Tan Shu brought the injured Ni Ji, who was unable to walk on his own, to a clinic.

It was an expensive place with treatment pods, claiming that as long as you lay inside and slept, all of your injuries would heal.

Although he was reluctant, Tan Shu couldn’t directly bring a blood-covered person in front of his teacher.

His teacher was a man who was very particular about his style and behavior. He was in the midst of an ascendant career and was focused on mingling in the aristocratic circles. He had very high standards for his own appearance and that of everyone around him.

When he went to see his teacher, he even carefully wiped away a few drops of rainwater from his shoulders.

The doctor in the clinic was very surprised and talked for a long time about Ni Ji’s terrifying external injuries.

He emphasized that only their clinic just happened to have the newest treatment liquid that the search team had just brought back from the fifth contaminated zone. It could ensure the effective treatment of that critically injured person who had already been placed in the treatment pod.

“Luckily, he’s a sentinel, an ordinary person would’ve died eight hundred times over,” the doctor said as he adjusted the various data on the console from behind the observation window, constantly clicking his tongue and shaking his head. “He also has a lot of old injuries, and he hadn’t treated them properly.”

In the room where he was, was a very old and patched-up sealed treatment pod. Ni Ji was lying inside with his eyes closed, wearing a breathing mask, and his whole body was immersed in a special liquid. Bubbles constantly rose up with a gurgling sound. On the yellow console, all kinds of body data were running rapidly.

“These few joints are all clearly deformed. He was obviously severely injured before. They’ll be very painful when the weather turns rainy. And his lungs were corroded by inhaled toxic gas. He simply didn’t treat them properly. Tsk tsk, I don’t know how he survived. If he wants to fully recover now, it’ll take a lot of money and time.”

The doctor turned to ask Tan Shu, who was standing next to him, “Do you want to use this treatment to fix some of the important old injuries at the same time?”

This man had just come in with the injured man in the rain. He was so concerned and anxious, they seemed like they had a very good relationship.

“Can he hear us when we talk like this inside?” Tan Shu replied, but it was a completely unrelated question.

“Hear us? How could he possibly hear us,” the doctor laughed. “This is the real deal that was brought back from the ruins, specially modified to treat sentinels. The soundproofing is first-class. It ensures that the sentinel gets a peaceful treatment inside. Even if a level A sentinel came, he wouldn’t be able to hear a single sound from the outside.”

A strange sense of smugness surged in Tan Shu’s heart. The myth from his student days was now in this state, far inferior to himself. This made him almost lose control of his expression.

How pitiful. He was in such a miserable state. Did he even have enough money to enter a treatment pod? He must be regretting offending Teacher back then and going to the northern outpost, right?

The doctor was still rambling on. “Look at these old injuries, it’s best to treat them at the same time as this treatment.”

The man beside him interrupted him, and said in a low voice coldly, “Shut up. Don’t be nosy.”

The doctor shrugged and had no choice but to stop talking. The two adjusted the data and went to the next room.

After all, once the operating data of the machine was adjusted, there was no need for manual intervention in the treatment process of the treatment pod. It was very convenient.

Other than the fact that the price was a bit expensive and that most low-level sentinels couldn’t afford it, there weren’t any other problems.

After the footsteps disappeared, Ni Ji opened his eyes inside the treatment pod.

He had heard the conversation just now, and he could even hear the conversation of a patient’s family in the distance, and the sound of the rain outside the window which was getting heavier.

Lying in the sealed treatment pod, his body was enveloped by the translucent treatment liquid, and the sound of the gurgling bubbles continued to rise,

As if he were in that familiar seabed.

Ni Ji thought of the battle in the sea today, and the girl who had been floating in the deep sea.

He really hadn’t thought that he would meet a guide like that.

Her slender figure, indifferent expression, and the layers of white dress that had spread out in the sea; that was how she had plunged into the depths, suspended in the deep sea of his mental landscape.

Her mental body made even the battle-hardened sentinel feel terrified. The indistinct, overlapping mental entities were floating behind the white-clothed girl, huge, cold, terrifying, and mysterious.

It was as if merely catching a glimpse of part of them would bring immense pressure.

When he was wrapped by the tentacles, tightened, and dragged down to the seabed, Ni Ji had even thought of death.

Death was not a big deal for him.

Since everyone was gone, then it was only natural that he would die at any time.

Eternal rest might be a kind of peace and liberation.

However, after those cold and slippery things wrapped around his tail and pinned him to a rock on the seabed, they didn’t bring the torture he had imagined.

They didn’t even hurt him.

