The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 351: Crisis on Horizon

In twos or threes, patrols set out to scout the Li City. The others were left on the 52nd floor of the White Late Hotel. Due to the significance of the last night of the Tide, the three organizations forbade all awakeners from leaving the base for personal reasons.

Time crawled slowly, and many felt varying degrees of torment in the process.

Finally, it was three o’clock in the morning.

Gao Yang was naturally among those who couldn’t sleep. He stood before the window wall of the resting area and stayed vigilant during the last three hours before day broke, accompanied by many awakeners.

The sky cast in red from the crimson moon and the city enveloped by the blood fog looked quiet and eerily beautiful.

More than four million wanderers and about two hundred regular humans were deep asleep.

The hundred fifty and more awakeners, on the other hand, were awake and huddling together for comfort.

The elite monsters with their monsterhood awakened, meanwhile, had been doing nothing but pulling little tricks during the first six nights, as well as the first half of the last night. It was as if they had no plans and had been doing whatever took their fancy, which didn’t make sense.

They must be brewing something in secret and waiting for the right time to strike. It was likely that they were going to launch an all-out assault against the awakeners at the last moment of the final night to catch them off guard.

No one wanted a storm to hit.

However, most awakeners believed it would with a healthy dose of pessimism.

“Gao Yang.”

Gao Yang turned around to find Officer Huang standing beside him, looking out of the window like he had been doing.

“My phone hasn’t rung once.”

“It won’t.” Gao Yang was genuinely happy for him.

“I think so too.” Officer Huang nodded with a smile. “Were my wife an elite monster or were there an elite monster around me, they would’ve done something already.”

“Yes, and my phone hasn’t rung either,” Gao Yang said.

“Good.” Officer Huang felt relieved for him too. “Then we’ll only have to worry about ourselves.”

Gao Yang nodded.

Officer Huang asked, “Which team are you allocated to?”

“Fourth team, the leader.” Gao Yang then joked on purpose, “Still, I think I’ll do better in the rear.”

“Brat.” Officer Huang punched him in the shoulder lightly with a laugh. “Thinking about laying low even now.”

The leaders of the three organizations weren’t going to naively believe that things would be uneventful tonight. Thus, they had already divided the awakeners into the combatants and those in the rear.

The combatants totalled 80 with each team consisting of 20 awakeners, all those with Talents for combat or support.

Among the four teams of combatants, Gao Yang was the leader of the fourth team.

Officer Huang, Qing Ling, and Fat Jun were on the second team.

Before the Tide came, Fat Jun’s Healing had reached level 4, and he joined the Twelve Zodiac Signs officially as the new Horse, codenamed Adept Horse.

“Gao Yang.” Officer Huang took out a cigarette but didn’t immediately light it. “If—and I do mean if—something happened to me...”

“I know what I’ll have to do.” Gao Yang gave him a meaningful look. “And you’ll do the same for me.”

“Of course.” Officer Huang nodded. They pumped fists with mutual understanding.

The man walked away after having his cigarette.

Gao Yang was left standing before the window on his own, his gaze distant. He was broken out of his thoughts by a notification sound.

He jumped and quickly took out his phone, only to realize that it was a message from Qing Ling.

What the hell, I almost had a heart attack! I thought it was from my family!

Grumbling inwardly, Gao Yang clicked into the message and saw a photo of a sumptuous seafood hot pot.

Taken aback, Gao Yang turned to find Qing Ling, White Rabbit, and Songstress sharing a sofa not far from him.

White Rabbit and Songstress were chatting, while Qing Ling was on her phone. She glanced up at Gao Yang before looking down and clicking on her screen.

A few seconds later, Gao Yang’s phone rang again. This time, it was a text message.

Qing Ling: I’m the younger sister. Let’s have hot pot together after the Crimson Tide.

Gao Yang: Sure.

Qing Ling: Promise.

Gao Yang: Promise.

Gao Yang put away his phone with a smile. Just then, a voice called out to him, “Seven Shadow!”

Gao Yang looked up to find Vermilion Bird coming up to him from the central command. “Come here for a sec!”

Heart sinking, Gao Yang rushed up to her.

He followed her into the command room, where Qilin, Dragon, Surnamed Li, War Tiger, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Chen Ying, Colorless, and X were.

Sitting in a wheelchair, Surnamed Li trembled all over with a blanket on her, her face unusually pale.

“What’s wrong?” Gao Yang turned to the others.

“I had a short rest and saw, saw...” Surnamed Li said weakly. “Tonight, many die...”

Those in the room scowled.

“Did you see anything concrete?” Qilin asked.

Surnamed Li shook her head. “The dream’s too short. But I remember seeing a large red light beam. I don’t know what it is...”

War Tiger’s phone rang then.

He looked at the screen. The call was from Heavenly Dog. A few seconds after he picked up, his expression darkened further.

“Did the patrol find something?” asked White Tiger.

“Grab your binoculars and come to the rooftop.” War Tiger stalked out of the command room.

The others followed.

They entered the elevator and went to the rooftop. The enormous blood moon hung low in the sky, as if it was right above their heads. The strong night winds swept over them and messed up their hair and clothes.

They looked around, quickly seeing the strange occurrences.

In the east, south, west, and north of the Li City, a large white light beam could be seen shooting into the sky.

War Tiger looked at one of them through his binoculars, noticing that the blood fog on the ground was morphing into countless tendrils and climbing up along the light beam. Instantly, the four light beams had turned into eerie-looking pillars of blood.

“What the hell are those?” War Tiger lowered the binoculars and smacked his lips. “Look evil, I must say.”

“That’s it.” Surnamed Li lowered her binoculars too. “I saw a pillar of blood in my dream. I thought there was only one, but there were four...”

“Madam Li.” Dragon spoke up, his voice sounding bleak against the whooshing wind. “You said before that we would all die in a disaster.”

“The disaster didn’t hit the city, but killed only the awakeners,” Qilin added.

“The blood fog will rise and rise until it swallows everything...” Colorless finished, fear flashing through her eyes.

“They,” Gao Yang sucked in a breath and shared his speculation, “Are holding some kind of disaster summoning ritual.”

No one said otherwise. They had all gotten to the same conclusion.

The four pillars of blood in the four cardinal directions were put up for some kind of disaster or curse ritual. Once it reached completion, the disaster would hit, and the blood fog would rise without limit until it devoured everything, killing all awakeners.

It all fit with Surnamed Li’s prophecy.

“We don’t know for sure what they’re doing.” War Tiger rubbed his nose with a thumb. “But we can’t sit around doing nothing. We have to stop this, whatever this is!”

War Tiger turned to Dragon. “Make the orders, Captain!”

Dragon turned to Qilin instead and said calmly, “You’re the commander-in-chief for tonight, Qilin.”

After three seconds of silence, Qilin issued the orders decisively.

“Team Azure Dragon!”

“Here.” Azure Dragon took a step forward.

“Take your team to the east and destroy the pillar and everything related to it at all cost.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Team War Tiger!”

“Here.” War Tiger stretched his neck as he answered.

“Go to the south. Your mission is the same.”

“Got it.”

“Team Vermilion Bird!”

“Guildmaster.”

“You take the north.”

“Will do.”

“Team Seven Shadow!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take the west.”

“Roger that.”

“Dragon, X, and White Tiger, we’ll stay to protect the rear in case the enemies are trying to draw us away to pick us off.”

“Got it,” White Tiger answered.

Dragon and X nodded.

“For survival!” Qilin declared.

“For survival!” Everyone else echoed in a thunderous chorus.