DESOLATE ERA 3

A couple months ago, Carl could be found in an office-like room that he had designated as the Prefecture Lord's Study. It was the room he set aside for him or a blood clone to spend time in while reading the reports about the state of affairs in his West Prefecture, reports on what the "superpower" organizations around him were doing and plotting, and what his people's responses and future actions should be.

Due to the tendency of these cultivation worlds to have the theme of ancient Chinese style architecture, Carl decided to run with the theme and decorate his home office accordingly. The dark colored furniture was crafted from expensive wood that had many intricate carvings decorating them. Paintings in ink and poems written in calligraphy adorned the walls.

He even had a couple shelves that were loaded down with rolled up scrolls, bamboo, and even jade slips. He mostly put those there for the ambiance. Why would Carl bother with so much physical "paperwork" when he had the computers and VIs to manage that for him?

Sitting at his desk, Carl was reviewing the map of the Swallow Mountain Region and the superpower's territory. At the center of the region was the largest mountain in the area; Swallow Mountain that the region was named for. Naturally it wasn't a stand-alone mountain; there was an entire mountain range that ran from the north-west to the south-east, with Swallow Mountain smack dab in the middle.

The six superpower organization's lands were centered on that enormous landmark. The mountainous and forested area of the mountain range surrounding Swallow Mountain was a haven for beasts of all kinds. And while it was incredibly dangerous for humans to venture to the depths of the mountains, there was also opportunity to profit.

There were hordes of normal animals, beasts that lived in that mountainous area. But since this was a cultivation world, heaven gave a chance to everything to break out of the mortal condition and cultivate. Once a beast absorbed enough energy to awaken their intelligence and start on the path of cultivation in the Houtian Stage, they were then labeled as monstrous beasts.

After years of effort, when the monstrous beasts finally broke through to become a Xiantian Lifeform, they were then known as Direbeasts. Once they became Direbeasts, no ordinary monstrous beast would be a match for them, and they could carve out their own small territory to rule over.

The multitude of beasts and herbs that were found in the mountain range were a very good resource for food and trade among the various tribes that lived in Carl's prefecture. But one of the problems was that Xiantian Lifeform tribe members were rare among all the smaller tribes. The vast majority of them were forever stuck at the Houtian Stage.

And due to the robust physiques of the beasts, they were physically much stronger than a Ki cultivator at their same level; and only some of the more talented Fiendgod cultivators could match them. So even with a Xiantian Lifeform in their tribe, hunting in the mountains was a dangerous proposition for most of the tribe members. Without high class techniques and skills, it was usually the best the Xiantian Lifeforms from the small tribes could do to hold off an attack from a Direbeast until reinforcements from the Riverbank Tribe's warriors could reach them.

It was why the small tribe's warriors usually had many wives and concubines, in order to have as many children as they could. The mortality rate was so high that if they didn't keep pumping out kids, their tribe would soon go extinct.

In the Swallow Mountain Region, the six superpowers had carved out territory for themselves that all centered on Swallow Mountain. Carl's Riverbank Clan had the north-east area. To their west was the Blackfire Cult, who was on somewhat neutral terms with the Riverbank Clan.

Due to the border that the Riverbank Clan and the Blackfire Cult shared, there was always some jockeying for resources and territory. But due to the aggressive Snowdragon Mountain that was on the Blackfire Cult's western border, the Blackfire Cult's leaders were more than willing to keep its members restrained and low key in the competition for resources with the Riverbank Clan. As a result, the Riverbank Clan's leaders followed suit and the relations between the two superpowers never got to the point of being enemies, even if they weren't exactly friends.

At the very least they were allied in the purpose of keeping Snowdragon Mountain from getting too powerful. Because both organizations knew that if Snowdragon Mountain got too strong, it would only be a matter of time before they attempted to destroy the Blackfire Cult and take over their territory. And once they did that, the Riverbank Clan was sure to follow soon after.

On the Riverbank Clan's eastern border was the Kou Clan. The Kou Clan also had a vested interest in being allies with the Riverbank Clan, the Blackfire Cult, and the Ji Clan in restraining Snowdragon Mountain wherever they could. But unlike the Blackfire Cult, the Kou Clan didn't share a border with Snowdragon Mountain, so they were a bit less nervous about the whole matter.

Everything had been in a state of equilibrium between the six superpowers for so long, that the Kou Clan didn't have quite the sense of crisis that the Blackfire Cult, Riverbank Clan, or Ji clan had, since they were the furthest away from Snowdragon Mountain with plenty of buffer room between them.

South of the Riverbank Clan's territory, across the mountain range, was the Ji Clan. The Ji Clan's eastern border was shared with the Kou Clan's western border. On the Ji Clan's western border was the Ironwood Clan. The Ironwood Clan was enemies with the Ji Clan, and allies with Snowdragon Mountain.

Thinking back on his memories of growing up in this world, Carl faintly smiled due to the fact that the four organizations in alliance against Snowdragon Mountain all had a sense of contempt for the Ironwood Clan, due to the fact that they had basically become the running dogs of Snowdragon Mountain. They had no sense of pride in their clan; instead of fighting for their own sovereignty, resources, and the lives of their people like the four allied superpowers, the Ironwood Clan basically capitulated to Snowdragon Mountain and bowed down to licked their shoes.

It was very shameful in the eyes of the Blackfire Cult, Riverbank Clan, Kou Clan, and Ji Clan, but the Ironwood Clan didn't see it that way. They were very proud to be the lackeys of Snowdragon Mountain, which just proved how contemptible they were.

