Invasion - Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Lin Yuan lowered her head, using the dagger in her hand to pry open the lock on Ni Ji’s neck.
She didn’t know what kind of metal the lock was made of, it was very sturdy, difficult to pry open.
Lin Yuan, lying on the smooth surface of the gemstone, struggled with the lock, careful not to injure Ni Ji.
Sometimes, her fingers would brush against the sentinel’s neck.
Perhaps because of excessive blood loss, Lin Yuan found the skin there cold, as cold as ice, occasionally trembling slightly when touched by her fingers.
While she was busy prying and hitting, the sentinel lying there didn’t say a word, just quietly turned his face to the side, letting her do as she pleased.
Lin Yuan, unable to open the lock, stopped to catch her breath, only then realizing that Ni Ji was avoiding her gaze.
Could he be angry?
Angry that she came back?
Yes, if it were her, she definitely wouldn't like it if someone didn’t follow her plan.
Only, she suddenly remembered the look in Ni Ji's eyes when she had just climbed up, when he saw her appear.
He had been chained to the cold stone mountain, looking up at her in shock.
His eyes had widened in disbelief, and then, those beautiful eyes had been filled with a complex, indescribable emotion.
The emotion contained in that look had been too complex for Lin Yuan to decipher.
But Lin Yuan knew it definitely wasn’t anger.
If she had to describe it, she could only say that the fragile sentinel, looking at her at that time, had a tragic and moving look in his eyes.
That look had touched something in her heart. It made someone like Lin Yuan, cold and indifferent, feel a strange, slightly sour feeling in her heart.
Lin Yuan didn't understand the meaning of that feeling, but she felt that she would always remember that look.
Only, Ni Ji had quickly turned his face away, avoiding her gaze.
Lin Yuan even had an impulse to hold his chin, turn his face over, and take another good look at his eyes.
But she at least knew that this wasn’t very polite, so she held back.
The sentinel was chained there, his pure black combat suit mostly torn, revealing his chest. His broken legs and bleeding body.
The metal lock around his neck was too tight, she couldn't pry it open, and Lin Yuan started to get irritated.
The dagger she was using to pry the lock, she had picked up from the battlefield not far away.
It was Ni Ji's blade.
Only now, held in Lin Yuan's hand, the blade had become a short dagger, its light faint and restrained, very ordinary, not very useful.
At this time, a faint, weak voice came from the hilt, intermittently,
"Give… me a little… fresh blood… then it can be opened."
It was the strange hilt speaking. Lin Yuan heard it.
"You need blood? Will my blood do?" she asked.
Before she finished speaking, a pale hand, devoid of blood, reached up from below, grabbing the sharp blade without hesitation.
It was Ni Ji’s hand.
Red blood flowed from his slender fingers. The dim blade, absorbing the blood, instantly became eerily bright.
"Wow, such sweet blood," a strange voice came from the hilt. "Been tortured so badly, such a waste of blood."
The next moment, Lin Yuan exerted force in her hand, the blade moved, and with a click, the lock on Ni Ji’s neck was pried open.
The surface of the huge gemstone was very smooth and now covered in Ni Ji’s blood. The moment the lock embedded in the stone was pried open, the sentinel slid down from the stone mountain uncontrollably.
Lin Yuan grabbed for him, but couldn’t hold on, she could only watch as Ni Ji’s bloody body fell from the cliff made of lapis lazuli and red and green gemstones.
But he didn’t fall to the ground.
Huge tentacles surged out from the ground below, catching the falling sentinel.
Ni Ji fell into a mass of wriggling, soft tentacles.
Those willful tentacles, usually restless and not very polite,
But at this moment, they carefully caught Ni Ji, protecting the injured sentinel within them, not making any rude moves.
They even helped adjust the open clothes on his chest. Only one tentacle reached out and gently stroked the sentinel's blood-stained hair.
Ni Ji, lying among the huge group of tentacles, slightly curled up his body, as if he had no more strength, and stopped moving.
On the other side of the gemstone mountain, more tentacles quickly climbed up.
They tore and pulled at the white mental threads, freeing their precious orca.
The orca opened its mouth, its pink little tongue rolling up, letting out a soft whimper, its small teeth exposed.
The tentacles started fighting, vying for the best position to touch the orca's injured tail and its softened dorsal fin.
Only when they were about to pull out the mental bone spur piercing the tail fin did the fighting tentacles pause slightly.
Lin Yuan, crawling on top of the stone mountain, looked down at Ni Ji below.
She knew that the moment the bone spur was pulled out, the mental body’s pain would be completely transmitted.
Ni Ji would also have to endure the bone-piercing pain.
The bone spur that pierced through the orca's tail fin, pinning it in the air, was pulled out by the tentacles.
The orca whimpered, and its figure slowly disappeared, returning to its mental sea.
The mental bone spur that had restricted its return to the mental sea was pulled out, thrown to the ground by the tentacles, and crushed.
