In an instant, high-pitched syllables exploded in the passage; though it was just a narrow corridor, an endless echo erupted.
Those were the Runes of the agents who came down with Lu Mingfei. Both sides of their ears were filled with extremely penetrating chants, and even the Death Servant in front of him let out a hoarse, unpleasant sound.
Fingel slowly turned the tip of his blade towards the Death Servant. The muscles under his uniform bulged as if they were about to burst forth at any second, and even his Golden Eyes flickered unsteadily. The air around the blade twisted!
Restless elements danced in the air, and countless melodies, inspired by the Rune's chanting, began to dance and roar.
The C-rank agent following Lu Mingfei slowly retreated two steps, set up his camera, and began to chant in a low voice.
Like a flowing spring, his shadow moved, dragging the blade's silhouette cast by the camera light, rushing madly. The darkness enveloping the Death Servant in the distance boiled, bubbles one after another exploding on the flat surface of the darkness, and then a blade extended from within.
Lu Mingfei had never experienced such chaotic yet orderly elemental melodies, as if countless instruments were playing in Vienna's Golden Hall—violins, violas, cellos, double basses… Different sections poured out like dominoes, harmonizing beautifully, a visual feast as well as an auditory one.
He finally understood what the sign's hint about improving under pressure meant.
With such complex melodies unfolding before his eyes, how could he not understand that the essence of the world's melody was the conductor of a symphony.
As the world's melody rose and fell, all elemental melodies played a perfectly synchronized resonance.
And what he had to do was to chop off the strings with one slash, silencing the instruments!
To repair the strings with his own consciousness, making all instruments serve him!
The Death Servant lunged at Lu Mingfei with incomprehensible movements. Silently, the entire passage became muddy, and the water elements in the air continuously rose. A fatal killing intent pressed towards him. Despite his missing consciousness, the Death Servant still realized that this despicable race with black eyes in front of him was the greatest danger!
“Here he comes.”
Lu Mingfei didn't know if he was reminding his partner behind him or his former cowardly self.
The Everlasting Ribbon pulled out a baseball-bat-length bandage. One hand seemed to be holding an unparalleled famous sword, pointing at the rapidly expanding greenish-black claws before him.
Fingel's muscles tensed instantly. If anything unexpected happened, he would be the first to act.
The sharp blade extended from the darkness by the C-rank agent had already been trampled underfoot, posing no danger to the Death Servant. He watched the claws getting closer to the S-rank, and his unease grew stronger.
“This level of evolution for a hand is probably close to an A-rank, right?” The agent receiving the camera feed outside couldn't help but swallow, feeling a bit bitter in his mouth.
“If it were somewhere else, a high-intensity Rune could easily blast this Death Servant to smithereens, but using such a Rune now would be tantamount to digging your own grave.” Another agent's fists were white, not only because the S-rank here encountered such a situation, but the situations on the other two sides were not much better.
Fortunately, the Death Servant in front of the S-rank was the strongest of the three Death Servants.
He knew very well that with the strength of the other two teams, this battle would not be short. The narrow space limited too many agents' methods, and the mud brought inconvenience to movement. It would be extremely difficult to efficiently kill the Death Servant.
It was difficult for them to support the S-rank at this time.
But the S-rank was facing a monster like the Death Servant for the first time. Without sufficient experience, even with high bloodline, he might not be able to fully exert his strength.
What to do?
Should they advise the S-rank to retreat? The Death Servant's strength far exceeded their expectations.
An A-rank Death Servant and a B-rank Death Servant were completely different things.
Just then, the burly Death Servant in the passage grew scales under everyone's gaze. Although his pair of Golden Eyes was still staring intently at the S-rank, just the slightest glimpse of those Golden Eyes from the video feed made their breathing quicken.
This thing was not a B-rank at all!
Time had buried his flesh, along with stagnating the flow of his blood. At this moment, the dragon blood within this Death Servant began to flow, finally pushing him back to his peak.
“Retreat!” The agent sitting in front of the screen gasped, roaring. No one present could bear the consequence of the S-rank dying here.
Their purpose of sitting on the ground was precisely this: once one of the three underground parties encountered an accident, the other two parties had to heed the advice and immediately withdraw from underground.
What's more, the one who encountered the accident now was the S-rank!
“De…licious!” The blood flow in his throat finally restored some of his linguistic function, but his first words out of his mouth were to treat the S-rank as delicious food.
