Chapter 128: Lu Mingfei: My Liver Is About to Explode!

At the Hotel Table

“The limiter’s core structure still has flaws, and the strength of its restricting force is too low. A limiter of this level probably won’t be enough to deal with Norton.”

“After running calculations and analyses through Mirror Eye and Heavenly Deduction, I can roughly determine where the problem lies in the alchemical construction of the limiter core, and I also know how to optimize it. But the more serious problem comes afterward.”

“Fixing one problem should have been a good thing. However, because the alchemical structure has changed, more problems will most likely emerge. It might even render the alchemical core unable to activate, or cause the actual effects to become abnormal.”

“What a hassle!”

Put simply, constructing a limiter was like writing code. When writing it for the first time, the objective was clear: achieve a specific result. Though there might be countless loopholes and unreasonable aspects, as long as the goal remained clear, enough effort would eventually get the program running.

But once it came time to modify the code, true torment began.

Some bugs had a tremendous impact on the structure, yet were also part of its operating logic. Replacing them with another structure might solve the immediate problem, but that replacement might not be able to support the logic of the whole system. It could easily cause the entire structure to collapse, creating even more bugs in the process.

That was what made Lu Mingfei feel so miserable.

“Haha… Hahahaha.”

Sitting in his chair, he stared at the limiter’s model with bloodshot eyes. Looking at the limiter he had reconstructed countless times, a peaceful smile gradually spread across his face.

“AAAAAAH!”

The next moment, Lu Mingfei’s expression changed drastically. He roared like a madman, letting out an incoherent cry of rage as he frantically pounded the table.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The table was smashed apart beneath his fists. The limiter’s model fell to the floor, leaving the entire room in a complete mess.

“Sigh…”

Lu Mingfei slumped helplessly in his seat, raising one arm to cover his face. He vented the manic emotions in his heart through the most primitive means possible, without transmitting them through the silent connection into the heart of another person.

This is my problem. I have to solve it myself.

But…

His state of mind was truly at its limit.

If effort led to progress, if it allowed him to advance step by step toward success, then Lu Mingfei would certainly persevere and complete the limiter through his own efforts. He would never have vented his emotions like this.

At first, the limiter had only three bugs. His mentality had been excellent while modifying it, and he had fixed one of them in only five minutes. But after repairing the second bug, he suddenly discovered that the limiter’s structure had collapsed. To make the limiter function again, Lu Mingfei now had to fix six new bugs and one old one.

How were there more bugs the more he repaired?

Yet this was not enough to defeat him. Lu Mingfei had faith and a goal. He was willing to continue struggling.

But the result of his efforts was that the number of bugs inside the limiter kept increasing. Heavenly Deduction and Mirror Eye could perform simulations, but they could not conjure knowledge he did not possess out of thin air. Although the limiter was an alchemical creation, its core principles came from Teyvat. Many of its foundational principles were incompatible with the alchemical knowledge of the Dragon Clan, forcing him to deduce and summarize them bit by bit on his own.

But that knowledge was simply too complicated.

There were many things Lu Mingfei could judge only through guesswork—whether they were right or wrong, and what effects a particular structure would have. After all, this was not a construct from the world of the Dragon Clan, and his understanding of Teyvat’s elemental structures was practically nonexistent.

Gradually, Lu Mingfei’s mentality began to crumble. He widened his blood-red eyes and stared at the hotel ceiling, muttering to himself, “Maybe… maybe I should just kill Norton directly. Once he’s dead, I won’t have to keep deducing all this. Then every problem will be solved, right? Right? I’m a genius… I’m absolutely a genius!”

At that moment, Lu Mingfei had nearly been driven insane by the alchemical structure. His mental state was clearly abnormal.

“Lu Mingfei?”

A familiar, clear voice echoed within his mind. The owner of the voice sounded somewhat puzzled, as if she had heard something unclear.

“Hm?”

Lu Mingfei immediately withdrew his wicked thoughts. Like a child who had done something wrong, he became stiff and nervous, instinctively covering his mouth and remaining silent.

How could I have such a dangerous thought?

He sighed and rubbed his head.

Working himself to the bone on the limiter was an extraordinarily difficult task. Alchemy itself was draining enough, and when combined with the analysis and deductions of Heavenly Deduction and Mirror Eye, as well as the mental effort required to contemplate and memorize the structure, the toll on Lu Mingfei’s mind was enormous.

