Lin Yuan's first opponent was the deputy captain Rachel.

"You have to be careful, I've made progress." Lin Yuan lowered her body's center of gravity and made a starting gesture. The black and white bracelet flowed to her palm and became a thin dagger, which she held.

Rachel's blue eyes showed a gentle smile, and her long golden hair was braided and hung in front of her.

He drew out his knife and spun it in a circle.

As soon as his knife came out, Ni Ji knew who Lin Yuan learned the knife skills from.

The two men's knife-playing movements were almost identical.

Rachel was smiling gently the moment before, but once the fight started, his aura changed.

His eyes were sharp, his legs were full of power, and his golden braid left a shadow in the sunlight.

In just a moment, the blade was close to the tip of Lin Yuan's fair nose. There was no intention of holding back.

Lin Yuan's bright eyes were right in front of him, without any hesitation or avoidance, his gaze was sparkling.

Rachel was startled. By the time he reacted, it was too late. The forest in front of him was just an illusion, shattered by the wind of the knife. A cold murderous intent attacked him from behind.

Rachel felt a chill on his neck and his hair stood on end. He relied on his sentinel's sharp body instincts to barely avoid the flash of the knife.

He retreated quickly, his feet raising two streaks of yellow sand on the training ground. He used his hand brake to stop his retreat. He looked up and saw Lin Yuan putting away his knife and turning around.

Several strands of severed golden hair fell to the ground.

Rachel was horrified.

He had spent quite some time with Lin Yuan, so he naturally knew that Lin Yuan was not a weak person.

But he also knew that such close-range hand-to-hand combat was the biggest weakness of the guide Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan's sword skills, or myself? Starting from scratch, I was taught step by step.

After such a short period of time, she has already perfectly integrated her special mental control and combat skills and applied them to such an amazing level.

The speed of progress is shocking.

Lin Yuan turned his hand and made a knife flower exactly the same as Rachel's, and the white-bladed black knife flew in a circle between his slender fingers.

The ground beneath Rachel's feet suddenly disappeared.

The training grounds, dormitories, gates, and entire sentry posts were gone. Below and above my head was the vast sky, and in all directions were endless stars.

And Lin Yuan, turning the small dagger over, stood among the stars and looked at him.

Not only Rachel, but almost all the sentinels present were infected by the spiritual power radiating from Lin Yuan and fell into this starry illusion.

It was difficult to distinguish between heaven and earth, there was no place to stand, and I felt dizzy and had a severe sense of weightlessness.

Several sentries could not stand. Even if they stretched out their hands to feel around, they lost their sense of touch and could only retreat far away from the battlefield.

"It's so scary. Director Lin has become so strong in an instant."

"That's amazing! Even better than last time."

"Team Lei won't be defeated so quickly. Although I feel he will lose to Lin Xiang-guild sooner or later."

"That's impossible. Look at the sentry from Kyoto. He's standing there steadily, unaffected. Don't you know Captain Lei's character? He would rather die than lose face in front of outsiders."

Rachel pulled off the belt of his tactical uniform, and the black belt covered his eyes.

He steadied himself, and behind him, a golden lion appeared.

The King of the Grassland shook his fluffy golden hair, stepped out from the void, and let out a deep roar.

When Lin Yuan first met Rachel, his mental picture was on the verge of collapse, and his spiritual body degenerated into a lion cub, not much bigger than a cat, with sparse hair, and looked pitiful after being caught in the rain.

Now, in just a few months, this golden lion has escaped from its predicament and is standing among the stars in the universe, majestic and with eyes burning with fire.

The golden beast's body grew larger and larger, and the huge lion faced the forest garden from afar across thousands of stars.

Behind Lin Yuan, the tentacles were stimulated by the powerful spirit body and showed their fangs and claws.

【Wow, big...big cat. 】

[Golden color, lots of hair, I love it]

[It's so big, I want to jerk it]

[Stop talking, the fish at home will turn sour soon. ]

The King of the Grassland braced himself, and the blond sentinel, full of fighting spirit, charged forward at lightning speed.

Lin Yuan felt herself getting excited. A giant deep-sea monster with tentacles surging appeared behind her, heading towards the giant golden beast.

The friends hadn't seen each other for a long time and found that they had become stronger. The battle was exciting.

