Chapter 7

Ye Ziyun looks at the inscription and then realised what he said was true. She then says with a shocked look "This is an inscription that the Sacred family claims to have created. This is going to be a huge blow to their image."

"If it's the Sacred family then it makes sense." Nie Li says.

"Do you have a grudge against the Sacred family?" Yr Ziyun asks.

"Yes. Shen Yue picked a fight with me. I did beat him up though." Nie Li says.

Ye Ziyun asks "Why would he do that?"

"It was because I argued with his aunt and also I was looking at you." Nie Li replies.

"Me?" Ye Ziyun exclaims.

"You are the goddess of the class. When he saw you concerned about me, he was jealous and tried to beat me up." Nie Li says.

"Why would you look at me?" She asks.

"Why? Because you look beautiful." Nie Li says.

'I obviously can't say that the previous owner of this body was attracted to you. This body sometimes even acts instinctively and reacts when you are around, even after reconstruction.' he thought.

Ye Ziyun face turns red and asks "You and Xiao Ning'er look like you guys are close. Why me?"

"I do like Xiao Ning'er but, a man is usually greedy when it comes to women. You already know that nobles are allowed to have multiple wives." Nie Li says.

Ye Ziyun's gives him a disgusted face. Seeing that Nie Li says "Don't misunderstand me for a playboy. I marry and love my wives. I am not like that scum Shen Fei, who leaves them after he is done with them."

Ye Ziyun had a red face. She didn't know what to think of Nie Li.

She sure had fun talking with him. He was also not the type who start showing off in front of others. With his knowledge, he could boast around.

He was the first person who spoke to her like this. He was honest and didn't try to get close to her because she was the city lord's daughter. She still had her doubts.

So, she asked "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes. Xiao Ning'er said a lot of things about you." Nie Li says.

"What did she say?" she asked, curious to know what her childhood friend still thought about her.

"Something about you controlling your faith and all. It was boring so I didn't hear the rest." he said.

"Oh" she said with a sad face.

Looking at her, Nie Li asks "Do you want to be friends with her again?"

"How?" she asked.

"I can do it. If you trust me, come to the training grounds after three days." Nie Li says.

Ye Ziyun didn't know whether to believe him or not. She then showed him an inscription and he drew a new one for her.

She thanked him and left after talking for a while. He went to the training grounds that night to monitor Lu Piao, Du Ze and Xiao Ning'er's cultivation.

The sun rose again and when they were leaving, Nie Li calls them and says "Tonight, I am going to execute my plan. I am already close to silver rank. This is a good time to act."

"Close to silver rank?!!" Lu Piao exclaims.

"I plan on controlling all the crops and food in the city. This means I would come to your families too. I want you guys to trust me and convince your families to sell the crops.

I will manage the rest. I will make sure that nothing happens to your family. Do this if you trust me." Nie Li explains.

All three start to think about it. Lu Piao says "I can convince my father to sell them."

Xiao Ning'er and Du Ze don't have any decisive position in their family. Nie Li understood their position and said "I will handle the negotiations. You don't have to worry about it. I said this so that you guys will know beforehand."

They both nodded and left. That night, Nie Li was standing in the open area of the training ground.

"I am grateful that Madara taught me this or else, this would take longer than a month." he said and made a hand sign.

"Shadow clone jutsu" he says and 30,000 clones appear. His clones were the modified version of the shadow clone jutsu created by Tobirama.

Madara's clone was strong enough to act as a dead body while, Tobirama's jutsu was capable of producing multiple clones.

He looked at the clones and said "You know what to do. Now disperse." he said and they all disappeared.

Asura says "I like what you planned to do but, if you make even a single mistake, you will die in the worst possible way."

"Don't worry about that. First I have to control the food and medicinal herbs of the city.

I first have to gain the support of the commoners in the city.

That's when I will have power equal to the major families.

Then I will have to co-operate with the Alchemy Association. This will bring the demon spiritualists under my control." Nie Li says.

"It would be easy if you were a silver rank spiritualist. With only 1 start bronze rank, I don't think it will be that easy." Asura says.

"And that's where you are mistaken. The soul crystals and also the ranks all depend on the quantity of the soul force.

They don't take the quality into consideration. My soul force may be less but, it can produce the same effects the soul force of a silver ranked spiritualist.

