Sentinel & Guide: From Pariah to Heartthrob Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Broken

Facing the gaze of his clear, cold eyes, Chi Wan felt a bit awkward.

At this point, explanation felt redundant. She kept her head down and continued exploring.

But in the next instant, energy that didn’t belong to a pollutant surged from the other side. Everyone turned to look.

A fierce black-gold dragon head broke through the mist. Atop the dragon’s body, Cang Lin’s black hair fluttered. His high-and-mighty, cold golden eyes only seemed to retract some of their sharpness the moment he saw Chi Wan was unharmed.

He stepped down from the dragon’s body, and the Golden Dragon immediately vanished. He understood the situation on the field with a single glance.

Cang Lin looked at Chi Wan:

“It’s not good to summon someone from a thousand miles away…”

You should let him go back and team up with me.

Before the second half of the sentence could leave his mouth, Chi Wan nodded heavily:

“You’re right. I should give him some compensation or something.”

Cang Lin’s words were stuck in his throat. He silently watched Chi Wan’s back as she quickly walked toward Yun Qi.

“What is it?”

Under the attraction of the Sea God Power, he was already doing his best to restrain his distance from her. Seeing her walk toward him now, he could finally stop enduring and walked toward her.

“Paying you your ‘mercenary’ wages.”

As Chi Wan spoke, she reached into her left pocket.

Empty.

Right pocket.

Empty.

Panic flared in her heart. She checked her inner space—there were only three Star Coins.

Only then did she remember she hadn’t yet collected the Star Coins she earned in the Alliance, and the massive amount of coins the Chi family gave the original soul had long since been squandered.

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Whatever, even a small fly has meat.

So, under Yun Qi’s cerulean gaze, Chi Wan’s tightly clenched little fist extended before his eyes.

She opened it, and three Star Coins lay there pitifully.

His eyelids lowered. He looked at Chi Wan, sensing her embarrassed emotions:

“I’m sorry, funds are tight. I’ll make up the rest later.”

Strangely, he wasn’t angry. He pinched those three Star Coins from her palm. His fingertips brushed against her palm, making Chi Wan’s heart itch.

Then, he carefully put them away.

The two of them standing like this—whether it was because of the Sea God Blood Fusion or something else—seemed so harmonious it was eyesearing.

Cang Lin crossed his arms and stepped forward, standing between the two:

“Deep-level pollutants are just ahead. Why don’t we travel together? We can look out for each other.”

Hui Ji and the others happened to arrive at this time as well.

This originally broken small team could now be considered to have gradually grown and become professional.

With the two teams cooperating, the progress of exploration skyrocketed.

Chi Wan charged at the very front the whole time. This time, she wasn’t a Guide assisting Sentinels, but a SSS-energy-value vanguard who was the main combat force.

Her performance, breaking through her own upper limits again and again, made the two Commanders, Yun Qi and Cang Lin, look at her in a new light.

Admiration mingled with some unknown emotion, forming two complex gazes that frequently landed on her.

Chi Wan found that her ability was truly excellent. As her power increased, the essence she absorbed grew more and more. The more she absorbed, the faster her energy improved—it was simply a virtuous cycle.

The result was that she swallowed a bit too much essence; her digestion couldn’t keep up with her absorption, making her feel a bit bloated.

“Bang—”

A high-level pollutant was thrown over, barely breathing.

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Behind the pollutant, Yun Qi performed a handsome finger-spin to sheathe his blade. His clear and shallow gaze swept over:

“I can’t take wages for nothing. You might need this.”

Chi Wan wasn’t polite either and quickly absorbed the essence.

Immediately after, the sounds of several pollutants struggling and howling came from behind. Chi Wan looked back to see Cang Lin’s tall frame, his cold face expressionless as his thick arms dragged one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight pollutants.

Not only that, Hui Ji and the others were also dragging pollutants toward her.

“Bang, bang, bang—”

They were all piled up in front of her.

Chi Wan stared blankly at Cang Lin, only to see him tilt his head toward the pile of pollutants.

He was signaling her to absorb them.

