Chapter 138: Brothers Reunite

Yanqing?

Norton at the doorway raised his eyebrows slightly. He could sense that this so-called Yanqing was not right, and he could roughly guess that this abnormality was caused by causality-grade alchemy. After all, he was the King of Bronze and Fire, the Dragon King most proficient in alchemy; how could he possibly fail to recognize causal-grade alchemy?

Besides, things like causality separation were useless against beings at or above the level of a Dragon King. Otherwise, all four monarchs of dragons would have to study advanced alchemy, and any Dragon King who did not practice alchemy would be considered inferior, instantly obliterated by causality separation.

Furthermore, battles among the Four Monarchs would transform from a bloody war between kings into a speed-running mini-game of who could cast causality separation first. Whoever used it first would have their opponent directly erased by causality separation, losing their memories, losing the world's awareness of them, and then being utterly annihilated.

This was clearly impossible. Beings at or above the Dragon King level could all immunize themselves against causality separation, so a certain Dragon King wouldn't be expunged from history even without knowing alchemy. Probably?

"Who could have used causal alchemy?"

Norton narrowed his eyes slightly.

First, he directly ruled out the King of Earth and Mountain, a pair of Dragon Kings who obviously couldn't possibly pull this off. Their level of alchemy simply wasn't capable of causality separation—of this Norton was absolutely certain, because () was so weak that it left a deep impression on him.

Next, the King of Oceans and Waters also seemed not to possess this level of alchemical proficiency. The only ones capable of doing this were the King of Sky and Wind, and his younger brother, Constantine. However, Chu Zihang had been at the Three Gorges recently, so it probably wasn't Constantine either. The person who did all this... should be him, right?

A familiar figure flashed through Norton's mind, and flames ignited deep within his eyes. That guy had cheated him out of so much money! If it weren't for the senior students of Cassell College stepping in to rescue the situation, the wages from all those hours of hard work would have—

That bastard!

Does he know how hard I worked for that money?!

Don't let me catch an opportunity in the future, or I'll definitely cripple him, then use causality separation to rewrite his existence and send him to a factory to screw bolts for the rest of his life! Let him experience the harshness of the human world!

"Humph!"

"Uh..."

Chen Motong looked at Norton, who was snorting coldly with a chilling voice, wondering what was running through this guy's head again. Anyway, he looked extremely unfriendly.

Although this guy was pragmatic, to some extent, he was indeed just as crazy as the dragons.

Then, Nono watched with her own eyes as Norton transitioned from slight anger to deep contemplation. She had no idea what this fellow was thinking either, but whatever it was, it looked quite abnormal.

At this moment, Norton was pondering whether Lu Mingfei was in collusion with the King of Sky and Wind—that is, Odin. Although Lu Mingfei had fought Odin in the Niflheim, Chen Motong hadn't seen the aftermath. Who knew what had happened in a battle without a recorded conclusion?

But after all, this guy was a friend he had made and kept for a very, very long time, so he didn't distrust him to that extent. Yet, if he trusted Lu Mingfei, he understood even less why there was suddenly an extra Yanqing by his side.

He couldn't use causality separation; of this, Norton was certain and positive. Therefore, the current situation was exceedingly baffling and complex.

"Mr. Ronald..."

After hanging up the phone, Nono looked at Norton, who was meditating at the doorway, and said softly.

"What's wrong?"

Norton slowly raised his head, regaining a serious expression.

"You and Lu Mingfei are friends. When did you two meet?" Nono asked out of curiosity.

This was a mission issued by Cassell College. Although they already knew the general details, confirming it specifically—especially having Nono, who possessed profiling abilities, verify it—made things relatively safer.

"We met playing games in the past, playing StarCraft."

Norton answered without hesitation.

"I see."

Nono nodded slightly. Through profiling, what Norton said was completely true. There was not the slightest trace of falsehood on his face; this was the truth.

She thought for a moment, then continued to ask, "What do you think of Yanqing? Do you think he can become an outstanding dragon slayer in the future? Will his future achievements be comparable to Lu Mingfei's?"

"I don't know."

Norton didn't waste words. Under the current circumstances, there were too many uncertain factors, and Chen Motong wasn't someone he could trust. Naturally, he wouldn't speak his mind freely; the less he said, the better.

"Mr. Ronald..."

