The castle at night was beautiful.

High above were many stained-glass windows. Starlight, through the colorful glass, fell on the antique floor tiles in the courtyard.

Dreamlike, multicolored light floated throughout the deep castle.

Only, it was terrifyingly quiet, not a single sound.

Walking within, she always felt a giant, ancient monster lurking in the depths of the castle, its eyes open, silently watching them.

Lin Yuan glanced at Ni Ji beside her. The sentinel’s eyes were clear as he walked through the colored light, even smiling at her.

As if there was nothing scary here, just like any of their training sessions, any contaminated zone they had entered, not worth being overly nervous about.

A faint smell of blood lingered in the air, and traces of battles gradually appeared on the old stone building.

Those battle marks were very fresh, seemingly from not long ago.

Lin Yuan even saw a severed golden braid, the golden hair scattered on the muddy ground, stained with blood.

She stared at the few strands of golden hair, her footsteps not pausing, her expression calm as she quickly walked past.

I’ve always been a calm person, the current situation isn’t a big deal, Lin Yuan told herself.

The castle’s main hall door suddenly opened as they approached, the dark red door wide open, like a man-eating monster, its mouth open, waiting for them to walk in.

The light in the hall was dim, and Lin Yuan, squinting, couldn’t see clearly what was inside.

Only that the interior was luxuriously decorated, the floor covered with crimson carpets, and soft, vintage sofas.

At the deepest part was a curved staircase, behind it, a huge, circular rose window.

The moment the door opened, Ni Ji almost instinctively pulled her back, his hand shielding her vision.

Ni Ji’s palm was dry and cool, the rich scent of flowers clinging to it, from all the flowers he had picked along the way. Even so, it couldn’t mask the strong smell of blood.

Lin Yuan, through the gaps between the sentinel’s fingers, saw something she really didn’t want to see.

In that dim place, like hell, blood covered everything.

Through his fingers, she could only see thick red, and pale limbs.

The bright red almost burned her retinas.

Bloody, incredibly bloody, in every corner, and those faces of the victims, so familiar.

Lin Yuan felt that she was still very calm, she pushed Ni Ji’s hand away, and walked towards the deep darkness step by step.

She saw Nicole.

Nicole was leaning against a long sofa, her hands clasped before her chest, her eyes closed, as if asleep, her pure white Guide uniform completely dyed crimson.

A Guide, having lost this much blood, there was no way she could still be alive.

Behind Nicole, between an ornately carved stone pillar and the high dome, was a giant spiderweb.

Du Yuanyuan was hanging from it, a giant spider clinging to her side, gnawing at her brain.

Lin Yuan looked up at the blood-soaked web, her foot slipping, almost tripping on the sticky blood on the floor.

She saw Yun Luo when she stood up.

Yun Luo was impaled on a sharp, wooden stake, a long trail of blood extending from him, all the way to her feet. He seemed to still be suffering, not completely dead.

Lin Yuan wanted to run towards him. In the far corner, there was a wall of giant fish tanks, filled with murky water.

Rachel had sunk to the bottom, his long golden hair spread out in the water, his unfocused eyes staring blankly at her.

Lin Yuan reached out, wanting to grab Ni Ji’s arm.

The floor was too slippery, covered in blood, she felt she needed to hold onto something to steady herself.

But she grabbed nothing, no one beside her.

Lin Yuan looked around. Beside her, behind her, along the open doorway, it was all empty, no Ni Ji in the hall, no Ni Ji on the path outside.

Not a single sentinel.

Yes, she had originally come here alone, there had never been a sentinel by her side.

The kisses tinged with the scent of flower petals, the bonding heat, the sweat, the fingers caressing her face, they had all been an illusion, a dream.

Lin Yuan was drenched in cold sweat.

She remembered, when she was very young, the day her mother had left, giving her an orca doll.

She had hugged that orca doll and waited, for a very, very long time, but her father, her mother, and all her family, they never returned.

Perhaps because she had been too lonely, she had slowly started imagining a Sentinel with an orca as his mental body by her side.

He had been so good, able to fulfill all her wishes, appearing whenever she needed him, always gentle, infinitely indulgent.

How could there be such a person in this world?

Had she forgotten? She had always been alone.

A lonely, incurable monster, how could she possibly have such a close companion?

Lin Yuan felt something churning in her abdomen, an uncomfortable feeling making her want to vomit.

She reached out, supporting herself against the leather sofa. Looking at her hand, covered in blood.

So there was no Ni Ji in this world. He didn’t exist.

Her companions had all died. Even though they had once trusted her so much.

This seemed like a common occurrence, wasn’t this what the battlefield was like?

Death was the norm, loneliness what should be.

But why did her heart feel like it was being cut open, a burning piece of iron stuck inside, every step a searing pain?

Stop thinking, the battle isn’t over yet. Lin Yuan heard her own voice.