A knock at his door interrupted Carl's thoughts.

"Enter!" Carl called out. The door opened and a young servant entered and bowed to him.

"Lord, the people you called for are here. They are waiting in the conference room."

"Thank you, Yan. Go about your duties." Carl responded as he left the room to head to the meeting he had called with the various Kages and their advisors.

A short trip later and Carl was entering the room that he had set up for this meeting. In the center of the room was a large table that had a three dimensional map of his West Prefecture of the Riverbank Clan. It naturally could be zoomed out to show the entire Swallow Mountain Region, or zoomed in on a single city.

Seated in the first row closest to the map were the people that Carl planned to give responsibility to in his prefecture, in order to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Mortic, his leader for internal matters regarding the Silver Dragonflight. He would continue to be the nominal leader for the Dragonflight and their activities under Carl's authority.

Hilda, his head of security that he appointed to be in charge of keeping the Silver Dragonflight and New Uzushio safe. She would move up a step and take charge of the army that his prefecture already had, and build it up even better.

Goram, who had been in charge of the commercial enterprises and trading back in the Naruto world would continue to serve in that role in this world. They needed plenty of goods and trade to justify the cost of all the uplifting that his prefecture would undergo in the next several years.

Hiashi from the Hyuga, now Riverbank Branch Clan of his Ninja Clan would become the governor of his Firebird City and the immediate area.

Senju Tsunade, never one to enjoy the dry paperwork of a city leadership position since her passion was the medical arts, would be expanding the health and medical organization that she had built in the last world.

As most cultivation worlds were like, this world was one that generally revered the strong and either ignored the weak as too far beneath them, or exploited them terribly in order to profit. Carl saw pitifully small profit in either method of doing business. He knew that there were hordes of people with high potential talent among the masses of tribes that were fighting everyday just to feed themselves. And if they never got the opportunities to exercise that potential, they could very well die never having made a difference in their clan's lives.

The thought that thousands of his people with the potential to become a Celestial Immortal would die due to a low class diremonster or monstrous beast, or even just an injury that could be healed with the proper medical care, made Carl grit his teeth at the waste of potential that could strengthen his people's standing in this world.

Carl turned his attention to the leaders from the Naruto world that he planned on becoming leaders of cities around his territory.

Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage of Konohagakure.

Rasa, the fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure.

A, the fourth Raikage of Kumogakure.

Onoki, the third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure.

Terumi Mei, the fifth Mizukage of Kirigakure.

Uzumaki Nagato, who overthrew Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure and became their new Kage.

Looking at these Kages who were now Peak Xiantian Lifeforms, Carl nodded internally. They had the air of command surrounding them, evidence of long time as leaders. And they all looked only in their mid twenties now in this new world; even old man Onoki who was a small and balding old man in the last world looked to be only slightly below normal height and full of youthful vigor.

In the second row behind these leaders sat the advisors and clan leaders from the various shinobi villages. They all looked attentive and ready to absorb what Carl planned to talk about in this meeting. Good.

"Welcome." Carl began when he arrived at his place at the head of the table. "I've been keeping track of the progress you all have made in calming and settling everyone down after the awakening of our past world's memories, and I appreciate the professional manner in which our forces have been conducting themselves, due to the example you all have given them.

"Many of you are new to this jumping from world to world, so I appreciate your efforts to stabilize our people before coming to seek or demand answers about how everything will work from now on."

The group of leaders nodded their heads and murmured in acknowledgement of Carl's praise, justifiably pleased that their hard work was being appreciated.

"This is the 15th world that I've been to on this strange journey that some higher being set me on, and through my travels I've accumulated quite a lot of knowledge, powers, and technology that many of you are as yet unaware of." The various leaders around the table, and the advisors and clan leaders behind them, glanced at each other to see how everyone else was reacting.

Carl didn't really see any point in not talking about his Jumpchain. These people, as of this moment, were all his oath bound loyal followers. If he wanted to keep them that way, he had to treat them properly and show that he deserved their loyalty so that they wouldn't waver in the future. It helped that he didn't look like a normal gawky 15 year old due to his Fiendgod body cultivation, he looked like a mature twenty something year old at just under 2 meters tall.

For most people, even if they knew that the 12 year old looking child was a 1,000 year old monster, they would still have mental hang ups due to the old monster looking like a kid. It's harder to take someone completely seriously when they looked like an inexperienced child.

"This is our territory, the West Prefecture of the Riverbank Clan." Carl brought everyone's attention to the 3d holographic map in front of them. Due to their memories implanted in them of this life, they knew about the Riverbank Clan and the surrounding superpowers, so Carl didn't need to elaborate too much for them.

"And this is our Firebird City." Carl had the VI highlight Firebird City in the middle of the West Prefecture. "As of right now, this is the only large city we have in our prefecture. The rest of our people are split into small to medium sized tribes, spread around the territory. We also have elite soldiers stationed in key areas of the territory to keep control." As Carl mentioned the various forces, they lit up on the map, giving everyone a general idea of the distribution of people.

"The way that all the organizations in this world have always governed is to basically leave all these small and medium sized tribes to fend for themselves, only stepping in when a big enough threat manifests that would harm our gathering of taxes. Otherwise, they are left to sink or swim on their own."

