Invasion [Sentinel/Guide] — Chapter 26

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“Otherwise, I saw it.”

In the end, he could say nothing else. He merely repeated over and over that he did not want to live.

Through the glass, Ni Ji stared at him for a while. That creature’s eyes were very much like a human’s, bloodshot and filled with agony.

“It’s all right. Don’t be afraid. I’ll be quick.” His tone was mild, a touch of gentleness beneath the coldness, as he lowered his hand into the multicolored fish tank.

On the way back, Ni Ji deliberately took a different route, making a wide detour.

In the future, even if someone searched the ventilation ducts, there would be no way to determine his points of entry and exit from the traces left behind in that maze of branching passages.

He crawled forward through the cold, enclosed duct.

The orca’s tail had suffered severe damage, and the overuse of his perception brought waves of stabbing pain from deep within his mind, leaving his entire body in turmoil.

But none of that mattered. At least he had completed the first step.

The dim ventilation duct was thick with dust, with faint slivers of light filtering up through the vents.

In that narrow space, the noisy chatter and laughter from below rose toward him, along with all manner of alcohol fumes—especially pungent to a sentinel.

Ni Ji remained silent, maintaining a lightness that made not the slightest sound as he crawled quietly onward.

Then, suddenly, not far ahead of him, a small tentacle emerged from the gray-black duct.

Its tiny tip was pointed, like a curious creature exploring an unknown environment.

Once it appeared, it opened and closed suckers of various sizes in the air, twisting its body as it began to feel its way around.

Ni Ji froze instantly.

Most of the time, sentinels and guides did not casually release the physical forms of their spirits in a crowd.

He had no idea why that guide’s spirit had suddenly appeared here, in such a strange and secluded place.

He knew only that the person herself was nearby.

Perhaps she was sitting directly below him now, cradling a glass of water and wearing that bored, listless expression of hers.

Ni Ji did not dare move an inch.

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He could not let her know. He did not want her to discover any of this.

He stared into the darkness at the small tentacle that had yet to notice him.

He knew that guides and sentinels were different. Guides did not possess senses as keen as a sentinel’s. They could not catch the faintest sounds or scents, nor detect distant disturbances.

A guide’s strength lay in the realm of the mind.

Take the tentacles before him, for example. They had no eyes and could not see him. What they could detect were the subtle fluctuations in a living creature’s emotions.

As long as I control my emotions and allow nothing to leak out, they will not discover me, Ni Ji thought.

As long as their host has not seen me, they cannot detect me.

Stay still.

Be still in mind.

I can do this.

He lowered his body, making himself like a stone in the ventilation duct, a piece of iron, an object devoid of life and feeling. He remained utterly motionless.

His mental sea guarded the garden deep beneath its waters. The waves rolling across its surface gradually calmed, slowly forming a layer of floating ice. The ice sealed away the entire ocean.

The sea fell silent, utterly still, without the slightest ripple.

The little tentacle extended farther into the duct, feeling left, then right, probing its surroundings.

It sensed no emotions here, and therefore no living thing. Within its simple mind, this was a place where it could frolic as it pleased; its host would not be angered.

It touched a strange object.

The tentacle arched upward, twisting into the shape of a question mark.

It found this rather strange.

There was clearly not the slightest emotional fluctuation here. This was a dead object. Why, then, did it give the tentacle a sense of familiarity?

Every living creature possessed emotions. They suffered and rejoiced. It had never encountered anything capable of completely sealing away its feelings.

Another companion poked its head out through the duct. The two tentacles touched tips and exchanged their impressions, then both decided to investigate this “thing” before them thoroughly.

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Chapter 13

Ni Ji believed he could endure the ordeal before him.

In this life, no matter how difficult the situation, he had always gritted his teeth and made it through.

Once, in a contaminated zone, he had lain in ambush at the edge of a marsh for three entire days while waiting to strike a highly powerful aberrant creature. The sun had risen and set three times, while he remained motionless in the damp grass, swathed in suffocating tactical camouflage.

There had been bloodsucking leeches, enormous mosquitoes, and snakes.

In such an environment, he had perfectly sealed away every one of his emotions and forced himself to endure those three days. Birds had mistaken him for a dead branch on which to rest, while a toad sang atop his head. He, too, regarded himself as a lifeless object.

He waited until the powerful aberrant creature finally relaxed its guard and ambled over him. Only then did he seize the chance to launch a sudden attack.

It was not until the mission was over that he discovered his legs had been soaked until the flesh had begun to rot.

The conditions then had been far more atrocious than those of this ventilation duct.

It was only a small tentacle.

If he endured for a little while longer, it would soon leave.

Ni Ji closed his eyes and slowly drew in a breath, sealing away all his emotions and sinking them into the deep sea. He reinforced the barrier around his mind.

Within his mindscape, the vast sea that had once surged with waves sank into absolute silence.

A solid sheet of ice sealed the surface, locking away the faintly restless garden beneath.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that there was another tentacle.

The two tentacles had drawn so close that they stopped directly before his eyes, nearly brushing his nose, gazing at him with curiosity.

He could even see the soft suckers writhing clearly.

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