The Creatures that We Are

“That’s right.” White Dew sauntered over with Fresh Snow in arms.

Gao Yang glanced sideways at her. “Back in the hotel cafeteria, did you do something to my orange juice?”

“I did something to your glass, to be precise.” White Dew curled her finger, and a ball of thin violet threads appeared around it. “I connected your glass and another with a thread, which allowed me to eavesdrop on your conversation. Haha, you almost got me.”

Gao Yang grumbled to himself, It was because you weren't hostile to me that I didn’t notice, or my system would surely find out.

“Through that, you learned of our plan to go to the triangular towers and guessed our goal.” War Tiger put two and two together. “Then you watched as we activated the altar.”

White Dew’s wordless smile was an answer of itself.

“You created the pressure that dragged us down, didn’t you?” War Tiger looked down at Spring.

Spring admitted easily, “I simply gave you a hand, or you would’ve never found this place.”

“Gave us a hand?” War Tiger stroked his chin and smirked. “It was because you didn’t have the confidence to go after the Cursed Offspring on your own that you used us as vanguards.”

“Ahem.” Exposed, Spring felt a little embarrassed. “Without us, you wouldn’t have been able to deal with it, either.”

The Cursed Offspring was indeed formidable, Gao Yang thought. If we hadn’t dealt with it swiftly, who knew how much stronger it would evolve, and if there was even a limit? It could even become stronger than a life monster.

War Tiger smiled. He knew when to back off, and he let the issue slide.

“We came here to find out more about life monsters. It was an accident that we ran into the Cursed Offspring.” War Tiger’s smile turned thin. “But you…you came for it.”

Spring didn’t deem that an answer.

“Why?” War Tiger pressed. “Why must you kill it?”

Spring thought for a moment before breaking into a smile. “Doesn’t hurt to tell you.”

“You must know that we once collaborated with the Godbearer Cult and have done a few things for them. In exchange, they provide us with food regularly and promise to erase our curses for us.”

“We know.”

Gao Yang had told them about that.

“However, the Cult didn’t honor their promise. They couldn’t erase our curses. To placate us, they revealed some truth, which shocked us and took quite some time for us to accept.”

Gao Yang could guess it. “You learned of your origin.”

“So you know that too.” Spring looked at Gao Yang with bright, experienced eyes, letting out a bitter laugh. “Ha, it turns out that ghosts are born between a life monster and a human, and we are born with curses.”

“Moreover, the life monster will die at our birth.”

That surprised Gao Yang and the others. They didn’t know that.

War Tiger, ever the composed one, lied with a straight face, “We know all that too. Tell us something new.”

Spring sighed. “The Godbearer Cult doesn’t know where life monsters came from, but they are certain that a number of life monsters show up every twenty years, charged with the responsibility to sow the seeds and give births.”

“We know that too,” said War Tiger.

“Then do you know what else can life monsters give birth to other than the ghosts?” Spring asked.

War Tiger didn’t say anything. A few seconds later, he admitted, “I don’t know.”

Spring said seriously, “We know something else they can give birth to.”

“The Cursed Offspring.” Gao Yang caught on. “What we encountered today.”

“Yeah.” Spring nodded. “The Cult believes that a ghost’s curse came from the Cursed Offspring given birth to by a life monster, and that we can erase our curses by killing it.”

Gao Yang asked, “So you’ve been going around the world looking for it?”

White Dew said softly, “We looked for many clues and went to many places, but found nothing. The Ni Nation was our last stop. It was a surprise to run into you.”

War Tiger grinned. “Ha, that’s fate.”

Gao Yang immediately asked, “Now that the Cursed Offspring was killed, have your curses disappeared?”

If so, the Spectres wouldn’t have to worry about dying anytime, and perhaps they wouldn’t have to eat awakeners to survive.

Naturally, Gao Yang was concerned about it.

“I don’t know.” Spring raised his right hand and considered it for a few seconds. “Changes did happen to my body after it was killed, but my curse remains.”

He looked up at White Dew and Waking Insects. “And you?”

“Still there,” White Dew answered calmly.

Waking Insects nodded.

“Maybe it’ll take some time, or maybe it doesn’t work at all.” Spring wasn’t too disappointed since he wasn’t that hopeful to begin with. Still, he had to try when he knew there was a possible solution.

Gao Yang sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

There was something else Gao Yang had been wondering, and Nine Frost had pointed it out.

“This life monster.” Gao Yang turned to the mummy inside the stone coffin. “Is it really from our time?”

“What do you mean?” Spring didn’t get his question.

Gao Yang glanced at War Tiger. “Can I tell them about the hundred-year thing?”

War Tiger nodded. “Go on. There’s no reason to hide it. Consider it an exchange of intel.”

Qing Ling and the others didn’t disagree, either.

“We speculate that the Mist World only lasts a hundred years. It doesn’t have a past or a future, and in two years, the world will end. Everything will disappear or get swallowed by the Mist.”

Silence stretched.

It was Spring, White Dew, and Waking Insect’ turn to be surprised.

The next two minutes, Gao Yang went over Alcoholic’s finding briefly.

Spring’s face darkened.

Now he knew what Gao Yang was asking. If the Mist World only had a lifespan of a hundred years, this ruined temple of the ancient Ni Nation under the desert shouldn’t exist.

In the history fabricated by the Heavenly Way, the ancient Ni Nation had been around for thousands of years, while the true history of the Mist World had, laughably, been going for less than a hundred years.

There was no reason for the Heavenly Way to create a fake ancient ruin, and based on what they had seen, the mummy inside the stone coffin and the unborn child would have to be part of the awfully convincing job of fabrication.

“I don’t know.” Spring shook his head. “If the world is only going to be around for a hundred years, nothing here makes any sense.”

Gao Yang had expected the answer.

There were other unanswered questions. For example, how did the mummified life monster die with an unborn child? Who killed it? Who sealed it away? And why was the Cursed Offspring alive even though the life monster was dead?

There were too many mysteries.

Gao Yang’s head was a mess. He had a feeling that they were missing something crucial, something that would unveil the shroud covering the mysterious world.

“Ugh…”

Then a familiar voice interrupted their thinking.

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