DESOLATE ERA 1

[AN: Because of the source material, I'm going to be using the family name first, followed by the given name. Otherwise the main character of the original story would be named Ning Ji, not Ji Ning.

I didn't do the same for the Naruto world because there are plenty of English versions that went with given name before family name. Saying Naruko Uzumaki or Uzumaki Naruko doesn't sound weird to me. But in this world the English name translation of the Desolate Era never calls Ji Ning, Ning Ji. So…that's that.

Well, the Superpower Clan I randomly chose for Carl to be a part of ended up cracking me up, so I kept it. He shall be a part of the Riverbank clan. And since I won't be changing his name, and his clan name will be said first, he shall now be known in this world as…Riverbank Carl!

It just sounds so funny, I had to keep it.

Thanks for reading, and without further ado!]

XX

Carl opened his eyes and found that he was sitting in a restaurant at a nice table in a private booth. Shrugging his shoulders, he immediately noticed that he was wearing higher class clothes, compared to some others he could see with his Byakugan eyes in different parts of the restaurant. Only a few others in some of the private booths appeared to have better clothes and prestige than he did, giving him an idea of just where he placed in this world, in this particular restaurant.

Taking a deep breath, he looked closer at the exquisite decorations in the room he was in, the sumptuous food on the table in front of him, and saw that there were two beautiful women on either side of the table, giggling as they tried to feed him food by their own hands.

He held up a hand to pause their little acts of intimacy. The two young women sat back down into their places on either side of the table at his gesture, chopsticks held over their plates with visible looks of sadness and discouragement on their faces.

"One moment, ladies. I'm receiving a message from my uncle. If you would, let me concentrate on it for a moment."

"Understood, Lord Riverbank." The two ladies echoed each other, even while they mock pouted at being ignored.

Carl had no idea yet who the ladies were, so he didn't want to jump to any conclusions or offend them for no reason. He pulled a communication jade from his Storage Ring that he had received for free from this jump and pretended to be listening intently to a message.

If he understood the Jump Chain in any manner by now, he should be getting this life's memory packet any time now.

'Ah, there it is.' Carl thought just before he was overwhelmed by the memories, which seemed as real as if he was experiencing the life personally right then.

Carl experienced being born to a pair of absentee parents in the Riverbank Clan. They were busy with their own matters and left him to the care of maids. Despite having the companionship of his maids, and plenty of rich Diremonster meat to eat (which was a sign of wealth in the land he grew up in, due to the rarity, danger of hunting for it, and the high nutritional value), he had a generally lonely childhood because he was the son of the City Lord, and there were strict rules about what his caretakers could do for him, and how they could interact with him.

He also wasn't allowed to mix with the children of the lower class tribesmen that were under his father's authority because it was supposedly beneath his station. Even though he fought against those strictures several times, he found that the rules and orders of his father were absolute, and none of the guards would bend to help him.

Despite the disapproval of his parents, he could sometimes slip past the guards in order to play with some people in his clan in the surrounding area. He had plenty of fun, and he felt that he managed to connect with them. Most of the time, he couldn't spend too much time with them, but he remembered them long after he wasn't allowed to play with them again after being caught.

As he grew up without his parent's presence in his life, he learned from his maids many things, like how to read, figure sums, and other such knowledge. At a young age he was introduced to his clan's library and took a liking to reading many of the books.

He also learned about his birthright as a member of the Riverbank clan and the only son of the Prefecture Lord of the Firebird City of the West Prefecture of the Riverbank Clan's lands. One of the heirlooms of the family that he was most proud of was the Clan Tree tapestry that had their prestigious clan's lineage laid out. He loved seeing the links of genealogy that went back from hundreds of years ago, all the way to his position, letting him know where he stood in the clan's structure.

Firebird City was the Prefecture Capital of the West Prefecture. The Riverbank clan had five Prefectures; the North, South, East, West, and Central prefectures. The Riverbank clan was one of six Superpowers of the Swallow Mountain Region.

The Swallow Mountain Region was one of thousands of regions of the Stillwater Commandery, which was one of 3600 Commanderies of the Grand Xia Dynasty. Many of the clans that lived in the Commandery Capital were much richer and more influential than the Riverbank Clan, as one of the small Region Prefecture Cities.

So while Carl was born to a Prefecture Lord of the Swallow Mountain Region, and would one day succeed him, he knew from a young age just how far down the totem pole they were in the grand scheme of things. Carl's father as the Prefecture Lord had hundreds of tribes below him and his position seemed very prestigious. But compared to a single Stillwater Commandery, let alone the whole Grand Xia, they were a very small and unimportant clan.

