The soup was finished, and the crowd no longer had anything to linger for.
They regrouped and split into two rows to say their farewells.
A white cloud floated in from the distance, landing right in the center of everyone’s vision.
“Oh! It is Elder Yude. You have finally arrived, old man.”
A few righteous cultivators stepped forward to politely greet the newly arrived bald elder.
The elder wore Daoist robes and projected a kind, profound aura.
He was one of the elders of the Longyin Sect, holding a decent status within the Sect.
Last night, the Sect Leader of the Longyin Sect received a message from the righteous cultivators.
Only then did he learn that two disciples of the Longyin Sect had descended the mountain late at night to fight demon cultivators and performed a great service.
He immediately sent Elder Yude to investigate.
Elder Yude was quite pleased.
He wanted to see whose disciples were so brave that two of them dared to face dozens of demon cultivators alone.
He arrived;
He looked;
Oh my, this was huge.
Wasn’t this the rising star who had just shown his brilliance at the Martial Arts Tournament a few days ago, the Inner Gate’s Junior Brother, He Qiu?
During yesterday’s Elders’ tea party, Elder Xueyin, An Daosheng, had spent three whole hours bragging about this.
It was a non-stop display of Versailles behavior, and he acted incredibly arrogant.
After all, He Qiu was a genius rarely seen in 1,000 years.
It was clear that the old man loved his new disciple immensely.
But it hadn’t even been one day, and He Qiu had performed another great feat?
And it was a top-tier merit reported urgently by other Righteous Sects?
Thinking this, Elder Yude turned his gaze toward the two young women beside He Qiu.
He did not recognize the purple-haired girl, but he knew the one with the cherry-blossom white ponytail, Luo Qianning.
This young lady was also a legendary figure in the Longyin Sect and a Progeny Disciple of Elder Xueyin.
Luo Qianning had immense talent and great potential for her Spirit Veins, but she was naturally playful and rebellious.
She never took her cultivation seriously, descending the mountain to play around and breaking countless sect rules every few days. No one could control her.
Elder Xueyin didn’t bother much with her either because Luo Qianning’s strength was genuinely powerful.
This genius spent every day eating, drinking, and having fun instead of working, yet she still managed to make breakthroughs during every Spirit Vein test, ranking among the best and growing rapidly.
It was utterly ridiculous.
Thus, over time, all the elders, including An Daosheng, stopped bothering with Luo Qianning.
They even warned other disciples not to imitate her.
After all, Luo Qianning had “cheat-like” talent, giving her the capital to be so willful.
Regardless, He Qiu and Luo Qianning were two young people with extraordinary talent.
It was strange that they had performed this feat together today.
But on second thought, it was quite reasonable.
After all, they were both heaven’s favorites.
It wasn’t surprising for them to encounter opportunities to earn great merit.
However, for now, Elder Yude planned to understand the specifics before making a judgment.
“I heard that the Demon Sect Princess sought by the Kyushu Heavenly Dynasty and the deserting demon cultivators passed through the Longyin Sect’s mountain range last night. We sent out many disciples to search overnight, but we found nothing…”
“Elder Yude, isn’t Young Hero He Qiu the reinforcement sent by your Longyin Sect?”
“Huh?”
The question from the righteous cultivators left Elder Yude a bit dazed.
Last night, the Sect Leader himself had commanded the search operation.
He didn’t remember He Qiu or Luo Qianning being on the dispatch list.
Wait, hold on!
Lately, Elder Xueyin had been acting very mysterious, often chuckling to himself while pondering something.
Could it be…
That old man had already obtained first-hand intelligence!
So, he kept it from everyone and secretly sent his disciples, He Qiu and Luo Qianning, to carry out the mission and earn merit?
Given that old fox An Daosheng’s cunning, it was very likely he would do this to help his favorite new disciple build up his reputation…
But even so, letting He Qiu, who was only at Spirit Realm Stage 3, participate in such a dangerous mission was somewhat insane.
It seemed Luo Qianning was sent down the mountain by An Daosheng to protect He Qiu.
Having formed a guess, Elder Yude let out a long breath.
“It seems this was a secret mission assigned to you by Old Xue. I understand now.”
He wore the expression of someone who had seen through the world, filled with the confidence and pride of an insider.
However, Luo Qianning quickly refuted him.
“No, Master Xueyin didn’t assign me anything. I just happened to run into my Junior Brother fighting demon cultivators last night and decided to help.”
“Yes, when we arrived last night, we first saw Young Hero He Qiu trapped alone in the middle of the demon cultivators’ encirclement. Lady Qianning only arrived later…”
The others also began to explain, recounting the events of the previous night.
“Oh, those two young heroes joined forces, and the demon cultivators couldn’t break through no matter how hard they attacked. In their frustration, they were even forced back! That bought us precious time to arrive!”
“Yes, yes! These two young heroes are truly brave. Especially our young brother He Qiu — fighting dozens of demon cultivators all by himself. He truly deserves the title of a young hero!”
Everyone chimed in one after another, and the round of flattery began again.
Elder Yude was surrounded by the crowd, listening with a bewildered and incredulous expression.
Meanwhile, the expressions of the two people involved, Zi Menghan and He Qiu, were very subtle, carrying an indescribable awkwardness.
‘Could it be that Young Master He really came here intentionally, sent to test me?’
Zi Menghan thought.
‘But that doesn’t make sense. If he really came to capture me, why didn’t he expose my identity last night?’
‘Strange. The logic doesn’t hold up no matter how I think about it. Which part did I guess wrong…’
Zi Menghan fell into a contradictory state of self-reflection.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw He Qiu’s faint smile.
Her heart panicked, and alarm bells rang in her head.
‘As expected, Young Master He knew my identity all along!’
‘The reason he took me in wasn’t because my acting was realistic?’
‘What kind of plan does he have for saving me!’
The more she thought, the more afraid she became.
Zi Menghan moved to hide behind He Qiu, her cold eyes half-squinted.
She lowered her head and lightly bit her thumb’s nail, falling into another brainstorm.
“Heh…”
The faint smile on the corner of He Qiu’s mouth was very stiff, filled with a bit of self-deprecation and helplessness.
He wasn’t acting profound; he truly had nothing to say.
In an environment where everyone was showering him with praise, nothing he said would matter.
If he insisted on explaining the truth, it would only make things very awkward for him.
So, he could only accept it by default.
After a while, Elder Yude organized the descriptions he had heard and said half-doubtingly, “Oh, so what you mean is —”
“He Qiu went down the mountain alone late at night, charged into the headquarters of the deserting demon cultivators, and without fear of danger, fought 300 rounds against them! Eventually, He Qiu’s Spiritual Energy was exhausted and his physical strength failed. He was hit by a sneak attack from the demon cultivators and was helplessly defeated…”
“And just as He Qiu was about to be overwhelmed, Lady Luo Qianning arrived at the scene and took action in time. The two young heroes joined forces and cooperated perfectly, finally succeeding in thwarting the demon cultivators’ plot and waiting for reinforcements from our Righteous Sects?”
“So, that’s how it happened?”
As he finished, Elder Yude looked at He Qiu, who remained silent with a calm and low-key expression.
The elder couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air.
On the other side, the righteous cultivators all agreed in unison.
“Exactly! That’s how it was!!”
“Yes, Junior Brother was indeed very brave last night…”
Luo Qianning’s face turned slightly red as she agreed.
***
PS: Five chapters tomorrow, no stalling.