Chi Wan didn’t refuse.

Although it wasn’t quite right to suddenly accept benefits others delivered to her door, but… she really needed these right now.

Absorb quickly, grow stronger quickly, and leave this place quickly!

Chi Wan plucked up her courage and began absorbing.

Seeing her obediently absorbing the pollutants he had caught for her, her furry little head moving cutely, Cang Lin felt strangely fulfilled.

He looked down at her. He originally wanted to coax her into looking for him more in the future, but when the words reached his lips, it was hard to hide his usual arrogance and smugness:

“From now on, as long as you follow my team, I can catch as many pollutants as you want.”

Chi Wan, who was swallowing everything whole, suddenly felt too full. With a “yue,” she dry-heaved.

Cang Lin didn’t know that absorbing these things could make one “bloated”; he only thought this was her response.

The scene of Hui Ji’s imitation in the hospital bed that day seemed to be right before his eyes, making him feel both anxious and angry.

Chi Wan covered her mouth, looking pitifully at Cang Lin, whose face had darkened several shades. she didn’t dare open her mouth, fearing she would vomit in the next second.

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Complex emotions she couldn’t read were surging in those golden eyes. She actually seemed to read a bit of sadness in them as Cang Lin turned around and strode away.

“Guide Chi Wan, what’s wrong with our Commander?”

Hui Ji ran over and asked cautiously.

Chi Wan still covered her mouth, her brow furrowed as she suppressed that strong sense of discomfort. It took a while before she could open her mouth normally.

She also felt guilty in her heart right now.

Last time, her spirit body had bitten and injured the Little Golden Dragon without her knowledge. She had never felt right about apologizing, so she just pretended she didn’t know. Now she was devouring the pollutants he gave her, yet she made him misunderstand that she detested him.

If she had to say, she really didn’t hate him that much anymore.

Chi Wan suppressed the strong urge to vomit and said with some apology:

“Help me ask him… is the injury from last time better?”

Although Hui Ji didn’t know what injury Cang Lin had sustained, he went to deliver the message honestly.

“Commander, Guide Chi Wan asked if your injury is better?”

Seemingly unable to believe what he heard, Cang Lin, who had been feeling stifled, turned to look at Hui Ji behind him. His gaze once again passed through him to look at Chi Wan in the distance.

She cared about him.

The twisting pain in his heart just now seemed to clear up in an instant.

Cang Lin was joyful in his heart, and even the arc of his mouth was becoming hard to suppress.

He just wanted to say it was mostly better.

But then he thought that if he said that, that heartless woman wouldn’t care about him anymore.

He cleared his throat and said in a deep voice:

“Tell her it’s very serious, it still hurts a lot, and it’s accompanied by extremely strong complications…”

As he spoke, he looked toward Chi Wan’s side and added stiffly:

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“And the medical officer said that in my condition, I need a lot of soothing from a Guide, otherwise it will easily worsen.”

Hui Ji was dumbfounded, not quite understanding but feeling it was impressive:

“…Oh.”

He walked toward Chi Wan hesitantly.

As he walked, he muttered in his heart.

No way. The Commander usually looks quite normal, and he’s incredibly fierce during training.

Is he really this sick?

But his smart little brain reacted instantly.

Right! This must be our Commander’s ‘bitter meat’ tactic!

He walked toward Chi Wan. Meeting her gaze, he pulled at the corners of his mouth and sighed with a shake of his head:

“To tell you the truth, Guide Chi Wan, our Commander is already broken down there…”

Note:

“Bitter Meat Tactic” (苦肉計) is a famous strategy from the Thirty-Six Stratagems, where one injures oneself to gain the enemy’s (or in this case, the girl’s) trust or pity.

And the ending! Hui Ji is a bit of a “god-tier” teammate. When he says the Commander is “broken down there” (廢了), it’s a hilarious double entendre. Chi Wan asked about the “injury” (the dragon bite), but Hui Ji’s phrasing makes it sound like… well… Cang Lin has some “performance issues.”

Cang Lin wanted sympathy, but he might have gotten a bit more than he bargained for!

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