Ying Li had watched many videos recorded before the Great Cataclysm.
The landscapes of that time were utterly different from the world now.
Before the Great Cataclysm, plants were mostly green. Back then, forests appeared full of vitality. Grass-green, deep-green, moss-green, apple-green—all sorts of shades interweaved, punctuated by a few plants of other colors and multicolored flowers and fruits.
And none of it posed any danger.
But the world now was completely changed.
Mutated Flora were dazzlingly vibrant, giving an eerie, unsettling feeling. Some Mutated Flora would even actively attack humans.
He himself had been injured by Mutated Flora more than once.
Cities that housed countless people before the Great Cataclysm were now dilapidated ruins, becoming paradises for Mutated Flora and Fauna, hiding lethal dangers everywhere.
The surface was extremely dangerous. If D-Rank and below Sentinels strayed from the “Safe Zone” around Starlight City, the slightest carelessness would turn them into a meal for Mutant Beasts.
Yet even so, Ying Li still liked it here.
The underground city was just too stifling.
A Sentinel with his level of physical fitness could stand on a rooftop, gently jump, and touch the “sky” of the underground city.
But the world on the surface was infinitely vast.
The reason he always stayed outside the city in his previous life was also because he didn’t want to return to the oppressive underground city, didn’t want to face Wu Nian’s complaints and emotional demands.
Wu Nian was a person with very high emotional needs. Ying Li struggled and fought desperately outside the city, returning so exhausted he only wanted to sleep. But Wu Nian would pour out his feelings of loneliness to him, ask if he’d brought back any gifts; of course, he would also prepare gifts and surprises for Ying Li in return.
He already tried very hard to satisfy Wu Nian, but his efforts always fell short of Wu Nian’s expectations.
He repeatedly explained his difficulties to Wu Nian. But Wu Nian had never stepped foot outside the city. Moreover, the Sentinels of the Guides Wu Nian associated with all came from great families.
Sentinels from great families owned properties and shops in the underground city, held shares in factories. Even if they never left the city to hunt, they could live extremely well and could naturally spend all their time accompanying their Guides.
But if Ying Li didn’t leave the city, where would the money come from to buy Wu Nian gifts?
Actually, Wu Nian’s spending wasn’t really that excessive by comparison; there were plenty of Guides in the Central District who spent far more than Wu Nian.
It was just that he, Ying Li, wasn’t suited for having a Guide.
Guides would only slow down his money-making speed.
In his previous life, Ying Li found himself a Guide at such a young age because, without one, a Sentinel’s Mental Sea would develop problems. And once their Mental Sea had problems, it would cost them their life.
A Sentinel with a Guide could live past two hundred years. But a Sentinel without a Guide could only live to fifty or sixty.
He’d been fighting Mutant Beasts outside the city since he was sixteen. The state of his Mental Sea was even worse than Sentinels his age, so he was eager to find a Guide.
After becoming Wu Nian’s Guardian, Wu Nian helping him calm his Mental Sea truly felt wonderful.
But after Wu Nian became a B-Rank Guide, as their relationship worsened, the frequency with which Wu Nian helped calm his Mental Sea also decreased.
Once, during a hunting trip outside the city, his Mental Sea, which hadn’t been calmed for a long time, just… malfunctioned.
He endured it by sheer force of will. The process was agonizingly painful. For a time, he thought he would die. But when it was all over, he suddenly realized that being without a Guide didn’t seem to be such a big problem for him after all.
He could rely on himself to suppress his Mental Sea’s turmoil.
Though somewhat uncomfortable, it meant he could break free of his dependence on a Guide. That was truly good.
After that, he constantly tried to control his own Mental Sea. Coincidentally, his relationship with Wu Nian was getting worse and worse; Wu Nian was unwilling to help calm his Sea, so he made more and more attempts.
By the time he died, he had already found a method to suppress the rampages of his own Mental Sea.
He wasn’t the only Sentinel capable of this.
Sentinels who didn’t need Guides had always existed. These Sentinels were all very high-rank, with extremely powerful Mental Power. They were called Dark Sentinels.
Speaking of which, in this world, Dark Guides also existed.
Ordinary Guides had almost no combat ability. But Dark Guides possessed astonishing combat prowess. They could even control Sentinels.
In his previous life, Starlight City had produced a Dark Guide.
That person had a grudge against the Shen Family, one of Starlight City’s great families. He took control of the Shen Family’s Sentinels, making them slaughter each other, killing dozens of Shen Family members in one furious swoop. Then, while the Shen Family conducted a city-wide manhunt, he disguised his identity and escaped outside the city.
After that, he continuously ambushed the Shen Family’s Hunting Teams in the wild, to the point where the members of those teams no longer dared to leave the city.
Shortly before his death, Ying Li encountered him in the wild.
Probably because finding food in the wild was too hard, that person was skin and bones—it seemed like a layer of skin stretched directly over a skeleton.
The moment he saw Ying Li, that man attacked, trying to use his Mental Power to control him.
However, although Ying Li hadn’t advanced to S-Rank, his Mental Power was just a step away from it.
Moreover, by that point, he was already able to control his own Mental Sea. So the opponent’s Mental Power attack had no effect on him.
He thought a fierce battle was about to ensue, so he pretended to be controlled, wanting to see what the other party intended to do.
