The Creatures that We Are

Many ran out of the building calling out for help. They were all wanderers, and with their logic and perceptions modified, they thought they were hit with a missile or a natural gas explosion. Since it was a hospital, many doctors and nurses were already rushing out of the other buildings to save lives.

Amid the surging flames, Gao Yang saw Officer Huang and Mischievous Monkey running towards him, the former carrying an unconscious Hong Xiaoxiao while the latter carried an unconscious Zhong He, escaping the bombed inpatient building with a crowd of people.

“What happened?” Gao Yang rushed over to them.

Officer Huang laid Hong Xiaoxiao on the ground, shouting at Mischievous Monkey, “Call Adept Horse and Lovely Lamb here!”

Then he picked himself up while holding onto his bleeding abdomen, coming up to Gao Yang. In a lowered voice, he said, “Su Xi’s taken!”

Gao Yang could guess it was the Tails. He whispered back, “Where did they go?”

“I don’t know, but they left through the front door.” Officer Huang’s voice was trembling.

The front door. That’s right behind me.

As soon as the thought flashed through Gao Yang’s mind, he heard an explosion coming from behind him, the sound rumbling and heavy like thunder, and it sounded far.

The top of the Green Mountain.

“It’s the Green Mountain!” Gao Yang shouted.

“Let’s go!” Officer Huang was going to give chase immediately, but in his haste, he pulled the wound on his abdomen. “Ugh…”

Gao Yang glanced at him. “You’re seriously injured.”

“I’ll live!” Officer Huang paled and took out his car key. “Get the car! Now!”

Gao Yang stopped hesitating and grabbed Officer Huang, throwing reservation out of the window and teleporting amid the crowd, vanishing instantly.

The two wanderers witnessing this were stunned. One fainted then and there, while the other blinked and forgot what they saw, continuing shouting, “Help! There was an explosion. Help…”

In less than ten seconds, Gao Yang had taken Officer Huang away from the hospital, reaching the car parked by the road.

“Get in!”

Gao Yang opened the door. Officer Huang clenched his teeth and dove in while holding his abdomen.

Whoosh! A gust of wind preceded Qing Ling’s arrival on her flying blade. The road was almost empty of pedestrians at midnight, but it was still bold of her to fly here out in the open. Nevertheless, she could guess something had happened to Officer Huang, so she couldn’t waste any time.

As soon as she landed, she got into the car.

Gao Yang didn’t even put on his seatbelt before he started the car and kicked the accelerator.

“Something happened?” Qing Ling asked.

“Where’s Heavenly Dog?” Officer Huang asked instead of answering. Were Heavenly Dog here, they would be able to travel much more quickly.

“I don’t know. Perhaps he’s back at base,” said Qing Ling.

“Su Xi was taken by the Tails,” Gao Yang explained while speeding through a few red lights, heading toward the explosion.

It was then Vermilion Bird called. Gao Yang put her on speaker.

“Seven Shadow, head to the Green Mountain at once.”

“I saw,” said Gao Yang.

“My wife was taken by the Tails!” Officer Huang shouted. “Save her!”

“Don’t worry,” Vermilion Bird said confidently. “The three organizations have sent people there, including Guildmaster. We must take them all out this time.”

Gao Yang paused, quickly putting two and two together.

Given how special Su Xi was, it was only sufficient to have Officer Huang, Mischievous Monkey, and Hong Xiaoxiao keep watch on her. Were Gao Yang in Qilin’s place, he would at least send Elder Azure Dragon, and were he War Tiger, he would’ve watched over her himself.

Yet they didn’t.

Now it seemed that Qilin and War Tiger did it on purpose. Having guessed that the Tails would attempt to take her again, they purposefully allowed the kidnapping to happen in order to trace them and erase them all; it would be even better if they could track them to the Godbearer Cult, which was pulling the strings behind the scene, thus finding out about what made Su Xi special.

That was why Vermilion Bird had noticed only a few minutes after the Tails took Su Xi.

No, it probably wasn’t Vermilion Bird, but Heavenly Dog and Little Tian, the best scouting combo. So that was the new mission War Tiger assigned him.

Judging by the explosion on the Green Mountain, the battle was likely to have started.

“I’ll go as quickly as I can!” Gao Yang twisted the driving wheel and made a sharp turn at the crossroad ahead.

“Hmph…”

Taking the passenger seat, Officer Huang took out the Medicine C he carried with him and gave himself a shot in the abdomen, groaning.

“Still alive?” Qing Ling rolled down the window to allow a cool gust in, rustling her hair but clearing her head.

“Yeah…” Medicine C started to come into effect. Officer Huang collected his breath and suddenly punched the car. “Fuck, I let the Tails get away!”

“Patience. Tell us what happened.” Gao Yang continued to drive, speaking calmly.

“The four of us split into two teams and patrol the whole building every twenty minutes…” Officer Huang said in a regretful tone. “But I didn’t expect the maniacs to blow up the whole building!”

“Must be Smoker,” Qing Ling said.

“Must be.” Officer Huang sucked in a breath. “His power is terrifying. The explosion took all of us by surprise.”

He found a napkin and wiped the blood on his hands. “Sir Monkey quickly protected the ward with earth elements, and Zhong He reinforced the wall with Phantom. We made it out narrowly…”

Gao Yang took another turn without slowing down.

“But we still got ambushed…” Officer Huang took out his gun to check the ammos. “Astronaut had been hiding nearby, and we all got poisoned…ack…”

He coughed and wiped away the blood around his mouth. “This is the wrong direction! Gao Yang, you took the wrong turn!”

Gao Yang nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ll go somewhere else first before heading to the Green Mountain.”

“Are you mad?!” Officer Huang shouted. “We should save her first. Everything else can wait…”

“Su Xi isn’t on the mountain,” Gao Yang cut him off.

“Huh?” Officer Huang asked.

Qing Ling said from the back, “This is a distraction. The Tails used the explosion to lure us there.”

“Right…” Officer Huang sounded calmer. “That’s a possibility, but how did you know? Have you sent someone to follow Tails in the dark?”

Gao Yang shook his head. “No, the Tails moved discreetly.”

“Then why are you so certain?” Officer Huang was confused.

“Because the Tails would only take Su Xi to one place,” said Gao Yang.

“Where.”

“The altar.”

Officer Huang started. “Do you mean a life monster’s altar?”

“Yes.”

“Is there an altar in Li City?” Officer Huang frowned. “Why hasn’t anyone spotted it?”

“The altar is merely a mark on an important and special site…” Gao Yang said bemusedly. “Think of it as a mine shaft of energy. A life monster has the key to the trapdoor. Every Crimson Tide, a life monster opens the trapdoor and sows seeds with the energy of the mine shaft, through the red fog as medium.”

Officer Huang nodded. “Keep going.”

Gao Yang looked up at the rearview mirror to meet Qing Ling’s eyes. “Two days ago, we went to a desert in the Ni Nation and found an altar, which indirectly supports my theory.”

Qing Ling explained further, “Gao Yang used his blood to activate the altar. Before, it had been a dune with nothing.”

“Blood?” Officer Huang sounded increasingly dumbfounded.

Qing Ling continued, “Gao Yang survived a Spectre’s feeding and ended up with half the curse of a Spectre, and now we know that Spectres are born between life monsters and humans.”

“Wait, when did you get bitten by a Spectre, Gao Yang?” Officer Huang was stunned. He turned to Gao Yang.

Gao Yang smiled. “It’s a long story. Let’s first…”

Bang!

Without warning, Officer Huang raised his gun and pressed it to Gao Yang’s temple, making three consecutive shots in 0.1 second.

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