Chapter 30

At night, there were only a few people beside the car. Everyone was busy with their own things and didn’t notice what was happening here.

A sudden sentence made Han Chuyi stop walking. The relaxed look on his face froze. He turned around with a slightly serious expression and frowned at Shen Yan.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing,” Shen Yan replied calmly, looked away, and walked ahead without saying more.

Zhao Wen and Wang Shan also started walking ahead. When they saw Han Chuyi still standing there, they called out.

“Han bro, what are you doing? Hurry up!”

“What the heck?”

Han Chuyi cursed under his breath and walked over with a dark face.

He just felt that Shi Yu hadn’t lied to him about Sang-ge before, so he didn’t dislike him. But what was that hypocrite trying to say?

He couldn’t figure out Shen Yan’s warning, but it still made him angry. So when they arrived at the scene, he focused his anger on solving the case.

“What’s going on?”

Han Chuyi looked at Zhao Wen, who was holding a detector.

Zhao Wen pointed and said, “The data shows the strange thing first went to Yunxiao Mall, then moved to the nearby luxury neighborhood. It’s probably looking for Wu Han and his wife.”

“The strangest energy is still strongest inside Wu Han’s neighborhood.”

“Oh right, Building No. 12.” Zhao Wen pointed out the location.

When Shen Yan arrived and saw some people fainted because of the dark shadow, he had already started helping them.

Fu Nanyao went into the neighborhood first. Han Chuyi frowned and went in too, taking Zhao Wen with him.

Just as he arrived, he saw their usually cold and quiet team leader stop again and look in one direction.

Han Chuyi followed his gaze—and his eyes narrowed. He saw that the security booth at the front of the neighborhood had a camera, but someone had covered it with a piece of black cloth, perfectly blocking the view.

Han Chuyi: …

Wait, can those strange things cover cameras by themselves?

Isn’t that giving them too much credit? And they even used black cloth?

He twitched his mouth. As far as he knew, those strange creatures—no matter how strong—only had a crazy desire to hunt and kill. They didn’t care about details like this. Even the very smart one called “Men’s High Heels” was the same.

He walked up to the camera, took off the black cloth, and saw that it was just an ordinary piece of cloth, nothing special. Whoever did it didn’t leave any fingerprints or traces, so they couldn’t test for anything.

Han Chuyi raised an eyebrow. After he explained this, even Zhao Wen was surprised.

“It must’ve been a human, right?”

“Could it be someone from the ‘Gu Jin’ cult?” Zhao Wen thought for a while and could only come up with them.

Fu Nanyao shook his head. “Not them.”

Then he didn’t say anything more.

Zhao Wen looked at Han Chuyi in confusion. Han Chuyi said, speechless, “Those people released the strange thing just to distract us. Why would they come back to the scene?”

Besides, those strange creatures are raised like poison—who knows what problems they might have. If you stay near them too long, even you could get hurt.

Han Chuyi laughed and handed the black cloth to Zhao Wen.

“Keep it. Take it to the higher-ups to check.”

Zhao Wen nodded and took the cloth.

When they saw the black cloth, they had a feeling—maybe someone had already been in this rich neighborhood not long ago.

So it wasn’t surprising to see Wu Han and his wife unconscious on the grass near Building 12 but still alive.

Zhao Wen checked their breathing: “They’re still alive.”

“They fainted from shock.”

Manager Wu was clever, but strange things can’t be explained normally. It was normal to faint when suddenly seeing such a thing.

Wang Shan helped the couple up, and with Zhao Wen, they carried them outside.

Han Chuyi and Fu Nanyao checked the neighborhood separately.

Sure enough, the strange thing had disappeared. It died near where Wu Han and his wife were found. The mysterious power user dealt with it quickly and cleanly, stopping the situation from getting worse.

“Is this the same one as last time?”

Han Chuyi raised his eyebrows. He didn’t expect someone to beat them twice.

He thought about the power user they saw at Haolai Building before. Could it be the same person doing both things?

Fu Nanyao shook his head, “We can’t be sure.”

