Invasion - Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Lin Yuan saw Ni Ji running towards her.

A chorus of voices echoed in her mind.

【Ah, fish.】

【It's little fish.】

【Little fish, little fish, little fish…】

【Sob.】

【He’s running.】

【He's so cute.】

【I'm so excited.】

【I want to catch him.】

Ni Ji was running so fast that Lin Yuan had the illusion that he was going to rush over and hug her.

But his footsteps stopped at the last moment, at a polite distance.

He stood there, looking Lin Yuan up and down for a long time, then reached out and gently touched the bandage on her face.

"How did you get hurt?" His voice was dry and hoarse, completely unlike his usual gentle voice.

His movement was very restrained, only his thumb lightly touching the bandage.

Like being brushed by a leaf, it tickled a little.

The hand Ni Ji used to touch her wasn’t wearing a glove, crisscrossed with dried blood scabs and exposed wounds, much more serious than the cut on Lin Yuan's face.

But the way he looked at her was very sad, as if he had never seen blood before, a small injury could make him heartbroken.

Meeting a familiar friend in such a dangerous place made Lin Yuan happy.

She was usually a quiet person, but she couldn't help but want to talk more at this time.

The two hid in an empty house, exchanging information about what they had seen and heard since entering.

During the "day", the lights and sounds of people in the houses along the street disappeared, turning back into empty, unoccupied buildings.

Hiding inside a house was safer than being on the street.

The light in the house was still dim, the closed blinds letting in a little daylight, casting shadows on the table by the window.

There was a light fog outside, the world very quiet, like a cold morning.

The two sat at the table by the window. Ni Ji found two cups, washed them, and boiled a kettle of water using the kitchen here.

He even took out five or six candies from his pocket, all different brands, and placed them all in front of Lin Yuan.

The conditions were very simple, and the two were also very disheveled, covered in wounds and blood.

Holding a cup of steaming hot water, with only a few candies, still needing to be wary of the terrifying monsters occasionally passing by downstairs.

Lin Yuan thought of the gathering in her courtyard.

If Little Fish had also come at that time, it would have probably been like this.

Sitting together, chatting, it was very relaxing.

Lin Yuan released her mental body, showing Ni Ji the severed tentacle.

Ni Ji, who had a gentle smile on his face, his smile instantly froze when he saw the tentacle.

He stared at Lin Yuan's severed tentacle, with a look that made Lin Yuan feel sad, as if she hadn’t just lost a tentacle, but suffered some fatal injury.

"It's okay, it’ll grow back," she couldn't help but explain about mental bodies to Ni Ji.

Although this veteran sentinel couldn't possibly not know this.

Very serious injuries could cause a mental body to dissipate, affecting the life of its owner. But ordinary injuries would slowly heal over time, only the speed was very slow.

The tentacle, usually not picky at all, just whimpered, and didn’t crawl towards Ni Ji.

Perhaps it felt that its severed end was very ugly, and didn’t want to appear in front of others, it sullenly retreated.

Ni Ji raised his hand — he had already treated his wounds and put his black gloves back on — as if wanting to touch the severed tentacle.

But in the end, he didn't touch it, just silently released his orca.

The orca, its size reduced, floated in mid-air, quietly lying by Lin Yuan’s knees.

Lin Yuan sensed Ni Ji’s sincerity and restraint. She didn’t understand why this sentinel was so conflicted.

She hadn't objected to Ni Ji touching her tentacle.

But he had let her touch his orca.

Lin Yuan was delighted, her fingers stroking the orca’s pure black back.

A soft, moist feeling came from her fingertips, smooth and elastic, so nice to touch that it made her want to bite her lip.

The little orca didn’t move under her touch, just let out a soft whimper.

Lin Yuan felt warmth spreading from the depths of her heart, which had been chilled by the cold night.

Having been in this strange and cold world for so long, it seemed like the human side of her had faded.

At this moment, huddled by the window in the morning light, holding a warm cup of tea, with candy, the familiar orca by her legs, even though she was still in a contaminated zone, Lin Yuan felt like a normal human again.

The injured tentacles were no longer polite, whimpering as they climbed up the orca's tail.

The tentacle, a large part of it severed, struggled to move. Using its remaining suckers, it wriggled, clinging to its beloved big fish, acting spoiled.

It was injured, and felt very wronged, whimpering all the way, clinging, twisting, climbing up and down, rubbing itself everywhere.

The big fish closed its eyes, not resisting, enduring its willfulness. It even, when the tentacle coiled around its belly, accepted its actions, turning over its snow-white belly in mid-air.

