A Guide to Raising Snake Spirits - Chapter 30

“Student, are you all right?”

A firefighter in full gear approached, asking the Guide cautiously. He likely saw the Guide with Shiraishi Qing and assumed he was a student from the Tower.

“I’m fine.”

Mizuki Xi managed a smile but then drew a sharp breath. He realized, a bit late, that his lips felt hot and numb, and his lower lip had actually been bitten open.

The sleeping Sentinel in his lap was quite well-behaved now, showing none of that biting aggression from moments ago. Mizuki Xi shot a resentful look at the slumbering Shiraishi Qing. Once a Sentinel enters a state of chaos, they aren’t particularly dangerous, they just need time to recover.

The firefighter glanced at the Guide being pinned down by the half-man, half-snake Sentinel and asked considerately, “Student, would you like us to take over from here?”

Xu Dian had been seriously injured by Shiraishi’s strike and had been admitted as a patient to the Special Star Hospital where he worked. Given that Sentinel rampages aren’t exactly rare, the Tower had a complete set of protocols in place, ranging from early warnings to post-disaster reconstruction.

However, this time was special: a sudden mutation, extreme combat power, and a Sentinel that an entire specialized squad couldn’t handle.

Inside the Tower’s central conference room, several high-level leaders were gathered around a round table, debating heatedly.

“A situation like this will cause a panic among the students.”

“In reality, he’s just a Sentinel with a slightly higher degree of spiritual fusion.”

“This is more than ‘slightly higher,’ it’s unheard of!” one of them shouted, slamming the table.

“What is his spiritual fusion value? 60%?”

“Nearly 80%. You could say that right now, he resembles his spiritual body more than himself.”

“I believe we should at least suspend his classes until he is completely stable,” said one individual sitting at the head of the table, clearly holding a high rank.

“I agree. Moreover, I heard his fusion state hasn’t faded yet.”

“Has the cause of the rampage been investigated?”

“It seems to be an effect of the mental monitoring helmet. The other party present was a doctor from the Special Star Hospital.”

“What about the equipment used at the time?”

“Nothing has been found yet. We’ll have the relevant agencies look into it further.”

“If we can figure out the mechanism behind this, it would be very significant,” a leader with a strong academic air said, looking slightly excited. “It would be a massive project. I’d really love to know what’s going on.”

Normally, a Sentinel returns to the Tower after recovering from a rampage, but Shiraishi Qing’s case was unusual because of that snake tail. Even after falling into spiritual chaos, it showed no signs of disappearing. The Tower decided to keep him in an observation room for the time being.

Mizuki Xi followed him to the medical wing, where Teacher Qiu Shui, Shiraishi’s homeroom teacher, arrived in a hurry. Seeing her rush over, Mizuki Xi felt a bit guilty. Ever since he had picked up Shiraishi Qing on that desolate planet, he had caused Qiu Shui quite a lot of trouble.

Qiu Shui said, “I heard about the situation on my way here. I didn’t expect Doctor Xu Dian to be the one injured.”

Mizuki Xi chatted briefly with her until she pointed toward the corner of his mouth. “Teacher Mizuki, shouldn’t you have that looked at? A quick spray of healing agent in the infirmary will help it mend faster.”

Realizing what she was referring to, Mizuki Xi felt like he could curl his toes hard enough to excavate a three-bedroom apartment. On the surface, however, he remained composed, smiling and waving it off. “No need.”

When a medical staff member came to say Shiraishi Qing was awake, Teacher Qiu Shui said thoughtfully, “He just finished a rampage, so he might still be unstable. I’ll come by to see him once he’s feeling better.”

Mizuki Xi bid her farewell as if escaping and headed to the observation room. Behind him, Teacher Qiu Shui smiled and shook her head.

Mizuki Xi opened the door to the observation room, and the first thing he saw was Shiraishi Qing’s long, brownish-green snake tail, taking up most of the space. The Sentinel himself had ears as sharp as a cat hearing a footstep; the moment Mizuki Xi entered, Shiraishi looked over, staring intently at the Guide.