“But we can tell he doesn’t want to hurt ordinary people,” he said, “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have saved people twice.”

He looked over the grass again but found no clues left behind.

They only found the place where the strange thing died because the strange energy disappeared there.

Shen Yan heard that the problem was solved and looked at the others. They all knew what the others were thinking.

“Should we still investigate?”

“Since the strange thing is dead, let’s think about what to do next.”

Even though it was night, this incident caused a lot of noise. The dark shadow could be blamed on weather pollution, but the smell of decay needed another excuse.

The next morning, Shi Yu saw a message in the neighborhood group chat:

“Dear residents of Orange Blossom Road, due to an emergency last night, the main road’s sewer was blocked, affecting the whole area. We apologize. After receiving notice, we quickly sent people to fix the problem. Cleaning staff have cleared the sewer, and the bad smell returned to normal early this morning. Sorry for the trouble, thank you for your understanding.”

The notice looked very professional.

Shi Yu thought, “Hmm… that explanation works.”

When he came back last night, people who woke up didn’t seem to notice anything wrong, so it made sense.

After the notice, the chat group talked a lot about sewer safety, then strongly suggested regular checks to avoid this problem again. No one thought too much about it.

The guy from Building 18 argued with the property management, sending many funny “smelly” emojis in the group.

Shi Yu put away his phone and was about to go get his delivery. Just as he went downstairs, he suddenly felt like someone was watching him.

Huh?

Was someone looking at him?

Shi Yu squeezed his mask, looked at the street strangely, and carefully looked again.

No, it wasn’t someone watching him directly, but it seemed like someone was searching for something on the street. It was strange.

Since this was only the second day after the strange event, Shi Yu paid more attention.

After he got his delivery near the bus stop, he noticed the gaze moved away, looking elsewhere.

The members of the “Gu Jin” group felt strange.

After releasing the “Rotten Butterfly” last night, they had successfully delayed the power user association people so they could escape the city.

But just before leaving, their leader “Ma” suddenly sent a message ordering everyone to stop where they were.

Although they were crazy people drawn by the strange event, Ma’s cruel reputation made them obey.

More strangely, after stopping the escape for a moment, Ma told them to return near Yunxiao Mall and watch the nearby streets. No one knew what they were looking for.

Wang Chenghe looked confused. After working with Ma for a long time, this was the first strange order he had seen.

Even more confusing, while ordering them all back to search, Ma himself didn’t appear anywhere.

He held a lighter in his hand, sleeves covering both arms unevenly, hiding something.

Wang Chenghe didn’t care much about what Ma called “abnormal.”

What “abnormal”?

Searching for someone in the streets was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Wu Han and his wife had just had their incident. The power user association might still be around.

Why would Ma call them back? Was he sending them to die?

But if the power user association caught them, it wouldn’t be good for Ma either.

Wang Chenghe thought about this as he squatted on the roadside, eating breakfast casually and watching around.

Honestly, many people eat breakfast outside shops early in the morning.

Wang Chenghe looked normal, but Shi Yu’s sharp senses noticed a strong, focused gaze.

Shi Yu looked and saw a simple, honest-looking man squatting outside a bun shop.

The man ate buns but kept glancing sideways.

More strangely, his aura made Shi Yu feel uncomfortable.

It was a little like the strange thing, but not exactly.

The small monster covering its eyes with tentacles was sleeping soundly.

Shi Yu looked away quietly before the man noticed, then passed by without a sound.

After getting on the elevator, Shi Yu hesitated, then decided to message the power user association.

“Doctor Shen?”

“Has last night’s situation been solved?”

Since Shi Yu had experienced strange events before, the association didn’t hide anything from him.

So he didn’t need to hide that he knew last night was unusual.

Doctor Shen saw the message after returning to the association.

He paused, a little surprised.

His relationship with Han Chuyi had improved recently.

Why didn’t Shi Yu ask Han Chuyi?

After a quick thought, Doctor Shen opened the message and replied.

Less than a minute later, Shi Yu sent a voice message sounding a bit shy.

