4 Chapter Four

The next morning i'm awoke to the sound of the city lords mansion in a panic with hundreds of footsteps running around. Clearly someone found my bloody surprise inside the restaurant and hopefully they found the markers belonging to the dark guild. Which would implicate the sacred family and lead to them being considered a possible threat early on.

Walking out of the guest house I could overhear a few of the guards talking to one another. One seemed happy about what was going on while the others looked as if they stepped on a thumbtack.

"Whoever has done this has done a great service to the city." The youngest of the guards said.

"Yes but they should have consulted the city lord first."

"What's to stop them from killing whoever they deem a threat? This is why we have procedures for these things." The oldest of the group calmly stated.

I couldn't help but agree with the oldest man, I wouldn't have done this if it couldn't be helped. But there is no way I would risk my cover being blown by a few overzealous dark guild members. It was best this way and plus they are a bunch of ruthless assassins I'm not going to shed a tear over their loss. At this point the rest of my group had woken up and dragged themselves out into the courtyard.

The Liu brothers had already reached 5 star silver simply by using their cultivation techniques. While the other three didn't make much progress but were stronger nonetheless simply because of their demon spirits. After eating the breakfast brought to us we were greeted by a bespectacled skinny old man wearing fine robes.

"Greetings Patriarch Long, my name is Xue Ming and I have been tasked with finding you a permanent residence." He smiled a big toothy smile and handed me a small stack of papers.

I could not help but let out a sigh as he kept handing me different pieces of paper since I hate doing paperwork. We began fingering through the papers and talking to one another for close to an hour before I decided on a large estate. Funnily enough we were recommended the former mansion of the Red Jade family which the Demon Lord massacred hundreds of years ago. We purchased it and the surrounding lands for a large chunk of the treasure found in the ancient orchid city.

I was kicking myself for not being able to get it cheaper since we only had so much to work with. But what's done is done so I let out a sigh and we begin making our way to the mansion. By having a few conversations with people along the way I managed to discern that I arrived a few days before Nie Li was meant to be reborn. This gave me time to get my affairs in order while waiting for the day to come. In my new life I have two enemies to contend with the Sage Emperor and Nie Li. Both want to do what's best for themselves instead of what's best for everyone. The Sage Emperor wants to annihilate every living thing in all the realms and Nie Li is only obsessed with revenge.

I shook my head trying to shake off the weight that had been placed on my shoulders. I can't focus on the future, I have to pay attention to the here and now and prepare for the inevitable. We finally made it to the estate and realized it was kept in relatively good condition for how long it's been out of use. The inside of the main house is nicely furnished with large rooms and a massive central central hall rivaling the city lord's mansion.

I told the group to go ahead and choose whichever rooms they wanted aside from the master bedroom. While they were arguing over who got which one I took a walk outside around the walled perimeter. I noticed that every dozen feet or so there is an inscription pattern drawn on the walls. It had been damaged by obvious signs of a battle hundreds of years ago but the blood it was written with was still there. I fumbled through my rings trying to find the resources I needed to fix the patterns but I couldn't find anything.

Quickly I ran to the closest store that sells demon beast blood and bought enough of it to repair all the walls around the mansion. It took me close to 2 hours since I had to be very careful not to damage the inscriptions any further. Once it was done a powerful energy surged around the property and a transparent barrier was erected. Nothing below a legend rank would have a hope of destroying the barrier. Unfortunately nothing can get in or out while the barrier is active trapping everyone inside but keeping them safe.

"So what's the plan now? You have a large estate consisting of multiple buildings but with no bodies to fill them with." One of the black gold experts asked while walking out the front door.

He had a point, without a large family these buildings would go mostly unused aside from the occasional guest. I have no family to speak of and it's not like I can just go recruiting experts from various families. Then a thought struck me, maybe I could recruit from the other families but instead of just a few experts why not the entire family. While I was thinking about this the three black gold experts found their way into the courtyard and began cultivating.

"You three." I snapped.

"Yes!" One of them yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Each of you go find one of these families in the city, Wei, Zhu, and Zhang. Offer to buy each family's assets for 2 million demon spirit coins. These offers must include them joining our Divine Dragon Family, understood?" I said, handing them each an interspatial ring.

"What will you be doing?" One of them asked while looking at the ring.

I waved my hand in a dismissive manner and quickly turned to leave, their task is arguably easier than mine. Instead of just recruiting a family to join ours my task would be much more difficult. I plan on sneaking into the Heavenly Sacred Border and cultivating there for a few days until a certain ancestor ghost finds me. My primary objective is just to use the border to cultivate since it should be very beneficial to my soul realm.

