Chapter 21: Disguise Part 1

Ying Li shared his conjecture with Xiang Ye, then sighed. “I’ve never heard of a situation like yours before.”

Xiang Ye should have awakened as a high-level Guide when he was very young and should have enjoyed the Underground City’s best resources, pursued by high-level Sentinels from the Central District.

But because his parents hadn’t taken care of him and hadn’t provided him with sufficient food, the past dozen or so years of his life had been exceptionally harsh.

He had never needed to endure all this.

Ying Li’s emotions were complicated, and so were Xiang Ye’s.

His past memories were filled with nothing but hunger and suffering.

And it turned out… all of this could have been avoided?

If only his parents had treated him a little better, if only the orphanage hadn’t skimped on his food, he might have become a Guide much earlier and would never have had to suffer.

This world had been far too unfair to him.

But after taking a deep breath, Xiang Ye quickly suppressed his emotions.

What was done was done. Dwelling on these things now was pointless, for he could not change the past.

For the him of the present, awakening was an extraordinarily good thing!

He had become a Guide. From now on, he could stay with Ying Li!

But wait — Ying Li was a B-Rank Sentinel. If he himself was only D-Rank, it’d be very difficult to stay with him… Xiang Ye suddenly asked, “Mr. Ying, do you know my rank?”

Ying Li had already planned to tell Xiang Ye his rank. “You’re at least B-Rank. Xiang Ye, B-Rank Guides are very precious in the Underground City, you…”

Ying Li had many things to tell Xiang Ye. For example, that Xiang Ye had the potential to become an A-Rank Guide. Or that the methods used by major clans in the Central District to pursue Guides could be rather unsavory.

And then there was the Shen Family.

Xiang Ye’s body hadn’t even matured yet. It was impossible to research a way to induce awakening in adult ordinary people using his body. Logically, the Shen Family shouldn’t have tried to capture him.

But Ying Li suddenly recalled that in his previous life, not long after Xiang Ye awakened, he had been taken to the Shen Family by a Shen Family Sentinel.

The Shen Family must have known about Xiang Ye’s physical condition but had still imprisoned him for years.

And Xiang Ye hadn’t been the only one the Shen Family used for their research.

After Xiang Ye had killed many Shen Family Sentinels and escaped from the family, the Shen Family’s laboratory was exposed. The Guides held captive there as Experiment Subjects had not been limited to just Xiang Ye!

Xiang Ye, having no power or influence, had to be cautious.

Ying Li’s words were cut off midway by Xiang Ye. “Mr. Ying, can I be your Guide?”

Ying Li, who had been deeply concerned about Xiang Ye’s future: “…” He was worrying about Xiang Ye’s future, and this was what Xiang Ye was thinking about?

Amused and exasperated, Ying Li said, “No.”

“Why?”

“You’re too young. I see you as a younger brother. And I don’t need a Guide,” Ying Li stated. He then added, “You’re not even fully grown. Don’t get any strange ideas!”

Hearing Ying Li’s words, Xiang Ye felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. His face flushed bright red. “I’m eighteen!”

“Your body’s development level is that of a twelve-year-old,” Ying Li pointed out ruthlessly.

He had already lived for thirty years, and the Underground City’s legal marriage age was eighteen.

If he had married at eighteen in his previous life and had children early, by the time he died, his kid would have been about the same age as Xiang Ye.

Xiang Ye said, annoyed, “I’ve awakened now. I’ll start developing soon!”

He had always known there was something wrong with his body. The other children at the orphanage had begun developing around twelve or thirteen, but he hadn’t.

But he’d never dwelled on it much before. He could barely get enough to eat — how could he possibly have the leisure to care about that?

Over the past month, after finally eating his fill, he had indeed fretted a little about this issue, but he still hadn’t paid it much mind.

He liked Ying Li, but Ying Li could never be with him. In that case, his physical deficiency, being essentially a eunuch, wasn’t such a big deal.

The day Ying Li found a Guide and threw him out, he’d probably end up starving on the side of the road anyway.

If you were about to starve to death, who cared whether your body was developing or not?

But right now, being treated like a child by Ying Li was truly vexing.

As far as he knew, Sentinels had mental power, and mental power had many uses.

So… when Ying Li first met him, he’d already discovered that his development was delayed? Had Ying Li been treating him like a child this entire month?

“Alright, alright, you’ll develop soon… Xiang Ye, let’s talk about something else.” Ying Li tried to soothe him.

Xiang Ye was further irritated by Ying Li’s coaxing tone, but he couldn’t bring himself to get angry at Ying Li. He could only pick up a water chestnut and start munching on it, while shooting Ying Li a glare.

Before, he had always felt embarrassed eating the food Ying Li gave him. But he didn’t feel that way anymore.

Now that he was a Guide, he could find a way to repay him.

And most importantly, he needed to eat more in order to grow!

“Xiang Ye, you’ve already awakened. Normally, we’d need to notify the Guide Academy so they could take you for a detailed examination. But I haven’t informed them yet, because before doing so, there are some things I need to tell you…” Ying Li organized his thoughts and continued speaking.

But he was once again interrupted by Xiang Ye: “Mr. Ying, can we not notify the Guide Academy?”