Only occasionally letting out a soft whale call.

The mental bodies went to play in a corner, and Ni Ji slightly turned his face away, his gaze falling on the street outside the window.

Lin Yuan saw long streaks of blood on his ears and neck. He must have been through a long and arduous battle.

His earlobes, the corners of his mouth, his hair, there were still bloodstains that hadn’t been cleaned, half of his body looked like it had been soaked in blood, and he hadn’t lifted his right hand.

"Suffered a mental attack?" Lin Yuan asked him.

Ni Ji glanced at her and nodded. He picked up his warm water cup, took a sip, replenishing his body with a little warmth.

In last night's battle, he had suffered a serious mental attack. His mind still felt like it was being stirred by red-hot iron nails, a throbbing pain.

But it didn’t matter, he felt like everything was getting better.

He had found the person he had been looking for, and she was safe.

When the tentacles were acting spoiled with his orca, he was actually very flustered, not knowing what to do. Fortunately, the bloodstains on his face hid his expression.

But he couldn't deny that since the tentacles touched his orca's skin,

The anxiety that had been burning in his heart had finally subsided.

Lin Yuan bit into a fruit candy, crunching and quickly eating it.

Then, she carefully wiped her hands clean with a handkerchief. In the light coming through the window, Lin Yuan raised her clean hand towards Ni Ji.

It was the standard gesture for a Guide to give a sentinel mental guidance.

"Mental guidance," Lin Yuan said.

She saw a hint of panic in Ni Ji’s eyes. There, the calm surface of a lake was disturbed, those beautiful eyes clearly trembling.

He was a little nervous.

But in the end, he leaned forward, letting his forehead touch Lin Yuan’s hand.

They were very close now, and Lin Yuan noticed that Ni Ji’s eyes were very beautiful, a layered translucence in the faint light.

Like a delicious candy, crystal clear, incredibly sweet.

"Your eyes are so beautiful," Lin Yuan smiled.

Her soft palm covered the sentinel's face, she felt his eyelashes trembling against her palm several times.

Lin Yuan suddenly realized that this seemed to be the first time she had formally given Ni Ji mental guidance.

They hadn’t met many times, yet she had always thought they were very familiar with each other.

Lin Yuan thought about it, she had entered Ni Ji’s mental landscape twice.

The first time, they had fought, and she had basically bullied him.

The second time, to escape the No. 5 Contaminated Zone, she had entered the depths of Ni Ji's mental landscape, blocked his pain receptors, and messed with his hormones, which was also not a nice thing to do to him.

Thinking about it, it seemed like she hadn't left a very good impression on this sentinel.

"Is it too dangerous here?" The sentinel under her hand asked, sounding a little worried.

But he knew that at a time like this, if he could have an effective mental channeling session, it would be very important for his recovery.

"It's okay, I’ll protect you," he heard the girl say to him.

The thick tentacles confidently surged out from all directions, wrapping around the two people who were very close.

Shielding all their outwardly projected emotions.

Lin Yuan entered that familiar ocean.

The deep blue seawater welcomed her warmly, strands of moonlight shining into the seabed, following her. Lin Yuan turned over in the water, the tentacles spreading behind her like seaweed.

This place really was very comfortable.

Pleasant, vast, free and unrestrained, beautiful and gentle, it could accept all of her.

The giant kraken slowly materialized in the dark depths of the ocean.

In the deepest part of the sea, that beautiful underwater garden, ravaged by who knew what, was wounded and messy, filled with large patches of stubborn, black filth that was hard to remove.

A powerful mental attack had injured him.

What made Lin Yuan most unhappy was that the mysterious palace she had only explored once now had a broken corner, a few sturdy walls collapsed from the impact of the battle, beautiful pearls and shells overturned, scattered everywhere.

The giant tentacles emerged in the sea.

Huge, powerful, aggressively, ready to work.

One wriggled, crawling over the pebbles on the seabed, picking up a broken red coral, replanting uprooted seaweed, then, getting distracted midway, chasing after an escaping hermit crab.

Another dug through the fine sea sand, picking up the sticky black negative emotions to destroy, then accidentally digging out a red sea cucumber, poking it, it actually glowed, the tentacle threw away the sticky negative emotions on its hand, and started playing with the sea cucumber.

The number of tentacles participating in the work was unprecedentedly high, intertwining and moving in the vast, dark seabed.

The one soothing a starfish started playing with the starfish. The one picking up shells started making the shells squirt water. The one planting coral started to coil around the coral for some reason. The one cleaning up garbage started digging a hole…

Their work efficiency was unprecedentedly low.

