Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

Chapter 62 On your left (4K combined)

After letting go of his worries, Lin Yuan had a hearty appetite.

Together with Fingel, they devoured all the roasted pork knuckle, sausages, and mashed potatoes on the food cart.

German hearty dishes are indeed incredibly high in calories. Even with a belly full of oil and fat, my stomach still felt incredibly full until it got dark outside.

Lin Yuan saved himself the time of preparing dinner, washed up, and went to bed early.

The following morning, Kassel College was shrouded in a thin mist, with the Gothic buildings revealing their spires indistinctly through the grayish-white fog.

Inside the room, accompanied by Fingel's snoring, Lin Yuan opened his eyes precisely on time.

What woke him was not his roommate's snoring, but his desire for power.

A few days ago in Chicago, I was caught up in a lot of trivial matters, and my regular morning exercise routine was forced to be put on hold.

After just three days without exercising, he felt a dullness and irritation throughout his muscles.

There are still three weeks until the official start of school, so I can't just sleep in bed like this.

He habitually clenched his fist, wanting to do a few sets of one-finger push-ups in the open space of the dormitory to get a feel for it, but when his gaze swept over Finger, who was sleeping sprawled out on the upper bunk, he gave up the idea.

My workout is quite noisy, so there's no need to disturb my roommate's rest; I'll inevitably have to bother him in the future.

Lin Yuan casually threw on a sports short-sleeved shirt, and quietly opened the door to go out.

The morning air carried a slightly bitter scent of pine needles; inhaling it quickly dispelled any lingering sleepiness.

Lin Yuan wasn't very familiar with the campus yet, so he jogged along the tree-lined path and, after turning through a grove of trees, the view suddenly opened up before him.

A vast lake stretched out before me, shrouded in mist and wisps of steam. A dark red rubberized running track stretched along the lakeshore.

"That's it," Lin Yuan said, stretching his ankles before deciding to run a few laps around the lake as his morning exercise before breakfast.

Suddenly, a rhythmic rustling sound could be faintly heard from the thin mist.

That's the sound of running shoes rubbing against the plastic track.

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow. He thought he had gotten up early enough, but there were people at Kassel College who were even more diligent than him.

He became interested, and with a slight push of his ankle, he accelerated and cut straight towards the wisp of mist.

Upon closer inspection, the running figure turned out to be Chu Zihang. It was unexpected that the paralyzed young master was so disciplined, coming to the lakeside for a run before dawn.

He was wearing a pure black tracksuit, his muscle lines faintly visible beneath the fabric.

Lin Yuan observed his stride frequency and pace, which was quite good. He probably managed to cover a kilometer in under three minutes, which is close to the speed of a 100-meter sprint for an average high school student.

What's even more impressive is that despite this pace, his breathing remained even, and there wasn't a bead of sweat on his forehead, clearly indicating that this wasn't his limit.

Noticing someone following him from the side and behind, Chu Zihang glanced to the side and saw that it was Lin Yuan. His eyes remained completely calm.

Lin Yuan knew he was a quiet person, so he waved and greeted him.

"Up so early, are you practicing?"

"Good morning." Chu Zihang nodded, replying briefly with steady breathing.

Seeing that the person next to him was running with the same arm swing frequency, Lin Yuan smirked.

I suddenly felt like teasing him.

Lin Yuan kept pace with him, swinging his arms as he said, "I'm going to run a couple of laps ahead to work up a sweat."

After saying that, she gracefully swept past Chu Zihang, leaving him behind in the blink of an eye, and plunged into the white mist ahead.

Chu Zihang watched the rapidly receding figure until it disappeared into the mist.

He was well aware that this seemingly easy-going guy was incredibly powerful, and that he was on a completely different level from him.

But as clear as he was, a person who desperately craved power, seeing a towering mountain before him, would instinctively want to find out how far he was from the summit.

Even though he knew he couldn't catch up, his stubbornness wouldn't allow him to comfortably fall behind and be left in the dust.

Chu Zihang lowered his center of gravity slightly, abandoned the steady running method of controlling his heart rate, and increased his stride frequency without reservation.

