Dragon Clan: Starting with the Azure Dragon Fruit

This world is too crazy! Has the great Eastern power already unified the world? A foreign girl who looks like a Hollywood star speaks fluent Mandarin?

While Lin Yuan was still pondering to himself, little did he know that Miranda, just a few steps away, was far more shocked than he was.

The mental shockwaves from the "spiritual vision" a few minutes earlier were still buzzing in her head. They had shattered the materialistic view of dragons she had built up over the past three years at Kassel College.

She deeply regretted using Professor Guderian's "Dragon Genealogy" as a sleep aid in college. Even though she had barely turned a few pages of the textbook, she vaguely remembered that the ancient dragons and subsequent species in the illustrations were clearly giant lizards with bat-like wings and covered in bone spurs.

But what did she just see in her "spiritual vision"?

That winding, azure body stretching across the thunderclouds; those dragon horns piercing the sky; that sacred majesty that reigns supreme over all things…

What terrified her most was why, just by making eye contact with this boy from a hundred meters away, she was dragged into a spiritual vision and confronted with a dragon king she didn't recognize at all...?

The tragedy of a poor student is that when faced with such an unexpected situation, all they can think of besides spouting "Scheisse" a few times is a completely useless contingency plan.

Logically, the most sensible thing to do in this situation is to retreat immediately and call Norma.

But judging from the footage through the telescope, the boy remained standing quietly, showing no signs of the twisted madness that comes with being a half-breed turned Deadpool.

As long as communication is still possible, it's not the worst-case scenario.

In addition, someone had to clean up this mess tonight. For the sake of credits and the Hawaiian beach, Miranda finally gritted her teeth and crawled out of the bushes, stumbling and scrambling her way here.

Chapter 9 Hybrids

Before stepping into the factory, just in case, Miranda activated her Word of Power, "Shadow Thunder."

A wisp of distorted air, barely perceptible to the naked eye, rapidly gathered in the palm of her right hand.

Although this Word of Power at Sequence 17 on the "Word of Power Sequence List" can only be considered a low-level offensive Word of Power with the lowest danger rating.

But its strength lies in its effectiveness for both ambushing and self-defense; the air compressed by her words can be thrown out like a grenade at any time.

Whether it's to guard against a sudden attack and create time to escape, or as leverage to demonstrate one's "kindness" during future communication, having something in hand always makes one feel more at ease.

But when they actually faced each other, the psychological trauma left by the "vision" just minutes earlier surged up uncontrollably again.

Especially the malevolent figure standing on the left, covered in black blood, whose majestic golden eyes were staring straight at him.

Miranda swallowed hard, instinctively turning her head to look at Chu Zihang, who was supposed to be an "ordinary high school student who had stumbled upon the scene," trying to find some psychological comfort that belonged to normal humans.

Their eyes met. A pair of exceptionally pure golden eyes suddenly ignited on Chu Zihang's cool, handsome face!

Miranda was so startled that the compressed air in her palm almost went out of control on the spot.

What's going on?!

It's one thing for a wild genius to awaken on his own and tear Deadpool apart, but Chu Zihang can also ignite his Golden Eyes! This means that he has also completed his self-awakening, awakening without strong external intervention. His bloodline concentration is at least B-grade or higher!

"Holy crap! Two Supreme beings in one family! Are all the wild hybrids here this powerful? Did they grow up eating fertilizer?!"

After repeating the tired clichés, Miranda couldn't hold back anymore. It was all Fingel's fault, that useless press secretary! He'd been reciting these stale Chinese internet memes on the Kassel Night Watchers forum every day, and it'd mentally polluted her.

I'm representing Kassel College, so I can't let my juniors think I'm unreliable.

"Ahem... well, sorry." Miranda cleared her throat somewhat guiltily, trying to salvage some of her dignity as a senior student in Kassel.

"These are all overused memes on the forum lately. I've been using them so much that I accidentally slipped up. Don't mind me, don't mind me."

Lin Yuan glanced at Miranda's face twice in surprise.

What the hell? Two supreme beings in one family, and they even grew up eating fertilizer.

This blonde woman not only speaks fluent Mandarin, but she can also effortlessly use internet memes. What kind of bizarre organization of crazy people is behind her?

On the other side, Chu Zihang maintained his unwavering, aloof expression, his bright golden eyes reflecting Miranda's helpless and embarrassed state without any fluctuation.

Miranda braced herself and waited a few seconds. Seeing that neither of the two people opposite her seemed to have any intention of speaking, she slowly lowered her hands and took the opportunity to wipe the sweat from her palms on her trench coat.

"Anyway, let's get to know each other formally first." Miranda put away her awkward expression and tried to make her tone sound sincere and professional.

