Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

A zombie slammed into the observation window of the Trieste, its twisted and ferocious face pressed against the glass, its golden vertical pupils locked onto Lu Mingfei inside the cabin.

"Damn it!" Lu Mingze frowned, his handsome brows furrowing. "I was chatting with my brother, and he dared to disturb us. Kill him."

"Should I go out and kill the corpse guards now?" Lu Mingfei stretched his body, ready to go out.

"No, I wasn't talking about you, brother. I was asking a pretty girl to do something."

Outside the Trieste, the realm of the Netherworld quietly dissipated.

Mai Shude slowly straightened up, the fine, bluish-gray scales on her skin opening and closing with a soft rustling sound. She pulled out the sharp blade strapped to her thigh with her other hand, and stretched out her arms.

The horde of corpses that had gathered around her were intimidated by the sudden, bone-chilling killing intent emanating from her, and dared not advance for a moment. Instead, they swam around the Trieste at high speed, forming an encirclement.

Several corpse guards charged from different directions, their five-meter-long bodies moving through the seawater like raging battering rams, carrying an aura of crushing everything in their path.

Amidst the turbulent currents, Mai Shutoku's slender figure moved like a bamboo shoot in the wind. Her hands traced patterns in the air, golden flames erupting from the blades, transforming into a gigantic, ten-hand-long phantom. In her left hand, she wielded Ame-no-Habakiri; in her right, Futsu-no-Mitama. She spun, her twin blades creating a massive, transparent whirlpool in the sea!

Lu Mingfei was so shocked he couldn't speak. "So strong!"

The corpse guard, severed at the waist, let out a shrill wail, its mangled body thrashing wildly in the seawater. The remaining corpse guards grew increasingly frenzied, yet dared not advance further, merely circling the submersible incessantly. Mai, the spirit of the wine, landed gracefully on the top of the Trieste, wiping the sticky black blood from her blade, her long hair fluttering in the wind.

"Alright," Lu Mingze said, withdrawing his gaze and speaking in a relaxed tone, "The troublesome thing is that big thing down there. It's a pure-blooded dragon with a title, and its bloodline is top-notch. Its remains have been transformed into a corpse guardian through alchemy, and its bones have laid the foundation for the city. Someone wants to kill you all."

"Who wants to kill us?"

Lu Mingze's smile became meaningful. "A quarter of a life."

"That's it."

"Then how about this?" Lu Mingze clapped his hands and leaned forward. "A deal?"

“No need,” Lu Mingfei interrupted him. If all else failed, he would have to ask Frilian for help, since he had Frilian’s mark on him.

"Brother, you think too badly of me. I'd bomb Japan if you wanted to."

"Forget about it, all I want right now is to rescue Caesar and my senior brother."

"Want to save them?" Lu Mingze tilted his head. "It's simple, a trade. A quarter of their lives. Brother, you still have a full three-quarters to squander. Think about it, how many times? In Bronze City, in the Three Gorges, in Beijing. Every time you were in dire straits, you almost called for me. But every time, there was always some unexpected event that ruined things."

Lu Mingze's tone turned resentful, like a child whose candy had been stolen: "Even heroes can't resist the charms of a beautiful woman, brother. At crucial moments, it always takes Frilian to happen to appear and use her magic, acting like 'I was just passing by and lending a hand,' to ruin my business."

Lu Mingfei looked up.

Lu Mingze leaned closer to him, "What, did I say something wrong? That elf lady is very concerned about you. But this time..."

He straightened up, spread his hands, and pointed out the observation window. There, Chu Zihang's spherical equipment was almost swallowed up by the light bands of the Lung Snail and the Silver Dragon Viper, Caesar lay quietly, and the sea was filled with the roar of cannons.

"She's too late, brother. The ocean is 8,000 meters deep; even magic has its range. I'm the only one who can save you," Lu Mingze's voice was as gentle as a devil's whisper, "So, shall we make a deal?"

