Dragon Race: Lu Mingfei Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 396 Trial of Justice
Time and space were distorted and transformed, and Li Jianxing only felt that his body seemed to be melting and flowing away... and then returned to the place called "family".

The foul smell of sandalwood mixed with blood and rust swirled between the beams and pillars of the dim and depressing ancestral hall. Four men in black with cold faces like dead people were pressing him to his knees on the ground. The bronze chain called "Dragon Binding Rope" passed through his shoulder blades, binding his body and also sealing his dragon bloodline.

He could hear painful and angry growls constantly coming from his ears. Those were his fellow "reformists", who were also being forced to their knees by the dead-like strong men and bound by "dragon ropes"... They were being tortured now - being tortured for their failure.

Soon it was his turn.

"Li Jianxing, the illegitimate son of Li Wenzhuo, the 162nd generation of the orthodox Li family, from the Jiangnan branch..."

"Secretly colluding with outsiders and alien races, attempting to kill our ancestors and seize power is truly treasonous..."

"According to the decision of several family ancestors, Li Jianxing's lineage will be removed from the Li family tree, his Li bloodline will be stripped, his bones and marrow will be extracted, and his blood will be offered to the family ancestors to atone for his sins, in order to rectify the family law..."

Someone was proudly announcing Li Jianxing's crimes, and the shrill voice sounded like a eunuch in the feudal dynasty. Li Jianxing gritted his teeth and stared at the group of old people sitting on the high platform of the ancestral hall, most of their bodies hidden in the shadows.

The gorgeous silk robes and burning pine resin could not conceal their rotten and withered smell of the dead, and when they saw bowls of steaming blood being brought up, not even the shadows could hide the greed that suddenly lit up in their eyes.

The sound of gold-rimmed porcelain bowls colliding one after another, mixed with the smacking sound of old gums sucking liquid, was a brief satisfaction of quenching thirst... followed by a strong sense of dissatisfaction after the satisfaction.

Li Jianxing let out a low roar like a wild beast from his throat. He struggled frantically, wanting to rush forward and tear the gang of old ghosts apart. The bronze chains clanged as he struggled, but the eight big hands of the four sturdy men behind him pinned him to his knees like shackles. A faint light flashed on the surface of the Dragon Binding Rope that passed through his shoulder blades, erasing the possibility of him using the power of words.

“Although you were born in a side branch and your bloodline is not pure, the master family still generously gave you the family name and the luck of ‘Star’, allowing you to enjoy the treatment of the master family, considering your extraordinary talents. I didn’t expect that you would not only be ungrateful, but also want to bring trouble to disrupt the master family and harm us... A bastard is a bastard, and you deserve to die.” An old man said coldly.

"You are the ones who deserve to die a thousand times, you old bastards! You should have been completely liquidated and crushed a hundred years ago!" Li Jianxing roared.

"Ignorance. How can you short-sighted youngsters understand the eternal and unchanging laws governing the operation of the world? If we did not know these laws, how could our orthodox families have survived for thousands of years and weathered one turbulent wave after another?" An old man snorted coldly.

"What do you mean by living for a thousand years? You are just a bunch of maggots struggling to survive! In the past, you relied on consuming the dragon blood and dragon marrow excavated from dragon tombs, and now you rely on consuming the blood and vitality of generations of young people... You old ghosts have never thought about serving the country and the people. You came out now just to suck more blood in the prosperous future!"

"Then why did you seek help from those Western aliens? If those Western aliens are as bright as you said, then why can we still sit on the high platform while you kneel on the ground?" An old man sneered, "In the face of the complicated game of interests, your mindless fighting and killing is ultimately a trick that is not worthy of being on the stage."

"There is no point in saying more. This boy is hopeless and deserves to be killed. Cut off his head and hang it in Tianshu Hall. Inform all clan members of the fate of this boy who colluded with foreign tribes and betrayed the family." An old man said coldly.

"Even if you kill me today, there will always be another person like me who will declare war on you with the same ideals! Hot blood will always be reborn, and your rotten blood will eventually run dry!"

