A Guide to Raising Snake Spirits - Chapter 29

Xiang Heng dragged the doctor along as they dodged, looking up to see the 20th cubicle reduced to rubble. His classmate, who had been perfectly fine just moments ago, now had his clothes half-torn to shreds. The wires from the headpiece were ripped out, trailing long across the floor.

Through the swirling dust, a white figure lay on the ground, their fate unknown.

“Baishi—”

Xiang Heng’s shout cut off mid-way. He froze, looking down at where Baishi Qing’s lower half should have been, nearly getting hit in his distraction. His brown bear spirit charged forward, colliding with a sweeping snake tail with a dull thud of flesh against flesh.

Xiang Heng was so shocked his bear ears almost popped out.

He had assumed that massive snake tail belonged to Baishi Qing’s spirit, but it turned out to be part of Baishi Qing himself.

The grey-haired Sentinel had lost all reason. He thrashed blindly, trying to shake off the device on his head, but the helmet was fastened tight.

Finding no escape, he roared at the sky, his tail bringing down wall after wall as he instinctively vented his fury on any living thing nearby.

Fortunately, most people in the adjacent cubicles were Sentinels undergoing testing. After the initial shock, the student Sentinels began to surround the rampaging boy, forming groups to draw Baishi Qing’s attention.

However, he was incredibly difficult to restrain. That snake tail was simply too long, powerful, and agile; no Sentinel wanted to take a direct hit from it.

The doctors, who had come for routine field duty only to be met with disaster, scrambled away on all fours.

Xiang Heng could already hear the panicked whispers from the crowd.

“What the hell? Is he even human? He’s half-snake!”

Xiang Heng frowned. He didn’t like hearing his classmate talked about that way, but he wasn’t in a position to argue. He dragged two doctors to safety and frantically pulled out his terminal.

“I know I added Instructor Mizuki’s contact info…”

He scrolled through his contacts so fast they became a blur, then stopped abruptly.

“Found it!”

He tapped the voice call icon, praying under his breath, “Please pick up, Instructor Mizuki.”

“A call?”

In his office, Mizuki希 (Nozomi) raised an eyebrow at the incoming notification.

He remembered Xiang Heng was the monitor of Baishi Qing’s class. He was a bit puzzled; the kid hadn’t failed any classes, so why call him? Was it an accidental dial?

Mizuki swiped the green button. Before he could even get a “Hello” out, the boy’s voice rushed through the speaker.

“Instructor Mizuki, Baishi Qing is rampaging! He’s at the Sky Hall, can you come over?”

“What?”

Mizuki’s first reaction was pure shock, wondering if he’d misheard.

Baishi Qing was one of those rare, emotionally stable Sentinels whose mental domain had become quite solid. How could he suddenly spiral into a frenzy?

“Baishi Qing is in a state of mania, he injured the examining doctors,” Xiang Heng repeated, adding more detail.

“Don’t panic, I’m on my way.”

Mizuki stood up immediately and headed for the door. His tone was calm and reliable, acting as an anchor for Xiang Heng.

“Tell me more, what else is happening?”

“I don’t know the cause. We were at the mental testing center together, and he went into mania shortly after entering,” Xiang Heng glanced at the device on Baishi’s head. “He’s still wearing the mental testing helmet.”

As they spoke, the sounds of crashing and explosions echoed from Xiang Heng’s end.

Mizuki understood the situation. “Alright, I’ve got it. Stay safe.”

The scene upon his arrival was worse than Mizuki had anticipated.

The place was a total wreck. In the center of the chaos, the grey-haired Sentinel was covered in blood, though the most striking feature was the massive snake tail sprawled across the debris.

The onlookers wore expressions of terror or even disgust.

Mizuki swept a glance over them, feeling a flicker of inexplicable annoyance. He suppressed it; the priority was to subdue Baishi Qing.

A rampaging Sentinel usually stops in one of two ways: they exhaust themselves and fall into a deep sleep, or a compatible Guide forces them into a state of mental chaos.

But Mizuki hesitated.

He didn’t want to damage Baishi Qing’s mental domain, yet the situation clearly didn’t allow for mercy.

He remembered there was a specific method for bonded Sentinels and Guides to pull a Sentinel out of a frenzy, but the more he tried to recall it, the more it eluded him. It was like being in an exam, knowing you’ve read the material but being unable to recall the answer.

The moment the black-haired Guide appeared, Baishi Qing turned his head like a wolf catching the scent of meat.

Mizuki felt a chill run down his spine, that distinct feeling of being watched by a predator.

The grey-haired Sentinel lunged. Security tried to block him but failed. The Sentinel moved with the speed of a teleporter, appearing in front of Mizuki in the blink of an eye.

A faint scent of blood wafted into Mizuki’s nose. From this close, he could see Baishi wasn’t actually wounded; the blood likely belonged to the other poor volunteer Sentinels.

Baishi Qing’s hand, hooked like a claw, shot out with lightning speed.

The crowd gasped.

Mizuki gave up on the forgotten technique. He condensed his mental power into a whip, ready to strike.

But the Sentinel’s next move stopped the whip in its tracks.

