115 Chapter 115: Desolate Era 8

Carl adjusted the harness that held two spatha style swords on his back and walked down the main street of the small village on the edge of the Cold Gold Forest. He mentally made a note to design some spells or runes that would increase the comfort of his harness while decreasing the weight it would carry.

It wasn't that he wasn't physically strong enough to handle the weight, but it had occurred to him that it would be a great addition to the goods and services offered to the mortals of his province, to enhance their daily lives by making their weapons and tools easier to carry. He would just have to make sure there was a function to protect his products from being studied and knock-offs created.

It was easily possible to buy a storage device here in the cultivation world to store a large amount of goods, but many people at the bottom of society simply couldn't afford such luxury as a regular mortal when the cost was counted in precious cultivation resources. Resources that needed strength to gain and keep that mortals didn't have.

Selling such affordable devices to make his people's lives easier wasn't going to gain him untold riches and make his life easier. Everything he could grow in his Farmville farms already made him rich beyond measure. No, the boom to the overall economy and making people's lives better under his rule was the aim of the game, which would just increase their loyalty to him and make administration of his territory easier.

A large gust of wind blew down the deserted street and past Carl, kicking up a plume of dust and other things that irritated his nose. Blowing out a lungful of air from his nose to dislodge the dust in a snot rocket, he continued to scan the empty streets and desolate buildings around him for any evidence of who he was hunting.

Diamond Creek Village no longer had any living beings aside from Carl, and there was an almost palpable aura of fear, pain, and despair clinging to the buildings he was walking past. His hunt for the demonic cultivator had started a week ago and he had already made his way through two other villages that were just like this one, completely empty of any living soul.

Turning the corner of the street while his eyes and senses scanned everything around him, Carl finally came to the center of the village and frowned at the scene that was once more in front of his eyes. Just like in the previous two villages, the center of the village that used to be used as a market place was destroyed in a large circular area. Every booth in the open stall market had been smashed to bits and lay scattered on the ground.

Set up in a supernaturally significant pattern throughout the ruins of the open market space, there were several dozen ten foot tall wooden posts, each of which were about three feet in diameter, that had been smashed through the cobblestone and driven into the earth. And on each of those posts were multiple skeletal remains of the villagers that had been nailed to the posts while they were still alive and drained of all life force in a demonic cultivation ritual.

Looking down at the ground that had been stained a rust-red color by the blood of the several hundred villagers that had bled out into an occult rune, Carl grimaced at the amount of pain, suffering, and despair the villagers must have experienced as their life force was drained from them while they were helpless.

The necromantic ritual had eaten away all the flesh and vitality of every villager and been consumed by the demonic cultivator, leaving only the skeletal remains of the poor mortal villagers behind.

None had been spared from the depravations of the rogue cultivator that took on the name Ghost Knife. Men, women, little boys and girls, and the elderly; everyone had been forcefully gathered together and were helpless as they were nailed to the posts one by one.

Carl had seen everything he needed to see to know this was the work of Ghost Knife with just one glance. The bastard had been doing this for a few years now, since he was apparently quite skilled at avoiding the cultivators of a similar level that came after him.

And his mass murdering of the civilians of the Great Xia Empire were apparently not yet serious enough to send a higher level cultivator after him to ensure he was caught. Carl could only shake his head at that cold blooded calculation that was pretty much par for the course when dealing with such a huge empire. "Little things" always fell through the cracks of the bureaucracy for some time, at least until someone who could do something about it learned what was happening and took up the slack the bureaucratic system couldn't handle and solved the problem.

Even though Carl felt it would be more respectful to do lay the remains of the village to rest personally, he didn't have the time to do so if he wanted to stay on the trail of Ghost Knife. He needed to catch up to him and stop him from doing it again. So instead he made temporary clones to do the work for him.

While his clones were digging a mass grave, dismantling and destroying all signs of the necromantic ritual so no one could copy it, and burying the remains of the villagers, Carl used the special tracking spell that was attuned to the necromantic signature of Ghost Knife's ritual to search around the village to find his trail.

After a full circuit to make sure he wasn't missing anything, he found two glowing trails. One was fainter than the other, evidently his trail coming into the village. The other was his departure point.

"Gotcha!" Carl bared his teeth in a bloodthirsty grin as he took to the air and followed the stronger glittering trail of necromantic energies that radiated off the demonic cultivator.

Judging from the strength of the glow, he finally got a relatively fresh trail from the target, which meant he was closing in on the demonic cultivator. It was horrible that he had made up the trailing time due to the time it took Ghost Knife to slaughter another village, but he would soon end the life of the evil bastard that did it and give justice to those villagers and all the other victims.

