Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

It was as if someone had sprayed perfume the day before, but the scent hadn't completely dissipated. If Lin Yuan hadn't had his five senses enhanced by the Azure Dragon Fruit, he wouldn't have been able to smell it.

He was still wondering about the smell when Chu Zihang, who was at the door, spoke first.

“No, that’s not right.” He stood outside the door, looking into the room.

"Someone has been here."

"Hmm?" Lin Yuan followed his gaze.

With the faint light filtering through the curtains, Lin Yuan saw a thin layer of dust on the floor by the door, with several messy footprints on it.

The footprints looked very fresh, as if they had been left just a few minutes ago.

Chapter 36 The Red-Haired Priestess

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes; the owner of these footprints must not have gone far.

He subtly spread his Observation Haki, attempting to track the suspect outwards from the building and find the person who might be the "culprit."

However, before his Observation Haki could spread out of the room, he sensed the target he was looking for.

The other party didn't run away at all; they were hiding behind the bathroom door on the left, lying in ambush as if ready to make a move at any moment.

Lin Yuan almost burst out laughing. Good heavens, what audacity!

It's said that serial killers have a penchant for returning to the crime scene, and today he's certainly stumbled upon it.

If he weren't the "murderer," he certainly wouldn't be hiding so furtively.

He was immediately intrigued by the sight of the prey and turned to Chu Zihang, raising his index finger in a "shh" gesture to signal him to be quiet.

Then he pointed to the half-closed door on his left, and then pointed back to himself.

Chu Zihang frowned slightly, understanding his meaning, but seemingly not wanting him to take the risk, he shook his head, pointed to the door, indicating that the enemy was in the dark while he was in the light, and it would be better to retreat first and make further plans.

Lin Yuan didn't care about any of that. Chu Zihang's worries were understandable, and Lin Yuan had his own reasons for being so indifferent. According to his Observation Haki, the guy hiding in the bathroom was only slightly stronger than Miranda.

Even if Chu Zihang were to take action himself, he would most likely be able to defeat the other party.

He didn't bother to conceal his footsteps, and walked to the bathroom door seemingly without any precautions. He reached out and pushed, but the door only opened a crack, as if something was blocking it from behind, making it difficult to go any further.

Lin Yuan's smile deepened.

A classic indoor CQB counter-trap, deliberately leaving a gap in the door to lure the breacher into using brute force.

Once Lin Yuan rams into him, the person inside will quickly remove the support, causing him to lose his balance due to inertia and thus be exposed to attack from a blind spot.

Lin Yuan retracted his previous thought. If Chu Zihang were to take action, he might actually be defeated by the other party if he wasn't careful.

Unfortunately, I am not an ordinary person.

He used this little trick many times in the world of One Piece when he wasn't strong enough.

Lin Yuan decided to play along, pretending to break down the door with brute force, and slammed his shoulder heavily against the door.

Chu Zihang behind him narrowed his eyes and subconsciously tried to stop him.

But as the words were about to come out, the image of the lock cylinder that Lin Yuan had just snapped flashed through his mind, and he swallowed the words back.

"boom!"

Just as Lin Yuan had expected, the other party removed the support structure the moment he crashed into it.

Almost simultaneously, an aluminum baseball bat came crashing down on Lin Yuan, who had already lost his balance.

This strike not only appeared from a blind spot, but was also powerful and precise, heading straight for Lin Yuan's right temple.

If it were an ordinary mixed-race person, who was leaning forward and fell down, taking this blow would most likely have ended up lying on the tiles foaming at the mouth.

But in Lin Yuan's perception using Observation Haki, everything around him entered "bullet time," and even the trajectory of the baseball bat slowed down to the point of being like a movie with a frame rate drop.

Immediately, to the astonishment of the other party, Lin Yuan didn't even try to regain his balance. Instead, he used the force of his fall to twist his upper body sharply in mid-air, creating a bizarre angle.

The baseball bat grazed the tip of his nose.

At the same time, Lin Yuan's right hand shot out like lightning, grabbing the wrist that was holding the baseball bat.

The frame was slender, and the hand felt icy cold to the touch; it was a woman's hand.

Lin Yuan thought to himself, "Huh?" but his hands moved without hesitation. In a life-or-death struggle, there is no mercy that discriminates between genders.

