Day 232-234 Late night meeting

Ye Yue, Xia Yuning, and Liang Yu were taking a walk around the outskirts of the city. The guards having been given the day off spent it merrily drinking in an inn. The constant training against the North Lord's Mansion allowed them to grow stronger quickly.

Xia Yuning was just happy to stop the fighting between Xia Xun, her grandfather, and Liang Yu. Part of the mansion was destroyed which helped to serve that talks between the factions did not go well.

He did not stay at the North Lord's Mansion but the guards did under the pretense of house arrest for a few days.

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A Villa visit-

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Liang Yu was waiting to meet someone when a sound caught his ears. Sounded like classical music but.. different in a way. Not a violin but very pleasant the more he walked towards that destination of the noise.

*Humm!* The Metal seed vibrating gently to the pitch produced. He could also feel his Star Martial energy starting to throb. The Flame Vortex Core started to spin slowly.

"The Tianling Fading Moon.. but incomplete." Liang Yu only knew it because of the refined green Skelton. Thinking it over, he had the volumes to complete the set on his person in the Internal Space. "Never thought I hear a good sound like that."

"Oh.. it is you." The veiled woman who played the zither said suprised. "Liang Yu of the Dark Moon Family. It is this one's honor."

"Such a flatter you are. Good professional demeanor you have." Liang Yu moved to a seat after she gestured to one. "But no false platitudes. The Youlan Palace should be better than that by now. Don't you think so Yun Ling?"

The veiled woman's hands fingers tripped over the zither. Her eyes narrowing underneath. She was slightly panicked but recovered quickly.

Even without the knowledge about her, hanging around Hector and Rexford back on his Earth defintely helped him spotted a certain type of woman.

"How about you play for me specifically and I will make it worth your while?" Liang Yu gave a small smile. He floated over a piece of paper containing a verse from the song she just played. "Surely this is adequate payment."

Yun Ling's eyes bulged under the veil. Her fingers trembling even more. She read it over keeping it to heart. The piece was so important, she was reluctant to hand it back over. But did so all the same.

As the music started once more, a different stir took place in his Dantian. This time only his Star Martial Dantian spun.

The Music harmonized with the qi circulation, the air itself started to vibrate due to the Metal Seed increased hum. Inside of Liang Yu, his bones had stress fractures appearing slowly.

Yun Ling was either trying to kill him or help him currently. Most likely the first one but he couldn't be sure really. The Metal Seed would absorb every other powerful sound produced by the Xither. On every odd one, the stress fractures would increase in length.

But thankfully the bone improvements he made originally started to show results once more. The enhanced Capillaries absorbed rich qi from his Flame Vortex Core and pushed it through his network and pathways.

*Crck!* The bones went from fractures to full on breaks. With the use of Astral Sense, Liang Yu was able to spot his qi entering the blood cells that started to burst from the sound produced. The cells reformed into and sped up through his entire body.

'If I had the full piece.. how much could I accomplish with this song?' Yun Ling continued to perform in deep thought unaware that her qi was draining quickly. So lost in the music, and the deeper methods, she missed the change in the room.

The furniture and the walls had broken all along the surface.

A few people were about to enter the room but were repelled by a swirling current of sound. One, violent. The other fast and flexible.

*Twing!* A zither string broke stopping the performance altogether. Yun Ling was still in a daze despite breathing heavily with bleeding fingers. Her eyes glazed over as she stepped into enlightenment during the process.

Liang Yu did step into enlightenment, but the Metal Seed was changing further. He would just need a large amount of metal to help facilitate it better.

"Hmm.. interesting." Liang Yu recovered and started flexing his fingers and toes. The response time was somewhat better overall in his body now. "My bones have recovered and I have made small improvements in a lot of ways. But the durability of my bones.. is at the level someone at the 9th Heavenly Layer would have to exert a lot of force to cause damage."

A few more minutes passed as the young woman finished up. With a slight spooked expression, she looked around at the damage to her xither and the room overall.

