Brass Dragons in the Dragon World

"Don't ask, who would tell you something like that?"

Chu Hao then slapped his sister, telling her not to pry into other people's secrets.

"Look, I don't have a single injury. You're still too green, kid. You need to train some more."

With a smug look on his face, Ander coaxed the two siblings away.

Angers then walked over to him and brought clothes to Ander, who was shirtless.

"Not bad, not bad, you're starting to look like a butler now. Perhaps I could elevate your status a bit?"

Angers tossed the clothes to Ander and walked aside to wait for Ander to change.

How much longer until we arrive?

"In about two or three days, this ship will be steam-powered and faster than a regular sailboat."

"That's still good, I hate traveling by boat."

"Once we get to Qinzhou, it'll all be the Loess Plateau. By the way, you're really not injured?"

Angers turned to face Ander, looked into his dark eyes, and asked.

Ander lifted the clothes he had just put on, dispelling the concealment spell that had been cast on his chest. This spell could use illusions to change a person's skin, shape, or appearance.

Ander's true skin was revealed, charred and bloody marks from the impact, the red and black mixed together, causing Angers to frown.

"It's nothing, just a scratch on the skin."

Ander put down his clothes and planned to go back to his room to treat his minor injuries. After all, he was a bard, and treating minor injuries was quite easy for him.

"We really can't underestimate our opponents..."

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Lu Family

Minzhou is mountainous, and the Lu family has survived from the Qing Dynasty thanks to the continuous mountain ranges of Minzhou.

As Ander and his group walked along the muddy dirt road, yellow mud splashed up, staining Anger's shiny black leather shoes with yellow marks.

The atmosphere in the group was somewhat serious. Angers was holding a small box and wearing a very formal suit, as if he were going to attend a funeral.

Angers didn't know how to bring up the news to Lu Shanyan's family.

In Angers' imagination, he would appear at the Lu family home like a ghost, and then say to Lu Shanyan's widow:

“Your husband was killed in the process of slaying the dragon. These are his belongings. Please accept my condolences.”

Amid the cries of the woman and child, Angers handed over a small box containing Lu Shanyan's clothes, announcing the devastating news to the poor woman.

It sounds ironic that a hero, after his death, can only be buried in a foreign land.

Angers had not experienced much separation or death at this time, so he still felt somewhat confused in the face of such a situation.

Ander, on the other hand, was much more relaxed. He appeared to be walking, but he actually used a levitation spell to keep his shoes off the ground so they wouldn't get dirty from the mud.

Because he was walking in front, none of the people behind him noticed anything unusual about Ander.

Although Ander wanted to say a few words, the solemn atmosphere prevented him from speaking.

The Lu family's house is located on the outskirts of Minzhou. It is a house with gray tiles and white walls, which has a strong ancient charm of southern architecture.

The house didn't look big, but it was clear that someone had taken good care of it.

He walked up to the door with his head held high and gently knocked on the door knocker twice.

Ander, behind them, used his magic to wipe the mud off Angers.

A short while later, the door opened, and a young woman poked her head out.

The woman looked to be in her early twenties, dressed in a simple outfit with wide sleeves that covered her slender limbs.

Her hair was combed together, coiled into a bun, and secured with a simple wooden hairpin.

The woman stared warily at Angers' unusual face; at this time, foreigners didn't have a good reputation.

"May I ask..."

Angers interrupted the young woman's question, speaking in a mechanical tone and with somewhat broken Chinese:

"Are you Mrs. Lu? I am Hilbert Jean Angers, and I am here to escort Mr. Lu Shanyan home."

Angers had imagined this moment many times, but when it actually came, he could only recite his lines like a robot, unable to even make a single expression on his face.

This may seem cold-blooded, but it might make Angers feel more comfortable.

The woman in front of him trembled slightly, staring at the small box in front of Angers. After a long while, she took the box and hugged it tightly in her hands.

"I am Lady Lu, please come in..."

Mrs. Lu appeared expressionless, seemingly unaffected by her husband's death. She led Ander and the other three to the main hall and sat down, bowing to them.

"I need to take care of some household chores. Please wait here."

Lu went to the back of the house, and the four of them waited on the chairs for a long time, but Lu did not return. Ander became a little anxious.

A faint sobbing sound came from behind the house. Lu was not as calm as she seemed, but she did not show it in front of these outsiders.

Ander was restless in the wooden chair and couldn't help but stand up, wanting to go to the backyard to find out what was going on, but Angers held the dragon back tightly.

Another unbearable silence ensued. Under such an atmosphere, it was impossible for Ander to chat with anyone. Perhaps the Chu siblings were reminded of the past, as they were both somewhat depressed.

Angers, on the other hand, stood like a statue from the moment he sat down, staring motionlessly at the beam above him, as if trying to see something extraordinary in the wood.

Madam Lu finally returned. She lowered her head, her steps unsteady, and she shakily sat down in the main seat. It took her a while to catch her breath before she finally spoke:

"My husband was perfectly fine before, what happened?"

