Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Chapter 432 The Ghost-Toothed Dragon Viper (Part 2)

Vipers are the true rulers of this sea. They don't need to fight like hammerhead sharks and giant squid; they only need to wait. Wait for wounded prey, wait for the bloody signal. Then they descend like death, slowly and brutally turning the living creature into bones.

No wonder that duel was so fierce and reckless. Both sides knew that once blood was drawn, and the fight dragged on for too long, something far more terrifying would awaken from the abyss.

“The viperfish is a hundred times more ferocious than the Amazonian piranhas I’ve seen in documentaries!” Lu Mingfei wiped his sweat again and again, his hands trembling violently. “Luckily, we have steel to protect us.”

"Don't be happy too soon," Chu Zihang's voice was unusually heavy. "These things outside can bite through steel."

Lu Mingfei was stunned.

Caesar and Chu Zihang exchanged a glance. Fear was evident in the eyes of both older students.

“I thought the Gorgonosaurus was extinct long ago,” Caesar said in a low voice.

"The clay tablets of the Sumerian civilization record the existence of the Ghost-toothed Viper," Chu Zihang asked.

“Yes. The clay tablet says that the Sumerians used them to refine iron ore.” Caesar’s lips curled into a strange smile. “Bio-iron smelting predates human mastery of high-temperature iron smelting technology by a full thousand years.”

"Were the shark and squid we just saw also subspecies of dragons?"

"It should be, otherwise they wouldn't be able to adapt to the special ecological environment."

"Hehehe! Is this knowledge from advanced subjects?" Lu Mingfei looked at Caesar, then at Chu Zihang, feeling like a primary school student who had accidentally wandered into a doctoral defense.

Chu Zihang turned to look at him. As a killer, Chu Zihang rarely showed obvious emotions, but at this moment, his pupils were dilated, his face was pale, and the word "horror" was clearly written on his face.

"The fish outside," Chu Zihang said, emphasizing each word, "is scientifically known as 'Ghost Tooth Dragon Viper.' It's a legendary creature, only recorded in ancient texts."

He paused, organizing his thoughts: "In the history of the dragons, they were used as instruments of punishment. Nobles who committed serious crimes would be bound to bronze pillars and sunk into the deep sea, after which a large swarm of dragon vipers would be released. The dragon vipers would devour the nobles, along with the bronze pillar. This is because bronze contains tin, and dragon vipers..."

"Eat metal?" Lu Mingfei blurted out.

“Yes,” Caesar continued. “Many historians believe that the Hittites invented iron smelting technology around the 15th century BC. But the equipment department of the Kassel College once purchased ironware from an even older period, made by the Sumerians, several centuries earlier than the Hittites. The problem is that in the Sumerian era, humans did not have high-temperature flames to melt iron ore. The results of the technological reconstruction show that the Sumerians used biological agents to smelt iron.”

Chu Zihang continued to explain: "They raised dragon vipers and let them eat iron-containing ores. The iron was purified and enriched in the dragon vipers' digestive system. Then, the Sumerians burned the viper carcasses with relatively low-temperature flames to obtain iron of a fairly pure quality. In this iron, you can find transparent crystalline substances, which are the remnants of dragon viper teeth."

Lu Mingfei's mouth dropped open, speechless for a long time. "Feeding iron ore? How terrifying!"

“Because they are not ordinary creatures,” Caesar said, pointing out the observation window. “They are all subspecies of dragons, carrying dragon genes. The giant squid has come to eat.”

A gigantic giant squid, now with only nine arms remaining, reappeared beside the skeleton of a hammerhead shark. It didn't approach the skeleton, but hovered a short distance away, its arms rising and falling slowly, its suckers opening and closing. It was inhaling and exhaling seawater, sucking in seawater mixed with fragments of flesh and blood, filtering out the edible parts, and then expelling clear water.

The seawater filtered by it gradually regained its clarity.

Lu Mingfei finally saw the true appearance of those tentacles: the surface of the massive tentacles, over half a meter in diameter, was densely covered with fine, bluish-black scales. Each scale was the size of a fingernail, with sharp edges, reflecting a metallic luster under the red light. There shouldn't be a giant squid covered in scales in this world.

After finishing the scraps in the water, the giant squid began to slowly retreat. Its posture became elegant again, its tentacles moving gracefully, its body blooming and closing like a giant, poisonous flower in the water. A few seconds later, it disappeared into the deeper darkness.

Then, the fish returned.

As if the bloodshed had never happened, the sea returned to its tranquility. Glowing, transparent fish reformed into spirals, giant sea turtles swam leisurely, and manta rays glided by in flight. The sunset-colored waters remained beautiful, and the golden cracks in the lava below still shone.

But in Lu Mingfei's eyes, all of this had completely changed.

This is not an aquarium. This is a hunting ground ruled by the rules of the dragons. Beneath the surface of peace lies an extremely bloody law of survival. The weak seize the time to play and frolic, while the strong watch their prey play. The strongest, the Ghost-toothed Dragon Vipers, slumber in the abyss, awaiting the bloody call.

