Clansmen

He returned to his room, activated the Starlight Crafting Plate, and began experimenting. After an hour of effort, the pen was finished. It looked stylish enough. In white blue color with silver lines. It had a small detachable ink container that could be filled with ordinary ink or demon blood for creating Inscription scrolls. The viscosity of the ink doesn't matter, the pen will adjust for it. And the most important thing was a bowl-shaped object with a red-bronze wire coming from the side.

Nie Li put the newly bought demon spirit inside the bowl and connected the wire to the pen. Now his invention was ready. He took out a blank Inscription scroll began filling it with a simple Snow Wind battle pattern. The process went smoothly and the scroll was made. As projected only 5% of the energy spent on creating was his, the rest was taken from the demon spirit. Of course, this kind of siphoning power from a demon spirit would kill it after 25-30 uses. But considering the price of inscription scrolls, it was well worth it.

He checked the Inscription scroll. He couldn't find any problem. He went to the training grounds for the last test. There he found a Demon Horned Sheep and pointing towards it activated the scroll. A small snowstorm appeared, and flew fast towards a demon beast, and hit it. After the snowstorm cleared Nie Li could see that Demon Horned Sheep was frozen solid. The results were even better than he expected. It looks like using the right type of demon spirit's spirit energy instead of human one made techniques more powerful.

Well, it was a success. His invention worked. Of course, if the Starlight Crafting Plate could create Inscription scrolls he wouldn't have to sophisticate everything like that. But Inscription scrolls worked differently than artifacts. Maybe he could create something like a wizard's staff that worked like a multi-use scroll. But that's for the future. Most importantly now he can create Inscription scrolls higher rank than himself. That means monetary problems are behind him now.

Nie returned to his dorm and created nine more Inscription Scrolls. They all were bronze rank and cost 2000-3000 demon spirit coins each. It had taken him ten minutes to make each scroll. It was too much time. He can't spend hours creating scrolls every day. He wanted to spend more time cultivating. He hoped his meeting with his clansmen will solve this problem. Then continued his cultivation as the night fell.

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Today was the day Nie Li was planning to approach his clansmen. After classes, he went to the market to sell the Inscription scrolls he made and buy some things.

He sold the eight Inscription scrolls for 20000 and kept one as he needed it later. Then bought an inscription ring for 10 thousand in the Secret Treasure Pavillion. It had 6 cubic meters of space inside and slowed the time by 1000 times. And completely negated the mass of the things inside. It was a rather common storage device for the rich of the city. There were better ones with a bigger space and a higher rate of time dilation. But they were very rare and expensive.

Nie Li wanted to learn how to make rings on his own. Rather than create Enchanting Inscription patterns of the ring from scratch he planned to study the ring's design and improve it, if possible. Usually, he would have needed the power of at least silver rank to create and modify the enchanted items like interspatial rings, but the Starlight Crafting Plate allowed ways to circumvent that limit. He just needed to dissolve a demon spirit in the Starlight Crafting Plate for its power.

Using demon spirits as a disposable energy source was wasteful and barbaric because demon spirits were more than just energy, but he didn't care. He didn't have the Nightmare Demon Pot yet, so it was the only way he could use them. After buying another bronze rank demon spirit and other things necessary for inscription scrolls and enchantments, he returned to his dorm. He put his things inside his new interspatial ring. He will study it later. He was going to meet his clansmen for the first time since he reincarnated.

In the Holy Orchid Institute, Apprentice classes last two years, Intermediate classes for another two years, and Senior classes for one year. Of course, if one's cultivation rises higher than their class limit, they can advance further, earlier than their classmates. That's 2 star Bronze rank for Apprentice classes and 4 star Bronze rank for Intermediate classes.

In his year there were eight of his clansmen attending Apprentice Fighter classes. Six boys and two girls. They were in parallel classes to his. Another six were in official fighter and demon spiritualist classes. One girl was in the inscription pattern class.

They were all in different classes, and he couldn't approach them one by one. Instead, he will talk to the unofficial leaders. Unlike him, most of his clansmen knew each other before attending the Holy Orchid Institute. They were raised together or sometimes from the same branch.

Of course, being a leader did not mean that everyone followed their orders. They were usually the most respected and most powerful of the group. They were the ones others went to for advice or protection.

Sometimes it was just because of the internal politics of the clan. In his previous life, Nie Li kept his distance from them. They didn't care about him either. In the novel, his counterpart seemed like he had completely forgotten about them. More likely his resentment from the previous life played a role.

But this time he doesn't care about some childish grudges. The safety and the power of the clan are more important. Because they will become his power base in the future.

One of the current leaders is 14-year-old Nie Wen 2 star Bronze rank Demon Spiritualist, grandnephew of the clan patriarch. He is close to the third star but will not reach it by the coming exam one and a half months later. He is very loyal to the clan. In Nie Li's previous life, Nie Wen had never insulted him or protected him for that matter. Ne was mostly neutral as if he was above such pettiness. He was much like the patriarch in that way.

Everyone thought that he would become the new patriarch, but Glory City's destruction put a stop to that. He died protecting the clan against the demon beasts. He was a 4 Star Silver rank demon spiritualist and that wasn't a bad achievement for a person yet not in his twenties. Nie Li wasn't planning to become patriarch, because he will leave for the Draconic Ruins Realm eventually. So leaving the clan in the hands of someone like him would be the best choice.

The second leader he wants to contact is Nie Zexi, granddaughter of a clan Elder. She is in the Inscription patterns apprentice class. She's also 14 and a 2 Star Bronze Rank Demon spiritualist. But unlike Nie Wen, she's only recently achieved her rank and isn't planning to advance into Intermediate classes soon.

Her talent isn't bad but she mostly concentrated on Inscriptions rather than cultivation so she was still 5 star Bronze rank demon spiritualist when she died during the demon beasts' attack.

She isn't a leader per se because she doesn't have any followers, but amongst female students, she's regarded highly. But Nie Li was mostly interested in her skills. Even though her Inscription patterns knowledge is too low right now, with Nie Li's help she may reach unimaginable heights.

An Inscription Patterns master is very valuable for any clan. Because they are a force multiplier. Arrays, scrolls, enchanted armors. All of them are created by

the Inscription Patterns masters. Even in his previous life, with her Bronze rank, she was still a very valuable member of the Heavenly Marks family. Having an Inscriptions Patterns master who could create legend rank inscription scrolls would be very useful.