Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

"You know it's dangerous here!" Lu Mingze yelled at him. "I really don't know what your brain is made of, is it made of tofu dregs?"

Lu Mingfei was so ashamed that he wanted to disappear after being scolded by a teenager.

"I'm sorry..." Lu Mingfei apologized, feeling inexplicably guilty, as if... he had done something very wrong to Lu Mingze.

A sense of familiarity flashed through his mind, as if somewhere before, he too had done something he felt guilty about, something he had to hide from the little boy in front of him.

"Don't apologize, my brother." Lu Mingze sighed and shook his head helplessly.

He walked to Lu Mingfei's side and took Lu Mingfei's hand again.

"You are the king, you don't need to bow your head!" Lu Mingze said coldly. "Those traitors are the real sinners!"

"When we return to the world, all sins will be forgiven, in the way they deserve."

Chapter Thirty-Four: Free Fire

Lu Mingfei opened his eyes and found himself lying on a leather bench, covered with a blanket.

This is an elegantly decorated study, surrounded by bookshelves, with a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Lu Mingfei sat up and looked around. Not far away, Professor Guderian was dozing off at the desk.

"You're awake." Professor Guderian lifted his disheveled head.

Lu Mingfei shook his head and took a few deep breaths. "We...didn't encounter an earthquake?"

“There was no earthquake, you just suddenly fainted.” Professor Guderian said, “Finger said you stayed up all night at an internet cafe before you came, and then you stayed up with him until 1 a.m. today. I guess your body couldn’t take it anymore.”

"Young people should be careful and not stay up late all the time. When you get to middle age, you'll have to pay the price for it," Professor Guderian said with the air of someone who's been there all along.

"Where is this?" Lu Mingfei pressed his forehead, feeling as if a vein in his head was throbbing.

"We've arrived at the academy. Are you alright? I was really worried that one of our S-class students would die from overuse of the internet. If that happened, you would truly be the first person in the world to do so, unprecedented and unparalleled." Professor Guderian asked with concern.

"I'm fine, nothing's wrong at all," Lu Mingfei waved his hand.

“Alright, I know you’re afraid of trouble, but I still have to take you to see a doctor. We have to be responsible for the health of our students.” Professor Guderian clapped his hands.

"I'm really fine!" Lu Mingfei said anxiously. He had always disliked those sharp needle marks and middle-aged men in white coats. "Look, I can jump and hop around like this."

He performed a difficult backflip on the spot and landed smoothly.

"Mental health is also a very important part of overall health." The study door opened, and a middle-aged man whose face clearly said, "I am Japanese," strode in.

In each of his hands was a black briefcase with silver metal trim, which looked quite sturdy.

After placing his two suitcases on the table, he bowed respectfully to Lu Mingfei and introduced himself in fluent Chinese: "My name is Masafumi Tomiyama, a counselor at Kassel College. It's a pleasure to meet our 'S' class freshmen. It's been over forty years since we've had an 'S' class student."

“Your physical indicators are all very healthy,” Masafumi Tomiyama said. “But just in case, we’ve decided to give you some psychological counseling.”

"Just in case? Just in case of what?" Lu Mingfei asked, puzzled.

It wasn't just about getting an injection; he sat obediently in the chair because he felt he really needed psychological therapy; there was definitely something wrong with his head.

"The last 'S' class freshman committed suicide by shooting himself in the second semester of his sophomore year, and that's when we created the position of counselor."

"Hiss~." Lu Mingfei gasped. "Why did he commit suicide by shooting himself?"

"Because his grades were too outstanding, he got stuck in some philosophical dilemmas while studying dragon stories. Unable to break free, he committed suicide by shooting himself."

Masashi Tomiyama made a gun shape with his hand and pointed it at his own mouth.

The gesture was humorous, and it immediately eased the tension considerably.

In that instant, he was like an old friend you hadn't seen in years, joking with you, rather than a rigid psychologist.

"It's like there are two railway tracks in front of you, with one person tied to one side and ten people tied to the other, and then you're asked which track you should take?" Lu Mingfei shrugged.

