After knowing Xia Ye for two weeks, Lin Kezhi had come to realise that while his friend appeared aloof on the surface, there was a ruthless streak beneath that calm exterior.
True to his word, Xia Ye skipped the compatibility mixer held before the entrance assessment.
The two of them shared a dorm room, and when Lin Kezhi returned from the event, he sighed dramatically.
“There were actually a few pretty impressive sentinels there today—really strong ones. Everyone kept asking me why you didn’t show up, so I told them you weren’t interested in the matching.”
He pulled out a stack of cards and placed them on Xia Ye’s desk.
“I delivered them. Whether you read them or not is up to you.”
Xia Ye closed the book in his hands. “What are these?”
“Love letters from those sentinels.” Lin Kezhi grinned knowingly. “What a shame. It looks like you’re more interested in ‘A Study of Sentinels and Guides in the 21st Century’.”
Xia Ye had been reading a hefty history volume that he had borrowed from the library earlier that morning.
Lin Kezhi continued gossiping for quite a while, while Xia Ye simply nodded from time to time to show he was listening.
After living together for so long, Lin Kezhi had gotten used to it. He knew Xia Ye had no interest in campus gossip, but he never minded listening. As for his occasionally distant friend, Lin Kezhi had adapted surprisingly well.
Sometimes, he was even rather proud of it.
The legendary guide everyone talked about—the mysterious genius no one could ever seem to find. Other people couldn’t even get a glimpse of Xia Ye, yet Lin Kezhi could lounge around with his legs crossed, sharing a pizza with him.
The pizza had been bought off campus. Pineapple and ham.
A perfect recreation of an ancient Earth classic.
Holding a slice in one hand, Lin Kezhi mumbled through a mouthful of pizza, “Still, the instructor said you don’t have to participate in the compatibility matching, but you do have to pass the entrance assessment.”
That was the polite version; the instructor’s actual words had been far cruder, dripping with contempt for Xia Ye.
Lin Kezhi looked at him worriedly, but Xia Ye simply continued eating his pizza as though the matter wasn’t worth dwelling on.
He ate with remarkable concentration, taking one bite of pineapple, then one bite of ham, never allowing the two to overlap. The whole thing was so methodical that he looked like a textbook perfectionist.
“Why do you keep looking at me?” Xia Ye asked after swallowing the last bite.
Lin Kezhi laughed awkwardly. “Uh… I’ve just never seen anyone eat pizza like that before.”
“Really?” Xia Ye took a carton of milk from the cabinet. A faint white moustache lingered on his upper lip after he took a sip.
“I’ve always eaten it this way.”
“Where did you get the milk?” Lin Kezhi asked in confusion. “I don’t remember the school providing milk.”
“I bought it.” Cradling the carton in both hands, Xia Ye replied matter-of-factly, “Milk helps with insomnia.”
Lin Kezhi stared at him, dumbfounded.
He had never known Xia Ye had a side like this.
—
It didn’t take long for Lin Kezhi to understand why Xia Ye hadn’t been worried.
During the entrance assessment, Xia Ye single-handedly defeated every sentinel present.
Standing alone in the centre of the arena, his psychic power cascaded outward like a roaring waterfall, engulfing the entire venue.
Almost no one could withstand an assault of that magnitude.
At that moment, every sentinel present realised that Xia Ye’s Mental Domain was unlike any ordinary guide’s.
It wasn’t meant for guiding.
It was meant for attack.
A snow leopard stood before him, glaring at the crowd with predatory intensity, daring no one to cross the invisible boundary it guarded.
The instructors huddled together with their score sheets in hand, eyeing Xia Ye suspiciously as they whispered among themselves.
“Is he a Dark guide? Someone take him for testing.”
“We don’t have the authority. Should we submit a request to the principal?”
“Let’s not rush it. We should confirm it first. The Alliance has never had a Dark guide before…” The rest of the sentence was little more than a murmur, but Xia Ye still caught it. “A Dark guide from District Twelve? As if.”
He had no intention of provoking the instructors, but a cold smile tugged at the corner of his lips all the same.
To these lofty elites from the Upper Seventh District, District Twelve was nothing more than a dumping ground for trash and failures. Even with Xia Ye standing right before them—living proof that their assumptions were wrong—they still refused to believe it.
Watching the expression on Xia Ye’s face, Lin Kezhi felt a shiver run through him.
In all the time he had known Xia Ye, he had never seen that look before.
Except… On the train. When Li Feile and Qiu Luo had provoked him. It seemed Xia Ye had a particular intolerance for those who looked down on him.
