Chapter 14: Anomaly

Anomaly

"How could you say that?" The sentinel leaned back, smiling narrowly, with a hint of a merchant's cunning, his pearl-white attire shifting luster with his movement.

"It seems Miss Guide isn't too satisfied with this deal." The sentinel placed his gloved hand on the similarly pearl-white trousers, his light-gray eyes like glass sweeping over the three-tailed cat in Fu Guang's arms.

"If Miss Fu Guang has anything she wants to know, anything she wants to obtain."

"Or because protection is needed due to safety concerns."

As he spoke, a hint of darkness flickered in the sentinel's glass-like eyes; he leaned close to the blonde girl's ear, his warm breath almost palpable: "Come find me, the price is negotiable."

"I am Shang Ze."

After saying that, Shang Ze sat up straight, and Fu Guang bent the cat's soft, fluffy tail with her hand, unable to deny it.

Shang Ze covered the gloom in his eyes with his hand; the girl's emanating psychic power was extremely pure, that aura like a perfume named Ocean—top notes fresh and invigorating, base notes gradually deepening, as if gazing into the ocean's depths.

It was quite flavorful.

Even if he didn't like the ocean, he couldn't resist the allure of the Water of Life's Source.

Too bad it's D-rank, the kind that can't be upgraded; otherwise, those S-rank guides from the White Tower would definitely be personally led, how could they possibly fall into the sentinels' hands?

Fu Guang tilted her head slightly, having a slight impression of Shang Ze with his white hair and gray eyes; he had been at the outermost railing, handling his optical brain, sending messages, occasionally glancing at the commotion with a hint of amusement.

He seemed detached, as if watching a farce.

He only acted when it benefited him, rushing straight to the goal—a calm merchant.

A soft buzzing sound rang out, and Yin Zhu, as agile as a cat, instantly opened her eyes and appeared beside Fu Guang, her golden cat pupils fixed on her.

Shang Ze also lowered his hand, silently rose, and turned sideways to look at her.

Fu Guang noticed the two people fighting fiercely inside also stopped in unison, looking up at her position from below.

And the sentinels not far down the corridor also ceased speaking, silently turning their heads to gaze at her.

Everyone's gaze locked onto Fu Guang, sharp as blades and arrows, cold yet bloodthirsty, yet containing complex emotions, as if filled with resentment toward her.

Her hand stroking the cat trembled slightly, her spine tensed from the gaze of the great hunter, nerves taut together, her emanating psychic power began to boil.

What happened?

In the end, Yin Zhu still pulled her hand up; the three-tailed cat leapt onto her shoulder, arched its back, and stretched lazily.

"Meow."

The little cat retracted its claws, its pads stepping on her body neither painful nor itchy, its golden-yellow pupils slit, full of wildness.

"This is a warning that a sentinel is about to undergo aberration into a mutant." Yin Zhu spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse.

"It's also a death countdown." A cluster of fire condensed into Li Shao's figure; he stepped out from the flames, reached out and grabbed the girl's slender arm, his gorgeous face bearing a certain all-or-nothing resolve.

Scorching heat traveled up her arm; Fu Guang trembled slightly.

The red mark at Li Shao's eye corner flared intensely; he would not allow Fu Guang to refuse.

"Come see, sentinels die from pollution."

No sentinel spoke up to stop it.

A cyan glow enveloped her; it was Sheng Lai Ke Si behind Li Shao, a green-pointed-eared elf flitting beside him.

Fu Guang didn't even have time to wonder why Sheng Lai Ke Si's spiritual form was neither animal nor plant, but a living being.

Being pulled by Li Shao, she arrived at incredible speed at a training field surrounded by crowds of sentinels.

At the entrance of the A-rank training field, Li Shao slowed his speed.

Fu Guang's arm flesh was slightly burned by Li Shao's unconscious emission of fire psychic power, a burning pain.

But she was shocked by what lay before her.

A male sentinel, half of his bare chest and face occupied by brown feathers, the other half crossed by black threads.

Around him gathered many sentinels, but even more had finished charging, their focused energy already aimed at the sentinels' thermal weapons.

"Sister, guess how many such sentinels these weapons execute each semester."

Bai Gao's face bore a conspicuous red bruise; the boy pushed through the crowd and walked to Fu Guang's side, standing at the entrance, his face in shadow indistinct.

Fu Guang stood there; the sentinels on either side split a conspicuously clear path, their gazes oddly fixed on the guide abducted here.

A guide defined as unable to be upgraded, D-rank.

Fu Guang didn't pay much heed to the sentinels' gazes.

She halted her steps, her heart rather cold; the sentinels want to aberrate, but she's not a normal guide—she can't do anything, what does it matter to her?

Even if she is a guide, the reason for the sentinels' mutation being on her—what kind of logic is that?

But her gaze was drawn to the shattered glass tube at the sentinel's feet.

There was a female sentinel restrained by a male sentinel in uniform, her arm pressed back, kneeling on one knee.

"My brother has already taken the alleviant, he'll be fine." Her voice rang out, high and hoarse, filling the training field, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Before Fu Guang arrived, she had kept repeating those words.

"Let's give him some time..." She looked at the aberrating sentinel, her eyes full of anguish.

"He'll be fine, he'll definitely be fine." The words were heart-wrenching yet gradually calmed, leaving only muttered self-talk.

She bowed her head, her moist eyes closed, like a lamb led to slaughter, devoid of vitality.

Her brother was her only kin.

The enforcer at her side spoke with a stern countenance.

"The alleviant you administered is B-rank, your brother is A-rank."

"Although I don't know why it temporarily slowed your brother's aberration, the aberration has already begun and cannot be reversed."

Once aberration starts, it won't stop unless a guide with purification ability intervenes—but such guides are either in the White Tower or on the battlefield.

Time won't wait.

The aberrating sentinels have begun to howl, their voices harsh, deafening.

Fu Guang also came to feel the power of an A-rank half-transformed Sentinel, blood flowing down from her seven orifices, the bloody smell once again masking her five senses.

If it were an ordinary Sentinel she might not be able to save them, but if they had taken her medicine there would still be a chance.

She thought leisurely, feeling she might faint for a few days.

She felt it should be brain qi vibration; these days she browsed modern medical books and also found a new fitting term, cerebral concussion.

The Sentinel's sonic attack is truly hard to accept.

The relief medicine contains her mental power; the medicinal ingredients merely serve to maximize its effect.

She can save him.

She needs to get a good price.

For her sister's sake, it can be a little less.

Her thoughts were turning slowly.

Before her eyes, the blood gradually obscured everything; the woman kneeling on the ground beside her overlapped with a certain figure, as if she had returned to her past.

That was already a memory from long ago; she thought she had long forgotten it.

So much blood, please don't die, okay.

Don't die, okay.

Don't die.

A girl with child's hair buns kneels beside the old bed; as she grows older, she can only send off one person after another.

"Sister, you are a guide, you can save more people." The childish words drifted away with the wind.

Why does she want to be a pharmacist?

Clearly her talent for spellcraft is also top-notch.