Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

Lin Yuan's eyes twitched slightly. He put his phone on the sink and quickly released Chen Motong.

With his wrists, which had been twisted sore, finally free, Chen Motong grimaced as he shook his arms and twisted his shoulders, which were still aching from being twisted behind his back, looking like he had just escaped a disaster.

The misunderstanding was cleared up; the cramped bathroom was clearly not a suitable place to talk.

Lin Yuan withdrew his dangerous aura, which suggested he was ready to snap someone's neck at any moment, and stepped aside to make way for him.

The three of them retreated back to the living room, one in front and one behind.

Chen Motong leaned against an old, peeling sofa, rubbing the bruises on her wrist while staring at Lin Yuan with a wary yet somewhat resentful look.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Chu Zihang took the initiative to speak, saying, "Since it's a misunderstanding, let's get to know each other again. My name is Chu Zihang, and this is Lin Yuan. We are both freshmen of the class of 08 at Kassel College."

Chen Motong looked at the two of them with some suspicion, especially Lin Yuan. She really couldn't connect the guy who was about to kill someone with the freshmen of the Class of 08 at Kassel College.

Lin Yuan noticed her wariness and was somewhat amused and exasperated: "I was just trying to scare you. This is a society governed by law. How can you kill people so easily?"

He then glanced at Chen Motong's bruised wrist: "I was a bit too rough just now, sorry."

"Just a little heavy? You're practically crushing my bones!" Chen Motong rolled her eyes at Lin Yuan, but since he was offering her a way out, she didn't press the matter further.

"I've already introduced my name, but I prefer people to call me Nuonuo."

Chapter 38 Clues

"Nono, is that right?" Lin Yuan muttered the somewhat strange nickname, without rushing to speak.

The air inside still smelled musty, making his nose feel uncomfortable.

Lin Yuan walked to the window, reached out and pushed it open, and also pulled open the dusty curtains.

Sunlight streamed in.

Nuonuo was startled and instinctively squinted, turning her head slightly to avoid the direct sunlight.

It was in that instant that Lin Yuan got a clear look at her.

Sunlight shone on her dark red hair, making the originally dull strands seem to be ignited, gleaming with a dazzling luster.

His facial features became clearer: a delicate and sharp jawline, smooth skin with a fair and rosy glow, and a pair of lively eyes that also revealed a hint of wildness.

Just now in the dimly lit bathroom, he only thought this was a thug wielding a baseball bat.

Now that the light was bright enough, I could finally see that she was a stunningly beautiful girl.

Lin Yuan stared at his pretty prospective classmate for a few more moments, then remembered he still had something to ask, and said, "Alright, Nuonuo, now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, let's get down to business."

"Why have you been watching us since yesterday?"

Nono had just rubbed away a bruise on her wrist when she heard this, and her eyes widened immediately: "Who was watching you? Stop trying to make yourself look good."

She kicked away the moldy fast food box next to her feet with her canvas shoes with some disgust, and leaned back on the sofa in a slightly more comfortable position.

"I arrived in Chicago very early yesterday morning. I was planning to transfer directly to the school to register, but then I ran into a major strike at the train station."

Nuonuo spread out her two slender palms, her tone full of helplessness.

"I had nothing better to do than sit here for three days, and I happened to have some connections with President Zhou of the local Chinese Business Association. He knew I was staying here and that I knew a bit about profiling. With a series of incidents happening in Chinatown recently, he didn't want to bother the police, so he asked me to investigate privately."

At this point, her bright eyes swept over Lin Yuan and Chu Zihang, somewhat suspiciously: "I was just thinking of earning some pocket money on the side. But what about you two? How did you end up at this crime scene? I don't remember Chairman Zhou hiring anyone else."

Lin Yuan also found a chair and sat down, meeting her gaze frankly: "Then can't it be that we have high moral character and like to do good deeds?"

Nono rolled her eyes dramatically.

Given the ferocity of his attack just now, coupled with his constant threats to slit his own throat, is this what you call acting bravely for a just cause? It would be more convincing to say he was a ruthless bandit in the countryside.

But despite her complaints, her eyes darted around and she suddenly had some other ideas.

After a full day of investigation yesterday, she discovered that the matter seemed to be more complex than she had imagined.

The various traces left at the scene made her almost certain that the person who did it was a hybrid, and a dangerous hybrid on the verge of going out of control. She would inevitably be powerless to fight alone.

Right now, these two freshmen who have come to our doorstep are practically top-notch labor available right now.

Although we haven't seen that handsome guy named Chu Zihang make a move yet, he seems very reliable.

As for this violent maniac named Lin Yuan, his strength was unfathomable. She couldn't even last a single round against him, and she even suspected that he might be a newly recruited S-level freshman this year, otherwise how could he be so fierce?

As her thoughts raced, Nono's previously scrutinizing expression melted away instantly, replaced by a bright smile.

