The sea and sky were one.
Under the daylight of the polar sun, snowflakes drifted and danced. They didn’t settle on the thick ice sheet but melted into the giant whale’s blue-gray back, which stretched like a mountain range.
Wei Zhuo’s mental pollution level was at 80%.
That was already considered high. Once it passed the critical threshold of 90%, it would draw the attention of the Supreme Military Management Council.
The buildup of mental pollution in the early stages was slow. From 0% to 90% could take as long as ten years, and some Sentinels might not even reach 90% in their entire lifetime.
But from 90% to complete breakdown, it could happen in an instant.
Maybe one battle, maybe one rest. Any event could be the spark that lit the fuse.
Such Sentinels were walking time bombs.
The Military Management Council would decide, based on the Sentinel’s rank and the likelihood of successful cleansing, whether to assign mental guidance or… humanitarian death.
Once the final notice was issued by the council, teammates had to keep a close watch on the Sentinel’s state. At the first sign of loss of control, they had to seize the moment and inject potassium chloride.
An extremely high concentration of potassium chloride, beyond the limits of the human body, would cause fatal arrhythmia within minutes.
For squads operating deep in Folded Zones, the support members were always issued compact portable medical kits before each mission.
After all, in the harsh environment of a Folded Zone, it was rare to find a stable enough condition to perform mental guidance cleansing on the spot.
These injector guns, emergency drugs, and tranquilizers were all necessary.
If they missed the window to inject potassium chloride…
Then at the final moment, if there was no other option, right before their comrade completely lost control and transformed into a monster, they had to aim the muzzle at him and then… pull the trigger.
Xin Hexue’s fingertips trembled.
The base of his right hand felt warm, and his knuckles unconsciously curled up, the black leather gloves creasing with the motion.
Xin Hexue took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
The blue whale seemed to sense something and let out a deep roar, like the voice of the sea.
Xin Hexue cautiously reached forward. He needed to first make contact with the mental body and establish trust.
This massive creature had faint, mottled patterns on its back. Its outer skin was smooth, and its streamlined body allowed it to swim two hundred kilometers a day through the sea, gliding across long distances without rest.
Logically speaking, a blue whale’s streamlined shape and smooth skin shouldn’t be a host for barnacles.
Large barnacle infestations were usually seen on humpbacks or gray whales, whose rougher skin and slower movement made them more vulnerable.
Xin Hexue looked down into the deep blue sea. Barnacles spread from the sides of the whale all the way to its underside, their hard shells densely packed. Each barnacle’s central cap looked like an eye.
They were writhing with crimson flesh.
These were clearly not real barnacles, but mental pollutants…parasites clinging to the whale like rotting shells.
The snow fell heavier and heavier, each flake melting as it touched the whale’s exposed back.
This was the Sentinel’s mental landscape, essentially a spiritual world. As long as it was spiritual, Guides could use their own power to manifest mental power and aid the Sentinel.
The snowfall was Xin Hexue’s test before the actual cleansing.
After observing that the whale showed no clear resistance, Xin Hexue could proceed with the next step.
The melted snow trickled into the sea, creating tiny white sparks that gathered around the whale’s flippers.
Bit by bit, the barnacles clinging to it were cleansed.
The crimson flesh inside the barnacle caps writhed desperately as the metal power purified them, like minced meat being stirred.
The image killed Xin Hexue’s appetite.
The dorsal fin, pectoral fins, and the barnacles on both sides were easy enough to clean, but the underside was out of sight.
Xin Hexue dove into the deep, bottomless blue sea.
The water was icy cold, but protected by his own mental power, it wouldn’t cause him frostbite.
He moved like a nimble fish and dove deeper.
Looking up from underwater, the surface was blindingly white, scattered with glints of light.
Large bubbles floated around Xin Hexue, scattered throughout the entire sea. These were the materialized carriers of Wei Zhuo’s memories.
Each bubble reflected memory recordings. Xin Hexue had no intention of peeping into someone else’s privacy, so he didn’t let his gaze linger and swam closer to the blue whale’s tail.
There, too, was a large cluster of parasitic barnacles.
