Beauty Under the Moon

The modified bread truck swayed and stumbled into the street, stopping under a secluded building.

A few people made slight noises as they orderly got off the truck.

The Special Patrol Team walked up the stairs along the hallway and came to a room.

"Knock knock knock"

It was very quiet inside without any sound.

After a while longer, the door was opened from the inside.

"Captain Cheng."

Cheng Yizhou nodded, taking it as a greeting: "We are here to monitor Fan Gu. Is he at home?"

"Yes, we came over as soon as we received the order."

"Okay, thanks for the hard work. Take me to see him."

Cheng Yizhou followed the patrolling staff to the monitor screen. A few telescopes were still placed in front of the crude platform.

He picked up a telescope and looked through the window at the opposite floor.

Fan Gu was lying in bed asleep. He did not sleep very well and turned over to adjust his posture.

Something didn't seem right. Cheng Yizhou thought for a moment before he understood.

He asked the person next to him in a low voice: "Does he sleep with the window open?"

"His window is open a crack for ventilation, but the curtains are drawn. We rely on our abilities to subtly shift the curtains by adjusting the direction of the wind."

"Has it been confirmed that it's him?"

"When we arrived, he had not yet fallen asleep. Fan Gu checked the window before going to bed, leaving it open a crack. There's no doubt it was him."

They had been lurking here on stakeout to collect evidence before coming in, just in case.

Although there was no evidence, Cheng Yizhou's intuition told him something was wrong.

A patrolling team member had been listening to their conversation the whole time. Old Wang suddenly interjected.

"It's very likely that's not Fan Gu in there."

"How did you guess that?" Although Cheng Yizhou agreed with Old Wang's words deep down, they couldn't act on intuition alone.

"Would a person with secrets keep their window wide open all the time?"

For ordinary people, these actions were unremarkable, but for someone harboring secrets, they were highly incongruous.

"You're right."

Using props and abilities, Cheng Yizhou leapt through the air and flipped onto Fan Gu's balcony.

He forcefully pulled open the window and curtains, revealing an unfamiliar man deep asleep in bed.

Cheng Yizhou opened the door and checked Fan Gu's home.

A moment later, he opened Fan Gu's front door where his team had arrived.

"Captain, he's not here?"

"He probably left a while ago. Quick, investigate which direction he went."

Following Cheng Yizhou's order, his team sprang into action.

Some woke the stranger, some used their abilities to probe the direction Fan Gu had left, some pulled up nearby surveillance footage for clues.

In just a few minutes, they had collected most of the information.

Cheng Yizhou didn't ask for the results right away. Instead, he first returned to the modified bread truck.

The Special Patrol Team didn't communicate on the way, waiting until they were back in the truck to take turns explaining the clues.

The stranger didn't know how he had gotten there, but a team member with memory reconstruction helped him recall the missing segment.

He had followed a strange floral scent to Fan Gu's room.

At the same time, Huang Mao also smelled the direction Fan Gu had gone based on the residual aura.

"Follow what Little Huang says."

After understanding all the information, Cheng Yizhou reported the situation to Director Guo.

Things showed signs of getting out of control. Cheng Yizhou furrowed his brows, preparing to fight with his life on the line.

They didn't hide this time, heading straight for Fan Gu's location at full speed.

...

On the rooftop of a residential building,

"Have you had enough energy? There's more if you haven't."

Fan Gu caressed the petals of the Beauty Phase adoringly.

The translucent petals glittered under the moonlight, like exquisitely carved works of art. The petal bases were stained light pink, concealing a half-human shape at the core.

The upper half of the humanoid organism at the core was connected at the waist to the center of the pistil, nested in the innermost layers of the petals.

Through the translucent petals, one could observe the ethereal figure of the humanoid at the core. Its skin was like jade, its features exquisite. Its pink hair gave it an allure like a peach blossom fairy.

Its knitted brows were as delicate as a charming woman's, evoking a sense of poignant beauty that made one want to stroke its cheeks.

Fan Gu looked at the several-meter-tall Beauty Phase, feeling a sense of nostalgia. It used to be only half a meter tall, but had now grown enough to bloom.

Fan Gu was very glad he had chosen to join the Anti-Superpower Association back then. Otherwise, he would not have met and gotten to know his little Rui.

He had looked forward to this day for a long time.

Rui had said before that once it bloomed and regained A-rank, they could marry and be together forever.

"Looks like it's not enough, ah--"

A piercing pain came from Fan Gu's chest. He looked down in disbelief.

A crimson, skin-like root had pierced through Fan Gu's chest, pulsating as if pumping something.

In a few breaths, Fan Gu became a withered corpse. The corpse was gnawed by the human-like mouths along the root until only the skeleton remained.

The skeleton was tossed aside, quietly lying next to the humans Fan Gu had provided to the Beauty Phase, just like them.

Having absorbed the nutrients Fan Gu provided, the Beauty Phase leisurely unfurled its petals under the moonlight, layers of magnificent petals radiantly blooming while the grotesque roots below formed a stark contrast.

At the center, the beauty lazily stretched her body, every frown and smile exuding bewitching charm.

"From now on, you're inside me. We'll never be apart again. I've nicely fulfilled your wish."

As the petals unfurled, an enchanting, bizarre floral scent aggressively spread in all directions. The unconscious humans inside the residential building crawled up in strange postures and shuffled towards the Beauty Phase with the same gait and frequency, kneeling around it.

The Beauty Phase accepted their worship with delight, letting them become one with it forever.

It didn't know why it had been demoted to B-rank, but it had successfully used its special abilities to drive humans to kill each other, and made Fan Gu its puppet to gather food.

Since its earliest memories, it rarely had the chance to openly feast like this.

Despite its rationality telling it to flee now that it had finally regained A-rank, it did this anyway.

The endless intake kept it in a lazy, intoxicated state until a group of humans arrived at the base of the residential building it was on.

It lowered its beautiful eyes at the patrol team that had been chasing it.

The peach blossom face smiled, and it laughed unreservedly and joyfully.

"After hiding for so long, perhaps I should give them some reward to thank them."

...

The bread truck tracked Fan Gu to a densely populated residential area. Cheng Yizhou's sense of unease grew stronger and stronger.

Looking up at the several-meter-tall flower, his premonition had finally come true.

The patrol teams assigned to this area were missing without a trace. No matter what channel Cheng Yizhou switched to, he couldn't get through.

Just as Cheng Yizhou was about to contact Director Guo, Director Guo contacted him first.

"Immediately seal off the area Fan Gu is in and evacuate residents nearby. When we sent a team to retrieve the residents raising Beauty Phases, we found them all dead. The monster has made its move."

"Seal off that building and evacuate nearby residents immediately. Getting the residents out is the first priority, no need to rush engaging the monster."

This was different from clearing monsters in the wild. Cheng Yizhou instructed his team and headed to the residential building himself.

He had to deal with the floral scent first, otherwise the residents wouldn't be able to evacuate.