Chapter 111: Desolate Era 4

Carl's walk through Firebird City ended at a mountain behind his clan grounds. As the ruler of the city and the Prefecture, he had a very large plot of land inside the city that included an enormous forest, rivers, a lake and several mountains. They weren't nearly as tall as the mountains in the Swallow Mountain Range, but they were still quite large.

Pausing at the foot of the mountain, Carl admired the large paifang gate that was built at the start of the path of stairs that led up the mountain. There were eight guards stationed at the gate; and just inside the gate was a barracks that housed another few dozen guards.

"Lord Summoner." The leader of the guards spotted Carl approaching and gave a respectful salute and greeting.

"Greetings. Pass the word to the Divine Clan leaders that I'm here for our meeting." Carl immediately recognized the guard he spoke to as a member of the Snake Summoning Clan that had advanced to the Zifu realm and gained a human form. Alongside him were members from the Gecko, Rabbit, Dog, Finch, Sea Gull, Eel, and Salmon clans.

"They've sent word ahead that you should pass through the moment you show up, Lord Summoner." The Snake Clan member immediately stated as he bowed Carl past the gates.

"Very well, thank you for your hard work." Carl nodded as he made his way up the stairs.

It was always interesting to see the combination of guards from the Clans that owed fealty to the four Divine Summoning Clans. Even after nearly a year of interacting with the summoning clans that had evolved their human form, he hadn't been able to meet and spend time with all the subordinate clans yet. Two guards from each of the Divine Summoning Clans' subordinate clans always manned the gates, so it was interesting to see them as he passed through on his way to meet with their leaders.

The Divine Azure Dragon Clan had sovereignty over basically all the reptiles, or any clan with a hint of dragon blood in them. For example, the myth of the carp that jumped over the Dragon Gate and turned into a dragon. It was more a guide of how someone with the smallest link to a Dragon lineage could purify their bloodline through hard work and effort to eventually evolve into a Dragon themselves.

The Divine Vermillion Bird Clan naturally had sovereignty over all kinds of birds.

The Divine White Tiger Clan had sovereignty over all the beasts that traveled on land.

The Divine Black Tortoise Clan had sovereignty over the amphibians and other aquatic life.

Carl took his time climbing up the stairs, as he usually did, in order to enjoy the scenery. The stairs weren't a straight shot up the mountain, but took a nice meandering path that allowed him to view the different fog shrouded valleys, vistas of the lake, and climb through a deep forest that was the very essence of tranquility.

At the top of the mountain, Carl once more admired the town that had been built for the summoning clans to operate from in the Prefecture. Several months ago, after Carl had met with his Kages and organized the uplift of his Prefecture, he had met with the four Divine Summoning Clans and brought them and a large group of their subordinates into the Time Pearl for a training session.

"Lord Summoner! Greetings!"

"You're looking good, Lord Summoner!"

"Ah, another drinking session, huh, Lord Summoner?"

Carl greeted the various members of the summoning clans that were going about their business with a smile on his face, amused at some of their antics. Because he'd become the contracted summoner of all four Divine Clans, and because he was the Lord of the Prefecture, the various summoning clan members had taken to calling him the Lord Summoner.

At arriving at the most fortified building in the small town, the guards ushered him inside without delay. After passing through several checkpoints and sets of guards, Carl arrived at the portal room. He had set up a portal between this position on the mountain in his Prefecture and the main square in between the four Divine Summoning Clan's lands inside his Hunting/Grazing Grounds.

All the different lands that had come with the various people from the Naruto world were still there in his Hunting/Grazing Grounds. But with the Summoning Clans Carl felt it would be safer for them if they remained inside their lands and had a portal to come and go from the world of the Grand Xia. This was a world where hunting advanced beasts for their energy core, or bones, meat, or any other resources they could give was a normal pastime.

Carl didn't want the humans of this world to start hunting down his Summoning Clans, so he figured they would be safer if they remained in their clan lands attached to his warehouse. And in order for them to not feel cooped up inside, he had built a portal with his Mage powers from Azeroth so they would be free to come and go as they pleased.

Since he had built the portal, Carl could easily teleport into their lands any time he wanted. Not to mention they were located in an addition to his Warehouse, he obviously had access anytime he wanted. But he felt it was a better method of giving respect to them if he didn't simply pop straight into their home anytime he wanted. A leader really needed to respect and give honor to his subordinates if he wanted said subordinates to respect and give honor back.

