An underground fighting ring. An S-rank rogue Sentinel, nicknamed "Vampire."
Her spirit animal is a lamprey that rolls around in muddy water: a hideous aquatic creature with a ring of teeth around its mouth, guaranteed to lower your sanity.
She lives by just eight words: Win and you eat meat. Lose and you get eaten.
Her greatest dream in life is to eat her fill. Next is paying off her debts. After that... there is no next.
Her surname is Lin, and her given name is Man.
Just like her name, she's a vampire eel that's never full.
Until one day, the Black Tower's youngest chief Guide walks into the cage in a perfectly pressed uniform, followed by a pure white peacock.
Its tail feathers trail on the ground, and it carries itself with the arrogance of a creature surveying its own territory.
He reaches out, trying to use his mental power to "recruit" the beast.
Lin Man stares at his slender neck for a few seconds, then opens her mouth and bites down.
Like a lamprey, she clings on for dear life and refuses to let go.
The chief Guide's expression changes. "Are you... sucking out my mental energy?"
Lin Man licks her lips, her eyes shining. "It smells so good."
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Ji Qingyan has met plenty of Sentinels in his life.
Elites, geniuses, lunatics. Not one of them ever caught his eye.
Until he was ordered to recruit the rogue Sentinel nicknamed "Mad Fish."
Lin Man.
When he saw that name in her file, he couldn't help laughing. What kind of person gives their daughter a name like that?
Then he saw her in the cage.
She ignored all rules and consequences. Once she bit down, she wouldn't let go.
His white peacock paced elegantly in front of her, disdainfully folding its tail feathers, while her lamprey wriggled with excitement. Its round, disk-shaped mouth opened and closed as if saying, "So good, so good, I want to suck it up."
At the time, Ji Qingyan could only think how absurd it was. How could such a lowly creature qualify as a spirit animal?
But when his mental energy first entered her mindscape, he found a dried-up mud pit, a broken wooden board that read "three meals a day," and a scrawny lamprey curled up in the corner.
His white peacock suddenly stopped shaking its tail feathers and quietly sat down.
He began feeding her some of his mental energy.
At first, it was out of pity. Then, out of a sense of responsibility. And later...
Later, Ji Qingyan decided that being "parasitized" by a lamprey wasn't so hard to accept after all.
So when the Black Tower's higher-ups asked why he insisted on keeping the same partner,
Ji Qingyan thought for a moment and said, "If she sucked anyone else's energy, she'd die."
He paused, then added, "And so would they."
Several rumors have been circulating around the tower lately.
Rumor one: Black Tower chief Guide Ji Qingyan has been "parasitized" by a lamprey.
Rumor two: Ji Qingyan refuses to change partners because the rogue Sentinel named Lin Man has something on him. As for what it is... some think he's deep in debt, others suspect she's planted a mental suggestion in him, and some guess... never mind, nobody dares say.
Rumor three: Lin Man isn't actually human. She's a lamprey that cultivated into a spirit. The evidence: she never touches vegetables in the cafeteria, and when she looks at Ji Qingyan, her eyes are exactly like someone staring at braised pork.
Rumor four (unconfirmed): Ji Qingyan's white peacock has recently started spreading its tail feathers on its own. Not at a mirror, but at that lamprey.
Ji Qingyan refuses to comment.
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· Sentinel and Guide setting. The female lead has limited socialization, is a rogue Sentinel, and has a lamprey spirit animal.
· The male lead is a cold, aloof chief Guide, a portable power bank and a human, self-propelled food dispenser.
Theme: Though tempered by a thousand trials, still steadfast
