amaotonovel Chapter 355: Tachibana Masamune, Prince Herzog
Chapter 355: Tachibana Masamune, Prince Herzog
Chapter 355: Tachibana Masamune, Prince Herzog
The cargo elevator slowly descended, carrying two guests, each weighing several tons, from the "ξ" floor of Genji Heavy Industries to the 30th floor.
"The conversation with Eri... wasn't very pleasant?" Genji asked in a low voice.
He noticed that Lu Mingfei's expression was a little unusual, and it had been like this since he came out of Uesugi Eri's room.
“No…” Lu Mingfei felt more and more embarrassed the more he thought about it. He covered his face with his hands and sighed helplessly, “I can only say that my actions at the beginning gave her a bad impression. After I finish dealing with things here, I have to reshape her normal and correct thoughts and behaviors… It may not be easy.”
Yuan Zhinv nodded, not quite understanding.
"Also, why didn't you go in and try to communicate with your sister? His Majesty the Emperor once said that changes in our physical genes do not mean that we are no longer human. The emotions we have are an important support for us to remain human."
"I... am not ready yet. I don't know how to tell her." Yuan Zhinv said in a low voice.
He had never met Eri before, but he felt very disgusted with her; he thought that she was a person used by his brother Gen Chisei to replace him, and he used pampering that girl to relieve his guilt. But in the end, they are all siblings of the same origin.
Although he has now gotten rid of these childish ideas after surgery and ideological transformation, he still feels that he is not ready to face his sister.
"It's okay, you still have plenty of time."
"Can you answer my question, Lu-kun? Why is Eri the younger sister of Chi-nyu? Eri and I have no blood relationship, she is just..."
Standing in the corner of the elevator, Yuan Zhisheng finally couldn't help but speak, but before he could finish, he was interrupted by Yuan Zhinu:
"Don't worry, brother. Now is the time to reveal all the answers."
"That's true. You should be mentally prepared to accept everything so that your emotions won't be too strong later." Lu Mingfei said.
There was a strong vibration, and the bright red numbers on the indicator board indicated that the freight elevator had reached the 30th floor. The wide elevator doors opened to both sides, and Gen Chisei's assistant Yabuki Sakura had been waiting for a long time.
Before Yuan Zhisheng could react, Lu Mingfei and Yuan Zhinu stepped out of the elevator first. Without Ying's guidance, the two of them walked forward on their own as if they were familiar with the route. Yuan Zhisheng, who didn't know what was going on, could only quickly follow them.
The decoration of the 30th floor of Genji Heavy Industries is in a soft Japanese style, the strategic department of the Snake Eight Families. Ying quickly ran to the front and opened a sliding door for Lu Mingfei.
Behind the sliding door is a spacious room with an interior decoration in the style of a Japanese Shinto temple. The granite walls are carved with various Shinto gods and ghosts, from the solemn Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi to the mighty Susanoo, as well as ferocious demons, some with lion-like faces and bared fangs, and some sitting cross-legged on a pile of skulls. The wind and clouds surround these gods and demons, making them look as chilling as a hundred demons parading at night.
But now, even if they were able to survive and break out of the wall, they would not bring any fear to the people outside; because they would only be ruthlessly crushed by the two steel giants that stepped into the room.
In front of a large stone table with a circular Tai Chi pattern made of black and white, the heads of the eight Sheqi families who were waiting there stood up and bowed to Lu Mingfei.
Previously, in the open space outdoors, Lu Mingfei and the metal armor he wore only gave people an impression of being very tall; now, indoors, they personally felt the powerful sense of oppression brought by Lu Mingfei. Every heavy step he took was like a sledgehammer hitting the hearts of the family heads, leaving them with no thoughts other than to submit to him.
The other one had a face as calm as water but his features were as beautiful as a painting... The family heads couldn't help but look at Yuan Zhisheng who had just entered the room. The two men looked too similar, but they had never heard that the head of the Yuan family had a brother.
But... where are the three warriors who followed the high priest? They are not by Lu Mingfei's side... where did they go?
Even though the five family heads with lower surnames had many questions, they had no power to ask, and no one would answer them.
Lu Mingfei had been to this room before in the Awakening Temple, when the Snake Family was still not so smart as to want to buy the White King's dragon bones from him. He saw that Angers was also there, but he was sitting in the corner of the room drinking tea leisurely, perhaps waiting for the end of this late night meeting to meet with the head of the Inuyama family, with whom he was familiar.
"Welcome again, Your Excellency the High Priest. You are indeed a man who is swift and decisive. With your help, the dragon crisis in Japan may be resolved perfectly without bloodshed."
The head of the Snake Eight Families, Tachibana Masamune, said with a smile.
Although he looks like a white-haired old man, his natural and friendly smile shows the confidence that he can control everything in his hands, as if he is a natural leader.
"But someone will bleed here today." Lu Mingfei said coldly. His words shocked the family heads present, including Yuan Zhisheng.
