Chapter 21: Twenty one spirits, know what’s interesting

It was almost six in the morning, and the room was unlit, but not quite dark.  

The first ray of morning sunlight pierced through the unclosed curtains, falling onto the face of the person lying on the sofa, landing on his eyelashes, and shining straight into his eyes. 

The golden sunlight flowed like molten gold, lending him an ethereal, sacred aura.  

Ning Li had known ever since she decided to revive this person that he was good-looking, but before, it was only that—good-looking, like a stiff puppet, lifeless, leaving only exquisite features behind. 

But after he woke, that handsomeness suddenly became vivid and real.  

It was like a meticulously painted portrait—every stroke carefully drawn, but while the painting was exquisite, it lacked vitality.

How could it compare to the vividness of a living person?  

When he opened his eyes, it was as if all things, all the stars in the sky, fell into his gaze.  

Ning Li appreciated the pretty face before her with the same mindset as admiring a flower or a blade of grass.  

Xiao Hei couldn’t help but transform into a Rafflesia, hopping around in front of him.  

Ning Li’s Spirit Sea was filled with Xiao Hei’s constant chorus of [So handsome], [So handsome], [So handsome]. It was noisy.  

Yin Que had wanted to sit up and talk to her, but as soon as he tried, he collapsed back onto the sofa as if all strength had left him.  

Ning Li propped her chin on her hand and reminded him, “You just woke up, your Spirit Sea hasn’t recovered yet.” 

When she had just exited his Spirit Sea, the vast grassland inside had been shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.  

This was normal.  

After a Sentinel dies, their spiritual power dissipates, turning into a Bead. 

That Bead had already been digested by her, becoming nourishment for her own Spirit Sea.  

His Spirit Sea should have reverted to its original state.  

As for the endless sea of grass she first saw, that must have been what he possessed in life. 

The instant after being revived, the Spirit Sea appeared in its peak state before death, but his spiritual power had already dissipated upon death, so he couldn’t maintain it and could only return to the beginning.  

Memories before death flashed rapidly through Yin Que’s mind, and his last memory stopped at the moment he perished together with the Abnormal King. 

After that, his memories faded into nothingness.  

He should be dead.  

Judging from the state of his Spirit Sea, he was indeed dead.  

Or rather, he had died once.  

So now is…………………  

Ning Li knew he must have a lot of questions right now, so she explained with a completely serious face, “I ran into you by accident at the mass grave. You still had a breath left, and I thought saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, so I carried you home. Didn’t expect you to really survive. That’s great.”  

She had rehearsed this story countless times in her mind. 

Now that she said it, even she almost believed it. 

The content wasn’t important—the important thing was that she wholeheartedly believed it was true.  

This would be reality.  

She didn’t have resurrection powers.  

She hadn’t revived anyone.  

She’d just happened to stumble upon someone who needed help, who still had a breath left, and brought him home. 

That was all.  

“Thank you.” 

Yin Que’s voice was still hoarse from years of disuse, like the sound of sand underfoot on a beach. 

It wasn’t unpleasant, and somehow brought Ning Li a sense of peace.  

Where did this power come from?  

His tone? 

His manner? 

Or perhaps the way he was looking at her right now—gentle and accepting.  

The way he looked at her now was probably the same as how she looked at little kids she saw on the street.  

Should she be grateful that he was tactful enough not to ask anything he shouldn’t?  

From start to finish, he only said thank you.  

Why was he suddenly alive? 

Why was he here? 

Who was she?  

He didn’t ask any of those things.  

He was politely waiting for her to explain, giving her the right to decide how much to reveal. 

She could choose to say whatever she liked—or nothing at all.  

Ning Li pushed away Xiao Hei, who was trying to get close to Yin Que, ignoring Xiao Hei’s pitiful look. 

“Besides thank you, do you have anything else to say?”  

Yin Que coughed a few times. 

Clearly, losing his spiritual power after dying had taken a toll on him. 

“May I ask, what year is it now?”  

“1357.”  

Hearing this year, Yin Que was momentarily dazed.  

In a blink, it was already five years later.  

“How have you all been these years?” 

His dark eyes looked straight at Ning Li, a silent power wrapping around her. 

For once, Ning Li felt cared for, paid attention to. It was as if, to him, how “you all” had been was very important.  

Ning Li: “Hmm?” 

This question caught her off guard. 

Were they that close? 

Instead of asking about himself, he was asking after others? 

Did he get his priorities mixed up?  

She looked at him curiously. 

“‘You all’ refers to who?”  

Yin Que was now certain—the person before him truly didn’t know him, or she wouldn’t have asked that.  

He changed the question. 

“What happened with the Abnormal Species?”  

Ning Li shrugged. 

“They’re pressing in step by step. There are more war zones now. Border District 191 wasn’t a war zone before, but now it is. The Safe Zone shrank recently—we almost had to evacuate the entire academy.”  

So this was Border District 191.  

After asking, Ning Li didn’t wait for him to continue—she took charge of the questioning herself.  

“You know the Sentinel whose Spirit Form is a Jellyfish, right?”  

Hearing this, dozens of subordinates with Jellyfish spirit forms flashed through Yin Que’s mind—

Red Moon Jellyfish, Inverted Jellyfish, Silver Jellyfish…  

He lay on the sofa and nodded slightly. 

“I know them.”  

He knew them.  

That was enough.  

She hadn’t revived the wrong person.  

The enemy of her enemy was her friend. 

Ning Li glanced at the time. It was getting late—she needed to go have breakfast with Yuan Zi. 

She said, “Your Spirit Sea hasn’t recovered yet. Rest first. If there’s anything, we can talk when I get back from class.”  

