Lu Mingfei doesn't want to be a superhero

"Senior Brother Ye Sheng, you also understand feng shui?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously.

“My elders in my family know about this, and I’ve learned a little from them,” Ye Sheng said. He didn’t seem to intend to delve deeper into the topic, stopping after only saying that one sentence.

“Even if there is an entrance, it would have been covered by several meters of topsoil over the past thousand years,” Aki chuckled. “So, to save time, I’ll trouble you. Please.”

"I'm exhausted every time," Ye Sheng complained. "I need a fixed place to stay."

“Am I not your usual spot?” Aki swam up behind him, steel claws popping out from her flippers, gripping the rock tightly, and wrapped her arms around Ye Sheng’s waist from behind.

"Hey! Someone's showing off their love in front of us single people, is anyone going to do anything about it?!" Lu Mingfei complained from the side.

He knew, of course, that Ye Sheng and Jiu Deya were not a real couple. It was just that Ye Sheng's Word of Power was "Snake," and once it was fully released, it would cause him to become weak all over. That was why Jiu Deya needed to capture him.

Lu Mingfei could vaguely sense something erupting from Ye Sheng. Through his diving mask, he could see Ye Sheng's face rapidly turn ashen, as if he were about to die a glorious death at any moment.

Ye Sheng, who was releasing "snakes," couldn't help but glance at Lu Mingfei—the snakes he released would subconsciously avoid Lu Mingfei when they passed by him, as if they were afraid of something.

A moment later, Ye Sheng withdrew the "snake," his expression quickly returning to normal: "Found it, it's about 120 meters away at the three o'clock position."

"Let's go and explore what secrets lie inside," Professor Mans' voice rang out on the public channel, "but only if you ensure your own safety."

"Yes."×3

Led by Ye Sheng, Lu Mingfei and his two companions found a huge crack that stretched across the riverbed, as if it were about to cut the entire riverbed in half.

The three swam down the crevice, and the darkness before them gradually turned into a ghostly green.

Lu Mingfei was the first to realize that the endless expanse of dark green came from a huge bronze wall.

Directly in front of them stood a colossal bronze wall, extending in all directions, seemingly without boundaries and infinitely large.

“That!” Jiudeya pointed to a corner of the bronze wall, where there was a mottled mark. “The mark on the wall is exactly the same as the mark on the pottery shard we just found, only much larger.”

Jiudeya showed the pottery shard to Lu Mingfei. Sure enough, both the pottery shard and the mark on the wall depicted a face scorched by flames, only the mark on the wall was many times larger.

Meanwhile, she and Ye Sheng, carrying their filming equipment, approached the Bronze City and tried to capture as much footage as possible to send to the ship.

“It seems we’ve found our target,” Lu Mingfei said. “This is indeed a bronze city; even the city walls are made of bronze.”

"Isn't that outrageous?" Ye Sheng exclaimed in astonishment. "If this wall were made of special steel, it would probably be enough to supply the world's steel consumption for building aircraft carriers."

“Far more than that,” Lu Mingfei said. “This is a city built by dragons. In order to resist the invasion of dragons, its city walls must have been as thick as possible. The amount of bronze used is probably more than we can tell.”

"What kind of dragon could build such a city? Even the largest ruins ever discovered by the Secret Society are nothing more than sandcastles built by children compared to it," said Shudeyaji.

“Norton the Dragon King, the King of Bronze and Fire among the Four Sovereigns, and also the King of Alchemy. It is said that he has mastered the true essence of alchemy,” Professor Mans hissed. “Professor von Schneider once speculated that Norton the Dragon King hollowed out an entire mountain as a mold, poured molten copper from the top of the mountain, and as the bronze city took shape, the high heat caused the mountain rocks to crack, thus casting a colossal thing that current technology cannot achieve, a city made entirely of bronze, his habitat.”

Underwater, Lu Mingfei twitched the corner of his mouth.

Although he originally came here to explore for alchemical knowledge, it was still a bit outrageous that he dug straight into the tomb of the King of Alchemy.

