DESOLATE ERA 2

Sitting at ease on the couch in his room in his Monopoly Hotel, Carl used his communication jade to put through a call.

"Carl! It's about time you called! I can't believe how crazy this is, a whole new life's memories floating around in my mind." Carl smiled at the evidence that Naruko was as cheerful and full of energy as always. "And you wouldn't believe how crazy everyone is going right now! Everyone, and I mean everyone has stopped whatever they were doing and is running around like mad, trying to find the people they knew from our last world."

"It's good to hear your voice, Naruko." Carl warmly interrupted. "Is everything okay, though? No one is getting violent or literally going crazy, right?"

"Yeah, don't worry." Naruko reassured Carl. "No one is attacking anyone else or anything. It's just like some kind of big impromptu holiday festival or something. Oh, before I forget. I'm here with all our friends, and they all say hi. Especially Yakumo, Karin, Hanako, Anko and Tenten."

Naruko's mental laughter caused Carl to smile. "Shikamaru just said this whole thing is especially bothersome, and is asking why he can't sleep through it, while Temari is smacking him upside the head. We all can't wait until you get back here, Carl. Speaking of which, when are you coming back? Oh, hey! You're sisters just arrived. Hinata, Hanabi, Hayami! Over here!"

Carl chuckled a bit, imagining the scene. Maybe he should go back home first, and then come back in a month or two to join the Black-White College?

After thinking about it for a bit, he decided that he would at least make a trip home first to leave behind some blood clones to be his presence at his Prefecture City. It would be somewhat irresponsible of him as the City Lord to basically abandon his city and neglect his people if the Black-White College had rules about attaining a certain level of cultivation before being allowed to leave on adventure.

Not to mention, it might be a better idea to get all his friends to come to the college with him, instead of leaving them behind at Firebird City. Carl nodded as he decided that was a better route to take.

"Give my love to the girls, and say hi to everyone for me." Carl smiled as he leaned back to get more comfortable.

"'Kay, hold on one sec!" Naruko cheerfully said, and he felt her mental presence fade a bit while she was speaking to everyone. "Okay, everyone is demanding you come back to join the party!"

"Okay, okay, I'll be back soon. I already dropped by some of the markets here in the Commandery Capital, so we'll soon have plenty of the basic resources so everyone can advance at least to the Zifu Disciple realm. Which will be good as a deterrent to some of the more belligerent groups over there in the Swallow Mountain region around our home."

Based on his new memories Carl knew the big two Superpowers that he would have to watch out for back in his home were the Ironwood Clan, which had always been confrontational against the Riverbank Clan, and Snowdragon Mountain.

Snowdragon Mountain was only a small branch sect of a larger group, but they had a Wanxiang Adept and several Zifu Disciples posted there. So while they were wary of the large number of high level Xiantian Lifeforms that Carl's Firebird City had, they weren't exactly afraid of them. Especially when their main branch had several Primal Daoists, which gave them a sense of self importance for having such a strong backing.

But if all of the thousands of currently Peak Xiantian Lifeform Ninja and Dragons back in his city were to advance to Zifu Disciple? The balance of power would definitely be broken then, and he wouldn't have to worry about any of the Superpowers from the Swallow Mountain Region.

The only thing he would have to worry about at that point would be organizing his people so they didn't reveal their upgraded cultivation level all at once so that some of the higher level powers in other areas wouldn't be tempted to go investigate what "treasures" caused such a massive upgrade across the board.

Good thing so many of his people were ninja and were used to doing things in a sneaky manner.

"You better hurry up Carl, or you're going to miss all the fun! Who knows, us girls might even play strip poker without you!" Naruko threatened before hanging up on him.

"Cheeky minx!" Carl fondly shook his head at Naruko's antics.

As far back as he could remember, ever since he brought Naruko in and gave her shelter at his family home, she had been a cheerful and energetic girl. She'd only gotten worse in some ways once they were all 16 and started dating.

That was when Anko had gone from a big sister type to the group of girls who had designs on Carl because of all he had done for them, and turned into their dating advisor, as long as she was included in the group of girlfriends that got to date him.

It obviously hadn't been his intent at the time when he acted to help the girls, but most of the girls that designated themselves his girlfriends without even asking him for his opinion had been saved by him in one way or another while they were growing up.

Uzumaki Naruko had just been kicked out of the orphanage and began living in the crappy apartment all by herself and very lonely amidst all the neglect and hate. And Carl had brought her into his family, giving her an adopted family that gave her the love and attention that she got from no one else in Konoha.

Kurama Yakumo had been possessed by a demon and poisoned, which killed her dream of becoming a kick ass Kunoichi. And Carl had banished the demon, cleared up her health problems, and helped her achieve her dreams.

