The shooting range at the General's residence.

Fu Yan patiently fired the eleventh bamboo arrow, once again hitting the bullseye. He glanced up at the glaring sunlight, then looked toward Gu Zhan, who was leisurely eating chilled waxberries in the shade of the pavilion. He began to suspect that this man was deliberately messing with him.

“Modern combat is all about spaceships and mechas. Who still uses these primitive weapons?” Fu Yan tossed the bow and arrows onto the ground in annoyance. “If you don't want to teach me, just say so. Don't waste my time!”

After all, when it came to competitive archery, Fu Yan had been able to hit nine rings or higher since he was ten.

Seeing him puffed up with anger, Gu Zhan calmly walked over, picked up the discarded bow and arrows, and gave one of the accompanying soldiers a look.

The soldier understood and went into the control room nearby. He pressed a switch, and suddenly the target boards all around them began moving along the steel rails. Ten targets were not only rotating around Gu Zhan, but each target was also spinning rapidly around its own axis.

Gu Zhan counted out ten arrows from the quiver. As he drew the bow to its full extent, his gaze suddenly sharpened as though power were gathering within it. There was none of the laziness he'd displayed while lounging in the pavilion and snacking moments earlier.

He slowly closed his eyes. The whistling sound of the rapidly spinning targets filled his ears. A Sentinel's five senses were far superior to those of ordinary people, and he was using his hearing to make the targets around him seem to slow down.

Unless there was a special occasion, Gu Zhan normally wore his military uniform. At this moment, Fu Yan could sense the full, powerful muscles of his arms trembling slightly beneath the uniform.

Whoosh—

Fu Yan didn't even have time to blink. All ten arrows flew out simultaneously, and all ten targets stopped at exactly the same moment.

Gu Zhan opened his eyes and swept his gaze around. A smile appeared at the corners of his mouth, exactly as he had expected.

All ten arrows had struck the bullseyes!

Fu Yan stared at him wide-eyed, his jaw practically dropping.

Seeing his reaction, Gu Zhan couldn't resist teasing him again. Despite his youth, Gu Zhan had long since grown weary of competing with people his own age over victories and defeats. Yet ever since Fu Yan had appeared, something inexplicable had changed in him. He looked forward to the younger man's admiring gaze, and because of that, he had somehow recovered a little of the youthful spirit he'd lost long ago.

He curled his lips into a smile and looked at Fu Yan.

“Even if you think I'm handsome, you don't have to stand there with your mouth hanging open. Just come over and give me a kiss.”

Fu Yan came back to himself, quickly shut his mouth, and charged over angrily, punching Gu Zhan in the chest.

That's for making fun of me!

Gu Zhan laughed and rubbed his chest as he explained, “Although modern combat hardly has any use for cold weapons anymore, reaction speed and psychological resilience will always be the most important qualities for a soldier. Do you still think you need to practice with that bow?”

Fu Yan lowered his head to look at the powerful bow and seriously took it from Gu Zhan.

Woooo—

A sharp alarm suddenly sounded in the distance.

The soldiers throughout the shooting range seemed to have heard a summons. They immediately ran over and formed up into ranks.

“Reporting, General.” Richard hurried forward and gave a military salute. “The enemy has attacked again.”

Gu Zhan's eyes were sharp as a hawk's, and his voice rang out with authority.

“Prepare for battle!”

The soldiers behind him stamped forward in unison and shouted as one:

“Prepare for battle!”

It was wartime. Nearly everyone on No. 11 was constantly on standby for war, always ready to protect their home.

The soldiers marched toward the front line in perfect formation, their momentum fierce and imposing.

Gu Zhan solemnly straightened the collar of his uniform. Just as he had countless times before, he walked away with firm, steady steps.

Except this time, he couldn't help turning back.

Even someone as brave and battle-hardened as him couldn't guarantee that he would win every battle, or return completely unharmed from every one.

He gazed at Fu Yan and instructed him, “Richard has found plenty of materials for you. Don't slack off while I'm gone!”

“Mm. I'll study hard. Next time you go into battle, take me with you.”

“Fine, as long as you have the ability.” Gu Zhan's piercing eyes seemed to transmit strength. “I look forward to the day we fight side by side.”

“Definitely!”

Fu Yan nodded solemnly to his superior. Inspired by the soldiers around him, he unconsciously stood at attention as he spoke to Gu Zhan, chest out and head held high.

A trace of tenderness that he couldn't suppress appeared in Gu Zhan's gaze. Yet his tone remained as forceful as a military order.

“Come back after we win, and I'll deal with you.”