The result? That man told him to hand over all his food and water.
Ying Li was utterly speechless at that moment. He split his own food and water, giving the man half. Then he introduced the man to a Supply Point near Starlight City.
That Supply Point was located in the wild, run by a few disabled Sentinels. It specifically provided food and water to Sentinels who wanted to hunt in the wilderness for long periods. Some Wanted Criminals living near Starlight City would also go there to buy food and water.
This Dark Guide was very powerful. He could even control A-Rank Sentinels, so naturally, he could also hunt Mutant Beasts in the wild.
He could perfectly well exchange Mutant Beast Crystal Cores for food and water. There was no need to struggle and rob others.
Ying Li still remembered how, after discovering that Ying Li hadn’t actually been controlled, the expression on the man’s face had been quite a sight to behold.
He wondered if that Guide had managed to survive the Beast Tide.
If possible, he wanted to prevent the Beast Tide that would occur ten years from now.
The cave Ying Li was heading to was rather far from Starlight City, about three hundred kilometers.
In his previous life, he had visited this cave more than once, so he was very familiar with the route.
Using his Mental Power to scout the path ahead, the off-road motorcycle raced across the uneven terrain… As dusk approached, Ying Li arrived at his destination.
This was a mountain. A nameless mountain from before the Great Cataclysm.
Parking the motorcycle at the base of the mountain and engaging the smart lock, Ying Li began to climb.
He wandered the mountain for quite a while, finally arriving before a cave entrance blocked by large stones.
This cave was where he got his fortuitous encounter in his previous life.
Few Mutant Beasts lived in the vicinity of this mountain, so Hunting Teams rarely came here. At this moment, there were absolutely no human tracks around.
The stones he’d placed at the cave entrance hadn’t been disturbed.
Ying Li wasn’t surprised. In his previous life, he’d come back a bit later, and the scene had been exactly the same.
Besides, he had never told anyone about this cave. So, even if someone somehow obtained the same fortuitous encounter as him and Wu Nian, they wouldn’t be able to find this place.
Moving aside some of the stones, Ying Li jumped down without a shred of hesitation.
His Mental Power had already scanned the situation inside the cave. His feet lightly tapped several points on the stone wall, and he landed firmly on the ground.
After killing the B-Rank Mutant Beast, he’d worried that leaving its corpse behind would attract other Mutant Beasts, so he’d discarded its remains far away. Now, the cave was very clean, without any foul odor.
It was just pitch black.
Turning on the light mounted on his helmet, Ying Li headed towards that crevice in the rock.
The crevice was extremely narrow. Most Sentinels wouldn’t be able to squeeze inside. Only Ying Li, who was very thin at this point in time, could manage it.
Ying Li used the tools he’d prepared and crawled inside. When he reached an especially narrow spot, he chipped away at the rock wall to widen it, quickly arriving at the place he’d hidden in his previous life. Then, he looked up.
Above him was a stalactite, dripping water steadily downwards. It looked quite ordinary.
Because of this, when he’d killed that B-Rank Mutant Beast, he didn’t notice anything unusual about it.
On this day in his previous life, he’d returned here, lived in the cave for five full days, and searched the cave twice before discovering that the stalactite was somewhat unusual.
Ying Li braced himself against the rock walls and climbed upwards, soon reaching the side of that stalactite. He looked at the object attached to its side.
There was a hole in the stone, and inside grew a mushroom, exactly the same color as the rock. The mushroom was growing from the inside out, perfectly filling the hole in the rock and almost merging with the stalactite. This made it incredibly difficult to notice.
This thing might not strictly be a mushroom, but it was ultimately a type of fungus. And there were traces on it where insects had gnawed.
In this world, there were a few Mutated Plants that contained very gentle Corrosive Energy. If humans ate such Mutated Plants, not only would they not explode and die, but they could also enhance their strength.
These plants were called Heavenly Treasures.
This fungus was one such Heavenly Treasure.
Ying Li didn’t know what this thing was called, nor did he understand its specific effects. He only knew that in his previous life, after eating the bugs that had been chewing on this fungus, a gentle Corrosive Energy had appeared within his body, helping him advance one rank.
In his previous life, after finding this thing, he had inspected it and eaten some. Then, he felt all his injuries heal, his strength increase, and the energy within his body and his Mental Sea stabilize somewhat.
Sentinels and Guides were all humans who emerged after prolonged exposure to Corrosive Energy, having undergone mutation.
In truth, both Sentinels and Guides had Corrosive Energy within their bodies.
Sentinels, in particular—their powerful abilities came from the fact that their bodies contained a symbiotic, harmless-to-them form of Corrosive Energy.
And the mushroom before him could not only increase the Corrosive Energy inside his body, but also expand his body’s capacity to hold more Corrosive Energy.
In cultivation novels, cultivators who consume certain spiritual medicines can broaden their meridians, improve their innate talent, and increase their power. The effects of this mushroom were exactly that.
The mushroom before Ying Li had already been eaten by insects by about a third. And those insects had ended up in his stomach.
In his previous life, he had eaten half of the remaining two-thirds himself, and given the other half to Wu Nian.
This time, he wouldn’t be so generous.
Without hesitation, Ying Li shoved the entirety of the remaining “mushroom” into his mouth.
Then, letting himself remain wedged in the crevice, he began to sense the changes within his body.