You can think of it as the condensed form of the usual soul force.

My soul force would have been more if it wasn't for that plant." Nie Li says.

"I thought it would die during the reconstruction of your body but, it ended up absorbing little of that black fluid and mutated." Asura says.

Nie Li makes an annoyed face and says "I still don't know what this plant it.

I try to send my consciousness inside it but, something always stops me.

It is eating too much soul force. Someday I will make it pay up rent for leeching of me."

Nie Li then sits down in lotus position and starts to meditate while chanting something.

Since the shadow clones are all interlinked and there is chakra flow between Nie Li and his clones, cultivating now would be very beneficial for him.

"I guess they all got to work." Nie Li says when he felt his soul force started decreasing.

Nie Li's plan was simple. The people hunting and growing food are all poor farmers or spiritualist.

Nie Li sent his clones in a group of three to every region. There they would talk with the farmers, dealers and other merchants, and buy all the goods they have.

There obviously would be places where demon spiritualist are on guard.

Nie Li's clones would gang up on them and defeat them.

Usually there is a huge gap in strength between two consecutive ranks. That's where Nie Li's experience comes in.

In worlds like Naruto or the One Piece, they have very less energy compared to the cultivation worlds but, they cover the shortage of energy with precise control.

In the cultivation world, all they know is to use brute strength or use up all their soul force in one go, releasing a strong move.

In Nie Li's current position, he can easily handle a 3 star silver rank spiritualist. Golden rank ones take time and are not easy as the silver ranked ones.

Nie Li's clones would secretly visit every farmer in the area and buy their goods for even thrice the usual price while assuring their safety.

Most of them agreed while some stayed loyal to their partners. And since Nie Li's clones had disguised themselves as spiritualist with green dress and a mask, no one knew their identity except Nie Li's.

The group of three would have Nie Li's clone without disguise as the negotiator and two disguised clones as guards.

The night went on like this and Nie Li's cultivation kept increasing till he was close to breakthrough to the Silver rank.

This sudden rise in cultivation was due to the spiritualist who resisted the trade.

He didn't actually force anyone to sell their goods. There were some farms which were under the control of families.

Although the families agreed, the spiritualist of the families, who were guarding the farm, tried to stop the deal.

They were beaten and their soul force was taken. When a spiritualist's soul force is forced out, it takes time for them to refill it. The spiritualist were all silver rank or gold rank.

The net day, the whole city was in an uproar. There was no food in bazars or restaurants. There were no herbs available anywhere.

Everyone on the streets only talked about a single family 'Jade Dragon Family'. In a single night, the Jade Dragon family managed to control 70% of the food and herbs production in Glory City.

Asura says to Nie Li "I still think that name is lame."

"Suggest one if you think it's bad. It's the only thing I could think of at that time." Nie Li shouts.

Nie Li then exited the training ground and walked towards the city.

Everyone on the roads stared at him. Nie Li was looking around. All the food stores were empty.

He looked around while walking through the bazar. One person tries to attack him.

Nie Li kept two clones around him while the others were patrolling the city, protecting the farmers.

The onlookers just observed, curious as to what will happen. They just saw two shadows appear and disappear.

In just 2 seconds, the man was defeated. Everyone present understood that they shouldn't mess with Nie Li.

Nie Li walked around until he found a huge, worn-out building. A man came flying from the entrance of the building.

Nie Li quickly caught him. He was a thin man with worn out clothes.

Another man appeared from the entrance and said "I told you to leave the building yesterday night. You still didn't move."

The man stood and said "I only took 1 million demon spirit coins. After one month you are asking for 10 million demon spirit coins. How do you expect me to pay that much."

The man at the entrance was a spiritualist. He says "Leave if you can't pay up. This is what you get for offending the Sacred family."

Nie Li says to the man beside him "Hey! I can help you out. Would you like to work for me?"

The man just looked at Nie Li with a silly face. He obviously didn't believe Nie Li.

Nie Li snaps his fingers and then the same thing happened. The Spiritualist was defeated.

Nie Li's clones could conceal their presence completely. They just appear super fast and deal a lethal blow, finishing the fight quickly.

The man looked at Nie Li and asks "Are you Nie Li from the Jade Dragon family?"