The gale sweeping through the arena intensified, and the snow leopard let out a thunderous roar. Rather than weakening over time, Xia Ye’s Mental Domain continued expanding, growing broader and more overwhelming with every passing second.
Standing alone in the middle of the arena, he asked in a voice even colder than his expression, “Who’s next?”
His attitude thoroughly infuriated the instructors. Setting down their score sheets, one of them pointed toward the corner where the participants were resting.
“Li Feile. Take your guide and give it a try.”
Li Feile stiffly got to his feet.
Moments earlier, he had been secretly congratulating himself for avoiding Xia Ye during the draw. Who could have guessed he would be called up anyway? As he passed the instructors’ table, one of the instructors who knew him quietly reminded him, “Teach him a lesson—but don’t hurt him too badly.”
Li Feile wanted to cry.
This wasn’t him teaching Xia Ye a lesson. This was him walking straight into another beating.
Sure enough, before they had even stepped into Xia Ye’s Mental Domain, Qiu Luo’s face had already gone deathly pale.
“I can’t,” he gasped. “I can’t get any closer.”
Xia Ye remained motionless in the centre of the arena. It was as though he didn’t need to advance a single step or make a single move to control everything around him.
Qiu Luo’s admission left the instructors exchanging bewildered looks. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Kezhi recounted what had happened on the train. Even after everything was settled, Xia Ye never uttered another word.
The snow leopard stood faithfully at his side, leaving everyone with the unwavering conviction that the moment they crossed into its territory, they would be torn to pieces.
In the end, the instructors reluctantly announced, “First place in this year’s entrance assessment… Xia Ye.”
Lin Kezhi was the first to cheer.
But when he turned to look at Xia Ye, he found him staring intently at the stadium’s domed ceiling, as though he could see something beyond the coffee-colored glass that no one else could.
—
“What were you looking at just now?” Lin Kezhi asked as they left the stadium.
Xia Ye shook his head. “Nothing.”
Back in the dorm, Xia Ye pulled a silver coin from his drawer.
Its surface was worn with age, though its craftsmanship remained remarkably exquisite. It was clearly not something that had originated in District Twelve.
“What is that?” Lin Kezhi asked curiously.
He reached out to pick up the coin, but Xia Ye subtly moved it out of reach.
It was an unusual reaction.
Lin Kezhi wasn’t the type to pry. He immediately understood that it must be something important.
Closing his fingers around the coin, Xia Ye said, “I’m going out.”
“At this hour?” Lin Kezhi sprang to his feet. “I’ll come with you.”
This time, Xia Ye didn’t refuse. He really did need someone with him. His psychic power had started going out of control during the entrance assessment.
The snow leopard’s appearance was proof enough.
He had a secret.
Ever since awakening as a Guide, Xia Ye had been carrying a secret. Every book he’d read insisted that a Guide could possess only one Spirit Animal—a manifestation of their inner world. He, however, had two.
Xia Ye had discovered it long ago.
The first time he tried using his psychic power to suppress a group of hoodlums bullying Xia Zhi, the snow leopard had appeared beside him and crushed them with overwhelming, unstoppable force.
As punishment, the orphanage locked him in solitary confinement for three days.
Strangely enough, Xia Ye hadn’t been upset. If anything, those three days had been the happiest he had ever experienced.
He had been punished because of his power.
That same power could protect both him and his sister, and it had even opened the door for him to enter the Alliance Military Academy.
On the third day, the snow leopard disappeared.
At first, Xia Ye assumed this was what the books meant by ‘learning to control your spirit animal’.
But two hours after the snow leopard vanished, a tiny snow ferret emerged from behind him.
It affectionately rubbed against his knees, clung to his fingers for attention, then rolled onto its fluffy back, exposing its belly.
The moment Xia Ye saw the little snow ferret, he experienced what the books called psychic resonance.
It was completely different from the snow leopard.
The snow leopard filled him with a fierce, boiling exhilaration, as though the two of them were destined to challenge and tame one another. The little snow ferret, on the other hand, felt unquestionably right.
It was the true reflection of his mind and soul. After searching through countless books, Xia Ye finally found an explanation in an ancient text.
The two spirit animals were two sides of the same coin, each reflecting a different facet of him—one his outward self, the other his inner nature.
In a sense, it was considered a mutation.
Since most people who possessed two spirit animals turned out to be Dark guides, some scholars argued that it was, in fact, an evolution.
Xia Ye didn’t care what they called it.
He only wanted to keep the secret to himself.
No one could ever know that his true spirit animal was a tiny, utterly harmless snow ferret.
