Real Estate

Nie Li wanted to buy a house and bring his family to the main city, closer to him. But what kind of house he should buy? Considering the need for space for his many plans he couldn't buy a small house. And he had money, so he decided to buy a mansion.

So he contacted the City Hall for information about the mansions on sale. There were many, and some of them belonged to the city, some of them to the private owners. In the end, he chose a mid-sized mansion with a bit of land in the middle ring. It was quite cozy and in a good condition. But the best thing about it was its neighbor, a large old mansion with a large territory. It had belonged to a big aristocratic family before they were wiped out some 70 years ago. Since then, nobody lived there, so the buildings and the territory were in a bad shape.

The first mansion was for Nie Li and his family to live in, and the second he bought for his 'extracurricular' activities after bringing it to a presentable state. Both of the mansions together cost him 8 million. It was a bit cheap for such mansions.

City Hall quickly drew up documents for his new real estate. He avoided most of the bureaucratic problems because of his status as an aristocrat. Any commoner, even if they had money, had to get the patronage of some noble family or the government before buying large property. And his age wasn't a problem either, because adulthood in Glory City was considered to start around 14 years of age.

He left the City Hall after contracting the guards for his properties and taking the addresses of a few construction crews.

He returned to his room. He must prepare the things he wants to give his friends tomorrow before they leave for their hunt. He made some cell phones. They were of the same setup as his. Illusionary interface, holographic display, voice call, and camera. He made them in the form of small bracers for the boys and bracelets for the girls. He also made each of the silver rank enchanted armors and swords.

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During breakfast, Nie Li gave his friends his presents. Showed them how to use the phones and told them to keep in contact with each other in case something dangerous happens. He also asked them to be discreet in using them, because he didn't want everyone to hear about them yet.

Also, each of his friends got 10 superior Soul Assembling Pills and 10 Spiritual Enhancing Pills. Soul Assembling Pill nourishes the soul and cannot be taken too frequently. And Spiritual Enhancing Pill helps to consolidate the soul force stabilizing the foundation. Both of them together can raise his friends' cultivation speed by 20-25 percent. He also told them to take some inscription scrolls from Nie Zexi.

His friends profusely thanked him and promised to send daily reports. Then they told him about their teams. Each of them gathered more than fifteen followers even though many of them haven't even reached the bronze rank. It looks like they deliberately haven't picked older, more powerful candidates. Most likely they didn't want to disrupt the chain of command.

Nie Li wished them good luck and left them to their preparations. They were planning to leave at noon.

And Nie Li had to meet his cousins. Luckily he had a previously agreed meeting with Nie Wen. They had agreed to meet every two days and Nie Li got the reports and gave new orders. But now with the cell phones, it will be even easier.

Nie Wen was awed by the cell phone. But he was most thankful for the pills. Before meeting Nie Li he hoped to gather enough money to buy a single Soul Assembling Pill and reach the third star by the power testing. But now he was already a 4-star Bronze rank demon spiritualist and there were still more than three weeks until the testing.

And it was Nie Li who gave him this chance. Since his childhood, he was raised to be responsible for the family. His grandfather told him about the precarious situation their family was. They had only one Gold rank demon spiritualist. If no one reached that level before his passing their family would lose their Aristocratic status. So he worked hard to live up to those expectations.

But now he wasn't worried much. With his current speed of cultivation, he will reach the Gold rank in a year and a half at most. That is, not including the pills and other resources his cousin was generously gifting him.

And he was immeasurably grateful to his cousin for all this opportunity. This mysterious cousin of his, whose cultivation level he didn't know, but decided to follow. He was the future of their clan.

"Nie Li," he said remembering another family matter, "several of our older clansmen from intermediate and senior classes were also asking about joining us. Some of our group may have leaked some things to them.

"That was expected. Some of them have close family members among them, brothers, and sisters. But still, talk to them about confidentiality again. I don't want the information to leak outside." Nie Li said, "And I'm not averse to the idea of hiring them. I have bought some property recently and am in need of some guards and caretakers."