Using the force of the opponent's forward lean, he pulled hard, applying force with all five fingers. The opponent let out a muffled groan of pain, and the baseball bat slipped from his hand, hitting the tile with a crisp "clang".

Immediately afterwards, Lin Yuan shifted his stance and lunged forward, executing a swift and decisive grab to twist that slender arm behind her back.

At the same time, he reached out with his left hand, grabbed the other person's other wrist, and used overwhelming strength to press the attacker against the edge of the sink.

The whole set of movements was fluid and seamless; in the blink of an eye, his opponent was subdued.

Only then did the faint light filtering in from the corridor illuminate the attacker's appearance.

The girl was wearing a baseball cap, and her long, dark red hair was disheveled and fell across her face from the exertion she had just done.

Light blue slim-fit jeans, a white tank top, a blue and white striped short-sleeved shirt, and white high-top canvas shoes.

The silver four-leaf clover pendant on her earlobe was still swaying gently as she struggled.

Lin Yuan realized that the person on the fire escape across the street at the crime scene yesterday was probably her.

As the two drew closer, the faint, cool fragrance from before now clearly entered their noses.

The girl, pinned to the sink, froze for half a second. She seemed to know how to assess the situation and, seeing that she was completely powerless against him, simply gave up the futile struggle.

She then turned half her face with difficulty and said coldly, "Which gang are you from? You've come all the way here to collect Ding Yaozu's debt. Don't you know the rules of the underworld? You ambushed me while I was using the restroom!"

Her voice was beautiful, clear and bright, with a touch of girlish exuberance and liveliness, like a silver bell ringing in an empty valley.

However, what he said was completely nonsensical. Putting aside the inexplicable "debt collection" excuse, his ability to turn the tables and shift the blame was astonishing.

She was the one who blocked the door with a heavy object, hiding in the shadows to prepare to smash someone's head open. After being countered, she was still able to shamelessly slander others for ambushing her while she was "using the restroom."

With that kind of skill in crying wolf, it would be a shame if he didn't win an Oscar in Hollywood.

"Collecting debts?" Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow, but his grip remained firm.

“If Ding Yaozu only owed us high-interest loans, we wouldn’t have had to make this trip ourselves. But you, you weren’t satisfied with just watching from the fire escape yesterday, and today you’re lying in ambush in someone else’s rented house. Tell me, what are you trying to do?”

Caught off guard by her whereabouts from yesterday, a flicker of surprise crossed the girl's eyes, but she remained composed: "I don't understand what you're saying! Let me go, my companions are downstairs, they'll come up and kill you all in a minute..."

"Oh? You have companions too?" Lin Yuan seemed to have heard a joke. Instead of being afraid, he leaned down slightly and said in a contemptuous tone.

"Then shout louder and call them up. I'd like to see them too..."

Just as Lin Yuan started to speak in response to her words, his attention was slightly diverted!

The girl suddenly exerted force with her lower body.

With a vicious and insidious groin kick, he turned and aimed a kick at Lin Yuan's lower body.

Chapter 37 Nono

This sneak attack was incredibly smooth. She distracted Lin Yuan with words, then suddenly attacked his weakest point. If it were anyone else, she would most likely have succeeded.

Unfortunately, Lin Yuan is no ordinary person. With his Observation Haki providing all-around perception, launching such a sneak attack is simply laughable.

As soon as her muscles showed signs of straining, Lin Yuan had already predicted the complete trajectory of that leg.

With a quick twist of his knee, he precisely met the opponent's kicking shin, pinning it to the wooden cabinet door beneath the sink.

At the same time, the fingers holding the girl's hands tightened suddenly, and the force increased abruptly.

"hiss"

A sharp pain shot through her wrist, causing the girl to gasp and break out in a cold sweat.

Her body, which had been trying to fight back, was now completely exhausted, slumped against the sink, barely daring to breathe, for fear of further angering Lin Yuan.

However, she did not give up completely. Instead, she changed to a somewhat ingratiating tone, trying to regain some of the momentum.

"Brother, you've got such a strong grip, don't you know how to be gentle with a woman?"

"Tell me, are you trying to rob me of my money or my virtue? If it's money, I have a card in my back pocket. But if it's virtue, your starting move is a bit too rough. Anyone who doesn't know better would think you're going to slaughter a pig."

Lin Yuan lowered his eyes, his face expressionless.

He had a wealth of experience dealing with such gossipy people.

