VAP - Chapter 117
Chapter 117: The Marshal's Journey is the Sea of Stars (13)
Xuejiu, a small, snow-white bird. The name alone conjured a sense of something small and cute, perhaps even fluffy and perfect for petting.
Yet Marshal Sheng, who bore this name, was an existence more ferocious than the most savage creature the interstellar populace could possibly imagine!
At this moment, this ferocious creature was attempting a final struggle. “While it is a bit abnormal, I've never actually lost control. I occasionally find people to spar with, and they're all used to it, so don't worry about it.”
Yue Du said, “In short, you just don't want me to enter your mental landscape, right?”
Sheng Xuejiu fell silent, which was as good as an admission.
“I'm going to bond with you one way or another. Whether I enter now or later, I'm still going in. It's better to be open and honest about it now.”
After speaking, Yue Du silently added in her mind: So the military's medical bays don't end up full every other day.
The Marshal tapped her chin, lost in thought for a long while before finally saying, “You can look at my mental landscape, but the white deer has to stay outside.”
Yue Du did as requested and released her Quantum Beast.
The tall white deer stood beside her, lowering its neck to gently press its cheek against the palm of Sheng Xuejiu's hand.
“If you show any signs of distress, I'll use it to call you back.” Sheng Xuejiu stroked the deer's almost jade-like antlers, her expression uncharacteristically serious. “You must be careful.”
Yue Du chuckled. “I know that an overly oppressive mental landscape can damage a Guide's spirit, but the damage is reversible. It can be healed with rest, so you don't need to worry too much.”
Besides, judging by her host's usual demeanor, her mental landscape might be a bit violent and chaotic, but oppressive… that seemed unlikely.
Sheng Xuejiu's expression grew even graver.
“Anyway, the first thing you do when you get in is to put up a mental barrier,” she instructed.
“Mm, don't worry.”
Entering a Sentinel's mental landscape was a task that required extreme caution for any ordinary Guide, but that wasn't to say the Guide faced any terrible danger—the one who was truly vulnerable was the Sentinel.
The mental landscape was a private, powerful, and fragile place.
It was powerful because it was the source of a Sentinel's strength, the very place from which their physical Quantum Beast was born.
It was fragile because it wasn't truly solid; improper handling by a Guide could cause the landscape to collapse, with unimaginable consequences.
For this reason, only a Guide with a spiritual combing certification or one deeply trusted by the Sentinel could explore their mental landscape.
Yue Du belonged to the latter category.
She released her consciousness, letting it seep into her host's mind like flowing water or a wisp of smoke. The mental barrier that had rejected so many other Guides didn't even offer a token resistance, generously allowing her to pass through.
Yue Du fell into a blaze of sunlight.
To be precise, she was under the sunlight, but it felt little different from falling directly into the sun—at least in terms of brightness.
It was as if countless incandescent lamps were aimed directly at her, attempting to scorch her consciousness. If Yue Du had a physical body, the stimulus would have likely brought her to tears.
“Literally blinding,” Yue Du muttered. She closed her eyes for a moment to recover. Once she had adjusted, she maintained her mental barrier and cautiously observed her surroundings.
Without a doubt, this was a grotesque place.
An overly dazzling sun hung in the sky, so close it felt you could touch it. Even without any actual warmth, it subconsciously evoked the intense heat of a fire.
In contrast, a biting wind blew—it was like a frost-coated knife, and even through her mental barrier, she could imagine the stark pain of it scraping past.
There were no soft blades of grass, sandy beaches, or fine snow on the ground. Instead, it was covered with gravel, each stone oddly shaped with sharp edges, as if desperate to pierce the soles of any visitor.
The distance was even more disheartening. A casual glance revealed the crimson of fresh blood, and the scents of gunpowder and gore hung in the air. Anyone who didn't know better would think they had arrived at some horrific wartime scene.
Yue Du was speechless.
No wonder her host had hesitated. Judging by this scene, where every detail screamed “unwelcome,” the sheer malice was overwhelming!
Even if any Guides had managed to enter before, they would have likely been scared away!
Her host's mental space had never been this aggressive before. Yes, aggressive was the word.
From the color palette to the smells, the shapes, and the entire scene, everything seemed to be screaming two phrases: “I'm annoyed” and “Get out.”
Yue Du calmly thickened her barrier and walked forward.
Only then did she discover that the terrifying-looking gravel underfoot was actually painless to walk on, like strolling on a cobblestone path. She didn't know if this was a characteristic of the landscape itself, or if it was only this way for her.
This space was perverse and silent. The blood-colored backdrop was a combination of ancient human battlefields and the warzones against the Zerg. No matter how she looked at it, it was ominous.
Yue Du sighed to herself. No wonder Sheng Xuejiu needed to spar with people so often. If her own inner world was such a hostile territory, she figured she wouldn't be able to resist lashing out, either.
Was it a blessing that no one had been killed…?
Yue Du walked for a long time, searching for the white temple. If there was one thing in her host's mental space that remained constant, it was that structure.
Finally, a large patch of color other than blood-red and scorched-black appeared before her eyes.
It was the temple.
The soft, holy white of the structure seemed strangely out of place here, yet when viewed as a whole, it also felt surprisingly harmonious.
The moment she stepped within the temple's bounds, the persistent, cold wind suddenly ceased. The piercing sunlight also seemed to be blocked out. This was a small sanctuary.
Yue Du found the long-haired cat at the temple's main entrance.
