Who was that person?

Lin Yuan didn’t ask further.

Because during their mental exchange, the Mantis had already given her the answer without any concealment.

In the White Tower, there was only one being who looked human, yet didn’t feel human at all, to Lin Yuan—the Queen of the human empire.

Lin Yuan, often by Her Majesty’s side, had clearly felt that strange, powerful, and inhuman presence.

So, four hundred years ago, she had come here, just like Lin Yuan, and together with humanity’s natural enemies — the powerful Deviants — formulated the plan to farm humans.

At this moment, Lin Yuan vaguely saw that distant figure in the White Tower, at the very top, the Majesty in the white dress turned around, her gaze, across that vast distance, on her.

She was someone born four hundred years ago, now, she had long surpassed the limits of a human lifespan.

The recorded history of the empire contained records of changes to the throne.

Those yellowed history books mechanically recorded the deaths of every Queen over these past few hundred years, and the ascension of new princesses.

But in reality, the power had never changed hands.

For four hundred years, by the small window at the very top of the White Tower, it had always been the same figure.

That Majesty in the white dress had always stood at the top of the White Tower, looking down at the entire human empire.

What was even more terrifying was that no one in the White Tower seemed to have noticed anything strange about this.

Humans didn’t know that their queen had gradually become a monster who had lived for hundreds of years.

Nor did they know they were poultry, farmed by their natural enemies.

Sentinels continued to go to contaminated zones, one after another.

Guides were confined to backyards, willingly abandoning their powerful abilities.

Not knowing that the empire had turned them into offerings.

In exchange for a small piece of land where humanity could live.

Lin Yuan, in her mental domain, looked at the distant, illusory figure on the White Tower.

She didn’t know, hundreds of years ago, what kind of mentality that young Majesty had had when she came to the depths of the contaminated zone, offering the entire human race as a sacrifice.

But she knew that she deeply loathed this world.

Along the way, she had seen the tears and blood shed by countless sentinels and guides.

Sacrificed by their own kind, sentinels’ flesh and blood became new Deviants, Guides’ mental power created contaminated zones that plagued humanity.

Yun Luo’s teacher, Du Yuanyuan’s lover, those lovely sentinels guarding the outposts, Ni Ji’s comrades…

The pain of countless people, touched by the tentacles, remained in Lin Yuan’s memory.

In that nightmarish world, that magnificent White Tower, was actually built from human flesh and blood.

The Mantis, playing with butterflies in the pavilion, turned her head.

She saw a cold, round moon.

The giant silver moon rose in the sky. Its clear light and the waves invaded the boundless flower sea, silently taking up half the sky.

That still juvenile Kraken, against the backdrop of the silver moon, its eyes shining golden, faintly confronting her.

“You…?”

Such a small human, to actually be able to invade her mental landscape, was this a challenge to her? The Mantis found it very interesting.

She liked this human Guide very much.

The human Guides of the past, their mental worlds as colorful and magnificent as dreams, as long as a powerful force was injected, they could support an independent world.

Just like this one she was currently inhabiting.

The beautiful flower sea, the amusement park with its ever-bright lights, the scorching sun, the earth of dusk and dawn.

What a beautiful world, the dream from the depths of that Guide’s heart.

It was a pity that, these years, the mental strength of the farmed Guides was gradually weakening, it was difficult to find such a vast and magnificent mindscape.

This little Kraken before her was very interesting, she was rather fond of it.

She felt that it was a miracle this little human Guide could even survive to this day. Any of her kind, meeting her, would have desperately wanted to devour her.

The way they expressed their fondness was different from humans’.

Plundering, devouring, merging, so that the things they liked would stay with them forever, become a part of their body and mind.

“You seem a little irrational,” the Mantis Queen said.

The breeze blowing through the flower sea lifted her black veil, and above her beautiful red lips, five eyes of different sizes opened.

The pupils of the five eyes were pitch black, so dark, so pure, they could seemingly devour everything in the world.

The flower sea at that moment became even more vibrant, countless petals swirling in the sky. The bright, colorful hues slowly pushing back the moonlight and the sea that had invaded this corner of her world.

“You should know, you’re far from being my match,” the Mantis’s voice was very cold, with a hint of displeasure.

“You’re still so young, having just crossed a corridor, experienced the sorrows of a few human lives, and you’ve already exhausted yourself like this, haven’t you?”

Lin Yuan, having crossed that colorful corridor, swept by the painful mental worlds of countless humans, was covered with wounds.

The tentacles, each one listless, their smooth skin covered with cuts.

