Every Sentinel I Dreamed of Came Looking for Me

"No... I can’t..."

Yun Sheng bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting blood.

She used all her strength, trying to suppress the two surging forces, but it was as if the strange screech had completely affected them. They wouldn’t obey her at all.

Tiny cracks began to appear at the edges of her spiritual landscape.

A thread of Si Jin’s cold frenzy was already leaking out uncontrollably.

’Don’t panic!’

Yun Sheng closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down.

She remembered what Si Jin had taught in his videos: when foreign spiritual power goes out of control, you can’t suppress it by force. That will only provoke more violent resistance.

You have to use your own spiritual power to entangle, guide, and assimilate it.

She took a deep breath, gathered her own meager spiritual power, and cautiously reached out toward the two surging forces.

First, she hooked the edge of Si Jin’s cold, frenzied power, like looping a thin thread around a stampeding beast.

The power jolted, trying to throw her off, but she clung on tightly, refusing to let go, and slowly seeped inside.

Then she split off another tendril and wrapped it around Bai Ye’s warm, solid power.

This was easier than with Si Jin’s Dark Sentinel power. It didn’t seem to resist her as strongly; it even seemed vaguely submissive.

Under her guidance, the two forces went from clashing madly to gradually... intertwining.

They were still surging, still tearing at each other, but they were no longer trying to rip her apart. Instead, deep within her spiritual landscape, they formed a delicate, dangerous balance.

Yun Sheng’s face was still pale, and cold sweat still beaded on her temples, but she could feel control returning to her, bit by bit.

’Finally, it’s stable.’

She let out a long breath and pushed herself up, bracing her hands on her knees. Her legs still felt a little weak, but the storm in her spiritual landscape had mostly subsided.

Yun Sheng turned to head back to the tent area, but she suddenly froze.

She instinctively reached for her wrist. It was bare.

Her terminal was gone.

It wasn’t on the ground around her, either.

’Could it be... I left it in Qi Yao’s command tent earlier?’

The terminal held the files White Tiger had sent her, as well as their chat logs. If it fell into the wrong hands...

After a moment’s hesitation, Yun Sheng turned and walked toward the command tent.

Just as she was about to reach the tent entrance, a conversation from inside made her stop in her tracks.

"Reporting to the Major General, the screech has been confirmed as a B-level contaminant, the Split Sound Beast. It normally operates at the edge of Zone 10, in the area near the abandoned mine," an assistant guide was reporting to Qi Yao. "It doesn’t usually leave the mine. Its sudden appearance is unusual."

"What’s the situation at the mine?" Qi Yao’s voice was low, his tone unreadable.

"We’ve already sent people to investigate. That area previously experienced a large-scale collapse for unknown reasons, and..." The adjutant paused. "Our people detected residual spiritual power fluctuations from a Dark Sentinel nearby. It’s a high Level, but the situation is unclear."

Qi Yao was silent for a few seconds before speaking, his voice even deeper than before. "Keep an eye on it. Report any new findings immediately. Also, don’t let this information spread, especially not to the cadets."

"Yes, sir!"

Footsteps sounded, heading toward the entrance.

Yun Sheng’s heart tightened. She quickly sidestepped and ducked behind a stack of supply crates at the side of the tent.

The tent flap was lifted, and the assistant guide walked out briskly, heading off in another direction.

Yun Sheng crouched behind the supply crates, her heart pounding like a drum.

’Spiritual power fluctuations from a Dark Sentinel... a high Level...’

’Could it be Si Jin?!’

When that thought exploded in her mind, she nearly lost control of the two forces she had just managed to stabilize.

She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to calm down.

After waiting a few seconds and making sure no one else was around, she peeked out from behind the crates.

’The terminal... should I still go in and look for it?’

She glanced at the tent entrance, hesitating for a moment.

Qi Yao was still inside. If she went in now, she was bound to run into him. And in her current state—pale-faced and covered in a cold sweat—anyone could tell something was wrong.

’I’ll just have to figure out another way to get the terminal.’

Yun Sheng took a deep breath, suppressed her turbulent emotions, and silently backed away before turning toward the tent area.

She didn’t dare to breathe normally until she was a dozen meters away.

But her racing heart refused to calm down.

’Si Jin was here before?’

’Why would he be at the abandoned mine? Did the mine collapse because his power went out of control?’

’Is he still at the mine now?’

’If Si Jin is really at the mine near Zone 10, does that mean I can go look for him? At least to make sure he’s safe?’

The moment the thought appeared, her reason brutally suppressed it.

With her current strength, she would have trouble just leaving the vicinity of the camp, let alone crossing the edge of the buffer zone and venturing deep into that extremely dangerous abandoned mine.

There was a B-level contaminant, a collapse from an unknown cause, and residual spiritual power fluctuations from a Dark Sentinel. Any one of those things could kill her.

Just then...

"HISSS!"

That strange screeching sound rang out again.

Yun Sheng tensed up and instinctively threw up a Spirit Barrier.

The impact this time was much weaker than before; it was just a faint prick in her spiritual landscape before it dissipated.

’It’s like... it’s testing me.’

Yun Sheng gazed into the distance in the direction of the sound. At the edge of the gray, fog-shrouded wilderness, the undulating shadows of mountains were vaguely visible.

The mine was over there.

She sighed softly.

’I want to go.’

’But I can’t.’

’At least, not now!’

With her current strength, going there would be suicide. Not to mention, she was still hiding two forces that could spiral out of control at any moment, and Qi Yao’s watchful eyes were lurking in the shadows.

She needed to increase her strength, to master the method of assimilating foreign spiritual power as quickly as possible.

She needed to become strong enough—strong enough to cross that dangerous region, and strong enough that after finding Si Jin, she would still have the energy to bring him back.

At this thought, Yun Sheng steeled her resolve.

She took a deep breath, pushed her turbulent emotions back down, and turned to walk toward the tent area.

Behind her, the distant screech sounded once more before quickly fading into the wind.

She didn’t look back.

But her steps were steadier than before.

The screeching behind her gradually faded, but the tense atmosphere in the camp had yet to completely dissipate.

The Sentinels stood guard at their posts in twos and threes, while most of the guide cadets huddled near the tents, their faces showing the lingering terror of having survived a close call.

As she neared her own tent, Yun Sheng saw two familiar figures in the distance.

Li Wen and Cheng Nian were standing outside the tent, staring nervously in the direction the strange screech had come from.

Cheng Nian’s fists were clenched, and Li Wen’s brows were tightly furrowed. Neither of them spoke, but you could feel their tension from a mile away.

Cheng Nian was the first to spot her.

"Yun Sheng!"

She called out and took off running toward her, with Li Wen close behind.

"Are you okay?" Cheng Nian ran up and looked Yun Sheng up and down, her eyes full of worry. "As soon as we heard that sound, we ran out to find you. We were afraid you’d be coming back from Major General Qi’s place and get caught in that weird sonic attack."

Li Wen came up too, her face equally concerned. "Yeah, when that sound hit, my spiritual landscape felt like it was being pricked with needles. We were worried you wouldn’t be able to handle it out here by yourself."

Yun Sheng shook her head, her voice a bit hoarse. "I’m fine. What about you two? Are you hurt?"

"We’re okay," Cheng Nian said, patting her chest. "The sound just gave me a headache for a second, but I got over it. But you, on the other hand... why do you look so pale?"