Glory City

<<<A week later, Shin Akagawa>>>

For Fire Lotus City it has been one eventful week, fortunately enough the news of moving to Glory City was mostly welcomed and as Shin expected the only one to put some small complaints were the Beast Tamer clan and some alchemist who had been growing some plants. And to resolve both situations Shin decided to divide in two groups, the first group would be composed by most clan members and all white ranks who were ready to leave the city as they would leave with Shin and Ye Mo to get to Glory City while the other group would be a smaller group of the Beast Tamer clan and Shadow Nightmare Clan as they would stay and take care of the plants and the beast that they weren't able to move to glory city.

'The Beast Tamer Clan mostly want a big open space to keep their own demon beast so we just need to increase our influence in the city and buy a big territory as for the plants we will just need to keep a small group here hidden in the mountains where the gardens are.'

Giving one last glance in front of him he was once again amazed at the ability of the Beast Tamer Clan, while some of them remained in the city most of them still gave their own trained demon beast to help transport everyone to glory city, unfortunately because of their numbers there weren't enough Golden Eagles to get everyone to Glory City while flying because of that they had to take some Giant Armored Ox, and while they may be slower than any flying beast they had enough stamina to make it to glory city with little to none stops.

"I know I agreed to give you a small territory but I'm not sure it will be enough to keep all these demon beasts."

Shin turned to Ye Mo who was looking at the horde of beast with some amazement in his eyes.

"You don't have to worry they will return here with a small group at least until we are able to buy ourselves some bigger territory."

In these days whenever Shin was free he ended up talking with Ye Mo asking about Glory City and what type of City it was because of that they both grew a little closer with Ye Mo having quite a lot of respect for the young lord.

"Young Master, we finished the preparation."

Looking back Shin saw Taishiro walk closer to him and just like he said Shin also noticed that everyone was on top of a demon best ready to go. Not feeling any reason to delay it further he mounted the demon beast assigned to him as Ye Mo and Taishiro followed him, thankfully these Giant Armored Ox were big enough that on their back there was enough space to put something like the seat of a carriage where at least four or five people could be seated comfortably.

"So how long should it take?"

As Shin asked, Taishiro took out a map he drew with the help of Ye Mo before giving his answer.

"If nothing happens we should get there in a week and a half."

Sighing Shin decided to take it easy as there wasn't much he could do until they got to Glory City.

<<<2 Weeks Later, Shin Akagawa>>>

It has already been a day since they reached Glory City, thankfully the trip was as eventful as it could get and while it lasted a little longer than previously calculated they all got to Glory City safely in the end.

At this moment was on his way to the City Lord mansion of Glory City, it was the moment to finish the deal previously started with Ye Mo and meet the current City Lord.

'It can't be counted as a lie since he actually holds as much power as the city lord…'

During the trip Ye Mo admitted that while he was indeed the City Lord because of his frequent expeditions his son Ye Zong actually managed the city as the City Lord every time he was gone so most people thought he already fully passed his position to his son and because of that Shin would have to at least meet with the 'current' City Lord.

For Shin it wasn't a big problem even though it was a nightmare to keep Yoru and Daisuke from causing more trouble because of the small lie, ' At least I convinced them to remain behind.'

In the small carriage other than himself there was Taishiro as he would rarely leave his side along with Naoki who came as Shin personal guard while in the temporary camp the other patriarchs remained with the people, the various people of the Beast Tamer clan would return along with their beast as soon as they saw that we were in fact accepted into the city so they were waiting right outside the city walls as they couldn't really enter the city with that amount of demon beast.

Shin remembered the guards of Glory City ready to fight as they appeared on the northern walls but thankfully they all calmed down as they saw Ye Mo in the front.

"Young master… I have to ask how far are you prepared to go to let the people enter?"

Shin looked at Taishiro as he let his question sink in, how far was he prepared to go? He knew that the people of Fire Lotus city wouldn't stand a trip back so he knew that he would have to accept most if not all demands even if such demand was to disband their group even if he was going to be separated from the others.

He was willing to risk it all in this gamble so if they really were to ask him to disband the various clans then he would regretfully do so but that for sure would not be the end of Fire Lotus City as he knew his people would not simply forget the city they were born and grew up in.

"I trust the people of Fire Lotus City, even if I may end up regretting it I will still trust them with my life because that's the job that was given to my clan by our founder. So to answer your question… I won't stop at anything as long as our people will be able to live comfortably here then I'm ready to sell my soul to their Snow Wind Family. But if they want to use our people as labor slaves then I'll bring them back, it will be better to die free while trying to go back rather than die here as slaves."

After spending so much time with Ye Mo, Shin Understood a little of his personality and knew he would not allow his son to mistreat them like that but even then his father always told him that he should always be ready for anything to happen.

