The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 501: Life Monster

Wait! The moment Zhuang Mei shot Gao Yang, she realized that something was wrong. The boy she shot didn’t move away or attempt to block the attacks at all. That wasn’t the real Gao Yang, but another double!

But she realized it too late.

Clack, clack.

The space around her shattered like a mirror.

...

A minute ago.

After injuring Gao Yang and Qing Ling, Zhuang Mei followed the lasers up with large scale white fireworks, leaving them with nowhere to hide. Fortunately, Officer Huang had comprehended Light in time and shot light element bullets at her to stop her attacks short. Then he made relentless attacks and kept Zhuang Mei busy for quite a while.

Before the fight started, Gao Yang had replicated Heavenly Dog’s Spatial Dissection.

He shouted at Heavenly Dog, “Use that move!”

Gao Yang could look up Talents he replicated, and thus he knew that Heavenly Dog had a card up his sleeve—a powerful but dangerous trick.

Back in the abandoned train station in Li City, Heavenly Dog was going to kill Smoker with the technique, but ended up not having the chance to.

It would render him useless for quite a long time; he would be waiting for death if he couldn’t kill his enemy once and for all.

Heavenly Dog understood what Gao Yang was suggesting. This was their final chance.

After firing at Zhuang Mei nonstop, Officer Huang had exhausted his energy to shoot a great golden bullet. Although he still failed to inflict significant damage on Zhuang Mei, who was on defense, he had bought valuable time for Gao Yang’s Talent to cool down.

Gao Yang thus activated Double again and rushed at Zhuang Mei, and Qing Ling sent her two blades to flank her.

Being harassed by Officer Huang had pushed Zhuang Mei’s patience to the breaking point. As a result, she lost her calm when she saw Gao Yang charge at him, thus shifting to offensive mode to quickly kill Gao Yang, only to find that the one she killed was merely a double.

During that fleeting moment, Zhuang Mei was no longer in her practically invincible state.

Gao Yang and Heavenly Dog seized the chance.

“Spatial Shards!”

Gao Yang made the same move from the ground as Heavenly Dog from the air, targeting Zhuang Mei. In that instant, the space around her turned into a three dimensional mirror before shattering into hundreds of pieces. Zhuang Mei, too, seemed to have gotten cut into small pieces.

It looked as if Zhuang Mei had been trapped in a mirror, and when the mirror shattered into piercing shards, she did too.

Boom!

Two seconds later, the mirror space disappeared. Numerous deep gashes burst from Zhuang Mei’s body and splattered blood. She looked like a red humanoid fountain.

A single tear of sorrow streaked down Heavenly Dog’s cheek. Having exhausted his energy, he slowly closed his eyes and fell from high in the sky. Gao Yang, too, had used up most of his energy. His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees, gasping for breaths.

Riding on her Tang Dao, Qing Ling grabbed Heavenly Dog by the hand and took him to the ground.

The battle seemed over.

Qing Ling laid down the unconscious Heavenly Dog and looked over at the life monster not far from her. Her pupils contracted, feeling a chill rising from the soles of her feet.

Zhuang Mei’s bloodied figure reflected in her eyes.

She hadn’t been cut into pieces, and she hadn’t collapsed. In fact, the gushing wounds on her body had stopped bleeding. Covered in long gashes with her face distorted, she looked like a blood demon.

On her twisted bloodied face was unrelenting rage. Her tone was coldly derisive as she spat, “This is why I don’t like humans. You should be kittens and puppies, but you bite.”

She looked up and extended her arms. Great white energy rippled from under her feet again, seemingly having a life of their own as they expanded and contracted with Zhuang Mei at the center like a breathing jellyfish. A few seconds later, all of her white energy returned to her body.

Shrouded by the white light, Zhuang Mei flickered brilliantly before melting in the glow.

Yes, there was no other word for it. She had melted into a cluster of white shimmering light.

It grew quickly toward the night sky until transforming into a giant white bird large enough to obscure the sky and the moon, the light illuminating the space between heaven and earth.

At that moment, Gao Yang experienced for the first time what a nirvana after bloodbath was.

He looked up at the white bird rivaling a large commercial plane in size. It looked like a phoenix, only it didn’t have feathers. Instead, its body was all smooth curves and surfaces, the sacred-looking skin seemed soft like snow but also hard like Black Gold.

Its head was the shape of a vertical oval, like a standing mirror. There was no other facial feature outside of a vertical, pure-black eye with no pupil. It looked like an abyss with countless thin strands of black energy snaking outward and shimmering wildly, like flickering electric currents.

Its giant wings extended to the sides, resembling two white fans that were beautiful yet deadly. Its belly was a flat circle, etched with an abstract black pattern like a fetus curling into themself in a womb.

The tails under the abdomen consisted of countless long and soft white tentacles, resembling the tails of a phoenix or the tentacles of a jellyfish.

That was the true form of a life monster.

What had been Zhuang Mei slightly lowered its head, looking down at the four awakeners like they were ants; they should know their place better.

[Warning, Luck acquisition rate increases to 14000 times!]

The system sounded a cold warning. Gao Yang remained on his knees, having lost the power and will to fight.

All that was left in his heart was a quiet despair.

Whoop.

The life monster flapped its wings, letting out a high-pitched shriek that was strangely pleasant and sacred. The piercing sound sent ripples through the four awakeners, “cleansing” their bodies and souls.

Clang.

Qing Ling, the only one still standing, let go of her weapons and dropped to her knees, unable to put up a fight. At that moment, she felt like a fetus surrounded by amniotic fluid in a mother’s womb, so helpless that she almost forgot how to breathe. There was nothing she could do but to relax and surrender herself, returning to the embrace of the mother of earth.

Gao Yang had much higher resistance than Qing Ling, yet he only managed to hold onto himself for another seven seconds. Then he quickly lost his mind and stopped resisting too, returning to his most naive, fragile, and lost state like an unborn child.

The life monster continued to shriek, the voice rippling across the mountain.

In fact, Gao Yang and Qing Ling weren’t alone. All people—monsters—around Mount Tamaougi had reverted back to an infantile state of innocent helplessness.

Hearing the call of their “mother”, they jerked awake from their sleep and looked up toward the White Crane Shrine with possessed eyes, muttering hysterically.

“Mother!”

“Mother, I’m here. Take me!”

“Mother, mothermothermother...”

The only trace of rationality left in Gao Yang’s mind urged him to quickly access his system, to utilize his system’s cheat-like ability to block out all outside influence like the time he had resisted Qilin’s Eidos, preventing the life monster from invading his mind and brainwashing him.

But he couldn’t do it.

He was lost in a pitch-black room, not even able to see his hands. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the figurative light switch.

Is this it? Am I going to die?

Will there be no miracle this time?

...

“Overlord descends. All will submit.”