But despite all that, Carl was determined to one day take charge of Firebird City when it was time for him to. And one of the most important considerations relating to his rule of the city was his personal power. If he as the Prefectural Lord wasn't strong, then the tribes under him would not be able to be at ease with his rule and would test him constantly.

So when he was four years old he was allowed to begin training. He knew how important strength was, so he began with the widely acknowledged number one Fiendgod Body Refining technique, the Crimsonbright Diagram of Nine Heavens. It was not only acknowledged as the best technique, but it was widely distributed, though not everyone could gain even a modicum of success in the technique.

Upon his first practice of the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens, his consciousness sunk into a vision. He was hurtling through the void, flying in a particular direction. In the distance he could see two glowing points of light, one was red and the other one was silver.

He flew closer and closer to the two lights, and soon he could make out what the points of light were. One of the lights was an enormous ball of burning flame, like an angry sun. Enormous flames leapt up from the surface, arcing over and falling back into the surface of the sun. The arcs of flame seemed to be eternally present, shocking Carl a great deal.

The other light was covered with unending sheets of ice in a globe form; and rising from the never ending ice was an enormous osmanthus tree. The silver light coming from the enormous ball was incomparably cold, just as the orange-red light coming from the sun was incomparably hot.

But both the heat and the cold felt very comfortable to Carl.

He could see the two stellar bodies in minute detail. Every flame that flickered on the surface, all the veins in the leaves on the tree. It was all crystal clear in his eyes.

Outside the vision with Carl's real body, his right hand held a ball of flame that was a replica of the sun in his vision. There was a Golden Crow that flew around the miniature sun. The small Golden Crow flew away from the sun, growing larger as he flew, and landed on Carl's right shoulder.

At the same time that his right hand was filled with the miniature sun, Carl's left hand was filled with a miniature ice ball, and the osmanthus tree could be seen. A silver colored rabbit hopped out from under the tree and climbed Carl's arm to perch on his left shoulder, growing larger until it was the same size as the Golden Crow

The two animals perched on Carl's shoulder, looking around curiously.

Flames and ice came into being around Carl's body, burning and freezing his clothes. After a few moments, his clothes either burned to ash, or shattered into pieces from being frozen stiff and disintegrating.

The rabbit and the crow looked on in interest as divine tattoos spontaneously formed on Carl's back. On the left side of his back, the vine-like silver colored tattoos curled around, reaching for the rabbit on his left shoulder.

On the right side of his back, the flame-like shapes of the tattoos curled around his back, reaching for the crow on his right shoulder.

As if from an unheard signal, the rabbit and crow suddenly jumped down and onto Carl's back, merging into his skin and changing to become tattoos. The silver rabbit tattoo was curled up among the silver vines most comfortably, while on the other side of his back the golden crow tattoo was flying among the golden-red flames, secure in its freedom among the flames.

Carl eventually came out of his vision feeling very comfortable indeed. He felt a little sad that his parents weren't there to celebrate his initial success with him, but over the past several years he had grown used to them being absent. No one was there to see just how much potential Carl had with the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens.

For most people, it would take a great deal of time, months or years, and effort to reach the first stage that he reached on the first attempt. And most people would only have a couple threads of faint starlight or sunlight appear for them, unlike Carl who had manifestations of the Lunar Star in one hand and the Solar Star in the other, let alone having manifestations of the Lunar Rabbit and the Golden Crow, which then became divine tattoos on his back.

Many of the lesser body refining techniques required the user to painfully carve the tattoos into their body themselves, or use some other form of suffering like sitting on the edges of a volcano as they suffered from the heat and poison smoke, or sitting in some beast's poison and let it eat away at their body, or sitting naked in sub-arctic temperatures and suffer enough to effect changes in their body.

But the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Heavens would be able to simply imprint the divine tattoos on the user through their practice of the technique. It's just that most practitioners never had visions as clear as Carl did, or have such detailed divine tattoos. The power of his soul, which was bolstered by his perks, had given Carl immense potential for cultivation in the technique.

Looking down, Carl was shocked to see the remnants of his clothes on the ground. He soon saw the tattoos in a mirror when he was dressing, indicting to him just how much of an affinity he had for the technique that would allow him to manipulate fire and water when he reached the Xiantian stage.