Baishi Qing’s hand gripped Mizuki’s shoulder and then froze. He didn’t follow through with an attack.

The grip was painfully tight, making Mizuki’s shoulder throb. He hissed in pain.

However, this was clearly Baishi Qing instinctively holding back his strength, otherwise, a Guide’s bones would have shattered under a Sentinel’s full power.

On the half of Baishi’s face not covered by the helmet, a look of struggle appeared. Pointed fangs peeked out, and fine snake scales emerged on his neck and cheeks, shifting with the movement of his facial muscles.

The surrounding Sentinels didn’t dare approach. They didn’t want to bet on whether they could reach him faster than the boy could snap the poor Guide’s neck.

Seizing the moment, Mizuki endured the pain and reached up to feel for the strap of the mental testing device behind the Sentinel’s ear.

His gut told him the device was the problem. If he could unlock it, there might be a way to turn things around.

But as he fumbled with it, he grew frustrated. The buckle, which should have opened with a simple press, wouldn’t budge.

He didn’t know how long Baishi’s sudden pause would last.

While Mizuki was struggling with the buckle, the grey-haired Sentinel suddenly lowered his head. His cold breath puffed against the small patch of skin on Mizuki’s neck not covered by his collar.

The fusion state had changed the Sentinel’s body temperature. Baishi Qing felt like a cold-blooded animal. As Mizuki’s hand brushed against him while working on the buckle, the skin-to-skin contact was initially icy, though it soon warmed from the Guide’s touch.

Mizuki decided that if Baishi Qing tried to rip off his neckband, he’d stop caring about “gentle methods” and unleash the mental whip.

But Baishi Qing didn’t go for the scent gland. Instead, he sniffed along the side of Mizuki’s neck, moving upward.

The sensation gave Mizuki goosebumps, yet he was curious to see what Baishi Qing would do next.

He had seen many rampaging Sentinels, they were usually hyper-aggressive, acting on pure destructive instinct until they collapsed or were forced down. He had never seen one stay still like this, seemingly possessing a shred of consciousness.

The next second, Mizuki regretted his curiosity, because the Sentinel bit him.

Well, “biting” wasn’t quite right, it was more of a “mouthing.”

Baishi Qing caught the Guide’s lips in his mouth.

Mizuki: “…”

In front of everyone, his first kiss was being stolen by a rampaging Sentinel who was currently only half-human?

Driven by instinct, the grey-haired Sentinel repeatedly worried the Guide’s soft lips. Sensing Mizuki’s attempt to pull away, he gripped Mizuki’s shoulder and pulled him even closer.

The hand Mizuki was using to fumble with the strap was now pinned between their chests, unable to move.

It was a deep, invasive kiss, driven by pure, raw desire without a hint of logic or technique.

“Mmph…”

The Guide was being kissed to the point of breathlessness. Baishi Qing’s long, snake-like tongue gave him an unfair advantage. Mizuki’s face flushed a deep red, his mouth forced open, and any moisture that escaped was immediately licked away by the Sentinel.

In terms of physical strength and lung capacity, the Guide was no match.

Mizuki struggled to lean back to get a gasp of air, but the mindless Baishi Qing pressed him back in.

To keep the disobedient Guide in place, the Sentinel’s hand moved from Mizuki’s shoulder to his waist.

The coldness of Baishi Qing’s hand seeped through the thin fabric of Mizuki’s clothes, sending a tingling sensation up his spine to the nape of his neck.

Mizuki’s mind was a chaotic mess. His thoughts jumped from “Holy crap, Baishi Qing is kissing me” to “Why won’t he let go,” and finally to “I’m going to die, someone save me.” His knees went weak, and he had to rely entirely on the arm around his waist for support.

At such close range, Mizuki could even see the green patterns in the depths of Baishi Qing’s eyes. Overwhelmed, he chose to close his eyes.

He lost all sense of time, only feeling that Baishi Qing finally released him just before he suffocated.

Mizuki hung limply in the Sentinel’s arms, half-dead, spots dancing in his vision as he gulped in air, his jaw aching too much to close his mouth.

After a moment, Mizuki noticed the light around them had changed. Baishi Qing’s long tail had coiled up in a complex maneuver, forming a brownish-green wall around them.

Mizuki: “…”

Suddenly, the strength in the Sentinel’s body vanished. His heavy frame slumped against Mizuki, and the wall of scales collapsed.

“Whoa, hey!”

Caught off guard, Mizuki became Baishi Qing’s human cushion.

Even in a normal state, Mizuki might not have been able to hold Baishi Qing up, let alone now.

He sat exhausted on the cold floor, the weight of the Sentinel pinning him down.

The helpful onlookers, or perhaps the professional Tower fire squad, had brought an ultrasonic blade. Fearing they might trigger the unconscious Sentinel if they got too close, they threw it to Mizuki from a distance.

The Guide cradled Baishi Qing’s head and carefully cut through the straps of the mental testing device.

With a soft click, the helmet rolled onto the ground.

With a complicated swirl of emotions, Mizuki traced the red pressure marks left on Baishi Qing’s chin.

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