"Seriously, what are we going to do today?" asked Seir…
"Well, there is nothing to do, because YOU already have the information… So I don't know…"
"Hey, are you trying to blame me because I have an amazing power?"
"No, I am trying to blame you because you used it before I was trying to do it…" I turned towards Gremory and asked, "So, Gremory, is there anything you want to do in this city?"
"Give me a moment!" I saw her looking at something. I tried to look at what she was looking at, but I didn't find anything. It was just an entrance door. However, she was so focused. After some moments, she finally said, "There…"
I looked at it, and I felt this would not go well. It was the group of maidens whom we had encountered previously. I asked her, "What are you going to do with them?"
She answered, "How about we go with them and have fun…."
"Have fun? Hearing that from you, I feel it will not go well…"
"So? What are we going to do?" Gremory with a mocking tone.
I looked at them, frowned, and reluctantly agreed to go along with her plan, "Fine then…".
As we approached the group of maidens, they immediately addressed us with respect and called us "senior".
I asked them, "Do you mind if we follow you?"
"Follow us? Why do you need to follow us?"
"Well, we are new in this city, so it's better to follow you to get to know the city well…"
The maidens exchanged glances before one of them smiled and replied, "Of course! We'd be happy to show you around…"
~~
As we were walking around the city, we stumbled upon the bustling people and carriages walking around. One of the maidens pointed out everything about the city: the restaurant, the inn, the shop, and even some buildings that belonged to famous or high-ranking families. While we were walking around, the maiden who was in front of the group, whom I assumed was the leader of the group, asked me, "What are seniors here for? When I saw seniors back in the restaurant, in the flick, even faster than that, seniors could make that discipline fly away and break the wall, even without touching him. Is there something that seniors need to do here in this city?"
Hearing that, I didn't want to answer it, because I just couldn't answer it with, well, we are here to search for searching disciplines and creating a sect. However, I was with two cunning demons who have prophecy power, so Seir opened her mouth and said, "Actually, we came here for…" and suddenly she leaned on me with her hand and embraced me, "He wants to create this thing called a sect…"
Immediately, all of them stopped, staring at us in shock and disbelief. The leader said, "Creating a sect and immediately going to the gathering sect is quite risky. Is there any name for this sect?"
I said, "Ah, about that, I still don't have any name…"
"You still don't have any name, huh? I guess I wish seniors luck creating this sect…"
Seir asked, "Are you all interested in joining his sect?"
The group exchanged hesitant glances before the leader spoke up, "We are impressed by how formidable these seniors are; however, what we try to find isn't about being formidable but a flow. We want the sect to have a good flow in their teaching, where their teaching is beneficial for us and around us."
"We are looking for a sect that aligns with our values and beliefs," another member added. "It's not just about power but about wisdom and guidance."
I said, "I see… Will you be there at this gathering sect? And may you give me a little bit of information about this gathering sect because we have never been in there?"
"We will definitely be attending the gathering sect. The discipline candidate will be evaluated by all the sects; they need to demonstrate their realms and show them to the sects. It's just a simple demonstration and show to the sects."
I said, "Great, thanks for the information."
We continued to walk around the city. As we were walking around the city, suddenly, there was a huge commotion in front of us. While everyone was circling it, we were curious, so we went to it. However, I felt like I was missing something. I looked beside me; Seir and Gremory weren't here and were gone. While I was looking around for them, the commotion distracted me and became more intense. I realised the maidens' group was already in front, and I tried to catch up with them. As I went there, slowly, I could see what was in the commotion.
It was a man who had fallen to the ground, and a group of people seemed to be the cause of the man's falling to the ground. The man was still young, and it seemed the same as mine; however, his body was full of bruises, maybe from a confrontation with the group of people in front of him. He appeared to be in pain but was trying to stand up despite his injuries.
As for the group of people, I knew them; their attire was the same as the people who tried to have problems with us earlier at the restaurant and their senior, who had challenged Seir to a duel. Why in this world were these types of people these morons? It seemed like I just watched a clichéd dramatic plot.
As I looked around, the leader of the group of maidens walked to the man, and there it was—the falling action of the clichéd dramatic plot. The man was on his knees and tried to get up. With her help, the man could get up. Seeing that immediately, one of the members of the perpetrator group said, "Young lady, you are just wasting your energy and your time to help that man…"
The maiden replied as she tried to help the man, "There is no such thing as helping, wasting time and energy…Maybe all of you who are wasting all of your time and energy to do this horrible thing to this man…"
"WHAT! DID YOU SAY?" A wave of anger could be heard in his voice. However, someone walked in front of him and said, "Do you know who we are? Or maybe you can join."
