Feeling a bit unwilling to leave the young master out of this, I zip by a particular flower that hasn’t been yet ground up by its owner, at a stall.

The flower is known as Ezell’s tears, for the allergic reactions its pollen causes in normal people. Even for cultivators, who only have enhanced senses, but not fully protected ones, it can cause disorientation and some minor allergic reactions.

What is special about this particular flower is that its owner has clearly removed the pollen glands. Likely to make sure that no one is affected by its effects.

Of course, I use this to my advantage. Snatching up the flower, I heal the removed pollen glands, which immediately start releasing pollen as I move around at high speeds.

Once again, the strength of this specialized scan reveals itself. It shows the exact air currents that the pollen needs to flow to only reach the young master of this group.

I use a mole this time to catch the young master’s attention. This creature has another similar item that resembles jewelry that she was wearing. Besides that, it also shakes it in a way that catches attention, sounding almost like the jingling of jewelry.

The mole then throws it in the air and dives to the side. This sound draws the young master’s attention to it and as his eyes widen at the site of floating jewelry, already tracing a path back to the source of the throw, the pollen hits his eyes, mouth, and nose. All of which, while he was taking a deep breath of cold air.

Almost immediately, he begins coughing and scratching at his eyes.

He suddenly throws two knives in the girl’s direction, or where he believed the girl to be (I.e., the mole’s location), piercing the jewelry into the wall and the location where a human sized person would have moved to after throwing it.

All while being blinded and desperately trying to clear his eyes and face.

He looks absolutely furious.

Ah, I might have made a mistake.

This may cause him to not care about how it appears with the main group.

I shouldn’t have involved him until he directly moved.

Taking this in note, I stop all actions towards him and refocus on the henchman.

By this time, both henchmen have met where the girl originally started. The henchman with bird poop in his eye has finally cleared it.

They seem to be well trained, because the path changes, as they stop moving and quickly discuss where she might have gone. It only takes 10 secs, before they figure out that she would head to the main group. They used more than a few explicit words in saying this.

They also note that their boss is coughing and having a tough time, buying her some extra time as they double back, just to hear him yell to go after her. To drag her back to him.

By this time, she’s gotten very close to the main group, within earshot, in fact.

Since they changed the path, they caught just the barest glimpse of her almost reaching the group and they redouble their efforts.

Sprinting through the stalls, they move at a pretty high speed towards her location. This is where the two previously placed traps come into play.

The papers have just begun to fall down towards that area, and while not as perfect as it would have been if the past has stayed the same, it still fulfills the job of causing very momentary losses in line of sight for the three men.

The birds do the rest of the job in delaying. At that moment, I have the birds fly up into the air toward some bystanders, causing them to step into the path of the two men.

At the same time, I use a cloth I found nearby, with the same brown and beige coloring that Mei Lin was wearing and zip across their line of sight, to adjust the path into an unavoidable collision course.

Of course, being arrogant and proud men of the young master, even though they could stop and move around the bystanders, they attempt to barrel through them without a care.

However, they get knocked back on to their bottoms, as it appears that there was a person of great strength there, as well.

Another young master.

My scan had shown that this might be an obstacle, but I didn’t know the reason for it.

With wiry jet back hair, a black long jacket with a high collar and clasps all over, this young master looks like a handsome Goth guy from my world.

Now holding a dark expression, he glares at them with irritation and some measure of anger.

He had easily held them back away from himself, with just two fingers, when they had almost bumped into him. It appears that he stopped them from colliding with himself and a woman he was speaking with, who also had jet black hair. In contrast, she is wearing normal clothing for this area.

There’s momentary silence as his jaw tilts further up and his eyes look down at them.

“… Oh? Has my standing gotten to where even Long Shui’s men no longer put this Ao Hai in their eyes now?”

His faces shows no warmth and with his eyes shining dangerously.

He pauses, as they say no words, just panicked breathing from the two.

Their faces are now pale with fear. This could have ramifications beyond the current situation.

Ah, shoot. I didn’t want to involve another young master in this.

I can only hope that…

He does a rare thing for a young master and repeats his question.

“Do you?”

They immediately begin apologizing and prostrating before him, begging for his forgiveness.

Young Master Shui seems to have finally gotten the pollen out of his eyes, and is finally seeing the current situation.

Almost in a single bound, he reaches their location and forces their heads to the ground.

Interestingly, he bows his head slightly, as he is kneeled, showing a form of respect, but not complete submission.

All Long Shui does at this point is give a curt apology, before falling silent. His head still slightly bowed.

Hmm…

Maybe they are on semi-equal footing, with Ao Hai at a higher standing at this point in time? It’s hard to tell without using the scan.

I’ll have to look into this a bit later.

This new young master, Ao Hai, appears dissatisfied, but then acknowledges it with a nod.

He then steps back, and then the three moves back into the chase almost immediately. Unfortunately for them, their prey has already reached the main group, where the cultivator escort is.

She’s standing right next to the escort, visibly relaxing but still keeping a watchful eye back at them. She appears to have noticed all the strange things that occurred, but looks confused why.

From what I can tell, Long Shui isn’t known for regular incompetence. Making this situation lol the stranger.

Looking back at Long Shui, it seems he’s realized that this might be moving from one unpleasant situation to another.

He seems to be visibly hesitating.

It only takes a moment before he strides over to the group. It’s easy to see that he still has something planned.

I’m not sure if anything I can do will help.

He’s paying full attention to his surroundings now, and isn’t focused on any one thing.

It would be hard surprising him at this point.

Almost helplessly, the only thing I find that I can do, is get closer to the group and see what he has planned

And figure out how I’ll handle this situation next…