Soon after that, he also began practicing a Ki refining technique that focused on water and fire, since he had obviously shown he had the affinity for the two normally disparate elements.

Even in the midst of "reliving" his memories from the jump chain, Carl thought it was interesting that he had put in with the jump document for only a fire cultivation technique, but since the absolute best technique was a combined fire and water technique, that's what he got. He was actually quite satisfied with that small change to his benefit.

Thinking about the two disparate elements, fire and water, Carl realized that most people would not be able to handle the conflict as the two different elements fought for dominance in their bodies. But Carl was different; he felt that the two different elements didn't have any problems coexisting in his body peacefully thanks to the Evil God Seeds he had gotten so long ago.

But the Carl that was "living" the memories didn't know that. Sinking back into the memories, Carl once more focused on his background life in this world.

Shortly after his success in cultivating the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Heavens, Carl began learning how to fight from the guards. He learned to wield a larger two-handed sword adroitly. He learned footwork and movement techniques to keep himself from being trapped by the enemy, and able to keep himself in a position to strike! And he learned the basics of archery, which would allow him the ability to attack from range, or keep an enemy on the defensive while escaping. It was all part of the learning that someone at his level should learn, in order to keep themselves alive amidst the conflicts between clans.

Part of the reason he learned archery was because of the tribes that were under the authority of the Riverbank Clan. They practically demanded that all their Prefecture Lords be worthy of their position. If they weren't, they would rebel. And one of the most important aspects of the tribesman's lives was the ability to hunt. So without the ability to accurately shoot arrows to hunt, he would be looked down on by the tribes that owed his clan fealty.

All of Riverbank Carl's teachers soon learned that if there was one thing that Carl excelled at, and could be proud of, it was his ability to hunt. He could track, hide, ambush, and use all other hunter's skills as if he was born to them. It was yet another thing for his followers to take pride in, and brag about to the surrounding tribesmen.

After Carl grew up a bit more, and after some basic instruction, it was time to blood him, so that he didn't grow up weak. Many of the other clan's young children were like flowers in a greenhouse. After growing up in a privileged location, if placed in the real world, they wilted and died under the pressure.

In an arena his family had set up he began fighting against criminals and diremonsters that his guards brought for him to gain experience in real fights. Carl soon showed the stern material he was made of; as he didn't wilt when put into real life and death fights. It was difficult at first, but he persevered and soon gained experience and resolve as he fought in the arena.

And when he reached the age of 10, he became a Xiantian lifeform in both Ki refining and body refining. His absentee parents threw a party because of the respect and honor he brought them, but they barely looked at him all throughout the party. They were too busy schmoozing with the various movers and shakers of the Swallow Mountain Region.

Carl wasn't too surprised at his birth parent's actions, and he had plenty of cousins in the clan, as well as his Silver Dragons to keep him company and fill the void his parents left behind. He continued on as before, assiduously training and fighting so that he could be worthy of his position as the City Lord's heir.

When he was 14, his parents met a tragic accident in a beast horde that caught them by surprise when they were travelling. Carl honestly didn't feel much for the death of his absentee parents, beyond a small regret that he was never close with them and had lost the chance to ever get to know them.

Shortly before his parent's death, while he had only just arrived at the age of 14, Carl had attained the late stage Xiantian life form, so despite his young age he was able to take over the Lordship of the Prefecture. He owned a great many of the businesses in the prefecture city and properties around the cities of the Stillwater Commandery. He had cousins from the Riverbank clan living with him, that he now recognized as his Hyuga family with memories beyond this world, as well as the Silver Dragons. The two groups were an important part of his family that lived in his clan grounds in Firebird City.

And now here he was at the age of 15, a peak stage Xiantian lifeform, coming to Stillwater City to finish his breakthrough to Zifu Disciple and then to apply to the Black-White College.

Carl slightly shook his head as his memories finished imprinting on him. He now knew how important a great many of the people in his life were, even if his naïve self in this world never understood why they held so much loyalty towards him.

The two girls that were sitting with him on either side of the round table in the private booth were actually just girls from the restaurant that were usually used to encourage the young masters that ate at their restaurant to spend more. They were quite pretty, talented in various musical and artistic skills, and huge flirts.

Carl mentally shook his head at his 15 year old self that had decided to indulge a little bit because he was away from home for the first time all by himself. He must admit, though, that the two girls were good at their jobs of convincing an inexperienced youth in spending money. If he hadn't regained his memories, he would be entranced by the two flirty and sophisticated seeming girls.

