ATG: God of Shadows

The sun rose once again, beginning the mark of a new day. In the room where Alex and Qingyue were staying, Alex was still in the same position in which he held Qingyue's hand at night. They were looking like an old couple, as Alex seemed like an old man who was holding the hand of his sick wife who was admitted to a hospital, refusing to let her go.

If only someone could have clicked a picture of this scene, it would have been a memory that their children cherished while remembering them. Not that cameras existed here in the first place or they were going to die or anything with their cultivation potential.

Slowly, Qingyue's eyes started to open. She saw the familiar ceiling that she had been staying under for the past few days with Alex. She started to remember everything that had happened. Her overflowing emotions that laid dormant for the past few years had burst like a volcano yesterday. 

She still felt her heartache when she thought about how she had treated her father and brother in the pursuit of strength to be able to find her mother. She knew that in the process of finding the one who had gone away from her due to some circumstances, she had neglected the ones who were still there.

It was like trying to become strong enough to enter the land of the lead to meet the loved one who had passed away while neglecting the love and care of the people who were still alive.

Even after Alex had told her about all this three days ago, she had refused to accept that what she did was wrong. At that time, she thought that since she hadn't harmed her father or brother, everything was fine right?

The thought of this made her feel even more guilty and disgusted of herself. How could she do this with her father and brother who did nothing but care for her?

She sighed, she had screamed all she needed to do yesterday. All the bottled-up emotions had been let out yesterday. All she had right now was immense guilt and the determination to correct the mistakes she had made.

She sighed and thought of the day she had told her father about her decision to join the Frozen Cloud Asgard, although reluctant, he still allowed her to join them as he knew how much she wanted the strength to one day find her mother.

But once her father found out that she had started to practice the emotion-suppressing technique of her sect, her father immediately snapped and started to scold her for doing something that could affect her vastly in the future. He even went as far as to find her teacher and asked her why did she not stop her, even though her father knew that her teacher was far stronger than himself.

At that time, she thought that her father was scolding her without any major reason. Actually, this technique was given to her by her master, Chu Yueli, one of the seven fairies of the Frozen Cloud Asgard.

Her master had told her that emotions were only merely distractions on the path of cultivation. And as someone who wanted to grow stronger as fast as possible, she fully believed her master and heeded her advice. 

But thinking about it now, she understood that her father's anger at that time was fully deserved. She was but a mere child at that time, who was trying to be as mature as possible, but at the end of it all, she was but a mere twelve year old child at that time.

At this time she felt angered at her master for suggesting her that this technique was needed for achieving higher cultivation level, but more so, she felt angered at herself for foolishly believing her.

If her master's words were true, then why was she weaker than Alex while being much older than him?

She had so many questions in reserve for her master which she will eventually ask her.

Right now she felt that she needed to correct her mistakes that she had made and treat her family in the best possible way and take care of them.

She wanted to stretch her body so she tried to pull her hands and wanted to sit on the bed, but at this moment she felt that something or more like someone was holding her left hand.

She had completely ignored this feeling because of being fully immersed in her own thoughts about her past and the future. 

She tilted her head to see the source of the hold on her hand and found out that it was Alex.

Right now, Alex was holding her hand with his head on the bed and body on the ground, sleeping peacefully. 

Qingyue's mind was numb at this point, all the thoughts that were threatening her peace moments ago, all went away. 

'A-Alex is h-holding my h-hand!!?'

Her face started to heat up while the above line was being repeated in her mind.

She gradually remembered the words that she had heard in her sleep last night, 

Forgive me for everything Qingyue, I promise that from this moment on, I will protect you from anything and everything in this world. Nothing is going to harm you as long as I am alive. I promise you this.

'N-No way, that was all real?'

'She had thought that she was dreaming. She dreamt of Alex infusing his energy into her body to make her calm down.'

She thought that it was just a dream, but seeing Alex holding her hand, it seemed that it wasn't.

'Did Alex actually like me? Wasn't he just after my body?' was the thought that took root in her mind.

'No, if that was the case then I wouldn't be here in the first place. He could have done whatever he wanted with me and discarded me. I was the most vulnerable yesterday, yet he did not take advantage of me and even helped me to calm me down.'

'Not just yesterday, if he had wanted to do anything to me, then he could have done that at any time. I wouldn't have been able to stop him anyway, because of his overwhelming strength.'

The thought of someone else caring for her except her father and brother really touched her. 

She did not have any great impression of Alex from the first time she met him.

Directly proposing marriage to her? Ridiculous!

She thought that Alex was just one of the young masters who coveted her body and rejected him outright.

But, after hearing everything he said about her mother, she couldn't help but give in to his demands of getting married to him.

She did not have any pure intentions towards him either. She had thought that she would just use his strength and potential to reach her goals and thus she agreed to his proposal.

Moreover, he was the only bet with the highest probability of succeeding. The other options seemed to be outstretched as Alex had pointed out.

As for finding any other option, she did not even think about it for a single second. She was pretty simple-minded. Her goal before meeting Alex was to attain the strength of a Sovereign Profound Cultivator and thought that this would be enough for finding her mother.

But after Alex had told her about the cultivation realms beyond her own goal, she knew that she could not rely on herself nor her sect. The strongest member of her sect, the Grand Palace Mistress, was rumored to be at the Emperor Realm. So, she had no hopes of relying on her sect anymore.

She just thought of using Alex to reach her goals, and if Alex were to harm her, then she could only blame her own luck and destiny.

But now, everything had changed. She found that even after saying everything he did, he did not arm her or take advantage of her weakness. He had only helped her till now.

Looking at Alex, who was still sleeping, she could not help but find herself staring at him.

'He is so handsome and cute.' she thought while deeply staring at Alex.

She suddenly came out of her thoughts as her face started to become red,

'W-What am I even thinking!' she shook her head, but suddenly she felt movement from Alex's body, he had opened his eyes and was looking into her eyes and spoke,

"Good Morning"

Looking at his morning face and hearing his sweet voice, her face started to heat up again.

....................................................

A/N: Alright folks, I don't know whether or not you liked this chapter(I hope you did) but I have finally understood to treat my characters with the respect they deserve. This is actually my first time writing my novel, so I will make many mistakes, but I will correct them as soon as I find them.

Please make it in your heart to forgive me and give me the chance to correct them. 

This chapter and previous 2 chapters were crucial in improving the mindset of my Protagonist and also correct the way he treated Qingyue before, like an object of possession.

I promise to not ever do that again. I was trying to appease the majority of the Webnovel audience before, which are basically guys.

But I promise that I am not like that and neither is gonna be the character I am making.

If you still can't forgive me then please forgive the MC as he was just an 18 year old guy before, full of hormones and lustful thoughts, once gained powers, he automatically wanted to fulfill those desires.

I am sure that you understand what I am trying to say.

Anyways, Thank you for reading the chapter. Please give me an honest review