Mastering His Abilities, Winning the Heart of a Lady

The neon sign left a crimson afterimage on Bo Yu's retina as he pushed Tang Yao into the revolving glass door of a 24-hour pharmacy.

The automatic sensor emitted a mechanical "Welcome," masking the sound of the third soda can rolling from the trash can three meters away.

"Two boxes of ibuprofen," Tang Yao grabbed a fever patch from the shelf and slapped it on the counter. The silver chain pendant on her wrist suddenly bent at a ninety-degree angle, pointing toward the ceiling.

She tiptoed closer to Bo Yu's ear. "Ventilation ducts."

Bo Yu's canine tooth punctured his lower lip. As the taste of blood exploded on his tongue, he clearly heard the sound of fabric scraping inside the metal pipes overhead.

The cashier handed him a plastic bag, and as the bag brushed his hand, the faint metallic clink of something unexpected—definitely not the sound of a keychain—caught his attention.

"Change," Tang Yao suddenly tossed a few coins toward the ceiling. Five one-yuan coins arced through the air, gleaming silver.

The ventilation filter fell with a clatter. Bo Yu yanked Tang Yao behind a shelf as three tranquilizer darts barely missed the spot where they had been standing moments before.

The hum of the advertising lightbox from the convenience store direction filled the air, and the dark moon emblem on the back of Bo Yu's neck suddenly burned.

When he crashed through the pharmacy's back window, moonlight spilled across the opposite office building's curtain wall. The reflection of a telescope from the twenty-third floor flashed briefly.

Dr. Chen's clinic was tucked away at the end of an alley in the old town, under a neon sign that read "Pet Grooming." The anti-theft door's fingerprint lock gleamed with an eerie blue glow.

As Tang Yao's silver chain pendant struck the doorframe for the third time, a man in a white lab coat looked up from his dissection table, the tip of his scalpel still picking at a piece of bluish-scaled armor.

"You're three days early," Dr. Chen said, removing his rubber gloves. The goji berries in his thermos suddenly froze into ice beads. "Let me see those little wolf cub's teeth."

Bo Yu's fever patch on his collarbone hissed, emitting white smoke, and Tang Yao pressed his hand down before he could tug at his shirt collar.

The overhead surgical light projected their shadows onto the wall, and the still shadows suddenly twisted into intertwined fangs.

Dr. Chen chuckled lightly and switched off the main power. When the emergency lights flickered on, Bo Yu saw his reflection in the glass door of the refrigerator—his pupils flashing wildly between gold and silver.

"Moon phase disorder syndrome," Dr. Chen said, unlocking the refrigerator's password lock. A cold air rushed out, followed by dozens of different-colored serums. "Or rather, the ancient bloodline, forcibly awakened, is protesting the neon pollution of modern cities." He drew out a syringe filled with icy blue liquid and injected it into Bo Yu's elbow. "For the next twelve hours, whenever your heart rate exceeds 140, you will see your most feared hallucinations."

Tang Yao suddenly pulled open his hoodie collar, and the blood vessels around the dark moon emblem began to spread like spiderwebs.

Dr. Chen's scalpel nicked his fingertip. As a drop of blood fell onto the emblem, it instantly evaporated into black mist. The mist revealed a perspective the convenience store cameras couldn't capture—Professor Lin's lab coat hem brushing past the vending machine, his right hand playing with a bloodstained syringe.

"That madman doesn't even spare the Special Investigation Bureau?" Dr. Chen suddenly shoved Bo Yu into a specialized MRI machine. The brainwave chart on the screen began to fluctuate violently. "Relax, unless you want your amygdala completely devoured by your wolfish nature."

The tungsten-steel walls of the underground training ground reflected hundreds of claw marks. Bo Yu heard the brittle snap of his bones dislocating for the third time as he slammed the sandbag away.

Dr. Chen's holographic projection hovered in mid-air. "Imagine you're a stray dog trapped in a subway station by a storm."

Tang Yao's silver chain suddenly coiled around his wrist, the sharp pain from the pendant sinking into his palm snapped the illusion into clarity: In the pouring rain, a soaking wet stray dog snarled at the warm glow from the convenience store. As the cashier approached with a broom, the dog pack whimpered and retreated into the dark alley.

"Control isn't repression," Dr. Chen's voice crackled with static. "Try to let the two heartbeats find a resonating frequency."

On his seventh attempt, Bo Yu finally caught the faint vibration.

As he focused his wolf-like senses on the jasmine scent at the tips of Tang Yao's hair, the training ground alarm suddenly blared—monitor screens showed that the clinic's front door had been broken into, and Professor Lin's experimental box was casting a spider-like shadow down the hallway.