Stepping through the portal, Carl saw in front of him the enormous building where meetings between the four Divine Clans were usually held. Due to the nature of the Summoning Clan's physiques, and how they grew to enormous sizes, their meeting buildings naturally had to be equally large.

"Lord Summoner." A guard of two each of enormous Tigers, Turtles, Birds, and Dragons greeted Carl upon his arrival.

"Hello, everyone." Carl returned a nod to their bows. "Are they already inside?"

"Yes, Lord Summoner." One of the Tigers agreed, doing the cat equivalent of a laugh. "They've already started without you."

"Bunch impatient old coots!" Carl muttered as he passed through the guards with a smile. "They never wait for me!"

"Carl! Where's your beer? I want a mug full!" The Azure Dragon roared.

"Finally here, you slow poke!" The Black Tortoise chuffed.

"Have you brought the snacks?" The Vermillion Bird queried.

"What about the Barbecue?" The White Tiger complained.

"I even came here early this time! I dunno why you all love to get started without me. If so, tell me when you're getting the party started and I'll join you then!" Carl glared at the table full of chibi versions of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

Obviously the four leaders of the Divine Clans weren't going to call him 'Lord Summoner' like all their subordinates did; and Carl wasn't upset about that. It was the fact that they had already finished off all the various snacks that they were supposed to bring and were now badgering him to bring out his snacks so they could eat it all that annoyed him.

'Bunch of damned greedy gluttons!' Carl cursed them in his mind but went ahead and brought out platters of food from his pocket dimension. Setting the huge platters that were piled eight feet tall with piles of delicious food, Carl didn't stand on ceremony and began grabbing food to stuff his face with, while pouring mugs of his "beer", Root Beer specifically, with the other hand.

The four chibi animals didn't stand on ceremony either and piles of various snacks made out of meats, breads, nuts, and other delicious things began floating off the platters to disappear into the mouths of the four leaders. Carl then floated mug after mug of his delicious Root Beer to them for them to enjoy.

Now that the four Divine Clan leaders were cultivating in the style of the Desolate Era world, even though they were already at the Zifu realm and couldn't yet turn into a human form, they could at least control the size of their beast bodies. They found that they enjoyed the feasts a great deal more when they were practically the size of each of the delectable morsels. So much easier to savor and enjoy the food when it was the same size they were.

Of course the greedy gluttons still ate as much as if they were still in their tens of meters tall Kaiju forms.

As the banter flowed between them during the feast, Carl idly wondered if they would be able to shift to a human form when they attained the Wanxiang Adept or Primal Daoist level. The more 'noble' and powerful their bloodline, the higher level the beast had to be in order to attain a human form.

A really weak bloodline creature could attain a human form at the Xiantian Lifeform level. While a more powerful bloodline might have to even wait until the Earth Immortal / Void God stage to attain their human form.

After some time, the food was all eaten up and Carl was treated to the sight of four chibi Divine Beasts that had stomachs as round as a ball, lying on their backs on the table. Yes, even the Tortoise had a rounded stomach, somehow.

"Ah, these feasts are always so fun." Carl laconically stated as he patted his own basketball sized round belly. Of course he was going to eat as much as he could! He wasn't going to let the others win, was he?

Buuuurp!

Everyone looked at the Vermillion Bird in amusement while she blushed and pretended nothing had happened. "Yes! It's time for the meeting to start."

"Fine."

"Okay, then."

"Sure."

Suddenly all five of their stomachs were normal shaped again. Carl cast a cleaning spell on the table while putting the empty platters into his storage space once more. Floating four mugs of Root Beer in front of everyone to sip on, Carl began the meeting.

"It's been a month since we last met. And I've been impressed by everything your clans have accomplished." Carl began. He naturally received reports and memories from his blood clones, but once a month he made sure to have this meeting in person. "Is there anything to report about your territories for the last month's activity?"

In order to expand their territory, the four Divine Clans had been sending their subordinates to conquer territory in the depths of the Swallow Mountain Range. The Kages that owed fealty to Carl were taking charge of the Human territory in his Prefecture, but there were vast lands in the mountain range that had all kinds of resources that were untapped.

While some of the mountain range was technically part of Carl's lands, in reality they were ungovernable by humans. At least by any organizations that were as strong as the "superpowers" of the Swallow Mountain Region.

When the four Divine Clans first did a survey, they discovered that there was a late stage Wanxiang Adept beast making his territory on Swallow Mountain itself. If any human organizations tried to take over territory of the mountain range, then a coordinated attack by powerful beasts would destroy them, before going back to their territories.