Lin Yuan and Rachel had a competition, which caused the ground to shake and almost all the soldiers on the sentry post were frightened.

She was still in high spirits and played another game with Little Bird. Although it was her first time to cooperate with Little Bird, she easily defeated Big Old Man, Big Cat, Coyote, Lizard and others whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

It was not until the sentry leader Shen Fei came out to call a halt and took them home for dinner that they reluctantly stopped.

"Don't you plan to let me compete with them?" Ni Ji took the time to talk to Lin Yuan in a low voice.

His hands were a little itchy. The fighting here was exciting and the atmosphere made him nostalgic, reminding him of his former sentry post.

Lin Yuan's dark eyes moved, pretending not to hear.

Her expression was more vivid than ever before, so much so that Ni Ji understood it immediately.

He almost had these words clearly written on his mind: "They are my sentinels, and only I can bully them. Don't you want to bully them?"

【……】

【……】

【……】

[It's over. Who wants to go? Try the fish now. ]

【It’s not me anyway】

When they arrived at Shen Fei's house, Shen Fei's daughter was very happy to see Lin Yuan coming, and she hugged Lin Yuan's legs with joy.

Lin Yuan brought her a fashionable new doll bought in Kyoto. It was in the shape of an octopus, with a pink body, cute black eyes, and eight small tentacles underneath.

So Shen Fei's daughter Xiaoyuan completely stuck to Lin Yuan, holding the octopus doll and occupying the only position beside Lin Yuan.

Compared to the banquet in Kyoto, Shen Fei's family dinner can only be described as simple. The food was simple and the venue was very small. A group of sentinels gathered around the long dining table, and it was very noisy.

But Ni Ji found that Lin Yuan was very relaxed here, and his usually cold face showed many subtle expressions that were rarely seen on it.

She and the little girl sat on the soft sofa, talking to each other in whispers.

Her lips were stained with amber sweet wine, her eyes were bright and her teeth were white, she smiled softly, and the orange candlelight on the dining table softened the contours of her face.

She looked like an ordinary, living girl, and she was completely different from the one who was walking around the White Tower, with a mask on and no strangers allowed.

It turns out that she likes this kind of place and this kind of life.

The sentries spoke in unison, under the banner of welcoming new guests, and concentrated their firepower on Ni Jishen. One by one, they stood up and challenged Ni Ji to a drinking contest.

"Yuanyuan's personal sentry? Come on, let's see if your drinking capacity is worthy of Yuanyuan's." Xiaoniao sat in a big carriage and raised his hand to take a bowl of strong liquor.

"I heard that you are the guard assigned by the Queen to Director Lin? I'll toast to you and hope you can protect our Director Lin." The man with long golden hair raised the glass.

"Don't talk nonsense. We are going to fight you. If you lie down, Guide Lin will be returned to us." Tiger opened a bottle of wine.

Ni Ji was not one to be stage-frightened and accepted everyone who came to him.

For a while, everyone was toasting each other and having a great time.

In the end, all the sentries at the table fell down, leaving only Lin Yuan still sitting there.

Ni Ji's face flushed, and she lay on the table next to Lin Yuan with a dazed look in her eyes.

When she was drunk, she was neither noisy nor sleepy, with a hint of spring in the corners of her eyes, making her look much more charming than her usual cold, hard and upright appearance.

Lin Yuan had never seen Ni Ji like this before and found it very interesting. She walked over to look at him and asked, "Are you drunk?"

"Better than them? They can't drink more than me."

When he's drunk he's quite honest and talkative than usual, and he'll answer anything you ask him.

Lin Yuan took the opportunity to ask him, "Do you like my spiritual counseling?"

"I like it. I like it very much."

"Why do you always carry candy with you?"

"Prepare it for you to eat."

Lin Yuan was happy, and even the wine in his hand seemed to become sweeter.

"Xunhua said that your mental image was damaged. What did the Scarlet Egg do to you at that time?"

"No...you can't tell Lin Yuan."

Lin Yuan originally just asked about this casually.

The last time I was doing spiritual counseling for Ni Ji, I unexpectedly discovered that his spiritual picture had been severely damaged in the Golden Tree pollution area.