“Pretty much.” Masashi Tomiyama opened the briefcase with a password and fingerprint. “I’m here to give you two pieces of guidance. First, to prove that dragons do exist in this world. Second, to answer all your questions.”

"These two are very important cultural relics, which we specially borrowed from the academy's archives."

After peeling back the layers of foam, Lu Mingfei saw a black scale, about half the size of a palm, perfectly shield-shaped, with a smooth surface as if it had just been oiled, and its texture was clearly visible under the light.

Lu Mingfei had seen similar scales on the Sakura Dragon, but the Sakura Dragon's scales were larger and, perhaps due to the loss of power and life, paler, as if it were dead. The scales in front of him, however, seemed to still be alive.

“Squeeze it,” Masafumi Toyama said.

Lu Mingfei pinched the scale between his two fingers. It felt a bit like steel, cold and tough, but very light, like plastic.

At that moment, Masashi Toyama slipped something into his palm.

Lu Mingfei touched it and found it was a pistol.

“Walter PPK, 7.65 mm caliber, muzzle velocity 280 m/s, effective range 50 m. The equipment department has made some improvements to it, and you can now use it to shoot at the scales.” Masashi Tomiyama placed the scales on the windowsill.

Lu Mingfei had anticipated that this academy was abnormal, but he didn't expect it to be this abnormal.

The United States allows private gun ownership, but it requires a very rigorous examination, and guns are not cheap.

Legally, no one is allowed to hand a firearm to a freshman who hasn't taken the exam, but they just handed over the handgun so easily, as if to say, "Hey friend, it's no big deal. Everyone at our school has one. Even the cafeteria ladies always carry one in their pockets. If someone cuts in line, you can fire it freely."

At our college, you can fully enjoy the thrill of shooting! Have a friendly live-action CS game with your classmates!

Lu Mingfei felt that either he was crazy, or everyone in the school was crazy.

He gripped the butt of the gun tightly; he was no stranger to this.

Back in Ashina, he had used guns before, but they were all old-fashioned flintlock guns with short firing range and low power. You had to get right up to their face to shoot them and cause fatal damage. They were not nearly as good as the Kusabimaru, which could be used for stealth kills.

Isshin Ashina does have a good pistol, but Lu Mingfei has no source of bullets, so once he runs out, he can only leave it in a box as a collectible.

“Don’t worry, just keep shooting.” Masafumi Tomiyama and Professor Guderian covered their ears.

Lu Mingfei nodded. His grip on the gun was perfect. He raised it with one hand, aimed at the scales, and calmly fired a shot.

With a deafening roar, PPK had a strong recoil, but he was prepared and his hands didn't tremble at all.

"Fantastic shooting!" Professor Guderian exclaimed. "You're sure to be a dark horse in the shooting competition!"

He adored this Chinese student; as long as Lu Mingfei graduated smoothly, he could obtain a tenured teaching qualification from Kassel College.

He should have become a tenured professor at Kassel College four years ago, but Fingel repeated four years, and his qualification assessment has been delayed until now.

Now, he has given up on that idiot and instead placed his hopes on Lu Mingfei, who has a bright future ahead of him.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Destiny

Masashi Tomiyama picked up the scale; its black surface remained smooth, reflecting Lu Mingfei's pupils.

That shot just now definitely hit the scale; his shooting has always been very accurate, even before he went to Ashina.

During military training, he had the opportunity to handle a real gun. Although his physical strength was not outstanding, he was a rare student who scored 100 points out of 100 shots. The instructors were amazed by his skill with the gun.

The recoil of this pistol was astonishing; Lu Mingfei could feel it. It was much greater than that of a large-caliber flintlock pistol. Yet, this modified pistol left no trace on the scales.

“These are dragon scales, discovered by Sven Hedin in 1900 in the ancient city of Loulan in Xinjiang, China.” Masafumi Toyama wiped the scales clean and put them back in his suitcase. “These are not some special materials made with high technology. With current technology, even alloys made with nanotechnology cannot remain intact after this shot.”

