[AN: HBPDS!]
XX
The capital city of the Stillwater Commandery, Stillwater City, was so large that it really couldn't operate as one would expect a city to. The city alone was 9,321 kilometers long and 8,910 kilometers wide. For a bit of reference, back on Earth the country of China was 5,000 kilometers from east to west and 5,500 kilometers from north to south.
Without modern technology to create things like high speed railroads to connect everything together, it was hard to imagine how a single city much larger than the country of China could operate. But that's where the magical methods of the cultivators to travel and communicate over long distances came into play.
But even with Cultivator magic shrinking the distances, in reality Stillwater City didn't operate as a single city, but a series of connected villages, towns, and cities that combined into one giant metropolis. The mortals lived in their various "neighborhoods", produced goods that were taxed, and the goods made their way up the official channels until it reached the top, the Northmont Clan that ruled Stillwater City and the commandery itself. The Northmont Clan then sent their taxes and tributes to the ruling dynasty of the Grand Xia Empire.
For the cultivators that lived or visited Stillwater City, there were special lanes that were like highways where they could use their flying ships to move around the massive city. If they were restricted to walking or riding tamed Diremonsters it would take far too long to travel through the massive city. Other than those dedicated lanes going through the more unpopulated areas of the city, flying above the city was prohibited. The city guards would swiftly attack anyone who failed to follow the rules.
With such a huge city and massive population, it was impossible for there not to be a multitude of districts to provide the goods and services the population needed.
There was naturally a single shopping district that was acknowledged as the number one. The most luxurious and expensive shopping district was located in the east side of the city and was simply named the "East District". It didn't need a fancy name to prove its high qualifications. Everyone knew what district they were referring to when they said the words "East District".
The East District was home to such exclusive and luxurious venues as the Mountain of Heavenly Treasures and the Carefree Caverns.
Many other shopping districts huddled as close as they could to the East District, which wasn't very close, hoping to gain some manner of prestige by their nearness to the higher class.
In one of these lesser shopping districts there was a restaurant that was known to cater to low level cultivators, those at the Xiantian Lifeform and Zifu Disciple level. The Blue Wolf Restaurant had a large first floor with open seating on the ground floor. A raised platform on one side often had artists of various types performing to entertain the guests. Whether they played the zither or told stories or acted out a play, the guests were entertained and more likely to spend more of their hard earned gold.
The second, third, and forth floor of the restaurant were set up for private booths that circled around the inside of the building, leaving the center open so they could look down on the masses and the performances on stage. It allowed those who could afford it to luxuriate in the feeling of superiority over the masses that booking a private booth gave them.
In one of those private booths on the second floor sat a delicate young woman with a gorgeous appearance, impatiently staring at the door as if waiting for something while eating her meal. A pretty maid stood behind and to the side of the lady, ready to serve her every whim. Two guards stood by the doorway, protecting her privacy as she dined alone on delicacies crafted from Diremonster meat.
A knock on the door interrupted the young girl's meal, but she wasn't upset. This was likely the news she had been waiting for. Fu Xiang gave a signal to the guards who opened the door.
A young man in his late teens nervously entered the private room. From the uncertain way he moved and how he constantly gulped, it could be seen that he felt quite inferior to Fu Xiang who was rich, of a higher status than him, and was incomparably gorgeous. And from the barely hidden passion evident on his face as he stared at the young lady at the table, it could be seen how much he desired to be of use to her if she would just give him a glance.
Even though he had been allowed in the room, the young man wasn't allowed a seat at the table, so he stood, barely able to keep from nervously shifting back and forth on his feet while staring soulfully at the beautiful girl in front of him.
"How was it Cheng Ping?" Fu Xiang finally asked the young man after she had finished elegantly eating a mouthful of a dish made from a chicken Diremonster that had been the size of an elephant.