"Of course! The moment I saw you two heroes, I felt you were upright and righteous, definitely good young people who dare to do good!" She clapped her hands enthusiastically, her tone becoming even warmer.

"Since we all share the same goal, why don't we join forces to investigate? We're all students at Kassel College, and helping each other is a traditional virtue when we're in a foreign country!"

Her words were righteous and awe-inspiring, but Nuonuo conveniently chose to selectively forget the $20,000 investigation fee promised by Chairman Zhou, and did not mention the matter of splitting it equally.

Chu Zihang had no objections. He had always lacked a concept of money and his attention was completely focused on the possibility of the mixed-race individuals going out of control. He didn't care about these minor details.

Lin Yuan also had no obsession with money. Now that Nuonuo was a classmate, he had to find a non-classmate out-of-control hybrid to upgrade his Azure Dragon Fruit.

Therefore, after a brief discussion, the two readily agreed to Nono's suggestion of forming an alliance.

"Since we're teaming up, let's share our progress," Lin Yuan suggested, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

"You were specially invited by Chairman Zhou, and you spent another day investigating yesterday. Surely you have some information that we don't know about."

For him, the only trouble in this so-called crisis was how to find his prey in the chaotic Chinatown.

As for whether he would be able to defeat the opponent after finding it, he didn't consider it at all. If the opponent were really that powerful, it wouldn't dare to come out hunting so late at night.

Nono sighed and scratched her hair in frustration: "To be honest, the progress is just so-so right now."

“Yesterday I went to the homes of the first two victims and collected some fragmented clues, but I felt that the most crucial link was missing and I couldn’t put it together.”

She paused, gathered her thoughts, and continued, "It wasn't until this morning, when I reviewed the timeline of all the incidents, that it suddenly dawned on me that Ding Yaozu and Li Xiujuan, the two people who reported missing first, might have been among the first victims, which is why they came to this dilapidated apartment to try their luck. By all accounts, I only entered this room ten minutes earlier than you."

At this point, Nono's eyes were a little strange, and her tone was somewhat incredulous: "But you two were able to bypass so many smoke bombs and locate this place directly. With that sense of smell, you have the potential to join the Execution Department in the future."

Upon hearing the word "Execution Department," Lin Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

He keenly noticed the matter-of-fact attitude in Nono's tone.

Chu Zihang and I were like two clueless kids who had just stumbled into the Muggle world, relying almost entirely on guesswork and trial and error to understand the so-called hybrid races and Kassel College.

But the red-haired girl in front of me was completely different; she was clearly an "insider" who lived in the real world.

Lin Yuan had some reservations in mind and didn't respond to the question: "So, from what you're saying, you seem to have discovered something when you came to this room today?"

"Indeed, and it just happens to fill the most crucial gap."

Nono's expression turned serious.

She reached into her jeans pocket, pulled out a small white plastic medicine bottle, and casually tossed it to Lin Yuan across from her.

Chu Zihang's gaze also fell on the medicine bottle, his eyes flickering slightly.

The bottle is bare, without any labels or packaging.

“I found this thing in the homes of the first two victims, as well as in this room.” Nono curled her finger and pointed at the small medicine bottle in Lin Yuan’s hand.

"This product is clearly not FDA certified; it's a typical product from an underground black market workshop."

Chapter 39 does indeed contain dragon blood.

As she spoke, Nuonuo leaned deeper into the sofa, trying to find a more comfortable position in the sunken foam: "Combined with what I found under Ding Yaozu's bed, I finally pieced together yesterday's clues and came up with a rough guess."

"But the problem is that this speculation is somewhat alarming, and we don't have the specialized equipment at hand to verify it."

Lin Yuan twirled the medicine bottle in his hand, unable to make heads or tails of it: "So your guess is related to this medicine? What's it for?"

"Based on the life trajectories of the first two victims and the local environment in Chinatown, I roughly judged that it was probably painkillers."

Nono stared at the bottle in Lin Yuan's hand and rattled off her reasoning in one breath:

“There are many undocumented people here who do physically demanding jobs. They have no medical insurance and most of them suffer from severe muscle strain, so they can only endure the pain by taking painkillers.”

“But after taking too many regular painkillers, the body develops drug resistance, and the original dose quickly becomes ineffective in relieving the pain. In order to continue working and earning money, they have no choice but to go to the black market to buy those ‘special painkillers’ that are more potent.”

Hearing this, Lin Yuan stopped playing with the medicine bottle. He frowned slightly: "Even if it's a banned, potent painkiller, what does that have to do with the recent murders? It's not like he took the pills and started hallucinating, going crazy and attacking people in the street. There's no need to hide it; just go directly to the narcotics police."

Faced with Lin Yuan's question, Nuonuo's expression also became serious: "Ordinary banned drugs would not cause such a big commotion. At most, taking too much would cause organ failure."