Once they put on these uniforms, even words of affection sounded like military commands.

Fu Yan refused to be outdone. He stared sharply at him.

“Then if you lose, I'll deal with you.”

Gu Zhan chuckled. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Fu Yan took a large step forward, pulled him into his arms, held the back of his neck, and planted a firm kiss on his lips.

“Make sure you come back safely.”

“I will.”

Every day after Gu Zhan went to the battlefield, Fu Yan's heart was wracked with anxiety.

All he could do was ask the intelligence soldiers eight hundred times a day: How was the battle going? How was the General?

When he heard that Gu Zhan had driven the enemy into a complete rout, he would clap excitedly. When he heard that Gu Zhan had been trapped by the enemy's laser formation, he was so anxious that he wished he could immediately rush onto the battlefield himself.

But he knew he still couldn't.

If one day he became qualified to fight alongside Gu Zhan, then he could only be Gu Zhan's equal partner—not a burden who needed to be protected.

Since he couldn't sleep anyway, Fu Yan spent day and night studying the materials Richard had found for him. Most of them concerned the development and expansion of Guide abilities.

There was a rumor that the General was so powerful that he was like a Dark Sentinel who didn't need a Guide. But even if Gu Zhan needed him just once, Fu Yan wanted to be able to step forward without hesitation.

A full fourteen days later, good news finally arrived from the front line.

Fu Yan excitedly rushed straight to the military camp, asking everyone he encountered:

“Where's the General? Where is he?”

The soldiers, just as excited as he was, babbled enthusiastically about their joy at the victory, but not one of them could tell him exactly where the General was.

Fu Yan anxiously rushed around the camp until he encountered a familiar face.

“Colonel Jack, where's the General? Where is he?”

Colonel Jack shook his head.

“Well... I don't know where the General is either. Come to think of it, after every battle, the General seems to disappear for a while.”

He quickly stopped talking, realizing that he might have stumbled upon some obscure secret.

Fu Yan immediately ran off to search elsewhere.

At this point, he couldn't help becoming nervous. There were no guarantees on a battlefield. Could Gu Zhan have been injured and secretly hidden himself away to recover so as not to affect morale? Everything concerning the General was the highest military secret, so even if he were injured, it couldn't simply be made public.

Just as Fu Yan was running around like a headless fly, Richard appeared.

“I'll take you to the General.”

Fu Yan studied Richard’s body language and expression. His head was hanging low, and he certainly didn't look happy. Fu Yan's heart sank even further.

Richard led him through one secret door after another and past layers of heavily guarded checkpoints, until they arrived at an endless stretch of grassland.

The place was peaceful and quiet, with almost no sound. A military spaceship sat in the middle of the open field.

—It was 6377.

Fu Yan froze.

“This... is the General's ship? Is he inside?”

Richard nodded.

“What's inside is the General's greatest secret. Are you prepared to accept him?”

Fu Yan's dark eyes gleamed brightly, and he nodded seriously.

Richard still held out an arm to stop him.

“For all these years, after every battle, the General has faced everything alone. Please help him.”

After saying this, Richard bowed deeply.

The hatch opened.

This military spaceship was unlike every other spaceship. There was no advanced equipment or high-end instrumentation inside. Instead, it contained a living compartment—a small, cozy space that felt like home.

There were cloud-like pillows, a sky-blue tablecloth, flower-shaped tea ware, and a battered reed radio softly playing gentle white noise.

Gu Zhan had washed away all traces of his military bearing and was lying on the cashmere carpet wearing only a silk bath towel, looking as clean and vulnerable as a newborn baby.

His eyes were closed, and he didn't move at all.

Fu Yan could sense that he was extremely exhausted. He had completely opened his mental domain, and it was so polluted that it seemed capable of devouring everything. To win the battle, he had overdrawn far too much mental power, and even years' worth of accumulated emotional waste had begun surging back to the surface.

So this living compartment was the secret behind why the General didn't need a Guide.

After every battle, he must have come here alone to purify his mental domain.

A Sentinel's five senses were superior to those of ordinary people. The more powerful the Sentinel, the more sensitive those senses became. But everything was a double-edged sword: the more they could perceive, the more easily their minds became exhausted. They needed Guides with powerful mental strength to soothe and regulate them.

Because there was no way to predict when a Sentinel's mind might collapse—for example, a sudden flash of intense light could overwhelm a Sentinel with heightened vision and cause them to become dizzy or lose control—Sentinels generally went onto the battlefield together with their paired Guides.