Many were even severed at the wrist, pitifully wriggling among the pile, blood flowing from their wounds.

Those were injuries from breaking free from the entangled mental power, to avoid being pulled into deeper mental worlds.

She was in a sorry state, yet she dared, at this moment, to invade the mindscape of the Mantis Pillar.

Wounds, breaks, shrinking size, they were all signs of a weakened mental state.

The Mantis shook her head. Lin Yuan, she truly was an irrational human.

“You should be like her, kneeling before me, begging for our mercy, maybe I would consider giving you a way out,” the Mantis Pillar’s voice gradually softened, but dark flames slowly ignited in the depths of those pitch-black eyes.

Across the small pavilion, the five pupils, with their burning black flames, fixed their gaze on Lin Yuan.

The Kraken in the mental world and the Queen of the City of Mantis confronted each other in the flower sea.

In the real world outside the mindscape,

Ni Ji raised his arm, blocking a flying kick from the Deviant.

That kick was incredibly fast, even with Ni Ji’s dynamic vision, he couldn’t completely react.

The humanoid Deviant’s body was small, but its attack power incredibly strong, even a giant panda like Du Yuanyuan, with her weight and size, had been sent flying over ten meters, crashing into, and breaking a thick stone pillar.

If a human body was hit by that, even if it didn’t kill them, it would still be a serious injury.

Rachel, having taken a kick to the leg earlier, was still coughing up blood, unable to get up.

Almost entirely relying on his years of training, Ni Ji’s instincts, the moment the momentum of the kick lessened, before it completely landed, he wrapped his arm around it, curling his body, his red blade flying towards the enemy’s knee, which was on the ground supporting him.

To outsiders, the two figures only briefly touched, the kick and the red blade flashing past simultaneously.

Ni Ji was sent flying by that kick, crashing backward into where Lin Yuan had been standing, he didn’t regain his balance, and fell into a sofa.

The male humanoid Deviant knelt down, one of his legs bent, blood pouring from his knee.

He looked down calmly, and knew that his hamstring was severed. He would no longer be able to unleash his ghost-like, deadly kick.

The female Deviant landed beside him, twirling the short blade in her hand, one of her arms severed, but there wasn’t a single ripple of emotion on her face, she seemed unconcerned, and of course she didn’t care that her companion’s leg had been injured, only the human sentinels were in a similar state now, most of them having collapsed from their injuries.

Those who could still move were struggling to get up.

Ni Ji checked his condition. His leg bone, broken long ago, the fracture several ribs.

And the orca, his mental body, was covered with injuries, whimpering.

Ni Ji, his brow furrowed, slowly stood up, and habitually glanced up at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan, who had been standing there with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

Her golden pupils, radiating a brilliant light,

Strands of gold swirling within, her gaze looking down.

Ni Ji had seen Lin Yuan’s golden eyes several times.

On the altar in that dream, in that damp cave, in countless battles at their most intense moments.

Every time, it made his heart race.

This time, it seemed even stranger, more mysterious than before, with a breathtaking divinity.

The vast, mottled gold swirling in her eyes, a beauty unlike a human’s.

Those golden eyes stared at him.

Lin Yuan’s hand, which had been on the armrest of the sofa, reached out, grabbed Ni Ji by his collar, pulled him towards her,

Lowered her long eyelashes, and kissed him on the lips.

Ni Ji made a soft sound of protest.

There were still so many people here. The battle wasn’t over yet.

It was… too dangerous!

Lin Yuan, what’s wrong?

The countless questions he wanted to ask were swallowed before they could be voiced. His chaotic thoughts scattered.

Lin Yuan’s tongue invaded, wantonly plundering in his mouth.

Her powerful pheromones were like strong alcohol. A bloody taste spreading in their mouths, the mixed taste of pheromones and blood.

The intensity and potency assaulted his mind.

Ni Ji’s mind went blank for a moment, he couldn’t think.

The smooth, wet invasion, carrying a deadly presence, wantonly wreaked havoc in his mouth, entangling his tongue, shattering his reason, taking away his soul.

It was Lin Yuan’s pheromones. Like a deadly poison, the strongest alcohol.

His mouth sealed, he could only let those intense pheromones enter his body.

Lin Yuan, suddenly kissing him like this in front of everyone, made him flustered and instantly lost.

He should be embarrassed, yet he couldn’t resist.

In the chaos, he only vaguely heard the wounded orca, rolling its body and letting out a happy cry, all of its injuries healing in bliss.

What was happening? Why was she doing this to him?

How should he react now?

Before he could even figure it out, Lin Yuan had already released him.