"Game time's up." Dr. Chen snapped his fingers before cutting off the hologram. The moonlight pouring through the training ground's ceiling suddenly turned a dark red hue.

Bo Yu felt his spine crackle with the sound of bamboo joints growing. Tang Yao threw the silver chain at him, and the moment it touched his skin, it melted into liquid metal, seeping into his bloodstream along the emblem's veins.

As they broke through the safety passage, the fire sprinklers in the corridor spun wildly.

Professor Lin's lab coat hem swept through the waterlogged ground, and a glowing reagent in the puddles traced out the outline of a wolf's paw.

Just as Bo Yu was about to pursue, the Morse code from the convenience store's ventilation system vibrated. The blood vessels in his temples pulsed, and his mind exploded with fragmented memories—

A man in a wolf-head mask in a dark alley, the unhealed bloodstains on Tang Yao's silver chain, and the "07" numbered wolf tooth specimen on Professor Lin's dissection table.

"Don't listen to anything other than your heartbeat!" Tang Yao's nails dug into his wrist artery, and the pain temporarily quelled the auditory hallucinations.

As they burst out of the fire exit, moonlight just caught the astronomical telescope atop the opposite building, and the reflection in the lens burned the wolf's head totem into Bo Yu's retina.

Dr. Chen's magnetic storm grenade exploded mid-air, sending electromagnetic pulses that caused every streetlamp in the block to burst.

As darkness fell, Bo Yu saw his own shadow grow claws, and three hundred meters away at the convenience store, Professor Lin was lifting the blood-stained syringe toward the moon, now missing a crescent.

Cracks spread across the tungsten-steel walls like a spider's web, and small beads of blood seeped from between Bo Yu's fingers.

He stared at the heart rate monitor in the center of the training ground. The numbers flashing on the screen burned into his retina as crimson afterimages—147, 153, 168.

"You have seven minutes left," Dr. Chen's hologram crouched on a broken sandbag, twirling his scalpel. "Be careful. Once your heart rate exceeds 200, the memories altered by your wolf nature will..."

Tang Yao suddenly ripped open his collar, and the silver pendant pressed against his wildly beating chest.

The cold sensation made the hallucinations recede slightly, and Bo Yu saw his reflection in the mirrored wall: his right eye had turned into a molten gold slit, while his left still retained the amber hue of his human side.

"Do you remember the stray dog at the subway station?" Tang Yao's breath grazed the back of his ear. "It later picked up half a sandwich and gently placed it next to the stray cat's box." The silver chain tightened, and the pain from the pendant in his chest triggered a storm of shattered memories—the curled kitten in the warm light of the convenience store, the paper box pierced by a tranquilizer, and the orange cat fur stuck to the hem of Professor Lin's white coat.

Bo Yu's canine teeth dug deep into his lower lip.

The taste of blood spread through his mouth as he heard the two heartbeats in his chest merge—violent wolf-like pulses like war drums, while the human rhythm stubbornly pounded against his ribs.

When the training ground alarm sounded for the third time, he suddenly grasped that fleeting resonance.

"It's not repression," Bo Yu growled hoarsely, letting the silver chain cut into his palm. "It's..." He thrust Tang Yao into the safety zone, his wrist cracking with the sound of bamboo joints growing.

The heart rate number on the monitor screen went wild, but just before it reached a critical point, it froze.

Dr. Chen's scalpel hit the floor with a sharp clink.

The holographic projection flickered violently. Bo Yu saw the gold and silver in his pupils swirling slowly, like a yin-yang symbol, and the bloodshot veins on the moon emblem were slowly being repaired by some silvery substance.

Tang Yao's silver chain suddenly emitted a clear buzzing sound.

The pendant hovered in mid-air, refracting the moonlight into countless dancing light spots.

When Bo Yu reached out to grasp the light spots, the werewolf features in his right arm faded away like a receding tide, leaving only a faint silver glow at his fingertips.

"It seems someone has found the key," Dr. Chen whistled, and the scales on the dissection table suddenly twitched as if coming to life. "But don't celebrate too early..."

The fire sprinklers activated without warning.

In the mist mixed with fluorescent reagent, Bo Yu saw the fine numbers on the surface of his freshly healed skin, the green code trying to reweave the wolf-like patterns.

He yanked the silver chain from Tang Yao's hand just as the code began to form, slapping it against his chest.

The sizzling sound of melting metal filled the air as Tang Yao suddenly stepped on her toes and bit down on the bleeding corner of his lip.

The blend of blood and jasmine scent exploded in the air, and Bo Yu heard the two heartbeats perfectly merge into the same frequency.