Carl followed the meandering trail through the air when it suddenly dipped straight down into the forest below him, so he followed it. The trail plunged through the forest, twisting and turned through the trees for dozens of miles before he came across a river. The glittering necromantic energy trail entered the river, so Carl did too. He wasn't about to lose the trail now that he'd found it!

The river was a pretty big one, being a dozen miles wide at the widest, and would be very dangerous to mortals that came there due to the enormous direbeasts that lived there, many of them at the Houtian stage. But for Carl, who was at the Zifu Disciple stage, it was simplicity itself to avoid or casually beat down the various fish, snakes, and crocodile like creatures as he continued following the trail.

The trail exited the river as suddenly as it entered, and Carl flew into the forest on the other side of the river as it wound through the forest, up hills and down dells.

'This Ghost Knife is skilled at throwing off normal tracking methods that cultivators use. He certainly spent enough time making a confusing trail,' Carl thought. 'Good thing I've been to worlds that regularly deal with ghosts and other supernatural creatures and have learned out-of-context spells to trump his cunning and experience in this world. I'll have to spend some time to study how to use the in-world power system to counter the various means of demonic cultivators. Hell, all cultivators, not just the demonic ones. But since I want to get this bastard before he kills any other villages, I'll focus on that later, after I've caught him.'

After nearly a day of following the trail, Carl arrived at another poor village full of mostly mortals. There were a few Houtian level cultivators, but for the most part, the civilians were mostly made up of non-cultivators.

Carl frowned as he landed outside the village. The sparkly trail led straight into the center of the village and into a tavern. With a quick glance around the village with his enhanced Byakugan, Carl could easily see that most of the people were going about their normal business, as if nothing was unusual.

But he could see Ghost Knife sitting in the middle of the tavern with a serving maid on his lap. Everyone was frozen in their places at the tables and not moving in the tavern, and the young woman in his lap looked to be incredibly frightened.

Carl checked and saw that everyone inside was still alive, for now. But there was no guarantee just how long that would last.

'You came all this way to find me, I don't know why you're hesitating outside now. Come on inside and we can chat and negotiate.'

A voice transmission reached Carl's consciousness, causing him to frown even more. How did Ghost Knife spot him? He was currently in stealth mode, but there were just so damned many Daos in this world, it could be just about anything. And he certainly hadn't developed countermeasures for every single Dao.

Did Ghost Knife even know where Carl was? Or was he simply transmitting to his surroundings because Carl tripped some kind of alarm that he didn't notice in his haste to catch Ghost Knife?

With the situation in front of him, unless he wanted those hostages to be killed, Carl would have to figure out how to take down Ghost Knife quickly so he couldn't retaliate. The thought of acceding to any of Ghost Knife's demands in exchange for the hostages never entered his mind because he knew someone like Ghost Knife would never honor any agreement to let innocents free. He would kill them all simply for power or to prove he was cleverer and stronger than anyone attempting to bring him to justice, or just sick pleasure.

As Carl began walking towards the tavern, black fuinjutsu symbols began spreading out from his footsteps, silently running across the ground to circle around the village. He was relieved to see that Ghost Knife, whatever means he used to spot Carl's approach, didn't seem to notice his use of the sealing arts.

Carl opened the tavern door and walked in a few paces. Without turning his head, thanks to his Byakugan, he could see everyone's frightened expression, the sweat dripping from their heads, and the shadow-like knives that were held at everyone's necks by Ghost Knife's power.

"Don't do anything…rash, if you don't want these people to die!" Ghost Knife dramatically proclaimed with a twisted smirk of superiority on his face. "If you don't do what I say, their blood will be on your hands!"

Carl stared blankly at the evil cultivator, not responding while allowing him to spew his garbage. It would just give him more time to trap the bastard.

"This is what I love about hypocritical 'righteous' cultivators like you!" At this point Ghost Knife seemed to be talking to himself more than Carl as he ranted and bragged. "It's always so easy to control you, all you need to do-"

Ghost Knife's rambling was cut off abruptly as the teen girl in his arms was turned into a giant ice block. Carl had modified the protective mage spell from Azeroth so he could cast it on others and used the opportunity to protect the hostages. He smirked a bit at seeing how surprised and shocked Ghost Knife was to suddenly be holding a large block of ice that he couldn't cut.

Despite being initially surprised, Ghost Knife immediately changed tactics and made a gesture and shouted a strange word, and the shadowy knives at the throats of everyone at the bar made a slashing gesture.

Instead of the expected splash of blood and decapitated hostages, there was a loud clanging sound, as of metal striking ice as every hostage was suddenly encased in ice.

Carl wasn't idle either. In the very moment that Ghost Knife made his gesture to command his shadowy knives, Carl had unsheathed his spatha blades and dashed forward, appearing next to Ghost Knife before he could do anything more, since he wasted his time in spitefully trying to kill his hostages.

