Chapter 22: A Battleground of Two Top Sentinels
Yun Sheng gently placed the little wolf she was holding beside Si Jin, took a deep breath, and slowly reached out her hand.
Her fingertips didn’t touch Si Jin’s body, but hovered above the space between his tightly furrowed brows.
That was the most fragile and core surface entrance to his spiritual landscape.
She tried to summon the faint spiritual power within her, carefully probing the edge of Si Jin’s Spiritual Force Field.
The moment she made contact, an aura filled with despair and destruction crashed into Yun Sheng’s senses like a tsunami.
Si Jin’s spiritual landscape was a hundred times worse than she had imagined!
It was a scorched earth, completely burned out, leaving only endless ash and hideous fissures. The agonizing screams of a torn soul permeated everything.
The moment Yun Sheng’s trickle of spiritual power entered this domain, it was met with a violent, instinctual rejection.
"Ngh!"
Yun Sheng let out a muffled grunt, cold sweat beading on her temples.
’No, forcing my way in like this won’t work. It will only infuriate Si Jin and make his already fragile spiritual landscape even more unstable.’
She bit her lip and suddenly made an extremely risky move.
Instead of withdrawing her spiritual power, Yun Sheng leaned down closer to the unconscious Si Jin, her lips almost touching the shell of his ear.
Her breath was warm, her voice soft and low.
"Si Jin..."
"Don’t resist... I’m here to help you."
Her voice was very light, mixed with her faint yet unique spiritual power, brushing against Si Jin’s ear again and again like the gentlest of breezes.
At the same time, the little wolf nestled by Si Jin’s hand stuck out its warm tongue and licked his cold palm, over and over.
A moment later, the violent, repulsive force actually showed a hint of hesitation, a minuscule loosening.
’Now’s my chance!’
Yun Sheng seized the fleeting opportunity, sending more of her spiritual power seeping into that land of ash.
She didn’t try to repair the immense trauma. Instead, she used her spiritual power to gently envelop, soothe, and little by little, calm the seemingly endless burning and freezing sensations.
The process was incredibly draining and fraught with unforeseeable danger. The slightest misstep could get her completely swallowed by that frenzied power.
Sweat trickled down Yun Sheng’s temples and dripped onto Si Jin’s pale cheek.
She was so focused that she didn’t notice a faint, thin layer of light beginning to glow around her as her spiritual power gradually established a subtle connection with Si Jin’s chaotic spiritual landscape.
Within that faint light swirled the power of the Holy Light White Tiger—the power she had stolen from Bai Ye in her dream.
「Almost at the same exact moment.」
In an office in the not-so-distant Tower headquarters, Bai Ye, who was standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows, saw his expression change abruptly.
He had detected an extremely faint yet exceptionally familiar fluctuation of spiritual power.
’Is that... the aura of the Holy Light White Tiger’s power?!’
’It’s incredibly thin, but it’s the unique aura of my spiritual body. I could never mistake it!’
In the entire Star Alliance, even in all of known human territory, there was absolutely no other Sentinel or guide who possessed a power originating from, or even similar to, the Holy Light White Tiger!
Bai Ye whipped his head around, his gaze instantly locking onto the source of the power fluctuation.
The western periphery of the headquarters, an area covered by a dense greenbelt and walking paths.
’How could the Holy Light White Tiger’s power be there?’
’My spiritual body is perfectly fine within my spiritual landscape. It has never...’
In a flash, a completely absurd yet perfectly fitting thought struck his mind like a bolt of lightning.
Yun Sheng had just left the headquarters. Based on the time, she should be somewhere in that area right now.
’Could it be... the person from the dream... was really Yun Sheng?’
’Not only did she break into my dream, but she also... "stole" a part of my power’s source?’
’And now, she’s using that power in that area?’
Regardless of whether that person was Yun Sheng, and regardless of how she was able to steal his power, it meant that a huge, uncontrollable variable had appeared in the core of the Tower!
"Deputy Luo!" Bai Ye spun around, his voice low and frigid. "Immediately dispatch the nearest emergency team and lock down the western peripheral walking path area. Initiate a Level Two alert, evacuate all non-essential personnel, and notify the medical team and the special containment department to be on standby!"
"General, what’s happening?" Deputy Luo asked, stunned.
"Follow my orders!" Bai Ye didn’t explain, his words coming out astonishingly fast. "Also, pull up all surveillance footage from that area from the last ten minutes. I want to know Yun Sheng’s exact location and movements!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, he was already striding swiftly out of the office.
No matter the truth, he had to find that person immediately!
「Deep within the bushes.」
Fine beads of cold sweat covered Yun Sheng’s forehead as she focused on trying to calm the most turbulent currents at the edge of Si Jin’s spiritual landscape.
Just then, Si Jin’s closed eyelids suddenly twitched.
The next second, they snapped open!
There was none of the grogginess of someone just waking up, only the wariness of being forcibly dragged back to reality from a painful chaos, and... a trace of violence that had not yet fully subsided.
Yun Sheng’s heart nearly stopped when she met his gaze.
An intense sense of danger made the hairs on her body stand on end, and she instinctively tried to pull back.
However, she was a step too slow!
A large, scorching hot, and powerful hand instantly seized her wrist. With a sharp tug, the world spun, and Yun Sheng fell directly into a hard, burning chest.
"Oof..."
She grunted, her nose throbbing from the impact, and struggled to get up.
But the arm holding her tightened its grip, caging her in his embrace like the strongest of chains.
"So fragrant..."
A low, hoarse sigh, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat, sounded next to Yun Sheng’s ear.
The violence in his voice was gone, replaced by a deeper kind of craving.
Yun Sheng was scared out of her wits and struggled desperately. "Let me go! Si Jin, snap out of it!"
But her struggles were futile against the strength of an SSS-level Sentinel.
Far from letting go, Si Jin buried his face even lower.
The bridge of his nose brushed almost roughly against the sensitive side of her neck. His searing lips grazed the skin over her pulsing carotid artery, bringing a shudder-inducing tingle and absolute terror.
"Don’t move... you have... what I need... so fragrant..."
His breath drew closer, his hot lips seemingly about to land on her fragile neck, or even... move upward to find her lips.
Yun Sheng’s whole body went rigid, her mind a complete blank.
"SWISH!"
An incredibly sharp sound of something slicing through the air, accompanied by a bone-chilling cold, suddenly ripped through the bushes before them like an ice pick.
Immediately after, a cold, murderous voice that seemed capable of freezing the very air boomed in their ears like a clap of thunder.
"Si Jin!"
It was Bai Ye!
He had arrived at some point and was standing just a few meters away, emanating an unprecedentedly terrifying pressure and a biting killing intent.
And Si Jin, the moment he heard the voice, raised his head with extreme slowness, meeting Bai Ye’s cold, furious gaze.