The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 791: Surrounded

Swoosh. Clang.

Another sniper shot flew toward Colorless. It didn’t work. After Qilin dodged the first bullet, Amon immediately figured out from which direction Nine Frost was shooting and rushed to Colorless’ side, spinning her giant boomerang to block any incoming bullets so that Colorless could focus on killing Wang Zikai.

[Nine Frost: Nainai! Come back to save him!]

[Chen Ying: Nainai’s seriously injured. It’s too late.]

[Nainai: Help me up. This Empress, this Empress can...]

...

“Don’t move! You’re being surrounded. By me!!”

Suddenly, Gregor’s voice came from a distance, spoken through a megaphone. Wang Zikai couldn’t move his petrified neck, but he could see from his dimming eyes that a pickup truck had appeared in the clearing about a hundred meters away.

[Nine Frost: Hong Xiaoxiao? Why are you here?! Are you mad?!]

[Hong Xiaoxiao: Vice Captain, I, I don’t wanna, either, but I was forced to...sob...]

Nine Frost took a better look through his binoculars. In the driver’s seat, Hong Xiaoxiao cried as she drove the truck to the battlefield at full speed, her face twisted with terror. Gao Xinxin, in the passenger seat, looked determined.

Gregor and Zhang Wei were in the back. Gregor had a supporting hand on the top of the car while he raised the megaphone with his other hand. He shouted, “All of you, you’re surrounded by me!!”

“I’m Gregor, the awakener with Pestilence!”

“Five seconds later, I’ll use Poison of Hell, and you’ll all die!!”

Gregor turned off the megaphone and growled at Gao Xinxin, “I’ve done what you said, Gao Xinxin. Return my manuscript to me!”

“Don’t just bark without bite!” Zhang Wei hollered from the side. “Show them what you’ve got!”

“Ugh, this is annoying!” Gregor scowled as he threw the megaphone to Zhang Wei and raised his hands.

In an instant, dark gray poisonous wind morphed into a giant skull above the pickup truck, flying toward the enemies with insidious presence.

“Holy!”

Zhang Wei gaped. He immediately raised the megaphone and declared impassionedly, “The Poison of Hell is activating! Everyone! Let us link our hands and hearts to go to hell together! Hahahaha!”

His mad laughter rang across the battlefield. And immediately, everyone outside of Qilin and Surnamed Li blanched.

They had almost died to the Poison of Hell before, and they couldn’t fear Pestilence more.

Of course, they only had to calm down and think a little to realize that the conditions to activate Poison of Hell wouldn’t be so easily met—there had to be a ritual, the Talent had to reach level 8 by merging with the Poison Rune Circuit, and the poison had to be spread through the blood mist. Only then would it be possible to kill all awakeners of the Mist World indiscriminately.

But right now, they were in survival mode.

“Go!”

Amon only got paid so much every month. There was no reason for her to risk her life. She grabbed Colorless and ran.

Colorless’ Petrify was cut off. Her energy had been seriously drained, and relaxing for a moment left her weak and unable to make another deadly move against Wang Zikai. She gave up on struggling and allowed Amon to take her away.

Wang Zikai remained on the verge of death with one foot in the mouth of hell and the other outside.

“Run! What are you waiting for?!”

Crimson Bee, who had been doing nothing, picked up an unconscious Stubborn Weasel and ran toward the portal without looking back. The others retreated with their injured or unconscious companions, too.

Qilin frowned. He let go of Surnamed Li’s wheelchair and took quick strides toward the petrified Wang Zikai with his cane.

“Don’t.”

Surnamed Li stopped him. “Gregor’s Pestilence has as much range as your psychic rays. And the Nine Scions may have other tricks up their sleeves. There’s no reason to take the risk.”

Qilin stopped.

True, this wasn’t Gao Yang, the Divine Scion. He didn’t have to risk it.

