Lu Mingfei: What? They're all real!

“Let’s begin,” Mans said.

Chen Motong raised the baby in his hands and brought it close to the ancient bronze wall. The baby, who had been crying incessantly just moments before, was now completely quiet, even somewhat indifferent. Directly opposite him was a huge, protruding human face with blue skin and fangs, like a Luohan in an ancient painting, with many sharp bronze spikes protruding from the face.

The baby, though sucking on a pacifier, looked like an old man. He silently reached out and pressed his hand to the center of the face, and a drop of blood slowly flowed down, followed by a second and a third, gradually forming a stream that flowed down the face and into the baby's open mouth.

Then, the bronze face suddenly opened its mouth as if yawning, revealing a dark hole with neatly arranged spikes, like the face's teeth.

Chen Motong gently pulled the baby away from her, then carefully bandaged his finger. The baby's aloofness, like that of an old man, suddenly vanished, and he began to cry in her arms.

“What else can I say? I’ve already said most of it up there. Good luck.” Mans put on his mask and gave his final words of advice. “Also, if you really encounter danger… prioritize your own safety.”

Lu Mingfei grinned, feeling that he was probably still being treated as an "ally" for the time being.

……

"Will we really encounter Norton's egg?" Xia Mi asked.

Mans had already addressed this issue before her final dive, so it wasn't a taboo topic that would arouse suspicion. She was curious about it, and even more worried. Humans can be too reckless sometimes, and she was no exception. Coming to a place like this was an adventure in itself, and if it weren't for the reliable and steadfast "allies" standing beside her, she might not have done it.

“No way,” Lu Mingfei said. “Didn’t I already tell you yesterday? I promise I won’t.”

"Then, you only said you would protect me, and didn't say anything else," Xia Mi muttered.

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt himself being stared at by a cold gaze. He shouted inwardly, "When did I say such a thing? You've clearly misunderstood!"

He knew it! He could tell from the girl's awkwardness yesterday that she must have misunderstood something!

"Um... have you sensed a change? A chill?" Lu Mingfei asked again.

He initially thought it was Zero watching him, but when he turned around, he found Zero diligently observing the surroundings and constantly sending back information. Neither he nor Xia Mi were meticulous or reliable people, so they could only rely on her for this kind of menial work. She didn't even have time to express her personal feelings.

Xia Mi, who was following closely behind, did not answer. She winked at them, implying that some things could not be said directly, while also suggesting that they should act according to the plan.

Lu Mingfei nodded and began to explore left and right. Now, it wasn't just electronic communication that was working; Ye Sheng's snake was also assisting, constantly helping them correct their route.

He needs to find a reason to dispel this "surveillance".

Zero kept reporting to her superiors. Her meticulous personality was well-suited to handling these situations. She continuously transmitted images back using a waterproof camera and then received new instructions.

Her counterpart, Selma, an intern led by Mans, seemed unusually excited, enthusiastically praising the wonders of the underwater world.

Mans, on the other hand, remained much calmer, constantly analyzing what appeared in the passageway. It seemed like a space station, with several passageways connecting several small spaces, and countless gears arranged in all directions, as if this were not an ancient city, but the interior of some kind of precision instrument.

Lu Mingfei looked around and saw many dragon characters engraved here, but most of them were meaningless, praising "Norton's" achievements. He felt he should make his presence felt, so he reminded Zero to take some photos. However, in general, he still saw himself as a "traitor" and deliberately pointed to some extremely trivial content.

But this was enough to elicit continuous cheers from the water's surface. Just by listening to Mans's voice, one could imagine his beaming face, excitedly marveling at the discovery that would benefit all of humanity.

Xia Mi sneered silently, then tugged at Lu Mingfei's arm, pointing to a huge... gear, next to which stood an ancient bronze lever.

She leaned over leisurely, then decisively pulled down the lever.

The initial force acted on the first gear, then the second, then the third, and the fourth. All the gears slowly began to turn. After that, it wasn't just the gears; the city began to tremble, as if it had come alive. Countless fragments began to fall, and the enormous mechanisms began to move.

Xia Mi looked up at the sky and chuckled. She was no longer the impulsive, jealous little girl she once was. She stood calmly amidst the spinning of the sky. For a moment, she seemed to be an empress who could control life at will. But this state was only for a moment. She suddenly returned to her normal appearance, looked sharply at Lu Mingfei, and raised her eyebrows slightly, indicating that the time had come.

