CH 14

As the rain intensified, the sky darkened in an instant. It was barely four or five in the afternoon, yet the scene before him felt as pitch-black as the deepest of nights, where one couldn’t see a hand in front of their face. The temperature plummeted, and every inch of Xiao Zhenyun was soaked, as if he had been pulled out of a river. Raindrops continued to fall non-stop, and his clothes clung to his skin like icy adhesive, causing him to shiver uncontrollably.

“Si Di…?” Xiao Zhenyun noticed that the pace of the sentinel beneath him was slowing down, and the breathing grew more strained. He was genuinely concerned about the sentinel’s current state.

At the sound, Si Di turned his head back. In the darkness, his eyes emitted a faint glow, resembling those of nocturnal creatures.

Xiao Zhenyun’s guide elements immediately enveloped him, but due to the heavy rain, its effectiveness was limited. Si Di’s terminal was undamaged. He unfastened the strap and handed it to Xiao Zhenyun after switching on the illumination mode. “Use it sparingly.”

In the midst of the cold, damp night rain, Xiao Zhenyun strapped the terminal to his wrist. With his eyes squinting from the wetness, he looked around and saw that Si Di’s wolf ears were pressing back against his head, trying to shield themselves from rain and unwanted noises. Xiao Zhenyun watched for a moment, then couldn’t resist lifting his hand to cover the pointed ears, providing shelter from rain and noise for the sentinel.

Si Di didn’t refuse Xiao Zhenyun’s gesture. He had no extra energy to spare for words of gratitude. Silently and resolutely, he continued forward. The muddy ground in the pouring rain was treacherous, yet he didn’t stumble once throughout the journey.

After an unknown span of time, a time that felt endless to Xiao Zhenyun, he suddenly heard Si Di’s voice, buried beneath the rainwater: “There’s a cave.”

Xiao Zhenyun immediately turned on the handheld light and scanned the surroundings. Si Di was now crouching under a hollow rock wall for temporary shelter. The cave Si Di pointed to was situated above the sheltering rock, about five or six meters high.

In Si Di’s prime, this would have been a mere jump for him. But now, he was utterly exhausted, and Xiao Zhenyun wasn’t even sure if Si Di had the strength to look for another cave if this one wasn’t suitable.

After a brief rest, Si Di, with Xiao Zhenyun on his back, ventured back into the storming rain. Climbing the slippery rock wall with one hand was quite challenging. Xiao Zhenyun instinctively acted as Si Di’s extra hand, tightly grasping the rock wall when the sentinel’s footing slipped.

The sharp rocks cut into his already lashed palms, leaving them bloody and wrecked. Yet, from start to finish, Xiao Zhenyun didn’t utter a sound, as if nothing had happened. Only when Si Di detected the scent of blood did he realize that Xiao Zhenyun was injured.

Si Di rested his forehead against the rock wall, catching his breath, and murmured softly, “Give me the injured hand.”

“What?!” Xiao Zhenyun raised his voice against the howling wind and rain, puzzled.

“Give me the hand that’s bleeding!” Si Di immediately shouted toward his ear, leaning closer to him.

“Ah?” Xiao Zhenyun, bewildered, pulled back his right hand, handing it to Si Di. The sentinel leaned in, sniffed, and unexpectedly licked the fresh wound that ran across Xiao Zhenyun’s palm.

A soft sensation surged instantly at Xiao Zhenyun’s fingertips, a tingling electric current traveling from his palm along his arm to his spine. His tailbone twitched and protruded with a thump, emerging from the back opening of his pants.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Zhenyun jerked his hand back suddenly, then pressed his hand against his forehead, praying that his antlers wouldn’t make an already challenging climbing task even more difficult.

“Stay still… I need your blood,” Si Di’s face was pressed against the stone, his breath heavy, “Hurry up.”

Only now did Xiao Zhenyun remember the effectiveness of guide’s bodily fluids on sentinels. Without hesitation, he clenched his fist and forcefully squeezed the wound again, allowing more fresh blood to flow out, and then extended his palm to Si Di’s lips.

The sentinel’s tongue licked up again, tracing along the gash, swallowing rainwater and mud together, not wasting a drop of blood.

Xiao Zhenyun resisted the urge to retract his hand, feeling in the darkness as Si Di’s tongue outlined the patterns on his palm. The sentinel seemed unsatisfied with the amount of blood, his hot and rapid breath sprayed near the wound, wordlessly expressing a desire for more.

“Wait a moment.” Xiao Zhenyun understood Si Di’s intention, and just as he was about to compress the already clotting wound, he heard the sentinel shake his head. “That’s enough…”

With that, Si Di gritted his teeth and exerted all his strength, leaping up suddenly. His right arm finally reached the bottom of the cave, and Xiao Zhenyun felt Si Di’s muscles tremble as he struggled to prevent them from falling. Xiao Zhenyun quickly supported himself with his hands on the ground, grabbing onto anything he could, and then pulled Si Di’s collar, dragging them both into the cave, rolling and crawling.

Although his lower body had no sensation, they were bound together at the waist. Xiao Zhenyun crawled as best as he could into the cave. With great effort, he managed to flip inside with Si Di.

The storming rain curtain finally remained outside the cave, and the two exhausted men lay on top of each other, panting heavily, too weak to move.

After a while, Xiao Zhenyun turned on the flashlight again, its beam illuminating the interior of the cave. The rock wall was smooth and dry, with no snakes, rats, or bats in sight. It was clean, and further in, there was a corner sheltered from the wind. He patted Si Di’s shoulder immediately, “Luck is on our side. We found a good spot. We can sleep here tonight.”

