Chapter 328: Darkness

Chapter 328: Pitch Black

In an instant, 66 switched to Facial Paralysis System mode.

The cold and aristocratic Guide stood up, giving a faint nod. "Lead the way."

The two bypassed rows of rooms at the heart of the tower, took the elevator down, and stopped before a tightly shut door.

The attendant bowed slightly. "Lord Lu Liu, Qi Yi is inside."

Lu Liu reached for the handle, pausing for a moment.

He was frantically self-suggesting.

"I am a cold-blooded, ruthless villain! I am a cold-blooded, ruthless villain! I won’t soften! I won’t soften!"

After chanting internally twice, Lu Liu opened the interrogation room door.

His gaze immediately landed on Qi Yi at the center.

The Sentinel was strikingly handsome, a poster boy for masculine beauty with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His hands were bound and suspended from a torture rack, his clothes already tattered, revealing large patches of milk chocolate-colored skin, smooth as satin. Looking up further, his high brow and deep-set eyes exuded an untamed beauty, a feral edge. Compared to the partners of 66’s other hosts, he looked more like a half-blood.

66: "Whoa—"

A type of beauty he’d never encountered.

Fortunately, with the Facial Paralysis System loaded, the Guide’s expression remained icy and gloomy.

Before being delivered to Lu Liu, Qi Yi had already been interrogated by others. After all, Lu Liu was a high-ranking figure in the White Tower, an SS-level Guide. Only the hardest nuts to crack that others couldn’t handle would be passed to him.

Now, those milk chocolate-colored patches of skin bore large lash marks.

The attendant: "Lord Lu Liu, Lord Lu Xuan also interrogated him before you but failed to crack this Sentinel’s Spirit Sea, so he resorted to... alternative methods."

A powerful Sentinel could seal off their own Spirit Sea, refusing to open it to a Guide. Lu Xuan was only an A-level, while Qi Yi was SS—of course, he couldn’t crack in.

The scripted dialogue ran through Lu Liu’s mind. He put on a pretentious air, giving a stiff, elegant nod. "Then, did he find out anything?"

The attendant: "No. This man is clammed up. He didn’t say a word, refused to reveal anything."

Lu Liu: "Fine. Leave this to me. Get out."

The attendant cast a fearful glance at the cold Guide, then a sympathetic one at the Sentinel on the rack, before bowing and exiting the room, closing the door behind him.

What the attendant didn’t know was that, while they were speaking, the outwardly composed Guide had already spammed eight hundred messages in the chat group in his mind.

First, he vehemently denounced Ye Wang’s irresponsible slander, berating the dumbfounded commander until he was ripped into him, forcing him to personally take on the mission. Then, he tagged a few old hands in the group, seeking their advice on interrogation techniques.

Lu Liu: "@Jiang Xun @Xiao Shao, you know how to do this, right?"

Jiang Xun had been a tyrant in his past life, and Xiao Shao, even if he hadn’t done it himself, had surely seen it done. They should know, right?

Jiang Xun: "Uh... what’s the situation now?"

Lu Liu summarized: "There’s a person hanging in front of me. His clothes are torn, he’s bleeding. How do I sell my cruelty, brutality, and twistedness?"

The plot in his mind hadn’t detailed this part—probably to avoid censorship.

Jiang Xun: "Uh..."

Jiang Xun and Shen Que had lived in modern society for a long time. As Shen Que's student, Jiang Xun excitedly joined his teacher for archaeological fieldwork. It'd been forever since he'd done this, and he had genuinely forgotten.

Xiao Shao was the voice of reason here: "It's actually quite simple, and I've heard of it before. The question is whether you've got the stomach for it."

Lu Liu got chills for no apparent reason: "...Go on."

"Lift his face with one hand, and with the other, dig into his wound. While pressing, stare coldly into his eyes, with a faint cruel smile, and ask him, 'Does it hurt?' Whether he says yes or no, press harder."

"..."

The group's mood instantly turned icy, like all the hosts had wordlessly edged away, wanting to distance themselves from Xiao Shao.

