Mingzhou’s brow twitched slightly.
Once the language analysis was complete, he should be able to engage in preliminary two-way communication with the Guide.
But the current situation…
Mingzhou’s gaze fell on the backpack Ye Lingxi was carrying.
He could tell—the Guide was planning to slip away quietly.
He didn’t expose her, only said softly, “Guide, the night is dangerous. Wherever you wish to go, I will accompany you.”
Ye Lingxi watched his lips move, but couldn’t understand a single word.
Mingzhou was watching her too.
Under the night sky, Ye Lingxi’s expression was stiff, her shoulders tense, her fingers gripping the backpack straps so hard her knuckles had turned white.
She was afraid.
She was trembling.
She was desperately trying to find a way to escape.
Something in Mingzhou’s chest gave a gentle tug.
He knew what she thought they were.
Vampires—those blood-sucking monsters from the legends of backward civilizations.
It was only natural that she would be afraid.
But they weren’t.
He didn’t want her to keep being afraid.
He’d still have to wait another twenty minutes for the preliminary language analysis to complete…
But before that, perhaps he could do something to ease her fear.
He tried to recall the few words the AI had parsed out.
Vampire, coffin, blood slave…
Recalling the way Ye Lingxi had pronounced them, the syllables of those words rolled across his tongue.
He wasn’t a man gifted with languages, but these words—he had listened to them over and over again.
Mingzhou took a deep breath and spoke.
“Vam…pire, I… no, not.”
The pronunciation was rough, the grammar off.
But Ye Lingxi was completely frozen.
“I not… no drink, human blood…”
Mingzhou paused, as if trying hard to recall the next word.
“We, hurt, you no, protect.”
He stumbled over his words, each syllable seeming to burn his tongue, his intonation twisting in odd directions—like a foreigner who had just learned to speak.
But Ye Lingxi understood.
Her pupils trembled, her body rigid as she stood rooted to the spot.
Chinese!
This man covered in black tattoos, who had stepped out of an unidentified flying vehicle, the suspected vampire—was speaking Chinese.
Though it sounded like his tongue was tied in knots, though every word was off-key beyond belief, it was undeniably Chinese that she could understand!
“You… you can speak Chinese?” Ye Lingxi blurted out, her eyes wide as saucers.
Mingzhou looked at her shocked expression and knew he had gambled correctly.
He still couldn’t understand Ye Lingxi’s language, but combined with her expression and the current context, it wasn’t hard to guess.
He shook his head, pointed at the Personal Terminal on his wrist, and said in broken, halting Chinese: “Language… not complete… parsed… only… a little.”
Then he took a deep breath and continued to emphasize:
“We, vampire, not.”
“Not drink, human blood.”
“We, Sentinels.”
“Protect, you.”
“Not, hurt.”
His grammar was completely wrong, subject-verb-object all jumbled together, but every single word was one Ye Lingxi could understand.
Not vampires. Don’t drink human blood.
Ye Lingxi stood there, momentarily unsure how to react.
Mingzhou looked at her, those pitch-black eyes unusually focused in the night.
He said it again, slower this time, enunciating every word clearly:
“I am not, a vampire.”
“Will not, hurt, you.”
“Will, protect you.”
When he finished, he pointed at himself, shook his head, then made a guarding gesture.
The movements were clumsy, the language broken, but the meaning was crystal clear.
Ye Lingxi stared at him, dazed. The fear was still there, but it was being battered by another emotion rising suddenly within her.
This man—to make her believe they weren’t monsters—was telling her word by word in a language she could understand.
Though it was a mess, he was genuinely, earnestly trying to explain…
Should she try to believe him?
Did she have any other choice?
She didn’t…
Ye Lingxi suddenly felt her nose sting.
“You…” She opened her mouth, her voice a little hoarse. “You’re really not vampires?”
Mingzhou understood the word “vampire.”
He shook his head. “Not.”
Then he pointed at himself. “Mingzhou. Me, Mingzhou.”
Then he pointed at the Sentinels in the distance. “Shi Qi, Ji Xiao, Pei Jin, Lin Chuan. Sentinels. You, Guide.”
“Sentinels, protect, Guides.”
Ye Lingxi followed Mingzhou back to where she had been staying.
Her bedding was still in place, the temperature-regulating blanket left in the same disheveled state as when she had quietly slipped away.
The blood-red moon emerged from behind the clouds, its light still that eerie crimson, washing everything in a strange hue.
Ye Lingxi walked with her head down, the grass crunching softly beneath her feet.
She didn’t dare look up.
Because in those few steps back, she could feel faint gazes coming from not far away.
Not just one—many.
Those eyes landed on her, almost taking on physical weight, making her back crawl.
She steeled herself and walked to her bedding, about to sit down.
Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent for a moment.
It seemed a gust of wind swept past.
Then, in her lowered field of vision, several dark shadows appeared.
Ye Lingxi’s breath tightened.
Her gaze quietly lifted.
She saw them.
It was the other eleven Sentinels.
Earlier, they had been scattered around the area—some leaning against trees, some crouching on rocks.
Now, without her having noticed a thing, all of them had silently gathered together and were standing before her.
Over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at her in unison.
Their gazes were complicated.
There was relief, lingering fear, self-reproach, and something else Ye Lingxi couldn’t quite read… pity?
Ye Lingxi’s scalp crawled under those stares. She let out a dry laugh. “Hehe… everyone’s… awake? Did you all sleep well?”
No one answered her.
The Sentinels just kept looking at her, their gazes growing more and more complicated.
Shi Qi’s eyes were slightly reddened, his silver lashes fluttering as if he had suffered a great grievance.
Ye Lingxi: “??”
Shi Qi spoke with red-rimmed eyes. “Guide, we don’t eat people, and we don’t drink blood. Please don’t be afraid of us.”
“Yes, Guide, we would never harm you. The Desolate Planet is dangerous—wandering off alone like that could put you in grave peril.” Ji Xiao followed up, his young face full of earnestness.
The two were speaking in the Federation Language, and Ye Lingxi couldn’t understand a single word.
She blinked, looking from Shi Qi to Ji Xiao, her face utterly bewildered.
Just then, an electronic chime sounded in the ears of Mingzhou, Lin Chuan, and all the other Sentinels.
[Preliminary language analysis progress: 100%]
[Preliminary language analysis complete.]