Uzumaki Karin and her mother Ali had been living a pauper's life in a foreign ninja village while Ali was being exploited as a healing battery. Her life force was being forcibly drained in order to heal the village's ninja. If Carl hadn't saved them and brought them to New Uzushio, Ali would have died due to the cruel method of over-drafting her life force, and Karin would have been forced to take her mother's place.

Yuki Hanako had been living with her father and mother in Kiri when the bloodline purges were happening, so her mother kept their ice bloodline secret. Unfortunately Hanako's father had discovered their bloodline and killed her mother. Hanako had managed to protect herself, killing her father in the process, and then wandered the land, a homeless and starving orphan. Until Carl found her and brought her to New Uzushio to start a better life.

Mitarashi Anko had been an apprentice to Orochimaru, one of the highly respected Sannin of Konoha. But then Orochimaru had turned out to be a traitor, one who performed evil human experiments on the ninja and citizens of Konoha, in his attempts to gain immortality and merge different bloodlines into himself. Orochimaru had put a cursed seal on Anko which had a piece of his soul inside it, which would negatively affect her. In order to limit the mental influence and control he had over her, Anko was forced to limit how much of her abilities and chakra she could use. That limitation, along with the untrustworthy reputation she labored under because of her association with Orochimaru always followed her. Until the day that Carl removed the cursed seal from her.

The only one of his girlfriends that didn't have a tragic past was Higurashi Tenten. She was simply a weapon's nut, especially for anything with a blade. Once she discovered how talented a smith Carl was, she would simply not leave him alone. Over the years they interacted and worked together, the other girls accepted her into the fold.

"Heading home for a game of poker sounds pretty good, right about now." Carl chuckled as he began pondering about how to shorten the several month long trip between Stillwater City and Firebird City.

While he had been between worlds in the Warehouse, he had noticed the blood clones had also been in stasis and were not awake for the in between time. But now they were up and going. So Carl let a few out into his room. While he went home to Firebird City, they would stay in the city and continue to gather information for him.

With his clones set loose to begin their intelligence gathering work, Carl reached into the pocket dimension that he had from attaining the Sovereign Profound realm in the Against The Gods cultivation methods. He was looking around for a couple items that he had barely ever used.

The first item was a rectangular light-blue crystal that was about the size of a large bar of soap. It was plated on the bottom with silver and on two sides with a fleur-de-lis pattern. Once Carl inspected the teleport crystal from the Sword Art Online world that he had gained, he saw that it was attuned to his clan home back in Firebird City.

The second item he pulled out of his pocket dimension was an off-white circular disc of stone that had a light blue strip of crystal shaped in a stylized number 9. Carl saw that the World of Warcraft hearthstone was set to the Monopoly Inn that he was staying in.

"Oh, so very convenient." Carl shook his head at how easy it was. He had the means to switch back and forth between Stillwater City and Firebird City so easily. "Well, no need to ponder about the conveniences that are afforded me due to Jump Chain magic."

Carl put the hearthstone back in his pocket dimension and focused on the teleport crystal. Upon activation he vanished from his room in a flash of blue light.

XX

Stepping out of his room at his Clan Mansion in Firebird City, Carl smirked a bit in amusement as he noticed how distracted all the servants were. Opening his ears, he noticed they were gossiping about the recent chaos happening among the people of the city, and how many of them apparently remembered their past lives.

Surprisingly enough, there were a large number of servants that didn't appear to have memories of the previous worlds. Carl could only assume they were added to his growing following by his purchase of the Prefecture City.

Before his world entry, the Carl that only had this world's memories to lean on, especially those concerned with his absentee parents and his responsibilities as the City Lord, would have tried his hardest to live up to his role as the Prefecture Lord and would have gotten angry at the gossiping servants. He would have chastised them or docked their pay in order to punish them for their temerity in celebrating such a strange happening.

But with all his memories of past worlds floating in his mind, and recognizing that this was a special one-time event (at least until the next world), Carl just shrugged and moved onwards. They would probably be chastised by their supervisor soon enough, no need to personally act when he really didn't care at the moment. If a large part of the city awakening past life's memories wasn't a reason to be discombobulated, he didn't know what else would count.

Carl continued along the halls, nodding and acknowledging the salutes from guards and servants as he passed. The ornate wide halls were nice to look at in person, as opposed to remembering them from the implanted memories. Stepping outside the mansion, he immediately noticed the Silver Dragonflight Tower and the Hyuga compound (which was now the Riverbank compound) flanking his Prefecture Lord Mansion. The three buildings stood quite majestically on his enormous clan only property.

Pausing at the top of the steps, Carl spent a moment to take in a deep breath and just absorb the feelings that were bubbling up in him from the sight.

He had been gathering properties and possessions for a while now on the jump chain. And while it felt good to increase his wealth and items, it was the reminder that he now had people that were able to follow him from world to world that really made him feel deeply.

His Dragonflight from the World of Warcraft, and now his Hyuga ninja clan, and a large portion of the world of Naruto had pledged to join him in his journeys. It felt quite good.

