The two in the center stood with opposite postures.
Jinzi looked all but ready to rip and tear him to shreds. Her face showed the only emotion which seemed to be running through her at the moment, an extreme loathing. As the saying goes, if looks could kill then he would have been dead over a thousand times.
But she hadn't completely crossed that line yet. She had neither suddenly started to attack nor had she even drawn her sword out yet. At the very least she had somehow been able to manage her own anger, perhaps she had actually sobered up a bit?
I looked up at his face but I didn't see any change in his expression. I looked back over to see the other person in the center of attention.
Unlike the loathing that Jinzi had, this Ye Chen pitifully looked as if he was trying to explain himself. His neck was a little hunched over as his hands were raised up to his head with his palms facing out.
He was clearly stronger yet was cowering in front of someone who's cultivation was lower than his. From the moment that he knew who was opposing him he tried to appease them with excuses.
In stark contrast to Jinzi, who by the moment gained an even more opposing presence, he was quickly losing his. His posture was defensive, yet showed weakness by exposing the inner side of his arms.
"Sister Xue please! It's all just one big misunderstanding! I swear! Please give me a chance to explain myself!"
As he finished speaking a small commotion was occurring from the crowd, from the movements I could see that it must have been someone pushing their way up to the front. People's heads began moving to the left and right as a narrow path was cleared for someone to appear.
It was the girl who was with him that day in the clothing store. Immediately after another clearing was created for someone to appear, but this one was a little more peaceful. The members of the crowd moved on their own to make way as the person who came out this time was Hao Wang. As soon as he came out he noticed the girl and spoke to her, during their conversation I heard him mention her as his daughter with the way he was calling her Lin'er.
'Hmm, so that girl was one of the daughters of Hao Wang. It's no wonder he was about to cover the city in wanted posters of my Darling. With her support, putting posters up would be as simple as a wave of her hand.'
"Explain? Haha! How could you explain what you were doing?!"
"I simply didn't want you to use some mysterious item! It could have had terrible side effects!"
"Why would I ever bring out some mysterious and unknown item to use? If I didn't know anything about it, why would I have been so committed to using it?"
"I-I…"
Finally the father and daughter pair finished up their little conversation. That Hao Lin girl jumped forward in between Jinzi and Ye Chen, while she shielded him by extending her arms outwards.
"There must have been some kind of misunderstanding, please Miss Xue forgive my Brother for this past actions."
As she jumped between those two Hao Wang came near us and tried to persuade my Darling from escalating things.
"Brother Jiang, Please don't make things difficult for me. I owe that young man a favor so at the very least I should keep him away from harm. I was originally planning to give him to you and that would be the end of my relationship with him, but since that girl with you has a conflict with him I don't think you'll accept him, isn't that right? Since he won't get in, I hope that he won't be injured on my behalf."
"Don't worry Brother Wang, I understand. I'll make sure things don't get too bad. I'll stop her immediately if she actually moves in to attack him. If that happens Jinzi might be a little unhappy for a while, but I could find a way to console her."
"Thank you Brother, I appreciate it."
"No problem."
Back onto the main event, after Hao Lin's intervention the junior from earlier walked up to the center.
"Sister please this doesn't concern you, get away from there."
"No, this does! I-I like this person… And that means I have to be there for him. Why are you butting in?"
"I'm just trying to get my Little Sister away from this trouble. Besides technically I was a part of this, I was there when it occurred."
"Y-you were!? Say it! It was a misunderstanding right!?"
"No, I'm afraid if I didn't make it in time perhaps this Miss might have not been the same."
Hearing what he had to say, Ye Chen reacted pompously and retorted.
"Hey! You're purposefully making this sound as terribly as possible! I was simply worried for her health! I was only trying to help her!"
"Help? Do you honestly believe you were trying to help me at the time!?" After all the useless banter between the two it seemed like Jinzi would finally have enough. Her fist balled up and she used the time while that Hao Lin girl was distracted by her brother.
She coiled her arm back as she lunged toward him. The speed, although quite quick for mortals, was agonizingly slow for me, probably even more so for Darling.
Ye Chen, surprised by the attack, tried to move out of the way, but it wouldn't work out for him. From the look on his face it seems he was truly surprised that she would attack him, almost like he really thought nothing would come from them meeting this way. Comparing their speeds Jinzi was faster by a large margin, the strike would connect, that is if it wasn't for the foreseen elders interference .
At that moment It seems those two Elders would finally make a move. The old man quickly moved out from the crowd and appeared before Jinzi. Her momentum and strength dispersed as her fist collided with the old man's palm.