The next second, the pickup truck drove to Wang Zikai and drifted. Zhang Wei picked up the petrified man and pulled him into the back seat, and the car drove away.

All the while, Gregor had been manipulating the giant skull to hover close to Qilin and Surnamed Li as a threat, as if he was saying, If you dare to make a move, I’ll blow the skull up into countless poisonous particles and ensure mutual destruction.

“Go! Hurry, hurry! Go faster!” Gao Xinxin shouted.

Hong Xiaoxiao had already pushed the accelerator to the limit. She held tightly onto the driving wheel, face covered in tears of relief. “Thank heaven...I...I’m not dead... We flaunted before Qilin but didn’t die...wah...”

[Nine Frost: Hong Xiaoxiao! Wang Zikai has a hairpin on him! Save him first!]

[Hong Xiaoxiao: But...but I’m driving!]

[Zhang Wei: Can’t you do two things at once?!]

[Hong Xiaoxiao: I’m not Captain. I can’t do it...]

[Gregor: Don’t worry. This guy’s fine. His heart’s beating, and the petrify effect is fading on his face.]

[Nine Frost: ...]

[Zhang Wei: Brother Kai’s awesome!]

[Nine Frost: All of you, retreat now and each find a hiding place. Then we’ll meet up in our agreed meeting place.]

Zhang Wei, Hong Xiaoxiao, Nainai, and Chen Ying responded in a chorus through Telepathy.

In the truck bed in the back, Gregor laid Wang Zikai down and stood up to take the megaphone from Zhang Wei, hammering the door to the passenger seat. He shouted at Gao Xinxin through the door, “Open the door, Gao Xinxin! Give me my manuscript back!”

“You dare to steal my file, then you should dare to open the door!”

Having survived the crisis, Gao Xinxin lost the desperate determination on her face. She cried and laughed with overwhelming emotions, sticking her head out of the car window with her twin tails flapping in the wind.

She cried out in joy, “You were cool earlier, Gregor!”

Gregor paused, rubbing his head in embarrassment. “Geez, that was nothing. I was cooler when I was young...”

Then he wised up and raised the megaphone again, “Don’t try to distract me! Where’s my manuscript?! Where did you hide the files?”

“I didn’t hide anything!” Gao Xinxin smirked mischievously. “I sorted it out for you and moved the files to your E drive. How could you save your files on your C drive? They will all be gone if you reinstall the OS, silly!”

Gregor gaped. “Real...really?”

“You don’t have to believe me.” Gao Xinxin stuck out her tongue at him before pulling back into the passenger seat. She put on the seatbelt and let out a long sigh of relief. “Is this mission...a success?”

“Yeah.” Hong Xiaoxiao nodded and wiped the tears on her face, steadying her cracking voice. “Although, although people get hurt, we’ve achieved our goal. We succeeded.”

“On my brother’s side...” Gao Xinxin looked ahead with determined eyes. “They will succeed, too.”

“Yeah!” Hong Xiaoxiao nodded vehemently.

...

Five minutes later, Qilin and Surnamed Li looked at the giant charred crater ahead of them.

Liao Liao ran over with two team members. “Guildmaster, Deputy Guildmaster, we’ve dealt with all the other bombs. There’s no one from the Nine Scions in this area. They have all fled.”

“Good work.” Qilin nodded slightly and put his glasses back on. Liao Liao felt much less pressure from him.

Surnamed Li sighed. “As Elder Yan Liang thought, this is the distraction.”

Liao Liao maintained a poker face, but there was a storm in her head.

Seriously?! You did all these for a distraction?! The Nine Scions are out of their mind!

No wonder I didn’t see Azure Dragon and Yan Liang around. They must have gone to deal with the Nine Scions’ real move. I felt like the two Elders would be in danger!

Ugh, it’s not my business. I should keep lurking.

Qilin looked down at his quartz watch.

“We should be hearing from Yan Liang soon.”

“Hopefully it’ll be good news,” said Surnamed Li.