Chapter 43: Tacit Understanding
“Is that so?”
Xu Xunyue was noncommittal about this.
He could feel the other’s desperate attempt to hide his nervousness. Even his breathing was anxious.
His spiritual feelers quietly approached and touched the Sentinel.
[Why is brother staring at me… his eyes are so beautiful… I like them so much.]
[If only brother would call me that when he kisses me…]
[Will brother see through it?]
[It’s just a little lie to brother.]
[He probably won’t see through it, right?]
So many little thoughts.
Xu Xunyue withdrew his spiritual feelers.
As expected, he wasn’t telling the truth.
He lied, and he thinks I can’t see through it.
He vaguely remembered that he had said something like “the consequences of lying will be very serious,” but this kind of “lie” was indeed a little different.
It was actually a little cute.
Xu Xunyue hadn’t remembered many clear and complete long memories, but after seeing the photo, the most significant change was in his emotions. His human-like emotions and thoughts were increasing.
Since Zhu Hui wanted it so much, he wouldn’t expose him.
“Brother, are we still going down?”
A familiar voice came from his ear. Perhaps to change the subject, Zhu Hui took the initiative to bring up the matter of diving.
Xu Xunyue nodded.
“Yes. You can’t run around. You have to stay in my line of sight.”
“I’ll always be by brother’s side.”
This answer made Xu Xunyue quite satisfied. He held the Sentinel’s arm and finally led him toward the deep sea.
Although he had remembered some things and felt that he was probably also human, Xu Xunyue had not given up on going to the underwater city.
Now, besides that call like a source of power, he also had an intuition that it was a place he needed to go to. The secret he had been wanting to explore for many years was in that direction.
Through his spiritual power, Xu Xunyue could sense that the city was in a very deep place. It had probably once been a low-altitude city, and later, after the torrential rains of the Cataclysm and some topographical changes caused by earthquakes, it had been submerged by the sea and had fallen into an eternal sleep.
Only the waves would occasionally roll up the debris from there, and the debris would be sent to the shore, becoming unwanted and worthless trash.
Xu Xunyue’s current state was the most suitable for going there.
Take the Sentinel beside him as an example. No matter how physically fit a human was, they couldn’t survive underwater for a long time. Water pressure and oxygen would become unavoidable problems. If they encountered a deep-sea beast, or a cataclysmic creature in a deep-sea area, it would undoubtedly add to the burden of battle.
But now, he was one with the ocean. He could breathe or move freely in it, connect with every wave, and adjust the direction of the ocean current.
If Xu Xunyue was willing, he could even instantly turn into a shadow in the seawater.
Not a partial transformation, but his entire body disappearing without a trace, turning into countless shadows and scattering, hiding in every corner of the sea, observing everything, and looking for opportunities.
He could also feel that this ability had weakened slightly after he had recovered some of his memories.
When the part of his body that was close to human was awakened by Zhu Hui, then the other part, which was close to a cold and indifferent regional master, would dim.
However, this was enough for now. Even if this ability suddenly disappeared completely one day, with the characteristics of his spiritual body, Xu Xunyue could still hold his breath in the seawater for a long time.
It was already night in the real world. Diving into the water, it was even more impossible to see anything.
There were no luminous fish or water plants around. The sea waves here were slow, so calm that it didn’t seem like the sea, but rather a silent cage.
After staying for a long time, Zhu Hui actually felt that this sea was a bit like Xu Xunyue’s spiritual landscape. The deeper they dived, the more similar it became.
The same silence, the same undercurrents, no end in sight, and even bubbles were rare.
The details that Zhu Hui had discovered, Xu Xunyue had of course also noticed.
He had also noticed that in the distant depths, a faint fluctuation of spiritual power had suddenly come.
It’s it again.
Xu Xunyue frowned slightly.
When he had just “awakened” and had not yet come out of the tin box on the snowfield, he had once felt a spiritual power belonging to other creatures enveloping the snowfield where he was.