"I.. am so sorry!" Ling Yun apologized quickly. It was actually sincere sounding. "Do not take offense!"

"Calm down, it was just a terrible accident. Maybe I should not have given you that piece?" Liang Yu stood up to leave. On the opposite side of the door, however, were a bunch of guards of the place ready to cause a problem. All males. "May want to call off the guards before they get hurt."

Then he rembered the place was run off by the Divine Sword Family.

"They are not an issue." Yun Ling called out to the guards and let them know everything was ok. The majority of them left but two remained back. Both at the 8th Heavenly Layer. Considering how deprived of qi she was, that was the best she would do. "My playing, what was your impression of it?"

Yun Ling was defintely more of a music artist than a cultivator he thought.

"Painful, but also enjoyable." Liang Yu was fully recovered and didn't care to much about two 8th Heavenly experts. They make an attack it would be their last. "I understand certain mucus to a degree, but only care for music that provides me overall comfort. If you can come to the Dark Moon Family and play for my people, I will give you the full piece of the music."

"That is easily done!" Yun Ling said quickly. Her composure was only slightly broken in the excitement to agree. It was also an easy thing to do to gain the Tianling Fading Moon collection. "If you have any other pieces, I would gladly see what I can trade for them."

"Hmm." Liang Yu racked his brain and pulled on his memories some. Grabbing a shredded piece of paper on the floor, he spent 15 minutes drawing different musical notes. "If you can perform this fully then I will be most grateful."

Yun Ling looked over the music sheet and was suprised at the detail. As well as how long it was.

"What is the name of the piece?" Looking up all she saw was a spark of lightning. He was gone. It then dawned on her she needed to find out how he knew she was a part of the Youlan Palace. 'Damn it!"

"It is called the Moonlight Sonata, the composer.. dead." Liang Yu's voice circled around her ears. Despite being far away from the location.

Taking out another Xither, she started to play a few notes before stopping. It was just then she realized the change in her cultivation and understanding.

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Killing those who have a strong Destiny!-

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Ye Yue, Liang Yu, and Xia Yuning departed to see to other matters from each other after meeting up.

A youth was running through the area chased by several others. It looked to be Lin Hong who chased down by other members of the Rebels. Those who escaped the Palace had informed as fast they could about his treachery over Ye Xinghe.

The operation was considered a flop due to his actions with so few of the Noble families dying.

Exhausted and out of qi, Lin Hong hid behind some trees. He had one contact left that was able to provide some information. Ye Xinghe was heading to this city to make some sales.

"Where the hell is he!?" One of the rebels shouted. Spotting Ye Yue and Liang Yu, he stepped back. 'Shit, no way do we get involved with him!'

"I know you are there, what is it you want?" Liang Yu said. His voice carrying in the forest and was heard by Lin Hong and the other rebels. "Do not ruin my night and everything will be fine."

"Grr!" Ye Yue growled as she sniffed the air. Lin Hong's scent bothered her greatly. The number of people he consumed from the populace had increased in large number. All just to stay alive and continue with his plans. "I say we kill the coward!"

"Your excellency, please!" A rebel stepped out and kneeled. The other members of the pursuit squad following suit. Unlike most Nobles, the rebels understood that the Dark Moon Family were the better of the lot. With a quite a number of them giving up the rebel cause and heading to the territory. "It is said you treat commoners and nobles the same in your territory please spare us!"

"Hmm, just go home to your families and give up on this nonsense of rebelling. You all are just being used by some mad men." Liang Yu observed the young man with piercing blue eyes. =The image overlapping with that of a friend of his. He just couldn't remember who. "I am sure your family wants you safe and sound."

The young rebel member clenched his fist as well as a lot of the others in regret.

"My.. family members are rebels to. My father and brother were killed by the traitor we were chasing!" The young man stood up seeing as Liang Yu was not hostile at all to them. "Your people say to get justice for the people.. even though this is not your territory.. please help us!"

