The First Attempt

Early the next morning, a light rain fell on Planet b-475.

After the rain stopped, the oxygen in the air was fresher. Luo Ruzhuo walked toward the cage, her feet crunching over wet fern leaves.

Lin Sheng led the way, while Liu Qing and the other sentinels followed behind her. The group passed through a dense forest, and the view suddenly opened up.

The cage sat on an island in the middle of a lake.

The lake was small and its water was so clear that Luo Ruzhuo could see the fish swimming below at a glance. A huge transparent structure completely covered the island. Its dome and walls were made of a new material, and it was much larger than she had imagined-about the size of a football field. From a distance, it looked like a giant transparent bowl turned upside down over the island.

How is this a cage? Luo Ruzhuo thought that if she were in a place like this, she would gladly spend a week trapped there for a million star coins.

Stepping onto the floating bridge that connected to the island, Luo Ruzhuo saw that there was also a ring-shaped buffer zone around the outside of the cage, where a few sentinels were checking the data from inside.

Farther in, near the transparent glass wall, a small room had been partitioned off. Apparently to protect privacy, the room was opaque, and a sign on it read "Guide purification room" in large characters.

Lin Sheng stopped in front of the room and turned to explain to Luo Ruzhuo, "Don't worry. The purification room was built to the highest specifications. It has an independent air exchange system, the walls can withstand the impact of a 3S sentinel's strength, and the contact window is one-way. Only a guide can open it from the inside."

"If anything feels wrong while you're in there, remember to press the red button on the wall. The entire cage will be filled with a high concentration of sedative gas within three seconds."

"We'll be patrolling within a hundred meters, so your safety is absolutely guaranteed."

Lin Sheng had arranged all these measures with her in advance, so Luo Ruzhuo felt reassured.

"We won't go in. The captain is very sensitive to the scent of sentinels right now." Liu Qing stopped and stood guard near the purification room with the other sentinels.

Luo Ruzhuo nodded, pushed open the door, and went inside.

The room was small, about ten square meters, and arranged much like her own purification room. Directly opposite her was a fully transparent wall, giving her a clear view of what was inside. There was a door in the wall, with a round contact window just wide enough for a hand to pass through.

The door closed behind her, and the air exchange system started with a faint hum, completely blocking Lin Sheng, Liu Sui, and the others from seeing in.

Luo Ruzhuo stood in front of the transparent wall and looked into the cage.

What exactly does a dragon look like?

The creature before her answered her question-

Without the black cloth that had covered him yesterday, the entire dragon lay exposed in the morning light. Dew clung to his black scales, making him look a little like a long, winding reef by a river.

He lay on the ground with his enormous head resting on his foreclaws, his amber slit pupils half-lidded. His breathing was heavy and slow, and each breath carried scattered sparks that scorched the surrounding air into water vapor.

Luo Ruzhuo took a step forward.

The slit pupils opened fully, and his wary gaze turned toward her. As he focused on her, his pupils slowly widened from narrow slits into circles.

From a distance, the dragon let out a low growl from deep in his throat.

The sound could be heard even from so far away, rumbling like muffled thunder.

Luo Ruzhuo thought, He doesn't look very good-tempered.

Even so, she didn't stop walking. She went straight up to within a foot of the contact window.

The round window was only the size of a palm. The dragon would probably have trouble even sticking his tongue through it.

Luo Ruzhuo simply opened the window.

"Hey." She stood in front of the window, smiling brightly, without worrying about whether the dragon could understand her. "Do you want to play a game with me?"

The dragon was still staring at her, a stream of scorching air blowing from his nostrils. His nostrils fluttered a few times, seemingly catching the scent coming from the little room. His huge head turned involuntarily toward the room by the glass wall.

The tip of his tail tapped lightly against the ground, as though he were thinking. Or perhaps he was simply drawn by the scent, but he really did come toward Luo Ruzhuo.

As Luo Ruzhuo remembered it, both Eastern and Western dragons seemed to fly.