“The snake is afraid of that city; it dares not approach it,” Ye Sheng said. “There must be something inside.”

"Maybe it's the King of Bronze and Fire himself? After all, this might be his hometown," Lu Mingfei joked.

But no one responded to his joke, and the entire chat channel fell into an eerie silence.

After a long while, Professor Mans finally spoke: "Lu Mingfei is right, there is very likely a Dragon King inside."

"Professor, can we apply for a retreat?" Lu Mingfei asked decisively.

Chapter 172: Bronze City and the Hulk are a perfect match!

Professor Mans did not correct the issue of address this time, and said in a deep voice: "Under normal circumstances, we should be more professionally prepared before coming here. If we are to face the Dragon King directly, the specialists should at least have A-level bloodlines. But unfortunately, we now have competitors, so we must race against time."

The others were a bit confused about the "competitors" that Professor Mans mentioned, but only Lu Mingfei knew that the professor was referring to the forces behind Jiu De Mai.

"Lu Mingfei, Ye Sheng, and Jiu Deyaji, the three of you will enter the Bronze City and search for relevant clues. If you encounter any danger, leave immediately," Professor Mans said.

"Hey, Professor, are you sure you're not kidding? It's like a new max-level dungeon opening in World of Warcraft. It's one thing for our guild to send three casual players to scout ahead, but the real problem is that after we somehow get to the boss's door, the guild leader says, 'Because the guild next door is sending their most elite raiding team to conquer the new dungeon, to avoid losing the first kill, you three casual players should hurry up and take down the boss.' Doesn't anyone think that's a little bit hasty?" Lu Mingfei couldn't help but complain.

“Don’t worry, among the four monarchs, the Secret Society knows the most about this King of Bronze and Fire,” Professor Mans said. “After being killed, the Dragon King’s resurrection will take a long time. It should still be in the process of cocooning and resurrecting.”

“Professor, I’d love to go in and explore too, but we just can’t find the entrance,” Lu Mingfei said, rolling his eyes. “This is the castle that the King of Bronze and Fire built for himself, and its fire and security are top-notch.”

“Leave this to me. Wait a moment, I’ll bring a locksmith down to find you soon,” Mans said.

Lu Mingfei twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking to himself, "Professor, I just called you 'Captain' a few less times, do you really have to put me to death?"

“Look on the bright side, you are now fighting for the safety of all humanity and hybrids. The King of Bronze and Fire, who has mastered the power of fire and metal and the true essence of alchemy, is undoubtedly the strongest among the four monarchs. Being able to suppress its resurgence is equivalent to preventing a war in advance,” Professor Mans comforted him.

With a sigh, Lu Mingfei suddenly adopted a resolute expression: "Alright! In that case, Senior Brother Ye Sheng, Senior Sister Ya Ji, let's go!"

"Junior Brother Lu, you're so brave?" Ye Sheng was somewhat surprised. "Most people would probably go weak in the knees if they heard that they might be facing a Dragon King."

Shudeya also showed admiration for Lu Mingfei and gave him a thumbs up.

"We dragon slayers have nothing to fear in death!" Lu Mingfei put on a righteous expression, but in reality, he secretly checked the ability he had copied from Hulk using his Mirror Eye.

He copied Hulk's abilities to fight the Phoenix Force, and now a week has passed, and today is the last day he can retain those abilities.

……

A moment later, a beam of spotlight shone down on them, and a figure swam towards them. Mans didn't speak, but tapped his helmet visor in greeting and exhaled a string of bubbles.

He was a strong and agile man, but at this moment he looked like a woman nine months pregnant, because his specially made diving suit had a rigid, transparent pouch in front of him containing a baby dressed in an extra-small diving suit. In the underwater environment where even adults would be involuntarily terrified, the baby miraculously did not cry out. He slowly turned his head and looked around, a faint golden light flowing in his pupils.

"Professor, is this your son?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously.

Professor Mans nearly choked on a mouthful of oxygen.

“This child is our secret weapon, codenamed ‘Key’,” he explained helplessly. “He’s not actually an infant; his bloodline was too high, and his body couldn’t handle it, so he stopped growing and developing shortly after birth. But his Word of Power is incredibly powerful, and we also call him ‘Key’. This Word of Power can open any ‘lock’.”