Ning Li stood up, ready to wash up in the bathroom. 

After a busy night, she had no hope of sleeping today. 

A quick wash and she could head to the cafeteria.  

Just as she stood, she heard a low, gravelly voice from the sofa—like sand pouring down, rough but still gentle as it fell. 

“And you?”  

Her?  

What about her?  

Ning Li shrugged. 

“I’m going to the bathroom now.”  

When Ning Li got to the bathroom, it finally hit her.  

Did the revived corpse just ask how her Spirit Sea was?  

His death and resurrection was a secret between the two of them, tacitly understood. 

Even just now, neither said a word about it. 

Since she said he still had a breath left, then he did—he accepted that too. 

Some things didn’t need to be spelled out.  

Judging by his clothes—no signs of fading or dirt—he probably hadn’t been dead long. 

But from his questions, it seemed he’d been gone for a while. 

As for exactly how long, Ning Li didn’t care.

It wasn’t important.  

She hadn’t expected him to be so attentive, even asking after her well-being.  

Her Spirit Sea was fine.  

But could reviving a corpse really have no effect on her?  

Probably not.  

But Ning Li realized she was a natural gambler. 

With the Water Jellyfish Commander as a looming threat, she found she was willing to pay a price to revive his nemesis.  

This was normal.  

Everything comes at a cost.  

If a pie falls from the sky, it’s probably poisoned. 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.  

But it didn’t matter—she dared to gamble, and was willing to.  

As an ordinary Guide, she had too little information.  

Digging up information on the Water Jellyfish Commander required connections—she had none of those.  

The Water Jellyfish Commander was different from the Amber Eye.  

When she searched the Bead’s appearance online, Amber Eye photos came up right away.  

But when she searched for the Water Jellyfish Commander’s face, she got a bunch of unrelated results. 

For someone like a Privy Squad Captain, there was no way his information would be easily found online. 

To this day, she didn’t even know the Water Jellyfish Commander’s name.  

But so what? 

She’d revived his mortal enemy.  

The invisible, colorless Spirit Form that had been watching her had probably gone back to report. 

As long as she was alive, the Water Jellyfish Commander wouldn’t stop targeting her. After all, the Bead vanished while in her hands. 

The moment the Bead disappeared, she became the scapegoat.  

But now, the Water Jellyfish Commander had one more person to deal with.  

When he met his nemesis again, the Water Jellyfish Commander would probably be quite “surprised.”  

No one knew about the extra person in Ning Li’s dorm, except for her and the person himself.  

Girls’ dorms allowed pets—but not men.  

Ning Li didn’t intend to trouble her friends. 

The fewer people who knew about this, the better. 

Once the Water Jellyfish Commander matter was settled, everything would go back to normal.  

After finishing her make-up class that day, Ning Li left the classroom under the disappointed gazes of several classmates, who looked at her like she was a hopeless case.  

She hadn’t expected the look she often saw on her teachers’ faces to appear on her classmates now.  

She felt helpless about it.  

Back in the dorm, Ning Li found the lights off.

It was already 8 p.m., and only the streetlights and moonlight provided any illumination.  

There were plenty of streetlights and cameras at the Peripheral Guide Academy, so the dorm wasn’t too dark.  

Tonight, Lu Shuangshuang and the others had forced Ning Li to make three rounds of desserts. 

By the time she finished, it was this late.  

As expected, all three batches ended in failure.  

Lu Xiao said he’d analyze the reasons for her failures at home, and once he figured it out, she’d succeed.  

Ning Li silently wished him luck.  

Entering the dorm, she flicked on the light with a click, and warm light instantly filled the space.  

She thought the revived corpse would still be lying on the sofa—or maybe have quietly left—but neither scene appeared.  

The moment she turned on the light, he was crouched beside the Cat Nest, feeding the cat.  

The young man quietly poured cat food into the bowl. 

As the cat meowed and ate, he filled another bowl with water.

The dog had already finished its food and was now sprawled on the floor, asleep.  

While Ning Li was out, the new resident had taken good care of her cat and dog.  

She’d bought this Cat Nest secondhand—who knows how many owners it had seen. 

The old Cat Nest looked shabby beside him; his jade-white hands made it look even more pitiful.  

The Cat Nest wasn’t worthy anymore.  

No, really, the whole low-end dorm was a poor match.  

He fed the pets with graceful movements. 

His hands were like works of art.

Ning Li had never seen a real noble in this world, but if there were nobles, they’d be like him—noble without trying, gentle and proper in every move.  

Ning Li suddenly understood why he hadn’t turned on the lights.  

She wasn’t home—how could there be light in the dorm?  

She tossed the desserts made by Yuan Zi, Lu Shuangshuang and the others onto the sofa. 

“Forgot to bring you food at lunch, sorry.” 

There wasn’t much at home anyway—too poor. 

He must have gone hungry all day.  

Yin Que stood up slowly and brushed the cat food crumbs off his hands. 

“It’s fine.”  

He turned to Ning Li. 

Only then did she realize how tall he was—at least 1.85 meters, with perfect proportions. 

His hair was jet-black, but not as black as his eyes. 

If Lu Xiao looked at Abnormal Species with deep emotion, then Yin Que looked at cats and dogs with gentleness.  

Yin Que had caught a few words from her chats with her companions.  

He seemed to hear “Former Commander” and “gathering.”  

He politely asked, “Is there some event coming up?”  

Ning Li replied absentmindedly, “In a few days, it’s the Former Commander’s memorial day. Some classmates are planning a Remembrance Gathering for him.”  

Former Commander, his own self:…………………  

Maybe, it was better not to ask about this.