In order to gain control of the mountain range and the resources there, the Divine Clans had been moving in and displacing, killing, or subordinating the local beasts to them.

"My clans have taken over another five valleys in the south." The Vermillion Bird proudly stated. "There is a deposit of Kalestone that can be used to create storage rings for sale. Not to mention a grove of Voggo Nut trees that can be harvested for pill ingredients and an Eskyx mine that will be useful in creating sharper weapons."

"Hmph. Only five? My clans have taken over six valleys in the west." The White Tiger bragged. "We found a meadow of Fire Leafs and opposite them a field of Arctic Grass. Not only that, but there's a deposit of Thiathil ore that can be used to create pre-made formations!"

"My clans only took over four valleys in the North." The Black Tortoise lamented. "One of those valleys was absolutely littered with Astmbite gems." His last sentence gave lie to his attempt to be humble. The Astmbite gems were a key ingredient in creating Earth ranked treasures that were usually only used by Wanxiang Adepts and Primal Daoists.

The Astmbite gems were a far more valuable treasure than all the resources found by the Vermillion Bird and the White Tiger combined, since they were only used for making Mortal ranked treasures.

"My clans managed to take over only eight valleys in the east." The Azure Dragon stated in a smug tone that clearly said he thought he won. "I won't even mention the Mortal or Earth level resources we've found, since they would pale in the face of the Emerald Boxwood trees we found."

From the growling sounds of the other three Divine Beasts, it was clear that the Heaven Ranked resource that the Azure Dragon had found won the unofficial contest this time around. Much to the annoyance and renewed determination of the three to have their clans work harder to surpass the dragons next time.

They spent a bit longer talking about their plans and targets for future expansion into the Swallow Mountain Range. But once that was done, the meeting was almost over.

"You've all worked hard and done amazing things. I'm very impressed!" Carl stood and cheered all four Divine Beasts, and then raised a cup of Root Beer high in a toasting position. "Cheers to all your endeavors; both past successes and future triumphs!"

"Cheers!" The four Divine Beasts joined in and raised their own mugs of Root Beer before all five of them downed the mugs.

After the toast, the White Tiger turned to Carl. "Come now, don't hold back on us, Carl. You've got more snacks, right?"

"Yeah! Bring it out, I'm still hungry!" The Black Tortoise immediately agreed.

"Don't be stingy with us, Carl!" The Azure Dragon added fuel to the fire.

"It's not good to leave a Lady hungry after a meal, young Carl." The Vermillion Bird chimed in.

Carl knew that if he was in an anime universe he would have black lines covering his forehead at their "persuasions", due to his frustration at their attitudes.

"Of course I wouldn't hold out on you gluttons…er, I meant to say, Divine Gluttons." Carl finally agreed and pulled out more food he had stored up, which caused the four Divine Beasts to jeer at him knowingly. It didn't stop them from moving as fast as they could to eat the food, with Carl joining in. Over the past several years in the Time Pearl he had gotten used to their casual attitudes away from their subordinates.

Carl spent a few more hours playing different board games and devouring food with the four Divine Beasts before the day's end.

A couple of days later, Carl had just arrived at his office door in the Prefectural Lord's Keep when he noticed Hilda was waiting for him. Like most of the Silver Flight Dragons she had resumed her Night Elf form after waking up in the new world. Aside from their original Dragon forms, there was just something so much more comfortable about being in the forms they knew from their "first life" back on Azeroth.

"Morning." Carl greeted her and shifted to his own Night Elf form between steps. His robes shifted with him to accommodate his much taller form. Since his armor from the Jumpchain could be shifted into whatever he wanted, he never actually wore anything else. A few cleaning charms, a mental prod to his armor to shift into whatever he wanted, and he was good to attend any function, dressed however he wished to present himself.

"Good Morning, Flight Leader." Carl smiled at her calling him that title, even if his identity was a bit more diverse lately.

As they settled into their seats at a table in his office, a servant entered with the usual teas and snacks. By this point in time, nearly a year after many people in his prefecture had woken their past-life memories, the servants around him were used to seeing him in all his different forms and barely blinked twice.

Once they both had their mugs of choice and settled down, Carl turned to Hilda with a questioning look in his eyes. This wasn't one of their normally scheduled meetings to cover the state of the Prefecture, so he was curious about what she was bringing to his attention.