The wind whistled in his ears, and his lungs began to inhale and exhale the morning air. Chu Zihang quickly pushed his speed to the limit of his physical strength.

After running almost half a lap, the figure in front of me not only didn't get closer, but shrank smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.

Just as he was wondering if Lin Yuan had run off somewhere else, he suddenly heard light footsteps behind him.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Yuan passed him again, turning his head to toss out a sentence:

"Still warming up? I'll head out first."

Chu Zihang gritted his teeth, squeezing every last drop of oxygen from his lungs, trying to bite down on the figure in front of him.

However, the gap in strength cannot be bridged by willpower alone.

On the third lap, Lin Yuan passed by his left side like a ghost, leaving behind the words: "Your breathing is all messed up, watch your rhythm."

Chu Zihang: (?_?)

Fourth lap... Fifth lap...

Lin Yuan seemed tireless, passing by Chu Zihang again and again.

When he passed the lap for the sixth time, Chu Zihang's physical strength had also reached its limit.

His tracksuit was soaked with sweat, his chest heaved violently like a bellows, and a metallic taste of blood churned in his throat.

Even the powerful heart of an A-grade hybrid cannot replenish this self-destructive drain in a short period of time.

His steps involuntarily slowed down.

Lin Yuan overtook him again.

This time, Lin Yuan didn't say anything. He just reached out and patted the man's shoulder twice as he passed by before speeding away.

Chu Zihang finally stopped.

He rested his hands on his knees, panting heavily, large beads of sweat dripping down his chin and soaking the track beneath his feet.

A moment later, a series of unhurried footsteps came from behind.

Chu Zihang turned his head and looked at Lin Yuan, who had returned, through the wet stray hairs on his forehead.

After completing the long-distance run at such a fast pace, Lin Yuan's breathing remained at the same level as before the start, and he didn't even break a sweat.

If Chu Zihang hadn't personally witnessed him looping the rope six or seven times around himself, he would have suspected that the guy had just gone for a walk by the lake.

"Don't just stand there. You just finished running. Walk around a couple of times, or you'll get cramps in your thighs tomorrow."

Lin Yuan stepped forward and patted Chu Zihang on the back, signaling him to follow him.

Chu Zihang didn't try to be brave. He straightened up, wiped the sweat off his face haphazardly, and followed Lin Yuan's steps, walking slowly along the lakeside.

The morning lake breeze swept away the heat. Chu Zihang calmed the burning sensation in his lungs. His gaze unconsciously fell on the leisurely strolling boy beside him.

Having spent three years together at Shilan Middle School, Chu Zihang had some impression of those students who had even a little bit of special talent.

But the Lin Yuan in my memory was clearly a nobody with no presence at all.

Chu Zihang stared at Lin Yuan's profile for a while before finally voicing the question that had been weighing on his mind: "With your physical abilities and reflexes, you could easily break the national record in any school sports meet at Shilan Middle School. Why did you choose to be an invisible person with no presence?"

This question had been lingering in his mind for a long time.

It's quite illogical that someone with S-class strength would remain unknown at school for the past three years.

Lin Yuan scratched his head; he couldn't very well say that he hadn't transmigrated back then.

He could only make up an excuse: "Showing off is too troublesome, and competing with a bunch of high school students feels like playing house, which is meaningless. It's better to save my energy and do something worthwhile."

This was purely a perfunctory excuse to avoid trouble, but it produced a strange chemical reaction in Chu Zihang's ears.

Given Lin Yuan's background as an orphan, he interpreted these words as a disguise made by mixed-race individuals in human society.

"I see."

Chu Zihang was deeply moved, and a sense of agreement appeared in his usually cool eyes.

I went to the library last night.

Lin Yuan, who was about to continue walking forward, suddenly stopped, his eyes widening slightly.

"Wait a minute, you just arrived at school yesterday and you've already gone to the library to read?!"

He could hardly believe his ears.

Chu Zihang nodded matter-of-factly: "The freshman campus card has already been activated, and the library is open 24 hours a day, so it's normal to borrow a few books."

