Was it you that night?
Chapter 287 - 285: Escaping His Control

Chapter 287: Chapter 285: Escaping His Control

A night passed without words.

The moment Shen Qinghe opened her eyes the next day, she saw Xiao Chen sitting by the bed looking at her. This time she was neither shocked nor angry, and calmly said, "Isn’t it inappropriate for Big Senior Brother to enter the bedroom I reside in without my permission?"

"You seem to have slept quite soundly," Xiao Chen said, looking at Shen Qinghe with a scrutinizing gaze.

He checked Shen Qinghe’s pulse and found that she had no spiritual energy in her body, but he was still worried that she might slip out of his control.

According to his understanding of her, she was not the kind of person who lacked fighting spirit when faced with adversity.

"Does Big Senior Brother wish for me to have slept restlessly?" Shen Qinghe got out of bed as if it were nothing.

Although she had only cultivated in her dreams for a short time the day before, she felt the effects were significant. She felt strength in her steps as she walked, no longer like before when she seemed as if someone had drained the tendons from her hands and feet, leaving her body limp and powerless.

However, in front of Xiao Chen, she still had to put on an act.

Xiao Chen watched Shen Qinghe’s staggering steps with a thoughtful look, secretly thinking that he might be over-worrying. Shen Qinghe had been under his watch the whole time, and she slept soundly last night. How could she possibly pull any tricks under his watchful eye?

From that day on, Shen Qinghe spent the days walking outside the Side Courtyard accompanied by Shu Xiu. As soon as it got dark, she would go to bed to sleep, maintaining a very regular daily routine.

In the meantime, Xiao Chen had brought a calendar to pick a date for their wedding ceremony. She merely said that she felt weak all over, and looking at those things tired her, so she sent Xiao Chen away.

Five days passed like this. That evening, she went to bed to continue sleeping and practiced cultivation in her dreams once more.

As it happened, she saw the Soul God Technique in the Immortal Canon and started practicing it according to the incantation.

Amazingly, as soon as she practiced the Soul God Technique according to the incantation, her soul flew out of her body.

The most astonishing thing was that she also saw the scene of Xiao Chen sitting in front of her bed.

She tried to get close to Xiao Chen. Suddenly, Xiao Chen looked towards her position as if he was scrutinizing something. Frightened, she held her breath and didn’t dare get any closer to Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen always felt as though someone was watching him, but when he looked beside him, it was empty, with nothing there.

Shen Qinghe stood dryly for a while, and seeing that Xiao Chen continued to look at her body on the bed, she carefully flew out of the bedroom.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen did not chase after her, which made her ecstatic.

Her soul flew out of the Side Courtyard and up into the air above the Valley of Forgetfulness, only to realize that she couldn’t see anything. That’s when she knew that the Valley must be under the effect of a formation, so outsiders passing by would not be able to discover this place.

When her soul flew a bit further away, she discovered something interesting: the Valley of Forgetfulness was actually located behind the mountains of the Sky Pole Sect.

Isn’t the Sky Pole Sect not far ahead?

She joyfully entered the Sky Pole Sect and still felt a sense of familiarity with this place. Her first stop was the Simple Residence Courtyard, only to find it empty.

After that, she wandered around the Sky Pole Sect, even visiting the Sect Master Cave Mansion in the hope that Zuo An would see her.

Regrettably, no matter how loudly she called out in front of Zuo An, there was no response from him.

After bustling about for a while, she resigned herself to the situation and headed towards the Bixiao Tower.

Of course, the place was empty as well. Dongfang Wuya was now in the Heaven Realm, so it was impossible for him to be there.

If Dongfang Wuya knew she was missing, would he come to the Sky Pole Sect to look for her?

But upon further thought, she felt that it was unlikely that Dongfang Wuya would waste time in the Sky Pole Sect. If Dongfang Wuya were in the Sky Pole Sect, she indeed could tell him that she was within the mountains behind the Sect. The precondition was that Dongfang Wuya needed to see her.

