Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 175 I think I'm starting to crave the Dragon Heart.
Lu Mingfei quickly completed the transformation ceremony of the "Lava Dragon" heart.

As the burning heart was completely transformed into Dragon's Blessing power within him, a familiar force began to surge through his veins, from his skin to his bone marrow.

He could clearly feel the muscle fibers trembling, and his bones seemed to be making slight cracking sounds. His physical condition was getting better and better, and when his vision swept across the ruins, he seemed to be able to catch the trajectory of the wind.

The strength has indeed increased.

He looked at his increasingly rough hands and suddenly clenched his fists.

“Master,” he asked, “will I become one of those monsters?”

The old knight paused slightly, then shook his head:

“I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be. You’ve already performed four Dragon Offering rituals, using the heart of a mid-tier flying dragon, the heart of a lava earth dragon, and the hearts of two ‘ancient dragons’.”

For a Dragon Warrior, this is already quite a lot, enough to put you into a moderate dragon form, but your appearance will still be human, and you will not develop a desire for a dragon heart.

So far, it is still safe.

Lu Mingfei nodded, then turned and walked towards the Blessing. He wanted to teleport back to the Great Blessing to retrieve his armor and weapons.

He held his hand above the blessing, but then suddenly seemed to remember something and did not leave immediately.

Lu Mingfei did not turn around:
"I have one last question. Would the heart of a lava earth dragon be more appealing than that of a regular wyvern?"

"will not."

The old man quickly denied it.

"Is it."

Lu Mingfei paused, then said softly:
"Master, I think I'm starting to crave the Dragon's Heart."
-
North of Galid, after deviating from the main road.

Five days have passed since Lu Mingfei last visited Da Cifu.

clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out!
Lu Mingfei parried with his sword, blocking a long halberd that came crashing down on him. The owner of the halberd looked very strange, resembling an enlarged version of a mantis shrimp!

The giant mantis shrimp moved with incredible speed, as if it possessed great intelligence. Its halberd kept slashing down, but Lu Mingfei blocked them all.

A cold glint flashed!
The mantis shrimp-like creature was finally cleaved in two by the greatsword, and blood that looked like mucus gushed from the wound, corroding the ground.

"call."

Lu Mingfei swung the greatsword in his hand, looked around, and saw three monster corpses lying beside him.

After confirming that the three monsters had completely stopped moving, Lu Mingfei curiously squatted down to examine their appearance.

He reached out, wanting to touch the spilled slime.

"Don't touch."

A clear, cool female voice rang in my ears.

Melina continued:
"Those are the followers of the goddess of corruption, and also the abandoned followers. If you don't want to be tainted by strange things..."

Lu Mingfei's hand froze in mid-air.

The retinue of the goddess of corruption?
He scratched his head.

Along the way, he encountered corrupt followers more than once, but as he went deeper, the density of their presence increased, arousing his curiosity. Sometimes these followers would raise their hands in a gesture resembling prayer, and other times they would patrol the area, wielding weapons that looked like halberds.

With the conclusion of the earth-shattering battle between "Starbreaker General" Rataen and "Valkyrie" Malenia in Galid, the original environment was utterly destroyed. Crimson decay permeated every corner of the land, and as time passed, the creatures here now seem to have formed a peculiar ecosystem.

Vast expanses of putrefactive fungi, with a fleshy texture, formed canopies on the land, overlapping and intertwining, while giant crows flew about here.

Needless to say, Lu Mingfei had dealt with the large dog that looked like a dinosaur, or the dinosaur that looked like a dog, several times. They were thick-skinned, had a strong desire to attack, and possessed a powerful body.

The Miranda flowers on the shore have lost their original appearance; the pollen they emit no longer contains toxins, but instead possesses a crimson, corrupting power.

Once you get infected with that stuff, your body will begin to rot uncontrollably. Both your soul and body will be completely corrupted by the crimson putrefaction, beyond cure.

That's a dangerous place.

After eliminating the enemy, Lu Mingfei mounted his Torret and continued to explore the area.

If it weren't for the fact that these corrupt relatives could secrete a peculiar kind of silk that could attack him from a great distance, Lu Mingfei really wouldn't have bothered with them.

Because he had been lost in this godforsaken place for three whole days.

As Lu Mingfei passed through the massive, withered trees, a golden light, like a blessing, appeared not far away.

He quickly pulled on the reins and spurred his horse to gallop in that direction, but the area was full of scarlet fungus and gnarled tree roots, which made it quite difficult for Torret.

The familiar golden light finally appeared before his eyes, and Lu Mingfei breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Finally, I don't have to get lost in this place anymore!
With a crisp whistle, Torret's figure slowly disappeared, and Lu Mingfei rushed towards Cifu without hesitation.

His red and blue Dettol jars were long gone, and his condition was terrible. At this moment, he felt like he had been parched for a long time and wanted to be bathed in the blessed light.

However, he still didn't forget to glance at Cifu's name to confirm where he was.

“Crimson Ionian Swamp (shore)”.

Crimson Ionian Swamp?

Lu Mingfei frowned deeply.

He stood up, walked to the edge of the cliff, and looked ahead.

A vast lake came into view.

However, it is a lake of crimson decay.

The lake's crimson putridity seemed alive, surging back and forth like the tides at the seaside. Every now and then, it would erupt violently, accompanied by thunderous sounds, spewing up crimson putrid fountains tens of meters high, like the utterly rotten earth releasing highly toxic pus.

Once, in the distant past, this place may have been a beautiful lake with rippling blue waters and teeming with life, one of Galid's important water sources.

But the battle between Rataen and Malenia shattered all the past beauty. This place became the manifestation of the laws of corruption, the breeding ground for the disaster of the entire Galid.

Moreover, Lu Mingfei was certain that this was absolutely the place he had ever seen where the crimson decay was most deeply rooted, the most intense and incorruptible. The lake water seemed to be such that any living creature that stepped into it would be completely infected, eroded, and killed by the decay.

"This is not a good sign."

He muttered to himself, recalling the words Natsuki Subaru had repeatedly told him before they parted.

Never approach the Crimson Ionian Swamp lightly before you have sufficient strength!
(End of this chapter)