The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1184: Dumplings

Without hesitation, Gregor hopped onto the earth dragon. At that moment, he felt like a barnacle attaching itself to a giant whale, riding along on an unknown journey to a distant destination.

Rumble. Gluttony sensed a massive food coming close. Instead of backing down, it quickly opened its mouth—no, it tore its mouth open, almost flipping itself inside out. The black vortex tripled in size like a pocket. In two seconds, the earth dragon dove into it like an impossibly long train entering an impossibly deep tunnel.

Gluttony swallowed the dragon of earth elements nonstop, while the dragon seemed to be elongating without limit. At its tail, the dozens of light beams continued to crumble more buildings into more earth elements to supplement it. freewebnσvel.cѳm

In one minute, all buildings inside Gluttony’s domain, including their foundations, were broken down and recreated as part of the earth dragon, diving into Gluttony’s bottomless maw with abandon.

The market was left an empty crater. It couldn’t even be described as a ruin.

Finally, the earth dragon was swallowed whole. Even the seemingly limitless dragon ran out, and even Gluttony’s seemingly bottomless stomach could be filled...

At the center of the crater, Mischievous Monkey stood on a lone stone pillar, face pale and lips blue. His sickly complexion made his wrinkles less noticeable. He curled his lips into a smile as blood trickled down from the corners.

Did that fill you up, Brother Grain?

The inside-out black pocket flipped back into the black sphere, but it stopped rolling, entering a strange repose with its mouth open.

It started shuddering, seemingly unable to maintain the state. The inanimate objects it had swallowed gave it such bad indigestion that it could no longer maintain the state.

It started vomiting.

More and more inanimate objects poured out of the black vortex—either half-digested or undigested at all. It looked like a broken toy sputtering the components inside.

Of course, the indigestion wasn’t going to kill Gluttony’s second form, but it could buy some time.

That was all Mischievous Monkey aimed to achieve.

He wasn’t the one making the decisive attack.

After about thirty seconds, Gluttony suddenly stilled. The black sphere gurgled and trembled violently, ballooning like a fermenting dough. It soon inflated so much that it lifted off the ground slowly. The picture painted was so outrageous that it bordered on being funny.

Mischievous Monkey waited quietly as he watched the giant sphere float. Finally, it reached his eye level. It stopped trembling or increasing in size. Its colors slowly drained, and it became more and more transparent.

The overwhelming damage Lovely Lamb transferred to Gluttony pushed it to its breaking point. Then hiss, a gust of gray wind popped it from the inside like a needle.

Even more needles joined to prick it from both inside and outside. Then the needles converged above the ball to form a terrifying skull.

With the earth dragon protecting him, Gregor was able to connect with his poisonous wind and attack from inside Gluttony rather than getting digested immediately.

Three silent seconds passed. Finally, Gluttony’s second form, the massive sphere floating above the market, exploded.

Everything it had swallowed—the half-digested and the not-yet-digested—poured out like a rain of debris. Gluttony’s domain crumbled, and the black-and-white world returned. The downpour hit the ground and filled the giant crater below like stacking blocks. Amid the torrential rain, an inconspicuous black cocoon stood firm. It was a protective shield created out of countless strands of wire-like hair.

Not long after, the hair receded. There Gregor was. He was all melted tissue and congealed blood, clearly having been corroded by Gluttony’s digesting power. He was holding an unconscious girl securely with his remaining arm. Part of his magical hair was still wrapped around her in three layers like the most secure swaddle.

After he confirmed that they were safe, Gregor retracted all his hair, revealing Lovely Lamb in his embrace.

Her face was covered in tears, but little to no wounds.

Now half dead, Gregor panted and lowered Lovely Lamb to the ground. He turned and grabbed a swivel chair out of the rubble to take a seat. Fishing a bloodied pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket, he lit a smoke.

Inhale, exhale. The smoke swirled around his face and the gaping wounds covering it. One of his eyes was blinded. He narrowed it and put on a terrifying, ludicrous smile. He took another drag.

“Marking the period...is difficult.”

...

Soon, all the rubbles had landed, leaving rising dust and earth.

Li City started raining—a real rain. Amid the gray downpour, a lone stone pillar stood, atop which sat an old man. He had stopped breathing with his head lowered and his legs crossed. Exhausting his energy and vitality led to a peaceful death.

His hands were rested palm-up on his lap. Raindrops fell on his wrinkled palms and lingered for a fleeting moment before sliding through his fingers.

...

It was raining. The brothers found shelter under the roof of a rundown thatched house near the farm.

“Little Stone, I dreamed of Mother making dumplings for us. And the filling is made with pork and cabbages. It’s so tasty. Take a bite, and the flavorful fat filled your mouth.”

“Stop it, Brother Grain. I’m getting hungry. The sweet potato rice we had for lunch isn’t filling at all.”

“Little Stone, I told Father that I would drop out after elementary school. I’ll work part-time for your tuition.”

“Don’t...”

“Little Stone, you’ve got a good head over your shoulders. You’ll do well in school. Not me. I doze off whenever I read the textbooks.”

“But...”

“No but. You must study hard. Only with education will you change your fate and earn a fortune. Then we’ll be able to have dumplings for every meal! Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Good. You have to do it now!”

“But I still prefer dumplings with pork and celery filling.”

“Fool! Cabbage is the best pairing for pork!”

“No, it’s celery!”

“Cabbage!”

“Celery!”

“Cabbage! Say it! Say that cabbage is the best pairing!”

“No, it’s celery! Celery’s the best—haha! Hahaha... Stop tickling me... Cabbage, cabbage is the best...”