"Ever since we arrived in this world, you warned us of the high likelihood of there being at least a local tribe and a clan that have decided you were their enemy." Hilda began, getting a nod of acknowledgment from Carl.

If he couldn't use his people to hunt down the problems that the Drawbacks would bring him, what else would he do? Run around and do the investigating all by himself? Ridiculous! And it wasn't like there was ever an oath or promise of secrecy he was bound to concerning anything to do with the Jumpchain. It just made sense to have more eyes looking out for him.

"We've discovered evidence of four tribes in the Prefecture and one clan in Firebird City that match the criteria of actively working against you. And they even have the desire to assassinate you if they can, Flight Leader." Hilda explained as she entered a few commands into her tablet. Carl's email notification beeped in his ear, indicating that he had received the information she sent him.

"One moment while I look over these, then." Carl replied, already bringing up the documents.

Carl swiftly read through the packets of information. The first group of concern was the Wanhui Clan. They were a new clan that moved into Firebird City only a few years ago. They claimed they were from a land further north, and that they were moving into Carl's territory to expand their business options.

But a more detailed investigation by his Ninja Cultivators revealed that they had once lived and operated inside Snowdragon Mountain's territory. That in itself wasn't very incriminating. It could easily be explained away by claiming they left behind enemies inside Snowdragon Mountain's territory that they were trying to hide from.

In Carl's opinion it was a very weak excuse. If they were actually running from enemies, they would have likely arrived in his territory much the worse for wear after being reduced to running for their lives. And it didn't make sense to relocate to his territory that was so close to their enemies. It would just make it too easy for their enemies to find them. If they were really on the run from enemies, they would have likely ran much further away.

But it was the report of their dealings with four of the tribes around Carl's Prefecture that really put the nail in the coffin. The Yanhui Tribe, Leimen Tribe, Heigong Tribe, and Dujiao Tribe had all suddenly received an influx of gold, cultivation resources, weapons, and armor that was far above their abilities to earn normally and legally.

With the increase of their power, those four tribes had suddenly begun to attack their neighbors and expand their territories. They began making slaves of the men and forcing the women from the surrounding tribes to be their concubines in order to "keep the peace" with them. As if they were the overlords of the area, giving Carl no face as the Prefecture Lord.

Aside from the four tribes glorifying in their suddenly acquired power over their neighbors, there were also many caravans of trade goods that mysteriously vanished near their lands. And like magic, a few weeks later the tribes in question were suddenly reported to be selling the very goods that went missing along with the caravans.

'Well, now. Isn't that interesting.' Carl thought as he sat back after reading the reports. The Tribal Rivals drawback stated that he would have one tribe to deal with, and the City Clan drawback stated that he would have one clan to deal with. But now there was a clan that was apparently a plant from the Snowdragon Mountain that was doing all it could to stir up trouble and chaos in Carl's territory.

'I feel like I should be getting 300 more CP for dealing with the extra tribes that this Wanhui Clan is instigating.' Carl thought with disgruntlement. 'And I'm not even guaranteed that the tribe in question that the drawback is sending my way is one of these four, even though all four have a Xiantian Lifeform among them, just like the Drawback detailed. And I won't be able to leave this world until I "resolve" them. Well, that's what I have Ninja Cultivators for, to keep an eye on things.'

"So." Carl began speaking his thought out loud for himself and Hilda. "We have a clan of spies sent by Snowdragon Mountain a couple years before we 'arrived' here. No doubt they've been sending intel back to their organization about everything we've been doing over the past year. It's good that they don't have access to anything truly interesting. Mostly it's just information about us doing reconstruction and a bit of uplifting of the masses.

"The higher level cultivators of Snowdragon Mountain will no doubt see as us being weak-willed and softhearted marks due to caring about our people that aren't cultivators. They will likely believe we are wide-open to attack and takeover by them, not having the fortitude to resist them due to our 'weaknesses'."

"I suspect that we'll be getting an influx of 'refugees' soon, Flight Leader." Hilda added. "They'll think they can insert any number of spies and soldiers into our midst in preparation for attack, and as long as they have a heart-rending back-story we'll accept them with open arms."

"Good point." Carl agreed. "We can't simply trust that the spies we know about from Snowdragon Mountain are the only ones here, or will ever be sent here. Cultivators already have the mindset of Stubborn with a capital 'S'. There's no way they'll give up even if we catch all their current batch of spies. So…give me some options on what to do with the clan of spies and tribes of bandits they instigated?"

