Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

The alley was very dark just now because the filament of the street lamp overhead had burned out.

In addition, Lin Yuan was so fast that she and Chu Zihang didn't see that there was a photo hidden in the plastic pendant under the key.

Lin Yuan didn't explain much, he just shook his head, he didn't know what to say either.

Nono and Chu Zihang eventually followed. In Nono's words, since they were in a team, there was no reason for the teammate to go "run the dungeon" alone.

The night was deep, and the corridors of the gambling den were even darker than during the day; the motion-activated lights had long since broken.

Room 203 was at the end of the second-floor corridor. Lin Yuan inserted the brass key into the somewhat stiff keyhole and turned it half a turn clockwise.

The room was dark. Lin Yuan fumbled for the switch on the wall, and the dim yellow incandescent light above his head flickered twice, illuminating the less than 20-square-meter rented room.

This place is completely different from Ding Yaozu's house that I visited this morning; the house is very tidy.

A single bed covered with a blue and white checkered sheet, the blanket folded very neatly; at the head of the bed is a small wooden table, old but very clean, with several water glasses arranged neatly on it.

There was even a faint scent of lavender laundry detergent in the room.

Even living in the deepest mire, the owner of this house still wanted to maintain a semblance of dignity and longed to make a good living.

But if you just glance further into the bed, all that decorum vanishes.

The wall near the water pipes and radiators was covered with dense claw marks.

Patches of peeling paint were visible on the wall, revealing the grayish-white cement underneath.

Next to these claw marks were several coils of rough nylon rope, several sections of which had broken in the middle, leaving a clump of frayed edges, which were then clumsily pieced back together.

There were also large, dried, and blackened bloodstains on the nylon fibers.

Nono stopped in her tracks, staring intently at the corner, her chewing of gum unconsciously slowing down.

The house was divided in two: one half belonged to the middle-aged woman who was trying to survive; the other half imprisoned a beast that teetered on the edge of the abyss every night.

As if drawn by some invisible force, Nono involuntarily passed Lin Yuan and walked to the corner of the room.

She stretched out her fair fingers, hovering them above the broken nylon ropes. Her fingertips slid slowly along the broken lines of the ropes, finally stopping at the clumsy knots.

“She knows she’s sick.” Nono’s voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself.

"Or perhaps she had long ago realized that a monster was hiding inside her body."

Lin Yuan walked to the wall, ran his fingers along the grooves, and wiped the cement powder off his fingertips.

With his keen eye, he could naturally see how much strength this required, but he couldn't reconstruct the psychological state behind it out of thin air like Nono could.

"How did you figure that out?" Lin Yuan turned his head.

Nono's beautiful dark red eyes remained fixed on the bloodstained nylon ropes: "Profiling, through these remaining traces, allows me to recreate her actions, emotions, and even psychological state at that time in my mind."

Before Lin Yuan could respond, Nuonuo continued speaking, as if she had been completely drawn into that desperate perspective.

“She already had a thin layer of dragon blood in her body, so weak that it would never awaken in her lifetime.” Nono’s gaze lingered on the peeling plaster in the corner of the wall.

"Until a little over a month ago, she took that bottle of powerful painkillers laced with dragon's blood."

"The drug was like a key that activated the curse in our genes. In the first few nights when the dragon blood was boiling, human consciousness was overwhelmed by rampant bestiality. Those two missing Chinese were the victims of her unconscious hunting."

Hearing this, Lin Yuan couldn't help but look at the mess in the corner again.

He could imagine the breakdown of an ordinary person upon regaining consciousness and seeing their hands covered in blood.

"But when she woke up, she had no memory of it. When she found bits of flesh under her fingernails and tasted blood in her mouth, she didn't know what had happened or what to do." Nono's voice was filled with deep sorrow, as if she had truly put herself in Amei's shoes.

“She was an unregistered resident and dared not report it to the police. The only thing she could think of was to buy nylon rope and tie herself up every night.”

"That's why there was a gap of almost half a month between the first two missing persons and the last three dead. Most nights, this poor woman was in this corner, suppressing the beast inside her by tearing her own flesh and blood."

Lin Yuan touched the pendant in his pocket through the fabric.

During the process of the hybrid's fall into the abyss, two completely different beings actually resided within her body at the same time.