Especially because the duties of the Prefectural Lord that he took on so early were a seriously heavy responsibility for a 14-15 year old Carl; and he wanted to play around a bit after working so hard all last year on both his cultivation and the various duties of a Prefecture Lord.

He wasn't sure if the plan to attend the Black-White College was very well thought out by his younger self. He only had a year to stabilize his rule over his city, and attending the Black-White College in order to improve his cultivation level meant he would be away from the city for years and years.

Thankfully, now that Carl's full memories and abilities were available to him; he had a solution for that. Carl's attention then turned from his memories of this life to the present and the two girls who were pouting that he wasn't paying attention to them.

'Well, since I already paid for the meal and the attention, why not relax and enjoy the conversation?' Carl amusedly thought as he put his communication jade away and returned his attention to the pretty girls next to him. 'At the very least I can learn more about Stillwater City from these two natives. I'm sure they hear a lot of gossip from young nobles like me as well, so maybe I can get some interesting news.'

Not that he was going to be serious about a meal with these girls that were simply window dressing in his mind. He had to be able to answer to his girlfriends, after all, and these two girl's job was to wring gold out of people, so their façade of interest was as thin as the gold he was spending.

"What is the most interesting piece of news of the past few months here in Stillwater City, then, Snowdrop?" Carl smiled seductively as he asked the girl on his left, resuming the discussion from before.

Before the girl named Snowdrop could answer, the door to his private booth slammed open. Both girls next to him nervously jumped at the loud noise, staring at the door wide eyed. Their place of work was usually kept safe from violence, so this was a huge shock to them.

Carl simply scooped up another delicacy with his chopsticks and placed it in his mouth to savor as he chewed. His Hyuga eyes were quite adept at looking at the door while he appeared to be paying no attention to those in front of him.

"Beautiful girls!" The man in the door raucously blurted out, before seeming to remember himself and feel embarrassed at his verbal blunder. He straightened up to his full height in what he thought was an intimidating manner, but he failed. He then looked down his nose in what he obviously thought was an imperious manner, but Carl thought it made him look constipated. "Our Master Ironwood is celebrating his successful breakthrough to a Xiantian lifeform tonight, and demands you attend him, ladies. So leave this loser behind and come join us."

Carl snorted into his drink in amusement. The loud mouth at the door was well known to Carl. He was one of the lackey's of Ironwood Zhan, who was a blowhard of the rival Ironwood clan. He was a good thirty years older than Carl, and had constantly tried to cause difficulties, indirectly, for him whenever they met in a city they were in at the same time.

The only reason that his lackey was trying to "steal" the women from Carl was because Carl looked like a 14-15 year old, so the lackey thought he could bully Carl. The simple minded idiot of a servant was not too bright, drunk on the "success" of serving someone who attained the Xiantian realm.

Ironwood Zhan was celebrating just barely reaching the Xiantian level in the past few days, and he was hoping to enter one of the prestigious colleges in Stillwater City. It was obvious he had ordered his lackey to go get some girls. But the lackey had been hoping to save some gold by "stealing" the young man's women in this booth, instead of hiring them to entertain his lord.

Carl didn't think much of Ironwood Zhan, since he was only reaching Xiantian stage in his mid forties. Carl was only 15 and he was already a peak level Xiantian. Which is why he felt no urge to be polite with Zhan's barking dog of a lackey. He palmed one of his chopsticks and threw it casually at the blowhard at the door, hitting him in the forehead and knocking him out. With a thought the door shut once more.

"Idiot." Carl muttered as he reached for another set of chopsticks to continue feasting. The two girls, Snowdrop and Dewdrop tittered uncertainly for a bit, before they continued chatting like nothing had happened. If the young noble they were talking with cared nothing about an early Xiantian practitioner, then he must have a stronger background or be even better in cultivation.

So with no desire to offend the young noble, they continued telling Carl about the latest gossip about who had been dueling who in the arenas, various treasures won at the auction houses, and other such scuffles between various inhabitants of the city.

Carl wasn't sure if the two girl's names were made up, or if they were actually named Snowdrop and Dewdrop by their parents. Either could be true in this world. But they were skillfully trained in the art of conversation, as well as music, painting, and calligraphy, and they seemed to know quite a lot of gossip. So the conversation was quite mellow and nice for the time being.

Carl didn't give the retarded late Houtian level servant of Ironwood Zhan another thought. He should know better than to bluster at someone who was so much higher than him in cultivation, no matter how much backing and protection he thought his master's clan gave him. This was just a small lesson to remind him. Some of the other young masters of various clans would have slaughtered him on sheer principle for their offended dignity.

