Comet Dragon, breaking into the gravity field

However, before she could speak, she heard Ritsu Naruse telling her about the situation of the Kasumi dragon they had encountered earlier.

Before coming to this world, Xialong had accidentally encountered a black dragon.

The powerful stealth ability of the Haze Dragon is based on the basic condition that most creatures rely on vision. When it encounters the Black Dragon, which is born blind and perceives its surrounding environment by spreading scale powder, its most proud skill is completely ineffective.

Its vaunted invisibility was completely destroyed by the scale powder that spread in the air. Furthermore, the Black Eclipse Dragon's ferocious nature meant that even if the Mist Dragon retreated, it would be unable to avoid the fight.

As for the final result... naturally Xialong won.

After all, the Black Dragon's strength is limited. Even if the Mist Dragon loses the absolute first-mover advantage brought by its invisibility, the Black Dragon will still be quickly defeated under the dual attack of its poison and flesh.

While observing this rare creature, Xialong was interested in the mad dragon virus, which was in a different system and completely different from the toxins it secreted.

Therefore, it deliberately retains a portion of scale powder attached to the secretion on the inside of its wings, trying to use it while maintaining its activity without affecting its stealth.

But until now, nothing remarkable has been discovered.

The lethality of the scale powder to small creatures is less than one percent of Xialong's toxin. It was thought that this thing's use for toxins was similar to the "thickening" in human recipes - it was useless except for making it sticky. Suddenly one day, Xialong discovered a new use for the scale powder.

That is, it is transmitted into the human body along with toxins, allowing their bodies to be temporarily strengthened.

Xialong didn't know what kind of changes the mad dragon disease and overcoming it would bring to the body, but by accident, it successfully stimulated a similar effect.

It sounds great at first to stimulate the human body's potential to push its limits, but all of this is based on the premise of damaging the body.

It's a temporary solution, but for those suffering from the disease, it may be a pretty good deal.

Connecting this to a patient in the Toyokawa family, Ritsu Narose begins to suspect "Toyokawa Shoko's grandmother" whom he has never met until now.

97. Unicorn and the Lady

"The familiar ceiling..."

When Mizuho Toyokawa woke up from her coma and opened her eyes, she found that what she saw was not the sky blocked by the treetops, but the ceiling of her bedroom.

The dark ceiling brought a genuine sense of security to her, causing her stiff shoulders to gradually relax.

Before Toyokawa Mizuho's brain could understand why she was moved from the forest to here, her body had already reacted on its own.

Turning around, she saw her mother sitting on a chair beside the bed, and the maid who had followed her into the forest stood behind her.

After looking into her mother's eyes for a few seconds, Mizuho Toyokawa realized that her family had discovered the trouble she had caused. She subconsciously clutched the quilt, leaving only her eyes exposed.

"I've heard what happened..."

Her mother's words drifted into her mind. Toyokawa Mizuho stared at the blanket covering her body for a moment, then turned to look at her mother: "Narase... the other two, how are they?"

"They informed us of the accident. Otherwise, you and her would have been stranded in the wilderness." The gentle woman looked back at the maid who had been serving her wholeheartedly and smiled. "When you recover, remember to thank our benefactor together."

"Um……"

There was a muffled response, and the bedroom returned to the silence before Toyokawa Mizuho woke up.

However, this silence did not last long before it was broken by someone.

——"Did you see what you wanted to see?"

"I……"

Looking at her mother, Mizuho Toyokawa realized that she knew her purpose.

Pursing her lips, she suppressed her inner embarrassment and shyness and whispered, "There was only strange fog, and in the end, all I saw was a long-abandoned shrine."

"is it?"

As if she remembered something, the woman's tone suddenly became mixed with a sigh that others could not understand: "It has been abandoned for a long time..."

The mother's lonely words drifted past her ears, stirring up the resentment in Toyokawa Mizuho's heart.

"Miko..."

Trying hard to recall what was special about what she had seen, Mizuho Toyokawa fell into a trance and then muttered to herself subconsciously.

Her memory before she fainted was already blurry, but she vaguely remembered the purple figure that appeared at the end of her vision when she fell to the ground.

