The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 378: The Promised Visit

Gao Yang had a feeling that the battle had not yet ended. Nothing was certain until the day broke.

Gao Yang, Nine Frost, Green Tea, Heavenly Dog, and Old Seven shared a car and were leading the way. When the car was five minutes away from the White Lake Hotel, they sighed in relief seeing that the hotel ahead was intact, but then their breaths hitched.

A small dot of red light flickered outside, midair.

Then a giant beam of deadly ray shot out, almost devouring the upper floors whole.

At that moment, everyone in the car was rendered speechless, then a bone-deep fear followed.

How formidable must the enemies they were facing be?

“We, we can’t win...” Old Seven had a mental breakdown, crushed under the weight of fear. He held onto his head with a pained look on his face. “We’ll all die, we’ll all die! The prophecy is real...”

“Look!” Nine Frost shouted.

Hope ignited in everyone.

Although the 52nd floor of the hotel had been utterly destroyed, White Tiger had created a golden cube with the barrier of his Absolute Defense, keeping everyone protected. Then the golden cube flew quickly away like an airship.

“Faster!” Nine Frost urged.

“This is the fastest it can go.” Heavenly Dog held onto the steering wheel with both hands while stepping hard on the accelerator.

Gao Yang wasn’t sure how much time had passed after that since every minute and every second felt like a year.

Soon, their cars reached the crossroad closest to the White Lake Hotel. The sky suddenly darkened—unbeknownst to them, X had activated Poison of Hell, and clouds of poison were filling the sky.

A few seconds later, the poison split into four clumps of energy and quickly found the four sacrifices, turning into four black coffins and releasing Poison of Hell.

Stimulated by the poison, the blood fog rose quickly up until it enveloped the entire Li City.

Heavenly Dog was forced to stop the car. None of them knew what was going on. The blood fog had quickly reverted to the original height like nothing had happened.

Yet everyone outside of Gao Yang was already poisoned.

“Something’s not right...” Nine Frost held onto his chest, face ashen, sensing his energy draining.

Green Tea and Old Seven could no longer speak. They lay limply on the seat like fish dying out of water while panting quickly, drenched in cold sweat.

The driver, Heavenly Dog, had dropped his head on the steering wheel, his eyes wide and his face pale, appearing confused and shocked.

Gao Yang stared at them, unsure what was happening.

A few seconds later, he kicked the door open and rushed toward the White Lake Hotel. He knew that there was nothing he could do by staying. He couldn’t cleanse everyone of the poison or curse, and his instinct was shouting at him that someone at the White Lake Hotel must be responsible, that he had to deal with them.

Half a minute later, Gao Yang reached the plaza under the hotel and was stunned by the piles of dead elite monsters. A terrible fight must have broken out.

Then he saw a light gray orb at the center of the plaza, while Qilin and X were facing off by the orb.

Gao Yang didn’t dare make a reckless move and get between the two big shots, so he snuck closer and waited for the moment to strike.

With his keen six senses, he caught bits and pieces of the conversation between Qilin and X, then he heard X’s hysterical laughter.

Following that, the gray orb crumbled and disappeared, revealing Dragon and Lilia. The two seemed to have gone through a heated fight.

Dragon threw up blood and collapsed, while Lilia crouched down.

Then Qilin collapsed, too.

X and Lilia shared a few words.

X must have done something!

Liu Qingying had warned Gao Yang, and Gao Yang had discreetly warned Dragon and Qilin. How did X still manage to catch them off guard? And was it X’s Talent that poisoned everyone when the blood fog rose suddenly? Was there really a Talent powerful enough to do that? How?

Gao Yang’s head was cluttered with thoughts, but he didn’t have the time to untangle them.

Spotting an opening, he teleported behind X and stabbed him in the back.

However, like Qilin, he hadn’t expected X to be a host of a monster and thus gaining a second heart.

