The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 376: Poison of Hell

Qilin stood before X with his cane in his left hand. He pulled it from X’s heart.

With eyes filled with regret, he said, “So you’ve betrayed humanity.”

Blood sputtered from X’s chest. He collapsed to the ground, kneeling by Qilin’s feet. “When...did you...”

“Do you really think I need direct eye contact to give you an illusion?” Qilin adjusted the glasses perching on his nose. Under the slight glare of the lenses, his eyes were deep and cold. “No, I only need to see you from the corner of my eyes.”

“And I can sense the changes in emotions in those around me, however slight. With no enemies around us, you suddenly exude killing intent. The only possible target is me.”

Qilin paused, his lips curled into a bitter smile. “Of course, it’s thanks to Seven Shadow’s warning. He told me to be wary of you before setting out, so I’ve been keeping an eye on you.”

X toppled to the ground with a thud, the blood fog around him dispersing for a short moment. With blood streaking down his mouth, he said, “What...a shame... Almost...succeeded...”

Qilin eyed him with cold scrutiny. “Why did you betray us?”

“I told you...” X said weakly, his eyes squeezed shut, seemingly an attempt to reject Qilin’s illusion at his dying moment. “We all have our own path... Once a choice is made, we must get to the end of the path even if we have to crawl our way there...”

Suddenly, Qilin sensed a strange disturbance behind him. He whirled around to find a slight crack on the light gray orb. The poisonous wind had morphed into a long stake and pierced through it.

Why was he still able to use his poisonous wind?!

At that moment, X, with his eyes closed, jumped more than ten meters backward, putting a safe distance between them.

He then opened his eyes and scoffed at Qilin. “I was lamenting your failure, Qilin. You almost succeeded.”

His chest stopped bleeding then.

Qilin started. How? He had pierced X’s heart with his cane. He had felt the heart crushing. What went wrong?

Soon, X gave Qilin the answer. His chest bulged suddenly and writhed like a fermenting dough, as if there was life hidden within.

“Freerider!” Qilin made the guess.

X nodded. “Yes, I have a freerider in me. Now, I have two hearts, and my other heart can be shifted at will.”

“So you’ve aligned yourself with the monsters,” Qilin said with derisive disapproval.

“It’s all to complete Sir Zuo’s cause and follow the righteous path. You won’t understand...”

X’s tone was colored by sorrow. He closed his eyes and extended his arms, his poisonous wind lifting him slowly to the air.

“It’s all part of the plan, Qilin. From the moment Surnamed Li prophesied the fate of you awakeners—no, from even way back, you have been pawns on the chessboard.”

“Still, I’ve only decided my path when you came to me in Naldives.”

“Just now, the last sacrifice, White Tiger, had died. The contract remains binding. I can sense it.”

“Watch, Qilin, as history—no, as the world changes.”

A Rune Circuit suddenly appeared in his hand. It was the Poison Rune Circuit.

“Why don’t I give you a freebie? This is how you use a Rune Circuit!”

Suddenly, the Poison Rune Circuit melted in his hand and turned into energy in black liquid form, which burrowed into his body through his fingers.

When he opened his eyes again, his irises and scleras were both ink black.

Level 7 Pestilence had resonated perfectly with the Poison Rune Circuit, reaching the top level, level 8!

Activate the most powerful form of Pestilence, Poison of Hell.

“Arghhhhh—”

X opened his mouth unnaturally wide and made a piercing shriek.

It seemed as if tens of thousands of vicious spirits were undergoing the torment of purgatory inside him, and black poison oozed out of his orifices nonstop, forming clouds of poison that covered the sky and obscured the moon, robbing the road of all light.

Then it blew up, shooting four clumps of energy in four directions, searching for the sacrifice that had given their life and soul to hell—White Tiger, Ronnie, Electric Mouse, and Joker.

The giant clown doll that stayed stubbornly on the clearing under the hilltop cemetery in the Dongyu District.