Not sure whether this was her imagination before she fell into a coma or whether it was true, Mizuho Toyokawa frowned and tried hard to recall the scene.

Therefore, she was so focused on her memories that she did not see her mother who heard these two words, and the expression on her face suddenly became extremely complicated.

Recalling the time when she followed her parents to the shrine to pray as a child, the woman's thoughts gradually drifted away...

……

“…The Unicorn and the Lady.”

Standing inside a room, Ritsu Narose muttered to himself while looking at the tapestry on the wall.

When Toyokawa Sadaharu heard the young man beside him say the real names of the six paintings in front of him, he couldn't help but look sideways.

Noticing his movements, Naruse Ritsu smiled and said, "I had the honor of seeing it at the National Museum of Medieval Arts in Paris, France."

“Will young people today also be interested in this?”

“Because traveling is my hobby.”

Looking back at the gorgeous crimson tapestry before her, Naruse Ritsu continued, "Many people believe that the lady in the sixth painting taking off her necklace and returning it to her jewelry box symbolizes resisting the material temptations of the five senses. I find this quite interesting."

"interesting?"

Even though the two of them were indoors, undisturbed by outsiders, the man who was the head of the Toyokawa family remained tall and straight. Looking at the young man beside him, he felt for the first time that he couldn't see through him.

"Material abundance led the lady to pursue spiritual fulfillment, so she chose to take off her necklace to resist material desires."

Crossing her arms, Naruse Ritsu's tone seemed a little erratic. "But ultimately, what drives human action is the innate desires within living beings."

"Isn't it interesting that the lady's act of resisting desire also symbolizes her inner desire to resist material desires?"

After saying that, he smiled at the middle-aged man next to him.

Toyokawa Sadaharu vaguely sensed the sarcasm in Naruse Ritsu's words towards "people with a rich material foundation", but he didn't care - to be more precise, he didn't feel any emotion such as mockery contained in it.

Sensitively aware that the various behaviors displayed by Ritsu Narose were different from his impression of young people of his age, Toyokawa Sadaharu, after a brief silence, raised the questions he had raised when he entertained Ritsu Narose and another person.

"Why did you come to this small island for tourism?"

"As you can see, this place is still under development. In terms of natural scenery, there are islands with more beautiful views; and in terms of related specialty industries, this place can't compare to those places that have been developed earlier."

The curiosity in these words could not be concealed no matter what, and after hearing these words, Mingse Ritsu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He understood that Toyokawa Sadaharu's attention had shifted from "Ritsuki Naruse and Shoko Toyokawa" to "Ritsuki Naruse".

In order to ensure that he could successfully contact the Toyokawa family, he had adopted the most radical approach.

Take that phone call for example. Unless Mizuho Toyokawa and the maid told them the phone number before they fell into a coma, it would be impossible for outsiders who came to this island for tourism to have the phone number of the Toyokawa family villa.

A little scrutiny of the details reveals an abnormality, and once this fact is exposed, the current identities of Ritsu Naruse and Shoko Toyokawa will be reversed on the spot.

This move was indeed reckless, but what supported Ritsu Narose in doing so was his suspicion of the "Toyokawa family" itself.

Another extremely important reason is to buy time for Toyokawa Shoko to find clues.

Only in the place closest to the Toyokawa family can Toyokawa Shoko's advantages be brought into play.

After analyzing his previous experiences, Ming Lai Lu believes that there is a connection between the Black Eclipse Dragon's Crazy Dragon Ling and the Mengbashanling Jiuqi Juwu|shrimp virus.

Putting aside the fact that the Black Eclipse Dragon can use its scales to gain insight into its surroundings, Toyokawa Shoko's previous sensitivity to venom mixed with the Mad Dragon virus and her ability to accurately find the Mist Dragon with scales in the fog all made him believe this speculation.

——Even if the scales and powder are spread by different individuals, they can still sense each other's existence.

For this reason, Naruse Ritsu deliberately let Toyokawa Shoko act alone inside the villa, hoping that she could find something or someone that might be related to the Crazy Dragon Virus...

……

Standing in the corridor on the third floor of the villa, Shoko Toyokawa once again tightened the sunglasses on her face to prevent any mistakes.

