He paused, as if weighing his words so that she could understand more easily.
“We are Sentinels. Our bodies have evolved, and our digestive systems can process high-concentration, high-energy Nutrient Solution. But you can’t. I tried it yesterday—I diluted the Nutrient Solution five times, and you threw it up right after drinking it.”
As the man’s voice continued, Ye Lingxi also recalled what had happened last night.
Mingzhou had indeed given her a pale blue liquid. The moment she drank it, her mouth and esophagus felt as if they were being scorched by fire.
Mingzhou’s voice continued. “The Nutrient Solution we carry is specially formulated for Sentinels. There’s no variant suitable for a Guide. And on this Desolate Planet, there’s no other way to obtain food.”
He looked into her eyes, and in those pitch-black pupils was a calm and candid expression.
“So, under the current circumstances, the only way we can sustain you is with our own blood.”
Ye Lingxi’s mouth opened slightly, then closed again.
She understood.
It wasn’t that they thought she needed to drink blood.
It was that they were using the only method they could think of to try to keep her alive.
Suddenly, Ye Lingxi’s nose stung a little.
She and they were merely passing acquaintances, having met by chance.
Yet this group of Sentinels was willing to use their own blood as food to sustain her.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her throat a little tight.
But the very next moment, that touch of gratitude turned into a mix of amusement and helplessness.
Mingzhou seemed to notice her emotional shift. He paused briefly, then continued, “Please don’t worry. This amount of blood loss won’t have any effect on our bodies.”
“If you don’t want to drink Shi Qi’s blood or mine, there are ten other Sentinels. You can pick one you like each day and drink his blood.”
“Everyone is willing. We took an oath yesterday.”
As his words fell, the eleven Sentinels behind him lined up in perfect formation.
No command was needed, no rehearsal required. Almost simultaneously, they stepped forward and pounded their right fists against their chests.
Thump!
The dull, powerful sound seemed to drum against Ye Lingxi’s heart.
All eleven Sentinels looked at her in unison, and in eleven pairs of eyes was written the same message…
Pick me. Pick me. Pick me.
Ye Lingxi: “…”
Perhaps she had been silent for too long, and the expression on her face was too complicated.
Mingzhou looked at her, a trace of worry surfacing in his dark eyes. “Lady Lingxi, is something wrong?”
Ye Lingxi took a deep breath, blinked hard, and suppressed that inexplicable surge of emotion.
Then she smiled.
A smile of relief, of helplessness, and with a hint of amusement.
She had actually thought of them as vampires before…
“Thank you,” she said, her voice a little hoarse but sincere. “I really don’t drink blood.”
Mingzhou’s brow twitched slightly.
Ye Lingxi continued, “Mingzhou, and everyone—just call me Ye Lingxi or Lingxi directly. No need for honorifics.”
“I know you mean well, and I know you’re trying to help me in your own way.
But… I’m a human being, not a beast that devours raw flesh and blood.
I’ve been alive for twenty-one years, and I’ve never drunk blood in my life. I don’t need it at all.”
As she spoke, she bent down and grabbed her backpack.
Mingzhou’s gaze followed her movements and landed on the backpack.
Ye Lingxi unzipped it and began pulling things out.
First, a few packs of Daokou Rou spicy strips, then two bags of crispy instant noodles, and four packs of fish tofu.
She laid these items out one by one on the grass in front of her, then looked up, first at Mingzhou, then at the row of Sentinels standing at attention.
“See? I have food.”
Mingzhou’s gaze fell on those items.
Crispy instant noodles, spicy strips, fish tofu.
He didn’t recognize these things—just like the self-heating hotpot from last night, they were foods he had never seen before.
But looking at the quantity of these foods, they were clearly less than the self-heating hotpot from last night.
And then there was the Guide’s overly thin figure…
Worry flickered in Mingzhou’s eyes, and Lin Chuan and the other Sentinels all wore similar expressions.
What if the Guide refused their offerings and wouldn’t eat properly…
…
Ye Lingxi brushed her teeth with a twig and clean water, then tore open a bag of crispy instant noodles and nibbled on it slowly.
The food tasted bland as she ate.
Snacking on treats in leisure time was enjoyable, but as a staple meal…
She sighed.
She wanted to drink porridge.
Hot, soft, well-cooked white rice porridge, preferably with some pickled vegetables on the side.
She wanted to eat baozi.
She wanted to eat meat…
As she was lost in her thoughts, a shadow suddenly darted through the grass in her peripheral vision.
Her chewing paused.
She looked up almost immediately, her gaze chasing that shadow.
It was a rabbit.
A huge one!
Even bigger than the stray dogs at the temple.
The rabbit was currently crouching in the grass, its three-part mouth moving as it chewed on grass blades, munching away happily.
Ye Lingxi’s eyes lit up instantly.
Was she seeing a rabbit?
No—that was meat!
Roasted! Stewed! Salt-and-pepper!
She quietly put down the instant noodles in her hand, pulled a slingshot out from the side pocket of her backpack, and fished out two pebbles, holding them in her palm.
