Lu Mingfei, who had read Dragon Clan before slaying the dragon

"That won't do, Beta!" Caesar's expression was serious. "You were the one who suggested using a code name, and now you're the one who wants to omit it. I'm a team leader who's good at accepting team members' opinions, but that doesn't mean I'm fickle and indecisive. So I reject your request to omit the code name. From now on, when you talk to me, use my code name, Alpha, or I'll assume you're talking to someone else."

Chu Zihang took a deep breath and swore that if he was not in the enemy's base camp, he really wanted to beat this idiot up so that he would never want to say the three stupid Greek letters "Alpha", "Beta" and "Ipsilon" again in his life!

However, the next second, Chu Zihang was suddenly stunned.

"Caesar, do you smell it?" Chu Zihang frowned slightly, "This smell of blood."

"Smell of blood?" Caesar was stunned.

"Yes, it's very strong and quite possibly pungent, like walking into a slaughterhouse." Chu Zihang looked towards the door. "We're here."

The elevator door opened, and a strange smell hit my nose, a mixture of strong fragrance and fishy smell, as if it penetrated through the pores of my limbs and rushed straight into my mind.

"Oh! This smell is really intoxicating! I was feeling a little sleepy originally, but now I'm so perked up! It's like someone stuffed two cigars up my nostrils!" Caesar pinched his nose, but the smell still lingered in his mind, unable to be shaken off. "Hey, did someone roast dead fish and candied fruit together?"

"The smell of roasted dead fish you smell should be the smell of blood. As for the candied fruit..." Chu Zihang pointed forward, "It should be those."

Caesar looked in the direction of Chu Zihang's finger. Outside the elevator was a quiet ancient road. On the walls on both sides were bronze candlesticks. There were no candles or coal lamps in the candlesticks, only clumps of black, soft objects like asphalt burning quietly.

"In this day and age, they're using candles instead of lamps?" Caesar frowned slightly. "Is it to create an ancient atmosphere?"

"This isn't an ordinary candle." Chu Zihang walked over to a candlestick, pulled out his Murasame, and used the tip of his knife to pick up a ball of black "mud." He then sniffed it, "The fragrance you smell is from this burning thing. If I'm not mistaken, this thing should be the legendary 'mermaid oil.' Ancient texts record that mermaid oil can burn for a thousand years without extinguishing. It's not uncommon for such mythical things to appear on the road to the gods."

"Are there really such creatures as mermaids in this world?" Caesar looked incredulous.

"Have you forgotten? The group of corpse guards we encountered in Takama-ga-hara deep in the abyss a few days ago, judging from their appearance, don't they look very much like mermaids in Japanese mythology?" Chu Zihang said.

"So, the Snake Eight Clan actually knew about the existence of those corpse guardians in Takama-ga-hara a long time ago?" Caesar looked at the asphalt-like mud. "No, not only did they know, they even captured these creatures some time ago?"

"At least a thousand years ago, because this history has been recorded by their ancestors." Chu Zihang used Murasame to pick up the burning mermaid oil, and the faint light passed across the screen walls on both sides.

On the mottled wall, you can vaguely see flowing water, mountains, oceans and cities...

"Beta, don't learn such primitive methods from the Eight Clans of Sheqi." Caesar took out a flashlight from his arms and waved it in front of Chu Zihang as if to show off. "Have you forgotten? We are modern people."

Chu Zihang was too lazy to pay attention to him.

The moment Caesar turned on the flashlight to illuminate the screen wall, light and shadow intertwined and mottled, and both of them were stunned by what was engraved on the wall.

The walls are not covered with murals or paintings, but a combination of prominent stone carvings and pigments, carefully carved into the huge limestone walls.

The towering giant paintings are perfectly integrated with the walls. Someone used extremely precise and advanced technology to peel these original paintings off the ancient stone walls in their entirety, and then glued them to the screen wall of Genji Heavy Industries. The carvings and pictures are almost intact and weathered... These giant paintings with a history of thousands of years record a dusty myth, and seem to be able to bring those who see the pictures into the great catastrophe that happened thousands of years ago.

