"Are you talking to me?" Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback. He genuinely wasn't certain. The man's gaze was drifting, as though he couldn't be bothered to even look in Jiang Chen's direction, yet his tone seemed aimed squarely at him. So, he had to confirm.
"Tsk tsk, brat, are you messing with me? I told you to scram over here — what's with all the chattering?" The young man glared at Jiang Chen with impatience.
Jiang Chen was finally certain. The man really was talking to him.
He felt a touch of exasperation. He'd already been keeping an extremely low profile — practically glued to his seat, let alone going out of his way to start trouble.
Yet there were always these inexplicable people who went out of their way to cause headaches and stir up random, pointless conflicts.
On the Divine Abyss Continent, Jiang Chen would have killed several such men in a single day.
Even knowing this was the Scarlet Water Small World, he couldn't help but feel annoyed. His brows furrowed slightly.
"I'm human — I don't know how to roll. Why don't you give me a demonstration?"
The man clearly hadn't expected Jiang Chen to speak to him in such a tone. His face stiffened, and then he let out an odd laugh. "Well, well, brat — you've got some backbone, don't you? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
Jiang Chen smiled. "No, I really don't."
This response nearly choked the man. His expression shifted between dark and light. He was wearing a robe emblazoned with unmistakable insignia — the very outfit he always put on to show off and throw his weight around the streets and alleyways.
In the Scarlet Water Small World, he'd pulled this number more times than he could count with this getup, and it had never once failed. Every time those wandering cultivators caught sight of him, they were filled with awe — even falling over themselves to ingratiate themselves. And this brat was being this rude? Treating his outfit like it didn't exist?
A person at a neighboring table kindly warned Jiang Chen: "Friend, you've been away from the Scarlet Water Small World for quite a while, haven't you? This gentleman is affiliated with our White Dragon Sect — and the White Dragon Sect ranks among the top three powers in the Scarlet Water Small World!"
"Heh heh, a distinguished cultivator from the White Dragon Sect wishes to see you, young man. You'd best go meet him. You won't lose anything from it."
Jiang Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He appreciated the neighbor's warning. But the moment he heard the sect's name, he nearly spat out his wine.
What a piece of work.
White Dragon Sect — was this an idiot's sect? No wonder their man came looking like a fool, and such an unmistakably transparent one at that.
"Scared, brat? If you're scared, then get on your knees right now, knock your head three times against the ground, and beg this young master for forgiveness!" The man was strutting with arrogance.
The reverent tone the neighbors had used when introducing the White Dragon Sect filled him with a deep sense of satisfaction — a triumphant rush of having put someone in their place.
Jiang Chen shook his head. "Run into an idiot the moment I step out — guess I should have checked the almanac today."
He was muttering to himself, not even bothering to look at the man.
But this gesture, these words, struck the other's nerves like a blade. It was outright contempt for a distinguished cultivator of the White Dragon Sect — and he'd been called an idiot to boot!
How could this be tolerated?
The man's face turned cold. He stormed forward in great strides, reaching out to grab Jiang Chen. But the instant he lunged up to him, Jiang Chen's eyes flickered. A bolt of divine sense shot forth, piercing straight into the man's eyes.
In the next moment, the man's entire body shuddered, as though he had glimpsed the most terrifying thing in the world.
Jiang Chen had actually held back with that blast of divine sense. He hadn't gone all out. Otherwise, with his Evil Golden Eye, the man would have been turned to stone in the blink of an eye — where would he have found room for such bluster?