He had a slightly different opinion though. Even if he was inclined to slaughter the little idiot servant, he wouldn't do it here at a restaurant. For one thing, there might be some old monster chilling in the mortal world, living life to learn the Dao. He might see Carl being arrogant and despotic and decide to punish him, or just not like the fact that someone was spilling blood where he was eating. You never know who was eating at one of these restaurants, or what would set them off.

Or maybe some old monster had a thing for acting self righteous and loved to see himself as the Arbiter of Justice, ignoring the fact that he himself was getting involved in other people's business and was thus being unjust himself.

So Carl had thought up some rules for himself as to what and how he would accomplish things here in the cultivation universe where he might run into old monster cultivators at any moment. He would be cautious and polite, but he wouldn't become obsequious. Even if he was weaker than other cultivators, that didn't mean he had to beg and grovel and plead just to avoid offending someone.

He would strive to maintain his politeness in public, but if some mad dog was randomly barking at him, he would smack it firmly in the nose with a metaphorical newspaper. He wouldn't slaughter the dog just because it was barking. That was the dog's nature, and it wouldn't ever learn if he simply killed it for making noise.

Unless the dogs actually attacked him or someone he cared about. Then a whole new series of responses became available, and justifiable.

At that point the entire situation changed from posturing for prestige to deadly serious action, and he would take care of business in an efficient manner. Basically it all boiled down to acting in accordance with the situation.

He was enjoying the chat with the lovely ladies, though not as much as his ignorant 15 year old self had been. His ignorant 15 year old self didn't have much experience with the ladies, so he was enjoying the attention a lot more than Carl currently was.

He was amused to hear the hurried footsteps and hushed whispers of a couple servants outside the door as they collected their idiot friend who had severely overestimated himself and his status. Carl looked through the door let him know who was there and what they were generally talking about.

Carl was just finishing up the last dish when he heard unhurried footsteps heavily walking up to his door and pause outside. Several moments passed with nothing happening. Carl activated his Byakugan eyes once more to see through the door and smiled a bit in amusement.

The person outside the door had paused for so long because he was giving his mentally slow servant the hairy eyeball, trying to indicate that the servant should open the door for him. The servant wasn't getting the hint at first, so the person finally whispered angry orders to the servant to open the door.

The servant startled at his flub. Flushing red and bowing obsequiously, he apologized while opening the door.

The door slammed open once more, causing the two ladies to jump once more.

"I'd like to see just who dares harm my personal servant. You must be tired of living…" the richly dressed man that looked like he was in his late thirties choked off what he was saying as he caught sight of Carl and completely changed his tone of voice."Oh, if it isn't Riverbank Carl!" He obsequiously greeted Carl.

Carl simply raised an eyebrow while staring at the man from a rival clan that was as large as his Riverbank clan. The Ironwood Clan had a similar background, but Ironwood Zhan was merely one of the many scions of the Ironwood clan, while Carl was the Prefectural Lord of Firebird city of the Riverbank Clan. Not to mention he was much higher in cultivation.

When Carl had been young and various social events had been thrown between clans, Zhan was one of those bullies that tried to make things difficult for Carl. That all ended when he became a Xiantian lifeform while Ironwood Zhan was still stuck in the Houtian realm.

"How are you doing Riverbank Carl? You're looking quite fit! The feng shui of your family must be extraordinary! I heard that you were successful in another business venture the other month, which just shows your expertise! I must say, I'm impressed. It was good to see you, but it looks like you're in the middle of something. I'll just be going then. Have a good day."

Ironwood Zhan bowed to Carl and slunk away just like that, running with his tail between his legs. Zhan had just barely reached the early Xiantian stage at the age of 46. Carl on the other hand had reached the early Xiantian stage at the age of 10, and was now a Peak Xiantian lifeform at the age of 15.

It was obvious that Zhan couldn't measure up to Carl's current strength or potential, and since their clans had the same standing, he couldn't rely on his family to intimidate Carl. Zhan just wasn't that important in their clan that they would want to have a conflict with the Riverbank clan on his behalf.

If Carl had been a lone cultivator with no backing, even if he had a higher cultivation than Zhan, Ironwood Zhan would have tried pressuring him with his Clan's backing into giving him compensation for his injured servant.

That was the kind of weasel that Zhan was.

