The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 728: Psychic Armor

“Haha.”

Swept by the hurricane, Succubus’ blue hair danced in the air. She extended her supple arms and wrapped them around Xiao Xin’s neck from behind, her breasts pressing against his back.

Xiao Xin trembled, his face pale as he tamped down his disgust and fear.

“Here I come, babe.”

Succubus gently rotated the ring on her ring finger, injecting herself with the power-doubling medicine.

She groaned, her brows furrowed. Her light purple slanted eyes quickly deepened. Large purple blotches appeared on her skin until they covered her entirely, and her body turned softer and softer until it became a pile of poison.

The poison shot out of her thin clothes, and like a living creature, it wrapped around Xiao Xin, quickly entering his mouth, nose, and ears.

“Ughhhh...”

Xiao Xin screamed in pain, his eyes turning a dark purple and his body becoming covered in large purple spots, too, like a poisoned leopard. He knew that time was of the essence. Without delay, he rotated the ring on his finger.

“Aghhhh!”

He cried out again as his energy surged endlessly and mixed with Succubus’ energy, in both excitement and pain. The medicine he injected himself with was higher in concentration and could triple his energy for three minutes, at a greater price of sending him into a nine-month coma.

However, Yan Liang promised him that he would be safe for the next nine months and that the Qilin Guild would secure the ultimate victory and lead humanity out of the Mist World.

Xiao Xin had hesitated, but every second he spent in the world was in fear and terror; he might as well make a gamble. Perhaps he would wake up to find himself in a safe, wonderful new world.

“Three Heads Six Arms!”

Flower Turtle, while diving down, quickly grabbed Xiao Xin’s and Six Rime’s hands, combining them. After a flash of white light, the three turned into a being of three heads and six arms with their backs conjoined.

“Nagger,” Yan Liang called out.

“Yes, sir!” Nagging Mister responded in a booming voice.

He was a middle-aged man in his forties with thin hair, a stocky figure, and thick lips and neck. He extended both hands. “Come. High-fives, all of you.”

Zero Hatred, who was leading their dive through the air, adjusted the currents of the wind elements and lifted himself, Yan Liang, Core East, and the three conjoined awakeners to Nagging Mister in turns, high-fiving him.

Nagging Mister’s Talent was Specialized Guard, serial number 43, Guard-type.

Not long after the Crimson Tide, he acquired Mind’s Eye.

Specialized Guard allowed him to strengthen his and his teammates’ defenses against two damage types while randomly weakening one type of defense for three minutes. Now, everyone’s defense against elemental and poisonous damages had doubled, while their defense against psychic damage was halved.

They were almost above the Starcatching Pavilion now. Yan Liang ordered, “Now!”

“Thick Mist!”

Xiao Xin, while combined with two others, shouted, the pores of his entire body quickly enlarged like beehives, and an endless supply of thick purple mist shot out.

“Aghhh—”

Core East strummed a chord and screamed, speeding up the spreading of the mist with soundwaves.

A large fountain of purple mist had appeared in the sky, quickly enveloping the street blocks below with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers. Mixed with Succubus’ poison, the purple mist would disturb one’s energy and make it drain from the body until they died.

At the same time, Six Rime’s absolute chill had been added to the mist too, which would quickly deprive a human body of its warmth. A regular living being would die in less than twenty seconds, and a weaker awakener would die in less than a minute. Even a strong awakener couldn’t resist it for more than three minutes—unless they had a particular defensive Talent that countered it.

The freezing poisonous mist Yan Liang developed didn’t differentiate between friends and foes. Even with the defensive buffs from Specialized Guard, it was a move that would hurt themselves half as much as they hurt their enemies.

He was going all out this time. He would get what he wanted.

Gao Yang must die, and the Nine Scions must be wiped out.

...

Meanwhile, the Starcatching Pavilion.

