The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 386: Black and White Walls

[Act 4]

Gao Yang flapped his wings, trying his best not to plunge into the depth of the void. He suddenly realized that he had turned into a white butterfly at some point.

This must be a dream.

With the thought in mind, Gao Yang didn’t feel too much anxiety or unease.

He continued to flap his wings and flew forward. His vision cleared up gradually, his surroundings lighting up.

Gao Yang turned to the side and saw a white wall—or something with dream-like white light rolling and fluctuating on its surface.

It looked endlessly tall and long without an end, or a boundary, like a great wall erected in the universe.

Across from it was a wall of pitch black. Its height and length were also limitless, and its surface boiled with strange fluctuating black energy.

Gao Yang had never seen such a deep black. His mind faltered when he stared at the wall. Although he was far from it, it felt as if his body and soul would be completely sucked in the next second.

The two giant walls were parallel to each other, forming a strange cosmic corridor, at the center of which was an incredibly wide river.

Well, it wasn’t quite a river since the surface of it was a viscous layer of dark brown liquid. It looked more like a marsh filled with the corrupted and the evil.

It looked icily cold, yet it seemed to be boiling, gurgling with bubbles popping up on the surface before breaking.

Moreover, many deep red eyes of different sizes floated on the marsh. Some as large as a whale, and others as tiny as a small shrimp.

In their eyes were the black and white walls. They opened and then closed their eyes at high frequency.

In addition to the densely-packed eyes, pale arms shot out of the marsh every once in a while, seemingly reaching for something in a desperate and futile attempt like a drowning man grasping for a lifeline, but ended up sinking back down.

Gao Yang flapped his wings hard, scared that he would fall into the terrifying river too.

Like the two walls on the sides of the corridor, however, the river extended endlessly without a stopping point. Gao Yang flew for a long, long time, feeling exhaustion catching up to him, and his wings became heavy. He wanted nothing but a place to perch on.

Thankfully, there was an island in the center of the river ahead.

A closer look revealed that it wasn’t an island, but a large tree reaching into the sky growing out of the marsh.

Its roots must be at the bottom of the river, while the light gray trunk rose out of the water, long leaves hanging down from the dense webs of branches in strands like a great waterfall running down a cliff, split into countless smaller streams of water by rocky skerries.

What a behemoth tree.

It seemed ten times bigger than the one I’ve seen in the Time-Space Rune Cave. It wasn’t so much a tree but a bastion.

Gao Yang marveled at the sight as he flew toward it.

He was startled by what he saw.

The strands hanging down from the branches were no leaves, but light gray strands of hair, wrapping around the branches while writhing like snakes.

Gao Yang felt a numbness in his scalp. That, however, wasn’t the only strange thing. From the trunk and branches, countless people grew.

Most of them were vaguely visible figures wrapped in thick gray membranes—the bark; others had broken out of the membranes, revealing their faces and bodies, but their skins hadn’t fully grown, and their red muscles and fine tendons were still visible.

The closer Gao Yang flew to the tree, the more scared he became.

He wanted to just turn around and fly away, but he didn’t have the strength to do so. His body seemed ready to fall apart.

He would have to choose between perching on the tree and sinking into the river of eyes and pale hands.

In the end, he chose the tree.

He flew to a large branch and hung perpendicularly on a slowly writhing strand of hair. Given his almost imperceptible weight, he didn’t attract any attention or attack.

Gao Yang sighed in relief.

“Hey, wake up!” a girl’s voice called out.

Startled, Gao Yang looked around.

The branch beside him suddenly split to the sides, and the face of a girl popped out of the slit.

While there were parts of her face that remained skinless, with the red muscle tissues revealed, her face was more complete compared to the other ‘people’.

She looked to be thirteen or fourteen with seaweed-like long auburn hair. Under her full, fair forehead were a pair of slanted grayish blue eyes, which were a little more apart than average. There was an innocent wildness to her.

“Hey! Wake up! Wake up, wake up!”

She kept shouting, sounding incredibly excited. Her voice echoed in the lonesome space.

She struggled to break free as she shouted, and her torso gradually emerged from the bark, revealing the curves of a girl. Her body, however, was still covered in a thick layer of gray membrane. It seemed that she couldn’t break free completely yet.

Gao Yang realized then that the girl wasn’t talking to him. Thus, he waited quietly rather than doing anything.

Hiss.

Soon, the branch next to the girl split as well, and a girl at similar age popped her head out. Having evolved more fully, her face was fair and flawless.

She had long, silky black hair and a pair of deep beautiful black eyes. Her facial features were delicate, and the angles of her face smooth and refined. It was clear that she would grow up to be a beautiful woman.

While she was still young, she had grown out of the innocence and childlike temperament of a young girl. Instead, she was reserved and gloomy like an adult would be.

“Yeah?” the black-haired girl asked coldly, a hint of tiredness in her voice.

“Hey, I had another dream!” the girl with slanted grayish blue eyes and auburn hair shouted in excitement.

“That so?” The black-haired girl humored her.

“I dreamed of being a highschooler. You know what that is, right? They are humans studying at a certain point in their lives...”

“I know,” the black-haired girl cut her off. She wasn’t interested in the meaningless blabbering.

“The most handsome boy at school pursued me openly and asked me to be his girlfriend, saying that he fell in love with me at first sight. I told him that I needed some time to think, but he didn’t give me the time. He pushed me to a wall, giving me a kabedon. You know what that is, right...”

“I know—” The black-haired girl drawled, making her irritation clear.

“Haha, my heart was racing and pounding so hard!” The auburn-haired girl smiled adoringly. “He’s so handsome! When it seemed like he was going to kiss me, I slowly closed my eyes... Do you know what happened then?”

“You don’t have to tell me.” The black-haired girl yawned and pulled back, the gray membranes wrapping tightly around her. It looked like she was going back into the branch.

“Hey, heeeeey, don’t go! Listen to me!” the auburn-haired girl urged.

“Shockingly, what came to me wasn’t a loving kiss, but a knife! The handsome boy stabbed me in the chest and said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m an awakener!’”

“Holy fxxk!”

Getting way too into her story, the girl grew increasingly agitated, her chest heaving violently against the gray membrane. “How could he, how could he! He honey-trapped me! That was a foul move! Awakeners are the worst! Once I’m there, I’m gonna kill them all!”

“Shut up shut up shut up!” Then another girl popped out of the branch under the two.

She looked to be eleven or twelve, with medium-length blond hair and emerald green eyes. It was clear that her growth had been slow. Most of her face was skinless, revealing dark brown muscle tissues.

Even so, it was clear from her facial features that she would be a pretty girl.

“When are you gonna get out of here?” she snapped, irritated. “You’ve been disturbing my sleep every day!”

“Tee-hee, it’s gonna be our turn soon,” the auburn-haired girl said proudly, looking down at the grumpy blond girl. “I hope you won’t miss us too much once we’re there.”

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