Secondary should be to persuade Ye Yan to be reborn into the body of the gold ranked cultivator I have stored in my ring. Thirdly, I should think of a way to deal with the Thunder God's Meteorite Sword to weaken Nie Li. Buying off those specific commoner families is all to make Nie Li less influential and have less of a fighting force. I shake my head and scratch my neck in mild frustration, he will be hard to deal with without just straight up killing him.

Whatever the matter, I needed to act quickly while I still had a chance, the calm before the storm and all that. While walking through the streets I acted as nonchalant as possible while changing my appearance. This didn't seem to grab anyone's attention as I made my way to the Holy Orchid Institute. I masked my strength to that of a one star silver rank and acted as calmly as possible while walking up the steps towards the border. No one seemed bothered by my presence, some even greeted me as I reached the door.

As I pushed on the gate one of the guards just scoffed since the only people able to open the doors are Ye Mo, the principal and the vice principal. But to their surprise I entered without a problem and was immediately sucked into the same illusion Nie Li was. As I was being sucked in one of the guards goes to grab me but another stops him saying only a select few geniuses are allowed to enter. They would simply have to tell the vice principal what has happened and deal with it from there.

Upon entering the heavenly sacred border my soul realm began expanding at an incredibly fast rate causing me severe pain. Nothing like the pain of the Dark Divines Technique but enough to make me clench my stomach in pain. I sit down and begin cultivating immediately forgoing my disguise as a silver rank and unleashing the full aura of my true power. As I suspected, within a few minutes of cultivating I had an audience, the one watching me was none other than Ye Yan. Ignoring his presence I continued to cultivate for a whole week nearly sucking this entire realm dry of its soul realm nurturing energy.

Thanks to the energy I was able to skyrocket into the 5 star rank with ease I was no weaker than a 1 fate heavenly fate realm expert. But because of the seal around the tiny world this is the limit to my cultivation unless I learn the power of law. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of law making it a moot point to expect any further progress for now. Opening my eyes I see Ye Yan floating before me with a confused and awe inspired look upon his face.

"Greetings, how may I greet this elder?" I said cupping my hands and looking at him.

"Hmm, at least you can show respect unlike some of the students who come here." He pauses for a moment.

"Wait, you can see me?"

"It's a simple matter to see those who have passed." I reply with a smile.

Though honestly speaking I have no idea why I could see him right now I have no knowledge on being able to see a soul. I figured I would just be able to talk with him and persuade him to be resurrected but this scenario made things easier.

"Out of all the youths who have passed through those doors, very few of them piqued my interest. You are clearly the most talented." He said, stroking his beard.

"I thank elder for his kind words but I've only been lucky to have been born with an Indigo soul realm."

This wasn't a lie, I indeed do have an indigo soul realm but lack a soul form and a soul attribute meaning I would need to rely entirely on my cultivation to become strong. Without a form or an attribute I will need to use my knowledge to its greatest potential in order to become stronger than the Sage Emperor. Ye Yan floated down towards me until his face was inches away from mine and examined me.

"Tell me. How many legend rank experts inhabit Glory City now for you to be one at such a young age?"

"Currently there are only 3, Myself, Lord Ye Mo, and Ye Zong."

A confused and disgruntled look appeared on his face as he flew back and forth stroking his beard.

"How are there only three? When we found the city there were five of us, surely you should have prospered more?"

I couldn't bring myself to tell him there weren't even technically 3 but given the right demon beast Ye Zong would break through relatively easily. But I couldn't help but smile since given some time I would be able to create legend ranks like they were candy. A thought crossed my mind after seeing Ye Yan going back and forth increasing his pace each time. I could use his worry for the future of Glory City to persuade him to resurrect using slightly evil methods.

"I have a favor to ask of ancestor Ye Yan! With each day Glory City produces less and less experts, while the demon beast hordes grow ever larger."

"How could I, a wandering soul, help with this?" He asked curiously.

"In my possession is a method to bring the dead back to life using a vessel."

"What is this method?" A slight note of disgust sounded in his voice.

"The soul must be willing and will be transplanted into the body of a recently deceased expert."

Knowing his reaction I cupped my hands and bowed my head bracing for his anger to erupt. But to my surprise his outburst never came instead he stroked his beard even more while thinking.

"The body I have was once a member of the dark guild, a mortal enemy to Glory City. A group of evil cultivators hell bent on destroying the city."

"A group of humans intent on killing other humans while we face such a large problem already? Fools, the lot of them."

He spends another 5 minutes thinking it over while looking at me as if to judge my character. After a while he seemed to come to a conclusion as he floated back down to me and crossed his arms.

"Very well what do we do?"

I forcefully held myself back from smiling in order to not break the tension and urgency of the matter. But with this I could add a talented individual to my team and be one step ahead of the orange haired kid.