Chapter 280 Free is the most expensive
Lu Mingfei was holding his breath and concentrating on holding the wooden sword in his hand. This was the umpteenth time he had fought with Chu Zihang during the holiday.

"Begin!" With Susie's order, two figures rushed out together as if they had disappeared, and the next moment they collided fiercely in the center of the training ground. The two wooden swords intertwined with each other, making a squeaking sound under the heavy weight.

Suddenly, Lu Mingfei felt the opponent's strength loosen a bit, and he subconsciously chopped forward with the wooden sword in his hand. But Chu Zihang had already retracted the wooden sword, bent down very low, and slashed across Lu Mingfei's waist and abdomen with a diagonal slash.

Lu Mingfei twisted his body in panic, turned the wooden sword in his hand, and smashed the handle towards Chu Zihang's back like a hammer.

But Chu Zihang also reacted very quickly, holding the back of the knife with one hand and smashing the handle of the knife towards Lu Mingfei's chin with the other hand. At the moment when the attack was about to fall, the two of them withdrew their hands at the same time.

"Good, rapid progress." Chu Zihang nodded with satisfaction.

Since the implementation of the Hybrid Monarch Project, Lu Mingfei's physical strength has gradually caught up with Chu Zihang, and it can be said that he is basically worthy of the title of S-level. At the same time, his strong body has increased his learning ability day by day, and he has tied with himself in just a few months.

If I continue to practice like this, maybe I won't be able to do anything to Lu Mingfei unless my HP explodes. Sure enough, the guys that Gu Ye likes are not that simple...

“It’s all thanks to Senior Brother Chu’s teaching.” Lu Mingfei put away the wooden sword and scratched his head in a daze.

"Come, you two have some water..." Su Si handed them the mineral water that she had prepared long ago, and at the same time wiped the sweat off Chu Zihang.

"That's great..." Lu Mingfei looked at the loving couple with envy.

"Caesar and Senior Sister Nuonuo are both engaged. When are you going to get engaged?"

"We should wait until Susie graduates, right? Susie won't graduate until the second semester of next year." Chu Zihang said.

“Damn you, you evil bastards!” Lu Mingfei complained.

"Don't be so excited. If you want to find a girlfriend, I can introduce one to you~ Mingfei..." Susie said with a funny look on her face.

"Forget it. I hope to become stronger than falling in love." Shaking his head, Lu Mingfei put the wooden sword in his hand back to the knife rack while drinking water.

In the blink of an eye, it was already midterm exam time, but Lu Mingfei had not returned to Huaxia once, ever since Gu Ye and Xia Mi left that day...

He originally wanted to go back, but since he was included in the Half-Blood Monarch Plan, he gave up the idea. This was mainly because if Gu Ye was not there, then there would be no point in going back.

This was indeed the case. When his aunt found out that he was not going back, she didn't say a word. His uncle just told him to take good care of himself, and that was all.

On the contrary, Chu Zihang, the cold-faced senior brother, stayed with him from beginning to end because he was afraid that Lu Mingfei would be lonely. You know, Caesar left after the experiment was over, and Chu Zihang could have left to be with his family. But he stayed and taught Lu Mingfei swordsmanship.

So during this period, the relationship between Lu Mingfei, Chu Zihang and Su Qian has also made great progress. Lu Mingfei would envy this couple from time to time, and Su Qian would also jokingly introduce a girlfriend to Lu Mingfei.

"It's already evening, so let's call it a day? Let's go back to the dormitory and get some rest first..." Lu Mingfei turned his head and looked at the two of them.

"I have no objection." Chu Zihang said.

"See you tomorrow, junior." Su Si waved to Lu Mingfei and pulled Chu Zihang away from the training ground.

Lu Mingfei was walking on the endless ice sea. Above his head was the Milky Way stretching across the sky. The huge black shadow of a whale was swimming under the ice.

On the sea level of the distant icy sea, a huge white moon was rising slowly, half of the moon rose above the ice, and the other half was still below the sea level. The craters on the moon were clearly visible. The ice reflected the shadow of half of the white moon, and it formed a perfect circle with the half of the white moon in the sky.

Lu Mingze sat fishing in the moonlight, his long fishing rod hanging above an ice cave with a pool of dark blue water in it.

“I knew it was you…” Lu Mingfei quickly walked over to Lu Mingze and sat down. He had just fallen asleep when he was pulled over by him. This was definitely not a good thing.

"Tell me, what do you want from me this time?"

“You’ve started to get used to it, brother…” Lu Mingze didn’t look back and continued to look at the fishing rod intently.

"What else can we do? We can't keep making noise every time, right?" Lu Mingfei shrank his neck. Although he knew it was an illusion, he still subconsciously felt that it should be quite cold.

"You've made rapid progress recently. I feel like you can get more from me." Lu Mingze sighed softly.

"I took power from you, shouldn't you be angry? Why do I feel like you seem a little happy?" Lu Mingfei was a little puzzled.

"Because I am a little devil..." Lu Mingze turned his head, and a different kind of luster flashed in his golden eyes.

"The power of the devil always has a price, but... you just can't feel it yet... Brother, have you ever heard of this saying?"

"What?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Free things are the most expensive, so... don't be too complacent..." Lu Mingze reminded.

“You’re so weird… Even if there’s a price to pay, I’ve already exchanged my life for yours, so what am I afraid of?” Lu Mingfei said with disdain.

"So what exactly are you here for today? Tell me quickly..."

"You are about to meet..." Lu Mingze said.

"with who?"

"It's the person you were thinking of..."

"You mean...Brother Gu?"

"Yes, that's him... Maybe you'll change your mind this time?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Mingfei was a little confused.

"What I mean is that you will soon know the price of power." Lu Mingze smiled mysteriously and stopped talking.

