The Creatures that We Are

Gao Yang happened to be looking at Black Sparrow as she spoke, and he saw it.

He saw a bullet going into her temple.

When his eyes first perceived it, it didn’t even register in his brain. It was all so sudden, so abrupt.

Then the second shot rang, and blood gushed out of Gray Bear’s head.

Gao Yang saw it from the corner of his eye.

At that moment, he realized what that meant: there would be a third and a fourth bullet, and his and his companion’s heads would be hit.

Thanks to the return of his Talents and his Agility being high enough, he made an impossible reaction on instinct, pushing away Nine Frost, who was beside him, while tilting his head to the side.

Bang, bang!

The two shots were made half a second apart, one brushing past Gao Yang’s temple, and the other missing Nine Frost’s head thanks to Gao Yang pushing the man away.

Bang! Then a bullet hit Nine Frost in the chest as he shifted to the side. Gao Yang wasn’t certain if it had hit the heart or the lungs.

Caught completely off guard with no obstacles to take cover behind, Gao Yang knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid a second shot even though he had avoided the first. Still, he rolled to the side reflexively, praying that the bullet would miss his vitals.

When he landed, though, the sixth shot never came.

Gao Yang knew that it wasn’t because the attacker took mercy on them, but because she had run out of bullets.

He jerked up to look at where the shots came from.

Holding a handgun, Yellow Butterfly stared down at them with an expressionless face.

“Yellow Butterfly, you…” Nine Frost said in stops and starts, lying on the ground with a hand covering his bleeding chest while blood streaked down from the corner of his mouth. “You’re a spy?”

“I am,” Yellow Butterfly admitted easily. She didn’t look satisfied with a job well down; instead, her eyes flashed with a complicated sense of regret.

“I didn’t want to make a move, but two Rune Circuits were beyond the value of my spy work. I had to make a decision. Once your Talents recovered, I would be outnumbered and overpowered. Ambush was my only option.” R̃ἈΝộＢЁꞩ

“You’ve been saving up bullets?” Gao Yang wasn’t so much angry but shocked. “You’ve considered this scenario.”

“Yes.” Yellow Butterfly cast the gun aside. “I saved five bullets for myself. I thought it would be enough, but I underestimated you.”

“Yellow Butterfly, why…” Nine Frost still seemed reluctant to accept the truth.

“Nothing.” Yellow Butterfly walked up to pick up the Rune Circuit on the floor. “From the very beginning, I was a spy planted in the Qilin Guild. We are each doing our own job.”

“Who…do you work for?” Nine Frost asked weakly, his face pale.

Gao Yang considered him.

Good news, Nine Frost must not have been hit in the heart, or he wouldn’t have been able to speak so much. Bad news, even though Nine Frost had recovered his Talents and stats bonuses, the bullet had hit him before his full recovery, and he was unlikely to be able to fight in this state.

“You don’t need to know the answer.”

Yellow Butterfly turned away from Nine Frost to look at Gao Yang, her gaze terrifyingly calm. “Give me the Rune Circuit in your hand, Seven Shadow. There’s no reason for all of you to die here.”

Gao Yang didn’t say anything.

Since Yellow Butterfly was a spy, she must have Talents other than Avian King, which was clear from the confidence oozing from her after she revealed herself.

She was strong.

However, Yellow Butterfly didn’t know Gao Yang’s power well. That was why she chose negotiation, or it would be more accurate to say she was testing him.

What a formidable enemy the woman was. Killing was merely a means to an end for her.

Were she able to escape with the two Rune Circuits without killing people, she wouldn’t have killed anyone—not because of her sentimental feelings for her ‘companions’, but because the risk of failing the mission would be higher if she killed senselessly.

“I’ll give you ten seconds, Seven Shadow.”

Yellow Butterfly must know that Lithe Snake, Ronnie, and Can could put up some fight with their Talents recovered, and that the three of them were likely rushing their way after hearing the gunshots.

“Six seconds.”