A thin strand of saliva, between their lips, as they parted.

Ni Ji, dazed, only saw Lin Yuan’s golden eyes, shining brightly, right before him.

She stared at her Sentinel, like a predator, having obtained the food it craved, content.

She extended the tip of her tongue, licked her wet lips, and closed her golden eyes again.

The bloody and fierce battlefield fell silent for a moment. Whether their own people or the enemy Deviants, everyone glanced at them.

Ni Ji, coming back to his senses, his face flushed, could hardly meet the eyes of his comrades on the battlefield.

Why had Lin Yuan suddenly opened her eyes and done such a thing to him?

And he hadn’t even resisted.

In front of everyone!

He didn’t even know whether he should continue fighting or dig a hole and bury himself. He had no face left.

“Don’t be embarrassed, we all noticed something between you two long ago,” Nicole, standing nearby, unable to bear it, said, comforting Ni Ji.

Even though she herself had also been stunned by Lin Yuan’s sudden action.

They, sentinels and guides, were all very perceptive of subtle movements and emotional changes.

That night, before they left, Ni Ji’s reckless dash, Lin Yuan’s rare smile, who wouldn’t notice?

Although they sensed the undercurrents between them, Nicole hadn’t expected that Lin Yuan would act so decisively.

Just two or three days ago, she had stood by the flower wall in her courtyard, kicking at a small stone with a confused look, talking about how she hadn’t figured out her feelings for Ni Ji.

When still unsure, she had been like a young girl experiencing her first crush.

But once she had figured it out, in just two or three days, she had devoured him completely. In just a few nights, it seemed like everything had happened between them.

This girl, her unconventional, decisive nature truly all-encompassing. Even in love.

In the empire’s idol dramas, there were only shy and blushing guides, and domineering sentinels.

This was the first time Nicole had seen a Guide take the initiative in a relationship.

Nicole put her hand on her forehead, sighing. She found it novel, yet also felt that it was incredibly cool. Her admiration for Lin Yuan seemed to have gained a strange new dimension.

In the mindscape, Lin Yuan opened her eyes and licked her lips.

The injured tentacles were healing rapidly, gradually becoming smooth and moist again, strong and powerful, writhing in the flower sea.

The moonlight that had been retreating in the mindscape once again brightened. The tide surged.

The cold moonlight and the rising and falling waves occupied a corner of the world.

Lin Yuan’s bright moon, representing her mindscape, launched a counter-invasion.

It couldn’t completely cover this world, but firmly occupied a corner, confronting the earth covered by a flower sea, a standoff.

In the colorful pavilion, Lin Yuan, her eyes shining brightly, the dust and injuries unable to hide her aura, full of vibrant life.

It was as if she was asking the mental body before her, How about it? Am I qualified?

I may not be as strong as you, but I’m not that weak either. And I also have a granary, I can replenish my energy at any time.

Look at me. Am I qualified to stand before you?

She waited for the other party’s answer.

The Queen of the City of Mantis, in a black dress, her face veiled, her five dark eyes burning with black flames, stared at Lin Yuan.

She was a powerful mental body. Under that dark gaze, anyone with a shred of weakness would want to retreat, to kneel and beg.

Lin Yuan had become somewhat familiar with these mature and powerful Deviants, they were calm, rational, not afraid of pain or injury. They almost never had emotional fluctuations like humans. They had no weaknesses to exploit.

Such enemies were undoubtedly incredibly powerful, difficult to defeat.

Only, Lin Yuan felt that she could understand their thoughts. Sometimes, she knew how to communicate with them effectively, it was even easier than dealing with humans.

Lin Yuan felt that perhaps, it was because their bloodline flowed through her, sometimes, she also thought like they did.

Her powerful combat abilities, and her unyielding will, were her bargaining chips for sitting down and communicating with them.

Whether her combat abilities were strong wasn’t actually what Deviants cared about the most.

But if she couldn’t even withstand basic mental pressure, in their eyes, she was just a lowly ant, not even worth a second glance.

Now, she stood before this powerful Deviant, their mindscapes colliding, the flower sea and the ocean invading each other, she had earned the right to communicate as equals.

These strange beings weren’t human. But Lin Yuan knew that there were also things in their minds that they longed to know, to pursue, and obtain.

A path that their race yearned for, a path they had been exploring.

Lin Yuan, along that only path of communication, cautiously and slowly extended her tentacles.

The Mantis, her five dark eyes, stared at Lin Yuan.

Four hundred years ago, a human had knelt before them, offering the entire human race as a sacrifice.

They had nodded, and coldly agreed.

