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Chapter 131: Sentinel & Guide (VIII)

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After the guard informed them, Yonis marched straight into the prime minister’s office.

“Prime Minister, could you please explain?” Yonis began bluntly, “What do you mean ‘national property’? What do you mean ‘the possibility of being assigned to two or more Dark Sentinels cannot be ruled out’?”

Prime Minister Nepal was sitting at his desk, his face indifferent. He seemed to expect Yonis’ arrival. “The bill was just suggested today, and we haven’t arrived at a conclusion yet.”

“How do you plan to conclude then?” There was a dangerous light in Yonis’ eyes. “Take Shang Ke as the common property of all Dark Sentinels, and force distribution?”

“Yonis, please don’t place your misconceptions onto us,” Nepal said seriously. “Compulsory distribution has always been the privilege of you high-ranking sentinels, but in the end, it is our Guide Association that will bear the burden.”

Before Nepal was elected as Prime Minister, he was the president of the Guide Association, and he was also a Rank A Guide. Generally, the public didn’t think too highly of the Guide Association, because they placed many restrictions on the rights and freedoms of guides. In fact, most guides were willing to choose sentinels as their spouses. 

The higher the compatibility between the two, the easier it was to resonate spiritually, thus generating real emotions. More than 87% of sentinels and guides were freely paired and bonded, and the Association only provided necessary detection and protection. The Association would only intervene if a high-ranking sentinel forced a guide to bond..

However, if a guide firmly disagreed to bond with sentinels, they were not completely helpless. They just had to return the housing allocated by the government, give up all kinds of preferential treatment, delete all their files in the Association, and become a wild guide. There was no free lunch in this world.

However, the public only saw the misfortune of guides who were forced to bond, but not the bleak end of several wild guides who gave up everything for love. Feelings between two people were easy to break, but the spiritual bond between sentinels and guides was a symbiotic contract, in which benefits were shared equally, and the terms never betrayed.

The ordinary people in Biyashi were the majority, and they also hoped to have a guide as their spouse. However, due to considerations of physiological fit and gene optimization, they had little competitiveness. So, they strongly attacked the Guide Association, trying to win equal distribution rights with sentinels.

“In that case, as a Rank A Dark Sentinel, I should have the right to be Shang Ke’s ‘only’ spouse.” Yonis emphasized the word only.

“Yonis, I think you may have misunderstood.” Under his pressure, the Prime Minister sat up a little straighter and said, “Our bill doesn’t force Shang Ke, but the Dark Sentinels.”

“What do you mean?”

Nepal threw a document to him. “See for yourself.”

Yonis opened the document. It was a draft plan on Shang Ke’s position. The first sentence was, “Shang Ke, as the only known S-level Dark Guide in the country, is under the jurisdiction of the country as a valuable property, and will be given maximum protection and privileges.”

—The Guide Shang Ke is a national property, and no individual is allowed to possess him.

—The Guide Shang Ke is not allowed to leave the country at will.

—When necessary, the Guide Shang Ke should obey government plans to assist Dark Sentinels with spiritual disorder. 

—The Guide Shang Ke can dissolve the existing temporary spouse relationships at any time and choose a new Dark Sentinel for himself. There is no limit… 

The first few sentences were still understandable, but what did “can dissolve the existing temporary spouse relationships at any time” and “no limit” mean? Yonis’ entire face was dark.

“Yonis, what you need to worry about is not who we will assign Shang Ke to, but who he will choose.” Nepal said calmly, “Considering the problem of future generations, we naturally hope that Shang Ke can have a good marriage, and give birth to excellent sentinels and guides for the country. However, we will not enforce this, thus we placed the choice in Shang Ke’s hands. After all, he has S-level spiritual power; if he doesn’t want to, forcing the bond will only backfire.”

“But Yonis, you don’t have to worry. Although you can’t legally bond with Shang Ke, you are most likely to become the father of Shang Ke’s first child.”

What do you mean “the father of his first child”? No matter how many children Shang Ke will have, the father of the child will only be him, okay?

“Prime Minister, what are you up to?” Yonis tried his best to resist tearing up the bill while two chilly eyes stared at Nepal.

“Nothing. The Association has already endured enough misplaced blame. We don’t want to bear it again this time.” Nepal leaned comfortably on the chair and warned, “Yonis, instead of discussing Shang Ke’s ownership with me, why don’t you think about how to deal with your competitors, such as… Mitchell?”

Yonis glared ferociously at Nepal for a long time. Then he snorted coldly and left.

When he returned to his residence, he found Shang Ke walking in the garden with his back to him. His slender figure looked very warm under the sunlight. Yonis strode over and hugged him tightly from behind.

“You’ve returned? How’s the situation?” Shang Ke turned to look at him.

Yonis’ face was frosty, and he said nothing. His spirit fluctuated, and the varying sounds of the wind, trees, birds and insects around him made him grow agitated.

Shang Ke released his own spirit and built a sound barrier around him, blocking the surrounding noise to soothe his irritability.

Yonis rested his chin on Shang Ke’s shoulder, his tight look gradually easing until he completely relaxed. His eyes squinted like a lion half asleep and half awake. As long as Shang Ke was around, Yonis would always feel at peace.

