The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 268: For Survival

As background prop for Qilin, Gao Yang kept up a poker face, while in truth, there was a 9.0 quake going on in his head.

Everyone’s dead? What nonsense!

How could all the top awakeners in the world lose their lives to one Crimson Tide? How?

Are they killed by monsters, or each other?

Moreover, Chen Ying had said that Surnamed Li’s prediction always came true. Then could the future be changed? If not, what was the point of them gathering here for a discussion? Why didn’t they just go home and retire to bed?

A myriad of thoughts haunted Gao Yang. He couldn’t even begin to untangle the mess.

After about thirty seconds, Qilin broke the silence. “Would you please go into more details, Madam Li?”

Surnamed Li nodded. “First, I have to let you know that my prophetic dreams don\'t quite work like regular dreams.”

“A regular dream usually comes with specific characters, times, locations, and events. It may be unclear and absurd, but there’s usually a clear enough throughline.”

“For example, I saw all of you here killed by a monster on the last day of the Crimson Tide on the ground floor of the Millennium Tower.”

“That’s how a regular dream would go.”

Arms holding his knees, Dragon narrowed his eyes. Whether out of exhaustion or bemusement, Gao Yang didn’t know.

Slightly turned to the side, Qilin rested his long fingers on his temple, in deep thought.

Surnamed Li paused and continued, “My prophetic dreams, on the other hand, consist of abstract feelings, snippets of images, and disjointed information. There is no order, only chaos.”

“I saw people dead. I heard snippets of conversations out of context. I sensed the pain of losing companions, not from myself, but from other people.”

“And I sensed an overbearing and furious sort of resentment—from a monster. Sometimes I was the claws slicing through a neck, sometimes the tears of despair shed by a dying awakener, and other times, I even turned into the blood fog that was everywhere. I could hear the heartbeats of humans and monsters alike. It almost broke me...”

Her face was pale when she got to the end of her monologue. “Have I made myself clear?”

“You weren’t a particular person in your dream, but part of the objective world, seeing and sensing things as an absolute observer.” Dragon attempted a summary.

Qilin more or less agreed, and he added, “You jumped between the perspectives of different people and different things, forced to be on the receiving end of all kinds of information. It’s as if you got countless puzzle pieces in the dream, and you pieced them together once you woke up.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

Surnamed Li’s gaze was filled with complicated feelings. “That’s why I can’t give you more concrete information. I can only tell you that in ten days, the Crimson Tide will come, and all of us will die. Not from killing each other, but from a bizarre disaster. It won’t hit the Li City itself, but specifically the awakeners—all awakeners.”

There was another stretch of silence.

Gao Yang tried to comprehend her words. The city itself wasn’t destroyed. The awakeners alone were killed.

Was it not a physical attack, but a psychic one?

Could it be the ability of an elite monster? A pride monster, life monster, or a death monster, perhaps?

“What other clues can you give us, Madam Li? Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t quite make sense.” Qilin spoke up again. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t know where to even begin to prepare for the looming crisis.”

Surnamed Li nodded slightly. “There is some information I cannot decipher, but I believe is worth mentioning.”

All eyes were on her.

“First, unlike the previous Crimson Tides, the blood fog will rise continuously until it devours everything.”

“Second, in my dream, I was with five or six blurry figures at one point. They were strong, and they were hostile to awakeners.”

“Third, in my dream, I said, ‘What of the Heavenly Way?’”

“Four, in my dream, I killed an awakener by carving out his heart.”

“Again, I wasn’t actually myself in the dream, but everyone and everything in the world.”

The atmosphere grew grave. Again, it was Qilin who broke the silence.

“The awakener you killed in the dream...did you get a look at the face?”

“Yes, and his was the only face I got a clear look of. I know him. He’s here in this room, in fact.”

“Who is it?” Dragon was curious.

Surnamed Li looked up, her empathetic gaze going over Qilin’s shoulders at the four Elders behind him, landing on Gao Yang’s face.

Gao Yang shuddered.

She’s looking at me. I’m certain it’s not me being too conscious of myself.

“I was the one killed?” Gao Yang blurted out.

Surnamed Li nodded. “Yes.”

Although she had said in the very beginning that everyone in attendance would die, being singled out with a detailed description of how he would be killed still hit Gao Yang with an overwhelming sense of surreality and absurdity, followed by unbearable fear.

I’m going to die, my heart carved out by an enemy.

Just like what has happened in my dream before.

Gao Yang clenched his fists and tried his best to calm down.

Surnamed Li looked away from Gao Yang and continued, “Now I’ll share other information I’ve deduced myself. It’s my personal speculation. Take it with a grain of salt.”

“First, the blood fog is closely related to our death. It may be a weapon, or one of the catalysts triggering the disaster.”

“Second, the figures I saw were very likely pride monsters.”

“Third, during this Crimson Tide, the rules imposed by the Heavenly Way will break down entirely.”

“Four, the one that’s going to kill Elder Seven Shadow may be a pride monster too, and it’s the key in this event. In gaming terms you young people are familiar with, his killer may be the boss of the event.”

Silence returned to the room.

Gao Yang had reconciled with the fact that he would be killed. Now, he only had one other question.

Thankfully, Qilin asked it for him.

“Can the future you foresaw be changed, Madam Li?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I can change what happens after ten seconds by foreseeing it. As for the random events related to me I’ve predicted, I can also change one way or another. A future that comes to me as a glimpse into fate, however, I’ve never attempted to change.”

“A future that can be predicted must be changeable, because the prediction itself is a change,” said Dragon.

“A flawless logic.” Qilin smiled faintly.

“I agree with you two.” Surnamed Li’s gaze was experienced and determined. “Or I wouldn’t be sitting here tonight.”

One hand holding his cane, Qilin slowly rose to his feet, scanning the room at all in attendance.

“We belong to different organizations, fellow awakeners, and we each have our own ideals and goals. In the next fortnight, however, we will put aside our differences, misunderstandings, suspicions, and selfish desires. Let us work together, for we have no other choice.”

“For survival.” Dragon didn’t stand up, but his heterochromic eyes became bright and fierce.

“For survival,” Qilin repeated.

And so did Surnamed Li. “For survival.”

“What about you?” Qilin looked around the room.

“For survival!” Everyone chanted at the same time in a thunderous chorus.

Gao Yang wasn’t being overly sentimental when he said that he felt his blood rushing through his body, soothing his fear for his prophesied death, if only temporarily.

He knew that the next seventeen days would be the period of time in which the awakeners were most unified.

Not for gains, not for ideologies, not for beliefs, but simply for the survival of humanity.

“Now, let’s go into the second part of the meeting.” Qilin sat back down and spoke like the head of the wulin. “We talk strategy together.”