Day 25-70 The Azure Feather Clan part 1 Making my presence known

Traveling the last few days was never boring. Shen Sheng finally recovered after consuming some pills and elixirs. Which was good since he couldn't keep up with the speed in which Zhao Ning and Ye Xinghe traveled when they weren't sparring.

Zhao Ning fighting prowess increased to such a degree that the Royal Guard decided to spar with her one day. He won, thinking she still had a ways to go but the teen-only used her body and the Star Blade technique to temper herself further.

Zhao Ning, if she wanted to could kill him in a fight. Her confidence soared but she didn't let it go to her head and made sure to digest everything more to improve herself further.

Techlis, had fought Shen Sheng after he recovered and put the haughty Royal Guard back in his place with ease. So did the match against the rest of the Frost Birds. Chipping away a lot of his arrogance, he started to cultivate more seriously and no longer rest on his position as a guard.

Ye Xinghe just cultivate as normal with not sparring and going over martial theory with Zhao Ning. The amount of Demon Beasts killed only bordered in the low thousands. Clearing a good path between teh Academy and Blue Carp Town.

Which would give the traveling merchants a little leeway. Having taken a small monster hunting mission while traveling, the duo of Ye Xinghe and Zhao Ning made a small name for themselves.

"Hmm, Blue Carp Town, looks so quiet." Xinghe took in the sight of the town and its surrounding forests and mountains. It was a nice place but way isolated. Not in the good way either. The cut up Demon Beast meat in his Internal Space was more than enough to make the town change from teh starvation of some. "Well, it is about to get noisy real quick."

"Hehe, yeah it is. Part of me wants to go home first but I think it best I stay with you." Zhao Ning gave him an enamored look. "Not a problem, is it Master Yinghe?"

"Nope," Xinghe gave a smile and walked forward. "long as you remember my rules I don't care what you do."

She trailed along happily with Shen Sheng frowning under his mask. Some of the things he heard Ye Xinghe tell the girl were unnerving. Especially what he said about Civil Rights and the changing of Laws.

Both Liang Yu and Ye Xinghe were not going to let the past era remain. It worked wonders when the Dark Moon Family under the Prime Souls started leadership took over and establish a better rule so it would be done again.

The notion that the Royal Family would not govern in the future reeked of rebellion but not much he can do since Ye Xinghe pointed out a few rebellious actions of the North Lord's Mansion.

Entering the area, a few kids were playing and running about. Despite his increase in size and the white hair, it only took him getting in 30 feet for the children to recognize him.

"Big Bro Xinghe!" The lead child yelled. They swarmed on him and were swept into his embrace. Despite the changes to his mind and a good bit of affections for people, the care towards children and infants remained enough.

"Oh my!" Zhao Ning blushed for some reason. Seeing him with children so happily warmed her heart a little. Knowing herself to be the first to see this, she gave a mental cheer. 'Hah! I got to see this side of him first!'

This was discounting Linlin and Liang Jian of course.

Shen Sheng was suprised, as this was the most he saw general affection come from the Star Martial Artist. Besides his interaction with Zhao Ning when training and tending to her wounds, he was very strict on himself.

'At least he has a heart.' Shen Sheng decided to stay with them a little longer before reporting back. 'How he deals with the head of the Family is another matter.'

"Come now, let's move further inward." Ye Xinghe ushered the children along. His Heart Method already running over their little bodies and finding a few problems from the malnutrition and lack of poverty. 'Time I use my medical skills again. Not just Star energy to fix this.'

Not getting to far ahead, a few more people caught sight of them. Running over and congratulating him on becoming a Lieutenant of the North Lord Mansion. It was the first moment the children saw him do anything but frown.

Ye Xinghe denied it outright that he did not take the position and was going to correct the matter. The obvious distaste was enough to cause a few to look on in wonder.

Why would someone decline such a nice position like that? To them it was more than they could dream of. Indoctrinated people were like that infortunately. Not having bigger dreams for themselves.

Ignoring the questions, he had the kids line up and started treating them. With the strength and power of his Flame Vortex Core and the Demonic Star Martial Arts, it was easy to take care of teh kids in a matter of hours.