But there were too many bubbles surrounding the area. Xin Hexue originally wanted to push aside one or two, but the blue whale seemed to have had a reverse scale touched, and its low-frequency call suddenly turned sharp.
The tail abruptly launched an attack!
Out of wariness toward a 3S-level combat Sentinel, Xin Hexue subconsciously released a mental power strike.
His mental power condensed into a blade-like form, counterattacking toward the whale’s tail.
At the same time as the counterattack, an enormous pair of white feathered wings suddenly unfurled in the sea, wrapping around the young man completely.
A few scattered feathers floated in the water, pure white in color, matching the mythical imagination of an archangel.
A bit of blood from the whale’s tail dispersed in the sea, leaving faint streaks.
Xin Hexue quickly realized that the blue whale hadn’t intended to attack him.
The tail hadn’t actually struck his body; the whale had merely used the force of a wave to push Xin Hexue away.
Perhaps it was the bubble Xin Hexue had tried to touch…just his approach to those bubbles had triggered the whale’s vigilance.
Even so, while the whale hadn’t meant to attack, the waves stirred up by such a huge creature of thirty meters long were massive. In the torrent of waves, Xin Hexue was swept into another bubble from a different direction.
The moment the bubble was touched, the memory was released.
Xin Hexue’s vision was immediately engulfed in a hellish red.
………
Dense forest, deep valleys, endless rain.
Darkness without end.
This was Core Folded Zone No. 122 in the Western Territory…Rainforest.
Towering trees blotted out the sky, their trunks and gnarled roots twisted together, while spores and fine powder floated in the damp, sticky air.
The rain was red, dyeing the skulls hanging from the branches.
122 was the largest Folded Zone in the Western Territory. No one even remembered how many squads had perished here.
This time, the Honeysuckle Squad was determined to turn out the Folded Zone and seal the entrance.
As they went deeper, they saw unknown corpses and vaguely saw identification numbers on the rotten uniforms. Xin Hexue and the others were almost reaching their limit.
The monsters in the rainforest were as dense as swarms of insects. The moment they sensed the breath of living people, they surged forward crazily.
If they were even slightly careless, they would end up like the corpses on the ground, sleeping here forever.
This was Wei Zhuo’s memory, and Wei Zhuo’s perspective.
So Xin Hexue saw himself.
The young man had dried bloodstains between his brows. He said to the tall brown-haired sentinel beside him, “You need mental guidance.”
His attitude was firm, allowing no refusal.
The brown-haired sentinel’s combat uniform was torn in several places. He looked like the main fighting force of this hard battle, so among the squad members, his uniform was the most damaged.
The lines of his sturdy arms were exposed, and his shoulders and back were covered in scars, some old, some fresh, seeping red into the combat uniform.
He was He Botian.
Through Wei Zhuo’s perspective, Xin Hexue saw the faces of the five members of the Honeysuckle Squad.
They had not stopped to rest for five days and four nights, and they had already lost one member on the way.
From the outer Insect Valley charging into the center of the Rainforest, it was unknown how many battles they had fought through.
He Botian rejected the young man’s suggestion for mental guidance. He tucked back the strand of hair that had fallen beside the young man’s ear and said loudly in reassurance, “I’m fine, Ah Xue, I can feel it, I can still control it.”
Wei Zhuo shifted his gaze away.
So in his perspective, Xin Hexue could now only see the endless red rain, and the towering Sal Tree in the center of the rainforest reaching into the clouds.
That was not their target. The real target was the strangling tree clinging to the Sal Tree.
They could find the “switch” of this Folded Zone by following the pointer of the energy field detector.
There was still no scientific explanation for the Folded Zone yet. It was only summarized from experience that the Folded Zone might be a parallel world full of monsters after the apocalypse’s pollution, flipped over to replace the original safe world, and like a virus, once one section flipped over, the surrounding sections would flip too. Now, the vast majority of places had already fallen.
The Safe Zone’s area was only one-tenth of the former normal world, the last land left for humans.
As long as they destroyed the strangling tree in front of them, Folded Zone No. 122 could flip back over and return to its original rainforest state.
