Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from the Elden Ring

But now, the Gattuso family, one of the most powerful mixed-race families, doesn't have detailed information about Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini, which is completely different from what Angers said.

The elders that Angers mentioned were actually another organization of the Secret Society—the Council of Elders, which consisted of four mixed-race families: the Cadmus family, the Saint George family, the Sigurd family, and the Beowulf family.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the world of hybrids was dominated by a few old families. However, the Industrial Revolution changed the world's landscape, and some emerging hybrid families quickly rose to prominence, gaining control of the Secret Society. Later, when Kassel College was established, representatives of the new families formed the Board of Trustees, but they honored the representatives of the old families as elders.

The elders are like old nobles among the mixed-race, and they do indeed possess some secrets that even the school board members are not qualified to inquire about.

“Well, it’s not really a top secret. Most of you here probably know something about it.” Angers actually complied with Lu Mingfei’s request and began to speak.

“That was the biggest split in the history of the Secret Party. Its information is only available to a very small number of core elders, and most of those who know about it are already dead,” Angers said calmly. “Perhaps in a few decades, it will be completely buried in the graves of the elders.”

Everyone perked up, realizing that what Angers was about to say was a real secret.

“The protagonists of the story are called the ‘Doomsday Faction’,” Angers continued. “The truth of the matter is no longer truly known; all that remains are the case files, which barely record the general outline. In short, after a certain event, some members of the Secret Society believed that the end of the world was imminent and that humanity was neither possible nor worthy of being saved. The world was destined to be destroyed, and a new era would emerge—an era of dragons or high-ranking hybrids. Those who believed in this theory left the Secret Society; to them, ‘dragon slaying’ was merely a futile sacrifice.”

“I know a little about this. Many years ago, the Secret Service conducted a large-scale search operation in Siberia, targeting the Doomsday faction,” said the old man who was holding prayer beads.

“That’s right, they have a base in Siberia.” Angzhe nodded. “Their idea is that the Dragon King has long been lurking among humans and hybrids, and that humans have no chance of winning the final battle. So they are hiding in a corner of the world, intending to preserve the human race.”

The middle-aged school board member rang the bell, "What is the connection between Lu Lincheng, Qiao Weini, and the Doomsday Faction?"

“They are high-ranking members of the Doomsday Faction,” Angers replied.

The others immediately turned their gazes to Lu Mingfei. Considering what Lu Mingfei had just said, it all seemed like... a son inheriting his father's business.

Lu Mingfei did not show the shock or confusion they expected, but rather an expression of "I see".

"Lu Mingfei, what is your relationship with the Doomsday Faction?" Frost, whose rhythm had been disrupted, now recovered and asked coldly, "Do you also want to hide away and continue the human race?"

“No, I’m sharing information about the Dragon King with you all because I need you to find this Dragon King… and then kill him.” Lu Mingfei’s tone was cold and stern. “I’m sitting here precisely because Principal Angers said you are dragon slayers; otherwise, I wouldn’t need to explain myself to you.”

Angers smiled, his eyes filled with satisfaction.

"Watch your stance!" The old man, who was holding prayer beads, rang his bell and reprimanded, "You are a student of Kassel College, and you have no right to speak to the board members in this tone!"

The girl turned around and exchanged a glance with the butler behind her, then rang the bell: "You are an excellent young man, but you should not disregard the authority of the school board."

"Are you provoking the entire Board of Trustees?" Frost was a master of labeling.

Elizabeth rang the bell. "Headmaster Frost, it is you who have been offending our young and spirited S-class students with your interrogation-like tone."

“S-rank? He doesn’t even have Word of Power. Perhaps we should consider his bloodline questionable and then discuss whether he should obey the Secret Party’s management,” Frost growled.

Just then, Lu Mingfei suddenly stood up.

Everyone felt a chill rise from the bottom of their hearts. A domain was silently expanding in the darkness, and the surging dragon's might, like a tidal wave, poured down from the top of their heads!

As the heads of various mixed-blood families, everyone present basically possessed an A-level or even an S-level bloodline rating. At this moment, everyone subconsciously activated their golden eyes... because of the fear in their bodies.

The candlelight dimmed instantly, and every pair of golden eyes shone as brightly as spotlights, even those of the butler behind the girl.

There was only one exception: Angers, who was pardoned in this area.

Lu Mingfei sighed and slowly walked to Angers. He did not activate his golden eyes, just like the only ordinary person in the grand feast of dragons, but the domain of "Time Zero" was activated by him.

He held a USB drive in his hand and bent down to insert it into the USB port next to Frost.

Frost's eyes widened, his eyeballs slowly rolling in their sockets, his expression ferocious and furious. He seemed to sense Lu Mingfei coming up behind him, one hand bulging and taut, slowly raising his cane.

