The roars of the speedboat engines shredded the waves. Lin Xia counted the red dots glistening in the moonlight. They were the reflections of the sparks from the debt collectors' cigars on twelve unsheathed Nepalese kukris. As Lu Chen undid the third button of his shirt, she smelled the unique sulfuric odor of deep - sea volcanic vents.
"Close your eyes." His blood - stained fingertips slid across Lin Xia's eyelids.
The next second, the entire sea area boiled.
Twelve waterspouts shot up into the sky from the stern of the ship. Through the gaps between her fingers, Lin Xia saw the dragon patterns in Lu Chen's pupils burning. Those water columns, carrying swarms of bioluminescent squids, shredded the speedboats into metal fragments. The debt collectors screamed and plunged into the sea, but the moment they touched the water, they were frozen into amber - like specimens. This was the "Deep Freeze Realm" of the dragon descendants. Alia had once mentioned in a witchcraft class that all the surviving Dutch sailors in the Java Sea Battle three hundred years ago had turned into human - shaped ice sculptures.
"Now you can breathe." Lu Chen's voice had a metallic - friction tremor.
Only then did Lin Xia realize that she had bitten through her lower lip. Stimulated by the smell of blood, she suddenly saw the golden runes pulsating inside those ice sculptures - exactly the same as the patterns floating in the bloody phlegm her father had coughed up before his death.
"Do you recognize this symbol?" Lu Chen suddenly grabbed her wrist. His body temperature was dropping rapidly. Ice crystals were condensing on the front of his suit, exposing the blue - gold blood oozing from the reverse - scale wound below his collarbone, which was solidifying into a bead chain.
Lin Xia shook off his hand. "Let go! My younger brother is still..."
"The third fishing raft in Manila Bay, 17 years old. He had two ribs broken by the debt collectors this morning." Lu Chen swiped open his phone screen with the dragon - scale brooch. In the surveillance footage, the teenager was curled up in a pile of fishing nets, coughing. "Now there are three ice shards in his right lung lobe - the crystallization of my dragon blood, which can temporarily freeze the internal bleeding."
Lin Xia's fingernails dug into the old wound in her palm. "Are you threatening me?"
"Showing sincerity." Lu Chen slapped the contract on the frosted railing. The patterns of a bronze tripod emerged on the edge of the parchment. "Sign it, or watch your brother turn into a new reef in Manila Bay."
Suddenly, the waves let out a悲鸣. Lin Xia noticed that the frozen debt collectors were melting, but octopus tentacles were emerging from the re - formed flesh. These were not humans at all. She remembered the fishing boat that had gone missing three weeks ago. When it returned to the port, the entire cabin was filled with mutated octopuses with human teeth embedded in their suckers.
"They are the new generation of the blood clan." Lu Chen incinerated the wriggling tentacles with dragon flames. "Low - level vampires modified with gene - editing technology. They like to mix in with human gangs the most..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Xia suddenly pulled him down to the ground. A bone spur flew past the back of her neck, knocking the dragon - scale brooch into the deep sea. A bald man covered in spells stood up from the melting ice sculpture, with ice chips still hanging on half of his face. "Mr. Lu, the Elder Council has a message for you -" His mouth, grinning to the ears, had a forked tongue sticking out. "Exchange the dragon's heart for the lives of this girl's whole family."
Lu Chen's laughter made ice flowers form on the sea surface. He crushed the attacker's larynx with one hand and placed the other on Lin Xia's back. "Sense your blood." His fingernails suddenly grew longer and pierced into her spine. "Those who have been favored by the curse should all learn to summon the tides."
In the intense pain, Lin Xia saw cyan blood vessels emerging from her palm. Twenty years of memories of the fishing raft surged like a rising tide: being able to count the number of mackerel schools through the cabin at the age of five, always being able to find the channel with the fewest hidden reefs on typhoon nights, and her father grabbing her hand before his death and saying, "The blood of the daughters in our Lin family houses the Dragon King..."
"Raise your hand." Lu Chen's voice mixed with thunder.
Lin Xia's arm swung uncontrollably. The entire sea area then heaved up a water wall hundreds of meters high, smashing the mutated blood - clan that was attacking again into minced meat. She was horrified to find that her fingernails were falling off, revealing pearl - textured scales underneath, and the suit on Lu Chen's back was being torn apart by the newly - born dragon wings.
"The contract has taken effect." Lu Chen licked the blood beads oozing from her earlobe. "Welcome to become the co - life partner of the dragon descendants."
At dawn, Lin Xia saw her younger brother in the medical cabin. A dragon - shaped birthmark faintly emerged under the teenager's hospital gown, and the same sulfuric smell as hers exuded with his every breath. Lu Chen played with a scalpel through the bullet - proof glass. "His gene chain is being dragon - blooded. This is one of the prices."
"What's the other price?" Lin Xia stared at the scales that had already faded from her palm.
Lu Chen suddenly ripped open her collar and pressed his canine teeth against her artery. "Whenever the new moon comes, you have to sacrifice..."
The alarm interrupted his words. On the display screen, a picture of Alia raiding the manor on a water scooter appeared, followed by three coast guard speedboats. Lin Xia grabbed Lu Chen's hand that was pressing the self - destruct button. "Let her go. I promise I'll be obedient."
"Deal." Lu Chen pressed her against the monitoring console. His dragon - like tongue swept across her trembling eyelids. "But the contract needs to add some interest - starting tonight, you sleep in the master bedroom."
Suddenly, the medical cabin was flooded with seawater. In a daze, Lin Xia saw all the monitors of her younger brother turn red. Lu Chen cut his wrist and injected the dragon blood into the infusion tube. Floating in those blue - gold liquids were clearly miniature dragon - clan contract runes.
"Remember, little fishing girl." Lu Chen kissed her blood - stained lips amidst the sound of automatic rifles being cocked. "Now, what will drown you will be a vortex deeper than your debt."