Shaking off his brief maudlin mood, Carl began making his way to the restaurant dining hall in Firebird City that Naruko had told him everyone was gathering at. It looked like he was casually strolling along the streets, but every step took him hundreds of yards forward at a time as he adroitly weaved through the crowds.

As a result, it wasn't long before he arrived at the location and walked in to see so many of his friends from the previous world gathered together, drinking and having fun.

"Hey, everyone." Carl called out. "I'm back."

"Carl's here!" Naruko yelled out excitedly and jumped several feet to grab him up in a hug that he gladly returned, before a more intimate greeting kiss was exchanged.

"Naruko, you look lovely as always." Carl complimented her, seeing that she retained her blonde hair and blue eyes look. "Did your passenger come along with you…?" Carl indirectly referenced the nine-tailed fox, wondering if it had come along with her on the jump chain.

"Nope! It's so great! The big angry fluff ball is all gone, with only me left!" Naruko happily reported, causing Carl to realize just exactly why she was just a happy ball of energy today.

Even with all of her friend's support and help in her life, having the burden of being a Jinchuriki that had initially caused her to be hated and abandoned in her own home village, was often a hardship to her. So being totally free of the nine-tailed fox was a wonderful thing for her to experience.

"That's wonderful!" Carl laughed. He really didn't care if the big mass of sentient chakra were around or not. Compared to the amount of power they could gain from advancing their cultivation, the amount of power and benefits the fox granted its container wasn't especially important. Especially if she had the chance of being mentally influenced, or developing mental hang-ups and blocks due to the process that would block her advancing in her cultivation.

"Okay, okay, blondie! Let the rest of us say 'hi' too, don't hog all the Carl time." Karin called out, which Naruto replied by sticking out her tongue. "Carl, I'm glad you came back so quickly." Karin stated in her demure way.

Carl just opened his arms for a hug, that Karin happily stepped into. Karin was an amusing girl for Carl to interact with. She enjoyed play acting all demure and shy one moment with him, but the next moment something might set off her temper and causer to fly off the handle, only for her to return back to her 'nice girl' act.

It really didn't bother Carl that she would act differently in varying situations like that, since everyone liked to play around differently. Some couples even went to extremes and completely role played as different people in order to put some spice into their bedrooms.

But Karin was always dependable and loyal to her people, and to Carl, so he appreciated her different moods for what they were, her being comfortable enough to enjoy herself around them.

"How's your mother, Karin?" Carl asked after the two shared a kiss.

"Oh, she's good, and she's still my mother in this world, so that's great." Karin said with a sigh of relief. "This life's memories have her as a medic as well, which she really enjoys. Right now she's meeting up with the rest of the medical group from New Uzushio."

Carl was pleased to hear that. He really felt he did something great in re-establishing New Uzushio and filling it with groups of disenfranchised people who had nowhere else to go. The enthusiasm and loyalty they had shown as they found a new home to live was heartwarming.

The next to greet Carl was the ever energetic Anko, who wrapped around him like a snake. So Carl returned the greeting in kind, wrapping around her like a snake as well. It always amused him that she would use that technique the two of them had learned from the Snake Summons Clan for hugs. She claimed she felt the hug that much more when she used the technique to go practically boneless and literally wrap around him like a python.

"Anko. It's always breathtaking to reunite with you." Carl joked a bit while smiling down on her expectant face once they broke their kiss.

"Hmm, of course it is." She stepped back, posing to show off her curves. "Although I gotta say, it's a bit on the odd side to once more be 15 years old. Now that's a trip. Kurenai is so jealous of me now, since she's still the same age as she was before."

Carl shared a laugh with Anko over that. He didn't particularly think of himself as vain, but he could understand the desire to be returned to a younger age. However, over the past 15 worlds he had constantly had his age re-adjusted, so he thought it might be a nice thing when he finally ended up sticking to his age instead of constantly being returned to a young age and having to go through puberty all over again.

Yakumo was the next to be wrapped up in a hug and greeted in a kiss. Her soft brown hair falling casually around her pale face looked lovely as always, and she had a nice smile lighting up her face for him.

"Speaking of Kurenai, I have a meeting already set up with her in a few days so we can start researching the art of Illusions here in this world." Yakumo said excitedly.

Once Yakumo's problems had been cleared up in the previous world she had been able to join them in the academy and graduate with them. She had then gone on to be on a team with Kurenai as their Jonin instructor. So those two had formed a lifelong bond and enthusiasm for building ever better Illusions. Some of the things they had come up with had been quite terrifying. But in this world of cultivation where most of the people didn't have chakra, and where a cultivator might have much sharper senses and mental abilities, they would have to rebuild their Illusion techniques from scratch.

"Hmm. One of the things you might look into is Heartforce." Carl offered a suggestion. "I know not a lot is known about it at the lower cultivation levels, but it becomes quite terrifying the further one goes along. I'll see about gathering some information about it and pass it on to you and Kurenai." Carl promised.

