DESOLATE ERA 5

Two of the men in the air were wearing white robes with yellow highlights, and were sporting the same symbols on their chest that matched the symbols of the jade clan identity token that one of the young stowaway girls had hanging from their waist. The identity token denoted someone quite important in their particular clan, but Carl didn't recognize the symbol. They must be from a bit further away, then.

Each of the two defenders had a spear in their hands and were battling their opponents with various powers and spells related to the earth element. Carl watched as they launched earth power infused projectiles from their spears. Carl could tell at a glance that they were using the idea of hardened earth to increase the strength of their attacks, making it more difficult for their opponents to deflect the attacks.

Unfortunately for them, the two red robed men that were facing them were stronger in the same cultivation level, and more skilled in the use of fire. One of the opposing men wielded a Jian sword while slashing with long blades of flame to deflect the earth projectiles and attack at the same time. His opponent was furiously blocking with his spear, but the occasional burn was appearing on his arms and body.

The other red robed man was using a whip, while guiding another whip made of orange fire to furiously attack his opponent. The man's defense with a spear was excellent, but Carl could tell he was being pressed almost beyond what he could endure.

The only thing keeping the two spear wielders from defeat was their impeccable teamwork. They had obviously been training together for a long time as they helped each other fend off the attacks and kept the other side slightly off balance with attacks coming from unexpected angles.

While watching the fight with amusement evident in his face, Carl took up a spot at the edge of his Ark to deflect any stray attacks that came their way. The four fighters in the air weren't staying still by any means, as they were darting around in the sky trying to get a good angle of attack on their opponents.

"Bad form, there." Anko snorted as she pointed at the red robed whip user. "He's not using the flexibility of a whip to its full extent. His attacks are too linear." Her extensive experience in the Snake Summoning Clan's taijutsu methods had given her quite the insight into that form of flexible fighting, which had only grown greater as she gained more resources and techniques from Carl's library, not to mention the time compressed training sessions with the group.

"At least the spear users know the value of teamwork." Kiba commented before popping a piece of jerky into his mouth. He then held a piece of jerky up above his head for Akamaru to nibble on.

It was an amusing scene for Carl. He knew that as Akamaru had advanced in his cultivation, he had grown larger and larger, to the point that several people could ride on his back at the same time. But once he advanced to the Zifu realm, while he didn't gain his human form, he did gain more control over his size.

And since they were on their way to once more join a school for the training and connections they could make with the other people in their Commandery, Akamaru decided to go back to the size he was back when they were in the ninja academy. So he resumed hanging out on top of Kiba's head once more.

"They will eventually lose. Why? Because they are less skilled than their opponents." Shino replied to Kiba in his coolly logical way. "Also due to being a lower cultivation rank, their stamina will give out first even if they don't make a mistake for their opponents to capitalize on."

"So what's this…" Shikamaru paused to do his customary yawn. "…this fight all about, anyway?"

Carl wasn't alone in thinking that Shikamaru continued using his yawns because it annoyed certain parties. And when Shikamaru annoyed them…

"Can you talk properly for once?!" Temari poked Shikamaru in the side several times. "And stand up straight!"

"Dammit, woman! What do you want from me?"

"Humph. If you can't figure it out, I'm not telling you."

"Will this make you happy enough to stop poking me?" Shikamaru pulled out Temari's favorite chocolates, causing her to slightly smile that he had thought of her to get her a gift, only to catch herself making too happy a face and immediately threw on a frown.

"Wrong answer, lazy." Temari's mouth said, but her hands were more honest as she snatched up the chocolates.

Several of the group were snickering or giggling at their antics. Even after seeing it so many times, it really was amusing to see their mock arguments and how they needled each other just to get some attention from their significant other.

While they were messing about, the triplets made their way over to the two stowaway girls on Carl's Ark, with their cousin Neji watching their back.

"Hello, there." Hinata greeted the two stowaways. "It seems we've run into a bit of a situation here. I'm Riverbank Hinata, by the way."

"Riverbank Hanabi." The deadpan tone of voice that Hanabi took with outsiders made its appearance as she simply stared at the two young women, making them more uncomfortable the longer she stared at them with her white eyes.

"And I'm Hayami. Don't mind her, she's just like that." The third daughter of Hiashi and Himari chirped in an amused mood. "So, what's going on here? Why are those fire brats attacking you?"