He had maintained this extreme workload for an entire day. His mental state was already close to its limit. The fact that he had not gone insane was an achievement in itself.

“…”

He silently looked at the table he had smashed apart, listening to the hurried footsteps and urgent shouts that had suddenly arisen outside the door. He could roughly guess that the hotel staff had mistaken the noise for another incident and come to investigate.

Am I being too hot-tempered?

Lu Mingfei sighed inwardly and urged the power of [Immortality] into the ruined table. Guided by this rule-bound force, the fragments scattered across the floor slowly drew together and returned to their original positions, restoring the table to perfect condition.

The power of [Immortality] had countless applications. Restoring a table was merely the most insignificant of them.

The previous day, while ordering takeout—boiled fish—Lu Mingfei had acted on a whim and used the power of [Immortality] on it. The result had been spectacular.

The cooked fish had grown wings.

And come to life.

At the moment he witnessed it with his own eyes, Lu Mingfei gained a profound understanding of just how powerful [Immortality] truly was—and how terrifying the opportunity he had nearly missed by failing to sleep properly could have been.

[Immortality] was a law, a law unrestricted by form. It could directly fix the shape of matter or living creatures, or alter that shape entirely. It could restore life, even resurrect it. It could also fundamentally change the essence of a living creature, completely transforming its form and advancing it into an entirely new species.

Unfortunately, the power consumed was simply too great. If he could use [Immortality] without limit, Lu Mingfei could become a true Supreme God.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Sir, is something wrong?”

“Are you all right in there?”

The voices of the staff sounded from outside. Lu Mingfei silently picked up the limiter’s model from the floor and looked at it with an extraordinarily complicated expression. In the end, he slipped it into his pocket and slowly walked to the door.

Click.

There were four hotel employees outside, two men and two women, all looking extremely anxious. The man at the front hurriedly asked, “Mr. Lu, did something happen in the room? Do you need our help?”

“Nothing happened. I just lost a game of chance.”

Lu Mingfei spoke with an unconcerned expression.

“Uh… well…”

The staff member awkwardly scratched his head. Looking at Lu Mingfei’s reddened eyes and disheveled hair, he recalled the mad sounds from moments earlier.

Clearly, losing that game of chance did not seem quite as insignificant to the young man as he claimed.

Besides that, the staff had also heard what sounded like a table being smashed apart inside the room. With an embarrassed smile, he asked, “Mr. Lu, um… could we take a look inside the room? If anything has been damaged, we can replace it for you free of charge.”

“You can.”

Lu Mingfei was somewhat surprised.

Under normal circumstances, if he damaged hotel property, the staff should have demanded compensation. Why were they offering to replace everything free of charge instead? Had Cassel College made some arrangements for him in advance?

The four employees entered the room and inspected it from one end to the other, but they found no trace of damage. Even the worktable looked brand-new.

Confused by the lack of anything unusual, the staff did not press the matter. The man at the front smiled and said, “Mr. Lu, if you need anything, please feel free to ask. We’ll do our best to ensure you have a pleasant stay, so please don’t hesitate.”

“Thank you. I understand.”

Lu Mingfei answered politely.

The staff’s attitude was almost too good, so good that it felt suspicious. Still, their visit had reminded him that he ought to rest. If he continued working himself to the bone, his mental state might deteriorate further, and his temper might become even worse.

If his anger got the better of him and he did something irrational, that would be a serious problem.

But what was he supposed to do about the limiter?

After the staff left, Lu Mingfei collapsed alone onto the sofa in the sitting room, still clutching the limiter’s model—the object that had caused him such indescribable agony. Though he wanted nothing more than to smash the thing to pieces right then and there, he still needed it. He had to continue improving it.

After all, it was his responsibility.

Come to think of it, he had not spoken to Furina in nearly a whole day. He had mentioned to her before that he intended to construct a limiter, but ignoring her and refusing to speak with her for an entire day was perhaps going too far.

Maybe he should talk to her for a while and use it as a way to relax.

“You seemed to call for me just now. Was something wrong?” Lu Mingfei asked her through their mental connection.

Outwardly, he sounded full of vigor and confidence, but his voice trembled slightly. It was obviously forced. Combined with the faint sounds she had heard earlier, there was a very high chance that his mentality was on the verge of collapse.

