The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1053: Lord of Puppets

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Gao Yang was right.

Qilin had lifted most of the dreams to recover energy, though he maintained seven—Wang Zikai, Dead Pig, Mischievous Monkey, Chen Ying, Nainai, Adept Horse, and Hong Xiaoxiao. He had his reasons for keeping them out of the incoming fight.

He opened his dark green eye, gazing at Gao Yang. “Let’s end this, Gao Yang. We’ll determine the fate of humanity.”

Gao Yang briefly considered if he should try to change Qilin’s mind, but he knew it wouldn’t be possible; it would be more painful than death for someone to recover his sanity after a lifetime of madness.

He met Qilin’s eyes. “Come on.”

Qilin raised his bloodied right hand, brushing back his blood-coated fringe. His eye flickered with radiant green.

Equivalent Exchange, 500%!

Instantly, energy soared and screamed through his body, overflowing from him. His power surged fivefold for 150 seconds, but the price was his life.

Tremendous energy rippled out. The poison surrounding him spread in waves across all directions.

Gao Yang teleported Qing Ling away from the poison, landing at a safe distance.

With his newfound energy, Qilin didn't immediately attack. Instead, he used half his power for something far more crucial.

Spreading his arms, he declared in a voice that shook the heavens, as if trying to transcend the world's dimension:

“Take, living blood and flesh!”

“Devour, desires and chaos!”

“Dominate, the living lifeforms!”

“Descend, Lord of Puppets!”

...

“Shit!” Gao Yang cursed, his face darkening.

“What is it?” Qing Ling asked.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Gao Yang’s cheek. “The corpse puppets...are coming back already.”

...

Inside the Time-Space Gap, where time and space held no meaning, the interior resembled a hovering ocean of color, its waves writhing slowly like worms.

Sister Ling, Nomad, Flower, First Firelord, Amon, Jing Ke, Stubborn Weasel, Yellow Lotus, Thick Earth, Zhong He, Blood Amber, and Edmond floated upon this ocean, rising and falling with the rolling waves.

At the center, a large multicolored vortex drew the corpse puppets toward it—the exit from the Time-Space Gap.

Suddenly, strange energy rose from the vortex. Translucent green threads wrapped around the corpse puppets, each flickering with a powerful green light that pierced even their black bandages.

...

Northern entrance of the Green Lotus Park.

A thunderous noise cracked above like lightless lightning. A great gash sliced across the sky like a giant vertical eye opening.

The gash extended above and below before splitting sideways. Then emerged the head of a monstrous thing—a spider with a ring of black round eyes, each a dark-colored petri dish containing a human body with a distorted face and twisted limbs.

The spider-monster's mouth bristled with hair-like crimson teeth that made the skin crawl.

Its head quickly pushed through the gap, followed by its legs clawing into the night sky as it fought to break free.

The monster had eight legs, each bearing a human face with a different expression—sadness, fear, surprise, calm, ecstasy, anger, alertness, and resentment.

Click—

The spider made strange, chilling clicks as it struggled. It sounded like the sound of fingernails clawing into cerebral cortex.

Then the spider opened its large maw and spat out translucent green spiderwebs. The webs scattered around at lightning speed, pelting the city below.

Qilin had used the ultimate skill of Puppeteer: Lord of Puppets. By sacrificing the twelve awakeners' corpse puppets, he had summoned the lord.

Its dominating webs could blanket the entire Shanqing District. Within their reach, all higher lifeforms—awakeners, humans, and monsters alike—would become its puppets within three minutes.

Only two options remained: defeat the spider or escape the webs' range.

Though Qilin had sacrificed the twelve corpse puppets and their Talents, he still commanded the powers of his living puppets—Lovely Lamb, Wang Weiyan, Liao Liao, Gregor, Ke Yo, and Vermilion Bird. More dangerously, as the wielder of Lord of Puppets, he could temporarily steal the Talents of any awakener caught in the Lord of Puppets's webs.

The theft came with limitations: one Talent at a time, no repeated steals, and while using a stolen Talent, he couldn't access his own powers or those of his living puppets. Each stolen Talent lasted between 1 to 10 seconds, depending on the target's condition—during which the original user lost access to it.

In the next 150 seconds, Qilin could theoretically steal the Talents of everyone present.

Nine Frost’s Telepathy reached them once more.

[Nine Frost: an abomination sighted above the northern entrance of the park!]

[Gao Yang: That’s Puppeteer’s level 8 skill!]

[Nine Frost: What do we do?]

[Gao Yang: You...]

Gao Yang couldn’t answer Nine Frost. He turned around, head jerking up. Qilin had stolen Nine Frost’s Telepathy.

Qilin smiled at him.

[Nine Frost: What do I do?]

The telepathic connection suddenly returned.

[Gao Yang: Make your decisions!]

Before Gao Yang could elaborate, Qilin vanished. “Invisibility!” Gao Yang called out on instinct.

Qing Ling’s face darkened. “Why could he use Invisibility?”

Gao Yang didn’t answer. He couldn’t afford to figure it out now. They both pushed their senses to detect Qilin’s movements.

Five seconds later, the ground twenty meters from Gao Yang suddenly cracked, and Qilin showed up once more—the borrowed Invisibility had run out of time.

Then Qilin stole Jump and used it.

Gao Yang immediately tried to teleport Qing Ling away, yet it didn’t work; strangely, he seemed to have “forgotten” the Talent.

He didn't know that Qilin had already abandoned Jump to steal his Teleportation.

Shit!