Chapter 23: Heartache

As agreed, Wen Li was to meet Lin Zheng today, accompanied by Yue Li. Her brain felt as if she had suffered a blackout yesterday; she had no memory of anything at all. When she saw Ban today, it was strange that he didn't offer his usual morning greeting. Did she drag him into another experiment yesterday?

To see Yue Li, she needed Angus’s authorization. Wen Li went to his office to request it. The man with long, dark green hair stopped what he was doing and lazily rested his head on his hand. After watching Wen Li for a moment, Angus stood up.

"Let’s go."

Wen Li’s short legs hurried to keep up with him, and she poked her head out to ask, "Are you coming with me?"

Angus looked down at the small person struggling to keep pace, slowed his stride, and casually pinched Wen Li’s fair, soft cheek. "After such a major incident yesterday, if I don't take some action today, it would look like I'm mistreating my subordinates."

*So they all know,* Wen Li thought to herself. *I didn't think it was that serious.*

"General Lin Zheng’s pollutants are different from the ones I’ve purified for sentinels before. His are very difficult to cleanse and possess self-awareness." Angus listened carefully to the young guide’s confusion.

"Lin Zheng is the only one to have emerged from an SSS+ contaminated zone. Naturally, the pollutants in his mental sea are not ordinary."

Wen Li suddenly understood; it wasn't that she was incompetent. She continued to ask, "Can the highest-ranking guide currently available purify him?"

Angus paused for a moment and said, looking down, "No one can purify him, so do not tell anyone else about your success. Yesterday’s surveillance footage has already been encrypted, and all the sentinels have signed non-disclosure agreements."

But Wen Li needed Lin Zheng’s help, so she asked anxiously, "Can I still see him after this?"

Angus replied, "I know you want to save that iron-eating beast. The White Tower is already drafting the mission brief."

Wen Li jumped with joy like a little bird. *Thank goodness, the White Tower hasn't given up on Yue Li.*

When her mood improved, her mental state naturally followed. Seeing Yue Li sitting quietly on the stool, Wen Li excitedly pressed her palms against the glass. "Yue Li!"

The young man with black and white dyed hair lifted his head dully; he wore a sensory deprivation helmet to reduce the overflow of his psychic energy. Even though Wen Li was right in front of him, he couldn't see her. He sat there motionless—unable to move, speak, or even think. Every action a sentinel took consumed psychic energy, and Yue Li could only suppress this instinct, unable to do anything. He couldn't even... couldn't even let his mind go blank. He had to focus entirely on resisting the pollution core.

A heartache beyond words gripped her. If only she had been a little stronger back then, would Yue Li have had to end up like this? Although Angus was long accustomed to such things—soldiers returning from the battlefield who could still be saved were all fitted with this device—seeing the disappointment in Wen Li’s eyes still touched him.

She truly cared for the sentinels.

He handed the authorization to Wen Li and gently pushed her forward. "Go see him. He... misses you very much."

Wen Li’s nose stung, and she forced back tears as she opened the door. Yue Li could neither see nor hear, but he could sense that someone had entered. Having not spoken for so long, the young man’s clear, bright voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Don't."

With just those two words, the pollution core launched a counter-attack, devouring the sentinel’s mental sea. Wen Li froze, and the tears that had been welling up in her eyes finally fell. She stepped forward and reached out to remove his helmet.

Yue Li felt a sudden brightness; the long-lost light shone upon his face. He shielded his eyes and slowly opened his sore lids.

"Don't be afraid, Yue Li. I'm here."

Her gentle voice carried the light of salvation. Yue Li was enveloped in a warm, fragrant embrace, and he felt familiar psychic energy in his mental sea. It entered his ruins, filled with pollutants, and brought life. Threads of blue light wound around the pollutants, cleansing them.

As Yue Li opened his eyes, he saw Wen Li’s fair face growing pale from the intense concentration required to maintain the purification. He etched her appearance into his memory, terrified that this might be his last look.

"Wen... Li..."

No matter how hard the blue threads worked to clear the corruption, they could not keep pace with the spread of the pollution core. The young girl stepped closer, cradling Yue Li’s face in her hands. Forehead to forehead, she opened her mental channels wider. Pushing herself to the limit, Wen Li’s underdeveloped psychic filaments materialized and clung to the sentinel’s brain. The blue, glowing threads grew thicker, pouring wave after wave of purifying power into him.

Wen Li’s eyes turned violet, and her golden hair floated in the air. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

Yue Li could feel the girl’s psychic energy draining away. *This can't go on.* He knew this was futile, so he reached out to pull the sensory deprivation helmet back onto his head. In the final second before darkness reclaimed him, Yue Li hugged her.

Wen Li’s purification was interrupted; her violet eyes faded back to white, and her psychic energy dissipated. Everything returned to silence.

Angus knocked on the glass, signaling for Wen Li to come out. Reluctant to leave Yue Li, the girl dared not exert any pressure, nor did she want her tears to fall on him, so she tilted her head upward. She knew that even the slightest perception would cause Yue Li pain.

*She would save him; she would do it today!*

She carefully pulled away from Yue Li’s embrace, arranged his body into a more comfortable position, and then left the room.

Angus handed her a psychic replenishment potion. The girl took it in silence and drank it in one breath.

Angus asked, "It’s pitiful, isn't it? Having to survive solely on a machine like that."

Wen Li replied, "I will save him."

Angus countered, "In the southern battlefield recently, three to four sentinels like this are brought down every day. What about them?"

Wen Li didn't know how to answer. She couldn't even save Yue Li right now. If she were selfish, she would admit that she only had a bond with Yue Li and had her own desires. What did those strangers have to do with her? Most guides would think that way.

But those sentinels, who fought for the entire Federation—what of them? Did they deserve to suffer such inhuman torture? Struggling and holding on, hoping only that one day they might be saved by a guide, until they could hold on no longer and either committed suicide or were killed by their own comrades?

It was ridiculous. The warriors who protected their homes and country ended up with such a fate.

Wen Li couldn't accept it. She was a guide; her duty was to help sentinels alleviate their suffering. It was like in her original world—if Wen Li were a doctor, could she watch a patient die and do nothing?

Wen Li looked at the young man behind the glass. Countless warriors like him were being tortured. Wen Li’s resolve hardened.

She replied to Angus, "Do you know about the idiom 'pulling on seedlings to help them grow'? Give me some time."

Angus had been a little impatient lately, but he saw that the girl had a clear mind. "There is no pressure; I was just afraid I wouldn't live to see that day." He turned and handed a book to Wen Li. "I trust my instincts."

Having achieved his goal, Angus left. Whether cold-blooded or selfish, he would treat it as if it were for his own sake—Wen Li had to grow!