With two swings of his swords, Ghost Knife's head and hands were severed, flying into the air. There had been some resistance from the evil cultivator's defensive treasure, but Carl had initiated his domain over water and ice, weakening the evil cultivator and making him sluggish. His domain was only enhanced further by the giant ice cubes filled with his power that were scattered around the tavern, protecting the other people there.

Carl's great physical strength, added onto his Dao understanding of the sword, made it almost easy to sheer through Ghost Knife's defenses before the cultivator could do anything more, with how closely he allowed Carl to approach.

Before the head even landed on the ground, Carl had put the dead body, hands, and head of Ghost Knife into a storage treasure and cleaned up the flying blood. With the death of Ghost Knife, the shadowy knives dissipated into nothing, freeing the hostages from their mortal peril. Carl then dispelled the ice block spells, freeing the hostages, and releasing the fuinjutsu he'd used to enhance and spread his domain and make it possible to protect the hostages with the Ice Block spell when he wasn't touching them.

Before any of the mortals could react, Carl Blinked away from the tavern, appearing outside and taking to the air. Floating above the village, he began a thorough search of the area from the air, using every means he could to discover anything Ghost Knife had left behind. He wouldn't be surprised if Ghost Knife had left behind a final "Fuck You" plague or curse or something that would kill everyone in the village if not taken care of.

"Are you retarded?" While searching the village Carl muttered to the air what he would have liked to say directly to Ghost Knife's face. He hadn't bothered because nothing he said would have made a dent in the thick skull of that evil idiot, and actions spoke louder than words.

"Evil people like you are always the same, blaming the victim or the person trying to stop you for what you choose to do. 'Oh, no! It's your fault I'm doing this horrible thing! It's your fault I'm killing people! If you just went away and left me alone, I wouldn't be doing this!' As if you would stop your evil if everyone just left you alone or respected you enough. What a load of bullshit.

"Not to mention expecting that I'd waver in what I was doing because of the blathering of an evil idiot trying to make me to feel guilty. Does he think everyone is as dumb as he was?

"Ah, found it!"

Carl swooped down to a well near the center of the village. He levitated out a disgusting pustule of flesh and bone gathered around some odd stone that was radiating power and poisoning the well of the village. He ignored the horrified cries of the villagers who had poured out of the tavern and were watching him.

"Hmm. The well is probably already contaminated," Carl muttered as he summoned the hottest fire he could to burn up the disgusting thing radiating evil floating above his hand. Even the stone at the center of the disgusting thing was destroyed into nothing but drifting ash that dissipated into nothingness as he let the ashes drift away. He didn't stop there, though, as he directed the fire down into the well.

Carl burnt up every bit of water that had been contaminated as well as all the soil and rock that might have the least bit of contamination. By the time he was done, the well was a deep and wide pit with magma boiling at the bottom.

He then controlled the magma to flow up and re-form the edges of the well. Mentally holding the shape he envisioned, Carl began to siphon the heat away. As the knee-high edges of the new well he was creating cooled, they solidified into a nice obsidian black color. Looking at the nervous faces of the villagers as they stared warily at the stone's color, Carl made an adjustment and permanently charmed the stone's color to a normal local granite look to reassure the villagers that their well was now safe.

If they still chose not to use it after he left due to superstition or unease…well, he couldn't do anything about it. That was their call if they wanted to go build another well and not use this one.

Carl then chopped down a nearby tree with his magic and levitated it into the center of town while he planted a replacement seed that would grow to replace the tree. Using the various spells he'd learned from the Harry Potter world, he cured the wood in no time at all and then began splitting it up into planks and poles. He created a lid on the well to prevent children from falling in and a roof over the well that would protect offer shelter from rain, snow, or dust falling into over the well, as well as a pulley system that would make gathering water easier for the villagers.

Next he pulled some paint out of his storage space and coated the wood protect it from the elements. After that he put some spells and runes on the new well to make the structure endure time; the well would last for centuries. Carl included purification runes, to make sure their drinking water would always be clean and pure.

Finally he set up a small formation around the well that would ensure that any mortals drinking the water would have healthy and robust lives.

"You don't have to worry about the source of water here. I've purified it so it won't harm you. Enjoy your new well!" Carl cheerfully waved farewell at the villagers and then flew up into the air and away.

Carl's grin stayed on his face as he flew away, still able to hear the comments of the villagers as they talked about the Immortal that saved them.

He wasn't yet near the Immortal stage of cultivation for this world, but the villagers didn't know that. To the mortals of the village it didn't really matter if he was only a Xiantian lifeform, or a Celestial Immortal, since both of those were far above them.

What was important to them was that he saved them from Ghost Knife, prevented their deaths from the disgusting thing that Ghost Knife had thrown in their well, and given them a new well which saved them much effort in their hard lives.