It was hiding behind a pillar, only its fluffy head visible, squinting its silver-gray eyes in her direction. When it realized it had been spotted, it let out a soft meow.
“Did Ah Jiu let you back in?”
“Meow.”
Yue Du picked up the long-haired cat. At first, it remained motionless, pretending to be a stuffed toy, but it soon stretched its neck to look her up and down, as if checking for injuries.
“Looks like it,” Yue Du murmured to herself. “You're such a beautiful cat, and you live here all the time? It's a wonder you haven't turned red.”
The long-haired cat's ears drooped. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Yue Du reached out to pet it, then picked up its little paw to feel its toe beans. The cat silently endured it all.
Holding the cat, Yue Du lifted her gaze.
She, too, had absorbed a great deal of professional knowledge about Guides. Unlike Sentinels, Guides didn't need to excessively train their physical bodies; for them, mental power and knowledge were far more important and allowed them to play a greater role on the battlefield.
Therefore, Yue Du knew perfectly well that, from a professional Guide's perspective, the scenes before her were actually normal.
Whether it was mania or a fugue state, the mental landscape of an out-of-control Sentinel was typically chaotic and disorderly, filled with irregular, distorted images, and their Quantum Beast would be equally frantic or sluggish.
But Sheng Xuejiu was different. Her landscape was highly logical. Even if it was extremely aggressive, that didn't necessarily mean there was a problem with it.
Yet Sheng Xuejiu was indeed affected by her landscape.
Yue Du felt a long-forgotten headache coming on.
The Marshal's earlier worries did not come to pass. About an hour later, Yue Du opened her eyes in her arms.
The long-haired cat materialized the next second and leisurely trotted over to perch on the white deer's back. It truly never tired of the game.
Sheng Xuejiu's first words were, “You're not hurt, are you?”
Not hurrying to get up, Yue Du said leisurely, “You need to have a little faith in yourself. Trust that you wouldn't unconsciously commit domestic violence, okay?”
Sheng Xuejiu replied, “Domestic violence? I'd sooner hit myself than hit you—no, that's not what I meant. You saw my mental landscape. Is your consciousness damaged?”
“Apparently, it just looks fierce,” Yue Du said.
“In fact, it killed a Mind Worm last year,” Sheng Xuejiu reminded her.
Mind Worms were a type of Zerg. They weren't large and lacked hard carapaces or corrosive venom, but they were a heavily protected asset for the Zerg race.
This was because they were the only type of Zerg that could infiltrate the mental landscapes of Sentinels and Guides to inflict damage.
There was once a little Mind Worm, quite skillful with its innate tentacles, that was entrusted by its swarm with the great responsibility of scrambling the Federal Marshal's brain.
In the end, however, it was the one that got torn to shreds. Forget scrambling her brain; the Marshal didn't even break her stride.
…From then on, no Mind Worm dared to challenge the Marshal.
Yue Du was aware of the incident and shook her head. “Your mental landscape didn't hurt me. In fact, it was quite gentle.”
The light was just a bit glaring, the wind a bit boisterous, and oh, right, there was a little too much blood.
With the banter out of the way, it was time for serious business.
“I tried to comb the landscape with my spiritual energy, but the effect wasn't very good,” Yue Du said with a frown. “But I feel like the blood-red color has faded a bit. Of course, that might just be my imagination.”
Sheng Xuejiu said, “Perhaps that has nothing to do with the mental landscape.”
The Marshal was referring to her violent tendencies—tendencies she had never once displayed in front of Yue Du. Subconsciously, she just felt that she was supposed to have a bad temper.
Yue Du smiled, playing with the Marshal's hand as if it were a cat's paw pad. “Can you control the urge to beat people up?”
Sheng Xuejiu said, “No.”
“Perhaps you're naturally irritable, but logically, you should be able to control it.”
It was like Qi Jiu. She was genuinely lazy, but if she chose not to be, she could become efficient in an instant.
Sheng Xuejiu's situation was different. She followed her wrathful nature but couldn't control it, needing to vent it through actual combat.
Yue Du had reason to believe that Sheng Xuejiu had initially joined the military for the chance to indulge herself from time to time—to legally kill opponents and beat up her teammates.
Yue Du said, “I'll look up more case studies of Sentinel mental landscapes. If there are similar ones, we might find some clues. Other than that, I'll have to give you regular spiritual combings. That's the most effective way to soothe a Sentinel.”
“I have no objection,” Sheng Xuejiu said.
Her tone clearly welcomed the treatment.
Yue Du smiled.
Because of Sheng Xuejiu's evasiveness, she had imagined many horrifying scenes. So when she saw the real landscape, she actually found it much better than anticipated.
“Actually, your mental landscape falls within the normal range. I don't understand why you were so reluctant to talk about it before.”
“I thought you would hate it.”
Yue Du wanted to say that while it was indeed a bit uncomfortable, that was just her residual reaction to bloody scenes from her time as a standard human. It was far from hatred.
But in the end, she chose different words. “How could I? I love everything about you.”
Sheng Xuejiu asked, “…Including my mental landscape?”
Yue Du affirmed, “Including that.”
It was a case of loving the house and the crow on its roof. Even if Sheng Xuejiu's consciousness were standing in her own landscape, her pale, beautiful face and standard-issue uniform spattered with blood, a knife in her left hand and a gun in her right, Yue Du would only think of a uniquely sexy, blood-soaked goddess of war.
Of course, that's exactly what she was.
The corners of Sheng Xuejiu's lips curled up, and she placed a kiss on the corner of Yue Du's eye.
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