Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

A fierce glint flashed in Zhu Liao's eyes. He formed a strange hand seal and chanted incantations in a deep, ancient voice, as if from the netherworld.

On the carriage floor, the sinister aura he had laid out beforehand, emanating from the puppets, was stirred up, transforming into countless visible black streams of energy that, like venomous snakes, coiled around Lu Mingfei and Frilian from all directions. At the same time, his own aura suddenly surged, his gaunt body swelled, and a faint, eerie light flowed beneath his skin, radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.

"Watch out! This old guy's got some bad intentions!" Lu Mingfei felt a chill run down his spine as he sensed the cold, suction-like force emanating from beneath his feet, along with the foul energy contained within the countless swirling black currents. He stomped his foot hard, sending a scorching wave of energy spreading outwards from him, temporarily repelling the malevolent energy beneath his feet. However, the black currents continued to relentlessly entangle him, like a persistent, insidious infection.

Frillie unleashed several magic arrows in quick succession, the azure arrows scattering wisps of black energy. However, the black energy was relentless, quickly reforming after being dispersed. She frowned slightly; this tainted energy was extremely stubborn.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhu Liao moved again. This time, his target was clear: Lu Mingfei! He could tell that the elven woman was a support and ranged attacker; as long as he could take down or severely injure this young man who possessed the secret of immortality, the rest would be no threat!

He transformed into a streak of purplish-black light, moving at incredible speed. Wherever he passed, seats and luggage seemed to be torn apart by an invisible force, scattering fragments everywhere. His withered hand spread its five fingers, and the eerie green light at the fingertips condensed into tangible claws, sharp enough to tear everything apart, grabbing towards Lu Mingfei's crown.

This strike contained his life's cultivation and the immense Yin energy he had unleashed, determined to capture and kill Lu Mingfei in one fell swoop!

There's no way to avoid it!

Lu Mingfei's pupils contracted; the shadow of death was like ice water poured over his head, making every hair on his body stand on end.

"Time zero!" Lu Mingfei felt anxious, but the incantation had not taken effect!

Damn it, you can't use spells here!

The violent power within him surged at an unprecedented speed, almost breaking through the constraints of his blood vessels. Lu Mingfei roared, advancing instead of retreating, his dagger, wielding an unstoppable momentum, aimed straight for Zhu Liao's heart.

At the critical moment, Frilian appeared half a step in front of Lu Mingfei, her hands moving rapidly in front of her. A huge golden magic circle composed of countless fine runes unfolded, like a blooming golden lotus, protecting herself and Lu Mingfei behind her.

"Holy Shield - Absolute Protection!"

"boom!!!"

Chapter 291 Odin's New Puppet

Zhu Liao's sharp claws slammed into the golden magic circle, unleashing a terrifying energy shockwave. The entire carriage jolted upwards as if struck by a giant hammer, shattering all the windows instantly. Several nearby passengers were thrown out by the blast, their screams drowned out by the deafening roar.

The golden magic circle trembled violently, its light dimmed rapidly, and Frilian's face turned pale, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, but she still held on desperately.

Zhu Liao was also shaken by the powerful protective force, causing his blood and qi to surge and his forward momentum to be halted.

Now, die!

A fierce glint flashed in Lu Mingfei's eyes. He would not miss this fleeting opportunity that Frilian had created for him! The power within him erupted like a volcano, all of it pouring into the dagger in his right hand. The ordinary antique-style dagger emitted a hum that seemed to groan under the strain, and countless fine, dark red lines, like veins, appeared on its blade.

He didn't stab again with the dagger. Instead, his body spun like a top, using the force of the rotation to concentrate all his power into his left fist. A dark red light emanated from his fist, like a burning flame, carrying a violent aura that seemed capable of tearing apart the soul!

"Give it to me! Break it!"

With a roar, Lu Mingfei's left fist, burning with a dark red light, tore through the still-unsettled turbulence like a cannonball, and slammed into Zhu Liao's chest, which was stiffened by the recoil, with a speed beyond visual perception.

For the first time, utter horror appeared in Zhu Liao's crimson eyes. He felt the terrifying power contained in Lu Mingfei's punch, a power that threatened his life! It was a domineering and destructive force he had never encountered before, one that transcended his understanding!

He desperately tried to activate his Yin energy to protect himself and retreat, but it was all too late.

"Thump!!!" A dull, loud noise!

Lu Mingfei's fist landed squarely on Zhu Liao's chest.

"Click".

Zhu Liao's body jolted violently, his sternum shattering. A violent, burning, and tearing force, like a burst dam, surged into his body, frantically destroying his meridians and internal organs.

He spat out a mouthful of thick, dark red blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, and his body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, smashing through the connecting door at the other end of the carriage and falling into the darkness of the carriage behind.

"Pfft."

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground was heard, followed by deathly silence.