"I…" Cheng Ping paused as he flushed red in shame. He had tried and tried to complete the task set by his goddess, but in the end he couldn't do it. He hated to admit failure, but the time limit she had set was over and he was here to beg her for more time to do as she desired him to. "I worked tirelessly, dedicated to accomplishing the task the lovely miss Fu gave me, pushing all my resources into the task…but in the end…
"It wasn't my fault, though! Every time I thought I had succeeded, something strange happened!
"The first time I tried to spread the news you wanted spread, Miss Fu, I had a stack of maps that I was about to hand out to everyone when a strange Diremonster dog came out of nowhere and ate the maps I was handing out! All of the maps! He acted like they were the most delicious thing he'd ever eaten and wouldn't stop until he tracked down every single map I tried to hide!
"In the confusion I fell, hit my head, and couldn't remember what the map looked like!
"When I got another batch of the maps from your guards and was about to spread them far and wide, an old man smoking a pipe accidentally lost control of the fire spell he was using and it burned up all the maps. Which was just strange because they were all engraved in jade tablets, but they burned nonetheless!
"The most recent time…"
"I understand." Fu Xiang impatiently interrupted, not willing to listen to his unpleasant voice or stare at his ugly expressions any longer. Her cold face that showed how disappointed she was in him made Cheng Ping shudder as a sense of loss hit him like an arrow to the heart. He knew he'd lost his opportunity with the rich and beautiful miss. Fu Xiang waved him away while saying, "You may go."
"Miss Fu…! If you just give me another chance I'm sure I can…"
Cheng Ping didn't get to finish his pledge to fulfill her desires. One of the guards clapped a hand on his shoulder and forced him out of the room. Cheng Ping was only an early Xiantian Lifeform and didn't have the strength to resist the strength of a Zifu Disciple. He was easily thrown out of the room, literally.
He fell down to the crowd on the first floor, landing on a table and smashing the newly delivered bowl of beef Diremonster ramen that some random cultivator had just paid for. Seeing his expensive meal being destroyed right in front of him, and seeing that the culprit wasn't any higher than him in cultivation, he couldn't hold in his anger and smashed a large fist into Cheng Ping's face, sending him flying into another batch of cultivators that was just about to bite into their Diremonster shrimp kebab.
Poor Cheng Ping ended up as a ping pong ball, being smashed left and right, and causing the brawl on the first floor of the Blue Wolf Restaurant to reach epic proportions as everyone got into the mood to fight after having their meal ruined.
Many of the richer clientele that were in the private booths on the upper floors watched the brawl as if it was entertainment put on for their benefit and made bets on who would win.
Back in the private room that Cheng Ping was sent flying from, Fu Xiang didn't have any enthusiasm to watch the fight on the first floor her own guard caused. She was leaning her chin against her delicate little hand as she mournfully and dramatically sighed at yet another failure to spread the news of the Immortal Inheritance she was forced to hand over to Riverbank Carl and his friends for protecting her from Teng Li.
"Miss Fu…?" Xiao Na, the maid of Fu Xiang, was nervously twisting a handkerchief between her fingers. She felt terrible seeing her Miss in such a horrible mood. She wished she could do something to take away all her Miss's worries and make things better. But even so, she was confused about how difficult it was to spread one piece of information through the city. Usually the cultivators would flock to such a piece of news! "Is this the doing of that Bad Man? Is he…spying on us and preventing us from…?"
"He must be!" Fu Xiang muttered through gritted teeth as the image of Carl flashed through her mind, a mocking smile on his face. It just made her angrier to think of his smug face!
Zeng Gua and Pan Fen, the guards at the door, exchanged significant glances. That group of people who were a full level below them but far stronger than them would definitely have the riches and influence to stop them from being able to spread the news as Miss Fu wanted.
When Miss Fu had made the decision to publish the information about the Immortal Inheritance to spite Riverbank Carl by sending hordes of cultivators there to take the inheritance before Carl could, Zeng Gua and Pan Fen had been nervous. They had been worried about the retaliation that would come their way for daring to ruin their good thing.
