Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

"So the captain is one too?" Fingel asked dryly.

"The captain is a senior specialist in the operations department with over three thousand hours of experience flying in 'special situations' and has successfully made emergency landings multiple times under extreme weather and interference conditions."

“And these passengers,” Fingel said, scanning the cabin.

“Some are executive officers on leave or on rotation, some are technical support staff from the equipment department, and a few are representatives from the academy’s long-term partners, going to China to handle some follow-up matters. Everyone is an insider,” the flight attendant explained. “In fact, if it weren’t for maintaining a minimum level of disguise, this plane wouldn’t even need to carry any passengers.”

"Then, what about my internet fees?" Fingel asked the question he was most concerned about.

The flight attendant gave a genuine smile, though it was faint. "The college will reimburse you. By the way, the colleague in charge of forum management asked me to tell you that the post is very popular, but they have already implemented traffic control to prevent it from spreading too widely. Before posting next time, I suggest you read the 'Executive Department Fieldwork Network Behavior Confidentiality Guidelines'."

Fingel just wanted to crawl into a hole or throw up all the potato chips and beef jerky he had just eaten.

He slunk back to his seat, feeling that everything around him had changed.

He slumped in his seat, completely losing his appetite for snacks.

Chu Zihang and Frilian probably noticed something was wrong as soon as they boarded the plane.

Only he and Lu Mingfei, those two oblivious guys, were still kept in the dark.

"The academy really goes all out," Fingel muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, a private plane was flying eastward at an even faster speed.

The cabin interior is the epitome of luxury and comfort. Expensive walnut wood trim, plush leather sofas, and golden champagne swirling in crystal glasses.

Cesare Gattuso sat in a large airline seat, with not the Financial Times or fashion magazines in front of him, but a specially made anti-eavesdropping laptop.

The interface displayed on the screen was dark and chaotic, filled with various obscure symbols, codes, and distorted images; this was the underground section of the Hunter website.

Nono was curled up on the opposite sofa, covered with a soft cashmere blanket, and seemed to be asleep, her breathing steady.

Caesar quickly scanned the constantly refreshing information on the screen, his fingers swiping across the touchpad to filter out a large amount of useless information, scams, and low-level tasks.

He was searching for recent reports on the Hunter website about unusual events within China, especially those clues that seemed to be related to dragon activities.

A series of bizarre and outlandish messages flashed before his eyes:

【Southwest Forest · Mountain God】The title is sensational, but clicking on it reveals an ancient custom of worshipping the so-called "mountain god" in a remote mountain village. The accompanying picture is blurry and looks more like the traces of a large feline.

Caesar marked the location, but lowered its priority. It could be Deadpool, or it could be some kind of charade.

[New Sighting of a Ghost Ship Deep in the Three Gorges] The post describes a recent sighting of an old-fashioned wooden sailboat silently navigating through dense fog on a tributary of the Three Gorges Reservoir, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Few comments follow, with most suggesting it's a hoax or an illusion.

Caesar frowned slightly. He pulled up a map, recorded the coordinates, and marked them as requiring further verification.

[Northwest Gobi Desert: Earthquake Mystery] An academic discussion on a geology forum was reprinted by the Hunter website, discussing the abnormal seismic wave pattern of a recent minor earthquake, which does not conform to known geological structures. Some replies vaguely mentioned "a huge underground cavity" and "unnatural".

Caesar forwarded the link to the Gattuso family's technical team, requesting in-depth analysis.

[Lingnan Ancient Tomb - Strange Fragrance] An account claiming to be a tomb raider posted that while excavating a Western Han Dynasty prince's tomb, a strange fragrance wafted from the coffin in the main burial chamber. The fragrance was said to make people feel excited and have superhuman strength. However, several people who came with him began to experience mental confusion and physical deformities after they came out.

The post was quickly deleted, but Caesar had already taken a screenshot.

He highlighted "unusual fragrance," "mental excitement," and "physical deformity" as key words.

【Shanghai Rainy Night - Golden Eyes】A post resembling an urban legend claims that on a rainy night near the Bund in Shanghai, the poster saw a flash of brilliant golden light on the top of a skyscraper, like the eye of a dragon in legend. The comments below are mostly mocking and fabricated stories.

Caesar stopped swiping his finger and zoomed in on an extremely blurry night scene photo that had been attached to a comment.

