The Creatures that We Are

The Faithful Punch that Azure Dragon made before his death had put a greater crater into the ground, and the resulting energy waves almost destroyed and melted everything in it.

Except for Qing Ling and Ke Yo, who were protected by the Absolute Barrier.

Clink. The barrier shattered after a minute.

While waiting for that to happen, Qing Ling had patiently chiseled away the ice petals stabbing into her with Black Gold darts. Finally, she was free.

She could barely stand with all the injuries and blood covering her, yet she clenched her teeth and limped her way to the center of the crater with her Tang Dao. There, a man had died on one knee.

Azure Dragon.

All around him was charred soil. Six Rime’s body and the ice lotuses outside the absolute barrier had long been rendered to ashes.

With great difficulty, Qing Ling walked. Her icy eyes turned blazing, and her injured feet moved faster and faster.

Finally, she was right before Azure Dragon’s body.

Then Qing Ling retracted the Tang Dao from his almost flattened chest and made a backhand swing. His head fell a few meters before landing with a thud.

She only relaxed after kicking the headless body down.

Without another glance at the pitiful state the enemy’s body was in, she turned around and walked out of the crater.

She made her way to the direction Gao Yang had been thrown in. Using her Tang Dao as a cane, she climbed out of the giant crater one step at a time, piercing her blade into the ground and pulling it out again and again.

Ke Yo finally woke up then. Ice petals had sliced open many parts of her body, and the bleeding hadn’t stopped, but she wasn’t in any critical danger.

Enduring the pain, she walked up to Qing Ling and supported the stumbling woman.

“Qing Ling! You’re seriously injured. Use the Medicine C…”

There was one syringe remaining in Qing Ling’s waist pack with a quarter of the dose used. Luckily, the syringe remained intact during the fight afterward.

“I’m fine…no need…” Qing Ling panted as she continued to move.

Ke Yo understood immediately. The stab of sorrow in her chest quieted her.

They supported each other as they limped their way to the edge of the battlefield. The Faithful Punch had torn numerous layers off the rocky surface of the pit, and heated stone pieces covered the ground.

Their eyes tightened when they spotted a bloodied hand amid the pile of stones.

Qing Ling cast away her Tang Dao and rushed up. Dropping to her knees, she moved away a few rocks and grabbed Gao Yang’s hand.

She yanked. It sent her falling on her bottom.

It was a severed arm.

Qing Ling stared.

“Ah!” Ke Yo cried out. She had to muffle her mouth. Tears welled up in her eyes.

Two seconds later, Qing Ling threw the arm away. No matter if he was a living person or a corpse now, she would recover him.

After a stunned moment, Ke Yo roughly wiped the tears and blood away before kneeling to help Qing Ling dig through the pile of debris. They left bloody fingerprints on the rocks they removed, and after some time, they had dug through half of the pile.

Finally, they discovered a calf. The panthose was burned to nothing, and the sock and shoe were gone. The foot was half melted with only two toes left.

Qing Ling and Ke Yo exchanged a glance. Each holding onto their wounds with one hand, they used their other hand to grab the ankle, and together, they pulled.

More rocks tumbled down. Gao Yang got pulled out.

Naturally, his body was far from intact.

He was missing both arms and his entire right leg. His abdomen, chest, and the left side of his face were all tattered and bloodied, almost charred. From the open wounds of singed flesh, bones could be made out.

He looked like a body that had been eaten and discarded by a pack of wolves.

Although Can had pushed Gao Yang away with Gale before her death and got him out of the most deadly area of effect, and Gao Yang had endured the hit with close to two thousand points in Constitution and Endurance, the aftershocks broke through his defense still, and his body was left in this poor state.

Qing Ling’s face darkened. She immediately bent down to press her left cheek to Gao Yang’s bloodied chest.

…

…

…

Thump.

While slow, his heart was still beating. He was alive!

Qing Ling jerked up and took off the cap of the Medicine C she had. She jabbed the needle into his chest and emptied the syringe in one go.

Gao Yang’s injuries slowly healed. Charred skin and flesh fell off, replaced by new growth, and the open wounds deep enough to reveal the bones were slowly mending, too.