“However, I’m not entirely sure whether the Word of Power of the ‘Key’ will work on that king who stands on the throne of alchemy, and on his creations, since we haven’t tried it,” Professor Mans said.

"Does this count as exploiting child laborers or disabled workers?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously.

"Don't worry, we've provided the 'key' with all the necessary social insurance and housing fund benefits," Professor Mans said.

He closed his eyes, placed his hand on the bronze wall, and chanted softly, the solemn sound echoing in the water.

Words of Power: A Dustless Land.

The river water around Mans began to swirl, and a transparent water shell rapidly expanded outward from him. An invisible barrier repelled the river water within its range, forming an indestructible giant "bubble" at the bottom of the river.

Where Mans's hand touched, it was as if a north wind had swept across the surface of a bronze wall, peeling away large chunks of patina to reveal a brand-new metal surface, gleaming with a bluish-black sheen like oil. The pattern on the wall became clearly visible: a raised human face, a burning piece of firewood in its mouth. It was a bizarre image, the face contorted in agony, yet refusing to loosen its grip on the firewood.

“Baby, the rest is up to you.” Mans carefully took the baby out of the wetsuit’s abdominal cavity.

The baby with golden eyes struggled to bend over and stand up, perched on Mans's palm, gazing at the person's face. It slowly stretched out its chubby little hand and touched the person's forehead with one finger.

The bronze protrusion between the eyebrows sliced ​​through the baby's delicate finger, blood streaming down the pained face. In an instant, the face contorted, revealing an expression of joy.

A deep, resonant sound, like that of a giant bell, flowed from the child's mouth, and the bronze wall resonated faintly.

This is the incantation for releasing the Word of Power. Although hybrids do not necessarily have to shout it out when releasing the Word of Power, chanting the corresponding dragon inscription loudly can enhance the power of the Word of Power to a certain extent. Therefore, most of the time, hybrids will try to chant the dragon inscription whenever possible.

Lu Mingfei took the opportunity to secretly glance into the baby's eyes, activated "Mirror Eye," and copied the baby's Word of Power as the baby opened the bronze door.

The baby's blood flowed into the bronze face's mouth, as if being forcefully sucked away, yet the baby stood with the indifferent posture of a martyr, showing no sign of pain from blood loss. He leaned slightly, as if to kiss the bronze face's mouth. Mance hugged him, forcefully stopping this gruesome act, took out a hemostatic bandage, carefully wrapped it layer by layer around the baby's little finger, and patted his cheek, "The key, that's enough, you're amazing."

After absorbing the blood, the bronze face froze for a moment, then slowly opened its mouth as if yawning. From deep within the bronze wall came the terrifying sound of metal cracking from heating. A pitch-black hole about a meter in diameter appeared on the bronze wall, with the bronze face's teeth on both sides—not human teeth, but sharp as daggers.

"This is the entrance," Ye Sheng said in a low voice.

“The great achievement of alchemy is to contain the spirit in the purest matter and then let it serve as the guardian of this place,” Mans said. “This is a living spirit. The power of the ‘key’ was activated by the dragon’s blood, making the living spirit temporarily obey the command to ‘open’. You have about two hours. Once the living spirit breaks free from the control of the power, it will close the door.”

"Professor," Lu Mingfei suddenly asked, "Are you going straight back?"

Professor Mans paused for a moment, noticing a strange look from Lu Mingfei. He immediately realized that another group of people were staring at the White Emperor City, which was suspected to be the sleeping King of Bronze and Fire, and now they had used a key to open the gates of the White Emperor City.

“I need to return the key first,” Professor Mans winked at Lu Mingfei. “Ye Sheng, Aki, you two go in and explore first. Lu Mingfei, you stay at the door to meet them.”

Lu Mingfei instantly understood that Professor Mans wanted him to keep an eye on the gate to prevent others from taking advantage of the situation. Once they returned to the ship and the keys were settled, Professor Mans would personally come to guard the gate.