After seeing the memories that he had deliberately placed in the outer area.

The guide, who was floating in the deep sea, still had the same expressionless face, without any trace of joy or anger.

But the tentacles, as they climbed along his muscles, had, in a slightly rough manner, taken turns to stroke his head.

Perhaps he had endured too much despair and too much suffering for too long, that even a little bit of warmth from others was subconsciously seized and savored.

What’s more, he had also seen those memories that had been shown publicly.

A reading and playing that seemed fair and didn’t contain any personal emotions. But he knew that the guide had deliberately cut off and concealed a little bit of something.

This cold guide, who he had even offended, had treated him gently after invading his mental landscape.

A little bit of gentleness from a stranger,

And what it protected was what those dead warriors had been trying their best to guard.

The rain outside the window was heavy. The raindrops were densely hitting the glass of the window, leaving behind numerous winding marks.

Ni Ji closed his eyes, and he thought of the northern outpost where he had been fighting for many years.

At this time of the year, it would already be full of snow, and the world would be as boundless as jade, and the earth would be icy cold.

The cold winter had already arrived. Survival was more difficult than usual.

The memory fragments that had been played publicly on the training field had a small piece cut off from the end.

After the researcher was killed and the live worm jade was shattered, there was still a little bit of the following scene.

The avenging sentinel bent down and carefully picked up the fragments of worm jade that had scattered on the ground.

Although this kind of shattered, dead worm jade had already lost most of its value and would no longer be of interest to those high-ranking figures, in a barren land like the northern outpost, they could feed a lot of people. They could become winter supplies for many families.

He picked up the blood-stained fragments and took them out of the contaminated zone. He exchanged them on the black market for charcoal, cotton, food, and candy.

Inside a small wooden house in the northern outpost covered in white snow, a warm light was shining.

A pregnant woman was sitting by a table, knitting a sweater while patting the small daughter who was sleeping beside her.

The door was knocked at this time.

“Who is it?” she said, supporting her belly as she went to open the door.

The person who had come was a quartermaster from the outpost, an elderly woman whose arms were broken and replaced with mechanical prosthetics.

She dragged a cart in the snow, which was piled up with winter food supplies.

“These are all the rations that belong to your family’s Tazi,” said the elderly woman with amputated arms, smiling warmly as she used her slightly rusty mechanical limbs to move things into the house without further discussion. “Tazi and the others might not be able to make it back in time for your delivery. But don’t you worry, I’m here with you.”

After she finished moving the supplies, she took out a bag of imperial coins from her bosom and placed the coins, which were still warm from her body heat, into the woman’s hands.

“The Captain specifically asked me to give them to you.”

“Oh dear, how is there so much?” the pregnant woman said, both surprised and happy.

She was sad that her husband couldn’t be by her side to wait for the birth of their child.

But she was also fortunate that she had this much food and money. She and her child could at least safely get through the winter.

She raised her head to look outside. There was only deep darkness and snow fluttering everywhere.

The tall and imposing man with ugly features, who had been very gentle to her, was nowhere to be seen.

In the woman’s heart, there was a hint of uneasiness, but she also summoned the courage of a mother.

Not far away, at the entrance of a dimly lit alley.

A woman with a perm opened her cigarette case, and with fingers with black painted nails, she took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a puff.

“What does he mean by this?” The woman skillfully exhaled a smoke ring, and she said with a sneer. “He doesn’t come, but he asked you to bring this money here? Is it a breakup fee?”

“No, he…” The sentinel standing in front of her had red eyes and choked up, unable to finish what he wanted to say. He just stubbornly stretched out his hand and passed over the money bag that was filled with imperial coins.

The girl, who had been working in the red-light district for many years, initially looked disdainful, but she slowly became suspicious. She reacted and stayed still for a moment, shaking her hand for a few times to carefully put the cigarette in her mouth and take a puff. Then, she exhaled the smoke, and she turned up her face to let the snow fall on her face, as if that way she could dry the tears in her eyes.

“He…that person, did he leave any words for me?”

“Yes, he said—he hopes you take this money, and live well, and live a different life.”

The dim and filthy alley was particularly silent on this snowy night,

There was only a woman squatting on the ground, holding her cigarette and covering her beautiful eyes.

“You bastard, you bastard,” she cursed as she cried.

The pure white snowflakes fell from the sky one after another. As if in comfort, they gently landed on her shoulders.

Inside the dilapidated orphanage, a truck full of winter supplies had stopped at the gate.

The children came out cheering and received the candy that had been distributed to them. They had never tasted so much sweetness before, and they were as happy as if it were a holiday.