"Thank you!"

As far as he could see from his personal library of popular fiction stored in his warehouse, he didn't have a copy of the Desolate Era story that he had read in his original world. But now that it occurred to him, he would have to double check and lock that information away for the thirty years he was here.

If certain high level enemy cultivators managed to get wind of someone talking about knowing the future and who was on what side of the coming Endwar, Carl might not even have enough warning to hide away from them before they came for him. He might not even have enough time to pull in all his people and hole up in his Warehouse or Time Pearl. And he wouldn't want to bet on them not being able to find the small portal entrance to his Warehouse.

After all, it wouldn't matter if he had perks that let him know when he was being hunted, if a high level cultivator could bend space, or travel far faster than the speed of light, and kill him before he could react.

It was just not something he wanted to risk, so he wasn't going to tell anyone about what he knew of the future either, just so that no one could be compromised.

It was also one of the things that he somewhat regretted from his time in the Against the Gods world. He could have ascended up into the Realm of the Gods in that world and begun gathering techniques and knowledge of how to handle higher level cultivators.

But alas, there was no medicine for regret. He would simply have to muddle through in this world as best he could. Not to mention that just from the little bit he had been able to compare between the two cultivation systems, he wasn't sure just how useful those high level techniques from Against the Gods would stack up against those here in The Desolate Era. There was just too many differences to be able to tell for sure.

Shrugging off his wandering thoughts, Carl turned to the next of his girlfriends that was greeting him. Hanako's pale skin was offset by her large dark eyes and black hair.

"Hanako. It's always good to see you." Carl hugged the gentle girl who had suffered in her youth and found love and friendship in New Uzushio.

"It's good to have you back, Carl."

"Anything unusual or interesting in your new life's memories?" Carl inquired, getting him a warm smile in return from Hanako.

"Nothing that's really too unusual. But I do seem to have a much greater affinity for ice than before. So that is exciting."

"That's great." Carl agreed. "In the next few days, would you and the others like to join me in searching through the Jutsu Archive to see what's new to help us in this new world?"

Hanako glanced back at the other girls, as well as the rest of his friends from Konoha and New Uzushio that couldn't help but overhear what they were saying. They all looked very excited at the prospect.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that sounds quite exciting." She said before she stepped back and made way for Tenten.

"So, what does my lovely blade mistress wish to research?" Carl teasingly asked while he was greeting Tenten once more.

"As if you even need to ask." Tenten almost snorted in amusement after a satisfying kiss. "As if I'll ever get rid of the obsession for blades out of my system."

"Ah, but that's what makes it so fun, seeing how enthusiastic you are whenever you craft a new masterpiece." Carl returned.

Once his girlfriends had finished greeting him, his now triplet sisters joined him in a four way hug. It was quite strange for all four of them, really. Carl and Hinata had been 18 at the transfer between worlds, while Hanabi had been 12 and Hayami had been 8. So both Hanabi and Hayami, who were now 15, had more years of memories of living in this world as the Riverbank clan than they did of living in Konoha as the Hyuga clan.

So even though they all still had the Byakugan eyes, and were all still a family, it was a bit difficult for the younger two of the triplets to handle. So the reunion was quite emotional for the four of them.

"I'm glad to see all my sisters made it here with me." Carl whispered to his three sisters, now cousins. "And no matter what happens in these worlds, or what kinds of new memories we might get, you're always special to me, you'll always be family to me." Carl promised.

He spent a few more minutes chatting with the triplets. It was quite an unusual situation, since in their new memories he was a distant cousin that wasn't allowed by his father to interact too closely with them since they were far lower on the branch family totem pole than he was.

So in a way, the three sisters felt quite estranged from the person they knew as their brother in their past life. It would take some adjusting to. But whatever happened in the future, they were his people and would be with him on these world jumps. He definitely wanted them in his life, and let them know it.

After letting go of the hug with his sisters, Carl turned to the other people in the room. Neji, Rock, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, and the girls that were hanging on their shoulders. In the case of Shikamaru, it was Sabaku Temari from Suna.

Over in the corner, away from anyone, Carl spotted Akamaru. The nin-dog had grown quite a bit over the years since their academy time, and was nearly the size of a horse.

"Cousin! It's good to see you." Carl greeted Neji with a man hug with the pat on the back, before pulling an enormous half of a deer out from nowhere and tossing it to the enormous white hound with black ears, Akamaru.

"Good to see you're doing well, Akamaru!" Carl stated as he scanned the hound's cultivation level.

"You would not believe how ridiculously grateful the Inuzuka clan is that our hounds made the transition with us, and are still our hounds." Kiba exclaimed as he punched Carl's shoulder.