Although it was blurry, the hazy golden halo gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

He thought of Chu Zihang, but it could also be other high-risk hybrids or even dragons.

Caesar prioritized this information.

Searching and filtering are tedious and time-consuming tasks that require strong information discernment and intuition.

Caesar was like a patient hunter, weaving a net in the ocean of information, searching for those truly valuable clues.

Chapter 134 Dragon Slaying Tour Group

The plane landed smoothly on the runway of Beijing Capital International Airport. A slight turbulence woke Lu Mingfei from his half-asleep state.

Looking through the porthole, there was a familiar sky with the gray hues of a northern winter.

The cabin door opened, and passengers began to disembark in an orderly fashion. Lu Mingfei followed Chu Zihang and Frilian toward the cabin door, while Fingel yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes behind him.

"Finally here. The air in China even smells like hot pot," Fingel said, sniffing exaggeratedly.

Chu Zihang glanced at him expressionlessly and stepped down the gangway first.

Frillie frowned slightly, not quite used to the dry, cold air of BJ, and turned up the collar of her dark blue trench coat.

Lu Mingfei was stunned as soon as he entered the international arrivals hall.

The hall, which should have been bustling yet orderly, was filled with an unusually noisy crowd.

A large group of foreigners, of various skin colors and hair colors, wearing all sorts of outdoor clothing, including windbreakers, hiking boots, T-shirts with strange logos, and even some wearing leather armor with a medieval style.

They were shouting and waving flags and signs in various languages. The largest flag featured a ferocious image of a giant wolf with its feet planted on a mountain, with the words "Midgard Serpent" and "Midgard Serpent Hunters" written in crooked Chinese and English below it.

This doesn't look like an airport; it looks more like the scene of an anime convention or a cosplay event!

Moreover, the scale was extremely large; at a glance, there were probably no fewer than two or three hundred people, completely blocking the entire exit passage.

"What's going on?" Lu Mingfei exclaimed in disbelief. "When did BJ become so popular with Norse mythology fans?"

Fingel's eyes lit up, instantly banishing all sleepiness. "Wow, this is lively! Is it a film crew or some themed tour group? It looks very interesting!"

Chu Zihang frowned, glanced at the crowd, and quickly assessed the situation.

These people may seem carefree and noisy, but their positions subtly echo each other. Their relaxed postures contain a powerful energy, and their cacophony of conversations is mixed with various niche languages ​​and even some ancient dialect words.

He could sense an extremely faint but enormous "field" permeating the air, formed by the unconscious mixture of the auras emitted by a large number of hybrids!

These people are definitely not ordinary tourists.

As Lu Mingfei and his group tried to squeeze past the edge of the frenzied crowd, a slightly excited voice called out to them.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Isn't this a friend from Kassel College?"

Lu Mingfei looked in the direction of the voice and saw a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses walking over with a smile. He looked refined and gentle, quite different from the wild-style tourists around him.

Lu Mingfei felt that the other person looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he was looking for a moment.

Frillie, however, had a flicker in her emerald green eyes. "Mr. Tang Sen?"

"Haha, it's me! Miss Frillie, you have a good memory. We only met once at the auction." The man named Tang Sen extended his hand warmly, first shaking hands with Frillie, then looking at Lu Mingfei, "And this is Mr. Lu Mingfei, right? Your performance last time was quite impressive!"

Lu Mingfei then remembered that he had seen this person before at the Kassel College auction.

"Mr. Tang Sen, hello, hello." Lu Mingfei quickly shook hands, feeling even more puzzled. What was a high-end collector doing among this group of strangely dressed people?

"Mr. Tang Sen, what brings you here?" Lu Mingfei asked, looking at the large crowd around him. "Are you joining a tour group?"

Tang Sen pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses. "You could say that, but not entirely. To be more precise, we were a group of like-minded friends who organized, well, a cultural exploration trip."

A burly man, nearly two meters tall, with a thick red beard and muscles that looked like they were about to burst out of a plaid shirt, overheard the conversation. He chuckled and came over, speaking loudly in heavily accented Scandinavian English: "Tang, stop with the pretentious stuff! Hey, you Kassel lads!"

A large, fan-like hand nearly made Lu Mingfei stumble. "We're not here to see the scenery! We're here to do something big!"

Lu Mingfei grimaced from the slap, and asked in a daze, "Big, big thing? What big thing?"