"And you're right. I really don't like to waste time doing things, and I don't intend to rely on your half-truths to confirm my guesses, girl."
"Yes, Captain." Yuan Zhinv nodded, his pupils lit up with golden mandala-like patterns. Before the heads of the other families could react, he had already begun to chant softly. The lost ancient language had an extraordinary musical beauty, like a hypnotic and ethereal short song. The transparent field quickly expanded to envelope everyone in the Awakening Temple.
Everyone was listening attentively - including Ange. He could have used "Time Zero" to escape from the expanded area of the Word Spirit in time, but because he trusted Lu Mingfei and was looking forward to what would happen next, he chose to stay.
The whistling and piercing wind echoed in their ears, and the heads of the eight Sheqi families suddenly found that they were no longer in the Awakening God Temple, but in a vast white snowfield. The towering flames burning in the distant buildings illuminated their location.
The Word Spirit. The Nightmare Tapir, this Word Spirit belonging to the Source Girl has now been developed with more functional effects, and is no longer limited to simply dragging people into nightmares and killing them.
The "Dream Tapir" that is now being applied to Masamune Tachibana is one of its functions, which is to directly extract the target's brain and replay its past memories in a simulated manner.
Lu Mingfei believed that this word spirit would still be of great value even in that war universe, and that he could efficiently obtain important information and intelligence without lengthy interrogation—even if the target was a demon.
Because of the extremely high dragon bloodline in her body, the "furnace of faith" in Yuan Zhinv's body is larger than that of other people, second only to Lu Mingfei. She has sufficient power of faith to stabilize her body and protect her spirit, so even if the person being interrogated is a demon, Yuan Zhinv will not be affected by the possible chaos pollution.
Of course... for demons under the Chaos God Tzeentch, you can't trust all the information in their heads.
Gen Chisei did not find Tachibana Masamune among the other family heads. He wanted to ask Lu Mingfei and Gen Chisei what they had done... but he could do nothing. He was just like the other five family heads, standing in the snow at a loss, as if they were still surrounding the black and white Tai Chi stone table in the Awakening Temple.
Lu Mingfei and Yuan Zhinu stood at the other end of the snow. Their figures cast tall shadows on the snow, and the red light emitted by the helmet goggles was extremely eye-catching in the dim wind and snow.
"Bang!" A gunshot that could not even be covered by the strong wind woke Yuan Zhisheng up. He thought that the person who was shot was a certain family head. Lu Mingfei's purpose was to reshuffle the eight families of Sheqi here...
But he found that the gunshots came from the snowy area they were surrounding. A man ambushed another man, and a cold gunshot from behind made him fall in the snow. It seemed that Yuan Zhinv was operating it, and the scenes they saw were constantly fast-forwarding and jumping to directly watch the valuable parts.
So Yuan Zhisheng soon saw that the man who was attacked from behind actually survived, even though his chest was pierced and his skin was burned by the flames of the bomb explosion; he dug out the supplies he had prepared for escape, healed his wounds with potions, exchanged a batch of platinum crucibles for money, and used a forged identity document to track down the man who attacked him and came to Tokyo, Japan.
Then he had plastic surgery on his burned face in Japan... A chill suddenly rushed into his heart, and Yuan Zhisheng shuddered.
He saw the face that looked much younger after plastic surgery but still familiar... Tachibana Masamune, the face that was as gentle as a kind father in front of him.
From Tachibana Masamune's conjectures, plans, and notes, Gennosuke obtained more information; the man who sank the nuclear-powered icebreaker into the Sea of Japan was the man who attacked Tachibana Masamune, named Bondarev. Tachibana Masamune therefore guessed his whereabouts and found him in the sea where the Lenin sank. He used a submachine gun across the ship and shot him and the cabin of the small boat into a hornet's nest.
As expected of a father. Gen Chisheng thought that Tachibana Masamune still occupied a very important part in his heart, and these things in front of him might just be the past that Tachibana Masamune hid - everyone has their own unknown past.
But soon, this thought disappeared from his mind without a trace.
Tachibana Masamune found a black leather notebook in the boat and determined the identity of the dead person in the boat through the contents inside;
Gennosuke couldn't see clearly what was written in the notebook. Tachibana Masamune's speed of flipping through the notebook was intentionally increased, almost turning two or three pages per second, but it was confirmed that Bondarev wanted to sneak into the Snake Eight Clan in Japan to obtain the secrets about the White King.
Then... Masamune Tachibana inherited everything from Bondarev.
He found Bondarev's base in Tokyo, an old-style apartment that stored precious and deadly ancient dragon fetal blood, as well as preliminary products of evolutionary medicine that catalyzed the bloodline of hybrids. He danced on the floor of the room in ecstasy.
The scene changed, and Yuan Zhisheng's pupils shrank. He saw that there was a vessel in the room that contained a human embryo, with the symbol "ξ". He immediately thought of Eri. He had wondered why the floor where Eri was located had this special symbol, and what special meaning it had...
