Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

Chapter 207 Heaven is like an abyss, rain pours down like a waterfall

Tang Wei raised his left hand and held it in front of his eyes. The dial of the CASIO G-Shock sports watch glowed with a pale green light in the dim light.

The G-9000-1V (Mudman), a purely digital antimagnetic meter, is designed for use in extreme environments. As a hunter who frequently deals with supernatural entities and ventures into the sky, underground tombs, and caves, this is essentially an essential piece of equipment.

Although there's a saying that bad students have a lot of stationery, for a hunter like him who makes a living from this, not having these tools might mean he'd die even faster.

The fluorescent numbers clearly tell him the time—

11:47, almost noon.

He squinted, his gaze passing over the watch face and focusing on something further away.

The sky hung extremely low, with dark clouds clustered together, like clumps of cotton soaked in ink for a long time being torn apart by brute force, slowly twisting and turning. No light could truly penetrate down; only a few murky gray-white specks occasionally peeked through the cracks between the clouds, only to be swallowed up again.

The wind howled above the hillside where he was, whipping up dust and bits of grass that lashed against his coat and made a rustling sound.

"Noon is our official operation time."

"Holy crap, bro, you're awesome?"

Old Tang stared blankly into the distance, and a string of words burst from his mouth like cannonballs.

"When you first told me to set this time to carry out the operation, I thought you were worried that something would happen sooner or later, so you chose noon to send them away directly... I never expected you to have such a trick up your sleeve! How did you do that?"
Don't tell me you can accurately predict the weather... I remember watching the weather forecast, which said that this area would at most be cloudy today. Although forecasts can have errors, it's impossible for the difference to be this large, right?
I knew you were the type to keep a low profile, bro! The thing you showed me last night, with your eyes practically glowing, was just a small fry, right? Changing weather phenomena like that is the real skill—it's practically like the supernatural feats of gods in movies and novels! Just looking at you standing on that mountaintop gives off an aura of absolute power…”

"That's because I was terrified."

Tang Wei said casually, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his clothes.

"what?"

Old Tang was startled, only then noticing that Tang Wei's legs, besides flapping wildly in the suddenly appearing and increasingly fierce wind, were also trembling slightly. This trembling seemed to spread to his fingers as he took out the pack of cigarettes to light one, making it even more pronounced. He couldn't even hold onto the Zhonghua cigarette; it was blown away by the wind and disappeared without a trace.

"Damn it... I've done so many jobs, dug tunnels in the mountains and caught turtles in the sea... This is the first time I've seen a situation like this."

Tang Wei cursed, his hands trembling as he forced out another cigarette. He pulled out a windproof lighter and tried to light it, but even so, it took him several tries to succeed. He took a deep drag and slowly exhaled; the white smoke was swept away by the wind just a few fingers' distance away.

This seemed to calm him down considerably, at least he wasn't shaking as noticeably or exaggeratedly anymore.

“It looks like the fucking apocalypse!” he said viciously.

"So... this wasn't something you did?" Old Tang asked.

"Of course not! How could I possibly cause such a commotion? If I could, would I even need to consider retiring from the life of a hunter? No, wait, why would I need to be a hunter then? I could just do whatever I want and have more money than I could ever spend, okay?"

Tang Wei took another deep drag on his cigarette.

"There's no need to hide it from you now. The timing of the operation was set by that big boss called 'Crown Prince.' I knew why he was so confident that we could break through the blockade and enter that tomb... After secretly observing the defenses here, I had no intention of continuing. Even if I were stupid, I would never think of going against the army. Even demons and monsters are afraid of artillery shells and gunpowder, how could I not be afraid?"
But that "prince's" man found me and threatened to expose my activities to the authorities if I didn't cooperate. At the time, I honestly thought, maybe I should just let it go; at worst, I'd go to jail for a few years. And if my special abilities were revealed, maybe my sentence would be reduced? But then he said not to rush into a decision, that he had a way to help us infiltrate, and we could decide before the operation… That letter was placed directly on my bedside table!

"You weren't given a choice at all," Old Tang said.

"That's right, so I had no choice but to take it one step at a time, but I never expected..."

Tang Wei threw the cigarette butt, which was still glowing with a tiny spark, on the ground and stomped on it heavily. "He actually has a fucking way, and such an outrageous one at that!"