"Pardon me, Miss Chen Motong. Right now, I am your bodyguard. My duty is to stand guard, not to keep you company in idle chatter. I am not a talkative person myself, and preventing any subsequent attacks from Odin is also a matter of great importance." Norton directly interrupted.

"Uh... alright."

Chen Motong's mouth twitched slightly. If she hadn't previously read through Norton's chat logs, she really would have believed this guy wasn't talkative. His chat logs spanned page after page, yet in reality, he suddenly became a man of few words.

Could there really be such a person?

It seemed there really were. Socially fearless on the internet, socially anxious in reality—completely letting go of themselves across the digital wires.

If Norton truly was this kind of person, then his behavioral logic was relatively reasonable. According to the profiling results, he didn't seem to be deliberately trying to hide anything, but simply didn't want to talk to her.

In the afternoon—

"Done!"

Lu Mingfei looked at the brand-new Pyro Vision in his hand, a satisfied smile gradually blooming on his face. Although his alchemy skills weren't top-tier, crafting a Vision wasn't a difficult task for him either.

Moreover, perhaps due to his increased research and study of alchemy, his speed in condensing Visions was very fast and highly efficient. Compared to before, this was also a huge progress. Although his current level was still quite low, any progress was a good thing.

In the future, he should consult Constantine more often regarding alchemy. With him around, Lu Mingfei believed his alchemical proficiency would improve rapidly.

Putting away the Vision, Lu Mingfei stretched lazily, walked toward the door, and looked at Constantine, who was sitting on the sofa drinking coffee while studying an alchemical structural diagram, saying, "How is your deduction going? Do you feel like you've gained anything?"

"The progress of improvement is very slow. Currently, I've only deduced the basic structures of two Evil Eyes—the metal attribute and the wind attribute. However, judging from the theory of seven-element diffraction, the metal element in this system should be called the geo element, but they are roughly the same type of thing, differing only by name."

Constantine put down the blueprints, looked helplessly at the ceiling, and sighed, "I originally thought the difficulty of deducing this structure wouldn't be too high, but in reality, its difficulty is far from low. It will take me at least three more days to completely deduce the Evil Eye structures for all seven elements. It's too difficult."

"..."

Lu Mingfei fell silent.

He had witnessed Constantine's deduction process firsthand. This guy's deduction method was completely different from his own; he would slowly ponder while sipping tea, then draw blueprints for the deduction. The entire process seemed leisurely to him, completely unlike his own red-eyed, overworked, liver-burning grind.

Lu Mingfei strongly suspected that this guy wasn't using the fastest speed to deduce at all, but was merely conducting calculations and analysis with the attitude of a learner, simply to enrich his daily life.

And yet, he was the one who had gotten the structure first...

"Can you show me the structural diagrams you've deduced? I want to learn how to manufacture Evil Eyes of other attributes," Lu Mingfei asked after letting out a secret sigh.

"No problem."

Constantine picked up dozens of already drawn blueprints from the table and handed them to Lu Mingfei.

"So many?"

Lu Mingfei was surprised.

"These are internal structural diagrams of multidimensional space. After all, things on paper are only two-dimensional, and the content they can express is relatively limited. They need to be clearly expressed from multiple perspectives."

"Can't you just draw three-dimensional blueprints directly?"

"How troublesome would it be to use three-dimensional blueprints? As long as you understand its structural principles, viewing it through two-dimensional diagrams is the simplest way. After looking at them a few times, you can basically understand everything. Drawing in 3D is only easy for copying, but it's completely useless for actually understanding the internal structure," Constantine said as a matter of course.

"..."

Lu Mingfei felt as though his confidence in alchemy was dwindling further and further. Constantine's train of thought seemed extremely advanced to him; the feeling was akin to a human from Earth encountering a Trisolaran—the other party's thinking was a dimensional reduction strike.

He sighed as he perused the blueprints, and soon, he spotted a somewhat familiar diagram. He pulled it out, showed it to Constantine, and asked, "Is this blueprint the structural diagram for the Pyro Evil Eye? I feel like it looks a bit different from the diagram I drew."

"Of course it's different, because I optimized it."

"Optimized it?"

"Yes. When you see something with flaws, and you still have the ability to fix those flaws, wouldn't fixing it be a very pleasant thing? I slightly optimized its internal structure and slightly raised the conversion upper limit. This way, it looks much more pleasing to the eye," Constantine said with a smile.

"...Alright."

