The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 557: Companion

Gao Yang was a Divine Scion.

While feeling thankful for his “luck”, he immediately came to a terrible conclusion: Officer Huang and Su Xi’s child wasn’t the Divine Scion or a Forlorn Ghost, but the Malediction.

First, the murals on the obelisk told him that life monsters could and would give birth to three kinds of children. The Mist World was nearing its end, and Lin Yue, Zhung Mei, and Su Xi were the last three life monsters.

Zhuang Mei didn’t have a child and got erased by Dragon.

Lin Yue secretly gave birth to the Divine Scion, Gao Yang.

The little abomination he encountered was likely not the Cursed Offspring of the Mist World. The place itself was suspicious, a living contradiction to what Gao Yang knew about the Mist World. Moreover, the curses plaguing the Spectres didn’t disappear with the little abomination’s death. And the little abomination was all red, while the Cursed Offspring portrayed in the mural was black.

And Su Xi would’ve sensed it if she was pregnant with a Forlorn Ghost. She wouldn’t have to worry about Lin Yue and Zhuang Mei being jealous of her. The fact that she didn’t sense anything meant that she was either carrying the Divine Scion or the Malediction due to their different nature.

Su Xi didn’t know that Lin Yue had already given birth to the only Divine Scion there would be. That was why she was so convinced that she was pregnant with the Divine Scion.

After the realization, Gao Yang forced himself to calm down despite his reluctance to accept reality.

That compelled him to suspect Officer Huang: the man likely knew the truth about Su Xi and had been in on the act, and once suspicion took roots, the signs supporting the theory surfaced.

The first thing Gao Yang did after returning from Ni Nation was call Chen Ying at midnight. His talk to recruit her was merely tacked on; his true purpose was to test how quickly Chen Ying could get there.

The distance between Chen Ying’s place and Officer Huang’s place was about the same as the distance between Li City University and Officer Huang’s place, or perhaps a little further.

There was basically no traffic that late at night, so there wouldn’t be a traffic jam.

Even though Officer Huang had called Chen Ying first before calling Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and Heavenly Dog, the time they set out would be no more than two minutes apart.

While taking a bath at home, it would take Chen Ying at least ten minutes to drive to Officer Huang’s place even if she didn’t waste even a second, which Gao Yang had confirmed by calling her to have malatang with him and Qing Ling.

The night Su Xi was kidnapped, however, Gao Yang and the group had taken only five minutes to move from the university to Officer Huang’s place with Heavenly Dog’s Fly, yet no sooner had they reached Officer Huang’s place than Chen Ying arrived as well—which would mean it had taken Chen Ying only six minutes to get there, and that didn’t make sense.

It didn’t make sense unless Officer Huang had waited five minutes after he called Chen Ying to call Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and Heavenly Dog.

Had Officer Huang done nothing during those five minutes? That would be odd.

If it was all an act, though, it would explain everything.

Officer Huang wanted them to arrive at almost the same time so that they would immediately start tracking the Tails down, making them less likely to spot any inconsistency. With Edmond’s Unreachable, the Tails should be able to easily escape even if they were found; in fact, that would make the story more convincing, and it would be more unlikely for Officer Huang and Su Xi to be suspected.

And indeed, Gao Yang hadn’t doubted what happened for a second, partly out of his trust in Officer Huang, and partly because of the urgent nature of the matter.

Unfortunately to Officer Huang, Zhuang Mei showed up out of the blue and threw a wrench in their plan, leading to the trip to the Island Nation.

Actually, Gao Yang wouldn’t have noticed anything if Chen Ying hadn’t rushed to Officer Huang’s place in a bathrobe. Had she been dressed in a business suit, he would’ve assumed that she was attending to matters nearby, and thus managed to reach Officer Huang’s place quickly.

However, she had been in such a rush to save Su Xi that she didn’t even put on proper clothes first, leaving Gao Yang with the impression that she had rushed to Officer Huang’s place from home, thus allowing him to remember the particular detail when he thought about it later.

With that, Gao Yang confirmed that Officer Huang had lied to Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and the three organizations for Su Xi.

On one hand, he was hurt, but on the other hand, he could understand Officer Huang’s choice.

After finishing malatang, he told Qing Ling about his speculation.

Qing Ling asked him what he was going to do, and he said, “If the three organizations learn about this, Officer Huang and Su Xi will be swiftly dealt with.”

“He’s our companion,” Qing Ling said. “He can’t die.”

“Yes, so we do this ourselves,” Gao Yang said. “We’ll go to Officer Huang and Su Xi and find a chance to confront him, making him face the reality.”

“Do you think Officer Huang will listen to us?”

“I don’t know.” Gao Yang didn’t like their odds.

“What about Su Xi?” Qing Ling asked. “She’s pregnant with the Cursed Offspring. We can’t just leave her be.”

Gao Yang was silent for ten seconds, his eyes going cold little by little.

“We take her out.”

Qing Ling nodded. “Yeah.”

That wasn’t the end of it. Gao Yang had another speculation.

They headed to Amon’s tabletop cafe that night. Pulling out a world map and unfolding it on the table, Gao Yang marked the altars in the West Nation, Island Nation, and Ni Nation, drawing lines between them to form a narrow upside-down triangle.

“What do you think this represents?” Gao Yang asked.

“The uterus?” Qing Ling guessed.

Gao Yang nodded. “Dr. Jia has studied symbolism in the Mist World, and he told me that a narrow upside-down triangle represents the uterus.”

He then marked where the Li City was, and the city happened to sit a little above the heart of the triangle.

“I believe the most important life monster altar is located in Li City,” Gao Yang said. “That was why Su Xi hadn’t gone into hiding, but had instead stayed in the city.”

“Where will it be?”

“The Green Lotus Park.”

“Why?”

“On the map, the park is at the heart of Li City, and...”

Gao Yang recalled his memories. “All these years, my mom has never once gone to the park. Every time we talked about going to the Green Lotus Park to have fun, something always happened to her. She would get a stomach ache, suddenly remember an appointment, or have a fight with my dad. She’s never set foot in the park.”

Qing Ling caught on. “She’s worried about getting exposed, isn’t she?”

Gao Yang nodded. “I believe so. The altar will be activated as soon as a life monster approaches, and outside of the decennial Crimson Tide, they never get close to any of the altars.”

Qing Ling was quick to put the theory to test. “Let’s go there now.”

Before the day broke, the two of them headed to the Green Lotus Park and went around it. When they got close to the lake at the center of the park, Gao Yang was suddenly hit with a hunch.

Walking to the lakeside, he took out a dagger to cut his finger, allowing a drop of blood to fall into the lake.

Two seconds later, the water at his feet flickered slightly and saw a white ripple.

Gao Yang felt a strange energy resonation. He quickly pulled back. “Yes, this is the place.”

Qing Ling nodded. They sat by the lake and stared at it for a long silent moment.

“If possible, I don’t want to kill Officer Huang.” Qing Ling broke the silence.

“Me neither,” said Gao Yang.

“But if he’s going to kill us.” Qing Ling’s eyes became icy. “I will kill him.”

Gao Yang fell silent.

He wasn’t as strong and determined as Qing Ling was. He had always been indecisive, even weak-minded.

He never had an answer until he was at the crossroad.