The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 49: New Talent

Still hanging upside down, Qing Ling’s chest was penetrated by the giant black needle of hair. She didn’t even scream in pain.

Then the needle pulled out from her body. Crimson blood gushed and streamed down to dye her fair neck, face, and forehead red, finally drenching her long hair.

The hair monster savored the process of Qing Ling’s hair being drenched by her own blood. Equal parts captivated and lamenting, it chanted, “Hair, such beautiful hair... All mine...all mine...”

“Ah!” When the first drop of blood fell from the tip of Qing Ling’s hair, the monster shuddered like it was reaching climax before its black hair fanned out in an instant, circling around Qing Ling to wrap around and devour her.

Her three companions could only watch everything play out, unable to do anything.

No, I can’t just watch Qing Ling die!

I must save her! I must do something!

Gao Yang closed his eyes.

[Access granted.]

[Warning! You are in extremely great...]

—Luck points.

[You have a total of 70...71 Luck points.]

—Comprehend Talent. Skip confirmation.

[Comprehending...]

[Comprehending...]

[Comprehension succeeds.]

[Talent: Fire. Serial Number: 26. Rune Type: Element.]

[Level 1 Fire: Summon fire elements with both hands with a maximum temperature of 280 degrees Celsius and a maximum range of 1 meter.]

[Stats Bonuses of Level 1 Fire: Constitution + 20, Endurance + 20, Willpower + 50, Charisma + 10.]

—Does Willpower influence elemental damage?

[Every 10 points in Willpower increase elemental damage by 1%.]

—Put the rest of my Luck points into Willpower.

[Allocation completed.]

[Stats updated.]

[Constitution: 47 Endurance: 48]

[Strength: 17 Agility: 39]

[Willpower: 199 Charisma: 57 ]

[Luck: 132]

[Access ends.]

Gao Yang opened his eyes, and with a thought, a strange hot energy rushed out of his ten fingers. He reached behind to grab onto a handful of dense hair strands.

“Fire!”

Whoosh! Gao Yang’s hands burst into flames, burning the hair from his palms all the way to his forearms, breaking the hair apart and making the crackling sounds of beetles getting crushed.

The rest of the hair loosened immediately and rushed away from Gao Yang, as if they had a life of their own and could feel pain and fear.

Gao Yang started free falling once he broke free of the hair. Missing no beat, he grabbed onto Officer Huang, who was hanging behind and below him. He put a hand on Officer Huang’s chest. “Fire!”

Officer Huang’s hair-wrapped chest burned up instantly.

Gao Yang carefully controlled the temperature and range of the fire to threaten the black hair without hurting the man. Sensing the danger, the hair retreated, and the moment Officer Huang started falling, Gao Yang stepped on his chest to propel himself to the human dumpling three meters away from him. It was Fat Jun.

It was a difficult move to pull off. Although Gao Yang had raised his Agility somewhat, he wasn’t able to make the jump as easily as professional stunt performers would. His jump fell a little short, and he had to reach out hard to barely hold onto Fat Jun’s thigh. The unexpected ‘attack’ made Fat Jun cry out in fear. “Ahhhhh don’t kill me...”

Fat Jun realized he wasn’t dead when he opened his eyes and saw that it was Gao Yang holding onto his thigh.

“Gao Yang?! What...”

“Endure it.”

Gao Yang raised an arm and slapped Fat Jun in his fat buttcheek. “Fire!”

Swoosh! Fat Jun’s rear end started burning.

Hiss! The black hair fled from the fire at once and retracted.

[Congratulations! Talent: Fire has leveled up.]

[Level 2 Fire: Summon fire elements with both hands with a maximum temperature of 580 degrees Celsius and a maximum range of 3 meters.]

[Stats Bonuses of Level 2 Fire: Willpower + 100, Fire Resistance + 60, Charisma + 10.]

The moment the notification sounded in his head, Gao Yang felt a rush of energy and great pleasure.

Fat Jun had a big body, and thus it took a lot more hair to wrap around him, and the hair couldn’t all pull back in an instant. Gao Yang deactivated the flame and seized an opening to grab onto the strands that were just about to pull back. Like a kite, Gao Yang allowed himself to be dragged toward the main body of the hair monster—the skull.

The hair monster was going to savor Qing Ling like a delicacy, but its plan was interrupted by Gao Yang’s sudden ambush. It stopped what it was doing and shifted its attention to attack Gao Yang.

It first severed the strand of hair Gao Yang was holding onto, but Gao Yang was already falling in a parabolic trajectory toward it from above.

Three giant black needles of hair took shape in the blink of an eye and stabbed toward Gao Yang from the front, left, and right. Gao Yang opened his arms to aim at the needles on his two sides. “Fire!”

Boom! Boom!Two torrents of fire burst out of Gao Yang’s palms and swallowed the needles.

There was no time for him to deal with the needle coming from his front. He twisted his body, hoping that would be enough to protect his vitals.

Then swoosh! A Tang Dao flew over at the last moment and cut down the needle, stopping its tremendous momentum short.

It was Qing Ling and her Metal! Still tied up and hung upside down by the hair, she stared at Gao Yang with half-lidded eyes, her face covered in blood.

She was on the verge of death, yet she hadn’t given up!

Feeling blood pumping through his body, Gao Yang splayed his hands and allowed gravity to pull him toward the hair monster.

Three meters!

Two meters!

One meter! It was now in range!

“Fire!” Gao Yang growled, pushing all the energy inside him into his palms.

Two blazing torrents shot out with a boom and intertwined into one beam, devouring the hair monster in an instant.

“Ahhh—” It let out a piercing scream, but it wasn’t enough. Hitting it with fire for one second wasn’t enough to burn all its hair, let alone destroy its hardy skull.

But there was nothing else Gao Yang could do. He was free falling at a great speed, and the fire shooting out of his palms was about to lose the target.

That was when suddenly, something propped him up from under his feet.

He looked down and saw a hovering Tang Dao!

With the upward boost it gave him, Gao Yang jumped up half a meter in the air.

That exhausted the last of Qing Ling’s willpower. She closed her eyes, her arms going slack,

Qing Ling’s Metal had actually jumped to level 3 the moment she got hit by the black needle, which was what had been keeping her alive.

Level 3 Metal: maximum detection distance of 50 meters, maximum control distance of 10 meters, and maximum control weight of 60 kilograms.

“Fire!” Leaping again, Gao Yang wasn’t going to miss this last chance. There was only one thought in his head: squeeze out all his remaining energy to attack the monster.

However, the brief moment of regrouping was enough time for the hair monster to overcome the pain and react accordingly. The skull retreated quickly, getting out of the attack range of Gao Yang’s fire.

Gao Yang could only watch as their last hope slipped from his hands.

At the same time, a large black needle stabbed at him from the back.