Lu Mingfei looked at the blueprint with complicated feelings.

Constantine's optimization was extremely intricate; the complexity of the internal structure had nearly doubled. If Lu Mingfei had seen this version of the Evil Eye from the very beginning, he truly wouldn't have been sure whether he could completely replicate it.

Compared to the optimized version, the Vision structure of Teyvat was genuinely suited for beginners—it was so concise.

One must know that Constantine's optimization was done while keeping the original volume unchanged. Within the exact same volume of space, doubling the structural complexity meant the difficulty of construction increased by far more than just double.

It was like an exam where the time limit remained unchanged, but the number of test questions was doubled. The difficulty of achieving a full score increased by far more than simply twofold.

"Let's not talk about that for now. Let's go to the hospital together to find Norton. Oh right, his name right now is Ronald Tang. You can call him Ronald or Old Tang, but you must not call him Brother or Norton, or something major will happen. Make sure you remember that," Lu Mingfei cautioned.

"Mm, I know."

Constantine nodded, a brilliant smile resembling the morning sun blooming on his face as he said, "Thank you, Lu Mingfei. Thank you so much!"

"No problem."

Lu Mingfei waved his hand dismissively, then shifted his mood and asked, "Let me ask a question: to what level do I need to study before my alchemy skills can surpass Xia Mi?"

"Xia Mi?"

Constantine was slightly stunned, his expression suddenly turning a bit strange.

"You know, Jörmungandr," Lu Mingfei explained. He figured Constantine might have forgotten that Xia Mi was Jörmungandr. They had harmonized their cover stories with Constantine just yesterday, yet he had forgotten by today—how strange.

"Uh..."

Constantine's expression remained quite odd. He pointed at the blueprints in Lu Mingfei's hand and asked, "Can you understand what the structures in these blueprints mean? Can you faithfully replicate them?"

"Of course I can do that kind of level," Lu Mingfei replied.

"Congratulations. Your alchemy proficiency has already surpassed Jörmungandr's," Constantine said with a polite yet elegant smile.

"...Ah?"

***

At the Central Hospital:

*Coming. There is a familiar aura.*

Norton, standing guard, felt his heart race as his burning gaze stared fixedly at the pristine white door. His line of sight seemed to pierce far beyond the door, locking onto that familiar person.

Immediately afterward, a possibility he had never dared to imagine suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Is there any chance that the theory of "Chu Zihang is Constantine" was a smoke screen thrown out by Lu Mingfei for Cassell College to see from the very beginning? Was it meant to "open the road to Chencang in darkness while feigning a repair of the plank road," fundamentally preventing Cassell College from suspecting the right person, and additionally luring me here?

If that's the case...

A smile gradually appeared on Norton's face, his expression growing increasingly excited. No wonder he felt that Chu Zihang had been paying less and less attention to him recently—so he had been acting all along just to lure him over!

As long as Chu Zihang wasn't Constantine, and could still lure him here so he could see his real younger brother, wasn't this a flawless plan?

Exquisite, simply breathtaking!

"Mr. Ronald, you seem... a bit excited?" Chen Motong said weakly.

"Hoo~"

Norton slightly calmed his emotions, then turned around, revealing a confident smile as he crossed his arms and said, "Wouldn't you be excited when meeting an internet friend in offline reality?"

"Is that so?"

Chen Motong nodded slightly in response. She felt that what Norton said made sense, and the profiling results indicated that Norton's excitement was indeed that of someone meeting a long-lost good friend—and a very intimate one at that.

There didn't seem to be anything wrong with this.

The suspect for Constantine was at the Three Gorges, and Yanqing was still a nobody he didn't know, so all of this was explained without any logical flaws.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

A crisp knocking sound echoed. Norton opened the door with a fluttering heart. Standing outside were two teenagers: Lu Mingfei and Constantine.

With his back to Chen Motong, Norton's body trembled slightly. His gaze first swept over Constantine, then quickly shifted to Lu Mingfei, a wildly excited smile blooming on his face as he exclaimed, "Oh, my good brother! I've finally seen you. I'm so happy to see you! Who is this young man beside you? Can you briefly introduce him to me?"

"He is Yanqing."

"Oh! So it's little brother Yanqing! Hahahaha, Lu Mingfei's brother is my brother. If you have any problems in the future, just tell me. We're all good brothers! Hahahaha!"

At this moment, Norton had reached the peak of happiness.