Xiang Ye didn’t want to interrupt Ying Li, but he was afraid of being sent away.

He had recently learned about what happened after a Guide or Sentinel awakened. After Sentinel awakening, one had to go study at the Sentinel Academy. After Guide awakening, one had to go study at the Guide Academy.

If he awakened as a B-Rank Guide, he would also be sent to the Guide Academy in the Central District!

But Ying Li lived in the Upper City District!

If he went to the Guide Academy in the Central District, would he still be able to see Ying Li?

Furthermore, according to information online, virtually all B-Rank Guides ended up married into wealthy families, becoming the partners of A-Rank Sentinels from those major clans.

In short, A-Rank Sentinels from major families would pursue him.

Sentinels used all sorts of methods when fighting over Guides, and duels were commonplace. Could Ying Li beat an A-Rank Sentinel?

No, that wasn’t even the issue of whether he could win or not — Ying Li wouldn’t even compete with others for him in the first place!

Then his chance to be with Ying Li would be gone!

In the past, he had always been rejected. His parents had abandoned him; the teachers at the orphanage also disliked him, a child who was far too thin and weak; and the other orphanage children bullied him every day.

It was Ying Li who had picked him up and taken him home.

He had only one thought now: he had to stay by Ying Li’s side.

“Why?” Ying Li was somewhat surprised.

Awakening was such a wonderful thing! Once Xiang Ye went to the Central District, all those A-Rank Sentinels there would likely go out of their way to curry favor with him. Xiang Ye would be able to eat food produced in the Ecological Zone until he was fully satisfied.

From what Ying Li knew, the people of the Upper City District all yearned to awaken because it could change their destinies.

And Xiang Ye didn’t want to inform the Guide Academy? Why?

Xiang Ye’s mind raced, combining all sorts of conspiracy theories and other information he’d seen in his life. He then looked at Ying Li pitifully. “Mr. Ying, no one awakens as an adult. Since I’ve awakened so late, I might get captured for experimentation!”

There had always been rumors in the Upper City District that those who occasionally went missing had been captured by Central District people for experiments or even eaten.

“And I have no background. If I go to the Central District, I might get imprisoned by some twisted Sentinel!”

A novel he once read told the story of an ordinary woman from the Upper City District who awakened as a B-Rank Guide and entered the Central District, being fought over by many A-Rank Sentinels. One of the Sentinels in the story tried to imprison the female Guide.

“When I lived at the orphanage, people always bullied me. If I go to the Guide Academy, I might get bullied by my classmates too.”

This was his own firsthand experience!

Xiang Ye racked his brains and came up with many potential misfortunes he might encounter in the future.

For example, being forced to be with a Sentinel he didn’t like, or being domestically abused by his Sentinel, and so on.

He said all this simply because he didn’t want to go to the Central District, so he just made it up on the spot.

But from Ying Li’s perspective, these were all things that had actually happened.

After Wu Nian went to the Central District, he constantly complained about being looked down upon and ostracized.

Ying Li knew Wu Nian had those experiences because the Guides Wu Nian met through Yu Mingwei all came from the Central District’s major families.

But it did prove that bullying indeed existed.

Many students at the Central District’s Guide Academy came from big families. Their tempers were far from good!

Things like Guides being imprisoned or domestically abused by Sentinels were also very common in the Central District.

Some C-Rank Guides from the Upper City District would end up with B-Rank Sentinels from the Central District.

These Guides, having no backing, often lived alone in the Central District. Some lived well, but others did not. He had met Guides who were abused by their Sentinels.

Being beaten, a Guide could report it to the police, but it was utterly useless!

In Starlight City, Guides seemed to hold high status, but that was only because Sentinels propped them up. The real power-holders were the Sentinels — or rather, the Sentinels of the major families.

If Xiang Ye ended up with a commoner Sentinel and was abused, someone would surely intervene. But if he ended up with a Sentinel from a powerful family, even if he was beaten half to death, the police would call it a domestic matter and tell them to resolve it themselves.

Yu Mingwei had an older brother with poor talent. He had started out as only a C-Rank Sentinel, so he married a strikingly beautiful D-Rank Guide from the Upper City District and established a mental bond with her.

Later, relying on the Yu Family’s resources, his rank increased, and he became a B-Rank Sentinel.

Not long after his rank increased, his Guide died. He then promptly established a mental bond with another C-Rank Guide.

His first spouse clearly did not die naturally, but from beginning to end, nobody cared.

Starlight City’s media was all controlled by the major families. Those bullied Guides had nowhere to cry for justice.

Of course, it wasn’t only Guides from the Upper City District who were bullied, but Sentinels from there as well.

Those major families treated the Sentinels of the Upper City District as expendable resources.

Ying Li had often felt the oppression of class in his previous life and had even spoken about it with Wu Nian.

But Wu Nian thought he was being narrow-minded for saying so, that he was jealous of Sentinels from big families and deliberately slandering Yu Mingwei.

He stopped bringing it up afterward; the more he talked, the more likely Wu Nian would report it to someone else, and then he’d be the one suffering.

In any case, if Xiang Ye really went to the Central District, he would indeed encounter all sorts of problems.