After Carl gathered taxes from the tribes under his "protection", he would send the majority of it on to the Riverbank Clan leaders at the Central City, the heart of the Riverbank Clan. After the Clan gathered all the taxes from the five prefectures, they would send the majority of it on to the Stillwater Commandery governing clan, the Northmont Clan, as a tax, who naturally paid taxes to the Grand Xia Dynasty on all that they gathered.

So while the small and medium sized tribes in Carl's territory were staring in envy and jealousy at Carl himself as the Prefectural Lord who must have riches beyond their comprehension, they didn't understand that the majority of what he gathered was passed up the chain to his own higher ups. It wasn't like he got to keep it all to himself, or else those above him would come to his place, kill him, and put someone more rule abiding in his lordship position.

"This method of doing things is incredibly wasteful of one of our most important resources: people. Without growing our forces in order to take more territory and gather more resources, how can we expect to grow stronger? We would simply be treading water, and likely falling behind the other organizations around us."

Carl could see from their expressions that they were interested in where he was going with this.

"So, my plan is to build six more cities near the borders of our prefecture to better govern our land, encourage trade, and protect our people from the dangers that are abundant in this world. Rasa, you will rebuild Sunagakure in the grasslands of the north-east of our prefecture, along the borders with the North and Central Prefectures of our Riverbank Clan. That is the best place that the sand and wind users of your forces can show their might."

"That'll do." Rasa simply stated in agreement.

The area that Carl was talking about was highlighted on the map, and there was a stirring of excitement among the advisors and clan leaders of Suna at his pronouncement. Even with their new life's memories in this world, first and foremost they were ninja of Suna. The idea of rebuilding their homeland greatly appealed to them. Unfortunately he didn't have any desert area for Suna to re-establish themselves in; the grasslands would have to do.

"Mei, you will bring your forces to the lakes and rivers north-west of our prefecture to re-establish Kirigakure at our borders with the Blackfire Cult. Your water users will best be used in that area."

"My dear Lord Carl, I would be delighted." Mei's seductive smile caught more than one of the men in its net, causing Mei to smile smugly and her single green eye showing through her red hair to twinkle in amusement.

Carl inwardly smirked in amusement at seeing the same excitement grip the Kiri ninja-cultivators as rippled through those from Suna. Seeing their excitement and enthusiasm, Carl knew that he was making the right choice in assigning areas for them to establish themselves and build something from their original lives.

And while he knew that he had a lot of other leaders from nations around the Naruto world that weren't yet being included in this council, or given new lands to rule, Carl didn't yet know them or their character. He at least had a good idea of the character of these leaders from the Elemental Nations, so he started with them. And it wasn't like he had unlimited tracts of land to parcel out at the moment. That would come in the future as he built his forces up.

"Minato, you will bring your forces to the forests of the west to re-establish Konohagakure along the borders with the Blackfire Cult. I don't think our tree hugger forces would feel proper if they didn't get their cuddle time in." Carl joked a bit to the amusement and laughter of the group of ninja-cultivators and dragons.

He was careful not to pay attention to Minato's muttered curses and threats. The man just could not get past the fact that he was dating his daughter. Kushina was all for Carl's relationship with Naruko, but for some reason Minato was a stubborn father who wanted to protect his precious daughter from the evils of "boys". At least he had a son to pour his attention into now that Naruko was an adult. Well, sort of, since she and all those of Carl's generation among the ninja were once more 15 in this new world.

Carl shrugged away the weirdness that the constantly resetting age in the Jumpchain brought and focused once more on the meeting.

"Nagato, you'll bring your people with you to re-establish Amegakure to our east, on the borders of the Southern and Central Prefectures of the Riverbank Clan."

The stoic Uzumaki had changed quite a lot since Carl had brought Yahiko back to life. Instead of wallowing in the pain he felt, he was now more lighthearted and actually smiled as he nodded in agreement at Carl's decision. Behind him Yahiko and Konan each laid a hand on his shoulder, providing support for their future endeavors.

"Onoki, you will bring your forces south-west, on the outskirts of the Swallow Mountain Range and on the border with the Blackfire Cult in order to re-establish Iwagakure."

"The will of stone will be reborn in this land and hold firm, lad."

"A, you will bring your forces south-east to re-establish Kumogakure along the outskirts of the Swallow Mountain Range and along the border of the Southern Prefecture of the Riverbank Clan."

"Good. I'll do this thing."

"Hiashi, I'll have you here in Firebird City to take control of the city and surrounding area with the Riverbank clan and the Silver Dragonflight."

Hiashi gave Carl a faint smile and nod of agreement at his arrangement.

"Mortic, just like in the last world, you will be in charge of the Silver Dragonflight and all the crafting and producing the trade goods we will do.

"Hilda, you will still be in charge of security for our Dragonflight, but in addition you will have control over the Prefectural army, to provide overall coordination with all the Kages as they govern their areas.

"Goram, you will still be in charge of our economy and trade.

"And finally, Tsunade. We all know you have no desire for a Kage hat, so I'm not going to try to give you one this time. You'll be in charge of our health and welfare, and especially training more medics at that hospital of yours."

"Good." Tsunade muttered indistinctly, causing several to snort in amusement.

"Before I send you on your ways to establish your cities, there is a lot that needs to be prepared to make sure that you succeed. One treasure I picked up in my travels allows me to manipulate time to a certain extent. Which is exactly what we need right now to get you and your forces educated in what technology, magic, and cultivation can do for you. And how it can help you build your cities quickly and make them strong."