Hanabi simply kept up her stoic face, while Hinata sighed a little bit inside. Would it kill her 'youngest' sister to learn a bit of diplomacy and tact? She really was too spoiled in the last world.

The younger of the two girls, black haired with a pale white face and dressed in a white robe, turned and nodded at their greeting, while keeping a nervous eye on the combat, concerned about the state of her guards. Her large expressive eyes were almost filled with tears as she seemed quite distraught at her situation. The other girl just looked at the younger girl to see what she would do or say.

"I'm Fu Xiang, of the Fu Clan. This is my maid Xiao Na."

Carl frowned as he kept an ear on the conversation. This Fu Xiang explained nothing beyond her name and clan and expected them to know who she was just by her name. Was she so pampered in her clan that she thought everyone outside her clan should know all about her and treat her like a princess?

Reaching out, he flicked away a ball of fire that was sent his way. The sword user was apparently impatient to catch his prize and tried to burn Carl's ship as well, in order to prevent them from running. Giving the sword user a lazy glance, Carl made a rude gesture his way, which infuriated him, but Carl simply smirked back at him. He soon had to return his attention to the fight to defend against more earthen spears.

"So, you can tell us what's going on here, seeing as how we seem to be caught in the middle of this battle." Hinata, while keeping a polite tone of voice, got right down to the heart of the matter. Even if she was keeping it a little non-confrontational by not adding the words "your battle" to her sentence, the implication was there that this battle had nothing to do with them.

If there wasn't a huge battle between four Zifu Disciples just a few hundred meters or so away from them she might have been a bit more circumspect in her questions, but it was more important to get some answers right away so they could decide how to respond.

Even though their entire group was at the early Zifu realm, and common sense would usually have them give way to even one Late Zifu Disciple let alone four at once, Carl's group was anything but ordinary by the standards of the small clans and superpowers of the area.

And after seeing the combat and skill level of the fighters for just a small amount of time, Carl was more than confident that they could easily take out the four late Zifu Disciples fighting if they wanted.

But the question was, did they want to?

Fu Xiang seemed to be torn between telling or not. She seemed to be a year or two younger than they were in this world, around 14 or 15 years old. So under the level stares of the triplets, she eventually caved and began telling her story.

"Our Fu Clan is a superpower of the Volcanic Mountain Region of the Stillwater Commandery." Fu Xiang began talking but immediately paused and gasped in horror when she saw one of the earth specialized guards unable to defend against a particularly strong blast of fire in the shape of dozens of arrows.

A few of the arrows got past his guard and pierced into his arm; he had allowed himself to be hit in the arm in order to prevent more devastating damage to his torso. Fortunately for him, the other guard was able to cover him long enough for him to swallow some pills to help him heal and continue defending.

Carl nodded his head in approval of the two guard's teamwork, as even Kiba praised them for it. It was what allowed them to hold out so long against the two fire users that were more powerful and skilled than they were even if they were all at the same realm, but who fought individually instead of as a team.

Turning part of his attention back to Fu Xiang, Carl remembered from his geology lessons "growing up" in this world that the Volcanic Mountain Region was a large mountain region far to their east. Next to his Riverbank Clan lands were the Kou Clan's lands; and east of them there was an enormous tract of wild lands that was occupied by hordes of beasts, monstrous beasts, and Diremonsters; beyond which was the Volcanic Mountain Region.

The only safe way to travel past those hordes of beasts was by airship, accompanied by strong guards at least at the Zifu Disciple level. Trying to make their way through that wild land via a ground route was simply begging for death by waves of Direbeasts.

"While our Fu Clan is very powerful in the Volcanic Mountain Region, the Teng Clan is even more powerful than us. A hundred years ago, Teng Li was born to the Teng Clan, bringing them great joy." Fu Xiang indicated that the younger looking man of the two fire users that were attacking Fu Xiang's guards, the sword wielder, was Teng Li.

"The reason that Teng Li was so celebrated in the Teng clan was that Teng Li was born with a pure Yang body. He was particularly well suited to the Daos of Fire, and he advanced his cultivation faster than most other genius' at his level. He became a Xiantian Lifeform at the age of twenty-five. He then advanced to the Zifu Disciple stage at sixty. And now the word is that he's very close to becoming a Wanxiang Adept."

"You will not get away from me this time, Fu Xiang!" Teng Li suddenly shouted out as he began gathering a large amount of energy for a massive attack on the guards. "You will be my woman! No one else is worthy of me but you!"

