At this point, I’m not sure if I should even be surprised by the fact that some of those in the Noble class are scummy, to this extent.

Who am I kidding, though? It’s not just a Noble class that is like this, but probably cultivators as a whole.

Taking what they want, when they want.

The only thing that stops them is power, whether political or physical.

I turn my eyes back to the young lady in question, to try to get a better read on her and her capabilities.

If she’s somehow physically stronger than them, or may have a backing that they don’t know of, I may not even need to interfere…

Even the briefest glance at this young girl shows that she would turn into a young woman that could draw any man to her.

Strangely enough, she has elvish features, with her ears being pointed and a small angled face. She gives off almost a noble air, with her head slightly tilted up and off to the side, looking out into the distance. Her clothes are of silk and gold, possibly to show a level of prestige and status.

She’s even growing fast in areas that would draw the wrong type of attention.

With that said, there’s no doubt about her age. If I had a guess, I would place her at the age of 12.

… To repeat.

She’s still a child by any standard.

It’s clear why her family wanted her to join this sect.

If she looks like this when she’s young, she most definitely be stolen away when she gets older, especially if they have no power.

I can feel the pain of my scan drop, and then rise again, as I decide to make two exceptions for the use of my direct low-level scan on people. I lower my defensive scan, to exchange it for a detailed scan.

The people in question will be this girl and the young master. A comparison between the two couldn’t be more different.

This young master, Long Shui, comes from the Long family, a clan with history spanning several millennia.

Clearly a proud individual, he has been spoiled on many things, being allowed to defile any number of women and is still doted on by his father. He’s also quite a bit older than me, at 36 years old. With his body cultivation, though, he looks to be in his early twenties.

It appears that he has started much later, on pursuing more than body cultivation, because of his propensity for ‘other’ focuses.

Nonetheless, he has an excellent foundation for cultivation, since he has consumed countless treasures, though still not as good as it could have been, because of his lax attitude.

He’s had physical training and can fight relatively well, with a hardened body.

Once he starts cultivating, he will be a powerhouse to keep in mind. Not only that, but his spirit root places just within the inner court requirements. Matching me at Peony Earth 4 and placing us both at an above average status, with our spiritual roots being able to cultivate 100x faster than an ordinary cultivator.

His Long clan were once extremely influential, being a group that few could easily cross, until they were targeted by a powerful force. With many of their forces scattered and killed.

At this time, they are delegated to the lower parts of the hierarchy within this country, the Chiu Continuum.

…

I can’t believe it is only now that I’ve thought to know the name of this country.

Even in the lessons from Ai, it never came up, since I knew the other information that she had asked me.

… To think that this country is basically an ordered hierarchy of sects working together. I’ll have to keep that in mind when dealing with lower vs higher ranked groups.

With that said, even a lower ranked sect, is still leagues above the medium sized merchant group that this girl Mei Lin is part of.

A small large merchant group might be able to have influence against some of the bottom ranked sects within the ‘Continuum,’ but a medium small sized one has no such defense.

That’s not to say that there wouldn’t be other ways that they could have protection against outside influence. If many of the people in their merchant group or family were cultivators, or they had a few powerful ones, then they could hold against some coercion.

One example of this is the Jin family, who had a small merchant group, but had more than a few cultivators in their family.

Even the Noble clans were lithe to mess with them, when they had several Core Formation experts, as well as a few lower cultivators.

Instead of relying on that alone, they moved to create an alliance with other merchant groups that also had cultivators, forming the Jin Merchant Alliance, with them at the head of the group.

Unfortunately for the Mei Merchant Group, they don’t have any cultivators.

In fact, the main reason that their daughter was sent over here was not only protect her, but to allow them to join that same merchant alliance and give them some protection against the machinations of the Noble clans.

She had the best potential out of all their daughters to cultivate quickly and grow strong. They took great expense in testing their daughters’ abilities.

However, none of those matters if she fails.

Or to be more straight to the point, there’s nothing they could do if something happened to their daughter at this moment, before she becomes part of the sect.

Once she’s in the sect, they typically discourage actions of that sort, even for noble clan members. This would give them leverage to protect against such things when she finally passes. Which is coincidentally the reason that I decided to join the sect, since it would give me protection against outside enemies.

My scan shows me she places around above average for her body cultivation. When starting cultivation, she will have a good framework. However, it can’t compare to the refining that a young master has received.

Her spiritual root is above both the young master and I’s, standing at Peony Earth 7, showing her to be a rare genius and placing her in the inner court. At this level, she could cultivate at 750x the speed of a normal cultivator.

What all of this ultimately tells me… that she doesn’t have a chance.

Not at this time.

If she is able to get into the sect, she will. But that doesn’t matter at this time.

Not only that, but although it is subtle, it appears she might have heard the words that he had spoken. Her hands are almost imperceptibly shaking, as she turns towards the bigger group and moves in that direction.

In response, the young masters' lips turn up slightly, like a Wolf having found their prey.

Shit.

I can’t reveal myself, so what can I do to stop this? Without sacrificing myself?

Desperate for an answer, I go over anything I might have seen done in my world that could help with this.

Luckily, an idea comes to mind.