Without further ado, Carl brought the council into his Time Pearl, along with his friends and girlfriends that were waiting in the next room. He wasn't going to leave them out of this training by any means.

"Whoa, where is this?"

"I can't see the end of the plain, just how big is this place?"

"Huh. Nice training facility."

Carl smirked a bit at the random comments that the ninja-cultivators around him were making.

"This is the pocket dimension inside my little treasure. We can spend four years inside here and only a single hour would have passed outside." Carl explained to the group while he had a robot distributing some tablets that would get the group started through a tutorial on their education in technology, magic, and all that he and his people had created.

"The Virtual Intelligence will have a robot guide you to your rooms to get settled, and you'll be given a class schedule in learning the basics. By the time we leave here, you will, at the very least, have a basic understanding of the type of technology, magical, profound, or mundane, that you can use to enhance your cities and make them magnificent.

"But, before we do that, it's time to induce some magical abilities in you." Carl explained what he was doing as he went from person to person to awaken magic inside of them.

Once they were all done getting access to magic, the council left to get settled in their rooms and begin lessons on just what they could do to make their city a marvelous creation. After a few words, his friends from his generation also left to find their quarters and start on their lessons.

Carl, on the other hand, made his way to a particular building he had built over the past month they had been in the world. What he had placed inside this building was only possible because he had finally remembered something that he had been given so many years ago in the Monopoly Gauntlet.

After winning the Monopoly game, he had been given the boon of being able to use Uncle Pennybags to exchange his currency, free of charge. But he had never really needed to use the function aside from a fresh entry into a new world, which happened automatically.

For example, when he entered into this world, his currency had been automatically exchanged into gold and the more valuable thundergold. Once Carl thought of the idea, he had pulled out a large mound of the blue tinted thundergold from his storage and accessed the exchange function. A moment later he had a small cup of green liquid. Rich elemental energy wafted off from the green liquid, which was liquefied elemental essence.

After dropping another pile of thundergold on the ground, it was soon exchanged for a couple stones that were green, which were elemental stones. Stones that were infused with pure elemental essence.

With a simple exchange, he saved himself the time and effort needed to enroll in the Black-White College to gain access to these cultivating resources.

Those two items were used by cultivators for either providing energy for the advancement of their cultivation, powering formations or constructs, or as a currency when buying or selling treasures.

Once Carl had those two items, he dedicated several farms whose sole purpose was to create more elemental stones and liquid elemental essence. A day spent in the Heavenly Time Pearl and Carl had a veritable mountain of elemental stones and huge lakes of liquefied elemental essence.

Carl had stockpiled those resources in this building in his Time Pearl for this day, a month after entering the world, so that he and the other ninjas that were now peak Xiantian Lifeforms could easily make the advancement to the Zifu Disciple Realm. The vast amount of energy needed to break that boundary could either be accumulated from their surroundings slowly over time, or provided by the lakes of liquefied elemental essence that Carl now had.

Sitting down next to one of the lakes of elemental essence, Carl followed the methods recorded in the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens while mentally controlling huge amounts of the elemental essence to began whirling up into a large water spout tendril that he guided to enter his mouth. As he swallowed huge amounts of the elemental essence, he channeled that energy to permeate throughout his body.

While employing his Fiendgod body refining method, Carl was thinking about the fire and water aspects inherent in the method, and how they represented Yin and Yang, always following each other in a circle. But the Yin wasn't pure dark, it had a spot of white Yang in it. And the Yang wasn't pure white, it had a spot of dark Yin in it.

Yin cannot be without Yang.

Yang cannot be without Yin.

Only when Yin and Yang transform into each other can they endlessly engender each other in a cycle.

'Well, thank you for that bit of knowledge and insight, Ji Ning.' Carl thought as the concept he had read Ji Ning realizing in the book seemed to be especially clear in his mind at that moment.

At that moment of epiphany and realization, Carl advanced to the 7th level of the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens, which allowed him to advance to the Zifu Disciple realm in his Fiendgod body refining.

And the moment that he advanced to the Zifu Disciple realm, the Divine Sun Tattoo and the Divine Moon Tattoo lit up on his back, connecting through time and space through many planes with the Solar Star and the Lunar Star. Carl felt enormous amounts of energy in the form of Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire entering his body, completely remaking and reshaping it into a more perfect body.

Carl had enough presence of mind to divert a decently huge amount of the Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire into the small world inside him that he gained from the Nine Profound Exquisite Body from the ATG jump. He mentally guided the Truewater and Truefire to form into a moon and sun in his small world, pouring in the energy until they became dense little self sustaining ice and fire bodies in his small world that would constantly provide him with more energy for his Fiendgod body refining.

Meanwhile his body finished reforming into a more perfect being. His strength, speed, endurance, durability, and regeneration were on a whole new level compared to before. Even with his learning of the Great Way of the Buddha, which provided unimaginable strength and regeneration, his advancement to the Zifu Disciple realm proved to be a synergistic upgrade with the Great Way of the Buddha.

At this point his regeneration ability was so great he could reform his body from a single drop of blood.

After some time his Divine Tattoos stopped glowing and his connection to the Lunar Star and the Solar Star went into low power maintenance mode, so to speak, and the Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire stopped pouring into him.

Carl smiled though, seeing as he benefitted immensely from snatching a generous portion of the Truewater and Truefire to turn into his own miniature Stars in his small world.

After stretching out and testing his new strength for a bit, Carl sat back down. He wasn't finished breaking through just yet. He still needed to advance in his Ki Refining to be satisfied today.