The moment the bone spur was pulled out of his body, Ni Ji’s neck arched back, his fingers tightly gripping his clothes, slightly twitching. But he didn't make a single sound.
He even quickly recovered, raised his face from among the tentacles, and looked at Lin Yuan, who was looking down at him from the top of the gemstone mountain.
He even smiled at Lin Yuan, his face pale and bloodless.
Lin Yuan knew that that smile didn't represent joy, but another meaning.
Comfort.
He was using this smile to comfort her.
Telling her that he was okay.
Even though his legs were broken, he was covered in blood, and his mental body had been pierced.
He was still smiling at her.
The scene at this moment was very chaotic.
The leech-like monster was still screaming, the metal guards that had been drawn over were being controlled by the overwhelming tentacles, the orca had just been freed…
Lin Yuan’s head hurt like it was about to split open, and the giant tentacles were constantly surging outwards.
But miraculously, Lin Yuan’s attention was diverted at this time.
Across the several-meter-high gemstone mountain, she stared at the blood-covered sentinel lying among the tentacles, seeing the weak smile he gave her.
Lin Yuan suddenly started thinking about something completely unrelated at this moment.
The tentacles had said, “He tastes so sweet.”
That strange dagger had also said, “This brat’s blood is sweet.”
Maybe he really was sweet. Lin Yuan thought, perhaps like the candy he had given her.
Lin Yuan licked her lips and slid down from the gemstone mountain.
She put Ni Ji's arm around her shoulders, wanting to carry the sentinel who couldn’t walk.
Gritting her teeth, she exerted her strength.
She found that she couldn’t do it.
Ni Ji looked thin, but he was a tall and sturdy sentinel. With Lin Yuan’s strength, she couldn’t carry him at all.
She gritted her teeth, trying to lift Ni Ji’s body onto her shoulder, struggling to stand up bit by bit.
Ni Ji’s head drooped onto her shoulder, and with Lin Yuan’s forceful movements, he suddenly opened his mouth, vomiting a large mouthful of blood.
The blood was startlingly red, splattering on the ground, flowing down from the corner of his mouth.
This person, who had been able to endure the pain without making a sound when the bone spur was pulled out, couldn't help but let out a soft gasp.
Lin Yuan heard the tired gasp from the sentinel leaning on her shoulder, felt his chest heaving violently.
Staring at the shockingly red blood on the ground, she found strength from somewhere, slowly straightening her legs.
She lifted Ni Ji's body, which was far heavier than herself, onto her shoulder, with the help of the tentacles.
Carrying him on her shoulder, she started walking forward.
Although she knew she couldn't go very far like this, she had to go.
The little boy had taken his cat.
She also had to bring back her fish.
She took a few steps and heard Ni Ji make a faint sound from her shoulder.
"Left," the voice said softly.
Lin Yuan turned left, and after walking along the left wall for a short distance, she heard Ni Ji's voice again.
"Down… the second staircase."
Ni Ji was giving her directions. Even at a moment like this, lying limply on her shoulder, unable to move.
He still tried his best to spread his perception as a sentinel, finding the nearest hiding place that Lin Yuan could barely reach.
He found a small hiding place for them, a narrow alley under a staircase.
From the outside, the alley was very shallow, with stone walls on all sides, visible at a glance, with nowhere to hide a person.
Just by looking, no one would enter such an empty, shallow alley to search.
But cleverly, if you walked three or four steps into this small alley, you would find a blind spot at the very end.
Inside the blind spot, there was a narrow little passage, with some useless debris piled up in the small, cramped space.
Lin Yuan half-carried, half-dragged Ni Ji into this passage, completely exhausted.
The two of them collapsed among the debris, hearing each other's gasps.
Messy footsteps came from outside, the metal-headed guards were looking for them.
The footsteps passed by without stopping.
They hadn't been discovered, they could rest here for a while.
The tentacles retracted their huge bodies, lurking underground outside the passage, taking on the task of keeping watch.
With the tentacles present, the minds of all searchers passing by would be affected. They wouldn’t discover the two hiding inside in a short time.
But they couldn’t hide for too long.
They had to leave as soon as possible, preferably before the palace gate closed.
Ni Ji, his eyes closed, just lay quietly on the pile of debris for a moment before opening his eyes and sitting up, supporting himself against the wall.
He reached out his hands and straightened his broken legs.
Those hands looked weak, even trembling, but when they pressed onto his knees, they instantly became steady, decisively and forcefully twisting at the joints.
A cracking sound of bones dislocating rang out. The leg bones were straightened.
It must have been very painful, Lin Yuan felt a phantom pain in her own legs.
Another sound of bones being straightened rang out in the quiet alley.
Ni Ji, pressing against the ground, gasped for a while, then, after his breathing had stabilized a little, he reached out and held onto the wall, trying to stand up.
Were sentinels' bodies really this resilient? Lin Yuan was shocked.
Of course, she quickly realized she was wrong.
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