Carl's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at hearing the amount of arrogance in that sentence. Should he say it was the classic frog in a well syndrome? The guy was powerful in his little well, dominating the other little froggies. But if he ever left the well and ventured into the wide world beyond the well, he wouldn't even be a small snack for the true predators in this world.

Just because those who were truly powerful had their own concerns and disdained reaching down into his well to mess with him, the little froggy thought he was powerful.

"So, why does he say you're his woman?" Carl threw out the question, which caused Fu Xiang to blush and stammer for a bit before finally getting a hold of herself to answer the question.

"It's because his Teng Clan forced my Fu Clan to betroth me to him." Fu Xiang mumbled softly, but everyone on the ship had high cultivation levels at the early Zifu Disciple level and could clearly hear her answer.

"So he's your fiancé." Carl flatly stated as he rolled his eyes. Of course he was thrown into a domestic dispute. What else was he expecting? Some actual reasons for the fight, like treasure or revenge? Nope, apparently not.

"I never wanted to marry him!" Fu Xiang almost exploded in anger. "He's like, a hundred years older than me! I never asked him to care about my…"

Fu Xiang let her words trail off and failed to state the reason, which caused Carl to be curious. So he scanned her body with his Tenseigan Eyes boosted by his divine power. His advanced medical knowledge allowed him to see that Fu Xiang had been born with a pure Yin body.

Carl could pretty much fill in the blanks at that point. Teng Li was treated like a superstar in his clan, and the surrounding tribes couldn't go against his clan, so he became very arrogant, thinking that the world would always bow down to him.

About fourteen years ago, this Fu Xiang was born with a pure Yin body, and her clan celebrated how she would no doubt advance quickly in cultivation and become one of their pillars of strength, due to the advantage having a pure Yin body would give her in comprehending the Yin natured Daos.

Unfortunately for the Fu Clan, the Teng Clan heard the rumors about her pure Yin body and wanted to match her up with their pure Yang body heir, Teng Li. Having intimate relations and dual cultivating between the pure Yang body and the pure Yin body would benefit Teng Li greatly in his cultivation. So the Teng Clan used various means to force the Fu Clan to agree to a marriage contract.

Being a young girl of 14 years and being spoiled by her parents and her clan, Fu Xiang naturally didn't want to marry someone who was a hundred years older than her. So she took her two guards and tried fleeing to Stillwater City where she hoped to join a school or find a patron that could protect her from Teng Li.

Being the arrogant possessive asshole that Teng Li apparently was, he didn't want to let go of the girl that he saw as his fiancé, and wanted to make sure she was his.

'And here we are, in the middle of a domestic dispute.' Carl shook his head, making a decision.

"Miss Fu, the issue we have here is that this is a matter between your clans, and has nothing to do with us. We're all just early Zifu Disciples, on our way to enroll in school ourselves. We really can't afford to offend these 'powerful' clans for such a reason, or else we'll let down the expectations of our own clans."

Carl spewed a bunch of bullshit in order to justify throwing this little brat off his ship and continuing their journey. His group of ninja cultivators were very strong and had trained in many techniques that populated his Uchiha Jutsu Archive once he arrived in this world. So even though they were early Zifu Disciples, they could easily take down Wanxiang Adepts, let alone late Zifu Disicples that were as average as Teng Li and his lackey were.

He just saw absolutely no reason or benefit to helping this naïve little girl who was only in the late Houtian stage. Carl had no relations with her, and there was no benefit to him for helping her.

"But…" Fu Xiang started spilling tears and biting her lip while her maid was wringing her hands, chanting over and over again, "Oh, no. Oh, dear. However will Miss Fu manage to survive?"

Carl used his iron willpower to stifle the mocking laughter that wanted to burst out at seeing the pity play in front of him. They were trying really hard to make use of him as a tool against Teng Li. He really wanted to just say, "marry the dude, and I'm sure she'll survive just fine".

"Well, that's that. Your man, your problem!" Hayami laughed cheerfully, which caused some of the rest of their group to give the young girl of the Fu clan the side-eye and chuckle at her.

"It's time for you to leave." Hanabi deadpanned in her straightforward manner.

"We hope to be able to meet you under better circumstances in the future." Hinata politely informed them with a soft smile, basically telling them to get the hell off their boat. But in a polite way.

