Chapter 5: The Beast Soul

If the Star Humans were to see her, they would know that Ye Mo Xi was not only a mental-energy bearer with a vast scarlet lotus in her spiritual sea, but also possessed a bonded beast soul.

The white fluff ball gave itself a shake, the corners of its mouth lifting as it tossed over a light terminal. Ye Mo Xi caught it and fastened it to her wrist.

It was her own terminal. Her identity records, bound to her at birth, were all here.

And of course, so was everything she owned.

She had just redressed her wounds with the medical ointment she had deployed; the injuries were already healed. As expected, it was top-grade stuff.

She had also changed into a new set of clothes. Her original ones had been torn to shreds and offered little protection. This new outfit was far more elegant and well-made, and its defensive capability was above medium level. If this had been in a safe zone, it would not have cost less than a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand star credits.

Even the nutrient solution was premium grade. This bear-family sentinel seemed to have a rather extraordinary background.

Fortunately, he was about to suffer genetic collapse and turn into a beast.

As for why she did not save him and claim a great debt of gratitude in return... she had indeed suspected that she might be a rare guide, but she could not establish a mental link with a sentinel.

A guide who could not form a mental link with a sentinel was worse than one who had never awakened at all.

As soon as the terminal activated, a call came through.

"Sis? Where are you right now?"

A boy's anxious voice rang out.

Ye Mo Xi answered. "Don't worry. I'm on Desert Planet..."

"Desert Planet?" The other side rose in volume at once.

"Why would you go to Desert Planet?"

The Desert Star System was where sentinels who had already suffered genetic collapse, gone berserk, and become beasts were exiled.

After all, they had once been heroes who fought for the entire star system. Unless absolutely necessary, even His Majesty the Emperor of the empire would not dare casually order the humane destruction of sentinels who had turned into feral beasts. Thus, the Desert Star System had become the final resting place for these sentinels.

Moreover, very few sentinels who underwent complete beastification could survive more than ten years.

"I'll get back as soon as possible. But first, help me find a woman named Dilly... She took the terminal with my name on it, Yuan Xi..."

"Did she set you up?" the boy said through clenched teeth.

"I'll kill her!"

How dare she hurt his sister?

"They... There were originally three girls bought together with Dilly to bear children for sentinels. They were all ordinary people from prosperous planets... Dilly should have accomplices too. If not for a sentinel at A-rank or above, there was no way I would have been ambushed so easily!"

And the other side must have had a helper who had awakened some kind of wood-based ability, probably something like poison, otherwise there was no way she could have been framed so completely without the slightest warning.

One had to know, Ye Mo Xi had struggled through the safe zones of the frontier star systems for nearly ten years. Her vigilance was not something a mere low-ranked sentinel could compare to.

"I understand. I'll send you the star map of the Desert Star System first..."

And he also selected the safest and fastest route.

Ye Mo Xi gave a reply and ended the communication. She patted the white fluff ball on the head.

Traveling across planets might be fraught with hardship for others, but she had the fluff ball.

She did not know how she had awakened such a beast soul, one that had never even been heard of in the interstellar era. In truth, what other people possessed were merely so-called mental-energy forms; only within the spiritual sea would they take on an actual shape, and if a mental-energy form were projected outward, it was basically just a cold beast shape.

Back when she had not yet been exiled, Ye Mo Xi had once searched the family knowledge vault for ancient records. They described how, countless millennia ago, humans had actually been able to shift freely between human form and beast form, and even their mental-energy forms could manifest as beasts and fight side by side with their masters. That was once called a beast soul.

High-level beast souls even possessed their own independent consciousness. There were even cases where, after the master died, the beast soul continued to exist alone for many years.

But for reasons unknown, that inheritance had later been severed, becoming the present-day mental-energy forms that could only assume beast shapes within the spiritual sea. If there was any common point left, it was probably that when a sentinel's genes collapsed at the end, they would go berserk and beastify into the form of their own mental-energy shape.

Yet her beast soul, the white fluff ball, could ignore all such rules. Its true form was the Fire Qilin, its crimson scales dazzling and radiant. Not only could it change size at will and be released or drawn back into her spiritual sea according to her will, it could also cross planets without regard for the rules.

In the first few years after they were exiled to the frontier star systems, if it had not been for the white fluff ball's blazing warmth, the siblings might not have survived the winter at all.

Ye Mo Xi glanced at the message transmitted to her terminal and made a calculation. Xi Mo had mapped out a route for her, but in order to leave the Desert Star System, she still needed to cross three planets at some distance before reaching the nearest starport.

Then she would have to take an interstellar ship, pass through several wormholes, and only after that could she return to her original planet.

"Let's go, fluff ball. I'll be relying on you from here on."

Ye Mo Xi patted the white fluff ball.

The white fluff ball affectionately nuzzled her cheek.

With a roar, it spread a pair of crimson wings behind itself.

Using her mental force, Ye Mo Xi guided the fluff ball's direction, and together they flew smoothly toward the outer edge of the planet.

After estimating the distance, Ye Mo Xi realized she would likely have to spend the night on another desert planet. So the urgent matter now was to find a suitable place to stay overnight...

Suddenly, a chill ran down her back.

Something very dangerous had locked onto them.

"Fluff ball, down!"

Ye Mo Xi hurriedly ordered the white fluff ball to descend, hoping to use the jungle and its trees to conceal their trail.

But the thing behind them refused to let go, biting down on their trail with deadly persistence.

Ye Mo Xi turned back and could only vaguely make out a crimson, humanlike silhouette in relentless pursuit. Like the white fluff ball, it was covered in blazing red light. Most striking of all were the two golden beamlike eyes fixed tightly on her and the fluff ball...

What was that thing? Had they been mistaken for prey again?

Thinking this, Ye Mo Xi pulled a small wild rabbit from her terminal and hurled it straight backward.

The thing in hot pursuit伸 out two hands, or perhaps claws, with long fingernails sharp enough to tear her to pieces in a single second, seized the rabbit, sniffed it, then casually flung it aside before driving its legs hard and continuing the chase.

Ye Mo Xi's heart ached.

That rabbit would have been enough for the two siblings to clean and devour to their hearts' content.

Before she could finish grieving, several gold flashes shot toward them...

Damn it. So it really was treating them as prey!

An unprecedented savagery surged in Ye Mo Xi's heart.

Set up by someone, cast into this damned place, nearly torn apart by an ugly flood dragon, and now hunted like prey by another monster?

If she truly had no means of fighting back, so be it. But the problem was, she did have the power to retaliate!

With that thought, a whip appeared in Ye Mo Xi's hand once more, bristling with thorns.