Chapter 4: Second Squad’s Shen Ji
“Morning, Captain Mo.”
The woman was wearing the uniform Guide attire he had long been accustomed to seeing, but for some reason, he felt that his gaze lingered on this uniform exceptionally often today.
“Mn.”
Knowing Mo Xiao’s cold nature, she hadn’t expected him to respond. Getting this one syllable already made her feel somewhat flattered.
“Captain Mo, I actually have something I want to ask you. Is there a place where we can buy things here?”
Mo Xiao frowned.
Did she still need something?
The dormitory had everything one could need.
Regarding necessities, the White Tower was never stingy with Guides. Li Mo should have taken her to get clothes yesterday.
Usually, her meals were also delivered by dedicated personnel.
He didn’t understand why she asked such a question.
“It’s like this. If there’s a place to buy things, I want to go look around and buy some daily necessities and such.”
“After the mission is over today, I’ll take you.”
“Thank you, Captain Mo.”
Last night, she had carefully studied the wristband Mo Xiao gave her. She found that the thing was just like a mobile phone in modern life; it had communication functions and could even store points.
Perhaps because she successfully soothed the emotions of those three Sentinels yesterday, the points inside had increased at midnight.
It seemed the scoring was performance-based.
Since she understood this, she had to figure out the prices here first. After all, she might have to live here for a very long time, perhaps even the rest of her life.
“Let’s go.”
Mo Xiao took her to the top floor.
“I heard from Li Mo that you wanted to try handling a highest-level spiritual riot.”
Su Tang nodded. She had indeed mentioned this while chatting with Li Mo during work yesterday.
“So, Captain Mo, you brought me here today to show me what a highest-level spiritual riot looks like?”
Mo Xiao nodded. Originally, he hadn’t cared yesterday, but unexpectedly, Zhan Ye had sent him a “gift” in the evening.
He understood Zhan Ye’s meaning, and coincidentally, he also had something he wanted to verify.
When the metal door of the highest-level isolation room slowly slid open, Su Tang smelled an extremely faint fishy scent. This was the first time she had smelled such an unbearable stench since leaving the Abandoned Zone.
Mo Xiao stood in the shadows inside the door. The silver wolf arched its back completely, baring its teeth at the inside of the room. It had clearly entered combat mode.
The silver wolf wouldn’t suddenly enter combat mode unless it felt threatened. That meant the person locked inside was likely just as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than, Mo Xiao.
“Inside is Shen Ji.”
Shen Ji.
This name exploded in Su Tang’s ears, and her fingertips tightened slightly.
In the original host’s memories, Shen Ji, the captain of the Second Squad, was a Super S-Class Sentinel as famous as Mo Xiao and Zhan Ye.
He constantly wore a half-face metal mask, and no one had seen his full face. His spiritual entity was a Flood Dragon (Jiao) that controlled water. Like its master, his temperament was treacherous and unpredictable. He was recognized as the most mysterious figure in the White Tower.
“Why is he here?”
Su Tang frowned.
According to the rules, Sentinels of each squad should be channeled by their own squad. As the captain of the Second Squad, Shen Ji had no reason to appear in the First Squad’s Matching Center.
Mo Xiao’s gaze fell on the huddled black shadow in the center of the room, his tone flat.
“Spiritual power lost control three days ago. The White Tower sent Zhan Ye to pluck him from the battlefield. Zhan Ye couldn’t handle it, knocked him out, and threw him here.”
So hasty?
the corner of Su Tang’s mouth twitched. But that did indeed fit Zhan Ye’s personality.
Su Tang looked around the room. Perhaps to cater to the Flood Dragon spiritual entity’s preference for darkness, the entire room was dimly lit, revealing a hint of chilliness.
Su Tang couldn’t help but hug her arms and rub them slightly. She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but after rubbing just twice, she felt a heat source attacking her.
No, this wasn’t an illusion. A heat source really was attacking her. Feeling it carefully, it wasn’t a heat source, but rather a stream of spiritual power.
The silver wolf emitted a threatening hum from its mouth, arching its back and protruding its forelimbs, barking at Su Tang. It seemed to want to scare away the spiritual power covering her.
Mo Xiao pressed down on the wolf’s head, controlling the silver wolf.
“Shen Ji’s spiritual power induces thoughts. Don’t listen to him speak later.”
Su Tang nodded. Her gaze passed over his shoulder and landed on the figure in the center of the room.
Shen Ji had turned around at some point. His entire body leaned diagonally on a specially made alloy chair. A half-face dark-patterned metal mask covered everything above the bridge of his nose, revealing his jaw. A barely-there smile hung on the corner of his lips.