Carl laughed at the young man's enthusiasm, before he jumped on him and grappled him into a painful hold. Kiba immediately growled and twisted out of the hold, attempting to return the favor. But Carl wasn't a Hyuga for nothing, and sneakily jabbed some of his tenketsu points that caused Kiba to freeze with his arms extended in a silly manner.

"It's good to see you, Kiba. And I'm glad to hear things are good with your clan!" Carl exclaimed once the issue of dominance was done with.

"Yeah, yeah." Kiba laughed, stretching out his torqued neck. "It's always a surprise to me just how tough you are, you blind looking rat!"

"Hey, just because your sister likes my smell and is sniffing around us with her hounds, there's no need to insult us." Carl laughingly stated.

While Kiba's sister was hot, she really didn't seem to fit in with his other girls, if the amount of scuffle fights they've had were any indication. He wasn't going to be an idiot and demand his current girls accept someone they couldn't get along with just because of their physical good looks, so he just kept himself out of the argument. But it was fun to tweak Kiba's nose about it, just because the rough boy needed to be teased every now and then.

And judging by the sour look on the 15 year old's face, Carl had succeeded in ruining his mood.

"Don't worry too much, family exists to embarrass us, after all." Carl smacked Kiba on the shoulder once more before turning his attention to the others in the group of friends.

"Carl is correct. We have him for a brother." Hanabi so successfully deadpanned that it took everyone a moment to realize just what she had said, before Kiba started laughing at Carl.

"Love you too, sis." Carl ruefully stated while reaching out to ruffle her hair, which she adroitly dodged while kicking at his shins, and he blocked it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't take into account his other two sisters, who each kicked one of his shins. "Ouch. I guess I deserved that. Maybe."

"Yes you did. Don't touch the hair." The triplets chorused together. Carl faked a pout at his sisters, which put a smile on their faces, which was his purpose in acting out like that.

With the room relaxed after the familiar mode of interacting with each other from the previous world, everyone settled down and started relaxing together, playing a variety of games, eating snacks, and chatting with each other through the rest of the night.

XX

By the next day the city had mostly settled down from the crazy festival like atmosphere that had spontaneously erupted. Even though there were still many people trying to track down all their loved ones from the Naruto world, they still had their current lives, work, and daily routines to be about.

However many of the people who came with Carl to this new world had been ninja in the past world. And one of the many things that ninja were quite good at was information gathering. So it didn't take long before some enterprising groups organized their own intelligence gathering agencies, in order to help people track down their loved ones, for a fee, of course.

While Carl wasn't particularly worried about being betrayed by any ninja that swore a loyalty oath in the previous world in order to follow along with his jump chain, there was naturally varying levels of loyalty evidenced by the people that inhabited Firebird City.

Many of the people in the previous world had never heard of Carl Hyuga. Now, with their new life's memories, they had naturally heard of Riverbank Carl, their new Prefecture City Lord. But many of them weren't especially close to him. Due to the loyalty perks, they would naturally stand with him, but it didn't mean they were loyal unto death just yet.

But balancing those more distantly loyal clans, families, and others, Carl did have all those ninja from Konoha and New Uzushio who were far more loyal to him, because they knew him and respected him.

Even those ninja from Suna, who was an ally of Konoha, brought many loyal ninja because of what he had done for them and their Kage's family over the years.

And below the level of loyalty from those of Suna, but above those random people that had never heard of Carl Hyuga, there were the ninja from Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri. They were the hidden villages that were closest to, and had the most interaction with, Konoha.

As a result Carl Hyuga had a reputation among those villages. So they were more likely to respect him and decide to place their trust and loyalty in him than people on the other side of the planet who had never heard of him before the great disaster brought by the Otsutsuki clan.

All these little tidbits of information combined meant that while there were many relatively independent ninja who were more interested in business as usual, and were working to make money like they had before; even so there were a great many ninja who continued to look to their individual Kages for leadership. And those Kages had sworn loyalty oaths to Carl and were determined to fulfill their oaths.

Those ninja from Konoha and New Uzushio were especially eager to continue to build up their ever-expanding home.

So Carl was being informed on a regular basis about just what was going on in his Firebird City, and further afield in the West Prefecture that he was in charge of administrating, under the aegis of the Riverbank Clan. Information about the forming of the independent intelligence agencies reached Carl, was filed in his people's records, and continued to be watched.

During the next week while Firebird City fully settled down into its new reality and information was being gathered about and correlated between people's past life and this one, Carl continued to spend time with his friends and girlfriends.

Many of his young friends were very intelligent and had spent time working in different parts of Konoha or New Uzushio's ninja forces. So they had a great many suggestions on the directions Firebird City should be moving in, in this new world.

One of the most basic considerations was a cultivation resource distribution and reward system.

Breaking it down, generally speaking in this world, organizations that taught cultivation and provided resources demanded loyalty in return for their teachings and resources. When it was time for an organization to fight for resource collection, to fight enemies that threatened the organization, and basically do anything that was to benefit the organization, their members were required to answer the call and fight for the organization.

