The Creatures That We Are

They quietly backed away. Chen Ying’s hands were still on the metal door beneath her feet. She closed her eyes and muttered under her breath.

A few seconds later, Gao Yang sensed two energies warring under her. The victor was decided in ten seconds.

Chen Ying’s long hair flew into the air as a ripple of energy shot outward. The metal door glowed a milk white, illuminating the warehouse before fading in two seconds.

“Done.” Chen Ying let out a long breath and explained gently, “The barrier came with a curse. Going through it directly would be dangerous. It seems that an awakener is involved in this. It must be the Godbearer Cult.”

Gao Yang quietly thought, Level 5 Teleportation sure is useful. It can help me avoid dangers too. If I encounter a barrier I can’t teleport through, it's better to not break through it.

Chen Ying kept her hands on the door. Five seconds later, the sound of gears turning could be heard.

She stood up and backed away.

The metal door slowly opened to the sides, revealing a slope heading underground.

Gao Yang accessed his system reflexively to confirm that there was no danger before heading in.

The others followed. Still hiding in Gao Yang’s pocket, Nainai blabbered quietly, making sounds that resembled a mosquito.

The underground tunnel was about four meters wide with voice controlled lights at the top, which lit up as they headed in. It was easy to picture the car driving into the warehouse going down the slope.

It took them less than a minute to reach the end of the tunnel.

Gao Yang estimated that it was less than twenty meters underground, the scale much smaller than that of the underground grand hall Azure Dragon had discovered under the Sacred Mountain Church in Snow Nation.

At the end of the tunnel was an automatic metal door. Chen Ying opened it easily.

The space the door led to was dim, almost pitch black. They could vaguely tell that it was a two-level basement about the size of an indoor basketball court, filled messily with tables.

They took a few steps forward. Gao Yang was the first to notice something unusual. The pungent smell of rotten meat and metallic blood assaulted his senses.

Soon, the other frowned and paled as well.

Without a word, Qing Ling conjured her Tang Dao and Xiu Dao.

“Something’s wrong. Be careful.” Officer Huang held his two guns, his eyes sharp.

“Chen Ying, Dick, stay behind me,” Gao Yang said in a lowered voice, concentrating energy in his fists.

Suddenly, the numerous energy-saving lights above them turned on at the same time, lighting up the entire basement.

Gao Yang and his team were exposed with nowhere to hide.

He looked up around, frowning.

On the left side of the several hundred square meter basement, there were a few surgical beds with shadowless lamps, beside which were a few small carts. There were bloodied scalpels, tweezers, pliers, steel nails, and other tools on them.

On the right side of the basement was a blood-stained iron wall covered in torture devices. More tools for interrogation and torture were similarly piled by the wall.

Gao Yang looked up at the numerous iron cages hanging down from the ceiling, each imprisoning one or two wanderers. They were naked and covered in injuries, varying in age and sex.

Most of their bodies were stuck in a state between human and monster, their eyes possessed, numb, terrified, or despairing. It was clear that they had gone through tremendous torture to their bodies and minds.

“Bastard!” Officer Huang looked ahead and was ready to pop a vein.

“Ah...” Chen Ying covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes reddening instantly—not out of fear, but shock and heartache.

The other saw it then. Right before them was a white wall. It was covered in the dismembered limbs and heads of wanderers. The drained, almost rotting body parts hung to form a giant ‘welcome’.

It was a trap!

The walkway on the second level of the underground space was suddenly crowded with dozens of people, about seventy to eighty mercenaries from the organized crime world. They each had a different firearm in hand and were aiming at Gao Yang and his team from above.

“Fire!”

The leading man ordered without hesitation.

All sorts of gunshot noises resounded in the basement, the bullets coming at them without leaving a gap.

“Metal!”

Qing Ling had already sprung to action a second before the man made the order, splaying her hands and balling them into fists, making a pulling motion.

Instantly, six surgical beds flew over to form a barricade before them.

The next second, countless bullets hit the beds.

Gao Yang was going to teleport to the upper level to deal with the lackeys, but decided against it.

It would take at least half a minute for him to kill so many enemies, which would be too long for the surgical beds to endure.

In fact, Chen Ying and Dick had been hit in the calf and the arm respectively, and a bullet had left a gash on Gao Yang’s shoulder.

It would be too embarrassing for six awakeners to get killed by a group of wanderers pelting them with bullets.

“Metal!”

Gao Yang had replicated Qing Ling’s level 4 Metal and Officer Huang’s level 5 God of Firearms before entering.

He splayed his hands before holding them together and yanking.

About a dozen submachine guns held by the mercenaries stopped firing and flew out of their hands, coming to Gao Yang.

Without missing a beat, Qing Ling raised a hand and used Metal in the same direction, pulling in another dozen guns.

“Yellow Ox!” Gao Yang shouted. Officer Huang realized what he was planning.

Ha, I’ll show you what God of Firearms is!

“Qing Ling!”

Gao Yang called out again.

Qing Ling had caught on as well. She grabbed Chen Ying and Dick, quickly ducking down. At the same time, the barricade of surgical beds lowered to a height that was just enough to keep everyone shielded.

Officer Huang and Gao Yang had knelt down as well, their backs pressed together. The thirty something guns controlled by Metal hovered around them.

Gao Yang activated the replicated level 5 God of Firearms.

Boom!

Hundreds of bullets fired in a second, instantly killing the enemies on the higher level. The sounds of bullets shooting out of the chambers squeezed into a second of explosive chorus.

It looked as if the guns had turned into a flickering orb, the orange muzzle flashes radiating in all directions. A second later, the light died down like nothing had happened, but the mercenaries had either collapsed to the ground, shot, or fell off the railings and hit the lower level.

If there had been a high speed camera catching the moment, though, it would capture Gao Yang and Officer Huang moving their hands at a speed too quick for the naked eye to see like the thousand-hand buddha, pulling the triggers of the guns around them almost instantaneously, hitting the hearts and heads of the wanderers with great precision.

The whole ordeal ended in a matter of a second, and the mercenaries died without making a sound or even registering what had happened.

Only the three elite monsters hiding among them survived the hail of bullets.

Amid the bodies of their fellow monsters and pooling blood, they rose to their feet and quickly transformed, charging at Gao Yang and his team.

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