Xiao Shao: "Just a suggestion."

He shrugged and logged off.

"..."

Behind his emotionless mask, Lu Liu forced himself and lifted Qi Yi's chin.

This Sentinel had amber-hued eyes.

Even after being suspended for so long, even after someone had tried to violently breach his Spirit Sea, his eyes remained bright, mirroring Lu Liu's image with smoldering defiance.

But then, he snorted coldly and lowered his gaze.

Qi Yi was exhausted. He needed rest and had no strength left for Lu Liu's humiliating mind games.

Almost the moment Qi Yi averted his eyes, Lu Liu guiltily looked away as well.

Locking eyes with his victim crossed some serious ethical lines for 66.

The Facial Paralysis System could keep his face blank, but it couldn't stop his wandering gaze.

Lu Liu robotically delivered his lines: "Qi Yi, look at me. We met once at the school's graduation banquet. Remember?"

Though his tone was flat and mechanical, paired with the guide's excessively cold voice, it inexplicably carried an air of aloof elegance.

Qi Yi: "No."

"That so?" Lu Liu murmured.

According to the script, he was supposed to sneer, but with the Facial Paralysis System in place, Lu Liu couldn't pull it off, leaving him stuck in cold neutrality.

The original host had a reason for personally tormenting Qi Yi.

As an SS-rank high-level guide destined to become a White Tower elite after graduation, Lu Liu never lacked for sycophantic Sentinels. He and Qi Yi had graduated from the same school. During the ceremony, Lu Liu had zeroed in on the ice-cold Sentinel in the crowd and, finding him intriguing, offered his hand in invitation for the opening dance.

The Sentinel gave him a cold glance, refused outright, and disappeared into the crowd.

Used to being the golden boy since diapers, Lu Liu had never suffered such humiliation and nursed that grudge for years.

Later, one became a White Tower elite, while the other defected and became a Dark Sentinel—finally giving Lu Liu his long-awaited payback chance.

He launched into brutal retaliation.

Invading his Spirit Sea, sowing endless psychic traps—the damage haunted Qi Yi even beyond the grave.

When the silence stretched too long, Qi Yi sneered: "Just get on with it. Stop wasting my time."

Lu Liu steadied himself and raised his fingers, following Xiao Shao’s instructions.

He didn’t dare touch the wound directly, instead pressing just below it.

Lu Liu applied slight pressure, tilting his head as he asked, "Does that hurt?"

But before Qi Yi could answer, Lu Liu froze.

The wound had just stopped bleeding, but his movement caused it to reopen. Blood rolled down the skin, dripping onto his fingertips.

Thick, warm, slick—carrying an overwhelming iron tang.

He was an AI system. His first time feeling such realism, the first time he had smelled blood. Nothing like perching on his host’s shoulder.

His fingers twitched slightly. Lowering his gaze, Lu Liu saw the bright red stain on his hand.

A symbol of pain, suffering—life slipping away.

His system froze for a split second.

Then, the group chat lit up with messages.

Lu Liu: ""

The other hosts: "???"

Jiang Xun, slightly concerned: "66? Are you okay? What happened?"

Ye Wang: "Overloaded and crashed, huh? I heard old machines glitched like that—displaying garbled text. Didn’t expect 66’s code to be this janky."

Coming from the Interstellar Era, to him, this was ancient coding.

The so-called "primitives" in the group: "..."

Xiao and Jiang, somehow worse than "primitives": "..."

Eluvier, a god debating his "primitive" status: "..."

"Hey," Xiao Shao said irritably. "Mind your tone."

"Sorry, sorry," Ye Wang replied. "So 66 crashed? Someone go smack him awake."

Xiao Shao scoffed. "Oh, so even in the Interstellar Era, your solution to a crash is to 'tap him a couple of times'? Real high-tech solution there."

"..."

The chat buzzed with tension, but fortunately, Lu Liu recovered. With difficulty, he interjected, "It's fine, it's fine. I’m good now."

The guide played it cool, acting like nothing happened, and continued with the script. Thanks to the Facial Paralysis System functioning steadily, to Qi Yi, the guide just gave him a cold look and walked off.