The glass in the entire training ground shattered in an instant, and the flying shards hung in the air, strangely pausing just before touching the edges of their clothes.

"Congratulations on graduating," Dr. Chen clapped as he stepped out from behind the dark door, his white lab coat still stained with some fluorescent goo. "But I'll remind you—your energy waves are now strong enough to make the ability detectors three streets away go off the charts."

Tang Yao's silver chain suddenly stiffened, pointing southeast.

Bo Yu followed its direction and saw the surveillance screen on the clinic's outer wall, casting a shadow in the rising water. Professor Lin's experimental box had left a scorched mark at the alley's corner, and the shape matched exactly with the dark moon emblem on Bo Yu's collarbone.

"Game's upgraded." Dr. Chen tossed Bo Yu a dark silver syringe. "Before the next full moon, remember to use this to neutralize the neon toxins in your blood." He paused, then suddenly pulled at Tang Yao's hoodie collar. "As for the 'lock' on the little lady, it looks like you two will need to..."

The sudden burst of a short-circuited advertising lightbox came from the direction of the convenience store.

Bo Yu's pupils contracted sharply. He clearly saw the astronomical telescope on the top floor of a building eight hundred meters away adjusting its angle. The reflection in the lens faintly revealed Professor Lin's frantic white coat fluttering.

Tang Yao suddenly yanked him over the guardrail.

As they fell into the dark alley, three modified tranquilizer darts pierced the spot where they had just stood, embedding themselves in the wall with steel nails flashing the same "07" code as the wolf tooth specimen.

"Hold on!" Bo Yu wrapped his arm around Tang Yao's waist. His werewolf legs erupted with tremendous power.

They leaped between clotheslines and air conditioning units, behind them, more glass windows shattered from unknown weapons.

Dr. Chen's warning blared through the street-side loudspeakers: "Don't let the moonlight hit your neck! That madman modified the UV..."

The entire commercial street's neon lights suddenly went dark.

In the moment of weightlessness, Bo Yu shielded Tang Yao in his arms, his back slamming into the rusted fire escape.

The dark moon emblem and the metallic friction erupted in blue-violet sparks, and those light spots suspended in the air, forming a precise three-dimensional map—each flickering red dot corresponding to Professor Lin's most recent position.

Tang Yao's fingertips brushed the light spots, then pressed a certain coordinate into Bo Yu's chest.

After the sharp burning sensation faded, Bo Yu realized he could now directly see the energy flow trajectory on his retina.

He gazed at the purple pillar of light rising from the direction of the convenience store and finally understood the Morse code he had heard that night—it was the werewolf pack's ultrasonic signal, warning of danger.

"It looks like we'll have to show up early." Bo Yu tore open the shirt stuck to his bloody skin, and the dark moon emblem on his chest shifted slightly, almost as if it were alive.

When he crashed through the back window of the convenience store with Tang Yao, the vending machine in front of the counter was dispensing cans of cold black coffee—exactly the brand he had bought the night he awakened.

Tang Yao suddenly turned his face toward her, her pupils reflecting silver ripples that revealed Bo Yu's face, gradually shedding its werewolf features. "Remember this feeling." She wrapped the silver chain around their clasped hands, her voice soft but firm, "When the darkness devours the moonlight, the true hunt is only just beginning."

The sharp sound of tires screeching against the pavement came from outside the store.

Bo Yu peered through the gaps in the shelves and saw Professor Lin's off-road vehicle crushing the wolf paw prints left from their battle just ten minutes ago.

As the car window rolled down, he saw that Professor Lin was wearing special night vision goggles. The tubing extending from the goggles was injecting some kind of eerie blue liquid directly into his temple.

Suddenly, Dr. Chen's electromagnetic grenade shot out from a manhole cover.

The electromagnetic pulse exploded, and in the instant it erupted, Bo Yu pulled Tang Yao toward the fresh food refrigeration section.

As the low-temperature white mist spread, he could distinctly hear Professor Lin's heart-wrenching roar, along with the booming explosion of some metal device overloading.

When the sound of sirens reached them from three blocks away, Bo Yu pressed the last fever patch onto Tang Yao's scratched elbow.

The girl suddenly leaned in close, her jasmine scent mixing with the tang of blood that filled his nostrils. "Your heartbeat..."

Outside the shattered glass door of the convenience store, the half moon was peeking through the rift in the dark clouds.

Bo Yu's pupils contracted into slits. He saw in the water that reflected the image of Professor Lin, who had not retreated with his vehicle but was standing in the shadow of the opposite office building's rooftop. In his right hand, he tightly grasped a syringe, its eerie purple light refracting under the moon's glow.