Chapter 28: Admiration

The village chief was already standing on the raised platform at the very front of the crowd. Yun Qing noticed he held something the size of a ping-pong ball in his hand, and there was also an array disk on the platform, upon which a few glittering stones were placed.

Yun Qing didn't recognize these objects at first, but the bright words projected above informed her: the village chief held a Memory Stone, while those glittering stones were the very items she and Liu Liu had talked about endlessly—low-grade spirit stones!

So, it was a Memory Stone. Could it be that the villagers were about to watch a recording of the immortals, not the real thing? Who would have thought that the Ye Family Village would possess something akin to surveillance.

Ye Wenjing whispered an explanation to the hunting squad, “It was a stroke of luck. Only because the situation was so dire did my father activate the Memory Stone. To use it, it consumes spirit stones, and our resources are scarce. Normally, no one would use it. But faced with the threat of our village’s destruction, the Memory Stone could provide evidence to those who come to investigate—so they’ll know what happened at the last moment. By chance, it ended up recording the immortal who saved our village.”

Ye Mao spoke with awe, “I saw the immortal too. She flew out of the protective array, and then there were flashes of light outside. After that, our village was filled with light again.”

Yun Qing felt a mixture of excitement and anxiety. The immortal they talked about was surely her. Would anyone notice? Would they realize it was her?

The village chief raised his hands slightly, signaling for silence. The once noisy crowd quieted at once, every face filled with anticipation as they watched him closely.

His hoarse voice brimmed with excitement, “Ye Family Village survived this calamity only thanks to the immortal’s aid. We have few resources left, but to show everyone the immortal who saved us, we are willing to spend these precious spirit stones.”

With that, he placed the Memory Stone into the array disk.

The moment the stone touched the disk, the mechanism activated. Wisps of spiritual energy from the low-grade spirit stones flowed into the Memory Stone, which burst into light. Instantly, a giant projection appeared in the sky.

A figure in flowing white robes with long hair—an immortal—appeared out of thin air in Ye Family Village.

Yun Qing’s eyes narrowed. She had suspected this the moment she saw the Memory Stone. Now, seeing it for herself, she was certain: everything she had done in the instance had been recorded. The only question was, how much?

It was her in the recording. Yun Qing hadn’t expected there to be a video. She was uneasy. The Memory Stone might be handed over to a sect, it might be examined by great cultivators. The items she’d picked up and the temporary skills she’d activated—she didn’t know if they would match what was known in this world of cultivation.

The moment the white-robed figure appeared, the villagers were visibly moved. Over a thousand people looked up in awed silence at the immortal standing in midair.

Whether it was due to the resolution or otherwise, one could only tell that the immortal was a woman, but her face was unclear—just as Yun Qing had hoped. The newcomer guide, Immortal Xu Yuan, hadn’t seen her face either.

The villagers, seeing the female immortal, filled in the rest themselves: she must be beautiful and sacred, utterly untouchable—no one would think to compare her to the scar-faced outsider, Yun Qing.

The village chief manipulated the Memory Stone, pausing the image and shifting the viewpoint. Now it showed Ye Shu, afflicted by poisonous gas, clutching his head and writhing on the ground, on the verge of becoming a soul corpse.

As the crowd watched the projection, they also glanced at Ye Shu, who gazed at the image with reverence, muttering, “It was the immortal who saved me.”

In the next second of the recording, the white-robed immortal appeared beside Ye Shu, knelt, and fed him a pill before leaving.

Once the immortal departed, Ye Shu returned to normal in the projection and knelt to offer his thanks.

In the square, Ye Shu also dropped to his knees to thank the immortal, joined by his siblings.

The recording continued as the immortal rescued three more villagers.

Suddenly, the viewpoint shifted: a villager who had already become a soul corpse stood up, sensing someone approaching, and hurried toward a corner. The villagers held their breath for the immortal, unsure how she would confront this.

As the soul corpse rounded the corner, it was met by a fireball flung straight at it. Flames engulfed the corpse until it was reduced to ashes, while the immortal had already moved on.

Yun Qing let out a small sigh of relief. She had been worried the villagers wouldn’t be able to tell she was fighting soul corpses and not living people, but now she was reassured—the Memory Stone’s surveillance would make everything clear.

Quickly, the immortal had rescued more than a dozen villagers and dispatched as many soul corpses. She reached the protective array, and just as she arrived, her figure flickered and vanished.

The Memory Stone’s view shifted skyward. Through the shield, one could see the once-pitch-black sky. Now, as the shield trembled, bursts of firelight flashed—clearly, the immortal was casting spells outside.

Judging by the shifting firelight, the shaking shield, and the sounds of impact, the immortal was locked in battle with a sky demon.

Perhaps to conserve spirit stones, or for another reason, the village chief fast-forwarded the recording. The shield’s firelight grew ever more intense.

After about a minute, the fire faded. A blinding light burst outside the barrier, then was gone, leaving darkness once more. Though everyone knew the outcome, the square was silent; all worried for the immortal fighting the sky demon in the night.

After just a dozen breaths, light pierced the darkness, growing stronger and stronger until the sun itself shone once more. The night receded faster than it had fallen, and sunlight bathed the village in brilliance.

“We’re saved!”

“Thank you, immortal!”

Once the light had reached every corner, the protective barrier shut off, though the village gates remained closed.

The square erupted in thunderous cheers.

By now, the Memory Stone showed no trace of the immortal; no one knew how she had arrived or departed.

The immortal’s sudden appearance and disappearance was simply accepted.

Beside the platform, the proud young Ye Xiaolang watched the immortal saving villagers and battling demons, his blood surging with excitement. He murmured to the air, “Truly admirable. She’s my idol. I hope that one day, I’ll be as powerful as she is.”

Yun Qing raised a brow, thinking, I always thought you were just arrogant. So you actually admire me? Since you hold me in such esteem, could you perhaps tell me why you have a pair of dog ears?

Ye Wenjing joined in, “It’s so moving. She really did save Ye Family Village.”

All their gratitude, admiration, and affection went to the immortal who came and went like a shadow, not the person who had truly saved the village.

Yun Qing felt a bit dispirited, especially since she hadn’t seen Ye Mingyu in the Memory Stone’s projection.

She changed the subject, asking her two teammates, “Did either of you see Ye Mingyu?”

“No, maybe he’s at the infirmary.”

“I’ll go check on him,” Yun Qing replied.

Ye Wenjing said, “Good idea. The guard team is short-handed; Xiaolang and I will go help out soon.”

Yun Qing nodded, squeezing through the crowd toward the infirmary.

As she stepped out, the scene changed from the square’s grateful clamor to a place filled with suppressed sobbing:

“Immortal, why didn’t you come sooner... How am I supposed to go on…”

“Hush! The immortal may still be here. Do you want to die? Be careful what you say.”

Another, even more anguished voice, “I watched with my own eyes as the immortal hurled a fireball that burned my father to ashes. My father is dead—can’t I even cry?”

…