“You’re not just a psychologist, you’re a historian too,” Lu Mingfei interrupted.

“I have a master’s degree in history and a doctorate in materials science from the University of Tokyo. If you are interested in history, we can find an opportunity to discuss it slowly,” said Masafumi Tomiyama.

"No, no, no!" Lu Mingfei quickly waved his hand. He would rather be pricked by needles than be forced to memorize books bigger than bricks. "Let's continue. What's in the other suitcase?"

“Okay.” Masashi Tomiyama looked disappointed. He opened the second suitcase and presented Lu Mingfei with a cylindrical glass bottle, the kind of bottle teachers use to hold specimens in biology class, filled with a pale yellow liquid.

Lu Mingfei picked up the bottle and examined it from all angles. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that the thing inside looked like a lizard.

Animals soaked in formalin solution appear yellowish-white, with their long, curled-up tails resembling fetuses in the womb.

Its long whiskers floated slowly in the solution, and its closed eyelids made it look like a peacefully sleeping baby. Although it had two translucent membranes on its back, it looked like it had wings stuck on the back of a lizard.

To be honest, Lu Mingfei wasn't surprised at all by the existence of this Western dragon, because it was just too... too cute.

He felt that if allowed, he could keep this thing as a pet.

Which of the monsters in Ashina isn't more terrifying than this thing?

When Lu Mingfei first saw the Red Demon, he was so scared he almost peed his pants.

A hideous face, crimson skin, a massive body, and horns on its head resembling those of a demon, along with a roar that would only cease when it died.

As its name suggests, the Red Demon is a red evil spirit that cannot distinguish friend from foe and will violently attack any living thing within its line of sight.

Once it grabs you with its hands, it will lift you high into the air and slam you heavily to the ground.

You would never want to experience that again, with angry, wide-open eyes staring intently at you, hands gripping you as if to crush your bones, and mouths gaping open, exhaling a putrid, foul odor, as if to chew your bones and flesh into bits and pieces.

Tomorrow morning, you'll turn into a lump of indigestion and loose stool that comes out of your big butt under your bellyband.

My God! Even now, Lu Mingfei still has nightmares about it!

Although it wasn't the strongest monster Lu Mingfei had ever encountered, it was definitely the one that exerted the most pressure on him.

Compared to the red demon that crawled out of hell, this winged lizard in front of them can only be described as cute.

“This is a red dragon’s cub, and it’s not even dead yet,” Masafumi Toyama explained. “Dragons are very difficult to kill, especially the noble first and second generation species. Even if you destroy their bodies, they will only fall into a deep sleep and will awaken along with their silent souls in the distant future.”

"This is an extremely rare specimen. Humans usually cannot capture dragons because they can sense the presence of humans and will either leave before humans get close or launch an attack first."

"This specimen was discovered in 1796 in India, where the red dragon was swallowed by a giant python shortly after hatching. Local farmers killed the python and obtained the cub from its belly."

"How long did it stay in the python's stomach acid?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"It takes about 15 days for a python to digest a dragon. Even a cub can get nutrition from the scraps that the python has swallowed. If it takes any longer, it can cut open the snake's belly and come out on its own."

“Truly… a tenacious creature.” Lu Mingfei put the bottle down.

He squinted as he spotted a small red dot on the curved neck of the red dragon cub.

He wasn't sure if he could kill the dragon because he didn't have the Mortal Blade.

According to Masashi Toyama's description, dragons seem to be immortal, like immortal beings.

If you find a spot for a stealth kill, and give Lu Mingfei a sufficiently sharp knife, he can carry out the execution, and no enemy can resist during the execution.

However, some powerful enemies require multiple executions, and sometimes, even ordinary executions are insufficient to kill them, necessitating the use of the Mortal Blade.

The Mortal Blade is an ancient longsword with a deep crimson blade, enshrined at Senpou Temple. It was obtained from the hands of Henen no Kyouko.

Lu Mingfei had no idea where this knife came from, but it could execute those "immortal" enemies, bringing them to their true death.

He once used the Mortal Blade to free one of his few friends in Ashina.