"I…" Fu Xiang gritted her teeth when she saw that her beautiful helpless appearance, that always worked on men before, didn't cause this man that appeared to be in charge to rush to her aid. He hadn't even introduced himself! And he hadn't gallantly declared that he would protect the pure and beautiful lotus flower that she was from her vile pursuer! Was he even a man!?

While secretly glaring at Carl, she considered the last thing she could try. There was only one last method left, so she gritted her teeth and brought out her trump card. "I've got a map to an Immortal Inheritance Manor that I'll give you if you escort me safely to Stillwater City."

Carl raised an eyebrow at that offer, amused at the blatant way she was trying to burn holes in him with her eyes. She must really be upset that he didn't fall all over himself to help her once she revealed her 'hardships'. Looking around at his people, he saw they were also quite interested in this Immortal Inheritance. At the very least, it would be an interesting diversion.

"Why hasn't your Fu Clan taken this Immortal Inheritance Manor for their own?" Anko cut in at that time, posing a question that seemed to fluster Fu Xiang, while still keeping her eyes on the battle in progress.

"Isn't obvious?" Shikamaru asked from where he was leaning against the wall next to Temari, looking like he was incredibly bored. Only someone who knew him could see that he was actually quite interested in seeing for himself just how amazing an Immortal Inheritance in this world was.

"There is only one logical reason that the Fu Clan would not have already taken over the Immortal Inheritance. They were unable to do so." Shino added from where he was standing on an upper level while habitually pressing his sunglasses higher on his nose. "If they were able to do so, their strength would have grown greatly, and they would not have been threatened into a marriage contract with the Teng Clan."

"So this little girl Fu Xiang is throwing out something that is potentially very valuable in order to get our cooperation, even if it is useless to her clan since they don't have the strength to capitalize on it." Karin sneered at the girl who had been trying to act pitiful. She had seen a lot of little actresses in her time, and it always annoyed her to no end. At least Carl wasn't falling for her 'poor me' routine, as expected of her man! He was meant to be more excellent than the dupes that fell for such trashy baiting routines!

"Maybe it's not only a matter of strength, but there are other qualifications." Hanako gently corrected her best friend. "After all, we're going to sign up for the Black-White College, and they don't take anyone who has reached the middle Zifu stage because at that point their foundation would have already solidified with an inferior cultivation technique, thus lowering their future potential. So if the Black-White College has such standards, I'd imagine this Immortal Inheritance has even higher standards."

"Yeah! And I bet they've sent a lot of people that failed!" Naruko exclaimed with her sudden epiphany. She was actually getting excited at the idea of a challenge like this Immortal Inheritance Manor.

Fu Xiang and her little maid's heads were bouncing back and forth as they heard the arguments laid out one after another by the people surrounding them. It made it even worse to her that it was the group as a whole that saw right through her, and not just a single smart individual. Just who were these people that she ran across? They were certainly not simple!

As Fu Xiang listened to their analysis, her face grew even paler in fear as this group of people accurately hit the nail on the head on every point. The immortal inheritance didn't accept just anyone into its trials; only Zifu Disciples and below could take part in the trials to inherit the Manor.

And anyone that her Fu clan sent to attempt the test never came back. That was a huge reason why the Fu Clan had been declining over the past two hundred years. So many of their best and brightest were disappearing into the Manor, never to be seen again. And without the continuing replenishment of talented individuals over the years, their Fu Clan's overall strength had fallen to the point that the Teng Clan could strong arm them into a betrothal agreement. Thus trapping her with the fate of being tied to old man Teng Li!

"So we're agreed then? You give use this map to the Immortal Inheritance Manor, and we'll safely escort you to Stillwater City." Carl finally chimed in again. He had seen that everyone was eager to explore the manor, so he was agreeable with helping the girl, now that he and his people were actually gaining something from getting involved in this dispute.

"Yes. I agree." Fu Xiang gritted her teeth and finally agreed after some thought. If she didn't agree, this annoying man would simply leave her behind to be taken by Teng Li! What a bastard!

Naturally she wouldn't say that out loud, since she still needed Carl and his people to help her. But she was thinking it so hard that Carl had no problems picking up the gist of her cursing him out, just based on body language alone.

At Fu Xiang's words of agreement, several of his people immediately jumped into action to subdue the group of four that was still fighting.

