Ying Li had already left the Guide Academy.
Right next door was the Sentinel Academy, and beside that were the largest shopping mall and park in the Upper City District.
He walked toward the park. Just as he reached the entrance, a machine reminded him to scan his Communication Terminal.
Space in the Upper City District was cramped; the average living space per person was only two square meters. If places like parks were free to enter, they would be impossibly overcrowded.
Therefore, entering a park required a fee. And to prevent people from lingering for too long, the fee was based on time.
From the moment one entered the park, every minute spent inside cost five Credit Points, up until the moment one left.
Ordinary people in the Upper City District had a monthly income between two thousand and three thousand Credit Points. They had to pay taxes, rent, energy bills, and purchase food and water—it was hard to have any savings.
So, visiting a park was an extreme luxury for ordinary people.
Ying Li watched some young people rush into the park, heading straight for specific spots to take photos, then hurry away just as quickly, striving to ensure every Credit Point was spent on something meaningful.
He carefully observed this park, and also those people, finally confirming one thing: he had truly been reborn.
Sentinels who grew up in the Upper City District mostly endured hardship and material deprivation in their youth.
As a result, once they started earning money, they often spent without restraint, squandering their earnings.
But he wasn’t like that.
From a very young age, he knew he needed to save money. Therefore, before turning twenty, he had never entered this park.
On this day in his previous life, after confessing to Wu Nian and becoming his Guardian, he had, at Wu Nian’s request, entered this park for the first time.
They had spent the entire afternoon there. Wu Nian had also bought several snacks and drinks inside the park, which were far more expensive than outside, costing him a total of six thousand Credit Points. It made his heart ache terribly at the time.
What he saw and experienced in the park then was exactly identical to what he was seeing now.
Ying Li found a quiet corner where few people took photos and lay down. While gazing at the azure sky and the fake flowers and trees in the park, he sorted through his two lives—past and present.
In his previous life, he was a D-Rank Sentinel upon initial Awakening. But because he trained rigorously and went to the surface to fight Mutant Beasts early on, he advanced to a C-Rank Sentinel before adulthood.
After that, in order to live a good life, he spent at least twenty days a month outside the city, tirelessly exercising his physique and Mental Power. Coupled with certain fortuitous encounters, he became a B-Rank Sentinel just after turning twenty.
Right after this promotion, he successfully confessed to Wu Nian and gained his own Guide.
At that time, he was full of youthful vigor and confidence, so much so that he overlooked many issues—like the vastly different spending habits between him and Wu Nian.
All of this was actually evident from what happened on the very first day after his confession.
On that day in his previous life, he and Wu Nian spent the afternoon in the park. Then, Wu Nian suggested going to the mall.
After that, they spent nine thousand Credit Points on food from the Ecological Zone at the nearby mall, and he also spent over thirty thousand Credit Points buying clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc., for Wu Nian.
Honestly, he felt many things were unnecessary purchases, but Wu Nian liked them.
A Sentinel had a duty to provide a good life for their Guide, so he bought them.
The income gap between Sentinels and ordinary people was vast. Ordinary people earned around three thousand a month, but if he hunted a C-Rank Mutant Beast outside the city, just the C-Rank Mutant Beast’s Energy Crystal Core could sell for thirty thousand.
If he hunted a B-Rank Mutant Beast, the Energy Crystal Core could sell for a hundred thousand.
But hunting outside the city required buying equipment and weapons, renting vehicles, and after hunting the beasts, the team he was part of would take a cut, and there were taxes to pay upon entering the city.
Even spending most of his month outside the city, at twenty years old, his monthly income was barely a hundred thousand Credit Points.
He had to pay rent, buy food, give some money to his parents, and send gifts to Wu Nian. He hadn’t saved much money at that point; his savings were meager.
Therefore, in his previous life, he talked with Wu Nian that very evening, hoping Wu Nian could be more frugal in the future, as they had no family support and needed to plan for the long term.