He wasn’t wearing a standard combat uniform. The collar of a deep purple shirt was loosely open, revealing exquisite collarbones. A chain seemed to hang around his neck; the material was unknown, but it looked quite sparkly.
Looking closer, coiled in front of him lay that Flood Dragon. Its green scales shone with a strange luster. As Su Tang took two steps forward, that snake approached her first. Su Tang’s spine stiffened. Heaven knew she was most afraid of these soft-bodied creatures.
“I wasn’t aware Captain Mo had hidden such a treasure. To think you’d be willing to send her to me.”
Shen Ji’s voice was deeper than Zhan Ye’s, carrying a strange magnetism that inexplicably felt somewhat seductive.
“Little one, is your name Su Tang?”
Su Tang didn’t speak. Just as she released her spiritual power, suddenly, a strange, sweet scent attacked her. Su Tang panicked inwardly and hurriedly activated her spiritual power. She seemed to hear the man lying on the bed chuckle low twice.
Then, her spiritual power flew toward the bed as if out of control.
“Don’t get close to him.”
Mo Xiao’s voice carried a warning. The silver wolf finally broke free from its restraints and rushed into the room, blocking Su Tang and baring its teeth at the Flood Dragon gradually approaching her.
“Captain Mo watches quite tightly.”
As soon as the voice fell, spiritual power unique to Shen Ji attacked Mo Xiao. Shen Ji’s current spiritual riot had reached a dangerous level, and his spiritual power was of the controlling and bewitching type—difficult to deal with.
Gritting his teeth secretly. This disgusting spiritual power.
Shen Ji laughed low. He rose slightly, his shirt hem slipping down to reveal a fair wrist. On that wrist, he wore a pair of silver snake-shaped bracelets. due to the man’s movements, they made a melodious chiming sound in this quiet environment.
Shen Ji walked off the bed and came to Su Tang’s side, leaning down slightly to look directly into her eyes.
“Your spiritual power is very clean, like unpolluted spring water.”
His gaze landed on Su Tang’s face, tracing it inch by inch from the corners of her eyes to her lips, carrying undisguised aggression.
“It’s just a bit too weak.”
It made him suspect that if he used just a little force, he could shatter her.
The Flood Dragon sensed its master’s intent. Its green scales brushed against the ground, making a rustling sound as it crawled to stop in front of her.
It rubbed its head lightly against her ankle, then climbed upward along the corner of her clothes, arriving at the woman’s neck. One coil, two coils—it circled around Su Tang’s fair neck.
“It says it likes the smell on you.”
Shen Ji leaned close to Su Tang’s ear, seemingly checking the condition of his spiritual entity.
“Actually… so do I.”
Su Tang’s eyes were dazed. She could feel her spiritual power pouring outward uncontrollably, but she couldn’t stop it. She could feel her spiritual power struggling to resonate with the Flood Dragon—but it wasn’t mutual. Her spiritual power was being unilaterally sucked away by the Flood Dragon.
She instinctively wanted to resist, but she constantly felt someone whispering in her ear.
Closer, a little closer…
Then, she seemed to see pale purple spiritual threads climbing onto her body bit by bit. She watched as her pure white spiritual threads were tightly wrapped by the purple ones, leaving no possibility of retreat. She instinctively frowned.
“Good child, don’t resist.”
Shen Ji’s voice was bewitching. He took a half-step forward, and the distance between the two finally approached zero. She smelled the scent on Shen Ji—a very cool, crisp fragrance that inexplicably carried some hooking implications, just like the man himself.
“Your spiritual power is craving resonance. I can give you what you want… whether it’s power or something else, I can give it all to you.”
Simultaneously, his Flood Dragon began to crawl down along Su Tang’s sleeve, its cold scales occasionally brushing against her exposed skin.
Strange. She was usually most afraid of these soft-bodied creatures, yet with such a large snake crawling around on her now, she didn’t feel fear. Instead, she felt safer and safer, her mood becoming calmer.
“Su Tang!”
Mo Xiao finally threw off the difficult mind control and stepped forward, wanting to pull her away, but was blocked by Shen Ji raising his hand.
That hand with well-defined knuckles wore a silver ring, and fingertips were wrapped in pale purple energy threads, stopping just before Mo Xiao’s chest.
“Don’t be anxious, Captain Mo. We’re at a critical moment right now. If you disturb me and I accidentally use too much force, what if I scare the little one?”
