Am I too careful?

After his relatives left, Nie Li returned to the workroom he created adjacent to his study. He had to finish some projects he had been leaving for later. One of them was a cell phone implant for Ming Yahui. Currently, he was using an ordinary phone, Nie Li had given him the day they signed the master-servant soul contract.

He was reminded about that when elder Nie Wei brought him to apologize. He must do the surgery as soon as possible.

Because even with healing agents it would take some time for the signs of the surgery to disappear. And Ming Yahui will have some time for acclimatization.

Creating the implant itself didn't take much time. Because it was already a miniaturized technology.

Then Nie Li started to create healing elixirs.

One of the problems independent alchemists faced was the absence of high-quality alchemy furnaces.

Alchemy Association owned a number of large furnaces that allowed them to produce pills on an industrial scale. Well, for this world anyway.

And other smaller private alchemy furnaces couldn't create high enough temperature, pressure, and other necessary conditions to create high-quality elixirs.

But for Nie Li that wasn't a problem. Most likely he is the only one in the Tiny World who could make real artifacts.

His newly created alchemy furnace was quite small, only a meter and half in height, but its capabilities were superior to even huge furnaces of the Association.

One of those capabilities was its control interface which allowed the user to control all of the necessary conditions inside the furnace.

Alchemists usually controlled those features through their soul force. That required their full concentration during the entire process. It was a difficult and tiring task.

Thus the requirement for levels of the alchemists. There's no way an apprentice alchemist to have enough control, let alone the soul force to create high-ranked elixirs.

But Nie Li's new furnace allowed skipping most of those requirements. Because most of the process was automated. It even had a timer like a microwave.

Of course, it still needed some soul force input from the alchemist, but it would be easier without the need to split concentration between different features like temperature, pressure, etc.

Maybe he should make some Alchemy furnaces for sale or at least gift one to director Yang Xin. She just recently contacted him to deliver him his share of weekly income from the sale of the pills.

It was nothing compared to the hundreds of millions his novel counterpart made, only five million a week. But it was still a good amount of money.

But that was a thought for later. He finished all of the necessary equipment for Ming Yahui's surgery and called him to meet him at one of his anonymously rented houses. It was already evening so he won't have to wait long.

When he arrived at the house it was already dark. Shortly after Ming Yahui also came. He was again in a disguise. There was no need for the others to know about their connection.

"Hello, boss. How are you?" Ming Yahui asked. Nie Li was preparing his equipment. One of the tables he turned into an operating table. He had forgotten to make one beforehand.

"Good evening. I will be done shortly. Wait for a bit here." Nie Li indicated towards armchairs.

"Thank you, boss. Did the old man leave?"

It had taken Nie Li a moment to understand he was talking about Nie Hai.

"Yes. What did he talk about with you?" Nie Li knew that the Elder had a meeting with him and Nie Ruogang yesterday. He could have watched it, but he literally didn't have time for that.

"The same old scheming. Not to antagonize you, to try to get close to you or your other workers, and inform him of any secrets we learn in the process." Ming Yahui droned. "I don't know why you just don't kill him be done with it."

"If I kill everyone who will look at me wrongly, this city will become half-empty quickly." Nie Li replied continuing his work "Let him scheme. He can't do anything to me anyway, especially considering he may lose his position as a grand elder soon."

"More scheming, more plotting. Too much plotting may become dangerous. It happened to me after all. So you can say that I am speaking from my experience." Ming Yahui was bored. Since he became the indentured servant of Nie Li he has been doing nothing but cultivation. So annoying Nie Li a bit was worth the slight pain the contract was inflicting on him.

Seeing that Nie Li didn't even deign to answer Ming Yahui continued, "My grandpa used to say, 'sometimes the direct way is the best way. You must gather your courage and hit once. In most situations that would be enough.' "

"Your grandfather was full of wisdom I see," Nie said.

"Yeah," Ming Yahui's mood dropped. "If he was alive I wouldn't be in this situation."

Nie Li got Ming Yahui's past investigated through Kaize's channels. His grandfather held the second most powerful position in their clan and had some conflicts with the patriarch.

So after his death, the patriarch robbed his family dry, practically beggaring them. Ming Yahui, despite being young, opposed him and got cruelly punished. Nie Li's own whippings at the hand of elder Nie Wei were nothing compared to those punishments.

Ming Yahui's parents couldn't do anything except advise him to stop fighting back. Ming Yahui took it as a betrayal. It had continued for some time before Ming Yahui ran away.

Nie Li had already sent people to approach his immediate family, the parents and two siblings. If they agree they will become proud shop owners in the inner city. That was a much better life than they have right now.

Even though Ming Yahui didn't ask about that or even showed any kind of affection towards them, Nie Li knew that he still cared about them. And no one can say that Heavenly Marks Family or Nie Li do not take their responsibility seriously.

"It's ready. Now lay down on this table, face down." Nie Li instructed. "Put your head here."