They agreed that he would cover living expenses like rent and food, and he would give Wu Nian thirty thousand Credit Points monthly as spending money.
Wu Nian happily agreed, but found it very difficult to stick to, often needing more money by the end of the month.
However, at the time, Ying Li didn’t mind too much.
That period was also the rare calm stretch during his ten years with Wu Nian.
A few months later, Wu Nian, relying on resources Ying Li found for him, improved his rank and became a C-Rank Guide.
The C-Rank Guides of Wu Nian’s age mostly chose B-Rank Sentinels from the Central District as their Guardians. Their standard of living far exceeded Wu Nian’s.
Wu Nian began to complain. Even when Ying Li increased his monthly allowance to sixty thousand, Wu Nian remained dissatisfied and wanted to move to the Central District.
He was a B-Rank Sentinel and could move to the Central District to live. But house prices and rent in the Central District were over ten times those in the Upper City District.
Still young at the time, with no savings, he couldn’t afford a house in the Central District and could only rent. However, if he spent a large sum on rent, saving up to buy a house later would be nearly impossible.
But Wu Nian’s heart was utterly set on living in the Central District. Every time they met, Wu Nian would list all the benefits of moving there.
Indeed, after entering the Central District, he could join better Hunting Teams and earn more money.
Furthermore, Wu Nian had somehow gotten acquainted with an A-Rank Sentinel living in the Central District. This person was willing to offer some help. After considering it, Ying Li agreed to move to the Central District.
He also joined the Hunting Team of the family that A-Rank Sentinel belonged to.
That A-Rank Sentinel’s name was Yu Mingwei, a young master of the Yu Family, one of the Five Great Families of the Central District.
After joining the Yu Family’s Hunting Team, the money he earned did increase. However, the cost of living in the Central District was just too high. Rent alone cost fifty thousand Credit Points a month. Later, when they moved to a better place, the rent more than doubled.
Wu Nian’s spending also skyrocketed. This meant Ying Li simply could not save any money.
Time flew by over the years. He advanced to an A-Rank Sentinel at twenty-five. Under his urging, Wu Nian also advanced to B-Rank two years later.
From the moment he met Wu Nian, whenever he found resources in the wild that could boost a Guide’s power, he would bring them back to the underground city for Wu Nian to use.
He also supervised Wu Nian, making him train his Mental Power as diligently as Ying Li trained his own.
He even made Wu Nian exercise his body.
He believed that to improve one’s Mental Power, one must first strengthen their physical fitness. This principle applied to both Guides and Sentinels.
Everything he did proved effective. Each time he advanced in rank, Wu Nian would also advance sometime later.
He was delighted. Wu Nian’s increasing strength meant Wu Nian could provide better Mental Guidance for him.
Only by narrowing the gap between their ranks would they have a chance to establish a Mental Bond.
But Wu Nian didn’t like training.
And after Wu Nian’s rank improved, Ying Li was no longer Wu Nian’s first choice.
Ying Li spent most of his time outside the city to earn money. Yu Mingwei, however, was different.
Although the Hunting Team nominally belonged to Yu Mingwei, Yu Mingwei, as a young master of the Yu Family, was mainly responsible for providing equipment, weapons, and vehicles. He didn’t accompany the convoy out of the city. On the rare occasions he went, he hardly ever lifted a finger.
Yu Mingwei stayed in the city all day, so he had plenty of contact with Wu Nian.
In short, without Ying Li realizing it, Wu Nian and Yu Mingwei had cuckolded him.
He discovered this about half a year ago.
No wonder Yu Mingwei always arranged for him to lead the teams outside the city. No wonder Wu Nian insisted on buying a house before they formally got together. No wonder Wu Nian’s attitude towards him grew worse and worse…
Every time he returned from an excursion outside the city, the state of his Mental Sea was poor, and his body was injured. So, the few days he spent in the city were mostly used for recuperation.
Combined with the deep trust he had for Wu Nian, whom he’d grown up with since childhood… he hadn’t discovered their relationship sooner…
Of course, there was another reason.
