Dragon Clan: Thought So Far.

Lu Mingfei's pupils shrank slightly. What kind of person would call himself an asset? And what kind of research institution would consider living people as assets?

"There are some things I can't explain to you, and I don't know them myself. But Black Swan Port did exist as an orphanage when it was still in operation." Ling looked silently into Lu Mingfei's eyes. "There we have our own names, and we also have another number that represents the order of entering the port. My number is very low, and most of the children with higher numbers were forced to undergo some kind of surgery to calm them down because of their rebelliousness and disobedience."

Lu Mingfei pressed his temples hard.

He had seen that kind of operation before; Herzog had performed a pontine splitting operation on the young Minamoto Chitose when he was trying to usurp the White King's power in Tokyo.

The result of this was that Genjitsu gave birth to another more paranoid and crazy personality, Ruri Kazama. Herzog, disguised as the leader of the demons, used a specific clapperboard sound to control Genjitsu's personality switching.

Lu Mingfei himself and Eri were also affected by the sound of the clappers, but after leaving Tokyo, he used the medical facilities in Xirang to conduct a comprehensive examination of himself and the little monster.

Eri's brain had indeed been tampered with, but after being baptized by the blood of the White King's fetus, it has been gradually healing. Lu Mingfei's own brain was intact, with no signs of surgery.

"The first experimental subjects in Black Swan Port were all young wild hybrids that were stranded outside the various republics at the time. However, bloody genetic experiments are not without risks. For a period of time, the consumption rate of experimental subjects increased suddenly. They conducted clinical trials in the order of their numbers. When those experimental projects were about to take my turn, the first child who died in the pontine splitting surgery reappeared beside us..."

Lu Mingfei shuddered violently.

He realized what kind of story Zero was telling.

For the children sent to Black Swan Harbor, that place is an inescapable, endlessly repetitive hell.

Herzog would conduct cruel human experiments on those disobedient children, and these human experiments would eventually kill them, but they were not really dead, because all the genes of everyone were kept in the database of Black Swan Port, and before the materials were exhausted, Herzog would re-clone the dead children and continue the next research.

"At that time, the doctor would call me little Renata. I knew how to hide myself and disguise myself as an obedient and well-behaved paper doll." Zero's eyes were deep, as if hiding a distant abyss. She placed her hands on her knees, sat up straight, and her eyelashes trembled slightly in the warm air.
"Other children would cry and yell on the first day they were sent to Black Swan Harbor. Some would even attack the medical staff who entered the iron cages where they were held... They disappeared very quickly, and when they returned to our sight, they had become plastic dolls that could neither cry nor laugh. But I never cried, and I would not make a painful expression even when the nurses whipped me. It wouldn't take long for them to stop paying attention to me."

For Herzog, the greatest value of those young hybrids whose words could control the direction of elements or strengthen their limbs, or even those who had no words at all, was to provide enough experimental samples. Even if their brains were damaged, it would not affect the research progress of their limbs. Under the premise that they could not be tamed in a short period of time, performing pons separation surgery was actually the most appropriate choice.

After experiencing so many things, Lu Mingfei thought about much more than before.

If what Zero said was true, then perhaps the reason why Dr. Herzog did not use that cruel and inhumane surgery on her was more because of her words.

Word Spirit. Mirror Pupil, the rarest and most special miracle in the world. When it is not copied from other types of Word Spirits, there is no need to recite specific dragon texts. The owner of this Word Spirit seems to have inherited the brain and eyes of the purest ancient species.

Even a demon like Herzog would be careful to protect this special ability.

Maybe he also thought about taking Zero with him when he left Black Swan Port.

But in the end, for some unknown reason, he obviously didn't do so.

"For a while I thought I was hallucinating because a black snake as thick as a corridor often appeared in the enclosed space of Black Swan Harbor. It always appeared when everyone else was asleep, and its scales would squeak as they scraped against the iron railings." Ling said softly, looking up at Lu Mingfei's eyes. "It always appears on full moon nights, and every time it appears it has some kind of strong mental impact. All the children and medical staff would stand behind the iron railings and clap their hands, and the applause would echo like thunder in the building. But no one would ever remember that the black snake had appeared after waking up the next day."

Lu Mingfei's pupils flickered slightly. He remembered that in another time and space he had read the archives left by Herzog. In those archives, he clearly recorded that Black Swan Port was built on the ruins left by a demon monk from the Tsarist era.

Under the naval port is a devil's graveyard, where a dead dragon is buried deep in the frozen soil. The embryo that Herzog transported to the top of the Japan Trench via the Lenin and eventually sank into the abyss came from the corpse of that ancient dragon.

But the dragon had died before Herzog discovered the body, while in Zero's description the black snake seemed to still be alive.

"Not long ago, the boss asked you to use your power to save Jiude Mai on the dead embryo from the depths of the abyss in exchange for saving her. The dragon that lost its power and regained its life was named Li Wuyue in human history, and in the world of dragons, he is the noble king of the sky and wind." Ling said, "It's strange to say this, but I have a feeling that the embryo and the black snake seemed to be one and the same."

Neither Lu Mingfei nor Her Royal Highness the Princess are pure-blooded dragons, and their knowledge of dragons is very limited.

They didn't know what steps and processes the Dragon King had to go through to be reborn, so even if Ling had this vague feeling, Lu Mingfei couldn't come up with a self-consistent explanation.

"But all this can't explain why your age seems to be frozen at fifteen or sixteen, nor can it explain why you are the only one who escaped from Black Swan Harbor." Lu Mingfei looked far away at the golden hall at the end of the corridor where a huge portrait of Lenin was hung. He had made up his mind to dig deep and find out all the details about Zero.