Lu Mingfei's lips trembled. He looked out the window at the hellish scene, at his dying companions, and at his own hands, which were cold and trembling with fear.

The word "good" rolls on the tip of the tongue, hot and scalding, almost breaking through the barrier of the teeth.

Just now.

A faint green light, like the most resilient seaweed in the deep sea, pierced through the heavy observation window of the Trieste and gently landed on the back of Lu Mingfei's hand.

Warm, peaceful, carrying the scent of grass and sunshine. Lu Mingfei shuddered.

[The magic that grants wishes.]

Lu Mingze's smile froze, collapsing into a complex expression that mixed anger, helplessness, and "I knew it" with certainty.

"Here we go again," he sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I knew it."

Chapter 445 Escape (Part 1)

The golden eyes of the Ghost-toothed Viper were densely packed against the observation window, like thousands of phosphorescent flames burning in the darkness. The material, several times stronger than bronze, was slowly losing its integrity under the frenzied devouring of these strange fish.

Chu Zihang's Zeppelin prosthetic arm had broken off, and he was stuck in the lung snails nearly waist-deep, only five meters away from the blinding yellow of the nuclear power module. Those five meters felt like an insurmountable chasm.

He tried to pry with his severed limbs, ram with his body, and even attempted to use his incantation to heat the surrounding seawater to create steam propulsion, but all to no avail. The lung snails were too dense and too heavy, like living quicksand. The swarm of dragon vipers was tearing at the outer shell of his and Caesar's armor, the crunching sound coming through the seawater like the grinding teeth of death.

Chu Zihang's golden eyes burned to their fullest extent as he forcefully pushed aside the sticky obstacles in front of him.

Lu Mingfei rushed to his discarded combat uniform and frantically pulled out his phone. He randomly dialed a string of numbers—5201314 (I love you forever)—a meaningless, clichéd combination that flashed through his mind in an instant. Then, with all his might, he pressed the green dial button hard.

Almost at the same moment.

Caesar, who had been lying quietly among the lung snails as if asleep, suddenly shuddered in his spherical suit. His remaining metal prosthetic limbs exerted force, crushing several viper barbs that were biting onto the suit to pieces, splattering their juices. Then, with a ferocious and efficient motion, almost like a rock drill, he shoved aside layer after layer of the viscous lung snails.

He stepped past Chu Zihang, who was still struggling, and steadily walked towards the nuclear power plant, step by step.

Lu Mingfei was stunned, pressing his face against the observation window, almost forgetting to breathe.

Frillien's magic is the key that allows wishes to override the rules of reality. The moment he pressed the dial button, a power beyond cause and effect began to operate. Caesar stood up not because his will had awakened, but because he had become a tool to fulfill Lu Mingfei's wish that he stand up to enter the password.

Caesar roughly tore open the protective armor at the bottom of the nuclear power module with his pincer-like prosthetic limbs, revealing the waterproof circuit boards inside. The LCD screen flickered with a steady dim light; the advanced technology in the equipment department had withstood the test of deep-sea pressure and nearly 200-degree Celsius temperatures.

Without the slightest hesitation, Caesar's fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed out the exact combination of Nono's birthday, which had previously given him incorrect answers no matter how he tried.

Once confirmed, the green light illuminates.

Inside the nuclear power module, the forcibly inserted cadmium rod was retrieved again, neutron density soared, and system alarms were violently ignored. This time, it was no longer a potentially misfired defective item, but a real nuclear bomb that had entered an irreversible detonation sequence.

Having completed the maneuver, Caesar turned around and grabbed the handle on the back of Chu Zihang's suit with his still-movable parts, while simultaneously tearing off the lead weights used to stabilize their postures.

The two spherical suits, now free of weight, immediately began to rise, dragging the Ghost-toothed Viper that was clinging tightly to its shell.

