Chapter 84
‘Image ambassador?’
The little snow ferret was stunned. He had never imagined that term would ever be associated with him.
Although he had a great image and excellent temperament, and the people who liked him could probably line up around the universe, he was still ultimately a soldier.
And two years ago, the Yaokin Empire had still been in a state of war. Battles with the zerg race could break out anytime, anywhere, so naturally he had no time to participate in things like promotional filming.
The Blade Squad’s public footage mostly consisted only of battle recordings, award ceremonies, commendations, and military recruitment advertisements.
The twelve Blade Warriors, all possessing both looks and strength, had always been the public face of the Yaokin military. They had countless fans throughout the empire and were heroes endlessly praised by the people.
Ah, now that he thought about it…
Didn’t that technically mean he actually had been an image ambassador before?
But after thinking about it again, Bai Shuo still felt something was off.
‘But I can’t even transform back right now. How am I supposed to be an image ambassador like this?’
He asked in confusion, ‘You mean go online like this?’
But just now, Mo Yin had clearly said he would be practicing Healthy Qi Exercise in real life!
Mo Yin shook his head.
“You’ll be practicing in real life, using your current form.”
“Just like in the video.”
He continued, “We haven’t decided yet whether it’ll be prerecorded, livestreamed, or a combination of both. The detailed plans still need further discussion.”
‘But I’m in juvenile form right now!’
Bai Shuo exclaimed in shock.
The reason he had practiced the exercise in real life before was only to demonstrate it for the patients in the activity room and encourage them to check in and follow along under Doctor Ye’s account.
When he personally followed the exercises himself, he still did so in the virtual full-immersion community using his human form.
Mo Yin nodded.
“This is a promotional strategy.”
Besides the traffic generated by military academy students and military administrative personnel checking in, Doctor Ye’s account was also being boosted by official Yaokin Empire personnel.
Of course, they could have chosen the same route as Jiang Quan—implementing mandatory participation within the military, forcing all active personnel to check in and practice daily, even incorporating it into monthly evaluations.
But that approach only worked for departments related to the military. Due to the nature of their work, even if participation was mandatory, very few people would complain.
After all, obeying orders was a soldier’s duty, and maintaining physical training standards was part of the profession.
However, for other sectors—whether government agencies or ordinary civilians—forcing participation, even with good intentions, would very easily provoke resentment and backlash.
Healthy Qi Exercise was developed by Doctor Ye. There was absolutely no need to doubt its effectiveness.
Once people practiced long enough, they would naturally realize its benefits themselves. But His Majesty could not tolerate Doctor Ye receiving even the slightest criticism.
Even temporary criticism was unacceptable to him.
Mo Yin still remembered how calm and matter-of-fact His Majesty had sounded when he said those words.
Doctor Ye held an extremely special place in His Majesty’s heart. Mo Yin fully understood that by now.
Since criticism was unacceptable, they needed to adopt a gentler promotional method, which naturally required time and strategy.
The things ordinary citizens liked were difficult to predict, and creating momentum also required a foundation. So the personnel in charge of promotion had temporarily refrained from manufacturing artificial hype and instead continuously poured money into boosting traffic.
But unsurprisingly, the conversion rate for this kind of paid traffic was painfully low.
Usually, it only resulted in huge gaps between bookmark numbers and actual completion rates. After all, “I bookmarked it and will practice later” was an extremely common phenomenon in the fitness world.
However, His Majesty’s order to have the little snow ferret promote Healthy Qi Exercise suddenly gave the promotion team tremendous inspiration.
Having adorable beast-form cubs practicing Healthy Qi Exercise was naturally eye-catching—
After the war ended, healing, salvation, and cute creatures had replaced mechas, starships, and combat as the hottest keywords across the StarNet.
After enduring more than a decade of war, ordinary people’s hearts had long since become battered and scarred. Now that the war had finally ended, what they needed most were warm and gentle things to soothe their souls.
So as long as the video of the little snow ferret and little silver mouse practicing Healthy Qi Exercise was released, it would absolutely explode in popularity!
And this was only the first step.
If they used actual healthy cubs to film such videos, there was still a chance it could spark controversy.
But…
What if the adorable creatures filming the videos were actually patients who had regressed into juvenile forms? What if practicing Healthy Qi Exercise was simply part of their rehabilitation routine?
Then not only would it generate huge attention, it would also earn tremendous sympathy.
More importantly, it would precisely target Healthy Qi Exercise’s ideal audience—retired soldiers and ordinary civilians weakened by illness and injuries caused by war.
Forcing new recruits and active soldiers to practice had actually strayed from the original intention.
Back when Ye Yumeng first introduced Healthy Qi Exercise, it was because he had seen posts from retired soldiers in the medical district, watched so many people continue struggling against illness and pain after the war, and developed this idea because of them.
This new promotional strategy was essentially guiding things back onto the proper track.
And having regressed patients livestream Healthy Qi Exercise wouldn’t just create a fleeting short-term trend—it could continuously attract public attention.
Through the livestreams, people could witness the patients’ physical changes day by day, watch them gradually recover, eventually leave the hospital, and return to normal life…
Wasn’t that itself something incredibly healing?
If people suffering from illness and pain happened to see such videos and followed along with the exercises, wouldn’t that perfectly accomplish their goal?
And on top of that, the promotion team had come up with an even more explosive idea—
Reveal the little snow ferret’s identity!
That’s right. Publicly announce that he was Blade Warrior Bai Shuo!
