Invasion [Guide/Sentinel] Section 62

Lin Yuan gritted her teeth and glared at Tan Shu before her, wearing an expression of mingled shame and anger.

Finally, as if driven to the absolute limit of helplessness and forced to endure deep humiliation, she angrily hurled the wooden box in her hand toward Tan Shu.

She was a Guide with little physical strength, and acting in anger, the box only made it as far as the ground.

The precious energy stones inside, gleaming with five-colored light, tumbled across the golden sand. Even the yellow sand could not conceal their bright and alluring radiance.

That battered wooden box containing the gems bounced a few times on the beach before coming to a rest far off to the side, gaping open and completely empty.

Tan Shu spread his hands in a gesture that signified his understanding of a delicate Guide’s emotional outburst, choosing not to hold it against Lin Yuan.

He opened his backpack and scooped up the glittering energy stones, leaving none behind as he packed them safely away.

Naturally, he did not bother retrieving the empty, battered wooden box that had bounced so far away. Perhaps the thought crossed his mind for a fleeting second, but some unidentified creature swimming stealthily past at that moment snatched that thought away.

"How was that? Did I act like it?" Lin Yuan asked in the depths of her mind.

[Very convincing. Almost human, like how a human looks when they're angry.]

[Not entirely accurate. You should bite down a bit harder on your teeth and puff out your cheeks.]

[You need to furrow your brows, wrinkle the center of your forehead.]

[That's too difficult. How many facial muscles are you supposed to control for that?]

[Look at the little bird. Copy her expression.]

[Whatever. As long as the plan worked.]

Tan Shu finished storing the energy stones, clapped his hands together, and turned to walk back.

He acted as if he truly intended to keep his promise and leave now that he had obtained the goods.

At the exact moment when everyone else felt a slight sense of relief, Tan Shu turned his back to the little bird and the others, sneering as he flashed a thumbs-down gesture in front of his chest.

As everyone knew, this was a gesture meant to show no mercy and wipe out an opponent entirely.

However, before his thumb could twist all the way to the vertical position, his wrist was intercepted from the side by a hand damp with sea water.

"Niji!" Tan Shu gritted his teeth and hissed in a low voice, "What are you doing?"

"Let them go," Niji said indifferently.

Here it comes again. This guy is acting crazy again, Tan Shu thought with a surge of irritation.

He always acted like this, suddenly losing his mind.

Doing whatever he pleased, whenever he pleased.

He didn't care about me, the team captain, in the slightest.

Tan Shu tried to wrench his hand free from Niji's grip, but the hand clamped around his wrist was like an iron vice. No matter how much strength he exerted, Niji's hand remained as steady as a monolith, completely immovable.

His face alternated between pale and ashen. The superficial composure he had faked earlier had long since vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, Niji, still pinching his wrist, raised one eyebrow with a faint, effortless smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "I said, let them go. Captain."

He had just emerged from the ocean, his entire body soaked, his legs bare, holding a bath towel wrapped around his waist with one hand while subduing Tan Shu with the other.

This fellow had always been this way. No matter how obediently he pretended to conform most of the time, once he had made up his mind to do something, he rarely gave anyone room for negotiation.

Tan Shu knew that if a fight broke out here, he would be no match for Niji, and might not even be able to shake off Niji's grip on his wrist.

He could not afford to lose face to that extent.

Gritting his teeth, he waved his hand to recall his team and led them away, while mentally rehearsing various plans to kill Niji over and over again.

Niji walked at the very rear of the procession.

He did not cast a single glance at the people left behind on the beach.

As he walked forward barefoot, his foot trod upon a wooden box buried deep in the sand.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second. A tiny tentacle slithered out from the shadow, wrapped around his bare ankle, and crawled upward, the tip of the tentacle gently brushing against his sand-dusted skin.

Niji's entire body came to an abrupt halt.

He was extremely reluctant to admit it.

Yet, with a trace of sorrow, he realized that he had secretly been longing for this all along.

Waiting for that person to offer the tiniest hint, to send a silent greeting. And his entire gloomy heart would instantly lift with joy.

So, the thing she truly wanted was actually this wooden box.

Niji applied a slight pressure with his foot, pushing the box deeper into the soft sand to conceal it from view.

He did not linger any longer, nor did he look back. Raising his sand-dusted foot, he hurried to catch up with the others ahead.

The slender tentacle slipped away from his ankle, diving back into the yellow sand, where it coiled protectively around the tiny wooden box.

Chapter 28 [VIP] Chapter 28

"I remember now," Tan Shu suddenly stopped in his tracks and slapped his forehead. "I've seen that Guide before."

When Niji heard those words, he showed no reaction whatsoever. He did not even slow his pace, simply walking right past him.

"Hey, Niji," Tan Shu called out to him. "Don't you remember? We've seen that Guide just a couple of days ago."

He halted Niji's progress, speaking in a casual tone like friends chatting idly.

One would never have guessed that only moments earlier, he had been the one grinding his teeth in fury.

"When you were coming here, didn't you rescue an entire airship full of Guides? That Guide, the one we just saw, was among them too." He smiled as he watched Niji, carefully observing his reaction, drawing out the tail end of his sentence. "Do you remember? Talk about a coincidence, right?"

Sentinels always possessed exceptional vision, keen observation skills, and extraordinarily powerful memories.

Though he had been too consumed by blind rage to notice earlier, after walking for a while, the memory had gradually surfaced.

He had indeed seen that Guide, just two days prior. Back then, among the dazed and despairing crowd of Guides on the airship, this young woman had been striking for her composure and her striking beauty. Although he had only glanced at her casually, an impression had remained in his memory.

As Tan Shu spoke, his eyes scrutinized Niji's attitude.

Niji gave him no reaction at all. His expression remained coldly unchanged, and even the sideways glance he cast was as indifferent and faintly chilled as ever.

Yet Tan Shu felt he had keenly captured something—an exceptionally faint tension had materialized in Niji's posture. That sensation was so minute as to be nearly imperceptible, but he had caught it nonetheless. He suspected that beneath Niji's glacier-like, expressionless facade, some secret might be hidden.

Tan Shu began to rack his brain in earnest, and he realized to his astonishment that he had crossed paths with that Guide more than once.

A short while ago, at the banquet where the Count had been assassinated, this Guide had been present as well.

Of course, Tan Shu had paid her no mind at the time, merely registering that such a person was in the hall. She had been the central figure in some scandalous gossip, vaguely rumored to have been jilted by her fiancé.

During the latter half of that banquet, his attention had been entirely focused on Niji, because he had always felt that Niji had acted a little strange that day.

Now it all came back to him. When everyone in the hall had stripped off their upper garments to undergo physical inspections, Niji's gaze had drifted toward the direction of the Guides several times.

He understood Niji well; Niji was someone who had never shown the slightest interest in Guides.

On that day, amidst all those people, whose shirtless form had he been looking at?

Could it have been this very Guide?