Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

Cabbage and Radish: "Understand?"

Eriyi's psn: "?"

Cabbage and Little Radish: "Okay, let's open it."

In games, a question mark can have many meanings, but for skilled players, the simplest and most direct way to respond when others question their abilities is with a "?".

The two quickly loaded into the game.

However, within minutes of entering, Bai Cai Xiao Luobo's blood pressure spiked.

"Do you even know how to shoot?! !"

"Where are you going? Haven't you seen the speedrun videos? Come over here and cover my spot!"

"I give up, what are you doing here, a newbie like you, getting involved in this mess?"

Cabbage and Radish quit the game and kicked Erii out of the room.

Erii didn't know what she had done wrong; it had always been like this when she played with Sakura.

She looked down at the controller, crawled out of the blanket, unplugged the TV and game console, and burrowed into the covers, burying her head under the covers.

...

Early morning, in the principal's office.

Angers pressed a button.

"Iris detection passed."

"Fingerprint detection passed."

Norma's calm voice came, and a hidden door opened from the wall. Mans and he entered together.

This is the principal's private elevator, which goes straight to the bottom and can reach any floor of the Kassel College.

The vibrations began, and the elevator began to descend.

Kassel's true colors were revealed to the two of them.

Under the deep blue light, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, and bluefin tuna over two meters long swim in a glass tank, along with bioluminescent coral reefs, making it look like a giant aquarium.

The elevator continued to descend, and lush greenery appeared, but it wasn't a meadow or a flowerbed; it was... a forest!

Two railway tracks span the treetops, and the elevator is traversing a subtropical forest, with sunlight overhead.

This is artificial sunlight, providing energy for photosynthesis to the plants here. It preserves more than 120,000 plant species and more than 8,000 animal species, from pigs, which are consumed for meat, to giant pandas, which are rare in the world. However, it is never open to the public.

"It looks like the preparations have been very thorough." Mans looked down at the forest.

Ahead lies a massive pyramid, uprooted from the South American jungle, transported, and reconstructed at great expense of manpower and resources. Each stone is marked to ensure that no mistakes are made when putting it back together.

Of course, this is not an ordinary pyramid. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids with four sides, this one has five sides.

The entire pyramid is made of pure black stone blocks without any adhesive. It is stacked together like building blocks entirely by skillful craftsmanship and cutting surfaces. It is said that even a razor blade cannot be inserted into the gaps of the pyramid. It is hard to imagine how the ancients accomplished such a massive and exquisite feat.

The patterns carved on the stones of this pyramid are still clear despite some wear.

In creating these carvings, they used hammers to carve out the patterns and then filled them with molten copper.

"The Mayan calendar has five sides, each with 133 stone steps. Each step is inscribed with ancient Mayan script, or rather, numbers. This is the Mayan calendar, the entire history of the Mayans."

The elevator stopped beside the pyramid. Angers stepped onto the soil and gently stroked the surface of the pyramid with his hand. "But the history of the Maya is not just about the past... but also about the future."

“The Mayan prophecy, our year 2012, is a very important time in their calendar because it signifies the end of the Fifth Sun Age.” Mans looked up at the massive pyramid.

“The Maya were very strange. They were the most accurate astronomical observers in ancient times. They could even observe the far side of the moon, which never faces the earth. They created a solar calendar, which was both a calendar and a book of prophecy.” Angers circled around the pyramid. “They also wrote the future into history because they believed that the future was predetermined. There were five solar ages in total. The first four had advanced civilizations, but they ended in destruction.”

"The First Age was destroyed by a flood, the Second by wind serpents, the Third by fire rain, and the Fourth by a cataclysmic change. Earth, fire, water, and wind—these correspond cleverly to the four great sovereigns," Mans said. "What do you think will end the Fifth Age?"

"No one knows, and the Maya have not yet prophesied it, but they believe that the Fifth Sun Age is the end of everything, where everything returns to zero, to emptiness, to nothingness, to the end of everything, and that neither dragons nor humans will survive to that end."

"Is it the Black King?" Mans lit a cigar.

“Perhaps.” Angers smiled slightly. “But maybe it will be the four monarchs together, plus the Black King and the White King. This year is 2009. The Bronze and Fire Kings have already been dealt with. Perhaps 12 years ago, we could have sent all the Dragon Kings to nothingness, thus avoiding this disaster.”

“Maybe there won’t be an apocalypse at all. Even if the Black King awakens, why would he want to destroy the world?” Mans exhaled a puff of smoke.

“No one really understands the Black King.” Angers shook his head. “Perhaps he is filled with hatred for the world, or perhaps he is too hungry and wakes up to have a feast, to devour everything.”

"You and I both know who wrote these prophecies. The ancient Mayan civilization declined in the 8th century AD and gradually lost its heritage as the country split. But that doesn't mean their prophecies are unreliable."

“Because these prophecies come from dragons?” Mans said. “Dragons are so pessimistic about the future. Every dragon king is prophesied to have an end, death and death. In Norse mythology, it is even explicitly prophesied who will be killed by whom. But they still try to cocoon themselves and keep awakening in order to fight against their fate.”