It was a spiritual envelopment that was close to a demonstration of power, expanding territory, and declaring ownership. The spiritual power was continuously spreading outward, very arrogant.
Xu Xunyue had been touched by this spiritual power fluctuation as soon as he “awakened.” At that time, thinking that he was a newborn master, he naturally had a murderous intent and was quite hostile to the creature that dared to run wild on his territory. So he followed that spiritual power and launched a mental attack from afar.
The start of a spiritual power battle was always without warning, starting quickly and ending quickly.
Perhaps it was because that creature was too weak, or perhaps it was because Xu Xunyue’s appearance was too sudden. In short, in the struggle for sovereignty over the snowfield, he had won very easily, crisply and cleanly blocking and severing the envelopment of the other’s spiritual power.
That creature had retreated in surprise and caution. Its spiritual power had disappeared very quickly, and Xu Xunyue was not in a hurry to pursue it. At that time, he had just occupied a piece of land and had buried his spiritual power deep in the snow to connect with nature. He had found that there were many disobedient cataclysmic creatures that needed to be dealt with.
After he had dealt with them and was preparing to enter the sea to explore, he had discovered Zhu Hui’s arrival.
And then…
And then he had been temporarily distracted by Zhu Hui and had forgotten about diving. He had washed the person’s clothes ashore and sent the person to the shore to get dressed. When he dived for the second time, he had once again felt the spiritual power belonging to that creature.
That creature’s hiding place was in the direction of the underwater city.
And this time, the spiritual power fluctuation he felt was different from when he had just “awakened.” The latter had an active outward-spreading meaning, while the former was more like a kind of greeting and probing.
A guess slowly formed in Xu Xunyue’s mind.
It doesn’t know me, but it’s not very hostile to me either.
What kind of existence is it?
Such a powerful spiritual power that can affect from miles away…
Could it be my own kind?
Xu Xunyue glanced at the Sentinel he was leading down.
They had been diving for at least an hour, and according to their speed, they had already swum a considerable distance. He had shared a part of his ability in the seawater with Zhu Hui, allowing the other to advance with him without any effort.
Zhu Hui is human. If I’m his partner, I should be human too, right?
As the depth continued to increase, after a long time, it seemed that there was no difference between being in the seawater and on land. It was all an unchanging black, with only the difference of whether it was the wind or the water flowing past him.
They were approaching the depth where the spiritual power fluctuation had come from just now.
At the same time, the two of them saw the ruins of a city.
The buildings in this city were quite tall, with the most conspicuous one being hundreds of meters high by visual estimation, which meant that the level of technological development before it sank into the sea was quite good. But it wasn’t all buildings of a dozen or dozens of floors.
The green area was also wide. Although no green plants could be seen now, they must have rotted away after being submerged in the sea for many years, but one could vaguely see many empty roadside areas, parks, and flower beds.
Between the buildings, probably where the streets were, there were also vehicles that were so rotten that their original shape could not be seen, and some that were left with only some iron frames.
Looking down, one could see the entire city, which was not very large. It should have been a developing city before.
Ordinary, beautiful, peaceful, and prosperous.
But now it had become ruins, and it was already good that it was ruins.
In the Poseidon Era, many cities that were included in the cataclysm zones had left no traces. They were gone due to chemical explosions, super earthquakes, super tsunamis, excessively high concentrations of cataclysmic factors… and other inexplicable reasons. It was as if they had never existed.
Even for two regions that were once next to each other, an exploration team might find one but not the other.
Xu Xunyue slowed down and continued to dive. He exchanged a look with Zhu Hui, who seemed to have sensed something.
There was no conversation. After their gazes met, he knew that Zhu Hui was ready.
A string of small bubbles floated past them.
Then, let’s see what’s in this city.
Whoosh—
As they were diving down, at a certain moment, there was a feeling of passing through a transparent film above the city.