Whether that organization was a small family, a sect, a large clan, or an army or government group, if the members betray the organization, then it might as well not even exist in the first place.

And likewise, since the general state of a cultivation organization is a permanent lack of sufficient resources for everyone, then there needed to be rules and methods for splitting up the resources among its members. The reason for the lack of sufficient resources was that it is natural for an organization that has sufficient resources to gain more manpower in order to expand and find more resources. Rarely were the organizations static in size; they either grow or shrink, based on the strength of the members.

Up until recently, Carl had no problems keeping up with the amount of resources his farms needed to produce to supply his people. But his organization had just experienced an enormous growth with the influx of many random people from the Naruto world, and the planted civilians of his Firebird City. Granted, the normal citizens of Firebird City wouldn't be able to leave the City, according to the jump chain description. But those of his people who were affiliated with the Silver Dragonflight or the Hyuga Ninja Clan had no such restrictions on them.

As a result of the size of his city, which held several millions of mortals and many hundreds of thousands of transplanted ninja from the Naruto world, the amount of resources that he needed to supply to grow his city's strength and ensure their loyalty was enormous.

And that didn't even count the tens of thousands of Dragons, New Uzushio ninja, and ninja from Konoha that now called his Clan Grounds in the middle of the city home.

So ideally, in order to solve this resource problem, he would be spending more time in the Time Pearl in order to ensure that his farms produced sufficient resources for all his most loyal forces, at the least.

But there were several considerations that Carl and his closest friends and advisors needed to take into account before they started handing out resources like Oprah handed out gifts to her audience members.

Aside from the amount of resources he could produce through using his Time Pearl, Carl needed to be cautious on using his Time Pearl to advance his cultivation level so that he didn't accidentally advance to the Celestial Immortal or Empyrean God stage. Because once he did, his 30 year time limit would change to being forced to participate in the Endwar. Which would likely be at least 1,000 to 1,200 years, based on his memory of the book.

One of the good things about this cultivation world, though, was that advancement in the later cultivation stages wasn't necessarily predicated on simply soaking up enough energy like the earlier stages were.

Fiendgod Body Refiners at the Xiantian Lifeform stage simply had to absorb enough energy and follow their cultivation technique in order to advance to the Zifu Disciple stage, once their body has absorbed enough energy.

Ki Refiners on the other hand have to use the energy they've accumulated and create a "Violet Palace", known as the Zifu, which is a dimensional space in their Dantian area that will hold all the Elemental Essence they will absorb.

In order to advance to the Wanxiang Adept stage, the Ki Refiner needs to absorb Elemental Essence into their Zifu dimensional space and manifest "stars" of concentrated Elemental Ki inside. The highest method of advance is to finally manifest inside their Zifu a Bright Moon with a Jade Rabbit on it, and a Golden Sun with a Golden Crow on it. That would be an indication of the strongest foundation.

To advance past the Wanxiang Adept stage and enter the Primal Daoist stage, the Ki Refiner needs to manifest the form of the Primal Turtlesnake inside their Zifu. For Fiendgod Body Refiners, they must have their soul leave the sea of their consciousness and merge with their bodies.

The Earth Immortal or Void God level is the stage at which they begin using whichever Dao they have learned in order to create the foundation for their transition to the Celestial Immortal or Empyrean God stage. The tribulation consists of a wind, fire, thunder, and Demonheart Tribulations.

Ki Refiners that pass their tribulation will have a flower bloom on the back of the Primal Turtlesnake, and the Jindan will form in the middle of the flower.

Aside from the tribulation, in order to advance to the Celestial Immortal they need to fully comprehend a Lesser Dao, and use that Lesser Dao as the basis of forming their Jindan that rest inside the Zifu Palace they formed in the flower on the Primal Turtlesnake.

For the Body Refining route, to become an Empyrean God, one needs to fully comprehend a Lesser Dao and use that as the core of their Empyrean God Body.

To become a True Immortal one needs to fully comprehend a Grand Dao and at least one of Dao of fire, earth, metal, water, or wood. Using the Grand Dao as the basis to connect between Heaven and Earth, they would absorb massive amounts of energy into transforming and upgrading their Jindan.

For the path to becoming a True God, they would use the Grand Dao as a basis to form their True God Body.

To reach the next stage the pattern continues. In order for a Ki Refiner to reach the Ancestral Immortal stage, they need to fully comprehend a Heavenly Dao, and use that as the basis to upgrade their Jindan, while the Fiendgod Body Refiner would use the Heavenly Dao as a basis for forming their Elder God Body.

Because of how a cultivator's combat strength relies heavily on their understanding of the Daos, the more Daos one comprehends, the more powerful they are at any particular stage. They are able to form their own Domains and control the very world around them to enhance their attacks.

