"Hello my name is Long Di and I don't mean to be a bother since you're obviously busy dying and all, but could you die a bit more quietly? I'm trying to train, and your death cries are a tad distracting."
****
"I can't believe you were going to leave her alone!? How could you be so heartless!?"
"Senior brother Long Di, that is a bit cold, to be honest."
"Have you no shame to leave a girl dying on the ground like that!?"
"She would have been dead had I been a moment late!"
Interested in what's happening, aren't you? Well, let's get you up to speed.
So you probably thought that my heart softened, and that I was going to save that plant girl… and you would be wrong. I left right after I made my thought known like a good neighbour mind you.
To be honest, based on the trends of my previous world, she's lucky I didn't take out the smartphone I never had and video the whole thing, then slap on the title, 'Photosynthesis Fail LOL!' before uploading it on social media for clout.
However, instead of doing that, I tried to leave because I could think of the many problems and issues that would arise from my saving a plant girl.
I didn't read any cultivation novels about em, but man was there a bunch of isekai novels with them in it and I was not having it.
But what happened after that, you might ask? Why do all the disciples and the elders know of this little would-be skeleton in my closet?
Easy.
The second elder broke the record for being the old guy in the novel who learnt of his wrong and went after me to apologise for his premature judgement of me.
Of course, when he saw the bleeding plant girl on the ground, and me leaving the scene, there was a bit of a misunderstanding there that we thankfully corrected.
"You're all acting like I was the one who injured her?" They didn't give me any time to defend myself.
Feng Yu stared at me with an odd expression before she brought up a certain point, "The second elder said that it was your lightning qi based breakthrough that caused an upheaval of the terrain of the forest and caused her to become injured!"
"Oh wow. That could have been anyone's lightning qi based breakthrough that caused an upheaval of the terrain of the forest."
That wasn't a lie. I didn't say it wasn't me. I'm just saying that there is a 0.00001% chance that it COULD have been someone other than me.
"Alright, everyone. It'll take her a while to awaken, so let's give the little one some space, shall we?" advised the first elder as he tried to usher everyone outside.
Of course, I refused the ushering and told them I would prefer to stay inside and keep an eye on her.
When I said this, everyone stopped and looked at me with an expression of what I think is disbelief.
"For the love of… what do you think I'll be doing to a plant girl?"
Was it so hard to believe that I was doing something out of the goodness of my heart?
I mean, I wasn't, but still expecting it of me was just common courtesy, wasn't it?
"Hellow!?"
Suddenly, a shout came from the outside that everyone could have lived the rest of their life never hearing and would have thanked the Heavens for it.
I instinctively looked to Shen Ling who was in the corner at the moment. She shuddered for a moment at the voice, but she quickly regained her composure before donning Blossoming Abyss from the Peach Blossom Sage's Spiritual Intent's place of memory.
Immediately, her presence nearly disappeared and everyone forgot about her except me who kept an eye on her. It did add an even more ethereal air to her.
Not gonna lie, I was kinda digging it.
Regarding the owner of the voice, the elders knew who it was but didn't know what to do. Obviously, it was Zhen Paohui.
"Is he here again!?" Feng Yu asked with a pout. "Is it because she's an Abyss Gho—?"
"Hush child!" Di Yi Lingdao silenced Feng Yu from going any further.
After all, the only reason the elders even knew Shen Ling had Abyss Ghost blood in her veins to begin with was because Uncle Tian Lu was the one who revealed this to the second elder who then divulged it to the others.
As for how Feng Yu knew, It was possible she heard it in passing, but it shouldn't have spread beyond that.
So with this being the case, they had no idea why, apart from her beauty was Zhen Paohui so adamant about coming here. In fact, they had no idea how he found them in the first place.
"Where is Shen Ling?"
The first elder looked around for a moment, searching for the young Abyss Ghost.
"Here, first elder."
"Oh! I-I see. How did I not see you there? Wait, where are you?"
"Right here," she stretched out a hand to wave to him.
When he saw this, he felt it was odd that he had such a hard time finding her when there were few people in the room.
However, he disregarded this question and approached her.
He placed his hand on her head before revealing a warm smile and told her. "Don't worry. I'll get rid of him. You can also stay inside until he's gone."
The first elder left the small hut we were in, followed by the remaining elders. Barring Shen Ling and me, Feng Yu and the others also left, leaving the room in complete silence.
I noticed something very unusual about Shen Ling when she changed her cultivation technique. It was revealed to a small extent with the bandits in our fight, but it became glaringly obvious with the first elder a while ago.
"Others seem to be having a hard time finding you, or even seeing you for some reason."
"The first chapter of the Abyss Scripture is called 'Peer Into The Abyss.' It allows me to stare into the abyss all around us and it also allows me to let everyone do so as we—"
"Hold that thought." I had to stop her for a moment. I turned to look at the seemingly unconscious girl on the bed. "How long are you going to pretend to be unconscious?"
Shen Ling looked at the seemingly sleeping girl in surprise.
"She's already awake!?"
She was probably thinking if that's the case, then her ability to heal from serious injuries was incredible.
However, the sleeping girl made no sound and continued to sleep in silence.
Krsshhh
Lightning danced all over my arm as I walked to the sleeping patient.
"W-What are you going to do with that?" asked Shen Ling when I got really close to the sleeping girl.
"Would you relax?" I had to calm her down. "I'm only going to shock her to see if she's awake."
"I'm pretty sure there are other ways to check," said Shen Ling in a panic.
"Yeah, but let's use this way."
"I-I'm awake! Stay away from me!"
Before I got too close to her, this young plant girl thing curled up on the opposite side of the bed to escape my perfectly calibrated, impromptu defibrillator.
I could see that Shen Ling was shocked before turning angry when she saw this. This person was obviously awake even when we were obviously talking about secrets that couldn't be divulged to others.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. It's just that I didn't want to face so many people at the same time, and I still don't know what you all plan to do with me."
Shen Ling was still angry, but I still didn't care, however, there was something that I was poised to ask.
"Are you a Nymph?"
She slowly nodded, clearly wary of me. When Shen Ling heard this, her expression turned to one of shock in an instant.
"Oh boy. This is a problem." I could feel the headache this was going to cause.
"Senior-brother Long Di, she's really a Nymph?" Shen Ling asked me.
"Yeah, she is. No one would claim to be a Nymph whilst looking like this unless they had a death wish," I advised.
Nymphs were not like Abyss Ghosts who would be publicly hunted down to the last if news of their existence were revealed. As a matter of fact, it was the complete opposite for Nymphs.
They were highly sought after by clans, sects and even rogue cultivators alike who would kill to get their hands on one.
They were one of the five major races across the continent. They were a race that lived completely synonymous with nature and had a range of divine abilities at their disposal that caused their value to skyrocket.
Her reluctance to appear awake even in the face of her saviours who were discussing secrets was easily explained with this revelation.
Personally, I didn't know what these divine abilities were or what uses she had outside of this, but this alone was a perfect warrant for her actions thus far.
"Where did you come from?" I asked her. "You shouldn't be here, and I have doubts believing you were injured by the shockwave caused by my breakthrough."
"W-Will you help me get back home?" She asked me with a pleading expression, looking very pitiful.
Luckily, I didn't give a flying fudge bucket about people in general, so that didn't move me.
"Why are you here?" I asked again.
Her expression fell even more when she heard this, but she relented and started to explain why she was here.
"Well… what actually happened was…"