Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Sreibnir streaked across the night sky, flying smoothly toward Kassel College.

Chapter 76 Lifetime Professor

The Angers office is on the first floor. In the very center is a huge oak table, which is at least a hundred years old.

Angers sat at the head of the table, surrounded by elderly professors with white hair who all looked as if they had just been dug out of their graves.

Everyone was pale, their skin etched with the deep lines of time.

They were all wearing the same style of black robes, with the Kassel College badge pinned to their chests, and an antique silver ring on the ring finger of their left hand.

This is a symbol of tenure, and only those who have served the college for more than half a century are eligible to wear it.

Most of these senior professors never appeared in public on the Kassel campus; they were like secrets buried deep within the academy, only to be awakened in the most critical moments.

The younger professors could only stand, craning their necks to try and see what was happening around the table.

Although they are described as "young," they are actually middle-aged people in their fifties or sixties, similar to Guderian.

Guderian was squeezed into a corner, his messy hair standing out conspicuously in the crowd.

He stood on tiptoe, gazing enviously at the silver rings on the old professors' fingers, unconsciously rubbing his own bare fingers.

“Fifty years,” Guderian muttered to himself, his voice filled with longing. “I’ll have to wait another twenty or thirty years before I’ll be eligible to apply.”

Manstein stood beside him, his bald head gleaming under the light.

He nudged Guderian with his elbow and whispered, "Can you be quiet? You're acting like a country bumpkin."

Guderian didn't hear Manstein's words at all; his gaze was fixed on a thin, skeletal old professor.

“My God!” he gasped, his voice trembling with excitement. “That’s Doug Jones! The leading figure in American nuclear energy research! Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1968! He announced his retirement in 1969, and everyone thought he was already, already…”

"Already dead?" Manstein replied coldly. "Obviously not, just like the other scientists who are considered 'deceased' by everyone."

Guderian's eyes widened again as he pointed to another elderly man with an Einstein-style afro: "That's Jean Gross! The founder of the American space program! The mastermind behind the Apollo program! My God, that's the King Solomon of mathematics, Blair Bittner! He proved the Riemann Hypothesis!"

Guderian was so excited he almost jumped up. "Each of these people is a figure who can shake the entire scientific community! If the outside world knew they were still alive, I don't know what would happen."

“They will choose to go into seclusion again,” Manstein said. “They don’t want anyone to know they exist.”

Guderian ignored him, continuing to indulge in his own fantasies. "Do you think I could get their autographs after the meeting? Or, hehe, maybe even get a photo with them?"

Manstein's lips twitched. "How old are you this year? Fifty-three or fifty-four? You're behaving like a teenager chasing after a celebrity."

“But that’s Doug Jones!” Guderian raised his voice, drawing disapproving glances from several of the older professors.

Manstein quickly covered his mouth.

"Why don't you take a group photo?" Manstein quipped. "And while you're at it, ask them if you can make a peace sign?"

Guderian actually started to think about it seriously. "You're right, but do you think they'll dislike me if I act too frivolous?"

Manstein took a deep breath, struggling to suppress the urge to kick Guderian out. "Wake up. These people are madmen, utter madmen. Do you know why they haven't left their homes for half a century? Because they're so engrossed in their research that they consider even sunbathing a waste of time. Do you want to become like that?"

Guderian scratched his messy hair and hesitated for a moment: "This, I don't want to."

Manstein's expression softened slightly, thinking that this guy still had some sense.

Unexpectedly, Guderian then added, "It's my honor to be able to serve them tea and water!"

Angers tapped the table lightly. "Silence."

The sound was not loud, and all the noise in the room disappeared.

Since the start of the meeting, only Manstein and Guderian have actually spoken; everyone else has remained silent.

Angers looked around, his gaze lingering on each professor's face for a moment, before he spoke: "Have you all read the documents I sent you?"

A rustling sound of papers turning over filled the air as the professors took out stacks of photos and reports from their respective file folders.

The photos show a completely collapsed train station and amusement park, with twisted metal supports and shattered concrete piled together, as if torn apart from the inside by some enormous force.

Doug Jones was the first to speak, his voice hoarse as if he hadn't spoken in a long time: "From a physics perspective, it's impossible for humans to do that."

He pressed a button in front of him, and the projection screen at the front of the conference room lit up, displaying a set of structural analysis diagrams.

“Look at this,” Professor Jones said, pointing to the screen with his thin, bony hand. “The collapses of the train station and the amusement park are exactly the same, both caused by stress within the building structure, which I call ‘ghost stress’.”

He switched slides, “Without any signs of external impact, these buildings seem to have ‘convinced’ themselves to collapse from within. If humans possessed this ability.”

He paused, a flicker of fear crossing his cloudy eyes. "With just one finger, a skyscraper can be reduced to ruins."

Blair Bittner, who had been rapidly calculating something on paper, looked up and said, “According to my calculations, the probability of this event occurring naturally is 9 times 10 to the power of -23. In other words, impossible.”

Jean Gross slowly stood up and, trembling, unfolded a structural diagram under the projector.

"As you can see, stress is not evenly distributed inside the object, but rather converges at certain points like a river," he said, pointing to several red-marked points on the diagram. "These stress concentration points are the building's 'Achilles' heel'."

The old professor's fingers mimicked an attack motion, like an eagle's claw.

"Just like the Vajra Finger Zen in ancient Eastern martial arts, it doesn't rely on brute force, but rather on precisely striking the most vulnerable 'acupoints' of an object."

The projection switched to a mural in an ancient temple, in which a monk strikes a boulder with his index finger, "guiding the internal stress to run rampant like a ghost, so that even the strongest rock will crumble from the inside."

