The Creatures That We Are

Officer Huang quickly took out two shots of Medicine C and injected Nainai’s calves each with one shot. Due to the seriousness of her injury, Officer Huang judged that a full dose was needed for each leg.

With the medicine administered, Nainai’s cries of pain slowly subsided, and the wounds and burns left by the explosions healed little by little, resulting in a different kind of pain. Nainai’s breathing quickened as she clenched her teeth to endure it.

Officer Huang realized to his surprise that Nainai had not shed a single tear despite the great torment.

“Feeling better?”

“Ha, muhaha...” Nainai’s voice was weak and shaky, but she didn’t drop her chuuni act. “This fatal wound is nothing to this Empress. Once my magic recovers and my bloodline awakens, the power of the evil eye will be unsealed—ow, owow...”

Officer Huang didn’t have the time to humor her. He lifted her blood-drenched bang and checked the injury on her forehead.

“No, it needs another half dose.” Officer Huang took out another syringe and pulled off the cap with his teeth. “Brace for it. It’s gonna hurt a little to inject your forehead.”

“Haha, what is a little pain to the body compared to the humiliation of this Empress getting sealed for a thousand years—ow ow ow...”

...

Meanwhile, Gao Yang and Qing Ling had chased Lithe Snake to the bottom of the hill. The break of dawn saw the eastern sky turning a slight gray, transitioning into the deep blue of the lingering night.

Dim moonlight showered the barren hill before them. It was all ashen land with no sign of life. Countless chunks of what looked like strange white jade paved a road leading to the top of the hill, resembling the bones of a large fish and the spine of a giant creature.

Qing Ling rode on her blade while Gao Yang ran quickly. There was a limit to the number of times he could use Teleportation, so he didn’t dare waste them, or he would be at a disadvantage in a fight.

They followed the white jade-like path to the top of the hill. On the way, they saw many more white jade stones of different shapes protruding from the gray soil, each a different shape, but most sharp and slim like bamboo shoots reaching toward the sky.

Gao Yang couldn’t afford to dwell on them, but instinctively, the jade stones unnerved him.

They must have been around for many years, yet they seemed so clean, smooth, and clear. Under the moonlight, they glowed faintly in a sacred manner.

They stood out on the barren hill. They didn’t belong to the same world—no, the same dimension.

Thirty seconds later, Gao Yang reached the top of the hill.

There was a clearing with a grayish green altar about a few dozen square meters big at the center.

Drenched in blood, Hyena crawled along the altar, moving toward its center while shouting without even a shred of dignity, “Don’t...don’t kill me... Spare me. Let me live...”

“Spare you?”

Lithe Snake stood behind Hyena with a bloodied shortsword, his expression furious. “Tell Captain Benson! Tell the twelve brothers you killed!”

Gao Yang and Qing Ling stopped at the same time rather than approaching. They had promised Lithe Snake that they would leave him to finish Hyena off.

Gao Yang wasn’t surprised that Lithe Snake was having little difficulty in dealing with Hyena.

Hyena’s Talent controlled others through contracts. He wasn’t the fighter type, so without the time to prepare powerful puppets to fight others, Hyena himself was quite weak.

And Gao Yang believed that the members of Tails had their Talents stagnating at level 4.

No.10 hadn’t been able to put up a fight facing Qing Ling. Only by consuming holy water did he grow strong enough to trigger a 4500 times bonus to his Luck points acquisition.

Even so, No.10 was no match for Gao Yang and Qing Ling.

“You...you’re...out of your mind...” Hyena continued to crawl forward. “They were wanderers, animals...no different from livestocks—ahhhh...”

Lithe Snake made another swing and cut off Hyena’s left hand. The blood splattered on Lithe Snake’s face. “In my eyes, you’re the animal. No, you’re something even worse.”

“Don’t, don’t kill me... Let’s...have a deal aghhh...”

A throwing knife burrowed into his right thigh, making blood gush out.

It seemed that Lithe Snake wanted to make this last. It would be too easy to just kill Hyena when the resentment in his heart ran so deep.

