The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 565: Hell

Now missing her entire left arm, Qing Ling was stunned into inaction. She didn’t even have the time to feel the wrenching pain.

Fearful, lost, and despairing, she didn’t know how it happened, or when. Why hadn’t she noticed at all? Why had her eyes not caught anything?

“Agh!”

A second later, she dropped to one knee with a cry, her right hand letting go of her Tang Dao involuntarily to hold onto the stump of her left shoulder, but she couldn’t stop the large volume of blood gushing out.

She needed time to collect herself, and she turned to Smoker reflexively, hoping that the man would be able to keep the enemy occupied for a while, only to meet greater despair.

Smoker’s head was gone, and his headless body fell to the ground two seconds later, bleeding profusely from his neck and forming a pool on the ground.

If there had been a high-speed camera shooting over 250 frames a second on the side, it would’ve captured everything that happened: three seconds ago, the moment the Malediction uttered the word that meant “die”, countless black vortexes had appeared on its body, which shot out more than a hundred black deadly rays in all directions like a round disco ball.

The deadly rays melted every living being they touched.

The attacks were so quick that they took less than a fraction of a second, beyond what Qing Ling could perceive when she was the closest to the Cursed Offspring.

Had she known beforehand and watched out for the attacks with her full attention, perhaps she would be able to see it, but that was all she would be able to do; she didn’t stand a chance in dodging it.

It wasn’t that the Malediction had gone easy that Qing Ling survived while Smoker had died; it was simply killing all those around it at random.

Qing Ling was lucky to have lost only her left arm, and she wouldn’t be so lucky next time.

Three seconds later, the Malediction’s skill finished cooling down. It turned its empty white eyes to Qing Ling. The human’s survival surprised it.

The Malediction hated all living creatures by nature. It would erase her.

“Die.”

This time, Qing Ling saw the attack, but that was all she could do.

The pitch-black figure seemed to flicker, and in a fraction of a second, more than a hundred deadly rays shot out from its body, killing every living being around it randomly.

Qing Ling vanished.

A pool of blood and a few Black Gold weapons were all that was left in the spot, including her Tang Dao, Xiu Dao, Butterfly Twin Blades, and two darts.

The Malediction discovered the Black Gold weapons and became curious for a second.

Hum. The thin black energy strands its body consisted of morphed into the shapes of the weapons. Again, the Malediction seemed dissatisfied with the forms, and it turned back into a child.

It was like a kid who was curious about everything but also quickly lost interest. It would continue to try and imitate everything before destroying all.

In the end, it would destroy the world before losing itself completely to a meaningless boredom. Then it would destroy itself.

Such was the ultimate fate of the Cursed Offspring.

It was a curse on all meanings in the world.

...

Qing Ling wasn’t dead.

Face pale, she lay prone in Gao Yang’s arms.

Gao Yang had arrived just in time to teleport her away, both of them escaping the Malediciton’s barrage.

“Agh!”

Qing Ling screamed in pain, which didn’t stem from his lost arm, no. It did hurt, but not unbearably so. The greatest torture was from the black curse left on the stump of her shoulder. It took the form of slowly burning black flames, devouring Qing Ling’s body little by little.

In no time, earthworm-like black sigils covered her neck, collarbones, and chin, and they continued to spread to the rest of her body. Left untreated, she would surely die.

Gao Yang sealed away his emotions. He was as rational as a robot at this moment.

Without even a wince, he cut his palm open with a Black Gold dagger, the blood quickly covering his entire hand, and he pressed it to Qing Ling’s left shoulder.

“Ahhh...”

Qing Ling felt like salt and oil were rubbed into her injury, compounding her pain. She struggled, the pain overwhelming. Unable to endure it further, she twisted her neck to bite Gao Yang’s arm.

Gao Yang quietly took it.

A few seconds later, the black sigils covering Qing Ling retracted and vanished.

Qing Ling regained some of her mental faculty. She let go of Gao Yang and pushed him hard with her only hand. “Go! Leave me...”

Gao Yang wordlessly continued with what he was doing, biting off the cap of a syringe of Medicine C and gave Qing Ling’s left shoulder a shot, stabilizing her condition.

Even with Psychic Armor suppressing his emotions, Gao Yang still felt a sense of guilt. Qing Ling’s left arm would be forever gone, and it was all his fault. If only he had come earlier.

He laid Qing Ling down and picked himself up.

Whoosh. Gao Yang returned to where Qing Ling had been.

Now, he was only ten meters from the Malediction. He knew he was not its match, yet there was no fear on his face.

As soon as Gao Yang arrived at the Green Lotus Lake, he witnessed the Malediction killing Smoker and seriously injuring Qing Ling. At that moment, he felt some sort of energy shooting to his head, and as if he had been bestowed with a divine revelation, he gained instincts and experiences he couldn’t explain.

It was then he knew with certainty that he was the Divine Scion, the enemy of the Malediction.

There had to be darkness for light to exist, and Gao Yang, seeing his shadow, confirmed his existence.

He came to two conclusions: first, he was the Maledicton’s natural bane, and second, his blood could be used to hurt the Malediction as well as cure the curse the Malediction inflicted.

The murals on the obelisk had hinted at it; the thin black strands coming out of the life monster’s body had given the shining child on the second mural a wide berth, which represented the Malediction’s fear for the Divine Scion.

Darkness disappeared when being shone on by light.

Similar to how Gao Yang had reacted to it, the Malediction didn’t immediately attack when it saw Gao Yang, but was instead drawn and quickly came to many realizations. Finally, it found its most appropriate form.

The cluster of black strands of evil energy slowly settled down from the various forms it had gone through in a frenzy, taking the form of an eighteen-year-old boy.

Gao Yang looked at the Malediction like he was looking at his own shadow.

The shadow gained details, forming actual hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, internal organs, bones, flesh and blood, and skin.

It turned into an entity identical to Gao Yang, only covered in black sigils with eyes that were all black.

Face impassive, the Malediction raised its right hand and uttered a syllable from its slightly parted lips, in a human language.

“Die.”

...

[Warning, you are in hell!]

[Luck acquisition rate increases to 30000 times.]