The kids were a bit apprehensive to go with the Zhang Clan members, but the elder that saved them reassured them that it was fine.
“I’ll be at the clinic, for now, if anything happens you can just come running to this grandpa and he will protect you with all his might!”
He proclaimed to give the kids somewhere to go if things got rough, but he couldn’t really stay with them any longer. They would be placed in an orphanage and watched, they were still pickpockets so they needed to be punished so, for now, they would be on lockdown. They had a program to teach kids at a gated school, they would have a dorm to live in as well.
The whole project was more or less a one package deal, with the orphanage, dorm, school, and various training facilities being at one spot. The kids would get basic education and even some basic cultivation manuals to get them going. The children could slowly adapt and after a certain period had a choice to make, they could either join the Zhang Clan as one of their lower-level sub-factions or just leave and do their own thing.
Matt was planning to school the kids in the basics of pill forging, crafting and various other professions. He wanted to let the kids find something they were good at, so then they could find some work later on in their life. It would probably be easier to study under a master if the disciple had some proper foundations in the basics of the craft they were studying in.
‘But let’s try not to put them in too much of a debt…’
There was a small catch though. The kids were required to pay some of the tuition fees later on in their life, he wanted it to be free but after some calculations, the numbers just didn’t add up. Either he would need to cover the price himself, or have the people learning to repay the Zhang Clan later.
He went with the second option, he wanted to teach the youths a lesson that nothing was really free in this life, but also that you should repay your debts. They would have ample time to repay it though and it was a reasonable price mostly for the food eaten, lodging fees and the teacher fees.
Zhang Kuo was swift to organize the exchange, he couldn’t let his Patriarch waiting and soon a group of Zhang Clan cultivators was standing in front of the restaurant. They had their orders and meet with the clinic doctor in question but they didn’t know that it was their glorious leader in disguise.
He got the children to come with him and that group, escorting them to the dorm they would be living in now. The new building was more styled in the earthly ways, with many smaller rooms with bunk beds. The kids would be staying here while some Zhang members taught them how to read and some basic cultivation methods. Those methods were slightly better than what other cultivators used, but still, nothing that would impact the Zhang clan’s hold on its power.
Matt had upgraded all the core Zhang Clan cultivation methods, plus added a lot of the manuals he copied over from the sacred grounds. The new cultivators would be advancing swiftly with a high-quality foundation. Zhang Zhi was already a core formation expert and Zhang Jin moved over to the middle stage not long ago too. There were many members that were on the cusp of breaking through, but everyone had to reevaluate their foundation.
With the new addition of the updated books, everyone had to go through a process of retraining. The cracked and shaky foundation pillars had to be repaired as much as they could before the practitioner could advance. This process was a whole more tedious for people at an advanced age who had this kind of shaky foundation, so mostly the younger cultivators would progress further. Some of those cracked foundation pillars just couldn’t be repaired without dumping in a lot of resources.
At least that would be the normal outcome, but they had their Patriarch with those holy element powers now. He could somehow repair a damaged foundation pillar so if you were deemed worthy, you could advance further with the help of Zhang Dong. The process was slow, so not everyone could get that treatment at this time only the elders that came back from the secret ground would get treated. From the twenty that went in, fifteen returned with five of them dying during the beast waves or while fighting the demon cultivator.
The kids looked at the grandpa that was waving at them, he brought them over to a strange place in which they were going to stay. There were some friendly people around, mostly women that were good at tending to the kids.
“Now stay with the elder sisters here, they will take care of you. Listen to them and don’t cause trouble.”
The old man parted with the kids and headed out. It was already late, the kids were moved to the rooms by the attending elder sisters that would explain how things worked there. Now the only problem was that Xing Clan’s young master, the police unit was informed and the old man that was the prime witness was now at the new police station.
He was in the classic interrogation room, it even had a one-way mirror with some other police members on the other side. Before entering this place Matt could see his police-men working, they were bringing in some ruffians that were spouting the usual gibberish about being some big shot.
“So, Senior Wei Hung. Let me just go over it once more. You encountered Xing Shie in the city slums area…”
Matt was sitting opposite some unknown clan member that was wearing his police uniform, he was still trying not to smirk at the cultivation nuts wearing more modern clothes. They just read some questions down from a parchment about the encounter with the Xing family. They clearly were inexperienced, the man kept sneaking peeks at the paper not knowing wwhat to ask about while taking notes.
He was free to go afterward, they knew that he worked for their clan at their new clinic. The next step for them would be to apprehend the suspect involved in the beating, the suspect’s biggest transgression was the half beaten small boy that the elder healed as the other children weren’t as beaten up as that one was. But the normal officers would only bring him in, the judging would be carried out by at least a sergeant.
“Xing Clan, this could get ugly…”
One of the Zhang officers said while they were gathering people. They knew about that family and knew that it was one of the stronger ones that didn’t like to play by the rules.
