stonecrandall Chapter 21 Lu Mingfei: A Blank Page
Chapter 21 Lu Mingfei: A Blank Page
The corridor was quiet; most students were still asleep at this hour. Lu Mingfei, wearing oversized pajamas and barefoot on the cold marble floor, walked step by step toward the stairs.
His mind went blank.
No, it's not empty, but rather crammed with too much stuff, too much to handle, leaving it to churn, collide, and tear each other apart.
Nono has a boyfriend.
This fact was like a needle pricking the softest spot in his heart—not deep, but sharp and persistent. Every heartbeat carried that subtle yet lingering pain.
He went down to the first floor and pushed open the dormitory building door.
The morning air was cool and moist, carrying the scent of grass and dew. The sunlight had already climbed above the distant clock tower, bathing the ancient stone walls in a warm golden glow. Birds hopped among the branches, chirping sweetly.
The world is so beautiful, so cruelly beautiful.
Standing on the steps, looking at this unfamiliar yet beautiful campus, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of loneliness.
This loneliness wasn't the kind where you're all alone—he was used to that. It was a deeper, more spiritual loneliness. It was as if he were standing there, in the sunlight, among the crowd, but his soul was floating in another dimension, watching it all, unable to truly integrate, unable to truly leave.
It's like... he never belonged to this world.
[Brother.] Lu Mingze's voice echoed in my mind, unusually gentle, [Are you very sad?]
"A little," Lu Mingfei answered in his mind.
"Then be sad for a while," Lu Mingze said. "But don't be sad for too long. Because there are still many things waiting for you to do, many people waiting for you to meet, and many truths waiting for you to uncover."
"What's the truth?"
The truth about your parents. The truth about Jovie's death. The truth about... why you came into this world.
Lu Mingfei fell silent. He recalled Professor Schneider's words, the dragon scale that Masafumi Fukuyama had shown him, and the red dragon cub with its eyes open in the bottle.
And... those fragmented images from my dream. A burning palace, a black dragon, a cold, rainy night, a woman's gradually cooling embrace.
"My mother..." he asked softly, "was she really silenced?"
"I don't know," Lu Mingze said. "But I can sense that her death is related to some higher existence. Something... that even we, incomplete beings, must fear."
A higher level of existence? Lu Mingfei recalled the Dragon King that Professor Guderian had mentioned, and the first generation of beings that slumbered in various parts of the world, as recorded in the book "A Preliminary Exploration of the Dragon Genealogy".
Could it be them?
Or... something else?
"Brother, look ahead," Lu Mingze suddenly said.
Lu Mingfei looked up.
In the open space in front of the dormitory building, an elderly professor with gray hair and wearing a white lab coat was running towards him. His glasses reflected the sunlight, and the hem of his suit jacket billowed as he ran, making him look both comical and anxious.
"Lu Mingfei! Lu Mingfei!" Professor Guderian waved as he ran, "I've finally found you!"
He rushed to Lu Mingfei, panting heavily, his forehead covered in sweat: "You...you're awake! That's great! I was just about to go to your dorm to find you!"
"Professor..." Lu Mingfei asked, somewhat bewildered, "What do you need me for?"
"Of course, it's to test your bloodline!" Professor Guderian excitedly grabbed his arm. "Yesterday, you used the power of words in an instant under the suppression of 'Discipline,' an unprecedented phenomenon! We must find out exactly what makes your bloodline so special!"
Without a word, he grabbed Lu Mingfei and headed towards the laboratory building: "Come on, come on, I'm all ready! We'll use the Word of Power 'Emperor' to test it; that's the most accurate method!"
"The Word of Power 'Emperor'?" Lu Mingfei followed along passively. "What's that?"
"A very special Word of Power, serial number 1, high-risk, but without any aggression," Professor Guderian explained rapidly. "Its function is to awaken the dragon bloodline resonance within the hybrid, giving the subject 'spiritual vision'—the ability to see fragments of dragon memories. Through the content and intensity of this spiritual vision, we can determine the purity and inclination of the bloodline."
Lu Mingfei only half understood what he was hearing, but he didn't resist. His mind was in a mess right now, and getting his bloodline tested was a good thing; at least it would temporarily distract him from the fact that "Nuonuo has a boyfriend."
They arrived at a laboratory on the third floor of the experimental building. The room was large, with walls and ceilings covered in lead plates, and a complex alchemical matrix drawn on the floor. A chair stood in the center of the room, surrounded by various sophisticated instruments.
"Sit down," Professor Guderian said, gesturing to the chair.
Lu Mingfei sat down. The chair was metal, and its coldness seeped through his thin pajamas, making him shiver.
Professor Guderian walked to the control panel and adjusted various parameters. Fingel, who had somehow followed him, leaned against the door frame, camera in hand, ready to record this "historic moment."
"Are you ready?" Professor Guderian asked.
Lu Mingfei nodded.
The professor took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to chant.
It was an extremely ancient and majestic language. Each syllable seemed to carry weight, striking the air and creating visible ripples. The laboratory lights began to flicker, the pointers on the instruments jumped wildly, and the alchemical matrix on the floor glowed with a dark golden light.
