The Creatures That We Are
Chapter 1278: Broken Tower

Chapter 1278: Broken Tower

Soon, Gao Yang and his companions reached the top of the tower.

It was several kilometers tall. The jaggedness of the top suggested it had been broken. Once Gao Yang dissolved the Absolute Barrier, everyone jumped to the top of the tower, some standing, some crouching, and others sitting. From their perch on the bluff-like tower, they realized that the mist wasn’t truly omnipresent. With the tower reaching beyond the mist, they were able to see the blue sky.

Below, mist formed a sea, broken up by numerous black towers. They varied in size and height, all piercing toward the sky, and all looked broken.

“Whoa!” Gregor realized. “So this is a forest of black towers.”

“Mr. G, please begin your performance!” Zhang Wei enthused.

Gregor blinked at him. “What performance?”

“Reading comprehension!” Zhang Wei said. “You must have thoughts!”

“Why?” Gregor said with self-mockery. “Do you think I’ve seen the answers to the test paper?”

“Look,” Hong Xiaoxiao pointed. “That tower is growing taller!”

Yes, one of the towers in the forest was growing taller. Due to its distance and slow growth, it wasn’t easy to tell its change.

“Let me check!” Chen Ying activated Clairvoyance immediately. Without the mist obscuring her vision, she could see clearly. Her face stiffened, seemingly shocked by what she saw.

“Chen Ying?” Vermilion Bird called out softly.

Chen Ying only recovered then. She tore her gaze away and said, “The black tower is getting taller, but not in the conventional sense.”

“What do you mean?” Adept Horse asked.

Chen Ying took a steadying breath and tried to explain it: “There are numerous strange creatures climbing the tower. That’s why it’s getting taller.”

“Climbing the tower?” Adept Horse was lost.

Chen Ying nodded. “Climbing the tower, as well as committing suicide.”

...

A few minutes later, they flew to the suspicious black tower. To figure the situation out, Dr. Jia suggested that they move to the ground level first. They descended. Nainai dispersed the mist in a small area with Gale, allowing them to see the unusual sight:

The ants formed lines and converged on the black tower. No, they weren’t ants, but small black figures with a smooth appearance, devoid of facial features and varied in body shapes. Some looked like earthworms, some, blades; others were geometric shapes and abstract symbols. Despite their appearance being completely different from that of a human, they acted and felt like humans.

Slowly, they lined up and moved toward the giant tower. Their expressions were numb, despairing, like a group of ascetic monks. Once reaching the black structure, they unfurled as much as possible to find purchase and crawl up.

A strange, insidious power fluctuated from the tower, generating incredible heat. The beings’ flesh and bones couldn’t endure it. They let out deep howls of pain, as if they were tied to a scorching pillar for torture.

While climbing, their bodies melted continuously until they melded with the tower’s surface, unable to move. More and more black creatures followed, stepping on the corpses of their kind and soon meeting the same fate.

The black creatures formed a long line to join the march to death in their desperate attempt to climb the tower, but ended up becoming a part of it, making it bigger and taller. As Chen Ying said, they were committing suicide.

The sight was unusual in its cruelty.

“Are they out of their mind?” Zhang Wei felt a numbness in his scalp. “Don’t they hurt?”

Adept Horse guessed in a low voice, “Perhaps these things were part of the black tower, and they were only returning to their freedom.”

“Really?” Liao Liao sounded upset. “This is a painful cycle. And they seem like they want to make it, but can’t.”

“Can we stop them?” Vermilion Bird asked.

Gao Yang nodded. “Let’s try.”

“Leave it to me!” Wang Zikai rubbed his palms together.

“Brother Kai, something this trivial is beneath you!” Zhang Wei, having a smart idea for once, intervened. He was worried that Wanng Zikai would break the very ground beneath their feet with a punch.

“Let me,” Hong Xiaoxiao volunteered. She was worried that Wang Zikai would tear the poor creature into pieces. With Telekinesis, she restrained a black creature, rendering it helplessly suspended. It remained unmoving, numb, and despairing.

That, however, did not stop those behind it. They moved away from the restrained shade and continued forward. In less than a minute, the restrained black creature shook violently like it were being torn by two opposing powers.

Puff!!

The black creature in Hong Xiaoxiao’s grip struggled in vain to resist another force. It exploded into black ink in a minute.

Hong Xiaoxiao started. “I didn’t kill it...” She trailed off, surprised to find the black pile reconverging to form a new creature and joining the line.

“We can conclude that their one calling was climbing the tower,” Gregor said.

“We’ve found out what we can here. Take me to the rooftop.” Dr. Jia ordered like they were his servants.

The others ignored him in favor of turning to Gao Yang.

Gao Yang nodded after some deliberation. Nainai raised her hands, propping everyone up with Gale and flying them to the top of the tower.