Chapter 11: A Hero’s Downfall, a Tainted Name
"Shut your mouth, Lin Hao!" Su Wan was so furious her vision swam. "Get upstairs right now, and don’t come down without my permission!"
"Why should I go? She’s the one who should get out!" Lin Hao blurted out recklessly. "Sister Yue Yao has contributed so much to our family, and she only has 2% of the Lin Family’s shares. What has *she* done to deserve so much!"
"Xiao Hao, that’s enough," Lin Yueyao said, quickly pulling him back. She turned to Su Wan and advised her softly, "Mother, don’t let your anger harm your health. Xiao Hao was just being impulsive and didn’t mean what he said. We can discuss the shares when Father gets back. It’s not too late."
"I’m tired. I’m going upstairs."
Yun Sheng had no desire to watch them argue. She tossed out the words and turned toward the staircase.
"Shengsheng..."
Su Wan subconsciously started to follow, but her feet felt rooted to the spot.
Watching Yun Sheng turn and walk away without a moment’s hesitation, an indescribable feeling welled up inside her, and her eyes began to sting.
’In the end... we’ve grown distant.’
Upstairs in her room.
Yun Sheng closed the door, let out a soft sigh, and rubbed her throbbing temples.
’Dealing with these people is more exhausting than slaving away for a corporation in my old world.’
Just then, the cheap, old-fashioned terminal on her wrist—a remnant of the body’s previous owner—suddenly vibrated.
The screen lit up, displaying a friend request.
Sender: Bai Ye.
The profile picture was a field of pure black, with the minimalist silver outline of a mecha in the center.
Yun Sheng stared at the profile picture and name, her finger hovering over the screen, unmoving.
’Accept? And then what? Subject myself to more of his questions? Explain everything that happened at the institute today?’
’I haven’t figured out my story yet.’
In the end, she moved her finger away. She neither accepted nor rejected the request, simply letting it sit quietly in her notification list.
Meanwhile, Bai Ye was standing before a holographic map in the command center of the First Research Institute.
The chaos at the institute had been temporarily contained, but the smell of smoke still lingered in the air.
"General," his aide approached and said in a low voice, "we’ve searched the entire facility three times. No sign of Si Jin. He left no trace, as if he vanished into thin air."
Bai Ye stared at the coordinates of Si Jin’s last known location on the map. "What about Yun Sheng?" he asked suddenly.
"She has returned safely to the Lin Family," the aide replied instantly.
Bai Ye’s gaze sharpened. "Deploy the Shadow Bee. 24-hour surveillance on Yun Sheng. Report any deviation from her routine, no matter how minor, at once."
"The Shadow Bee!" The aide was stunned.
’Those are the General’s most elite covert Sentinels, and they’re being used to monitor a disabled guide who doesn’t even have a spiritual body?!’
"Follow your orders."
"Yes, sir!"
Bai Ye said no more. His long fingers swiped across the light screen, pulling up all surveillance data from the First Research Institute over the past seventy-two hours.
The shifting light flickered across his stern profile.
He was tracking Si Jin, extracting and comparing countless seemingly unrelated fragments of data with a flick of his fingers.
However, the trail of the intrusion, which should have been clear, seemed to have been wiped clean by an invisible hand. There was no trace of entry or exit. It was as if Si Jin had materialized out of thin air and then vanished just as suddenly.
Bai Ye’s brow furrowed deeply. Then, his gaze locked onto a fleeting image.
It was a feed from the institute’s main hall. A slender figure peeked cautiously from a stairwell, warily scanning her surroundings.
It was Yun Sheng.
She quickly pulled back. A few seconds later, a camera at a remote side exit captured her silhouette as she slipped through the door and vanished.
’Her movements were decisive, avoiding all main corridors and search parties... she’s surprisingly sharp.’
Bai Ye closed the feeds, his gaze drifting subconsciously to his terminal’s communication interface.
The friend request he’d sent to Yun Sheng still sat there, its status reading: Pending.
His eyes darkened. He reached over and picked up the military jacket draped on a nearby chair.
"Have the car brought around. I’m going to the Lin Family."
...
Yun Sheng ignored Bai Ye’s friend request, leaving it to languish in her notification list.
She didn’t rest. Instead, she logged into the Star Network.
Search term: Si Jin.
Less information appeared on the screen than she’d expected.
Former Star Alliance War God, SSS-level Sentinel, a decorated legend. Due to his prolonged refusal of a guide’s spiritual soothing, his spiritual landscape continuously deteriorated, culminating in a complete loss of control during a high-risk mission three years ago.
His power ran rampant, and after causing immense destruction, he defected from the Star Alliance. From then on, he was classified as a "Dark Sentinel," his whereabouts a complete mystery.
Scrolling further, she found that recent information was almost nonexistent, save for a few scattered and unsubstantiated rumors.
Some said he roamed the lawless zones, having gone completely insane.
Mixed in were comments filled with fear and loathing, calling him a "human-shaped catastrophe," an "uncontrollable destroyer." Some even proposed that the Star Alliance dispatch troops to eliminate him.
Reading this, Yun Sheng suddenly recalled the description of Si Jin’s final fate in the original novel.
Years later, Lin Yueyao, by then an SS Level guide, had been in the middle of a major crisis when she distantly sensed an annihilating energy explosion. It had come from a Star Domain that had become a zone of heavy contamination.
Upon investigation, it was suspected to be the final "self-destruction" of the out-of-control Dark Sentinel, Si Jin, an act that had also cleared away a vast amount of contamination.
Ironically, in the mainstream reports and public memory that followed, the event was remembered with relief as "the unexpected clearing of a contamination zone." Few remembered the War God who once protected them, who had ultimately met such a tragic end, taking the contaminated zone with him.
A hero’s downfall, his name forever tarnished.
Yun Sheng turned off the screen, and the room fell silent.
She leaned against the headboard, gazing out the window at the unfamiliar, bustling cityscape.
The fear and anger she had felt from Si Jin’s rough treatment began to fade, replaced by a complex, heavy emotion.
It wasn’t simple pity, but something more... like a sorrowful kinship, the sadness of seeing one of your own kind suffer.
"Si Jin..." Yun Sheng mouthed the name silently.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door.
Lin Yueyao’s voice came from the other side.
"Yun Sheng."
Yun Sheng’s brow twitched. She got up and walked to the door but didn’t open it right away.
"What is it?"
"May I come in? I wanted to talk to you about Xiao Hao... He was too impulsive earlier. Please don’t take it to heart. He’s just got a childish temper and means no harm. I’m apologizing to you on his behalf."
Yun Sheng was silent for two seconds before pulling the door open, though she made no move to let Lin Yueyao inside.
She looked at Lin Yueyao, who stood outside with a gentle smile and an impeccable demeanor, and her lips curled into a sarcastic smirk.
"Lin Hao is my own brother. Even if what he said today was hurtful, if an apology is truly needed, he should be the one to give it. Lin Yueyao, in what capacity are you apologizing on his behalf?"
The smile on Lin Yueyao’s face stiffened for a moment, but she quickly recovered.
"You’re right, that was thoughtless of me... I just don’t want there to be any misunderstandings between you two. We’re all family, after all."
"Family?" Yun Sheng repeated softly, her voice laced with clear sarcasm. "Is that all you wanted to say? If we’re really family, why do you need to come here and play the peacemaker, apologizing on his behalf?"