But the dragon in front of her seemed to be a land-bound dragon. He came clattering over on his four eagle claws.

The dragon stopped in front of the window. His enormous head almost filled the entire glass wall, making for an imposing sight at first glance.

But Luo Ruzhuo was standing right in the middle, so the dragon's two enormous pupils drew ever closer together as he looked at her.

As everyone knew, no matter how mysterious a creature was, it looked less intelligent once it went cross-eyed.

Looking at the cross-eyed dragon in front of her, Luo Ruzhuo found it hard to feel even a trace of awe.

"Xianzhu." Luo Ruzhuo moved to the left, and the two pairs of dark orbs followed her to the left, finally looking less intelligent. "Can I just call you that?"

"Even if I can't, I already have," she answered herself. "Anyway, you can't talk right now, so I'll take it as a yes."

"This game is called palms and backs."

Luo Ruzhuo suddenly reached a hand through the window.

The moment her fingertips touched a patch of rough skin, the massive body jolted. All four claws retreated at once, and with a boom, the ground jumped.

The dragon was badly startled. He dashed back to where he had been before, miles away from Luo Ruzhuo's little window, and stared fixedly at her again with his amber slit pupils wide open.

Luo Ruzhuo's hand froze in midair, grasping at nothing.

Luo Ruzhuo: ...Why did you run so far away?

Who exactly is locked in the cage? Why am I stuck in this little room while he has an entire football field?

After that, no matter how Luo Ruzhuo called him, the dragon refused to come over again—the patient wasn't cooperating; it wasn't as though she was choosing to slack off.

With no other choice, Luo Ruzhuo moved the sofa in front of the glass window, lay down on it, and started browsing her optical computer to kill time.

In any case, all she had to do for the first few days was stay in the room, so what did it matter what she did? She opened a long drama series and, as she watched, raised her legs and did bicycle kicks on the sofa.

Unfortunately, there were no fries, cola, or snacks. Luo Ruzhuo felt a little disappointed.

Perhaps because she had worked up a sweat exercising and her metabolism had increased, the Guide Element concentration shown on the room's air exchange system seemed a little higher than before.

When Luo Ruzhuo finished her entire workout, she discovered that Xianzhu had, at some point, quietly moved to a corner not far from her. His light-bulb-like eyes were still fixed on her.

She reached one hand out of the window again and propped her head up with the other on the armrest. Sitting on the sofa, she watched the dragon at her leisure, still paying no mind to whether he could understand her.

She said, "I'll give you one minute."

"If you don't come over, I'm getting off work."

The dragon remained quiet, tilting his head slightly as his gaze moved from Luo Ruzhuo's face to the hand she had extended, its knuckles clearly defined.

This person... smells so good.

Although her touch just now had been abrupt and startled him, the dragon didn't know what it felt like to be comfortable, but he thought he wanted it to happen again.

So his four eagle claws slowly began to approach.

Looking at the dragon before her, so docile he was almost well-behaved, Luo Ruzhuo moved her fingertips forward and touched his forehead.

His scales felt much rougher than before. Each one was like a long-dried riverbed, its edges slightly raised and covered in tiny cracks. They gave her finger pads a faint prick as they brushed against them.

The scales were so hot that her fingertips curled slightly.

This is a good chance to probe his Mental Domain.

Luo Ruzhuo didn't pull her hand back. At the same moment she touched him, she separated a strand of spiritual power and sent it in.

So hot...!

The strand of spiritual power instantly felt as though it had been plunged into a sea of fire. Luo Ruzhuo could clearly sense a thick barrier blocking its entry.

This is way too hard to get into.

This was the first time Luo Ruzhuo had clearly sensed the existence of a sentinel's mental barrier... Was this only to be expected of a Dark Sentinel?

She endured the pain, gritted her teeth, and pressed forward with difficulty.

Fortunately, although the strand of spiritual power was thin, it was strong enough. But after Luo Ruzhuo passed through the sentinel's mental barrier, before she could breathe a sigh of relief-

When she saw what was inside, she froze.