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment, then realized what it was and suddenly exclaimed in the communication channel, "Holy crap! What is that?!"

She was activated almost instantly, reacting like an emperor's bodyguard ready to eliminate any danger. In the blink of an eye, she was by Lu Mingfei's side.

But she didn't notice anything unusual, except for Lu Mingfei's suggestive gaze.

"What's going on!" Mans asked repeatedly into the communicator.

"No, no... problem... I..."

Lu Mingfei artificially simulated the state of signal interference, then slashed his finger across the surface, cutting off the current and also severing Ye Sheng's "snakes." Most of the snakes were frightened by the commotion in the ancient city and fled frantically, while the rest were cut off by Lu Mingfei himself, leaving none behind. He also cut the lifeline hanging behind them.

Then, Zero manually cut off the image device in her hands.

At this point, they completely lost contact with the surface of the water.

Chapter 103 Cut the entire city in two

Lu Mingfei removed his mask, and with just a thought, he instantly drove all the water in the area to other places, far exceeding Mans' speed. He took a deep breath and felt much more relaxed.

Now his senses were no longer obscured, and he could clearly feel that the cold sensation was real, not the resentful look in a girl's eyes, but a real cold current coming from somewhere.

“It’s the Nibelungen.” Zero always seemed to be able to guess what he was thinking, and he leaned closer to start the conversation. “We are currently in the Nibelungen, right after we entered.”

"Nibelungen..."

Lu Mingfei silently repeated the term. To be honest, he had some recollection of the term "Nibelungen," but he wasn't very familiar with it... However, he was certain that it was exactly the same as what he had felt on that overpass—a similar space, and the underlying principles were roughly the same...

He reached out and touched the gears nearby, a strange feeling stirring within him.

"You know quite a lot." Xia Mi, who was some distance away, also came closer. Now that she was out of the water, her movement speed had actually decreased a lot. She walked and talked, glancing around from time to time.

Zero simply nodded silently, which was her response. Lu Mingfei was slightly surprised; he didn't know what had happened in the girls' dormitory, but these two now seemed to have a subtle... tacit understanding...

"But why aren't there... enemies?" Lu Mingfei came to his senses and began to ask questions.

“Good question, I don’t know either.” Xia Mi kicked the slowly turning gear beside her. “Who knows what Norton was thinking? This place is as complicated as a maze, it’s hard to find your way.”

"What if someone from above comes looking for us?" Zero was concerned about another issue.

"Don't worry, the spirits at the entrance won't be active for a while; it'll probably be closed for quite some time." Xia Mi pondered to herself repeatedly, like a top student wearing thick glasses.

She stroked her chin thoughtfully: "But it's really surprising. I just took a closer look, and the key's working principle is completely different from that of the living spirit drinking blood... Thinking about it from this perspective, it seems that we can't be completely without worry... But thinking about it more carefully, he may have simply opened the door with a high concentration of blood."

“Then we should speed things up,” Zero suggested.

"You're so calm." Xia Mi realized that Ling's behavior was nothing like that of a well-behaved student. She walked past the expressionless girl and teased Lu Mingfei with a pout, "You really managed to train her well. She dares to do this kind of thing with you. Did you tell her that this is tantamount to declaring war?"

“There are risks, but it’s not that serious.” Lu Mingfei shook his head. “I still want to continue my studies. I am a student, and a student’s duty is to go to school.”

"Hmph." Xia Mi sneered, "I think you can't forget someone."

She then turned to the corner, where a silent bronze statue stood, dressed in the robes of an ancient Chinese civil official, with a snake's head and a human body, looking like the kind of creature that would appear in this place.

"What are you looking at?" Lu Mingfei followed her gaze.

"Didn't you see it?" Xia Mi was somewhat surprised by Lu Mingfei's reaction. Then her eyes started darting around, and a mischievous smile crept onto her lips. She pointed in that direction and whispered, "I feel like that thing is weird. Why don't you go take a look?"

"why me?"

Muttering to himself, Lu Mingfei walked slowly through the crowd with curiosity. Everything here felt both novel and strangely familiar to him, especially the thing Xia Mi was pointing to. He felt like that thing... was staring at him.

He slowly walked over, pondering what it was. He couldn't recall any statues or mechanisms like this...

Zero followed silently behind him, carefully observing all the changes around him, keeping a few steps away.

