Invasion - Chapter 115

Chapter 115

When Lin Yuan found Ni Ji, the sentinel was in a small room filled with debris.

He seemed alright, not as disheveled as she had imagined.

Just sitting in a dark corner, his hair dripping wet, his entire body soaked in some kind of medicinal agent.

Lin Yuan recognized this agent—mimicry agent.

The first time she and Ni Ji met in a contaminated zone, Ni Ji had put some of the mimicry agent on his finger, drawn a circle on the floor around her, blocking her human scent, so that the deviants coming and going outside hadn't noticed her.

This time, whether it was to avoid being detected by sentinels with their keen sense of smell, or to mask some strong scent, he had poured this expensive agent all over himself.

When Lin Yuan came in, he was biting the corner of his clothes, injecting himself with a Guide pheromone stick.

Several used injectors were discarded on the floor beside him.

Overdosing on Guide pheromones was very dangerous, after all, they were artificial, unlike natural Guide pheromones, excessive use could damage both the sentinel’s body and mind.

Lin Yuan grabbed Ni Ji’s hand, stopping his reckless behavior.

She found that his body temperature was very high, his palm scorching hot.

But his eyes were still clear, in the darkness, his eyes gleaming faintly, like black stones washed clean in a clear lake, a burning rage in their depths, something he abhorred seemed to be happening.

"Lin Yuan," he called her name, his voice hoarse, as if severely dehydrated.

He put the Guide pheromone stick into Lin Yuan's hand, his hand trembling, he had even lost the strength to hold this simple injector.

He struggled for a moment before finishing his sentence in a seemingly calm voice, "Lin Yuan, help… help me."

This was the White Tower, the holy and beautiful Eden.

The place with the highest concentration of Guides, she herself was a Guide.

Yet, the sentinel was sitting in a damp, dark corner, biting the corner of his clothes, injecting himself again and again with artificial Guide pheromones, whose excessive use could harm the body.

The room was small, filled with debris, dimly lit, the sentinel in the corner looking calm, his face expressionless, seemingly composed. He had even poured scent-masking mimicry agent all over himself.

Lin Yuan, for a moment, didn't understand what was happening to him.

Until she came closer to Ni Ji and suddenly smelled a faint scent,

Perhaps not a scent in the physical sense, but a kind of information transmission only Guides and Sentinels could understand.

It was difficult to describe, it reminded Lin Yuan of a scent from a certain season, a scent only found in a bountiful orchard.

One autumn, before they had a gardener, she and the little crab had wandered into the backyard of her house, where there was a large orchard. Ripe fruits hung heavy on the branches, tempting one to reach out and pick them, a ripe, soft persimmon, plucked from the branch by Lin Yuan's pale fingers, with a gentle bite, the sweet juice, its fragrant scent spreading in her mouth, so sweet it was intoxicating.

At this moment, the sentinel sitting in the darkness, his face unclear, suddenly overlapped with that season.

The small woods in autumn, ripe fruits, a silent, deserted world, and a sweet fragrance.

Lin Yuan instantly understood what was happening to Ni Ji. That state, which was normally only induced between the closest of bonded partners…

Not long ago, in the palace at the top of the tower, the state that had been forcibly induced in Ji Xuan by the Queen.

It was happening to Ni Ji in exactly the same way at this moment.

That sentinel, frantically injecting himself with Guide pheromones, desperately trying to suppress something uncontrollable burning inside his body.

If she hadn't found him, he might very well have died from an overdose of Guide pheromones.

Worse still, being found in this state, dragged out, taken to the hall at the top of the tower.

The tentacles reacted faster than Lin Yuan. Almost the moment they sensed the scent coming from Ni Ji, they surged, covering the space around them with an unprecedented, powerful force.

With Lin Yuan at the center, the tentacles spread and surrounded, encasing the two within a narrow space formed by their intertwined bodies, using themselves as shields, guarding the sentinel who was starting to lose control of his emotions, firmly blocking all prying eyes.

The Queen's cold gaze still swept past again and again,

But in her mental scan, this small, cluttered storage room was just a dead, silent space without any mental fluctuations, not worth her attention.

"It’s okay, don’t inject yourself with that anymore,” Lin Yuan said to Ni Ji, a slight stammer in her voice. “I’ll stay with you, I won’t let them find you.”

She didn't know why she was so nervous. She believed that she could protect Ni Ji.

No matter what emotions he exuded, she believed she could prevent the powerful presence at the top of the tower from discovering them, from finding this place.

Only, Lin Yuan couldn’t help but think of Ji Xuan.

Ji Xuan had also been a strong, calm, and self-controlled sentinel, but when he had fallen into bonding heat, his reason and dignity had instantly been completely overwhelmed by his primal instincts.

In front of outsiders.

This, for someone with a strong sense of pride, was the most humiliating torture.

"Ni Ji…" Lin Yuan, looking at the Sentinel huddled in the corner, didn’t know what to say.

A huge wave of anger surged in her heart.

Before, she had loathed the White Tower, hated the empire's distorted system, regarded that outwardly gentle, yet strange Queen, as her enemy.

But that emotion had been buried deep in her heart, calm and stable, allowing her to methodically and progressively carry out her plan to uncover the truth, step by step. Even when probing the Queen, she could remain calm and composed.

But at this moment, it was as if molten lava was erupting in her heart, bursting through the sealed stones. For the first time, she tasted the feeling of burning rage.

How dare she treat my sentinel like this? Put him through such humiliation and pain?

No one knew what a pure and lovely person he was. He was a giant gemstone, a pure ocean beneath glaciers.

