The Creatures that We Are

Green Lotus Park, Shanqing District, Li City.

Late at night, a black limousine slowly drove through the gates of the park amid the drizzle. Due to the weather, the park seemed lonesome without any visitors.

Being one of the top three parks in Li City, the Green Lotus Park was filled with thriving greenery and wonderful natural scenery, the most famous of which was the Green Lotus Lake. Every summer, lotuses bloomed all across the lake, painting a vibrant picture.

With the picturesque sight as backdrop, a picture taken on the octagonal pavilion in the heart of the lake would look surreal in its beauty. The place was thus a popular photoshoot spot for those who loved the aesthetics of the ancient period.

Now, the black limousine was heading toward the lake with four passengers.

The driver was a middle-aged man in a mask, a pair of sunglasses, and a baseball cap, almost covering his entire face. His body was similarly covered by a set of formal black suits and a pair of black gloves. He was showing almost no skin.

He was Goldthread, the sixth team leader of the Hundred Rivers Union.

Goldthread, a traditional medicine, was known for its bitterness, which reflected the man’s miserable life.

Not long after his awakening, he was spotted by a wrath monster. At the time, he was a firework maker at a firework factory.

That night, he was forced to blow up the entire factory in an attempt to take the wrath monster with him. As a result, he suffered from burns that covered a large part of his body and was in coma for an entire month. It was thanks to the Hundred Rivers Union’s help that he came back from the mouth of hell. Since then, he had been a member of the Union to repay the debt.

The one riding shotgun was a quiet little boy, Little Tian of the third team.

Dressed in boys’ suits with the seatbelt on, he closed his eyes and activated Sensory, making sure that no suspicious living organisms were within the one kilometer radius.

The backseat of the limousine was a small booth-like compartment. Surnamed Li and Qilin sat across from each other on two small couches; between them was a fixed glass tea table with a number of magazines and teas.

The driver drove steadily. It felt as if the two of them were sitting inside a house rather than a car.

Holding onto his cane with both hands, Qilin said with a smile, “I thought it was Mr. Alcoholic, but it turned out to be Miss Alcoholic.”

“Miss?” Surnamed Li smiled. “It’s 2018. If my memory serves me right, she should be 96 years old now.”

“She’s 96? She’s led a longer life than I expected.” Qilin was quite surprised. He added in a measured tone, “Especially for an awakener.”

“Yes.” Surnamed Li nodded. “She’s the most long-living awakener in the Mist World.”

“Madam Li, how did you and Alcoholic know each other?” Qilin was curious.

“Oh, she was the one who guided me into this world.” Surnamed Li lowered her eyes with a hint of admiration in her gaze. She reminisced, “And a founding member of the first organization that I joined.”

Qilin quietly thought for a moment, a name from a bygone era surfacing in his mind. “The Elusive Sect.”

It was an awakener organization from a long time ago, established in the 40s in the past century. At the time, the world of awakeners was not yet divided into three main factions as it was now; the Elusive Sect could be described as the organization that ruled all awakeners.

Even the Twelve Zodiac Signs, the longest running organization at the moment, was established twenty years after the emergence of the Elusive Sect.

However, since the Gates of Closure and the Rune Circuits had not been discovered yet at the time, no one was able to push their Talents beyond level 3, and the awakeners as a whole were weaker.

There wasn’t much record about the Elusive Sect. The most well-known incident was the White Disaster, which happened 38 years ago.

It was said to be a war between awakeners and elite monsters, led by a few pride monsters. Whether the information was accurate, though, remained a mystery due to lack of evidence.

After the White Disaster, the Elusive Sect fell apart, and a good portion of awakeners died.

Surnamed Li nodded with a chuckle. “I joined the Sect in the 70s, when I was 15 years old. Thinking back, the ten years that followed felt more like a dream.”

Qilin drew the timeline in his head. “Madam Li, the Elusive Sect was destroyed ten years after you joined?”

“Yes.”

“What was the White Disaster, exactly?” Qilin asked.

“I don’t know.” Surnamed Li shook her head. “At the time, my Prophet was level 3 with limited capabilities, and I wasn’t a combatant for the frontlines.”

Her voice turned mournful. “That winter, all combatants of the Elusive Sect were sent on an important mission. At midnight, Alcoholic rushed in covered in blood and seriously injured. She told me that everyone sent on the mission was dead, including her husband, the founder of the Sect.”

She paused. It seemed that recalling the memory itself was painful for her, and she needed time to collect herself.

Qilin waited patiently.

“That night, Alcoholic decided to flee with me, but elite monsters caught up with us, and we were ambushed. I don’t know what happened afterwards since I’d lost consciousness.”

“When I came to, I’d lost mobility in my lower body, and I was somewhere I didn’t know. Alcoholic was nowhere to be seen.”

“Island Nation.” Qilin had guessed where she was.

“Yes, it was a tiny isolated island of the Mist World. I stayed there for three years, during which a local awakener took care of me. He later became my husband.”

Qilin nodded.

“Three years later, my late husband and I returned to Li City. I looked for Alcoholic and all members of the Elusive Sect, but found nothing. It was as if the Sect had already become history.”

“A year later, I established the Hundred Rivers Union. Then my husband passed away. After that, I saw Alcoholic again.”

“When the White Disaster hit, Alcoholic was 58, but she still looked no older than someone in her thirties. Yet when I saw her again in the year 2000, 18 years ago, she looked just like her age at 78. I couldn’t even recognize her at first glance. Time is cruel.”

“She refused to say anything about the Elusive Sect or the White Disaster. All she told me was that there was no changing the past, and that we had to live for the future.”

“I wanted Alcoholic to join the Hundred Rivers Union. I even thought about having her lead the Union, lead the awakeners at large. Ever since you discovered the Rune Circuits two decades ago, awakeners had been getting stronger, and I believed the future awaiting us to be a bright one.”

Qilin could guess what happened then. “But Alcoholic rejected you.”

“Yes. She said that she was old, and the future of awakeners no longer concerned her. She wanted nothing but to enjoy the last few years of her life.”

Surnamed Li let out a drawn-out sigh. “It’s not something I expected to hear from her. If you’ve met her in her prime, you’d know how ambitious and idealistic she was.”

“What has she been doing?” Qilin asked curiously.

“Nothing. She drinks every day until she’s wasted.” Surnamed Li sighed again. “The last time she allowed me to visit her, it was a year ago, and she had run out of money to buy more alcohol.”

“Could it be that she agreed to meet you this time because she’s run out of the money you gave her last time?” Qilin joked.

Surnamed Li smiled wryly. “Perhaps that is the case.”

The car stopped.

With a hoarse voice that sounded more like a hiss, Goldthread said, “Madam Li, we’ve arrived.”

Houseau3's Thoughts

Ah we finally get a general timeline.

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