Sucking into his body even more liquefied elemental essence, Carl funneled the essence into his dantian. According to the methods of Ki Refining, he used that essence to force open a dimensional space, a vast empty space that was similar to the Small World given to him by perks. His newly built space was his Zifu Palace, and it was evidence that he had broken through to the Zifu Disciple realm in his Ki refining.

At first Carl had wondered if he should just use the small world from the Nine Profound Exquisite Body as his Zifu Palace. But something told him to go ahead and build another space inside his dantian for his Zifu Palace. That it would work side by side and in conjunction with his small world.

With that bit of intuitive insight, Carl hadn't hesitated to pour in the elemental essence until a new, vast world was formed.

It was a strange phenomenon to him, that his Small World was located in the same area as his Zifu Palace in his dantian, but they were kind of dimensionally adjacent and not overlapping or interfering with each other. Both dimensional pockets connected to the same energy paths in his body, regulating energy flows, but didn't interfere with each other.

And it all somehow worked just fine. Carl shrugged away the oddness. He was already used to piling on more and more disparate systems onto his body due to the various perks, and they just worked. He was still trying to figure out how to meld all his different powers and systems into one coherent whole. Chakra with its very nature of melding mental and physical energies together to form chakra had given him huge inspiration in how to proceed.

With his success in building his Zifu Palace, he considered the next step of cultivation. In order to advance to the Wanxiang Adept stage, he needed to gather concentrated elemental essence to form stars in the sky of his Zifu Palace. By the time he had filled his Zifu Palace with stars, he would then use concentrated elemental essence to form manifestations of the Lunar Star and the Solar Star, and then a Jade Rabbit on the Lunar Star and a Golden Crow on the Solar Star.

Thinking about it, Carl thought he could go at least one step further and form the Osmanthus Tree on his manifestation of the Lunar Star, just as he had seen it in the vision he had when first using the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens. And on the Solar Star, he would form the huge flame arcs that were dancing around that heavenly body.

Carl figured that bit of high quality creation would give him a bit more of an edge over anyone else who thought they were perfectly advancing when they stopped at the Golden Crow and the Jade Rabbit.

Throwing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Carl began exploring another sensation that had manifested when he had advanced to the Zifu Disciple realm. His mind felt even clearer than before and he could "see" everything around him, as if he was using his Byakugan, even though it was currently deactivated.

After thinking about it for a moment and searching his memories of the Desolate Era story, Carl realized that he had manifested his Divine Sense, which was unheard of for a freshly advanced Zifu Disciple.

Zifu Disciples were generally all capable of dividing their minds, which was something that Carl had long been able to do. It was this capability that even made dual wielding swords possible, since with two minds the swordsman could effectively wield a sword with each mind.

Wanxiang Adepts were mostly capable of manifesting their divine will to control material items around them. Carl had never bothered to try that out because he had just arrived in the world and hadn't had a chance to fully explore his new capabilities on something that he technically shouldn't be able to use yet. Not to mention that he somewhat looked down on this ability, since he had long had the capability to perform telekinesis with his magic. Maybe he should revisit the idea of using his divine will and determine just what its capabilities and strength was. A matter for later training.

Generally speaking, only when a cultivator arrived at the level of a Primal Daoist was their soul strong enough to manifest their divine sense and "see" their surroundings as if they had Byakugan eyes. Carl had a number of perks that increased the strength of his willpower, and the True Name perk in the Generic Naruto World had the direct ability to strengthen his soul as he meditated on it, so that would explain just how he was already able to manifest his Divine Sense so easily as a Zifu Disciple.

Carl realized then that he and his ninja would have to do a lot of research with this Divine Sense in order to find methods to overcome it. How could they be sneaky ninja if any old Primal Daoist had the equivalent of a Byakugan and could pierce their stealth techniques?

Speaking of Byakugan, Carl curiously activated his Byakugan to see if there was any change in his Divine Sense when he activated his eyes. The moment he did, the distance he could see nearly doubled, and the picture gained even more clarity. He could even see straight into his interspatial ring that he carried with him as cover for his other pocket dimension abilities. He was able to easily catalogue the small number of items he kept inside it.

"Oh yeah." Carl amusedly stated aloud, unable to fully repress his glee at finding out that even in this cultivation world his Byakugan still had valuable uses, especially when combined with their cultivation abilities.

Before finishing up at the liquefied elemental essence lakes, Carl brought to mind that an average Zifu Disciple, in order to advance to the Wanxiang Adept realm, would need about 500 kg of liquefied elemental essence. Each year of their training and absorbing elemental essence from their surroundings would be the equivalent of 15 to 30 kg of liquefied elemental essence, and that was if they were in a particularly good location for cultivation.

So some average random Zifu Disciple, if they encountered no bottlenecks, would take at the very least 15 years to absorb enough elemental essence to advance to the Wanxiang stage. That was, of course, if they encountered no bottlenecks in their understanding of the Dao to advance their realm. And they had enough elemental essence available for them to absorb. Of course for the normal cultivator, encountering no road blocks on their study of the Daos was a pretty big 'if'.

Ji Ning was unusual for a Zifu Disciple and used 1,250 kg to advance through the Zifu Disciple realm. It definitely made him more powerful at the same level than most others. Carl didn't know if it was because Ji Ning was so adept at the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens, or if it was because he had such a strong soul from meditating on the picture of Mother Nuwa that he needed so much more liquefied elemental essence.