In the picture, mountains are connected to mountains, between the mountains stands a huge city, and in the distance is the vast ocean.

A nimble black dragon rose from the center of the ocean. Countless merfolk with snake-tails in the sea and people on land bowed down in worship from all directions. Four enormous thrones were spread across the sky and earth. The giant dragons atop them surrounded the black behemoth as it ascended to the pinnacle of the world. The entire world radiated under its immense pressure. That was once the greatest emperor in history...

"Black Dragon King... Nidhogg!" Caesar gazed up at the words and muttered the forbidden name. "Is this the true secret buried by the Eight Clans of Sheqi? These stone walls engraved with the Black King?"

"No, that's not right!" Chu Zihang looked further away, his tone uncertain. "Even if this stone wall is a Jataka painting that records history, it shouldn't be treated so carefully by the Sheqi Eight Clans. What they want to hide is not the stone wall itself, but the past buried in the painting, or in other words... the truth!"

Chu Zihang looked at the long corridor and screen wall in front of him, which were surrounded by dim candlelight. His voice was as low as chanting Buddhist scriptures... as if he was afraid of disturbing the gods who were dormant in the screen wall.

Chapter 286 The Confrontation between Tachibana Masamune and Lu Mingfei

Caesar and Chu Zihang walked forward in the deadly silent shrine, their footsteps echoing in the long and narrow passage. The bronze candlesticks on the walls on both sides were flickering with ghostly candlelight, casting their distorted shadows on the huge paintings that looked like mountains.

"Haven't you noticed? Although the screen wall depicting the Black King's arrival is huge, it only occupies less than one-tenth of the length of the entire wall. There must be more secrets ahead." Chu Zihang whispered.

Caesar nodded, turned the flashlight, and the light spread across the ancient stone walls.

The colors of vermilion and indigo blended together, so beautiful that it was breathtaking and dazzling. Thousands of years of history spread out before their eyes like a scroll. The two people's gazes seemed to be immersed in the long river of thousands of years, drifting with the waves.

The monsters with human faces and snake bodies formed an endless team. Some of them held torches high, knelt on the ground and looked up at the sky, as if they were performing a sacrifice; some hugged each other, with their long tails entangled together, and looked like they were having sex.

The male snakemen were tall and mighty, while the female ones were enchanting and charming. They danced wildly around the giant skeleton, surrounded by a blazing bonfire. In the sky, a giant dragon with wings on its back soared in the clouds. The sun and the moon shone on the earth at the same time, illuminating the skeleton. From its dark eye sockets, one was flowing with golden water, and the other was emitting a fierce flame, which solidified into veins and magma in the distance.

Demons and giants clashed in the wasteland, swords and tridents in hand. Flames lit the sky crimson, and it seemed as if the entire world was ablaze...

It is hard to imagine that those golden rivers are actually paved with melted real gold, the swords are made of real bronze that has been smelted thousands of times, and the walls are inlaid with blood-red or emerald green agate stones and intricately carved crystal jades everywhere, which is luxurious and extravagant.

This is a work of art that people worship, as if all the violence, anger and untold sins in the world are integrated into this wall. When you look at the painting, you seem to hear the drums and roars of thousands of years ago, smell the blood of war, and feel the scorching temperature of the flames on your skin... The picture is so beautiful that it is breathtaking and makes people want to cry.

There were more than a hundred paintings like this along the long corridor. Caesar and Chu Zihang, looking up at the murals, were shocked by the luxurious yet extremely real beauty. They seemed to be immersed in the indescribable world depicted in the paintings and walked in silence for a long time.

"It seems that the purpose of this floor is to store these murals. Each one here has a history of at least thousands of years. If they are auctioned, they will fetch an unimaginable price." Chu Zihang couldn't help but stroke his fingers on a mural depicting the king of the earth and mountains.

"The Japanese are truly utterly extravagant," Caesar couldn't help but sigh. "In Tokyo, where every inch of land is valuable, they use such a spacious floor exclusively for storage, hide treasures like these in hidden, untraceable floors, and even use the legendary mermaid oil as candlelight."