"The most straightforward way is to simply arrest them all and imprison, execute, or enslave all the culprits." Hilda began listing off options. "The most round-a-bout method is to equip and empower the tribes around the four bandit tribes and let them do the work with some instigation of our own. Meanwhile in Firebird City we encourage the other clans that live here to begin tearing apart the Wanhui Clan."

"Hmm." Carl sat in thought for a few moments. "If we simply eliminate them, no matter the method, Snowdragon Mountain will lose their informant and will look for other methods of inserting spies in our midst. Furthermore, it will alert them to the fact that we know about them. How about this, then? We do as you said for the four bandit tribes. We'll equip and empower the tribes around them to be able to take them down.

"Meanwhile we organize a team of Ninja Cultivators to secretly enslave the Wanhui Clan so that they become our channel of sending misinformation to Snowdragon Mountain. With that in place we'll be able to set up a couple of big traps that, with the right bait, Snowdragon Mountain will happily jump into. Then we can take action against them with the 'moral high ground' so the other organizations around us won't think we're overly militaristic. While they may raise their guard against us, they won't automatically think we're someone they need to take action against."

From the stories he'd read before entering the Jumpchain, Carl already had the assumption that things in a cultivation world would always snowball into something bigger. A clan finally manages to finish off their lifelong rival clan? They'll find that there was a backer to that clan! And then they either have to get strong enough to take the backer down, or they would suffer destruction as a result.

His time in the Against The Gods world didn't at all dissuade him from that expectation either. If anything it was reinforced, seeing as how Carl had to deal with the big organization ladder all the way to the top in order to get some peace established without his own people being trampled on.

It was just his silly mistake in thinking that he could pass by these 30 years in the isolation of his own prefecture, content with what he gained from his CP purchases. After all, it wasn't like he was greedy to take in as much land as he could conquer, right?

He had simply been so focused on spending the time consolidating his gains and waiting for the end of the 15th world that would give him some promised prize that he had ignored just how belligerently aggressive the Snowdragon Mountain organization was.

If he had truly considered it properly, he would have added the two Snowdragon drawbacks which would have netted him an additional 400 points. Being put in the Swallow Mountain Region already assured him of butting heads with Snowdragon Mountain, might as well get some CP out of it, right?

'Ah, well. It's not like 400 CP is going to make or break me.' Carl mused and dismissed the faint regret. He did what he wanted and felt was proper at the time, no need to worry so much about it.

"I do believe that would work, Flight Leader." Hilda agreed after thinking about it for a bit. "I just need to make some preparations and request the services of certain skilled operators from…"

Over the next hour they continued to discuss the plan in detail, determining which of their people would be best employed in each part of the plan. They outlined the timeframe for starting the operation, as well as when to dangle the bait in front of Snowdragon Mountain for maximum effect. Finally they set an end date for finishing up the operations, barring drastic changes to the situation.

It was kind of fun planning out the fall of a large organization like that, now that Carl had someone to play the game of Risk with.

A day later Carl was spending time in the practice yard, doing some moving meditation while swinging his sword in the katas he had learned over the years. Rather than sitting still in the lotus position, he was freeing his mind to ponder the Dao while letting his body swing the swords in the long-memorized moves.

Many years ago in the ATG world he had gained access to the Evil God Veins and the Evil God Seeds that gave him perfect compatibility with certain elements. Fire and Water were the Seeds that he purchased with CP, making him immune to those elements and having a perfect control over them. Lightning and Darkness were two more Seeds that he managed to grab inside the world itself.

But despite his perfect control over the elements of Fire and Water from the ATG world, he found that he still needed to study the Water and Fire Daos in the Desolate Era world. There was quite a bit of difference between the two worlds and their cultivation systems.

In the ATG world, they seemed to focus on simply gathering energy and powering up to the next level. While in the DE world, there was a much stronger focus on understanding the Dao. Past a certain level, one simply couldn't cultivate any further if they weren't able to comprehend the Dao.

So in the Grand Tradition of the Desolate Era World, Carl had been partaking in all the Traditional Main Character Activities. He had been learning the Tea Ceremony. He had been practicing his Calligraphy. He had been Painting. He had been practicing the Zither. He had been playing Go. And most importantly, he had been swinging his Sword; practicing all the new moves and techniques he had available in the current world.

The Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens had started him on the path of Fire and Water Daos in this world, so Carl was spending a lot of his time while swinging his sword to ponder on how to incorporate his understanding of Water and Fire into his sword skills.