—
The place Xia Ye intended to visit was the underground fighting arena.
It was a form of entertainment unique to the Upper Seventh District. Sentinels born into poverty fought one another in mechs like caged beasts, amusing wealthy spectators in exchange for meager prize money.
When Lin Kezhi realized where they were headed, he was thoroughly taken aback.
Studying Xia Ye’s expression carefully until he was certain he genuinely intended to enter the matches, Lin Kezhi couldn’t help saying, “Xia Ye, if you’re short on money, just ask me. Why come somewhere this dangerous?”
Even after Xia Ye subtly hinted that he should leave, Lin Kezhi refused to abandon him in a place like this.
Xia Ye shook his head. “I’m not short on money.”
The Alliance Military Academy covered both his and Xia Zhi’s tuition, as well as meals and accommodation.
In truth, he wasn’t struggling financially. The reason he had to enter the underground arena was the Scarlet Dawn Lotus. It was the last mech his father had ever designed.
To Xia Ye, it was an irreplaceable keepsake.
After the extraterrestrial contamination devastated District Twelve, the Scarlet Dawn Lotus had disappeared without a trace.
He had searched for it ever since. Only recently had he finally uncovered its whereabouts; it had become the grand prize of the underground arena.
The winner would claim it.
Coming to the underground fighting arena while his psychic power was unstable was undeniably dangerous.
That was why Xia Ye had allowed Lin Kezhi to accompany him. Even so, he didn’t want his friend risking expulsion by following him inside.
After a moment’s hesitation, Xia Ye said, “Lin Kezhi… Could I trouble you to wait at a nearby café?”
Lin Kezhi laughed in exasperation.
“So your plan is for me to sit outside, and if something happens to you, I can call an ambulance?”
For the first time, Xia Ye looked embarrassed.
That really had been his plan.
But hearing it put that way, he suddenly realised something about it felt…wrong.
He frowned.
“Wouldn’t that work?”
Hearing the genuine confusion in his voice, Lin Kezhi finally remembered that his roommate had absolutely no grasp of ordinary social conventions.
Xia Ye hadn’t been trying to brush him off. He had sincerely believed that was the most reasonable arrangement.
Lin Kezhi rubbed his nose helplessly. “Forget it. I’m going in with you.”
A match had just ended inside the underground arena. The crowd’s cheers rose in wave after wave, making Lin Kezhi’s heart pound, yet he still reached out and gripped the brass door handle.
“If anything happens to you, the instructors are going to come after me anyway.”
That finally convinced Xia Ye.
He took the silver coin his father had left him from his pocket, gently ran his thumb across its surface one last time, then decisively dropped it into the slot beneath the door handle.
There was no question about it.
It was one of the arena’s cruel little jokes.
As a genius in mech engineering, Dr. Xia had developed the first-generation combat mech, Iron Cavalry. Constructed from high-density nanomaterials, the two-meter-tall mech featured a built-in c0ckpit and communication system, allowing its pilot to remain in constant contact with headquarters while giving physically fragile humans the ability to fight extraterrestrial lifeforms head-on.
To honour Dr. Xia’s outstanding contributions to mech research, the Alliance Bank had issued a commemorative silver coin bearing his likeness.
Forged from refined steel and plated with silver, each coin featured Dr. Xia’s wise smile engraved at its centre.
The commemorative coins had become an instant sensation among collectors across the Alliance and quickly rose to become one of the most sought-after collectables in recent years.
The coin in Xia Ye’s hand, however, was different.
It was one of the original coins, struck from solid silver, and its commemorative value was immeasurable.
As one of Dr. Xia’s personal belongings, it had once fetched an astronomical price on the black market.
For this tournament, however, the arena had produced imitation Dr. Xia commemorative coins to use as admission tickets—as though mocking everything Dr. Xia had ever contributed to the Alliance.
The massive brass doors rumbled open, and a wave of scorching air rushed out to meet them, revealing a dazzling, chaotic world beyond.
Just before stepping inside, Xia Ye glanced back by chance.
His eyes landed on a familiar figure entering the VIP lounge, surrounded by a squad of plainclothes security guards.
T/N:
It’s me, hi. Long time no see ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭*
Due to a lot of things happening in real life, I was unable to translate properly and was in quite a slump for the longest time, but I’m glad that bean gave me a sentinel and guide story recommendation that I ended up liking it
Hope you guys like it too~!
The update will be once a week like before until I have enough stockpile to increase the release without creating some sort of pressure for myself
So I hope you guys can wait patiently for each updates ^^