But since he couldn't beat Carl in background, cultivation level, or potential, he immediately changed his tune and became a toady.

A few minutes after Ironwood Zhan ran away, Carl was ready to leave the restaurant.

"Well, it was a pleasure, ladies. Thank you for the conversation and the beautiful view." Carl announced when he was finished eating. Leaving behind plenty of gold as a tip, Carl left to find his accommodations, which was at one of his Monopoly properties in Stillwater City.

Despite his scoffing at gold back before he entered the world, Carl hadn't realize one simple fact. Neither he nor his clan was at a high enough level yet to use elemental essence as a cultivation resource or currency.

His clan could only dream of being able to find some Elemental Essence, but they would be incredibly paranoid about anyone finding out about it, since they would be targeted by the other powers of the Swallow Mountain Region if news got out. Firstly, the greed of the surrounding clans and cultivators would want to at least get some kind of profit off of such an incredibly valuable resource. And secondly, the clans around them would be in fear that the Riverbank Clan would use those resources to surpass the other powers and start suppressing them to claim dominance over the region.

'And the six Superpowers of the Swallow Mountain region think they're so strong.' Carl shook his head. 'They each have a handful of Zifu Disciples and maybe one Wanxiang Adept that sometimes comes down from a main branch to oversee the side branch. I feel so poor all of a sudden.'

'I'm going to have to find some way to get that first batch of Elemental Essence so I can start farming it so that my people over at Firebird City can get stronger and have a firmer foundation in this world. I guess that's a decent enough reason to actually join Black-White College as soon as I can.'

Carl had realized that his businesses were still going to be running on gold for now because his clan wasn't strong enough to be able to gather better resources. It was a vicious cycle, really. They weren't strong enough to gain cultivation resources, and without the resources they couldn't cultivate strong young warriors to gather resources. And on and on it went every generation.

All of the Superpowers and clans in the Swallow Mountain Region hoped to give rise to a genius among them that would lead the way to a higher level. A genius cultivator among the family could gain strength even without the presence of too many resources to break through to the Wanxiang Adept level, or even higher; thus breaking the unending cycle and leading the clan to prosperity.

Carl had the skills from perks to be that kind of a genius for his clan. But he also had perks and items he had purchased with his CP that would allow him to break free from the muck that all the other Superpowers were wallowing in.

His Treasures Galore perk would lead him to treasures that could be used for his own progress or be used to advance his people's cultivation progress. His Farms, Hunting/Grazing Grounds, and Jutsu Archive were three of the things that would help him break the ceiling and help his people advance.

So there was a lot he could do in the next few years to increase the standing of his clan and boost their power in the coming years.

Stepping out of the restaurant, he looked out on the busy city. It was the Commandery City, so it was packed with people of all kinds. Carl threaded his way through the crowds, keeping an eye out for anything interesting in the stores on the sides of the road.

His first destination was the Treasure Trading Pavilion. It was a market place of low level cultivation resources. A place to pick up a bunch of sample of ores, herbs, fruits, fungi, and other such items that he could buy with gold to grow in his Warehouse additions.

Carl spent a few hours wandering through the stalls, buying samples of whatever he could with thunder gold, which was denser than normal gold. He didn't need to buy a lot, only needing a sample of each since he could add them to his farms and grow them.

While Stillwater City no doubt had plenty of cultivation resources up to the Primal Daoist, Earth Immortal, and Void God level, Carl couldn't currently buy anything at those levels. Those kinds of resources were held and guarded in the exclusive market places that were strict about only letting someone with a certain cultivation level and matching resources in. And only with Elemental Essence could someone buy such treasures.

Two such higher level treasure trading locations were the Carefree Caverns and the Heavenly Treasures Mountain. Not only were there much higher level resources and treasures available there, but one could enjoy delectable banquets and enjoy the high class entertainment they provided, including gladiator fights.

As a small Prefectural City Lord and a puny Xiantian lifeform, Carl didn't have a high enough cultivation level, political backing, or the resources to afford a trip to the Carefree Caverns. No one in their right mind would trade even one gram of Elemental Essence for gold or thunder gold, no matter how many mountains of gold were offered. The cultivation resources were just too valuable to waste on something as worthless to higher level cultivators as gold.

So Carl could only stick to the lower class Treasure Trading Pavilion and buy resources at the Houtian, Xiantian, and Zifu levels.

After shopping and buying all he could, Carl made his way back to the Inn that he owned due to it being a Monopoly property and entered his accommodations. He firmly shut the door behind him, blocking out the sounds of the city.

