The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1119: Fulfill Duty

Dragon raised a hand above his head and kept his other hand lowered. Then he drew a circle in the air, his hands meeting before his chest in an abstracted taichi pattern.

His palms pressed together, facing opposite directions. Then he twisted them.

The world halted.

In the frozen moment, Vermilion Bird and the others heard it—a soft clack, like someone fixing a loose gear in the universe's machinery.

No one could say exactly what happened, but something did. The world around Dragon flickered to pure black and white for an instant. Then time flowed again. The crushing pressure lifted. Sound, color, and sensation flooded back.

The world trembled.

Between one blink and the next, Dragon was suddenly standing alone. On either side, three-meter-deep trenches carved through the ground, twenty meters wide and stretching a kilometer north and south before ending in distant explosions.

Lust and Wrath had been flipped around, hurled a kilometer away just above ground level. All their unleashed energy and damage had been forced back into them.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to kill them, but it did damage them substantially.

Dragon adjusted his ponytail, then turned slowly to face Gluttony and Greed. “Shall we continue? If you’re in a hurry, you’re welcome to come at me together.”

Gluttony huffed in what sounded like laughter, turning to look over Dragon’s shoulders at Mischievous Monkey. “Litle Stone, you’ve found yourself a good safety net.”

Mischievous Monkey only stared at the familiar stranger, eyes filled with rueful pity.

It took barely ten seconds for Zhou Jing and Mark to rejoin their fellow monsters. Both had returned to human form, bloodied and badly wounded. Yet neither showed fear or frustration. One burned with greater rage, the other with deeper hysteria.

“Interesting, how interesting!” Mark wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “I’m killing this man!”

“Piss off! He’s mine!” The blood beneath Zhou Jing's feet rose like desire brought to a boil.

“Lust, Wrath, calm down.” Greed's voice turned cautious, recognizing her error in underestimating Dragon.

“Don’t try to order me around!” Mark growled. “I’m going to kill him! Now! I’ll kill him now!”

“Don’t even think about it!” Zhou Jing snarled. “The man’s mine!”

“Don’t forget about our duty!”

“Geez, what a hassle. I shouldn’t have stayed and worked overtime...”

The death monsters dissolved into an argument. It seemed too absurd to believe.

Vermilion Bird frowned.

They seemed so intimidating and powerful, and now they are fighting like children playing house. Have they all lost their mind? Does this...make sense?

Are they putting on the act to confuse us? No, we can’t relax our guard. Keep Unreachable active and watch.

Dragon showed no reaction. He waited with infinite patience, content to let them argue, unhurried to act.

The scene bordered on ridiculous. Death monsters bickering with rising tempers. Awakeners linked hand-in-hand, watching like spectators. Between them stood a beautiful androgynous young man, looking for all the world like management mediating a team-building exercise.

Twenty seconds passed.

Then a powerful current swept the clearing. A young man appeared beside Dragon, his appearance silencing the monsters' quarrel.

Gao Yang, the Divine Scion.

He had rushed to his companions’ aid as soon as Spatial Jump’s cooldown ended. He froze at the sight of the devastation. Why hadn't Golden Armor activated during a battle of this scale?

He couldn't know that War Tiger's and Qing Ling's Golden Armors had triggered and shattered in their fight with Mark, but he couldn’t sense it with Wang Shu’s Domain of Night isolating them.

Gao Yang quickly turned to check on his companions. Qing Ling, Vermilion Bird, and War Tiger were all there. He exchanged a glance with Qing Ling before getting a nod from Vermilion Bird.

He let out a sigh of relief. They hadn’t lost anyone.

Wait, is there another person beside me? Seems familiar...

Gao Yang turned and barely swallowed a curse.

He concealed his pleasant surprise under a poker face. “You’ve woken up, Captain.”

“It’s been a while, Gao Yang.” Dragon nodded with a smile. “I was wondering where you were. I thought you might have grown disappointed with humans and given up on helping.”

Gao Yang didn’t immediately respond. “...What else is there other than humans?”

Dragon had heard the revelations Baili Yi presented from War Tiger. “Yes, there is nothing else other than humans.”

They turned to the death monsters together.

They had stopped fighting the moment Gao Yang showed up. They might not take Dragon or Gao Yang seriously, but they could not ignore Pride’s only order to them.

Pride must be the one to personally kill the Divine Scion.

Cold, strange laughter rippled from Surnamed Li's body as Greed spoke. “As expected of the head and tail of the Heavenly Way. I cannot pry into your fates.”

“Even so, there’s no victory for you.”

“This isn’t a fight between two lifeforms, but truths and true natures running their predetermined course.”

“All beings in the world must fulfill their duties.”

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

“Ten thousand wonders. All return as one.[1]”

Greed floated up to the sky above them. Then Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath followed suit. In an instant, they dove into the round moon, which quickly shrunk and dimmed until it vanished into the silent night sky. The real stars and moon returned.

Although the enemies had left, Vermilion Bird didn’t relax her guard. She kept Unreachable running.

A cool wind entered her mind then.

[Nine Frost: I’m back.]

[Vermilion Bird: Great! Are you alright?]

[Nine Frost: yes. Chen Ying’s up too. She sensed the enemies leaving.]

[Vermilion Bird: Come back, the three of you.]

[Nine Frost: Understood.]

Vermilion Bird deactivated Unreachable and let go of War Tiger’s and Qing Ling’s hands. “It’s over. We’re safe.”

War Tiger strode up to Dragon, ignoring his severed arm. With the cigarette in his mouth, he laid into Dragon, “Hello, Master Dragon! Waking up so soon? You should’ve kept sleeping. You’ve been doing that for...”

He trailed off as Dragon slowly turned around.

Eyes sad with blood dripping down his pale face from his mouth, Dragon asked softly, “Where were White Rabbit and Songstress buried?”

1. This is what the summoner prime, Gao Yang’s grandfather, said before sounding the horn. ☜