The carriage finally stopped as seconds later the door opened and Naoki was the first to get out as he looked around before turning and nodding his head to Shin signaling that it was safe.

"We will bring you to our City Lord if you follow us."

One of the guards said that looking between Shin and Taishiro, Shin noted that thankfully most of the gaze they received were mostly curiosity and judging but no hostility was sent toward them. Finally arriving in front of a door the guard leading the group knocked once before opening the door as he was given the ok.

"City Lord, I brought our guest!"

Inside Shin saw for the first time Ye Mo's son and current acting City Lord Ye Zong was a tall muscular man wearing a green robe and had long purple hair tied behind his head and a resolute face that looked cold and stern, contrary to Ye Mo's face that was more warm and friendly.

Shin stepped inside followed by Taishiro and Naoki as Ye Zong put down a couple of papers he was reading facing the group.

"Pleased to meet you, City Lord, my name is Shin Akagawa and I guess Ye Mo has already told you about our predicament…"

Because of Shin status he never really had to speak respectfully to anyone in the clan but that didn't mean that he couldn't talk respectfully to someone especially when that person held the string of fate of his people and his own.

"Yes I've already been made aware of the deal you've made with my father and rest assured I won't change anything as any new Human force is more than welcomed here in Glory City."

Shin could feel a weight leaving his shoulder at Ye Zong words, relaxing he then continued to talk with Ye Zong as they went over the deal he previously made with Ye Mo and while Ye Zong at first was uncertain about Shin as he could only see a kid with nothing special but after talking with him for a little he was gladly surprised by how Shin dealt with things along with his own intelligence.

Only after they completed everything that Ye Zong took out a scroll from his desk, the scroll was of a yellowish paper with deep purple adornment at the side and an intricate inscription pattern on the back.

"With this we will be able to complete the pact you only need to drop a drop of your blood you can read it over if you want."

Shin took the scroll with a nod as he started to look it over, a soul pact was normally a pact that would last an entire lifetime or until the deal was completed for this specific deal obviously it would last until both party died and hopefully at that time there would be no need to make a new pact as the relationship between the two powers would be close enough to trust each other.

Biting his finger Shin let a drop of blood fall onto the scroll, obviously as the patriarch he had to be the one to sign this pact and it was this fact that created a loophole that his people could easily take if things went wrong someway or another, after all as long as they were ready to abandon him behind they would be able to easily go against this pact only losing while if glory city would want to do the same they would lose a peak black gold rank.

'I'm sure even they know this and the only reason why they haven't said anything is because they want to keep a friendly relationship between us… Well as long as they don't cause any harm to us I'm more than happy in keeping a good relationship.'

As the blood fell onto the scroll the inscription pattern started to shine as it manifested two small chains made of energy, the two chains slowly floated toward Shin and Ye Zong wrist as they bound themselves to the two, this type of soul pact was rare enough that there weren't more than a couple left in the treasure vault of the Snow Wind family as they came from ancient time far before the attack of demon beast even then they still worked perfectly fine and were always kept in pristine condition so that one day they would be able to use it.

'I can feel my connection with the scroll and Ye Zong…'

As Shin was thinking that the chains disappeared but both of them could still feel the connection.

"Well we have finished this, now I would like to talk about the territory that we are about to give you. While Glory city has fortunately a lot of empty and unclaimed territories with the number of your people I can't really have you transfer all of them in the middle of the city so I thought of giving you two clan compounds one smaller one near the academy and a bigger one in the northern wall near were your people are already staying at."

Taking out a map to Shin Ye Zong pointed to two points that were already highlighted with a red circle.

"This is more than enough thanks, we will move our people at the first light of tomorrow at least to the territory for the Northern wall about the territory near the middle of the city we will move there after I finish accommodating everyone in the new place."

Ye Zong nodded his head not having anything to say for that matter.

"It's your territory from now on so you're free to decide when you want to go or if you want to use it, if you need anything then you're free to call me or my father."

Shaking hands, they ended their meeting as Shin went out of the room.

"I'm already tired…"

Sighing he dropped his shoulder a little as Naoki gave him a little pat on his shoulder.

"You did well Young Master plus the worst has already passed now we just need to accommodate everyone to the city."

Shin couldn't disagree more as he already felt a headache coming through as he thought on how he will accommodate nearly a thousand people into this new city.

<<<2 Days Later, Shin Akagawa>>>

Finally having a place to stay Shin started with dividing the territory between the various clans and making sure everyone had at least a place for themselves and while it was a little too packed Shin had already plans on expanding to let people have more space to live in.

"Young Master, I finished the report you asked me."