Carl spent the next few weeks backtracking Ghost Knife and double checked the work his temporary clones had done to cleanse the areas around the villages that had been massacred. Using spells he'd learned from previous worlds, he laid the restless ghosts to rest and made sure the land and water wasn't poisoned.

Standing over the graves of the final village he knew about, that he'd learned of since taking up the hunt and getting the mission brief from the Raindragon Guards, Carl could only shake his head at how much death and destruction one evil person could commit. Opposite that was how much good one single cultivator could do on behalf of the people around them.

It wasn't like anyone was obligated to be a saint of martyr and spend their every waking moment doing good for other people. Even those with power and riches had their own agency, their ability to choose what they do in life. No matter which world he went to, that seemed to be the fundamental underlying point that was the same everywhere, agency.

Someone could choose to be a saint, or a devil, or they could just be a normal person going about their everyday life. No one was obligated to do anything in particular for anyone else. People could choose to do what they want, for whatever reasons made sense to them.

Some people were admirable because of their own free will they gave of their time and resources to help those less fortunate. Others, whether they were rich and poor, decided to plunder and steal instead of working for resources of their own.

Carl shook his head and threw away the introspective mood he was in. Summoning his flying ship, he boarded it and set course for the Raindragon Guard's base. He had a corpse and mission to turn in, a bounty to collect, and more work to do to enhance his reputation with the Raindragon Guard.

Sitting on the deck of his ship, Carl pulled out a coin from his storage space. In this world's setting, it seemed appropriate to drink either wine or tea to fit the theme. Flipping the coin, it came up tails, so he pulled out a tea set and began enjoying the subtle aromas and refined tastes of the cultivation world's tea as he flew through the skies. It was amazing what he could enjoy with enhanced senses that seemed like so much bland nonsense to him back in his original mundane life.

A crowd formed in the square surrounding the Black-White College early in the morning. Every year, a week after the recruitment week ended, the ones who passed the tests would return to the college to become official members. And as mostly normal folk, the crowed enjoyed the vicarious thrill of seeing the students who were geniuses enroll at the prestigious Black-White College.

And this year the crowds were absolutely shocked to see 23 young people walking through the gates, show their identity tokens to the guard, and walk further in.

"What? When has the Black-White College ever accepted so many students?"

"There's no way there's that many geniuses at once, right? Has the Black-White College lowered their standards?"

"No way! The Black-White College is still number one! If they let those people in, there must be a reason!"

"I wouldn't expect such a blind fan to see reality when it's right in front of him. Obviously the Black-White College is afraid of the Skysplitter Sword Sect catching up to them, so they are opening the gates for more disciples of lesser quality in the hope that quantity will trump quality!"

"Feh! You're the one who's blind! Your whole family is blind!"

"What did you say about my family!?"

Carl rested one of his hands on the Blue Orchid and softly laughed as he used his Byakugan to watch the fight develop between the two men back in the crowd.

Someone even began taking bets on who would win between the two men who were wrestling on the ground, biting and clawing each other. It was obvious that neither man had ever trained in any combat skills in their life, which just added to the amusement and excitement of the crowd as they jeered and mocked the two men.

Once all 23 of the newcomers had their identity confirmed, they were brought onto a flying ship by the black haired Proctor named Wu Xiu. Standing at the railing, Carl watched as the ship took to the air and followed the course that the map in the student introduction book showed led to the main hall of the Black-White College.

The various buildings of Stillwater City faded away behind them as they watched the fields, forests, and cliffs of the Black-White College land pass under them. The cliffs rose to become a vast mountain range, with the peaks of the mountains poking up out of the misty cover.

On the peak they flew to, there was a complex of buildings that covered the mountain peak, and Carl could only admire the construction and elegance of the sprawling construction. It looked exactly like what he would imagine an immortal sect would look like. Pagodas, lakes, gardens, and many people in elegant robes wandering around. Stereotypically, there was even a flight of white birds that flew across the scene in front of them.

Carl was amused when he heard Naruko and Hinata start whispering about setting aside a mountain top outside Firebird City for constructing a similar if not better building. He didn't think it was a bad idea to set up such a school for his own people at home.

Wu Xiu ignored the ignorant comments of the two girls who were talking about replicating what the Black-White College had built. Unless they broke through to the Celestial Immortal stage, there was no chance of them being able to achieve such a feat, but it was good that they had ambition, it would take them farther on their path than if they were complacent.

Soon enough Wu Xiu led the group into the main building, and had everyone lined up in a specific hall guarded by strong formations.

"This is the Life Seal Hall," Wu Xiu explained, and held up a lamp that had dozens of runes carved into it for everyone to see. "Every member of the Black-White College will bind one of these soul lamps with their blood and life-force, which will light up and show your status, whether living or dead. It allows us to keep track of you, and ensure that you're still alive and well whenever you leave the Black-White College campus.