The burly man with the red beard and several others who overheard the conversation burst into laughter, as if they had heard a particularly funny joke.

Tang Sen couldn't help but chuckle, shook his head, and then said to Lu Mingfei and Frilian, "Don't mind him, Paulson is just that straightforward."

He paused, lowering his voice slightly, but the excitement and fervor in his tone remained undiminished. "Our purpose in coming here this time is not simple. Mr. Lu, Miss Fu, your academy should also have relevant records, right? About the one who sleeps beneath this ancient city."

Lu Mingfei's heart skipped a beat.

Seeing the change in his expression, Tang Sen knew he had already guessed, so he stopped teasing him and revealed the answer directly, his voice filled with an almost reverent excitement:

"We have come for Fenrir, the King of the Earth and the Mountains!"

"Dragon slaying! Understand, kid!" The burly man named Paulson waved his thick arms, his voice booming. "Real dragon slaying! It's not the childish training you do in your academy!"

Lu Mingfei was completely stunned; his mouth was agape enough to fit an egg.

Slaying, slaying dragons? Such a grand display? A group tour-style dragon slaying? This sounds even more outrageous than Fingel's gossip! What about the secrets and cruelty of the dragon world? What about the principles the Executive Department carefully concealed? What's wrong with these people?

Frillie spoke up: "Mr. Tang Sen, as far as I know, the awakening and power of a Dragon King-level being are extraordinary. Isn't such a public action a bit too hasty?"

“Hasty? No, no, no, Miss Frilian,” Tang Sen smiled confidently. “We are not a rabble. Every member here is a rigorously selected elite hybrid from all over the world, with extensive experience. We have our own intelligence sources, equipment support, and operational plans. This is more like a joint hunt.”

Fingel, unable to contain himself any longer, slipped into the crowd like an eel and began chatting animatedly with a hot blonde woman in leather armor. "That's right, that's right, we're kindred spirits! I heard you guys have excellent equipment? Do you have those Nordic-style battle axes with alchemical matrices? I'm quite knowledgeable about them."

Chu Zihang remained silent, standing a short distance away, observing the tourists.

Their suitcases were unusually heavy, and some of them had bulging pockets on their waists or backpacks, clearly indicating weapons.

During their conversation, keywords such as "rock strata," "seismic waves," "Nibelungen," "venom," and "seal" frequently appeared.

These people are well-equipped, loosely organized but individually formidable, and have a fanatical belief and expectation of slaying dragons.

This completely overturned Chu Zihang's understanding of the Dragon Slaying Operation.

In his and the Academy's philosophy, this was a brutal war hidden in the shadows of history, requiring extreme caution, sacrifice, and secrecy.

The group of people in front of them, however, treated it as a grand adventure or hunting game.

Lu Mingfei finally recovered from his shock and stammered, "But, but this, this is too much."

"Too ostentatious?" Tang Sen chimed in with a smile. "Sometimes, the most dangerous place is the safest place, and the most public approach can conceal the true purpose. Who would believe that a group posing as a tour group is actually going to slaughter the mythical Dragon King? That in itself is the best disguise."

He patted Lu Mingfei on the shoulder: "How are things, Mr. Lu, Miss Frilian, and your seemingly strong companion?"

He glanced at Chu Zihang. "Interested in joining us? Many hands make light work, and we can share the glory and spoils of slaying the dragon."

Lu Mingfei took a half step back and quickly waved his hand, "No need. We have other tasks."

What a joke, going to slay the Dragon King with this bunch of lunatics? He felt he'd be grateful to even survive.

Frillie shook her head as well. "We have missions to perform at the academy."

“That’s a real shame,” Tang Sen shrugged, not insisting. “Well then, I wish you all the best with your mission. If you change your mind, you can come find me at our hotel. The Hela Hotel, we’ve booked the entire hotel.”

After saying that, Tang Sen turned around and disappeared into the noisy crowd. Red-bearded Paulson winked at Lu Mingfei and made a chopping motion.

As Lu Mingfei watched the large, excited "Dragon-Slaying Tour Group" noisily heading towards the bus, he felt as if he were in a bizarre dream.

Fingel emerged from the crowd, still savoring the moment, holding a business card with a giant wolf image and contact information. "Wow, these guys are so cool! They even give out souvenirs! The leaders are incredibly powerful, definitely A-level or higher! What do you think, should we take them?"

“Fingal,” Chu Zihang’s cold voice interrupted him.