The silence continues as no one speaks. I can feel the spiritual sense of the cultivator continue to run over me. His eyes look intently at me.
If he was lax and bored before, he definitely isn’t now.
On the other side, Long Shui Is still frozen in place. He sits there, seemingly in shock.
Honestly, I don’t blame him. It’s pretty easy to imagine that he would be dead if this was a real fight. Especially that he tried to kill me first.
I think the most interesting and telling thing about this, is that I’m relatively sure that if the cultivator knew what I was going to do and how he would have tried to stop the fight before I might kill him.
Having a nobody die in front of him as an ‘accident’ means nothing. But having a young master of a noble clan die on his watch, even if it was a true accident? He could get in an enormous amount of trouble for that.
Almost a full 30 seconds later, Long Shui recovers enough to drop his hands and say, “I concede.”
A half second later, conversations erupt all around. Things move extremely fast, if not for my reaction speed I couldn’t have caught most of it.
Things are being said, like…
“Who is he?”
Or, “they say he’s Mei Lin’s brother. I should speak with her later and form a connection.”
Ah, right. This is going to cause some changes for Mei Lin and her family as well.
I‘ll have to work with her to come up with a convincing cover story later.
For her part, her eyes are wide, she’s staring with just as much shock as everyone else at me.
Some people try to approach her, but she seems not be looking anywhere else.
As young master Shui’s hand has dropped, I lower my hand and step back away from him.
He turns to face me, and I can sense quite a bit of fear in his eyes.
That’s not exactly the emotion I want to cultivate in him toward me. In order to produce the effect, I want, I need a combination of fear and respect.
Let me see if I can correct this.
Before saying anything to him, I start off with a very slight bow.
“Thank you for the match, Young Master Shui. I appreciate you allowing me to get the first hit and going easy on me. I know you have many strategies you could have employed to stop my moves.”
For the slightest moment, I could see the confusion on his face at my words.
I can practically hear his internal words say, “What strategies? Going easy on you? My ass! You clearly had the upper hand!”
Almost immediately after, though, he regains his composure and affirms my words.
“Well, this was simply an exchanging of moves. There’s no need for anyone to get hurt in a mere exchange like this.”
Says the guy that was totally trying to kill me…
He continues by saying, “I must commend you though. Your speed and strength are exceptional, especially considering your lack of cultivation. How did you manage to reach such a level of body cultivation, without Qi?”
I can almost hear the collective breath intake, as every eye turns towards me. Wanting to hear the secret.
Once again, this reaffirms that this guy is dangerous. Clearly depraved. Willing to use any method to win. And he’s able to switch the focus away from himself so easily. Definitely one to watch for.
Focusing back on this conundrum of a question, something I always wanted to do in a situation like this comes to mind. I decide to be somewhat honest with him.
“Well, I can tell you it wasn’t easy. But if I had to show you, I have to credit most my success on this one set of moves, that have been passed down in the schools that I was taught in. One thing to remember, though. This is a lifelong journey, one that could make you cry tears of blood from the effort. Let me show you.”
My every move is being followed.
Some eyes are red with passion, as people are desperately looking for the secret to get as strong as I am.
Even the cultivator is washing his spiritual sense over me shamelessly and in an even denser amount to catch every detail of what I’m doing.
And so… I lower myself slowly to the ground, laying directly on my stomach, facing down to the ground with my feet together. And I raise myself using my arms. Then lower myself to the ground again.
I do this 15 times. With variations in every one.
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I then climb to my feet. And start performing squats. After that, lunges.
I go through every exercise I normally do in the morning, albeit at a much smaller quantity and speed.
The entire time they remain silent. Watching for anything strange or different.
From what I can gather, these aren’t normal workouts for the people of this world. Though I meant it as a joke, these workouts actually would help to build strength in specific areas.
Wait a second. My scan helped to perfect these exercises, making them optimized for my body. If they actually did these, it might actually be a better workout than some of the normal ones they have in this world.
Obviously, it wouldn’t achieve the effect my body currently has because of the healing constitution, but with pills and other things it could have a significant effect.
After my workouts have completed, no one appears to want to step out and judge it. Maybe to not appear stupid and be slapped down if it was a joke.
One person steps out of the crowd, authoritatively.
With brownish black hair and grayish eyes, he gives off an air of sophisticated power.
That’s not the eye-catching part, though.
His body looks extremely toned and sculpted, with his clothes purposely showing off various body parts, such as his abs and a large part of his chest.
His jaw almost seems chiseled in emulation of the Greek gods. His arms, like carved steel.
Hmm… I’m unfamiliar with this person. But my guess is he might come from a body cultivator background.
He speaks up, with a deep voice.
“I can see the value in these ‘moves’ you were doing. Some of them, seem to be a improved variation of what my family uses.”
There are some gasps at that and some people hurry to discuss some of the workouts. With just this, it shows his family has some weight.
He follows up with an additional note.
“However, I do not see anything that would allow you to surpass the limits of the body, at this level. If you were able to achieve results like this, there must be something special about you.”
He steps towards me and I realize that he is actually quite a bit taller than me, even though I stand at 183 cm.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a token with the symbol of a person on it.
“Here. Anytime you want to visit my Huang family’s estate in Tie City, bring this with you. Let them know who Huang Kaida gave this to you. They’ll treat you well.”
He places a hand on my shoulder in a friendly manner.
“I too, one day, would like to exchange pointers with you. My family always likes to learn new things about the never-ending body cultivation journey. So, if you feel the same, stop by the estate and we’ll organize something. We’ll make sure you are properly rewarded for your time.”
He turns just as abruptly as he had entered, and walks over to the carriages, before stepping inside.
Long Shui looks at me and says, “This was certainly a good learning experience. It was good to exchange pointers with you.”
He takes this opportunity to leave as well. Probably to save some face and leave amongst the distraction.
Other people then immediately begin hounding me and attempting to introduce themselves. While I attempt to humor them, I let them know that have to get to my ‘sister’, who also appears to be getting the same treatment.
Grabbing her lightly, somehow, we manage to politely break off from the groups and get alone.
Fortunately, the spiritual sense is gone now, as it looks like the cultivator has discovered all that he can.
There are likely other listeners, including spies, so I’ll have to be careful from here.
The day is ending, so we’ll need to make this quick.
Time to talk to Mei Lin about… where we go from here.