Chapter Three: No Desire to Enter the White Tower

"Her condition is no longer serious. After a few more days of rest, she can be discharged," Elterton said, then added, "However, no one has been sent from the White Tower. How would you like to proceed? Should we keep her here in the military district, or do you have other plans?"

Walking side by side, Sael let out a slight chuckle after hearing this. "Those dogs from the White Tower faction definitely refused to take her on as soon as they heard she’s a guide without psychic power."

He paused briefly before continuing, "But perhaps that’s for the best. After all, we still don’t understand her identity as a guide or why, despite lacking psychic power, she’s detected to have purification ability. Let’s keep her in the military district for now and assign some people to watch over her."

Elterton nodded. "Alright, but wouldn’t that be too obvious? She might become more guarded with us, which won’t help us study her purification ability."

Sael stopped walking to think for a moment. "Then here’s an idea. Since the White Tower has always refused to give us a guide, why not give her an identity as one? Let her purify those sentinels with low contamination levels, then we can focus on testing the sentinels she’s purified to see if their contamination decreases."

Elterton considered this. "That’s a good plan. But what if she refuses?"

Sael glanced at him and tapped his finger lightly. "That’s your job to persuade her."

Elterton had lost count of how many times Sael had sent him to handle these troublesome matters. He felt like nothing more than a fixer for all the messes.

He was the hospital director, not some assistant. Couldn’t they assign someone else for these talks?

Damn that ruthless General Sael!

Elterton smiled sincerely. "Understood, General."

...

Lu Meng rested for two days. During this time, no one came to see her, but from the doctor’s young sister, she learned some basic information about this world.

For instance, it was now the interstellar era. The empire she found herself in was called the Hasata Empire, consisting of twelve star systems.

The planet she was on was named Abeye, located one hundred million light-years from the empire’s main star. It was also the primary station for the empire’s first army, Taly.

She also learned that the people here were quite different from those in the modern world, divided into two types: sentinels and guides.

Sentinels possessed formidable physiques, each individually comparable to a mech, and could even split off a spiritual form. Their strong bodies made them the vanguard on the battlefield, but they were vulnerable to cerebral contamination from the insectoid species.

This was where guides came in—to use their powerful psychic abilities to provide mental support, ensuring the sentinels’ minds remained stable and didn’t descend into madness from excessive contamination.

Historically, the empire’s sentinels and guides cooperated closely on the battlefield: sentinels fought at the front lines, while guides commanded and provided rear support.

However, over the past few centuries, the number of guides had steadily declined. To protect their lives, the empire confined them within the White Tower, where their only roles were to offer mental guidance to sentinels and reproduce.

Lu Meng feared being sent to the White Tower but no one had come to find her these past few days.

She recalled the doctor telling her that although she was a guide, she lacked psychic power, which somewhat reassured her.

Surely, the White Tower wouldn’t want a guide without psychic power—unless they were truly deranged enough to not even spare the lowest-class guides.

But if she didn’t go to the White Tower, she had nowhere else to turn.

The doctor had warned her that a guide with such low psychic power was very vulnerable outside, and it would be easy to lose her life by accident.

Using the light-brain, she searched for cases and found many reports of guides being kidnapped or harmed. It was indeed frightening.

Though she had not chosen to be transported to this place, given the circumstances, her life was paramount.

Just then, the door to her ward was pushed open from outside. A familiar man in a white doctor’s coat stepped in.

Lu Meng recognized him—it was the hospital director who had questioned her the other day, though she had forgotten his name.