At the very top of this Chaos World's Daos were the 10 Heavenly Daos. The Heavenly Dao of Fire and the Heavenly Dao of Water were among them. Under them were 81 Grand Daos. And there were 108,000 Lesser Daos.

Carl suspected that the numbers stating how many Grand Daos and Lesser Daos there were was symbolic, rather than representing an actual fixed number. It was like saying there were 3000 major worlds in the Three Realms. There probably weren't exactly and only 3000 major worlds. It was more of a literary turn of phrase to indicate just how large the Three Realms were.

The number was an indication of just how numerous the Lesser Daos were. And that those Lesser Daos combined and built up into the Grand Daos, which in turn made up the Heavenly Daos.

So with that in mind, Carl was searching to find inspiration in the Lesser Daos. The aspects of Fire and Water that he could incorporate into his swordsmanship.

Water and Cold, Fire and Heat, Yin and Yang. Those concepts were linked together in his mind.

What were some of the aspects of Water and Cold that he could incorporate into his sword skills?

Sometimes the cold was a piercing sensation that drove right through layers of clothes, to chill one to the bone.

If someone was out in the cold for too long, they began to feel sleepy as their body temperature dropped. Even just being in cold water could suck the heat right from one's body.

The cold could numb people to sensation; but even a little bit of warmth felt in that situation felt burning hot.

Fire consumed fuel to burn. Fire and Heat burned, melted, boiled, and excited molecules.

Fire produced poisonous smoke that could snuff a life out.

As Carl continued to swing his sword, he started applying different concepts into his sword.

Ice could be a hard substance to chip through. Carl began applying that idea to his blocking techniques. No matter how hard or forceful the enemy's attack, it only chipped a little bit of the ice off at a time, wasting much more of the attacker's energy for little gain.

Sword strikes with the concept of Piercing Cold that drove right through any defensive layers for maximum penetration.

Ice filled strikes that even if blocked by the enemy, will numb their arms and slow their reflexes.

Fire concepts imbued in his sword strikes that excited the very molecules around it, causing the air to become excited and easily move out of the way of the swing, enhancing the sword strike's speed.

Blocks or attacks that when landing on an enemy's weapon, imbue it with heat that damages and weakens the material of the weapon, driving it to the melting or burning point.

Watery mist or heat mirages imbued into his sword strikes that make it nearly impossible for the enemy to accurately judge the angle of the attack.

When Carl finally came to a rest and looked around at his practice yard, a wry smile found its way to his face at seeing the mess he made. Puddles of water were everywhere; there blocks of ice, burned stone, and ashes from burnt wooden practice dummies liberally strewn about.

'Well, good thing I've got magic to make the cleanup a cinch.' Carl chuckled as he waved his hand to clean and repair his practice yard. 'But I'll be damned if this cultivation magic isn't fun to play with.'

"So, what are we doing here anyway?" Carl asked the blonde girl that was excitedly pulling him along by his arm.

"It's the First Annual DOTA Championship! Of course I wanted to attend, and you're coming with me!" Naruko exclaimed while beaming up at him. "Now, no more complaining. I'm going to enjoy this, and you're not going to ruin it for me."

"Okay…" Carl bemusedly said as he looked over the stadium while taking his seat. He really hadn't been complaining, but Naruko had decided to make this outing a 'surprise', so he was curious about just what was going on here.

'And a DOTA Championship? Is this really going to be a Defense of the Ancients gameplay tournament?' Carl was now curious to see if someone really did create what he thought they did.

"So, when did you get into this DOTA thing?" Carl asked.

"When was it? Maybe a few months after we came to this world? Yeah, that's about right. It was just when the VR units were being installed in the Internet Cafes. I went to try one out at the café and ran into that Sasuke guy from back in our world. Only, he was calling himself Dewey Bullock now. Strange."

"Yeah. Weird." Carl deadpanned, which went right over Naruko's head. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know Dewey's back-story though, so it was no wonder. He was just surprised that Dewey actually pledged allegiance to him before the world ended. With the attitude the guy had back then, he wouldn't have been surprised if he had died in the old world instead of joining him.

'Guess you never can discount someone until they actually jump left or right.'

"Anyway, he invited me to hang out and try the game, and I loved it! It was such an exciting game! You get to kill monsters and people as much as you like, without actually killing anyone! So when they decided to hold a tournament, I knew I just had to watch it, since I was too late to try out for the tournament, and I didn't have a team anyway."

