Invasion - Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Ji Xuan, the vice-commander of the Royal Guard, sat at his desk, wearing thick glasses, reviewing the large number of documents sent from various locations.
Roy, holding a thick stack of old documents, hurriedly entered.
"What is it?" Ji Xuan looked up from behind his virtual screen and pushed up his glasses.
"Is Lao Lu not back yet?" Roy asked, his tone anxious, looking for Luther for something.
"Not yet," Ji Xuan smiled. "Isn’t Her Majesty summoning that Guide Lin Yuan from your Special Research Department today? Old Lu’s up there accompanying her."
Roy tightly hugged the stack of documents, paced back and forth restlessly, then sat down on the sofa opposite Ji Xuan.
Ji Xuan ignored him, typing away behind his virtual screen.
This was the office of the commander of the Royal Guard. Simulated sunlight shone down from the ceiling, and the sounds of flowing water and birdsong came from the indoor garden outside.
Time seemed to pass peacefully. In this White Tower, there didn’t seem to be anything to worry about.
Ji Xuan, sitting at his desk, diligently worked, low-key and quiet.
Roy sat there, uneasily rubbing his fingers.
"Did something happen?" Ji Xuan, out of courtesy, poked his head out from behind his screen, and asked.
He had always been a low-key and considerate person, someone who made others feel at ease.
"I have something I want to show Lao Lu," Roy said, “And I want him to report it to Her Majesty.”
Everyone knew that Ji Xuan was Luther’s right-hand man, and that Ji Xuan handled most of Luther’s matters.
It didn’t hurt to mention something in front of Ji Xuan.
"It’s very strange, something’s not right, I think we should let Her Majesty know about this as soon as possible, and let her decide," Roy muttered.
He worked in the empire's most relaxed and idle Special Research Department, and always lived a refined and comfortable life.
But his hair was now messy, his clothes disheveled, as if something had been troubling him for several days.
"Those records… too strange."
Ji Xuan glanced at him and looked away, as if not very interested in what he had said. He stood up and poured Roy a glass of water.
Roy wiped his face, realizing that he was a little out of sorts. He took the water and thanked Ji Xuan, taking a sip.
At this time, a tall, black-haired sentinel walked in.
The man, with his handsome face, his tall and slender figure, his sharp movements, was hard not to notice wherever he went.
Roy had an impression of him. He was the dedicated sentinel who had escorted Lin Yuan to the Land of No Eyes. His name seemed to be Ni Ji.
He saw Ni Ji walk to Ji Xuan's side and bend down, listening as Ji Xuan said something.
Roy calmed himself, and looked down at the water glass in his hand. The water in the hand-blown glass gradually settled, reflecting the figures of the two sentinels.
Strange, could water really reflect images like this? Roy stared at the rippling water in a daze.
Actually, at this moment, Ji Xuan and Ni Ji had, at some point, come to stand in front of him.
A blue fluorescent light flickered in Ji Xuan’s left eye, behind his lenses.
Behind him, a giant blue butterfly was slowly spreading its left wing.
Ji Xuan reached out his hand, his palm covering Roy’s eyes, his other hand holding Ni Ji’s.
If one looked closely, he looked a little like Teng Lu from the Land of No Eyes.
Half of his body showed the characteristics of a Guide, extending a butterfly-like mental body, but the other half was as usual.
"You go in, I'll open his barrier," Ji Xuan said. The blue light in his left eye suddenly intensified.
Roy sat there on the sofa, dazed, letting Ji Xuan cover his eyes, seeming completely oblivious to what was happening around him.
Ni Ji entered Roy's mindscape.
It was a small manor built on a hillside.
Flowers bloomed in the courtyard, and a large banyan tree with hanging roots was planted there. The building behind the banyan tree was ancient and elegant, with a long corridor.
Very similar to the old building at the Special Research Department.
Ji Xuan's mental body, only half of it, stood next to Ni Ji, a half-formed blue butterfly wing slowly flapping in the air.
"Hurry up, I'm not a complete Guide; I can’t hold on for too long," Ji Xuan said, standing next to Ni Ji.
Ni Ji walked towards that building, crossing the blooming courtyard.
He saw Roy, Lin Yuan’s direct superior at the Special Research Department, sitting under the banyan tree in the courtyard, sipping tea and flipping through documents.
