"Xin Linhua!"
Hollow flinches hard. His body responds on instinct, turning towards the high pitched voice like a command.
"What the fuck..." He mutters.
His head feels heavy, his legs suddenly weaken with the sudden headache as he falls to one knee, his body burns with an unbearable heat. Like a fever but different.
Images. Like an old CD player, broken, fragments of pictures. Like lights flashing by at 2x speed with no control.
He can’t catch on to any of them, yet they sink into his brain and form memories he could swear on his life weren’t his.
Memories...of a boy who smiled. A boy who cried. A boy who grew into a teenager and chased after dreams with false lights. A young man whose hope was shattered yet like a fool, he kept on hoping.
Xin Linhua.
That’s the body he’s currently harboring. He’s now a soul from another world, thrust into a world of sentinels and guards, rifts and embers. The strong rules and the weak bows. A very laughable situation.
So he laughs.
His head weighs a ton or two, yet he laughs at his situation.
First he died in the hands of a lunatic he trusted, now he’s harboring the body of a youth with zero abilities and a total pushover.
Ah...fate can be a bastard at times!
He staggers to his feet, dusting the dirt off his pants, he slides his bangs back. His posture straightens. His eyes flicker towards the girl before him.
"Who are you?" He frowns.
The large field goes quiet. Different expressions, different faces, all focused on him. His frown deepens.
"Xin Linhua, a little fight and you lost your screws?" The girl scoffs "Listen, no matter how many times I say this, a defect can never be paired up with me."
Hollow– no, Xin Linhua blinks. His forehead still pulses faintly with pain, but some memories resurfaces instantly.
Sentinels. Guides. Rifts. Embers. A world ridden with ruins and monsters.
Sentinels are humans who awakens with extraordinary abilities, longer life span and high combat abilities. High rank sentinels are few and far, but even a D-Rank is considered useful. Their abilities decides how useful they are and their background is like a cheat code. They can only use their abilities within the range of their control. Any more and their mental state collapses.
Guides are different. They awaken as well, different ranks, different wave length. A guide can regulate a Sentinel’s wavelength before they go mad or out of control and kill the people around them. A guide is valuable, no matter the rank. As long as they can soothe a sentinel, they’re considered useful.
And the girl standing before him...
Rong Yufei. A C-Rank Sentinel with high combat power and her ability is Geokenesis. A high ranked personnel indeed...and also his fiance!
What the fuck! What the heck! What in the gaslighting world! A fiance!?
Xin Linhua, his current identity is the third son of the Xin family, a large behemoth on Zhongjing continent.
His marriage was a decision between his grandfather and Rong Yufei’s grandfather. They were young then, too busy building sand castles to remind that the tide washes everything away by nightfall.
It was set in stone, both sides agreed, the parties involved had no objections. Then he encountered a rift, a large, dark abyss of nothing but terror and death. He survived, he awakened as a guide, a perfect fit for his soon to be wife who’s a sentinel...
He awakened as a defect– if there was a rank lower than F, he’ll bag the stage. Rong Yufei changed, her family wanted her to cancel the engagement, but they can’t say it outright, so they came after him.
Over and over, humiliation after insults, incidents and chaos, they tried to make him call it off on his own will. A defect shouldn’t hold a prodigy back!
Today, he had gone to confront a sentinel who had been getting too close to Rong Yufei. Not only did he fail, he got involved in a fight and died. Then Hollow took over. Now, he’s in this situation, where the girl stands in front of him like some important specimen and repeats those same lines–
A defect can never be paired with a high rank sentinel...
He’s right to laugh, the situation is crazy. Marriage? Fiance? Bah! They can all go screw themselves! With this new identity, zero abilities and him practically being a wastrel, he’s gonna do something he hasn’t done since the day he was born...
Absolutely nothing!
"You want me to cancel the engagement?" Xin Linhua straightens up with a teasing smile.
"You–" Rong Yufei clenches her fist "You make it sound like I’m forcing you."
Xin Linhua’s expression goes blank. He could have sworn he has read that line multiple times in cliche novels. To think he’ll be in such a situation...
"All right, all right. I’m the one who wants to leave you, so let’s break the damn thing." He waves his hands in annoyance.
The podium goes quiet. Every single being stares at him like he’s gone crazy. Maybe he has! He actually wants to call the engagement off!
"You actually agreed!?" Rong Yufei asks in disbelief.
"Well, yeah." Xin Linhua yawns "Goodbye to good riddance. Sounds like work anyway. The guy I was fighting with– can’t be bothered to search my memory for his name, I wish you all the best with him! Conjugal bliss! Lots of adorable kids!"
Gasps erupt through the field. The crowd refuse to believe this is reality, some even pinch themselves only to feel the pain.
Xin Linhua, the defect of Zhongjing Institute just rejected Rong Yufei and even agreed to cancel their engagement...outrageous!
"I have no reason to get a wife." Xin Linhua clicks his tongue "A hassle. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to our grandfathers, I’ll let them know it was my decision and you like someone else."
"Xin Linhua, how dare you–"
"What’s going on here?" An elderly voice booms through the field "It’s the Selection Trials today and you’re busy fighting?"
" Director Chen!" The crowd chorus.
An elderly man, probably in his late fifties to early sixties walks into the field. His eyes are stern behind the glasses, his posture is straight and undoubtedly strict. His gaze flickers towards Xin Linhua.
"What do you think you’re doing?" His tone is harsh.
"Director, I–"
"Save it for later." The man cuts him off ruthlessly "When the selections are done, you can continue."
The crowd quickly disperses towards the stands. Only now did Xin Linhua finally raise his head to take a good look around.
A large stadium...field? It’s like a training ground, but the size of a stadium with stands and a large podium in the middle. It’s simple, large yet fancy.
"I’m not done with you yet."
Xin Linhua shudders involuntarily. He turns, his eyelids twitching slightly.
A youth is standing beside Rong Yufei now, striking features that resemble hers. Black hair, brown eyes, and a glare that can drain one’s life source.
Rong Feng. Rong Yufei’s twin brother. A C-Rank Sentinel as well.
"Dare to touch me?" Xin Linhua replies with full confidence "Best believe my brothers will have your head on a spike."
Rong Feng clenches his jaws. He opens his mouth to speak, only to shut it back. His face drains of color as he drags his sister away.
"Heh! Weakling." Xin Linhua scoffs.
He feels proud. He just got here less than an hour ago, but he’s already in character and adapting well.
He turns, intending to go find a seat but he bumps into someone. He almost knocks them over.
"I’m sorry, I wasn’t–"
"Get away from me."
The figure staggers back, putting a large distance between them. His voice is icy and anything but friendly. Like he might kill Xin Linhua for bumping into him.