Volume 1 Hello, Lu Mingfei Chapter 107: No King's Shadow (V)
The dark red light was so eye-catching in the river that Lu Mingfei did not miss this fleeting light. She looked around, trying to find the thing that emitted the beam of light. Just a few dozen meters away, there was something suspended in the water, and the transparent red light could go straight to the deeper bottom of the water under Lu Mingfei's feet.
"Diving bell!" She subconsciously wanted to shout. The moment she figured out what this thing was, she was as ecstatic as Moses who received guidance from God.
The standard operation of surfacing underwater is to surface and wait before surfacing again, but Lu Mingfei does not have that much time and oxygen, and Chu Zihang is on the verge of collapse at any time. However, now that he has a diving bell, there will be no problem. The large copper sealed cabin has its own oxygen supply, and after being airtight, he can surface and slowly decompress in a few minutes.
She patted Chu Zihang and pointed at the diving bell. A glimmer of hope appeared in Chu Zihang's dim pupils, and he nodded hard.
People will burst out with great strength when facing desperate situations. When they are in desperate situations and encounter hope, they will squeeze out deeper potential. The two swam towards the diving bell. Chu Zihang was obviously swimming faster than before. Lu Mingfei probably guessed that Chu Zihang's bad condition was getting worse, but he just didn't show it.
Lu Mingfei slowed down, went behind Chu Zihang, and pushed him forward with all her strength. The hatch of the diving bell was open, and it was glowing with warm light, just like a tavern waiting for customers.
The seawater was suddenly stirred violently, and even the light emitted by the diving bell was frightened and disordered. Lu Mingfei saw the thing rushing straight towards them. Norton maintained his human form, but he could shuttle as fast as a torpedo. His face was cold and hard, as if it contained solid ice, and he held an ancient bronze sword in his hand.
At this moment, Lu Mingfei also felt the invisible breath of murderous intent. The extreme cold seemed to freeze all the river water around her. The human heart was completely destroyed and assimilated. Now the thing rushing towards her was no longer disturbed by the so-called Old Tang's personality.
They were already very close to the diving bell. Lu Mingfei kicked Chu Zihang on the back, not caring about the posture, and pushed him into the diving bell with all her strength, then slammed the hatch shut.
The diving bell's oxygen system started automatically, and the high pressure bell began to drain the water. Fresh air and stable air pressure washed over Chu Zihang. He breathed in big gulps, trying to stand up and look at the round pressure-resistant glass on the cabin door.
For just a moment, he only saw Lu Mingfei's relieved smile that showed that he was safe, and then the high-speed black shadow collided head-on with her and fell into the depths of the water together.
The diving suit was torn , and a large amount of bubbles mixed with river water quickly filled the diving suit. Lu Mingfei felt as if she had been hit in the chest by a siege artillery, her soul was shattered into pieces, and her ribs were probably broken. To be honest, the injuries she suffered tonight might be more than those in her entire life combined. The feeling of pain every time she breathed made her feel like a person with a chronic illness lying in the ICU waiting to die.
Norton stopped in the water, and Lu Mingfei continued to fly a few meters due to inertia until the buoyancy of the flowing water dragged her down.
"I thought you had lost your diving suits and would have no way to leave Bronze City alive." Norton swam around Lu Mingfei. His posture was strange and he made almost no large movements, but he was able to move smoothly in the direction he wanted and he could even talk underwater.
Lu Mingfei had no way to answer him. A large amount of water poured into her mask. She was now almost like a fish tank, relying on the oxygen mask to survive. If Norton broke the tube or the oxygen tank behind her, she would be finished, so she adjusted her posture as much as possible, facing Norton and hiding her weaknesses behind her.
"In fact, you might as well die in the Bronze City, so that I don't have to do it myself." Norton said softly, looking down at the bronze sword in his hand. "It is not my wish to kill my own people, but Nidhogg's orders cannot be disobeyed. Many things in the world are like this. At first, I was tired of the endless disputes, and I just wanted to find a deserted place with Constantine to live our lives. It took a long time to come to China from the Nordic palace. I thought I was safe here and could avoid those unnecessary disputes. However, there were also half-bloods who hated the dragon clan in ancient China. They didn't understand why I declared myself king in Baidi City. It was just because they were worried that I would attack them first, so they chose to unite the army and cooperate with Liu Xiu to attack."
