Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei, Starting as a Seeker of the Law

Chapter 93 "The law of cause and effect, come and attack."

As dawn broke, Lu Mingfei waved goodbye to Jin Miao and Hu Dasheng.

"Master Lu, aren't you coming back with us?" Hu Dasheng asked with a smile on his face, standing on the road with his hands on his hips. "Our master said he really wants to see you."

Sunlight fell on her hair, dancing into tiny golden glimmers.

Upon hearing this, Lu Mingfei paused for a moment, thought for a while, and then shook his head.

"I'm not going to follow you anymore. Anyway, we'll meet again someday."

He met Hu Dasheng's slightly stunned gaze and added, as if explaining, yet also stating, "I still have some loose ends to sort out, so I won't be traveling with you for now."

Jin Miao listened quietly without interrupting.

She simply looked at Lu Mingfei, at this mysterious patriarch whose only name has been passed down through generations.

Then she gently tugged at Hu Dasheng's sleeve.

"Let's go, let the patriarch attend to his own affairs now."

Hu Dasheng said "Oh," and waved at Lu Mingfei again, seemingly unwilling.

"Then remember to come back after you're done!"

""

Lu Mingfei responded softly, watched the two walk away, and then turned around.

Walking towards the other end of the alley, gradually moving further and further away from the direction of the two people, until finally disappearing at the boundary between sunlight and shadow.

Hu Dasheng was still standing on tiptoe looking back when Jin Miao gently patted his head.

"Go back and get some rest. Your magical energy is depleted, so you need to recuperate. You can't afford to have any health problems, or what will happen to my dreams?"

"Okay—"

'

The two walked back side by side, their footsteps echoing softly on the bluestone slabs.

Deep in the alley, Lu Mingfei stopped in his tracks.

He took the painting out of his pocket.

The outline of the boy in the painting is still blurry, only the red line between his eyebrows on the portrait flickers in the morning light, as if it is breathing.

He stared at it for a long time, then sighed softly.

"This is truly a chain of cause and effect. Since you helped me once, I have to save your life in return."

The person being referred to was naturally that young man, Qi An.

Even though Qi An's primordial spirit was not completely transferred and engraved into the painting, a portion of Su Ning Shuang's remaining primordial spirit still seeped into it.

That part of the primordial spirit had no independent consciousness, nor a "subject" that could be locked in; it was as chaotic as mist, entwined deep within Qi An's soul.

The Myriad Laws Soul-Splitting Blade can sever clear cause and effect and separate distinct forces, but it cannot, like a sieve, completely separate two merging wisps of mist. A blade is ultimately a blade, not a precise surgical forceps, much less capable of discerning which wisp of primordial spirit belongs to whom.

Forcibly executing Qi An would only damage the very foundation of the state.

However, if he doesn't kill her, there's a possibility that Su Ning Shuang might return.

Lu Mingfei rolled up the painting, but did not put it back in his pocket.

He looked up and gazed towards the direction outside the city.

"Then let's give it a little more time."

Half a month later.

Qi An has been feeling strange lately.

His body had always felt somewhat heavy and weak, as if there was a thin veil separating his soul from his body.

But over the past two weeks, that feeling of stagnation has gradually subsided, my breathing has become smoother day by day, and my mind has become much clearer.

What's even stranger is his painting skills.

He was originally just an ordinary painter, but recently he has made great strides.

His brushstrokes are divinely inspired, and the faces of the figures he paints always possess an indescribable charm.

It was as if an unseen master teacher was holding his hand, teaching him stroke by stroke.

Even... in dreams.

He often dreams that he has become another person.

A young girl.

The young woman came from a family of embroiderers and was exceptionally talented from a young age, especially skilled at embroidering the "withering and flourishing" pattern.

One can embroider the entire process of flowers and leaves from flourishing to withering on the same piece of embroidery.

She was thus hailed as the foremost embroiderer in the area, possessing a gentle nature and kindness towards all things in the world.

She loved watching the young men and women in the academy reading and playing, and often used them as models to embroider vivid and lifelike portraits.

But the good times didn't last long.

When her family fell into decline, she was forcibly taken as a concubine by a local tyrant. Because she refused to comply, she was locked in a boudoir and never saw the light of day again.

Then, she was presented as a "gift" to a monk who practiced the evil art of "absorbing yin to replenish yang." That man drained her life force and talent and gave them to another daughter of a local tyrant.

She could only watch helplessly as her talent was gradually taken away, and her body withered away. Meanwhile, the young girl rose to fame with her stolen talent, becoming an enviable "rising star in the embroidery world."