Still, he was missing two arms and a leg.

Ke Yo was relieved to see that their captain yet lived, and she fell to her knees. Looking at the ruins before her, she was overwhelmed with a sense of loss and emptiness.

Then she suddenly remembered.

“What about Can? She…”

“Died,” Qing Ling said coldly.

“No, she has her hairpin…” Ke Yo couldn’t continue. The answer occurred to her, unbidden. “She gave the hairpin to me…didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

Ke Yo choked out a sob. “Why did she save me? I’m not worth it…”

“It was her choice,” Qing Ling interrupted her.

Ke Yo fell silent. She didn’t know what else to say.

She didn’t feel like crying. Her stomach twisted, and she felt the urge to throw up, but nothing would come out. She held onto her neck and slammed her fist on her chest hard.

“Ugh…gah…”

A minute passed, still she didn’t throw up anything.

Face ashen, Ke Yo raised a trembling hand to wipe the saliva leaking from a corner of her mouth. “Is this…revenge?”

“Yes,” Qing Ling said coolly. She reached out a tired hand to brush aside the bloodied strand of hair sticking to Gao Yang’s forehead.

After some time, the moon peeked out of the dark clouds again, casting a stream of light upon the ruins around them. The three survivors knelt, sat, and lay by the illuminated rubbles.

The gray-blue patch of lumination crawled along the ground like a giant worm, yet it never graced them with light.

Three minutes passed. Then five, or even longer.

The girl kneeling on the ground covered her face with both hands and started sobbing.

…

“42, Gecko, Life.”

“42, Gecko, Life.”

Emotionless and genderless voices rang and repeated in his mind.

Gao Yang woke up.

He opened his swollen eyes to find himself lying on the bed of a hotel suite. By his side sat Qing Ling, who was patching herself up.

The gray-blue moon shone through the window. The thin gauze curtains swayed gently.

Gao Yang tried to move, but couldn’t.

He dragged his gaze down to see that he was missing his arms and one leg, and his body was wrapped all over in bloodied bandages like a broken mummy.

“You’re up.” In the dark, Qing Ling’s eyes were dim with faint light coming from behind her.

“How long…have I been out?” Gao Yang croaked weakly.

“Three hours.”

“Ugh…”

Suddenly, Gao Yang felt a strange pain in the stumps of his severed limbs. It started out sharp like a heated iron ingot getting plunged into cooling water. Then it transitioned into a warm throbbing pain.

“What is it?”

“Something’s happening…to the stumps…”

Qing Ling started. A Black Gold dart was suddenly in her hand. She made quick work of the bandages around his severed limbs.

A few seconds later, she looked at Gao Yang in disbelief. “You acquired Gecko.”

Gao Yang looked down at his body with difficulty. Indeed, small white bones were slowly growing out of the stump of his leg like a fragile sprout. Then pink flesh and veins followed like green leaves. Regenerating last were the capillaries and skin, which gradually closed in and mended together.

“Seems…that way…”

Gao Yang closed his eyes again.

So this was how actual comprehension of a Talent worked.

When Gao Yang comprehended a Talent through his system before, it wasn’t actual comprehension—at least it wasn’t the way the Heavenly Way assigned Talents to awakeners; instead, it was his luck or his identity as the Divine Scion granting him an alternative channel.

Gecko was the second Talent he had comprehended on his own.

“Good,” Qing Ling said in an aloof tone, but he could hear relief from her. “Then I don’t have to kidnap Dr. Jia from the Ocean River Union.”

During the period when Gao Yang was unconscious, Qing Ling had been waiting by his side and wondering what they should do. With the leader of the Nine Scions severely crippled, Dr. Jia would be the only one who could help him stand again.

That wasn’t a problem now. Gao Yang had Gecko. It would only be a matter of time for him to regenerate his limbs.

Relief washed over Qing Ling, along with an exhaustion she couldn’t even begin to fight.

“I’m tired, Gao Yang.”

Houseau3's Thoughts

I'm tired...too...hell they really are losing people left and right...

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