Ming Yahui laid down as instructed and asked. "Where are you going to implant it?"

"Into your skull bone." Nie Li replied.

"Wait, skull bone!?" Ming Yahui lifted his head in panic. "Why not into an arm or leg bone?"

"The closer it is to your sensory organs the better it will work." Nie Li explained. "Also, if someone cuts off your hand or leg, you won't lose it. But if someone cuts off your head it won't matter anymore if you have a phone or not."

"Thank you boss for worrying about my fate."

"Yeah, yeah. Now lie down." Nie Li pressed some points in his body sending him into unconsciousness. He deadened the pain receptors on his head.

He then started the surgery. Even though Nie Li wasn't an expert surgeon, he had vast knowledge on topics like how to implant demon body parts into humans. So implanting a small golden disc into someone's skull bone shouldn't be a problem.

The operation lasted for ten minutes. After applying a healing salve to the scalp cut Nie Li waited for some time for it to regenerate. Then applied a hair growth salve on the shaved part of the head. It will take half an hour for the place of surgery to become unnoticeable. A slight tissue scar at the place of the cut will disappear completely in three or four days.

While Ming Yahui's hair grew Nie Li sat silently. He was in deep thought. He was thinking about Ming Yahui's words. Not about killing Nie Wei, but going directly towards the goal.

He had so many problems now. Ye Ziyun and Xiao Ning'er will reach the Silver rank soon. The rest of his friends may not be too much behind if he makes them a cultivation accelerating artifact.

And he had no access to the Nightmare Demon Pot. So they will have to integrate with subpar demon spirits.

Another thing was the access to the Heavenly Sacred Border realm. Nie Li was very much interested in that world. Not only because of Thunder God's Meteorite Sword but in the world itself as well. Nie Li wanted to know how it was created.

Usually, the creation of a subsidiary world required an expert much higher than the Heavenly Fate Realm. But that world was created by four Legend Rank demon spiritualists. Nie Li wanted to know how had they done that. And can he copy the process into his world as well?

The problem was he didn't know what to do with Ye Yan's spirit. Nie Li can't leave the sword there. And he didn't have anything to store his spirit yet.

Another problem was if he asks permission to enter Heavenly Sacred Border the school administration would know that his cultivation reached the Silver rank. And Shen Xiu among them.

Theoretically, he could ask for secrecy from the Principal or Vice-Principal especially if he takes the girls with him. Ye Ziyun's position will guarantee that. No one would want the only daughter of the City Lord to be put in danger by revealing her cultivation.

But that will require him to visit the clan treasury to get the schematics for the soul puppet. Or at least the part where the spirit could be stored.

Nie Li had some ideas on how to create a spirit storing device like demon spirit crystals or Spirit Lamp but they required some experiments Nie Li was wary of conducting. If he had the Soul Mirror it could have solved the problem. But he didn't even know its exact location.

So many problems. That's not including his current ones. He had many surveillance systems, but no one to watch them properly. He gets detailed daily reports from Kaize's gang, but can't act upon the intelligence. Recently he got information about another, Shen Fei's **** victim, but couldn't do anything with the information.

Was Nie Li too careful? Secure in the belief that things are better than in the novel. Was he following the canon too closely thus missing many new opportunities?

Nie Li sighed. He had been asking these questions of himself for some time. But there were no clear answers. He can't carelessly jump into action as his counterpart did, but can't act too passive either. There were too many dangers out there he didn't know about.

There's no guarantee that everything will go as it did in the novel. So he couldn't miss the opportunities to become stronger.

Groaning from the operation table distracted him from his thoughts. Ming Yahui woke up. Looking at his head Nie Li couldn't see the trace of operation. The hair had already grown to the correct length.

"What happened?" Ming Yahui groggily asked.

"The surgery is finished. You can get up now."

"Finished?" Ming Yahui felt his head. "I can't feel the difference."

"That's the point. You know how to activate the phone. Do it."

After some pause, Ming Yahui said, "Oh I don't see any difference between wrist-mounted or implanted phone."

"Because there's no difference. All the interfaces are based on illusions."

"Except now you can blow up my head anytime you want." Ming Yahui said.

"Did you forget about the soul contract? I don't need a bomb to make your head explode." Nie Li responded.

"Oh thank you for reminding."

"Good night. I have some other matters to attend to."

----------------------

After returning to his mansion Nie Li started to prepare for travel. He is going home. He didn't know why he cared about the useless school rules until now. The rules about not visiting home during the school term were created during the difficult times when students could be conscripted to protect the city. The school administration didn't want students running away to their homes.

And even if they were enforced, Nie Li wouldn't care. He wasn't planning to return to school after the first holidays.

He called the patriarch on his phone and told him to keep the existence of the throne secret. He had other plans for it.

He took his travel package and left the mansion. Nie Xiaori and other guards were at the gates.

"If anyone asks, I have gone on a hunt."