"Has anyone else we know tried the game?" Carl asked, wondering how this DOTA thing totally flew under the radar so he wasn't even aware of it. Maybe if it looked fun he could start playing the game with Naruko and his other friends.

"Nah. No one else even wants to try it out." Naruko pouted at the unwillingness of her friends to play a game with her.

"Did you show them videos of it, or just explain it to them?" Carl asked.

"Uh…I told them about it?"

"Maybe if we show them a video of the gameplay they might want to try it." Carl suggested, knowing that when Naruko got a bit too excited about something, her words tended to get garbled as she tried to pour out all her ideas and words at once. So they probably were confused about what she was trying to say, and just went about their own business.

Just then the crowd surged to their feet and a huge cheer exploded across the stadium. Getting to his own feet, or rather being dragged up by an excitedly yelling Naruko, Carl saw that the huge screens had begun playing clips from previous games along with the banner "Are you ready to DOTA?!"

Carl subtracted points for lame punch-lines, but had to give them props for the excellent clips they were showing. Until that moment he couldn't get the old DOTA style League of Legends game out of his mind. The idea of watching 10 people sitting at computers and mashing buttons in that old style of game when they could be better spending their time cultivating in a world with magic swords, spells, and other such amazing things was odd to him.

But seeing the clips of the actual Virtual Reality game, even Carl was getting kind of excited to watch the championship match.

Because the game was played in Virtual Reality, the action was very realistic and each player had a camera following their actions. The player would inhabit the body of whatever character they chose and go fight personally, instead of mashing buttons behind a computer.

In addition to that, the game wasn't a straight port from the old computer game to the VR modules. There were a lot of things added to it from their current cultivation world to give it spice.

They could purchase formation flags from the store and set up a formation trap along the paths the spawned mobs would travel in order trap players and mobs and carry out a grand massacre.

They could run all throughout the forests for shortcuts or to ambush someone, but there were beasts that lived there waiting to ambush and take out the unwary. It brought a whole new meaning to the game term "jungling", seeing someone creeping through the dark and ancient forest, only to be ambushed and wrapped up in the coils of a mighty serpent.

If the player chose a character with construction skills, they could even repair their towers, or they could buy the parts needed to put together a giant golem construct that would rampage against the enemy, causing destruction wherever it strode.

There were also mountain valleys that one could go to in order to lure out a beast tide to attack the enemy base. But they had to be careful, because the beasts could easily turn and attack their own base.

In short, the game was a hell of a lot more complicated, involved, and exciting since it was played as if the person was really there through the VR technology Carl had brought with him to the world.

"Yeah, we can totally play a few rounds before we leave next week to enroll in the Black-White College." Carl shout-whispered to Naruko over the roars of the crowd as the two different eight member teams were being introduced.

"Yes!" Naruko shouted in glee as she reached up and grabbed him around the neck in a hug.

Carl idly noted that one of the 16 players in the championship match was none other than Dewey Bullock, aka Sasuke Uchiha.

'Well, old Dewey didn't seem to do so well back in Konoha because he kept expecting everything to come easily to him due to being a Sharingan holder.' Carl mentally shook his head. 'He thought because he was suddenly Sasuke that the world would be served to him on a platter.'

Even Carl would admit that the original Sasuke was a hard worker. A crappy person that didn't know how to socialize and backstabbed the people that tried to be friends to him, but talented and hard working nonetheless.

So seeing Dewey able to gain a foothold in this world through the VR game competitions and seemingly having a good life actually…kind of pleased Carl. The guy hadn't really ever done anything too bad back in Konoha. Sure he had an ego, was lecherous, and didn't play well with others, but he hadn't committed any crimes or been a traitor.

So, really, he was already ten times better than the original Sasuke.

Carl was somewhat assuming that Dewey had a lot to do with putting together this DOTA championship, due to the man's background. And it did take a lot of hard work to get together a championship match like the one held in this stadium. Not to mention he was one of the players.

Carl could see that the guy actually seemed to have found his niche in this world. Good for him. He even cheered loudly for the team that Dewey was on when they finally won after a hard fought match.

There was an idea that popped up in Carl's mind while watching the DOTA game. He would have to do some research to see if the idea was viable. But if it was, then Carl could definitely revolutionize at least the low tier cultivation scene.

One of the biggest advantages that cultivators had over normal people was their superior physiques that were personally evolved through cultivation. The Fiendgod Body Refiners absorbed divine energy and the Ki Refiners absorbed Elemental Essence in order to continually upgrade their bodies, minds, and souls.