Right now Shin was seated in what was going to be his future office, a spacious room with a big desk at the end of it and two smaller couches positioned in front of each other in front of the desk. As he looked in front of him he saw Yoru who just entered the room with a couple of papers in her hands as she handed them to Shin.

"This contains all information about the situation in the Northern wall, as for the situation in Glory City it should be ready between tonight and tomorrow."

After getting the new territory Shin immediately ordered Yoru to get any and all information about the Northern walls and the zone around their territory no matter how useless it seemed.

'The noble clans around this place aren't that powerful with most of them having Silver rank elders and their patriarchs at barely the Gold rank… Only the Xuan Spirit Merchant Hall and the General Auction House are worth keeping in mind.'

Shin still didn't know the full power of the other noble house from the other walls and the middle but if he had to guess then the northern walls were the weakest and poorest in the city.

"What about the Alchemist and Inscription Associations?"

The first to make contact with them out of all the various powers in the city were the Alchemist and Inscription Associations, two different groups that were focused on Alchemy and Inscription pattern correspondingly. They obviously approached them to be the first one in the city to get the new Alchemy recipes and inscription pattern this new group may have but even an infant would be able to see through their objective so it was easy for Shin to deter them and delay whatever they had planned with a promise to hear them out at a later date.

"They keep asking the guards about an audience with you but we should be able to keep them at bay for a couple more days."

"What about the type of pills and inscription patterns?"

At that another voice answered, the person was a frail looking old man with long green hair and black eyes and currently the oldest of the whole clan, his name is Eiko Raicho and he is the current patriarch of the Thunderbird Clan and the only Alchemy Grandmaster of the Fire Lotus City.

"We weren't able to look over the more expensive pills but the more common ones are at best the lowest grade pills we can make."

Saying that Shin turned over to another page as he saw information regarding the pill the Alchemy Association sell to the public. The Soul Assembling Pill, the currently best Soul Enhancing pill they sell is only able to increase cultivation speed by a measly 10% at best while the Thunderbird Clan's Soul Gathering Pill is already able to increase cultivation speed by a 20 to 30% and that's just the lowest grade of pill they have.

"Send someone to the Alchemy Branch in the Northern wall and tell them that if they want to make a deal with us they can come to negotiate with us, if they don't send anyone just start selling the pills to the people of the northern wall."

If the alchemist came then he would try to make a deal with them so that he would not totally steal their work like nothing but if they ignored them then he didn't mind taking over glory city as the main alchemy powerhouse.

"We still need a place to plant and grow our own herb.'

The main advantage Shin had over the other were not only the alchemy recipe but also the type of herb they used, it only took a small look at the shop that sold herbs to see that glory city as a whole used different type herbs because of that even if some alchemist where to get their hands on the recipe they wouldn't be able to do much unless they also got a hold of the herbs they currently had in their spatial ring.

"What about the Inscription Association?"

"Their level is so low that there isn't anything to talk about… Most of the inscription patterns were lost with time and because of that they have only a couple of enchanting patterns that enchant their weapons and most battle inscription scroll are the one they find outside in ruins but most of them are unusable."

While Shin has always prioritized his studies on alchemy he never forgot to also study the basics of inscription patterns as he never knew when they would be useful.

"Send someone to the Saint Judgement Hall and see if they have a similar code of conduct if they do register all inscription patterns under our name."

The Demon Spiritual Code of Conduct of Fire Lotus City said that whenever someone created an inscription pattern they could register it in the judgement Hall of the city and they would always get a small cut on the money someone would make from selling or buying that same inscription pattern and while it would be small change he certainly would not let someone steal their own inscription pattern.

'Now we just need more resources… I guess it's time to make a visit to the other smaller noble families…'

"Yoru get some more information on the smaller clan, we may need to get one of them under us to grow our plants so search for some suitables ones. For now that's all I'll call you if something else arises."

Bowing lightly they left as only Naoki remained behind as he stood by the side not saying anything.

"Naoki, I'll be cultivating. I don't want to be disturbed unless it's something important."

Opening another door behind his desk Shin entered another room, the room was round and empty the only thing inside was the inscription pattern that covered the floor and the other door that lead to another bigger room where a long stone dummy was positioned, these were the training room that were already built inside when they arrived, one was for cultivating and brewing pills while the other was for training special techniques and martial arts.

Sitting down in the middle of the inscription pattern, the inscription array was put down by Taishiro and it's name was the Soul Gathering Array, it's main use was to gather all left over soul force that overflowed during training and keep it in a space right under the center of the array so that the user could use that same soul force at a later date or right at that moment, it was mostly used for brewing pills as Shin could use the left over soul force in case his own reserves failed him.

