The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1230: Empress’s Blessing

Seven seconds ago.

Everyone inside the Absolute Barrier was watching the battle as witnesses. Zhang Wei opened his eyes wide and concentrated, swearing to remember what happened next.

What happened was simple: Pride raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. Then the world washed out in white, almost blinding Zhang Wei. He covered his eyes and screamed, unable to see anything.

Well, all of them were engulfed by Pride’s sea of energy.

Pride’s first move at the first second razed the ground they stood on down to a deep valley. Nothing was exempt—not the red palace, nor the land and mountains spanning dozens of kilometers behind it. From above, it looked like a radiant gash had torn through Li City.

The energy didn’t vanish instantly, but faded slowly.

It wasn’t until seven seconds later that those inside the barrier were able to open their eyes.

They realized to their shock that the landscapes around them were all gone. They found themselves inside a valley running around a hundred meters deep, surrounded by lingering energy particles that differed in size. It looked like a golden mine.

Two seconds later, the Absolute Barrier shattered. Time seemed to have drowned in the silence. They forgot to even breathe.

An answer they least wanted to accept but would make the most sense flashed into their minds.

“Gao Yang...” Dr. Jia broke the silence, “died?”

“Nainai!” Adept Horse shouted.

“Gale!” Nainai conjured a wind and brought everyone out of the valley.

They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Golden chains weaved across the night sky, some of which were broken and dangling down like the snags that happened with a cheap sweater. Where the chains intersected, a golden pillar stood. It should’ve been the pillar supporting all the chains, yet the connection had been cut, leaving it standing alone tragically.

They quickly approached and saw a black-haired man losing both limbs and covered in injuries, pinned to the glowing pillar.

The blond man hovered before him, having stabbed his heart with bone stings.

“Fuck, let’s take on Pride even if we die!” Zhang Wei shouted in the heat of the moment, his head ringing with emotions. That, however, was all he could do. The wind propping him up prevented him from moving.

He snapped, “What are you waiting for, Nainai? Let’s go!”

Nainai stared at Gao Yang. An observation she couldn’t process tumbled out of her lips, “Gao Yang...isn’t dead...”

“What?!” Old Seven raised his voice in shock and joy. “Come again?”

Everyone turned to Nainai.

She flinched and said, “The-the blessing this Empress granted hasn’t disappeared.”

“Blessing?” Liao Liao realized. “Your Shapeshifter?”

Nainai nodded.

Though she called it “her blessing”, it was Gao Yang who had given her something.

Before they faced Pride, Gao Yang had told Nainai to record him with Shapeshifter. The Talent would allow her to shapeshift into someone she had recorded beforehand and use one of the target’s Talents—at a discount.

Gao Yang had considered the worst-case scenario. If they stood no chance of winning the final fight, he would do his best to keep Pride occupied while Nainai took the survivors to safety with Spatial Migration, preserving humanity’s hope.

The recording created an energy connection between Nainai and Gao Yang. She could sense him unless Gao Yang died or was too far away from her.

And Gao Yang’s existence remained on the edge of her perception. He wasn’t dead.

“That’s all the more reason that we move now!” Old Seven declared, having made up his mind to give his life. “Let’s all go together!”

“Don’t be reckless,” Adept Horse intervened. “Let’s wait.”

His reasoning was simple: Pride had almost cut Li City in half with a single move. It would be an insult to ants to even compare them to ants attempting to shake a tree.

Yet Gao Yang survived seven seconds.

All they could hope for was that Pride would honor his words as the loser of the bet.

It...sounded stupid.

However, the stupid conclusion was their only choice, making the situation even more ludicrous.

“Will Pride...” Hong Xiaoxiao thought back to what had happened with Sloth, “Really kill himself?”

No one could give her an answer.

Gregor had a cigarette in his mouth, which he had forgotten to light. “No way...are we really going to talk him to death?”

...

Upon the pillar of fate, Pride remained unmoving after stabbing Gao Yang’s heart. Gao Yang’s face was pale, and his body was barely intact, yet his chest heaved softly. The gash on his shoulder stopped bleeding. His bones and flesh were slowly regenerating.

Alive.

Wang Zikai frowned, confused.

HOw?

For the old Wang Zikai, the Grim Reaper’s Spear had a one in ten thousand chance of failing. That was how Qilin turned things around and defeated him back then. However, things were different now. Pride’s version of the move had less than one in a hundred million chance of failing, infinitely approaching zero.

Approaching zero wasn’t zero, however.

The fact was that Gao Yang hadn’t died.

The blond man looked at his dying friend, his expression relaxing into a faint smile.

“You’re lucky, Gao Yang.”

Gao Yang didn’t deem that a response. He didn’t even open his eyes to look at Wang Zikai. He only had enough strength to sustain his breathing and heartbeat.

Seven seconds. It had felt like an eternity.

The golden patterns inside Pride’s eyes had been fading into nothing within the seven seconds. Then after a glint, the discreet and powerful source of light nestled deep underneath dimmed.

The blond man started like he was waking up from a bad dream.

“Fuck!”

Wang Zikai stared at the scene before him with widened eyes, visibly panicking. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t dare to extract the bone stings. With his free hand, he patted Gao Yang’s face. “Hey, bro! Don’t die, don’t fucking die...”

“Calm down, calm down...” Wang Zikai patted down Gao Yang. “Western Medicine! Western Medicine![ref]West, xi, sounds similar to C. In an earlier chapter, Wang Zikai mixed them up and has been referring to Medicine C as West Medicine.[ref]”

There was no Medicine C on Gao Yang, of course.

Wang Zikai turned around with tears of helplessness glinting in his eyes. He growled, “How long are you fuckers going to keep watching?! Save him!”