Lin Yuan swam into the mysterious palace she had entered once before.

This was where the sentinel stored his memories and emotions, the most private and fragile place in his mental world.

He had opened the door to her, completely defenseless, even the orca guarding this place was still in the outside world.

Lin Yuan decided that she had to do the best job this time. At first, she was very careful and meticulous, tidying up the scattered pearls, repairing the collapsed palace walls.

The ocean naturally had a strong self-healing ability, the emotions accumulated here weren’t actually that many.

Joyful sea creatures swam between Lin Yuan’s fingers.

Lin Yuan quickly started playing.

What were these things swaying with the waves? Touching one, it lit up with a shy, faint light, such a cute reaction, touch a few more times.

What were these soft, beautifully colored things? Poking one, it would shyly retract, so soft and interesting, play with it a little more.

So many beautiful shells, pick one up, then another, arranging them into cute shapes.

Some shells spat out crystal-clear bubbles, a string of memory bubbles rising in the seabed.

Wow, there was her own face inside.

…

Lin Yuan, realizing she had spent too much time, withdrew from the mental landscape, and found that the sentinel under her palm had fallen asleep.

His face was against the table, his breath gently blowing on Lin Yuan's wrist, sleeping soundly and peacefully.

She quietly moved her hand away from his eyes, the man's eyelashes fluttered slightly, but he didn’t wake up.

Lin Yuan knew that sentinels were highly alert creatures, their hearing, touch, and perception several times more sensitive than normal humans.

In such a dangerous environment, the fact that Ni Ji could fall asleep showed that her mental guidance had made him feel very comfortable and relaxed.

Lin Yuan felt happy from the bottom of her heart. Her poor mental guidance ability had always been a source of insecurity, her greatest weakness in all mental-related subjects.

Before this, almost no one had liked her channeling.

Even at the Dongbin outpost, although she got along very well with Xiao Niao and the others, when giving them mental guidance, each of them still couldn't help but reveal a look of both need and fear.

"It, it is very… efficient and refreshing, ten thousand times more useful than Guide pheromones," Xiao Niao had said, a little embarrassed, kicking her feet, "just a little scary, I’m scared every time."

Although Lin Yuan didn’t say anything, the more afraid they were, the more nervous Lin Yuan felt.

Every time she gave them mental guidance, her actions were swift, quickly ending it to avoid seeing their pained expressions.

This was the first time, just like other Guides, that she had made the sentinel being treated feel comfortable.

Lin Yuan looked down at Ni Ji, sleeping on the table.

When Ni Ji was awake, there was always a strong, resilient aura about him, like an unsheathed blade, a towering, solitary peak, the loneliness that permeated his bones making him look very cold.

Now, lying here asleep, his features relaxed, the light and shadows from the window falling on his face, adding a touch of gentleness to him.

The bloodstains on his forehead and lips made him look fragile and beautiful.

A tentacle squeezed into Lin Yuan's arms, showing her the small, pink tip it had just grown.

【It's only grown this much? How did you do it?】 Lin Yuan was surprised.

She knew that the closeness between mental bodies was conducive to healing injuries on mental bodies, but she hadn't expected that the injured tentacle, just by rubbing against the orca for a while, could have such an extraordinary effect.

At the Guide Academy, the professors had pointed out that in very rare cases, the healing effect between some mental bodies was very significant. But this was very difficult to encounter, it required familiarity and a naturally high compatibility between the mental bodies.

Lin Yuan turned to look for Ni Ji’s mental body, the orca, in a corner, being turned over and over by seven or eight tentacles, tears welling up in its eyes.

Lin Yuan hurriedly called back those smooth and seemingly insatiable guys.

The little orca glanced at Lin Yuan, whimpered, and hid itself in its void.

The energetic tentacles finally returned to the table, carefully protecting the sleeping sentinel in their midst.

Letting him, who had fought all night, injured and exhausted, rest properly, not letting any of the monsters in this world discover him.

One freed a tentacle, playing with the few colorful candies Lin Yuan hadn’t finished on the table.

It happily used its newly grown, tender tip to pick up the beautiful candies one by one, holding them up to the light.

Occasionally remembering to go back and touch the sleeping sentinel's soft hair.

Its body restored, its beauty returned, it had regained its powerful confidence.

【See, I told you he was the sweetest.】

【Big fish is the sweetest, big fish is the best.】

【Big fish is the sweetest.】

The tentacles echoed its words, and soon, the messy voices in Lin Yuan’s mind merged into a single will.

【Big fish is the sweetest~~~】

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