Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

After hesitating for a moment, she extended her slender fingers, the tips of which glowed with a pale green light. The light, like the softest veil, slowly enveloped Lu Mingfei's body.

The next second, Lu Mingfei's body was gently lifted up by a soft force, leaving the sofa and hovering steadily a few dozen centimeters off the ground. He remained curled up in his sleeping position, smacked his lips, and slept even more soundly.

Frilian manipulated an invisible magical hand, carrying Lu Mingfei silently towards the master bedroom of the suite. It was the largest room, elegantly and comfortably furnished, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows and a large bed.

Clearly, the Japanese branch tacitly agreed that the two with the most special relationship among the four would share the master bedroom space.

Using magic, she gently placed Lu Mingfei on the soft bed and pulled the blanket over him. Frilian stood by the bed and watched him quietly for a while. Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, casting soft shadows on her delicate profile.

Finally, she turned and walked to a luxurious armchair on the other side of the room, sat down slowly, fully clothed, and closed her eyes. Elves don't need long periods of deep sleep like humans; meditation and light rest are enough to restore their energy. And so, in the room filled with the scent of sandalwood, watching over the sleeping Lu Mingfei, she fell into her own tranquility.

After an unknown amount of time, a very faint sound came from the living room.

Chu Zihang's bedroom door opened silently. He was thirsty and came out to get a drink of water. Wearing a white hotel bathrobe, he walked to the small bar and poured himself a glass of chilled lemonade.

Holding a water glass, my gaze inadvertently swept across the open door of the master bedroom.

In the dim light of the living room, he could see what was inside: Lu Mingfei was sprawled out in the middle of the large bed, the blankets kicked back slightly. Frillie was quietly curled up in the sofa chair beside the bed, her silver hair flowing like moonlight, also fast asleep.

Chu Zihang's golden eyes, which never went out, flickered slightly in the dim light.

His face was expressionless, but he was very pleased, feeling a kind of joy at having a child late in life.

Lu Mingfei will probably be able to shed his dual titles of "lying down" and "single" very soon, right? Chu Zihang thought to himself.

As for himself.

The image of Xia Mi, a quirky and mischievous girl who always clung to him with a smile, now thousands of miles away but bombarding him almost daily with emails, messages, and even occasional video calls, came to mind.

His close relationship with Xia Mi was no secret at Kassel College; last month, some bored individuals voted them as one of the most unexpected yet seemingly plausible couples. Thinking of this, a slight smile softened the corners of Chu Zihang's usually cold lips.

However, when he thought of Susie, the girl who always silently followed behind him, helping him with all the trivial matters, with complex emotions hidden in her eyes, Chu Zihang felt a faint sense of guilt and helplessness that he himself might not even be aware of.

Some things cannot be forced, nor can they be responded to.

Chu Zihang tilted his head back and drank the ice-cold lemonade in one gulp. The refreshing sensation gave him a slight boost of energy.

Then, he quietly retreated to his room and gently closed the door.

"Good evening," Chu Zihang thought for a moment, then sent the message.

"What's up, Young Master Chu? Did you have fun in Japan? Did you see any beautiful girls?" Xia Mi replied quickly.

"It's alright, I saw him."

Who is it? Is it pretty?

"Yabuki Sakura, Genjiro's assistant," with a photo—Genjiro and Sakura.

"Oh, Genjiro is quite handsome, and so are you."

Chapter 357 Spider Cut

Genji poured the last of the Yamazaki whisky from the bottle onto the Spider Cutter's knife.

The amber-colored liquor flowed along the blade, which gleamed with a cold, azure light, washing away any bloodstains that were not actually there.

This ancient sword, passed down for thousands of years, is called Spider Cutter. The inscription on the sword reads: "A fierce creature lurks in the Spider Mountain at night." Its wielders throughout the ages have used it to slay all sorts of incredible beings, including demons, fallen hybrids, and legendary ancient dragon subspecies that have awakened.

Each owner leaves their own mark on the blade; Genji used it to carve the end onto Sakurai Akira's heart.

Many days have passed since the execution in the swaying train carriage, but Genji still thinks of that degenerate.