Until her life ran out of energy, she was abandoned in a mass grave by the local gentry, left to fend for herself.

The mass grave was near a village.

On her deathbed, she could only watch the boys and girls laughing and running around in the village, her heart filled with overwhelming resentment and jealousy.

The thugs in the town robbed me of my life, and the vitality of the village should be buried with me!

The purity I cherish is only found in these rural boys, and only by plundering them all can this void be filled!

Dreams always come to an abrupt end here.

Every time Qi An woke up, he was covered in a cold sweat.

The dreams were becoming longer and longer, and recently, he could hardly distinguish whether he was Qi An or the embroiderer who breathed her last in the mass grave.

The moment he awoke, the surge of jealousy and hatred in his chest was so real that it sent shivers down his spine.

"This dream felt way too real."

Qi An muttered to himself as he sat up from the straw bed, gazing at the sunlight streaming in through the window, somewhat dazed.

The morning light was clear, the birdsong was crisp, and everything seemed no different from usual.

But he just felt that something was quietly taking root and growing inside his body.

He shook his head, trying to shake off those gloomy thoughts, but his gaze unconsciously drifted to the window—and then, it froze.

There was a person standing outside the window.

The man stood under the old locust tree not far from his house. He was tall and slender, with his back to the morning light, so his face was not visible. But judging from his build, he was a young man.

But... he doesn't have any friends?

Qi An was stunned for a moment, and the chill that had just been dispelled by the sunlight quietly crept back into his heart.

He got dressed, gently pushed open the drafty wooden door, and with a creak, startled two sparrows under the eaves.

The boy turned around at the sound.

The morning light just happened to brush across his profile, illuminating his calm eyes.

Qi An's breath hitched.

He had absolutely no recollection of that face, yet it felt somewhat familiar.

Could it be that he has seen it before?

"Excuse me, who are you?"

Qi An heard his own voice sound dry, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.

Lu Mingfei looked at him, his gaze lingering on his face for a moment, as if trying to confirm something.

Then he spoke, his voice not loud, but clearly penetrating the wind and reaching Qi An's ear.

"Lu Mingfei".

"Nice to meet you."

"I—I'm also very happy to see you?" Qi An paused, instinctively replying, then realized something was off, "So you've come here—?"

"I'm just helping you out in a little way."

Help? What do you mean by "a little bit of help"?

The thought had just surfaced in Qi An's mind, but he hadn't even had a chance to ask it aloud.

Suddenly, a perfectly timed light tap came from the back of my neck.

It wasn't heavy, but it precisely severed and stunned Qi An's consciousness.

His vision went black, and he slumped forward.

Lu Mingfei had appeared behind him at some point, his hand still in a light tapping motion, while his other hand had firmly supported his slumping shoulder.

The morning breeze rustled through the old locust tree, making its leaves whisper.

Lu Mingfei looked down at the boy's slightly furrowed brow as he slept, where a faint red mark could be seen gradually becoming clearer.

"Looks like... we've arrived just in time."

Clearly, the influence of Su Ningshuang's remaining primordial spirit is intensifying. This confirms Lu Mingfei's concerns.

Qi An's soul was being tainted by the resentment and hatred of that wisp of primordial spirit.

"Originally, I should have asked that bastard Immortal Lord about this," he muttered to himself, as if speaking to himself, "but I've thought of a way, the most convenient... and least likely to go wrong way."

He gently placed Qi An on the dry grass under the tree, and then sat cross-legged beside him, with the Myriad Laws Soul-Splitting Blade placed horizontally on his lap.

Lu Mingfei extended his finger and lightly touched the red mark between Qi An's eyebrows.

Before the blade even moved, an invisible force of "separation" spread from his fingertips, like a precise scalpel probing into the tangled red thread of cause and effect.

Then gently hook it.

The red thread was "pulled" out, like a loosened end of a thread, trembling slightly in the air. One end was still connected to Qi An's brow, while the other end drifted toward Lu Mingfei.

Without hesitation, he guided the free-floating end towards his brow.

"Since everyone says to call the police when something happens..." Lu Mingfei smiled, "then as a foreign guest," the police should... take me more seriously, right?

The words fell.

He closed his eyes.

Inside his body, he deliberately and completely stopped the swaying phantom of the "World Tree".

At this moment, he was like a pure, unprotected "foreign object," exposed to the causal laws of this world.

The red thread connecting him to Qi An, and even more so to Su Ning Shuang's remaining karma, became the most conspicuous "target".

In his heart, Lu Mingfei spoke softly to the supreme law that maintained balance and judged anomalies: "Law of Causality, come and cleave."