These upgrades gave them powerful bodies that could move faster than mortals could process or react to.

But what if someone that had knowledge of the Time Daos could craft a Virtual Reality Pod that was connected to a Golem Construct? The mortal, or more likely a low level cultivator would have their mind time-accelerated while in the VR Pod to the point that while they controlled the remote control Golem Construct, a cultivator's speed seemed normal or even a bit slower compared to them. So they could fight on an even playing field, or even with an advantage over a cultivator.

Not only would that expand the forces that Carl could field in a battle against cultivators, but his trained Golem operators wouldn't actually be in danger of being killed. They could just mentally connect to another Golem if the first was destroyed and jump right back into battle.

'Well, if this is a feasible idea, then I'm going to have to be really, really secretive about this so some asshole higher level cultivator doesn't come stealing my proprietary tech.'

With that thought, Carl threw the idea in the back of his mind to have one of his parallel thought processes consider and develop the idea. For now, he focused on enjoying the time spent with his girl.

Carl took a sip of root beer, idly looking at the people inside the dining room of his Sky Overlord's Ancient Profound Ark that he bought from the ATG world.

"So, why are we going the long way by travelling with my Ark?" Carl asked the girl next to him.

"Duh! It's so we can test our luck and see if we come across any adventure, or ancient ruins filled with treasure, or rescue a princess that's trying to escape an unwanted fiance!" The blonde girl sitting next to him said in a tone of voice that said it should be obvious, so why was he questioning it.

"Do you really think we'll run across any of those things, Naruko? They sound fun!" Karin asked from her side of the table where she was playing a game of cards with Hinata, Hanabi, and Hayami. They were special cards that had rune protections to make them opaque to a Hyuga's Byakugan. Otherwise no one would play cards with them.

"Of course! I'll have you know I'm very lucky!" Naruko announced with pride.

"Yeah, right!" Kiba snorted in disbelief at her proclamation. He and Akamaru were sitting by a window, with both of them occasionally leaning out to smell and taste the air that was streaming by them at high speeds as Carl's Ark flew through the air on their way to Stillwater City.

The large group in the room, consisting of his generation of ninja from Konoha and their allies, were all traveling with him to enroll in one of the cultivation colleges in the city.

"It's true!" Naruko insisted, insistently. "Every time I'd go with Tsunade to a casino, I'd rake in the dough while she would lose every single card game, or roll of the dice, or whatever. I didn't even have to cheat with jutsu! The Luck was with me!"

Carl and a few others chuckled at Naruko's oblique reference to the Force.

"Believe me, it's true!" Hanako softly stated. "I've been studying under Tsunade and Shizune for a while, and I saw it with my own eyes. At the end of the night the casino owner groveled and begged for her to have mercy on them. They offered her VIP status at their hotels, free rooms and high class food whenever she wanted, as long as she never gambles in their casinos again."

That got a bunch of laughs. The only way one of those hardened Casino owners wouldn't have done something was if she actually wasn't cheating. And the casino owners always had hired ninja sensors on staff to check. Well, that and more importantly the fact that Naruko was with an S class ninja like Tsunade, and was pretty much S class herself by that time. Messing with strong ninja like that was just asking for a beat-down.

"Fine, I'll take your word for it." Kiba reluctantly allowed. "But there ain't no way that anything like what you said is going to…"

Kiba's words were interrupted by the sounds of explosions near their position, causing Carl's Ark to shake from the shockwave.

Without a word, the room full of trained ninja dashed out of the room they were relaxing in, leaving the food, drinks, and games scattered on the table. Before they left the room they were already extending their senses, looking for what was going on.

Carl and the other Riverbank clan members had already activated their Byakugan. And with his Divine Senses added onto his Byakugan, Carl was able to clearly see what was happening that caused the explosions, and the further fighting that was occurring.

They had a couple of female stowaways standing on the deck of their ship, while four men were fighting mid-air near them. There was a burning ship that was spiraling down to crash into the forest beneath them, which was likely the cause of the explosion. Another airship was matching speed with Carl's Ark a few kilometers off.

Looking at the two females that were on their ship, Carl could only assume that they were from some very well off clan, based on the quality of their clothes. They seemed to be distantly related in some way, having a familial look about them. They also resembled two of the men fighting mid-air.

Once everyone had taken up their defensive positions, Carl turned to Naruko with an amused smile on his face.

"Well, I don't know if they are princesses, but they seem to be running from something. I guess your luck strikes again!"