37 You are a genius.
When he returned to his dorm Du Ze was waiting for him.
"Nie Li, your cousin, Nie Zexi was looking for you. She left this," said Du Ze and showed him the Charger Cube. "She said she will be in her private Inscription Room."
"Okay," said Nie Li taking the Cube. "By the way Du Ze, I want to talk to you and guys about something later. If you have time let's meet in my room in the evening"
Du Ze agreed and left. His friends' rooms weren't far from his so he would call them when he is finished with his daily chores.
Right now he must deal with charging the Charger Cube. He must really do something about it. It's going to get annoying to recharge it every five or six days. Maybe he should charge it with a gold rank demon spirit. That would allow it to work for at least two months in one charge. But he didn't have one right now. He had only one silver rank demon spirit with him. The one he had taken from the leader of the Giant Blue Armed Apes. So he charged the cube with it. In spite of this, he still has to visit the market later today.
Then he visited Nie Zexi. After greeting him she asked about the expedition. He told her a redacted version of her adventures because she didn't need to know some things. Then questions lead to the girls.
"So you went into adventuring with Ye Ziyun and Xiao Ning'er," she said scrutinizing him.
"Yes. Did you know that those two were going to the expedition?" he asked. It looks like she knew about the expedition more than he expected.
"Of course, they told me about it themselves before leaving," she replied. "So I will ask directly. Which one of them do you like?"
"Both of them," after some pause he answered. Even though he confessed to the girls themselves, he didn't want to spread it around either. Because he wasn't strong enough yet. But he could trust Nie Zexi. She would not gossip about it.
"I said it before, but say it again. You are ambitious. And I hope you know what you are doing," she said to him seriously.
"I know."
"Good. I don't want you to get squashed to death by City Lord or Lord Ye Mo or the Sacred family. If you die, there would be no one to charge my Cube."
"Thank you for worrying about my wellbeing," he said rolling his eyes.
"You're welcome. Now, do you have any new Inscription pattern designs for me?"
They talked a bit more before Nie Li left. He had to visit the market before sunset.
Most of the things he took from the Ancient Orchid Ruins were materials for his use or were too expensive to sell in the market. He was able to choose some gems that he sold in different shops for over a million total. He also sold all of the Silver rank scrolls Nie Zexi prepared for almost 500 thousand. He bought a couple of Gold rank demon spirits for 200 thousand. In the end, he was left with a sum of a bit below 1.5 million demon spirit coins. That should be enough for him before his big sources of income start rolling.
He returned to his dorm and called Du Ze. He had bought a takeout food and some wine on the way. They have some serious matters to discuss. He prepared the table placing the food and wine on the table. When his friends came everything was ready.
"Oh, what's the occasion?" Lu Piao asked quickly sitting down. Even though they were exasperated by Lu Piao's behavior, others were curious as well.
"We are going to have a long and serious discussion," Nie Li said and activated the privacy arrays he had placed in his room weeks ago. Every surface of his room briefly shined with some inscription patterns and returned to normal.
"What was that?" Wei Nan asked curiously. Even though he, Zhu Xiangjun, and Zhang Ming were friends with Nie Li, They weren't close to him as Du Ze and Lu Piao.
"Privacy arrays. I am going to share some very sensitive information so I don't want anyone to overhear it," Nie Li explained.
"Oh," Du Ze became serious. If Nie Li was resorting to such methods to hide secrets then it must be very serious.
They sat down and Nie Li started his tale.
"What do you know about the Dark Guild?" He began with a question.
"Umm, traitors to humanity?" Du Ze said.
"They want to kill all humans. Some say that they can control demons" Lu Piao added. The other three agreed with them. The Dark guild had been a boogeyman for the Citizens of Glory City for so long that this was a common opinion about them.
"No, they are not traitors to humanity. They just hate Glory City and want to destroy it," Nie Li said.
"What's the difference? If the City is destroyed all humans will die," said Zhang Ming.
"Not necessarily. Even if Glory City will be destroyed other human settlements around the world will survive."
"Other settlements? Do you think that there are other human survivors out there?" Du Ze asked.
"Certainly. We have never left the St. Ancestral Mountain Ridge. How can we say we are the only survivors?" replied Nie Li making his friends ponder about it.
"But that's a matter for another day. The Dark Guild is what I wanted to talk about."
"So what do you want to tell us?" Du Ze asked.
"My sources clearly indicate that there is some kind of connection between the Dark Guild and the Sacred family. I can't tell you much right now for safety reasons and but I can confirm that it has been going for a long time."
All his friends became silent. If that's true, the implications were simply unimaginable. One of the founding families of the City, one of its pillars betraying Glory City. They couldn't imagine it. Of course, the Sacred family being up to no good wasn't surprising. But colluding with the Dark Guild was going too far even for them. If anyone else told them this, they wouldn't have believed them. But they trusted Nie Li not to lie to them on such an important matter.
"Are you sure?" Du Ze asked. Others were still dumbfounded.
"Yes, my source has been reliable thus far," Nie said.
"So what do we do? Inform City Guards, City Lord's Mansion?" Lu Piao questioned.
"What are we going to say to them? We have no proof. Even if we had proof, how can we say that the Sacred family won't learn about it? They are a major family, unofficially the second strongest family in the city. You know what the consequences will be for us and our families," said Nie Li making everyone blanch.
"And let's say that we somehow succeeded in exposing the Sacred family and other major forces began acting against them. What will be their response? All-out fight to the death, setting off some plans they concocted with the Dark Guild? We don't even know if they are the only ones collaborating with the Dark Guild."
"We don't even know how deep is the cooperation between the Sacred Family and the Dark Guild. We know almost nothing." Nie Li finished leaving his friends in deep contemplation.
After some time Du Ze was the one who asked, "So what are we going to do? You must have some plans since you invited us for a private talk."
"Yes, I do." Nie Li did not deny it, "We need to create our own forces."
"Forces?" Zhu Xiangjun asked in confusion. That was not what they expected.
"Yes," Nie Li nodded. "Every major power in the city has its own army. Army and spies. But that's for another time. While we are small right now, we are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Why not create our armed forces today, especially considering we may really need it in the near future."
"Are you sure we are going to be that strong in the future?" Lu Piao asked making everyone look at him incredulously.
"What?" he asked confused.
Nie Li sighed and asked, "Have you ever calculated how long it will take you to reach let's say Black gold rank with your current speed of cultivation?"
"Nah, I would be glad if I reach the Silver rank. Then my father will stop pestering me."
This time everyone sighed.
"Shen Yue, so-called genius of the Sacred family hasn't reached the Bronze rank yet. And what's your soul force right now?" Nie Li asked his lazy friend.
"It was 143 when I checked today," he said proudly. "And what's yours?"
"Above that," said Nie Li. "The matter is you are a 'genius' now. The current patriarchs of the major families were geniuses like Shen Yue in their youth. So you have every opportunity to surpass them. Of course, you must work harder because you must be behind everyone right now."
"What?" he shouted and looked at others.
"Only slightly. Mine is 154," said Wei Nan.
"161", "152" added Zhang Ming and Zhu XianJun making Lu Piao depressed.