As a result of a cultivator's power being based on their knowledge and understanding of the Daos, many students of the Black-White College held themselves back from advancing cultivation stages in order to study more Daos, in order to raise their combat effective power at any particular cultivation stage.

So as long as Carl was cautious in just how he uses the Time Pearl, namely if he only used it for resource generation and Dao study, rather than advancement, then he should be able to pass the 30 years just fine without triggering the need to stay for the Endwar by reaching the Celestial Immortal or Empyrean God stage.

Carl's friends were great for bouncing ideas off of in order to get an idea of how much he should use the Time Pearl, how many resources from his Farm he should throw in the mix for his forces, as opposed to using the resources his West Prefecture generated and that his followers were able to gather for Firebird City's use.

The discussion eventually ended up sounding like someone setting up money laundering schemes. Too many resources being thrown into his city from his Farms would be very noticeable to any outside spies, which would garner them unwanted attention from greedy murder-hobos.

Too little money laundering, er…cultivation resource laundering would result in his people not having an optimal growth curve.

In the end, Carl and his friends came to the conclusion that most of the normal forces for Firebird City would have to rely on the resources that his West Prefecture could produce in order that they would fly under the radar.

Only his closest and most loyal people would gain access to the nearly unlimited resource generation from his Farms, which obviously included those from the Silver Dragonflight, New Uzushio, and the Riverbank/Hyuga Ninja Clan. To only a slightly lesser extent, those from Konoha, their ally Suna, and the newly allied Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa gained a large portion of resources.

His closest and sneakiest of allies would need to be built up into a strong force quickly, they would keep their mouths shut and not leak information, and most importantly they would continue to grow in loyalty.

Meanwhile the Kages and leaders from the Silver Dragonflight and the Riverbank Branch Clan (formerly Hyuga) were debating how Firebird City and the resources his West Prefecture produced would be distributed to everyone. Carl mostly kept out of that discussion. They would bring him a solution and he would trust his subordinates with the task he delegated them. That's how it works.

Aside from the matter of cultivation resource distribution, one of the other considerations he had to take into account was just how many cultivation techniques and various skill manuals would be added to the available "library" for his Firebird City.

Just like any heavenly treasure or cultivation resource, if Carl had far too high quality of a library for his station in the local power structure, it would just send disaster his way. So more debates and discussion was underway as Carl and his friends discussed how much should be made generally available.

And just like with the cultivation resources, it didn't take long before they came to the conclusion that they needed to keep the vast majority of it under lock and key. Only those manuals and techniques that were normally owned by a Prefecture City of his size would be allowed to see the light of day, at least as far as the public knew.

Anything that was of too high a quality or level would be reserved for the closest family and most loyal followers. They would have to take oaths to keep the secrets and not talk about what they learned, as usual.

One of the bonuses that Carl discovered soon after arriving in the world was the benefits he gained from accomplishing the Sealmaster scenario in the Generic Naruto World. The Intellectus took the form of an enormous mental library floating in his mind. Sweeping and graceful architecture made up the mental construct that held copies of any form of written energy manipulation.

Seals, formations, glyphs, runes, and many other forms of magic and energy manipulation formed bookshelf after bookshelf in the library newly installed in his mind.

Carl spent time in the Intellectus looking at the formations of the Desolate Era world, and began deciding what he could use to fortify the defenses of his city. Defensive formations in the case of attack. Anti-spy formations that protected his secrets and detected any spy. Weather influencing formations to ensure good harvests and prevent drought or floods. Anti-fire formations to keep his city or forests from burning down.

And furthermore, there were formations that he could use to create perfect training facilities. Different methods of creating gravity chambers. Rooms where a cultivator could feel a certain universal law, or Dao, much more clearly so they could comprehend the laws much better.

And of course there was also an alternative way to create a Holodeck, or Room of Requirement.

Without really noticing it, the short couple weeks that Carl had originally planned to spend before heading to the Black-White College stretched into a three month long stretch.

Carl knew that Ji Ning had already been born a couple months ago to Ji Yichuan and Yuchi Snow; he had read the information brief about goings on in the Ji Clan from his Intelligence Gathering ninja, so he saw a bit more information about Ji Ning's family. It reminded him to look through his memories of the Desolate Era story, which caused him to go into deep thought about his future actions.

Ji Yichuan is a Ki Refiner Zifu Disciple that trained in the Dao of the Raindrop and was well known for his sword skills. Yuchi Snow is a Ki Refiner peak level Xiantian Lifeform, but was injured in the same ambush that killed her older brother, Yuchi Mount, so the likelihood of her advancing any further is small.

From his memory of the books, Snow's Yuchi Clan of the East Isle Commandery was destroyed by the Youngflame Clan because the Yuchi Clan owned a Divine Ability, the Windwing Evasion technique, a movement technique that the Youngflame Clan greatly desired.

