The Dark River's Homebrew Plan [Sentinel X Sentinel]

[Sample the action scene in Chapter One below the blurb]

Both are powerful and devoted to each other. Pretty, masculine top × handsome bottom, who's a little burly. Military uniforms! Uniforms!

Fierce white-lion bottom × pure-hearted, flirtatious orca top, with a little bit of comedy

The top is strong, but the bottom is even stronger. The bottom is the strongest Espera, a handsome, gentle and dependable man. Having been pranked by the top since childhood, he has a hair-trigger temper and explodes in a rage.

☆ No gk, please: Early on, the top gets beaten whether he's hard or soft, whether he's moving or still, whether he's inside or outside... Seriously beaten up. Childhood rivals on opposite sides, but at least the kid can take a beating.

First, some smut. The main story is a serious plot, split about 60/40. Similar to Korean webtoon Sentinel-Guide settings, but not ABO; it's a Sentinel-Guide setting with dungeons. Sentinels are called Esperas.

[Blurb]

After saving his nemesis by a twist of fate, Bai Shiwei wished he could turn back time and let the guy fend for himself. He'd always known Li Xiao was a shameless, stubborn pain in the neck, but he never imagined this self-proclaimed dog, reborn from five years in the future, would actually...

Li Xiao hunched his shoulders, but his words were still defiant. "With our relationship, the old man was bound to find out sooner or later! Better sooner than later..."

"What relationship? There's nothing between us! Nothing!!!" Bai Shiwei's voice cracked with panic. He felt nothing but bad luck. "I don't need you to repay me with your body. Shut up, you idiot!"

This was beyond ridiculous!

Absolutely absurd!!!

He'd thought of it as getting bitten by a dog, figured it was just his bad luck, and assumed he could put up with it until it passed. Who'd have thought this mad dog would get a taste for it and cling to him without letting go!

Bonus scene: Orca Li Yuanbao × white lion Cang Xue

Li Yuanbao: "Eee! (Finger heart!) Glub glub glub glub, Pfft! (Rainbow bubbles! Pretty!)"

Cang Xue's white fur was half-soaked in seconds, and one side of his face was sprayed into a crescent shape. The whole lion was visibly growing furious. He bared his claws and smacked Li Yuanbao's dorsal fin.

"Eee!"

Li Yuanbao let out a short cry of surprise and failed to control the "air" inside him. His round body suddenly swelled to many times its size, crashing down on Cang Xue with the force of a mountain and pinning him beneath his belly.

Cang Xue: "..."

Bai Shiwei turned away with a blank expression and gave Li Xiao a frigid look, then recalled his own spirit beast, crushed and utterly miserable, into his spirit sea.

Li Xiao put on an act and shook his fist at Li Yuanbao, who was still trying to play dead.

[Chapter One]

Bai Shiwei was born in the dead of winter, on the new moon, and died just before dawn. The strongest Espera in the Star Nation, he fought for humanity's freedom all his life, never resting for twenty-eight years.

Yet when reporters asked his childhood friend and confidant, Alliance commander Li Xiao, to evaluate Bai Shiwei, the man, now elegant and androgynous, gave a chilling, savage grin:

"He's a bastard!"

Rumors that the two were at odds spread like wildfire.

Months later, the homeland was rebuilt and the smoke of war had cleared. People returned to peaceful lives, and the gifted gradually blended into ordinary society.

The scars left by war seemed to have softened with time. Then one day, the Star Nation's leader announced some devastating news to the world.

The last 3S-ranked Espera, Li Xiao, had taken his own life at the old Bai family estate the previous month.

Li Xiao just wanted to die quietly and beautifully. Wearing the ugly clothes Bai Shiwei had once half-heartedly praised as "not too bad," he sat there perfectly still, with all his ability defenses disabled. The gas explosion he was waiting for never came. Instead, he heard a muffled, stifled groan.

It must be that fake liquor he'd just drunk. Li Xiao thought, his eyelids heavy.

But the sensations around him grew increasingly strange. Then he heard a familiar male voice cursing, and his spine went rigid with shock.

"Can you even do this?"

"Of course I can. What man would say he can't?"

Li Xiao struggled to open his eyes. In the frozen air, they stared at each other.

Bai Shiwei: "..."

Li Xiao: "..."

Good lord, where the hell had he ended up?