Back then, they had chosen to keep everything secret and completely block all information because His Majesty had been on the verge of death. If news leaked out, it could have caused chaos and even split the nation apart.
So they had tightly sealed away all information. Even while staying in the Royal Sanatorium, everyone used aliases.
But now?
His Majesty had already mastered Mystic Flame. Simply staying alive was no longer an issue, and whether he could fully recover to his previous state didn’t actually matter that much anymore.
As long as he remained alive, public support would naturally gather around him.
The moment he gave the call, the furious Imperial Legion and the empire’s citizens could instantly tear every opposing force to shreds!
So was there still any need to keep things secret?
Of course not!
In truth, over the past two years, the Blade Warriors had almost completely vanished from public sight, and all sorts of rumors had already spread throughout the empire.
His Majesty remaining secluded was one thing—the Yaokin royal family had never liked appearing publicly in the first place. Even the downloadable photos available online were over a decade old.
So the lack of news about His Majesty was understandable.
Or rather, no news was the best news possible.
But the Blade Warriors were different. They had always been the military’s public representatives and had filmed numerous recruitment advertisements, remaining extremely active in the public eye.
Then, after the war ended, they suddenly vanished as if they had evaporated from the face of the universe. Not only their fans, but even ordinary citizens who admired them couldn’t help harboring bad suspicions.
After all, according to official reports, the reason the war ended and the rampaging zergs were wiped out overnight was because His Majesty and the Blade Warriors destroyed the insect hive and killed the Mother Bug in one decisive strike!
In such a dangerous operation, casualties were completely normal. What people feared most was that the entire squad had perished.
Yet over these past two years, no clear official announcement had ever been released.
So everyone had continued waiting with hope and blessings in their hearts.
If, at this exact moment, the regressed juvenile-form Bai Shuo suddenly reappeared before the public through Healthy Qi Exercise follow-along videos, then how explosively would the emotions suppressed by the people for the past two years erupt?
Even the senior Imperial Propaganda Department staff member who proposed this plan couldn’t estimate the outcome.
Because when Mo Yin sent him the video of the little snow ferret and little silver mouse practicing Healthy Qi Exercise and informed him that the little snow ferret in the video was none other than Bai Shuo, the “Silver Sky Rift Shadow,” the man immediately burst into tears.
Heroes should have returned to their rightful place long ago.
The citizens who had always cared about them had already waited far too long.
The starry sky they protected with their lives should always have contained their dazzling presence.
When Mo Yin saw this proposal, he too remained silent for a long time.
After submitting it to His Majesty, approval came very quickly—
His Majesty agreed!
However, the protagonist himself, Bai Shuo, was completely dumbfounded.
‘You mean… you want me to livestream martial arts in my real identity while looking like this in juvenile form?’
“It’s Healthy Qi Exercise,” Mo Yin corrected him.
‘I refuse!’
The little snow ferret declared decisively.
Although his intelligence had regressed alongside his body, he still had a very strong idol complex. Asking him to livestream in juvenile form while publicly revealing his real identity?
No way! Absolutely not!
Looking at the firmly resistant little snow ferret, Mo Yin fell into thought.
Of course, he could simply bring out His Majesty’s orders directly, but forcing the little snow ferret to do something he truly didn’t want to do still felt too cruel.
After all, Bai Shuo was still a patient.
And Mo Yin knew this brat’s personality very well. If Bai Shuo wasn’t wholeheartedly willing to do it, slacking off would be the least of the problems. The bigger concern was that he might cause some bizarre disaster.
Only by genuinely convincing him to willingly become this promotional ambassador could they achieve the best results.
Very quickly, Mo Yin thought of a solution.
“You should still pay attention to the Blade Warriors’ popularity rankings on StarNet, right?”
This popularity ranking didn’t include only the Blade Warriors. Other famous figures like Jiang Quan, Yan Xinglan, and Lan Fangyu were also listed.
Everyone on the rankings had earned glorious military achievements and were widely known among the public.
However, because the Blade Squad Warriors occupied the top eleven spots, it had jokingly become known as the Blade Popularity Rankings—
Since Mo Yin had retired after losing his arm and transferred into intelligence work, he had voluntarily removed himself from the rankings.
‘Why are you bringing this up?’
The little snow ferret stared at Mo Yin warily.
“You know your own ranking, don’t you?” Mo Yin delivered the fatal strike.
‘Ayin, you’re so annoying! Don’t say things that hurt team unity!’ the little snow ferret protested unhappily.
The other Blade Warriors honestly didn’t care much about rankings, but the always vain little snow ferret cared just a tiny bit.
Mo Yin nodded and continued:
“I’m just saying, if you become this promotional ambassador, you might rise a few spots in the popularity rankings.”
The little snow ferret suddenly went quiet, his eyes spinning rapidly.
‘You mean it?’
“Promoting Healthy Qi Exercise nationwide is His Majesty’s directive. We’ll be pouring enormous resources into it. Whether you seize this opportunity or not depends entirely on your decision.”
Then Mo Yin deliberately retreated a step.
“The reason we approached you first is because your Healthy Qi Exercise performance is the best. You were also the very first person to follow Doctor Ye’s training.”
The little snow ferret instantly puffed out his chest proudly.
“But if you truly don’t want to do it, I could always ask Shen Chunming instead. He’s already regained his mobility now.”
“After a bit more practice, he should also be capable of handling the role.”
The moment he heard that, the little snow ferret panicked.
‘No no no! Let me do it instead—I can absolutely do it!’