Doctor Shen was distracted for a moment but listened carefully.

Shi Yu said, “Doctor Shen, this is what happened.”

“When I went downstairs to get my delivery today, I saw someone sneaking around near our neighborhood.”

Wang Chenghe wasn’t obvious, but Shi Yu described him clearly and took the blame.

“That person kept staring at passersby with a fierce look. He didn’t seem friendly.”

Someone was lurking near Orange Blossom Road?

Doctor Shen frowned but didn’t doubt Shi Yu.

“Can you describe what he looks like?”

Who would stare at passersby? Last night the “Gu Jin” group caused a lot of trouble to delay them. Doctor Shen first didn’t think it was one of those crazy people.

But when Shi Yu described the man’s appearance simply, Doctor Shen realized something was wrong.

“Normal face, very simple-looking.”

“But maybe I’m sensitive,” Shi Yu smiled shyly, “He looked strange.”

That image… looked a bit like Wang Chenghe, the fusion user who contacted Wu Han at Yunxiao Mall.

Doctor Shen’s expression changed and he became serious.

“Okay, I got it. I’ll come take a look.”

“Stay at home. Don’t go out or contact that person.”

“Okay, Doctor Shen.”

“I’m already home. Don’t worry.”

Shi Yu looked at the elevator mirror after replying, feeling like he used all his acting skills in twenty years. His voice almost sounded numb.

But he hoped he had reported successfully.

He rubbed his face and relaxed.

At the other side, everyone was about to rest when Doctor Shen grabbed his car keys and looked like he was going out again.

Sang Huaiyu looked at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did something happen?”

Doctor Shen walked quickly, not like he was going home.

Suddenly someone called him back. Doctor Shen remembered he hadn’t told Team Leader Fu about Wang Chenghe yet.

He frowned, “Shi Yu just called. He said he saw Wang Chenghe near Orange Blossom Road.”

Shi Yu didn’t know Wang Chenghe personally. The others guessed the name from Shi Yu’s description. Even so, everyone became serious.

Fu Nanyao wanted to say something, but Sang Huaiyu suddenly looked up.

“Is that the ‘Gu Jin’ group member?”

“If so, I’ll go with you.”

“The president asked me to take care of things recently,” she said. If something happened, she should help.

And it was related to Shi Yu.

As someone who seemed to like Shi Yu and maybe was trying to get close to him, Sang Huaiyu thought it was natural to help when Shi Yu was in danger.

She quietly acted like a normal person would.

Shen Yan had no objections. After hearing Sang Huaiyu’s words, he nodded.

“Alright then.”

“Right now, we don’t know how many of them there are — is it just Wang Chenghe nearby, or are all the ‘Gu Jin’ people here?”

“Let’s not send too many people over yet, so we don’t scare them off.” He and Huaiyu were quiet and careful, trying not to alert the others.

Fu Nanyao glanced at him but didn’t disagree.

Sang Huaiyu finally smiled slowly and looked outside.

Wang Chenghe didn’t know that a good citizen had reported him after seeing his bad behavior. After waiting in the cold wind for an hour and seeing no suspicious people, he started to get annoyed and sent a message to the guy nicknamed “Ma Face.”

“Ma, what exactly do you mean by suspicious people?”

“I’ve been waiting here for so long and nothing happened.”

People in the other neighborhoods were in the same situation and were confused about what was wrong with “Ma.”

Some even started to suspect something bad had happened to “Ma.”

And actually, something bad had happened to Ma Face. After one of his eyes exploded, he thought it was over. But he had seriously underestimated the power of that one look.

Something unknown grew from his exploded eye socket along the nerves, making his already strange face even more terrifying.

Some unknown thing moved inside his head, making a buzzing sound. Every second, Ma Face felt like his brain was tearing apart. The pain and fear were unbearable.

He had met many strange things and even “fed” some of them, but he never experienced this before.

He was about to die!

If he didn’t find that thing, he would die!

This thought suddenly popped into his mind, and he didn’t have time to think more. Just one look from that thing had turned him into this. If it was found, he would die even faster. Losing control, he ordered his teammates to search crazily for that thing.