Gaara released a large amount of sand from his storage ring. He still carried the gourd of solidified sand on his back for immediate defensive purposes, but with a storage ring he could always carry vast amounts of sand with him for attacking.

Carl thought Fu Xiang's guards that practiced the earth Daos were idiots for not doing something similar. Especially when they were fighting in mid-air where their Dao of Earth was lessened for not being in contact with the very element they sought to understand and control.

He smirked as he watched Gaara target one of the Earth users. At that point, all four of the combatants immediately turned their attacks towards Carl and his people, furious at the interruption of their battle by "lesser" cultivators. It proved that they had always been on guard against Carl's group on the ship, that they reacted so quickly.

Gaara's sand was easily able to wrap up the spears of earth that was sent his way. The grinding of the sand easily turned the earth element into sand, which easily fell into his own control due to his Dao of Earth being concerned with the shifting sands.

Seeing the large fire balls coming their way, Temari and Naruko immediately cast high level wind spells that blew through the control of the fire spells sent by Teng Li and his lackey, and turned it back on them. The huge fireballs that were fed and turned away by the wind spells obstructed the vision of the four combatants in the air for a moment.

Carl had been thinking about the issue concerning Temari and Naruko's primary wind element for the past year, and how they didn't have access to the Wind Daos because of what happened in the ancient war, which put them at a disadvantage compared to other cultivators.

Long in the past, the Three Realms Chaosworld used to be two separate Chaosworlds. The Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld. The two Chaosworlds collided with each other and began merging into one enormous whole.

Naturally this kick-started an epic war between the two sides; a battle for supremacy and control over the newly combined Chaosworld.

To make a long story short, in that epic battle, Mother Nuwa was the first one to advance to the World God realm in cultivation, which allowed her to completely dominate everyone and end the war. To avoid death, the master of the Seamless Gate, the faction of the Seamless Chaosworld, managed to merge himself into the Heavenly Dao of Wind. And his presence in the Heavenly Dao of Wind was what made it impossible for anyone from Nuwa's side of the conflict to engage with that Dao and gain mastery of it.

Mother Nuwa was a bit too kind-hearted and didn't kill off everyone from the Seamless Chaosworld, but banished them to the outskirts of the newly created Three Realms Chaosworld. After some time, she went adventuring into the greater world outside the Three Realms. And time passed, eventually ending up where they were now, about a thousand years away from the start of the new Endwar between the Seamless Gate and the Nuwa Alliance that would determine, once and for all, which side survived and continued to live in the Three Realms.

In the meantime, because Naruko and Temari were unable to embark on studying the Daos of Wind, they began practicing the Daos of some of their secondary attributes. Naruko, due to her Uzumaki heritage being aligned with water, began studying the Daos of Water. Temari, on the other hand, began studying the Daos of Earth due to her past as part of the Village of Suna. But as evidenced by their attacks, sometimes they couldn't help but revert to type and immediately cast some wind spells.

While the wind spells sent the fireballs back at the combatants, Shikamaru took advantage of the sand Gaara had sent out to send his shadow darting through the air underneath the sand, before breaking off to head towards Teng Li, wrapping him up before he could even realize that something strange was happening that he needed to fight against.

As soon as the shadow entangled Teng Li, his movements and ability to utilize his elemental essence in casting fire spells was interrupted. Before he could start to fight against the binding shadows, an enormous hand arrived over him, wrapping him up and squeezing him with immense power. A Ki Refiner like Teng Li didn't have the amount of bodily strength that a Fiendgod Refiner like Choji did, and without being able to utilize his essence in protective spells, he was squished and was soon unconscious.

Meanwhile the sand from Gaara arrived and wrapped up the first guard of Fu Xiang after deflecting and grinding up all his earth attacks.

The sand that Gaara was using now was the very rare Sekyerite Sand that he had found on the market a few months ago. It was very rare, expensive, and massively dense. So only someone with a strong grasp on Earth Daos focused on controlling sand could use it effectively in battle.

While that was happening, Anko had joined the fight and began showing the fire using lackey of Teng Li exactly how one should be using a flexible combat style combined with her Fire Daos to easily confuse and overwhelm him when attacks came at him from every tricky angle. Not even a dozen attacks later, and she had him knocked out, before carrying him back to their flying boat to dump him on the deck.