"The embryo we're looking for," Chu Zihang's voice broke the silence, "is on the seabed. Judging from the situation, its rank is not low; it's at least a second-generation species."

Caesar nodded. “The embryos release secretions during incubation. These secretions act like pheromones, attracting various marine creatures and mutating them into dragon subspecies.” He paused. “We’ve stepped into the territory of the ancient dragons. Every creature here is half a dragon.”

He looked at Lu Mingfei: "They are marine subspecies, just like our hybrid races."

Lu Mingfei shivered.

“There’s something strange,” Chu Zihang frowned. “Dragons usually choose to hatch in places far away from any other creatures. They don’t need to attract these fish as food. The nutritional source of dragon embryos is very special. They also don’t easily release secretions carrying genetic information, as that would be equivalent to revealing their location.”

“There are historical examples of evolution through contact with the blood of ancient dragons,” Caesar continued, “such as the awakening of certain hybrids. But what we are seeing now is extremely rare, unless…”

“Unless what?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“Unless this embryo didn’t hatch normally,” Chu Zihang said, “it might have a problem, causing uncontrolled leakage of secretions. Or…”

“Or perhaps it doesn’t want to hide itself at all,” Caesar said, his golden eyes shining eerily in the darkness. “It’s summoning. Using genetic information as a signal, it summons deep-sea creatures to pilgrimage to it. Then, it selects the strongest among them as its first batch of followers after hatching.”

All three of them looked down at the same time.

The earth cracks glow, magma erupts. Deeper still, in absolute darkness beyond illumination, something awaits.

Waiting to hatch, waiting to awaken.

"We can't just talk the talk," Chu Zihang said slowly. "It's best to go down and take a look."

Caesar nodded and began to check the remaining oxygen supply.

Lu Mingfei looked out the window at the peacefully swimming fish, then glanced at the bottomless darkness below. He suddenly wished the safety rope were sturdier. Ideally, it could pull them directly back to the surface.

Chapter 433 Mai Shude & the Boss (Part 1)

Rain pattered against the bluestone slabs in the dry landscape garden, the sound monotonous and oppressive. Mai Shutoku knelt on the cold wooden floor, her black kimono soaked through, clinging to her skin and outlining her young yet stiff figure. She was fifteen, having just passed the trials of the Snake Clan, and should have become one of the most promising young ninjas of the Snake Clan's generation.

But now, she kneels in the center of the family courtroom.

She was surrounded by tall seats arranged in a semi-circle. The seats were filled with shadowy figures, mostly elders and heads of various families. The lights were deliberately dimmed, so she couldn't see their faces clearly, only blurry black outlines, like a flock of crows roosting in the shadows.

Only the light source on the main seat is slightly brighter.

Sitting there was Tachibana Masamune, the patriarch of the Snake-Headed Eight Families. His face appeared gentle and compassionate in the dim light, but Mai Shutoku could sense that there was no warmth in his eyes.

“Saketoku Mai,” Tachibana Masamune’s voice was soft, but terrifyingly clear in the silent courtroom, “the test results show that the stability of your bloodline is steadily declining. In the past three months, the proportion of dragon blood has risen from 18% to 23%, and the threshold of your spiritual vision has dropped from a safe range to a dangerous level. You know what this means.”

Mai Shude lowered her head, raindrops dripping from her hair and spreading a small dark patch on the wooden floor.

she knows.

This means she's sliding towards becoming a demon. In the Snake Clan, hybrids with unstable bloodlines are called demons, and they are dangerous individuals who need to be monitored, controlled, and even eliminated. Once her spiritual vision threshold falls below a safe level, it means she could go berserk and become a mindless dead servant at any moment.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” Mai Shude said, her voice hoarse. “My performance in training has been excellent. I can control it through more meditation and medication.”

“It’s already been used,” the patriarch of the Fengmo family, sitting on her left, interrupted her. He was an old man with a hoarse voice. “For the past three months, the family has provided you with the highest-grade bloodline stabilizer, at twice the safe limit. But your bloodline concentration is still rising. This is not a problem that willpower or drugs can solve, child. This is contamination at the genetic level.”

The word "pollution" pierced Mai Shude's heart like an ice pick.

"Where's my sister?" She looked up, her gaze sweeping across the crowd in the shadows. "Where's Aki? How is she?"

A moment of silence.

Tachibana Masamune sighed. "Shutoku Aki's bloodline is very stable; the test results are completely normal. She will continue to receive training within the family. As for you," he paused, "the family has decided to remove you from the official member list. You will be placed under observation, residing in a special monitoring facility, receiving 24-hour care until—"

"Until I become a complete demon, and then get disposed of?" Mai Shutoku laughed, her laughter filled with mockery and despair. "Like those seniors who were sent to sanatoriums?"

No one answered; silence was the answer.