"Please explain it to me clearly!" Lu Mingfei grabbed Lu Mingze's fishing rod and stared at him. "Calm down. If you want to know, why not wait until it happens? I have another piece of bad news for you... I will disappear for a while again." Lu Mingze patted Lu Mingfei's hand.

"Where are we going this time?" Lu Mingze asked.

"My previous recuperation was too ineffective, so I plan to go out and relax... I plan to go to Peru to take a train. There is an old 1920-style sleeper car from Haram to Bingham. You can take it across the Uruban River and then reach Machu Picchu. Along the way, there are mountains and plains, crossing the ancient Inca Empire." Lu Mingze licked his lips.

"Maybe I can live in a sleeping car with some beautiful female devil and develop an evil love affair. I'm really looking forward to it. So if you encounter any danger during this period, I won't be able to rush to the scene in time to support you... And the place you are going to next is not my jurisdiction, I have no authority there."

"Where I'm going? You mean... I'm going to meet Brother Gu somewhere else this time? Where?" Lu Mingfei thought Gu Ye would return to Kassel, but he didn't expect that Lu Mingze didn't mean that.

"Guess what? It's the country that otakus most yearn for. It's home to many lolita girls in dresses, violent games, perverted uncles, perverts on the bus, and AV."

"Oh my god! Japan?"

"You guessed it right! Are you happy or surprised?"

"There's nothing to be happy about. When will Brother Gu get there? Will we meet up?" Lu Mingfei shook his head and asked about something he was concerned about.

“Don’t always mention that guy. After all, I am your brother now…” Lu Mingze seemed a little…unhappy?
"And didn't I tell you that your meeting might not be harmonious? It's possible that you might even draw swords against each other. Hehe... This is something I've wanted to see for a long time."

"Then you will be disappointed. There is no way I will do anything to Brother Gu!" Lu Mingfei said firmly.

"Who knows? Anyway, this time... you can only rely on yourself. I'm not in the service area..." Lu Mingze said.

"To be honest, I really think you are gay. Tell me honestly, are you interested in me?" Lu Mingfei stared into Lu Mingze's eyes.

“I am quite interested.”

"I'm not talking about that kind of interest, but another kind..."

"Sorry, brother, I like hot ladies, it's impossible for us..."

"Let me make it clear, it's you who's been acting so gay day by day!!"

"Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. Anyway... I hope everything goes well for you next, without my help." Lu Mingze turned around and continued to stare at the fishing rod.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re here or not. I can take the power from you…” Lu Mingfei muttered softly.

"Yeah... it doesn't matter if I'm there or not... huh? You took the bait..."

With a splash of water, Lu Mingfei turned his head subconsciously and saw Lu Mingze raising his fishing rod high in the shadow of the white moon. The fishing line floating in the air was pulled out of the water... A huge black dragon! The behemoth roared, agile, and crisscrossed in the shadow of the moon!
Damn it! He didn't expect that Lu Mingze's prey was actually a dragon! A huge black dragon! Before he could even scream, Lu Mingze had already reached out and grabbed the dragon's neck and stuffed it into the fish basket at his feet.

No one knew how he managed to fit such a huge prey into that small fish basket, but he did it with such ease.

"Tonight's dinner is settled, but the god of this sea area has been fished away by me, so you have to be careful of the high tide, brother~" Lu Mingze stood up and smiled at Lu Mingfei.

The sound of the tide swept in, and Lu Mingfei subconsciously turned around and saw the waterfall pouring into the sea along the edge of the white moon. The entire white moonlight turned into all-encompassing rain.

The ice collapsed beneath his feet, and black seawater surged up from the cracks in the ice, colliding with the white seawater transformed by the moonlight. The whole world was submerged in the seawater, and the bright white moon was left with only a dark patch. He had nowhere to escape, and could only watch helplessly as the tide swallowed him up...

The phone beside his pillow rang and a text message came in. Lu Mingfei opened his eyes in panic and grabbed the phone.

[Ricardo M. Lu, this text message is to inform you that you have been assigned an internship by the Executive Department and are expected to leave for the airport at 7:00 this morning.

There will be a car waiting for you in front of the dormitory. You will take the CC1000 special express train to Chicago. Please ask the person in charge of the task for the details of the task. Please don't worry about your attendance and credits. The Executive Department has asked for leave from the professors of various subjects on your behalf. 】

The sender was Norma.

“Damn… he really was right…” Lu Mingfei once again marveled at the little devil’s ingenuity.

"It's just...will you really fight Brother Gu with swords?"

Lu Mingfei didn’t know, but he vaguely felt something was wrong, as if everything was part of someone’s plan.

So...was it arranged by him to go to Japan? Or was it a school assignment?
In a villa somewhere, a boy with his eyes closed slowly woke up, and an expressionless girl was staring at him motionlessly.

"Why aren't you asleep yet, Natasha?"

"I can't sleep..." Natasha said.

"That's great. Come walk with me. It's been a while since we last took a walk together." The boy stood up and squatted down beside Natasha.

"Huh? Why haven't you come up yet?" Seeing that Natasha didn't move, he was a little confused.

After a moment, Natasha lay on his back, her thoughts seeming to go back to that cold winter.

"That's it, just like before." The boy smiled, carried Natasha on his back and left the villa, walking step by step in the starry night.

"By the way, I want you to go out this time. Can you promise me?" said the boy.

Although Natasha couldn't see the boy's face, she could already imagine the pitiful look in his eyes, like that of a little seal.

"Well, I see."

"Very good, you are worthy of being my girl... Next, it depends on what he chooses... We are all slaves to fate, but... I just have more opportunities."

Humming an unknown song, the boy and Natasha walked further and further away.

(End of this chapter)