“That’s really sad,” Angers said softly.

“Aren’t we also rebelling against fate?” Mans turned his head and looked at the vast world, this underground city, the crystallization of science and technology, the last Noah’s Ark.

“People living in different places have believed that a great flood submerged the world. The Chinese say that Yu the Great controlled the flood, and the Bible says that God built an ark out of gopher wood to escape the flood. The world is still debating, but there is too much evidence to prove that a great flood once submerged most of the earth.” Angers said, “The dragons’ prophecies about destruction have been confirmed time and again. In fact, we have been waiting, waiting for the end of the Fifth Sun Age, to know what will happen.”

“There are five such underground spaces in the world. Each place preserves enough plants and embryos, seeds and pollen, as well as all of human civilization, alchemy and knowledge of the power of words, and stores complete sets of machinery, food and water, and miniature reactors. Even if completely isolated from the outside world, they can operate independently for five hundred years,” Mans said. “Hopefully, we will never have to use them.”

“Aren’t we working on that right now?” Angers smiled. “We have confirmed that the Kings of Bronze and Fire can no longer be reborn from their cocoons, which means that, in human understanding, they are dead, just as they themselves predicted.”

"Now is the time to reap the spoils." A dark underground entrance opened, leading to a series of steps.

"Lu Mingfei, who exactly is he?" Mans suddenly asked again.

“He’s one of ours, that’s enough.” Angers strode in, his voice echoing.

Chapter 118 Dragon Bone Cross

This is the underground area of ​​Kassel College.

A huge cavern, an underground space eroded by water over tens of millions of years, it can be said that the Kassel College was established here largely because of this natural cavern.

The entire underground city was built on this basis, including natural ecological zones and marine ecological zones.

The "ice cellar" is a large, hollow space at the very bottom.

This place preserves standard alchemy equipment, miniature nuclear reactors, circulating water systems, emergency food supplies, original fragments of the Ice Sea Scroll, and documents or items related to dragons collected from various places.

If the buildings on the ground are towering trees, then the "ice cellar" is the root system that extends deep into the earth. Compared to the vast and complex root system, the lush green leaves and branches are but a tiny part.

Kassel's electricity, water supply, and even internet signal all rely on the beating of this underground heart to deliver fresh blood and vitality.

"The Well of Annihilation," the lowest level of the ice cellar.

In mythology, the three Fates wove, stretched, and severed the lifeline here. This place is a place that obliterates everything, as silent as an ancient tomb, with only the omnipresent sound of water.

In the boundless darkness, a faint blue light flowed, as if one were in the vast universe.

The ground was made of bronze, and deep, snake-like grooves were intertwined on the surface, filled with dark blue water that emitted a fluorescent glow. The air was extremely humid and the temperature was very low.

These deep grooves form patterns like countless threads, outlining and intertwining ancient and mysterious designs, branching out again and again, before flowing into the tranquil lake in front. If you look up from above, you can see endless symbols hidden within these patterns.

Unlike other parts of the ice cellar, this place has no mechanical devices, no lights, no night-vision surveillance cameras, no infrared alarms, no automatic machine guns, and no guards on duty.

If you have a flowing "spirit" within you, you will feel it all disappear.

An extremely powerful domain enveloped and filled the entire space, just as its name, "The Well of Annihilation," was like an endless well, where even sound was swallowed up, and everything tangible or intangible was annihilated.

The earth is made of metal, and the sky is nowhere to be seen when you look up. Everything is isolated and sealed off, like the inviolable realm of the gods in mythology.

No defenses are needed; these bronze patterns and the ever-flowing water form an unparalleled array of spiritual power. The dragon-like script possesses power, and by unleashing this power to its fullest extent, this "domain" can be described as a miracle.

If the Philosopher's Stone is the pinnacle of alchemy, then this realm is an unrepeatable miracle that transcends the limits of human alchemy.

A realm is created from elements and symbols, circulating and sustaining itself without life; only God possesses such power, surpassing all religious codes.

“I really don’t know how the ancient sages built the ‘well’.” Mans held a lantern and walked on the bronze ground. “We have spent hundreds of years just repairing the damaged parts. What kind of engineering and manpower would it take to complete such a difficult task?”

"Perhaps there is a trace of dragons. There are too many unsolved mysteries in history. We still don't know whether humanity has progressed or regressed."

The dark green fluorescent light illuminated Angers' profile, giving his silvery-white hair a faint glow.

"The Great Wall built by Qin Shi Huang, the Stonehenge ruins of prehistoric temples in Europe, and the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs are all wonders. But if we use the power of science and industry, it is not impossible to accomplish such feats. What is really important is not how they were built, but why they were built."

Angers said, "Nine out of ten famous emperors in ancient China were pure-blooded mixed-race people. This is a common phenomenon all over the world. Mixed-race people have the power of words and have stronger physical qualities than ordinary humans, which makes them stand out from the mediocre."