Lu Mingfei remained in his punching stance, breathing heavily. The dark red light on his left fist slowly faded, and his skin was covered with fine cracks, dripping with blood. He felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained by that punch, and waves of exhaustion washed over him.

Frilian removed the shaky magic shield, quickly stepped forward to support him, and frowned as she looked at his fist injury. She immediately began to chant a healing spell, and a soft green light enveloped Lu Mingfei's left arm.

"Is he dead?" Lu Mingfei asked breathlessly, his eyes fixed on the hole where Zhu Liao had disappeared.

Frillie shook her head, her expression still grave: "I don't know. But he definitely didn't feel good from that punch."

Lu Mingfei's heart sank. Even this couldn't keep him?

The carriage was a mess, as if it had been ravaged by a hurricane. The surviving passengers stared at them in terror, as if they were monsters. In the distance, the sounds of sirens and shouts from railway workers could be heard.

Don't stay here for long.

"We have to go," Lu Mingfei said, forcing himself to stand up straight.

Frilian nodded, helped him up, and the two quickly passed through the broken car door, disappearing into the shadows of the connecting area between the carriages, and soon blended into the desolate wilderness outside the car.

Dozens of miles away, in a grove of dead locust trees.

Zhu Liao stumbled forward, or rather, crawled. Each breath he took was laced with blood and excruciating pain. Around the clear fist-shaped mark on his chest, the skin and muscles were a bizarre, charred black, and the color continued to spread, preventing any form of self-healing. The destructive energy remaining within him, like a malignant tumor, relentlessly eroded his life force.

He had never been so badly injured, never so close to death! Lu Mingfei, and that elf! He had underestimated them, terribly underestimated them! The power hidden within that kid wasn't some gentle power of immortality at all, but an extremely violent monster!

"Cough cough, pfft!" He spat out another mouthful of black blood, staggered, and collapsed under a withered locust tree.

His consciousness was beginning to blur, and his vision was filled with blood red. He was unwilling to accept it! He had planned for so long, and the secret to immortality was right before his eyes.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter," the sound of horses' hooves approached from afar, treading on withered branches and fallen leaves in this deathly silent forest.

Where did the horse come from?

Zhu Liao struggled to lift his head, and through his blurred vision, he saw an extremely magnificent eight-legged celestial horse clad in dark armor, silently stopping not far from him, its hooves treading on a ghostly blue flame. On the horse's back sat a one-eyed figure wearing ancient armor and a dark blue cloak.

His figure was tall and imposing, radiating a coldness and deathly stillness like an ancient glacier. He wore an ancient-looking metal mask that revealed only one eye. That single eye coldly looked down at Zhu Liao, who was struggling on the ground, like a god looking down at a dying ant.

Odin, the king of gods.

A chill, unlike anything he had ever felt before, surged through Zhu Liao's heart, even more so than when he faced Lu Mingfei's devastating punch! He wanted to struggle, to escape, but his severely injured body couldn't even move a finger.

Odin didn't speak, but slowly raised his hand, clad in metal gauntlets. An irresistible, bone-chilling power enveloped Zhu Liao, lifting him from the ground. The power invaded his mangled body, suppressing the raging destructive energy within him, but also extinguishing his last shred of life and will to resist.

Zhu Liao felt his consciousness being stripped away, covered and filled by something cold and absolute. The last thing he saw was the abyss-like indifference in Odin's single eye, devoid of any emotion.

A new metal mask appeared in Odin's hand, similar in style to his own but slightly different. He casually placed the mask over Zhu Liao's face, which was contorted with pain and fear.

The moment the mask touched his skin, Zhu Liao's last, feeble struggle ceased. The last glimmer of light in his eyes vanished completely, and his originally tall and thin body underwent subtle changes in the process.

Odin let go.

Wearing a new mask, "Zhu Liao" stood quietly in place, like an exquisitely crafted puppet, awaiting its master's command.

Odin turned his horse around, and the eight-legged winged horse strode forward, its feet treading on a ghostly blue flame, heading into the depths of the forest. The newly formed puppet followed silently behind, its steps stiff.

Chapter 292 The Eve of the Black Moon Tide (Part 1)

Snow, endless snow.

Lu Mingfei trudged through knee-deep snow, his breath instantly torn apart by the biting wind. All around him was a monotonous, unsettling white expanse, with the silent silhouette of a dark forest in the distance. The sky held a depressing, leaden gray hue, like solidified metal.

He didn't know why he was there, nor where he was going. His memories seemed frozen by the extreme cold, leaving only a vague sense of being pulled along. It was as if something, or someone, was waiting for him ahead.

At the edge of the horizon, a frozen lake appeared, like a huge, flawless piece of dark crystal, embedded in the vast snowfield. The lake's surface was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the gray sky. In the center of the dark, icy lake, there was a tiny, almost negligible black dot.

