Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Without hesitation, Lu Mingfei pulled the trigger again, and three Friga bullets flew in a triangular pattern toward Tachibana Masamune's chest, throat, and forehead. At the same time, he took a step back, creating distance and giving Frilian room to make her move.

Tachibana Masamune leaned back, three bullets flying over him, shattering the Mount Fuji painting on the wall and scattering shards of glass. His waist, seemingly boneless, sprang back the instant the bullets passed, and he charged towards Lu Mingfei with overwhelming force, like a fully drawn bow suddenly released.

Lu Mingfei saw his hand.

The white cloth was pulled back, revealing the wound inside, its surface covered with a layer of fine scales.

A word flashed through Lu Mingfei's mind—dragonization.

Tachibana Masamune is undergoing dragon transformation. His body is changing from human to dragon, evidenced by his five newly grown fingers. Yet he appears completely lucid, with clear eyes and precise movements, showing none of the madness or berserk behavior that often accompanies dragon transformation.

This is not a hybrid whose bloodline has been devoured; this is someone who actively controls their bloodline.

Tachibana Masamune grabbed at Lu Mingfei's throat, his five semi-transparent fingers spread open.

Lu Mingfei didn't have time to fire.

Kofullen can.

The air distorted slightly.

A short knife shot out from the void, pointing directly at Tachibana Masamune's neck.

Frillie remained hidden two meters to Lu Mingfei, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Tachibana Masamune's attention was drawn to Lu Mingfei; that fleeting moment of blind spot became the opening she had been waiting for.

Tachibana Masamune jerked his head to the side, the short sword grazing his neck, leaving a shallow cut. Blood seeped out and trickled down his neck.

His reaction was incredibly fast; as he tilted his head, he swung his left hand out, aiming a stab at Frillie.

Frillie flipped through the air, her short sword held horizontally in front of her to parry. With a "clang," Tachibana Masamune's left hand struck the blade. Frillie was thrown backward, tumbling twice in the air before landing.

She knelt on one knee, looked up at Tachibana Masamune, and for the first time, a solemn expression appeared in her eyes.

Lu Mingfei did not waste the opportunity.

Time zero, activate.

The world has slowed down.

Lu Mingfei pushed off the ground with both feet, his body shooting towards Tachibana Masamune like a bullet. The Desert Eagle in his right hand spun around, the butt facing forward, and a blow to the temple would be enough to knock someone unconscious on the spot.

Tachibana Masamune was no ordinary person, and he knew that very well. So he used all his strength, putting all his weight on this one blow, his muscles tensed, and his bones made a slight grinding sound.

The distance has been shortened.

Three meters, two meters, one meter.

When the gun butt was less than twenty centimeters from Tachibana Masamune's temple, Lu Mingfei saw a pair of eyes.

Tachibana Masamune looked at him.

In this world where time is frozen at zero, in this dimension where everything moves at a snail's pace, Tachibana Masamune is moving.

impossible.

Lu Mingfei's heart sank. Time Zero was his trump card, his only reliance when facing opponents far superior to himself. But now, this trump card was much less effective. Time Zero slowed down Tachibana Masamune's speed, but not to the point that he couldn't react.

This person's bloodline is too strong, so strong that even if time were stretched dozens of times, he could still sense, judge, and—

Tachibana Masamune moved his left hand.

In the realm of time zero, his left hand moved slowly and heavily, like a snake emerging from the deep sea. It pierced through the stagnant air and suspended dust, reaching for Lu Mingfei's wrist. His five translucent fingers spread open, the hook-like scales at their tips gleaming with an eerie light.

Lu Mingfei didn't have time to change his move. He continued to smash down with the gun butt, but he knew that before the gun butt hit Tachibana Masamune's temple, that hand would grab his wrist and break it.

"clang!"

Frillie's dagger blocked between Tachibana Masamune's hand and Lu Mingfei's wrist. The blade lay horizontally, bearing the full force of Tachibana Masamune's five fingers. She knelt on the ground, holding the dagger with both hands, the blade pressing against her shoulders, using all her strength to support herself.

Without hesitation, Lu Mingfei continued to slam the gun butt down.

This time, it hit.

Tachibana Masamune was struck hard in the temple by the gun butt, his head tilted to one side, and his body swayed. But he didn't fall. His neck twisted at an odd angle, then slowly turned back, his eyes still fixed on Lu Mingfei, not like someone who had been hit in a vital spot.

Chapter 733 The Assassination Squad in Action (Part 5)

A chill ran through Lu Mingfei's heart.

He didn't hit a human body. The feeling of the gun butt hitting him wasn't like hitting flesh and bone, but more like hitting a whole piece of water-soaked rubber—heavy, tough, and thick, the force being evenly distributed and absorbed, not being transmitted to where it should have been.

Tachibana Masamune's body is no longer a human body.

He was transforming into a dragon. From the inside out, from bones to muscles, from blood to skin, he was slowly becoming something else. Perhaps his heart had stopped beating, perhaps his blood had stopped flowing, perhaps his pain receptors had been severed. Friga bullets were ineffective against him, physical attacks were ineffective against him, and the effects of Time Zero were greatly reduced.

How exactly can this person be killed?

The alarm sounded.

“Not bad,” Tachibana Masamune said, “It’s better than I expected.”

His gaze shifted from Lu Mingfei to Frilian, and then back again.

"But that's not enough."

He exerted a sudden force, his left hand gripping the blade of Frillie's dagger with his fingers, and twisted it hard. The steel blade groaned in his palm, twisting and deforming like a pretzel, before snapping in two with a "crack".