I didn't expect it to be so... simple and straightforward. A product code name.
Gennochi also saw the refrigerators codenamed "π" and "ω", but they were empty...but the scene fast-forwarded to the ten years of Tachibana Masamune's development in the Snake Family, and quickly jumped to the day when he finally found the "π" and "ω" hidden by Bondarev.
"No..." Minamoto Chisei's mind went blank. He saw Tachibana Masamune step into the familiar mountain town and find himself, who was only thirteen years old... and Minamoto Chisei, who depended on him for life.
The two of them are "π" and "ω".
Bondarev's plan is to use the two of them to step into the highest level of the Snake Eight Families, because the Snake Eight Families will promote them to high positions because of their bloodlines, and thus be close to the deepest secrets.
But Tachibana Masamune, no, now we should call him Herzog.
Herzog perfected Bondarev's plan. He brought Minamoto Chisei into the Snake Eight Clan, and then brought Minamoto Chisei into the Demonic Clan. The two forces that had obtained the bloodline of the emperor were ecstatic, thinking that this was a sign of the family's revival. From that time on, the war between the Snake Eight Clan and the Demonic Clan began.
Yuan Zhisheng's heart sank inch by inch to the bottom of the valley, as if he was in an ice cave, and the blood in his body turned cold.
He watched as Herzog, as their mentor, rose higher and higher in status among the Snake Eight Clan and the Demon Clan. When he put on the mask, he was a white-faced evil ghost, the terrifying leader of the Demon Clan, "Wang Jiang"; when he took off the mask, he was a powerful old man, the head of the Snake Eight Clan, Eri's biological father, and his respected adoptive father...
Both of the two very different faces were smiling. The smile of the noble on the mask was subtle and reserved, while the smile of Tachibana Masamune under the mask was complacent.
He doesn't need to do anything. He just needs to push the situation behind the scenes to drive the Eight Snake Clans and the Fierce Ghosts to fight each other to the death while desperately trying to find the whereabouts of the White King for him.
What made Gen Chisei most angry and sad was the girl. The so-called "evil demon" was simply a lie made up by Herzog.
His younger brother's bloodline was as stable as his own, but due to some kind of surgery, Herzog brought out another violent and cruel personality. So in the eyes of Gen Chisheng, Chisheng became a fallen devil and a madman, and he had to bear the grief and kill him.
This nightmarish experience has been haunting him, and it seems that he will never be able to get out of it - but in fact, this was also a scene arranged by Herzog, in order to make the two loving brothers break up completely and go to the opposite side of each other.
The scenes that followed... Yuan Zhisheng no longer had the energy to watch. The ugly and dark truth hidden behind that gentle and kind face was like a sledgehammer hitting his spirit and consciousness, shattering them.
He is no different from his brother, both are Herzog's pawns and tools. If Herzog had switched their positions, he, the brother who claims to be a "partner of justice", could also become an "evil ghost" and die in a justified manner at the hands of his brother.
"It's really you."
Lu Mingfei said indifferently, staring at Herzog who seemed to have just woken up from a dream with undisguised anger and disgust in his eyes.
The golden light in Yuan Zhinu's eyes almost turned into materialized flames and burst out. His face was twitching with anger, but his modified body genes and the instinct to obey Lu Mingfei after joining the legion prevented him from immediately rushing up to kill this man who should be torn into pieces.
Tachibana Masamune woke up from the hypnotic state of "Dream Tapir" and frowned when he saw the five lower family heads glaring at him. When he saw Lu Mingfei and Yuan Zhinv, he realized what had happened. His pupils immediately lit up with a striking golden color and then turned into a terrifying red. He took out a pair of black wooden clappers from the wide sleeves of his kimono...
"Kill him." Lu Mingfei said.
There was no chance for Tachibana Masamune to rub the wooden clapper. The moment the word "kill" came out, Minamoto no Chitose appeared in front of Tachibana Masamune. Her huge palm grabbed his head like a claw, and the other armored hand clenched into a fist as if to pour all the anger and humiliation into it and slammed into his face. The crisp sound of bone cracking and the dull sound of flesh and blood exploding combined to make a muffled "bang" sound.
Tachibana Masamune was killed on the spot, but this was not enough to offset Minamoto no Chijo's anger. He still silently punched the twisted head again and again until it turned into an ugly pool of flesh and blood.
Lu Mingfei did not stop the girl from venting her anger, because this heretic really deserved to die. He turned on the armor's communication system and contacted Brother Caesar:
"What's the situation underground?"
"We arrived just in time. We ran into the 'Ghosts Out of the Cage'... Oh! And our Brother Finger has already taken your sword and is ahead of Brother Chu Guanjun in the 'Out of the Cage'."
At the underground Deadpool breeding farm of Genji Heavy Industries, Caesar looked at Finkel who rushed out screaming and wielding two great swords burning with golden flames, and reported the current situation to Lu Mingfei with an amazed look on his face.
(End of this chapter)