The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 740: Wacky Act

The next day, eleven o’clock.

In the last car of the train to North Harvest, Island Nation, Qing Ling, Wang Zikai, Hong Xiaoxiao, and Ke Yo had disguised themselves as foreign tourists. Qing Ling and Wang Zikai sat side by side on a bench as a young couple, while Hong Xiaoxiao and Ke Yo stood among the crowd holding onto handles as two backpackers, each having a camera hanging on their necks.

Like the other passengers, they used their phones with their heads lowered but were actually talking in their group chat. They were seven to eight minutes from reaching North Harvest, and they had to act now.

Half an hour ago, they had arrived at the Island Nation’s airport with the first flight they could catch and headed to Zone D. Without delay, they caught a train to North Harvest.

They boarded the third car. With her habit of observing everyone on the train, Qing Ling quickly spotted Qilin and Vermilion Bird.

The two had put on disguises with local clothes and wearing hats, scarves, and masks. Without close observation, they would be difficult to spot in a crowd.

Qing Ling had identified them so quickly because of the man’s cane. No matter what disguise he put on, Qilin couldn’t hide his crippled leg.

Gao Yang had asked Vermilion Bird about Qilin’s and Surnamed Li’s disabilities. Why hadn’t she treated them? Vermilion Bird said that their physical disabilities didn’t result from regular damage, but she didn’t know what damage it was, only that she couldn’t heal them.

Gao Yang speculated that Surnamed Li had lost the mobility of her lower body during the White Disaster years ago, likely a shadowstalker’s handiwork. And Qilin never said anything about his cripple.

The moment Qing Ling spotted Qilin, she realized with alarm that Gao Yang was right. Gao Xinxin was found. To all their surprise, Qilin had moved out personally!

Qing Ling shot her teammates a glance. The four of them moved discreetly with the crowd to the fifth car, the tail end of the train. Then Qing Ling took out her phone to discuss the matter with everyone else.

Wang Zikai was as foolishly confident as always with his empty head. He said that the brave would win the fight and that they should just attack the two head-on. There were many innocent wanderers on the train, however, and the train was too narrow for them to fight to their best ability. Thus, he was willing to wait until they got off the train.

Qing Ling doused his enthusiasm with the fact that Qilin had stared him into an idiot from a hundred meters away last time. Although Wang Zikai was the best fighter of the Nine Scions, many signs pointed to Qilin’s psychic attacks being particularly effective against a born idiot like him.

And Vermilion Bird was here this time. If they cornered the pair, and Vermilion Bird tripled Qilin’s power, the four of them would die many times over.

Hong Xiaoxiao proposed a plan B.

They would split up after getting off the train. Two would try to keep Qilin and Vermilion Bird busy, and the other two would quickly find Gao Xinxin and hide her.

Qing Ling shot that down, too. It was a more reasonable plan, but there was a fatal problem: how were they going to occupy Qilin?

They might stand a chance running away from Qilin, but staying to occupy him? That would be suicide.

Again, in close range, Qilin was unrivaled. With the full power of Eidos, he could stare anyone to death.

Then the third plan was proposed.

It was a creative one, and seemingly the only one that would work.

After some consideration, Qing Ling gave the final say in the group chat. “We act now.”

Qing Ling, Wang Zikai, and Hong Xiaoxiao put away their phones at the same time, quietly making it back to the third car of the train.

Ke Yo made a move then. With an apology uttered under her breath, she gingerly touched a young man and a woman for three seconds, activating Wacky Act, which would last a minute.

Then she quickly left. All of a sudden, the young man and woman started crying and laughing hysterically. They danced around and played a particular sea sponge and a starfish, declaring that they were going to catch some jellyfish. They even tried to open the windows to jump out of the train. The chaos soon took over the train car.

...

A minute before, the second car.

Qilin and Vermilion Bird sat side by side silently.

Vermilion Bird had been anxious since last night. She could guess that Gao Yang must have been quietly monitoring her social media account, but she wasn’t sure if he would see the post in time. And the hints she gave could be too abstract to understand. Gao Yang might not notice.

If Qilin got his hands on Gao Xinxin, Gao Yang would willingly give his life for her for sure...which was something Vermilion Bird didn’t want.

Ding.

Qilin’s phone rang. It was a message.

He took out his phone and checked it. After a moment of silence, he pocketed his phone nonchalantly.

The message was from Yan Liang.

The operation to erase the Nine Scions was a failure. Although a great blow had been struck, Gao Yang managed to escape, and they only recovered the Life Rune Circuit.

For some reason, Qilin wasn’t too surprised.

He had witnessed Gao Yang’s growth. He knew how great a threat the young man would be as an enemy. Qilin had started out wanting to cultivate Gao Yang to help with his eventual showdown with Dragon, but slowly, he realized that Gao Yang wasn’t a simple awakener. The young man had his own ambition.

When Qilin realized that Gao Yang would become an obstacle to him for certain, he made a fatal attack on him without mercy. After that failed, he sought out Yan Liang for help.

All these years, there had only ever been two people Qilin wouldn’t underestimate: Dragon and Gao Yang.

“What is it?” Vermilion Bird’s voice broke Qilin out of his thoughts.

“Nothing.”

Then a commotion came from the tail of the train. More and more were pointing fingers and making comments.

“Whoa, what’s that...”

“Dunno. The two seem to have gone mad...”

Qilin and Vermilion Bird shared a look, realizing that something had happened.

Vermilion Bird stood up. “I’ll check.”

Qilin was cautious. Worried that it could be a trap, he rose to his feet, too. “Let’s go together. Don’t get too far from me.”

He maintained a passive psychic pressure within his thirty meters radius at a certain level, watching out for any threats around him and making sure that he would be able to react immediately.

The two slowly weaved through the crowd and moved to the tail of the train.

Team Qing Ling, already in the third car, stood amid the crowd and looked into the last car curiously like the other passengers without moving that way.

Qilin walked past the four of them. Qing Ling immediately felt like countless needles were enveloping her skin, brushing past the fine hair and making her break into goosebumps.

The same was true of Hong Xiaoxiao and Ke Yo. Thankfully, they were prepared for it. They did their best to tamp down their nervousness and fear so that their hearts wouldn’t race too much.

It wouldn’t be strange for their hearts to beat a little faster, though, since something strange had happened on the train. Any normal person’s heart would be racing a little.

As for Wang Zikai, he felt nothing. His mind was completely stable.

With his attention drawn by the commotion in the last car of the train, Qilin did not pay much attention to the passengers in the third car. Thus, he did not notice Qing Ling and the others in their disguise.

Soon, Qilin and Vermilion Bird moved through the third and fourth cars to reach the last car.

Qing Ling and the other three immediately pushed through the crowd and rushed to the second car.

Falling back, Qing Ling stopped at the gangway between the second and third car. Extending her hands, she conjured two Black Gold blades and made a perfect arc. Sparks sputtered as the blades cut into the metal like a ring of fire.

Clack. Clang. The cars split.

Wang Zikai kicked the third car to speed up the decoupling. The two parts of the train split while racing, the distance growing quickly. The third car became smaller and smaller until it was only a dot.

The plan worked, so smoothly that it amazed them.

Qing Ling didn’t relax her guard. She watched as the rear half of the train became distant and made sure Qilin and Vermilion Bird hadn’t caught up with them—in fact, they couldn’t.

Wang Zikai, Ke Yo, and Hong Xiaoxiao turned around to face any possible threat.

Some passengers collapsed, while others accepted reality after a stutter in their thoughts and screamed in panic.

Luckily, there were no elite monsters in the two train cars.