The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1034: Oblivion

Zhang Wei’s stunned face stiffened gradually. After a long silence, he asked, “What...did you just say?”

Qilin smiled and turned away.

“Wait!” Zhang Wei bounded up the stairs, moving to block Qilin's path. “What did you just say?!”

Qilin sidestepped him and continued forward. “You heard me. You simply can’t accept it.”

“Of course I can’t! Any normal person will react this way!” He chased after Qilin once more, composure crumbling. “Stop fucking toying with me, Qilin! Just end me! Am I dreaming too?”

Zhang Wei slapped himself hard. “Wake up! Wake up!”

Qilin quickened his pace, ignoring him. He turned left onto a patch of green where Heavenly Dog lay in a muddy crater, having plummeted from the sky.

While he was physically stronger as an awakener, falling from a thousand meters in the sky still seriously injured him. His internal organs were all damaged, and a trickle of blood streaked down from the corner of his mouth and his nostrils. His eyes were widened, flickering with a possessive green light. His lips parted as he whispered quietly:

“Mom, don’t go...”

“I’ll never cry again. I won’t black out again... I’m not hungry at all...”

“Don’t abandon me. I don’t wanna be alone...”

The energy in Qilin’s body slowly regenerated. He reconnected to the corpse puppet, Flower, to access Telekinesis.

Heavenly Dog’s bloodied shirt bulged. The Element Rune Circuit hidden in the inner pocket flew out from the seam, hovering before Qilin. Qilin inspected it for a few seconds to make sure there was no danger. Then he took the Rune Circuit and vanished it with a twirl of his fingers.

Qilin crouched down, injecting Heavenly Dog with Medicine C.

Heavenly Dog threw up a mouthful of blood, moaning as his injury mended.

Qilin took his hand.

In ten seconds, a green vertical “relief” slowly emerged from Heavenly Dog’s forehead—Lonesome Emperor’s contracting brand.

Then Heavenly Dog stood up and wiped blood from his face, eyes staring ahead.

“Standby,” Qilin commanded.

“Understood,” Heavenly Dog answered.

Qilin waved a hand and took Fly from Heavenly Dog. Then he turned to Zhang Wei. “Let’s go.”

Witnessing Heavenly Dog's transformation restored Zhang Wei's fear in full force. His apparent antagonism vanished as he approached Qilin obediently.

Qilin extended his cane to Zhang Wei. “Hold tight.”

Understanding Qilin's intent, Zhang Wei gripped the cane with both hands.

They soared above Green Lotus Park, landing moments later in a recreational area. They walked across it.

Zhang Wei couldn’t help but ask, “Do the Gates of Closure...really not exist?”

Qilin nodded. “If you believe me, I’ll keep going.”

“I believe you. There’s no reason for you to lie to me.”

Qilin smiled. “Gates of Closure is only an invention of mine.”

“But...”

“Delusion, greed, wrath, pride, life, and death are all meaningless. Life is short and nothing but a grand dream,” Qilin recited. “Have you heard the line before?”

Zhang Wei nodded. “I have.”

“From whom?” Qilin asked.

“Sister Ying,” said Zhang Wei. “She seems to have heard from Brother...from Gao Yang.”

“Yes. That line has been circulating the awakeners’ circle since the time of the Elusive Sect. No one knows who was the first to say it.”

Zhang Wei didn’t interrupt. He knew QIlin had more to say.

“Sir Jiang and I made up the Gates of Closure based on the line. The Gates have always been a symbol—representing the truth of the Mist World. We used it to rally everyone to look for the twelve Rune Circuits.”

“Then the Gates became something concrete in our collective consciousness—as the exit out of the Mist World. It became hope.”

“That...that’s absurd!” Zhang Wei still found that hard to believe. “Why would everyone just buy it?”

“Have you ever seen a ghost, Zhang Wei? Not a Spectre, but a ghost.”

Zhang Wei shook his head.

“Have you seen God?”

Zhang Wei shook his head again.

“None have seen either ghosts or God, yet everyone talks about them.” Qilin chuckled. “That’s how Gates of Closure became our collective delusion.”

“No, it’s not right...” Zhang Wei identified the flaw. “Dragon’s been around for longer, and he’s always wanted to open the Gates. He can’t have fallen for your lies.”

“Dragon believes there is a definite end for the Mist World, or a skeleton key that will reveal the answers to all questions. That’s what he’s been pursuing. Dragon’s not fooled by anyone, only way too obsessed with the truth.”

“Be it the Gates of Clousre I made up, the boat ticket the Godbearer Cult dangled before its followers, or anything else, Dragon believes there to be an exit out of this world, or perhaps an order.”

Qilin chuckled. “Oh was he obsessed. Perhaps that’s the side effect of Overlord. The man who’s used to determining everything cannot accept that the world is chaotic and disorderly in essence.”

Qilin turned to Zhang Wei. “There’s no exit, Zhang Wei. No solution, no answer, no hope.”

“The Mist World isn’t a gambling table, a game, or even a nightmare.”

“It’s an ever-sinking vortex, a dead end with no exit, an all-consuming oblivion.”

There was a storm of thoughts in Zhang Wei’s head. His perception of the world kept being shattered.

After a long while, he went back to the first question.

“The Gates...do not exist?”

“They don’t.”

Qilin had reached a pink, dreamy merry-go-round. It was on, the lights blinking to upbeat music.

War Tiger sat on a rising and falling wooden horse, giant sword on his back, hands clutching the steel beam. His eyes flickered with a possessed green as he muttered:

“Come on...keep going... Is this all you’ve got?”

“Damn old man...weren’t you kicking the shit out of us back then...?”

Qilin did the same thing: he retrieved the Damage Rune Circuit from War Tiger and then used Lonesome Emperor to turn him into his living puppet.

“Stand by,” Qilin ordered.

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“Yes, sir!” War Tiger drew his Black Gold giant sword and buried it by his side, expression uncharacteristically serious.

Qilin flew Zhang Wei to a fast food chain near the park's recreational area, landing in the small square before it.

During flight, Zhang Wei had struggled to process Qilin's words. Despair grew in his heart.

He stubbornly pressed, “But how did you know? How can you be so sure? What if you’re wrong? What if Dragon or the Godbearer Cult are right?”

“I understand how you feel.” Qilin walked to the fast food place. “I couldn’t accept it in the beginning. Neither could my closest friend.”

“Closest friend...” Zhang Wei frowned. As someone who never missed out on gossip, he immediately remembered a name. “Luqi!”

“Yes.” Qilin’s eyes flashed with sorrow. “In the end, I accepted the truth and came up with the Spinning Top plan with Sir Jiang. However, Luqi wouldn’t accept there being a definitive end to the world or our plan.”

“So you killed him!” Zhang Wei blurted out in shock.