"But what if the reason that powerful analgesics can make people forget pain is because they contain dragon's blood, an ingredient that can deplete life force?"

Lin Yuan's eye twitched slightly.

Is dragon blood really that common? Even cheap pills on the black market are mixed with it? Isn't that a bit too cheap?

"What's the effect of eating this?" Lin Yuan asked curiously.

"Ordinary people who take medicine containing dragon's blood can temporarily gain superhuman strength and recovery ability," Nono said seriously, abandoning her casual posture.

"That's why it can be packaged as a powerful painkiller, but the price is that it will deplete their lives."

She took a deep breath and continued, "But that's not the worst of it. If a hybrid, whose bloodline is so weak that they can never awaken naturally in their lifetime, eats it, their genes will be irreversibly eroded by the dragon blood, and they will eventually fall into the abyss and become mindless dead servants."

Nono gave her conclusion, word by word.

The series of bizarre disappearances and tragedies in Chinatown may very well be due to the long-term use of this drug by unawakened mixed-race individuals, ultimately leading to the loss of control over their genes.

After listening to Nuonuo's analysis, Lin Yuan unscrewed the bottle cap and poured a few white pills into his palm.

The pills were poorly made and emitted a pungent chemical smell.

He squinted and examined the pills in his hand, wondering what medicine with dragon's blood added would taste like.

At that moment, a subtle tremor appeared in Lin Yuan's palm.

The "Azure Dragon Fruit" lying dormant within the body seemed to have smelled some kind of food, and a restlessness stirred deep within the normally flowing blood.

Driven by instinct, Lin Yuan inexplicably picked up two pills, popped them into his mouth, and swallowed them.

He wasn't worried at all about the pills causing him any harm. Although the Azure Dragon Fruit had only slightly recovered, its magical beast nature was something that this kind of substandard medicine couldn't possibly compete with.

Furthermore, since the Observation Haki didn't give any warning of danger, I might as well follow my instincts and eat it to see what the effect will be.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Nuonuo was startled and jumped up from the sofa, trying to snatch the medicine bottle back from Lin Yuan's hand.

"What are you doing?! Did I just say everything for nothing?! You dare to put anything in your mouth?!"

Chu Zihang, who was standing to the side, was immediately on high alert. Although he knew that Lin Yuan had many secrets, it was still too risky to directly take a drug that could cause one's bloodline to go out of control.

Lin Yuan remained unmoved. After taking the pill, the recovery rate of the Azure Dragon Fruit indeed advanced a little bit more, proving that Nono's guess was indeed correct.

Then, to Nuonuo and Chu Zihang's astonishment, he poured out two more slices and ate them.

This time, the Azure Dragon Fruit did not produce any reaction. It was unknown whether it was because the dragon blood in the pills all came from "the same dragon," just like when Xiong Yi's blood splattered on him last time, it was only effective the first time.

"You guessed right." Lin Yuan smacked his lips and nodded as if he had tasted the seasoning in the dish.

"The pills do indeed contain dragon's blood."

As he spoke, he casually tossed the medicine bottle to Chu Zihang. He had just noticed that Chu Zihang seemed to care a lot about this medicine.

Nono then came to her senses, her finger pointing at Lin Yuan trembling slightly: "That's not the point! You just ate it like that?!"

"Didn't you say you couldn't confirm it without the equipment? I'll just confirm it for you in the fastest way possible." Lin Yuan's tone was full of self-righteousness.

"Who gave you permission to confirm this way?!" Nono was furious, staring at him up and down as if he were a madman.

"I already said the medicine contains dragon's blood! Even if it's a low-quality purified product, it's harmful to hybrids in every way! How are you now? Do you feel your heart racing? Your vision blurring? Or do you hear any strange noises?"

"Don't worry, everything is fine." Lin Yuan spread his hands to indicate that he was perfectly alright.

Nuonuo stared at him suspiciously, her eyes filled with doubt. She even quietly took half a step closer to Chu Zihang, afraid that this guy would grow scales and pounce on her to bite her at any moment.

After all, she had just been defeated by him without any chance to fight back. If Lin Yuan turned into Deadpool, Nono felt that she would probably die here today.

Chu Zihang caught the medicine bottle that was thrown at him, but his gaze remained fixed on Lin Yuan's face.

Seeing that Lin Yuan's eyes were still clear and his expression was normal, he slowly loosened his fist, which he had been secretly clenching.

He looked away and then at the small medicine bottle in his hand; the feel of it was very familiar.

"The situation is not good," Chu Zihang suddenly said.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yuan looked over.

"The middle-aged woman we encountered when we went upstairs," Chu Zihang said, pointing to the bottle in his palm.

“The one she’s holding is exactly the same as this medicine bottle. I picked it up before, so I remember it.”

Upon hearing this, Nono raised an eyebrow: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go after them and see."