Karin was the one who attacked the other Earth Dao using guard of Fu Xiang, sending out her Adamantine Sealing Chains that Kushina Uzumaki had taught her and Naruko how to use. The powerful metallic chains made out of their condensed chakra and the sealing arts smashed against the earth spears, causing bright sparks to erupt from the chains, before arriving in front of the guard, smacking him in the face, before wrapping him up tightly. The sealing aspects of the chains denied him the use of his elemental essence and easily captured him, winding back to dump him on the deck of the ship, still wrapped up in the chains.

Carl smirked a bit at the sight, honestly amused that the guard continued squirming around and trying to escape the chains. Those chains were fully capable of restraining a nine-tailed fox on a rampage by a woman who just gave birth, had a giant chakra monster ripped out of her, and was on the verge of death. In other words, he didn't stand a chance of escaping.

Soon enough all four of the combatants were dumped on the deck, either completely restrained, or unconscious. They barely put up a fight against his people, which caused Carl to shake his head in disappointment. His people had a lot of advantages over the average cultivator in this world.

First of all, with the Farms that produced his cultivation resources, they were able to cultivate with an abundance of miracle cultivation foods and drugs. So they didn't have to waste a lot of their time going out to hunt down what they would need for their cultivation.

Secondly, his library gave them access to a far wider range of powerful techniques than the average clan around the realm. The only real reason they were even bothering to go enroll at the Black-White College was for the connections and competitions with the rest of the world's cultivators.

Thirdly, his time compression treasure that didn't age them while inside gave them a lot more time to practice their actual combat skills.

And tying into that idea, fourthly was his virtual reality world, created with the World Seed he gained from the Sword Art Online world. It allowed them to go all out with each other in training. They could participate in the battles completely, as if they were life and death battles, and be fine afterwards. They would even learn a lot more from failure and virtual death than they would otherwise.

And while those virtual combat scenarios wouldn't bring them the complete sense of imminent death that helped cultivators of these types of worlds break through realms in extreme moments of combat, it at least built up their experience in fighting. Knowing what would work, what wouldn't, and be able to try even odd and stupid ideas out to check their viability was a priceless tool.

With the group of four combatants subdued and lying on the deck, Carl gave Ino the signal to go ahead. Her Yamanaka clan was very focused on the techniques of the mind, using various jutsu for mental warfare in their old world.

And in this new world with all the magic, chakra, and cultivation techniques, they were developing into very scary mind cultivators. Heartforce was something that Yakumo and Ino alike were delving into, due to the huge bolstering effect it would have on Yakumo's illusions and Ino's mental techniques.

Ino dove into the minds of the combatants while the triplets kept Fu Xiang and her maid occupied, so as not to interrupt. Once she was done with a cursory scan, she mentally gave Carl the verdict. Fu Xiang hadn't been lying about the Immortal Inheritance according to her guards; and Teng Li would be the typical young master and hold a huge grudge against them for daring to interfere in his courtship with the lovely young Miss Fu.

Rolling his eyes at the bound young master, Carl created some seals on paper right there and pasted them on the bodies of Teng Li and his lackey. The temporary seals would keep their power bound and their bodies incapable of combat for the time being.

"If we let you two go, are you going to behave yourselves?" Carl asked the two guards of Fu Xiang once they were both awakened once more. "Because I don't mind leaving you behind if you can't promise me to behave appropriately. And I'm sure Miss Fu's Fu clan will be completely understanding of your reasons for not being there to guard her."

Carl smirked as the implied threat of separating them from their charge worked. Even if Carl let them go, for dereliction of duty the Fu clan would hunt them down to punish them. The punishment would depend on what happened to Miss Fu in the meantime without their protection. A light case would be confinement for decades. A harsher case would be cultivation abolition or even death.

"Yes! We promise to be on our best behavior!" The two guards chorused together.

"Huh, even their answering teamwork is excellent." Kiba amusedly mused from the side, causing a few snorts of amusement among the group.

"Good. I'll hold you to your promise." Carl stated as he motioned for his people to let them go. Once they were released they immediately dashed over to stand in their 'guard' stations behind Fu Xiang. They totally weren't using her as a shield against the unexpectedly powerful people that Miss Fu found herself stuck with.

"Miss Fu, you will naturally also be held responsible for the behavior of your people while you are travelling with us as a guest." Carl directed at the little Fu clan princess, causing her to frown and glare at him in impotent frustration.

"Some gentleman you are, not even introducing yourself to a lady." Fu Xiang humphed at Carl in frustration.