Yuchi Snow and Yuchi Mount initially escaped the destruction of their Clan, and made their way to the Darknorth Sea. Snow later met Ji Yichuan there and they fell in love and got married.

When Snow became pregnant with Ji Ning, they decided to return to the Stillwater Commandery. On their trip, a disgusting human being named Dong Seven decided that he wanted to rape Snow, so he ambushed them. Yuchi Mount sacrificed himself so that Snow, Ji Yichuan, and Yichuan's canine spirit beast White could escape.

Despite Yuchi Mount's sacrifice, it wasn't enough for the married couple to escape. Yichuan was forced to use a forbidden technique that seriously damaged his Zifu Palace, which is the source of a Zifu Disciple's cultivation power. Snow was also injured and poisoned. In order to save her son in her womb, she used a forbidden technique that destroyed her dantian and shortened her lifespan to only 11-12 more years.

After Carl saw the intelligence brief on the Ji family of three, and remembered what their fates were, he had some things to consider. While thinking about the situation, he idly flipped through the Uchiha Jutsu Archive and discovered that he had a copy of the Windwing Evasion technique that proved so devastating for the Yuchi clan to own that it led to their destruction.

"A hot potato indeed." Carl muttered while eyeing the absolute treasure that was his Archive.

Carl absentmindedly scrolled through the technique that caused the downfall of a clan. It was a movement technique that allowed one's movement ability in attack and evasion to soar, raising one's battle power. The Yuchi Clan tried to mask the Divine quality of the technique by creating energy construct wings on their back that, to lower level cultivators, would explain away the absolutely high level technique that they once received from a Celestial Immortal.

Unfortunately for the Yuchi Clan, the Youngflame Clan had high enough level cultivators to be able to see through the ruse, and they murdered the clan in order to get their greedy hands on the Windwing Evasion technique.

Ji Ning's parent's experience was a cautionary tale for Carl. Not only was openly displaying treasures and techniques that would enflame greed and jealousy dangerous, but it was also dangerous to be a weak beauty with no backing protecting oneself. They could be assaulted with no one to turn to if they weren't strong enough.

Shaking his head while in thought, Carl knew that if he could keep a low profile for 30 years, than a lot of the danger of this crazy murder-hobo world would fade away as he departed. But in the meantime, he really did need to raise his personal power, and his faction's power.

"And that is the heart of it." Carl ruefully shook his head. "The grand balancing act. Getting strong enough to protect yourself and those you love, while not doing it so fast as to cause suspicion that will cause someone to come sniffing around for your treasures. Or at least being strong and lucky enough to kill them when they do."

He and his friends had already hammered out a plan, so he would stick to it and take any situation that may arise as they come.

The other thing on his mind at the moment was whether he should do anything for Ji Ning's family. He knew that if Ji Ning's path was unchanged, in a bit more than a dozen years or so, his parents would be dead and he would be on the path the book showed him taking to the top of the cultivation world.

Arguably, everything that he suffered through pushed him to heights he never would have obtained if he didn't have the impetus and proper motivation to keep moving forward.

So changing one little thing, like healing his mother's injuries so that she didn't die anytime soon, would have a huge effect on his rise to power. He might or might not ever reach the heights his story showed him attaining.

Thinking about the situation, Carl eventually shook his head and put the Windwing Evasion technique back on the shelf.

Carl had to think this through some more. The story of Ji Ning's life and his rise to power was what allowed him, through all kinds of fortuitous encounters and hard work, to be the sole cultivator in the correct position with the power to save the Three Realms Chaos World from utter destruction from the enemy that was engineering both sides of the conflict to begin the Endwar.

Carl would leave this world behind after 30 years, so he wouldn't be around to take up the slack if Ji Ning couldn't handle it. The Three Realms may very well be completely destroyed, everyone killed, and the enemy might triumph in his evil schemes if Carl derailed Ji Ning's path.

And despite liking the guy from a story, at the moment he had absolutely no relations with Ji Ning, so he had no real obligation to help the guy's family.

But at the same time, whenever he was in these worlds, when hadn't he interfered with the "plot"? In the History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi world. And he had been irritated and annoyed at being relegated to a background character in that world, annoyed that he had danced to the tune of the "plot".

"Thinking of it like that, there's absolutely no reason for me not to be a busybody." Carl muttered in thought as he continued to browse his Jutsu Archive.

"What was that, Carl?" Hinata asked from the nearby table she was seated at with a manual open in front of her.

Looking over, Carl saw she had an inquisitive look on her face. Hearing what Hinata asked, several of his girlfriends and friends that were looking through his archive began looking up to see what was what.

Looking at all the people in front of him that joined him from the Generic Naruto World, and whose lives he made a huge impact in for the better, he gave a soft smile to the group.

"Nothing, just mumbling to myself." He shook his head and returned to his studies while inwardly thinking how silly it was to debate the pros and cons of "interfering" in people's lives.