Frillie was pulled along and staggered, as Tachibana Masamune reached out his right hand to grab her.

Lu Mingfei lunged forward. Time Zero needed a cooldown; continuous use would overload his mental system. There was only one thing he could do: shield Frillie with his own body.

Tachibana Masamune stabbed Lu Mingfei in the left shoulder.

excruciating pain.

Lu Mingfei gritted his teeth, suppressing a cry. His right hand, still gripping the Desert Eagle, reached around to his waist, pressing the muzzle against Tachibana Masamune's abdomen. At such close range, there was no way he could miss. He pulled the trigger; with a "bang," the Friga bullet exploded in Tachibana Masamune's abdomen, injecting the anesthetic into his body. Then came the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth shot.

All five bullets struck Tachibana Masamune's body.

Tachibana Masamune swayed.

The anesthetic began to take effect. The anesthetic in Friga's bullets was specifically designed for hybrids; even for an S-rank hybrid, three bullets were enough to render them unconscious. Tachibana Masamune was hit by five bullets; no matter how strong his body was, he couldn't be completely immune.

But he did not fall.

Frillie flashed out from behind Lu Mingfei, her broken sword aimed at Tachibana Masamune's chest.

The broken blade pierced his left chest, the tip emerging from his back, trailing a trail of dark red blood. His body stiffened abruptly, his head tilted back, his mouth opened, and he let out a low groan.

Frillie drew her knife and stabbed him again.

This time, it was the heart that was stabbed.

Tachibana Masamune's body trembled violently for a moment, then suddenly calmed down.

He slowly lowered his head, looking at the two wounds on his chest. Blood gushed from the wounds, soaking through his kimono and spreading a large dark red stain on the dark gray fabric.

Lu Mingfei was panting heavily, his hands hanging limply at his sides, blood still dripping down. He looked at Tachibana Masamune, but felt no joy of victory, only a growing, inexplicable unease.

so easy.

It wasn't that he thought it was easy; his left shoulder was pierced, and Frilian's knife broke. It took the two of them a lot of effort to defeat this man.

But the question is, is this person, this person who was halfway through his dragon transformation, lost five fingers, and had his heart pierced by five tranquilizer darts and two stabs, really Tachibana Masamune? Was the patriarch who controlled the Snake Clan and hid deep within them so easily dealt with?

Frillie also sensed that something was wrong.

She stood in front of Tachibana Masamune, watching his body slowly slump down, her brows furrowed.

“No,” she said, “this is not right.”

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment.

"What's wrong?"

“He’s not Tachibana Masamune.” Frilian crouched down, pried open Tachibana Masamune’s eyes with her hands, and looked at his pupils. “No, he is Tachibana Masamune, but not entirely. Look here.”

She used the tip of the broken sword to part the hair at the back of Tachibana Masamune's neck, revealing the skin underneath.

Lu Mingfei leaned over for a look, then gasped.

A neat, circular scar, its color darker than the surrounding skin, as if someone had cut off his head and then sewed it back on.

No.

It was more like opening his head, putting something inside, and then closing it again.

Frillie slowly moved her fingers along the scar, her nails lightly scraping her skin, her expression growing increasingly serious.

“A puppet,” she withdrew her finger, stood up, and looked at the body on the ground that was still twitching slightly. “This Tachibana Masamune is a puppet. His body is real, his bloodline is real, and his consciousness, at least part of it, is real. But what controls him is not here. The real Tachibana Masamune is elsewhere, manipulating this body in some way.”

Lu Mingfei's mind went blank for a moment.

"You mean, we were just hitting a remote-controlled toy?"

“It’s not a toy,” Frilian shook her head, “it’s a vessel. The real Tachibana Masamune projected a part of his consciousness into this body, letting this body act for him, speak for him, and bear the harm for him. And what we killed was just this vessel. The real him was unharmed.”

She paused, watching Tachibana Masamune's face slowly turn cold.

"This person's dragonification is far beyond our expectations. His true form is hidden somewhere, perhaps deep within Genji Heavy Industries, perhaps in some corner of Tokyo, or perhaps not even in this city. And this—"

She tapped the body on the ground with her toes.

"It was just a piece of clothing of his, a piece of clothing that could be thrown away once it was worn out."

Lu Mingfei was about to say something when he was interrupted by a sudden tremor.

The sound of many footsteps came from the end of the corridor, heavy and hurried.

Frillie pulled Lu Mingfei up, shielding him behind her. Her right hand gripped the broken knife, its tip pointing towards the door.

The door was suddenly pushed open.

Genjiro appeared at the doorway and saw Tachibana Masamune on the ground.

He pushed aside Frilian and Lu Mingfei, knelt down beside Tachibana Masamune, and reached out his hands to touch the bloodless face, but stopped in mid-air, as if afraid that his hands would break something fragile.

"Dad..."

Renowned as Japan's strongest hybrid, the only emperor of the Snake Clan, and the supreme controller of the Genji Heavy Industries, Genji Chisei trembled, his eyes reddening, his hand hovering less than an inch from that face, afraid to fall.

"Dad..." he called out again, pleading with the person lying on the ground to open his eyes, pleading with the world to tell him that all of this was just a nightmare.

Lu Mingfei stood aside, watching Yuan Zhisheng's kneeling figure.

This man was their enemy, the strongest fighter of the Snake Clan, and one of the targets they were infiltrating this building tonight to deal with. But at this moment, he was just a child, a child kneeling before his father's corpse, bewildered and helpless.