The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 572: Door

There was no house or even a wall, but a lone door. Black Fish took about a dozen steps toward it, yet found himself no closer to the door. It remained more than ten meters from him.

He quickened his steps and started running, but his distance from the door remained unchanged, as if he was chasing the horizon.

He realized then that it was similar to the border of an isolated island in the Mist World.

He took a deep breath and decided to see beyond the door with Clairvoyance, and it worked! The door turned translucent. He held his breath, waiting quietly.

Four to five seconds later, he started seeing the rough lines of the interior of the room. He was surprised to find a room that looked nothing special. Why would it be a simple room?

The bed, nightstand, wardrobe, and desk all looked quite old. White light streamed through the window covered in light blue curtains. Based on the intensity of the light, it was most likely a midsummer afternoon.

The walls were covered in colorful posters. Black Fish attempted to memorize them, but strangely couldn’t commit any details to memory.

Black Fish paused.

A blurry figure appeared in the room out of nowhere. She was sitting on the swivel chair in front of the desk, using an old-school computer with a bulky, square monitor.

Suddenly, the blurry figure sensed a gaze from outside the door, and she slowly turned around.

...

Black Fish covered his right eye as he stood by the abyss, looking down at it.

It had been an hour. Black Fish was silent throughout. Qilin kept tabs on Black Fish’s emotions, and it seemed that he hadn’t encountered any danger.

They waited patiently. No one talked for the past hour.

“Agh!”

Then Black Fish suddenly shouted, flying off his feet backward. It was as if a sniper rifle had shot a bullet out of the abyss, hitting Black Fish in the left eye. The eyeball burst out, splattering blood everywhere.

“My, my eye...”

“Agh! It hurts!”

Black Fish pressed his hand against his bleeding eye socket, but soon, he couldn’t even do that. He rolled around on the ground, the piercing pain burning through him.

From his blinded left eye, malicious black sigils sprang to life and spread across his face, corroding his body and soul.

“Out of the way!”

Vermilion Bird had been prepared. Her hand was still covered in Gao Yang’s blood, and she quickly went up to press her palm to Black Fish’s blinded left eye.

Hiss.

“Aghh!!”

Black Fish cried out in pain, while the sigils on his face melted at contact with the blood and evaporated into black smoke, dispersing in the air.

Finally, Black Fish was free of the torture to his mind. He panted heavily, looking around confusedly with only his right eye.

“Black Fish.” Azure Dragon crouched down before him and spoke in a low voice. “What did you see?”

“Huh?” Black Fish seemed lost. “What?”

Azure Dragon paused. “The abyss. What’s inside the abyss?”

“What abyss? What, why am I here? Didn’t I...” Black Fish had lost his memory. He covered his left eye again. “Ugh, my eye...what happened...what happened to my eye...”

Qilin watched Black Fish lose his composure. Although Qilin couldn’t detect lies, he could sense confusion and fear from Black Fish. The man didn’t seem to be acting.

“Calm down, Black Fish. It’s okay. I’ll heal you.”

Vermilion Bird comforted him and stopped his left eye socket from bleeding. The wound healed quickly, yet the eyeball he had lost wasn’t going to regenerate.

“Tsk, this is bad.” War Tiger turned to Qilin and laughed bitterly. “I say we stop taking unnecessary risks. Seven Shadow may be the only one who can enter the abyss.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Vermilion Bird sounded concerned. “Even though his blood can counter curses, it doesn’t mean he can venture into the abyss and come back safely with the Rune Circuit.”

“That’s true. No one knows what else is in the abyss,” Surnamed Li said. “We have no right to make the decision for him.”

Qilin didn’t say anything.

The others turned to him, waiting for him to come to a decision.

Ten seconds later, Qilin looked up. “We stop exploring for now. Once Seven Shadow wakes up, we leave the decision to him.”

Qilin turned to War Tiger. “Please have Mischievous Monkey seal the abyss once he’s here.”

“You got it.” War Tiger gave him an OK sign. Mischievous Monkey could do it easily with level 5 Earth.

“Six Rime.” Qilin looked at the blue-haired girl with a frosty expression. “Once the abyss is sealed, refill the Green Lotus Lake with water.”

“Yes, sir,” said Six Rime.

“We’ll deal with the rest,” Surnamed Li said from her wheelchair.

“Thank you. This is it then.” Qilin turned to leave with his cane.

After taking two steps, he seemed to have remembered something, and he turned to War Tiger. “Isn’t Dragon going to come and have a look?”

“He’s attending to business and isn’t in Li City,” War Tiger responded with a smile, but he was worried. Qilin must have guessed that Dragon was likely in hibernation, only he couldn’t be certain of it. After all, Dragon had always worked in mysterious and unpredictable ways, and he was a great threat in Qilin’s eyes.

Qilin nodded and turned to leave.

Azure Dragon and Black Fish followed. Vermilion Bird glanced at Qing Ling and Gao Yang. “Should I take Seven Shadow, or...”

“Leave him to Green Snake.” War Tiger took out a cigarette. “He just lost his parents. What he needs is for someone to support him and keep him company, and his ex-girlfriend can do that better than a colleague like you.”

Vermilion Bird sighed softly. “Oaky.”

War Tiger lit his cigarette and took a deep breath. Only when members of the Qilin Guild were gone did he turn to Heavenly Dog. “Give Green Snake and Seven Shadow a ride.”

“Where to?” Heavenly Dog asked.

War Tiger snorted. “Where else? The hospital, of course.”

...

Gao Yang slowly opened his eyes, waking up.

It was five o’clock in the morning. The day had not yet broken, and the room was dim. It seemed from the interior that it was a special care ward.

Gao Yang was still physically exhausted, and thanks to his exhaustion acting like a sedative, he was able to maintain his calm with Psychic Armor controlling his emotions.

“You’re awake,” Qing Ling said from his left. A hazy orange light came from the nightstand by the bed.

Gao Yang slowly rolled to his side to find another bed on his left, blocked by a light blue curtain. The silhouette of a woman was sitting cross-legged, missing her left arm.

Gao Yang felt a pang in his heart, like a soft ripple brought about by a wind sweeping over the calm surface of a lake.

“How are you feeling?” Qing Ling asked through the curtain.

“Alright,” Gao Yang said hoarsely. He slowly sat up and tried to move his fingers, then his arms.

He reached out to pull the curtain, but Qing Ling stopped him.

“Don’t.”

Gao Yang paused, his hand freezing midair.

On the other side of the curtain, Qing Ling had taken off her shirt. Her chest and the stump of her left arm were wrapped in layers upon layers of bloodied bandages.

She didn’t want Gao Yang to see her—not because of their genders, but because she simply didn’t want him to see her at her weakest.

“Reach your hand over here,” Qing Ling said.

Gao Yang leaned forward to reach through the gap of the curtains.

Two seconds later, a slightly cool hand found his hand and grasped it.