Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 81 Death
Cold and hard.

This was Chu Zihang's first sensation after regaining consciousness.

He appeared to be lying on a metal platform, the intense pain in his body making it difficult for him to breathe; the needle-like pain was mainly concentrated in his chest.

The air was thick with the smell of alcohol and formaldehyde, along with an indescribable, pungent odor of blood.

He struggled to open his heavy eyelids. His vision was initially blurry, then gradually became focused.

The first thing that catches the eye is the old, pale light source, rarely seen in this era—a few old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. The light seeps through the dusty lampshades, barely illuminating the space.

This is where?

Wasn't he in the sewers? Fighting against those mutated Deadpools amidst the filthy stench. His last memory was of the overwhelming fiery tornado and the momentary darkness that felt like the world was collapsing.

Chu Zihang turned his only still somewhat flexible head and looked around.

This is definitely not a sewer.

This is... an abandoned underground space. Judging from the exposed, rough concrete walls and the huge load-bearing cylindrical structure, it looks more like part of an air-raid shelter or underground bunker built during World War II, which was later modified.

This is now a laboratory.

An abandoned laboratory filled with bizarre relics.

His gaze swept over rows of dark display tanks. These cylindrical culture vessels, some tall and some short, stood silently in the shadows. Many of the tanks were broken, and murky, black liquid had spilled onto the ground, drying into disgusting stains.

The “things” still in the intact glass jars, soaking in a pale yellow, pungent-smelling preservative solution, made Chu Zihang’s pupils shrink sharply!
He was a human being... or rather, he was once a human being.

Various forms of deeply mutated corpse specimens. Most of them exhibit grotesque mutations: twisted limbs, bone masks that have grown to cover half of the face, arthropod structures that grow from the sides of the spine like insect shells... They vary in form, but what they have in common is a highly unstable and nearly completely inhuman deformity, far exceeding that of ordinary Deadpools.

Just as Chu Zihang was struggling to sit up and further observe his surroundings, a familiar but weary figure, covered in dust and dried blood, emerged from the shadow of a collapsed filing cabinet nearby.

It is Lu Mingfei.

He looked terrible. He was pale, breathing rapidly, and his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat. Even more shocking was the fact that his cheeks, neck, and arms were covered with fine, barely visible black dragon scales, like tattoos, but far more grotesque and eerie.

In Chu Zihang's eyes, this was the aftereffect of excessive power generation during the bloodbath, but in reality, it was just that Lu Mingfei had forgotten to "close" the Dragon Feast.

"Oh, Senior Brother, you're awake?"

Lu Mingfei's voice sounded a little tired.

"You can really sleep... If you don't wake up soon I'm thinking of giving you CPR, but when I think of your face... uh... never mind..."

He instinctively wanted to crack a joke to ease the tension, but seeing Chu Zihang's serious expression, he reluctantly shut his mouth, only managing a forced smile.

Chu Zihang did not answer, but stared at his face, which resembled a demon, and remained silent.

Lu Mingfei looked at his face in confusion on the shiny surface of the metal cabinet, and then he realized what Chu Zihang was looking at.

He hurriedly waved his hand:

"Hey, senior. I just went to deal with Deadpool. I forgot to log out. See?"

As he spoke, he began to slowly calm the boiling dragon blood, recalling the dragon's power coursing through his limbs and bones. As time passed, the scales gradually faded, leaving only faint red marks. Chu Zihang nodded and asked no more questions. As long as Lu Mingfei knew what he was doing, he wouldn't interfere.

He struggled to sit up:

"How did we get out? Those Deadpools..."

Lu Mingfei scratched his head, his face still showing signs of fatigue from the fierce battle, but his answer was nonchalant:

"Oh, that's simple, senior brother."

He pointed to the red marks on his body that hadn't completely faded from the dragon scales:
"Those crawling creatures were so annoying that I got impatient and chopped them all down. It made a lot of noise and caused several sections of the sewers to collapse."

He walked to the metal table, casually picked up a blood-stained cloth to wipe the bloodstains off his body, and said with a hint of relief in his voice:

"The pipes were all clogged up, and I couldn't tell which way was which even with you on my back, so I just kept crawling through the collapsed opening... Hey, I never expected to end up in this godforsaken place."

"But it's perfect timing, there's alcohol and gauze here, so I gave your wound some emergency treatment. Otherwise, with you bleeding all the way, even if I could carry you, you wouldn't have survived."

"Where is this?"

Chu Zihang's gaze swept over the various Deadpool specimens soaking in the culture medium once more, his brows furrowing.

Lu Mingfei stopped wiping.

"This place? Ha!"

He looked around:
"Senior brother, we've stumbled headlong into their lair. This isn't some accidental discovery at all..."

This place was practically their breeding and research facility for Deadpools! It was only recently abandoned, and they haven't even completely destroyed everything yet! We've been ripped off!"

Lu Mingfei paused, his gaze deepening:
"Perhaps the fish we've run into this time... is exceptionally large. So large that... it just happens to possess the highest level of authority to manipulate Norma."

Chu Zihang's heart skipped a beat, and a chill instantly spread from his spine to his entire body.

He certainly knew what Lu Mingfei was talking about. Someone with the highest level of authority capable of bypassing Norma's core monitoring system…

—Aside from the principal of Kassel, Lu Mingfei, and a handful of others, there are only the board members at the very top of the pyramid, who possess almost monarchical power!
“Senior brother,” Lu Mingfei said, holding up two fingers, “the current situation can be summarized as one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.”

Chu Zihang turned his head to the side, his golden eyes particularly noticeable in the dim light. He stared intently at Lu Mingfei, waiting for him to continue.

“The bad news is,” Lu Mingfei shrugged, “we’re completely disconnected.”

As he spoke, he pulled three things out of his pocket: the executive department's communication equipment, which was deeply pierced by a claw-shaped mark; Lu Mingfei's iPhone, which had been broken into two pieces; and Chu Zihang's phone, whose shape could barely be identified.

"Forget about contacting the academy for now. We're completely isolated right now, deep behind enemy lines."

Chu Zihang remained silent. This was indeed the worst possible news, meaning they had lost their greatest support and backing.

"As for the good news..." Lu Mingfei's tone rose slightly, with a hint of slyness, "We're temporarily 'dead'."

(End of this chapter)