He had the most enchanting garden and mysterious palace, no matter what kind of desperate situation he found himself in, he had always kept his pride and dignity, never tainted, never bent, proud and self-respecting, restrained and gentle.

He was like a treasure, the best person she had ever met.

Those people actually wanted to devour him alive, to use such twisted methods to force him out, capture him, imprison him, and torture him.

Just thinking about how that almost happened made the anger in Lin Yuan’s heart burn uncontrollably. The flames grew stronger and stronger, impossible to extinguish, she felt she couldn't endure it anymore, that one day, she would burn the source of this evil to the ground to quell it.

The filthy tower, the decaying dynasty, the vile queen.

These things, white on the outside, rotten to the core, would one day be destroyed by the flames of her and countless others’ rage.

Ni Ji turned his body away in the darkness.

After Lin Yuan said those words, “Leave it to me, I'll protect you,” the defenses he had been holding onto had almost instantly collapsed.

He felt a primal fire ignite from the deepest depths of the ocean, so hot, even the deep sea couldn’t extinguish it.

Fine bubbles rose from the deep blue sea, the seawater heating up, overloading, turning crimson.

His entire being was falling, the things he had held onto, layer by layer, being stripped away, disintegrating.

The pain and hurt, the softness and vulnerability, the embarrassment and helplessness, and those unspeakable, ugly things, hidden deep within, all surfaced,

Rising to the surface, offered to the person he least wanted to see them, exposed under her gaze.

The tentacles wriggled, leaving only a small, private space for the two of them.

Ni Ji closed his eyes, turned his back, mimicry agent and sweat soaking his tight undergarment, the wet black fabric clinging to his skin, outlining the lines of his tense back.

He was a battle-hardened sentinel, with broad shoulders, a narrow, strong waist, and powerful legs.

He had been to countless contaminated zones, endured countless painful tortures, and could single-handedly charge into enemy lines, taking lives without blinking.

But at this moment, he huddled in a dark corner, having lost even the strength to inject himself.

His body was drenched in sweat, trembling uncontrollably, emitting a subtle scent.

Like a beached fish, helplessly flicking its tail on the reef. Like a ripe fruit on an autumn tree, softly hanging from the branch. Like a snail, slowly crawling on the damp spring grass. Like butterflies, entangled together in the shadows of the roses at night.

Lin Yuan’s throat tightened. She felt an inappropriate emotion rising alongside her anger.

She quickly and carefully examined herself, confirming that her mindscape had not been invaded or influenced by the Queen.

But there was something indescribable, something evoked by the person before her, awakened by his soft pants.

Like a sly fish swimming within her, she couldn't catch it, yet it was incredibly distinct.

Making her throat also feel a little dry, wanting something, preferably something very, very sweet.

The small space surrounded by tentacles was quickly filled with the Sentinel's scent, every detail seemingly magnified in this environment.

She could see the sweat dripping in the darkness, his furrowed brows, his bitten lips, and his black-gloved hands tightly clenched into fists.

Lin Yuan and all the tentacles’ will, at this moment, were unprecedentedly united. They were rarely without their various thoughts, their strange hobbies.

At this moment, all their focus was concentrated on a single point.

The usual chattering and noise had disappeared, the world silent. In the small space, only the sound of their breathing and their heartbeats.

From Lin Yuan to every single tentacle, they watched the sentinel before them, every move, every sign of his unease.

Their emotions stirred by the special scent emanating from him.

From Lin Yuan to every single tentacle, they could clearly sense Ni Ji's endurance, his torment.

He tensed his body to its limit, the tentacles roaming the ground dampened by his sweat.

The suckers on the tentacles wriggled, licking away a few droplets of sweat, unable to restrain their restlessness.

"Do you… want me to help you?" Lin Yuan heard her own voice.

That voice sounded incredibly ethereal, tempting in the humid air, almost not like it came from her own throat.

The Sentinel on the ground quickly gave a few unintelligible replies.

Those sounds, like melted sugar in a pot, sticky and unclear, sweet and suggestive, yet completely incomprehensible.

Like an invitation, a plea, and a little like crying.

Lin Yuan couldn’t resist, and reached out, gently touching his hair.

Her fingers touched his soft, wet hair, and the moment they made contact, he started trembling.

Lin Yuan suddenly felt like she had seen this scene before, she must have, the dim space, the writhing tentacles, the drenched Sentinel…

Her gaze moved down to his thin lips, bitten until they bled, faintly glistening in the dim light.

Those were lips she had tasted, Lin Yuan suddenly became very certain.

She leaned closer and saw the moisture in Ni Ji’s eyes, like amber dissolved into water. Their noses touched, and she smelled his breath.

Lin Yuan lowered her head, and kissed those thin lips, passing her Guide pheromones over.

Just as she had imagined, they were the sweetest thing she had ever tasted in this world.

Time seemed to stop at this moment, even their breaths forgotten.

After who knew how long, they parted, watching each other gasp, hearing the pounding of their hearts.

This feeling was incredibly pleasurable. Every part of her was comfortable, from head to toe, making her want to continue, want more pleasure from him.

In this dim space, from who knew where, a faint light appeared, making her see a droplet of water, sliding from the corner of his eye.

That teardrop was alarming. Lin Yuan began reminding herself not to go too far.

She thought of the complete collapse of Ji Xuan’s mental state afterwards, the mess in his mindscape.

She had seen those intense emotions of hatred, anger, and humiliation in Ji Xuan’s mindscape, how could she do the same thing to Ni Ji?

Don’t go too far, Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan repeatedly warned herself, I’m just helping him, helping him get through this.

I'm just helping.

But he was too sweet, his taste too beautiful. Unable to resist, she lowered her head and tasted him again.

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