“S-rank! Retreat!” The agent outside the screen roared, shouting.
Even an A-rank agent, in this environment, if their Rune wasn't effective, wouldn't dare to claim a sure win against an A-rank Death Servant, let alone an S-rank who was only a freshman.
“Run, S-rank, run.” The agent's voice was mournful. If he truly watched the S-rank die before him, it would be a shadow he would never dare to recall in his lifetime.
No sooner had he finished speaking than the roar of the Death Servant echoed in everyone's headsets. The Death Servant seemed to realize what the person in front of him was about to do and began to rush madly towards Lu Mingfei with large strides, as if he would tear apart even the legendary Pegasus Sleipnir if it stood before him!
Rene listened to everything silently. At this moment, he couldn't spare any attention to the S-rank's situation. He didn't even have a moment to speak.
The enemy in front of them demanded their full attention.
“You are a bit too hasty.”
Suddenly, in the headset, Rene heard someone speak. Everyone heard someone speak. It was a channel only operational agents could access.
“S-rank?”
“It's me.”
Lu Mingfei's voice in the headset was very calm. Even if the claw was about to pierce his skin and penetrate his skull the next second, he still responded to his subordinate's call.
“What are you going to do?” asked the agent, staring intently at the screen.
Lu Mingfei did not reply. What answered them was only a pair of Golden Eyes that quietly opened, dazzlingly bright, as if to outline a new sun in this underground space.
Lu Mingfei looked at the pouncing Death Servant.
He did not chant a Rune, nor did he transform the ribbon into a shield for defense.
He just watched.
Countless elemental melodies wailed, and the strings let out a mournful shriek as they snapped. An unparalleled, irresistible force severed the elemental melodies.
Not just those in front of Lu Mingfei, but also those in front of Rene, and in front of all the teams.
Silently, all the Death Servants stopped their movements—those crouching on the ground to gather strength, those pouncing through the air, those suspended overhead.
Rune · Time Zero.
What Lu Mingfei perceived was a symphony played by three teams together, so the void created by this one slash would inevitably affect all Death Servants!
Using Rune on three Death Servants for the first time, he felt no discomfort. Instead, the accelerated blood flow within his body released a feeling of exhilaration.
“Everyone, aren't you going to act?”
Lu Mingfei whispered.
The S-rank proved his ability!
Even his extremely mysterious Rune unveiled a corner to them. Without even Fingel's display, such a scene alone would cause a sensation on the Night Watcher Forum.
This ability completely defied the common sense of mixed-bloods. The Rune sequence list had never recorded such an ability. The S-rank's performance at that moment completely surpassed all agents in terms of strength, mindset, and decisiveness, making them difficult to emulate.
No one could have imagined that an S-rank agent, only a freshman, could achieve such a feat. No 18-year-old boy could calmly comfort others when a Death Servant was about to pounce on him.
No fear, no retreat, no confusion.
Lu Mingfei made a decision that surpassed everyone's imagination, a decision he couldn't have made in the past 18 years.
Such a scene had been fantasized countless times in his mind, but only when it was truly accomplished did it make one breathe a sigh of relief, unable to help but laugh uproariously and exclaim, “I am no ordinary person!”
The Death Servant suspended in mid-air was full of weaknesses. Lu Mingfei didn't need to deliberately seek opportunities. The punch-blades formed by the Everlasting Ribbon struck multiple times, combined with Fingel's powerful attacks, forcing the Death Servant to retreat step by step.
Whenever the Death Servant tried to fight back, Lu Mingfei's Rune · Time Zero (Immobilization) could effectively control him. Although the duration was short, it was enough to interrupt the Death Servant's attack rhythm, and Fingel could always seize the best moment to perfectly deliver supplementary blows.
Lu Mingfei couldn't help but marvel that even though his senior brother had fallen to this point, his combat instincts were still deeply ingrained in his bones.
With their cooperation, the battle on Lu Mingfei's side quickly became one-sided.
This situation continued until he stepped on the Death Servant with one foot, and Fingel, leaning on his blade, kept shouting for more money.
“Report the situation.”
Lu Mingfei pressed his headset and asked.
“With your help, the mission is expected to be completed in 9 minutes.” It was Rene's voice.
Someone else also sent a communication, “Thank you, Lord S-rank, for your help. The mission is expected to be completed in 14 minutes.”
