Chapter 41 — ILK Chapter 41

The Black Tower Royal Family

Du Yuan was the woman who had picked up both Sang Ye and Rong Cheng. She was their Master, and effectively, their mother. Throughout her life, her greatest hobby was picking up stray children and animals. Those with spiritual roots she kept as disciples; those without, she found good homes for. The number of spiritual beasts she rescued was countless; she once even accidentally picked up a princess of the Hidden Dragon Clan before she had transformed, forcing the girl's parents to come knocking at her door to demand her back.

Of course, it wasn't always a picture of maternal love and filial devotion. There were plenty of rebellious types—such as the boy Du Yuan rescued who eventually brought disaster upon Shifang Grotto. Sang Ye and Rong Cheng had been taken in early, so their bond with Du Yuan was the deepest.

Could the Du Yuan from Minur’s mouth be the same person?

If Sang Ye and Rong Cheng could transmigrate one after another, it was highly probable that Du Yuan had too. If she had landed in the Snow Mountain, she would have been treated as a "suddenly manifested Guide" and kept under strict watch by the Snow Mountain tribes.

Sang Ye felt a more urgent need than ever to find Du Yuan. Her Master must have sensed something was wrong and managed to escape the tribe. Sang Ye wasn't worried about Du Yuan’s survival in the snow; Du Yuan possessed dual Water and Wood spiritual roots. Her spiritual essence was the Duo-Ruo flower, which blooms by headwaters—possessing a vitality far surpassing Sang Ye’s own. Her fear was that Du Yuan might be recaptured.

The chaos in the hall gradually subsided. Wu Huansheng’s vines had nearly strangled the two mutated Sentinels into unconsciousness from lack of oxygen. Other Sentinels coordinated with her, draining their physical and mental strength until their mental domains were open for invasion.

Even so, entering the mental landscape of a rioting Sentinel was fraught with danger. Xia Meilong stepped in front of the elderly Sophia and the injured Mu An, diving in alone. Her face quickly turned pale with effort; the pressure of the mental struggle loomed over everyone. Even as an A-rank Guide, she held no advantage against a rioting mutation.

Snapping out of her thoughts about Du Yuan, Sang Ye ran to the kitchen and pulled out a water hose. To make cooking easier, she had secretly tucked a Spring-Eye Jade Marrow into the outlet. She aimed the hose at the tangled group.

With modern technology, the hose had multiple modes; she chose a high-pressure jet that hit them with the force of a weapon. The spiritual spring water, saturated with mental energy, drenched them to the bone. Despite the heating, the water carried the biting chill of the Snow Mountain. The sudden, indiscriminate drenching left the crowd stunned.

However, the two mutated Sentinels began to quiet down. Xia Meilong was soaked, but her furrowed brow relaxed. Clearly, Sang Ye’s mental energy assistance had played a crucial role. When Xia Meilong finally gasped and withdrew her spirit, she was a mess of sweat and spring water, steam actually rising from her body. Before her, the two tribesmen finally collapsed into a coma, their fates unknown.

Sang Ye stopped her irrigation. Even in a coma, the mutation didn't stop; their bodies continued to swell and warp until their faces no longer looked human. After their mutation, their power had surged to A-rank. That Xia Meilong could retreat safely was proof of her strength. Without overwhelming power or a team of Guides, entering such a landscape was suicide.

Yet, there was nothing more they could do for them. One Guide was elderly, one was low-rank, one was exhausted, and the last—Sang Ye—wasn't a normal Guide. It was a heart-wrenching sight.

…

Minur truly didn't know where Major General Keliu was. Using Black Crystals to stimulate spiritual forms was a tradition among Black Tower natives. Because the side effects were catastrophic—far worse than what they saw now—only the strongest Sentinels were allowed to use them. Likely because of this tradition, no Guides had ever been born on Black Tower. Back then, they didn't even have the concept of "Sentinel" or "Guide."

That changed centuries ago when a family in exile crashed their travel ship on Black Tower due to a malfunction. Lacking manpower and facing the planet's primitive technology, they couldn't repair the ship and were captured by the tribes.

The family was composed almost entirely of Guides. They introduced the concepts of spiritual forms and Sentinels and provided mental channeling for the tribal elites. Eventually, they became the "Black Tower Royal Family." Human nature is the same everywhere; to keep them there permanently, the tribes forced marriages with their finest Sentinels. Under threat, some combined and had offspring.