Before his death, Sakurai Akira could no longer be called human. His skin was covered in bluish-black scales, his fingers had transformed into claws, and his golden, vertical pupils were murky. If he were depicted in the ukiyo-e prints of the main hall of a shrine, he would undoubtedly be a monstrous figure like a blue oni or a yaksha.

In ancient times, the family's priests would have written this slaying as a romantic legend of demon-slaying, praising the hero Genjiro for chasing down the demon that sucked the lifeblood of women.

But Genjiro couldn't simply see Sakurai Akira as a demon.

Because when the spider cutter pierced through the heart of the half-dragon, the dying Sakurai Akira actually grinned on his hideous face.

The dying, fallen one, used his last breath to laugh.

As death approached, the newly formed scales on Sakurai Akira's body peeled away, revealing the somewhat immature face that had belonged to a twenty-three-year-old. He sat there on the train seat, ravaged by the battle, half his face illuminated by the setting sun streaming through the window, looking as peaceful as a sleeping boy.

Genjiro himself, gripping a bloodstained longsword, stood in the shadows of the carriage, still panting.

The moth, born in darkness, finally burned itself to death in the fire. In the moment of turning to ash, it revealed an expression of redemption.

absurd.

Genjiro put down the bottle, covered his eyes with his hands, and shut himself out of everything. He forced himself to identify with the moth, imagining himself born in endless darkness, never having seen the light since emerging from his cocoon. He could only blindly and stubbornly fly towards the direction he believed in, not knowing if the direction was right, not knowing if this darkness had any boundaries, not knowing if there were other moths in the world.

Loneliness. The biting cold seeped into my bones little by little.

Then, he remembered a sentence, not spoken by Sakurai Akira himself, but written in crooked handwriting on a crumpled note found in his pocket during the search of the body:

"Moths fly into the flame simply because of loneliness. Driven by loneliness, they will try to touch the light even if it means being shattered to pieces."

Genjiro had read the novel Sakurai Akira secretly wrote while at the church school; its grammar was childish, its vocabulary limited, and it was filled with the clumsy fantasies of a teenage boy. It felt completely different from the sentence on this note. It was as if some ghost from the depths of the underworld possessed Sakurai Akira, using his hand to write this poignant yet utterly insane statement.

This was definitely not written by Akira Sakurai himself.

Genjiro confirmed this judgment once again. He had a strong, unsettling intuition: someone had deliberately said this to Sakurai Akira and made him carry it with him, and it would eventually be discovered by law enforcement.

Akira Sakurai's death had been planned long ago. He was an abandoned experiment, and also a messenger. He boarded that long-distance train to Hokkaido not to escape, but to head towards a grave that had been prepared for him. The train carriage was an execution ground, and also a stage meticulously constructed by those behind the scenes.

The script for this tragedy was written long ago; Sakurai Akira was destined to die, and he would leave behind this last sentence.

Yuan Zhisheng felt a chill run down his spine.

A vague name stirred deep within his memory, a taboo he had refused to recall and deliberately buried for years. He gripped the hilt of his knife, abruptly rising to his feet, his muscles tensing like a cheetah about to pounce.

Yet all that remained was the silence of the ancestral hall. Outside the French windows, torrential rain poured down, lightning crackled through the dark clouds, and a fleeting flash of white light cast Genji's solitary shadow on the floor. There were no enemies, no anomalies, only the thunderous pounding of his own heart in his ears.

He stood silently for a long time before slowly sheathing his sword.

The soft sound of a spider cutting into its sheath was exceptionally clear in the empty hall. Genjiro donned the black patterned haori that had been prepared beforehand, the formal attire of the young master of the Snake Clan for formal occasions, its patterns solemn. He straightened his robes, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed all the chaotic thoughts that had just been swirling within him.

The entire family was waiting for him in the main hall. Today's meeting would determine the future direction of the Snake Clan, perhaps ushering in a new era for the Japanese underworld. As the designated heir, he could no longer indulge in his own wild fantasies.

A samurai cannot think too much. If he does, he will hesitate when drawing his sword. A samurai's mission is simply to cut down, to annihilate all those who defy their clan and threaten order.