With those thoughts in mind, Carl started sucking up kilogram after kilogram of liquefied elemental essence and placed the small lake into his small world. After he sucked in 20,000 kg, Carl was finally satisfied, even if he used up almost one of the lakes. He could always farm more, but he wanted to have that liquefied elemental essence with him at all times so he could advance whenever he wanted.

Carl wasn't going to advance just yet. He would spend several years at the Zifu Disciple realm to get used to it, go on some adventures, enroll in the Black-White College, and solidify his realm before he went wild with advancements.

Over the next several days inside the Heavenly Time Pearl, the group of counselors, clan leaders, Kages, his girlfriends and friends all broke through to the Zifu Disciple Realm one after another. They also spent plenty of time learning how to use magic and technology; and all of them spent time together getting to know each other, train together, and design the cities they were going to build as well as redesign Firebird City from the ground up.

When they exited the Heavenly Time Pearl, it had only been a little more than a month since they arrived in the world, right around the time that Ji Ning was born. And Carl's branch of the Riverbank Clan now had more than five dozen Zifu Disciples, which suddenly made them the strongest superpower in the Swallow Mountain Region.

Snowdragon Mountain had less than ten Zifu Realm Disciples, and would occasionally have a visiting Wanxiang Adept come around to inspect them. Carl wasn't really bothered, because with his cultivation from the Against the Gods world, he knew he could easily take out a Wanxiang Adept.

It was difficult to judge the relative merits and strengths between the two wildly different cultivation systems. But the thing that stuck in Carl's mind was that in the Against the Gods world, advancing to the Divine Origin Realm qualified a cultivator to leave the mortal realm behind and go to the Divine Realms. And in the Desolate Era world, advancing to the Celestial Immortal and Empyrean God stage was the point at which they left the mortal world and the five elements behind.

So Carl roughly judged that up until the Celestial Immortal stage he should be able to handle anyone. He hoped. There was a big difference between the two cultivation systems, and the Desolate Era system used a lot more of the Dao and understanding of the laws of the universe to battle than the system from ATG.

So while Carl wouldn't deliberately seek out an Earth Immortal or Void God to fight, he wasn't going to be afraid of them either.

It was only concerning the cultivators above the Celestial Immortal that Carl was very cautious around, simply because he didn't have a lot of techniques of that high level to fight them with. And since he was only going to be in this world for 30 years, he shouldn't ever run into them anyway.

With all his higher level followers advancing in strength, rules in place to determine how resources were allocated, and plans for strengthening his prefecture in place, Carl and his people threw a party to celebrate the end of their training session in the Heavenly Time Pearl.

XX

Carl looked up at the medical building he was about to enter, thinking over the past several months since the meeting with the Kages that ended with a Heavenly Time Pearl training vacation. He grinned a bit in amusement while thinking of the epic rant Tsunade had thrown when she found out what happened to her "perfect" hospital that she built in New Uzushio.

Unfortunately due to some strange SNAFU of the Jumpchain, when Carl had merged the Silver Dragonflight and New Uzushio into his Firebird City, it had morphed a great deal of buildings to the local conditions so as to match their memories of this world. So Tsunade's computers, rune schemas, and all her tools, library, and everything had basically disappeared. Even the building and room layout had changed, causing Tsunade's face to be incredibly gloomy as she contemplated how everything she had spent so much effort to perfect just disappearing on her.

Thankfully everything that Tsunade had built had been recorded and entered into his main computers in Carl's Warehouse. So it had only taken the Pete construction bots a day or two to recreate Tsunade's medical and research center. She had then immediately started work on merging the local knowledge of healing into her own understanding and practices.

Carl had long since known that she had no desire to be a Kage, despite her taking that position in New Uzushio. It had been mostly a symbolic position due to her prestige and reputation. Most of her time was spent on her hospital, research, and training actually competent medical ninja.

Snapping out of his reverie, Carl made his way through the halls of the medical center to where Tsunade had her offices. He had to admit, looking at the bright, clean hallways, advanced equipment in each room, and the brisk and efficient way the medical staff went about their duties that Tsunade did good work.

"Come in!" Tsunade called out before Carl had even knocked on her door. Obviously the senses of a Kage level ninja and a Zifu Disciple were nothing to sneer at.

"Good morning, Tsunade." Carl affably greeted the well put together blonde who was seated behind her desk. "How are things?"

"I've finally gotten everything running properly." Tsunade waved the issue away brusquely. "Took long enough, really. This better not happen every time we jump worlds, Carl."

Carl looked at the menacing aura and pointed finger that Tsunade aimed at him with some hidden amusement. Indeed, he hoped that the Jumpchain wouldn't mess with his people every world they jumped to. He could only assume that it was because he chose to merge his Ninja Clan and Silver Dragonflight into his Prefecture City and Prefecture that the Jumpchain did so.

From now on he'll just have the Dinosaur Continent placed in the world and have his Prefecture City and Prefecture be placed on it As-Is so that things don't get messed about with again.

"I sincerely hope that this is the last time this happens, Tsunade. I'll do what I can so that it doesn't happen again." Carl promised. Unfortunately there were so many things about this Jumpchain that were just out of his control, so he could only hope that it wouldn't happen again and cross that bridge when he came to it. "So what did you call me in for?"

"It's about that Otsutsuki Kaguya that you assigned to me." Tsunade immediately dropped her menacing aura and her finger and went into professional mode.