Ni Ji came to his side, bent down, and asked him, "What did you find?"
Roy in the mindscape seemed to be in a daze, he didn’t mind Ni Ji’s sudden appearance. Hearing Ni Ji’s question, he reached out and tapped the virtual screen before him.
"Very strange," he stared blankly at the screen. "I’ve checked all the confidential documents, but the records for this year are all blank, it seems like Senior and the others didn’t go to any contaminated zones for research during this period."
"But that’s impossible. In my memory, they definitely went out.”
He stood up and walked towards the building. Ni Ji followed, quietly walking beside him.
Roy came to the archives. It was a huge warehouse, filled with handwritten, paper documents.
Roy found a very old file from among the countless documents.
"I've been searching here for a long time. I found an unfiled document.”
He took out the stack of handwritten records, gently caressed it, and carefully opened it.
"Although there’s no signature, I would recognize this handwriting anywhere, it’s Senior Lin’s notes," the Senior Lin he was referring to was Lin Yuan’s mother, Lin Lan'er.
Roy flipped through the documents page by page.
This was his mindscape. Under Ni Ji’s subtle influence, he unconsciously repeated the things he had done in his memory.
Ni Ji stood beside him, his eyes flickering slightly, watching the handwritten notes left from many years ago.
They were Lin Lan'er’s handwritten investigation reports from back then.
Her handwriting was neat, and her records very detailed.
Back then, their research team had entered the Land of No Eyes, gone deep into the underground city.
They had encountered a powerful enemy, and while escaping, had strayed into an underground maze. There, they had seen many murals.
Those murals depicted the origins of contaminated zones and Deviants, and the reasons for the appearance of sentinels and guides, the process of their evolution.
All of it carefully recorded by Sentinel Lin Lan'er, earth-shattering events that overturned humanity's current understanding.
More importantly, they had discovered a magical and ancient box in the temple of the Land of No Eyes.
It was a treasure from the old era, its creator unknown, its use mysterious, they could glimpse the truth of the world through it. It was called the “Truth Box.”
Ni Ji, seeing the record about that box, his pupils constricted.
If there was anyone in this world who had also seen this Truth Box, it was him.
He had seen this seemingly ordinary box on the golden beach and in the murals of the Land of No Eyes.
He also knew that this box was now in Lin Yuan’s possession.
In the notes, Lin Lan'er's writing towards the end became messy, her strokes hurried and scribbled.
She had written this on the last page,
“Something’s very wrong, as if someone’s watching us.”
“I want to go to the origin of everything, to the No. 5 Contaminated Zone, to take a look.”
“Find the shipwreck Maria.”
“If things really are as I suspect, I should hide the Truth Box.”
“Where should I hide it to keep it safe…”
The rest of the content was gone, covered by a mess of lines and children's doodles.
As if a young child had scribbled all over it with a pen.
Ni Ji, his brow deeply furrowed, was deep in thought when Roy, standing beside him, slowly raised his head, his eyes falling on Ni Ji for the first time.
"You... who are you? Why are you here?” Roy’s voice hazy and unclear, his eyes staring intently at Ni Ji.
【Quickly come out, he's about to wake up!】 Ji Xuan’s voice rang out.
In the sky, the giant blue butterfly wings started to flap, and spots of blue light scattered in the air.
…
Roy came back to his senses. He had been in a daze for a while, like he had taken a short nap.
The surroundings were still the same, the water glass still in his hand, the water surface slightly rippling.
Not far away, Ji Xuan was still sitting at his desk, a sentinel standing beside him. The two were talking softly.
Noticing his gaze, they glanced over, and then, seemingly not very concerned, lowered their heads again, continuing their conversation.
Roy felt that he really was too tired lately, thinking too much, to the point where he would space out like this in broad daylight.
He put down his glass, picked up the stack of documents, stood up, and said his goodbyes.
"I’ll be going now, when Lao Lu comes back, have him contact me."
Ji Xuan poked his head out from behind his virtual screen, nodded, and said with a smile, "Okay, I’ll tell him."
After Roy from the Special Research Department left,
Ji Xuan let out a long sigh of relief, took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Clearly, the invasion just now had taken quite a bit out of him.
Ni Ji looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
He could be certain that Ji Xuan was a Sentinel, possessing a Sentinel’s mental body, although his combat power wasn’t very high, his mind was sharp, he was considerate, and his intelligence was very high. He was a deputy commander that everyone trusted.
