Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from the Elden Ring

Countless black snakes intertwined, like a black tide, each pair of eyes fixed on Lu Mingfei.

Startled, Lu Mingfei immediately jumped up and hid behind the knight. He had always thought the knight was very tall, but when he got behind him, he realized the knight was only slightly taller than him, and that slight height difference was probably due to the heavy iron boots. But this did not diminish the knight's powerful aura.

After the knight extinguished the flames, he raised the greatsword that looked quite valuable, and the swarm of snakes, seemingly afraid of him, stopped advancing immediately. At that moment, the knight seemed to radiate reliability, shining brightly in Lu Mingfei's eyes.

Lu Mingfei felt a little relieved and scanned the corners of the kitchen and living room, but did not find Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini.

Maybe they went out.

Lu Mingfei comforted himself.

Chapter 263 Another Lu Mingfei?!

Suddenly, a commotion arose among the snakes. Several enormous pythons, intertwined and supported by the others, stood upright, their massive heads tangled together, pressing tighter and tighter until thick, black blood oozed from between their scales. The lower snakes closed their eyes, while only the two intertwined snakes at the top each kept one eye open.

It looks like... a person.

A surge of black mist appeared, and when Lu Mingfei looked again, the black snake was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini stood there, their faces filled with worry. The mess in the living room had been restored to its original state, except for the knight who remained standing in front of Lu Mingfei, reminding him that what had just happened was not a dream.

"Mingfei, come quick! I've already called the police!" Lu Lincheng said, raising his phone to show the call screen.

Call the police?

Lu Mingfei stared at the gleaming longsword in the knight's hand. The sharp, reflective edge of the blade suggested it wasn't a toy; it was clearly a weapon for killing. Breaking into a private residence with a sharp weapon—wasn't that criminal activity?

Thinking of this, Lu Mingfei took two steps back. He was genuinely afraid, not of the knight, but of himself.

What is real? What is fake? If the whole world is just a plaything of some being, will the cycle of truth and falsehood ever end? He could be a lost soul that the knight wants to save, or he could be a good boy in the world of Lu Lincheng and Qiao Wenni, but what exactly is Lu Mingfei? No one cares about this, and no one has ever asked.

Seemingly sensing Lu Mingfei's wavering, the knight sighed.

“Lu Mingfei, the world is now leaning toward destruction because of your observations,” the knight said. “Before its inevitable self-destruction, I should have avoided showing you a power that doesn’t exist in this timeline, which would have bought us time… If you have any questions that you can’t help asking, ask them now.”

Lu Mingfei lowered his eyes, remained silent for a while, and then spoke, "I have already gotten everything I wanted..."

“Those are all real.” The knight, still friendly, reminded Lu Mingfei as he faced off against the black snake-transformed Lu Lincheng and his wife, trying to calm Lu Mingfei down.

“I know…” Lu Mingfei’s eyes suddenly blurred, “This place is really beautiful, but I can’t help but think that I seem to have nothing left to pursue. Is it from some point onwards… that all that’s left for me is constant loss?”

“From the perspective of the underlying logic of how this world operates, that’s correct,” the knight nodded.

“Okay, I only have one question…” Lu Mingfei’s eyes hardened, “Am I real?”

The knight did not answer immediately. In His view, although Lu Mingfei was an existence in the illusion, he was involved with the supreme will and the timeline, and could no longer be defined by the standards of the material world as "real and existent". In His heart, Lu Mingfei was regarded as a real individual.

But this was clearly not the answer Lu Mingfei wanted.

From this boy's perspective, the whole world is in chaos. If he weren't so oblivious, he would have already suspected he had a mental illness. The fact that he's asking this question now means he's starting to doubt himself.

What he needs is confidence.

This confidence is difficult to convey through words.