“Answer a question for me, and I’ll give you the Rune Circuit.” Gao Yang took out the Summon Rune Circuit from his pocket.

Yellow Butterfly said after a pause, “Ask.”

“Are you…Xiang Xiaoqin from eighteen years ago?”

Yellow Butterfly’s face darkened. Although she hadn’t given him an answer, her expression said enough.

“You’re…” Gao Yang continued, “A half-human.”

A half-human, an overtaker.

A greed monster that had become human.

“Who are you, Seven Shadow?” Yellow Butterfly was impressed. Although she knew that Gao Yang was buying time, she couldn’t help but get to the bottom of things. “How do you know what I am? Who do you work for?”

Gao Yang scoffed and projected a mysterious air.

In truth, it was simply a conclusion Gao Yang had gotten to by making educated guesses.

He had been having questions since they entered the Rune Cave. Why was the Rune Cave not triggered when Niu Xuan did exercises on the flag platform for the first time? Why did it happen the second time?

Was it simply because Niu Xuan’s monsterhood had awakened?

That didn’t seem likely.

Now that he thought about it, it must be because of Yellow Butterfly’s presence. Niu Xuan was Li Zhuanghu from eighteen years ago, and Yellow Butterfly was Xiang Xiaoqin from eighteen years ago.

When the two keys were present, the Rune Cave opened and swept all of them in.

Of course, there was an element of chance involved as well. If Yellow Butterfly had known that she would be able to reopen the Rune Cave by having Niu Xuan with her, she would’ve done it already.

In hindsight, Yellow Butterfly had given something away. Last night, when they were investigating the Eleventh High School in the real world, Yellow Butterfly had come up to the rooftop and gotten sentimental at the comments left on the water tank.

She must not have expected a revisit to the Rune Cave and thought it as a one-time return to a place she used to know.

Yellow Butterfly had said that she had been an ugly, drab girl who was ostracized by her class, just like Xiang Xiaoqin. Only Yellow Butterfly got ‘plastic surgery’ later.

Gao Yang made a bold guess: perhaps the original Xiang Xiaoqin had chanced upon the awakener Yellow Butterfly. Its monsterhood awakened, and it happened to be an overtaker. It took over Yellow Butterfly’s body and became a half-human, being born anew.

Perhaps that had something to do with what happened at the Eleventh High School eighteen years ago, too.

Anyway, Xiang Xiaoqin ‘vanished’, replaced by the half-human Yellow Butterfly.

To the Monster Supreme, the monster becoming a half-human with different identity was no different from the monster disappearing altogether, and they deemed it appropriate to create another Xiang Xiaoqin.

Thus, the Heavenly Way implemented its punishment, trapping everyone at the Eleventh High School, along with the newborn Xiang Xiaoqin, inside the Rune Cave in a never-ending loop.

Following that train of thought, the moment Yellow Butterfly had talked Xiang Xiaoqin out of killing her was but a farce. She hadn’t moved her with reasoning, not at all. When Xiang Xiaoqin smiled and said, ‘I can be pretty like you are,’ it wasn’t an expression of subjective desire.

She had simply glimpsed into Yellow Butterfly’s memory at that moment and seen her other self gaining a new lease in life by overtaking her host.

Thinking she had realized her dream, she accepted death with a smile.

While some parts of the theory might have been wrong, Gao Yang believed he had gotten the overall story right.

He smiled cryptically. “Tell me who you work for, Yellow Butterfly, and I’ll tell you who I work for.”

Yellow Butterfly thought for a moment.

She didn’t bite the bait.

“No need.” She reached out. “Yes, I am Xiang Xiaoqin from the past, and I’m now a half-human. Now that I’ve answered your question, give me the Rune Circuit.”

“You…mustn’t…” Nine Frost used up the last of his strength to utter the words through his teeth. Then he lost consciousness, his head drooping.

Gao Yang smiled and threw the Rune Circuit. “Catch.”

Yellow Butterfly stalked up and reached for it.

“Fire!”

Two torrents of blazing flames swept toward her.

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