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

Chapter 96 Soul Division

Early morning, on the deck of the Moniach on the Yangtze River.

"Professor, do we... really have to evacuate completely?"

Selma looked at the technicians in diving suits boarding the ship one after another and couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

A breeze from the river brushed against her hair, carrying with it a chilly, damp mist.

Beside her, Professor Mans Rundstedt was intently organizing all the data he had brought back from underwater and from that ancient bronze city.

Paper, photographs, rubbings, sensor records—pages of precious data were carefully stacked and stored away.

"You'll have to ask our headmaster about that."

Mans didn't look up, his voice devoid of emotion. "The order comes directly from the principal's office. The wording is: immediately cease all exploration activities, evacuate everyone, and do not delay."

Selma opened her mouth, but ultimately didn't ask any further questions. She looked into the distance.

The personnel at the Chinese branch were also packing up their equipment, their movements swift and silent, clearly having received similar instructions.

Mans's gaze also swept over those figures, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

End the exploration? Just when the research on Bronze City was making crucial progress?

This is clearly illogical.

Could there be some irreparable rift between the Secret Service and its Chinese branch?

But if that's the case, why were both sides withdrawing at the same time, and why wasn't the atmosphere hostile, but rather conveying a certain...

An unspoken sense of urgency?

He raised his head and looked at the misty river. The leaden sky hung low, the river flowed silently on both sides of the boat, and beneath the deep green waves, the bronze city that had slumbered for thousands of years lay quietly dormant.

A long-lost hunter's intuition suddenly pricked him gently.

This is not a political game, nor is it a research interruption.

This is a clearing operation.

Before the real storm arrives, quietly remove all irrelevant pieces from the chessboard.

Just as they were evacuating from the surface of the Yangtze River, dozens of meters underwater, behind that closed bronze city gate.

A tiny orange-red flame suddenly shot up, then spread silently, outlining a swaying, door-shaped silhouette.

The door slowly opened outwards, the edges of the flames distorting the air.

"Hurry up, keep going, hurry up, keep going!"

A low but urgent voice came from inside the door, mixed with the dull sound of metal scraping against metal.

"Hurry up and nod! Can't you come over and lend a hand?!"

Old Tang's voice followed, clearly strained, "Open the door wider! It's so narrow I can't even push my shopping cart through!"

Before he finished speaking, the fiery gate seemed to understand, and suddenly expanded several times in all directions, stabilizing into an entrance large enough for a vehicle to pass through.

Old Tang let out a low roar and charged out, pushing a fully loaded supermarket shopping cart.

The wheels rumbled as they rolled over the damp ground. Inside the cart sat a heavy, ancient bronze jar, its patterns faintly visible in the firelight.

Lu Mingfei then stepped out of the fiery gate. He watched as Old Tang struggled to steady the shopping cart, and then glanced at the fiery gate that quickly shrank and disappeared.

He suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity with the scene.

It's like the feeling in a novel where the protagonist huffs and puffs as he crashes into a wall frame, only to find himself in another world.

It's a pity.

Unfortunately, the author didn't die peacefully on the night he finished writing that story.

Otherwise, it would be truly perfect.

"What are you daydreaming about?"

Old Tang pushed his shopping cart over, the wheels making a soft, pattering sound as they rolled across the wet bronze floor.

He tilted his head, pointing with a puzzled expression at the bronze jar in the car, "This thing..."

What exactly is it?

He was dragged out of bed early this morning by Lu Mingfei. He was still sleepy and his mind was a complete mess.

Upon seeing Lu Mingfei, before he could even ask a single question, she was stuffed into his clothes.

Immediately afterwards, a fire door burst into flames in front of me, and then I was directed, in a daze, to start struggling with this shopping cart.

Although he was completely bewildered, since his brother had already spoken, he decided to accept it.

Just do it.

"Why does this thing seem a little familiar?"

Looking at the bronze jar, Old Tang rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the lingering drowsiness. He bent down, bringing his rough fingers close to the bronze jar, almost touching the cool texture of its surface.

Suddenly, as if struck by something, he slapped his forehead.

"By the way, Mingming! I told you, I dreamt about the dragons you mentioned last night!" Good heavens, so many dragons, soaking in a pool of bright red lava, like dumplings being boiled! They were fighting and wrestling on an endless expanse of bronze ground, filled with bronze pillars and walls—

"Hmm, there seem to be similar jars over there."

and many more.

Old Tang's words came to an abrupt end.

He blinked hard, as if to make sure he wasn't still dreaming.

His gaze was fixed on the bronze jar in the shopping cart, every line on the jar slowly overlapping with a bronze jar in his memory.

"Clearly, this looks like that..."

""

"No need to look," Lu Mingfei interrupted him, his voice low but like a bucket of ice water being poured over his head. "This is the bronze jar."

