Central lands, the capital, a couple of hours after the old man helped Ki conceal her stars fate
Within a large castle big enough to house a very large family, the direct bloodline of the Estrella family all grew up there and were nurtured.
Any talents with the same bloodline that appeared in branch families or unofficially bred children outside of the family marriages were also brought in to be trained if they possessed enough potential to be useful to the family politically or to help increase their overall power.
The family had been advising the royal family and the martial alliance for generations and were one of the great families.
Whenever a threat appeared which could shake the foundation of either the martial alliance or the royal family the first family to come forward and point the way was always the Estrella family.
They were the best at predicting events by reading the fate of the stars so naturally they could often predict when and where threats would appear.
The problem was that while they are in a position that gathers the most fate and karma to help them live prosperous lives they also had to sacrifice themselves in order to reveal the heavens secrets and that while they are able to determine others fates the moment they become an observer they are still unable to see their own fate but others within the family can.
However they cannot predict the outcome of a meeting between two observers, it was unknown whether the other had I'll intent towards the other observer or not so they had to rely on their individual abilities to determine whether they could be in danger when around their own kind.
Many people would be sacrificed for the sake of the families future, the moment an anomaly was spotted one member of the family would be chosen to reveal the secrets and take on the punishment and bad karma.
That person would be given the task of leading the martial alliance to their target and eliminating them but after their task is completed and they take on their punishment they are discarded by the family because they would bring bad luck to those around them.
The family had been around the royal family and the martial alliance and held the capital and the central lands within their palms for a very long time.
Even the other alliances or groups in opposition did not have the opportunity to shake their position, in fact they let some elements behave as they wished because it helped to remind the public about why the martial alliance was needed.
If some evil sect commits heinous acts then everyone will turn to the martial alliance first.
Everyone's fates were tied by them and so gathered lots of imperial or dragon qi/fate/karma which appears on their next ruler.
It is their job to secretly nurture that person from prying eyes so that the central lands fate and karma remains strong.
Within the observatory on top of the castle sat a young woman who gazed up at the stars in the sky and frowned. "So it seems that there is one of the family who is somehow still alive after being sacrificed to fate, how curious I wonder who it is. Either way their fate seems to be coming to an end but I still wish to meet them. To be able to conceal themselves from the family for so long without our notice they must be a talented person. Perhaps I can learn their secrets on how they survived this long when they have been outside of the family suffering from their bad karma."
The young woman had found the old mans star which he had carefully concealed over the years after building up his good karma one step at a time and overcame many difficulties.
After using the concealing technique on the northern stars he depleted all of his good karma and what he had left was only bad karma so he could no longer conceal himself from the Estrella family.
As if the bad karma was beginning to act a string of events would take place to place him in danger once again.
Nobody was supposed to survive for long after being abandoned by the family according to their families records but somehow a genius appeared within the family who was smart enough to find a way to reverse their poor fate and get rid of their bad karma all on their own.
This was something the family members would show great interest in because one day they may also be the ones to lay down their lives as a sacrifice for the family.
The young woman revealed an excited smile and left the observatory with a look of greed shining in her eyes.
The young lady headed to her fathers room who was the current head of the Estrella family and began to look pitiful. "Daddy, I have to go outside to travel for a bit because something interesting has caught my eye. Can I get a group of escorts to accompany me on my journey."
The head of the family shook his head. "Now is not a good time to be recklessly travelling, the central lands are in turmoil so we cannot just sit back and do nothing right now. The martial alliances strength has been depleting over the past fifty years or so… the enemies we thought were no problems have slowly established powers of their own and keep spreading. It's getting more difficult to track them down because we need to sacrifice one person every time we wish to hunt down an individual or a small group. They are spreading too fast and we cannot handle the backlash from tracking down so many dangerous individuals. If it were the last then I would of said it was fine but the other families and sects have dropped their guard and so the alliance has weakened somewhat. Now the martial alliance, the blood sect, the demonic sect and the unorthodox alliance are at a stalemate where we balance each other out. If we attack then there is the risk of us being attacked from behind but it's the same for them."
The young lady sighed upon hearing her fathers lecture. "I know daddy but this is very important for me this time so I will go no matter what you say. Don't worry I will protect myself well."
'I can't keep letting her be so wilful all the time but she will soon be leaving in the future and getting married. The value of a pheonix star as a marriage candidate is very high so the family will benefit a lot if I can find the right partner. It would be best to give in for now and when she gets back I can bring up the engagement.' The head of the family looked at his daughter and sighed as if used to her childish whims. "Fine… just go but make sure you take enough people to protect yourself."
Soon a group of guards escorted the young miss of the Estrella family, Celeste Estrella the 'star-seer' Phoenix star of the three Phoenix stars out of the capital and on the trail of the old man.
Soon fate would bring forth so that the old man would meet with the young pheonix star.
When the two meet it was yet to be determined whether it would be a peaceful meeting or if they would collide with each other.