Xuan Meng staggered as she landed. The rosy glow dispersed, revealing a pale face whose exquisite beauty remained undiminished. The disciples nearby froze for a moment before several hurried forward.
"True Person Xuan Meng? Y-you're back!"
"Senior Sister, how are your injuries? Do you need any pills?"
Voices full of concern came one after another. The lovely female cultivator looked up, her gaze sweeping lightly across their faces as a trace of unfathomable depth quietly surfaced in her eyes.
As those forms of address reached her ears, something intangible seemed to quietly become a little more real.
"It's nothing," she said, sounding slightly weak. "I've merely exhausted myself and need some time to recuperate."
No one noticed anything amiss. They merely offered a few more words of concern, seemingly oblivious to the trace of strangeness about her.
A short while later, "Xuan Meng" politely declined their support and rose alone upon a slender rainbow, slowing her flight toward her own cave abode.
Along the way, she deliberately passed through crowded places, allowing more of her fellow disciples to discover that "True Person Xuan Meng" had returned to the sect.
Just as she had expected, startled and astonished gazes converged on her throughout the journey, as though no one had expected her to return so quickly.
Each gaze, each cry of "Senior Sister Xuan Meng" or "True Person," quietly made this identity more real.
By the time she landed before her cave abode, the last trace of strangeness about "Xuan Meng" had faded away.
She slowly raised her head and watched the light ripple across the cave abode's restrictive seal.
"Heh. Before setting foot on Immortal Garden Peak, I really couldn't have opened this seal. I could only have entered using [Realm Yin-Yang]. But now..."
"Xuan Meng" smiled faintly. She had