The Creatures that We Are

“Ack, ack…” Gray Bear coughed while holding onto his neck. “What the hell, Lithe Snake?! You’re making me into a cowardly bastard! Do you see me as a wimp who fears death?”

Lithe Snake didn’t even spare him a glance before taking the other two pills from Dr. Jia, having one himself while giving Nine Frost the other. Nine Frost tipped his head up and swallowed it.

“What are you doing?!” Gray Bear was stunned.

“The three of us are the weakest on the team,” Lithe Snake explained.

“And that gives us the right to do this?” Gray Bear was even more confused.

“Lithe Snake is right.” War Tiger crossed his arms and smiled. “If we run into a powerful enemy later, the weakest are the most likely to die, and if it’s something not even I, Seven Shadow, and Green Snake can deal with, things will surely end in total party kill, and it won’t matter who’s had the resurrection pills.”

Gray Bear had a moment of realization. “That makes sense!”

The next few hours, Lithe Snake was on look out, while the others waited where they were.

Gray Bear kept asking Dr. Jia questions, and Dr. Jia was more than happy to answer, but what he said was either completely uncharted territory to them or too abstract to understand, and he might as well be singing a lullaby.

Qing Ling held up her phone, the greenish light of the screen illuminating her face.

The others checked their phones too. It was finally midnight.

They stopped talking without needing to be asked to, either sitting down or standing up as they stared at the grayish blue desert basin under their feet.

Ten seconds passed.

Then thirty seconds.

A minute…

“There’s no reaction at all!” Gray Bear was the first to lose his patience, agitated.

“It’s only expected.” Lithe Snake crossed his arms.

Gray Bear shot him a glare. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

“What do we do now?” Qing Ling glanced at Gao Yang and then at War Tiger.

Gao Yang didn’t say anything. He was still thinking.

War Tiger scratched his face. “It’s a little frustrating if we just go back without gaining anything.”

“Yeah. I’ve even taken a resurrection pill. It can’t go to waste, right?” Gray Bear sighed. “All medicines are toxins in some way. There must be a significant side effect.”

“I’d rather the pill go to waste.” Lithe Snake was much more rational than he was.

Nine Frost smiled. “Same here.”

“Perhaps there is a side effect. After all, I’ve only used it on myself.” Dr. Jia’s occupational curiosity was piqued. “If you experience any negative reactions to the medicine, remember to tell me…”

“Dr. Jia.” Gao Yang had finished thinking and grasped some clues. “When did you last see this altar?”

“Eight years ago.”

“Be a little more precise.”

“I don’t remember.” Dr. Jia tried his best to recall the memory. “It should be summer. It’s scorching hot during the day and quite cold at night…”

“Eight years ago, summer,” Gao Yang repeated the keywords.

“The Crimson Tide?” Qing Ling guessed what Gao Yang was thinking immediately.

Gao Yang nodded and turned to look at everyone. “I’ll tell you my speculation.”

“Captain’s deduction time may come late, but it always comes.” Lithe Snake walked down from the dune.

“Haha!” Gray Bear slapped his thigh. “I almost forgot that our captain has another identity, Jin Tiannan the great detective!”

Once the words were out of his mouth, he felt a pang of melancholy. There had been five people who got the inside joke, and now there were only three, and the only surviving little one who knew the joke wasn’t here.

Gao Yang looked down at the sand at his feet, speaking at a deliberate pace, “Based on what we know at the moment, this isn’t a regular altar, but a manifestation of energy that’s sealed and doesn’t show up without a proper trigger. Every time one shows up, it’s related to a life monster, so we believe life monsters to be keys to activating an altar.”

Gao Yang paused. “The first life monster altar we saw was the one in the mountain behind the No.7 Winery in West Nation. The altar was in plain sight because the remains of a life monster covered the entire mountain, which effectively left the key inserted. That was why the altar didn’t need to be activated to be visible.”

“That makes sense.” War Tiger approved, stroking his chin.

“The second altar is in the Island Nation. There’s the White Crane Shrine on Mount Kei, standing beside Mount Tamaougi. We went there and didn’t see an altar, but then…”

“Zhuang Mei showed up,” Qing Ling said in remembrance.

“Yes.” Gao Yang turned to Qing Ling. “As soon as Zhuang Mei showed up, the life monster altar appeared under her feet. It was an energy field that got activated.”

He shifted his gaze to Dr. Jia. “When you last saw the altar, Dr. Jia, it should be around the last Crimson Tide.”

“Vermilion BIrd got a few things out of Edmond’s body. Life monsters have two main duties: first, they produce Forlorn Ghosts and two other beings. The Forlorn Ghosts are Spectres, and Edmond didn’t say what the two other beings were. It may be that he’d run out of time, or he had been unable to voice the answer. It’s not too far-fetched that he would be censored by the life monster’s energy after death when he was killed by one…”

“Wait!” Gray Bear was shocked. “Is that all true?”

Lithe Snake and Nine Frost were shocked too. They didn’t know any of that.

War Tiger smiled. As one of the leaders of the Twelve Zodiac Signs, he was naturally informed about discovery. He glanced at Gao Yang. “Is it alright for you to just say it?”

Gao Yang didn’t seem concerned. “Everyone will know sooner or later. There’s no reason to keep it a secret.”

“Alright,” War Tiger said carelessly.

Gao Yang continued, “Life monsters’ second duty is sowing seeds. All dead wanderers turn into energy seeds…”

“What energy seeds?” Dr. Jia was interested.

“This is just one school of thoughts. You may consider it the genetic makeup of a clone.” Gao Yang used a different analogy.

Dr. Jia understood immediately. “Interesting.”

Gao Yang went on with his explanation. “The energy seeds return to the Gates of Closure or some other place—the life monster altars, for example. And during the decennial Crimson Tide, the seeds will be planted into wanderers through the blood fog, empowered by life monsters and the altars. The wanderers with the energy seeds were none the wiser as they became adults and started families, giving birth to children like regular humans…”

Dr. Jia concluded excitedly, “They don’t actually procreate, but reincarnate. Or it’d be more accurate to say they are replicating themselves!”

Gao Yang nodded.

“Haha, how interesting!” Dr. Jia took out his phone. “I’ve got to note all of that down. I’ll go over everything later.”

The others chewed on what Gao Yang had said.

Gao Yang waited for half a minute. When Gray Bear’s eyebrows relaxed somewhat, Gao Yang continued, “Based on all that, my guess is that Dr. Jia had seen the altar not out of simple happenstance, but because it was right before or right after the Crimson Tide, and the energy in the altar hadn’t faded.”

“Very likely.” War Tiger nodded. “Dr. Jia being lightheaded back then could be a result of the Crimson Tide too.”

Nine Frost spoke up, “Crimson Tides don’t put awakeners to sleep, but awakeners can be affected in some way. Dark Li, my teammate in the past, reacted to the previous Crimson Tide like he was drunk. He felt terrible and threw up in response. Dr. Jia could be responding to the energy of the altar because he was too close to it.”

“That’ll explain it,” Dr. Jia said approvingly.

War Tiger sighed. “We may have figured things out, but we can’t activate the altar without a life monster… Wait, that’s not right…”

He slapped himself on the head. “We came to the altar looking for a life monster. If a life monster shows up, why did we even come all the way here?”

“That’s right.” Nine Frost let out a soft sigh.

“Are we really fighting a life monster?” Gray Bear smiled bitterly.

“Actually,” Gao Yang said. “I may be able to activate the altar.”

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