"Oh, what will become of Miss Fu now? However will she handle it now that she's fallen into the hands of such a bad man!"

The edges of Carl's mouth twitched in amusement at the strange and sycophantic mutterings of Fu Xiang's maid as she seemed to be habitually attempting to engender sympathy for her young miss. Several of his friends didn't have such restraint as they immediately began mocking him as a "bad man".

"Oh, no!" Hayami cried out melodramatically, draping herself over Hanako in an over the top fashion to indicate how 'distraught' she was over the situation. "You're such a gentle flower, Miss Yuki! However will you handle it now that you've fallen into the despicable hands of my big brother Bad Man!?"

Carl's youngest Hyuga turned Riverbank sister was a bit too spoiled, he decided. She was very much the opposite of the stiff and stern typical Hyuga, thanks in large part to spending so much time with Naruko growing up in the last world.

"I'm not going to have problems with you, am I, Mister Bad Man?" Shikamaru drawled while looking at Carl's girlfriends while pretend hiding Temari behind his back. "You've already got enough captives *cough* I mean, girlfriends. Just stay away, Bad Man, and we'll be good."

Half of the group stared in confusion at Shikamaru about his uncharacteristically forceful words and actions, until they noticed the rising blush on Temari's face and the looks she was giving Shikamaru. With the mystery solved that it was yet more flirting between the two, they smirked at him in amusement. He simply smirked back with a smug expression that said, "I'm getting laid tonight, so what? What about you forever alone types?"

Which of course turned their amusement to rage and they sent threatening facial expressions his way. It didn't faze him one bit. And they weren't bad bros, so they weren't about to cock-block him when he went to so much 'troublesome' effort. So they eventually turned their attention elsewhere, with promises of getting him back later for the insult.

"Well, let's get these two in the brig." Carl stated as he pulled out a piece of parchment and brush, writing a message that he then sent off to the ship of Teng Li that was hovering a distance away.

"What did you write them?" Yakumo asked as she appeared from mid-air near Fu Xiang's group. They jumped in surprise, not realizing that someone was watching them from invisibility illusions the whole time. Of course Fu Xiang's group didn't know that it was an illusion. They couldn't tell just how Yakumo had appeared next to them, if it was some strange dao, pure speed, or something else they didn't know.

"I just told them that they could pick up their Young Master at the nearest Raindragon Guard station. That's where we're going to dump Teng Li and his lackey off at for a bit of incarceration to let him cool his hot head down."

Normally the Raindragon Guards wouldn't care one whit about conflict between clans as long as it wasn't breaking the laws of the Grand Xia. Competition between clans was a method of strengthening the winner, the law of the fittest survives, and it was a time honored tradition among the cultivation cultures in worlds like these.

But thanks to the ANBU Mask item he had gotten for free from the Generic Naruto jump last world, he had a membership waiting for him with the Raindragon Guards. So he would be able to have them detain Teng Li and his lackey for some time.

Carl certainly didn't fear the Teng Clan, but he saw no profit in getting into a blood feud with them over some little girl they met randomly. If the Tengs continued to push the matter after getting their young scion back, and decide to attack his clan due to their wounded pride over this matter, though, he didn't mind putting them in their place once more.

"Just who are you?!" Fu Xiang exclaimed in shock at hearing that this ruffian in front of her had connections to the Raindragon Guards, the elite military forces of the Grand Xia Dynasty!

"Riverbank Carl." Carl briefly introduced himself, before all his friends reported their names one by one. It really was rude of them to not have introduced themselves. Oh, well. In the middle of combat, politeness could take a back seat.

"Okay, now that everything is calmed down, and we're on our way again, it's time you kept up your part of the bargain." Carl casually stated while smugly smiling down at the little teenager.

"Fine. I won't go back on my word." Fu Xiang gritted her teeth as she angrily agreed, insulted that he seemed to think she wouldn't fulfill her part of the bargain without prompting. Even if she really didn't want to give the map to these people. But she didn't have any choice. They were far stronger than her! "But I'll only give you the map when we reach Stillwater City safely. That was the deal! Xiao Na, Zeng Gua, Pan Fen, come on, we're going to our quarters!"

The young Fu Clan princess stalked off several feet before she suddenly paused. This wasn't her flying Ark, and she didn't know where her quarters would be located.

"Come this way, Miss Fu." Hinata saved her dignity from being trampled further by guiding the young girl and her retinue down below to assign them quarters.