Zhao Ning turning into the perfect assistant. With Shen Sheng just regulating traffic on the outside. The children were all saw to first from the Azure Feather Family. He made sure to ask them how they received the bruises and cuts.

Those who were honest received a piece of beef jerky made from Demon Beast Meat. Those who lied received nothing. Only 3 kids were actually beaten from child abuse and he would not help them unless they spoke up.

Seeing the happy faces, the 3 kids admitted what happened.

"Ye Ro, Ye Kong, and Ye Mei," Ye Xinghe spoke calmy and reassuringly to them. Having enough understanding on how to go about this the right way and the wrong way. "They will pay for what they did. You will never have to worry about that again, do you three understand?"

The three nodded and received a piece of jerky. Feeling much better in not getting left out now. Techlis grew in size and the children were instructed how he would not hurt them but keep them safe while the clan was "fixed" of its problems the next few weeks.

"Go ahead and go play now. But make sure you take it easy." Xinghe instructed. A female clan member followed along to make sure. She was trustworthy enough from what he rembered. It would take some time before he moved to the ones he would recruit to his direct side. "The Azure Feather Family.. is about to go through a dramatic change, prepare yourselves for it."

"Ye Xinghe, what is all this about?" Another teen that went along in the same age group as him was concerned.

Ye Xingyun had short hair and was just as unimpressive as the original Ye Xinghe in presence and stature. Having lost to him when deciding who would go to the Heavenly Star Academy, the teen was just another body overall afterward.

"The vacation time of the Heavenly Star Academy is not for a few more weeks."

"I took "early leave" for training and to fix a problem." Resting his head on his hand, he stared at those behind scanning them intensley. "You four are wasted on farming, how would you to become members of my guard?"

The four he pointed out were those in their 20's who had fair cultivation and left the Azure Feather Family after Liang Yu called to attention what happened with the Academy incident and how Ye Xinghe just couldn't make a smart decision not impacted by his sense of Pride.

Seeing how Zhao Ning, stood to his side respectfully and assisted him most were confused. Even Shen Sheng of the North Lord's Mansion obeyed to help keep traffic controlled.

"We are willing to follow you." The four stepped forward and bowed in respect. They didn't like working the fields considering to many were already doing that and it just meant less time on other matters that could help.

*Thump!* A few runes scribed leathers were thrown to them. The four were Dragon Martial Artist and would serve well for a little force build-up for now.

"Put this on, head home, and take a bath. Circulate the 1st level of this Manual and nothing more." Ye Xinghe moved a manual to each of them using his qi. "Go until you exhaust your dantian. Do not do the 2nd level unless you want to die."

The four grabbed the fine leathers and left in a hurry. The runes activating the moment they were grabbed and started bonding to them. Small blue feathers tattoo-like patterns appearing on the hands.

"What is going on here?" An old man called from the outside. Gather with him were a lot of the elders and older people in the family. "Why are you all gathered like this?"

A few moved out the way. Giving entry into the house Ye Xinghe was in. He did not come out to greet them already. Showing his lack of respect for the elder and others by doing so.

A few close to the elder reluctantly spoke up. Xinghe was a member of the North Lord's Mansion as far as they knew. Which meant he had the favor of someone powerful or he himself grew stronger than they knew. But time suggested it was the former.

As the old man listened, time spent as the Patriarch had to be taken into account but they hadn't had anything like this happen before. Even more, so that the last member of the family to make it into anything important was about 20 years ago.

"Why are you so upset? This is for the good of the family." Old Ye didn't think he missed stepped in his decision-making. Not having consulted with the parents of Ye Xinghe was just a formality really. A courtesy that he was going to do in a few days.

"To keep your life... you have only to kneel and ask for my forgiveness." Ye Xinghe used the Full power of the Flame Vortex Frost Phoenix. The other Dantians were not used at all. "You are no longer worthy of your position as clan leader."

Composed of dense blue-white flames, a Phoenix appeared and flew over the area. With each flap of its wings, the qi in the area was taken as it banked around the town. With the circulation of the Heart Method, the oppressive force was felt all around.

Ye Xinghe had "looked" at each of them and made note of them. Some were uncaring as they did not know any better. A few accepting a stronger cultivator than themselves were in the area.