Lu Mingfei held his breath.
He knew that this was Dragon's Word. The language he had unconsciously chanted yesterday was of the same origin as the language Professor Guderian was chanting now.
But strangely, when those syllables entered his ears, he felt no resonance. There was no rush of adrenaline, no flashes of memory, and no hallucinations.
It's like... like listening to a completely unfamiliar foreign language song.
The chanting lasted for about a minute.
Professor Guderian opened his eyes, his forehead covered in sweat, his face somewhat pale. Using high-risk incantations had clearly taken a toll. He looked at Lu Mingfei expectantly: "How was it? What did you see? Dragon memories? A battlefield? A palace? Or…?"
Lu Mingfei was silent for a few seconds, then honestly said, "I didn't see anything."
The laboratory was deathly silent.
Professor Guderian's expression froze. Fingel's hand, holding the camera, also stopped in mid-air.
"You...you didn't see anything?" Professor Guderian's voice trembled. "How is that possible? The Word of Power 'Emperor' works on any hybrid; the only difference is the intensity and content of the spiritual vision...how could you not see anything?"
He rushed to the equipment and checked the data. On the screen, the curve representing Lu Ming's non-vital signs was eerily stable, and the chart representing his mental fluctuations showed almost no change.
"This isn't right..." the professor murmured, "This is completely wrong... unless..."
He suddenly raised his head, staring at Lu Mingfei with shock and disbelief in his eyes: "Unless you're not a half-blood."
Lu Mingfei was stunned: "Not a half-blood? Then what am I?"
"Or... you're a hybrid, but your bloodline is so special that it exceeds the perception range of the Word of Power 'Emperor'." Professor Guderian's voice trailed off, as if he were talking to himself. "But how is that possible... the Word of Power 'Emperor' is a first-generation level ability, theoretically capable of sensing all dragon bloodlines..."
He suddenly realized something, and his face turned even paler: "Unless... you are a descendant of the White King."
White King.
Lu Mingfei remembered seeing this name in the book "A Preliminary Exploration of the Dragon Clan Genealogy." The White King, a rebel in the history of the dragons, once challenged the rule of the Black King Nidhogg, but was ultimately suppressed, and his bloodline was almost completely wiped out. However, legend has it that a very small number of White King descendants still hide in the human world.
The biggest difference between the White King's bloodline and other hybrids is that they are not affected by the Word of Power "Emperor". This is because the White King himself was a traitor, and his bloodline is fundamentally different from that of the Black King's dragon lineage.
"Descendants of the White King..." Lu Mingfei repeated the phrase, "What does that mean?"
"What I mean is, you might be one of the last few inheritors of the White King's bloodline in this world." Professor Guderian's expression was terrifyingly serious. "If your bloodline truly comes from the White King, then many things make sense. Why you can use Words of Power under the suppression of 'Discipline,' why the Words of Power 'Emperor' are ineffective against you, why you can awaken a red dragon cub...
He paused, his voice lowering further: "And that's why so many people want you."
Lu Mingfei felt a chill creep up his spine.
The White King's descendant. The last heir. So many people want him.
These words were heavier and heavier, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
"But..." he began with difficulty, "If I am of the White King's bloodline, then my parents..."
"Professor Lu Lincheng and Ms. Qiao Weini are both mixed-race individuals from the Black King lineage, that's beyond doubt," Professor Guderian said. "Therefore, your White King bloodline cannot be inherited from them. The only possibility is..."
He stopped, looked at Lu Mingfei, his eyes filled with an indescribable complexity.
"What is it?" Lu Mingfei pressed.
"I don't know." Professor Guderian finally shook his head. "Maybe something happened when you were born, maybe someone did something to you, maybe... you weren't their biological son at all."
That last sentence struck Lu Mingfei like a heavy hammer blow.
Not his biological son?
How could that be? He clearly remembered what his mother looked like—though it was blurry, he remembered the warmth of her holding him, the lullabies she hummed, and the faint fragrance on her body.
Were those memories fake?
"Brother." Lu Mingze's voice suddenly rang out, carrying an unprecedented seriousness. "Don't listen to his nonsense. You are Lu Mingfei, you are Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini's son. I can assure you of that."
"Then tell me the truth," Lu Mingfei thought to himself. "Tell me, what am I?"
"You'll find out," Lu Mingze said, "but not now. The more you know now, the more dangerous it becomes."
Lu Mingfei fell silent. He looked at Professor Guderian, at the professor's face filled with confusion and shock, and suddenly felt very tired.
"Professor," he said, "may I leave now that the test is over?"
Professor Guderian paused for a moment, then nodded. "Of course...of course. But Lu Mingfei, listen to me, this is very important. We must..."
"I'm a little tired and want to go back to rest." Lu Mingfei interrupted him, stood up, and said, "You can handle the test results however you want. I just want to be alone for a while now."
He walked toward the door, his steps unsteady. Fingel, who had already received the news and came to write "news material," tried to help him, but he gently pushed him away.
"Junior brother..." Fingel wanted to say something.