Lu Liu rummaged through the medicine cabinet, keeping his back to Qi Yi, his voice still flat and emotionless: "Senior, you’ll have to pay for ignoring me back then. Qi Yi, do you know what I want to do now?"

Qi Yi remained silent.

Lu Liu continued, "I’m going to inject you with a relaxant and forcibly invade your Spirit Sea. After all these years as a Dark Sentinel, your Spirit Sea must be on the verge of collapse. Just a slight push, and it’ll shatter, won’t it?"

As he spoke, a slender needle pierced the vial, drawing up a clear liquid. Syringe in hand, Lu Liu loomed over the Sentinel.

Lu Liu: "Qi Yi, look up."

Qi Yi remained motionless, so he followed the system's instructions, tilting the sentinel's chin upward once more and injecting the serum into his neck.

The restraints clanked as Qi Yi, tightly bound, was completely immobilized. He could only fix his gaze on Lu Liu with eyes that, at one point, slit into vertical pupils like a beast's—cold and ruthless, as if he wanted to tear open the throat of the person before him.

The intensity of that stare made Lu Liu's hackles rise, but to stay in character, he forced himself not to retreat. Still, he avoided meeting Qi Yi's eyes, keeping his own lowered as he slowly pushed the liquid in.

This was a powerful sedative, meant to knock Qi Yi out.

The Spirit Sea of an SS-rank sentinel was highly self-contained, making it difficult even for Lu Liu to breach. It would be easier once he was asleep.

Gradually, those golden-brown eyes drooped shut, and Qi Yi went limp in the restraints, slipping into unconsciousness like a condemned man.

Only after he was fully asleep did Lu Liu let out a long sigh.

He sat down across from Qi Yi, staring blankly at the sentinel's face, thinking to himself, "What a damn shame."

After a long mental preparation—repeating "I'm the villain, I'm the villain, I'm super evil" several times—Lu Liu finally took a deep breath.

Cupping Qi Yi's chin with both hands, he pressed his forehead against the sentinel's.

As the scenario required, he was about to invade Qi Yi's Spirit Sea.

Lu Liu attempted to sync his consciousness with the man before him.

In the world of sentinels and guides, the Spirit Sea represented a person's most tranquil sanctuary—some manifested as endless oceans, others serene lakes in cold forests, and still others towering, perilous mountains. In the story, Qi Yi's Spirit Sea was the most chaotic and terrifying of all sentinels, so oppressive it stole one's breath.

Thus, no guide was willing to link with him. Even the original host, who had destructive intentions, hadn't lingered long in this Spirit Sea, merely leaving behind a few mental triggers before hastily leaving.

Lu Liu was curious—what did such a Spirit Sea look like?

The next moment, he sank into a lightless void—utterly silent, thick with darkness, surrounded by an eerie stillness.

Dark Sentinels, due to their immense power and prolonged lack of guidance, often had dark and chaotic Spirit Seas. But this one was utterly hollow, devoid of even a single speck of light, like a black hole floating beside a star route that devoured all light.

Lu Liu froze in place, too unnerved to advance for a long while.

"...So dark. So dark it's terrifying."

After a moment's thought, Lu Liu murmured softly, "Light."

A Guide's innate ability—reshaping the Spirit Sea—allowed them not only to help sentinels organize their chaotic minds but also to conjure things from nothing.

This wasn't part of the script, but Lu Liu justified it to himself—*how else was he supposed to locate Qi Yi in this pitch-black void to torment him?*

Thus, an old-fashioned lantern appeared in the guide's grasp—a brass base with five glass panels, its flame a warm, bright yellow that made feeble inroads against the darkness.

By this faint light, Lu Liu finally saw Qi Yi in the depths of the abyss.

The sentinel was curled up, forehead pressed to his knees, brows tightly furrowed, like a fetus curled in the womb.

Lu Liu hesitated for a moment before he advanced, the lantern held before him, toward Qi Yi.

Author's Note:

66 (self-hypnosis mode): "I'm the villain, I'm the villain..."