What Do I Do If My Spirit Form Is a Tentacle?

[The author wasn't in a great place mentally while this was being serialized. When I later wanted to pick it back up, so much time had passed that I'd forgotten most of the plot. I couldn't keep the emotions consistent while writing, so I ultimately decided to make it free to read.] [Guide on top, sentinel on bottom, evenly matched] Lu Yuanfeng is a low-level guide whose compatibility with every sentinel is under 20%. He can't even establish the most basic mental link. Even in an age when guides are desperately scarce, he's an astonishing outlier. He doesn't have the talent to enter the White Tower, so he can only join people from a remote sentinel outpost in the contaminated zone to "scavenge." During one outing, the contaminated zone is overrun. Just as countless mutated creatures are about to swallow Lu Yuanfeng whole, someone suddenly drops from the sky. The monsters turn to bloody pulp beneath his blade. Lu Yuanfeng looks at the man's highest-level danger marker and those pure white eyes, and falls into deep thought. Good news: This man is probably an SSS-rank sentinel. Bad news: He's in the throes of a rampage, and his next target seems to be Lu Yuanfeng. Lu Yuanfeng: Thanks, I'm alive, but not exactly safe. Seeing the other man turn to attack him, Lu Yuanfeng can only try a desperate last resort. He releases his mental spirit and attempts to form a mental link with him. The attack he expects never comes. But wait... Lu Yuanfeng stares in horror at the mental tentacles wrapped around the man. Wasn't his mental spirit just a cat? When did it turn into a tentacle monster? Aaaaaah! He Louyin, the empire's strongest fighter and an SSS-rank sentinel, has never found a compatible guide. His mind is on the brink of a rampage, and his only possible fate may be to descend into madness and destruction. His mental landscape is always a blood-red sky, cold and desolate, a place no one has ever set foot in. Until one day, a bunch of tentacles somehow squeeze their way in, saying strange things: [Wow, a snek] [It's white] [So cute] He Lou: ? That's a giant python! After awakening two mental spirits, Lu Yuanfeng finds himself troubled by three things: 1. His tentacles won't behave and are always running off. 2. His compatibility with an SSS-rank sentinel is way too high. 3. His unruly tentacles keep sneaking into the other man's mental landscape again and again! One day, He Lou can take it no longer. He seeks out Lu Yuanfeng and demands in a low voice, "Why..." Lu Yuanfeng hides his tentacles behind his back. "Um, I can explain..." The top sentinel keeps a frosty expression, but his ears turn red. "So why haven't you accepted an exclusive match with me yet?" Lu Yuanfeng: ? This isn't at all how he imagined it... - Sentinel-guide worldbuilding. Please don't make baseless accusations of plagiarism in any form. - The gong has two mental spirits: a sand cat and a tentacled sea monster. - The shou's mental spirit is an altered white python. - The gong is strong; the shou is a human-shaped weapon with extraordinary combat ability. Theme: Hard work makes you better