Four hundred years later, a new human Guide stood before her again.

She was still so young, not even twenty, yet she dared to stand here, to challenge her, who had lived for hundreds of years.

She even wanted to negotiate, to overturn everything.

Although she was still very weak, she was indeed qualified.

A hurricane rose in the flower sea, its colorful petals swirling in the wind like a giant dragon.

The bright moon waited quietly, the waves rising and falling on the sea.

The sky above the earth was like a giant glass bell, inverted, beyond that transparent cover was the scene of the real world.

The real battlefield, the castle, scarred by battle, the bodies of large and small deviants piled high.

The human sentinels were covered in blood, yet they still helped each other up, again and again.

Finally, the last two humanoid Deviants fell.

Under the transparent dome, Ni Ji pinned the last fallen humanoid Deviant, his blade across her neck.

Both Lin Yuan and the Queen of Mantis looked up.

The Sentinel’s face, close to that transparent sky, was magnified. The Deviant’s blood splattered Ni Ji’s face.

His blade was blood red, his hand holding it also red, his face covered in blood, a bloody gash across his handsome face, his entire being as if soaked in blood.

Only his eyes were clear and bright, filled with determination and unyielding resolve, a stubborn refusal to fall.

The male humanoid Deviant’s legs had been severed, his body disemboweled, his human-like internal organs spilled out. He lay on the ground, his face expressionless, staring at the ceiling.

The female Deviant’s throat had been cut, blood pooling behind her, she lay next to her companion, blinking, also staring at the ceiling, her face blank.

Nicole’s mental body, its silver scales shed, its tail half-severed, she, who had once been a long, silver snake, with shimmering scales, had now become very small.

The small, bloodied snake struggled to move across the battlefield, using its small body to nudge the fallen Du Yuanyuan, providing her with mental channeling.

Du Yuanyuan opened her eyes, weakly touched the small silver head, her blood-covered body trembling as she slowly stood up.

Rachel reached out and pushed Yun Luo beside him. Yun Luo’s face was pale, unconscious.

Only his mental body, the black unicorn, hadn’t disappeared after its owner fainted. Kicking up what little black smoke its hooves could muster, it stubbornly remained on the battlefield, its head lowered.

The few wounded warriors, supporting each other, struggled to stand up.

They extended their hands.

Lin Yuan in the mindscape looked up.

Beyond the transparent dome, Ni Ji’s bloodied hand reached out, covering Rachel’s beast form’s lion paw, the unicorn’s horn, Du Yuanyuan’s bandaged hand, and Nicole’s delicate hand.

Working together, their stacked hands pressed downwards.

No one spoke. Their clasped hands, encouraging each other.

Lin Yuan looked up, beyond the sky, her companions’ blood, mixing together, dripped down from above, onto the dome, onto her heart.

Those hands separated, and the warriors, their broken bodies rising, stepping on the countless Deviant corpses, faced the Queen standing on top of a stone pillar in the hall.

That was the Queen of Mantis’s physical body.

The Queen of Mantis’s mental body confronted Lin Yuan in the mindscape.

Her physical body, standing in the hall littered with corpses, faced the human warriors who had eliminated all the Deviants in this castle.

Would she be afraid? Not at all, not yet.

Only, at this moment, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of shock.

Humans were sometimes ridiculously weak, pathetic and lowly. Yet sometimes, there was indeed something about them that could move her heart.

Although now, she still hadn’t quite figured out what it was.

“You don’t have good intentions towards us,” the Mantis’s pitch-black eyes, in the mindscape, looked at Lin Yuan. She slowly began speaking, “Your intentions are obvious, if you succeed, I think you humans will wage war against us again, trying to kill and drive my people away, reclaim the land.”

“With such thoughts, so unconcealed, and you still want our support?”

Lin Yuan only said one sentence, “But, such a future, holds infinite possibilities. For both of us, infinite possibilities.”

Return freedom to humanity.

This was a path of survival, for both races.

Although she didn’t know what the future held, it held infinite possibilities.

Unlike the present, a dead, stagnant world, filthy and corrupted, the entire human race slowly sinking into the mire.

Humanity was slowly heading towards destruction, a fate that any intelligent person could see, when that happened, the Deviants parasitizing humans would also eventually have nowhere to go.

Lin Yuan had traveled a long way, exploring the secrets of this twisted world.

Reaching this point, to this Queen of the Deviants.

She presented her true thoughts and desires to this natural enemy of mankind.

Return freedom to humanity.

The wind in the flower sea stopped, and the black veil fell, a smile appearing on the Mantis’s lips.

