The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 556: Cursed Offspring

“Ms. Su,” Qing Ling said coldly. “You can’t give birth to the child.”

“What are you talking about?” Su Xi paused, her smile dropping. “This is my and Old Huang’s kid. How can you say something so cruel? He promised to give me a family, and we’re going to have one.”

Su Xi lowered her head and stroked her protruding belly gently, lovingly.

Qing Ling was silent for two seconds before killing intent shone in her eyes. She raised her two blades and took a step forward. “I’m sorry, Ms. Su. If you want someone to blame, blame fate.”

“Fate?” Su Xi slowly stood up with her hands supporting her belly. “Why should I resent fate when fate has given me this happiness? I should thank it instead.”

Su Xi took two steps toward Qing Ling, and Qing Ling immediately felt threatened.

While Su Xi was significantly weakened now, she was still a life monster.

“Still, I’m curious. When did you notice?” Su Xi smiled with interest, sounding confident. “Old Huang would never betray us.”

Qing Ling admitted, “He didn’t. Gao Yang noticed.”

“How did he find out?” Su Xi asked.

On her way here, Qing Ling had messaged Gao Shou. What she had to do now was to buy time for reinforcements to come.

“I’ll tell you if you want to know.”

Qing Ling explained things concisely.

Up until Dragon killed Zhuang Mei, Officer Huang had kept up the act well.

Gao Yang and Qing Ling had never once suspected him, and never in their dream would they imagine that the kidnapping was all an act put up by Officer Huang, Su Xi, and Tails.

Still, Officer Huang wasn’t only acting. After all, no one expected Zhuang Mei to suddenly show up.

Officer Huang knew that Zhuang Mei was going to induce a miscarriage, and his worry, fear, anxiety, impatience during the trip were all real, as well as his anger when he made a final attempt to attack Zhuang Mei.

Zhuang Mei’s biggest mistake was her disappointment in humans.

Disappointment begot resentment, and resentment brewed contempt.

Her contempt made her unwilling to explain to Gao Yang what she was going to do.

If Zhuang Mei had taken her time to explain her intention, Gao Yang would’ve had a moment of realization even if he wasn’t entirely certain, and he would come to suspect the kidnapping to be an act put up by Officer Huang and Su Xi.

However, Zhuang Mei didn’t explain. She believed that no one could stop her.

To her surprise, though, Dragon intervened, and the most powerful awakener in the Mist World erased her existence.

Despite not getting any clue from Zhuang Mei, though, Gao Yang got a call from Vermilion Bird after the fight, and she told him everything she had gotten from Edmond. Learning about the missions of sowing seeds and giving births, combined with what he knew about himself, Gao Yang was able to deduct much.

First, Gao Yang believed there was a high chance for his mother, Lin Yue, to be a life monster.

When the Crimson Tide hit, Zhuang Mei hadn’t taken Lin Yue to help Sir Fu and White Dew lure Gao Yang out. It was merely a coincidence, and that was why Sir Fu hadn’t answered Gao Yang when he asked, but simply told him that Lin Yue was safe.

The truth was that both Zhuang Mei and Lin Yue were life monsters, and during the two days of the Crimson Tide, they had left to fulfill their duty of sowing seeds.

After that, they found an excuse to return.

Even getting to the conclusion almost broke Gao Yang. He was lost and hurting, not knowing what he should do. Under Qing Ling’s encouragement, he decided to confront his mother when he got home.

When he returned to Li City late at night, his mother was waiting for him in the living room.

Lin Yue was zoning out on the sofa. She could sense Zhuang Mei’s death and was mourning her.

When Zhuang Mei decided to take Su Xi to the Island Nation, she had told Lin Yue about it. And Lin Yue had tried to stop Zhuang Mei. She believed that whatever Zhuang Mei did would be in vain. Su Xi’s child would come to this world. It was fate as well as God’s will.

But Zhuang Mei didn’t believe in fate.

She had always been the disobedient one, and she ignored their master’s will. After coming to the Mist World, she wandered around doing whatever took her fancy, refusing to combine with a human to fulfill her duty to give birth.

In the end, Zhuang Mei failed to stop Su Xi, and she died for her cause.

When Gao Yang came home, Lin Yue only had to look at him to know that her son had figured out what she was.

That night, Lin Yue made Gao Yang noodles. After having noodles, her son started talking about what happened when he was a child, and he ended up wailing in her arms.

The mother and son said nothing, but also everything.

In the end, Lin Yue stroked his hair and said tenderly, “Don’t be afraid. You’re my child, and I’ll protect you.”

Gao Yang knew that his mother must have a reason, so he didn’t press.

After that, Gao Yang had naively thought that everything would be alright. His mother was a life monster, and she should be powerful enough to deal with whatever came their way, or at least dealt with their current crisis.

He held onto the belief until he went to the desert in Ni Nation and activated the altar, barging into the underground temple ruin and seeing the ancient murals on the obelisk, as well as the abomination inside the mummified life monster’s belly.

At that moment, he realized what Lin Yue actually meant.

You’re my child.

Gao Yang was Lin Yue’s child, the child she had given birth to for real.

He felt like the world was shattering around him.

After dealing with what should be a Cursed Offspring, Gao Yang calmed himself with Psychic Armor and sorted out his thoughts, speculating and guessing to arrive at a conclusion.

He concluded that he was the child Lin Yue, a life monster, had given birth to with Gao Shou, a human.

He was neither a Forlorn Ghost or the Malediction. He was the glowing child depicted in the second mural on the obelisk—the Divine Scion, the Blessed Child.

That would explain why Fresh Snow could only feed on Gao Yang, and how Gao Yang survived the feeding.

Fresh Snow must be the one Forlorn Ghost most like a Divine Scion. While she was great, she was still flawed. That was why Gao Yang, the complete work, drew Fresh Snow on an instinctual level.

Based on that, he could make further deductions.

After giving birth to Gao Yang, Lin Yue became weak, but she didn’t die like other life monsters. Instead, she became a real mother and continued to live, but she didn’t tell anyone about it.

Yun, the leader of lightbringers, discovered the secret, and she had her answer then.

She decided to keep the secret for Lin Yue.

Three years later, Yun found a wanderer infant and disguised her as a child of Lin Yue’s: Gao Xinxin, Gao Yang’s sister.

She was meant as a smokescreen to protect Lin Yue’s secret so that the elite monsters, especially her fellow life monsters, Zhuang Mei and Su Xi, would believe that Lin Yue had never had a child with a human, but had instead found a human infant and a wanderer infant to keep up an act, just like Zhung Mei had done.

However, Gao Yang’s grandfather—a summoner—had discovered Gao Yang’s true identity.

Yun quickly took care of him and continued to hide LIn Yue’s secret.

Although Gao Yang had chanced upon his grandmother taking care of his grandfather as he woke up to use the toilet, he had been too young to remember it, and he thought he simply had a nightmare.

It wasn’t until his eighteenth birthday, when he knocked into the awakener who was said to be mentally-ill, that he started to awaken and remembered what he saw.

He was a secret Yun and Lin Yue had been guarding for years.

And at that moment, the secret learned about himself.