"Some say I am a king, some say I am just an ambitious person, some see me as a passerby, some see me as a weapon, some tell me that I am the best master in the world, some tell me that only I can change the world... In the end, I still live as myself and do not become any absolute concept. You live in the hearts of many people and have different appearances, but the most important thing is yourself."

The knight spoke slowly, his tone so serious that it made Lu Mingfei somewhat uneasy.

He removed his mask, and the person under his helmet looked exactly like Lu Mingfei!

So that's how it is! So that's how it is!

Lu Mingfei's mouth dropped open, and he was speechless for a moment. Information that had been hidden by the rules of the world was churning in his mind: the knight's voice, the knight's figure, the black mist swirling around the knight... another version of himself.

The knight smiled. "What, can't believe you'll look so majestic?"

"Wait... me? Who are you?" Lu Mingfei felt the world spinning around him, and his head was about to go oxygen-deprived.

"This isn't your cradle, it's mine." The knight patted Lu Mingfei on the shoulder and said decisively, "Abandon or wallow, perhaps there's a third option: try to create a miracle from the impossible... endless death and battle, until the end of time! That's what I'm good at!"

As soon as he finished speaking, thick cracks instantly covered the floor. Lu Mingfei heard a sharp explosion, and he saw the floor slowly spread with cracks, bulge upwards, and then explode, spraying irregular fragments upwards, creating an effect like a shower of flowers.

Everything happened slowly, but when those seemingly soft fragments touched the solid wood tables and chairs, they seemed to instantly transfer terrifying kinetic energy, causing the heavy wooden furniture to crack and shatter. It was as if two artillery positions on different levels were raining down artillery fire on each other, everything was exploding and being destroyed.

Only Lu Mingfei and the Knight remained unharmed. At this moment, the Knight underwent another change. In stark contrast to the blackness that had been concealed by the world's rules, golden light emanated from his body, and a dawn-like arc hung above his head, making him appear like a true god.

The destructive torrent—those high-speed fragments swept up by the gale—was cleaved in two before them, daring not to overstep its bounds.

Sunlight streamed in, and Lu Mingfei's legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground after just one glance—a normal reaction for anyone. Their apartment building had been snapped in half, and the world outside was like a post-apocalyptic movie come to life. The entire world was collapsing; the sky was splitting open, darkness poured down like a collapsed celestial river, the earth was shattered, gravity seemed to have vanished, flames rose from the ground, and fierce winds tore apart building after building, with countless tornadoes of dust amidst the ruins of various structures.

Everything crumbled because of the eye contact between the two Lu Mingfeis.

Lu Mingfei suddenly realized something and quickly looked at the shadowy black figure in the storm. The place where the black snake had been coiled was now destroyed, the snakes had disappeared, and in their place was a huge black figure that was rapidly expanding in size. Snow-white threads kept hanging down from the black snake's body, and wherever they touched, they quickly decayed and collapsed.

In a daze, Lu Mingfei saw countless figures and countless shimmering golden eyes. In those ancient murmurs, there was a tremor for the unknown, an obsession with destruction, and a longing to kneel... They were praying and celebrating the awakening of the Great Sovereign.

This is the future that Nidhogg envisions, and this is life as seen through Nidhogg's eyes.

Knight Lu Mingfei lowered his longsword, golden light surging on its blade. He slowly drew an arc in front of him, like a king defining boundaries on a sand table. The patterns of the Elden Ring appeared from the tip of the sword, and golden waves surged upwards, blocking the decaying aura of the black serpent and the threads that plundered power.

Chapter 264 God War

Lu Mingfei lost his footing and had to kneel on the ground. The entire building was still trembling violently, not with the regular shaking of an earthquake, but more like some colossal object breaking free from its concrete skeleton. The golden radiance enveloped this pure land, but in the destructive wave sweeping across the world, it was nothing more than a lone boat.

Lu Mingfei tried his best not to look down, but even so, it was difficult for him to stand still.