He could feel that, at some point, Wu Nian’s feelings for him had been genuine.
Although they had conflicts and their relationship soured, Wu Nian initially held no malice towards him.
But regardless of the past, it was now over between him and Wu Nian.
He was an A-Rank Sentinel, and many people sought to win him over. But compared to the Yu Family, who possessed an S-Rank Sentinel and controlled many of Starlight City’s resources, he was nothing.
He couldn’t cause trouble for Yu Mingwei directly. He could only peacefully break up with Wu Nian.
Of course, Wu Nian had to compensate him for his losses over the years.
Sentinels need Guides to calm their Mental Sea, but what they need most is to establish a Mental Bond with a Guide.
Simply calming the Mental Sea was a service one could pay any Guide for. But a Mental Bond was different; it was a one-on-one connection.
Only after establishing a Mental Bond with a Guide could a Sentinel guarantee their Mental Sea would never cause problems again.
But establishing a Mental Bond was difficult. Generally, it required the Guide and Sentinel to be very familiar with each other and possess deep trust for it to succeed.
The Guardian Contract existed precisely for this purpose.
After a Sentinel and Guide signed a Guardian Contract, they would cultivate their bond, familiarize themselves with each other’s Mental Power, and finally establish a Mental Bond.
The Guardian Contract was binding for both parties. After signing, the Sentinel couldn’t abandon the Guide and had to provide a good life. If the Sentinel wanted to end the contract, they had to pay the Guide a large sum in compensation.
If a Guide abandoned their Guardian, they had to return the money the Guardian had spent on them.
Of course, the Guide wouldn’t pay this money themselves. The Sentinel who subsequently took the Guide on would pay it.
Poaching someone else’s Guide always came at a price.
Ying Li met Wu Nian at eighteen, and now he was thirty. Over twelve years, the money he’d spent on Wu Nian was an astronomical figure.
That didn’t even include the various resources he’d given Wu Nian or the gifts he’d sent—those were the bulk of the expense, but the courts couldn’t easily quantify them.
Yu Mingwei wasn’t the heir of the Yu Family. It wasn’t easy for him to come up with such a huge sum all at once, nor was he willing to pay so much for Wu Nian.
In short, their issues couldn’t be sorted out quickly. It was also then that an incredibly powerful Dual S-Rank Mutant Beast appeared near Starlight City.
That beast infiltrated Starlight City, destroying the entire city’s defense systems from within, allowing nearby high-rank Mutant Beasts to enter the city and slaughter humans. The streets of Starlight City ran red with blood.
The great families of Starlight City, including the Yu Family, all abandoned the city and fled. As for Wu Nian, because he came to discuss terminating the Guardian Contract with Ying Li, he missed the chance to leave with the Yu Family.
The situation before his death… was truly chaotic.
The city was filled with Mutant Beasts, many people he knew died in their jaws, and amidst it all, Wu Nian was beside him, crumbling into hysterical curses, saying his whole life had been ruined by Ying Li.
According to Wu Nian, Ying Li hadn’t loved him enough, hadn’t been willing to spend time with him, and only knew how to force him to do things he didn’t want to.
Wu Nian also complained that Ying Li never prepared gifts for holidays, paid no attention to their home, was stingy…
Wu Nian raved hysterically, his hatred for Ying Li clearly already set in stone.
In the Central District, there were indeed many Sentinels who were extremely attentive to their Guides and very generous with their spending.
But those Sentinels came from great families; they controlled the resource distribution in Starlight City. Even without going out hunting, they had endless money to spend.
Take Yu Mingwei, for example. Even if he never left the city in his life, the Yu Family could still provide him a life of luxury.
But Ying Li couldn’t manage that.
In the end, he and Wu Nian died together in the jaws of the beasts.
In this life, he wouldn’t go seeking Wu Nian’s ruin again.
They were not suitable for each other. Right from the very start, they should never have been together.