She slowly stood up, her knees numb and trembling from kneeling for so long. The hem of her kimono was soaked with rain and mud, but she didn't care. She looked around at the faces in the shadows, the elders who had praised her talent and placed high hopes on her, the companions who had trained with her and sworn to become the family's sharpest weapon.

Now, they are all in the shadows, silently watching her fall.

“I don’t need your surveillance facilities,” she said, her voice surprisingly calm. “I’ll walk away myself.”

She turned, her bare feet stepping across the cold, damp stone slabs, and walked towards the courtroom doors. Behind her came Tachibana Masamune's voice: "Mai, the family will provide you with one last dose of stabilizer, enough to last three months. If you change your mind..."

"No need," she said without turning around.

Pushing open the heavy wooden door, the night wind and torrential rain rushed in. Tokyo's night was ablaze with lights, but those lights seemed far away from her. She walked into the rain, her bare feet wading through the puddles of the alley, her black kimono billowing in the wind like a crow with broken wings.

She had nowhere to go.

The family is gone forever. Friends? Those so-called companions are probably relieved they weren't the ones wiped out. As for her younger sister, Aki, she's not even sure if she'll ever see Aki again. See her one last time, then let her sister watch her sister turn into a monster?

The rain is getting heavier.

She walked to the edge of the Sumida River and leaned against the cold railing. The river was as black as ink in the night, reflecting the neon lights on the opposite bank, those lights shattered by the rain into a blurry, colorful halo.

Should she jump?

Become a ghost, then be hunted down by your family, and die like a dog in some dark corner? Or end it now, so that at least when you die you're still "Shude Mai," instead of a nameless monster?

She closed her eyes.

Just then, someone stopped beside her.

There were no footsteps; she heard no footsteps at all. The person seemed to have appeared out of thin air, standing in the rain without showing any signs of getting wet. Mai Shutoku suddenly opened her eyes, her hand already on her waist, but she wasn't carrying a knife. When she left the courtroom, her family had confiscated all her weapons.

It was a man in a black suit. He wasn't very tall, and he was thin. He was holding a large black umbrella, which covered both of them. Raindrops pattered softly on the umbrella, but beneath it was a dry, quiet space.

The man looked very young, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, or even younger. His face was indistinct in the shadows under the umbrella; only his well-defined jawline and slightly upturned corners of his mouth were visible.

But Mai Shude's attention was completely drawn to his eyes—pure gold, but not the scorching, frenzied gold of a mixed-race person in a rage. It was a colder, deeper, more ancient gold, like the moonlight of late autumn shining on bronze, gleaming with a matte sheen from a thousand years of wind and rain.

"It's raining heavily," the man said, his voice gentle yet carrying a strange rhythm. "You'll catch a cold standing here."

Mai Shude cautiously took a step back, pressing her back against the railing: "Who are you?"

“Just someone passing by,” the man smiled. His smile was faint, but for some reason, Mai Shude’s tense nerves relaxed slightly. It wasn’t trust, but rather her body’s instinct told her that if this man wanted to do something to her, she would have no chance to resist.

"The family?" she asked.

"No."

"Then how did you know I was here?"

“I’m looking for you,” the man said, his tone matter-of-fact. “Your name is Mai Shutoku, you’re fifteen, and you’ve just been expelled from the Snake-Headed Eight Families because of your unstable bloodline and have been identified as a demon. Your sister, Aki Shutoku, is fine, but she’s forbidden from seeing you right now. You have nowhere to go and are considering jumping into this river.”

Mai Shude's breath hitched: "How do you know all this?"

Chapter 434 Mai Shude & the Boss (Part 2)

“I know a lot of things.” The man took a step forward, the umbrella still over her head. “For example, I also know that your unstable bloodline is not accidental. When your mother was pregnant with you, she came into contact with a scale of an ancient dragon, a scale of the White King, from the depths of the Abyss. The scale rewrote your genes, making you carry unstable dragon blood from birth. This is not your fault, but the Serpent Clan will not care about this. They only need stable tools, and you are not one.”

Every word felt like a hammer blow to her heart.

Her mother, yes, her mother died when she was very young, and her father never wanted to talk about it. But there were always rumors in the family that her mother's death was unclean, that she may have come into contact with something she shouldn't have.

"Why are you telling me all this?" she stared into those golden eyes. "What do you want from me?"

The man was silent for a few seconds. The rain pattered against the umbrella, the sound as rapid as drumbeats.

“I want to give you a choice,” he said. “Jump and end it all. Or come with me, and I will help you stabilize your bloodline, give you power, and give you a reason to live. But the price is that you will work for me. Be my knife, my shadow, whatever I need.”

Mai Shude laughed, but her laughter was tinged with bitterness: "It sounds no different from a family. It's just a change of master."

“There is a difference,” the man said calmly. “Your family treats you as a tool, to be used and then discarded. I treat you as a partner. Although this partnership may require doing some less honorable things.”

"for example?"