“Listen, listen...” Enduring the pain, Hyena rolled his bloodied, tattered body over and crawled backward in fear, raising his right hand. “Another two years, and we’ll...we’ll all die... The Heavenly Godbearer is our only hope... I’m...I’m an archbishop. I can introduce you into the group—aghhh...”

Lithe Snake made another ruthless swing, cutting off his right hand.

For one, it was meant to inflict more pain. For another, it was to stop Hyena from pulling any trick.

“No, don’t kill me... I...I don’t wanna die...” Now armless, Hyena continued to struggle. He even burst into tears, dignity long forgotten. “You don’t understand. Without me, without holy water, we’ll all die...”

“Hyena, you call monsters animals, the most filthy and lowly creatures that disgust you.” Lithe Snake raised his shortsword and took a step forward, looking like the ruthless grim reaper with the moonlight lighting him from behind.

“But holy water comes from monsters too, doesn’t it? Do you think calling the source a white phoenix is going to change anything?”

Hyena paused, forgetting his pain.

“The animals you despise are the tools you rely on to survive and find your place in the world. Who’s the dirty and lowly one here?”

“You’re worse than monsters, Hyena. I look down on you. All humans and monsters look down on you too. You’re nothing, even worse than a worm in a pile of feces.”

Back then, Hyena knew the exact way to break Lithe Snake, and now, Lithe Snake knew the exact words to say as retaliation.

Sometimes, one’s worst enemies knew them the best.

Hyena paused. Fear was now gone from his widened eyes, replaced by blazing fury. It was the worst humiliation and dismissal he had ever been subject to in his life, and he resented his helplessness.

“Son of a bitch! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill...”

Lithe Snake stabbed Hyena’s heart with his shortsword.

Pinned to the altar, Hyena’s blood quickly flowed into the grooves under the altar.

Lithe Snake paused. Gao Yang and Qing Ling frowned too.

The grooves filled by blood formed a pattern—a phoenix flying with its wings extended.

No, it would be inaccurate to call it a phoenix. It was a large flying creature with its wings extended, its body large and round with what looked like tentacles as tails. Its head was a long, squashed oval, at the center of which was an eye.

The symbol looked sacred, somehow.

“You’re right... There’s no white phoenix, only a disgusting life monster...” Hyena, facing his death, stared at the sky with blood foams coming out of the corners of his mouth, his eyes dark with fierce hatred.

“How repulsive... Die...all of you...”

With the last of his strength, he broke a fake tooth in his mouth, within which was high-concentration holy water. The liquid went down his throat.

The next second, Hyena died with his head drooping to the side.

Standing on the altar, Gao Yang sensed a strange change to the force around him, as if the air was breathing.

Soon, the altar and then the hill at large started trembling slightly.

“Something’s wrong.” Qing Ling frowned. The air grew increasingly turbulent and rustled her ponytail.

“Back away!” Gao Yang shouted.

Immediately, Hyena’s tattered body slowly flew into the air and hovered above the heart of the altar. Black spots emerged all over him, and two seconds later, Hyena opened his eyes, which radiated blinding white light.

“Aghhh—”

He opened his mouth, letting out a strange, grating shriek like a soprano singing in hysteria.

Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and Lithe Snake backed away while covering their ears, feeling like their heads were going to explode.

The piercing screams rang across the hill, rippling through the night sky.

At the same time, Hyena’s body melted and dissolved. Outside of his skull, the rest of his body turned into dense thin black lines and shot out of the altar in the form of energy particles, spreading along the ground of the hill.

The thin black lines stayed away from Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and Lithe Snake and slithered down in search of the pieces of white jade stones like they were alive.

Realization dawned on Gao Yang at that moment, making him shudder.

This hill was a burial site, one for a life monster!

The large white jade stones that looked like bamboo shoots and the jade stone path that resembled a spine were all bones, part of the skeleton of a life monster!

And the giant clump of flesh in the growth tank in the lab was its organ!

Godbearer Cult extracted their holy water from a life monster!

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