After hesitating outside the shop for a long time, Qin Luo finally decided to take it one step at a time, thinking on the bright side that perhaps Xia Zihan was still cultivating.
I took a deep breath, calmed myself, and slowly pushed open the shop door.
However, when Qin Luo saw the dimly lit room inside, his heart sank. It seemed that the Spirit Gathering Plate had long since lost its effectiveness and was really useless!
He cursed inwardly, but still dutifully pushed open the door; what was meant to happen, he couldn't avoid.
Squeak
The sound of the door opening was exceptionally clear in the dim and silent atmosphere.
When Qin Luo's gaze went inside, he quickly saw Xia Zihan curled up in the corner of the bed!
She leaned against the corner of the bed, her hands tightly hugging her knees, her eyes glazed over, just like Qin Luo had looked when he was first in the dungeon.
However, she felt an even greater sense of brokenness than when she was in the dungeon.
Qin Luo looked at Xia Zihan, who was huddled in the corner, with a complicated expression. Even the sound of the door opening couldn't get her attention. Thinking of this, his usually calm mind started to panic.
Only after getting closer did Qin Luo see Xia Zihan's haggard face clearly.
She curled up there quietly, her eyes vacant, as if she had lost her soul. Her once bright eyes were now red, swollen, and dull, and her face was pale with dried tear stains. Her hair was also slightly disheveled, looking like it hadn't been styled in some time.
This made Qin Luo a little worried about her condition, so he cautiously reached out and waved his hand in front of her eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Xia?"
Xia Zihan's empty eyes didn't react much after seeing this, she only murmured in a hoarse voice:
"I'm afraid I'm missing Fellow Daoist Wang Wu too much, and now I'm even hallucinating."
The hoarse voice sounded as if it had been crying for a long time, filled with endless sorrow and despair.
Then, she reached out her hand, trembling, as if trying to touch the illusion that arose from her overwhelming longing.
......
Five days ago.
A stunningly beautiful woman dressed in white sat cross-legged on the bed. The room was filled with spiritual energy, so dense that it appeared to be in the form of mist!
Soon after, a crisp sound rang out from the woman in white, and then the spiritual energy in the room quickly surged into her dantian, and her aura grew rapidly.
"Phew, I've finally returned to the fifth stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm."
Xia Zihan slowly opened her eyes, a faint purple light flashing in them.
Looking at the pills around her and the rich spiritual energy in the room, Xia Zihan's face softened, and she thought of Qin Luo again.
Ultimately, she couldn't suppress the longing she felt for him and carefully spread her senses outward.
Her perception at the Spirit Gathering Realm could only detect a vague state, but that was enough for her at the moment.
She just wanted to know what Qin Luo was doing in the cubicle. Her heart was filled with longing for Qin Luo, the man who haunted her dreams.
Xia Zihan closed her eyes slightly, trying to sharpen her senses, but Qin Luo's figure was not among the messages transmitted back by her senses.
"Really, Fellow Daoist Wang Wu is always running off."
When she realized Qin Luo wasn't in the cubicle, Xia Zihan pouted her pink lips playfully, feeling a little resentful, but she just sighed and continued cultivating.
As night fell, Xia Zihan, who was cultivating, felt uneasy, and a sense of worry kept passing through her mind.
So she stopped cultivating and spread her senses out again, hoping to sense the figure she longed for, so that her ever-worried heart could find peace.
However, Qin Luo was still nowhere to be seen in the cubicle, despite his vague perception.
This made Xia Zihan's heart sink suddenly, and an unprecedented sense of panic instantly welled up in her heart.
She stood up and paced back and forth in the room: "Where did Fellow Daoist Wang Wu go? Why hasn't he returned yet, so late?"
She muttered to herself, her voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of panic.
Xia Zihan tried to calm herself down, thinking to herself with a sense of comfort that Fellow Daoist Wang Wu was probably delayed by some things, which was why he hadn't returned.
However, her thoughts were like a tangled mess, impossible to unravel.
Time passed second by second. Xia Zihan walked to the window and looked at the dark night outside. Her unease grew stronger.
She clenched her hands tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms, yet she felt no pain.
She went to check the cubicle just now, and the marks inside indicated that Qin Luo had been gone for some time, but why didn't he inform her before leaving?
Thinking of this, Xia Zihan's heart was filled with panic.
She considered a possibility that filled her with utter despair—Qin Luo had abandoned her. Once this thought arose, it grew like a wildly spreading vine, tightly binding her heart.
"No, Fellow Daoist Wang Wu won't abandon me. He said he would support me for the rest of his life!"
She kept reassuring herself, still unwilling to believe that Qin Luo would abandon her. She told herself that perhaps Qin Luo had encountered some emergency and that's why he hadn't returned yet; perhaps he would be back any minute?
With this sliver of hope, Xia Zihan stared intently at the shop's door, anticipating Qin Luo's appearance at any moment.
But reality cruelly extinguished her hope, and Qin Luo did not return until the next morning.
"No, I can't just wait here like this!"
Xia Zihan still couldn't believe that Qin Luo would abandon her, so she resolutely stepped out of the shop and began her search.
She went to the bustling streets of the town and asked everyone who might have seen Qin Luo, but all she got were shakes of her head and disappointment.
She went to Xufeng City again, searching everywhere for his whereabouts, but still found nothing.
She didn't even overlook the small town and the area within a hundred miles of Xufeng City, but each inquiry only brought her disappointment.
She even traveled to Taihua City, the closest city to Xufeng City, and traveled continuously for a day, using her spiritual energy without interruption, covering a distance of thousands of miles.
The results she received in Taihua City sank her heart completely. For three days, Xia Zihan barely slept a wink. She kept moving, and her worry and anxiety grew stronger.
Her face grew paler and paler, her eyes filled with exhaustion, but she dared not stop, afraid of missing any chance to find Qin Luo.
However, no matter how hard she tried, Qin Luo seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace. This filled Xia Zihan with despair; she felt as if she were in endless darkness, unable to see a single ray of light.
Exhausted, she returned to her room in the shop, curled up on the bed, and burst into tears.
"Fellow Daoist Wang Wu, where are you? Why did you abandon me?" The murmur was filled with pain and helplessness.
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