The Creatures that We Are

The hotel was quiet. The group sat on the tatami floor around a small wooden table.

Taking a sip of instant coffee, Gao Yang spent some time clearing up his thoughts.

“First, a life monster is slightly stronger than Lilia.”

“How strong was Lilia?” Officer Huang asked, and Qing Ling and Heavenly Dog looked over at him.

Gao Yang realized a little awkwardly that none of them had faced Lilia before.

“Hm, think of Lilia as two War Tigers.” Gao Yang made a rough analogy. “The life monster we ran into today was as strong as at least three War Tigers combined, but keep that between ourselves.”

The others nodded, now having a frame of reference.

Gao Yang continued, “Second, we’ve fought Zhuang Mei to an inch of our lives and exhausted half of her strength when Dragon arrived in time, creating a realm with Overlord to kill Zhuang Mei. The hemisphere wasn’t large, the diameter no greater than ten meters. Remember that detail. Don’t get it mixed up.”

“The realm was no greater than ten meters in diameter,” Qing Ling repeated, trying her best to erase her memory of the realm that had enveloped the entire Mount Kei.

“Third, Dragon hadn’t fallen unconscious after killing the life monster. He told us that he had matters to attend to and took his leave rather than coming with us.”

Gao Yang then turned to Heavenly Dog. “You’re in charge of sneaking Dragon back to base, Heavenly Dog. Remember, it must be kept a secret from everyone save for War Tiger.”

“But,” Heavenly Dog said hesitantly, “There are only two official channels we can take to return to Li City, the plane, or the cruise.”

“I’ve thought about it,” Gao Yang assured. “We’ll take the cruise back. I’ll tell you the details later.”

Heavenly Dog nodded. “Okay.”

“I’ll make a call shortly after and give Qilin this version of the story.” Gao Yang turned to Officer Huang. “Tell the Twelve Zodiac Signs the same thing. Then find an excuse to call Chen Ying to leak parts of the story to the Hundred Rivers Union, but don’t make it obvious.”

“Leave it to me.” Officer Huang took out his phone.

Then Gao Yang thought of something and added, “As for the truth of what happened tonight, you should talk to War Tiger alone after returning to base.”

“Okay.”

“Are you sure we are the only ones who know about what happened tonight?” Qing Ling stared at Gao Yang. “Qilin and the Hundred Rivers Union might have sent members to keep an eye on us.”

“That was impossible.” Gao Yang spoke with certainty and shared his reasons. “First, Qilin had to commit to the act. If he sent someone to keep an eye on us, Dragon would’ve noticed even if we didn’t. Qilin wouldn’t have taken the risk.”

“Second, almost no one could endure the brainwashing power Zhuang Mei unleashed in life monster form. Even if there were unwanted eyes in the area, they would’ve fallen unconscious.”

“Third, once Dragon created his realm, he would know everyone and everything inside it. If there had been other awakeners in Mount Kei, Dragon would’ve noticed.”

“Then I don’t have a question.” Qing Ling was convinced.

“Anything else?” Gao Yang asked.

No one said anything.

“Then we follow the plan.” Gao Yang rose to his feet and walked out of the room. “I’m calling Vermilion Bird. Qilin must still be with her.”

Officer Huang propped himself up tiredly. “I’ll call War Tiger.”

…

Gao Yang went to the hot spring in the back of the hotel, sitting down on a small bamboo bench by the hot spring. When he turned on his phone, there were about a dozen missed calls from Vermilion Bird.

He took a deep breath and called back. She picked up almost immediately. “Hey! Seven Shadow, why didn’t you pick up? What’s going on there? Stop investigating this instant! Life monsters are too dangerous for you to deal with…”

Vermilion Bird poured out everything she had been bottling up and gave Gao Yang no chance to respond. He listened to her as she prattle on, touched.

After a while, Vermilion Bird realized that she had been too urgent. “Hey, you still there, Seven Shadow? Say something.”

“I’m still here.” Gao Yang smiled resignedly. “Thank you for your concern, Elder Vermilion Bird. We’re all alive.”

“What do you mean?” Vermilion Bird was shocked. “You ran into the life monster, didn’t you?!”

“Yeah.” Gao Yang spoke in an exhausted tone that suggested he had just survived a deadly encounter, which wasn’t an act at all. “We killed it.”