Angers stroked his chin. "Following this line of reasoning, the person who attacked us twice, at the train station and at Six Flags amusement park, was a mysterious martial arts master from the East? Could he see through the 'meridians' of steel and concrete and make skyscrapers crumble with a flick of his wrist?"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Guderian exclaimed excitedly, "So it was the Shaolin monks who were behind this! I should have known! There's something like that in 'The Forbidden Kingdom'."

Manstein slapped him on the back of the head. "Idiot!"

He gritted his teeth and lowered his voice, "Is the 'boxing expert' they're talking about the same as the martial arts star who does somersaults in your videotapes?"

Chapter 77 Afternoon Tea in Angers

Jean Gross's voice was deep and hoarse, like an echo rising from an ancient tomb, "This 'old boxer' is the king of the earth and the mountains."

The conference room fell into a deathly silence; even breathing became clearly audible.

No one laughed, no one questioned, and even the most talkative Guderian fell silent.

The existence of one of the four monarchs is like that of a peerless master in an Eastern martial arts movie, capable of causing a reinforced concrete building to crumble with just a finger. Such a concept is too terrifying.

Angers slowly closed his eyes and softly recited ancient verses about the king of the earth and mountains: "The mountains are his spine, the earth is his flesh and blood, and wherever he walks, all things crumble."

A young professor, whose finger did not yet bear the silver ring symbolizing seniority, couldn't help but ask, "Now that the esteemed monarch has awakened, why is he still hiding? With his power, he could easily destroy all of us head-on."

Angers opened his eyes, a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth, but no hint of a smile in his eyes.

"Perhaps he has some concerns, maybe he hasn't fully awakened yet, or perhaps it was just his descendant who made the move this time, a powerful second-generation species."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over each professor present. "But in any case, a powerful dragon has awakened and is lurking in the shadows, which is more terrifying than any open war."

Angers stood up. "After the meeting, I will issue the highest-level dragon alert to the entire hybrid society. Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to face another monarch after the King of Bronze and Fire."

The older professors slowly rose to their feet, and the younger professors followed suit, straightening their posture.

Everyone whispered the ancient oath of the Secret Party, their voices low and solemn.

"By blood and bone, we will never rest until the dragons are destroyed. Even if the abyss lies ahead, we will still walk with our swords until the last drop of blood is shed."

Angers watched the professors leave the conference room on the first floor one by one until the last person disappeared outside the door. Only then did he turn around and slowly walk up the stairs to the third floor.

Pushing open the office door, Angers' face regained its composed smile.

On the desk were several delicate pastries, a pot of steaming black tea, and three teacups; the tea in the pot hadn't even cooled down yet.

Lu Mingfei and Frilian sat on the sofa, leisurely sipping their tea.

"The young professor downstairs probably never imagined that two of his students would be able to sit in on this meeting, and even have snacks and black tea with them."

Angers sat down with a smile, took a cigar from the drawer, skillfully cut off the head, lit it, and took a deep drag.

He looked at Frillie and said gently, "How was the dessert this time? I saw you really enjoyed it last time."

Frillie nodded and commented, "Very good, thank you, Headmaster."

Angers then looked at Lu Mingfei, raising an eyebrow. "Mingfei, what do you think?"

Lu Mingfei scratched his head, hesitated for a moment, and then honestly answered, "There's not enough sugar, so the flavor is very bland."

He paused, then couldn't help but ask the question that had been bothering him, "Headmaster, no offense, but why were Frillie and I brought in to sit in on such an important meeting?"

Angers exhaled a puff of smoke, his smile unchanged. "The meeting just happened to be held during the 'Principal's Afternoon Tea' time. You and Frilian were both invited guests as outstanding student representatives. It's just that the meeting interrupted our conversation. Please sit here for a while."

Lu Mingfei looked at him suspiciously, "But Principal, you and the professors were discussing highly confidential matters!"

"There are even more confidential matters, would you like to hear them?"

Frillie nodded without hesitation, "Yes."

Lu Mingfei panicked and quickly waved his hands, "Frilian, don't do this! We are all law-abiding students!"

Angers laughed heartily, the smoke from his cigar swirling in the air.

He leaned back in his chair. "Mingfei, sometimes, the more you know, the safer you are."

Lu Mingfei silently thought to himself, "No, Principal, I think the more you know, the faster you'll die."

Frillie picked up the second pastry, completely unconcerned about the "secret" she was about to hear.

“There’s nothing we can do. We only have you, Mingfei, as our sole S-rank right now,” Angers said helplessly, spreading his hands as cigar smoke filled the office. “Frilian, as your partner, you both need to know more.”

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to decline, he felt a jolt beneath his feet.

He grabbed the sofa armrest in a panic, "Was this an earthquake?"

Angers calmly took a puff of his cigar. "No, we're descending."

"Down?" Frillie raised an eyebrow, her long silver hair swaying slightly as they descended. "Is there a secret chamber down there?"

“Yes,” Ang nodded, “to the secret place of Kassel College.”

With a 'click,' the slight vibration subsided, and the surrounding walls lit up.

Lu Mingfei's eyes widened. They were in a huge cylindrical space, surrounded by countless transparent fish tanks, which were inhabited by all kinds of marine life.

The fish tank is five meters in diameter and has a thermostat at the bottom to keep the water temperature at 26 degrees Celsius.

Seven red carp swim around in a landscaped setting that mimics the ecology of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The bottom of the tank is covered with volcanic sand mixed with bone meal and planted with clumps of fluorescent algae that glow.

“These are all captive species,” Angers said, walking to the nearest aquarium where translucent jellyfish swam. “They serve as a gene bank for studying dragon genes.”

Frillie peered closer, "Transplanting dragon genes into these marine creatures?"