"Although these paintings are of high artistic value and craftsmanship, with exquisite materials and appropriate preservation methods, what is precious to the Sheqi Eight Clans is probably not the murals themselves, but the history contained within them. The part we just visited probably describes ancient myths and legends." Chu Zihang looked ahead. "The thing that the Sheqi Eight Clans truly treasure is probably not far ahead of us."

Caesar shone the flashlight toward the ceiling and looked up at the place above his head. They were passing through a torii gate.

Two thick wooden pillars support the Kasa wood and Shima wood that run across the entire space. They do not appear to be spliced ​​together, but rather carved from a large enough ancient tree in one go. The vermilion paint on them has become dull and mottled, revealing the original ancient wood color. In the middle of the torii gate, there is only an ancient character "神" written on it.

"The atmosphere here is very strange." Chu Zihang frowned slightly, "The smell of blood is even stronger."

"This must be the end of the Shinto Road, where the true secrets of the Sheqi Eight Clan are hidden." Caesar obviously also smelled the mixed smell of burnt incense and blood in the air, and his expression became serious.

The candlestick made of mermaid oil suddenly broke here, and a tall statue carved from solid wood stood in the darkness.

There is a white curtain on the face of each statue. Some are gods holding knives, and some are ferocious evil spirits. The difference is that there is a stone platform under the feet of each god, and the evil spirits have long white ropes wrapped around their bodies.

This rope woven with paper balls is called a "banner", which refers to the flag on the stupa. If it is in the form of a drape or ribbon decorated on a paper umbrella, it symbolizes holiness. If it is in the form of a winding rope, it symbolizes the seal of evil spirits.

The walls here are completely different from the walls on both sides of the Shinto. The screen walls behind the torii are all horizontal, and each screen wall almost has the length of the entire floor. On both sides of the front stand giant elephants and shrines similar to supporting sacrifices. The things depicted on the screen walls are between gods, ghosts and demons, recording the war between gods and demons, the desolate land and the ancient city.

"Beta, do you understand? What period of history do these things record?" Caesar asked Chu Zihang.

"I can only tell from the pigments and materials of these murals that they date back at least two thousand years. They not only touch upon the history of the birth of hybrids, but also mythical wars and some of the secrets of the dragon race. They're very profound." Chu Zihang stroked these priceless ancient stone walls. "The Sheqi Eight Clans have never disclosed this section to the academy, and the academy library doesn't have any relevant documents on this period of history, so it's difficult to interpret. I can only understand a very small portion of it on the surface."

"The surface? I can understand that," Caesar said. "These screen walls are beautifully painted and very valuable. They are antiques."

Chu Zihang ignored the ridiculous joke and walked deeper into the cave. "But what I can confirm is that the deeper we go, the more important the contents of these murals are to the Eight Clans of Sheqi. The greatest secret should be hidden in the deepest part of this layer."

Caesar and Chu Zihang had already walked very deep into the underworld. Looking through the gap between the screen wall and the wall, the Shinto statue illuminated by mermaid oil turned into a blurry ball of light. The two of them were like lost travelers falling into the depths of the underworld, getting farther and farther away from the real human world.

"Caesar, give me the flashlight." Chu Zihang stopped in front of a tall and wide screen wall and stretched out his hand to Caesar.

"Just this once. Next time, don't give me orders like I'm your assistant carrying your luggage!" Caesar reluctantly put the flashlight in Chu Zihang's hand.

Of course he was very unhappy. The young master of the Gattuso family had never been ordered around by others, not to mention that the one who commanded him was the annoying guy Chu Zihang.

But he knew in his heart that his accumulation of historical knowledge was far inferior to Chu Zihang. At this level, that guy could only be regarded as a half-expert, while he was more like a nouveau riche who thought everything he saw was valuable. He couldn't help but be curious about the secrets hidden by the Eight Clans of Sheqi, so he had to condescend to obey Chu Zihang's orders once.