As Lu Mingfei walked closer, he felt increasingly uneasy. The snake-headed statue, which was not far from him, seemed to move slightly and shrink away from him. Lu Mingfei rubbed his eyes and then found that nothing seemed to have changed. But as he got closer, he suddenly had this feeling again. The snake-headed statue was clearly a bronze object, but he always felt that it was alive.

Moreover, he felt that this thing seemed to be a little afraid of him...

"Big brother, I'm a little afraid of you..." Lu Mingfei thought to himself as he continued to approach.

Most of the time, Lu Mingfei still maintains the basic characteristics of his past life, and may look somewhat defeated or like a loser. He finds it difficult to change this habit that he has maintained for many years in a short period of time, so naturally, being cowardly is also part of it.

He held his breath and moved forward, finally arriving in front of the snake-headed human statue. After adjusting his breathing, he stretched his neck and peered over, intending to find out what was going on.

The snake-headed humanoid suddenly blinked, unleashing a fear even more cowardly than Lu Mingfei's. Its body subtly shifted and struggled in the direction of escape, as if it didn't want to stay there for even a moment longer. However, some kind of mission bound its actions. It was probably some kind of mechanism, or, in Mans's account, a "living being" created by the King of Bronze and Fire, without free will.

Something suddenly poked Lu Mingfei in the back.

“Zero? What’s wrong?” Lu Mingfei asked.

Zero didn't say anything, but kept poking his back, and then the poking gradually moved to his waist.

Lu Mingfei called out several times, and finally Zero responded, but the source of the voice was wrong; it wasn't behind him at all, but rather a little further away...

A sense of dread rushed up Lu Mingfei's spine. He didn't have time to study the snake-headed human figure in front of him and turned around abruptly.

It wasn't zero there, but a monster with a snake's face.

Actually, Lu Mingfei shouldn't be scared by this monster right now; it's not certain who the monster is yet. But the shock of this sudden appearance was too intense. He had always thought that Zero was standing behind him, but the cold and beautiful girl's face that he had imagined was replaced by a hideous and terrifying snake face.

"Fuck me!"

He instinctively swore, reacting in an instant. Cowardice was merely a mental habit, but fighting was a physical one. The dragon runes chanted as he cut through the rock flowed smoothly from his mouth, and the invisible blade carried the command of destruction.

Lu Mingfei was currently tilting his head back, so he slashed at an angle, slightly upwards, cleanly severing the snake's head. There was no hope of survival. Although it was not a living creature in the standard sense to begin with, it could now be declared completely dead.

But the command, which sounded like a trial, did not stop. Lu Mingfei's fear made the order somewhat violent. After the snake head, gears, mechanical bells, walls, bronze, everything was sliced ​​open like cream. Before going into the water, Mans had told him that the King of Bronze and Fire had killed metal and then resurrected it, thus giving birth to the amazing "living spirit".

But now, everything has been killed by this command. Whether it is the "living spirits" resurrected from the dead or the solid, black bronze walls, everything has been severed. The two intersecting walls facing Lu Mingfei collapsed with a crash, revealing a huge gap. But this is not the end. The walls after the walls, and the walls after the walls, all the way to the distance beyond the line of sight, all living and dead things are judged by this command.

The entire city was almost cut in two.

Chapter 104 Norton's Shoddy Construction

"Isn't that... a bit too exaggerated..." Xia Mi turned around and looked at the huge gap, blinking blankly.

If it were just this kind of damage, she wouldn't be so shocked. Even if she wasn't powerful, she was still a Dragon King, so she wouldn't be so amazed. But Lu Mingfei's speed was a bit too fast. In the blink of an eye, he didn't need any lengthy chanting or preparation. In just a moment, he was able to accomplish such a feat.

But this was only a tiny fraction of the whole picture. What truly sent chills down her spine was that this was inside the Nibelungen region of Norton.

Nibelungen is an extension of the spirit and will of the Dragon King. It is not a building made of cement or steel bars, and it is far more complex than that. If we had to find a suitable definition, it would be an alchemical realm where the laws of physics have been modified.

This is Norton's palace, where every wall and every gear is Norton's masterpiece, a manifestation of the will of the Bronze and Fire King. To cut such a place apart in an instant as easily as slicing tofu seems a bit too simplistic... Norton wouldn't treat even his Nibelungen like a shoddy construction project, would he?

The girl quietly kicked the bronze gear next to her, and the sensation she felt made her abandon the idea of ​​criticizing Norton as a heartless architect.

She stood still, mechanically turning her head to look at the boy not far away.

"Zero...are you alright?" Lu Mingfei showed no reaction to his own masterpiece; he was only concerned about the girl following not far behind him.