The two men sat under a tree, and only then did Yonis share the information he received from the Prime Minister with Shang Ke. When Yonis thought of that irritating bill, the calm he achieved was lost, and he became angry again. 

Obviously, Shang Ke was his guide, yet he was suddenly labeled as a “national property”. However, this label was in fact very beneficial to Shang Ke, so beneficial, Yonis had no true reason to object against it.

Shang Ke was a bit surprised; he didn’t expect the country to give him such preferential treatment.

“Shang Ke.” Yonis cupped his face and spoke with intense eyes, “You can’t choose anyone other than me. Otherwise, I don’t know what I would do. You are my guide, you’re mine alone.” He declared, sounding like a child afraid of losing his beloved toy.

“Okay, I am yours alone.” Shang Ke hugged him and said with a smile, “Comforting you is tiring enough. I don’t want to add another.”

“Yes, I’ll make sure you have no energy to think about others,” Yonis replied with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

With that said, he picked Shang Ke up and ran like the wind into the bedroom. He began to implement his energy consuming tactics …

A few days later, the first Dark Guide Bill was officially announced, and several Dark Sentinels were delighted, encouraging it. Although they knew that it was almost impossible for Dark Sentinels below Rank B to bond with Shang Ke, Shang Ke’s spiritual assistance and treatment was very valuable to Dark Sentinels.

Although the Dark Sentinels’ self-control was strong, they couldn’t avoid accidents. In the past, when spiritual turmoil and disorder happened, they could only suppress it through their own will alone. Now, like other ordinary sentinels, they could get the best treatment from a guide.

However, Shang Ke’s privilege also made many guides feel wronged. Most of the registered guides grew up under the protection of the government and sentinels. They naturally enjoyed the convenience brought by their privileges, but they felt dissatisfied with their status and responsibilities. Ordinary people had the right to love freely, but guides could only be confined to a small circle.

Other guides didn’t have the right to choose. Why does this Dark Guide that popped out of nowhere have it?

Of course, these remarks were not the focus of Shang Ke’s attention. He was most concerned about the movement of the anti-government union.

There was still the last assassination in the main task left. As his popularity grew, the anti-government union’s desire to eradicate him should have also grown stronger, especially after learning that he turned out to be a guide.

There were no sentinels or guides in the anti-government union. They were a terrorist force composed of technical talents in various fields and underground armed forces. Their original purpose was to overthrow the privileged powers held by sentinels and guides.

The contradiction between gene optimizers and ordinary people had not been eliminated since ancient times. The geniuses of ordinary ilk were unwilling to be ruled by the few optimized beings, but they had no strength to confront them head-on. They could only take extreme measures to create chaos everywhere. It was unknown how many innocent people had died under their ambition and madness.

For hundreds of years, the upper echelons of the country battled with them. No matter how hard they were hit, they would always come back every once in a while.

With their ability, they had been silent for more than half a year. No matter how high the Sky Ring’s defense was, they should start taking action soon.

But while Shang Ke was waiting for the third assassination, he received an emergency treatment mission first. The incident happened to three Dark Sentinels, one C and two D, who went out in teams. It was not necessary to send Shang Ke, an S-level guide, to sentinels of such low ranks. 

However, Dark Sentinels were different from normal sentinels. They had very low chances of going through a spiritual turmoil, let alone three at a time. The nation’s upper echelons felt that there was something odd about this matter, so they issued a treatment mission to Shang Ke.

So, under the protection of Yonis, Shang Ke went to the private room of the hospital where the three Dark Sentinels were located.

The treatment process went by smoothly. Under Shang Ke’s guidance, the sentinels’ pain was quickly relieved, and peace was restored.

While Yonis was away, the Rank C sentinel whispered to Shang Ke, “Sir Shang Ke, my name is Lin Chuan. Remember my name. I will definitely become a Rank A Dark Sentinel in the future. Then I will defeat Yonis and apply for a matching with you.”

Before Shang Ke could speak, the sentinel suddenly rolled his eyes and fainted.

A golden shadow flashed before Shang Ke’s eyes and flew behind him. Shang Ke turned his head to find Yonis standing at the door with a murderous aura, his gaze sweeping over the three sentinels on the sickbed lightly. Then Shang Ke heard two loud bangs and the other two sentinels passed out “happily”.

“They need to rest.” Is what Yonis said.

“……”

Outside the hospital, Yonis saw Shang Ke looking thoughtful and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Well… nothing.” Shang Ke didn’t know how to answer either. When he was treating those three sentinels just now, he felt that their spiritual states were very similar. 

In principle, different sentinels would have different spiritual states after receiving external stimuli. Unless their spirit forces resonated, there should be no consistent frequency.

Was it because he had encountered too little sentinels and lacked experience in using spiritual power?

Shang Ke shook his head and temporarily pressed down his doubts.

Over the next few days, more and more sentinels in the country suffered from accidents, mostly ordinary ones, but the number was still within the normal range, so it didn’t attract much attention.

It was not until half a month later that the appearance of a spiritually abnormal sentinel finally caused quite a stir at the top of the country.

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