Si Di didn’t speak, he simply unfastened the climbing ropes from both of them and lifted Xiao Zhenyun, placing him in this relatively safe and warm spot.

Quickly gathering his long hair in his hand, Xiao Zhenyun twisted it tightly and made a random knot. Then he took off his clothes, then shoes, then pants. Being naked was warmer than wearing these soaked clothes. He was struggling to unzip his pants when he noticed Si Di standing with his back to him at the cave entrance, looking at the curtain of rain outside.

While in this special world where gender could be categorized into four types, most still adhered to the traditional notion of binary gender. Yet, there were those who held more conservative views, believing that sentinels and guides also had their distinct categories. Xiao Zhenyun thought Si Di belonged to the latter, someone who would be embarrassed to see him, as a guide, undress. He was teasing, thinking about when he was eagerly licking me earlier, why wasn’t he embarrassed then? But then he saw Si Di seem to make a decision and walk straight out.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Xiao Zhenyun quickly asked, “Don’t tell me you want to start a fire? Stop fussing, hurry and take off your wet clothes.”

Si Di’s footsteps paused for a moment, he didn’t turn around. “I can only help you this far. Take care of yourself.”

Hungry, cold, and exhausted, Xiao Zhenyun thought he could finally rest, only to face this inexplicable sudden situation. He couldn’t bear to keep up the gentle and compliant act anymore. “Are you out of your mind? Do you really want to part ways with me now, in the rain, and wait for the rain to stop tomorrow? Where are you going to find a place to sleep on this nearly zero-degree rainy night? Come over here, I’m freezing to death.”

Si Di remained silent for a few seconds, then he decisively took steps toward the cave entrance.

Xiao Zhenyun was thoroughly infuriated. “Si Di! What on earth are you trying to do?”

The sound reverberated loudly within the cave, causing Si Di to abruptly cover his ears and turn around, his voice lowering as he scolded, “Shut up! Can’t you see I’m on the verge of going insane? Do you want me to stay here and tear you apart?”

As he spoke, Si Di’s pupils dilated, and crimson streaks gradually filled his eyes, while his tall figure bent and contorted, showing signs of turning into a crouched and feral form on all fours. He shook his head vigorously, his rationality diminishing, and he had to leave immediately.

At this point, Si Di was displaying various symptoms of madness, beyond the reach of an ordinary guide’s help. Only a permanently bonded guide or one with a high enough compatibility could potentially bring a sentinel back from the brink of mental frenzy in a gentle manner. Of course, both scenarios shared a prerequisite: the guide’s own mental strength must not be too low.

He couldn’t let Si Di leave like this.

Xiao Zhenyun’s gaze shifted from the pouring rain outside the cave to Si Di’s face.

Even though Si Di was a sentinel, spending a night drenched in the rain like this was risky, and coupled with his mental turmoil, Xiao Zhenyun couldn’t fathom if Si Di would survive to see tomorrow.

On a professional level, Si Di had saved his life; he couldn’t stand by and watch him suffer.

On a personal level, if Si Di died, he wouldn’t survive either. Even if Si Di miraculously survived, merely enduring the aftermath of the severe illness meant tough times ahead.

Paralyzed in the wilderness to care for a patient – just the thought of it was worse than death.

“Don’t go, Si Di,” Xiao Zhenyun strained to make his voice soft and gentle, coaxing the sentinel swaying on the brink of losing sanity, “Come over here.”

Si Di looked at him in disbelief, his gaze gradually turning greedy and bloodthirsty. He uncontrollably fixated on Xiao Zhenyun’s throat, envisioning the satisfying sensation of his sharp teeth sinking into that delicate flesh. But his endangered sanity was still struggling to maintain his humanity. In this deadlock, Si Di stood like a sculpture, facing the gloomy rainy night, his eyes emitting a faint green glow as he stared at the alluring yet delicate guide.

Soon, Xiao Zhenyun’s patience wore thin. He pulled his hair at the forehead, causing the antlers to emerge, and the magnificent, sharply curved antlers extended smoothly backward, even larger than Xiao Zhenyun’s head.

Once he was sure Si Di had completely noticed this fully transformed set of antlers, Xiao Zhenyun slowly retracted them. Since the last time heavy antlers had pressed down on him, leaving him sleepless, he had spent the entire night studying how to control their growth actively. This way, he could keep them at a manageable length of just ten centimeters, like a budding branch.

Deer ears also popped out and quivered slightly beside the antlers, breathing in the fresh air.

“Come to me, Si Di,” Xiao Zhenyun commanded with a cold tone, “Three times, don’t make me repeat it for the fourth time.”

Si Di recognized this pair of antlers.

He had even dreamt about them.

The guide in the dream had worn countless faces, and he had speculated endlessly about the guide’s identities. But no matter what, he never thought it would be this person.

“How is this possible,” he murmured, “Why would it be…”

Xiao Zhenyun extended a hand toward him. This time, there was no need for further explanation. Si Di was like a puppet on a string, stumbling after the beckoning hand. As he drew closer, his knees gave way suddenly, and he knelt at Xiao Zhenyun’s side.

“Why would it be you?” Si Di still seemed dazed.

The one who wanted to kill me was you, the one who saved me was also you, and now the one, trying to pull me back from the brink of madness – it’s still you.

What exactly are you trying to do?

“It’s a complicated matter. I’ll explain next time,” Xiao Zhenyun brushed off. He reached to undo Si Di’s clothes, but his fingers were numb and uncooperative from the cold, taking a long time to strip the sentinel down. Then, Xiao Zhenyun intended to remove Si Di’s pants, but the sentinel, with red eyes, had already lunged forward and tightly embraced him.

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