Fate of The Zhao Clan

When Zhao Yun entered the main hall, he found every clan member gathered there. Apart from Zhao Lin, Zhao Ying, Su Wan and the five elders who were sitting, others were standing around the hall. When Zhao Yun did the head count, including him there were only 48 members with 35 teenagers. The ones who were the true bloodline of the Zhao Clan were only 15 which included Zhao Lin, Zhao Ying, Zhao Fan, Zhao San, Zhao Yun and the five elders. The other five were the children of the elders. Rest were either wives married into the clan or the servants bestowed with the clan surname. There was a trace of sorrow in Zhao Yun's eyes when he came to this realisation. The once thriving Zhao clan now had to rely on these servants to make up a somewhat decent number.

Zhao Ying spotted this change and also smiled a little sadly. But as the clan leader, his experience and state of mind was much better than the boy. He said, "Yun'er, only after great destruction can a solid construction can be done. Even though our clan has declined to such state, we have lost all the moles and cleaned up our clan. Only loyal and upright men and women remain in our clan. We would grow on from here. And as human do we even need to worry about population?" he joked.

Zhao Yun laughed along. He stepped forward and started sitting on an empty seat when all of a sudden everyone including Zhao Lin stood up. Confused the boy blankly looked at the elders not knowing what they were up to.

Zhao Hong, the eldest of the five elders said with a smile, Young Master, the seat reserved for you is this one." He said while pointing at the head seat. The others nodded. Even Zhao Ying nodded.

"No No No! This is impossible." Zhao Yun denied. "This seat should belong to Uncle or ancestor."

"Brother Ying, Yun'er is right. He's too young to sit on that seat." Zhao Fan supported his son.

Zhao Ying smiled while shaking his head, "You know of my condition. Uncle Lin is too old for this. Brother Fan only your son is capable of sitting on that seat now." There was a trace of sorrow in his voice. He was not jealous of his own nephew. In fact he was the most happy with this outcome. He just regrets his own condition.

Before Zhao Yun could say anything else, Su Wan said to him, "Yun'er, the Zhao clan needs you to take them even further. We would help you in taking care of small matters. You need not worry about the clan matters, but to be accepted by everyone, I'm afraid you are the only one."

Zhao Yun retorted, "But I won't be able to do much as most of the time I would be training myself. I can't take care of the clan as well as you guys can. I don't even know much about it."

Before anyone else could say anything, Zhao Lin said, "Little one, Ying and Wan'er are crippled. There is no way they can carry the burden of the clan when the members grow stronger than them. I'm too old to advance anymore. Even if that was not the case, even if the two were fine and I was young, do you think we can get the support of everyone like you can do?" he questioned while glancing around.

Zhao Yun was stunned at first then when he looked around, he found everyone, whether young or old was gazing at him with fervour admiration. There was excitement and adoration in their gazes.

Zhao Yun didn't feel any pride at this. For the first time he found a heavy weight pressing down on his shoulders. When he looked at the faces of his clan members, it dawned on him that he was not the Zhao Yun of the old; he could no longer shirk from the responsibilities that his rising strength brought him. He took a deep breath and under the expectant gaze of many slowly made his way towards the head seat before sitting on it.

A thunderous applause broke out in the main hall. Seeing this atmosphere, Zhao Lin was moved. This was the first time he saw Zhao Clan united both in body and spirit.

Zhao Yun calmed down a little. Due to some unknown reason, he felt that there was some change in his genesis energy but he didn't know what changed. Seeing that the boy had calmed down so quickly, the elders nodded inwardly. Slowly everyone sat down. Zhao Yun sat at the head seat with his parents sitting by his side. Zhao Lin and Zhao Ying sat beside Zhao Fan while Su Wan sat beside Guan Rou.

Seeing that the atmosphere has calmed down, Zhao Lin asked Zhao Yun about his plans.

"Elders, I have no experience in how to develop our clan. All I can do is provide for resources and increase our strength. So the first course of action would be to reorganise our clan." The boy spoke.

Zhao Ying nodded as this was what he also had in mind.

"Elders I have a suggestion and I hope you would agree to it." Zhao Yun spoke.

"Oh! What suggestion would our can leader have?" Zhao Ping, the second oldest among the five elders spoke in a teasing voice.

"Hehe" Zhao Yun smiled embarrassedly. He said, "Seniors, in this ordeal we lost our members. We also saw who are loyal to our can. So I hope that these members should be given the surname Zhao and not only in name but also in existence should they become the part of Zhao Can from now on."

His speech was slow and earnest. The elders and even Zhao Ying were a little surprised. Only Zhao Lin nodded in approval. These servants had stayed with the clan in its most dire situation. They deserve this treatment.

Seeing the ancestor nod, Zhao Ying had nothing else to say while the elders also thought that this was a good idea. With this not only will the Zhao Clan expand in size, the loyalty of these former servants would be strengthen as well.

When this news was announced, there was a huge applause. The members knelt on the floor in gratitude. Tears were flowing from their cheeks. Most of these servants were orphans before the clan took them in. unlike others, they were treated with kindness. Although they were servants, they found a sense of belonging in the clan. This was the reason why they stood by the clan in times of danger. Finally, the clan accepted them as their formal members. Finally they were no longer servants but a family. How can they not be happy?

Zhao Yun smiled at this outcome. He had no intention of strengthening their loyalty; he just wanted to acknowledge them for what they have done.

He asked "Uncle, how much money do we have?"

