The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1196: Wind Sickle

Botanical Garden, Beiyong District.

“Here I am, Brother. I’ve kept you waiting.”

In the heart of the gray sea of flowers, the twin-tailed girl in a black lolita dress perched on Envy’s throne, her face arranged into a pure smile devoid of morality. When her eyes landed on the companion beside Gao Yang, her brows furrowed.

“Brother, why is she here?” she said in irritation—or it could be disappointment.

Gao Yang stayed silent.

A layer of frost formed over Gao Xinxin’s black eyes. “Why are you here, Qing Ling?”

Qing Ling didn’t say anything, either. Clenching her fist around her Tang Dao, she remained alert.

Gao Xinxin didn’t get an answer, but she came to a conclusion on her own. She slowly rose to her feet. The gray mist covering her body quickly dissipated to reveal her colors, and the same happened to the space around her. It was as if paint had dripped onto and spread on a damp canvas.

It was the visual manifestation of her powerful energy resisting the pressure of the Three Double-Hours of Heavenly Tribulation.

Gao Xinxin scoffed. “You disappointed me, Brother.”

Face pale, Gao Yang finally spoke up, his voice brittle like ice cubes cracking in drinks, “I’ll ask you for one last time, Gao Xinxin. Is there really no turning back?”

Gao Xinxin blinked innocently at him, her lips curling into a childlike smile once more. “What are you talking about, Brother? Turning back? Where to? I’ve told you before: we will always be brother and sister. No one...” she cocked her head and enunciated every syllable, “...Will. Separate. Us.”

She chuckled, stepping forward and extending a hand to Gao Yang.

Qing Ling immediately raised her Tang Dao to face the enemy.

Gao Xinxin wasn’t seeing Qing Ling at all. “Come, Brother. Let me kill you. Then we’ll be family forever.”

Silence followed.

Gao Yang looked at his sister, but his eyes were seeing past her, fixed on a void of an abyss that overflowed with sorrow.

Grandpa, Granny, Father, Mother, Uncle, I’m sorry...

I...can’t protect Sister.

A tear streaked down his pale face. He twisted a ring on his finger, triggering the energy brand placed on his brain. Memory Tailor erased most of his memory of Gao Xinxin in two seconds. It felt like he had merely taken a nap, and the girl before him suddenly seemed different. freeweɓnøvel.com

She was still his sister, but she felt distant. She was Envy, a dangerous death monster. As a human and the leader of awakeners, he saw no reason not to kill her.

Gao Yang’s gaze calmed, but that wasn’t enough. He activated Psychic Armor to hone that calmness into apathy, but still, it wasn’t enough. To defeat a powerful enemy, he could not afford to retain even a sliver of emotion.

Sentiment, 0%.

Rationality, 100%.

Absolute indifference turned his blood into ice.

He exhaled softly. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Qing Ling responded.

Sensing the killing intent from Gao Yang and Qing Ling, Gao Xinxin spread her arms and slowly floated upon the sea of flowers, her twin tails and dress fluttering. She lifted her chin slightly with her lips parted for a quiet chant.

“Were life the vibrant flowers, envy would be wind sickle.”

“Covet begets torment. A swift end triumphs over eternity.”

Three pairs of pristine white wings of light unfurled from her back, sharp and fierce yet soft and light. Under the white moon, they appeared intricate and eerily beautiful.

Gao Xinxin smiled.

One wing vanished.

A split second, and an intangible slash swept across the garden at almost ground-level like a large hand brushing through the sea of flowers. The space itself seemed to freeze for a frame.

In the next frame, Gao Yang and Qing Ling were already suspended in the air, surrounded by flying sunflowers. The flowers had been cut and hurled into the sky in a single frame.

Gao Yang remained impassive mid-air, while Qing Ling’s eyes glinted with surprise. The moment she leaped up, she had purposefully left her Xiu Dao buried in the ground, testing if Gao Xinxin’s wings of light would cut the Black Gold weapon.

And it didn’t. The blade remained intact while the sunflowers behind it were all cut. None escaped the same fate.

Her and Gao Yang’s speculation was right: Gao Xinxin’s wings of light were selective. They would cut everything weaker than they were, while they scattered when they encountered something harder. The transition was seamless, allowing them to bypass any regular defense.

Facing her wings of light, only the impenetrable Absolute Defense could protect anything.

If Qing Ling attempted defense, lining up all her Black Gold weapons to shield her, she would still be sliced into pieces while her Black Gold weapons remained intact.

Swish. The moment they jumped up, a second wing vanished from Gao Xinxin’s back. Within the time of a single frame, another slash the naked eye couldn’t capture struck.

Spirit Domain!

Triple Speed!

Gao Yang slowed the time around him to one-third and barely saw what was coming for him—a thin thread of white energy no thicker than a fishing wire. One of Gao Xinxin’s wings had stretched into a thin line almost instantaneously and swung toward them.

Gao Yang came to a hypothesis.

The wings of light were likely able to transform into more flexible curves, but that would compromise the attack speed. To launch a quick attack, the wings had to stretch into a straight line.

With his speed tripled relatively within the Spirit Domain, Gao Yang teleported Qing Ling away from the second slash.

Then two of Gao Xinxin’s remaining four wings disappeared. With the Spirit Domain sustained, Gao Yang could barely catch the two white lines cutting toward him. However, Teleportation was still in cooldown, and it would be difficult for him to dodge the slashes with reflex alone.

Qing Ling moved then. With reaction time tripled for her within the Spirit Domain, she was quicker than Gao Yang when Teleportation wasn’t available to him.

With her incredible reflex and explosive strength, she shoved Gao Yang away while the counterforce sent her flying in the opposite direction. Two invisible threads cut through where they had been, threatening to displace space.

Then the last two wings behind Gao Xinxin’s back were gone.

Teleportation’s cooldown ended. Gao Yang teleported and got Qing Ling out of harm’s way.

They landed on a patch of sunflower stems.

Gao Yang had lost two fingers on his left hand. Blood gushed out from the stumps. He didn’t have any time to lose to the pain or to his thoughts. He immediately conjured an Absolute Barrier.

He knew that while it seemed like they had dodged the grim reaper’s scythe, they had merely avoided its shadow. The real scythe was only just brandishing its edge.

Golden lotus bloomed at his feet, the petals closing around him and Qing Ling.