One is Deadpool, who is driven only by the instinct to eat, and the other is a mother washing dishes in the kitchen, hoping that her daughter will grow up.

What sustained her through this inhuman torture every night was not a will to survive, but a kind of obsession that transcended genetic mutation.

Chapter 49 is somewhat plausible, but not much.

This tangible obsession was so intense in the small room that it was almost impossible to dispel.

Drawn by this unseen emotion, Nono's gaze shifted from the nylon ropes to the single bed.

As if carrying the answer, she slowly walked over, reached along the edge of the sheet, and groped into the gap between the bed frame and the wall.

This is the cleanest place in the entire room.

Soon, Nono's fingertips touched something.

She reached out and pulled it out.

It was a letter, and folded together with the letter was a roll of loose US dollars, in various denominations, each neatly arranged from smallest to largest.

Nono looked down at the thing in her hand, her lips moving slightly, as if she wanted to read the words on the letter.

But the moment she saw the contents, a tremendous emotion, carried by the letter, overwhelmed her like a tsunami.

Nono's pupils gradually dilated, and a layer of watery light rose in her dark red eyes.

The focus seemed to have fallen to a very distant place, as if penetrating through this dimly lit room, revealing the woman writing this letter in the dead of night while shedding tears.

"She..." Nono had just started to speak when her knees buckled and she collapsed.

"Nono!" Lin Yuan reacted quickly, reaching out to firmly embrace her lower back in mid-air.

Nuonuo seemed to lose consciousness and softly sank into his arms. Although he had been running around all day, Lin Yuan could still smell the pleasant scent of shampoo in her hair.

The moment that romantic thought popped into his head, Lin Yuan extinguished it.

He noticed that something was wrong with Nono; she had no signs of injury and was definitely not unconscious due to exhaustion.

This kind of unexplained coma is what's most worrying.

Unbeknownst to Lin Yuan, a delicate balance had been achieved in the room at that moment.

The lingering scent of dragon blood in the room, the intense emotions conveyed on the letter, and Nono's unreserved profiling at this moment.

This caused her to cross the line of being an observer and be dragged into spiritual vision.

However, let alone Lin Yuan, even a student who has already studied at Kassel College for two years might not be able to understand the current situation.

Lin Yuan quickly laid Nuonuo flat on the single bed and turned to look at Chu Zihang.

After spending the last two days together, he had long since gotten used to this expressionless young master's meticulous work, his few words but extensive knowledge, and his ability to handle any trouble with ease.

But at this moment, seeing Nuonuo's condition, Chu Zihang frowned and shook his head, a rare occurrence for him.

Like Lin Yuan, he was also a Muggle who had not yet received systematic training at Kassel College. When he saw Nono suddenly fall into a coma, all he could think of were the most basic first aid methods.

"Have her lie flat first, keep the room well-ventilated, and I'll contact Professor Schneider via email."

"For something this urgent, by the time we get a reply, it'll be too late." Lin Yuan said as he took out his phone. Even in the cramped room, the N95, this top-of-the-line flagship phone, maintained a full signal.

Lin Yuan dialed the only number saved in his contacts. Although Miranda was unreliable, she was still a third-year student at Kassel University.

He should be a bit stronger than him and Chu Zihang.

The phone rang for a long time before it was answered. The voice was slurred and heavy with sleepiness.

"Who is it calling so late at night? If it rings three times and you don't answer, just hang up. Why keep calling?"

"It's me, Lin Yuan." The voice on the other end of the phone paused for a moment. Miranda seemed to glance at the screen, and after confirming that it really was Lin Yuan, she cleared her throat and her tone became warmer.

"Why are you calling me so late, junior? Is it because you can't sleep and want to have a heart-to-heart talk with your senior?"

Lin Yuan ignored Miranda's harassment. He knew her personality; she was just subconsciously spouting nonsense.

He didn't respond, but skipped all the nonsense and started talking about the Chicago train station strike, how he and Chu Zihang were stranded, and all the way to the Deadpool and Nono's current unconscious state, which he had just dealt with.

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

It was quite a while before Miranda's voice came through the receiver again.

"You've... taken care of another Deadpool?" Her voice seemed to tremble slightly.

"Damn it, if Professor Schneider knew about your past, he would definitely come to Professor Guderian's house to snatch you away himself."

"That's not the point. What should we do now?" Lin Yuan interrupted his senior's sigh, his gaze fixed on Nuonuo on the bed.

