Chapter 45: Very Good Physical Fitness
What did brother just call me?
Zhu Hui’s brain directly shut down.
He had originally thought it would take at least a few days, but he didn’t expect his brother to recover his memory in just a few hours. A few hours ago, he had just lied to his brother…
His brother definitely knew he was lying, but he still called him that.
A sense of excitement welled up in his heart, but a moment later, another kind of heartache and helplessness occupied most of his chest.
This was his brother’s childhood home, and he was standing in his brother’s former bedroom.
A Sentinel’s night vision was excellent, and he could see the surroundings clearly without relying on lights.
The carpet that covered the room was the same as in his brother’s current home; the wall paint was blue and white, a little more lively than the cool tones of his current home, and there was a super-large poster hanging on it; a desk with a game console and books, the game console was clearly a product of the pre-Cataclysm era, there was no such model in the Poseidon Era; a neatly made single bed—this he didn’t know, he and his brother slept in separate rooms, and he had never been in his brother’s bedroom.
Fourteen years had passed. The land had turned into an ocean, and wood and stone had turned into silt. These seemingly intact household items could not possibly exist anymore.
Sleeping here, decaying for a long time, what was their actual appearance?
Being used to death was not the same as being used to life and death. Life and death were changing things, a transition from vivid to silent.
This was his brother’s past, a place where more than ten years of youthful memories were stored. Fourteen years ago, his brother’s relatives might have been sleeping in the next room.
“Brother…”
If it were at any other time, being called “sweetie,” he would have definitely pounced back and nibbled, but at this moment, Zhu Hui felt it was not appropriate.
The kiss just now had no lust, but was more like an intimate touch with a sense of emotion and confirmation. Because too much time had passed, even the leaked pain was not intense.
But loss was clearly a painful thing.
A sour feeling welled up in his nasal cavity. Zhu Hui lowered his head and blinked rapidly, and by the way, he used this posture to rub his head against the Guide’s cheek.
“Brother,” he said softly, “I will always be by your side. I will never leave you, really.”
Hearing Xu Xunyue’s “mm,” he immediately added:
“I’m not saying sweet nothings. This is my life’s oath.”
Only death can break it, and I will fight to live. Besides protecting you, nothing can make me break my oath.
Xu Xunyue slowly exhaled, lifted the face of the person in his arms, and touched Zhu Hui’s eyelashes with his fingertips.
Wet and moist.
“Why are you crying?”
This question sounded like a sigh.
He kissed those amber eyes again, his lips lingering for a long time, until his breath had dyed the Sentinel’s cheeks red, and then he said with a smile:
“I know. We are each other’s family.”
Zhu Hui was stunned for a moment, and his eyes, which were glowing from being kissed, seemed to become even brighter.
Xu Xunyue continued unhurriedly, “And, sweetie has already proven that he won’t leave. I believe it.”
Being called by such a nickname again, Zhu Hui’s breathing was disordered for a long time. He endured his shyness and asked with difficulty.
“Me?… When did I…”
He actually didn’t realize it until now.
Xu Xunyue felt a little helpless in his heart. He extended his spiritual feelers and at the same time, tapped the Sentinel’s forehead with his bent finger.
“You said you weren’t injured and were in a good state, but in terms of your spirit, do you feel like you’ve been overused? You have to tell the truth.”
Before he had recovered his memory, he had checked Zhu Hui’s spiritual landscape and confirmed that he was not injured. But at that time, he was in an abnormal state, with his non-human thinking dominating. All his actions were based on instinct, and his use of his Guide abilities was not very subtle.
Thinking about it now that he had recovered his memory, even if he hadn’t mentally attacked the Sentinel, overuse and over-regulation would always leave traces.
He hadn’t intended to involve Zhu Hui in this matter, but not only had Zhu Hui come, but he had also willingly surrendered himself.
From Xu Xunyue’s current perspective, the him of that state was simply a natural killing machine. But if Zhu Hui had seriously resisted and had gone all out without holding back, he wouldn’t have been so easily controlled by him and bullied like that.
Fortunately, his instinct was to be reluctant to hurt him.
Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Soothing the other’s spiritual landscape with his spiritual feelers, Xu Xunyue heard Zhu Hui’s stammering answer.
“Yes… but it’s okay. It’s just a little bit. It won’t break even if it’s overused.”
The Sentinel confessed with red ears.
“I have very good physical fitness. Brother can play with me however he wants.”
Xu Xunyue couldn’t help but laugh, a hint of danger flashing in his eyes. “You cried so many times. I thought you thought it was excessive.”
“No, no, I would never have that thought,” Zhu Hui hugged his waist and explained hurriedly, “It’s because brother is too amazing. I can’t control my tear glands. No matter what state brother is in, he’s very good to me. I like brother.”
He had indeed been aggrieved a few times before, but the results were all good. Now that he was being genuinely cared for by his brother, he felt that it was nothing at all.
He liked his brother’s gentle care, and he also liked it when he was rough with him.
After hearing Zhu Hui’s words, Xu Xunyue was also at a loss. Zhu Hui’s words were very pleasing to him.
In the future, it would be safer to solve the problem from the root and avoid the occurrence of such uncertain situations.
He took Zhu Hui’s hand, and under the other’s somewhat bewildered gaze, he touched their wrists together. A few seconds later, both terminals lit up with a number at the same time.
81.08%.
After all that tossing and turning, their compatibility had actually increased so much.
Xu Xunyue remembered that the day they left the White Tower, it had been around 76%. Now, not only had it increased by almost five percentage points, but it had also broken a whole ten-point mark.
Thinking about it, it was normal. In this experience, they had taken a further step in both their emotional and physical contact.
The compatibility between most partners in the Empire was between 70% and 80%. A compatibility of over 80% was a rare Guide-Sentinel bond in the Empire. This number sounded good, and it was also completely sufficient for mental activities such as establishing a mental link and performing mental soothing.
Xu Xunyue remembered everything that had happened when he was in his abnormal state, so he couldn’t help but think of Zhu Hui’s advances at that time.
His subconscious at that time was correct. At this stage, he was indeed not prepared to have a Level Three Bonding with Zhu Hui.
A compatibility of over 80% was to be expected, and 80% was already enough.
In their daily life in the future, their compatibility should continue to increase until it reached 89.99%, at which point it would be stuck at this bottleneck due to the lack of a Level Three Bonding.
The Poseidon Era was too dangerous, and there were countless examples of people suffering heavy blows from losing their bonded partners. Xia Feng, Qiu Ye, and even many of the Sentinels in his early teams… Xu Xunyue had witnessed Xia Feng’s rapid aging and had also heard about Qiu Ye’s first few years of living a life worse than death.
The three levels of bonding made the link between a Guide and a Sentinel increasingly close, and the consequences of breaking a Level One, Level Two, and Level Three bond were also different.
The difference between Level One and Level Two was not big, but the difference between Level Two and Level Three could be described as heaven and earth. Those Sentinels and Guides who planned to serve in the army for a year or two to gain experience and then directly transfer to a civilian post would not have a Level Three Bonding before they retired, to avoid accidents that would affect the other party.
Of course, this strategy was not applicable to long-term active personnel.
Zhu Hui was clearly not the type to retire after two years, and if Xu Xunyue hadn’t noticed the abnormality in the Emperor, he wouldn’t have chosen to retire either.
So Zhu Hui felt that there was no problem with a Level Three Bonding.
But in Xu Xunyue’s view, they had to at least wait until the matter with the Emperor was over, otherwise it would be too dangerous.
He and Zhu Hui were not just a Guide-Sentinel bond. He was not a pure human Guide. The exclusivity of Zhu Hui’s compatibility list being triggered proved that he had the upper hand in this bond.
Once they had a Level Three Bonding, if he was seriously injured, Zhu Hui would inevitably fall into a frenzy. If he died, Zhu Hui would also die.
Being in the center of the vortex himself, Xu Xunyue did not dare to bet on such a probability with his partner. Before the crisis was eliminated, a Level Two Bonding was enough.
His Sentinel was just a case of “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He couldn’t even handle a Level Two Bonding very well.
Gathering his thoughts, Xu Xunyue slightly loosened his embrace and said, “Also, about my legs, you’ve seen them.”
