Bloody Crows

The next day in the morning he bought a large number of silver rank demon spirits. He needed two of those to cultivate using his Cultivating Tent now that he was silver rank himself and his cultivation speed rose. Monetarily it wasn't much of a loss, considering he had had to use 10 bronze rank demon spirits since he had become 5-star Bronze rank. And also he should move into his new home and create a cultivation chamber there. But it needed cleaning first.

So he called Nie Wen and told him to hire someone to do some cleaning in his manor. It was a moderately sized manor and needed at least 25 people to work for an entire day to clean it completely. And also there must be some people supervising them. He left those matters and the sizes of salaries for the workers at Nie Wen's discretion. It will also show Nie Wen's organizing talents.

He needed some long-time workers as well, but he couldn't hire them from his young clansmen. Of course, when he moved into that manor he would put up some self-cleaning arrays that would free him from the headache of finding cleaning personnel. But he still needed many other workers like cooks, gardeners, etc. He will wait with those for some time.

He also wanted to hire a construction company to demolish and rebuild his second manor, but today he was busy. He was watching through his surveillance systems Ming Yahui going through his day with one eye while attending his classes.

Even if there were no point in him attending his lessons anymore, he still tried not to skip them as much as he could. There was no reason to attract any more unwanted attention. Shen Xiu was already paying attention to him. He already cursed his foolishness many times for choosing that method to impress Ye Ziyun with his knowledge back then.

He considered that since she didn't pay attention to his counterpart in the novel, he thought that would be the case here as well. But ironically in his attempt to avoid attention, he attracted more of it. Most likely, in the novel, her overwhelming hatred towards Nie Li made her blind to his accomplishments. This time even though he had embarrassed her, she had somehow overcome her hatred and treated him as one of the genius kids in the class equal to Ye Ziyun, Xiao Ning'er, and Shen Yue. It was a bit worrying to be under someone's scrutiny.

Speaking of scrutiny, Nie Li was watching Ming Yahui's every move through his surveillance systems.

The guy acted mostly normal. He approached and apologized to Nie Ruogang for his rude behavior the day before. He told Nie Ruogang that it was a great idea to involve the Grand elder and praised his genius. His clansman looked flattered. This sycophantic behavior made Nie Li suspicious. Nie Ruogang didn't have a high position in the clan and he was more subservient to Ming Yahui during their meeting the day before.

A complete turn of attitude may have convinced Nie Ruogang, but Nie Li had some suspicions. The kid was clearly planning something. Or maybe Nie Li has become too paranoic. Everything was possible.

After the classes, Nie Li returned to his room and decided to work on his star shuttle project while he was busy with his boring watch over Ming Yahui. There was some progress with the idea. He had already solved the problem of levitation with some antigravity inscriptions and demon crystals from some anomalous flying demon beasts. Those demon beasts used antigravity to fly because their wings were usually very small or sometimes even didn't have wings at all.

There were still some problems with inertial dampeners and propulsion systems, but he was close to solving them as well. Nie Li continued his work till the evening. Meanwhile, Ming Yahui continued to act normally. When the night came and started to think it was a mistake and that he should just capture and interrogate the guy, his patience finally paid off.

Ming Yahui decided to leave his dorm at night. Unfortunately, he decided to wear other clothes thus leaving Nie Li without his surveillance. So Nie Li quickly merged with his demon spirit and taking his void form simply jumped through his window. All the dormitories were close to each other, so he immediately spotted Ming Yahui and followed him invisibly.

Even though in his void form his speed was limited, it was more than enough to follow someone who was walking at a normal speed. Considering that Nie Li could just walk through the obstacles and thus cut corners he reached the school gates earlier than Ming Yahui.

There he waited for his 'client', invisible to the guards. He must attach another surveillance device to Ming Yahui because it would be a shame if he loses him for some stupid reason after watching him for an entire day.

It wasn't forbidden to leave the school grounds at night, but the guards usually asked some questions from those leaving and returning students.