He kept that memory well, and Lin Yuan remained polite, not rummaging around in the Sentinel's underwater palace, and had no idea what he had encountered.

What kind of mental illusion caused such severe mental trauma?

If he is willing to speak out, the next time we do mental sorting, we can help him recover better in a targeted manner.

If he just said he couldn't tell it, didn't want to tell it, that would be fine. But what he said was that he couldn't tell Lin Yuan.

Why didn't you tell Lin Yuan on purpose?

"No, I can't tell you. I can't let Lin Yuan know."

Ni Ji's face lay on the cold wooden table, his face was intoxicated, his eyes were blurred, and it seemed as if something in the depths of his eyes was diluted by alcohol, revealing the fragility buried within.

"Lin Yuan asked you to tell her?" Lin Yuan moved closer and coaxed him in a low voice.

Ni Ji's eyes moved and his expression was hesitant.

"You can tell me. Tell me."

A tentacle climbed up onto the wine table, its soft tip hooked up the black glove, drilled in, and pinched the back of the sentry's hand that was paralyzed on the table.

"It... that guy let me see you." Ni Ji frowned, "It let me see you and your tentacles... You are very fierce and have been torturing me."

Lin Yuan's happy mood disappeared in an instant.

That guy turned into her, bullied his own sentry, and scared him like this?

A wave of anger rose in my heart. I regretted for not cutting that abominable guy into pieces with my own hands.

He completely forgot that he was dying at the time and almost died with the monster.

The sentry lay on the table, looking at the tentacles wriggling in the gloves in front of him. For a moment, his memory seemed to be confused.

"You, you really went too far that time."

"But then I thought, as long as you're alive, as long as you're willing to open your eyes, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter."

His words were filled with pain, fear, and the influence of alcohol, but they were sincere and came from the bottom of his heart.

As long as you are alive, it doesn't matter what you did to me.

Even the most unruly tentacle was too embarrassed to move, slipped out of Ni Ji's glove, and touched his hair soothingly.

The sentry finally closed his eyes and fell asleep in the cold night.

…

"She? Didn't go to? The Place without Pupils?" a voice said in the White Tower.

"Yes, they did not board the airship that was prepared for them. Instead, they took a long-distance bus."

“…”

"It seems like she changed her mind at the last minute. Our people heard their conversation. Even Ni Ji, who was traveling with her, didn't seem to know what she was thinking."

"What an interesting child. She looks a lot like her mother, which makes me miss her."

"Should we ignore them? I heard that they have been going in and out of the contaminated areas near the east coast recently, and they are invincible. Now they are famous. Even the sentinels and guides inside the White Tower are talking about them from time to time."

"It's okay. She will eventually go to the Pupilless Land. Maybe that place will make her feel at home and finally recognize her true self."

Almost at the same time, Lin Yuan and Ni Ji had just left the polluted area and passed by a beach, which happened to be Xiaomu's home, so the two of them went to visit.

Xiaomu, the boy whose spirit body was a seal, had grown taller than when they first parted, almost as tall as an adult. But he was as thin as a bamboo pole.

He was very happy to see Lin Yuan. He rummaged through the boxes in the dark stone house and found a pile of black cakes wrapped in layers.

"Sister Guide, I remember you liked to eat this last time, so I bought this specially for you during this period. You can take it with you on the road."

The cake was made of coarse grains, baked until it was dark and hard, and it was actually very unpalatable. Lin Yuan was just a bad person at the time and liked to steal other people's food.

"Every time mommy bakes cakes, brother won't eat his share but hides them in the box. It turns out they are for you, your sister." Xiaomu's youngest sister came out and looked at the cakes with drooling eyes.

Even such food is not something their family can afford to eat every day. It is only an occasional source of food to improve their lives.

Lin Yuan took the stack of black cakes and solemnly put them into his backpack.

Her backpack was filled with many beautifully packaged candies and snacks, all of which were her favorite snacks.

Lin Yuan put the biscuits in, the candies poured out, and he looked at them reluctantly for a while, then left them all to Xiaomu and his brothers and sisters.

The children here had never seen such candies and their eyes lit up.

When we said goodbye to Xiaomu's house, the sky had already darkened slightly. The red sunset floated on the sea, the light shone through the clouds, the sunset glowed in a myriad of colors, and the sea water carried white foam and washed onto the beach.