"I don't have to remind you that the life of a cultivator is dangerous. When you leave the Black-White College in order to temper yourself, through hardship and adventure, we are able to ascertain your status, whether living or dead. And if you die, we will investigate. If you were unjustly killed, we will ensure that you are given justice."

As expected of a group of ninja-cultivators, Carl and his group didn't react too much to that promise, or the implication that they might die; they all knew death was a constant danger while out on missions.

It was also natural that to them that their organization would take revenge against their enemies if any of their students were killed. Carl appreciated the sentiment, even while hoping it wouldn't be necessary. But he was here in this world for some time, and he couldn't always guarantee that things would go perfectly, so having the backing of a well known organization was good.

The sudden onslaught in the last world by the Otsutsuki Clan when they dropped several moons on his planet at the same time had shown him that he'd become a bit complacent in his power and ability to handle problems.

Upon review of his life so far, Carl realized that he had been able to get the drop on so many problems in several of the worlds he visited because he had some knowledge about the setting and he was considered an out-of-context problem for the world. If the various Big Bads that he'd taken out over the years had seen him coming, they would definitely have done everything in their power to counter him, making the job so much harder to accomplish.

Thinking about it, Carl figured that the Otsutsuki Clan must have arrived in the vicinity of the planet and scouted things out for a while in secret before they acted, which was why they had acted with such overwhelming force right from the beginning.

It was Carl's complacency in believing that he only had to worry about the planet and the various organizations there, since he was leaving the world behind soon enough, that allowed the Otsutsuki clan to sneak up on him like they had.

So in the end, Carl worked to tamp down his arrogance and confidence in his power and welcome the extra protection the Black-White College provided.

One by one, the group was given a lamp and dripped a drop of blood on it. Immediately upon binding, a small flame, colored differently depending on the person's soul, lit inside and began dancing on the wick. They then placed their lamps in the appropriate places with a placard of their information so the College could keep track of them.

After a tour of the facilities, which included a Library, Weapons Hall, Alchemy Pill Pavilion, Task Hall, Battle Arena, Lecture Halls, Resource Trading Pavilions, and several more buildings, everyone had been issued a Black-White College Uniform Robe that was an Earth Treasure. They also received their yearly cultivation resources allotment for this year, and were given a detailed list of the College approved cultivation techniques that they could pick from to learn over the next period of time. Wu Xiu then flew them on the ship and dropped them off, one by one, at their new accommodations in the College.

Everyone got their own Mountain Peak Home, which is where they were expected to spend the majority of their time cultivating and learning the Dao. Naturally there were scheduled lectures and various activities they could participate in with their fellow students when they so desired, so it wasn't like they were confined to their new accommodations.

Carl sat down at the table outside his set of rooms and read through the college course book he'd been given and began thinking about what he was going to study while he was at the college.

There was so much he could explore, so much to study. The higher level cultivators of this reality would spend so much time comprehending the laws that this reality was built on, attempting to learn more in order to have control over those laws and increase their powers. To those higher cultivators, a billion years was like an afternoon nap, they were so long lived. And yet, most of them still wouldn't be able to reach the end of the road, no matter how long they lived or how dedicated they were.

Carl stared up at the sky that was turning dark and the stars were coming out. Everything that he could see from the Grand Xia, the stars in the galaxy and the entire universe the galaxy was located in, was all part of one small chaosworld, the Three Realms Chaosworld. Outside the Three Realms Chaosworld, there were an uncountable number of Chaosworlds, Realms, Forbidden Zomes, and just empty space that made up the Chaosverse he was currently living in. And yet there were other Chaosverses beyond that, all just as large as the one he was in.

The scale of this one reality blew his mind when he observed it from within.

Carl considered the Jumpchain, which included an uncountable number of realities out there, and he thought about how long he'd already been on this journey. It was a long time for a mortal. Including all the time compression, he'd lived through several mortal life spans. The him now was so far from the mortal he'd started this journey as…

He'd seen so many sights, done so many things that he thought he'd never do.

He'd conquered multiple star systems in a kingdom that was spread throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

He'd fallen in love with and gotten married to so many beautiful, smart, and strong willed women.

He'd killed more than a few people.

He'd even enslaved quite a few people when keeping them alive and useful was easier than simply killing them.

He'd learned so much about combat, honed his martial skills, learned so much magic, and climbed high on the cultivation ladder.

And yet…

What he had experienced so far was such a small thing compared to the vastness that existed in this reality alone, let alone all the countless realities he had access to through the Jumpchain.

Was it any wonder that he was desperate for this "surprise" that Spere 037 had talked about him getting after his 15th Jump? Because the implication was that with this thing, whatever it ended up being, he could finally go and retrieve the women, family, and friends that he had left behind in the previous worlds.