It was as if a giant razor had sliced off the Starcatching Pavilion, an ancient bastion, and the highland altogether, leaving only a deep trench that spanned two street blocks. At the end of the trench was where the energy explosion had occurred, the Starcatching Pavilion. It had been rendered into ruins, almost all lives erased from earth.

Gao Yang climbed out of the rubble and charred earth. His shirt was gone, and his jeans were tattered beyond form. His skin was scorched red by the energy shockwaves, and blood gushed out from the wound on his forehead, almost covering his entire face.

The moment the catastrophe hit, he had activated Willful Power to push his Endurance to the max. Only by that did he survive the terrifying attack.

The others weren’t as lucky.

He stood amid the ruins, his six senses slowly returning to him. He first saw light. Then his hearing recovered.

Slowly, the world returned.

Water splashed from crushed pipes. Broken wires crackled and sputtered sparks. All around him was fire, thick smoke, the sharp blaring of car horns, and faint wails and cries.

He felt no pain, despair, or anger. Nothing.

Confusion. That was all he could feel.

What happened? How did things turn out like this all of a sudden?

You don’t have time to dwell on it, Gao Yang.

The enemies are coming.

Hurry. Fight, fight, FIGHT.

[Psychic...]

“No!! No...”

Chen Ying was wailing.

Sitting amid the rubbles and covered in blood, her clothes tattered, she cried out in great despair.

Her bleeding hand clutched onto a bloodied cupcake. Little Tian was nowhere to be seen.

Right before the disaster hit, Chen Ying had gone up to Little Tian to give him the cupcake. The decision took her away from the sharpest edge of the Grim Reaper’s scythe.

The currents brought about by the scythe could still kill her, of course.

Luckily or unluckily, Little Tian had sensed the coming danger and the range of the lethal attack with Sensory in the last two seconds with Sensory, and the boy opened his eyes and charged at Chen Ying, tackling her to the floor with the greatest force he had ever mustered in life.

The next second, the candles went out.

Pure darkness descended. Then came a blinding golden light. It took her little brother from her.

He must have gone to heaven at God’s welcome. The hellhole of a world didn’t deserve a pure and wonderful boy like him.

[Psychic...]

“Ugh...it hurts...my hand...”

It was Herb Snail.

When Gao Yang called out, “Danger”, Herb Snail immediately fled toward the ground with Intangibility, but he was a beat too slow.

Half of his body was buried in the ruins, while the other half—his right arm, thigh, and part of his torso—was cut cleanly off, exposing bones and bleeding organs like a medical model made to demonstrate the insides of a human body.

[Psychic...]

Gao Yang saw a leg. It belonged to Zhang Wei, and Gao Yang recognized the shoe. The man had been boasting that the shoes were a global exclusive design. Buzhou shot back and said that there was no globe in the Mist World.

Where was Buzhou?

Right there, with Shuang Shuang.

Buzhou had extended his arms to shield her, trying to protect his wife but failing.

The married couple’s bodies were gone from the chest down.

Their eyes were wide with terror, and blood gushed out of the corners of their mouths, their nostrils, and their ears. They didn’t know what had happened even when they met their deaths, but at least they met their ends together.

[Psychic Ar...]

Gao Yang’s gaze was then drawn by a hand. It reached out of a pile of rubble like a pale, wilting flower. It belonged to Nainai. He knew it because there was an equinox flower ring on the ring finger.

He found one of Chestnut’s hands, too. It was still holding onto a gift box, the birthday gift she was giving to Yanyan.

He didn’t find Wild Range, only one of his mountain boots.

Where was Empty Life? She was gone too, but there was a book on the ground, the pages fluttering under the light of the fire around the ruins.

Where was Yanyan? Was she gone too?

But her mother Sha Ye was there. Lying lifelessly under a large piece of rock, a thick stone pillar had pierced through her back. Her blood turned the pile of rubbles into a red tomb.

...

[Psychic Armor]

[Activated]

Adjust heartbreak to 0%.

Cold rationality to 100%.