“Think we might need the Captain to tag along with us…”
“Well, we have orders to go with a smaller force first, then call for backup if they start resisting or deny us entry into their living area.”
Another police member said while fixing his police cap, he was reading things from some booklet. They had some basic procedures written down in there, like breaking down the door if the offenders don’t comply. There was no judicial system quite yet, so they didn’t have to tell them their rights yet.
The group of Zhang Cultivators gathered, they were somewhat experienced as they were doing this back home in Spirit Spring City. But back there no one in their right mind would ever oppose them, in this town things might be tricky at the beginning stages. The leading sergeant was one of the elders that survived the secret ground mission and was at the foundation establishment great circle.
He took about ten people with him and headed over to the Xing Clan main mansion. They had to go through the pleasure district to get there, the mafioso like family not caring in the slightest that they had their main house in this kind of environment.
While they were making their way there, the Xing Clan young master was back home getting treatment.
“Ah it hurts, my face… he damaged my handsome face! Father, you must avenge me!”
The youth was squirming while holding on to his face, the injury was still new and you could see a handprint plastered over one of the man’s cheeks. His pearly white smile was gone as a couple of his teeth got knocked out in the process, pills that could repair teeth didn’t come cheap so he would have to wait for some to be delivered.
“Calm down Shie, tell me again, what happened? It was an old man? Did he really just want to save some useless brats? He also had many high-quality treasures?”
The father was sitting to the side while some other people tended to his son, he couldn’t really wrap his mind around a friendly grandpa just wanted to help some kids out, that didn’t make any sense.
“Yes Father, he just came and started spouting some nonsense! He even gave me two good swords to trade for those damn kids, ow my face…”
“Then you got greedy, you should learn to measure people’s strength better. Don’t depend on your retainers so much.”
The father took a puff from his large cigar, worried that his son was such a useless little shit.
“Yes, it was all their fault then need to get lashed to death, that idiot was confident in taking that elder in battle. I would have never offended him otherwise!”
The father nodded, he needed to make an example those bodyguards failed in their mission of protecting his son, they needed to get punished and severely. While Xing Deng was about to speak up one of his retainers walked in, moved over to him and whispered something into his ear.
“THEY WHAT?”
He stood up instantly, his hand moving into a fist as he crushed the cigar that he was holding.
“What do those Zhang Clan bastards want? Why do they want my Son to come with them?”
He looked at his injured brat and then headed out of the room, not knowing what these Zhang Clan members wanted but he wasn’t in a position to give them the cold shoulder.
“Let them in, get bring over our strongest warriors to come too, this might turn ugly…”
He wasn’t sure what they wanted his son for, but it probably had something to do with the old man that beat up his second son.
“Shie’er stay here and don’t come out and be quiet!”
He strode out, some bodyguards instantly appearing next to him half a step behind him. He relocated into the main room that he usually brought in guests, he sat down on a large chair and got himself a new cigar as well. He then waited for the other people to come over while going over the things that his son and his retainers reported.
“Now entering, the Zhang Clan… Moonlight City Police force?… s-sergeant…”
One of the Xing clan members announced the people that arrived, they were ten cultivators wearing dark blue robes with strange hats on their heads. Xing Deng instantly tried to measure their fighting potential, his retainers, and bodyguards stationed all around the room, they were there to jump in if a fight broke out.
‘That sergeant cultivator is the strongest… the rest is weaker… not that much of a problem.’
The current Xing clan forces could probably defend against these invaders. He himself could probably handle the strongest member from that group.
“Welcome friends from the Zhang Clan, please sit down and explain to me what you need with my Son?”
He wasn’t one to beat around the bush too much, some other people would probably try to butter up to these Zhang Clan members. He, on the other hand, wanted to know the main reason they were here and how much cash they wanted. From his perspective, this was just a way of the new clan to flex their cultivation muscles and they probably just wanted to extort some spirit stones or treasures from them.
“Let’s get straight to the point then, Mr. Deng. Your son is charged with assault on a young boy and a couple of other youths, he had beaten them severely almost resulting in death. He had some men with him that have the same charges.”
The commanding officer from the group spoke out, he was your regular looking cultivator elder that looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He presented the charges that the men faced.
“We demand you hand those men over to us, they will be put on trial and their sentence will be decided later. I urge you to hand them over willfully as we will use force if you don’t comply.”
The man looked around the room, spotting the angry Xing Clan members that were taking a hit to the face right about now.
“I’d like to remind you, that our Captain is a core formation expert and if you resist we will have to call for him. You probably wouldn’t want that, now would you?”
The elder that was just speaking grinned widely while looking at the Xing Clan Patriarch, the man in question had quite the large vein popping out on his forehead just now. It was now up to him, would they resist or would he hand his son over to these cultivators dressed in blue.