Anyone with a modicum of common sense should know that this kind of weather phenomenon is followed by either torrential rain or hail and blizzard... In either case, the intensity will be classified as "extreme severe weather".

The worse the weather, the easier it is to infiltrate. Even military-grade equipment is inevitably affected by such weather, making it difficult to guarantee that there will be no mistakes. Moreover, the hunters gathered here are full of "talents"... with many strange and wonderful abilities.

Having worked in the hunter market for so many years, Tang Wei had always vaguely known that there were hidden talents among the hunters, though he hadn't actually seen many of them. He never expected that everyone would be gathered here today by the boss codenamed "Prince" for such a grand event. This made his heart race, and he felt an unprecedented surge of emotion…

Scared.

"I want to run away, Old Tang."

Tang Wei didn't hesitate to back down, turning to look at Old Tang.

"When gods fight, mortals suffer. The person who can do this is almost as good as a god, even if they're not one. You and I would probably be nothing more than shrimp soldiers and crab generals in there. If we got caught up in it, we probably wouldn't even have any bones left. I still have to support my old man in his old age, and you haven't even gotten married yet, have you?"

"What you said makes a lot of sense..."

Old Tang also realized the seriousness of the problem. He felt that if Tang Wei was considered a crab general, he might not even be considered a shrimp soldier, and the danger he would face would definitely be more serious.

only……

He scratched his head, glanced down the hillside, and his expression turned somewhat grim.

"But the problem now is that the other hunters are waiting for us down there. You're the commander-in-chief. How are we supposed to retreat? Say 'Brothers, charge!'? You probably know they have ulterior motives. If you don't go first, they probably won't agree..."

"Yes, I'm like a duck being roasted over a fire right now. If I retreat, it's a fire pit; if I advance, it's a soup pot... There are definitely 'Prince's' men among those people. They might come to supervise the battle, and then we're finished."

Tang Wei sighed deeply. Clearly, he had considered these possibilities long ago, but couldn't think of any feasible solutions.

"Be smart. It's not easy for me, the boss, to run away, but you're not that conspicuous yet. Remember to run when you have the chance. I've already told my underlings that if something happens to me and you manage to go back, remember to inherit my company. Whether you want to continue or sell it, just remember to leave my old man some money to live on."

He patted Old Tang on the shoulder, his face full of sighs.

Old Tang thought to himself, "Dude, you're really like an old general on the stage—covered in flags. And we've only known each other for a few days. What's with this kind of entrusting of your son to someone else?"

Yesterday, it could be explained as him trying to shift the blame for the "boss" position onto himself, but now that things are already set in stone, it's hard to justify doing that anymore... Is he really serious?
You're making me feel really bad, you know. You know, I've been a spy from the beginning. I came here to sell out all of you. But now that I'm about to succeed, why is someone who really considers me a brother suddenly popping up?

These days, are ruthless people in the gray areas so trusting of strangers? Dude, you've managed to get this far without any trouble. You must be incredibly lucky. With that kind of luck, you could have bought a lottery ticket and be rich long ago. You wouldn't even need to think about retiring from this life!
"Actually... there is another option."

As the saying goes, a gentleman returns a peach for a plum. Old Tang hesitated for a long time, feeling that Tang Wei had already been so open with him, and if he continued to lie to him, it would seem a bit ungentlemanly. So he hardened his heart, lowered his voice, and slowly spoke.

"what?"

Tang Wei was taken aback, then realized something and was overjoyed. "Brother, I knew you weren't just a top hunter for nothing! Use whatever other hidden cards you have, or it'll be too late!"

……

"Where would I get so many trump cards? Do you think I'm Doraemon, carrying a magic pocket that can pull out the perfect gadget to solve any unexpected situation?"

Su Enxi ran her fingers through her hair, scratching it up and down. Her once silky chestnut hair became a mess after this. The calm and collected demeanor that belonged to the owner of the Word Spirit: Heavenly Evolution was completely gone, leaving only frustration.

"First of all, it's not a magic bag, but a granary pocket containing secret items in a four-dimensional space."

Mai Shude stood on a tree branch, dressed in a full set of tight-fitting black action clothes that perfectly outlined her hot figure and amazing long legs. She did not wear a mask to cover her face, and her scarlet eyeshadow was as sharp as a knife.