"My name is Miranda, and I'm a third-year student at Kassel College. I'm currently here on a field mission."

After speaking, she paused, carefully observing the micro-expressions on their faces, trying to find a logical topic to bridge the gap.

"You're probably wondering why I speak Chinese so well? Well, it's because everyone in the world is speaking Chinese now. As a long-established, internationally renowned elite university, Kassel's curriculum has always been very much in line with the times..."

Her voice grew softer and softer until she finally shut her mouth completely.

Because Chu Zihang on the other side still maintained that expressionless face. Lin Yuan, on the other hand, tilted his head and stared at her quietly with an eye that seemed to pity someone with intellectual disabilities.

"It doesn't seem very funny. Sorry, we don't joke around in serious situations."

Miranda gave an embarrassed squeak, her toes digging frantically into the soles of her boots.

No one told him that interacting with unfamiliar mixed-race people would be so awkward. It was as if the two guys opposite him had planned it all out; he was spouting nonsense and telling lame jokes, while the two opposite him were like two pieces of wood, giving absolutely no response.

Seeing that her attempts to get close to Miranda weren't working, she simply gave up on all those convoluted public relations tactics.

Her expression turned serious, and she met their intensely imposing gazes with composure.

"In short, I'm here to help you clean up this mess." Miranda's tone shifted, becoming very formal.

"Because I and you... are essentially the same kind."

To make her words more convincing, Miranda took a deep breath, preparing to ignite her golden eyes to prove her identity as one of her "kind."

She closed her eyes and began to concentrate on awakening the dormant dragon blood within her.

A while passed.

A strained flush began to rise on her cheeks, as if her whole body was exerting effort.

But when she opened her eyes, those beautiful emerald green eyes remained crystal clear, devoid of any trace of the majestic golden light.

To be fair, this matter cannot be entirely blamed on her insufficient bloodline.

At this very moment, Lin Yuan, standing directly opposite her, was staring at her with his golden eyes that burned like molten lava.

When low-level hybrids face high-level beings, they will suffer absolute bloodline suppression.

Under the indifferent gaze of what seemed like an apex predator, Miranda felt the air around her become incredibly thick.

Let alone igniting her golden eyes against the odds to prove her identity, the fact that she didn't lose control and kneel down on the spot in the face of this pure pressure is already a victory for the elite education at Kassel College.

The air seemed even quieter than before.

"Um..." Landa guiltily smoothed her hair, her eyes drifting elsewhere.

"I probably caught a chill from the cold wind while riding my electric scooter, plus I'm not feeling very well today... I'll show you another day."

Lin Yuan looked at Miranda's flushed face and her lame excuse, wondering what she was up to.

So, after all this time, you're actually a goofball, aren't you?

Seeing that the other party was running out of ideas, Lin Yuan took the initiative to speak: "Alright, stop with the nonsense, let's get down to business. Why do you say we're the same kind of people? What kind of people?"

Seeing that the other party was finally willing to talk, Miranda breathed a sigh of relief and quickly went down the steps, preparing to give Lin Yuan a lesson on worldview.

But when it came to actually delivering theoretical knowledge, her already poorly learned knowledge instantly crumbled into dust, and the long discourse she had prepared in her mind was completely forgotten.

After holding back for a long time, Miranda gritted her teeth and decided to give up.

"I'll keep it short," she said, waving her hand.

"I can't explain the details very well, but once you get to the school, there will be professors who will provide you with orientation."

"Simply put, there is a small group of people in the world who have dragon blood flowing through their veins, and these people are collectively called hybrids. You, me, and this handsome young man next to me are all of that."

As she said this, she casually pointed to Xiong Yi's corpse standing to the side.

"He is too. The difference between us and him is that our bloodline is more stable and we retain human rationality. He is just that the proportion of dragon blood in his blood is dominant, which eroded his rationality as a human and eventually led him to become a Deadpool."

"And the Kassel College that I represent is a place that searches for and teaches mixed-race people all over the world. Of course, dealing with such out-of-control and degenerate mixed-race people is also one of our businesses."

As she spoke, Miranda pointed to Xiong Yi's corpse not far away: "That guy was originally my mission target. But you took care of him."

Chapter 10 So, what is the price?

Dragons, a hybrid race.

After listening to Miranda's brief introduction, Lin Yuan's doubts were finally resolved.

So that monster was a little dragon! No wonder its blood could awaken the power of the Azure Dragon Fruit. We are all "dragons" of the same origin, which is why we can be absorbed by the Azure Dragon Fruit.

But then Lin Yuan felt that this setting was a bit outrageous.

