Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 89: Genji Heavy Industries (1)

Dragon Raja 3

“Lu Mingfei, since when did you become so diligent?” Caesar asked. “Reading first thing in the morning.”

Lu Mingfei was flipping through the book “100 Lectures on Japanese Mythology and History.” To be honest, he wasn’t very interested in this type of book, but Lu Mingze had forced it into his hands, saying it would be useful. From past experience, whatever Lu Mingze gave him was neither more nor less than necessary; everything had its purpose. It was like receiving a dog food can in a game when taking on a quest—if you got a dog food can, there’d definitely be a dog that you’d need to lure and deal with. If you threw the dog food can away midway, you’d have to go back and get it again. From the wisdom Lu Mingfei had gained from gaming, the contents of this booklet would surely come in handy somehow.

“Just learning about Japanese culture, so I can brag when I get back,” Lu Mingfei said, completely making it up.

The booklet contained very basic information about Japanese mythology, most of which Lu Mingfei already knew from watching anime. But it was still necessary to really understand it; the professors always said that the myths of various nations were rewritten versions of their histories. Those seemingly absurd mythological stories often had real historical origins.

The classic example was the Great Flood. The Bible said that in a flood that submerged the entire world, only Noah’s family and the animals on the ark survived. Before the 20th century, scientists who didn’t believe in religion thought the Great Flood was purely fictional. They couldn’t imagine a flood that could submerge the entire world. From space, the Earth would look like a completely blue water ball. Even if there were such a flood, it would have happened hundreds of millions or even billions of years ago—possibly in the Cambrian era, dominated by trilobites, before the evolution of dinosaurs or humans.

However, mythologists gradually discovered that the story of a Great Flood wasn’t limited to the Bible. From Mesopotamian myths to ancient Chinese myths and Indian myths, cultures across the Eurasian continent had stories of a flood that submerged the world. The only difference was the savior. The Chinese believed it was a strong figure named Yu the Great who managed the flood, while the Indian Manu Smriti claimed that humanity survived because a giant fish led the human ancestor Manu’s boat to the Himalayas. Scholars later calculated that about 12,000 years ago, during the end of Earth’s Quaternary Ice Age, massive glaciers melted, causing sea levels to rise and resulting in a geological phenomenon known as the “Great Inundation,” which submerged lowlands. The memory of this great global flood remained in people’s consciousness, which was why flood myths appeared across various cultures. Today, some people are searching for Noah’s Ark, combing the shores of the Black Sea and the mountains of Greece for traces of a large ship. During the period when the Earth was flooded, both the Black Sea and Greece’s mountains were submerged.

Since there had always been hybrids in Japan, Japanese mythology should also contain traces of dragon civilization. However, Lu Mingfei couldn’t make any sense of it. To him, Japanese mythology felt quite small-scale and had little to do with the grandeur of dragon civilization.

The booklet said that a pair of deities, Izanagi and Izanami, stirred the mud and sand from the bottom of the ocean, forming Japan. Then this pair of sibling gods got married—since they had no other choice of partner, they were forced into this forbidden relationship. The sibling gods were elevated to the status of husband and wife gods, giving birth to all the deities of Japan: gods of fire, thunder, mountains, water… they created gods one after another, even turning something as simple as waste into a deity. Japanese mythology was essentially the family history of Izanagi and Izanami. All the gods were members of their family, and all the events were family matters.

“Are you trying to find a connection between Japanese mythology and dragon civilization?” Chu Zihang asked. “That might be difficult. The professors have tried to interpret Japanese mythology, but they encountered a major obstacle. Japanese mythology doesn’t align with the known dragon history. For instance, the gods in Japanese mythology don’t have arch-enemies—they resemble an extended family that keeps expanding, without any signs of conflict or war. The professors couldn’t find any trace of struggle or battle, while conflict is the central theme of dragon history.”

“This book says that the imperial family is descended from the gods.” Lu Mingfei flipped through the booklet. “The first emperor, Emperor Jimmu, is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu. Isn’t that just too mystical?”

“This is a feature of Japanese mythology. It has a very continuous timeline. The descendants of Izanagi and Izanami are all recorded in a book called The Kojiki. From Emperor Jimmu onwards, every generation of descendants was an emperor, while the previous generations were all gods. From this perspective, the Japanese imperial family is the only existing divine family with a genealogy.”

“Their historians were on their payroll, so of course, they could write whatever nonsense they wanted. If I got rich, I’d make a genealogy for myself too, saying all my ancestors were heroic figures—like that guy, and that other guy…” Lu Mingfei started scratching his head.

“Seems like they’re all named ‘that,’” Caesar said.

“Damn, we Lu family members never had any famous figures in history!” Lu Mingfei sighed.

“The genealogy of the Japanese emperors is indeed unreliable. The first ten emperors only have written records, with no concrete evidence. The Japanese write their history like it’s mythology. Up until World War II, many Japanese still believed that the emperor was a descendant of the gods. You could say that Japanese mythology and history are one and the same, and that the Japanese have always lived within their mythology—the divine descendants are still the nominal emperors of this country,” Chu Zihang said.

“Has there ever been a case of an ancient dragon awakening in Japanese history?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“No records at all. I’ve even connected with Norma to check. There have been no awakening events in Japan, nor any dragon civilization relics. Japan is the ‘cleanest’ region in the world, with no dragon activity whatsoever. The cases handled by the Japanese branch have always been trivial matters, like the auction of artifacts related to dragon civilization found in Europe.”

“There’s no dragon civilization within Japan? Then where do the hybrids come from?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“No one knows. The origin of Japanese hybrids is as mysterious as their mythology; even they supposedly don’t know,” Chu Zihang replied, turning his head to look out the window.

The black Lexus drove through the streets of Tokyo. After a night of rain, the air was fresh, with a faint hint of seaweed-like scent. The news said that the warm and humid air from the Pacific was currently affecting the climate across Japan, bringing continuous rainy days. Caesar’s team sat in the back seat of the luxurious car. Chu Zihang and Caesar unsurprisingly chose the window seats, leaving Lu Mingfei to sit in between them. Since arriving last night, Caesar and Chu Zihang hadn’t exchanged many words directly; they only spoke through Lu Mingfei, even if they were arguing a point. Lu Mingfei felt like the head of a dysfunctional family, with his two concubines locked in a cold war while he was caught in the middle.

Lu Mingfei’s current situation was quite delicate. Officially, he was a lackey of the Student Council, while privately, he had a life-and-death bond with the Lionheart Society’s president. Secretly, he was also eyeing the future sister-in-law… If this were a gangster movie, he’d definitely end up shot dead in the streets. In short, although Caesar’s team had only three people, the relationships between them were like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.