"Chen Motong suddenly fainted. Do you know what happened?"

On the other end of the phone, Miranda forced herself to pull her attention away from the shock of Deadpool and tried to process the information Lin Yuan had just said.

“Deadpool… extreme emotions… and her profiling abilities.” Miranda muttered for a while, her tone somewhat uncertain.

"Damn it, I think I fell asleep during my 'Dragon Spirituality' class. It seems... her situation is probably triggered by the emotional stimulation of the scene, which caused her to have a spiritual vision."

"Spiritual vision?" Lin Yuan frowned slightly.

"It's a kind of deep spiritual resonance. The person's consciousness will be pulled into a fragment of the mind. Outsiders can't interfere with this. Forcibly waking them up might damage their brain."

Miranda racked her brains and poured out what little theoretical knowledge she had.

"But there's no need to worry too much for now. She might wake up on her own in a little while."

Hearing Miranda say that, Lin Yuan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

After all, it was his own insistence to come here, and if something really happened to Nuonuo, he wouldn't know how to explain it.

"Thanks, senior. You should get some rest. We'll keep an eye on her here." Lin Yuan said, preparing to hang up the phone.

"Wait." Miranda suddenly called out to him. There was a two-second silence on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of something being rummaged through.

"Never mind, I'm still not entirely at ease. I'll go there myself." Miranda sighed, her tone unusually responsible, like that of a senior student.

“I’m in Hawaii right now. I was planning to go back to school in a few days, but now I have to change my ticket. Remember to send me the detailed address in a bit.”

"Then I'll have to trouble you, senior." Lin Yuan didn't stand on ceremony, politely hung up the phone, and immediately texted Miranda the address.

Last time in the abandoned factory, this woman, who spouted nonsense, seemed unreliable in every way.

But when unexpected situations arise, she does indeed seem to have the feel of a third-year senior.

However, Lin Yuangang mentally added two points to Miranda's reliability.

Nono, who had just been assured by her that "there's no need to worry too much," suddenly experienced a dramatic change in her situation.

She had only been unconscious, but now a fine layer of sweat was seeping from her forehead, and her chest was heaving shortly and laboredly.

It felt like someone was covering my mouth and nose in my dream, and my whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

This is hardly the kind of thing where you don't have to worry and will wake up on your own.

Chapter 50 The Storm Is Coming

Seeing that Nono's condition was getting worse and worse, and that both Chu Zihang and he were at a loss, even if they asked Miranda to contact the Kassel College immediately, it would be too late to help unless those so-called Word Spirits had the ability to teleport.

Lin Yuan recalled what Miranda had just said, and realized that Nono's problem was on a psychological level.

His Observation Haki is essentially a way of using spiritual energy. Since there are no other options, he has no choice but to try anything.

"I'll try other methods to see if I can wake her up. If there's any emergency, call Miranda with my phone." Lin Yuan turned his head and quickly gave Chu Zihang instructions.

After speaking, without waiting for Chu Zihang's response, Lin Yuan put two fingers together and lightly tapped the top of Nuonuo's head. Although the use of Observation Haki did not require this, he just felt that doing so would be more ceremonial.

Immediately afterwards, he released his Observation Haki without reservation, probing towards Nono.

Just as Lin Yuan's Observation Haki enveloped Nono, an immense and irresistible suction force came, and before Lin Yuan could react, his entire consciousness was sucked in.

This scene stunned Chu Zihang, who was standing to the side. Just a second ago, Lin Yuan was saying with a serious face that he would "try other methods", and then he put two fingers together and made a mysterious gesture.

The next second, he just stood there and passed out.

Not only that, but he fainted right next to Nuonuo, his head resting on Nuonuo's neck, and one of his arms was also on Nuonuo's body, the two of them were very close together.

Nono, who was originally half-lying down, was pulled by him, her head turned slightly, and her cheek was pressed against his forehead, their breaths mingling, looking very ambiguous.

Now even the only one who could break the deadlock has fallen into a deep sleep.

Chu Zihang frowned, took two steps forward, and reached for Lin Yuan's phone to ask Miranda for help.

But just as he reached halfway in, he keenly sensed something was amiss.

Ever since Lin Yuan "fell asleep" next to her in this highly controversial position, Nuonuo's originally rapid and disordered breathing has miraculously calmed down.