He walked slowly in the water, just like the heroes who could walk on water in martial arts novels. The bomb placed in the bronze city finally finished the scheduled countdown. The bronze city embedded in the rock tilted, and dark green water gushed out from all sides. The rocks collapsed, and violent disturbances spread in all directions. Norton just lowered his head and glanced in that direction, neither sad nor happy, as if the death of that place was as simple as watching the turning of fallen leaves announcing their withering.
"Humans always define dragons as what they imagine, but they don't know that dragons are just newborn babies. When they open their eyes to see the world, they are no different from your babies. There is only one dragon in the world that can truly be called a dragon, and that is Nidhogg. We respect him, but we are also afraid of him, so we finally choose to betray him. However, he cannot be killed, and he will return many years later to bring down a furious judgment on all humans and ancient dragons."
Norton smiled at this. "But you don't understand all this. You grew up accepting human concepts, just like me, as Old Tang, I always thought I was just an idle bounty hunter. Before we awaken, we are all blank sheets of paper, and it is easy to be infected with the color that someone wants. It's a good thing that you don't know who you are. At least you won't suffer because of it. It's a blessing to die in ignorance."
Lu Mingfei opened her eyes wide, trying hard to remember every word Norton said. This was a statement from a dragon king. Unlike what was written in Cassel's textbook, Norton was the real dragon in question and had experienced that distant and indescribable era.
Every word he said was filled with exhaustion, like a desperate man standing on a cliff, with thousands of soldiers chasing him from behind, and everyone holding a bloody sword in his hand. He could only look at the dead tree and recall his life so far. After saying all this, his only choice was probably to jump from the side.
Why is this happening? Aren't dragons destined to be the strong ones who are in opposition to humans? But in Norton's words, it seems that he is the weak one who is bullied. He is afraid and wants to escape, but finds that he has nowhere to escape.
"I will grant you eternal liberation!" Norton raised the bronze sword and pointed it upwards, shouting in a poetic tone, "This way you won't have to bear the fate of being abandoned like me. After an eternal slumber, you will finally reach the distant Hall of Heroes."
The bronze sword split the endless river water, as if there was no resistance at all. Norton rushed straight towards Lu Mingfei, carrying the surging waves. His breath produced a large amount of foam that rushed behind him, and at the high speed it was like a bursting torpedo.
Lu Mingfei struggled to escape, but her diving suit was broken. Norton's speed could reach fifty knots, and a surprise attack at this distance would only take a moment. The King's army had nowhere to escape.
"A grown man, what are you doing here, talking nonsense and misleading others? Who would want to be an outcast with a lowly thing like you? How can you be qualified to judge me!"
A thunder-like sound exploded in Lu Mingfei's mind, and her eyes went dark. She opened her eyes abruptly, and starlight was shining above her head. All she could see was the pitch-black sea. There were no islands or continents in sight. On the endless water, the only distinctive color was the white boat beneath her.
Lu Mingze sat on the side of the boat, swinging her legs and kicking up splashes of water in the black sea. She was no longer dressed like a gothic lolita. Her long hair, which was as long as a piece of noodle, touched the ground behind her after she took off her twin ponytails. Her white skirt was spotless without any unnecessary decorations. She looked like a mysterious girl that appeared in every boy's dream, cute but out of reach for you.
Lu Mingfei sat down next to her, not surprised or flustered at all. Past experience showed that Lu Mingze's world was equivalent to a dream where time stood still. She was sitting here, and perhaps her body outside was racing with Norton. The two of them were frozen in the water and turned into a still picture.
"This fight is not good, sister. People chased me everywhere." Lu Mingze spoke with a strong voice.
"What can I do? I can't beat him, and I'm not a Super Saiyan. I can't become super powerful just by standing my hair up, and I can blow up stars with one punch." Lu Mingfei pouted, "Now that my good sister who loves me so much has come out, is she going to sell me some violent artifact this time? The Skylight can't be used underwater! Get something that can fight!"