With one hand, he firmly locked the girl's wrists behind her waist, freeing his left hand to grab the hem of her blue and white striped short-sleeved shirt.

With a sharp "rip," a large piece of fabric was roughly torn off.

To the girl's astonishment, Lin Yuan grabbed her chin and stuffed the cloth into her mouth, shoving it completely shut.

After doing all this, he didn't forget to pat the back of the girl's head, which was covered by a baseball cap, as if he were comforting a broken machine that had finally stopped making noise.

The world became quiet for a moment.

Chu Zihang had already reached the bathroom door.

His gaze swept over the baseball bat that had rolled on the ground, finally settling on the subdued red-haired girl.

"Are you alright?" Chu Zihang asked first, concerned about whether Lin Yuan was injured.

"It's nothing. You think you can hurt someone with such a weak sneak attack? She was also secretly observing us yesterday. She followed us all the way here and even hid at the crime scene to set up an ambush. It seems that she was probably responsible for several murders."

Chu Zihang frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping over the girl again: "Something's not right. There's no sign of her losing control, and she seemed to be able to communicate just now, so she doesn't seem like Deadpool."

Lin Yuan scoffed: "Who says you have to lose control and become Deadpool to kill? Can't someone just be naturally inclined to do it? If you ask me..."

As he spoke, he raised his right hand, put his index and middle fingers together, and made a cutting motion on his neck.

Lin Yuan paused, unsure whether he was threatening the girl or genuinely thinking so: "If there aren't any other problems, why not just kill her?"

The red-haired girl's eyes widened instantly, a flash of fear crossing them.

The girl realized that the other person was also of mixed race and had come because of the recent murder case in Chinatown.

It felt like a million alpacas were stampeding through her mind.

I never imagined that by simply taking on a private investigator job to earn some extra money, I would run into such an outrageous killer!

The worst part is that she doesn't even have a chance to explain herself. With just a few words, the other party not only accused her of being a serial killer, but also threatened to slit her throat on the spot!

Is this still a society governed by the rule of law?! Is there no justice left?! Is there no moral justice left?!

Seeing that the fierce man holding her down might actually attack, the girl panicked. She regretted saying so much nonsense and wasting the best window of opportunity for communication.

Right now, all they can do is try to get Lin Yuan's attention by making "woofing" noises.

However, before she could attract Lin Yuan's attention, Chu Zihang sternly stopped Lin Yuan's idea:

"No, we can't just make such a rash decision to kill."

He looked at the subdued red-haired girl and calmly analyzed, "Since she doesn't show any signs of becoming like Deadpool, we can't conclude that she did all this just because she was at the crime scene."

"We should contact the academy first and have Norma check whether she is mixed-race or not."

Although Chu Zihang has not yet officially stepped onto the Kassel campus, he has already learned through his email correspondence with Professor Schneider that "Norma" is an all-pervasive super artificial intelligence.

As long as the other party has left traces in human society, Norma can find out their origins.

"Waaaaah! Waaaaah!"

Upon hearing "academy" and "Norma," the girl, whose mouth was gagged, thrashed violently on the sink as if she had been electrocuted, desperately rubbing the back of her head against the arm that was holding her.

Lin Yuan and Chu Zihang exchanged a glance and reached out to pull out the wad of cloth.

The girl took a deep breath as if granted a pardon, coughed repeatedly, and then shouted at the top of her lungs, "We're on the same side! We're on the same side! I'm also from Kassel College! Chen Motong, a freshman from the class of 2008!"

This time it was Lin Yuan's turn to be stunned. He looked the red-haired girl who called herself Chen Motong up and down.

"You're also from Kassel College? That's just talk; how can you prove it?"

Chen Motong, panting, twisted his waist behind him and stared at his pants pocket: "I have my phone in my right pants pocket! Look for yourselves! Norma sent a group text message yesterday with everyone's unique expense reimbursement code. This thing is absolutely impossible to fake!"

Lin Yuan reached into the pocket of the slim-fit jeans and, sure enough, there was a cell phone inside.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Chen Motong immediately called out.

"You're only allowed to look at text messages! Don't scroll through them or look at anything else, I'm warning you..."

Lin Yuan ignored her overreaction, opened his phone's inbox, and saw that the top message was indeed the same mass text message from Norma that he and Chu Zihang had received before.

The flood washed away the Dragon King Temple.