“Something like you?” Gao Yang was increasingly confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ha, stop acting. You’re not a pure awakener, either, are you?” X took a step forward. “Or you would’ve been poisoned.”

Gao Yang was at first shocked, then realization dawned on him.

The quickly-rising blood fog was an attempt to kill all awakeners with poison. He had avoided the same fate because he was no longer a pure awakener with Fresh Snow’s curse inside him.

As the thought flashed through his mind, Gao Yang felt the same black wind sweep toward him.

Teleport!

Gao Yang dodged to the side.

Before he came to a stop, a figure appeared right before him as if waiting for him to show up.

How?!

Lilia, having recovered seventy percent of her strength, had predicted where Gao Yang would move to and approached him with a speed that rivaled Teleportation.

She reached out to Gao Yang.

“Fire!”

Gao Yang didn’t have the time to dodge it. He opted to shoot fire at Lilia from his palms. However, Lilia didn’t fear his flame at all, and she reached through the flames, grabbing him by the neck.

Teleportation!

Gao Yang teleported on instinct to break free of her, but failed to disappear after his form blurred for a second, still seized by Lilia’s right hand—she was so strong that she even overpowered his Talent!

Lilia lifted Gao Yang and stared at him darkly with her blue and red eyes.

Two seconds later, Lilia smiled faintly. “You don’t have a freerider in you, but the energy of a ghost.”

“Huh?” X was surprised. “That’s possible?”

“I’m not sure.” Lilia thought for a moment. “But if awakeners and monsters can bypass the Heavenly Way and merge, it is possible that awakeners and Spectres can come together to some degree.”

“Ha, interesting.” X narrowed his eyes. “Kill him.”

Lilia nodded. She was about to twist Gao Yang’s neck, but in the blink of an eye, the human in her right hand was gone.

Lilia arched an eyebrow. What happened?

Gao Yang didn’t know, either. His mind blanked for a moment before he was suddenly away from Lilia, supported by a hand on his shoulder from his side.

“Finally, I made it in time.”

The woman let go of Gao Yang and smiled confidently.

Gao Yang looked sideways at the woman. She was dressed in gender neutral suits with her full head of black hair tied into a ponytail. Her large silver earrings clinked brightly. The character that meant ‘alcohol’ was tattooed onto the pale skin of her nape. On her face was a black lace mask that covered her eyes, making her look valiant and mysterious.

Gao Yang found her familiar, but he couldn’t quite put a name to her.

“Have you forgotten about me in only a few days, Teacher Qi Ying?” the woman said with a smile.

“Huai Wei!” Gao Yang blurted out in surprise.

Huai Wei chuckled. “I’m now Alcoholic, one of the founding members of the Elusive Sect.”

“You...”

“I was too weak when I was eighteen. For today, I’d waited ten years.”

Gao Yang was both shocked and pleasantly surprised, feeling a burst of warmth in his chest.

Huai Wei was now 28, at the prime of her life. She knew that today was incredibly important, so she chose to come offer her help at this point in time.

To Gao Yang, they had only been apart for two days, but to Huai Wei, they had parted ways ten years ago.

Lilia and X didn’t immediately initiate offense, cautious of the mysterious awakener.

“Alcoholic.” With a wary eye on the enemy not far from him, Gao Yang spoke quickly. “I don’t know the details, but outside of me, all awakeners had been hit by the man’s poison. We must kill him now. Perhaps that’ll save everyone.”

“Would I get poisoned too?” Alcoholic asked.

“I don’t think so. You haven’t arrived at this point of time then,” Gao Yang speculated.

“Got it.” Alcoholic had come to a conclusion with her vast experience. “The red-haired woman is too strong for us. Let’s go after the man together first...”

“She won’t stand by and do nothing,” Gao Yang said in a low voice.

“Leave it to me...”

Before Alcoholic could finish, a dense web of deadly rays came down from the sky like rain, and countless red beams shot out of the ground around them, trapping them like a cage.

“Time-Space Spirit!”