That's absurd! Who in their right mind would stay up all night in the library studying theoretical books on the first day of school?

Just thinking about how I spent last night in dormitory 303 with that good-for-nothing Fingel, eating a German pork knuckle until our mouths were greasy, and then falling asleep right away after we were full...

He suddenly felt a tickle on the tip of his nose, and a sense of shame welled up inside him for no reason.

Chu Zihang, of course, had no idea what Lin Yuan was thinking, and continued, "Last night I borrowed several books on the basic theories of dragon bloodlines. I found that the books mentioned an emotion called the sorrow of blood many times, which can explain your feelings over the past three years."

"The book says that when the dragon bloodline in an individual exceeds a certain threshold, the individual will experience a rejection reaction to human society on both a physiological and psychological level."

He looked at Lin Yuan, his gaze growing increasingly profound, as if he were trying to decipher a lonely soul.

"You think interacting with ordinary people is like playing house? It's precisely because of your dragon blood that you've been 'stripped' from human society. The stronger you are, the more pronounced this sense of identity rift becomes. You're not purely human, nor are you a true dragon; you're stuck in between, and the stronger you are, the lonelier you become."

"Subconsciously, you are searching for your own kind. Only contact between people of mixed race can dispel this alienation. That's why you hide your true self and endure that deep loneliness alone, right?"

Lin Yuan almost lost his composure.

He desperately wanted to crack open Chu Zihang's head to see if it was filled with teenage reading material. What was this "Sorrow of Blood"? What was this "stuck between the two"? It sounded like a complete late-stage case of adolescent delusions.

"Because they're too strong, they're lonely?" The people who compiled this textbook must be seriously out of their minds!

But on second thought, this misunderstanding came at just the right time.

With Chu Zihang's interpretation, his low-key behavior during his three years of high school seemed perfectly plausible, far superior to any fabrication he could come up with himself.

Lin Yuan went along with it, put on a serious expression, and nodded solemnly.

"Yes, the sorrow of blood... it's too painful and too lonely. I'm glad you can understand."

A sense of gratified resonance appeared in Chu Zihang's eyes; they were both people trapped by their bloodline.

The tight defenses in his heart had quietly loosened a little.

I walked around the lake twice, and the morning mist had mostly dissipated, and the sky was bright.

Chu Zihang glanced at his watch and suggested, "Want to go to the cafeteria for breakfast together?"

Lin Yuan readily agreed.

After running a few laps, he was fully warmed up. He ate something to replenish his energy and then headed to the gym for more training.

As the two left the lakeside and crossed a tree-lined path leading to the residential area, they heard a faint sound of a motor turning on the stone path ahead.

A black electric wheelchair was approaching.

A man sat in a wheelchair. Despite it being summer, he was wearing a black trench coat, and most of his face was covered by an iron-gray mask, revealing only a single eye that looked like that of a hawk.

"Chu Zihang, Lin Yuan." The man in the wheelchair called out their names accurately, his voice hoarse and inhuman.

“Professor Schneider.” Chu Zihang recognized the face; it was his mentor with whom he had been exchanging emails for half a year.

Schneider nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the two of them: "Are you free now?"

The two naturally accepted the professor's invitation and followed the wheelchair to an office with strong air conditioning.

Upon entering, Schneider skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point.

“Lin Yuan, I personally spoke with Angers to get you in the principal’s office yesterday.” Schneider’s tone was cold and firm.

“I’ve read your field investigation report in Chicago. You are a dangerous weapon. It would be a waste of your talent to have you sitting in a classroom studying theoretical knowledge.”

He leaned forward slightly: "The Executive Department needs a genius like you."

Lin Yuan's eyes lit up when he heard the words "Execution Department".

Isn't this the violent organization that Miranda mentioned, the one that can legally go around the world killing out-of-control hybrids and dragons?

I originally thought I would have to wait until I graduated from university to get access to it, but the person in charge actually came to invite me in person.

Lin Yuan grinned and readily agreed.

"No problem, Professor." Lin Yuan agreed readily; to him, this was hardly a dangerous recruitment.

When do we start cutting down the dragon?