Bai Shiwei also found it bizarre. By rights, with his pupils glowing like light bulbs, he should have been deeply unconscious, if not turned into a human nuclear bomb. So why had Li Xiao suddenly woken up?

Before his brain could catch up, his hand came chopping down with a rush of wind.

Smack!

One decisive slap knocked him out cold.

With his body unconscious, his unfused spirit form drifted out. Li Xiao was forced to witness a scene that shattered his understanding of reality. Truths buried by time were being ripped open and laid bare before him, but all he wanted was to ascend to heaven on the spot.

This full-blown hallucination was too much to take.

His spirit form blushed with embarrassment. He'd never imagined he was such a hypocrite, fantasizing about his nemesis. Nor had he imagined that the sworn enemy he'd fought every time their eyes met since childhood could be so dangerously alluring

Three thousand strands of silver hair, dusted with frost and cascading like a waterfall;

A sharp profile so striking it made even him, the "Star Nation's Number One Beauty," feel inferior;

Ice-crystal eyes turned platinum, as if filled with immortal nectar;

Thin lips clenched tight, yet letting out the faintest moan...

Lower down, a black tie hung loosely at his neck, and two buttons on his shirtfront were undone, revealing elegant collarbones. His usually immaculate uniform was stretched out of shape by a bulging chest, its layers of creases unusually disheveled...

"Stop right there."

"What the hell is this?"

"A last-minute crush on Shiwei? And on his nemesis, no less?"

"Can I at least get a quick death?!"

"...Huh?!"

Bai Shiwei stopped and frowned at his blood-red palm.

What the hell? Had Li Xiao been practicing the Iron Head technique?

Back in his body, Li Xiao held his breath and gathered his wits.

In the darkness, another slap landed amid the panting. "Fuck... you bastard... you're the one getting off, and you still have the nerve to say 'huh'?"

Bai Shiwei's complaint rose into a distorted whine, as if something had swallowed it. Li Xiao had never known a man could pant so seductively. He sweated all over with flustered embarrassment, then in an instant a rapid barrage of slaps sent him reeling. The blows came so fast that his nose even started to feel stuffed up.

The violence continued for a long time. Li Xiao was numb with pain, but his exceptional constitution kept his ears sharp and eyes clear. At last, Bai Shiwei stopped and leaned down to call in his ear. "Li Xiao, Li Xiao?"

Li Xiao's face darkened. Only an idiot would answer.

Bai Shiwei continued to coax him in a gentle voice. "Miss Li?"

Li Xiao: ...Damn it!

Fuck, fuck, fuck, hold it in, hold it in!

His face was badly swollen, and his clenched jaw wouldn't work properly. Li Xiao let the heat rush straight to his lower abdomen, making his heart pound wildly.

"How much time has passed?"

"Where's the gas? Is it going to explode or not?"

"Fake liquor is dangerous. At this rate, I'll lose my dignity in my final years!"

"..."

"Wait!"

"My twenty-six years of chastity went up in smoke half an hour ago."

"Bai Shiwei, are you going to do this to me even as a ghost?"

"Do you hate me that much?"

Bai Shiwei was grinding his teeth with anger. If Li Xiao hadn't been a stubborn mule with muscles for brains and beauty in place of intelligence, refusing to accept an exclusive Guide mark and insisting on making do with a public Guide like Bai Shiwei, he wouldn't have been forced to handle things himself today.

Ever since awakening his abilities too early at the age of eight, Bai Shiwei had been able to suppress most negative mental states. Over the years, simple physical contact with Guides had been enough to keep him sane. But that stubborn idiot Li Xiao had to imitate him in everything, even making up some nonsense about saving himself for the beautiful older sister at his twelfth birthday banquet.

Just thinking about it made Bai Shiwei furious.

Li Xiao had been at his most awkward and stubborn at twelve, like a bristling hedgehog. What beautiful older sister? Bai Shiwei remembered it perfectly: there hadn't been a single girl in the banquet hall. He himself had only gone because his father had pressed a gun to his lower back. All he remembered was drinking a glass of fruit juice laced with alcohol, then falling asleep.

Now Bai's father had been gone for a full year, and Bai Shiwei had taken over the mission. Since he was destined to "die" in the Dark River Project, he figured he might as well give the idiot a hand before he left. After that, Li Xiao could take the main road while he walked the narrow bridge alone. If the day came when they crossed swords, dying by the sword Wuwei would count as returning to his roots and meeting a fitting end.

