Matt looked down at his palm that just slapped the youth into the wall, he didn’t think he would make him fly that hard.
‘He was weaker than expected… good that I lowered my strength… could have killed the kid…’
He gulped, he misjudged how strong that young master was. He was still in battle mode from fighting his bodyguards so even though he meant to give him a gentle pat to the cheek, that would at most make him go down to one knee. He gave him a strong enough smack to make him comedically fly to the side while knocking out a couple of teeth in the process.
‘Well, at least they are down and don’t look like they will be resisting anymore.’
He glanced at the warriors that were clutching various parts of their bodies, the metal shrapnel had lodged itself into their flesh and probably hurt like hell. The kids were protected behind him thanks to his transparent shield, so they were all fine and dandy.
‘Well then… what should I do now…’
He looked at the disgruntled bodyguards that were squirming on the ground, trying to remove metal pieces from their cheeks. He could try to round them all up, make them carry the young master over to the police station. But there were these crying children behind his back, he was slightly afraid that the orphans would just run away if he wasn’t paying attention.
“Hey you there, what’s the Xing Clan second son’s name?”
One of the bodyguards that wasn’t injured looked up at the scary grandpa and quickly replied.
“T-the young master’s name is Xing Shie, please elder show mercy, the Xing clan will surly repay you handsomely.”
The man quickly bowed, hoping that this crazy old fart wouldn’t just kill them all. If they made it back to the Xing Clan compound they could get some backup and take care of this elder.
Matt decided to just use his police force for the job, he also wanted to see how they would handle the procedure of apprehending a young master. He wasn’t sure if everyone was on the same page as he was though, after the fiasco with the lady and her son that his workers and clan members refused to help out.
‘Hope they won’t take any bribes… but this would be a good opportunity to see if they do. It might be better if that happened now than later.’
Matt didn’t kid himself, there were a couple of bad apples even back in Spirit Spring City, but they were far too afraid of him to do anything about him. Still, he knew that they were waiting for him to slip up, little schemers that they were. He already disowned the clan members that left the city during the time he was at that secret ground. He couldn’t trust people that just run away whenever times got tough.
‘I need to open that school soon so then we can start indoctrin… training the kids to be good policemen, yeah…’
Matthew knew that most people in this world liked to be placed in groups. They would stay loyal to the person that gave them the opportunity to better themselves, for instance by giving them some cultivation manuals and some resources to break through a realm or two. But there were always one or two of those scheming types, that everything was just a stepping stone for their way to the top.
He had the young master’s name now, so he just turned around being sure to reply with a resounding snort to the pleading that the bodyguard was doing.
“Don’t worry, I’m not the one that will be taking care of you, I will be sure to report this incident to the brand new and glorious, Zhang Clan, Police Department!”
He made sure to pronounce the Zhang Clan name clearly, it would surely send the cultivators trembling in their boots. In reality, they didn’t know what the old guy was on about, they knew that the Zhang Clan was doing some strange stuff in the background, but they still thought that even they would just take a bribe and be done with it.
He finally turned around the group of children, the enemies were slowly removing themselves from the old shed that was close to crumbling due to the release of the warriors fighting aura. The kids were still scared, tears in the eyes of some but some of the older ones had that glint in their eyes, like someone that had been through a lot.
“Don’t worry children, grandpa here will protect all of you, come with me, we need to treat your friend here first, then let’s all go to a nice restaurant, you probably haven’t had a warm meal in quite some time!”
The kids looked at each other, the younger ones were instinctively on board after the grandpa mentioned a warm meal. The older ones were more apprehensive as they didn’t really trust adults anymore. They didn’t have any role models and most of them had no older family members left alive or caring for them. The boy that Matt healed being a rare case that still had a loving mother with him.
Luckily he had the boy to speak up for him this time around, otherwise, he would probably have to stuff the kids into his energy bubble.
“Don’t worry, we can trust this Senior, he healed my wounds too!”
Thank’s to the youth he earned some trust, the other kids looked at their older brother and nodded they knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t lie to them. They were always worried about their beaten elder brother that was slowly succumbing to his internal injuries.
“I guess we should give this young fellow some first aid, first.”
The old man proclaimed while moving over to the collapsed youth on the ground. The kids parting to the side after they got the nod from their other brother that was vouching for the old man.