Her movements were light and slow, her eyes fixed intently on the rabbit buried in the grass, munching away.
She held her breath, rose little by little, crouched low, and crept silently toward the rabbit.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen meters.
Ten meters.
The rabbit was still eating, completely unaware of the danger approaching.
Ye Lingxi stopped, drew back the slingshot, and took aim.
Whoosh!
The pebble shot through the air and struck the rabbit square on the head with a crisp thud.
Bullseye!
Ye Lingxi’s eyes gleamed.
This slingshot was made by her master, and it packed quite a punch.
Based on her twenty-one years of experience hunting chickens and teasing birds in the mountains, that hit should have been more than enough to incapacitate the rabbit.
But the next second, her smile froze on her face.
The rabbit didn’t fall.
Not only did it not fall, but the hit seemed to have enraged it. The rabbit slowly turned its head, its blood-red eyes staring straight at Ye Lingxi.
Then it split open its three-lipped mouth, revealing two rows of sharp teeth.
Dense, jagged teeth like two rows of serrated blades, glinting coldly in the sunlight.
Ye Lingxi nearly blurted out a curse. What the hell kind of rabbit was this?
Before she could snap out of her shock, the rabbit kicked off with its hind legs and lunged at her like a streak of white!
Ye Lingxi started, drawing her dagger to meet the attack!
She was a kid raised in the mountains—if there was one thing she had, it was guts. Forget a rabbit, she’d even take on a lone wolf.
A whole pack of wolves, though? That was a different story.
But the rabbit, mid-lunge as a white streak, tripped over something and tumbled into a rolling ball.
Ye Lingxi’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse—it looked like a dark, pitch-black vine had tripped the rabbit.
She was too focused on catching the rabbit to look closer.
A rabbit rolling on the ground was far less threatening than that white streak had been. Without a second thought, she pounced like a tiger!
But then…
Another figure moved faster than her.
A silver blur burst out from the side, like a bolt of lightning, slamming hard into the rabbit!
Bam!
The rabbit was sent flying, tumbling several times across the ground, kicking up bits of grass and dirt.
Ye Lingxi stood there stunned, not yet processing what had happened, when she saw the silver blur land steadily and pounce on the rabbit before it could regain its footing.
It clamped its jaws around the rabbit’s neck.
Crack.
The sound of bones breaking.
The rabbit kicked its legs a few times, then went still.
Ye Lingxi’s gaze slowly dropped, and she finally got a clear look at the silver blur.
It was a huge silver dog.
A majestic silver canine, massive in size, with a shoulder height of over four feet, its fur gleaming with a cold luster in the sunlight.
While Ye Lingxi stood there dumbfounded, Mingzhou’s figure appeared instantly at her side, looking at her with concern. “Lingxi, are you alright? Are you hurt?”
Pei Jin, Ji Xiao, Cang Lan… the other Sentinels followed close behind, surrounding her in the blink of an eye.
Over a dozen pairs of eyes scanned her up and down, as if afraid she’d lost a single strand of hair.
Ye Lingxi felt a little embarrassed under their scrutiny and quickly waved her hand. “I’m fine, I’m fine! The rabbit didn’t even get close to me.
Though honestly, that rabbit had it rough—first tripped by a black vine into a rolling ball, then hunted down and killed by this big white dog.”
As she spoke, Ye Lingxi’s gaze shifted to where the rabbit had been tripped. She looked around—all she saw was green and yellow weeds. There was no black vine anywhere.
“Huh, where’s that black vine? Did I imagine it?” She wasn’t sure, since most of her attention had been on the rabbit at the time.
The Sentinels fell silent for a moment. Someone in the group wanted to explain that the black vine was their commander’s Mental Entity.
But a single look from Mingzhou silenced them.
Shi Qi also wanted to clarify that it wasn’t a big white dog—it was the Silver Wolf, his Mental Entity.
But before he could get the words out, Ye Lingxi was already walking toward the big white dog.
She loved dogs. There was a mutt back at the temple that was her partner in crime for all her mountain adventures.
But this dog…
It was way too big, and it radiated a fierce, restless energy—something similar to what she sensed from Mingzhou and the other Sentinels.
It made her hesitant to get too bold.
The Silver Wolf still had the rabbit’s neck in its jaws, letting out a low growl from its throat, as if confirming the prey was thoroughly dead.
Then, carrying the rabbit, it turned and walked step by step toward Ye Lingxi.
It stopped in front of her, lowered its head, set the rabbit at her feet, and looked up at her.
The Silver Wolf’s eyes were also silver-gray—clear, bright, with Ye Lingxi’s reflection shimmering in them.
Ye Lingxi’s eyes went wide. She could swear she saw a look of “please praise me” in the eyes of this majestic, fierce dog…
She reached out and tentatively rubbed the dog’s head.
The Silver Wolf’s ears twitched, and it squinted its eyes in contentment.
Not far away, Shi Qi also squinted his eyes in contentment. Forget it, no need to explain. If Lord Lingxi wanted to call him a big white dog, then a big white dog it was—after all, wolves and dogs were kin…