The entire world before her eyes was black, a hell, an abyss. Blood everywhere, the bodies of her companions. Eyes staring at her, blood-red, frightening.

Lin Yuan felt like she was falling endlessly.

Falling downwards, she didn’t know where she would land.

“There is a powerful enemy, adept at mental attacks. The next battle will be yours, you must be in top condition.”

Who had said these words to her? Who?

Lin Yuan abruptly opened her eyes and realized she wasn’t in that dim hall anymore.

She was in a brightly lit room, with a clean bed and a soft carpet.

Her heart pounded in her chest, her thoughts chaotic.

That strong smell of blood and those cruel images still faintly lingered.

“There is a powerful enemy, the next battle will be yours.”

That familiar voice echoed in her mind.

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, finally realizing she had been subjected to an incredibly powerful mental attack.

She had been captured by the emotion called fear, trapped in the mindscape of some powerful consciousness.

After closing her eyes for a while, calming herself, Lin Yuan stood up in this room.

Looking out the window, there was a thick fog outside. It was a garden, and vague figures could be seen in the distance. It looked like a safe and peaceful environment.

The window could be opened, and wasn’t very high, she could jump down.

Only, this place was unfamiliar. She wasn’t just in someone’s surface consciousness, but trapped in a deeper layer of fog.

So, although she had already realized that she was inside a mindscape, she still couldn’t return to her body in the real world, she couldn’t wake up.

Her mind was sluggish, as if in a thick fog, unable to think clearly.

She only knew that this enemy was very powerful, able to completely confuse the virtual and the real.

It could even accurately pinpoint the greatest fear in Lin Yuan’s heart, cruelly showing her everything she was most afraid of seeing.

After the oppressive silence, all the people she cared about appeared before her, dying tragically.

That cold blood, those despairing eyes, made Lin Yuan, even at this moment, unable to tell whether those were things that had actually happened.

In the unfamiliar room, Lin Yuan remembered what Xun Hua had said to her under the Golden Tree.

“In this era, before these Sentinels, you may already be a powerhouse, but I feel you still lack experience in battles between Guides,” Xun Hua, wearing his silver mask, had sighed, shaking his head. “That feeling of ruthlessly exploiting the weaknesses in one’s heart, if you encounter it one day, you’ll probably find it unbearable.”

She had thought that Xun Hua’s standards for her were already very strict. Now she knew that he was incredibly indulgent towards her, and had never truly used any ruthless methods against her.

“They are all truly powerful.”

“I’m not weak either.”

“Please trust us.”

Who was it that had said these words to her?

Ni Ji.

When she had received the messages from Nicole and Rachel, her Sentinel, as if anticipating the current situation, had said this to her.

Please trust that they aren’t weak. Please trust your companions, your Sentinel.

They must still be alive.

What she had to do now was face her own battle.

Ni Ji, so vibrant, so real, flesh and blood.

His every expression, every word, carefully treasured and stored in her mindscape.

How could he be a mere illusion?

Lin Yuan began observing this small room that confined her.

She seemed to still be in that ancient castle, only in a deeper room.

To leave this room, there were two obvious exits. One, the window, two, the closed door.

The window wasn’t high, and it was a garden outside, perhaps she could escape if she opened the window and jumped down.

The door was tightly closed, and she couldn’t hear anything from outside. If she opened the door, she might see terrifying monsters, of course, it was also possible that she would return to the hall where she had separated from Ni Ji.

Open the door or jump out the window?

Lin Yuan’s gaze moved between the door and the window, it was very quiet outside the door, a thick fog outside the window, a soft, empty bed in the room.

In the end, she chose to lie down on the bed, closing her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, Lin Yuan found herself back in that dim hall.

She had successfully escaped, woken up from that dreamlike world.

The thick blood, the body on the sofa, the spiderweb, the wooden stake, and the fish tank, were all gone.

A cold voice echoed in the dimly lit hall.

“Ah, you actually managed to break free so quickly?”

Lin Yuan then saw, by the rose window, on the steps covered with red carpet, stood a woman in formal wear.

It was a tall, humanoid being, her hair neatly done, in a long dress with old-fashioned patterns, a thin black veil covering her face, standing with her back to the light, she didn’t know how long she had been silently watching Lin Yuan.

No, Lin Yuan suddenly realized that she had been standing there all along, from the moment she, Lin Yuan, entered.

Since she and Ni Ji came in, this person had been clearly standing by the stained-glass window.

Only, she, Lin Yuan, affected by her powerful mental strength, had glanced past her several times, completely overlooking such a presence.

“You’re quite impressive. It’s been a long time since I last saw a Guide like you, to be able to break free from my control and wake up so quickly, truly remarkable,” the person by the window said, her voice clear, a hint of praise.

Lin Yuan looked at her face and said, “But I’m still in your mindscape, aren’t I?”