Zhao Ying furrowed his brows for a moment as he calculated. He said, "The money including what we got from the bandits and which we have gained by selling our properties is roughly about 500 platinum coins. We spent 100 in our residence so it comes down to 400."

Zhao Yun nodded. This money could sustain the cultivation of the clan for five years if everything goes normally.

He asked Zhao San for brush and paper and began writing. When he was finished, he passed it to Zhao Ying.

"Uncle Can you send someone to buy these ingredients?" Zhao Yun asked.

Zhao Ying took the paper from the boy and went through it. There were all medicinal herbs with mostly being in tier 1. There were a total of 300 herbs listed there. There were six tier 3 herbs, 24 tier two herbs and the rest were tier 1 herbs.

He nodded at the boy and sent Zhao Gang, one of the elder to buy the medicines.

"What do you need these medicines for?" Zhao Lin questioned.

"Ancestor, these medicines are required to raise the strength of the clan." Zhao Yun answered vaguely.

No one asked further questions. They knew that their young leader had gained some mysterious legacy. How strong it was, they didn't know, but they knew that this legacy would be able to take them much higher in the world of cultivation.

There was a little envy in Zhao Lin, Zhao Ying and Su Wan's eyes. They knew that these medicines won't be able to help them anymore as they had already set their foundation.

This emotion did not escape Zhao Yun's eyes. He smiled cheekily and then began writing the cultivation manuals that Ling Yun had given him prior to his departure from the scroll world.

One by one he started passing the cultivation manual for Qi refining, body refining and soul refining to the trio (Zhao Lin, Zhao Ying and Su Wan). The moment they read the manuals, they stood up in agitation. Medicines and such were resources that can be bought with money. Manuals were something that was heavily guarded secrets. No one would pass these casually, thus even low level manuals were guarded as treasures in small clans. The Zhao clan was one such clan. The manual they had was too low tier and were only able to be cultivated to foundation realm. After that it was all up to luck. Now from nowhere, the boy had given them a manual to train up to Xiantian realm. They were too shocked.

The nearby elders and other clan members were surprised to see this reaction from the three most powerful members of the clan. They craned their necks to try and see what it was that the young leader had given them to garner such reaction.

The trio quickly came to their senses and swiftly hid the manuals. It was too precious to be shown to others casually. They glared at the boy. 'True enough he's too green'.

Zhao Yun too understood that he had done something foolish so he averted his gaze in embarrassment.

With utmost seriousness Zhao Lin asked, "Are these real?"

"As real as they can be." Replied Zhao Yun firmly.

"They are so precious that I don't even know that it is a fortune or calamity." Sighed Zhao Lin.

Zhao Yun shuddered at those words. His inexperience had kicked in again. He had forgotten that treasures would attract strong warriors too. Moreover the manuals that would even be coveted by some xiantian experts.

Zhao Yun said, "These are the manuals for you guys to cultivate. To others I would be giving other manuals which are fragmented."

Zhao Ying's eyes lit up. He said, "If you can give us a number of those techniques, we can build up a library for our clan." He was clearly excited about this prospect.

Zhao Yun smiled wryly. For making a library just how many manuals and scroll he had to memorise? Just thinking about it made him have a headache.

"Well this might be beneficial to you." Ling Yun's voice sounded in his mind.

"How so?" he asked.

"There are two kinds of cultivators. One who cultivate a peerless divine technique and show impressive might using it while others cultivate several techniques which would give them versatility." Ling Yun explained. "The second kind is extremely rare and generally only poor cultivators would reluctantly do so, the time I am spending in the scroll, I started studying those techniques. Although they are too low level for me, the more I cultivate the more flaws I found in my own techniques. This is why I suggest that since with the help of medicines and the legacy you have, your cultivation speed is already fast so you should cultivate many techniques. This will not only give you versatility, it will also create a solid foundation for you. It would be far easier for you to create your own technique in the future."

Zhao Yun slowly digested this information. Although he did not understand much, he had a somewhat blind trust in Ling Yun, thus he believed him.

After talking to Ling Yun for a while, Zhao Yun slowly started seeing a path ahead. Coming back to reality he said to Zhao Ying, "Uncle, for the time being gather the medicines and other things. Also discuss with the elders how to distribute resources. For their loyalty, we would allow everyone to reach the peak of body refining and Qi refining. Their further path should depend on themselves. Those who want to cultivate soul refining too, or those who want to advance to foundation set some tasks. Only after completing them would they get the resources."

Zhao Ying nodded. The so called task would be contribution to the clan. The clan won't provide free resources to everyone without gaining anything back.

Zhao Yun and others continued to discuss the development of the clan when Zhao Gang and Zhao San returned. The two had gone to buy medicines that Zhao Yun had asked for.

"Young master, all the medicines written here had been bought in large quantities except for body cleansing fruit and marrow washing liquid." Zhao San reported.

Zhao Yun remembered them to be the two rarest tier 3 medicines from the list he had given to the two. They were the main ingredient for the Body Quenching Liquid which aided in reaching the perfection of tempering ream.

He frowned as the two herbs were important for the Body Quenching liquid.

Zhao San seeing the boy's frown cautiously spoke, "Young Master, these types of rare herbs and treasures are not sold in the en market as they are too precious. I have heard of a place which can fulfil Young Master's need."

"Oh what place?" Zhao Yun questioned.

"Evergreen Trading Firm." Zhao San replied with a hint of seriousness in it.