By the time the tribes became dependent on the Royal Guides, the power dynamic had shifted. According to Minur, even while providing channeling, the Royals frequently induced madness in Sentinels they disliked. They only seemed to keep a shred of warmth for their biological children.

Then, the Empire arrived. The Royals quickly struck a deal. Years of mental channeling had already implanted suggestions in the tribal leaders' minds; every tribe signed the treaty, ceding sovereignty. One day, the Royals vanished along with the massive wealth and advanced warships they’d traded with the Empire. They abandoned their husbands and children, leaving them to rot. The Empire upheld the agreement; no tracking devices were placed on the ships. They left the planet that had trapped them for centuries and disappeared.

Once the Empire moved in, the tribes faced their end. Their lifeblood—the Black Crystals—was seized, and they were suppressed by force.

Even within the Snow Mountain tribe, there were divisions. As the High Priestess, Minur belonged to the moderate faction. She never approved of the suicidal act of using radiation to evolve, and so she never used it herself. But a hawkish faction, led by the tribal chief, used the crystals and constantly provoked the Empire’s garrison.

When Du Yuan suddenly appeared, her powerful mental channeling suppressed the mutation's side effects, making the hawks even more reckless. Even the moderates, fearing for their survival, began to side with the hawks. As Sentinels, no one could resist the allure of power, even if it brought irreversible consequences.

The current tribal chief was one of the children abandoned by the Royals. Minur’s attempts to stop the use of crystals had already angered him; Du Yuan’s disappearance turned his suspicion into a peak. He drove Minur out to guard the mines, wanting her to witness the “cruel reality" and the struggle for survival.

On the day the tribe consumed the crystals, mutated, and invaded, Minur stood at the mine entrance watching her tribesmen turn into monsters. She saw the end of her race, but she was powerless to stop it. In the chaos and the mushroom's hallucinations, she didn't see where Keliu went. It wasn't until the chief arrived with his monsters" to boast that she realized the extent of his madness.

The sight of her tribesmen mutating today nearly crushed her already unstable mind. As Minur poured out her story, she spiraled into a painful flashback. Her mental energy became volatile; veins throbbed visibly at her temples.

Asu Ment sensed the danger and shouted, "Stop! Don't say another word! Shut up!"

Minur was a step away from a total mental riot. Asu had forced her to speak, but now she was desperately trying to prevent the riot. But Minur could no longer hear the outside world. She just kept repeating: "Why do this? Why leave us? Why, why, why!"

Asu grabbed Xia Meilong and Mu An, but they were shut out the moment they released their mental power. Their faces turned grim. "Executive Officer, she is closing her mental landscape."

A landscape can be opened, but it can also be sealed. Just as Mu An locked Jianing’s mind, adult Sentinels can close their own. Once sealed, it can never be opened again. If a Guide is inside when it closes, they are trapped until they become brain-dead. Asu Ment’s daughter, Charlene, had died in a similar accident.Swoosh! A jet of water hit the dazed Minur. An unreasonable surge of Guide mental power forced open the closing gates, flooding into Minur’s landscape. Like a small boat on a raging sea, the two gates were rendered powerless.

The culprit stood there, holding a hose in one hand and a plate of fresh lamb skewers in the other, tilting her head at her handiwork. Minur’s eyes cleared. Her braids hung wet against her chest, and the crescent bone on her neck shimmered. She gasped like a drowning person being rescued. Before she could react, a piece of lamb—rich with the scent of black pepper and cumin—was shoved into her mouth.

The meat was perfectly roasted; the lamb was tender without a trace of blood, yet not overcooked. Each piece had a bit of fat that burst with flavor when chewed. As she swallowed, her mind felt clear.

Sang Ye tossed the hose aside and placed the plate on Minur’s lap. As a Guide who could "release" mental energy without entering a landscape, she was fearless and held all the cards. The observers were speechless.

Since the Royals and Du Yuan left, Minur hadn't received "channeling," especially in such a unique and effortless way. Have the base Sentinels always lived such a good life? Minur felt like crying.

Choking back sobs, she finished the entire plate of skewers. Then, the Guide before her spoke in a voice like a demon:

"You said you didn't know where Major General Keliu went. But you didn't say you didn't know where Du Yuan went."

Minur froze, looking into Sang Ye’s emerald-green eyes.