His tail was so long that it looked rather pitiful, coiled up on the floor. Shiraishi still had green reptilian pupils, but his gaze was much softer than the mindless look he had during the rampage. Most of the scales on his body had vanished as his emotions calmed, his face was smooth and clear, with no trace of the scales that had been there before.

The Sentinel had washed off the blood and changed into clean clothes. He moved freely, showing no signs of injury. In truth, even if there were minor wounds, they would have healed by now given a Sentinel’s recovery rate.

The Black Mamba requested to come out of the spiritual realm, so Mizuki Xi released it for some air. The elegant, black-tinted green venomous snake slid through the gaps between the carpet and the brownish-green “obstacle,” meticulously sniffing the Sentinel it hadn’t seen in a while.

Mizuki Xi scanned the Sentinel from head to toe. His heart settled halfway, and then he surveyed the room. At least the Tower was treating Shiraishi well; the observation room was furnished like a five-star hotel, playing the white noise of a babbling brook on loop, complete with a private bathroom. To make room for the snake tail, most of the furniture except the bed had been moved out.

The Guide stepped over the long tail, feeling a flashback to Shiraishi’s susceptibility period when he could barely walk around his own home. Since the sofa had been moved, Mizuki Xi simply sat on the floor and asked, “How is your body feeling?”

“Teacher Mizuki, my head hurts.”

Faced with a tough guy acting spoiled, what could Teacher Mizuki do? He could only offer comfort, promising to look at it and heal the pain away.

However, when he touched Shiraishi’s head and entered his spiritual realm, Mizuki Xi truly got angry. He had spent over two months of hard work and mental effort, using his spiritual power to patch up the walls like a dedicated repairman. He had painstakingly turned the Sentinel’s original war-torn spiritual realm into something resembling a fresh, pastoral landscape, and now, after the rampage, it was a wreck again.

Mizuki Xi had no choice but to start the repairs over. As he used his spiritual power to clear away the dead branches and fallen leaves, he suddenly felt a bit out of place. This time, the green anaconda that usually followed him around to help was nowhere to be found. He was the lone repairman in the Sentinel’s spiritual realm.

When the repairs reached a stopping point, Mizuki Xi opened his eyes only to find himself coiled within Shiraishi’s snake tail. His bare, slender ankle pressed against the Sentinel’s scales, the cold touch making him flinch.

“Why are you… huddled so close?” Mizuki Xi asked.

Shiraishi was also lying on the floor. Since the floor of the luxury observation room was carpeted, Mizuki Xi didn’t feel the chill.

“Did I bite this?”

Mizuki Xi noticed Shiraishi’s gaze lingering on the corner of his mouth, almost feeling the weight of the look.

Mizuki Xi asked, “Why did you suddenly go into a rampage? Do you remember?”

The Sentinel just stared at him. The intensity of the gaze made the hair on the back of Mizuki Xi’s neck stand up. He felt restless as he recalled being pinned down and chewed on, the tingling sensation of their tongues meeting and the tip of a tongue sweeping across his palate.

The black-haired Guide tried to quickly withdraw the hand he had placed on Shiraishi’s face, but Shiraishi held it firm.

“Mizuki Xi…”

Sentinels were inherently greedy creatures. Before they had a taste, they could endure, but now his favored Guide was right in front of him. Shiraishi hadn’t been very conscious during the rampage, but some memories of when Mizuki Xi appeared were starting to surface. He vaguely remembered biting the Guide’s lips.

“…”

The Guide’s attempt to change the subject failed, so he simply played dead like his Black Mamba.

“I remember what happened after you arrived.”

“So what? I’m being nice enough by not settling the score with you,” Mizuki Xi said, throwing caution to the wind.

Shiraishi wrapped an arm around the Guide’s waist, pulling them even closer. Being surrounded by a long snake tail while on the floor was a unique experience. When Mizuki Xi met those green reptilian eyes again, he felt as if he were being dragged into a man-eating jungle, the brownish-green tail resembling vines that blotted out the sun.

Mizuki Xi’s heart began to race, especially since they were close enough to feel each other’s breath. The Guide’s hand wanted to break free, but the Black Mamba chose that moment to slide up Shiraishi’s waist and coil around it twice.

