding Zero in her arms!"

Her tone was full of excitement, and her face was full of the expression that said, "The CP I'm shipping is real!"

(End of this chapter)