“He concealed a sword in his cane.” Angers casually cut open a new cigar in the realm of time zero. “A rapier forged from Wootz steel, crafted by a master.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Mingfei pulled the cane from Frost's hand. The cane had a white vine shaft and a bronze round head, and it looked like an old object that had been around for a long time.

He drew the sword from his cane and casually stuck it into the solid wood surface of the conference table. The sword bent under the immense force and then slowly bounced back.

Frost's fingers clenched so tightly that they drew blood from his palm. Lu Mingfei then took a handkerchief from the old man's chest, carefully wiped away the blood, and put it back in the pocket of his expensive custom-made suit.

“I thought you were going to strip him naked and make him bleed a little…” Angers raised an eyebrow, quite surprised. “How about teaching him a lesson?”

“He’s not even the real head of the Gattuso family. What’s the point of teaching him a lesson?” Lu Mingfei said calmly, while pressing Frost’s shoulders with both hands and pushing the old man, who was getting up, back into his seat. “The water is already murky enough. I don’t need to stir it up.”

“Mingfei, sometimes I just can’t see through you at all.” Angers lit a cigar with a candle and said quietly, “When you’re impulsive, you’re like a bull that can’t be pulled back, and when you’re calm, you’re like an old monk in the deep mountains.”

"Do you want me to be more flamboyant?" Lu Mingfei asked.

“To keep these guys in check, you either need more power or you need to be ruthless enough.” Angers looked him straight in the eye. “Ruthless enough to earn their respect.”

“It doesn’t matter, there’s no need to intimidate them.” Lu Mingfei shook his head. “As long as they believe the information I provide, that’s fine.”

Time to restore.

Every board member was still reeling from the shock. The heavy dragon's might descended and then vanished in an instant. Lu Mingfei's figure appeared behind Frost without anyone noticing, and a rapier, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, pierced the conference table at high speed, extinguishing all the candlelight. The young board member's butler rushed to her side, shielding her with his body.

Frost was writhing in pain, veins bulging on his forehead, and he wanted to jump up, but a hand gripped his shoulder and held him down, preventing him from moving.

What truly calmed him down was the rapier stuck in front of him, its blade embedded in the solid conference table, with only half of the blade protruding, less than 30 centimeters from his head, and vibrating rapidly.

"Everyone, please calm down." Lu Mingfei's voice was unusually gentle.

Some of the school board members were angry, some were bewildered, but no one spoke up. Just now, Lu Mingfei had casually taken away everyone's bells.

"Perhaps I didn't express myself clearly, which has led to this misunderstanding." He paced slowly around the conference table. "I am not hostile to the Board of Trustees, please believe me on that point. But I dislike unfounded accusations and suspicions. I have only one goal: to slay the dragon."

“Now I’ll get straight to the core of the mystery in Mr. Frost’s file.” He snapped his fingers, and the screens in front of everyone changed, playing a blurry video. “As you all probably know, I was attacked in a hotel in this town the day before yesterday. The hotel didn’t have any security cameras, but the Gattuso family was very thoughtful and placed hidden cameras in the corridor beforehand, which is how this precious footage came about.”

Chapter 101 The Meeting Ends (Part 2)

The video started with sound, showing hotel corridors and hotel staff pushing carts. But after Lu Mingfei pressed the fast-forward button, at a certain point, the background sound was covered by a noise, like someone was slowly rubbing a handful of sand against a microphone.

"The signal is being jammed," the middle-aged school board member said in a low voice.

He was the most peaceful of them all, because he was neither on the side of the Gattuso family nor on the side of Angers, and unlike the old monks, he did not have a particular emphasis on dignity and authority that comes with age.

Only when Lu Mingfei used Time Zero did he truly frighten him. He was thankful that Frost did not escalate the conflict further, and Lu Mingfei did not become any more aggressive.

He wasn't worried about his own safety, which might be on the front lines, but rather he vaguely foresaw a bloody conflict between mixed-race families. The last time the Secret Society nearly went to war was when the Board of Trustees was established; the emerging families hadn't left any seats for the older ones, and many were convinced that the transfer of power would trigger a war outside the negotiating table.

No one knows the details of what happened, except that in the end the old families chose to preserve their dignity and peacefully handed over the core power of the secret party to the members of the board of directors.

This time, the conflict was on the verge of erupting again, but everyone remained silent.

The middle-aged school board member glanced discreetly at the hunched old man next to Angers—Frost Gattuso. In that short moment, the man seemed to have aged ten years.

He was already old, but the power of worldly authority and the power of dragon blood continued to nourish his soul, so he could still act like a young man in the position of patriarch, firmly controlling the affairs of the Gattuso family and even the Secret Society.