They were so close that if Shiraishi Qing just leaned down, he could kiss his favored Guide again. But at that ambiguous distance, the Sentinel finally answered the original question.

“There was something wrong with the mental monitoring device Xu Dian put on me.”

Mizuki Xi immediately pushed away Shiraishi’s handsome face, which happened to be exactly his type. They sat up straight to discuss serious business.

Mizuki Xi said, “It does sound like the problem lies with Xu Dian.”

“After Xu Dian put the device on me, he stepped back to operate it,” Shiraishi recounted. “At first, I didn’t feel anything, but then my head started hurting more and more.”

The principle of a mental monitoring device is to release specific wave signals and evaluate the feedback from a special person’s brain. Mizuki Xi underwent these tests every year, and there had never been an issue.

“I’ll help you find out the truth,” Mizuki Xi promised.

The Guide left the room and immediately went to contact the Special Star Hospital.

“I want to see Doctor Xu Dian,” Mizuki Xi said coldly. “I repaired Shiraishi Qing’s spiritual realm myself. I can guarantee he wouldn’t just rampage for no reason, and he hasn’t shown any unstable behavior for a long time. How did he rampage just by testing his mental grade?”

“We are still investigating this,” the contact person said, pouring a glass of water and pushing it toward him. “Mr. Mizuki, have some water.”

Mizuki Xi didn’t touch the water. He was completely different from his usual smiling self. With his face set, he looked extremely difficult to get along with, matching the cold metallic glint of his earring.

“And what about the strap on the monitoring device? What happened there?”

The contact person said with a placating smile, “The strap was damaged by external force. It failing to open was just a coincidental malfunction.”

“Just tell me if I can see Xu Dian. Is he awake? If he is, I’d like to pay him a visit. We are old acquaintances, after all.”

The contact person sighed quietly.

Doctor Xu Dian was awake.

The black-haired Guide stood at the head of the bed with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall with his long legs stretched out. Xu Dian lay weakly in the hospital bed. Usually, he was the one standing and making jokes, but now his face was so pale it practically blended into the sheets. Their positions had been swapped.

He was lucky that a single strike from a rampaging Sentinel hadn’t killed him. He had internal and external injuries all over, but thanks to the advanced medical technology of Special Star, he was no longer in critical condition.

Mizuki Xi stood silently, locking eyes with Xu Dian. His expression was flawless, but his mind was filled with confusion. Since the mental testing was part of an exam, there were cameras in the booths. As Shiraishi’s Guide, Mizuki Xi had the right to view the surveillance footage from before the incident, so he had heard the conversation between Shiraishi and Xu Dian.

Why would a chief director of a hospital personally go on a field assignment to do repetitive, non-technical labor? When the light rail incident happened, Xu Dian clearly wasn’t a surgeon, yet he had admitted both Mizuki Xi and Shiraishi. Then there was the matter of the papers; he had even pretended to give advice on spiritual fusion states at the beginning.

Moreover, Mizuki Xi could see clearly that the strap on the device had been intentionally sabotaged. It wasn’t yet clear what had been done to the device itself, as the Tower had taken it for investigation.

Since Xu Dian was a Guide, there was no need for the white noise of a babbling brook. The hospital room was filled with a dead, stagnant silence.

Xu Dian was the first to speak. “Could I trouble Student Mizuki to pour me a cup of water?”

“Let the nurse do it for you.”

Xu Dian’s voice was raspy, and his lips were nearly stuck together. “I think the things you want to ask me are things you wouldn’t want others to hear.”

“I don’t care. Right now, you’re the one suspected of attempting to harm a student of the Tower,” Mizuki Xi said without even lifting an eyebrow, his hands tucked away as he remained composed.

“But Shiraishi Qing’s affairs must be more important to you, right?” Xu Dian’s voice was as strained as a violin being played without rosin.

Mizuki Xi couldn’t stand listening to it anymore and used a fingertip to push the water glass to the head of the bed. “You can talk now. What did you do to Shiraishi Qing?”