Chu Zihang turned the flashlight's brightness to the maximum, the aperture to the widest, and stepped back as far as possible so that the aperture could cover as much of the screen wall in front of him as possible, until his back was pressed against the back of the upper screen wall.

Most of the mural was illuminated, and this shadow wall depicted a huge map.

Forests and lakes dot the map like stars. A majestic ancient city stands between the mountains and forests. Four huge thrones stand at the four corners of the northern area of ​​the mural. In the center of the throne is the supreme emperor, the Black King Nidhoggr.

The central part of the mural depicts a graceful dragon, whose entire body is pale.

The giant white dragon held a golden scepter high in the air and sat on the white throne, facing the Black King in the north from afar. The light emanating from the scepter radiated all the way north, crossing the mountains and oceans, shining on the great Black King, leaving scars like burning fire.

It is not difficult to see that the giant white dragon is the undisputed protagonist of this mural.

"So that's how it is. What we saw at the bottom of the sea was her, her city when we destroyed it." Chu Zihang stared at the white dragon and uttered a meaningful word.

"The White King?" Caesar said in astonishment, "The greatest secret of the Sheqi Eight Clans... is the White King?"

"Oh, I remember now! We've seen these human-faced, snake-bodied figures before, right?" Caesar suddenly said. "We've seen this torii gate, the city in the mural, and even the statue of the White King. Not long ago, in the Deep Abyss, Takamagahara, in that lost underwater city."

Chu Zihang nodded.

"It turns out that what Lu Mingfei said was true, and what Xia Mi said was also true. The mixed-race people in Japan have different origins from other mixed-race people, and their history is indeed a mythological history. The screen walls we just saw were not pictures imagined by painters for the sake of artistic quality. They are all real. They are recorded by historians and are a glorious civilization that existed on this land, a splendid civilization... an independent civilization ruled by the White King!" Chu Zihang said in a deep voice.

"They believe in the White King?" Caesar frowned. "Just like Christians believe in Jesus?"

"No, it's not just about faith." Chu Zihang pointed at the huge painting before him. "While historians need to be fair when recording history, it's inevitable that it will be heavily influenced by background information and personal emotions. Haven't you noticed? The Black King is the leader of the Dragon Clan, while the White King is merely a priest, assisting the Black King. Yet, the image of the White King in this mural is even more majestic than the Black King... What kind of half-blood would think the White King is greater than the Black King?"

"In ancient times, before Takama-ga-hara sank under the sea, it was once part of Japan. It was a city dedicated to the White King, and a huge statue of the White King stood in the city's center. The corpses there were all made from dead ancient hybrids. Even the Bronze and Fire Kings, the most skilled in alchemy among the Four Kings, didn't have such ability. Who possessed alchemy stronger than the Four Kings?" Chu Zihang carefully analyzed the truth for Caesar. "Shinto means tomb in Japanese, and coffins should be enshrined here, but there are only these murals here. This is Genji Heavy Industries... Do you think anyone would place someone else's grave or memorial tablet in their own home?"

"These murals enshrine the ancestors of the Japanese hybrids? So..." Caesar stared at the white dragon figure in the center of the murals, blocking out the sun and sky. "Damn it, the ancestor of the Sheqi Eight Clan is the White King? They're descendants of the White King, and this is their biggest secret!"

"This is certainly their secret, but perhaps not their biggest." Chu Zihang moved the flashlight away from the White King's mural. "This isn't the last layer of the shadow wall. There are several more layers behind it. The contents recorded there may be even more shocking than the secret of the White King's bloodline."

"And I can smell the bloody odor spreading across this floor coming from behind this mural." Chu Zihang patted Caesar's shoulder. "We must remain extremely vigilant from now on."

"Don't look like you're giving instructions to your subordinates. I'm the team leader, okay? And... I told you to call out code names, you bastard!" Caesar followed Chu Zihang's steps and walked towards the deepest part of this floor.

……

The huge freight elevator was parked on a mezzanine at the bottom of Genji Heavy Industries.