Now, the real young people have caught up, and perhaps this has truly dealt a blow to this power holder who has always been as proud as a fighting cock.

……

In reality, the middle-aged school board member was judging Gattuso by his own standards. Frost's pride and anger never subsided; he was hunched over because of the pain.

During his last struggle, Lu Mingfei silently crushed a bone in his hand, then, while talking to the other board members, gently smoothed out the wrinkles on his expensive, hand-tailored suit.

Frost understood that this was not a threat, but merely a gesture of respect and courtesy bestowed upon him by Lu Mingfei.

Frost would certainly not accept such charity. If one day he were to bow down to his enemies in the name of Gattuso, it would be the final preparation before drawing his sword.

He ultimately remained silent because of the change in the school board's stance.

Angers remained as composed as an outsider, while the other board members had varying expressions. However, Frost clearly noticed that when the board members present waited with suspicion for Lu Mingfei's first words after exiting from Time Zero, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the flame in their eyes—the flame representing their fighting spirit—was extinguished as well.

This is why he wanted to jump up and escalate the conflict immediately, but he failed and watched helplessly as Lu Mingfei "tamed" this group of so-called high-ranking people, while the people who were "tamed" were not even aware of it.

Only those who are determined to fight the war to the end can truly gain the upper hand at the negotiating table; otherwise, they will only be followers.

The only people in control at this table are Frost and Lu Mingfei.

……

The corridor in the video began to fog up, and the picture flickered from time to time, but the sound unexpectedly became clear again.

The sound of rain was overwhelming, and water gushed over the roof and drainpipes. The rapid flow of water carried air and made a strange friction sound in the closed drainpipes.

"Did you hear that?" Elizabeth asked with a strange expression.

"Doesn't sound human." The old man, who was holding prayer beads, had a flash of golden light in his eyes. "It's Deadpool!"

Whispers echoed in the corridor, spoken in some ancient language, sounding like chanting or weeping, but the corridor remained empty.

It was as if an unseen gate to hell had opened here, and countless evil spirits gathered here to sniff out the scent of the living.

The superior bloodline allowed the school board members to clearly hear the voices of the ancient dead.

"Blood..."

"Fresh blood!"

"I'm so thirsty!"

"A mouthwatering piece of fresh meat..."

"I've been thirsty for too long..."

Immediately afterwards, Lu Mingfei's figure pushed open the door and came out, holding that exaggerated two-meter-long weapon in his hand, looking around warily in the corridor.

The young school board member couldn't help but clutch the hem of her clothes in the darkness. The eerie sounds weren't scary, but when Lu Mingfei appeared, she felt a sense of unease, like watching a clueless horror movie protagonist walk into a haunted house with a blank expression.

At this moment, the image on the screen froze twice and stopped playing. This time, there was no noise at all; it was completely silent.

The last scene on screen was quite eerie, with countless faint black shadows standing around Lu Mingfei. Each shadow was semi-transparent, and they were coalescing into a solid form.

It's unclear whether Lu Mingfei stumbled into hell or whether evil spirits came to earth.

The time in the corner of the screen started ticking rapidly again. For about four hours, the camera had not been working again. Then the light suddenly came on, and the corridor returned to normal. There was no rainstorm, no Deadpool's ramblings, and Lu Mingfei was quietly leaning against the corner of the wall with a long knife stuck in front of him.

Everything before seemed like an illusion.

The recording has ended.

"What happened in between? Where did that rain fall?" the old monk asked in a deep voice, voicing the doubts in everyone's minds. "An illusion?"

“Nibelungen,” Lu Mingfei said calmly.

"This is impossible..." the girl exclaimed, but she immediately realized her lapse in composure and quickly straightened her face.

“Charlotte,” Elizabeth said, “could you explain this to us?”

Because of the confidentiality agreement, the board members deliberately did not reveal their names and surnames after Lu Mingfei entered the meeting room, but now Elizabeth Laurent called the girl by her first name.

Charlotte Gottingen, a sixteen-year-old girl, comes from the prestigious Gottingen family, the head family of the Secret Society that has inherited alchemy.

The Gottingen family, known as the "Flower of Gottingen," has had its heads of the family immersed in the study of alchemy and kept their distance from other families. However, Charlotte lost her mother at a young age, and Duchess Laurent took care of her during her childhood. To Charlotte, Charlotte was someone who was somewhere between a sister and a mother.

“One of the easiest mediums to use in alchemy is water. The initial downpour wasn’t an illusion; it was the alchemical space invading reality! But such things,” Charlotte whispered, “are the privilege of the Supreme Beings!”

"How did they manage that? That corridor exists in two spaces at the same time?" the middle-aged school board member wondered. "It doesn't rain in the town in reality."