Chapter 268: For Survival

Chapter 268: For Survival

The meeting room fell dead silent.

Surnamed Li had dropped a bombshell of a revelation, and it took time to digest and confirm what they just heard.

As background prop for Qilin, Gao Yang kept up a poker face, while in truth, there was a 9.0 quake going on in his head.

Everyone’s dead? What nonsense!

How could all the top awakeners in the world lose their lives to one Crimson Tide? How?

Are they killed by monsters, or each other?

Moreover, Chen Ying had said that Surnamed Li’s prediction always came true. Then could the future be changed? If not, what was the point of them gathering here for a discussion? Why didn’t they just go home and retire to bed?

A myriad of thoughts haunted Gao Yang. He couldn’t even begin to untangle the mess.

After about thirty seconds, Qilin broke the silence. “Would you please go into more details, Madam Li?”

Surnamed Li nodded. “First, I have to let you know that my prophetic dreams don't quite work like regular dreams.”

“A regular dream usually comes with specific characters, times, locations, and events. It may be unclear and absurd, but there’s usually a clear enough throughline.”

“For example, I saw all of you here killed by a monster on the last day of the Crimson Tide on the ground floor of the Millennium Tower.”

“That’s how a regular dream would go.”

Arms holding his knees, Dragon narrowed his eyes. Whether out of exhaustion or bemusement, Gao Yang didn’t know.

Slightly turned to the side, Qilin rested his long fingers on his temple, in deep thought.

Surnamed Li paused and continued, “My prophetic dreams, on the other hand, consist of abstract feelings, snippets of images, and disjointed information. There is no order, only chaos.”

“I saw people dead. I heard snippets of conversations out of context. I sensed the pain of losing companions, not from myself, but from other people.”

“And I sensed an overbearing and furious sort of resentment—from a monster. Sometimes I was the claws slicing through a neck, sometimes the tears of despair shed by a dying awakener, and other times, I even turned into the blood fog that was everywhere. I could hear the heartbeats of humans and monsters alike. It almost broke me...”

Her face was pale when she got to the end of her monologue. “Have I made myself clear?”

“You weren’t a particular person in your dream, but part of the objective world, seeing and sensing things as an absolute observer.” Dragon attempted a summary.

Qilin more or less agreed, and he added, “You jumped between the perspectives of different people and different things, forced to be on the receiving end of all kinds of information. It’s as if you got countless puzzle pieces in the dream, and you pieced them together once you woke up.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

Gao Yang clenched his fists and tried his best to calm down.

Surnamed Li looked away from Gao Yang and continued, “Now I’ll share other information I’ve deduced myself. It’s my personal speculation. Take it with a grain of salt.”

“First, the blood fog is closely related to our death. It may be a weapon, or one of the catalysts triggering the disaster.”

“Second, the figures I saw were very likely pride monsters.”

“Third, during this Crimson Tide, the rules imposed by the Heavenly Way will break down entirely.”

“Four, the one that’s going to kill Elder Seven Shadow may be a pride monster too, and it’s the key in this event. In gaming terms you young people are familiar with, his killer may be the boss of the event.”

Silence returned to the room.

Gao Yang had reconciled with the fact that he would be killed. Now, he only had one other question.

Thankfully, Qilin asked it for him.

“Can the future you foresaw be changed, Madam Li?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I can change what happens after ten seconds by foreseeing it. As for the random events related to me I’ve predicted, I can also change one way or another. A future that comes to me as a glimpse into fate, however, I’ve never attempted to change.”

“A future that can be predicted must be changeable, because the prediction itself is a change,” said Dragon.

“A flawless logic.” Qilin smiled faintly.

“I agree with you two.” Surnamed Li’s gaze was experienced and determined. “Or I wouldn’t be sitting here tonight.”

One hand holding his cane, Qilin slowly rose to his feet, scanning the room at all in attendance.

“We belong to different organizations, fellow awakeners, and we each have our own ideals and goals. In the next fortnight, however, we will put aside our differences, misunderstandings, suspicions, and selfish desires. Let us work together, for we have no other choice.”

“For survival.” Dragon didn’t stand up, but his heterochromic eyes became bright and fierce.

“For survival,” Qilin repeated.

And so did Surnamed Li. “For survival.”

“What about you?” Qilin looked around the room.

“For survival!” Everyone chanted at the same time in a thunderous chorus.

Gao Yang wasn’t being overly sentimental when he said that he felt his blood rushing through his body, soothing his fear for his prophesied death, if only temporarily.

He knew that the next seventeen days would be the period of time in which the awakeners were most unified.

Not for gains, not for ideologies, not for beliefs, but simply for the survival of humanity.

“Now, let’s go into the second part of the meeting.” Qilin sat back down and spoke like the head of the wulin. “We talk strategy together.”