Zhu Rongtian

The screen lit up, revealing a dimly lit bedroom.

Fenrir Talo was reclining against the headboard, his hair still dripping. Droplets rolled down his neck, over his collarbones, and into the grooves between his abs.

He had probably just come out of the bathroom. A bath towel was wrapped loosely around his waist, leaving his upper body completely bare, and his skin was still faintly flushed from the evaporating moisture.

He had set the optical computer's camera at a low angle, producing a clear, three-dimensional view. It framed him from his sharply defined abs upward, with the lines on either side disappearing beneath the edge of his towel, drawing the eye downward.

Luo Ruzhuo's gaze lingered on his body for a second before shifting to his face.

She met Fenrir Talo's teasing gaze. "Now you should tell me."

Fenrir Talo smiled and lazily swept the wet hair off his forehead with one hand, without answering directly. "Aren't you going to ask how I've been first?"

"You look like you've been doing well."

He was even in the mood to seduce her.

"That's because I get to see you." His voice was low, the last syllable rising slightly with a certain deliberate laziness. He shifted position, leaning a little closer to the headboard, and the edge of his towel slipped down a little farther.

"Before you left, I sent you messages, but you didn't reply to a single one."

Luo Ruzhuo didn't respond to that.

He wasn't the only one she hadn't replied to. At the time, everyone in her optical computer's contacts except Lin Sheng had sent her a message. She hadn't replied to any of them.

What a joke.

Who replied to coworkers while on vacation?

Fenrir Talo waited a few seconds. Seeing that she really had no intention of flirting with him, he clicked his tongue, his smile fading as he grew more serious, then got to the point.

"All right, even if you don't reply, I'll still be thinking of you~ My little guide."

He paused. When he answered her question in earnest, his tone was completely different from before. "Zhu Rongtian is currently the only known guide with offensive abilities."

"She was born on a garbage planet on the frontier. It didn't even have an official designation. Sentinel and guide genes were practically nonexistent in that dump. Hundreds of years could pass without a single awakening... and then this one freak appeared."

Luo Ruzhuo leaned back in her chair and listened.

"On the day she awakened, her mental power went berserk and killed her adoptive father. Then it killed everyone in an entire town."

"Forty-seven people in one town, all killed in a single blow. The cause of death was external damage to their brain neurons. Only sentinels should have been able to do something like that. So when the local government contacted the Alliance for help, the report said a sentinel had awakened and killed people. The Alliance sent an investigation team, and only then did they discover the killer was a newly awakened guide."

As he said this, a thought suddenly struck Luo Ruzhuo.

No wonder the name had seemed familiar... A comment had mentioned it when she searched for Dark Guides.

At the time, that netizen had been in the comments under a post where sentinels were singing the praises of Dark Sentinels, indignantly declaring, "You arrogant sentinels will behave yourselves once you run into Zhu Rongtian."

Luo Ruzhuo tapped her fingers lightly on her knee as an idea she had buried in her heart for a long time resurfaced.

A guide with offensive abilities... Could Zhu Rongtian be a Dark Guide?

Of course, Luo Ruzhuo couldn't voice that speculation. She only asked, "After she was arrested, what sentence did the Alliance Court give her?"

By rights, Zhu Rongtian should have been sent to serve at the Black Tower, just like her.

But Fenrir Talo dismissed that idea. "Unlike you, she received a different sentence. The Alliance Court sentenced her directly to life imprisonment on the grounds that she had 'uncontrollable offensive abilities,' and she was locked up in Interstellar Prison." His lips curved without a trace of a smile. "That prison was built with funding from Ankang Pharmaceuticals."

Luo Ruzhuo's gaze turned cold.

Ankang Pharmaceuticals again.

They had planted a mole in Firmament Squad, experimented on sentinels' Mental Domains, funded the construction of Interstellar Prison, locked the only person who might be a Dark Guide in their own prison, and now released her... Why did this company spend every day persecuting people instead of properly making pharmaceuticals?

Whatever they wanted to do, she only had to think with one toe to know it was nothing good.

Zhu Rongtian-could she be the girl Luo Ruzhuo had just met?

Luo Ruzhuo fell into thought.

Fenrir Talo leaned closer. The casual laziness had vanished from his eyes, leaving only seriousness. "I'm telling you this because Ankang Pharmaceuticals means you harm."

"I heard something about what happened on the starship. Firmament Squad is useless. If you run into danger again... make sure you message me. I'll take you away immediately."

He looked straight at the screen, his voice low. "I know you'll have your own ideas. If you decide to stay there, be careful of every guide who appears around you. Don't let your guard down just because they're your own kind."

Ignoring Fenrir Talo's pointless attempts to show himself off, this information was indeed useful to her.

Luo Ruzhuo said, "I will."

She ended the call.

The room fell quiet again. Luo Ruzhuo opened her optical computer and asked Lin Sheng for information on the new colleague who had arrived today.

Lin Sheng sent the file quickly.

Luo Ruzhuo opened it, and the first thing she saw was the girl's expressionless ID photo.

Bai Li, SS-rank guide, twenty-two years old, outstanding graduate of the Central District Guide Academy, Mental Entity: lop-eared rabbit.

Her family background, upbringing, and reasons for her recommendation were all legitimate. The record was spotless, without a single problem.

Over the next few days of purification, Luo Ruzhuo slacked off as usual.

Every morning, she arrived at the purification room on time to sign in, then opened her optical computer and started watching shows and training.

Xianzhu's consciousness had returned only briefly for a day before he went back to being the cross-eyed dragon from before.

He looked more pleasing to the eye this way.

Luo Ruzhuo ate the snacks Liu Sui had made, occasionally reaching through the communication window to feed him.

As the end of the workday approached, someone knocked on the purification room door.

She opened it to find a crowd of several people standing outside. At the front was a girl in a white dress: Bai Li, whom she had just seen in the file.

She stood very straight, her hands folded in front of her, her face expressionless, like a carefully positioned doll. A sentinel stood on either side of her.

Luo Ruzhuo swept them with a puzzled look. The two sentinels scratched their heads and laughed awkwardly before explaining, "Sorry, your purification session isn't over yet, but Guide Bai said she wanted to come and learn about the captain's condition beforehand. We couldn't stop her no matter what we did, so..."

"I saw it on the purification room monitor." Bai Li's tone was polite, but her words weren't very polite. "You didn't enter Captain Xianzhu's Mental Domain to purify it."

"Article twenty-seven of the Guide Purification Manual compiled by the Guide Association states that a guide must enter a sentinel's Mental Domain for purification to be considered effective. As a guide sent by the association to help with Captain Xianzhu's purification, I have the right to question whether you're neglecting your duty."

She might as well have carved the words "slacking off" on Luo Ruzhuo's forehead.

Luo Ruzhuo folded the top of her snack bag and tucked it into her pocket, then nodded. "That's right."

Bai Li: ?

The girl in front of her visibly froze, like a machine that had jammed.

"Because I can't get in." Luo Ruzhuo stepped aside and gestured for her to enter. "Why don't you give it a try?"