FI CH 8

Chapter 8: Rainforest Siege (II)

Sentinels and Guides make up an extremely small portion of the human population. They are the most secretive group in the world, and therefore, cannot openly reveal their identities. Every time they carry out a mission, it’s under the cover of a “United Army Exploration Team.”

In this era of global unification, the United Army serves as the official authority, which helps avoid most unnecessary complications.

Due to the highly classified nature of this mission, it was impossible to have an on-site commander accompanying them. As a result, each team member was equipped with a highly precise personal tracking system.

Upon arrival at the target location, the six of them rappelled directly from the helicopter into the stream below.

By then, it was already 2:00 p.m. They first headed to the location where Jing He’s signal had disappeared—and sure enough, they found a broken locator on the ground.

After Kurosawa reported the finding to the Sentinel-Guide Association, a Guide named Wei Yang began releasing his mental power to search the area. The nearby animals communicated to him that four humans had passed through this area, heading northwest.

The six-person team followed the trail toward the northwest, crossing plains and swamps along the way.

The people they were tracking seemed to be moving at a swift pace. No matter how much they accelerated, they couldn’t seem to catch up.

Night fell quickly. The team found a relatively dry spot, started a fire, and hunted some game to roast for dinner^[1]. After eating, they extinguished the fire and climbed into the trees to rest.

The rainforest at night is incredibly dangerous, full of lurking wild beasts. Even with the exceptional combat abilities of Sentinels, none of them were eager to take any risks.

And so, their time in the primitive jungle passed in uneventful monotony.

Sentinels were already used to this kind of life, having carried out countless missions before. Guides, on the other hand, due to the nature of their abilities, generally lacked actual combat experience. However, for this mission, the Sentinel-Guide Association had deliberately selected Guides who had prior experience in field operations.

One of them, a talkative Guide named Wei Yang, began recounting a mission he once undertook with several Sentinels, in the pitch-black night. They had been sent to a glacier where a devastating avalanche had buried nearly an entire village at the foot of the mountain. From a high vantage point, he had spread out his spiritual energy in a wide range, trying to detect any signs of life, guiding the Sentinels to dig in the right locations. However, the local villagers seemed to harbor strong resentment toward the United Army and kept interfering with their rescue efforts. Wei Yang had no choice but to patiently explain things to them while continuing the rescue operation.

Wei Yang said, “The mission itself wasn’t the hard part. Trying to talk sense into angry civilians was what drained me. If it hadn’t been absolutely necessary to avoid harming normal people, I probably would’ve given them a night full of snow-crushing nightmares…”

Someone chimed in with agreement, and the group burst into laughter.

Bai Hua listened quietly but didn’t join the conversation. His hands were folded beneath his head as he stared up at the thick, dark canopy above. The trees were so densely packed that not a single patch of the night sky could be seen.

A faint, sweet fragrance suddenly drifted into his nose from the left side, standing out even more sharply in the crisp, untouched jungle air. Bai Hua didn’t even need to turn his head to know who it was.

But then again, that wasn’t the only thing he had to tolerate. Suppressing the restless blood coursing through his body, he shut his eyes and tried to sleep.

By dawn, the team resumed tracking. The clues were even scarcer than before, suggesting that their targets had traveled even farther. To make matters worse, the weather was turning—heavy rain seemed imminent.

They continued trekking through swamps and flatlands, occasionally fending off wild beasts that tried to attack them along the way.

The rainforest looked nearly the same in every direction, creating an illusion that they were moving in circles.

While passing through a dense patch of trees, Kurosawa suddenly called out for everyone to stop. All eyes turned toward him, and he pointed to a tree.

There was a mark etched into the bark—one that Bai Hua had made the day before.

“We’ve looped back to where we started?” Wei Yang asked in disbelief.

Due to their abilities, Guides were known for their extraordinary memory. Some highly skilled ones even had eidetic recall, able to mentally replay anything they had seen with magnified clarity, like high-definition footage.

Yet none of the three Guides present—not even Kurosawa—had noticed that they had walked in a circle and returned to the same place.

Silence fell over the group. A dreadful thought flashed through everyone’s mind at the same time—but no one dared say it aloud.

Kurosawa said, “It’s a mental landscape.”

Only within a mental landscape could one freely create any desired environment, even manipulating the smallest details. And yet, they had fallen into the enemy’s trap without even realizing when it happened.

After extending his spiritual energy to sense their surroundings, Kurosawa added, “Don’t worry, right now we’re back in the real world.”

But that hardly offered any reassurance.

The fact that the enemy could pull off such a feat already placed them above previous expectations. The team immediately shed their earlier lightheartedness, shifting into a much more serious state.

Now the question was: should they continue pursuing, or retreat?

If they chose to press on, Kurosawa might be the only one capable of resisting the enemy’s spiritual manipulation. But doing so would mean he couldn’t protect the rest of the team. On the other hand, if they retreated now, they’d be walking away without any useful intel and would have let this rare opportunity slip through their fingers.