What an idiot! An absolute idiot!

Furina quickly analyzed his condition. In the end, she placed her hands on her hips and replied inwardly, “What? Am I not allowed to think of you when nothing’s wrong?”

“You are. Of course you are.”

“I’ve been thinking about something lately. The Dream Tapir World is a mental world you created by linking our minds together, and the Dream Tapir can even affect reality. So, could your spirit travel directly to our world through the Dream Tapir? I’m curious.”

Furina did not bring up the limiter. She knew that asking about it now would only place unnecessary psychological pressure on Lu Mingfei. It would be better to discuss some other topic, distract him for a while, and ease his mind.

“It probably wouldn’t work. The Dream Tapir isn’t the kind of Word Spirit that can transmit one’s spirit across to the other side.”

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment before answering.

Although he could not reach Teyvat through the Dream Tapir, he could not help imagining what it might be like to arrive there someday. The thought alone made him feel much better.

After indulging in that brief daydream, Lu Mingfei instinctively asked, “How are things on your side? Has the Tsaritsa sent another Harbinger to Fontaine? The Fatui have already collected five of the Seven Nations’ Gnosis. Only Fontaine and Natlan remain. Once they obtain those, they’ll have gathered all seven Gnosis… They must be taking your Gnosis very seriously now, right?”

“Um… a new Harbinger has indeed arrived. The Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers, Tartaglia.”

Furina considered her answer for a moment.

In the broadest sense of the word, she had not lied to Lu Mingfei. Tartaglia, the Eleventh Harbinger, had indeed come to Fontaine on a mission. It was simply that the man was relatively straightforward, so Furina had not paid him much attention.

Besides, this was a good opportunity to use Tartaglia as a shield against the Doctor’s thunder.

Tartaglia had arrived does not mean the Doctor had not.

It was a simple and perfectly understandable inequality. Thus, in theory, Furina had not deceived Lu Mingfei. She had merely neglected to mention everyone who had come.

“The Eleventh?” Lu Mingfei froze for a moment before saying suspiciously, “That doesn’t make sense. The Tsaritsa should know that I exist. Why would she send the Eleventh Harbinger to Fontaine? Surely she would send one of the top three at the very least. Does she really look down on me that much?”

“Perhaps Tartaglia has some special quality of his own? After all, the Tsaritsa has already collected the Gnosis of five nations. If she sent Tartaglia to Fontaine, she must have had her reasons.”

Furina’s answer was extremely clever. She emphasized Tartaglia’s presence several times while saying nothing whatsoever about the far more important Doctor, who was also in Fontaine.

“I suppose that’s possible.”

Lu Mingfei relaxed slightly.

He did not know much about Tartaglia, the Eleventh Fatui Harbinger. But judging from the information Furina had previously shared with him, Tartaglia seemed to be little more than a battle maniac. He did not appear particularly scheming, nor did he seem likely to pose much of a threat to Furina.

Still, that was no reason to lower his guard.

With that thought, Lu Mingfei continued, “So what has Tartaglia been doing in Fontaine? Has he violated any of Fontaine’s laws or regulations? If he has, then…”

“Not so far. He’s merely representing the Northland Bank in collecting a legitimate debt.”

“Collecting a debt…”

Lu Mingfei muttered the words to himself.

Something felt wrong. If the Tsaritsa had sent Tartaglia to carry out a mission to seize the Gnosis, then why was he busy collecting debts? Lu Mingfei could not shake the feeling that matters were not so simple.

“Could it be that”—Furina thought for a moment—“and I’m only suggesting one possibility—the Gnosis isn’t actually with me? If so, perhaps the Tsaritsa’s objective isn’t me at all. Maybe she wants them to identify the true holder of the Gnosis and deal with that person instead?”

“That is also possible.”

Lu Mingfei nodded slightly.

With him protecting Furina from behind the scenes, the people of Snezhnaya would have to think twice before making a move against her. Since Furina already had someone guarding her, sending a weaker Fatui Harbinger to secretly investigate the true holder of the Gnosis from another angle might indeed be the more rational choice.

Knock, knock, knock!

A knock sounded at the door, accompanied by the voice of a delivery courier.

“Sir, your delivery has arrived. Please come out and sign for it.”

A delivery?

Did I buy something?

Lu Mingfei wondered in confusion.

End of Chapter