The drunkard woman from earlier went to help Ye Chen. She appeared behind him and grabbed his shoulders so he wouldn't fall, but there was still a bit of space between the two so when he was caught his head had a bit of whiplash instead of hitting a soft and comforting cushion.
All of this happened within a few moments so the mostly non-cultivator audience that had amassed looked astonished.
"H-huh? Who are you, old man?"
The old man's left eye twitched as he heard her way of addressing him. "Come now child, there's no need for violence amidst these halls. Perhaps what he did really was simply a mistake."
"What do you know about it?!"
As Jinzi was starting to argue with the old man Ye Chen was having his own little conversation with that drunkard woman.
"Ah! Oooh, huh? Who's that old man? Wait! Who are you?!" He realized mid sentence that someone was holding onto him.
"Well, you're welcome too."
"Oh, my bad! Thank you for catching me, Aunty!"
I noticed as soon as he caught a glimpse of the drunkard's face his eyes seemed to gleam for a moment. It was like he had found a new target to be obsessed with over.
'Does this man simply look at any beautiful woman like that? Hmm, my evaluation of him has fallen further and I didn't even think it could.'
"Aunty? Do I look that old to you?" A playful smile appeared on her lips.
"Ah! I- uh um-"
"I'm just kidding, call me whatever you want."
"Brother Chen, are you okay?! Miss Xue, why would you attack someone unprovoked like that!"
That Hao Lin Girl quickly walked up to Ye Chen as she realized what had happened. Her hands frantically roamed his body by patting it for any wounds or harm in any way.
"Don't Worry Miss, he's fine."
"Ah, thank you Aunty for your assistance!"
"Don't thank me, if you're going to thank anyone then thank that old man there. He's the one who actually saved him."
She cupped her hands and bowed toward that old man.
"Oh! I humbly thank this Old Master for his help! If you weren't here, who knows what this girl would have done to my Brother Chen."
"Of course, it's no big deal."
Then I heard a little bit of the transmission between the old man and the drunkard again.
{Elder Yi, I've just noticed something about this girl. It seems she's a hidden gem! But it's a shame she's already been claimed. I could only realize it when I made contact with her, if I never touched her I would have never known.}
{Even the Great Elder couldn't tell with a glance?}
{No, it was probably the doing of that 10th Realm Madame if I had to guess. She's even superior to this other Kid, but we shouldn't try to get what we can't get. That Ye Chen Kid should be enough.}
After her fist was stopped by the old man's palm strike Jinzi seemed to have calmed down once again. She took a look at the Ye Chen for a bit before she stared at the balled up fist she had raised to her face.
The tightly clenched fist suddenly released its pent up energy. The deep furrow she had earlier had softened considerably, but was still noticeable as she took a deep breath with her eyes closed.
The old man projected his voice towards me as he motioned toward Ye Chen. By this point that I had long foreseen, I made sure that whenever he did try to do so I was sitting upright.
"Madame, I'm sorry for intruding upon this, but we would like to take this child along with us. Is that alright?"
"That's fine, go on ahead."
"Thank you Madame for being so gracious! We'll leave immediately to not overstay our welcome."
"Hold on, there's still one more thing."
Hearing me say to wait the old man started to sweat as beads started to form on his forehead.
"Y-yes Madame what might that be?"
I gave it a moment of pause for dramatic effect before I looked at Ye Chen. When he saw me look at him his eyes looked as if they were starting to shimmer from excitement.
"Ye Chen, you're expelled from the Azure Sky Sect."
I raised my hand with the palm facing up as I sensed the sect token on him. It wasn't hard to find as he had kept the token on his person instead of a ring. In a second his outer robe started to vibrate as a small rectangular object shot out leaving behind a trail of light.
The object flew and gently landed on my hand, but in a moment a flash occurred as it disappeared into my spatial ring.
I looked for his sect's clothing as well and found it in one of his storage rings. The ring he kept it in was one of quite low quality and he himself couldn't even protect it, so I managed to break through the protective barrier of it and forcefully take it out. The robes appeared in the air and with a snap of my fingers the clothing caught fire and quickly burned to ashes.
The speed of the burning was astonishing for the mortals around, but I wasn't simply using a mortal flame, but instead spiritual flame which was one of the reasons why I could catch it on fire from such a distance.
"There, now you may take him."
"Thank you Madame!"
Ye Chen looked at me in shock at my actions. I really don't know what he was expecting me to do, but apparently this wasn't it. Perhaps he had gone crazy and believed that I would save him or plead for him to stay, but I no longer have to worry about him now.