This floor is called the 'torture room'. The entire floor is made up of dark rooms and compartments with highly soundproof walls. It is generally used for interrogating or temporarily detaining family prisoners. There are no surveillance cameras installed here, and it is not open to people outside the family. Only those with magnetic cards with deputy ministerial authority or above can reach this floor.

The four of them walked out of the elevator and came to the dimly lit corridor. Lu Mingfei looked at Tachibana Masamune's back and had a bad premonition in his heart.

"Mr. Masamune, is there something important that brings you to the interrogation room late at night?" After walking for quite a distance, Sakurai Nanami finally couldn't help but ask.

"Actually, I originally just wanted to visit the children of the fierce ghost group that Zhisheng brought back. Although they all bear the fate of ghosts, that is also the original sin of their bloodline. After all, each of them was once a child of the family." At this point, Tachibana Masamune suddenly stopped. "But now I have suddenly changed my mind. Because before visiting those children, there is a more important matter that I must pay attention to."

Behind him, Inuyama He, Sakurai Nanami and Lu Mingfei, who was disguised as a researcher, also stopped. The two family heads looked at Tachibana Masamune, waiting for the next step.

Tachibana Masamune turned around, but did not meet the eyes of the family heads. Instead, he stared straight at the figure in the white coat and slowly said, "Who are you?"

Lu Mingfei's heart suddenly tightened, his nerves instantly straining to the limit. He lowered his head, quickly glanced at the nameplate on his chest, and forced his voice to sound calm and steady: "Yes, Mr. Masamune! My name is Yamamoto Maruichiro, a researcher at the Ganliu Research Institute under Director Miyamoto. I'm responsible for the research, development, and maintenance of submarines and underwater projects."

Chapter 287 Lu Mingfei's Crazy Attack on Tachibana Masamune

Tachibana Masamune stared at Lu Mingfei quietly, his eyes seemed to penetrate his white coat and skin, wanting to penetrate straight into his heart.

Lu Mingfei kept his head down the entire time, not even making eye contact with the former patriarch of the Sheqi Eight Families, like a clerk waiting for his boss's approval.

"Chisheng has just taken over as head of the family and hasn't had much contact with the people at Ganliu Research Institute. He probably doesn't recognize many people there except for the head of the Miyamoto family. It's normal that he doesn't know Yamamoto Maruichiro." Tachibana Masamune said calmly, "But I'm different. I've been head of the family for ten years, and I have a good memory. I've dealt with almost every researcher at Ganliu Research Institute, and I know the real Yamamoto Maruichiro."

"Maruichiro is a forty-year-old man. I've met him four times, and each time he wore black-framed glasses with high power. He's not very ambitious, but he's incredibly dedicated to his research," said Masamune Tachibana. "Every time I meet him, I'm struck by how awkward the researchers at the Ganryu Research Institute are. They're not like you; they never introduce themselves with such confidence."

"And what's even more impressive is..." Tachibana Masamune paused, "Because of his sleepless research and irregular lifestyle, Maruichiro has a lot of white hair on the back of his head. He's also a bit bald, unlike you who have such thick black hair."

Lu Mingfei was silent, not knowing what to say for a moment... He never expected that one day he would fail because he had thick black hair but was not bald!

As soon as Tachibana Masamune finished speaking, Sakurai Nanami took out a gun from her arms and pointed it at Lu Mingfei's head.

"Answer Mr. Masamune's questions. Who are you? Why are you pretending to be from Ganliu Research Institute? What is your purpose in infiltrating Genji Heavy Industries?" Sakurai Nanami asked three fatal questions in succession. At this moment, she was no longer a beautiful young woman, but more like a female agent with agile movements.

They were not impressed by Lu Mingfei's appearance. They had only had a brief meeting a week ago. From an Asian perspective, although Lu Mingfei was not ugly, he had an extremely ordinary face, and he kept his head down almost the entire time when meeting with the heads of the families.