"Historical records say that Qin Shi Huang used nearly a million laborers to build the Great Wall, accounting for one-twentieth of the total population at the time. He claimed to the people that it was to defend against the Xiongnu, but we know very well that the Xiongnu could not threaten Qin Shi Huang. The Qin army had tens of thousands of elite mixed-race soldiers. Even if the Xiongnu were mounted and arched, they could not threaten him. The so-called looting and running away is just a rumor. Qin Shi Huang had dozens of elite soldiers who could use 'Word Spirit Serpent'. They could cover an area of ​​hundreds of kilometers when they were spread out. If he wanted to, he could lead a large army to destroy the Xiongnu. It would only take some time, a few months, to do so. There was no need to build the Great Wall at all."

"Then what do you think they were guarding against? That this emperor, who swept across the six kingdoms, would risk shaking the very foundations of his rule by quickly organizing an army to launch this massive project after unifying the six kingdoms, which could even directly lead to the downfall of the Qin Dynasty?" Mans asked.

“I don’t know, but the only clue is Norton,” Angers said. “Norton infiltrated China from Northern Europe. He seemed unwilling to reveal his identity and always used an alias. He even willingly acted as a subject of Gongsun Shu, the White Emperor, in public, which is quite incomprehensible to a species like the Dragon King, who takes dignity and nobility as their life.”

“It’s really hard to believe what could be so important that a dragon king would kneel before a human, even if it was just an act.” Angers stopped and walked with Mans to where the waters converged.

Several people carrying lanterns arrived at the edge of the lake from all directions. The fine lines on the ground formed small domains, which were strange circles full of power, suppressing some restless forces.

The strange circle contained all sorts of artifacts: unidentified alchemical equipment, stone cones covered in runes, seemingly ordinary matchboxes, and even half a withered mummy with its arm chained to an iron pillar and preserved in formalin along with the pillar. The red dragon cub that Lu Mingfei had seen when he started school was also nearby.

These artifacts are enough to shock the world, but at this moment, no one pays any attention to them. Everyone is looking up at the central circular metal altar like pilgrims.

There were ten people standing here, forming a circle, each holding the same fluorescent lantern.

There were elderly people dressed in denim, men in white coats and gold-rimmed glasses, middle-aged people in black uniforms with serious expressions, and some whose faces were obscured.

In the center of the lake is a circular metal altar containing two skeletons, their bones gleaming with a deep bronze hue, like works of art crafted from pure copper.

They embraced, their crystalline eyeballs gazing at each other like golden glass beads.

Their outstretched bone wings enveloped their bodies, making them look like angels fallen to hell from the Bible, both ferocious and holy.

At first glance, the skeleton is similar in size to a human, but upon closer inspection, one can see countless tiny, delicate bones tightly packed together to form a larger skeleton. A single rib has hundreds of fine creases, resembling some kind of mysterious rune. Some of them merge together, while others combine to form organs that have never appeared in textbooks.

This is the Dragonbone Cross of Norton and Constantine, the Bronze and Fire Lords.

The moment the body was placed on the altar, the flesh hidden beneath the Dragon King's exterior turned to ash, revealing its true form. The bones of the two Dragon Kings, under a mysterious and unknowable force, were tightly joined together, becoming a single entity.

Now, they are inseparable and will never be apart again.

Angers placed the lantern at his feet. "Let me first introduce you to Leonard Flamel. As a member of the Flamel family, he has held the name Flamel for a century. It is the highest honor for alchemists. As the first genius in the fourteenth century to create the Philosopher's Stone and systematically plan the profession of alchemist, only the most outstanding alchemist of the Flamel family in the present day can inherit this surname and be called Flamel by outsiders."

“He is also the vice-principal of Kassel College. Some of you here already know him, while others may not. But he undoubtedly represents the authority of alchemists. He is leading this research. Does anyone have any objections?” Angers said.

The old cowboy smiled and removed his hat in greeting, his beard trembling slightly. He was portly and looked more like a Puma rider roaming the wilderness, speeding through the desert with a revolver and committing robberies, than an alchemist who needed to be meticulous and professional in his work.

A middle-aged man in a suit frowned slightly. "King of Bronze and Fire, we just received news that you 'killed' the Dragon King. I am honored to participate in this research, but I would like to ask, how can you be sure that you 'killed' the Dragon King, rather than defeated him?"

"While teams that have defeated the Dragon King in history are rare, they have done so. However, they only temporarily put the Dragon King into a slumber. The Dragon King will cocoon itself and be reborn. What kind of standard led you to write your report based on the judgment of 'killing'? Or did you write the report incorrectly?"

“Mr. Jefferson Gattuso, is that right?” The old cowboy put on his hat and looked at the middle-aged man with a displeased expression. “I didn’t expect you to be so busy that you only sent an outsider. So let me explain to you why we say ‘killed’ rather than ‘defeated’.”

The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes, the nasolabial folds on either side of his hooked nose becoming more pronounced, and glanced at the people to his right. "Please enlighten me, Master Flamel."