Under normal circumstances, a spirit animal cannot make physical contact with anyone other than its master. Humans who have awakened as Sentinels or Guides can feel them only because the spirit animals act directly on their sensory centers.

Strictly speaking, it was a kind of “hallucination.”

Part of a Sentinel’s endurance training was designed to resist the sensory stimulation produced by a spirit animal’s attack. Since a Sentinel’s spirit animal focused more on enhancing physical fitness and sensory acuity, it was rare in warfare for one to be used to directly attack a person’s body. Guides, on the other hand, often used their spirit animals as a medium for launching mental attacks.

Bai Zhen knew the experience wasn’t real, yet she was still utterly powerless to resist.

The little unicorn was fiery and passionate, rubbing its rounded, buddingly elegant body against the Sentinel while licking her cheeks with its soft, wet tongue.

Luna clearly adored Bai Zhen. Its smooth, glossy black tail swayed from side to side, and its two pointed ears twitched with pleasure.

Bai Zhen felt an intense pleasure—a sensory stimulation born from their high compatibility. If Hati hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep from exhaustion, and if her own body weren’t so extremely weak, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t do something more reckless.

The study of pheromones was a rather niche discipline among ordinary humans, but within the world of Sentinels and Guides, it had always been a major area of research. Guide-hormone was identified early on as a type of pheromone that could be detected by the keen senses of Sentinels and would affect them.

Amphibians, reptiles, and some mammals possess a vomeronasal organ, a specialized olfactory organ for receiving pheromones released by their own species, which plays a crucial role in mating and foraging.

In most humans, this structure only appears during the fetal stage and has atrophied by birth. But Sentinels were different from ordinary people. They seemed to still possess an olfactory organ similar to the vomeronasal organ, forming what was known as a “sixth sense.” However, whether this was innate or formed under the influence of a spirit animal still required a great deal of data to confirm.

Because of the powerful effect of Guide-hormone on Sentinels, every nation was scrambling to research an artificial version. It was said that a century ago, before the development of the artificial steroid—the Little White Pills—Sentinels would carry items frequently used by Guides or even sealed packets of air as a supplement.

In recent years, scholars had also begun to study a class of pheromones academically termed “Sentinel-hormone.” However, since “Sentinel-hormone” was typically only perceived by highly compatible or already bonded Guides, and a Guide’s dependence on it was not as extreme as a Sentinel’s need for Guide-hormone, the research efforts and data volume remained small.

Bai Zhen fully understood the mechanism by which Guide-hormone affected Sentinels; she just didn’t understand why the Miss was using this particular method to soothe her.

Of course, a Guide’s primary means of soothing a Sentinel was Guide-hormone, but the methods for helping a Sentinel manage their spirit animal were not fixed or singular. Public Guides naturally used the most common, textbook method: releasing Guide-hormone as a pheromone to affect the Sentinel.

In this process, the spirit animal was neither the emitter nor the receiver, but simply a medium—a sensory enhancer. This was the most fundamental nature of a spirit animal’s role for humans.

For bonded Sentinels and Guides, however, this soothing process could become quite rich and varied. It was said that anonymous forums were full of experience-sharing threads with conspicuous warnings like “Unbonded Beware,” which explained and taught various soothing techniques.

Bai Zhen wasn’t fond of browsing the forum section of the Inner Tower’s website, so she had only heard some rumors from friends.

Having a spirit animal directly participate in the soothing process was an advanced technique only seen between bonded partners!

“You can’t… Miss, this is… mmph…”

But she had heard that doing this would intensify the binding heat. It was a method that Sentinels and Guides were absolutely forbidden from attempting before they bonded.

Hua Mu realized that Bai Zhen’s vulnerable appearance was identical to the image of the white wolf in the dream—no, the mental landscape, and she couldn’t help but feel a little smug.

“Why can’t I? I can see you’re clearly enjoying it!”

While the unicorn held the Sentinel down, she leaned over and boldly caressed her sweat-slicked cheek.

“It feels good, doesn’t it? You’re even holding Luna and refusing to let go.”

“Miss…” The Sentinel’s dark eyes were misty and wet with tears. The black hair on her forehead was slightly disheveled from her struggles, revealing a delicate, alluring femininity. Her wheat-colored skin and lean, powerful body added a charm that set her apart from ordinary women.

Hua Mu couldn’t help but swallow, the sound of her own frantic heartbeat pounding in her ears.

Was… was she bullying her too much? She had just woken up, she was still unwell, and she was in the middle of a binding heat… Wait, if she’s in binding heat, then Luna licking her is…

“Luna, stop licking her!” A sudden pang of jealousy, as if her property was being stolen, shot through Hua Mu. She pressed a hand to the unicorn’s face, trying to push it away.

“Eeee~” Luna was in the middle of a happy licking session and refused to obey her command. It stubbornly pushed its head back, wanting to continue playing with the Sentinel.

Her stupid spirit animal!

“You idiot, move!”