The Metropolitan Police Department's wanted poster only captured a blurry photo of Lu Mingfei. After sneaking into the canal of the Iron Dome Temple, his hair was completely soaked. Now his long bangs hung down in front of his forehead, almost covering his eyebrows and eyes. He also carried some cosmetics he brought from Takama-ga-hara in his pocket. Before entering the elevator, the three of them had scribbled a few strokes on their faces. He looked very different from the elite and capable commissioner he had been when he first met the head of the family. It was understandable that Tachibana Masamune and Sakurai Nanami did not recognize him for a short time.

"You can choose, confess or die." In front of Tachibana Masamune and Sakurai Nanami, Inuyama Heya had no choice but to put his fingers on the hilt of the knife, pretending to be staring at Lu Mingfei.

After a moment's silence, Lu Mingfei suddenly sighed, "I'm surrounded by the three family heads. What choice do I have? I understand the principle of leniency for those who confess and severity for those who resist."

He then changed the subject: "But you are the underworld. If I don't confess, you might arrest me and torture me repeatedly. You won't kill me right away. But if I confess, I will be useless to you. You will take the eggs and then kill me. Then I will have no place to seek justice."

"Now is not the time for you to negotiate." Sakurai Nanami frowned slightly, her tone cold.

Tachibana Masamune waved to Sakurai Nanami, looked at Lu Mingfei and said, "I can assure you that as long as you don't resist and tell us your intentions, we can consider giving you a way out."

"Hey, listen, those are truly merciful words! Even if I'm a thief, I still have nothing to steal, right? Even if I were caught by the police, I'd be detained for a few days at most. But in your hands, it's as if you're doing me a great favor by not killing me." Lu Mingfei shrugged and looked at Tachibana Masamune, "But you're gangsters, this is your territory, and whatever you say goes... Are you sure you won't kill me if I confess the truth? Are you serious?"

"Really." Tachibana Masamune nodded slowly.

"Oh, fine, I'll tell you the truth." Lu Mingfei looked up at Tachibana Masamune and said seriously, "My name is Nidhogg. I pretended to be from the Ganliu Research Institute because I just fell into the water. My original clothes were soaked and uncomfortable to wear, so I changed into clean clothes. As for my purpose of sneaking into Genji Heavy Industries... I'm a thief, and I came here to steal the treasures of your Sheqi Eight Families."

What the hell is going on? It's complete nonsense!

Inuyama He was a little dumbfounded, and couldn't help but sigh that this kid dared to blurt out such nonsensical nonsense when he was desperate... Should he say that he is worthy of being the guy that even Principal Ange praised?

Hearing Lu Mingfei's nonsense, Tachibana Masamune's face instantly turned gloomy, and Sakurai Nanami pulled the trigger with a frosty face... She was in no mood to waste time with the guy who dared to challenge the family's dignity. Only by sentencing him to death on the spot could she demonstrate the majesty of the head of the family.

The brass-colored bullet tore through the air and shot in front of Lu Mingfei, where it was split in two by the sharp blade, leaving two black scratches on the wall behind him.

Lu Mingfei held the unsheathed Guanze Zhengzong in his hand. The strong wind caused by the high-speed movement lifted the hair on his forehead, revealing his familiar eyebrows and eyes.

"Lu Mingfei?" Tachibana Masamune stared at the young intruder, a fleeting look of surprise suddenly crossing his face, evidently recognizing his identity. "Are you Lu Mingfei?"

"The 'S'-level specialist from headquarters?!" Sakurai Nanami was obviously also surprised, and the finger that was about to pull the trigger again stopped hesitantly.

Since being exposed was inevitable, Lu Mingfei simply stopped pretending.

"Is it really surprising?" Lu Mingfei carried Guanshi Zhengzong on his shoulders, and there was no emotion in his tone.

"Since you are here, the other two specialists in your team should be here too, right?" asked Sakurai Nanami.

"No comment." Lu Mingfei responded coldly.

"What is your purpose in sneaking into Genji Heavy Industries?"

"Purpose? Don't you know?" Lu Mingfei stared at Sakurai Nanami and asked back.

Sakurai Nanami frowned slightly.