The Creatures that We Are

“It’s fake,” Gao Yang said calmly. “It’s a false intel I made up to lure Qilin’s people to the underground ruin in Ni Nation.”

“Then how does a Talent merge with a Rune Circuit and reach level 8?” War Tiger asked.

“I don’t know. But it can’t be easy, or Surnamed Li would’ve reached level 8 with Prophet, and Qilin would’ve reached level 8 with Puppeteer.”

War Tiger smirked and nudged Gao Yang's arm. "Stop playing dumb, Little Yang Yang. You're a bright kid. You came up with the five stages of Talents. It won't take you long to solve this mystery, right?"

Gao Yang looked at him resignedly. “I’m only making reasonable conjectures with the information I have.”

“I bet you have a new hypothesis.” War Tiger pressed.

Gao Yang sighed. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, true. I’ll say whatever’s on my mind. You’ll interpret it however you want.”

“Hurry!” War Tiger couldn’t wait.

“The confirmed method is consuming holy water, and I believe only the life monster giving birth to the Divine Scion has the pure energy that is holy water. The one from other life monsters is impure and acts more like poison.”

“My dad merged with the Guard Rune Circuit and reached level 8 with the pure holy water from my mom, so that is a proven path.” Gao Yang paused. “There may be a hidden requirement. I’ll get to that later.”

“Go on, go on.” War Tiger quickly lit his cigarette and followed along with Gao Yang’s thought process.

“To our knowledge, X and Lilia both reached level 8 successfully, but they couldn’t have used pure holy water. Outside of my mother, no other life monster had pure holy water in the Mist World.”

“Then aren’t we back to where we started?” War Tiger slapped his thigh. “You mentioned in your false intel that the two were likely to have used impure holy water.”

“Have you seen awakeners who have consumed impure holy water?” Gao Yang asked.

War Tiger thought about it. “One, Cockroach from Tails.”

“The man had Cockroach and still became mentally challenged as a result,” Gao Yang said. “I’ve seen others: Mad Red, Officer Liu, Yellow Butterfly. After consuming impure holy water, they all turned into monsters. Even Officer Huang…” Gao Yang didn’t continue.

“Anyway, I don’t think impure holy water can help awakeners reach level 8. And X and Lilia didn’t show any signs of turning into such abominations.”

War Tiger thought silently.

Gao Yang continued after a quiet moment, “So I theorized there is another path to level 8. It’s based on the hypothesis that those who have reached level 7 with a Talent have figured out their conviction. I’d call level 8 the stage of executing the conviction.”

War Tiger frowned, cigarette between his fingers. He wasn't quite getting it yet.

Gao Yang had come to this hypothesis thanks to the system—more accurately, thanks to that compass and steering wheel analogy it brought up.

"The answer's simple, but I wanna break it down so you can tell me if I'm off base somewhere."

"Fire away," War Tiger said.

“A Talent can only reach level 7 if the owner ‘has a conviction’. They need a clear, concrete conviction, so a goal. Then to reach level 8, one has to ‘execute the conviction’. They have to put it into action and work to accomplish the goal.”

War Tiger scratched his face. "Why does it feel like...you're just stating the obvious here?"

"Yeah, it's a bit circular, but I'm walking you through how I got there," Gao Yang pressed on. "Let's look at the three people who've cracked level 8: Lilia, X, and my dad, Gao Shou."

"And?" War Tiger looked lost.

Gao Yang gave him a hint. “Think about it. Outside of the three of them having a strong, clear conviction, what else do they have in common?”

Two seconds passed before War Tiger slapped his thigh. "Oh! They've all been lugging around those Rune Circuits for years!"

Now it was Gao Yang's turn to look surprised.

"Huh. It looks like we stumbled onto something else they share."

"What, that's not what you meant?" War Tiger snorted, amused.

Gao Yang admitted with a smile, “It wasn’t. But the fact that they had all carried the corresponding Rune Circuit for a long time might have helped their success.”

“Alright, stop beating around the bush.” War Tiger was ready to get to the main course.

Gao Yang said, “Lilia got Elemental Angel after reaching level 8 with one of the abilities being her immunity to all regular elements. X got Poison of Hell after reaching level 8 and attempted to kill everyone by offering sacrifices. Gao Shou got Chain of Fate after reaching level 8 to literally chain fate.”

War Tiger’s eyes twitched. He seemed to have glimpsed something, but it was still unclear.

“I heard that during her conversation with Qilin, Lilia spoke of the reason she merged with a pride monster. She thought being a human was miserable.”

“Why? You met Sarah before, and we could fill in the blanks and figure out the kind of childhood Lilia must have had. She had led a miserable life. That was why she chose to give up on being human.”

“Angels are considered carefree, holy, and pure. Elemental Angel grants immunity to all regular elemental damages.”

“If we see angels as such beings and consider all regular elements the filth of the world, Lilia would be trying to become a holy, pure, carefree existence above the filthy mortal world by becoming an angel. That was likely her conviction. Reaching level 8 and gaining Elemental Angel happened to be the concrete path to fulfilling her conviction.”

War Tiger furrowed his brow, trying to digest these speculations.

"You might think I'm reaching, but I can't help it. I don't know Lilia personally. But let's look at X and my father, Gao Shou, now."

"X's conviction is to kill everyone and become God, which aligns with Sir Zuo's answer. Consider what the Poison of Hell did. Wasn't that the perfect path for X to carry out his conviction?"

"My father's conviction was to protect his family. The Malediction was born to kill the Divine Scion—that was its fate. To protect me, my father had to forcefully twist the Malediction's fate. Wouldn't Chain of Fate be the perfect path for this conviction? It seemed almost tailor-made for him."

"My mother's pure holy water might have only helped him jump from level 4 to level 7. He reached level 8 because his conviction and the means to carry it out were perfectly aligned with Chain of Fate, the ability that Absolute Defense grants upon reaching level 8."

Gao Yang finished his explanation and turned to War Tiger. "Have I made myself clear enough?"

"Little Yang Yang! You're a genuine genius!" War Tiger exclaimed, feeling as refreshed as if he'd finally relieved himself after a bout of constipation.

But then he frowned. "Wait, there seems to be a philosophical question we need to address here!"

Houseau3's Thoughts

Hmm interesting. So Absolute Defense does fit Gao Yang better. At least from what we've seen.

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