But they didn’t see that Mother Ma, who always had a smile on her face, was now standing in a corner, lowering her head and crying as she covered her face in front of an unfamiliar old soldier.

…

After a night of torrential rain, the sun was shining again.

Lin Yuan sat in Cao Yunyun’s living room, watching her as she busied herself giving dinner to her two twin children.

Cao Yunyun was her only friend from her time at the Guide Academy. She was two years older than Lin Yuan, and she had married a sentinel who had been matched to her by the state early on. She no longer needed to perform her duties as a guide, and she focused on being a good wife and mother at home.

The television set on the living room cabinet was playing a news report. Viscount Klein, wearing a formal suit, was giving consolation prizes to the families of some of the fallen sentinels, with sunshine and flowers as the backdrop.

The families of the soldiers who were placed in front of the screen were dressed in neat clothes, gratefully receiving gifts from the Viscount.

Everyone was happy and friendly, and it was very lively.

The entire world was bathed in sunshine, setting off the sacred glow of the White Tower and filled with love and gentleness.

“It’s all just for show,” Cao Yunyun said as she opened the oven, took out a baked pot roast, cut it up on a plate, put it in her husband’s lunch box, while talking to Lin Yuan. “According to the investigation we did back then, most of the sentinels who died in the contaminated zone hardly received any compensation. Their compensation money was skimmed off layer by layer, and by the time it reached their families, it had been reduced to an infuriatingly small amount.”

When they were at the Guide Academy, she was a decisive and capable young woman. She had written many investigative reports on sensitive topics.

But now, she had left that world, and her attention was only allowed to be placed on her family. She had become a gentle wife and mother.

While she was speaking, she put two spoonfuls of fruit puree into the twins’ bowls, demanding that they finish it. At the same time, she instructed the maid to bring her husband’s formal suit for the evening banquet.

And taking advantage of a free moment, she also dug out a big spoonful of the blueberry jam she made herself, and spread it on a freshly baked cake, handing it to Lin Yuan.

Their family’s financial situation had not been good these past few years. They also had to maintain the appearance of a noble family, so all their expenses were minimized as much as possible.

They had only kept one maid to help manage the trivial matters of communication between nobles.

Lin Yuan took a bite of the cake. The blueberry jam had a rich texture, and the cake was soft, sweet, and very delicious.

She actually admired a guide like Cao Yunyun very much.

She could take good care of a sentinel while completing so many trivial and complicated matters in an orderly fashion, while still maintaining her emotional optimism and gentleness.

If she were to be in charge, even if all of her tentacles came out to help, it would probably be impossible.

Of course, the fact that each of those tentacles had a small, but not very useful, brain was also a big cause of the chaos.

“Oh, honey. Are you really going to those contaminated zones?” Cao Yunyun finally found a moment of free time in the midst of her busyness and sat down in front of Lin Yuan. “My god, I can’t believe that a guide would apply for a job like that. But also, it’s very you.”

They had different views on life, but they were always able to understand and tolerate each other, and therefore they had been good friends for many years.

“Yes. I have a reason why I have to go,” Lin Yuan showed her her permit. “And besides, once I go over there, I won’t have to attend those endless banquets, right? You know I’m very bad at dealing with these things.”

Guides in the White Tower had to take on certain duties every year. This included attending the incredibly lavish banquets held by the nobles.

After all, guides were the most precious flowers cultivated by the empire, and they had to be used to decorate the table during the necessary times to decorate the prosperous times.

“Right, banquets.” Cao Yunyun was successfully distracted. She clapped her hands and said, “Are you going to the evening banquet dressed like that?”

Lin Yuan looked down at her clothes and shoes, feeling that there was nothing wrong with them. She had worn a formal dress and was wearing shoes that made it impossible for her to walk.

“You should know that Jiang Yangshuo will also be there tonight.” Cao Yunyun put her hands on her shoulders and said seriously. “The more this kind of thing happens, the more we need to straighten our backs. We can’t let those bastards look down on us.”

“Xiao Yuan, this is a battlefield. The battlefield that belongs to us guides.”

A battlefield…?

Although she was a little sorry for her caring friend, Lin Yuan spaced out during Cao Yunyun’s passionate speech.

She thought of the memory she had seen in the sea a few days ago.

The bodies that were pierced by huge fingers.

The flesh and blood that had been smeared on the ground like mud.

Those eyes, that remained open in despair, even after death.

That was a battlefield, Yunyun, the real battlefield was like that.

Was it a battlefield to fight over a sentinel, and to pull at each other’s hair?