After moistening his throat, Xu Dian unhurriedly brought up a completely unrelated topic. “You still don’t look much like Teacher Guan.”

Mizuki Xi raised an eyebrow. “Guan… who are you talking about?”

“Teacher Guan Ziming. My voice might be weak, but my tone is still light.”

Guan Ziming was the name of Mizuki Xi’s father. “Mizuki” was the combined surname of his parents.

“I don’t know him, never heard of him. Is he famous?” Mizuki Xi asked back without a hint of guilt.

“You are Teacher Guan’s son, no need to pretend,” Xu Dian took another sip of water. “I recognized you right from the start.”

“I grew up without parents, raised by the Tower,” Mizuki Xi lied without blinking. If his father ever heard his son saying he was dead, he’d probably cry, but he wasn’t there. “But fine, even if I am the son of this Teacher Guan you mentioned, what are you trying to say?”

Xu Dian laughed until he coughed, which aggravated his wounds. He groaned for a while before continuing, “I had the honor of working with Teacher Guan a long time ago.”

Mizuki Xi committed to the act, following Xu Dian’s lead. “According to you, you were on quite good terms with my father?”

Xu Dian nodded. “You could say that, yes.”

“Then I’d like to ask, was it you who sabotaged Shiraishi Qing’s testing device? Did you deliberately apply for field duty at the Tower?”

“It was me,” Xu Dian admitted readily.

Mizuki Xi asked, “You’re on good terms, yet you want to harm your friend’s son’s Sentinel?”

“I’m not that twisted,” Xu Dian laughed again, though this time he only dared to grimace to avoid his wounds.

Mizuki Xi leaned back against the wall. “Then why?”

“This is the result I wanted,” Xu Dian said mysteriously. “Getting hit was worth it.”

“You could have died,” Mizuki Xi noted. “Being in a room with a rampaging Sentinel, if luck wasn’t on your side, you would have lost your life.”

“Thank the heavens the Guide gave me some face and didn’t let me die.”

Mizuki Xi said casually, “And you must have been searched before entering the Tower, right? No dangerous items, no protective gear or weapons. Are you really confident you could beat a rampaging Sentinel even if you had a weapon?”

“I have that much self-awareness,” Xu Dian agreed.

“The result you wanted wasn’t just to see Shiraishi Qing rampage, was it?” Mizuki Xi watched Xu Dian’s expression closely.

“Pretty much.” Whether it was Xu Dian’s calm smile or his steady gaze, he didn’t seem to be lying.

“Why choose this moment? When Shiraishi first arrived at the Special Star Hospital, you had plenty of opportunities.”

Xu Dian asked back with a smile, “Aren’t you the one who knows the state of his spiritual realm best?”

Mizuki Xi smiled back. “True. If he had rampaged then, he would have been dead for sure. And that time on the light rail, did you want to make a move then, too?”

“I didn’t expect your feelings to be so strong,” Xu Dian said, appearing regretful.

Mizuki Xi’s mind raced. “The paper you sent me before was about this research direction. Was it all for that?”

“Whether you believe it or not, I sent those papers because I wanted to help you.” Xu Dian adjusted his blanket.

Mizuki Xi found himself getting thirsty after talking so much, so he poured himself a cup of water. He said casually, “So what’s your next step, now that you’ve gotten the result you wanted?”

“You’ll find out in time,” Xu Dian replied.

“If I call the police now, do you think you’ll be locked up for the crime of harming a special individual?”

Xu Dian remained composed. “I’ll be fine. I won’t be going in for now.”

The black-haired Guide curled his lip, his earring catching the light. “Then I’ll just wait and see what else you plan to do.”

As soon as he left, Mizuki Xi pulled Xu Dian’s photo from the hospital’s website and sent it to his father, telling him to take a good look at this “old colleague.”

His father, Guan Ziming, replied instantly this time.

[Father: How do you know him?]

[Mizuki Xi: An old friend of yours?]

[Father: Hardly.]

Mizuki Xi typed back slowly.

[Mizuki Xi: He just caused my Sentinel to go into a spiritual rampage.]

[Father: I understand.]

His father left one final messag “Wait for my news” before disappearing again.

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