"Please help us!" They said in unison. Liang Yu could feel something odd happening in the surrounding. Astral Sense acting up just a little more to some type of stimuli.

"I see."

*Fwip!* Liang Yu threw a Flame Dart at the trees Lin Hong was hiding behind while recovering. With a clench of the fist, the darts exploded.

"Kuk!" Lin Hong rolled around in the grass as he struggled to get up. He was quite the tenacious bastard still. "Damn.. it!"

"There he is, take the head or the body but not both." Liang Yu said. The rebels looked on in utter hatred at the one responsible for killing so many of their people. "I suggest you make a move before something terrible happens."

*Shine!* A flickering gold light surrounded Lin Hong before finally going out all together.

They pointed at the body. With a slow slash, Liang Yu cut the head of Lin Hong off. Using the same method he used to take the arm. In the middle of the agonizing pain, Lin Hong realized Liang Yu was the masked person that attacked him in the Palace.

"Die!" The pursuit squad attacked with vengeance. Tears falling down as they released devasting fire attacks. Lin Hong's body was bombarded under the assault brutally.

As the body burned away under intense embers, Liang Yu picked the head up and walked off with Ye Yue. He really wanted to just deliver the head to Ye Xinghe but that was tossed out the window.

Instead, he just threw the head into the Flame Vortex and refined it. The secrets of the rebel movements would serve well in keeping his area safe. The understanding of the Nether Technique however was useless as he thought. He would need to many others who practice it to learn it fully.

"The rebels.. are fighting against the Great Families as well as the Empire that has so much going on it is ridiculous at this point." Liang Yu felt a small disturbance in the area and wanted to get far away from the current location quickly. "Tell whoever you can that have power among the rebels to go and attack the Empire only at this point. The great Families will start to fight amongst themselves soon."

The pursuit squad fled the area not really taking what he said to heart. Which was bad considering the times were trying enough anyway.

"Have you given on everything?" Ye Yue's words shocked him as they moved. The wolves running along up ahead to scout. She moved to run in front of him looking back while moving at an steady pace. "I have read all the plans made by yourself, Linlin, Linyin, and Old Xu for the development of the people. Everything looked so promising but now you have shifted more to the here and now and stopping something else."

"I have given up on the long term but not the short term. That is why it looks like I am rushing. We need a lot of resources to make sure we survive, while also continuing to push for the change we want. It is not easy and I am not someone who wants to overall govern. It is exhausting." Liang Yu said to her. The disturbance that was behind them, which was the area where Lin Hong died was stable. Really stable it felt like. 'One with a strong Destiny here has died, how many more must I kill to buy more time?'

"Master.. you can lean on us more. You know this." Ye Yue said. For a brief moment, he could swear he saw the image of someone behind her. A very familiar face. In a split second, it was gone. "Liang Jian worries for you. We all do."

"I.. I understand." Liang Yu said solemnly. He felt his heart clench in pain. The name Rachel floating to the surface of his mind. 'Who the hell is Rachel?' Ye Yue had shot off to participate in the scouting to reduce some stress that built up. A small blue glow around her body appeared then vanished. The image of a person appearing over once more. 'Am.. am I going crazy?'

*Fwish!* Blue-white flames danced in his vision. The pain in his heart vanishing as the Flame Vortex Core spun. Memories of the one called Rachel were suppressed.

Thinking and dwelling on the matter would get him killed at this rate. The Heart Method started to circulate a little on its own. Purple light shined in his eyes as he made right as rain again.

"No distractions. Need to take care of business!" Steeling his resolve, his dantians started to spin in sync with one another. The Flame Vortex Core turning as well taking in the loose qi in the area. "Hmm?" Liang Yu felt the need to open his mouth but stopped himself. "Felt as if I could devour the qi in the entire area just then. Must be hungry."

The Demon Beasts and Bandits in the area had the worse days of their lives due to this. Liang Yu's group attacked with such savagery it borderline on the Demonic.