It was only after the group was out of sight and hearing range that most everyone burst out laughing at the young girl's amusing display of temper.

Now that everything was settled, and there was no longer a fight nearby, Carl mentally ordered his Arc to speed up. He fed more energy in, increasing its speed by a huge amount. There was no way the Teng's ship could keep up. The only reason he hadn't done so before was that his girls wanted to sight see on the way to the capital.

Fu Xiang fumed in her room, really frustrated with the outcome of the encounter with the 'Bad Man'. She had initially thought that the man in charge (Carl) would be entranced by her beautiful appearance and order some of his subordinates to sacrifice themselves to delay Teng Li until they could get away.

But everything that happened was completely unexpected. Who knew that a group that she randomly ran into were all such powerful Zifu Disciples! Her guards had told her that they were only at the early Zifu realm, and they were already able to overpower the late Zifu Disciples of both her Fu Clan and the Teng clan. Just what was their background?

And as if that weren't worst thing, when the battle was over and she got a good look at the women that were on the ship, she could only hatefully grit her teeth in jealousy when she realized that they all looked prettier than her!

It was one thing if they were stronger than her, but how dare they be prettier than her, the princess of the Fu Clan who was born with a pure Yin body!

And with the realization of just how powerful they were, she regretted even more bringing out the map to the Immortal Inheritance Manor! She had expected that this group wouldn't have been able to do anything even if they knew where the manor was, thus giving her time to grow and cultivate until she was strong enough to take control of the Immortal Inheritance.

After all, she had a pure Yin body that gave her a huge advantage in cultivating over others. She just had to get a little serious with her training and she would soon leave everyone in the dust!

But now she had to worry that this group would actually be able to take the Immortal Inheritance before she could!

Just how unlucky was she to have run into this cold young master that didn't care a bit about her feelings or beautiful face and only agreed to help her when she bribed him with treasure?!

If only this Riverbank Carl had taken a liking to her appearance, he could obviously have helped her get away from the odious Teng Li!

"Brute! Ruffian! Despicable Bad Man!"

Fu Xiang continued cursing Carl in the confines of her cabin, not aware that everything she yelled in the ship easily passed into Carl's awareness.

Carl just internally snorted in amusement at hearing the wild emotions of the teenage girl being vented in her cabin. Shutting off his awareness of that part of his Ark, he snorted at her stupid and naïve idea of using a more powerful cultivator to shield her from the attentions of Teng Li.

If she didn't smarten up, she would just fall into the clutches of someone that was more powerful and possibly worse than the Teng boy. He at least seemed to genuinely want to court her. If he was some other lust-filled cultivator, she would already have fallen into a hell of her own courting by provoking more powerful cultivators with her Yin body that would make a perfect cultivation cauldron for them.

It really would be too late for her if she was captured and raped for her Yin essence, and used to forcefully plunder her cultivation essence, which was what being turned into a "cultivation cauldron" meant in this case.

Fu Xiang really needed to wake up and realize that only her own personal strength and power could solve her problems for her. At least if she didn't want to invite bigger problems into her life by relying on others, at any rate.

Even though she had a pure Yin body that should help her cultivate faster than others and gain insights into the Yin Daos, it was useless if she didn't work hard for it.

She was already 14 and still at the late Houtian stage. She wasn't even peak Houtian, either. With her clan's standing and resources, if she was any kind of genius or hard worker, she would already be a Xiantian Lifeform, or at least really close to becoming one.

But because of her soft and easy life, being praised left and right for being a genius just because of the body type she was born with, she didn't feel the need to work hard to maximize her gains or increase her personal power.

Having the advantage her pure Yin body gave her was nothing but casting pearls before swine. She really didn't appreciate what she had.

Carl just shrugged the issue away. It really wasn't his business how she lived her life, as long as she upheld her end of the bargain and handed over the map. He led the way back into the lounge they had been relaxing in before the encounter with Feng Li and Fu Xiang.

"So, what was that you were saying, Kiba? That Naruko is not lucky enough for what kind of encounters?" Carl started chuckling at Kiba's face turning red as he had his words from before thrown in his face.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. It's not like you found the Immortal Inheritance on your own, anyway. We had to trade for it." Kiba grumped as he stalked away to go grab some food from the sideboard, leaving Naruko and several of the girl to giggle in amusement.