"Okay, I will talk to them. There may be some silver rank fighters. And their needs are a bit higher." Nie Wen warned him.

"I think I can afford them. And please gather our current group in the evening for a meeting. Our meeting is a bit overdue."

"Okay," Nie Wen said.

"Until the evening then," Nie Li said his farewells and left. He had another meeting now.

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When he reached the Nie Zexi's private inscriptions chamber he was surprised to see Ye Ziyun was also there. She was discussing some things with Nie Zexi.

"Good day girls. How was your day?"

"Oh, Nie Li," said Ziyun after a slight surprise. "Good, thank you. How are you yourself?" It had been a long time since he had seen her alone without Xiao Ning'er.

"Thank you Nie Li. Shouldn't you come tomorrow? Or was it today?" Nie Zexi asked. She was referring to their agreement about the day Nie Li took the inscription scrolls she prepared and gave the resources and payment.

"No. It's tomorrow. I'm here for another reason. But Du Ze would come to take some scrolls later. Give him the scrolls you prepared. They are leaving for a hunt today. Here's your payment," he passed her a storage card.

"Du Ze, is he the tall and serious one?" she asked Nie Li. She was not a people person so she didn't know the names of many of Nie Li's friends.

After seeing Nie Li nod she continued inspecting the storage card.

"So where is Xiao Ning'er? You were always together." Nie Li asked Ye Ziyun.

"I'm going to meet her today. I wanted to discuss some things with sister Zexi."

"Oh sweet." They were interrupted by Nie Zexi. "You found the blood of the Steel Clawed Mantis. I knew I could rely on you," she exclaimed inspecting a bottle in her hand.

"It wasn't me who found it. I asked Nie Wen to tell the guys to look for it. They found it."

"I will thank them when I see them," she said dismissively and cradling the bottle in her hands continued, "I am going to make so many things with this."

"Good, I have another thing for you," he said and took out a phone bracelet.

"Oh, Nie Li you shouldn't have." She said looking at the bracelet. "I knew you had such feelings towards me, but we're relatives."

"You break my heart. I so wanted to keep it in the family," Nie Li answered in a deadpan tone.

"Oh, poor Nie Li!" she said with fake sympathy. Meanwhile, Ye Ziyun was looking at them scandalized.

"So what does it do?" Nie Zexi asked suddenly changing her mood. She knew that Nie Li could make enchantments and artifacts. So if Nie Li was giving her jewelry, it wouldn't be an ordinary one.

"It's a long-distance communication device. Right now, only me, Nie Wen, and my friends have it. But in the future there would more users," he explained and turning to Ye Ziyun said, "Yours are ready too. If I had known you would be here I would have brought them. But if we can meet later I can give you and Xiao Ning'er yours." He actually had them on his person but decided to get a date out of her.

"It's not necessary. We don't need them," she said as if noticing his not-so pure thoughts.

"You haven't even seen how they work," Nie Li refuted her.

And then showed the girls how to use the cell phones. The cameras and holographic calls were the things that excited the girls most. And both of them started to ask how did it all work. Nie Li explained as much as he could, but the girls' Inscriptions patterns knowledge wasn't enough to understand everything. By the end of the discussion, Ye Ziyun was looking at the bracelet with longing. There was a reason why smartphones were so popular in Robert's world.

Then Nie Li passed Nie Zexi a bottle of pills he prepared for her.

"Thank you Nie Li. But you don't have to provide me with the pills also. I can buy them myself now," Nie Zexi said. She had made more than 100 thousand in the last month since she had begun working for her cousin. He had already helped her so much. And she didn't want to rip him off.

"Don't worry, I got a discount with the Alchemy Association. And these are not very useful to me with my cultivation method." He already got an overwhelming amount of soul force energy through his Cultivating Tent so adding another source may really damage his foundation.

"Okay then. Thank you."