The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 564: For Tomorrow

“Huff...huff...”

Having drained his energy, Smoker dropped to his knees. He tried his best to stand up. “Not, not yet... Take me to her, pretty girl. Now’s the main course. I’m turning the life monster into fire...”

He trailed off, his expression tensing when he noticed something wrong.

Qing Ling was hit with the same feeling.

It was a cold and chilling feeling that couldn’t be more insidious, and for a moment, the wind around them sounded like whispers of the devil.

Countless thin strands of black energy shot out of the elemental mountain at the center of the Green Lotus Lake. From afar, they looked like the hair of a witch, and the hair grew in number and density.

Suddenly, the elemental mountain shattered into splattering gems of different colors. Su Xi...lived.

She had lost her clothes to the explosions, yet her body was entirely unscathed, glowing a sacred hazy white like a saintess from myth.

She slowly took flight and hovered a few meters off the ground.

Qing Ling and Smoker saw it then: the insidious black energy strands had come out from the belly button of her protruding belly.

“Child, my dear child...are you protecting Mom?” Su Xi’s emerald eyes seemed possessed, and her happy smile twisted.

“What a good kid. As expected of Mom’s goodest child...”

“Ah...ah ahhhhh!!!”

She started screaming in pain, and her eyes melted instantly, from which countless thin black strands gushed out. The same thing was happening to her mouth, nose, and ears. As the black strands threatened to tear her apart, her face twisted to the point of losing its form.

The black strands coming out of her belly button were still the most numerous. They were alive, and they were furious and wild.

The strands converged into irregular clusters, which morphed into hundreds of different shapes in a single second, seemingly looking for the right form to take through tens of thousands of trials and errors before descending upon the world properly.

“...Ahhh!!”

Su Xi’s body, like a computer overclocking, endured the torturous pain of the countless mistakes.

Qing Ling had never heard such a blood-curdling cry of pain. It was the kind of shout that would go on to haunt one’s dream years later, making one jerk out of the nightmares covered in cold sweat.

And the scream contained the last of the life monster’s energy with its silencing property, paralyzing Qing Ling and Smoker.

Even at this moment, Su Xi, as a mother, retained part of her mind and burned the last of her life to prevent enemies from approaching, protecting the child that would kill her.

Was this what motherly love was?

Qing Ling didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know.

Clenching her teeth, she raised her blades and marched up to Su Xi, nearing delivery. Every step was difficult to take. Her instinct told her that something terrible was going to happen, and she might be the only one who could stop Su Xi.

But she couldn’t make it in time.

When she was less than ten meters from Su Xi, Su Xi stopped screaming.

The world was terrifyingly silent, as if all sounds had been muted.

Qing Ling no longer felt paralyzed. Su Xi’s energy was completely gone.

The mother’s belly sank down, and the body that had seemed holy and radiant turned sickly, decayed, deathly, and covered in black livor mortis.

Like a wilted falling leaf, she dropped to the ground.

A smile remained on her aged, distorted face.

At her last conscious moment, Su Xi hoped to open her eyes and take one look at her child, but she no longer had eyes, and she couldn’t see anything.

What a shame. It would probably be her only regret in life.

As her mind wandered, she seemed to hear the voice of her husband, Huang Qi, and the voice took her back to a leisurely afternoon in her memory—the sun was bright, and the couple had just had lunch. They lazed about on the sofa in their living room. Huang Qi rested his head on Su Xi’s lap

“A penny for your thought, darling?”

“I’m wondering if our baby is going to be a boy or a girl, and what name we should give the child.”

“Heh, what a coincidence. I’m thinking about that too.”

“Let’s discuss it then.”

“Haha, don’t just jump to a decision. Let’s each think about it a little longer.”

“Why?”

“It makes me happy thinking about the child’s name, and I want the happiness to last longer.”

“Is this what people call hope?”

“Perhaps it is.” Huang Qi opened his eyes and looked at her face. Suddenly, he said like he couldn’t help it, “I love you, my wife.”

Su Xi smiled. “You said that in the morning.”

“This is for the afternoon.” Huang Qi smiled too. “I love you. This is for the evening.”

“I love you too. This is for tomorrow.”

...

Su Xi died, and the Malediction was born.

Qing Ling stared at the wicked creature consisting of black energy strands in disbelief. For a moment, she forgot to move—no, she couldn’t. A terrifying pressure had prevented her from resisting.

The fluctuating form slowly calmed until the black strands turned into a figure that looked about four years old, but the black strands that made the body were still shaking and pulling at high frequency, and the creature looked like a doodle drawn with charcoal.

It didn’t have a nose, ears, or mouth, but only a pair of empty circles that were the eyes.

The child slowly looked up at Qing Ling.

Hum—hum—

The black strands taking the form of a child became messy again, and two seconds later, it turned into a tall, slim girl with long hair, just like Qing Ling.

Qing Ling’s scalp went numb, and a shudder ran down her spin. It felt as if she was looking at her own shadow.

Based on their encounter with the abomination in the ruin in Ni Nation, Qing Ling could guess that the abomination known as Malediction must have the ability to quickly evolve as well. By imitating those it met, it was thinking and growing.

However, it seemed that the Malediction didn’t like Qing Ling’s form, and it quickly turned back into a child.

While it didn’t have a mouth, it uttered a syllable.

It didn’t belong to any human language, yet Qing Ling could understand it in her head.

Die.

The moment the utterance left the Malediction, Qing Ling found that she could move again. She was just going to charge at it when she paused.

Wait, something’s not right!

Why is the balance of my body so unfamiliar? Why can’t I feel my blade in my left hand?

No, I can’t feel my left hand altogether.

Qing Ling quickly looked down to find her entire left arm gone.

Large volume of warm blood gushed out of Qing Ling’s left shoulder, painting the left side of her face red.