Where was it?

It had to be nearby, watching him.

It was torturing him.

“Ahhh!”

Ma Face held his head in pain and laughed in a broken way. His whole head seemed split in two. The thing he was looking for didn’t even know who he was; it was still peacefully sleeping inside his mother’s womb.

After almost twenty minutes without a reply from “Ma,” Wang Chenghe grew impatient. The office workers had already left, and the breakfast shop was almost empty. Staying there longer would make him too noticeable and increase the chance of being caught.

Just as Wang Chenghe was thinking about leaving, he finally got a message from “Ma” on his phone.

The message was exactly the same as before, but this time the word used was different.

“Find it!”

He used “it” instead of “he”?

Not a human?!

Wang Chenghe was suddenly shocked and frowned. He didn’t know why but felt very uneasy looking at that message.

He had seen many things before, but this gave him a creepy feeling.

What was “Ma” really up to?

In just a few minutes, Shen Yan had already returned to Orange Flower Road.

No need to search much — following Shi Yu’s hint, he put his hand on the ground near the breakfast shop and sensed a special aura.

It was someone like them, fused with a strange thing.

But compared to the good people from the Ability Association, the people from “Gu Jin” were controlled by something weird, and their aura was full of blood and bad feeling. It was easy for someone with sensing powers like Shen Yan to tell.

“It’s definitely Wang Chenghe.”

He lowered his head and sent a message on his phone, then looked at Sang Huaiyu.

Sang Huaiyu nodded. “I’ll wait on the other side and won’t let him escape.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Yan acted quickly.

Sang Huaiyu just glanced once and naturally appeared at the other end of the street, waiting quietly.

The air moved as usual, and people still passed by the street corner, but when Sang Huaiyu appeared, it was as if no one noticed.

Only a silver-white figure stood silently at the alley’s exit.

After sending the message, Wang Chenghe was about to stand up, then suddenly realized something was wrong.

Someone was coming?!

He had been shocked by “Ma’s” message and was a little distracted. Though he stayed alert, that moment of distraction made him unlucky — he was being blocked.

It seemed the person across was prepared and came for him.

Wang Chenghe cursed “Ma” silently. Pretending not to notice, he slowly stood up, then suddenly changed his expression and tried to run.

His fused strange thing was a burning balloon, making it very hard to catch him. He had escaped many times using it to quickly rise in the air.

But just as he was about to float up like a big balloon, the flames suddenly went out.

Shen Yan used water jellyfish power to stop him. Since the Ability Association had been tracking him, they surely studied him and knew his escape tricks, so they were ready.

His balloon was interrupted, and a flash of anger crossed Wang Chenghe’s eyes. After landing, he attacked Shen Yan’s weak spots and fought for a few moves. Seeing he couldn’t shake off the seemingly gentle doctor, he gave up and turned to run the other way.

Sang Huaiyu watched the sky boredly, his gray eyes calm under white silk.

When he heard the noise, he didn’t expect someone would run toward him, so he narrowed his eyes.

Silver-white curls fell down.

Sang Huaiyu just stretched out a hand and lightly touched the air. Wang Chenghe, running toward the alley, suddenly stopped moving.

In an instant, he felt like invisible air was pressing him down, unable to move a bit.

His face twisted with rage. He never expected another ability user was waiting here.

He didn’t see where the person was.

Just one unknown action, and he was frozen.

The air he breathed became thinner. Wang Chenghe’s eyes were full of hate. He cursed “Ma” hundreds of times in his mind, unwilling, stuck in the air, only able to watch as the doctor named Shen Yan appeared again.

When the noise here appeared, other “Gu Jin” members in different neighborhoods noticed. Wang Chenghe, who usually kept contact every five minutes, lost signal soon after “Ma” sent that last message.

The few who returned were already nervous and extra careful. When they sensed something wrong, they immediately thought of the Ability Association.

It must be them!

They looked at each other. The coughing old man and another fused member quickly disappeared into the crowd and left, not caring about the caught member.

