Chapter 48: Cinnabar Wine

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On the second floor of the Amber馆, the emerald-green saint that had stood silently, overlooking all living beings, had quietly departed. The elite half-bloods in the grand hall awoke as if from a dream.
Perhaps tomorrow morning, upon waking, their bizarre experiences of tonight would gradually fade away like a dream under the persuasive and covering influence of rationality, only to be hidden deep within the recesses of their minds.
Yet at least at this very moment, their reverence and worship were genuine and absolute.
The great existence that had resided high above had departed, and this worship and reverence naturally fell upon Lu Mingfei, who had summoned it.
Though Lu Mingfei's current image could hardly be called good.
Well, right now, he looked utterly terrible.
Due to suffering a malicious mental shock from a certain great existence, Lu Mingfei's eyes were bloodshot, blood streamed from his nose, and bulging veins throbbed on his forehead and neck.
His lips mumbled as he trembled, trying to crawl up from the ground. Standing right beside him, Zero tightened her delicate little face, raising a small hand as if intending to strike the back of his neck once more.
Her hand-blades grew heavier each time; the very last blow had been so fast that Lu Mingfei actually heard the sound of the air being torn apart against her fair, petite hand.
"Damn it! Enough! Now is not the time!"
Lu Mingfei's figure vanished, then abruptly reappeared on the other side, leaning against the dining table, panting heavily with a dazed and scattered mind. Zero's hand-blade sliced through empty air.
Upon hearing Lu Mingfei's stern reprimand, Zero actually stopped. She stood alone in place, looking like a robot whose pause button had just been pressed.
Lu Mingfei commanded with a disgruntled expression:
"Come here, give me a hand!"
Zero walked over to Lu Mingfei with an expressionless face. Lu Mingfei unceremoniously draped his arm over her slender, smooth shoulders, and she did not resist. A faint, refreshing scent of winter plum lingered at the tip of Lu Mingfei's nose.
If Nono excelled in inspiration and analysis to an unprecedented degree, then Zero's talent in willpower was a match for Nono's talent in inspiration.
She had helped during the previous ritual, but she still lacked tempering and discipline. With some proper guidance, she would make an excellent acolytes' assistant.
Forcibly suppressing the disappointment of the third question falling through, Lu Mingfei had to remind himself that the primary goal of the divine communication ritual just now was to resolve the invasion of the unknown entity.
He could not afford to lose consciousness yet. This bunch of bumpkins had no idea of the severity of the situation; he could only rely on himself!
As it happened, Norma's voice echoed through the loudspeakers into every corner of the campus:
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"Red alert status! Red alert status! Dragon invasion! Dragon invasion!
Freshmen are to remain in their dormitories. Students taking the battlefield survival course are to immediately collect weapons and load Friis bullets; live ammunition is strictly prohibited. Seal all entrances and shoot-on-sight is authorized for unidentified individuals."
The Equipment Department personnel parked their vehicles outside every building, opening the compartments to reveal neat racks of automatic firearms inside.
The driver kept honking the horn, urging the unresponsive Amber馆. The elite members of the Student Union inside the Amber馆 stood motionless, their gazes fixed entirely on the man by the dining table.
A young man, evidently an officer of the Student Union, hurried forward. Faced with everything that was practically a miracle created by Lu Mingfei, he felt nothing was amiss; he simply wore a respectful expression and bowed slightly:
"Lu, Leader Lu Mingfei, may I ask what we should now..."
Lu Mingfei waved his hand:
"Call me Cult Master! No, wait, better call me President...
Take those who were just mentally manipulated and go help me collect a batch of those toys, then have someone who knows how to command lead them to where they need to go."
The man nodded, then issued a few brief commands. The students in evening gowns seemed to have forgotten the ritual that had just taken place, and accompanied by the mentally manipulated attendants of the Amber馆, they handed them over to the Equipment Department before surging outside in an orderly fashion to head toward various passageways and entrances.
It was not that Lu Mingfei preferred to fight alone, but when truly facing a monstrosity with mind-control capabilities, having teammates who weren't reliable enough was worse than fighting alone.
The only two whom Lu Mingfei deemed qualified to participate were Finger and Zero.
Zero had been standing right there just a moment ago, but the moment he turned his head, she was nowhere to be seen, while Finger had suffered a severe mental shock right at the beginning and fainted, having been carried off to a guest room in the Amber馆 to rest.
Confirming that everyone inside the Amber馆 had left in accordance with the school's directives, Lu Mingfei tremulously pulled a palm-sized small bottle from his tunic.
He poured a tiny bit of the green, semi-solid liquid inside into the cap, then pinched his nose and chugged it straight into his mouth.
A texture and stickiness akin to nasal mucus slid down his throat, and then a devastatingly refreshing coolness surged from bottom to top, charging straight into his nasal cavity. Lu Mingfei felt as though the top of his skull had been blown right off at that instant.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!"
The refreshing sensation turned tangible, swirling wildly and frantically within Lu Mingfei's murky, sluggish brain. He felt as if the entire world had turned green in an instant, then red, and then even his cognitive ability to distinguish colors became scrambled.
The world spun, and Lu Mingfei heavily crashed to the floor, writhing.
Magical item, Dan-wine; derived from the spellcraft, "Dan-wine" brewing.
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Recorded in the first volume of the *Secret Scriptures of the Seven Chapters of Xuanjun*, the Immortality-Returning Elixir Talisman of Immortal Sand, this belonged to the Yellow Emperor's astonishing medical arts—using medicinal herbs to brew into wine, perfectly inheriting the medicinal properties, or brewing peerless fruit wine, though it would turn into bizarre colors.
The medicinal herbs Lu Mingfei used this time were primarily those of the heart-clearing and spirit-calming variety, meant to cope with spiritual pollution and the ongoing issue of his sanity value hovering at a low level.
It was just that the brewing time for the Dan-wine was too short; Lu Mingfei had not yet had time to infuse sufficient mana, nor did he have enough time to let it fully ferment.
The taste of the semi-finished product would not possess the irresistible allure of mature Dan-wine; its flavor was so intensely pungent that it would instantly strip a person of their ability to act, making it impossible to use normally in combat.
.
.
.
After some time, Lu Mingfei's fingers twitched. His consciousness reassembled itself, and he stumbled and crawled up from the ground.
Lu Mingfei took out his N96 and glanced at it. An hour and a half had passed; it was now nine-thirty.
Although spending an hour and a half to sort out his mental state at a time when every second counted sounded a bit foolish, Lu Mingfei never forgot his opponent's specialty in mental attacks.
To pursue a monstrosity skilled in mind control with an unstable mental state would simply be offering oneself as a toy for others.
During this time, Professor Guderian had called him many times, and there was also one missed call from his official girlfriend, Su Xi.
Lu Mingfei had no intention of returning the calls. He turned off his phone and began groping around the left side of the Amber馆 hall.
After taking the Dan-wine, Lu Mingfei's cognitive and thinking capacity had improved somewhat. The first picture given by the emerald freak showed Nono lying in utter darkness, her slender, beautiful legs encased in smooth purple silk stockings that reflected an eerie green light.
Darkness, green light.
Wasn't that precisely the Amber馆 during the divine communication ritual?
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