Chapter Sixteen: Spiritual Solace

After the series of events triggered by the snake, Lu Meng finally obediently returned to her apartment. As soon as she got back, she threw herself onto the soft bedcovers. After lying there for a while, she opened the files Marta had sent to Changfa.

She first opened the "Military District Management Regulations." It contained extensive details on the management of sentinels, but only three rules concerning guides:

1. Except under special circumstances, guides must provide mental counseling to sentinels twice daily. If their psychic strength is weak, they may apply to reduce this to once a day.

2. Provided the guide’s life and mental safety are not endangered, guides are obliged to follow military district arrangements and accompany sentinel teams on outings, providing necessary mental counseling to the sentinels.

3. Guides must not leave the military district without prior approval from superiors and must be accompanied by at least one S-rank sentinel.

Lu Meng flipped through the earlier pages that detailed the sentinel management regulations—over ten pages in total. The stark contrast made her quietly grateful that Director Elt had never mistaken her for a sentinel; otherwise, she’d be utterly doomed! Just reading all these rules was enough to give her a headache. Shaking her head, she felt sympathy for those sentinels.

She then closed the document and opened the "Beginner’s Guide for Guides." Right at the start was a brief introduction to guides.

Guides possess powerful psychic abilities, enabling them to perform mental control, mental counseling, and mental comfort.

Mental control uses psychic power to invade the minds of sentinels or beings from any dimension to control their behavior.

Mental counseling uses psychic power to purify the minds of sentinels or beings from any dimension, reducing contamination and cleansing the mental space.

Mental comfort uses psychic power to soothe sentinels’ minds, temporarily boosting psychic strength or achieving complete purification.

Lu Meng continued reading. There was a video tutorial, which she clicked to watch. It explained methods and precautions for mental control and mental counseling but made no mention of mental comfort.

Puzzled, she searched extensively in the neural network. A flood of information and forums appeared. As she browsed, she suddenly felt as if her eyes were defiled. She even seemed to hear some indescribable, eerie sounds. Horrified, she quickly closed the page, stunned as if struck by lightning.

Had she searched the wrong thing?

Unwilling to give up, she checked the video link she had just opened: “How to Perform Mental Comfort for Maximum Effect.”

Lu Meng was speechless. Help! Help! Help!

She read the explanation of mental comfort below:

Mental comfort is a selective mental bond that guides establish with sentinels, requiring the creation of a psychic link.

This is similar to mental control and mental counseling but involves a deeper mental connection.

Once the psychic link is established, the sentinel and guide share psychic power and can experience a temporary boost in psychic strength.

If a guide forms a "towards-sentinel" relationship or voluntarily fully bonds with a sentinel, the guide is obliged to provide mental comfort to that sentinel at least three times per month.

Lu Meng spent the entire evening studying the related materials. It opened a whole new world for her but also shattered her previous worldview.

Now she finally understood what Ace meant by a “dedicated sentinel.” A guide can choose their own dedicated sentinel, fully bond mentally with them, effectively marking the sentinel as their exclusive property.

The guide must provide mental comfort to their dedicated sentinel at least three times a month.

...

Lu Meng was thoroughly overwhelmed. What on earth was all this?!

Fortunately, according to imperial law, sentinels cannot force guides into mental bonding, or else they would face imprisonment.

Moreover, in the military district she researched, guides only provide mental counseling to sentinels and never engage in this deeper bonding.

Thinking this, Lu Meng breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Today’s revelations had been far too much for her. Like a wandering soul, she finished her evening routine and lay down, hoping for a good night’s sleep.