He had already gone through so many changes since he'd left behind all his loved ones on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world, the first world he'd been to in the Jumpchain. What would happen if he went back there and none of them could connect with him as he was now? What if he'd changed too much for them to be able to accept him as he was now?

It was something he had worried about now and again.

He'd been tempted to use the Warehouse's Return option on more than one occasion. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that he would only get ten more years with them in those worlds, and he would only be able to bring a very few people with him if he bought some Stasis Pods with the small amount of Warehouse Points that he'd gathered.

Thinking about the people that he would have to choose to leave behind because he didn't have enough Stasis Pods broke his heart, so he'd never given in to that temptation.

Carl spent half the night in his melancholy mood, staring up at the stars and thinking. He didn't have any clear answer to his worries because he didn't know what would happen at the end of this world, what "surprise" he would get.

As the sun was rising the next morning, Carl focused once more on the present. He packed away his melancholy introspective mood and returned his focus to his studies, to his life in the here and now.

One of the things he was most interested in figuring out wasn't something the Black-White College offered on the syllabus. He was still very interested in creating a method to bring his various magics, physical training systems, and cultivation methods together into one complete whole.

Back on the Naruto world, the people were naturally born with a unique trait in their bodies: chakra coils. Chakra was the blend of physical and mental energies. And the people there naturally grew a chakra system that blended those energies without having to do anything.

Seeing that happening, Carl was more convinced than ever that he could blend the spiritual energies of the cultivation systems with the mental energies of magic and the physical energies of ki into one complete whole.

The Desolate Era world even had cultivation methods for those three types of energies, even if they called them by different names. Or so Carl supposed. He hadn't actually come across Heartforce yet, but he was sure that the energy and cultivation that was based on willpower in so many ways was very similar to magic.

Maybe when he researched Heartforce more, he would find out that it wasn't really related at all. But he was going to find out. And he would keep looking for more similarities that he could draw parallels from.

'Well, I've got so much to study, I'd better not slack off,' Carl thought as he began working out a loose schedule to study what he wanted to learn, experiment with, and create.

Rain from the low hovering clouds fell down on the forest, temporarily caught by the trees as the water slid from leaf to leaf until it was sieved downward to drizzle onto the forest undergrowth. Most of the animals in the forest were hunkered down in their burrows and nests, content to let the rain pass before they went out in their constant search for food and survival.

In one particular tree there was a shadow sprawled across a large branch. Occasionally it would twitch and shiver, casting away sheets of water landing on his fur. The large black panther's tail was twitching back and forth occasionally, keeping time to a song only it could hear.

As a near perfect replica of Carl, despite not being able to exist independently if the original were killed, Carl's blood clones could nevertheless make use of his various abilities since they had become a part of his body mod. As such the blood clone with the Chokuto style swords had decided that while he was wandering the depths of the Swallow Mountain Range, he would do so in his animagus form.

He'd discovered almost immediately upon entering the depths of the mountain range that the various Diremonsters seemed to have a huge grudge and hate against any humans they noticed in their territory.

If the Diremonsters were only at the Xiantian Lifeform level and outmatched, it would immediately spread word until a Zifu Disciple or Wanxiang Adept level Diremonster showed up to attack him. After having to pull out the stops and kill a Wanxiang Adept, one level above him, Carl had decided to try wandering in his panther form to avoid the antagonism of the local Diremonsters, and it had worked like a charm.

Aside from some of the more short tempered Diremonsters whose territory he was passing through challenging him, he was no longer mobbed by endless hordes of angry animals, so he was free to wander to his heart's content.

At the moment he was enjoying the atmosphere of the storm while relaxing on a tree branch. His command over the water element ensured that his coat wasn't actually soaked through unless he wanted it to be. And he certainly wasn't affected by the cold of the rain.

Carl's ears twitched as he heard something he didn't expect this deep in the mountains. Opening his eyes without turning his head, he opened his Byakugan and focused in the direction of the sound. Sure enough, he hadn't imagined the sound of humans talking over there. Three men and one woman were advancing carefully in a direction that passed nearby, which is how he coincidentally heard them.

'But how did they manage to get all the way here without being besieged to death by Diremonsters?' Carl wondered when he noticed that all four of them were only at the Zifu Disciple realm. 'I know I've run across more than one Wanxiang Adept Diremonster's territory on my way here. And chances are good that they would have been informed about a group of four humans running around near their territory.'

One of the men was holding a trunk sized altar shaped rock that had glowing symbols on it, and the three surrounding him were holding odd candles that seemed to radiate energy from the flames burning on them. After a few more minutes of analyzing what he could see of the group, Carl came to the conclusion that the altar was some kind of mobile array that was shielding them from sight and smell, specifically against beasts and Diremonsters.

After a bit more study at the oddity, Carl determined that because he was in his animagus form, and not an actual beast, it was apparently enough of a "loophole" that he was able to bypass the array and notice them even while he was in his panther form.