Half a minute later, the roar of water filling and venting came from the pressurization chamber next to the Trieste. The pressure balance indicator light came on, and Lu Mingfei frantically pulled open the heavy pressure door.

Chu Zihang dragged the unconscious Caesar out of the twisted suit. Several incredibly fast-reacting Ghost-toothed Vipers, smelling the scent of fresh flesh and blood, leaped onto Caesar's bare back, wagging their tails and tearing at him frantically, trying to burrow into his chest cavity.

"This thing has sneaked in!" Lu Mingfei's scalp tingled.

Chu Zihang drew his sword with a backhand motion, and with a flick of the blade, he ripped off a viper's mouthful of sharp teeth along with its lower jaw, throwing it to the ground before stomping it into a bloody pulp. In those few seconds, a small piece of flesh had already been torn from Caesar's back, its blood seeping into the seawater.

Lu Mingfei rushed back to the cockpit, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and sprayed it wildly at the two tattered Zygmun suits and the surrounding seawater. Foamy carbon dioxide quickly filled the air, and the vipers that were out of the water writhed violently and fell off one after another.

"He still has a heartbeat, but he's completely exhausted." Chu Zihang pounded Caesar's chest, pressed his ear to listen, and then collapsed weakly onto the cold floor, his chest heaving. "Quickly notify the Sumeru Throne to retrieve it! Ignition successful!"

Outside the submersible, Mai Shude knelt on one knee at the top of the arched structure, the phantoms of Ame no Habakiri and Futsu no Mitama protecting the fragile iron shell below like drooping wings.

Beneath the fine, bluish-gray scales, trickles of blood seeped out. Fighting the horde of corpses alone, the drug-induced backlash on her bloodline was causing a bloodthirsty frenzy that screamed deep within her bones. The corpse guards, like wolves hunting a tiger, were wearing her down, waiting for the moment she would reveal a weakness.

At that moment, all the corpse guards, including those who were attacking her, froze in their tracks and began to retreat and flee frantically.

Mai Shude felt the terrifying heat and vibration emanating from beneath her feet. Looking down, she saw a towering, golden-red wall of flames rising slowly from the depths of the trench beside the Trieste, accompanied by an apocalyptic roar!

The underwater volcano has erupted completely.

Millions of tons of magma erupted from a massive fissure, the golden-red fluid rapidly solidifying and turning black, forming a colossal black wall that rose continuously, hundreds of meters thick. The surrounding seawater was instantly vaporized, countless ultra-high-pressure steam bubbles exploding like a million thunderclaps echoing from the bottom of the abyss. The Trieste and the horde of corpses were only a few hundred meters from this wall of destruction.

Mai Shude tightly bound herself to the hull of the Trieste, patted it gently, and silently mouthed, "This is all I can do for you. Leave the rest to fate."

"It's too late to recover!" Chu Zihang rushed into the cockpit, strapped himself to the co-pilot's seat, his face as pale as paper, only his golden eyes burning brightly. "A nuclear explosion is about to occur, we must reach a safe distance!"

"But the power compartment is gone! The lithium battery isn't fast enough!" Lu Mingfei fastened his seatbelt.

“I’ll provide the power,” Chu Zihang said.

The next moment, a scorching storm swirled within the cramped cockpit. Chu Zihang's golden eyes burned like molten gold, and his Junyan domain was compressed to its limit, condensing into a slowly rotating, pitch-black vortex of flame in the seawater directly beneath the submersible. The internal temperature reached thousands of degrees, yet strangely, not a single trace of heat escaped.

One second later, the black vortex collapsed.

The trapped, terrifying heat was released instantly, vaporizing a massive amount of seawater. A vortex of white, ultra-high-pressure steam, mixed with flames, formed a violent, vertically upward fire tornado in the deep sea.

The Trieste was as if it had been kicked hard by a giant, accelerating upwards. Lu Mingfei felt as if his neck was about to be torn off by the acceleration. He desperately turned his head and saw Chu Zihang's face shrouded in a golden halo.

