After I spoke and told him we should learn from each other, I could see a small amount of irritation on his face.

I probably didn’t need to poke him like that.

Nonetheless, I head over to the Center of a new area that the crowd has created.

The area where we will fight is still near the carriages, but just enough distance away that no accidental moves should hurt them. Unless, we’re talking about low-level cultivator level techniques. In which case, there would be a trail of damage.

Huh… I’m really wrong about that. There are actually more than a few ways that we could still reach the carriages with our attacks.

The first one, being to throw your opponent far enough. The second, more obvious one, is to use a ranged weapon. All my opponents thus far have been unarmed, in some way. But there are no such restrictions in a fight.

There’s nothing saying he can’t try to kill me right here and now. In fact, that’s likely what he’s planning on doing. if he succeeds, his family can always put it off as an accident or as my fault.

True to my thoughts, I can see the cultivator start to subtly ready himself for anything that may go towards the carriages.

Even despite the noise that we’re making over here, there are people already in the carriages. For the carriages around this area, the occupants are clearly of a higher wealth status. The carriages closest to the cultivator are the nicest ones and the furthest ones are run down. It is expected that people go to a carriage befitting their status.

They even have lackeys come out early, to warn people away from carriages.

Even in a sect, there are tiers of status within the already tiered structure. If any of them were accidentally injured, the cultivator would be held responsible.

With that said, my mind turns back to Young Master Shui before me, who is motioning one of his lackeys to start the count.

The one to step up is the one that killed the young man in the alley. Somehow, I managed to suppress the ugly look I wanted to shoot him.

The lackey with the discerning eyes, continues to watch by the side, likely trying to determine anything that I’m doing.

As they start the preparations, I take off my shoes and tuck it into the rudimentary belt that is on my clothes. Just in case something happens, I don’t want to lose my shoes.

Before the count begins, I can see his hand twitched to one of his pockets.

3…

I can’t rely on him not being shameless and using something that could completely decimate me. There’s a wide world out there, and the rampant use of money is its own strength. I’ll have to use my speed to survive, even if they might catch something from it.

2…

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

So, I should end things at such a speed that they can’t discern it, while reducing visibility. But in a way that when the dust settles, that the result would be clear.

1…

First, I’ll blind the discerning lackey!

Adrenaline surges through me because of the tense situation. A mocking smile crosses the young master's face, solidifying my thought that he will use something unexpected. My scan reaffirmed this from the start.

The murdering lackey’s arm drops and Young Master Shui’s hand goes toward his pocket.

Unfortunately for everyone around us… and myself, I’m not underground, where the effects of my movements are muffled by the extreme depth, the reinforced tunnels, and Gong’s webs. Additionally, the stone ground up here is softer and can’t take as much stress as the tunnels below.

The instant his arm dropped, a massive crack resounds through the area and the ground shudders from the power of the step I just made. The ground indents into the shape of my foot at the same time, with large cracks stemming from that point.

My arms sweep to my sides and then up, creating a cloud of dust that primarily obscures everyone’s views. With my scan still on, though, I make sure that two tiny pieces of dust flies into the eyes of the discerning lackey. His eyes shut in pain as I threw it right into the areas that would cause him to have to wipe it out of his eyes.

As soon as the crack happened, I could see the cultivator looking shocked at me. His vision now being obscured, I already know the spiritual sense wave is coming, and I’ll need to finish this before he can see anything.

Across from me, Long Shui’s eyes widen and he freezes in place, faltering in pulling out his trick.

… Not that he would have had a chance to.

My body soars across the ground over to him, with my hands just barely over the ground, creating a wind tunnel hole through the existing dust cloud, while creating a line of a new one as I run.

Not only that, an air effect for bystanders is generated that most modern people are used to from fast vehicles passing them. A pillow of air and dust blows them at them, shocking many.

Instead of going toward Young Master Shui directly, I go slightly to the side, so I don’t rip through him.

My other foot comes down hard, stopping my momentum in its tracks. As would be expected, this causes a massive strain on my body yet again.

I use my momentum to turn quickly, getting behind him and pointing my fingers at his neck.

And then wait.

My scan tells me that neither the discerning lackey nor the cultivator saw anything other than ‘He’s really fucking fast.’

Knowing that much is a problem in itself, but at least I don’t have to worry about dying or being poisoned because of a surprise attack. I haven’t shown this level of ability anywhere else, so they shouldn’t be able to connect the alchemist and this identity until I am already in the carriage.

In addition, this should give him a reliable out. If this was anywhere close, and he still lost it could cause some social ramifications for.

… At least with this he can just call me a monster.

As the dust settles, the spiritual wave finally reaches me. One thing I learned from this is how long it takes for a spiritual sense from a cultivator of this strength to reach me.

This was something I already knew, but I have mostly only experienced a higher-level cultivator’s spiritual senses. Which were basically near instant.

There’s a silence, as it appears everyone around me is still reeling from the events that just transpired.

An unknown person, claiming to be the brother of Mei Lin, easily defeated a young master of a noble clan. Displaying strength, only normally seen in low tier cultivators.

On a related note, my scan now tells me that it’s a high probability that he was going to use a poison needle of some type. Which means I could have dodged it normally.

Huh, now that I think of it that way, I may have made this a bigger deal than it needed to be.

I think the fear from the poison and talisman from earlier made me more paranoid.

A shiver crawls down my back from the memory. Something I’m partially repressing, to not think about the fact that I basically had died at that time.

… I’ll have to work on not jumping to excessive actions because of my fear of that happening again.

Ah well. I’ll need to deal with the situation I’ve created.

At least, it is unlikely they will think of me as the alchemist.

I guess all I can do from here is to see what their move will be.