When the crows and yakshas escorted Genji back to the main hall, the scene they saw was somewhat different from the solemn and dignified atmosphere they had expected.

Before the magnificent scroll depicting gods and demons, a huge white projection screen was lowered. The family's more than four hundred elites, from white-haired elders to sharp-eyed young men, all held their breath and watched the images on the screen with solemn expressions.

The video projected on the screen is an intense battle from Street Fighter IV.

"Howl!" Ryu leaped up twice in succession, unleashing precise rising dragon punches. Chun-Li on the other side of the screen couldn't dodge in time, and a large portion of her health bar was instantly whittled down.

In front of the main curtain, eight small tables made of rosewood were arranged according to strict hierarchy. On each table was a long sword of different shapes, with eight different family crests intricately depicted in gold on the hilt: the sixteen-petaled chrysanthemum of the Tachibana family, the gentian of the Minamoto family, the bamboo and sparrow of the Uesugi family, the red oni of the Inuyama family, the spider of the Fuma family, the horse head of the Ryoma family, the phoenix of the Sakurai family, and the yaksha of the Miyamoto family.

All eight family heads were required to attend this important gathering concerning the future of their families. At this moment, only the small table in front of the Yuan family remained empty, awaiting the arrival of their young master.

The heads of the families, who had already arrived and were kneeling behind their respective tables, all maintained a semblance of silence. After all, this was the family shrine, where the spirits of their ancestors roamed; any shouting or yelling would be disrespectful to their forefathers.

If we ignore what is happening right now.

Only from the position of the Uesugi family head could one hear the constant clicking sound of the controller buttons being pressed. This family head was completely focused on the battle, his fighting spirit soaring in Street Fighter IV.

Chun-Li leaps into the air and strikes Ryu's head with her middle leg kick. Ryu rolls to dodge and then unleashes a powerful Vacuum Wave Punch that depletes his entire Ki Gauge. Chun-Li leaps lightly into the air again, lands with a light step, and delivers a heavy kick.

The head of the Uesugi family is clearly a Street Fighter expert. Her Chun-Li movements are precise and fluid, seamlessly integrating offense and defense, showcasing the character's agility to the fullest. However, her opponent, Ryu, is also a master, especially in his precise timing of the Shoryuken (rising dragon punch), which is known to be the bane of almost all aerial attacks.

Every time Ryu shouts his signature "Howl!" and leaps into the air, Chun-Li's health bar is drastically reduced.

This battle was conducted online. The player controlling Ryu was probably comfortably nestled in a room somewhere in Japan, completely unaware that his game was being watched breathlessly by hundreds of yakuza elites, including the heads of the eight most powerful yakuza families in Japan, as if it were a major sporting event.

If he knew, he'd probably be so scared he wouldn't be able to hold the controller steady.

Genjiro sat down in his seat, his gaze sweeping across the entire room. Crow and Yaksha quickly retreated behind him to stand guard. His gaze finally settled on the pixelated characters jumping on the screen, then slowly moved to the Uesugi family patriarch, who was fiercely battling an unseen opponent.

The projected light flickered on and off on her focused profile.

Chapter 358 Uesugi Erii

The head of the Uesugi family was a young girl with a slender figure.

Although she concealed her face with a black veil and wore a men's style black patterned haori, the shapely curves of her figure beneath the loose kimono could not be completely hidden. At first, she knelt quietly before the small rosewood table belonging to the Uesugi family, her posture so upright that she did not resemble a powerful yakuza patriarch in Kanto, but rather a well-behaved female student waiting for her teacher to come and give a lesson.

The meeting was postponed due to the late arrival of Genji, the head of the Genji family and the director of the executive bureau. In the brief moment of waiting, she did something that left the hundreds of underworld elites present speechless: with lightning speed, she pulled a game controller from the wide sleeve of her kimono.

Immediately afterwards, the white projection screen in the main hall, which was originally used to display strategic charts, automatically lowered, and the equipment started up. The head of the Uesugi family skillfully selected a character and entered the game; the whole process was smooth and seamless, taking only a dozen seconds.