It was a difficult decision.

But Kurosawa made his call almost instantly. “Retreat.”

Everyone turned to look at him.

Kurosawa calmly said, “There will be more opportunities. They can’t stay hidden forever. So there’s no need to take this risk…”

Before he could finish, the world around them abruptly shifted again—same scenery, same environment, but now unmistakably artificial. In an instant, they knew they’d once again been forced into a mental landscape. This time, the enemy made no attempt to conceal their killing intent.

Whoever this was—a master at manipulating spiritual domains—likely was the one who had trained Jing He.

At that moment, the three Sentinels suddenly heard something. They focused intently on a single point ahead.

“A pack of wolves is heading this way—!” Bai Hua shouted first.

“Climb the trees!” Kurosawa followed up immediately.

Everyone sprang into action. The Sentinels moved first, agile and swift as they scaled the trees. Once Bai Hua climbed up, he didn’t forget to reach out and pull Kurosawa up with him.

But the danger wasn’t over yet—a flock of birds came flying in fast, launching an aerial assault on them.

Bai Hua drew his dual short blades, slicing down the swooping creatures with clean, precise strikes—one after another, barely giving himself a moment’s pause. But there were simply too many of them. All six of them were soon covered in feathers and blood, looking utterly disheveled.

Bai Hua knew this couldn’t go on. He turned to Kurosawa and asked, “Any way to get us out of here?”

Kurosawa replied, “I can try, but I can’t split my focus.”

Bai Hua said firmly, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

A rare smile tugged at Kurosawa’s lips—even in such a tense moment—before he truly stopped fighting, devoting his full concentration to locating an exit point from the mental landscape with his spiritual energy.

Seeing this, Bai Hua moved to his side, continuing to defend him relentlessly.

The enemy was most likely another Guide—well-hidden within their own constructed mental domain. But Kurosawa wasn’t trying to locate them; he only needed to find a way out. Before long, he detected a weak point in the space and told Bai Hua, “Two o’clock direction, about ten meters away. There’s a growth on that tree—it’s the exit point.”

Bai Hua immediately glanced in that direction and, without turning his head, asked, “Can you manage on your own?”

“Of course.”

Bai Hua said nothing more. Time was of the essence—he rushed toward the designated spot. With nimble movements, he leapt from tree to tree, building momentum with each step as he slashed down the airborne threats with his blades.

But the birds seemed to notice his intent—half of them suddenly turned and flew straight toward him.

Everyone else was preoccupied with their own survival; no one had the capacity to assist. Wolves had already swarmed the base of the trees, and some even tried climbing up, joining forces with the birds in a coordinated assault.

Suddenly, Wei Yang let out a scream. A wolf had lunged at him from behind a tree, biting down on his calf and trying to drag him down into the pack below. Wei Yang lost his balance and was about to fall when a Sentinel charged over, swiftly stabbing the wolf in the eye. The wolf yelped in pain and finally let go of Wei Yang’s leg.

But in the next instant, it lunged again—this time grabbing the Sentinel’s arm and dragging him down instead.

It all happened so fast. Wei Yang didn’t even have time to react. He could only watch helplessly as the Sentinel named An Shi was pulled into the swarm of wolves.

At the same time, Bai Hua was rapidly closing in on the core area, but the relentless wave of birds was beginning to slow his pace. Still, he had no time to hesitate—all he could do was charge forward with everything he had.

Behind him, Kurosawa’s gaze never wavered from Bai Hua’s direction. His pale golden eyes suddenly deepened in color, as if something within them was building.

Finally, at the exact moment Bai Hua drew near the core point, Kurosawa dropped his own defenses and released a wave of spiritual suppression^[2]. The flock of birds that had been swarming around Bai Hua froze in place, completely immobilized—as if time had stopped for them.

Bai Hua immediately noticed something had happened. From behind him, he heard the sound of clothing and flesh being torn.

But he couldn’t turn around.

He clenched his fists and, using all his strength, struck the weak point.

The illusion before him shattered in an instant.

They were still in the same location, but the wolves and birds had vanished. The injuries on their bodies, however, remained.

Wei Yang was stunned for a second before quickly rushing over to check on An Shi’s condition.

Bai Hua had sustained some injuries too, but most were surface wounds—not deep, and would heal quickly. Only now did he turn to look at Kurosawa’s state. The man’s chest and arms bore deep claw marks, and even his handsome face had a visible gash. These were the price he paid in the final moment to clear a path for Bai Hua.

Bai Hua quickly walked over, an inexplicable tightness weighing on his chest. He had originally wanted to say, You didn’t have to do that. I’m a Sentinel—these minor injuries heal fast.

But Kurosawa gave him a small smile.

It was the kind of smile that said, I’ll protect you too.

Bai Hua stopped in his tracks.

Any words of reprimand were lost on his tongue.

(To be continued…)