“Let’s see…”
Matt’s eyes glowed slightly, this was quite the nifty physician skill that let you see the internal injuries that a patient had. But could also be used during battle to notice your opponent’s weak points. He could see the youth’s shattered ribs, some lacerations, and the head trauma. He was still conscious though and it would probably be a problem to get him to insert those acupuncture needles into the frightened teen.
Instead, he moved in closer and leaned over, he would use a less direct approach. This was akin to a regular healing art, he just placed his index finger on the youth’s upper Dantian on his forehead. The kids weren’t sure what this man was doing, but the moment his finger touched their brother’s forehead something astonishing happened.
They could see the elder’s finger glow in an astonishing golden light. He was directing his healing energies through the boy’s forehead and gently guiding them through his meridians, which then dispersed them all throughout his body. This was a slower procedure than when he used his acupuncture needles. This one had to go from top to bottom in order, while the needles were able to disperse his healing energies simultaneously to all the injured parts.
The youths never came across such a healing method, but they haven’t really seen many powerful cultivators in general. The injured youth started feeling lightheaded, his muscles relaxing as the healing energies washed over him. He felt like he was floating on a cloud, the healing art also having the boon of removing the pain while the body regenerated.
Soon enough the child was healed, the kids rejoicing as they saw the wounds vanishing from their elder brother’s face. He was even well enough to stand up, looking at the palms of his hands some of the fingers that were previously broken weren’t hurting at all anymore, he only felt a strange tingling sensation like some ants were running inside those previously broken digits.
“W-what?”
He looked at the elder that was now standing up, hands behind his back and already in his master cultivator pose. The youth instantly dropped down to his knees and started bowing, the boy knowing well that this man had to be some kind of powerful master that the couldn’t offend.
“Well then little thief, you have offended some pesky people, how about you follow me along with your juniors, I’ll give you all a place to stay. But don’t think it’s going to be free, you’ll have to work for your wage.”
The boy stood up, his head dropping down as the elder mentioned the part about offending other people. He knew that his band or urchins had bit off more than they could chew. This was the young master of the Xing Clan we were talking about, that was a scary family to have offended. Normally they would have needed to leave this city, there was no hope for them after offending a powerhouse clan like that, but this Senior here was offering his help.
“Work? Wage? You’re offering us work?”
The youth was even more suspicious, who would offer work to a band of pickpockets with no background whatsoever. They had no value unless they showed some kind of talent for cultivation.
“Yes, just regular work, the Zhang Clan is creating an orphanage in this city, you will be fed and have a roof over your head. In return you’ll have to do various tasks, mostly cleaning out these ghastly streets from all this garbage.”
“If you are old enough, you can even join the police academy they are making. You just need to pass some tests, you’ll get some cultivation resources and will be able to work for them if you are a promising recruit. But, let’s get out of here first, I promised you some food first!”
He was actually hungry himself, having quite an appetite for this world’s cuisine. The spiritual energy-rich foods were a lot tastier than the ones back on earth, he just couldn’t get enough of those.
The children took the man up on the offer, but they still were thinking about running away if the opportunity presented themselves. They only really trusted themselves. Though they wanted those things that he was talking about to be the truth, they didn’t really like living in the slums with a leaky roof over their head, not knowing if they would have any rice to get by each day.
They all wandered into the richer part of town, the elder was walking in front while some people whispered from the side. The first child and his mother were with them as well, the woman was also feeling uncomfortable due to her shabby appearance. She rarely came to this part of the city, mostly here to clean up after some young masters drinking spree as no one really wanted to tend to vomit.
Logically they were denied access to the restaurant that the old man wanted to bring them over, but after the elder produced a big sack of golden coins the restaurant owners started singing a different tune. This gramps was loaded, the children got quite the feast as they even occupied one of the upper floors all to themselves.
‘Man, they must have had it harsh…’
Matt groaned inwardly as he saw those kids devouring the food, almost forgetting to breathe between the chomps they were taking. They were eating like this was the first meal that they had their entire life, snoot, and tears filling their eyes from the sheer happiness they were experiencing. Some of them even made a vow to follow this strange grandpa for the rest of their lives, Matt would probably sweat if he found out that peoples devotion could be so easily bought with some food around here.
While the kids were eating, he took out a communication jade. It was already close to night time after he headed out from the clinic, so he needed to get these kids shelter. He notified Zhang Kuo, the man knew that he, the Patriarch was disguised as the clinic doctor at the moment. He ordered him to arrange shelter for these kids and also to make a report to the police unit, noting him down as the prime witness.
“Hm, things are all set now. I hope my juniors won’t disappoint me too much…”