"How much further is it?" The black haired woman on the group's left complained while looking around nervously. "And will this array allow us to get out of these damned mountains after we find this Black Hawk's tomb? Because if it won't last, we'll all be dead and not able to enjoy any treasure we do find."

"Zhong Shu, we all agreed to the risks before we came here," the skinny male holding the altar in the middle replied with some exasperation. "And my reply is the same as it was before. I promised this array will get us out safely, and it will. As long as you keep your cool and don't break the formation, we have nothing to worry about. Now stop asking!"

"We're all under a lot of stress, Fan Jie," the short male on the right said to the one with the Altar in an attempt to soothe his teammate's tempers and cool things off. "But we agreed to this and we'll keep our word."

"Well, if she wouldn't ask the same question every dozen kilometers, I wouldn't be getting so annoyed, now would I, Chen Yimu?" Fan Jie angrily said.

"We're almost there," the male in the lead cut in, interrupting any further argument between the others. Carl noticed he had a map of some kind of beast hide in his hand that wasn't holding the candle. "So let's not go asking for trouble by bickering among each other when we're so close."

"Fine." Fan Jie snorted in annoyance, while the Zhong Shu sniffed at him in annoyance but didn't say anything more for now.

Curious about what the group was seeking, Carl cast the stealth skills from his Warcraft Rogue class, as well as layering on various stealth spells to mask his scent and sound, just to overkill it, and jumped down from the tree branch to follow the small group.

For the next two days Carl followed along behind the group as they went from landmark to landmark on their own two feet at a slow pace. He was sometimes tempted to use a spell to block his ears from hearing the group, since they bickered and complained among each other, and not in a comradely entertaining fashion, but as if they couldn't stand each other.

'Two days is what you call "almost there"?' Carl sarcastically thought as he saw that the group finally arrived at their destination. They were standing in front of a cliff wall that looked pretty much the same as the rest of the cliff wall, nothing on the surface to hint that it was special.

But using his Byakugan combined with his divine sense, Carl immediately spotted a peculiar rock formation that was hiding a tunnel behind it. In addition, there was flowing energy that he identified as a formation meant to hide the presence of the tunnel from observation.

"Is this it?" Zhong Shu asked in a waspish tone of voice.

"Yes, according to the map, it is," Wu Mu replied with barely concealed impatience.

"Well, how do we open it?" Chen Yimu asked.

"There's supposed to be four points around the entrance. Each of us will channel our energy through those points, and it should open up the path," Wu Mu answered as he moved closer to the wall. After carefully comparing the rock wall with his map, he soon had the four of them positioned in the proper places. "Okay. Let's begin."

Carl sat on his haunches with his tail twitching back and forth, watching as the four poured their energy through the points into the formation. With a rippling motion, the rock wall turned to a semi-liquid state and flowed aside, exposing the tunnel, before solidifying into the tunnel walls.

"Done!" As soon as Wu Mu announced that, the four of them turned to each other as they pulled out their weapons and attacked each other.

Carl watched dumbfounded as Fan Jie and Zhong Shu attacked Chen Yimu with fire and sword light, while Chen Yimu and Wu Mu attacked Fan Jie with earth spears and lightning.

'Dang, their fellowship fell out as quick as they thought the treasure was in front of them for the taking,' Carl thought as he backed up a bit so he wouldn't be hit by the stray fire and lightning.

He could also feel the four combatant's struggling to establish their own domains against the other's domains, using their knowledge of their respective Daos to combat the domain assertions of the others. Various attacks went back and forth, and wound began appearing on each of their bodies.

The first two to fall were Chen Yimu and Fan Jie, since they were the ones targeted by their opposition.

As soon as those two fell dead, Zhong Shu and Wu Mu began attacking each other. Carl was a bit impressed that there were no long speeches where they castigated each other for betrayal, or gloated about them getting the treasure. It was just a hard fight with no quarter given.

In the end, it was the female Zhong Shu that came out on top. Though whether or not she won was up for debate, as Carl could sense that the huge damage done to her was leaking her essence out. If she didn't get any healing soon, she would not survive her wounds that didn't seem to want to close, cursed by one of her opponent's attacks no doubt.

Carl looked at the stone altar and the candles that had been dropped at the beginning of the fight and wondered how this Zhong Shu would live to escape the mountain range if she didn't have the other three to support their stealth formation. Maybe she had other means…

Carl's musing broke off as he stared at yet another reversal. The health and energy that was leaking out of Zhong Shu wasn't stopped by the healing pills she had popped in her mouth like candy. In fact, it sped up the leakage. What Carl was now looking at was the glowing stone altar and candles that had coincidentally landed rightside up, which he hadn't paid attention to before.