Several men in black came to his side. The leader held a bloodletting cone stained with his companion's blood, and the others held clean-looking gold-rimmed porcelain bowls. The old ghosts would not miss anything that could supplement their nutrition, even the blood of the rebels.

"What has happened will happen again. What has been done will be done again." The old man in the middle of the platform tapped the porcelain bowl with his fingernails. His voice was as dull as dead water. "As early as a hundred years ago, a man named Lu Shanyan wanted to overthrow all the orthodox families... In the end, he died, died on the land of a foreign race, and his body was not found."

"You are not the first, nor the last. There will always be people like this, no matter where they are. But we will destroy all such people. The longevity of the family cannot be interrupted."

"With your strength... it's not enough to overthrow the entire orthodox family."

Li Jianxing felt the intense pain of the bloodletting cone piercing his neck, and he felt the pain that his companions had suffered before they died. But his eyes were still fixed on the group of rotten shadows on the platform, as if to tell them that even death would not make him surrender.

Just when he felt that his life was about to be lost along with his blood, the scene around him changed slightly.

He was not dead, nor was he kneeling any longer. His eyes were aligned with the top of the pillars of the ancestral hall.

The dragon-binding rope that pierced his shoulder blade disappeared, and instead he was armed with a thick set of golden-red armor; one of his hands held a sword blade covered with serrations, vibrating and whistling like a chainsaw, and the other hand held a short blade that was much quieter and as cold as the bright moon.

Men with deathly pale faces were lying everywhere on the blue bricks of the ancestral hall that were soaked in blood and decay. These were the "military officers" that the ancestors had kept in captivity for hundreds of years. They were endowed with brute strength, felt no pain, were not afraid of water or fire, and had no emotions... Apart from the younger generation who were controlled with an iron fist, they were the most powerful support of the ancestors.

The last three military officers still rushed towards Li Jianxing like zombies, following the orders of the frightened old ghosts. He responded subconsciously - but he didn't expect that his body's instinctive reaction would be faster than his thinking, nor did he expect that his palms wrapped in heavy armor could feel the touch of broken bones and flesh so clearly.

The first military officer had his head crushed by his fist with the chainsaw blade, and the second military officer had his short blade pierced accurately through the neck and into the heart before it got close; the third military officer's death was a bit bloody, as the weapon with a piercing scream broke through its body that was said to be fearless of water and fire, and the sticky blood mixed with the smell of medicine covered Li Jianxing's palms.

He looked around and saw his fellow reformists. They were as tall as him, wearing armor and holding fierce weapons. The only thing that remained unchanged was their resolute and unyielding eyes.

All the military officers were dead. The old ghosts who used to sit high and mighty in the shadows and regarded themselves as banished immortals were now terrified. They shouted "Protect the emperor" and tried to escape using their hands and feet, but Li Jianxing and his companions were like an insurmountable wall that separated them.

On the other side of the high wall, the clan members were surrounded at the gate of the ancestral hall with weapons in hand. Most of them had expressions of fear, confusion, and anger on their faces... They didn't understand why Li Jianxing and his men had become like this, and why they would commit such an unjust act as ancestor murder.

Li Jianxing took a deep breath and then exhaled with relief. He heard the sound of his breathing being amplified by the helmet.

Now they have the power to overthrow the orthodox families.

"Then kill them all," someone said.

Li Jianxing frowned. Before he could find out the source of the voice, the voice sounded in his mind again, with sincerity and persuasion:
"Look at how powerful you are now. Kill these corrupt people and the stupid servants who have been brainwashed by them, and let this place be dyed with your favorite red."

A part of Li Jianxing's body was actually excited by this. It was the boiling dragon blood in his body. The bloodthirsty factor belonging to the dragon clan was urging him to kill all the corrupt people in front of him whom he hated so much, as well as those who worked hard for them.

“No!” Li Jianxing growled, spitting out this bloodthirsty desire with disgust, “The red that I yearn for is definitely not a bloodthirsty red!”