Zhu Hui nodded, looking quite happy.
“I guessed it. Brother was just pretending before. Anyway, it’s good that you weren’t so seriously injured. I feel that brother’s current physical fitness is also at the top level for a Guide. He can move without any obstacles… Brother must have been training secretly.”
“I have been training,” Xu Xunyue looked at him. “Is that all? You don’t have anything else to ask me?”
“I’ll wait for brother to tell me. If you don’t say it, I won’t ask.”
It sounded like a tactic of advancing by retreating, but Xu Xunyue knew that Zhu Hui really thought so.
However, Xu Xunyue had also discovered by now that even if he didn’t tell Zhu Hui, Zhu Hui would still stick to him, completely regardless of whether there was any danger.
Then he might as well just tell him.
“There’s something wrong with the Emperor. I suspect he was contaminated four years ago…”
The beginning was a bombshell.
After explaining his reasoning and evidence, Xu Xunyue mainly talked about the reasons. As for his own deployment and contacts, he planned to personally take Zhu Hui to understand them after they returned.
The narration process was very smooth. Zhu Hui played the role of a perfect listener, but his expression was a little unnatural.
Xu Xunyue noticed this, and before he could say anything, the other spoke up after his narration came to an end:
“Ahem, actually, I also have something I haven’t told brother—brother, don’t be angry. It actually overlaps with some of what you said, but I don’t have as much information as you.”
“I didn’t mean to hide it from you. I just felt that you were inconvenienced and had retired, so I didn’t want to drag you into this kind of bad thing.”
Xu Xunyue was a little surprised, but after thinking about it, he also deduced the truth.
“It was Qiu Ye who told you. After you returned to the Imperial Capital from the Diamond Sea mission, you didn’t leave much, and you also suspected the incident in the Diamond Sea mission.”
“That’s right.”
Seeing that he didn’t mind, Zhu Hui breathed a sigh of relief and added a little more information, saying that his team was not the only one that had had a strange accident. It was just that the others were not famous, and after the pension was paid, it didn’t make a splash in the Poseidon Era, where there were many casualties.
“…I’ll communicate with Qiu Ye after we get out of here. We can discuss this together then. What do you think, brother?”
“Okay.” Xu Xunyue certainly didn’t mind having more partners.
In fact, he wasn’t angry about Zhu Hui hiding this from him. In a way, he had hidden it from Zhu Hui to the same extent.
“By the way, brother, I just remembered something else.”
Xu Xunyue didn’t say anything, but Zhu Hui himself had some indescribable shadow about “deceiving brother,” so much so that he was restless even when nothing was happening.
With a turn of his thoughts, he started another topic.
“This time, I found you thanks to our Level Two Bonding and the memory leaves you gave me before. The memory leaves I carry with me will send me information when your physical condition changes.”
“I know that brother is a Guide, and your senses of me are many times more detailed than my senses of you, but just like the memory leaves I gave you, do you want to give me something else, so that you can know my specific location anytime, anywhere?”
The light outside the window was sparse, and the room was even more without a light source. Even if a Sentinel’s night vision was good, such a dark environment still cast a hazy veil over one’s expression.
In Zhu Hui’s eyes, Xu Xunyue’s expression was a little hard to fathom.
He looked down, his eyes turning a dark blue in the night, his voice low and calm.
“You’re not worried about your privacy being leaked? And you don’t mind that I can monitor you at any time?”
“But I have no privacy from brother.”
Zhu Hui looked him in the eye and said frankly, “What I didn’t say in the past, I’ve already told you. And whatever I encounter in the future, I will also communicate with you.”
He looked at Xu Xunyue with bright eyes, with a great deal of expectation in his heart:
“So, after we go back, can you give me another locator?”
“…”
Xu Xunyue didn’t give an answer immediately, but smiled slightly and held Zhu Hui’s left wrist.
He idly fiddled with the blue and gold hair tie on the pale wrist. After a long time, until the Sentinel was almost a little uncomfortable, he said with a calm expression:
“It’s a good thing to be self-aware, but are you so sure that you don’t have a locator on you right now?”
“??”
“…Brother?”