Having nothing to do in the Bixiao Tower, she decided to test if her soul could practice cultivation, and to her surprise, she found that even as a soul, she could still cultivate the "Chaos Immortal Scripture," which excited her.

She practiced cultivation in Bixiao Tower for several days, blissfully unaware that Xiao Chen, back in the Valley of Forgetfulness, was frantic and enraged by her soul’s departure.

Inside the Valley of Forgetfulness, Xiao Chen sat from night until dawn; he could only rest easy when Shen Qinghe was close by.

He even made up his mind that to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, he should marry Qinghe as soon as possible. Qinghe was clever, and if she suddenly found a way to escape his control, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Moreover, Dongfang Wuya was not someone to be provoked. If Dongfang Wuya found the Valley of Forgetfulness, he definitely wouldn’t be able to defeat him.

So what he needed to do was to marry Qinghe quickly, to solidify their status as husband and wife.

What he hadn’t expected was that Shen Qinghe showed no signs of waking up, which was when he realized something was wrong. He shook Shen Qinghe’s body forcefully, but she still did not stir, as if only a shell remained.

Shu Xiu, hearing the commotion, came in: "What’s wrong with Qinghe?"

"I called her, but she isn’t responding. Try you," Xiao Chen’s face was grim; where was his usual gentleness?

Shu Xiu went forward and shook Shen Qinghe. Still, Shen Qinghe did not move at all. She checked Shen Qinghe’s breath. There was none.

Startled, she withdrew her hand and looked at Xiao Chen: "Qinghe isn’t breathing?"

"She is breathing, it’s just very weak," Xiao Chen said heavily, "Unless something unexpected has happened, her soul has departed."

How could she have departed her soul out of the blue? No wonder he’d felt as if someone was watching him; could that person have been Shen Qinghe?

"How do we call her soul back? Will being departed for too long harm her physical body?" Shu Xiu worriedly asked.

Xiao Chen looked dazedly at Shen Qinghe’s body, not responding.

The fear was that Shen Qinghe intentionally departed her soul; if so, that would be problematic.

He had thought that by draining all the spiritual energy from Shen Qinghe, he could gain complete control over her and make her stay obediently by his side. He had taken precautions against everything, yet hadn’t foreseen Shen Qinghe’s sudden soul departure.

This disrupted all his plans.

Shen Qinghe stayed in the Bixiao Tower for a few days and felt that it wasn’t a solution to continue like this; she needed to return to her physical body, but if she went back just like that, Xiao Chen would definitely press her to marry him.

She needed to let Dongfang Wuya know she was in the Valley of Forgetfulness, but how could she contact him now that she was only a soul? Ascending to the Upper Heaven Realm was unrealistic.

She guessed that Dongfang Wuya should be searching for her trace within The Four Seas and Eight Wilds, and probably not in the Sky Pole Sect.

Just as she aimlessly wandered around the Sky Pole Sect, she suddenly overheard disciples mentioning Dongfang Wuya: "Why is Mr. Wuya staying in the Spring Breeze Pavilion all the time? Could it be that he can find Qinghe there?"

Shen Qinghe was dumbfounded to hear that Dongfang Wuya was in the Spring Breeze Pavilion. How did he end up there?

So Dongfang Wuya had been in the Spring Breeze Pavilion all these days while she had foolishly been in the Bixiao Tower?

She drifted to the Spring Breeze Pavilion as fast as she could and indeed saw that both Dongfang Wuya and Meng Yun were present.

She ran up to Dongfang Wuya’s side and shouted at him loudly, but Dongfang Wuya did not respond, which left her feeling defeated.

When they were in the Red Moon Secret Realm, Dongfang Wuya could see her soul; why couldn’t he see her now?

Frustrated, she attempted to tug at Dongfang Wuya’s ear, and to her surprise, she actually managed to grasp it.

Dongfang Wuya was taken aback, and turned to look in the direction of Shen Qinghe: "Who dares to touch me?"