My mind instantly became clear, as if the voice had never existed.

"Drag them out and show their true colors. Let all the tribesmen open their eyes and see clearly what kind of corpse-eaters the so-called ancestors they respect and admire are..."

He couldn't finish his words, as a huge pit suddenly appeared under his feet and swallowed him, and time and space changed again.

"Master, this is your elixir of life."

Li Jianxing saw the tray in front of him clearly. The gold-rimmed porcelain bowl contained bright red, warm blood. The reflection showed his face, which had become haggard due to the years, and the blood in the porcelain bowl in front of him tempted him to drink it, so that he could regain his youth and continue to live forever.

He felt a chill and immediately raised his hand to overturn the tray. Blood spilled on the ground and corrosive white smoke emerged: "Get lost! I don't need this kind of thing! I won't become that kind of rotten ghoul!"

……

The space changed one after another. Sometimes, a girl he loved but died suddenly appeared in front of him, tempting him to fall into the gentle eternal love; sometimes, a wise man proposed to help him unify the entire orthodox family, rule the whole world, and become the new dragon king...

Li Jianxing resisted these illusions that tempted him to stop and enjoy them. At the same time, he could also feel that something was constantly being transmitted into his mind from the outside world, consolidating his thoughts and making his will more and more firm.

There is also a large body of new and dark knowledge and history.

Time began to accelerate, and Li Jianxing's cognitive space also gradually jumped from the initial one family, one nation, to a united world... to the second, third... countless human worlds, and arrived at an era of despair.

Countless terrifying enemies were harming humanity. Although the ideals of this era had withered and died, people even regarded a quick death as a merciful salvation; but Li Jianxing still saw countless brave people and countless fighters who were willing to fight to the death against even more powerful and terrifying enemies for that glimmer of remaining hope.

His heart was touched, as if he saw the past of his own nation.

The light of hope gradually grew brighter, and he saw a leader as dazzling as the sun, leading a powerful army into this dark and desperate era. They were fearless, they were invincible, and they shouted "For humanity!" and fought to save humanity from the darkness.

"Are you willing to join them?" someone asked Li Jianxing. There was no temptation or bewitching in the voice, only calmness, as if waiting for Li Jianxing to make his own choice.

"willing."

Without any hesitation, Li Jianxing nodded in response.

The scene in front of him froze at this moment, then shattered and flew away quickly. When Li Jianxing woke up slowly and uncomfortably, the first thing he saw was Lu Mingfei's happy face, his eyes full of approval and satisfaction with himself.

Different from the casual clothes he wore in the conference room before, Lu Mingfei was now wearing a gorgeous set of gold and red metal armor. Li Jianxing even felt a little small in front of his towering body.

There were also Chu Zihang, Caesar... and people he didn't know. They were also wearing armor, and the way they looked at him was more intimate and trusting.

"…What's going on? Where am I?"

He lay half-naked on a metal bed, feeling the coldness against his skin. He vaguely remembered that he came to S-level for help for the reformists, and after he finished telling everything, he heard someone singing... and then he fell into a deep sleep.

"You are safe, brother," Lu Mingfei said to him with a smile, "I am sorry that I allowed you to accept our 'Trial of Justice' without your consent, but there is no doubt that what you said is not false, and your thoughts and will are upright and firm, which fully meets the criteria of being the best warrior candidate in our legion."

"Justice... Trial?" Li Jianxing shook his head. The different illusion fragments and a large amount of knowledge filled his mind and made him feel dizzy. "So... are you willing to help us?"

"Of course, we are brothers now," Lu Mingfei smiled and patted his shoulder, "We certainly won't refuse a request for help from our future brothers, right, Brother Chu Zihang."

"...I'm going alone?" Chu Zihang asked, then he was relieved, "I understand, Captain. I'm enough on my own."

“No, no, no,” Lu Mingfei shook his head, then looked at Li Jianxing again, his eyes full of the brilliance of someone who had discovered a treasure, “Let’s bring your fellow reformers here first.”