Settling down on the bed, he began considering all that his memories had told him about his current life. All his people from the Hyuga Clan, the Silver Dragon Flight, and all those who had become a part of their organizations in the Naruto world had followed him to this world and were a part of his memories growing up in Firebird city.

From what he could tell from his memories, everyone that came with him didn't have their memories from the previous worlds either, at first. They acted as if this was the only life they knew.

Chances were that all his people had woken up their memories at the same time he did, so they were probably trying to get used to their new and strange lives.

Pulling out a communication jade from his storage ring that he got from this world, Carl made contact with Hiashi first. In this life his parents had been absent most of his life until they died. Hiashi and Himari, his parents in the Naruto world, were his distant aunt and uncle in this one. But they lived with him in the clan compound of Firebird City and acted as surrogate parents for him, along with their daughters Hinata, Hanabi, and Hayami, who were triplets and all 15 years old now in this life.

They had been constrained a bit by their position in the Clan, so they could only give limited familial affection, but they had been genuine and loyal to him. Hiashi answered the communications jade, bringing Carl's attention away from his memories and to the jade.

"Did your memories of a past life in Konoha come back just a bit ago?" Carl threw out the question first to establish if his people really remembered or if they only had memories of this world.

"Yes." Hiashi hesitated for a moment.

"No matter what, I still consider you my father." Carl reassured Hiashi. "This whole thing with new life memories is bound to be confusing at first. But I've come to see it as adding onto my very large family rather than switching out to a different family."

"Well, you must be growing a very large family by now." Hiashi chuckled a bit, reassured that his son wasn't going to distance himself from them.

"So how is everyone handling the transition?" Carl asked.

"More or less fine. They have their routines from their new life's memories to guide them to keep a sense of normality. Although, trying to figure out if they should act like the past or the present hierarchy should take precedence has caused a few people to become confused."

"Yeah, I'd imagine so. The clan name change probably doesn't help any." Carl shook his head. He knew how confused he had been at first when he arrived in the Pokemon world. He had been in a young boy's body once more with new parents and memories and no way to order his mind or compartmentalize. So he could understand that they needed some reassurance.

From his memories, Carl knew that all the Hyuga clan members had their names changed to Riverbank as well. Some of the civilians and ninja that didn't have family names had also taken on the Riverbank clan name, which included the members of the Silver Dragon Flight.

He wasn't sure just why his Dragon Flight hadn't gained the Hyuga name in the past world, but now they were part of the Riverbank clan. Maybe it was because he hadn't filled in the information for them to be considered part of his clan in the last world? Some SNAFU from the jump chain, apparently. Because he had filled in the information about where they were going to be in this world, they had gotten local memories and a local name. And the local cultivation, too.

The rest of the clans, while they were considered adopted into the Riverbank clan, kept their own names from the previous world. So Naruko Uzumaki still had the family name of Uzumaki, but now she was known in this world as Uzumaki Naruko, due to having the family name first.

And from his memories, Carl knew that both the Ninja Clans and the Dragon Flight had been granted at least the Houtian cultivation level, if not the Xiantian level.

He was a bit upset that his Dragons hadn't automatically gotten access to chakra in the past world because of an error of the jump chain not bringing up the form for him to fill out for their entry into the Naruto world. But he couldn't do anything about it now except induce Chakra Coils in them the first chance he got.

At least the world entry was working properly now and they had access to cultivation, which he was pretty happy about. Because it honestly seemed like chakra alone, as amazing as it was, wouldn't cut it to help them survive in this world. This was a world full of monstrously strong cultivators, and they needed every bit of strength they could muster to protect themselves.

Once Carl began thinking about his clan's cultivation levels, he realized that their cultivation level seemed to be based on what level they were in the previous life.

S-rank Kage level Ninja were now peak stage Xiantian Lifeforms.

A-rank Jonin level Ninja were now late stage Xiantian Lifeforms.

B-rank Special Jonin level Ninja were now mid stage Xiantian Lifeforms.

C-rank Chuunin level Ninja were now early stage Xiantian Lifeforms.

D-Rank Genin level Ninja were now Peak stage Houtian stage.

E-Rank Academy Student level were now Late stage Houtian stage.

F-Rank Civilians were now Early to Mid stage Houtian stage, if they even had cultivation at all.

His Dragon Flight seemed to all be judged by their levels from the Azeroth world, as well as their cultivation from the ATG world, and Ki levels from the HSDK world. They were all peak stage Xiantian Lifeforms.

