While Ye Tian and the rest headed to the headquarters to gather some information, Old Jin was looking at him from a far distance, high up in the sky where no one could see. Many people knew him as Old Jin in the Star Guardian school, but very few knew what his true cultivation was at.
“A monstrous genius! Such a profound cultivation at such a young age. I’ve never seen anyone like him. Not even the legendary heroes recorded in the book of immortals had achieved the supreme dao realm at such an age. The youngest in history was at the age of 23! I should inform Leader Xue Long about this boy. He could help a great deal in the near future for the Star empire!”
In a blink of an eye, Old Jin quickly disappeared from the scene.
At the headquarter, Ye Tian went to the visitor receptionist to ask for some information about the city. When he returned, a youth that was a couple of years older than him approached him.
“My friend, I can tell you’re new here. I got this city map I can sell you for 50 zoids. You will find it very valuable.”
Ye Tian quickly declined. Anyone could purchase a map for 20 zoids!
“Hahaha, I know what you’re thinking friend, this map I’m selling is no ordinary map. I’ve worked on this map throughout my life. If you want to find a black market, the government headquarters, the noble residences, the cheapest inns, and the best neighborhoods in town, it’s all in this map. I also circled areas that you should be cautious around. You can even take a look at it briefly to prove I’m not fooling you,” the other youth offered.
Ye Tian decided to take a look at it, and quickly found out that this map was definitely different and had much more information than the ordinary map he looked at near the receptionist store. “Senior brother, this map is too expensive. How about 40 zoids?,” Ye Tian asked.
The older youth frowned and countered, “45 zoids. I normally offer others for 55 zoids, but I had a good feeling from you so I lowered my price. I can’t go any lower than this. How about it?”
After thinking about it for a bit, Ye Tian accepted the offer. He thought this map would help him a great deal in the future considering he was new here and didn't want to get into trouble at the very beginning. In the past, he went his father or other elders from the village to the outside world. Although he still didn't understand a lot of things, he was very aware that many places in the outside world were much more vicious.
“What’s your name, friend?” The older youth asked.
“Ye Tian”
“Alright Ye Tian, good doing business with you. I’m Ma Qian, if you ever need information about anything, I’m your best guy guaranteed! Remember to never go around those areas I marked with caution. Trouble will get you in deeper shit than you can ever imagine,” Ma Qian warned with a gloomy face. It seemed he had experienced some trouble in the past.
“I will heed your warning.” Ye Tian clasped his hands. Ye Tian thought something bad must have happened to him in the past to know of such trouble. He continued to study the new map. He was amazed on how detailed the map was and how much information it had, including prices in different stores or inns, people of power in each area, and even places where the beautiful ladies tend to wander around.
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He finally chose an area and brought the rest of the children to a recent abandoned area. After negotiating with the land owner, he finally rented a place where it was spacious enough for them to live together. Ye Tian was thankful the underground storage at his village had enough zoids to cover his expenses for the first few years. The land owner was dissatisfied but still gave the key to Ye Tian. The house was small and dusty like it had been abandoned for decades, but it had a complete set of kitchen and rooms for them to sleep in.
“Little brothers and sister,s this will be our new home. It’s small and it needs to be cleaned up, but this is how many people live in the outside world. We need to learn and be humble."
“Yes, big brother,” the rest of the children replied. The children grew up with minimal necessities in the village, so there wasn’t a big difference to their current living conditions, except that it was smaller and bound to be more crowded.
Ye Tian assigned Ye Chun to delegate work among the children to tidy up and maintain the house. Although it was in the evening, Ye Tian decided to go out and explore the city to gain more familiarity. But most importantly, he needed to find a job! He saw some wanted signs for soldiers to serve some big family clans, but he decided not to. Although he was not the most powerful, he didn’t want anyone to know his high cultivation. It would create unwanted trouble!
After looking around throughout the evening, Ye Tian finally found a job at a medicine shop called the "Internal Healing Garden." This job would give him a steady income while having the opportunity to learn on how to make some potions. He was happy that one problem is solved, but on his way back to his home, a gang full of youths not much older than Ye Tian tried to stir up some trouble. One of them said, “This boy looks pretty rich, let’s help him out a bit.” The others only smiled like a prey had been found.
Ye Tian saw them coming towards him and cupped his hands.
“Kid, let me borrow some money. I promise to pay you back. Here is an IOU note with my signature on it,” the leader said.
Meanwhile the rest of the crew were reaching all over the pockets of Ye Tian’s clothes. Ye Tian hurriedly said, "Seniors, I come from a humble background so I do not have much money.”
The leader responded, “Psss, just a broke ass boy, beat him.”
Ye Tian was beaten, but he never fought back. He could’ve easily beaten the group but he didn’t want to bring any future trouble. He walked back home with bruises and blood stains on his clothes. It was already late at night. The rest of the kids should’ve slept by this time. He purposely waited to come home this late to avoid worrying others. Except Ye Chun was still awake and was waiting for him. When she saw him, she broke into tears.
“Big brother, what happened? Are you okay? Let me take care of those wounds,” Ye Chun cried.
Ye Tian responded, “It’s alright. Just a bunch of hoodlums that got nothing better to do. With my cultivation, it didn’t really hurt me. They were much weaker than I am. But never mind that, I have good news. I got a job!”
Telling her this news would lessen Ye Chun’s worry. Ye Chun still had teardrops, but was also happy of the good news.
“Brother, please eat up. You’ve haven't eaten all day. You must be hungry,” Ye Chun grabbed a plate of food that she saved for him.
“Alright, go to sleep now. Tomorrow is the first day of my job,” Ye Tian concluded.
Over the past two weeks, Ye Tian worked from morning till late in the evening. Meanwhile, Ye Chun and another child near her age went to the market to buy some groceries, because they were responsible to cook for the rest of the family.
Everything went without a hitch, until one day.....