He turned to look at Su Tang, the smile on his lips deepening. The tails of his eyes tilted slightly upward. The exposed half of his face complemented the metal mask perfectly, spreading a strange beauty through the dark room.
“Look, your spiritual power is very comfortable with me, right? It doesn’t need to be tense anymore, doesn’t need to struggle to support itself…”
His fingertips almost touched her cheek. The edge of the cold mask grazed her ear, leaving a chilling sensation.
“Life in the Abandoned Zone was hard, wasn’t it? You’ve suffered. But it doesn’t matter; from now on, I will protect you. I have the sweetest nutrient solutions here, the most comfortable mattress, the warmest environment…”
“So, good child, stay and accompany me, okay?”
The Flood Dragon had wrapped around her wrist at some point, its entire body coiled around her arm.
Between breaths, Su Tang only felt the sweet scent surrounding her becoming heavier.
“It says it wants to wrap around you every day. And so do I.”
The dagger was revealed.
So this was the man’s true goal. Once this sentence came out, it thoroughly pulled Su Tang back to reality from the perfect fantasy.
Su Tang snapped back to her senses, discovering that her spiritual power had already been drained by more than half. She wanted to retract her spiritual power, but found that the purple energy threads surrounding her were like stubborn suction cups, tightly wrapping around her leaking spiritual power and preventing her from taking it back.
“Ngh.”
The taste of being sucked dry of all spiritual power wasn’t pleasant. A soft groan spilled from Su Tang’s throat.
“Oh my, you discovered it.”
Shen Ji’s smile became sweeter.
“I wanted to let you complete all this in a dream without pain, but baby, you really are stubborn, insisting on coming back to this painful reality yourself.”
“Your spiritual power is very special…”
Warm breath brushed past her ear.
“Although the spiritual power is very weak, it’s unexpectedly very compatible.”
He paused, his tone carrying a bit of pity.
“Pity, though. It doesn’t last long enough.”
Su Tang’s vision went black. Her last shred of spiritual power was sucked dry by the man, and her body fell limply.
Before losing consciousness, she felt herself fall into a scorching hot embrace.
…
When she woke up again, she was back in her dormitory.
The dormitory curtains were drawn tight, letting in only a few rays of moonlight.
Su Tang moved her fingers. Her whole body felt sore and weak, as if it had fallen apart. Tapping the wristband on her wrist and seeing the display showing almost non-existent spiritual power fluctuation, Su Tang couldn’t help but rub her aching brow.
“Awake?”
Mo Xiao sat in the shadows by the bed, a distinct unlit cigarette between his fingers. Seeing her open her eyes, he immediately put the cigarette away.
“How do you feel?”
Su Tang’s throat was dry to the point of pain.
“Shen Ji…”
“His spiritual power stabilized by twenty percent.”
Mo Xiao’s tone was very faint, but suppressed anger could be heard.
“He went back to the Second Squad.”
He paused, his brows knitting into a knot.
“Before leaving, he said he looks forward to seeing you next time.”
He hadn’t wanted to pass on this message for Shen Ji, but they were teammates who had been on the battlefield together, after all.
Su Tang coughed lowly twice. Shen Ji’s masked face flashed through her mind. The temptation was truly tempting, and the wickedness was truly wicked—he had actually sucked her spiritual power clean.
Sure enough, the old saying was right: There is a knife above the character for lust.
Mo Xiao handed over a glass of warm water and helped her sit up.
“Don’t have contact with him again.”
His voice carried an unquestionable toughness. Shen Ji’s mind was too strange.
“His spiritual power will erode your consciousness.”
Su Tang drank a mouthful of water, alleviating the dryness in her throat somewhat.
She looked at Mo Xiao’s tense jawline and nodded.
“Rest assured, Captain Mo. I value my life quite a bit.”
She wasn’t a masochist; one lesson was enough.
Mo Xiao pursed his lips, wanting to say something, but ultimately held it back. Then, he took out a handful of injectors from his jacket pocket.
“Highest-grade supplements. One per day.”
Su Tang accepted them and injected the medicine into her arm. A warm current slowly spread out.
The spiritual power in her mind seemed to recover a little. Although it couldn’t compare to when it was abundant before, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as when she first woke up.
Seeing that Su Tang was settled, Mo Xiao didn’t plan to stay longer.
“It’s too remote here. Tomorrow, someone will come to pick you up and take you to a new residence.”
“During your recovery period, don’t go to the Matching Center.”
Su Tang raised an eyebrow. It seemed this trip wasn’t in vain; at least she didn’t have to continue dwelling in this cold little room.
“Understood.”
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