Lin Yuan and Ni Ji sat on a pile of discarded tires to rest, eating those hard cakes to the sound of the waves.

What they didn't tell Xiaomu was that this time they came out, after meeting him, they were going to change their route and head directly to the Land of No Pupils.

Never go back to Dongbin again.

Lin Yuan and Ni Ji have been at Dongbin Sentry Post for a few days and have explored the surrounding polluted areas. The polluted areas here have been explored by a large number of explorers and have various detailed exploration records, so they are relatively safe.

The two formed a team and went in and out of it many times, which solidly honed their combat coordination.

It's time to go to that forest that she wants to explore, and that dangerous place that the queen wants her to explore.

Lin Yuan doesn't like long-winded farewells.

If you can come back alive, you will naturally meet your friends again one day. If you are stuck in it, this farewell will become a tragic memory, so it is better not to have it.

She had already met the friends she wanted to meet, had a few drinks with them, and exchanged skills with them. That was enough.

Come cleanly and leave casually.

It was low tide at this time, and there were many children out swimming in the muddy intertidal zone by the sea.

The severe winter is almost over and spring is approaching, but the weather is still very cold.

Those young children stepped barefoot in the icy sea water, their thin calves turned red from being frozen.

But they always laugh with joy for every little gain.

This is the last peaceful night before entering the land of no pupils.

Lin Yuan broke off the black biscuits and put them into her mouth little by little, pretending that they were still her sweet candies.

Ni Ji knew that she had the habit of guarding her food. As long as it was something she liked to eat, she would always hold it in her hands and would never be willing to share it with others.

"Since you are so reluctant to part with it, why not leave some Imperial Coins for them? They should want Imperial Coins too." Ni Ji asked her.

"The thing you are most reluctant to give away is the gift." Lin Yuan was listless and missed the sweets he had given away.

She opened her personal terminal to show Ni Ji. She sent a message to Shen Fei, hoping that they could make an exception and recruit Xiao Mu in advance.

Sentinels who were under the age limit could not receive the salary issued by the Empire. However, they could first pay it from Lin Yuan's personal account. This little money was actually a trivial matter for Lin Yuan.

Only with a stable income can we truly help the child and his poor family.

Xiaomu was just a child, from a poor family, and still young. But he was sincere to Lin Yuan. Lin Yuan treated him with respect as a friend instead of just giving him a few imperial coins.

The setting sun sank completely into the sea, the sky darkened, and the sea and sky were dyed with rich sunset glow, which dyed people's eyebrows and eyes with a gentle color.

Ni Ji took out a few pointed chocolates with liquor fillings from his pocket and handed them to Lin Yuan who was looking listless beside him.

Lin Yuan's eyes lit up immediately. She quickly took them, held them all in her arms, and happily broke open one to eat.

Very sweet, she thought.

The sound of the waves was sweet, and the sentinels beside her were also sweet. She found that she seemed to be getting better and better here, almost like a normal person.

Even the pupilless place that we were about to go to seemed less scary and frightening.

Everything is getting better.

[Small fish is better]

【Can be sour or sweet】

[I am a mobile storehouse, and I know how to carry sugar with me. I am a good fish.]

[The fight is about to start, it's time for me to masturbate and replenish my sugar intake. ]

The tentacle that claimed to be the master enthusiastically hooked Ni Ji's long legs and was about to wrap them upwards.

There was a slight smell of alcohol in the chocolate in the air.

This reminded the tentacles of what they heard and saw after drinking.

Think of the traumatized mental picture of the sentinel.

I thought about what bad things that damn guy might have done in his mental hallucinations in his own image.

The unscrupulous tentacles let go of Ni Ji helplessly, like eggplants hit by frost.

They were unhappy, tangled together, and twisted back and forth on the beach, swearing and grumbling.

The sentry was prepared to be bullied by them if they climbed up.

Seeing the tentacles suddenly change their normal behavior and let go of their legs, he was very surprised and looked puzzled.

[Xiaoyu, don't use that expression, woo woo.]

[I want to play with you]

[It’s okay, we don’t know anything.]

[I didn’t take your confession while you were drunk.]

[We will take good care of you this time when we go to the Land of No Pupils. ]

【Don’t let others bully you anymore】