Carl grinned a bit inside at the number of peak stage Xiantian Lifeforms his branch of the clan in Firebird City now had. With the Ninja Clan and the Dragon Flight combined, he had quite a few thousands at the Xiantian level, and even more at the Houtian level. And that wasn't even accounting for all the people from the various ninja villages who joined him at the last minute.

Aside from the lack of Zifu Disciple level cultivators, his branch of the Riverbank clan was very powerful and stable due to the large number of Xiantian Lifeform stage cultivators that were loyal to him. In his memories before world insertion, he was able to take over the Prefectural City Lordship at such a young age due to the loyalty of his clan and city, which he now knew was most likely due to loyalty perks.

Normally there would be all kinds of relatives coming out of the woodwork to try to claim the reins of power in the West Prefecture for their own profit under the guise of "taking care of the poor orphan". But with his solidly powerful and loyal branch clan backing him up, everyone knew they wouldn't accept any other city lord, so they were limited in what they could do.

"Thank you for contacting me to reassure me, son. But I'm sure there are some special girls that require your attention at the moment."

Carl could hear the humor lacing Hiashi's words. He rolled his eyes at his father teasing him about his girlfriends.

"Could you tell mother and my sisters that I'm fine and I'll return in a few days after finishing up some business here?"

"I'll do that. And then I've got to go organize the clan to reassure everyone."

"Yes. There will have to be a lot of work now that we've all gotten our memories back. I'll return before long and we'll re-organize in the Prefecture. By the way, I did a census in between worlds. Quite a lot of people from the previous world pledged the oath and joined us on the journey. Suna, Kiri, Iwa, and especially Kumo were some welcome surprises, since now they'll be our allies. Among others, from around the world."

"That's…Now that I think about it, I do remember interacting with those from Kumo in this world." Hiashi mumbled back, shocked at the fact that a Hyuga, or former Hyuga now Riverbank, could interact so peacefully with anyone from Kumo. Because of the history of Kumo and other ninja always trying to kidnap Hyuga Clan members, and steal their Byakugan, it was something shock worthy.

"Yeah, it's a shock to the system. But hey, new world, new memories, new chances to change." Carl hoped Hiashi could get past this mental blip quickly. "I'll have the VIs pass along the census data. I'd like you to pass along invitation for Minato, Rasa, A, Onoki, and Mei to meet in a couple weeks so that we can discuss how everything will work from now on."

"What kind of changes are you planning on, Carl?" Hiashi inquired, trying to catch up to where his son was going with things.

"While the old organization in this world from our memories isn't bad, per se, it doesn't take into consideration our past lives and skills, not to mention what I can now train the new guys up on due to their oaths of loyalty. I want to set up a sort of council consisting of those Kages, including you, Mortic, Hilda, and Goram from the Silver Dragonflight. We're going to reorganize everything, shore up holes in our defenses, and come up with solid plans on how to increase our people's cultivation levels and skills so we can't be taken advantage of by any enemies in this world."

Thoughtful silence on Hiashi's part met Carl's idea. "It's a good idea. It's definitely a needed task, especially because I can't see those who used to be Kages being satisfied in this life being relegated to…a non-leading role. But, Carl. Aren't you worried that they'll prove to be…uncooperative?"

Carl grinned a bit since Hiashi couldn't actually see him through the communication jade. He didn't want to come straight out and say that he wasn't worried because of various loyalty perks that, as long as he didn't betray his people, should keep them loyal to him. But he was thinking it.

"I've never actually, truly interacted with them, as they really are. I've only really met them with the memories of this life. But in the last world, they pledged a loyalty oath to me, and they wouldn't be here if they weren't willing and capable of fulfilling that oath. So while I know there will probably be a bit of jockeying for position and power among them, they should remain loyal to their oaths, as long as I don't give them any reason to break them."

"So, father. Please contact them and invite them to a meeting in about a month. That should give me time to finish up my business here in Stillwater City and return to Firebird City."

"I'll do that Carl. Take care of yourself, and be sure to contact your girls and family so they won't worry."

"Of course." Carl assured Hiashi before signing off.

Well, now it was time to contact his girlfriends and see just how they were taking being in a new world. Carl fingered the communication jade and thought about his memories from this world of his girlfriends. He smiled a bit in fondness. While his 15 year old self in this world hadn't taken the steps to be very close with his girlfriends, they were all at least good acquaintances in this life.

Carl made the call…