Looking around at the closed door, she suddenly had the illusion of playing a horror game.

Unable to help but smile bitterly in her heart, Shoko Toyokawa followed the previous advice of Ritsu Naruse and walked to a closed door according to her intuition.

98. The Past of the Toyokawa Family

Decades ago, a plague swept through the city where people lived.

In that devastating disaster, no one was spared. Regardless of gender, age, or status, all lives were equal before the plague.

Mizuho Toyokawa listened quietly to her mother's stories of the past, the story of the lucky girl in front of her who had escaped the peak of the infectious death period by being locked up in a small dark room as punishment for being naughty when she was young.

From her mother's narration, she learned that although her mother did not die from the plague, she did suffer from the underlying disease.

As we get older, the harm caused by the sequelae begins to appear.

For the sake of his child's health, his grandfather, who had not yet become the head of the Toyokawa family, decided to ignore the family disputes and take his mother to seek medical treatment.

However, even though he was quite wealthy, he was unable to get doctors to solve the patients' difficult and complicated diseases.

If science can't do it, then try metaphysics.

Whether it is a temple with eminent monks or an onmyoji who has disappeared in the past, even the Vatican on another continent has been visited.

However, none of this could stop my mother's health from deteriorating.

Until one day, the grandfather decided to take his mother out for a walk and heard rumors about a small island.

——Deep in the forest of that island, there is a mountain god who can cure all diseases and save believers.

No one except the local islanders can verify the authenticity of the rumors about the so-called "generous god".

The grandfather, who was used to the intrigues between people, didn't believe it at first, but he had no other choice.

So they came to this backward island.

Following the instructions of the local islanders, they walked deep into the forest and saw a lonely shrine appear in the forest.

There, a shrine maiden with exquisite appearance but inhuman feeling entertained them alone.

Upon hearing their purpose, the witch did not show any surprise and simply asked them to offer food as a sacrifice, just like the islanders who had come to pray in the past.

He did not ask for any money, nor did he have any intention of taking advantage of the opportunity to connect with the powerful families. Even the idea of ​​expanding the shrine seemed to exist.

To my grandfather, who had seen the treacherous world of Vanity Fair, this was simply unbelievable.

What was even more incredible was that when they really did what the witch said, their mother, who had been on the verge of collapse, quickly became energetic and returned to the lively appearance they remembered.

His health improved, but my grandfather was still not satisfied.

After visiting the shrine several times without success, the grandfather, unable to impress the shrine maiden with fame and fortune, decided to build a villa on the island so that they could come to pray and worship in the future.

At the same time, he also took the lead in promoting the development of the island, thereby winning the hearts of the locals.

"But the shrine has become dilapidated and it looks like no one has been there for a long time..."

Hearing Toyokawa Mizuho's question, Toyokawa Shoko, who was eavesdropping through the door, nodded.

She is worthy of being my mother, her thinking process is so similar to mine!

After discovering that the existence related to her was in this room, Shoko Toyokawa did not rush to open the door.

After placing her palm against the door to confirm that it was truly closed, she pressed her ear tightly against the cold wooden surface and began to eavesdrop on the conversation inside the room.

And when she heard this, she heard inside information that she had never heard before.

While thinking, Shoko Toyokawa pulled out another strand of hair that had turned "black" and controlled it to float towards the stairs, to be on guard against any unrelated people who might appear at any time.

The power of the Black Eclipse Dragon not only enhanced her five senses, including hearing, but also gave her the ability to produce and control scale powder in trace amounts.

After everything was arranged, Toyokawa Shoko once again lay on the door panel, completely ignoring how ridiculous it would look to others with her face being squeezed...

……

Hearing Toyokawa Mizuho's question, the woman just sighed silently.

As if she was worried about something or considering something, she hesitated for a long time before slowly telling what happened next.

In fact, the god was far more generous than the islanders said.

Not only were their bodies healed, but each of them seemed to have a few days of particularly good luck after each offering.

From small things like catching fish one after another while fishing to big things like making great strides in the stock market, everything is going in the direction that suits them.

However, this good time did not last long.

All that goes up must come down—and that’s how the island shrine ended up, as many stories have told.

From some unknown day on, the shrine maiden disappeared.