The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1145: Whispers

Default sounded like a terrible Talent, and outside of granting the Talent user a slightly better physique, it granted no other skills.

However, the Talent came with a valuable passive ability—when the owner acquired their second Talent, they could reach level 4 without the corresponding Rune Circuit, and the second Talent would come with a 30% permanent buff.

If the Talent user acquired one of the top twelve Talents after Default, the 30% buff would be formidable. Unfortunately, John Doe’s second Talent was Training, serial number 180, Buff-type.

The Talent was interesting, too. It allowed the user to improve their physique and energy without a limit provided they continued to train, only the progress would be glacial.

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Regular humans and awakeners alike faced a ceiling. Once they hit it, they wouldn’t be able to get stronger unless they acquired a new Talent and gained new energy. Training, however, allowed its user to ignore the limit of a human body, allowing them to keep going up a wall like a snail; slow, but never stopped.

In theory, if someone had Longevity or continued to extend their life with Equivalent Exchange, they could very well become the most powerful being in the world if they trained with Training for hundreds or even a thousand years—it had some commonality with Limitless Evolution in that regard.

Then John Doe acquired a third Talent: Elemental Conversion, serial number 139, Element-type.

The Talent converted any existing element into another, but it didn’t allow the user to control the converted element. For example, the user could turn a metal lamppost into a concrete one or turn an asphalt road into metal, but they could not manipulate the two elements to transform them or fight with them.

That wasn’t a problem for Qing Ling, though. She already had Metal and Lightning. Being able to convert the two elements freely was valuable to her.

Qing Ling was most attracted to Training, though. While she only had another month to train, she liked that she could keep getting stronger by putting in the effort. That was a doctrine she had always subscribed to and religiously followed.

Thus, Qing Ling had asked for John Doe’s Talents.

John Doe agreed. Then Qing Ling received the Talents with Vermilion Bird’s help.

After that, Qing Ling threw herself into her training, sometimes fighting War Tiger and other times sparring with other partners. Of course, with other people, it would have to be three or more against her, or the sparring session wouldn’t even be a proper warmup.

Qing Ling had also considered using One Stone’s Seed of Resentment so that both sides would be fighting with true killing intent, triggering Limitless Evolution’s passive ability for growth. If she accidentally killed her opponents, Hong Xiaoxiao could bring them back.

It was viable on paper, but difficult to execute. To trigger Limitless Evolution, both sides must be fighting with their lives on the line. However, Qing Ling had a high psychic resistance. And on top of that, Limitless Evolution granted her immunity after some time, so Seed of Resentment lost its effect not long after taking effect.

Moreover, Limitless Evolution granted energy not through copy and paste, but cut and paste, meaning when Qing Ling acquired 7% of the opponent’s energy, her opponent would lose 7% of their energy. It was meant to benefit her while undermining the other.

Others aside, War Tiger wasn’t going to let her have his energy.

At most War Tiger would spar with Qing Ling. If Qing Ling wanted to fight him to the death, he would immediately run away.

Ding. The microwave finished heating the food. Qing Ling took her sandwich out and returned to Gao Yang’s side.

Back straight and legs pressed together, she ate the sandwich with both hands, fully devoted to the process.

At that moment, nothing else mattered other than the food and the taste hitting her tastebuds.

She was halfway through her sandwich when she noticed Gao Yang quietly looking at her. Qing Ling knew him well, yet she didn’t read anything comprehensible from Gao Yang’s expression and eyes this time.

Her way of finding an answer was simple; she asked bluntly, “Are you hungry too?”

Gao Yang wasn’t hungry. He only stared at Qing Ling because her devotion to her food while eating made him feel at peace. No matter what was happening, nothing seemed to matter more than the sandwich in her hands.

It was difficult to explain, though, so he agreed, “Yeah, a little.”

Qing Ling looked down at her sandwich and hesitated. Reluctantly, she took another small bite to make sure she had finished half of the sandwich before handing the remaining half to Gao Yang.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

Gao Yang accepted the sandwich and took a large bite, chewing monotonously. While watching, Qing Ling frowned in disapproval.

She pitied the sandwich, being wasted on someone who didn’t enjoy it. But she didn’t voice her disapproval. It was good enough that Gao Yang was eating. She rarely saw Gao Yang eat anything properly after he established the Nine Scions.

It didn’t take long for him to finish the sandwich like completing a job. Waving a hand, Qing Ling brought a box of tissue over with Black Gold darts. She drew two. One for herself, the other for Gao Yang.

Gao Yang didn’t take it.

Qing Ling paused, realizing that Gao Yang was crying.

Large drops of tears fell down his cheeks. He stared at the dimly lit wall in front of him like he was staring into the void.

“Uncle’s a great cook,” he said, an ocean of deep sorrow underlying his calm voice. “Xinxin and I were his fans. The last time I brought you and Wang Zikai to visit Uncle, you praised his cooking as well.”

“Yeah,” Qing Ling responded.

“Is it because of his cooking, or because of who I was eating with?”

“Probably both.”

“I’ll never taste that again,” Gao Yang said.

Qing Ling fell silent.

“I will never taste that again,” Gao Yang repeated.

Qing Ling finally realized that Gao Yang had made an important decision. It wasn’t difficult to follow a grand belief and ideal, but it was difficult to actually carry out the belief and ideal, facing real flesh and blood.

Gao Yang had never wavered in his determination to defeat all enemies to lead humanity to dawn, but when his family and best friend were the enemies?

He ran.

Qing Ling knew that, and she believed that Gao Yang would return sooner or later; she just didn’t expect it to happen in such a mundane moment.

“Made up your mind?” she asked.

“Made up my mind,” Gao Yang answered.

“Then say it.”

“The death monsters are enemies. I’ll kill our enemies.”

“Not good enough,” Qing Ling pressed.

“Wang Zikai and Gao Xinxin are our enemies,” Gao Yang said with tears running down his face. “I’ll kill our enemies.”

After a short silence, Qing Ling said, “You’re in great pain now.”

Gao Yang nodded.

Qing Ling wanted to help, wanted to lessen that pain. She thought about what her sister would’ve done. She would most likely tell Gao Yang to lie down and massage him. And she would chat with him or sing to him.

But none of those were Qing Ling’s forte.

She relaxed herself to sink into the soft sofa, pressing her shoulder with Gao Yang’s without a word. Gao Yang quietly sobbed, tension leaving his body until he was sinking with her.

In the dim, silent room, their fires burned quietly.

The settled dust particles rose once more, becoming the whispers of fate.