A hybrid of human and dragon? How was this cross-species reproductive barrier broken? Could it be that the dragons in this world also possess the ability to transform into human form? Wouldn't that be the same setting as in the prehistoric fantasy novels I used to read? But if that's the case, the guy I just killed was far from the dragons of mythology who could summon wind and rain.

I've seen interspecies marriages before in the world of One Piece. Fish-men, giants, minks... Although they all look strange, they're still within the category of bipedal humanoids.

If he couldn't transform into human form, then how could he become a mixed-race person...? Thinking of this, Lin Yuan shuddered and shook those unhealthy thoughts out of his mind.

What struck him as even stranger was that he shouldn't be a so-called mixed-race person, so why did both Chu Zihang beside him and Miranda in front of him say with such certainty that they were of the same kind?

He decided to bring his question to the forefront: "How did you come to the conclusion that I am the same kind of person as you?"

This time it was Miranda's turn to be speechless, her pretty face filled with an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

Dude, your eyes are so bright they're almost as bright as a car's high beams. What are you pretending to be, some kind of pure human?

Without explaining, she reached into her trench coat pocket, pulled out a phone, switched to camera mode, and handed it to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan stared blankly at the slider phone in front of him.

Nokia N95.

Even though he wasn't particularly tech-savvy, he could tell this was definitely an antique. His gaze swept over Miranda's well-tailored designer trench coat; the woman's outfit clearly wasn't cheap, indicating she wasn't short of money.

Even if you really want something sturdy and durable, you wouldn't need to pull out such an old relic.

Lin Yuan's heart stirred slightly; there was only one possibility.

The current timeline seems to be several years earlier than the era when I left Earth.

But what does that have to do with determining that he is of mixed race? He focused his gaze on the slightly rough phone screen.

Against the dim background, deep within his own eyes, a blazing golden hue, like molten lava, was surging.

He stared at himself on the screen, stunned for several seconds—a rare occurrence. Then he realized that when the Azure Dragon Fruit had just revived, he had tried to activate his "dragon form." But at that time, neither blue scales appeared on his body, nor did his fingers transform into sharp dragon claws; his entire body remained completely still.

It seems that the fruit's initial revival was too weak, only enough to maintain this slight localized mutation around the eyes, so much so that the person didn't even notice it.

And these golden eyes, which are the result of the Devil Fruit's power, perfectly match the physiological characteristics of the "hybrids" in this world.

It seems that here, the glowing golden eyes are the anti-counterfeiting label for mixed-race individuals to identify each other.

Since he had such a convenient, readily available identity as cover, he was happy to save himself the trouble of fabricating his origins.

"Understood." After clarifying this, Lin Yuan returned the phone and then asked another question.

"So, you said you were coming to help us, but how exactly are you going to help?"

Miranda caught the phone and put it back in her pocket. Hearing the question, she finally regained some of the composure she had as a junior at Kassel University.

She raised her hand and pointed to Xiong Yi's corpse not far away, along with the blood and bits of flesh splattered everywhere.

"Literally, I'll help you clean up this mess tonight."

“You know better than I how strict the security is here. If someone dies, no matter if you were the one who did it, once you get involved, you’ll be dragged into this mess.”

"Even if you acted in self-defense, would a forensic doctor believe such a far-fetched claim as 'dragon blood mutation caused human mutation'?"

She spread her hands and continued, "As long as you nod, the college's professional cleanup team will take over here immediately. Whether it's recovering the body, cleaning up the bloodstains, or erasing all the surveillance footage along the way, they can do it all cleanly, ensuring that when the sun rises tomorrow, you two will still be ordinary high school students with clean records."

Lin Yuan glanced at the corpse on the ground following her gaze, and secretly made some calculations in his mind.

The woman was right. The sudden death of two high school students, along with the discovery of such an inexplicable monster corpse, would be a headline-grabbing case anywhere.

If I were to get involved in such a horrific dismemberment case, attracting layers of police investigation and even alarming certain special departments, I would inevitably be subjected to endless investigations, which would be a huge problem for me right now.

However, after years of navigating the high seas, Lin Yuan knew better than anyone that there was no such thing as a free lunch in the world.

Lin Yuan stared into Miranda's eyes and slowly asked, "So, what is the price?"

"There was no cost to it."

Miranda waved her hand dismissively in response to Lin Yuan's wariness.

"Cleansing up these corrupt and out-of-control hybrids, and erasing the traces they have left in human society, is one of the core businesses of our Kassel College, and this is also part of my job."

At this point, she paused, abandoning her previous unreliable demeanor, and her expression became more serious than ever before.

“But if I had to say… well, there is one.” Miranda looked intently at the two boys in front of her and revealed her true purpose for tonight.