"Oh? Have you found out anything on how she survived the ritual?" Carl curiously asked while Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice and assistant and a brilliant doctor/healer/medical nin in her own right, came in the room with a tray of tea and snacks. Once Shizune had set out the snacks and made sure everyone had a cup of tea, she sat down in a chair to the side to listen to the discussion.

In the midst of the chaos of the Otsutsuki attack back on the Generic Naruto World, Carl had been a bit too busy to wonder just how Kaguya survived the ritual attack that he had used the Black Zetsu as a focus for. According to what he knew, the Zetsu was supposedly linked with Kaguya, so just how did she survive the ritual? After the whole thing was over, Carl really scratched his head when he thought of Kaguya being held captive by the invading Otsutsuki. And he was sure that during the ritual he saw her being cleansed and passing on. So, just where did this Kaguya come from?

"Yes. Through therapy and mind delving by the Yamanakas, we learned that when her two sons, Hagoromo and Hamura, sealed her in the moon, it also started the process of splitting her and the chakra from the God Tree apart." Carl sat back and sipped his tea while contemplating that information. "Basically the Ten Tailed Beast was the living physical manifestation of the chakra from the fruit of the God Tree.

"It all gets a bit jumbled and confusing in her memories, due to the huge mental impact she had from eating a fruit that was nurtured and grown from centuries of bloodshed." Tsunade sarcastically added, "Cause eating something that was nurtured by such a bloody and negatively emotional source wouldn't mess with your mind at all."

Carl snorted a bit in amused agreement. It's no wonder those Otsutsuki clan members were all crazy and violent. They were chowing down on the solidified essence of bloodshed and war through the God Tree's fruits.

"So due to how Hagoromo and Hamura sealed her in the moon, she and the Ten Tails were basically forced apart?" Carl wanted to make sure he understood.

"Exactly. Apparently in order to do that and make sure she lived through the process, it took centuries to slowly separate them from each other. So once they were separated, Black Zetsu no longer had a connection with Kaguya anymore, only with the Ten Tailed Beast." Tsunade finished explaining

Carl thought about that. There must have been some residual mental "imprint" of Kaguya left in the Ten Tails body/chakra, and that's what he saw when he performed the ritual.

"Hmm. I know Naruko no longer has the Nine Tails in her seal. I wonder if it's because the tailed beasts were formed from the Ten Tails, so they still had a link to it and were sucked into the ritual, or if they had also been split completely apart from it." Carl paused for a moment for the three of them to contemplate the idea. "Either that or they simply didn't come with us to this world. Either way, we don't have to worry about them anymore."

The three of them spent a few moments in silent contemplation while sipping their drinks.

"So what does Kaguya plan on doing now?" Carl curiously asked.

"When I talked to her earlier, she professed interest in the medical profession." Shizune calmly stated. Tsunade raised an eyebrow to express her curiosity about that decision, so Shizune continued to explain. "She told me that she's experienced too many years of violence and bloodshed after she was influenced by the fruit of the God Tree. So she wants to learn something that is meant to help and heal people instead of hurt and kill them. I've already given her the basic books she needs to study."

"Good." Tsunade nodded in appreciation. She was always on the lookout for more people to join her in the medical profession.

"Sounds like I need to start establishing some public schools and training academies in our prefecture." Carl mused aloud. "At least to get our people started and educated in the basics."

"That would give me a larger pool of people to choose from to train in the medical arts." Tsunade agreed with Carl's idea, with Shizune also joining in, excited at the idea.

The previous set up of his prefecture was quite…feudal, in many respects. Only those who had enough gold were able to afford educating their children and sending them to trainers to learn cultivation or various trades. Otherwise the children would have no other choice but to follow in their parents footsteps, without the possibility of learning more and getting ahead in life.

And since Carl originally grew up in a society that deemed it very important that every citizen had at least a basic education, he very much valued that ideal. In feudal society, on the other hand, education and literacy, or rather the lack thereof, was a means for the rulers and elite to control their ruled population. If the masses couldn't read or have means to learn better trades, they would always be stuck in the castes that they were born in, at the bottom being used to provided labor and goods for those on top.

Carl felt that his prefecture would never get better than the bottom rung it was currently sitting at if he never changed the way things were run. He was positive that among all those low level tribesman, that were currently stuck in their hunting/gathering type of life that provided him with resources, there had to be some cultivating geniuses, or brilliant future doctors/healers, or architects, or scholars, or any other number of talented individuals. And if he didn't provide the means that they could showcase their talents then they would forever remain undiscovered.

After chatting a bit more with Tsunade and Shizune about what medical skills from the Desolate Era world they were learning from his Uchiha Jutsu Archive, Carl bade his farewells and departed. He knew that Shizune would take good care of Kaguya, so he didn't have to bother with it.

Being a Prefecture Lord took up a lot of his time. He was so glad he had blood clones to take a big chunk of the load off so he had time to do other things. Like train or spend time with his girls.

XX

After leaving the medical research center, Carl spent some time strolling through the streets of his city, looking at it from a pedestrian's point of view. Over the past several months they had been in this world, many changes in his city had been implemented, and even more were being planned.

One of the idiosyncrasies of the worlds of cultivation was that they severely idolized the strong. And in order to be a ruler of an area, they had to be strong, both personally and personnel-wise. They needed people that were also strong to carry out their will and enforce their rule.