"Concentrate, I will create an opportunity for you. The exit from the illusion will appear in the form of a door. Be sure to seize the opportunity," the knight said.

"A door?" Lu Mingfei looked around and could only see broken walls and ruins, the remains of buildings constantly shifting in position during the storm. If it was a maze, this was a highly complex maze with constantly changing terrain; finding an intact door in such a place was like finding a needle in a haystack.

“The door will definitely appear, but its form is uncertain,” the knight said confidently. “This foolish dragon is turning this place into Nibelungen. There are no doors in the illusion, but there are cages. I may not be able to look after you next, so remember to run towards the light.”

Lu Mingfei wished he could write down all of His words in his notebook, but before he could ask about the light, the knight leaped up and disappeared into the storm.

Just a few seconds later, countless firefly-like points of light appeared around Lu Mingfei, extending in all directions. Each one emitted a pale blue fluorescence, illuminating a patch of darkness. Tens of thousands of tiny lights connected together, twinkling like a river of stars as they breathed.

Starlight.

One of the Shining Stone spells of the Magic Academy of Realucaria can release small, floating starlight to illuminate the surroundings. It is a spell given to magicians who leave the academy and embark on a journey.

In the starless night, in the sunless underground, in the imprisoned cell—no matter when or where, the stars are always by the magician's side.

The starlight, which shone like a galaxy, was extinguished in an instant. The dangerous storms and sharp debris could not affect the starlight, but the black serpent threads that were everywhere would plunder the power of the star life fragments contained in the brilliance.

Lu Mingfei then understood what it meant to run in the direction of the light.

But there is an even more serious problem right now: Lu Mingfei is an ordinary human. He doesn't have the skills to scale walls or fly. Even if he knows where to avoid the black snake, he can't find a way to go.

Just then, a corner of the storm in the sky parted, and golden light poured down. Lu Mingfei looked up and saw a figure wielding golden light fighting a black serpent above the clouds. The golden sword light deflected the black serpent's claws and fangs, cleaved its black scales, and evaporated large amounts of blood mist. The black serpent howled and swung its strangely shaped tail, knocking the figure away.

Above the sky, there seemed to be another sky, with storms raging beneath the clouds and auroras crisscrossing above. Each collision between the knight and the black serpent created a brief burst of high-temperature, high-voltage conditions, ionizing the atmosphere and causing high-energy particles to excite atoms in the air like solar winds, resulting in a dazzling, radiating burst of light.

The storm clouds closed up again, and apart from the occasional lightning bolts piercing through the clouds, Lu Mingfei could see nothing else.

Lu Mingfei couldn't see the elements. What he didn't know was that on that battlefield, no elemental power that existed in Earth's history could manifest in the material world. Any unnatural radiance or flames that appeared represented divine power sublimated from the foundation of the Dragon Throne.

Soon, Lu Mingfei heard a roar and a chant.

It didn't sound like human language, but Lu Mingfei was surprisingly able to understand it.

The battle between the knight and Nidhogg is silent in the eyes of ordinary beings. Their will can directly command the elements, and they can release or extinguish the power of words without words. Moreover, both of them possess the supreme authority of the spiritual element. When they look at each other, the intensity of their spiritual imprints, comparable to those of the Saha world, is their words.

From beginning to end, there was only one whispered confession when the knight entered the territory of Nidhogg Royal Domain.

"I have been waiting for this moment ever since I learned of your existence."

It's hard to say that they fight in the material world.

The elemental flashes, powerful enough to serve as the breeding ground for the power of words, tore through space. It was a ray of light, a feather, a gentle breeze, scorching a bottomless hole in the elemental staff of the material world. If the Rhine was a destructive elemental phenomenon that melted a page of musical score, then the storm sweeping across the sky and earth was destroying the book of the material world.