Taking out the red book that he took from the treasure vault he opened it as he was greeted by the incomprehensible inscription pattern, all these days Shin took out this book to study it every time he had free time and while the inscription became a little more solid he still couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.

Putting down the book he started to cultivate his soul force, right now he just had about twenty soul points and once he reached one hundred he would finally enter the 1-Star of the Bronze rank but just as he was moving the soul force in his soul realm he felt a cold shiver go up his spine. It happened all in a second as his soul force started to move on its own going from his soul realm to his body before slowly seeping out and reaching forward, opening his eyes Shin saw a small azure shine indicating his soul force move forward as it surrounded the red book.

'My Soul Points are decreasing?'

Feeling a sense of dread he tried to control his soul force to no avail as the book continued to take more and more soul force from him not showing any sign of stopping. Just as he was about to take out a Soul Gathering pill he saw the inscription pattern on the ground started to shine brightly as the small amount of soul force that was still inside moved from the center toward his soul realm while the red book started to float in the air.

"The Inscription is moving!"

As the book opened the inscription that Shin was becoming familiar with started to change once again, the myriads of lines moved like snakes completing the inscription pattern on the page.

The sudden change in inscription made the flowing Soul Force go into a frenzy as Shin felt his whole being crushed from the feeling but just as he was about to pass out the book transformed into an orb of crimson light before quickly flying into Shin's stomach seemingly disappearing.

'It entered my Soul Realm!?'

Closing his eyes Shin quickly sent his senses into his dantian only to be met with a bright crimson orb shiny in his soul realm. Normally the dantian of a Demon Spiritualist was empty as that was the place where his soul force was store while the soul realm was an outer space where the dantian was conserved and where the Demon Spiritualist could send his own divine sense into and check on his dantian without problem.

Lifting his hand Shin tried to touch the crimson orb but had to retreat as it started to spin around moving the soul force inside his own soul realm, the soul force changed color from it's bright azure color to a deep blood crimson as it created a bright ring of light around the orb what astounded him was the fact that more and more Soul force entered from the outside and started surrounding the orb, this scene continued for a couple of seconds before it stopped as seven rings were formed around the orb.

'Is this some sort of inheritance left behind by the founder?'

Just as Shin was about to exit his soul realm from the orb a small stream of light flew down before it changed from light to a liquid like material, Shin could feel extreme pure Soul energy coming from the liquid and before he knew it the liquid formed a small lake under the orb.

'I haven't felt such pure soul energy even when my father cultivated!'

Cautiously moving forward Shin first touched the small lake with his finger and as he saw that nothing happened to him he sent his divine sense deeper inside the lake, while it was small in circumference the lake was deep enough that one could fit a whole tree inside of it.

Having a sudden idea Shin opened his eyes as he got out of his soul realm before he stood up, moving his hand he tried to connect with the soul force inside his dantian as the normal azure colored energy slowly came out.

Taking a breath he drew in the air an inscription pattern and as he finished it he saw the lines transform into a thumb sized flame before it puffed out of existence as he nodded to himself. Closing his eyes he sent his divine sense into his soul realm before reaching for the lake as he tried to move the soul force inside of it, immediately he felt a small pressure coming down on him but the soul force moved nonetheless and as he opened his eyes he couldn't help as a smile grew on his face.

Right in front of him crimson colored energy surrounded the tip of his finger the same pure soul energy that was in the lake, without wasting any time he then started drawing the same exact inscription pattern in the air and as he finished it he saw a palm sized flame appear as it lasted a couple of seconds before it disappeared but even after a few seconds he could still feel the warmth of the flame.

"I can use that pure soul energy… Maybe I should start taking my Inscription lesson more seriously…"

Shin could only chuck e to himself as the new discovery. To an Inscription Master his or her soul force was the strongest weapon they could have as they always used it to draw complicated Inscription Pattern but even then most of the inscription pattern needed pure soul force to work at full power and because of that an inscription master would normally use other materials or demon beast blood to compensate the quality of soul force with quantity.

'If I can increase the amount of pure soul power I can call forth then not only the inscription will be useful for alchemy.'

Alchemy worked almost the same as Inscription drawing, the pure the soul force the better the elixir would come out.

Taking out a soul crystal he checked how many soul points he had and he could only stare blankly as he counted fifty soul points.

'I was just at twenty before starting!'

After thinking for a moment he took out a scroll from his spatial ring before pouring a little bit of his soul force in it, the scroll started burning before it transformed into a small sparrow as it flew out of the room, what he used was a bronze rank communication scroll it used little to none soul power and even he could use it with the little amount of soul force he had.

"Now how should I explain this…"

Looking at the only window in the two rooms he looked at the sunset as he admired the look of Glory City under the orange light of the sun.