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

Chapter 215 People always have to farm.
They can't kill us all, and we can't all die.

When Guan Ying uttered these ten words in a calm tone, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

For a moment, he thought of the text "The Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains" in his Chinese textbook. When he learned this text in junior high school, he didn't quite understand the old man's behavior. Since the mountain was blocking the road, why couldn't he just move it himself? Why did he have to move the mountain? People always have to learn to be flexible.

But now he understands that Yu Gong's choice to move mountains instead of moving his home naturally had its reasons, just like Guan Ying and his army, which had guarded this place for over two thousand years without ever leaving.

There is no room for compromise in this matter. Throughout history, countless heroes have risked their lives for their goals. Did they have no other choice? Of course they did, and many did, but they chose not to compromise because they chose to take responsibility.

Some things simply need to be done by someone else. If you don't do them, they'll fall on someone else's shoulders, so you might as well do them yourself. A man's shoulders can bear that burden.

Anyway, "Though I die, my sons will remain; my sons will have grandsons, and my grandsons will have sons; my sons will have sons, and my sons will have grandsons; and so on, generation after generation without end," isn't that right?
Lu Mingfei's gaze fell on the pot, where tiny bubbles rose from the bottom, densely packed, rising and disappearing. A faint smell of water vapor began to permeate the air, that unique and unsettling smell of "death."

But this time it was unusually faint, as if it had been dispersed by the presence of real flames and living people.

Putting the taste aside, this is actually a great place. Lu Mingfei's clearest memories are of houses in the city, which, although densely populated, are like pigeon coops. Most of the birds in the coops just go out early and return late to do their own work, rarely interacting with each other. This kind of gathering where everyone watches the fire slowly boil water and chats has never happened before.

"How did you find this place? Why did you come in?" Guan Ying asked.

"because……"

Lu Mingfei paused.

This question is easy to answer, but difficult in some ways. It's easy because the cause and effect are quite clear, but difficult because if we state it directly, it seems like a... denial of the actions of Guan Ying and his ilk?
This respawn point may have more than one exit. It's unclear whether this is due to some oversight over time or if it was designed with the possibility of people blocking the exit in mind.

Xiang Yu was resurrected and left long ago, but for some reason he seems to have lost his memory. Yu Ji left even more recently and has not been discovered.

If the mission of these "twenty-eight riders" was to protect Xiang Yu and Yu Ji, then their work can be considered quite successful. It's just unknown whether they themselves were aware of this.

As for whether Guan Ying and the others were negligent in their duties... Lu Mingfei didn't think so. They had been doing the same job for over two thousand years; it was no longer just a job but an execution for a greater cause. If we really judge it by the job itself, finding anyone still in that position would already qualify them as dedicated individuals, so some oversights are to be expected.

But his understanding doesn't mean Guan Ying would understand it the same way. To persist in something for an hour is a task, a day is work, a month, a year, or even more is life... But for more than two thousand years, only faith can be upheld.

But belief is guaranteed by "successfully achieving it". What if Lu Mingfei tells Guan Ying the truth and he misunderstands and thinks that all his long-term protection has been in vain, thus further causing his belief to collapse?
You don't even need to think about it to know the consequences will be severe, right?

Before Lu Mingfei could come up with a reasonable explanation, Guan Ying spoke up, stating in a declarative tone, "A dragon has gone out... it might even be Xiang Yu, right?"

"……Yes."

Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment, then put aside all the random thoughts he had just had, nodded honestly, and asked curiously.

"How did you guess it?"

"Dragons... if you've ever dealt with them, you'll know that they're actually quite similar to humans, but also somewhat different."

Guan Ying added a piece of firewood to the fire, and the fire grew bigger.

"The difference isn't that they can fly or disappear into the earth like the legendary immortals. It's just... how should I put it, they all seem to have some issues with their minds, and they like to be stubborn and inflexible." Lu Mingfei blinked. At first, he was actually a little skeptical. He had read the information from Kassel College, which described dragons as "a race synonymous with perfection," and apart from being a different race, they had almost no flaws.

But think about it...

"Now that you mention it, Lao Guan... I do have a feeling about that." He scratched his head.

Although Lu Mingfei hasn't had much contact with dragons in reality, only Yu Ji so far, he has learned about some stories related to the Dragon King by reading materials and listening to gossip.

Leaving aside Yu Ji, Lu Mingfei always felt that her respectful attitude towards him was quite strange, making him subconsciously feel as if he were an undercover agent lurking among humans...

How could that be? He's a completely human being, okay? Up until now, his hybrid bloodline hasn't even been activated yet, making Lu Mingfei start to doubt whether he's actually a hybrid.

Having special abilities is all thanks to the schedule... 1% supervision from the schedule and 99% effort from oneself!
As for Xiang Yu, both he himself and Alati, who later became the king of the earth and mountains, seem to have died because of women, making him undoubtedly the greatest romantic of his time...

It seems a bit strange that a dragon king would be so devoted to love, though this is understandable given their human-like nature. They clearly had better options—to achieve both love and success—yet they ended up losing both. What were they thinking? Perhaps it was a conflict between their left and right hemispheres?

Wait a minute, Yu Ji must also know about the King of Earth and Mountains transforming into Alati, right? If they find the person in charge later, oh no, the dragon involved, I wonder what kind of "magnificent scene" it will be? Lu Mingfei thought about this somewhat uncontrollably.

However, he quickly brought his thoughts back on track because Guan Ying continued to speak.

"Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the twenty-eight riders loyal to Xiang Yu would want us to stay here. Although we cannot go there for the time being, we are still a threat, and threats must be eliminated. This battle lasted for hundreds of years, but one day, when they came again, they said they wanted to stop fighting."

Guan Ying said calmly, "I suspected at the time that the being they were protecting had already left... otherwise they wouldn't have acted this way. But in the end, I still agreed. Do you know why?"

"I don't know." Lu Mingfei shook his head.

"Because I've been playing for too long, I'm tired, exhausted, and there's no need to play anymore."

Guan Ying spoke slowly.

"Many generations have come and gone. They all obey my orders, but they can hardly understand our purpose anymore. It would be a waste to send young people to their deaths for a purpose they can't understand. So, since we may have already failed, let it be."

He sprinkled a handful of what looked like tea leaves into the boiling water, watched them rise and fall, and sighed.

This breath was extremely long, so long that it seemed to express the weariness and loneliness of hundreds or thousands of years.

"It's time to start farming."

He said his gaze was lost in thought, and the reflection of the firelight danced joyfully in his eyes.

"People always have to farm."

(End of this chapter)