Lu Mingfei squinted his eyes, which were stinging from the wind and snow, and strained to look.

It was a little boy fishing.

In this freezing, desolate place, how could a child be fishing? A strong sense of incongruity made him quicken his pace. As he got closer, he could see a small wooden house on the lakeshore, almost completely covered in snow, with wisps of smoke rising from its chimney.

Lu Mingfei stepped onto the ice. The ice was thick and solid, making only a slight "crunching" sound under his feet. He carefully walked towards the figure fishing.

As they drew closer, the child's silhouette became clearer. He wore a thin black tuxedo that seemed out of place in the frigid environment, a matching top hat, and held a slender fishing rod with the line dangling into a hole carved into the ice.

It is Lu Mingze.

Lu Mingfei suddenly realized the source of the feeling of being drawn in. He opened his mouth, preparing to greet him as usual with a slightly sarcastic tone.

The little boy, with his back to him, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Without turning his head, he raised his free left hand, held up one index finger, and gently pressed it to his lips.

"Shh-"

Lu Mingfei immediately fell silent, even tiptoeing. He walked to Lu Mingze's side and, mimicking him, squatted down on the ice, staring at the dark ice cave. Ice ridges clung to the edges of the cave entrance, and the water inside was murky and bottomless, as if leading to another world.

Lu Mingze then turned his head slightly and sighed softly, "Oh dear, my dear brother, your footsteps are too heavy, you scared all my fish away."

Lu Mingfei scratched his head somewhat awkwardly, though he didn't think his footsteps could penetrate such thick ice and affect the fish underwater. "There are fish in this godforsaken place?"

“Of course there are,” Lu Mingze said, turning his gaze back to the ice cave with certainty. “And it’s a really, really big ‘fish’.”

A moment of silence fell, broken only by the low whistling of the wind sweeping across the snowfield. Lu Mingfei looked at Lu Mingze's focused profile and suddenly felt that this scene was a bit strange. The little devil always had this ability to create the most eerie atmosphere in the most inappropriate places.

"Hey," Lu Mingfei couldn't help but say.

Lu Mingze knew what he was going to ask, so he interrupted him, his tone relaxed: "Don't rush, brother. The most important thing about fishing is patience. Anyway, we're just waiting, why don't we chat?"

Without waiting for Lu Mingfei's response, he continued talking to himself, his gaze fixed on the surface of the ice cave, as if he were talking to the "fish" underwater, or as if he were whispering to Lu Mingfei.

“Speaking of which, brother, have you seen Xia Mi recently? Oh, or rather, the former ‘King of the Earth and Mountains,’ Jormungandr.”

Lu Mingfei was taken aback, not expecting him to mention Xia Mi.

"How is she doing lately?" Lu Mingfei hadn't seen Xia Mi for half a month and really didn't know how she was doing.

"She and her silly brother Fenrir are living a very respectable life now."

After the earth-shattering battle that shook the Nibelungen of the Beijing subway, Xia Mi, or rather Jormungandr, reached an agreement with the intervention of Lu Mingfei, Frilian, and Lu Mingze.

The agreement involved sacrificing most of her dragon powers and near-immortality to completely transform her and Fenrir's essence, which was rooted in dragon bones. They were no longer dragons disguised as humans, but were fundamentally reshaped into true humans.

"The process was, of course, more painful than you can imagine, a million times more painful than having your bones broken and rebuilt one by one," Lu Mingze said casually, describing the terrible thing. "However, she endured it all for the sake of that big, dumb brother."

The Xia Mi of today is no longer the Dragon King with terrifying power and unpredictable thoughts, nor is she the energetic A-level freshman at Kassel College. She has become a girl with a truly fragile human body and soul.

Fenrir was placed in a small Nordic town, a sparsely populated area that suited him well.

“Fenrir’s favorite thing to do now is work at the town’s bakery because he can smell the aroma of freshly baked bread every day. Occasionally, he can’t control the strength of his new body and will knead the dough into a lump of iron, which infuriates the boss.” Lu Mingze laughed. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? The king who once held power now has to worry about firewood and rice.”

Lu Mingfei listened silently, his heart filled with mixed emotions. He imagined Fenrir wearing an apron covered in flour, grinning foolishly at the bread.

"So, how is Old Tang doing these days?" Lu Mingfei couldn't help but ask.

Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire, was once his online friend, who sent him congratulations, but in the end, they had to face each other in life and death.

“Him,” Lu Mingze shifted to a more comfortable sitting position, holding the fishing rod steadily, “he and his precious younger brother Constantine are much more high-profile than Xia Mi and the others.”

After both Donald and Constantine underwent conversions, the brothers chose drastically different lifestyles.

Instead of hiding, they used the money Old Tang had saved up during his time as a bounty hunter to run the Compassionate Orphanage in Brooklyn.