Ling looked coldly into Lu Mingfei's eyes, and after a moment she said, "Come closer."

Lu Mingfei did not hesitate, and moved the chair under his buttocks almost to the side of Her Royal Highness. They were so close that Ling could even feel the frighteningly high body temperature of Lu Mingfei.

Under that chilling gaze, Ling suddenly leaned her head heavily on Lu Mingfei's chest, her hair filled with the scent of honeysuckle.

"On Christmas Day in 1991, at the stroke of midnight, a vacuum bomb exploded in the core of Black Swan Harbor. The shock wave destroyed almost all the structures of the entire building. Before that, a fire started from the inside had already washed through every room along those dark corridors like a flood." Ling's voice was very low and dense. She murmured in Lu Mingfei's chest, and the sound seemed to be transmitted to the man's ears through his bones. "Before that, someone told me how to leave there."

She spoke so carefully, her lips opening and closing so slowly that they were barely noticeable, as if she felt that there was a demon hiding beside them that could hide itself in the shadows. Every word she said would be heard by people other than Lu Mingfei, and the princess didn't want those people to hear her, so she spoke so softly.

Lu Mingfei's heart moved slightly. He knew that he was very close to the answer to everything, but he subconsciously didn't want Ling to say the next words.

"Who is that person?" But he still asked.

"Number Zero." Her Royal Highness the Princess said softly.

These two words sounded like a thunderbolt to Lu Mingfei's ears. He was stunned for a moment, and a huge fear flooded his soul like a tide.

Fire, long corridor, black snake, number zero...

Everything seemed to be right. Lu Mingfei pressed his temples hard. In front of his eyes, sometimes there was a corridor covered in flames, sometimes there was a fireplace with flames crackling. Sitting next to him was sometimes the cold and dignified princess, and sometimes there was a little girl holding a dirty teddy bear, wearing a white shirt with embroidered edges and a camel fur-trimmed skirt. They seemed to be the same person, with exactly the same hair and eye color, but the princess's eyes were deep and cold while the little girl's eyes seemed to be praying.

What is she praying for? What are her lips saying?
Lu Mingfei couldn't hear anything. He just felt that breathing became difficult and the raging dragon blood in his blood seemed to be burning.

"Go on." After a moment, Lu Mingfei opened his eyes and raised his head. Without him knowing it, his golden eyes were silently ignited.

Zero said, "I told you that the children who entered Black Swan Port all had their own numbers. The higher the number, the more likely they would be used by Dr. Herzog for those bloody genetic experiments... Zero had no name. When I found him, he was tied up in a straitjacket and imprisoned in the deepest room of the port. There was no light there, it was pitch black, and the only lighting was candles. He was the first experimental subject of that port. Herzog would inject various drugs into Zero's body every day. Similarly, he also underwent pontine splitting surgery."

Lu Mingfei seemed to hear a child's cold laughter. He didn't know if it was an illusion. It seemed as if the little devil was right behind him.

"But Zero is very special. He seems to know everything. He knows the architectural structure of Black Swan Port and where we were in Siberia at that time." Zero said, "He helped me find the ventilation hole to escape from Black Swan Port. Together, we used sled dogs to leave the stone building covered in bitter ice before the vacuum bomb exploded."

Lu Mingfei's birthday is July 1991, 7, which means that Ling escaped from Black Swan Port a few months after he was born. At that time, he was still a baby who couldn't even speak. But to this day, the princess still looks the same as she did more than ten years ago. Time has left no trace on her face, and she even looks much younger than Lu Mingfei now.

"Soon after we left Black Swan Harbor, we were attacked by a Su-27 air formation. I was almost killed in that attack." Zero propped up her chin and looked at the distant city of Moscow. The fire reflected the flickering light in her eyes. "I was shattered by bullets, like a burnt rag doll. In order to prevent me from dying, Zero signed a contract with me. With the help of that contract, I survived. Not only did he survive, he also stimulated my potential. My bloodline began to awaken, and the Word Spirit appeared. After my body healed, tearing off the ugly scars on the surface would reveal the jade-like skin underneath, just like this -"

Ling rolled up his sleeves and placed his slender wrist in Lu Mingfei's palm.

In the firelight, her skin seemed to have a jade-like luster.

This is called awakening.

Every night when he was awake, Zero could hear the new blood rushing through his blood vessels like a torrent. The blood belonging to the dragon clan penetrated into every cell in his body, and each cell seemed to wake up from a long sleep and breathe heavily.

"Later, on the way from Moscow to China, we were besieged by the secret party. They used a secret weapon, a hybrid that was trained to kill the Dragon King. His word spirit was Rhine." Ling's voice was slightly cold, as if he was biting on broken ice. "I don't know what happened later, but after the outbreak of the word spirit Rhine ended, I fell into a coma. When I woke up again, it was many years later. At that time, the only people guarding me were Su Enxi and Jiude Mai."

"Is Zero your boss?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Yes." Zero said.

She looked at Lu Mingfei's expression carefully, then immediately lowered her head.

Lu Mingfei found a cigarette from somewhere and lit it over the fire. After taking a deep breath, he leaned back in the high-back sofa and slowly exhaled a puff of green smoke after a long time.

At this moment, there was a reflection of fire in Lu Mingfei's pupils, like molten gold.

Ling suddenly felt that this man was somewhat out of reach. She was so scared that she held Lu Mingfei's hand tightly and didn't want to let go.

"Look at my face, look at my eyes." Lu Mingfei raised the princess' chin with his fingers and breathed hotly on Ling's cheek. "Look carefully, are Zero and I the same person?"

Ling grabbed the hand and stroked her cheek. Her eyes were distant and her expression was sad.

"No," she said, "you are not the same person." (End of this chapter)