She replied after she brought the man into her group, "If the invitation to join is from you, I assume the sect of you is the same as you, a scum…"
The man clenched his fists; his mouth was twisted in anger, and he said, "You'd better watch your words; even though you are a beautiful maiden, we don't tolerate disrespect towards our sect…"
"Disrespect, huh?" She chuckled a little bit and said, "You don't want me to disrespect your sect, even though you have disrespected your own sect by hurting other people."
The man's face turned red with rage as he struggled to control himself. He took a step forward. "You dare speak to me like that? You will regret it," he growled, his eyes flashing with fury. The woman stood her ground, unfazed by his threats, ready to defend herself if necessary. Suddenly, he glared at me, and immediately my thought was, Oh shit, next he will be targeting me…
My prediction was right and tragically accurate. His furious glare shifted from the maiden leader and locked onto me. As he was clearly looking for a weaker target. I, the guy with no visible Qi, was the perfect scapegoat.
"And you!" he barked. "You're with them, aren't you? What's the matter? Nothing to say for yourself? Or do you just let your women do all the talking and the fighting for you?"
I sighed. This was a part where they humiliate the male companion.
Before I could reply, the maide leader stepped protectively in front of me. "He is our guest! Your quarrel is with your own lack of decency, not with him."
"Guest?" The disciple laughed. "He looks more like your pet! A mortal pet with no spiritual roots at all. What a joke! Let me show you what we do to pets that don't know their place."
Here we go again!
He shoved the maiden aside and lunged towards me. He didn't draw a weapon; he was just swinging his fist to knock me to the ground and humiliate me.
His punch was quite fast for a normal person. However, I wasn't quite normal anymore, was I?
I didn't dodge. Didn't flinch. Just raised my hand.
*Thwack
My palm connected with his fist. A cracked voice echoed in the shockingly silent street.
The disciple forced, and his eyes went wide.
"Ah," I said. "It seems you broke your hand."
The other disciples stared with mouths open. The maidens, including the leader, looked at me with some confusion. Maybe they had seen Gremory's power at the restaurant, but they may have seen me as just the polite and non-cultivator guide.
The man I was holding let out a scream. "HE BROKE MY HAND! GET HIM! KILL HIM!"
The other disciples scream. "YOU DARE ATTACK A DISCIPLE OF THE BRILLIANT RIVER SECT?!"
I sighed and let go of his broken hand, letting him fall to the ground. I do wish you people would learn a new line. I was bracing myself, as this was going to get very, very messy.
"Oh, look! A street performance."
The crowd suddenly divided after hearing that voice. There, sitting at a small second-floor window of a teahouse, I hadn't even noticed, were Gremory and Sier. Seir was holding a skewer of some kind of street food, and Gremory was delicately sipping from a cup with her chin resting on her hand.
"You two…" I said. "You were watching?"
"Of course," Sier chirped as taking a bite. "Munch, munch… it was getting to the good part! You were doing so well, Yu Lei! I will reward you tonight if you'd used his own arm to hit his friend."
I said with hight tone "JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!"
Gremory's menacing eyes landed on the disciples. They froze. Their faces went ghostly white. As they remembered her. They remembered Gremory, the one who threw one of the disciples through a wall.
"An…Annoying," Gremory said. "All this shouting is ruining the taste of my tea…"
"Why are you acting like this, Gremory?" Seir asked. "Do you miss the food from home that makes you like this?"
"Of course I am… " Gremory's voice was flat. "This world's idea of dessert is a crime, and the tea is just hot, brown water. Everything here is a disappointment."
Her cold gaze drifted from the teacup to the street. Settling on the terrified disciples.
"And you," she continued with her soft voice, "are the loudest, most irritating disappointment of all. My head hurts with your annoying voices like scraping rocks."
The disciples flinched as one. They knew that tone. "Annoying" was the last word their friend heard before he became part of the wall.
"We… we apologise, Senior!" one of them stammered and bowed frantically. "We didn't mean to offend! We'll leave! We'll leave!"
"Get him! Get him up!"
They scrambled, half carrying, half dragging one of the disciples broken-handed. Disappearing into the crowd as fast as they possibly could.