Ye Sheng and Jiu Deya blinked in confusion, not understanding the purpose of this order, but they still swam into the Bronze City together.

A wisp of extremely faint black smoke, barely visible in the deep lake water, followed the two people into the entrance, causing only a tiny ripple and attracting no attention from anyone.

Meanwhile, deep within the Bronze City, a pair of enormous golden eyes, like headlights, illuminated a corner of the somber hall: "It's traces of His Majesty Norton!"

174. Chapter 173 Mechanisms

Bottom of the Yangtze River.

Lu Mingfei floated in front of the bronze giant wall, looking at the hideous human face with its mouth open in front of him with great curiosity.

The face is somewhat like a relief, with a wide-open mouth and sharp teeth like knives, but this ferocious appearance is not entirely due to some artistic design—according to alchemical records, it is a "living spirit," that is, a kind of "spiritual entity" sealed in recycled metal.

Alchemy contains records of "regenerated metals," unique substances that can only be created by the King of Bronze and Fire. He completely kills ordinary metals and then uses his authority to give them new life, thus making the metals possess a certain "life" quality, capable of containing spirit like the flesh and blood of living beings.

This is known as one of the greatest miracles in alchemy. Even after thoroughly investigating the history of the Secret Society, regenerated metal has only been found in a handful of artifacts, and every artifact made of regenerated metal is invariably imbued with a living spirit.

Records of living beings in alchemy are extremely rare, and most of them can be said to come from mythology and the conjectures of ancient alchemists.

For example, some people believe that the concept of "immortality" in alchemy can be achieved by sealing in a living soul—first creating a regenerating metal large enough to hold the soul, and then transferring the soul from the flesh and blood into the regenerating metal, thereby escaping death.

However, this theory was later overturned because some studies have shown that even if recycled metal can contain abstract things like "souls," the "soul" of life itself will be refined and distorted during the process of being sealed in, eventually becoming a pure spiritual element and a slave to the object itself.

From a certain perspective, it can be understood as the "Kuman Thong" or "raising a ghost child" in Thai folklore, where the soul of a dead infant is transformed into a vengeful ghost through some means and then offered to and commanded. No one would think that after becoming a "ghost child" or "Kuman Thong," the infant is still "living in another form."

Moreover, "living creatures" usually have very low intelligence; they only instinctively obey commands and are unable to communicate effectively.

only……

Reaching out to stroke the protruding, sharp human face, Lu Mingfei was a little curious, wondering if the ability to project his spirit into his body that he had learned from the Ancient One could affect living beings.

Unfortunately, he can't try it now, because once his spirit leaves his body, his physical body will be out of his control.

A moment later, Professor Mans' figure descended from the sky again, the spotlight above his head resembling a solidified band of light in the water.

Professor Mans gestured to Lu Mingfei, and stopped at the door. Lu Mingfei then squeezed into the Bronze City through the gaping maw of the hideous face.

The academy's equipment mainly comes from two sources: the Equipment Department and the School Engineering Department. Mass-produced equipment and weapons, which are readily available in large quantities, mostly come from the School Engineering Department. These include enhanced firearms, ordinary detonators, and common hand grenades. While these are safe, their power is limited. The high-precision equipment, on the other hand, mostly comes from the Equipment Department, and a very small number are alchemical artifacts left over from ancient times. These artifacts are extremely powerful but also very dangerous.

The communication and positioning equipment used by Lu Mingfei and his team was also made by the Equipment Department. It is said that under the strong opinion of the principal, the Equipment Department reluctantly removed the explosive function of this series of equipment. Therefore, the communication and positioning equipment is one of the very few pieces of equipment that is easy to use and does not have the risk of exploding, and it is highly praised by the specialists.

This equipment can not only locate Ye Sheng and Jiu Deyaji's positions, but also show the path they just swam along. Lu Mingfei followed the path to find Ye Sheng and Yaji, who had entered earlier, and reunited with them in the vast and complex Bronze City.

The water inside Bronze City seemed clearer and the visibility was better than outside, making it easier for Lu Mingfei to see his surroundings.