And that in and of itself wasn't bad since it generally led to a more stable land for everyone to live in. For example, the dynasty that ruled the whole of the Grand Xia great world has been in power for over a trillion years.

A single dynasty that was over a trillion years old!

All that time the clan that was in charge was constantly getting stronger, accumulating more wealth and hidden reserves, and fortifying their rule. It was something that was mind boggling to think about.

There wasn't a single one of the "superpower" factions in the Swallow Mountain region that would dare offend the Raindragon Guards, the army of the Grand Xia. They would be crushed in an instant for rebelling.

But one of the downsides to that attitude of revering the strong that Carl had noticed was that no one ever cared about what the people on the bottom were doing or how they were living. They were weak, they were poor, and the ruling class didn't care about them unless they managed to pull themselves up high enough through cultivation to actually matter.

Which usually took several generations of a clan constantly striving, sacrificing, and making life for themselves marginally better, until they finally produced an heir that had enough talent and potential to break out of the muck.

Where other nobles saw the poor common people as just beasts of burden for them to use as they saw fit, Carl saw an untapped resource with potential. If he invested some trivial resources into education, he would have a larger pool of personnel to use in growing the strength of his own prefecture.

And even if some of those commoners didn't have talent for cultivation, they could do other things, like paperwork. Having someone who wasn't good at cultivation take care of the paperwork and other trivial aspects of life would allow someone who was good at cultivation to focus better on the cultivation.

Or maybe they were particularly suited for some profession, and they would forever go unused because of the giant hurdle that basic education in this cultivation world was.

As a result of Carl's attitude towards building up the commoner's lives so they could learn more and contribute to his prefecture, there were already a number of changes happening in the city. The roads were being paved. Public restrooms were placed in many locations to keep everything clean. Some of his people were even starting the cultivation equivalent of cab companies to provide cheap transport around the city.

And these were just stopgap measures that made things easier for the moment. The plans were already made to begin rebuilding Firebird City from the ground up to fully utilize the incredible amount of magic, technology, seals, runes, and cultivation know-how to build a truly unique and advanced city.

The huge sprawling slums that the poor currently lived in would be torn down and replaced by apartment complexes. With the various means of space expansion available, each family's apartment would have more than enough room for every family member to have a large bedroom and bathroom each, as well as a kitchen, a garden, a laundry room, a food storage room, office space, and a physical training area to encourage them to strive for more through cultivation.

There would also be a subway system built so that reliable and quick transportation around the city would make getting to and from work easier for the common people. And with various cleaning spells and defensive rune matrices, not to mention the VIs and robotic technology available, the subway would always be, clean, in fine working order, and safe.

Widening the streets would allow for all kinds of traffic to flow freely. Whether that traffic would be cars that ran off magic, chakra, or profound energy, wagon convoys from out of city, or dire beast mounts, his streets would be wide enough to accommodate it all.

The introduction of zoning laws would give rise to shopping, business, industrial, and residential districts. And a separate heavy duty underground railway with entrances at the city gates would allow merchants from out of city to transport their goods to the correct district without having to go through traffic in the city streets and disrupt the flow of traffic. It would also eliminate the common scene of a merchant convoy stopping in the streets right out front of a store to unload their goods, which disrupted the entire street's business.

The only thing they hadn't figured out how to do yet is to build reliable fast transport between cities in his prefecture, due to the dangers that would be prevalent in building such a large and long structure. There were plenty of Diremonsters around that would see a rail system as some kind of affront and try to destroy it. Constantly rebuilding the railway system between cities would be too annoying. Perhaps convoys of flying boats…

Carl paused in his stroll around Firebird City because he saw something he hadn't known someone was building. It was a gaming café. Making his way in to check it out, Carl discovered that there were all kinds of video games available at different prices. There were even virtual reality pods to allow customers to experience "life and death battles to improve your cultivation, but without the danger!"

He chuckled a bit at that boastful advertisement. The fact that the person knew they were in a game and wouldn't actually die, no matter how dangerous the battle supposedly was, would affect how they reacted. When a cultivator was at the cusp of death, really truly about to die, that was when many of them were able to break through their mentality hang-ups, or Dao understandings, and reach a higher tier of power.

But if their conscious mind (let alone their subconscious mind) knew they weren't actually in danger, that impetus propelling their growth would be lacking.

Carl simply smiled at the advertising and moved on. He didn't actually care about the gaming café's claims and if they were deceiving people or not. If a cultivator couldn't figure out how to bypass those kinds of obstacles on their own, they were actually better off idling at their current level instead of rising higher. Because the higher someone rises in cultivation, the more dangerous the fights get, not less.

Comparing the cultivation world to a mundane school system, someone might be labeled as a top genius in their High School in their small village. Due to their excellence in their high school, they might go on to college with great expectations of showing off their excellence, only to discover that they were merely average among all the geniuses that made it to that particular college, let alone all the other colleges around their country, or the world, or the galaxy.

And in a cultivation reality, there were multiple chaos worlds and other realms that were all constantly producing "genius" cultivators. Uncountable numbers of geniuses were always rising up, fighting for resources, killing and dying. There were innumerable means of using the Dao in fights, all kinds of odd methods. There were all kinds of sinister and duplicitous cultivators around that would happily slice a genius' head off for a nickel.

So if some cultivator in Carl's city at nearly the bottom-most rung of the cultivation world couldn't figure out how to advance and got stuck playing video games the rest of their life, well that was their fate, their choice of lifestyle. And it could actually be a decently amusing life for them.