Above, massive black volcanic rocks, crashing down due to the volcanic eruption, roared down, obscuring the entire view.

The submersible narrowly missed the Death Stone and continued its ascent.

Chapter 446 Escape (Part 2)

Lu Mingfei stared at the last images transmitted from the external cameras. Takamagahara, the sunken city of the gods, slowly slid down the sloping seabed into the boiling river of lava. The last buildings collapsed in the tilting motion, towers snapped in half, and thousands of black bells tumbled from the ruins, silently playing a lament of despair.

Flames washed over the streets like a tidal wave, engulfing everything. The massive hull of the Lenin crashed through countless ruins, rolling into the golden-red lava. The hard alloy red star on its bow flashed one last time in the intense heat before sinking.

"The embryo is gone just like that?" Lu Mingfei murmured.

"It should be, but I don't know which first-generation being it is," Chu Zihang whispered, coughing up blood. "Quick, call Yuan Zhisheng. Jun Yan won't last much longer."

The sea has become a living hell.

The Snake Clan ignited the pre-laid oil layer, and the sea blazed fiercely. The Corpse Guardians leaped and attacked amidst the flames. The Fire Clan was completely wiped out, the Wind Clan ran out of ammunition and was forced to retreat, and the Forest Clan's defenses were on the verge of collapse. Three of the six Sumeru Thrones had sunk, and the other two had been occupied by the Corpse Guardians.

On the last platform where Genji was located, blood and flesh flew everywhere in the passage. Spider Cutter cut off the steel-blue body that pounced on him, Crow's submachine gun and Sakura's short sword wove a web of death, and Yasha howled as he smashed the head of the Corpse Guardian with his shotgun.

"Seventh wave!" Miyamoto Shigeo's roar was hoarse in the channel.

Yuan Zhisheng didn't know how much longer he could hold out. Blood blurred his vision, and the blade of the Spider Slash was already chipped.

Just then, Lu Mingfei's distorted shouts blared through the earpiece: "Calling Sumeru! The nuclear power module has ignited! Pull us up! Help!"

Genjiro was jolted, almost dropping his knife.

"Damn it! They've got it done! Miyamoto Shio! Start the winch! Now!" he roared, his fatigue vanishing as he charged forward with his sword in hand.

"Young Master! The winch motor starter wheel has been destroyed by the Corpse Guardian! All the men sent to repair it are dead!"

"Tell me the location! I'm going!" Yuan Zhisheng rushed towards the construction elevator.

The Yaksha and the crow, covered in blood, followed closely behind.

"What are you doing here?"

"I will follow the young master through thick and thin!" Crow wiped the blood from his face.

"Baby, I'm coming!" Yasha hummed an off-key English song.

On the top platform, amidst the raging wind and torrential rain, corpses littered the ground. Genji saw six mutilated corpses dressed in white protective suits beside the winch.

"Manual reel! Yaksha, Raven, follow me!" Genji tore off his tie and wrapped it around his hand, gripping the cold, massive iron reel. "One, two, three!"

The three men exerted force simultaneously, their muscles bulging. The heavy winch emitted a piercing metallic scraping sound and began to rotate extremely slowly, the cable taut like a bowstring.

"Young Master," Sakura's voice sounded from behind.

"Sakura! Guard the back!" Genjiro didn't turn his head, putting all his strength into the rotating wheel, his skin sizzling from the heat.

“Give up, young master, it’s too late.” Sakura’s voice was low. “The number of corpse guards in the eighth wave is equal to the total of the first seven waves. The Lin Group’s defense line will break. Mr. Masamune has ordered that we use Ms. Erii’s power to annihilate them before they surface. But that would take the Trieste with it.”

Genjiro slowly turned his head, and a phone was handed to his ear. Tachibana Masamune's deep voice came through: "Chisei, you are the leader. Three people sacrificed to save everyone. Erii has arrived."