Ander nudged Angers, who seemed to be in a daze, urging him to answer Mrs. Lu's question quickly.

Angers finally came to his senses and began to recount the story he never wanted to recall.

The "lizard bone" from China, the awakened Dragon King, the bloodthirsty Lu Shanyan, and Kassel who used Rhine to perish together with the Dragon King.

This story is absurd, as the Dragon King is awakened due to the improper operation of an ordinary doctor.

This is a great story; the mixed-race members of the Secret Society sacrificed themselves one after another, like moths to a flame, in their quest to kill the Dragon King.

Angers was actually reflecting on the situation at the time. Just as Ander said, the Secret Party brought this upon itself. An imperfect system and a group of people who only knew how to fight ultimately led to serious consequences.

In Angers' narration, the story ends with Meneke Kassel's Word of Power: Rhine, while Lutz raises his own question:

"Then why are you alright?"

Angers at this moment certainly didn't seem like someone who had been on the verge of death. What's more painful than the death of a loved one is seeing his comrades-in-arms standing unharmed before you. At that moment, you only have one thought:

Why is it you who's alive and not him?!

Angers looked at Ander beside him and replied:

“I lost consciousness after the explosion. It was Ander who saved me. He said he was from the overseas branch of the Lu family and was invited by Lu Shanyan to join the Secret Party. But when he arrived at the Kassel Manor, he only saw ruins and me barely clinging to life.”

Mrs. Lu stared at young Ander for a long time before finally asking a question:

"May I ask which branch of the Lu family you belong to, and whether you are listed in the family genealogy?"

Ander immediately perked up and replied:

"A branch of the family went to Southeast Asia a hundred years ago. If we're going by seniority, I'm Lu Boping's uncle."

Madam Lu took a deep breath, stood up, and bowed to Ander.

“Uncle, you escorted your husband’s belongings back to your hometown. You should be included in the family genealogy. Please come with me.”

Ander noticed that something was wrong with Madam Lu, but he still followed her and they walked together toward the back of the house.

Unlike many places where the ancestral hall of the Lu family is jointly owned by a village, it is a separate small house filled with the ancestral tablets of the Lu family.

Madam Lu picked up three sticks of incense and handed them to Ander, then lit them with a tinderbox and said:

"When the descendants of the Lu family return to their ancestral home, they should offer incense to their ancestors."

Ander didn't dwell on such matters. Whether he could obtain godhood in the future depended on the Lu family. He immediately bowed three times to the memorial tablet and placed the incense sticks in the incense burner.

Just as Ander bowed, Madam Lu closed the ancestral hall door, pulled a pistol from her skirt, and pointed it at Ander.

"Mrs. Lu, you can use a gun?"

Ander looked at Mrs. Lu, who was pointing a gun at him, but Mrs. Lu clearly had no interest in wasting words with him.

"The Lu family has a single son lineage for generations, and there are no branches overseas at all."

Ander shrugged and said:

"Why are you pointing a gun at me?"

"Because you're a good person, bad people wouldn't do such a thing."

"Good people have to be held at gunpoint? Mrs. Lu, let's talk."

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Paying back debts is a matter of course

Ander returned after a long absence, looking relaxed. In the ancestral hall, Ander and Madam Lu had a frank conversation and reached an agreement, which went something like this:

Ander said that he was not a greedy person, but the Lu family had a good reputation and he wanted to use their reputation to get things done. In return, he was willing to act as a protector or something to ensure the continuation of the Lu family bloodline.

When Madam Lu saw that Ande didn't covet the Lu family's ancestral property, she breathed a sigh of relief and said that the Lu family had only one son per generation and few members. If he was willing to do good deeds in the name of the Lu family, she wouldn't stop him.

Seeing that Madam Lu had relented, Ander immediately seized the opportunity and said that they were about to blow up the dragon vein, which was her husband's lifelong dream, but he was still missing a suitable weapon. The Lu family was large and powerful, so why didn't they lend a hand?

Finally, Angers watched as Anders emerged with a two-handed hammer. Unlike the enormous two-handed hammer in the game, this hammer was closer to its historical counterpart, with a shaft made of some kind of metal and a hammerhead similar to a mace, one end of which was an armor-piercing point and the other a flathead for striking.

The Lu family had fewer treasures than expected. These mixed-race families of Chinese descent had been ravaged by the Tartars and had left behind almost no gold or silver.

Ender rummaged through the pile of alchemical items before choosing this spiked mace. His previous "staff" had been damaged in battle, and he didn't want to touch those disgusting dead servants with his bare hands.

"I had a chat with Mrs. Lu. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Ander waved to the few people still sitting in their seats; he was quite excited to have acquired another weapon.

Mrs. Lu followed behind Ander, her face still expressionless; no one knew what she and Ander had just talked about.

Angers looked at Madame Lou, took out a beautifully packaged set of toys from his backpack, and said:

“Lu Shanyan often says that he has a child, so I bought him some gifts that I wanted to give to him.”