“I like you, you bring me a different feeling.”

“Indeed, I’m also not very fond of the plan to farm humans, so, I’ll support you once, from today onwards, we will no longer provide bones to the White Tower. And we will no longer trade with that human queen in the White Tower.”

She took off the green gemstone pendant necklace on her chest and gently handed it to Lin Yuan.

“You want this, right? Since I promised, here you go.”

“Do as you please, lovely little Kraken, I want to see how far you and those sentinels can go,” the Mantis said, standing in the flower sea. She laughed. “I don’t know any less about humans than you, you humans are truly a strange race. Perhaps in the future, I might even see some humans actively approaching us, wanting to trade, even establish diplomatic relations.”

“Who knows? Like you said, anything is possible.”

“I very much look forward to that unknown world.”

As the Mantis Queen spoke, Lin Yuan’s mental body withdrew from that flower sea mindscape.

She opened her eyes and found herself back in that ruined castle.

Deviant corpses everywhere, pillars collapsed, debris scattered about, the Queen of Mantis’s figure gone from the steps.

Her wounded companions all turned around, their faces a mixture of surprise and joy.

Lin Yuan looked down and opened her palm, just like in her mindscape, the green gemstone rested there.

“Let’s go back.”

Lin Yuan looked at the shimmering green gem in her hand. “I’ve gotten what I wanted, and learned everything I wanted to know.”

She closed her fingers, holding the green stone tightly.

It was finally time to retreat, everyone was seriously injured, but everyone was still alive.

The wounded companions, supporting each other, stepped on the debris and walked out.

Scattered flower petals, a cool, quiet night.

The green gem in Lin Yuan’s hand, glowing faintly.

It was the queen’s necklace, this special gemstone condensed from this world, it could light up the Truth Box, guiding them on their final path.

Actually, they didn’t need any guidance, everyone in their hearts knew the path they would take.

The tentacles moved underground, sharing with all the comrades in the team what Lin Yuan had seen in the mindscape.

Rachel carried Yun Luo on his back.

Yun Luo, one of his arms severed, hanging on Rachel’s shoulder, softly said, “So… Teacher was sacrificed as an offering.”

Du Yuanyuan carried Nicole on her back, Nicole’s mental energy depleted, she was asleep, “So, he was killed because he discovered this secret, discovered that they were secretly sacrificing Guides,” Du Yuanyuan’s voice wasn’t loud, but there was a deep hatred in her words, “That’s why he wasn’t allowed to come back alive.”

Ni Ji remained silent. He had long known that his teammates had been unjustly killed.

Avenging them was his only obsession.

Walking out of the castle, into the flower sea in the night,

Du Yuanyuan took out the key to open the door – the Deviant had given them the key to leave when they registered at the gate of the City of Mantis.

The key was a small cicada’s shed exoskeleton, as translucent and beautiful as jade.

Giving the key to leave to anyone who formally applied to enter was a unique characteristic of this City of Mantis.

They had originally thought the Deviants here reasonable, willing to communicate, how civilized.

Now that they knew the truth, they realized that these easily accessible contaminated zones, meant that the Pillar had matured, completely lost its humanity.

The contaminated zone welcomed and longed for humans to enter and exit freely. So that they could devour the mental bodies of the sentinels and ordinary people who died within, to further strengthen themselves.

On the contrary, those places like the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone, where the key was hard to obtain, was because the Pillar still retained human consciousness, and was unwilling to see their own kind being endlessly devoured, so they resisted humans entering and exiting.

The truth was so cruel, making one sigh in every aspect.

Du Yuanyuan tossed the key into the air.

The escape door to the outside world opened in mid-air.

The comrades carrying the injured left first, Rachel carrying Yun Luo, Du Yuanyuan carrying Nicole, their figures disappearing into the doorway.

Lin Yuan was about to enter.

But just as she was about to step in, the escape door suddenly closed.

“Carrying Her Majesty’s personal belongings, you’re a VIP,” a voice rang from where the door in mid-air had just closed, “Please, VIP, use the main gate, we will personally see you off.”

Not giving her any room for argument, the door closed, and the voice also disappeared.

The main gate?

She had to go through that flower sea again?

These Deviants, liking to imitate human behavior, yet always getting it wrong, always created such troublesome rules.

Lin Yuan looked back at Ni Ji.

In the quiet night, the smell of battle and blood still clung to them.

The two who had been left behind, still had to cross the vast flower sea amusement park to return to the outside world.

Just the two of them, crossing that flower sea again.

For some reason, the Sentinel’s ears turned red.