Chapter 65: Since When Did He Care So Much About Yun Sheng?
"A reward?"
Si Jin repeated the word.
His eyes narrowed slightly behind his lenses. His gaze slowly swept over Yun Sheng’s face, from her faintly pursed lips to her eyes, which shone with an exceptional brightness due to her focus.
It wasn’t a look of scrutiny, but rather one of playful appraisal.
He let out a low, ambiguous chuckle. His deep, breathy voice seemed to tickle one’s ear.
"I brought you here, provided the venue, helped you pick a suitable practice partner, and am helping you improve your strength... And now you want an extra reward?
Yun Sheng, aren’t you... pushing your luck a little?"
Si Jin’s tone wasn’t harsh; it even carried a hint of indulgence that he himself hadn’t noticed.
But those words, "pushing your luck," combined with his current expression and gaze, inexplicably made Yun Sheng’s heart skip a beat and her cheeks grow warm.
"Helping me improve benefits you too, doesn’t it? It makes me, your ’collaborator,’ more useful. Since this is mutually beneficial, it’s not too much to ask for an extra reward when I perform well, is it?
Or... are you afraid I’ll win and you won’t be able to deliver the reward I want?"
Her words carried a clear tone of provocation and probing.
The corner of Si Jin’s mouth seemed to curve upward for a moment, so quickly it might have been an illusion.
He raised his hand, his fingertips hovering in the air, tracing the path of a rebellious strand of hair that had fallen beside Yun Sheng’s cheek.
He never actually touched her, yet it sent a subtle shiver through Yun Sheng, as if she had been grazed by something intangible.
"Trying to provoke me?" Si Jin’s voice was even lower, deeper, like a whisper against her ear. "It won’t work on me."
However, his very next sentence took a sharp turn.
"But... you’re a bit bolder than I thought. Fine. If you can take him down, clean and quick, within one minute, you can name whatever ’reward’ you want."
"Deal." Yun Sheng nodded crisply.
Win or lose, the experience of fighting a C-level Sentinel was invaluable. This was a deal where she couldn’t lose.
’Only a fool would say no!’
"Now, go prove you have the right to make demands."
Yun Sheng took a deep breath, pushed open the small door leading to the training ground, and walked in.
Si Jin, meanwhile, quickly pressed the comms button.
"Bring C-10 to Training Ground Seven. Prepare for a standard combat exercise."
Soon, the Sentinel with the codename C-10 and a gloomy expression was led into the training ground.
When his gaze swept over Yun Sheng, a flash of anger at being underestimated and undisguised hostility appeared in his eyes.
"Begin."
The moment Si Jin’s voice fell, C-10 lunged at Yun Sheng like a savage beast uncaged, his explosive power not fully contained even by his inhibitor ring.
A violent wave of spiritual power crushed down first. A true C-level Sentinel, even in a restricted state, was nothing like that weakling from the mall!
Yun Sheng’s pupils constricted. She dodged sideways in a rush, simultaneously trying to form a thin needle of spiritual power to counterattack.
However, a real fight was completely different from a sneak attack!
Her opponent’s speed, strength, and the savage aura honed through real combat instantly disrupted her rhythm.
The pressure slowed the formation of her spiritual power. The hastily fired Silver Needle was easily deflected by her opponent’s conscious spiritual power barrier, failing to even cause a meaningful distraction.
C-10 was a veteran. When his first strike missed, he immediately changed his attack, forming his five fingers into a claw and striking at Yun Sheng’s shoulder with the immense strength of a Sentinel!
Yun Sheng scrambled to dodge, but the force of his fingers still tore the fabric on her shoulder, sending a searing pain through her.
She tried to create distance and find an opening, but her opponent pressed her relentlessly. The spiritual power oppression followed her like a shadow, making it hard for her to breathe and causing her spiritual landscape to tremble from the impact.
Lacking combat experience, she was immediately at a disadvantage against this dual assault of merciless close-quarters combat and spiritual pressure, finding herself in one perilous situation after another.
After barely dodging several vital attacks, she was already covered in scrapes and bruises, her breathing growing ragged.
Behind the one-way glass, Si Jin had, at some point, uncrossed his arms. His hands were now pressed against the edge of the control console, his knuckles tightening slightly.
His face remained expressionless, but his deep blue eyes were locked onto the slender, scrambling figure in the arena. The color in his eyes had turned frighteningly dark.
Whenever C-10’s attacks grazed Yun Sheng’s body, or when her spiritual power was violently shattered, the air around Si Jin would drop several degrees colder. A fine layer of frost even began to form on the edge of the console.
A strange, sharp anxiety, like a dense cluster of needles, pricked at his usually calm and rational nerves.
’He should have known.’
’Her foundation is too weak, and she has no real combat experience. Pitting her against a seasoned C-level Sentinel who is going all out for a reward was too much.’
Watching Yun Sheng narrowly avoid another strike aimed at her throat, her forehead beaded with cold sweat and her face unnaturally pale, Si Jin felt as if something invisible had viciously clenched his heart.
This uncontrollable concern and nearly violent rage made even him feel a trace of astonishment and alarm.
’Since when could Yun Sheng sway his emotions so easily?!’
Just then, the situation in the arena took a sudden turn!
Yun Sheng seemed to be cornered. A vicious light flared in C-10’s eyes as he launched a powerful punch straight at her face, his spiritual power highly concentrated with the intent to crush her in a single blow!
This time, she didn’t try to dodge or block. Instead, she focused her entire mind and all the faint spiritual power she could muster, madly compressing and condensing it at an unprecedented speed.
Not one needle, but three. In an instant, deep within her spiritual landscape, she forcibly compressed her power into three thin needles, far more solid and chilling than before.
Just as C-10’s fist was about to touch the tip of her nose.
"Go!"
The three Silver Needles, arranged in a triangular formation, ignored the force of the incoming punch and the chaotic Spiritual Force Field. Following an impossibly clever angle and trajectory, they swiftly sank into the three weakest connection points of their target’s spiritual landscape defense!
"ARGH!!!"
C-10’s forward momentum froze abruptly. The ferocious expression on his face was instantly replaced by one of extreme pain and confusion.
As if his spine had been ripped out, he collapsed to his knees, his body convulsing violently as foam frothed at his lips...
He had clearly suffered a devastating mental blow in that instant, completely losing consciousness and the ability to move.
She’d won!
Yun Sheng staggered back two steps, leaning against the cold wall to steady herself.
She was drenched in cold sweat, her face so pale it was almost translucent. The color had drained from her lips, and the veins at her temples throbbed, bringing waves of dizziness and a tearing pain.
That last, overloaded attack had nearly drained her already meager spiritual power and exhausted all her stamina.
But her eyes were stunningly bright, filled with the euphoria of survival and victory.
She lifted her head, struggling to focus her gaze on the one-way glass.
The corners of her lips curled into a smug, provocative smile as she silently mouthed:
"I won... within a minute... you have to... keep your promise..."
Before she could finish, the last bit of strength holding her up suddenly evaporated.
Her vision went black, her body went limp, and she slowly slid down the wall.
Behind the one-way glass, the moment Yun Sheng collapsed, Si Jin’s body went rigid. Without a second thought, he burst through the door and caught her limp body in his arms.
He looked down at the person in his arms, his gaze startlingly dark.
She won.
She had, indeed, won.
It was a beautiful victory, but also a victory that... shook him to the core.
An unprecedented mix of admiration, lingering fear, and some deeper, unspoken emotion quietly sent ripples across the cold, hard lake of his heart.