Before the other family heads and hundreds of subordinates could react, the system notification "Fight!" had already resounded throughout the solemn main hall. A Street Fighter IV online battle had officially begun in the heart of the shrine, where the ancestral tablets of the Snake Clan were enshrined.

To describe her behavior as "unscrupulous" wouldn't be quite right; a more fitting description would be "completely oblivious to others." In her view, since she had to wait anyway, she might as well make the most of the time and play a couple of rounds. The solemnity of the occasion and the power of her ancestors were irrelevant.

If Lu Ming had been there, he would have simply given her a thumbs up and praised her for her playful spirit.

"Eri, turn off the game! We're still in a meeting!" Tachibana Masamune was too far away to get up, so he could only lower his voice to stop her.

But his voice was easily drowned out by the whistling of punches and kicks and the sound effects of energy blasts in the game. Uesugi family head Erii's entire mind was focused on the screen in front of her, her eyes glued to it, her slender fingers dancing across the controller.

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment. This was the highest-level gathering of the yakuza clans, with the heads of the three major clans and five minor clans all present, and it was being held in the solemn main hall of a shrine. Everyone was striving to maintain the most proper posture, sitting upright with knees bent, hands on their knees, and backs ramrod straight.

At this moment, it was inappropriate for anyone to move around or make a sound. Even the patriarch, Tachibana Masamune, could not loudly reprimand another head of the family in such a setting, even if the other party was just a young girl.

"Young Master is coming shortly and is changing his clothes. Please wait a moment." The crow and the yaksha, who had rushed back, bowed deeply at the door and then hurried back to the position behind Genjiro. As they ran, they made sure to pull their kimono sleeves tight so as not to stir up any wind and disturb the solemn atmosphere inside the hall.

No one paid them any attention; they were all like warriors in the Warring States period, waiting for their lord's order to go to war, their minds made up, ready to draw their swords.

In fact, no one knows for sure what the purpose of this grand gathering, the largest in decades, was. Many of those present were usually scattered throughout Japan, tending to their families' territories. Even the annual New Year's celebrations were far smaller in scale.

Once word gets out of a gathering of this scale, it's enough to shake up the entire Japanese underworld. It means that the Snake Clan might be redrawing the map of the underworld, or they might be completely eradicating a gang that dares to overstep its bounds.

But now, they're all watching a Street Fighter IV online match. Could it be that the family is planning to enter the gaming industry? Or has CAPCOM, the developer of Street Fighter IV, inadvertently offended the family and is about to face annihilation?

"Yaksha, 20, I bet Erii-san will win." Crow's lips barely moved as he spoke to Yaksha beside him in the lowest of voices.

"Can't win." Yasha responded in lip-reading, his eyes fixed on the screen. "Her health is very low, her positioning is good, and her moves are ruthless."

"Look, Miss's rage meter is almost full, while Long's rage meter is empty. Press him to the edge of the board, and you can easily combo him to KO him."

“I bet on Miss to lose. Ryu is skilled; he knows how dangerous it is to be pinned to the edge of the board and won't let Miss succeed. Right now, he's constantly blocking to build up his rage meter, and then he'll unleash the Metsubou-Hadouken. Miss won't be able to block it.”

"Shut up! If it weren't for the young master's good nature, you would have been reincarnated long ago," a cold, sharp voice came from the front row, barely audible. "Speaking in such a setting is truly incomprehensible." The speaker was Akechi Asuya, the head of the Kanto branch. He didn't turn around; his lips merely moved slightly.

The crow and the yaksha immediately fell silent. The crow secretly gave the yaksha the middle finger from his sleeve; in their code, this meant the bet was settled, OK. The yaksha responded silently with the middle finger as well.

As Yasha predicted, the battle on the screen saw Erii, controlling Chun-Li, repeatedly using the combo of a light kick followed by a punch and then a thousand-kick. This combo had a long range, few openings, and was executed with exquisite skill, making it almost flawless.

Ryu's strategy is clear: he'd rather withstand a small amount of damage than risk dodging to the edge of the screen. He still has enough health to hold his own against Chun-Li, but once his rage gauge is full, his terrifying Metsubou-Hadouken will decide the outcome.