The next ten minutes, Gao Yang went into details about their two days in the Island Nation. Of course, he gave them the modified version of the story when he got to the great battle with the life monster.

Vermilion BIrd sighed in relief after hearing the explanation. “As long as you’re fine… Don’t hang up yet, Seven Shadow. A minute.”

There was a rustle. It was obvious that the phone was muffled with a hand on the other end.

Gao Yang didn’t even have to think to figure out that Qilin and Azure Dragon must be listening in, and Vermilion Bird was talking to them.

Half a minute later, Vermilion Bird continued, “Make it back as soon as you can, Seven Shadow. We’ve questioned Edmond and found out quite a lot. I’ll give you the gist of it now.”

“Okay.”

Three minutes later, Gao Yang finished the call and hung up. He was still sitting on the small bench. Smoke came up from the hot spring at his feet and obscured his vision.

Tightening his grip around his phone, he broke into cold sweat, and his hands wouldn’t stop trembling.

“Gao Yang.”

A familiar voice came from behind him. It took a long while for him to come to his senses. He shot to his feet. It was Qing Ling.

“Done with the call?” Qing Ling asked.

Gao Yang didn’t say anything. His gaze was unfocused; he could be looking at Qing Ling, or nothing.

Noticing his strange reaction, Qing Ling took two steps forward and grabbed his wrist. “You’re shaking.”

Finally pulling himself out of his shock and confusion, Gao Yang extracted his hand from Qing Ling’s grip and walked around her, heading back to the hotel. He said in a slightly hoarse voice, “I’m probably just a little tired. I’ll be fine after some rest.”

Qing Ling turned around, staring and frowning at Gao Yang’s back.

…

Past midnight, the wanderers at the hotel woke up one after another, and the whole area around Mount Tamaougi went back to normal. Most continued to sleep, while a smaller number of people forewent sleep and started the next day, thinking they were suffering from insomnia.

Gao Yang and the others had slept for two to three hours too. They checked out of the hotel before day broke and took a bus back to Zone D, arriving at the harbor to board the cruise.

Since they had to hide an unconscious Dragon, they resorted to hiding him in a large suitcase even though it seemed a little cruel. At eight in the morning, Gao Yang, Officer Huang, Qing Ling, and the still sleeping Su Xi boarded the cruise normally and settled down in the three suites they had booked beforehand.

Heavenly Dog followed the cruise secretly with the heavy suitcase after it departed. Then he flew to the empty deck and found his suite.

He opened the suitcase, moving Dragon to the bed. Then he waited. Four o'clock the next morning, the cruise would reach the harbor downstream Li River. Then Heavenly Dog would quietly disembark with Dragon in the suitcase and quickly soar to his maximum flying height, carrying Dragon back to the Millennium Tower without leaving any trace.

The hassle over the past two days and the difficult fight with Zhuang Mei left them exhausted. They each rested in their suites; Officer Huang shared a room with Su Xi, Heavenly Dog with Dragon, and Gao Yang with Qing Ling.

Qing Ling retired to bed not long after having the meal the staff brought them. With Gao Yang by her side, she slept well, and it was already ten o’clock at night when she woke up.

She rolled to a sitting position and tied her messy long hair into a ponytail. When she looked up, Gao Yang was staring at the floor with his back hunched, looking miles away.

Qing Ling frowned. He had been acting strange since calling Vermilion Bird.

“You haven’t slept for two days.”

“Can’t sleep.” Gao Yang’s eyes remained fixed on the floor, and his voice was hoarse.

“What happened?” Qing Ling didn’t get it. Everything went well. They got Su Xi back, and they seemed to have hidden the truth from Qilin.

“Nothing,” Gao Yang humored her before his thoughts strayed again.

A blazing fury she didn’t understand rushed up in her chest suddenly. She hated, hated Gao Yang like this.

Without even putting her slippers on, she strode up to Gao Yang and lifted a barefoot to Gao Yang’s chest, pinning him to the sofa. With a wave of her left hand, her Tang Dao flashed into existence, pressing into Gao Yang’s neck.

Houseau3's Thoughts

Hmm what could've shaken him like this? Something Edmond's body has revealed...

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