But when it came to putting his plan into practice, Bai Shiwei was at a loss.

He'd never used this special conversion ability on anyone before, and he hadn't expected that touching someone from outside the body would have no effect at all.

But time was running out. Bai Shiwei frowned as he stared at Li Xiao, wondering what he'd eaten to get so ugly. After hesitating again and again, he finally followed the method used for an exclusive Guide and forced himself to go through with it.

His overly sensitive senses made it excruciating. Sweating like a waterfall, he broke through the defenses and finally took control of 50% of Li Xiao's sensory nerves. He hadn't expected things to go so badly, with Li Xiao waking up after only half an hour.

Seeing Li Xiao's dazzling eyes, Bai Shiwei raised his hand and knocked him out again.

The weight on him was unmistakable. Li Xiao was dizzy with panic.

A cool, damp hand lifted his eyelid again.

In a daze, Li Xiao realized that five years ago, the hopeless situation he'd thought he'd escaped by sheer luck had actually been survived at this price.

The mental storm that had roared like a mountain flood was gradually transferred away. The noise that had numbed him over the years slowly subsided. In his spirit sea, the orca stretched out its enormous body, its skin glowing softly.

Rather than being shocked by Bai Shiwei's hidden ability, Li Xiao wanted to know why Bai Shiwei had been willing to save him. Could this impossible act have something to do with how Bai Shiwei's power had plummeted when they met again four years later?

That's right. Even if Bai Shiwei had gone undercover, had his body altered in several places, and had been at death's door when he died... none of that should have affected his ability rank.

The gap was two full ranks. There was no reason for him to have fallen all the way to S-rank.

Li Xiao had learned too late. Or perhaps he'd instinctively avoided more of the truth in his grief. Whenever he woke from a midnight dream, he could see a pool of blood. In the darkness, a figure holding a sword mocked Bai Shiwei, who was kneeling on one knee and had dropped the Lihuo soul lamp. "So this is what you've come to?"

A cornered beast fights back. Given Bai Shiwei's temperament, he should have fought to the death. Why had he silently surrendered his weapon then? As if...

As if he had been waiting for Li Xiao.

Li Xiao didn't dare think about it anymore.

The sword was too heavy. Once rust set in, it could never be wiped away. Memories could torment a person day and night until they were unrecognizable, leaving them wanting to burn every last trace of injustice to ashes.

"I deserved this."

"And I even stabbed Shiwei..."

The more Li Xiao thought about it, the worse he felt. His fingers clenched tight. Distracted for a moment, he heard Bai Shiwei roar in frustration. "Fuck, soft again!"

"Maybe your technique just sucks?"

His consciousness was abruptly yanked. That outrageous thought made Li Xiao's eyelids twitch, and in a panic he checked his own body...

"It's over, it's over, it's over..."

"The Li family's only heir for eighteen generations ends with me..."

[Character Profiles]

Bai Shiwei (bottom), 192 cm, 108/76/96: The strongest Espera, a military spy and Navy rear admiral, and the sole operative of the Dark River Project. In the original timeline, he sacrificed himself and became a controversial, morally ambiguous figure. Steady, taciturn, and not very eloquent, but when it comes to the troublesome Li Xiao, he gets fired up and argues back.

Li Xiao (top), 189.8 cm at his first appearance, then works hard to reach 193 cm, 100/74/95: Younger than Bai Shiwei, an Espera. In the original timeline, he was commander-in-chief of the Mercenary Alliance, and Bai Shiwei's childhood friend and sworn rival. After winning, he killed himself and was reborn. Now he's obsessed with pursuing Bai and getting scratched by him.

*P.S. Li Xiao really is crazy. He goes way too hard when pursuing someone and has a severe histrionic personality. His mind isn't right, and later he gets proper treatment and medication.

The cover art is out, come take a look~

Dumpling, ahhhhh, you're a goddess! I bought your comics back when I was in school! I'm so excited! This book cover absolutely has to be framed!

I drew the character cards myself. Something seems off with the perspective on the forehead... Just bear with it; this is roughly what they look like. Shiwei is so ridiculously handsome~

I've got the whole story written in advance, so I'm going to enjoy it first. First some Xiao-Shiwei, then some Huan-Zhi, and I'll be happy forever, ahhhhh~~

Theme: Die, then return; one day, my love, come back to me