She looked up at the sky, which had suddenly become as dark and swirling as ink, crossed her arms, and questioned.

"Secondly, you've always managed to do this whenever you've assigned me a mission. This is entirely due to my trust in you..."

"We were able to do that before because we had crucial intelligence, especially from the boss. Now, we haven't been able to contact him for so long, don't you think about that? I'm just a strategist. Without the most crucial intelligence channel, it's like being blind and crippled. Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice, don't you understand?"

Su Enxi argued forcefully.

"Stop talking nonsense. Although we can't get in touch with the boss now, all the previous documents must have mentioned this situation, right? So you really have nothing to say?" Mai Shude expressed her doubt.

"Don't rush me, don't rush me. The data is there, but we still need to check it. I am the owner of the Word of Power: Heavenly Evolution, which gives me supercomputing-level computing power, but it doesn't say I have corresponding storage capacity!"

Su Enxi furiously typed on the keyboard and clicked the mouse frantically. The computer case fans began to spin wildly, the whooshing sound accompanied by the retrieval of massive amounts of data.

"found it!"

"Speak quickly!"

"Sudden extreme weather changes generally mean that the elements are disturbed. Elements in nature normally flow naturally, and this kind of abnormal flow is called elemental turbulence..."

"I'm not in the mood to listen to you read a paper or explain the definitions of words! I have a bad feeling, although probably no one would feel good seeing this kind of celestial phenomenon... Anyway, please just get to the point, okay?" Mai urged.

"I know, don't rush, I'm about to get to the point! There are three ways in which elemental turbulence is generated. One is through the effect of high-intensity, large-scale incantations. Some world-destroying incantations with extremely high serial numbers can create world-destroying power by manipulating the essence of elemental turbulence, such as the incantation Rhine."

Su Enxi was clearly reading and analyzing the materials at the same time. Her bright, golden eyes, like those of a gas lamp, were already lit up, and she spoke very quickly.

"The second possibility is the resurgence of pure-blooded dragons. Dragons naturally possess the ability to manipulate elements, and the more powerful the dragon, the more pronounced the elemental turbulence will be during its resurgence..."

"What about the third type?"

"The third possibility... is probably unlikely."

Su Enxi's voice clearly carried a hint of hesitation.

"It is the beginning of the Nibelungen."

"What do you mean? What the hell is Nibelungen?" asked Mai Shude.

“Nibelungen is not some kind of ghost! To be precise, it should be called some kind of ghost place. It is a place name, a temple-like existence for alchemists, and is also known as the land of the dead, where dead matter is everywhere... But it actually has an even more important, and true purpose—it is the place where dragons live.”

"The dragon's...hometown?"

"That's right. Dragons are proud creatures. They even choose to live in a real space in Nibelungen, which is almost a parallel space. This mysterious space is not open to the mortal world under normal circumstances. Every time the entrance is opened, it is accompanied by extremely harsh weather... But extreme weather is not the real condition, but something brought about by extreme weather."

"what?"

"Water, lots of water."

Su Enxi's voice suddenly turned low.

"But that's not the point... The point is that this was once a 'home' of the King of Earth and Mountains, and barring unforeseen circumstances, that home hasn't been opened for over two thousand years. And now that door is being opened."

Who do you think has the key to the door?

Mai Shude couldn't help but shiver.

……

On a mountaintop, a woman clad entirely in a black combat suit stood facing the wind. Compared to Mai Shude's figure... her crane-like physique was rather lacking, mainly because she was missing a large piece in her chest. If Mai Shude's figure was Mount Everest, then hers was a helipad.

At this moment, she was staring in disbelief at the dark clouds gathering and pressing down on the land not far away.

"Who is it? Who is it?"

She kept repeating it.

"You even broke the door lock? This is outrageous!"

……

A white shadow flashed before his eyes, and Lu Mingfei subconsciously reached out and caught it.

"Smoke? Where did the smoke come from?"

He muttered something to himself, and before he could report to Zhang Shanfeng, he felt a cold sensation accompanied by an impact, which struck him on the top of his head.

He raised his head.

Noon, 12:00
The sky is like a deep abyss, and the rain pours down like a waterfall.

(End of this chapter)