Yang Qing decided to grab Ellie and make his way to the claw section of the Glowing Respite Valley. If he was going to suffer, he would rather bring company to share the suffering with him, and Ellie was the best partner for that.
He had zero qualms about exposing her to whatever dangers that may or may not be in his home. She'd been stealing from him for too long and after the stunt she pulled a few days ago with the Scion of the Golden bamboo pavilion, Yang Qing felt no guilt whatsoever about potentially subjecting her to torment. In fact, some part of him in the deepest recess of his petty soul, hoped that Ellie would become targetted.
Ellie who has had a few brushes with the Yang family showed visible fear at going with Yang Qing to his family's place, but at Yang Qing's 'polite' request she could only comply but not before scoring a few consolation prizes here and there in the form of fish, from Yang Qing, which oddly enough, didn't refuse which made Ellie only warier. But she soon resolved herself to whatever will happen, will happen. It was not like there was any way out for her.
Thus the duo, one bird, and one young man, mopingly made their way to the claw section of the Glowing Respite Valley. The claw section was the area the families of the employees of the Order settled at and those students who had no families or guardians. They were given simple courtyards to settle in when they were on holiday or breaks from the Institute even though as students they would also have other accommodations within the institute.
The system was put in place to help create a sense of cohesion between all members of the Order be it the families or the students.
...
Yang Qing had endless sighs, while Ellie had low whimpering chirps the closer they got to the valley, at some point it even seemed like Ellie was frozen in midair because of how slow she flew. Yang Qing had no complaints about it since he was in no hurry to reach his family's place either. But even with the delay tactics, they eventually still reached the claw section of the Glowing Respite Valley.
Even though the area could be considered a place that housed the families and relatives of Order employees, it looked no different than an established city. There were businesses all around, from markets, to restaurants, to smithies to alchemy shops and other cultivation-related businesses.
There seemed to be some form of order and structure to the arrangement of the area, especially when it came to the arrangement of the buildings and the business.
The sun was already down but the area was still packed with people. Cultivators of all ages and gender were moving about with liveliness about them. The streets had white glowing poplar trees which was the source of light to the area. It added some beauty to the area with fireflies dancing around it with their golden glows and the night clear skies above that were filled with a cluster of stars.
Originally the area wasn't this way. When the Order just started, the area was as lifeless as a graveyard. The area was about the size of a medium-scaled province of a rank 2 Empire. It was around 470,000 square kilometers. Because of how big the area was and the few families around, there was rare communication and interaction between the families or the people from the Order. As time progressed, the population of the Order grew as a consequence of its increasing reputation. This increase in number was also reflected on the families' side. Of the entrants, some came with their immediate families, while others came with their whole clans. Slowly over time, the blank vacuum in the area got filled and a town grew from that.
The area was partitioned into two areas. The first half of the area was where the businesses and other recreational facilities were, basically the town of the place, while the latter half was where the residences of the families and other students were located.
Yang Qing and Ellie slowly made their way past the town ignoring the bluster and liveliness of it all as they moved in the Northwest direction of the region, where the Yang family was located.
...
"I guess I can't ignore this forever, luckily I don't seem to sense Grandpa around or any of the other elders," thought Yang Qing as he stared down at the grid system courtyards below him. There was an entrance gate with a board with the name Yang above it. There was no guard at the entrance since it seemed a bit silly to have one and even before they moved, the Yang family never paid any heed to anything else that wasn't tied to body refinement.
....
"Let's land Ellie," said Yang Qing.
Ellie gently glided toward one of the courtyards in the middle right side.
The courtyard had a white color wall that had green lush vines latching onto it, it had grey tiled roofs and a high Horse-head wall with a small makeshift lake surrounding it.
There were other courtyards with similar designs which made the area seem like it had been built on top of water. The air surrounding the area had a refreshing river smell, and it was also mixed in with the smell of herbs.
Ellie landed in one of the land patches in the courtyard as Yang Qing made his way to one of the houses where he had detected his mom, his older brother, and sister-in-law along with their two kids who were both sons. In addition, he also detected Zou Yi and Zou Liqin there.
...
"Hey Mom, Gen, sister Yao, Huan'er, Xie'er, Zou Yi, Zou Liqin, how are you all doing?" Said Yang Qing as he greeted his mom, brother, sister-in-law, his two nephews, and the Zou siblings respectively.
When he got into the house he found the group all seated around the table waiting on a fair gentle looking slender middle-aged lady to place a red clay pot on the table.
The middle-aged lady had a simple bun with a few strands here and there and a calm-inducing aura and smile to her. Her hair was black with matching eyes and bore a faint resemblance to Yang Qing and the 30-year-old gentleman that was seated at the table, who had short black hair, a look to him that made him seem polite and a person of few words. He had on white robes that had a few smudges here and there like something had spilled on them.
Next to him was a lady with red hair and an aura that was his complete opposite. At a glance, she seemed like the lively and outgoing type. She had a charming beauty with long curly hair.
At the other side of the table were two siblings, one of them had red hair and the other black and they resembled the 30-year-old man and the red-haired lady. The one with red hair seemed to be the older one and looked to be seven while the younger one looked to be five.
Zou Yi and Zou Liqin were seated next to them. They had on brand new light orange robes on and had an air of shy reservation to them but that changed when they spotted Yang Qing as their eyes shone with excitement.
The look of excitement wasn't them alone as the other two brothers next to them looked excited to see Yang Qing.
