"Ah, that must be your son, Madam Zhong. May I?" Qiu Ling pretended to be surprised as if he hadn’t expected Zhong Jing Yi to be there. Well, he only threw Madam Zhong a careless glance and took a step forward without waiting for her approval though. He definitely couldn’t leave his poor beloved in the hands of that man! He had to get him back!

The villagers hurriedly parted to make way for him. After all, this was a mighty Daoist Immortal! Their village couldn’t bear to offend such a person.

Mister Pan who had went to fetch Jing Yi hadn’t been there when Qiu Ling appeared and showed his might. Confused, he glanced from one side to the other and then at the man at the other side. "Er … What happened?"

Qiu Ling smiled serenely while inwardly feeling like beating this guy up. How dare he touch his beloved without permission! Well, unfortunately, he had to be a Daoist now. He couldn’t just beat people up. Mn, he would contact Qiang Wei later on and have him send Fu Heng over. He could take care of this. Mn, he shouldn’t dirty his own hands with this. After all, these hands still had to be used to touch his precious beloved!

Thinking of Jing He his mood instantly soared and his smile became a little more genuine. "This morning when I ended my meditation I remembered that it had been three moons since I helped Madam Zhong when she was about to give birth to her child. Since I coincidentally came by then I felt that this child and I, Daoist Qiu," he threw in to remind them that he was definitely not a heretic practitioner, "share fate between us. So I set out to visit this village again to see how he fared till now."

"Oh!" Mister Pi’s eyes widened in revelation and he hurried in front of Qiu Ling. "So you are the great Daoist Master that helped the Zhongs that night. The whole village is immensely grateful to you, Master!"

Qiu Ling’s lips twitched. Daoist Master? Immensely grateful? Where did this come from after slandering his defenseless beloved week after week? Didn’t they even call some half-baked cultivator over? These humans were too shameless! He really should have taken his beloved away.

"It was just a slight effort on my part."

Qiu Ling stepped past him and took Jing Yi out of Mister Pan’s arms. He smiled, looking down at him, and the child that was just about to throw the first real tantrum of its life instantly calmed down too. It was almost as if he could still remember the man before him and knew that he was safe in his arms.

Qiu Ling’s heart melted when he saw Zhong Jing Yi’s reaction. Ah, his beloved still loved him the most! Just the sight of him was able to calm him down! Mn, he should reward him for that.

Qiu Ling stroked that tuft of black hair again. From now on, besides himself he would only allow Jing He’s mortal parents to carry him. All those other filthy humans shouldn’t even think of laying a hand on his beloved!

As if holding a treasure, Qiu Ling slowly made his way back to the Zhongs and reluctantly placed the boy in Madam Zhong’s arms. "A child shouldn’t be separated from his mother for too long at such a young age."

Madam Zhong nodded eagerly. She’d quite probably not put her son down for even the blink of an eye in the days to come.

Qiu Ling suppressed a sigh. Why did he feel like he had picked up a stone just to smash his own feet? Now he had tried to help again but it would probably just lead to him having even less time with his beloved.

"Then … Then what about the heretic practitioner?" interrupted Madam Qiguan and looked anxiously at her son.

She had called him to the village so he could show off what he learned but now another Daoist had shown up and he seemed to be quite strong. How would her son impress the other villagers now?! She didn’t want them to agree with Madam Zhong’s words from before and say that her son hadn’t learned much in his time at the sect.

Mister Pi’s face fell. How could he let anyone talk about that story now? What if the mighty Daoist Immortal before them grew angry when he heard that Miss Lian had defamed him? Of course, Mister Pi had spontaneously forgotten that he himself brought up Madam Zhong’s mysterious helper being a demon and then changed it to a heretic practitioner because it fit his story better.

Qiu Ling watched the reactions of the mortals and decided to not make it any more difficult for them. He had been careless this time so he couldn’t fault them completely. In the end, whatever had led to this outcome he still couldn’t change it so he should just go with the flow and bear with it for a while.

Well, at least Qiu Ling wasn’t the only one who was dissatisfied with the conclusion of this incidence.