Hua Mu practically threw herself on top of Bai Zhen, using her shoulder to block Luna’s persistent muzzle. Bai Zhen let out a muffled groan, clutching the bedsheet, not daring to hold Hua Mu.

The Miss’s scent was intoxicating, better than any Guide-hormone she had ever smelled, and utterly incomparable to the artificial Little White Pills.

It was like flowers blooming in spring, dew on a midsummer morning, ripe fruit in golden autumn, and pure snow in the dead of winter—fragrant, fresh, sweet, and clean. It was the most perfectly balanced aroma; any more or any less would have ruined its natural perfection.

And nature was the most comforting environment for a Sentinel.

It made her want to plunge into it, to envelop Hua Mu, or be enveloped by her.

Bai Zhen was practically sobbing. “Miss… I’m begging you…”

Seeing that Bai Zhen would rather endure the pain than overstep her bounds, just as she’d said she would, Hua Mu felt a complex mix of emotions.

“Beg for what…”

“Please… put on your inhibitor…”

Hua Mu had no idea how to restrain her Guide-hormone; the amount she released naturally was enough to soothe a Sentinel’s frenzy. Bai Zhen had a premonition that Hati was about to awaken. Her problem wasn’t a berserk episode, but a binding heat with no release.

There was only one solution: Hua Mu had to put her inhibitor back on, allowing Bai Zhen to endure it.

“…You won’t fall into a trance again?”

“N-not for now… Miss, please…”

“I know, I know!”

The other woman had gone this far; what was there for her to insist on? It made it seem like she was the one desperate for something to happen… That damn Sentinel, completely oblivious to her painstaking efforts and sacrifice!

In the end, Hua Mu huffily got out of bed and went to retrieve her inhibitor. Luna let out a reluctant whimper, its form gradually fading.

“There, is that better?” Bai Zhen was still a patient recovering from a serious illness, after all. As angry as Hua Mu was, she couldn’t just ignore her. “How are you feeling now?”

The scent of Guide-hormone hadn’t completely dissipated, and Hati was already stirring.

“Please don’t come any closer for now…” Bai Zhen retreated to a corner of the bamboo bed and curled into a ball, trying to ride it out through sheer force of will.

War between nations was a merciless affair. An endless stream of drugs targeting Sentinels was developed, and steroid-based drugs that forcibly induced binding heat were common. For this reason, the Inner Tower conducted targeted training for specific Sentinels, and the binding heat tolerance experiment was one such program.

Bai Zhen had not only graduated at the top of her class but was also hailed as the Inner Tower’s most outstanding student in a decade, precisely because of her powerful endurance and self-control. Many students and even teachers at the Tower believed she was the closest thing to a Dark Sentinel, but only she knew it was a completely different concept.

Dark Sentinels had always been the stuff of legend. They possessed the power of a Sentinel without being shackled by Guide-hormone like their ordinary counterparts. They had a high resistance to trances and binding heat and could even recover from the Eternal Night on their own. They were hailed as the strongest of all Sentinels.

The current Leader was rumored to be a Dark Sentinel, as no one had ever seen her partner, nor had anyone ever seen her use a public Guide to help manage her spirit animal.

But Bai Zhen knew it wasn’t a legend—the Leader was a Dark Sentinel. Bai Zhen was merely skilled at endurance, whereas the Leader was completely unaffected by such things.

She was an ordinary Sentinel, and her ice wolf possessed no particularly outstanding abilities. Several of her contemporaries had special abilities far more valuable than hers. It wasn’t that she was the most outstanding; she was simply the most diligent.

Bai Zhen felt she had done nothing worthy of praise and had been commended far too much. But because being number one was the condition the Leader had set for her, she had to achieve it, no matter the hardship or difficulty.

She had been the sole subject of the binding heat tolerance experiment. Though she had failed before and had to resort to medication for relief, she had maintained a perfect winning streak in the final ten tests—one of the conditions for qualifying as Hua Mu’s guard.

Bai Zhen finally understood the Leader’s intentions.

Hua Mu hadn’t expected this blockhead to be so stubborn, and for a moment she regretted having gone too far and deliberately bullying her. She could see Bai Zhen’s pain, but that only made her understand even less.

Why go to such lengths? If they were still in the empire, she could have understood. But this was a deserted island. Class, law, and morality were meaningless here. Even she… even she no longer wanted to cling to her status and its associated concerns. How could Bai Zhen remain so steadfast?

Hua Mu stood outside the shelter, wringing her hands with worry. Eventually, Bai Zhen succumbed to exhaustion and drifted back into a heavy sleep.

Before losing consciousness, she repeatedly replayed the words the Leader had spoken when taking her as an apprentice, using them as a warning to herself.

“You ask why I took you as my apprentice? It certainly wasn’t because you have any extraordinary talent as a Sentinel. In my eyes, all Sentinels are merely ‘ordinary.’ But as a person, you are ‘special.’ It is your effort that makes you special. You must remember, before you are a Sentinel, you are first and foremost a person. And a strong person must have conviction.”

What is your conviction?