The lady by the window looked surprised for a moment, then smiled faintly.

Her surprise, her smile, were very natural, not at all stiff, just like a real human.

Lifting her long skirt, she slowly walked down the steps.

“Discovered, was I?” she walked towards Lin Yuan with graceful steps, smiling. “That you could realize it, truly surprises me.”

“Indeed, you’ve only woken up from a deeper level of the mental world, you haven’t truly left my mindscape,” she said, “How lovely, there are always such interesting humans like you, which was why, back then, I didn’t agree with the plan to farm humans.”

Farm humans.

Lin Yuan heard this term again.

This Deviant, slowly approaching, or rather, the “Pillar” of the City of Mantis, gave Lin Yuan a different feeling.

She seemed different from any Pillar in a contaminated zone Lin Yuan had ever encountered.

She seemed very old, her consciousness clear, her emotions stable.

Lin Yuan could even sense an ease in her movements.

She had the ability to move freely, a clear sense of self, she wasn’t bound to a fixed, pillar-like body, unable to move. She also didn’t have the intense craving for sacrifices, for devouring, driven by lower-level desires.

Her speech and behavior were too human-like, and about her, there seemed to be something Lin Yuan was very familiar with.

Lin Yuan thought carefully for a moment, and realized she was similar to the Majesty at the top of the White Tower, in the way she felt.

This “Queen” of the City of Mantis, as she slowly walked down the stairs, her long, magnificent dress trailing behind her, wore a pendant necklace with a green gemstone.

That gemstone was also very familiar to Lin Yuan.

An identical one, she had once seen it on the Queen at the top of the White Tower, her fingers had almost touched that stone once.

Only, the one that Majesty wore was red.

The Queen of the City of Mantis, wearing that necklace, walked down the steps as Lin Yuan watched, she walked past Lin Yuan, across the dimly lit hall, to the entrance of the castle’s back garden.

The door there was open, and the bright starlight poured in.

Outside, under the sky, was a boundless flower sea, and within the sea of flowers, a long corridor built with colorful, transparent gemstones. At the end of the corridor, there was a transparent pavilion.

The Queen of the City of Mantis stood at the entrance and turned to look at Lin Yuan, her pale fingers gently resting on the gemstone on her chest.

“I know what you’re looking for here,” she said, “I’ll be waiting for you in the pavilion in the garden, if you can reach it, I’ll give you what you want.”

Lin Yuan looked at her and asked, “You’ll give it to me if I reach it?”

The night breeze blew past, slightly lifting the veil on the Deviant’s face, revealing her smiling red lips.

“Not just that, I can even tell you everything you want to know.”

“But first, you have to prove you have the ability to know, to change, all of this.”

She turned around in the moonlight, walking down the gem corridor, her figure moving quickly, her voice, like flowing water, echoing behind her,

“If you fall along the way, there’s no need to feel regret. I’ll cherish you, and your companions, turn you into fertilizer, to nourish this world.”

“You will live on in another way, becoming citizens of the City of Mantis, living a completely new life, perhaps you’ll find it’s a better choice.”

Lin Yuan thought for a moment, then stepped forward, walking towards that colorful corridor.

The starry sky was brilliant above, and the flower sea below boundless. The corridor, built of gemstones, surrounded by countless flowers, shimmered dreamlike.

Lin Yuan knew she was in a dream, in the mindscape of a Deviant that had lived for countless years, an ancient being.

That long, multicolored corridor symbolized entering the depths of this powerful Deviant’s mind.

This path looked very short, yet it seemed infinitely long.

Brilliant colors, distorted light and shadows.

A single step in, and perhaps there would be no return.

Very likely to lose herself from then on, in this endless mental landscape, trapped in here, becoming its nourishment.

Did she have the ability to escape from this?

Lin Yuan looked back. In this mental world, the dim hall was empty.

But she knew that she was now trapped in a mindscape.

In the real world, her Sentinel, Ni Ji, her friends, they were also fighting a hard battle with powerful Deviants.

She didn’t know how long Ni Ji could hold out. The fates of Nicole and the sentinels were unknown.

This would be a difficult battle.

The tentacles emerged from under her skirt, surging, surrounding Lin Yuan’s body. They sensed the enemy’s power, the aura of danger.

“Go out there, help the Sentinels,” Lin Yuan said to them.

【But…】

【Your power will weaken if we leave.】

【It’s very dangerous.】

【It’s very dangerous here too.】

【So powerful, we’ve never encountered this before.】

“I’m not enough alone, only when the Sentinels regain consciousness, only with the Sentinels, will there be a chance of winning,” she said.

【Alright.】

【Okay then.】

【You have to be careful.】

【We cannot live without you.】

【Don’t forget you have a Sentinel now.】

【Being a widower wouldn’t suit that orca at all.】