"What's the reason for leaving the school grounds at night?" they stopped Ming Yahui. Nie Li walked up to them.

"To market," Ming Yahui responded showing his student badge. Guards looked at the badge and let him go. That time was enough for Nie Li to walk up to Ming Yahui and put a new listening device on his clothes. The guy must have felt the slight touch on his back because he quickly turned around. But not seeing anything suspicious continued on his way.

Now after bugging his target Nie Li was less worried about losing him. The device allowed him to determine the direction where his target was even if he loses him. But considering he was invisible and incorporeal, he could just walk beside him and no one will notice. But he followed a couple of steps behind Ming Yahui because he didn't want to walk through people, the streets weren't empty yet.

They walked through the market not stopping. And Ming Yahui turned towards one of the unsavory regions of the city confirming Nie Li's suspicions. He was right in following the guy. Even if his motives weren't related to Nie Li, it was still unusual for a student of the Holy Orchid Institute to go to such places. The fact that Nie Li also went there recently to meet with some criminals didn't bother him. He was an exception that proved the rule after all.

After walking for about twenty minutes through the dark gloomy streets, some small dirty sidewalks they reached the analog of the red light district. But the brothels here weren't reputable establishments the nobles and the rich visited. All businesses here, not only brothels were only partly legal. Like the pawn shop, Ming Yahui was heading towards. He walked up to its backdoor. He had his hood up so the two guards became wary.

"What are you doing here kid? The entrance of the shop is there." One of them gruffly said.

Ming Yahui removed his hood and spoke, "Meng Zha, you haven't changed at all. Still the same rude bastard."

"Little Ya? Long time no see. I thought we will not see you again after you have become a noble," the guard replied laughing. It looks like Ming Yahui was acquainted with this group. Nie Li sighed. He could see where it was going.

"I am not a noble yet. I have business with the boss Wu Ya," said Ming Yahui looking at the other silent guard.

"He is new. I will see if the boss can see you. You have to understand he is a busy man."

"Yes. Just tell him that I have a very profitable business for him."

"Okay, wait here. I will be in a minute," he went inside. Nie Li followed by just walking through the closing door. With his listening device on him, Ming Yahui isn't going anywhere. He wasn't much interested in the gang too. He just found one of the empty rooms in the building and turned corporeal. After activating his privacy device he called Kaize.

"Kaize, what do you know about the pawn shop 'Golden claw' and someone called Wu Ya?" Nie asked after greetings.

"Golden Claw, Wu Ya. Hmm, Bloody Crows?" Kaize asked someone on his side. "Yes, a gang called 'Bloody Crows'. Small gang, lead by a scum called Wu Ya. Small-time thieves, muggers, and according to some rumors even slave traders. Why do you want to know about them?"

"So what will happen if they just disappear?"

"Nothing I guess. They don't have any great influence. And if they work under someone it's not advertised. Also, I don't think that they are connected to the dark guild."

"Okay, thank you Kaize." Nie Li ended his call. And activated his surveillance systems and was suddenly hit by an idea. Did he really need to stay corporeal to use his phone? His phone's interface was based on illusions that sent the information directly to his mind. So theoretically he could use it in his void form. He quickly tested it.

It was confirmed. He could use his phone in his void form. But not for calls, because no voice or image could be recorded in his void form. His void form was invisible and didn't breathe air after all. But the connection to the network wasn't disrupted. So he could send for example text messages if he didn't have any choice. Or could create some thought-to-voice interface.

Nie Li continued his exploration of the building while keeping an eye on Ming Yahui. His scanner was also showing the location of everyone in the building. And Ming Yahui was still waiting outside. It looks like the boss was busy with some whore and was a bit pissed at being interrupted.

The building had two stories and a basement floor. Nie Li couldn't see any slaves here, but there were some big metal cages in the basement. All in all, there were 26 people in the building including two guards outside. There were another two people in the shop. Most likely Nie Li will have to eliminate everyone here.