“Very good. Keep in touch. I will briefly suspend the Rune to take a look deeper inside. Be careful.”
“Understood!”
“……”
Along the way, Fingel tacitly avoided asking Lu Mingfei what his Rune was. The effect, unrecorded in the Rune sequence list, would certainly attract a lot of attention once exposed to the public.
Perhaps the Headmaster, perhaps the Secret Party, or perhaps some other organization.
Fingel subconsciously wanted to protect his junior brother. In the current mixed-blood society, if something new and unheard of appears and it doesn't have strong backing, it can easily end up being carved up.
Perhaps Lu Mingfei could escape under the Headmaster's protection, but there was no reason to gamble on such a thing.
Lu Mingfei quickly walked out of the passage guarded by the Death Servants. The end of the passage was surprisingly a spacious platform no smaller than a basketball court.
The view suddenly opened up. The dome above looked like a condensed layer of soil compressed by immense force, so smooth that not a single speck of dirt fell. Below the platform were circles upon circles of stacked bronze rings. Kicking a small stone off the platform, he didn't hear an echo for a full minute.
A circular ring, slightly taller than two people, stood outside the platform, engraved with a blurry picture. Below the picture were clear scratches, each as thick as two of Lu Mingfei's fingers.
“It doesn't look like human damage.” Fingel bent down, carefully observing the pattern on the ring. In his left hand, the standard long blade already showed a few spiderweb-like cracks.
The weapons issued by the Execution Department were too inferior, Lu Mingfei complained. They cracked after just a few slashes at a Death Servant. Fortunately, agents didn't have to pay for them, otherwise the Execution Department would probably make a fortune.
“It looks like there's a way down.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Mingfei noticed that the leftmost side of the platform was a clear slope, connecting to a broken section of a circular ring. Fingel followed Lu Mingfei's gaze and saw that not only was there a way down, but someone had also walked on that path before.
The two exchanged glances and cautiously walked towards the broken section.
After careful study, Fingel concluded.
“It looks like a two-player game. If you want to go down from this broken section, you need a second person to go to the broken section on the right to cooperate by stepping on the squares. If only one person reaches here…” Fingel pointed to the skeleton that had turned to white bones on the broken platform: “And happens to naively go onto the broken platform alone, he'll end up like him, unable to get down once up, only able to wait for death.”
“So we just need two people to cooperate and act together?”
“Yes.”
“Is it that simple?”
“If the tomb owner were still here, it definitely wouldn't be this simple.” Fingel spread his hands, with a look that said, “That's all I know.”
Lu Mingfei believed Fingel wouldn't harm him, but Fingel came up with the answer so easily, making it hard for him not to overthink, for example, that Fingel had played this mini-game before.
“Senior brother, are you hiding something from me?” he suddenly asked.
“No.”
“A week of late-night snacks!” Lu Mingfei was unambiguous, immediately putting out a heavy opening offer.
“Really no.” Fingel shook his head.
“Five days of late-night snacks.” Lu Mingfei started to lower the price.
“Hey!” Fingel raised an eyebrow. When did Lu Mingfei learn this trick? He had originally planned to intentionally act mysterious and then use his incredible bargaining skills to extort two more days of late-night snacks. Now, it seemed something was off.
“Four days of late-night…”
Before Lu Mingfei could finish speaking, Fingel pressed his hand down.
“Five days it is!”
“I've been in this kind of tomb before. Tombs of the same royal lineage are mostly similar. A long time ago, my previous partner and I solved this kind of mechanism.” Fingel said openly after getting his reward.
Lu Mingfei glanced at the bones on the broken platform, recalling the sign's hint again.
“Complete the mission perfectly with team cohesion.”
It seemed the white bones in front of him were the answer to not cooperating well with teammates and completing the mission perfectly. Learning from past mistakes, it was fortunate that he followed the sign's instruction and brought Fingel along.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingfei turned to look at Fingel. Although the saying “having an elder at home is like having a treasure” might not be entirely suitable for Fingel, eight years of senior brother's experience were sometimes quite important.
If this task were given to someone else, being able to defeat the Death Servant was one thing, but quickly deciphering the method to break the mechanism was another.
Now, it was very good. He was responsible for cutting down monsters, and his senior brother was responsible for solving puzzles. In the end, they could even cooperate to break the mechanism.
“What happens after the mechanism is broken?”
“Of course, you get the Dragon Clan's treasure.”