There was more than just a concealment formation there. Now that it was activated, Carl could see it in motion. It was funneling energy into Fan Jie, the guy who had been holding the altar.

The huge wounds on Fan Jie's body began healing at an accelerated pace, even as Zhong Shu grew worse. Soon enough Fan Jie was standing up again, perfectly fine, gloating over the prone body of Zhong Shu as she died.

Carl had long sensed through his Heart of Snow Glazed Glass that none of the group of four were good people. And he had simply followed along behind them with curiosity in his heart to see what a group of four such treacherous individuals could possibly be doing in the middle of the Swallow Mountain Range.

But now that he'd watched the drama, Carl decided it was time to end the show and finish off the last actor. Shifting back to his human form, he Shadow Stepped behind Fan Jie while he was still gloating and used his Chokuto style swords to behead the man, infusing his strikes with fire Daos to burn him up from the inside.

The man was already low on energy, having used his stolen energy to heal his wounds, and Carl simply sent him on his way. Whatever treasure was inside the tomb barely affected his decision to kill the man. He had decided he didn't want someone like Fan Jie to enjoy it, not after his crude and cruel gloat session.

Carl debated whether or not to destroy the altar and candles. He wasn't really interested in having such an artifact in his possession, but it was something he hadn't seen before, so he decided to save it for study later. At the very least he would be able to add the information on this energy draining formation to his people so they wouldn't be caught by the backstab if they partied with outsiders in the future.

After he finished nabbing all their left behind possessions, Carl arranged a funeral pyre for the four, and then buried their ashes.

Once that was complete, Carl turned to the tunnel with curious eyes. This was the first little treasure trove that his Treasures Galore perk had apparently pointed him to. Well, aside from the map to the Immortal Inheritance that he'd scammed from Fu Xiang for protection. But the original body and his friends hadn't made the trip to that location just yet, so this was the first.

After walking through a short tunnel that opened up to a circular room, Carl saw a corpse sitting upright on a prayer mat on the opposite side of the room with a treasure bow across his lap.

The corpse almost looked as if it was still alive, the body not having deteriorated at all in however many years it had been there since his death. There was a low table next to the corpse with a jade slip with some kind of record or technique inside.

Carl knew it was something of a tradition for the main characters of cultivation stories to give a few kowtows to the dead "ancestor" and assure them that he would make good use of their treasures and techniques, and that he would be a qualified successor for the "ancestor", before they greedily grabbed everything.

But Carl didn't feel quite so hypocritical as to do so. He wasn't a descendent of this Black Hawk, and he didn't know if this Black Hawk was worthy of his regard in the first place.

Being super gleeful about snatching a dead man's treasures while acting righteous on the surface just so the readers could give him a thumbs up for his traditional values didn't appeal to him, either. He was essentially grave robbing at this very moment, so where was his "traditional" moral uprightness anyway?

So instead Carl simply picked up the jade slip, inserted his divine sense inside, and read the man's diary.

Of course the Earth Immortal Black Hawk didn't call it his diary, but that was essentially what it was.

After reading about Black Hawk's account of his life, Carl put the jade slip away in his storage space. He'd decided he would include the autobiography in his city's library, since the dude seemed like a decent enough guy. Though who knows how much of his story Black Hawk shaded to make him seem better than he was? Either way, it would make for an interesting case study of how murder hobos viewed themselves and justified their actions.

There was a storage ring on the corpse's finger that Carl took, and soon he found the record of the self made Divine Archery technique that Black Hawk had bragged about in his diary. It looked to be a pretty good technique, and since the man had made it himself and never spread it, it wasn't in his Archive, though it would be in the future now that he had the record of it.

Picking up the Heaven ranked treasure bow that Black Hawk had luckily found in some ruins during his adventures, Carl began the process of claiming ownership, putting a divine mark on it so only he could use it while he still lived.

It would take him some months to completely refine the bow, but he was able to make an ownership mark after only a couple hours, so he put the bow away for the time being.

After he was done, Carl debated about what to do with the corpse, but in the end he decided to leave it where he was and close the tomb back up. Black Hawk had been trying to ascend to the Celestial Immortal stage, but in the end he had failed a tribulation and decided he would bury himself here. He'd left a map to his tomb with his descendents, in the chance that they would be able to come and claim his treasures and techniques at some point in the future if they were strong enough.

So since Black Hawk had decided where he would make his final attempt to ascend, and failed, Carl decided to honor the man's decision of where to bury himself and sealed the cave back up behind him as he left.

Looking at the grave that he'd dug for the ashes of the four that came here, Carl wondered if any one of them was actually Black Hawk's descendents, or if they had stolen and killed the descendents who had the map in order to come here.

Shaking his head since he would likely never know the answer to that question, Carl turned back into his panther form and trotted off to explore more of the Swallow Mountains. It had been interesting so far, and he was excited to explore more.