But this was not an easy thing to do.
From the path behind came the humming again, stabbing at their eardrums. A huge swarm of monster insects was surging toward them.
At the same time, the vines on the ground coiled and waited, and when the intruders got close to the “switch”, they would strangle them to death mercilessly…
He Botian: “I’ll go draw the insect swarm away and buy us time.”
Xin Hexue: “I’ll go with you.”
The brown-haired sentinel once again rejected his guide.
“No, you stay here with Wei Zhuo and the others.” He Botian said, “The strangling tree needs your mental power to purge it.”
The purification of a high-level guide’s mental power could also harm monsters. A strong enough mental power could cleanse the “switch” from its root, which was even more useful than physically destroying the “switch.”
They split into two groups. He Botian was in charge of drawing away the monster swarm, while the rest did everything they could to win Xin Hexue the space to purify the strangling tree.
Blood was a stimulant for monsters.
He Botian’s blade made a cut, and fresh blood gushed from his palm as he turned his back to Xin Hexue and the others and left.
………
The vision was drenched by the blood rain again and again, so blurred it was impossible to tell if this was hell or the human world.
The bullets in Wei Zhuo’s gun ran out. He drew his longsword, swinging it like a medieval noble knight, hacking apart the dense tree vines that moved like limbs.
However, there were still tree roots that kept stabbing toward them.
The severed vine limbs kept flying up, the strangling tree’s sharp screech pierced their eardrums, and the pressure made their temples ache painfully.
The whole rainforest was in turmoil.
How could this be? The monsters here seemed endless and unkillable.
Wei Zhuo’s sword light flashed, cutting off another section of vines, but another overwhelming wave of plants surged forward.
The blue whale floated in the air, swinging its tail to slap away the flying vines, and kept ramming the Sal Tree that the strangling tree clung to.
Wei Zhuo lifted his gaze, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
The sentinel guarding Xin Hexue had fallen. Vines from all directions found their target.
It happened in an instant.
Countless vines pierced through the polar bear’s chest.
Mental bodies did not have real blood in the real world, but Xin Hexue still felt scalding blood splatter on his face.
He blankly looked at the sentinel who had protected and embraced him.
“He Botian…” The brown-haired sentinel was covered in wounds just like his mental body, and was in terrible shape.
The blue whale broke the Sal Tree, and the strangling tree lost its parasitic foundation.
It was at this moment that Wei Zhuo said coldly, “He’s about to lose control!”
Mental pollution went from 90% to 100% in an instant.
The vine that had pierced through the polar bear’s chest pulled out mercilessly, the polar bear’s sharp roar booming like a mountain collapsing.
Whether it was a tranquilizer gun or sedatives, they were all in the portable medical kit, but the medical kit had been lost during the fighting on the way.
At the last moment, He Botian handed the pistol to Xin Hexue.
“There’s one last bullet in the gun.”
He Botian looked deeply at Xin Hexue.
The polar bear and the sentinel charged at the strangling tree with its waving vines at the same time. In just an instant, their eyes were swallowed by scarlet red, and they attacked everything in their sight on pure instinct.
They fell completely into an out-of-control state.
They tore through the encirclement of vines by sheer force and plunged into the gap in the strangling tree.
Wei Zhuo gripped his longsword tight, hacked open a path through the insect swarm, turned his head and warned, “Xin Hexue!” The young man’s expression was blank, and the pistol was lifted with a slight tremble.
Through Wei Zhuo’s perspective.
Xin Hexue’s palm began to feel hot. He remembered the feeling of the first knuckle of his right thumb curling.
In the blink of an eye, he pulled the trigger.
Amid the smell of gunpowder and smoke, the bullet hit the sentinel’s heart.
The young guide’s earpiece on his left ear recorded the heartbeat stopping abruptly.
A gap opened in the strangling tree and swallowed the sentinel’s corpse.
………
The mental guidance failed halfway.
The first half went smoothly, but in the second half the sentinel did not lose control…the guide did.
The mental guidance was cut off urgently.
Wei Zhuo’s eyes snapped open, his expression tightened, and he immediately went to check Xin Hexue’s condition.