The scene before them suddenly changed.
A dazzling white light lit up.
Zhu Hui immediately squinted his eyes and blinked frequently to resist the visual impact of the sudden strong light.
But the next second, he found that he didn’t seem to need to do so.
His eyes were not hurt by the white light.
Realizing this, he looked at Xu Xunyue with some astonishment.
Throughout the process of the scene change, they had always maintained physical contact, and of course, they had not separated due to the change in environment.
Brother…
In a completely unfamiliar environment, Zhu Hui didn’t speak, just thought silently in his heart.
Brother hasn’t remembered that he’s a Guide yet, and he uses his spiritual power for various things based on instinct.
But even a brother who hasn’t fully recovered his memory has adjusted my vision for me at a time like this.
Brother cares about me so much.
This subconscious, casual act was like how he would naturally stick to his brother, how as a Sentinel he wanted to protect his brother, and also longed for his brother to call him affectionately, treat him gently, or treat him roughly.
The corners of his lips curled up in a restrained way, then quickly fell. Zhu Hui regained his calm and serious expression and began to carefully observe his surroundings.
But if you looked closely, you could still see a hint of a smile in those amber eyes.
The facts proved that his cautious, silent attitude was correct.
Because at this moment, they were standing in the middle of a crossroads, surrounded by traffic and pedestrians. In the distance, the sun was high in the sky, and high-rise buildings stood tall.
The slightly noisy but lively urban noise entered their ears. It sounded unfamiliar yet familiar, but it was not unpleasant.
Anyone who had lived in the peaceful period before the Cataclysm would feel that this was a “hometown accent” that touched the soul. No matter whether this city was the same as the city they had been in before, or how different it was, this was a sound that could only be heard in a peaceful era.
Although the current Imperial Capital was also very safe, with countless high-rise buildings and lights, fourteen years of the Cataclysm had ultimately changed the city’s atmosphere.
This was a sound so beautiful that it could make a nostalgic person cry.
If he had heard this sound in a recording, or seen this scene in a video, even Zhu Hui, who was rarely emotional, wouldn’t have minded stopping what he was doing and being in a daze for a while.
But this was deep within a cataclysm zone.
Strictly speaking, he didn’t even know if this could be considered deep within the Endless Snow. He and Xu Xunyue had already advanced a great distance downward.
At such a distance, the military’s exploration teams would not come, and the daily work of the Undeveloped Zone outposts would not involve it. They might have already reached a place that was not recorded in detail in the Poseidon Era version of the data.
What they heard was not a recording, and what they saw was not a video.
But it couldn’t possibly be real either.
They were in the deep sea a second ago, unable to see their own hands, surrounded by water. How could they be stepping on land the next second?
And it was daytime, with a blazing sun, a vibrant city.
An illusion?
A special phenomenon in the depths of a cataclysm zone?
Fortunately, for now, both of them were safe. The scene of this old era environment did not reject them, and the pedestrians at the crossroads did not cast strange glances at them.
Their appearance seemed to have changed nothing. This picture of the old days was still running on its own track.
A fog of confusion rose in his heart. Zhu Hui did not act rashly, but looked at the person with long hair draped over his shoulders beside him.
From the seabed to the city, his seawater-drenched black hair no longer floated with the seawater, but obediently stuck to his cheeks and back.
Xu Xunyue had clearly also made some discoveries.
He let go of Zhu Hui’s arm, then held Zhu Hui’s wrist and opened his palm.
He extended his index finger, preparing to write on Zhu Hui’s palm.
Just as his fingertip touched the warm palm and he had written half a character, Xu Xunyue frowned.
Too slow, inconvenient.
Right, there seems to be another, faster way. I’ve done it like that before…
Xu Xunyue thought for a moment, then tried to link to Zhu Hui’s brain and transmit information with his spiritual power.
[This place gives me a sense of familiarity.]
[Have I been here before?]