The body parts and blood pool on the grass field in the amusement park of the Western Suburban Park.

The body bag Wu Dahai was carried in that had just been brought back to the Twelve Zodiac Signs’ base.

White Tiger, whose body had been covered by a white cloth, on the central plaza in the Walled City of Ten Dragons.

The four bodies—or what remained of them—exuded an evil black energy at the same time.

“The body... Something's wrong!”

Nearby, Sha Ye noticed the strange change White Tiger’s body was undergoing. Hit with a terrible premonition, she turned and shouted to the crowd, “Get away from the body! Now!”

Boom!

A great burst of poisonous energy came down from the sky and dove into White Tiger’s body. The other three sacrifices were quickly found as well.

Suddenly, the remains disappeared, combined with the poisonous energy and turning into four giant black coffins in energy form.

Clack.

The lids of the coffins slowly opened, making the sound of teeth grinding.

Then a black substance between gas form and liquid form poured out and seeped into the blood fog, like the condensed solution of all the corruption and malice in the world.

Under the effect of the strange catalyst, the blood fog turned dark brown and continued to swell and rise like the foams of beer. In only a minute, the fog had risen to a hundred meters in the sky and deep underground. None in the Mist World could hide from it.

Another half a minute passed, and the fog reverted to its original state, staying low on the ground at about half a meter. And the four insidious black coffins were gone.

It was as if nothing had happened.

However, a plague had indeed hit, claiming all awakeners as its victims.

Azure Dragon, War Tiger, and Surnamed Li were the first to feel it. The strange energy invaded their bodies and greedily wolfed down their energy like countless planktons. While the energy was foreign to their bodies, it cunningly bypassed the bodies’ defense system. Like a virus from a different dimension, there was no understanding or countering it.

Qilin was hit with the same feeling on the plaza under the White Lake Hotel.

“What did you do?” Qilin looked at X with shock.

“In ten minutes, all awakeners would die of Poison of Hell.” X slowly landed, his face pale and his voice tinged with an exhaustion he couldn’t hide.

“How...did you do it?” Qilin felt the energy in his body quickly draining. He could barely stay on his feet, but he fought to stay upright.

X didn’t explain. It wasn’t something he could explain in a couple sentences. And there was no point in telling Qilin.

This was all for Sir Zuo’s answer.

X hadn’t lied about who Sir Zuo was. He was an observer and had served X’s family as their butler.

Rather than his parents, X had been raised by Sir Zuo. To him, Sir Zuo wasn’t a servant, but his real family.

When X awakened and exposed himself, almost getting killed, it was Sir Zuo who saved him.

Based on that action alone, Sir Zuo would be considered a lightbringer.

But Sir Zuo insisted that he was an observer.

Because he wasn’t actually on the awakeners’ side, and he didn’t think helping the awakeners was the right answer.

He had his own answer, and the first step was to help X grow.

That was why X had been an unaffiliate awakener throughout his life rather than joining any organization.

Instead of treating X like a pawn or a puppet, Sir Zuo had told X his true goal and allowed X to make the decision on his own.

Sir Zuo believed that there was only one solution: kill all awakeners outside of X and prevent any other awakeners from emerging. Then X would comprehend all Talents there were sooner or later and became infinitely close to godhood, allowing him to open the Gates of Closure.

What then? Sir Zuo didn’t know. His answer ended at opening the Gates. He believed that having become a god, X would know where to go naturally, as well as how the fate of the world should develop.

At first, X didn’t agree with Sir Zuo’s extreme answer.

Gradually, however, X saw no alternatives, and he wavered. He became confused, completely lost.

That was until the three organizations sent their delegates to him before the Crimson Tide and told him Surnamed Li’s prophecy, asking him to join. It all went according to what Sir Zuo had wanted.

The Godbearer Cult’s schemes, the pride monsters’ answers, and the awakeners’ resistance—they all came together to bring about the future prophesied by Surnamed Li.

That was fate, it turned out.

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