She seemed to have gotten used to this elusive Pokémon. No matter whether Lu Mingze was a sister or a devil or something, at least she had not done anything bad to her so far, so Lu Mingfei was willing to trust her.
"This phrase of "love, love, dear sister" is very comforting to hear!" Lu Mingze patted her chest, her face flushed like a girl in love for the first time, "It's no problem for me to help you deal with this guy, because I'm also very annoyed with him. He has a feeling of "I'm so sad, I'm the most miserable dragon in the world". Even the Mary Sue heroine is not as sentimental as him. Just looking at him makes me want to punch him in the face."
"But I..." Lu Mingfei hesitated for a few seconds, scratched his head and said, "I feel like what he said is true."
"Looking at the same thing from different perspectives will of course lead to different answers. Maybe Norton feels that he did nothing, but in the eyes of humans, he has long been unforgivable." Lu Mingze said lightly, "Do you know how the bronze city was made? He simply hollowed out a mountain, poured bronze liquid into it, and after it cooled, he smashed the mountain to get a huge bronze city like that. Do you think that if someone watched Norton knock over the mountain where his ancestral graves were buried, they would not fight him to death? Don't listen to his lies and be firm in your heart!"
“Oh…” Lu Mingfei thought about it and felt that what Lu Mingze said made sense. “Are the dragons really an abandoned tribe? They are so powerful, yet they have to move to avoid war.”
"They did it themselves." Lu Mingze sneered, as if he had thought of a very funny joke. " Nidhogg's death was caused by the betrayal of the four monarchs. They joined forces with humans to kill the black emperor, thinking that they would be the new monarchs. But humans turned around and pointed their spearheads at them. The old alliance had already fallen apart after Nidhogg's death. The four monarchs attacked each other for power and were defeated one by one by humans. So Norton himself is not a good thing at all. He said stupid things like he was tired of war, but has he ever thought about it? He also had a share in the initial fuse of the war. It's really disgusting to cover himself up as a victim."
"You really know a lot about history that far back."
"Of course, you won't easily forget what you've experienced. I really like the word 'unforgettable' because only in this way can you remember many things forever." Lu Mingze's voice was low and didn't seem like her age.
In a flash, she clapped her hands and became cheerful again, with a smile on her face, "Okay, let's not talk about these boring things. Old Tang's personality has been completely defeated and crushed by the Heart of the Dragon Clan. Now there is only the conceited king behind you who wants to punish your life. Since you are still a newbie who just left the Novice Village, why don't you let me kill him?"
“Are you trying to bribe me again?” Lu Mingfei subconsciously hugged her arms and curled up away from Lu Mingze. A quarter might not sound like much and could be acceptable, but if it became half, it would be outrageous. Half of her life would have to be sold just to get this dragon?
"No, this is after-sales service, because I also hate Norton like this, and I want to teach him a lesson." Lu Mingze smiled harmlessly, but he was threatening, "The King of Bronze and Fire in the past was not such a coward. Maybe he has been hiding with his brother for too long, and he has turned from a king into a turtle, and he can only bite people."
"Are you sure about it?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Is it difficult to deal with him?" Lu Mingze asked back, with a domineering look on his small face.
Lu Mingfei thought of Chu Zihang who was still in the diving bell. If she died, the next person would most likely be Chu Zihang. Then Norton would go up along the diving bell, and then the people on the Moniach would be in trouble.
This choice is a bit like the classic trolley problem: should you choose one person or a group of people?
It seems that there is nothing to worry about, because that person is holding a knife behind your back and is going to chop you up. Even if you are a kind-hearted person, the other person does not seem to be willing to appreciate your kindness, and does not even want to listen to a few more words you say.
"Then... let's make a deal." She slowly stretched out her hand, still seeming a little hesitant, but Lu Mingze grabbed her and pulled her towards him.
The two people hugged each other on the black sea. It was a reunion that they had not had for many years. Lu Mingze in his arms seemed to have no body temperature. Holding her was like holding a large piece of soft ice. His golden pupils seemed to sway with candlelight dotted in the night. It was no longer as bright as before, but it made people feel a little warmth, quietly bursting out from the bottom of their hearts.
