Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 174 Reincarnation
"what!!!"

The old man, draped in a cloth robe, had his hair and beard standing on end, and veins bulging on his forehead, perfectly embodying the phrase "furious."
"You dug up Ingwell's grave and even lifted the lid off his coffin!!"

The old man raised his foot, instinctively intending to kick Lu Mingfei in the butt, but Lu Mingfei had already dodged far away. He glared at Lu Mingfei for a long time before reluctantly giving up.

Lu Mingfei hid most of his body behind the headless dragon statue, and explained with his neck stiff:
"It was clearly him who called me in! You can't blame me! I sensed him as soon as I reached the door."

boom!
A pebble, carried by a gray-white gust of wind, struck the statue, carving a deep crater. The splattering pebbles grazed his cheeks, and the bangs on his forehead were whipped up by the storm.

A bead of cold sweat dripped down Lu Mingfei's forehead.

The old man remained in the posture of throwing the stone, his eyes wide with anger:

"You still have the nerve to talk back! I sent you to Oreg's grave to retrieve the Dragon's Blessing Mark hidden there, not to rob a grave!"
"You little rascal, not only did you dig up Ingwell's grave after you got the power, but you also took his ashes with you!"

Lu Mingfei stopped talking.

However, the old knight's anger came fiercely but also subsided quickly.

How could he not understand the helplessness behind Lu Mingfei's actions? Even if he were in Lu Mingfei's shoes, in such a world and in such a situation, he would probably have had no choice but to do the same.

Who "trained" Lu Mingfei to become increasingly lawless?

What truly enraged him was this crumbling world, his comrades who could not find peace even in death, and the rubble left behind by the Golden Dynasty in this border region.

His anger subsided quickly.

He shook his wrist, which was throbbing slightly—this body was finally beginning to decay.

The old man waved impatiently toward the statue:

"come over?"

"what?"

A muffled response came from behind the statue.

"come over!"

His voice was slightly stern.

"Ohhhhhh!"

Lu Mingfei then shrank back like a frightened rabbit, shuffling over cautiously.

The old man snorted coldly and said slowly:
"show me."

Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment before realizing what the old man wanted to see.

He carefully took out a soul-summoning bell and a small box containing Ingwell's ashes from his pocket and placed them in front of the old man.

The old man did not immediately look at the urn; his deep gaze fell on the summoning bell, his fingers tracing the peculiar metallic patterns on it.

"interesting."

The old man's hoarse voice echoed in the church.

He slowly bent down, his movements solemn, his calloused, rough fingers gently unhooking the brass clasp.

A soft "click" sounded particularly clear in the silence.

The lid was opened.

A ball of light and shadow floated quietly inside the box.

The shape of the light and shadow was unstable, sometimes resembling a thin mist, and sometimes vaguely outlining a human figure—a tall and upright silhouette clad in the heavy armor of a storm knight.

A powerful surge of emotion emanated from the soul of the ashes, a complex torrent of shock, sorrow, and joy erupting with the "spirituality," which even Lu Mingfei, standing nearby, could feel.

“Old friend,” the old knight said softly.

"I never thought we'd meet again after all these years."

At this moment, the Dragon Offering Church seemed to fall into complete silence, with only the whistling of the wind blowing through the ruins and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore in the distance.

The old knight's back was slightly hunched, no longer as indestructible as a rock, exuding a deep weariness and age.

"Kid, get ready."

He paused, as if trying to dispel the pent-up emotions in his heart:
"Let's all vent our anger at once."

Lu Mingfei was slightly taken aback.

This old man... could he really read minds? How did he know I had something on my mind?

The old man finally glanced at him sideways, his eyes filled with knowing disdain:

"Do you think I don't know you? If you didn't have something to ask me, you wouldn't dare come back and tell me!"

Lu Mingfei, having his thoughts exposed, scratched his head rather embarrassedly.

He thought for a moment, then said:
“Old man, I encountered a dragon in the tunnels of Galid. It smelled like a wyvern and had the heart of a wyvern, but it was an earth dragon that spewed lava and couldn't fly.”

He paused here, his brows furrowing deeply:

"What's even stranger is that it feels different from other dragons. It's as if it's resonating with the Dragon's Blessing, and its attack pattern is like that of a swordsman."

After Lu Mingfei finished describing the strange phenomenon of the earth dragon, only the sound of the wind and the tide remained in the church.

The old man remained silent for a long time, so long that Lu Mingfei thought he had fallen asleep again.

The old man finally raised his hand and rubbed his temples vigorously, as if considering how to begin.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “It’s a resonance, that lava earth dragon. It was once a dragon warrior, a hero of mankind.”

Lu Mingfei was stunned.

"All those who carry out the Dragon Feast will gradually become non-human."

The old man shook his head at him:

"I've said this more than once. Do you think I'm joking with you?"

As he spoke, he gently pulled open his collar, and in the dim light, Lu Mingfei could clearly see the side of his neck, where fine, hard scales were embedded in his aging flesh.

"The dragonification process of a normal Dragon Warrior is irreversible."

As the old man spoke, he pointed to his narrow, golden vertical pupils:
"These, these are all of them. Do you think everyone is like you, a freak, able to control their dragon form at will, with the golden light in their pupils flashing on and off?"
The moment a warrior embarks on the path of dragon worship, their heart is filled with a thirst for dragon hearts. They either fall on the path of hunting dragons or perform dragon worship rituals again and again, gradually transforming into dragons, until finally even their hearts are completely transformed, becoming true dragons.

Then, the former hunter became the prey of his own kind; those who once hunted for hearts became the dragons whose hearts were hunted. This is destiny.

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Was the lava dragon he killed actually a person? And a living, breathing dragon warrior whom he could even call a senior?

He was once a valiant warrior who roamed freely across the borderlands, but in the end, he was transformed into this deformed and ugly figure, hiding in a dark and sunless cave, and was eventually killed by his successors, who disemboweled him and took his heart.

No wonder it was so enraged when it faced him, wanting to kill him at all costs. Because it was the former Lu Mingfei, it knew all too well the power and methods of the Dragon Warriors, and it knew all too well what he craved.

He was angry, and he was also afraid—afraid of his ultimate fate, afraid of reincarnation.

The old are transformed into dragons, and the new kill the old. This is the cycle of the dragon's feast.

(End of this chapter)