The Heartthrob Guide: Dodder of S-Class Sentinels

Chapter 251 Purpose
Lin Nan had no idea when she had fallen into a huge trap.

This trap seemed tailor-made for her, patiently and gradually lowering her guard until she completely believed what she said.

Lin Nan felt dizzy and disoriented, as if all the strength in her body was slowly draining away. She struggled, trying to raise her arm, but she couldn't even manage the most basic curl-up.

Her back ached terribly, as if something sharp had slashed it open with a long gash. Warm blood flowed slowly down her back, soaking her thin clothes, and dripping down the hem, spreading out like dark red flowers on the cold ground.

"Awake?" The voice came from the darkness, seemingly close yet far away, creating an unreal sense of emptiness.

Lin Nan tensed up abruptly, the pain in her back instantly bringing her to her senses.

She tried to pinpoint the source of the sound, but found that the darkness was like an impenetrable net, swallowing up all sense of direction. She could only feel that gaze, fixed firmly on her, filled with undisguised greed and scrutiny.

"Don't move it. Moving it will make the wound deeper and leave a scar, which won't look good later."

"You..." Lin Nan bit her lip hard, the only way to keep herself conscious. Due to excessive blood loss, her vision was blurry. She looked around and asked, "Where is this?"

"This is my mental domain. I've locked this area completely. No one can enter unless I open it myself." Su Ping emerged from the darkness, and the faint light allowed Lin Nan to see his situation clearly.

She found herself trapped in a damp, muddy swamp. Thick, black mud churned beneath her feet, emitting the stench of rotting vegetation. Dense, spiderweb-like insect silk covered the entire space, weaving it into an extremely enclosed world. Light could barely penetrate, except for a faint sliver of light leaking through a crack overhead, illuminating her suspended in mid-air.

Lin Nan's clothes on her upper body were already torn, revealing a hideous wound on her back, where the sphenoid bone was located. At this moment, a huge butterfly was resting on the wound.

The butterfly had grown to be half a person's height, and when its wings were spread, they almost covered her entire back. Its wings were covered with blue-purple eye-like patterns that shimmered with an eerie light in the dim light.

It didn't flap its wings, but instead used its six slender legs to firmly grip her flesh. A silvery-white mouthpart, like a straw, slowly pierced deep into her flesh through the wound on her back.

The stinging pain emanated from this very spot, and Lin Nan felt as if her blood had frozen at that moment. She could clearly feel her consciousness being slowly sucked away by that mouthpart, and the dull pain of her spiritual core being gnawed at made her vision go black in waves.

"What did you do to me?" she asked weakly again.

"It will be over soon." Su Ping stood before her, lovingly stroking Lin Nan's pale cheek. The woman was already very old, but her cloudy eyes shone with an almost fanatical light. "In a little while, my spirit will be completely integrated with yours, and you won't feel any pain anymore..."

what?
Upon hearing this, Lin Nan's face turned even paler. She struggled a bit and found that her hands and feet were being bound tighter and tighter by the insect silk.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I feel sorry for you, but some things have to be done in order to achieve our goals."

"Target? You? Who are you? What exactly do you want?!"

“Didn’t Vic tell you all our plans?” Su Ping continued, her voice carrying an undeniable certainty. “The Queen has abandoned us. Granville has long been a discarded pawn. So we need to save ourselves, not only by protecting our homeland, but also by building our new order—an order that does not rely on the Queen’s voice and is not controlled by the Central White Tower.”

"You can save me all you want, but what's the point of arresting me! I'm not one of your Zerg!" Lin Nan said angrily.

"This has nothing to do with you, but don't forget, you're the one who marked Vic."

"..."

“Since Admiral Ariel’s sacrifice, Vic has been chosen by the Zerg to be the next generation of spiritual core. The direction of his spiritual perception determines the future direction of the Zerg.”

“And the fact that you marked him means that the only person he will be loyal to and his only partner in the future will be you,” Su Ping explained, her voice carrying an almost cold rationality, her indifferent eyes fixed on Lin Nan as if she were examining a product.

"So you encouraged them to lure me in, with the goal of making me mark them?"

"You can think that way, but I'm just giving them a suggestion. The final decision is theirs."

At this point, Su Ping pinched Lin Nan's chin, looked her over carefully, and after a long while, continued thoughtfully, "Those three brothers really have good judgment. Choosing you will definitely give them the greatest help." "Ever since I heard that a trainee guide was coming here, I've been curious about what kind of person she would go to such lengths to bring you here. You know, Granville is her home, and she never lets anyone get close to this place easily."

"Now I understand, but unfortunately—she's going to miscalculate this time. I'll succeed even faster than her..."

After Su Ping finished speaking, she applied slight pressure with her fingers, and the mouthpiece inserted into Lin Nan's back was completely inserted!

The butterfly, like a greedy mouse, smelled the aroma of minced meat and desperately tried to burrow into Lin Nan's mental imagery—

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!" Heart-wrenching pain came from that spot. Lin Nan felt like her whole body was being torn apart. She couldn't bear the pain and screamed loudly.

"Little one, don't hate me. It's because you have such high talent and such strong mental strength."

At this point, Lin Nan finally understood what she meant.

She looked up at the butterfly on her back that was merging with her, and laughed mockingly:

"So that's why you kidnapped me. You've said so much, but all you really want is to take over my body and become the new queen of the Zerg."

“You can understand it that way,” Su Ping said, not denying it.

Because Lin Nan established contact with Arachne and others, her current body is an excellent leader. She can control the entire Zerg army by manipulating Arachne, and she can also spread her mental power to make the Zerg army reproduce continuously, growing into a force comparable to the Central Government in a very short time.

This was a supreme power and honor, which is why Su Ping developed feelings for her.

"Aren't you afraid they'll find out if you do this?"

“After our spirits merge, I am you, there is no difference. So what if they discover this? As long as the spiritual energy flowing in this body is still yours, the male insects will always obey your commands. This is an inheritance etched into the genes of the insect race, it is their nature…”

The Zerg's spiritual power is hereditary; as long as a new vessel is found, they can use this method to ensure that "themselves" live on forever.

Although their physical bodies are gone, their spiritual power can remain in the target's body forever.

Su Ping just felt it was a pity that she hadn't given birth to a suitable "vessel" for herself. Just when she was about to exhaust her spiritual power and grow old, God actually sent her such a suitable person!

This must be God's arrangement!
Su Ping thought this excitedly.

She and that person were once Granville's "rising stars." She didn't think her abilities were inferior to hers; it was just that their abilities were different and their cultivation paths were different.

But precisely because she was a popular "healing" type at the time, she was chosen by the public as the "Queen"...

This was a pent-up frustration in her heart, a thorn that tormented her relentlessly for fifty years, day and night.

She's clearly more capable, and her abilities are clearly better suited to the world a hundred years in the future—

If this world is handed over to those kinds of people, problems are bound to arise!

Just as she expected, year after year, as the sentinels' mental strength levels increased, her shortcomings in ability became apparent.

Su Ping never imagined that one day she wouldn't even be able to maintain the White Pagoda's protective shield...

What would the world be like if she became that "queen"?

Looking at the increasingly chaotic city, Su Ping suddenly had this thought—

(End of this chapter)