"It's nothing." Ling shook her head. She was a distance away from him just now, so she wasn't affected at all.

More importantly, she was so short that, under normal circumstances, Lu Mingfei couldn't hurt her at all unless he was aiming a killing intent at her... Of course, she would never admit that.

Lu Mingfei let out a long breath, then turned around, kicked the despicable snake-headed statue hard, and strode away. Although he sensed a strange grievance on the guy's face, he was genuinely startled; his heart was pounding. He even felt a little resentful towards Old Tang, who was far away in America…

"Hmm?" He poked Zero's cheek and whispered, "Why is there such a big opening over there?"

"You did it," Zero answered truthfully.

"No way?" Lu Mingfei exclaimed quietly.

He had never had a clear concept of his own limits, and he really couldn't believe that this was his own work...

"You did it." The fact that it was completely original gave me a strange sense of pride and honor.

Lu Mingfei nodded, looking quite pleased with himself. He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head back. The girl beside him silently applauded him. He grinned widely before suddenly remembering that Xia hadn't made a sound in a long time.

He turned to look for her, and not far away, Xia Mi was squatting in the corner, studying something. Lu Mingfei went over and found that a piece of ice had suddenly appeared there.

“Even the water has been killed…” Xia Mi murmured, then noticed the boy approaching.

She clapped her hands and stood up, casually patting Lu Mingfei's shoulder. Apart from a slightly unsteady tone, she said, "Alright, thanks to you, we don't have to wander around the maze anymore. Let's go."

That was the truth. The palace, which was originally surrounded by layers of secrets, had now been completely unveiled and exposed to the three of them. Lu Mingfei stretched his head to take a look and found that the palace had been almost cut in half. He himself felt a little dazed.

Everything happened in the moment of his terror. At that moment, he only thought about destroying the thing in front of him that was frightening him, completely forgetting everything else... From this perspective, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but feel a little afraid of the destructive power he would unleash when he completely let loose.

The three of them moved back and forth between the walls. The diagonally cut ceiling had reached its end, but there was no water flowing in from beyond, only endless darkness. Lu Mingfei looked at the deep blackness and gained a better understanding of the space called "Nibelungen". In this space, he felt that he had become a little different... If it were any other time, that exaggerated slash might have made him fall down instantly.

"However, that statue was probably just a mechanism," Lu Mingfei concluded after reviewing the situation.

“Of course.” Xia Mi already knew this.

"So you're deliberately making fun of me, aren't you?" Lu Mingfei's eyes were piercing.

"No way! I'm just scared~" the girl said, shaking her shoulders as if she were being coquettish.

"I think she just wanted to tease you," Ling Mingfei whispered in his ear, his keen observation evident.

The eerie sound echoed throughout the vast palace. All living and dead creatures avoided the group. Instead of following the road, they traversed room after room until they reached the center, where a towering snake-headed statue stood, about twenty meters tall, surrounded by kneeling snake-faced figures, resembling a temple.

Xia Mi stood at a distance, gazing into the distance, but still had to raise her gaze as if she were one of those who looked up to her in admiration. She couldn't help but comment, "He thinks he's a god... What an arrogant guy!"

Zero, however, had no pointless pride and didn't care at all whether she was looking up at Lu Mingfei. She just kept pointing the way to the hole where water was faintly flowing, which was probably where the water was draining.

"The palace should be down below," Zero said. "Should we go down?"

"Of course, that arrogant guy would definitely keep his eggs in his bedchamber." Xia Mi's voice rang out, as if she had no intention of forgiving Norton for turning her into a worshipper. "Wouldn't we have come all this way for nothing if we didn't go down?"

“He shouldn’t be awake.” Zero ignored the angry youth’s remarks and looked at Lu Mingfei. “We’ve made a big enough commotion here, but there haven’t been any enemies attacking us. Maybe this is an empty city… And it’s strange, I feel like all the traps along the way are hiding from us.”

Lu Mingfei gave a stiff smile; he couldn't possibly tell Zero that there was a Dragon King standing next to them, a figure on par with Norton.

He shook his head, pulled Ling down from the drain, and began diving downwards. The place was filled with skeletons, white and scattered with metal pieces, like battlefield ruins. Further down was another portal to the living spirits. Lu Mingfei stretched his neck to study it, but was shattered by Xia Mi who came after him. She showed no respect for her "beloved family's" house and went down first.

From a certain moment on, she seemed to sense something and became anxious.