Guide Her to Nowhere (NPH) - Chapter 35: Spiritual Imprint

Chapter 35: Spiritual Imprint

Could Shen Qi’s spiritual body be an aberrant? Was that even possible?

Qu Tang recalled the original story; it never mentioned any Sentinel having an aberrant as their spiritual body.

While Qu Tang was puzzled and bewildered, Xie Li seemed more shocked.

“An aberrant… impossible, how could it be?” Xie Li found it hard to believe, but that skeleton was indeed a spiritual body, fundamentally different from something forcibly materialized by spiritual force, something a Sentinel could distinguish at a glance.

In other words, Shen Qi’s spiritual body was indeed an aberrant.

But… all those experimental subjects from back then were supposed to have died without a single success, weren’t they?

Xie Li realized the gravity of the situation; he collected his thoughts, the immediate priority being to relay this information. He raised an eyebrow, feigning ease, and stepped back in a show of concession. “Alright, I’ll let you take her away.”

“Come here,” Shen Qi called to Qu Tang.

Qu Tang, wrapped in a blanket, climbed down from the bed. The poison was still affecting her; her limbs were weak. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she fell forward, unable to support herself, but this time she didn’t fall flat on her face; Shen Qi’s spiritual body caught her.

She was held by the spiritual body, retreating behind Shen Qi.

“You can leave now.”

“I’ll leave naturally once you’re dead.”

“What do you mean, Shen Qi?” Xie Li’s face turned cold.

“You didn’t think you’d live after seeing my spiritual body, did you?”

From the start, Shen Qi had no intention of letting Xie Li go.

“You know who I am, and you still want to kill me?”

“Too much talk.” Shen Qi’s tone was indifferent. The white skeleton placed Qu Tang on the ground behind Shen Qi, pulling the blanket over her face. “Don’t look.”

Qu Tang stopped pulling at the blanket corner and nodded. “Okay.”

The twenty-square-meter tent was too cramped for two Sentinels, almost impossible to dodge each other’s moves. Here, the difference in strength played a decisive role in ending the fight swiftly.

Qu Tang, not using her Guide abilities, couldn’t tell the ranks of Sentinels, nor did she really understand their strength. She could only subjectively feel the oppressive aura of a Sentinel; whoever exerted more pressure on her was stronger, provided they weren’t deliberately holding back, like Shen Qi and Xie Li at this moment. She could clearly discern that Shen Qi was stronger than Xie Li, at least one level above.

As expected, the fight ended quickly.

Qu Tang smelled the acrid scent of bl00d; she pulled the blanket away to look, but her view was blocked by Shen Qi.

“Don’t look.” The blanket was pulled back over her. “I’ll take you away.”

Shen Qi took Qu Tang back to his tent first, dropping her backpack beside her. “Get dressed first; I need to handle something.”

Without waiting for Qu Tang’s response, Shen Qi disappeared. When he returned, he found Qu Tang still curled up on the carpet, shivering under the blanket.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shen Qi squatted beside her, pulling the blanket aside to reveal Qu Tang’s flushed face.

“The poison.” Qu Tang opened her eyes, which were also red. She felt the cool air from Shen Qi and instinctively reached out to him, but retracted her bare arm back into the blanket. “Xie Li poisoned me… with an aphrodisiac.”

“Wait.” He pulled out a suitcase from under the bed and took an injection from a hidden compartment. “This is an antivenom; not sure if it works on aphrodisiacs. Want to try?”

Qu Tang nodded, extending her wrist.

After the injection, the poison in her body was neutralized, but she still felt terrible, still wanting.

“He used his spiritual force to attack me.”

Shen Qi’s brows furrowed. The White Tower strictly forbade Sentinels from using spiritual force to attack Guides or ordinary people, with criminal penalties; lighter cases meant three years without Guide soothing rights, severe cases meant a lifetime ban.

Was Xie Li, relying on his backing, doing such things in secret?

Shen Qi scanned Qu Tang with his spiritual force and had his answer. “He left a spiritual imprint on you; the antivenom won’t work. We need to use spiritual force to remove it.”

He seemed to know what Qu Tang was about to say and continued, “I can’t help you with that.”

“Why? Isn’t your spiritual force stronger than his?”

“To remove it, my spiritual force would have to enter your spiritual sea. Not to mention whether your ordinary spiritual sea could handle it, would you trust me enough to let my spiritual force in?”

Qu Tang was silent.

She didn’t trust him, and if she did, wouldn’t that be like telling him she was a Guide?

She had one other option: stop suppressing her Guide abilities and remove the imprint herself, but aside from the risk of exposing her identity, there was the question of whether her spiritual force was strong enough to do it.

“What happens if we don’t remove it?”

Shen Qi gave a simple example. “Imagine the imprint as drug addiction, and s3x with someone as the drug that alleviates the pain of withdrawal.”

“Ha.” Qu Tang laughed, then burst into a series of laughs. After laughing, she asked Shen Qi, “Is Xie Li dead?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”