But just now, he had revealed an astonishing secret to Ni Ji. He actually also possessed some, although incomplete, Guide abilities.
Ni Ji had become close to Ji Xuan these days and knew the kind of secret and dangerous things they were plotting in private.
But today, Ji Xuan had revealed his trump card to him, something he would never easily reveal to anyone.
"It's nothing to be surprised about," Ji Xuan wiped his glasses and put them back on, "First, I have to know what he found, second, I want to show you my greatest sincerity."
He looked up, staring intently at Ni Ji.
Not speaking, but taking out a piece of paper from a drawer and starting to write silently.
"The White Tower is very dangerous. Any conversation could be overheard by ‘her’."
"Not just here, the entire capital is under ‘her’ control."
"What we’re doing is too dangerous, there's always the possibility of sacrifice.”
"You're someone I trust, I want you to know more, understand more."
"If, one day, I’m sacrificed, you can take my place."
Ji Xuan’s pen stopped on the paper. He looked at that sentence, he felt that he had died once a long time ago.
Ji Xuan had a twin brother. The two looked very similar, and had been very close since childhood, almost always together.
When they were six, both had differentiated on the same day.
That day, the sensory overload and mental expansion had brought intense pain. The two children struggled in deep pain. When they woke up, they found that the older brother had become a sentinel, but the younger brother, a Guide, a rare occurrence.
"I don’t want to go to that White Tower, I don’t want to leave Brother’s side, be locked up in that hellhole," his younger brother had pleaded, holding Ji Xuan's hand. "Brother, help me."
"I don’t want to, when I grow up, marry some stranger and be trapped in the courtyard of some noble family for my entire life. Absolutely not."
Ji Xuan, at that time, hadn’t understood the consequences those words would bring.
He, young and soft-hearted, had impersonated his younger brother and undergone the physical examination.
After successfully deceiving them, the two boys had secretly celebrated, thinking that they had succeeded, no longer needing to go to the White Tower, they could still happily live together.
After a few years of freedom, the wild Guide had eventually been exposed.
The White Tower’s punishment for privately hiding and not reporting a Guide was very severe.
The people from the capital had forcefully induced his bonding heat, making him lose control, submit to a Sentinel who came from the capital.
At that time, everyone, including Ji Xuan, had thought there was nothing they could do, they could only accept their fate.
After a Sentinel and a Guide bonded, they naturally developed a physiological and psychological dependence on each other, and it was very difficult to break.
Since he had already bonded with a Sentinel, they had to accept it.
At that time, Ji Xuan had been hiding at Luther’s home, and with red eyes, had watched his brother leave for the capital through a crack in the door.
But he had returned not long after, without any injuries, his entire body, however, covered in blood, someone else's blood.
"I killed them all, made them die horrible deaths," his brother, with the exact same face as his, had said, smiling.
"I can’t live anymore. From now on, let it stay in Big Brother’s mindscape.”
That giant blue butterfly - the Guide’s mental body — had spread its blue wings and, just like how they used to play when they were little, flown into Ji Xuan’s mindscape.
It should have been impossible for it to stay there permanently.
For both Sentinels and Guides, after the body died, the mental body, without a place to rest, would also dissipate into the void.
But for some reason, after his twin brother was executed, his spiritual body, that blue butterfly, had quietly continued living in Ji Xuan’s mindscape.
This had given Ji Xuan half the abilities of a Guide.
"Don’t go see the Queen, Big Brother, stay far away from the White Tower.”
These were his brother’s last words, spoken before he was executed.
But he hadn’t obeyed. He disguised himself, and with Luther, went to the capital, entered the White Tower, staying under the Queen's nose, living in the most dangerous place.
Ji Xuan’s pen paused, and he wrote on the paper,
"This world is wrong, and someone will eventually change all of this."
Finally, he added the warning, the words that his most beloved person had said to him.
"Don't go see the Queen, don't let her notice you."
…
Lin Yuan took the elevator to the top floor, and like last time, Commander Luther of the Royal Guard was waiting there for her.
She followed Luther up the long, white staircase, reaching the palace on the top floor, seeing Her Majesty for the second time.
The Queen, standing by the window, turned around, giving her a gentle smile.
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