Of course, there was another kind: the Dark Sentinel, powerful enough to transcend all such limitations. They didn't require a Guide's mental soothing, possessed extraordinary self-control, and could purify themselves.

But Fu Yan had always believed that such Dark Sentinels didn't really exist. Even if someone could accomplish it, it would surely be an extremely lonely and arduous path. No one could continually put energy in without ever needing anything in return—that violated the law of conservation of energy. Sooner or later, this method of relying entirely on oneself to endure and purify would collapse completely, until the consequences became impossible to deal with.

That was why most of the famous Dark Sentinels in history had died young or disappeared without a trace.

Perhaps with Gu Zhan's abilities, he could still use his powerful self-regulation to keep his emotions under control for now.

But Fu Yan didn't want him to face all of this alone.

He couldn't help but feel heartbroken for him.

He knelt beside Gu Zhan, gently lifted his head, and rested it on his lap.

Fu Yan placed a hand against Gu Zhan's tightly furrowed brow. Recalling the methods of mental regulation he'd read about in his books, he slowly opened his own mental domain and gradually approached Gu Zhan, trying to peel away the filthy haze surrounding him, bit by bit...

He saw the previous General Feishi.

The valiant General had brought back from the battlefield a little boy who had only just awakened. At merely six years old, the boy had already demonstrated extraordinary supernatural abilities.

The General liked him very much and taught him many skills. But at the same time, the General was extremely strict, often training him day and night.

Sometimes, the General would even lose control of his emotions and become obsessive, demanding that the little boy's movements be as precise as a machine, without the slightest deviation. Even the tiniest mistake would force the boy to repeat the exercise again and again. He wasn't allowed to stop even after exhaustion caused him to collapse.

Rather than a foster father, the General was more like an uncompromising instructor.

But the little boy could understand him. Although the General was an extraordinarily powerful Sentinel, he had unfortunately lost his Guide at a very young age. His Guide had died in battle, so for all these years the General had been forced to purify himself alone. It was understandable that he occasionally lost control of his emotions.

Later, the General also died in battle.

That year, the little boy was only fifteen.

His thin shoulders were forced to bear the weight of the General's armor.

Within that mass of filth, a little boy clenched his fists, his body trembling uncontrollably.

At that moment, the man lying on Fu Yan's lap also gritted his teeth in pain, his tightly clenched fists trembling uncontrollably.

Fu Yan gently massaged his hands, then opened his palms and enclosed them within his own. Slowly, he transferred Gu Zhan's pain into his own mental domain, then gradually dissolved it.

Fu Yan also saw everything Gu Zhan had faced alone over all these years.

He saw every wound Gu Zhan had suffered, every bullet that had struck him.

He saw him bleeding, suffering, in pain...

He saw him bearing every injury all by himself.

Fu Yan hugged him tightly, kissing his eyebrows, his eyes, the bridge of his nose, his lips...

Gu Zhan slowly opened his eyes and looked hazily at the person before him.

“You're awake? Are you feeling better?”

Fu Yan gently brushed the loose strands of hair from his forehead.

“Mm.”

Gu Zhan shook his head slightly and suddenly felt clearer than he had ever felt before.

“You performed mental guidance on me?”

“Yes. It's my first time doing it for someone else, so I may not be very experienced. Is there anywhere you're still uncomfortable? I—”

Gu Zhan took his hand.

“No. You did very well.”

Fu Yan asked again, “6377 is your spaceship? Why didn't you tell me sooner that you were the one who saved all of Aisha?”

“It's not too late for you to know now.”

Gu Zhan looked at him seriously.

“And now you also know that I'm not some great hero. Just like every other Sentinel, my mental domain can become chaotic, even collapse. Every time I finish a battle, I hide aboard 6377 to sort out my emotions. And that time when I accidentally saved Aisha... it was merely the result of my mental power exploding for an instant. If it happened again, I might not be able to save it...”

Fu Yan interrupted him with a smile.

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I mean that General Feishi isn't some Dark Sentinel. He's just... an ordinary person.”

“But you're still my hero.”

Fu Yan's dark eyes shone with gentle warmth.

“I admire every one of your glories, and I cherish every one of your vulnerabilities. Gu Zhan, I like you. Let me be your Guide. From now on, I want to fight beside you in every battle.”

Gu Zhan tilted his face upward and gazed at him for a long time, his eyes filled with emotion.

Fu Yan gently massaged his temples.

“Why aren't you saying anything? Are you still uncomfortable? I'll perform mental guidance on you again.”

Gu Zhan took his hand and pressed it against his own chest. He raised an eyebrow suggestively.

“You know, for me, the best kind of guidance actually isn't this.”