The young man curled up on the sofa, breathing like a fish out of water, his chest heaving violently.
White wings wrapped around him protectively.
Cold sweat soaked his black hair, and the pure white feathers trembled silently.
Holy and beautiful, but fragile and breakable.
A guide killing a sentinel who had already bonded with him both physically and mentally, whose mental landscape had fused with his own, was no different than killing another half of himself.
“Xin Hexue? Xin Hexue!” Wei Zhuo tried to call Xin Hexue back to his senses.
But the young man was clearly trapped in his memories.
Wei Zhuo’s lips pressed into a flat line. He quickly removed the leather glove from Xin Hexue’s left hand.
There was still a ring on the ring finger of his left hand.
“…” Wei Zhuo stared intently, and finally interlocked his fingers with Xin Hexue’s.
Without the leather glove’s barrier, direct skin-to-skin contact was an immense stimulus for someone with skin hunger.
Wei Zhuo heard a whimper, weak as a kitten’s cry.
Unable to break free from the sentinel’s big hand, under the continuous stimulation, the young man flushed with a strange, gorgeous pink, and his body curled up even tighter.
It was practically using poison to fight poison.
Xin Hexue came out of the nightmare-like state.
Wei Zhuo immediately pulled back, and when Xin Hexue opened his eyes, he sat properly on the original sofa, clothes neat and tidy.
He did not look like he was here for mental guidance, but like he was attending some imperial noble meeting.
Wei Zhuo raised his left leg with a stern expression, resting it on his right knee. The posture lifted his foot slightly, and the exposed sole of his military boot looked spotless.
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes and put his glove back on.
The heat faded from his body, and white once again covered the pink. Xin Hexue frowned slightly. “Sorry, I lost control… Today’s mental guidance didn’t work. I’ll have the logistics department reschedule another session for you in the system.”
Wei Zhuo: “It doesn’t matter.”
His gaze swept over, confirming Xin Hexue’s condition had stabilized, and he said calmly, “I’ll go to the Northern Frontier Watchtower the day after tomorrow, I’ll come back after that.”
With that, Wei Zhuo got ready to leave.
The young man who was still on the sofa behind him suddenly said, “I miss him so much.”
Wei Zhuo stopped in place.
The fluorescent light stretched his silhouette across the light-colored carpet.
Xin Hexue’s eyelashes trembled slightly. “You’ll pass by the Northern Desert Welfare Home on your way to the Northern Frontier.”
That was He Botian’s birthplace.
It was also the birthplace of the “substitute” in the plot.
He Botian’s death indeed had a considerable impact on Xin Hexue. After all, they had been partners whose mental landscapes had fused.
When a sentinel fixed partner died, it was equivalent to cutting away the other half of the guide’s self.
However, because he knew He Botian’s fate, Xin Hexue had already been mentally prepared for his death.
His reaction just now had been 30% real, 70% acted, but it was enough to make the sentinel before him completely believe it.
Wei Zhuo did not turn back. “Mm. Do you need me to pass anything along?”
Xin Hexue said softly, “You’re going to the Northern Frontier, could you… take me with you?”
Wei Zhuo turned around and looked at him.
Xin Hexue hugged his knees, curled up in the corner of the sofa, seeming to lack a sense of security, his pure white wings wrapping tightly around his body.
[Wei Zhuo Love Value +1]
Wei Zhuo agreed.
Wei Zhuo: “Alright.”
“You can directly go to the Northern Desert Welfare Home if I enter the Folded Zone.”
The train escorting the special supplies would pass through the gaps between several Folded Zones. Wei Zhuo was not sure if there would be any emergencies that would require entering the Folded Zone.
Xin Hexue’s eyes flickered slightly. “Why can’t I go with you?”
Wei Zhuo’s gaze swept over the young man’s pale face and bloodless lips.
Folded Zone No. 122’s Rainforest had clearly made Xin Hexue’s health even worse.
On top of that, He Botian’s death had also dealt Xin Hexue a mental blow.
Wei Zhuo said coldly, “I won’t be like He Botian, protecting you every step of the way.”