Lu Mingfei looked at Lao Tang.

There was no hint of jest in those eyes, nor the usual lazy gentleness; only a heavy calm.

"We'll talk about those things later."

"There are more important things now—we're out of time."

"No time?" Old Tang repeated subconsciously, a lingering, dreamlike smile still playing on his lips. "What do you mean, 'no time'?"

His smile suddenly froze on his face.

It felt like a cold steel needle suddenly piercing his spine, then instantly electrifying him. It jolted him awake.

J

Is it the "no time" excuse I was thinking of?

He felt his voice was dry and tight, so unfamiliar that he couldn't even recognize it himself.

"Didn't you say—didn't you say there was still a year left?" Old Tang's voice trembled slightly, as if he were grasping at the last straw.

"That would be great," Lu Mingfei shook his head, "Unfortunately, we don't have time left."

He paused, his gaze falling on Old Tang's slightly contracted pupils, his voice as calm as if he were stating a weather forecast.

"The lava, the bronze ground, the fighting dragons you saw in your dream, and this jar—"

This is not a dream, Old Tang. It's him "eroding you." It's "your other side," awakening little by little through the loopholes in the talisman.

"What should we do then?"

Old Tang's voice trembled, "Would killing myself now stop him?"

"what?"

Now it was Lu Mingfei's turn to be confused. He was still waiting to see Lao Tang's anxious reaction. What kind of move was this suicide?

He had anticipated that Old Tang would panic, be terrified, ask questions, and might even break down, but the option of "committing suicide" was clearly beyond his script.

"It's just committing suicide to die." Old Tang's face was full of self-righteousness, and he even pointed to his own neck.

"Since I'm about to awaken," and that dragon is going to devour me, why don't I just end it all before it does?

""

He scratched his head, his expression even revealing a touch of simple confusion.

"You brought me to this godforsaken place, it looks like a place to cover up a murder... oh no, I mean, a place to deal with problems. You just couldn't find any other way to save me, right?"

"No, no... How come you're so adept at this line of thought?" Lu Mingfei licked his dry lips, momentarily speechless.

"Hey, these are all things you see abroad."

Old Tang waved his hand, as if he had opened a floodgate of conversation, "Isn't that how it is over there? When faced with a terminal illness that can't be cured, while they can still move, they choose a dignified path. They can even sell their organs—oh no, I mean donate them to hospitals or pharmaceutical companies! You see, over there, because of the high work pressure and the so-called social security, a lot of people..."

'

"7

Lu Mingfei looked at Old Tang, who had already begun to ramble on about his "afterlife" and even seemed to be entering a state of "end-of-life planning," and remained silent for a moment.

"actually,"

He spoke, his voice not loud, but it interrupted Old Tang's increasingly distant, wandering thoughts: "You don't have to die."

"What?"

Old Tang was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding, "What did you say?"

"I said, you don't have to die."

Lu Mingfei repeated, his tone calm and certain, "I have found a solution to the problem."

As he spoke, he reached out and pulled a knife out of thin air.

The blade emitted a clear, low hum as it was drawn from its sheath. In the dim light, the edge shimmered with a cold, eerie light, and the smooth, mirror-like surface clearly reflected the faces of the two people present.

One is bewildered, the other is calm.

Old Tang realized what was happening, his face filled with ecstasy, and he grabbed Lu Mingfei's arm.

"Really?! Why didn't you say so earlier! What's the plan? Tell me, tell me now!"

Lu Mingfei held the knife, his voice still steady, even with an air of matter-of-fact.

"It's simple, just let me make a cut."

The air suddenly froze.

Old Tang's smile froze, his lips twitched, and the tiny flame of hope that had just ignited in his eyes was extinguished without a trace.

He glanced at Lu Mingfei, then at the gleaming knife, and finally pointed to his own nose, his expression a twisted, comical mix of crying and laughing.

"Then...then won't I still die?"

"Strictly speaking, it wasn't you who died."

Lu Mingfei held the knife horizontally, resting it on Lao Tang's shoulder with the back of the blade facing his neck.

"It's about letting 'him' die, or more precisely, letting him 'split' out of you."

He paused, his gaze falling on Old Tang's face, which had suddenly frozen in shock.

"This sword is called the Soul-Splitter."

"Its power is separation. I can use it to completely sever you and the Lord of Bronze and Fire," Norton said, splitting you in two.

Old Tang's breath caught in his throat. He instinctively took a small step back, his back pressed against the cold bronze wall.

"What happens after you cut it open?"

"after?"

He turned his head and looked at the quiet bronze jar in the shopping cart.

He will return fully to the cocoon that rightfully belongs to him. And then...

37

Lu Mingfei's voice lowered.

"I will personally take him to where he needs to go."

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