“What?! Little Umeko has returned? And this beautiful girl saved her?!”
Priestess Granny looked back and forth between Yoshimura Umeko in the distance and the smiling Luo Taozhi standing before her, her face a mask of pleasant surprise.
“Yes, Priestess Granny. I apologize for only informing you about such an important matter now.”
As Luo Taozhi and Priestess Granny were chatting, a man dressed in coarse cloth ran over, panting for breath, and interrupted them. He scratched his head with a foolish grin.
“The news of Umeko’s safe return made everyone so happy that we forgot to notify you while you were still praying for the village and the girl.”
“It’s fine… it’s fine… As long as Umeko is safe… that is all that matters…”
Full of joy, Priestess Granny turned and excitedly grabbed Luo Taozhi’s hand.
“Young lady! Oh, young lady!! Thank you for saving my granddaughter!” Priestess Granny was so moved that tears were nearly falling from her eyes. “You are truly the benefactor of our village!”
“I found Umeko when she was just an infant and raised her with my own two hands. She is just like my own granddaughter!”
“I am so grateful to you! So grateful!”
Priestess Granny held Luo Taozhi’s hand and spoke without stopping, her voice full of gratitude for Luo Taozhi and affection for Yoshimura Umeko.
Luo Taozhi did not interrupt. she simply stood there with a quiet smile, listening.
After a while, the old woman’s excitement subsided slightly, and a hint of apology appeared in her eyes as she looked at Luo Taozhi.
“I am sorry, young lady. I have taken up more of your time. I would love for you to stay so everyone could properly show their gratitude, but it is already past noon. I am afraid the coming darkness will delay you!”
Priestess Granny was worried about Luo Taozhi’s safety. Despite her immense gratitude, she kept urging Luo Taozhi to leave as soon as possible, fearing that something unfortunate might happen to her in the village after dark.
“It is all right, Granny. Do not let my appearance fool you; I am actually quite strong. Do not forget that I was able to save Umeko from the forest.”
Luo Taozhi explained with a smile, her tone gentle and without a trace of impatience.
She was joking, of course. Why would she leave? Her quest was still here. If she left now, how would she complete **[Prajna in the Village (IV)]**?
“But… but the dangers in the village are far more terrifying than those in the forest! Young lady, you are the village’s benefactor. I cannot let you face the nightly perils here!”
Despite hearing Luo Taozhi’s words, the old woman’s voice remained thick with concern. In her eyes, even though Luo Taozhi could rescue Yoshimura Umeko from the woods, the monsters there were on a completely different level compared to the **[Large Hannya]** that the village had suppressed for generations.
She truly hoped this beautiful girl who saved her granddaughter could leave the village safely.
Seeing that Priestess Granny did not seem to believe her, Luo Taozhi drew the longsword from her waist and activated the **[Qi Gathering]** skill.
A faint current of air wrapped around the longsword, and as Luo Taozhi swung it, she unleashed a dazzling arc of **[Sword Qi]**.
Luo Taozhi had only intended to demonstrate her martial prowess, but she did not expect Priestess Granny to become so agitated the moment she saw the **[Sword Qi]**.
“This… this is! An Immortal! You are an Immortal!!” Priestess Granny’s eyes instantly brightened, and she looked at Luo Taozhi with tearful excitement. “An Immortal… it is an Immortal… How many years has it been? How many years!! An Immortal has finally returned to this land!”
Luo Taozhi was stunned. Subconsciously, she performed a flourish with her longsword before sheathed it at her waist, then she nodded with a smile.
“That is correct. We are indeed—”
Wait.
Halfway through her sentence, Luo Taozhi quickly retracted her words.
Priestess Granny’s reaction was too familiar. Back in the Another World, every time Luo Taozhi followed her Sect to the mortal realms to increase their reputation among the commoners, she would hear those exact words. It had become an instinctive habit.
As the Sect Saintess, the face of the Sect, and the strongest warrior of the younger generation, she was almost always the one tasked with such duties.
However, this setting was not quite right, was it?
“No, I am not an Immortal.”
“But you are! You are an Immortal! I saw an Immortal like you once when I was a little girl.”
When Luo Taozhi denied it, Priestess Granny became even more animated.
“I have seen an Immortal like you. They stepped on longswords and flew through the sky. Just like you, they made their swords glow and suppressed the Hannya that were supposed to be awakening.”
‘Just like me?’ Luo Taozhi used **[Qi Gathering]** once more and looked at the Granny. “Look again. Are you sure it is the same?”
“Yes, yes, it is this—” Priestess Granny watched the glowing longsword in Luo Taozhi’s hand with intense focus, but then her words trailed off.
“It seems… it seems a bit different.”
The excitement vanished from Priestess Granny’s face, replaced by a sense of disappointment.
The way the sword in Luo Taozhi’s hand glowed was indeed similar to the Immortals she had seen in her youth, but upon closer inspection, the power felt significantly weaker.
“I told you I was not an Immortal.”
Luo Taozhi slashed the glow on the sword toward the sky and then returned the weapon to her waist.
‘She has seen Immortals with methods similar to mine? Is this a clue for a Hidden Class? Is it possible that [Qi Gathering] is the prerequisite to unlocking this Hidden Class?’
No wonder the method for using this skill was so unconventional.
As for whether there were actual Immortal Cultivators in this game world?
She had to be joking. Although this Priestess Granny had a high level of intelligence and was likely a high-ranking NPC related to a Hidden Class, someone like Yoshimura Umeko looked exactly like a standard NPC without a spark of sentience. The girl had even thanked the “kind stranger” while Luo Taozhi was busy hacking at her.
“Granny, do you know anything else regarding the Immortals?”
“The Immortals came quickly and left just as fast…” Priestess Granny shook her head, but then she seemed to remember something. “Oh, that is right. I believe the Immortals said something…”
“What did they say?” Now it was Luo Taozhi’s turn to get excited.
‘A Hidden Class! It is definitely a Hidden Class!!’
“It seemed… it seemed like they said, ‘This blade is quite good.'”
Priestess Granny fell into deep thought for a moment before providing a sentence that sounded quite confusing.
“A blade?”
Luo Taozhi was dazed.
Where would a blade come from in this village?
“Yes. Though those are not the Immortals’ exact words, I remember that was the general meaning.”
“Are there any ancestral blades or anything similar passed down in the village?”
“That… I do not think there are. The oldest thing left in this village is an old woman like me. Aside from that, there is only this **[Sacrificial Statue]**.”
Listening to Priestess Granny and looking at the pitch-black, brick-like **[Sacrificial Statue]** in front of her, Luo Taozhi began to wonder if there was a possibility that Priestess Granny was actually some kind of sword spirit.