Various elemental phenomena obscured the appearance of the material world. These vibrations, whether gentle or violent, were flattened by the royal domain as they approached the battlefield. They were like two war gods engaged in a primal duel, standing in the void and using weapons and bodies enhanced by ultimate alchemical power. Terrifying illusions appeared from time to time around them, which were manifestations of the extreme interference of spiritual elements with reality.

The black serpent—or rather, the unformed body of a black dragon—its scales and bones represent the concept of "indestructibility." Fighting such a behemoth with a human body is not easy. With each clash, terrifying power is reflected back from the golden radiance, and the knight feels every bone in his body trembling violently, leaving him numb.

The taste of blood welled up in His throat, a familiar taste that had accompanied Him throughout His more than a hundred years of conquest.

The ruins, wilderness, and burning land that I could see were surging up from the depths of my memory.

As the supreme being in the spiritual realm, He knew exactly what this was about—a gift. The Supreme Will's personal descent was not merely the setting up of a playful stage; it was a sophisticated instrument, and destruction was an integral part of it.

This activity comes from an individual named "Lu Mingfei".

With a soft shout, He dispelled the illusion before His eyes, raised His greatsword and charged once more. His divine body, now transformed into a sword, was unrecognizable. Not only was the sword filled with an astonishingly dense golden aura, but it was also enveloped in an ionized light on the outer edge of its golden radiance.

Nidhogg had already experienced the power of that conceptual weapon, and it chose to use the bones in its tail to block the blade.

Another burst of aurora erupted, but this time the knight did not attack again, creating a slight opening in the impenetrable barrage of strikes. Nidhogg looked at the small black dot in the distance with suspicion and uncertainty. The thousands of cone cells in his dragon eyes allowed him to see all kinds of anomalies from elements and dimensions to the microscopic world.

But He finally realized that the knight had no intention of attacking.

The knight was conjuring a new domain, and the dragon runes that came from the earth and mountains, one of Nidhogg's offspring.

“I am the potter’s wheel, the fragments of earth that fell when the sky was stretched out—before the mountains were settled, I had already chewed the darkness of antiquity.”

On the ground, mountains rose and solidified from the flames, clearing a path for Lu Mingfei.

Chapter 265 The Gate

Lu Mingfei immediately started running.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit..." His entire attention was captured by the jagged rocks, storm and dust in front of him. If it weren't for the starlight, he would have fallen off the ridge at any moment and been smashed to pieces.

This is a road that rises from the abyss that split the earth. If you measure the height from the bottom of the abyss, it would be as if Lu Mingfei were running wildly on a mountain thousands of meters high.

Holy crap—

His language skills have been reduced to just these two concise words.

However, Nidhogg also spotted the little mouse running wildly through the maze. It was longer than the knight's arm and didn't even need to unleash its Primal Authority. The snow-white "threads" used to seize biomass immediately retracted, then burrowed into the newly formed mountain range, like a giant serpent gnawing at the earth.

Lu Mingfei heard the sound of rocks crumbling rapidly approaching, and the starlight was gradually being swallowed up from behind, looking as if the dark sky was chasing after him.

Snow-white threads emerged from the rocks beneath his feet, leaving behind corroded caves. In that blink of an eye, for a fleeting second, Lu Mingfei almost thought he was going to die. A numbing sensation spread from his calves, and at the same time, various hallucinations appeared before his eyes.

Some images showed him sleeping in a sunny classroom, others showed him cautiously playing on the computer he shared with his cousin late at night, and still others showed the setting sun slowly slipping away from his feet on his way home from school... In a daze, he saw even more, and things he had never experienced before began to appear in his mind.

That was the end of something that happened in the distant future.

The cause of cause and effect is precisely what shaped the result of its birth in the past!

Lu Mingfei suddenly broke free from the bizarre revolving lantern. He continued running, leaving behind a pale golden phantom. Something on the phantom's chest suddenly lit up, and the golden light exploded, destroying all the threads wrapped around the phantom.

The principles of regression and causality helped Lu Mingfei escape danger.