After Wang Chenghe almost suffocated, the Ability Association came to arrest him.

Shen Yan saw Wang Chenghe’s purple face under pressure and didn’t change his expression. He immediately put a power-blocking bracelet on him, then looked ahead.

“Thank you.”

Though he could have caught Wang Chenghe alone, having Huaiyu helped made it easier. He didn’t expect they would catch a live one this time.

Having a live prisoner to investigate “Gu Jin” from inside would be more useful.

Sang Huaiyu nodded. As Shen Yan called Zhao Wen and others to come, he said, “No need to thank me.”

“But if you want to thank me…”

He paused.

“I might need your help with something.”

Help? What couldn’t Huaiyu do?

Shen Yan looked up in surprise, then heard Huaiyu say, “You know.”

“I still don’t have Shi Yu’s contact.”

When he stood under Shi Yu’s building earlier, Huaiyu thought: For some reason, that human seemed afraid of being rejected by him.

Maybe he should try a new way to meet him?

— Like as a stranger on the internet.

But first, he needed Shi Yu’s contact.

In a human way, openly.

His eyes under the white silk looked at Shen Yan, quietly waiting for an answer.

For a moment, Shen Yan almost didn’t react.

When he met Huaiyu’s gaze through the silk, he said, “I can’t decide if Shi Yu will add you or not.”

“But I can tell you his live stream ID.”

Shi Yu’s live stream ID was no secret inside the Ability Association; almost everyone knew it. Han Chuyi had even recorded it when investigating.

Huaiyu nodded. “That’s enough.”

“I look forward to meeting him.”

He smiled slightly, eyes on his phone, as if he really liked Shi Yu.

Shen Yan had never seen Huaiyu like this before, and felt a strange feeling.

…

Shi Yu was waiting for the Ability Association to deal with the strange watcher. After waiting all afternoon and not getting a message from Doctor Shen, he left the contact list, thinking they might be busy.

He casually logged into his live stream backend.

He was just browsing, but was surprised to see his live stream’s recent popularity was actually pretty good. He had many new followers and private messages.

Because of his OCD, Shi Yu clicked “read all.” But right after clearing the messages, a new follow notification popped up.

The little red dot showed up again.

Shi Yu: …

“Why didn’t you hurry? Just one more minute and I would have cleared those private messages too! Then I wouldn’t have to keep looking at them and hurting my eyes.”

Shi Yu took a deep breath, not able to stand clicking on it again. But when he checked the new follower’s page, there was nothing posted.

A system message popped up showing the new follower’s alert. Shi Yu twitched his mouth, and only after the red notification dot in the corner disappeared did he finally relax.

Okay.
My OCD is finally satisfied.

He didn’t care much about the new follower’s profile picture. He continued his usual live stream in the afternoon. But since he had clicked on it personally, he remembered the deep sea image from the other side.

Meanwhile, after following Shi Yu, Sang Huaiyu thought about whether humans should send messages after following each other.

He rested his chin on his hand, thinking deeply. Suddenly, he realized he still wasn’t good at acting like a human. This was new and interesting for him, who usually knows everything.

Sang Huaiyu squinted his eyes. At first, he only thought casually, but then he got interested. He looked at Shi Yu’s follow list and noticed Shi Yu followed many pet bloggers. He raised his eyebrow slightly.

He likes pets?
Such weak creatures?

Sang Huaiyu thought deeply and glanced at the scaled tail under his robe.

In the empty villa, his huge scaled tail hung loosely on the floor. Under the sunlight, the scales looked like snake scales, strange and not quite human.

Sang Huaiyu smiled slightly, took a picture of his tail after making it smaller.

Shi Yu was about to exit his live stream backend when he saw the “Deep Sea” follower sent another private message after the system alert last time.

Out of curiosity, he clicked it, thinking it was another system message. But when the page opened, it showed a picture.

In the picture—a long, slender hand was open, and in the palm, a small silver-white snake slowly curled up.

An artist’s hand, a dangerous and beautiful snake.

The visual was very strong. For a moment, Shi Yu was stunned looking at it.