And subsequent events proved their suspicions to be correct. The first time Fu Xiang had some naïve young man go spread the news for her, he had an accident and was trampled by a runaway Diremonster. It had seemed like just a coincidence at first, so Miss Fu had continued.
After several more young men met "coincidental accident" after accident, it stopped looking like a coincidence and appeared to be the actions of a very wide ranging network.
Riverbank Carl and his friends had obviously been incredibly strong for their cultivation level, which indicated that they had high level cultivation techniques, plenty of resources, and plenty of battle experience. And they were just a bunch of young teenagers at that level. They obviously had a very strong clan backing them up if they could keep track of Miss Fu's attempts to spread information and arrange such accidents in such a short time!
Added on with the methods they used to incapacitate the people spreading the information in humorous and mocking fashion, it was obvious they were sending a message to Miss Fu to stop her attempts before she angered them and they grew serious.
Zeng Gua and Pan Fen really hoped that Miss Fu would stop her efforts they turned their attention to them.
"Maybe Miss should...give up on the idea of spreading this knowledge around?" Zeng Gua tentatively said to Fu Xiang. "So far they are restraining themselves to only acting against the actual messengers you send. What if they grow tired of their game and come at you directly, Miss Fu?"
Fu Xiang had opened her mouth to berate Zeng Gua's cowardly turtle-like behavior, but she froze with her mouth open when the rest of what he said hit her. She closed her mouth with a snap and thought about it.
Riverbank Carl was the kind of shameless man who wouldn't be averse to acting against such a peerless heavenly beauty as herself. She couldn't trust in his gentlemanly conduct at all to restrain himself! Their short interaction and his lack of concern for her had proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt!
"Pack up! We're going back to my uncle's house!" Fu Xiang couldn't bring herself to admit out loud that Zeng Gua had a good point, but she was definitely nervous at his suggestion. She had to get back to where there were more guards that could protect her against such an action by that rogue Riverbank Carl!
As Fu Xiang impatiently waited for Xiao Na packed up her belongings and leave, the thought never crossed her mind that Carl actually had no idea what was happening to Fu Xiang. Carl had no idea that he'd become such a Big Bad Villain in her eyes.
And so Fu Xiang stopped her efforts to entice a horde of cultivators to go steal the Immortal Inheritance without Carl needing to lift a single finger.
Carl would eventually hear the story from Kiba bragging about what he'd done to keep the secret safe when Fu Xiang had tried to spread the information, but he still wouldn't know how much he'd scared the little girl just because he didn't fall all over her like every other guy in her life had done.
After laughing over Kiba's ninja shenanigans in suppressing the information, Carl would wonder how much the perk he'd gotten from the Against the Gods world, the Shadow Demon's Secret Retaining perk, had played in helping Kiba keep the secret of the Immortal Inheritance from getting out. He hadn't participated in suppressing the information himself, but Kiba and all his ninja were part of his faction, so maybe they benefited from his perks like that?
XX
The fog shrouded mountain was covered in forest except at the peak, where there was a grassy clearing. At the center of the clearing was a luxurious mansion with several smaller buildings surrounding it, with various gardens and ponds improving the aesthetics of the grounds.
Carl stood for a moment in front of his new place of residence at the Black-White College. Every student received a mountaintop as their abode while in residence, a place to focus on cultivation without distractions if they chose.
Normally each student would have a number of servants and followers that were allowed to live with them, do tasks and chores for them, and get the opportunity to benefit secondhand from living in the Black-White College. Obviously the followers wouldn't get treatment equal to the enrolled students, but even being a servant at the Black-White College was more opportunity than most would get outside the college.
Carl's Jumpchain established history in this world made it so his blood clone with the jian style swords back in his Firebird city had a bevy of servants and guards to maintain his status and dignity as a City Lord. He had initially planned on using his enrollment at the college to avoid such things, but he had basically been guilt-tripped by his people into accepting the maximum number of servants he could bring with him to the college so they could run errands for him while getting the prestigious opportunities available at the college.
Carl stood outside his manor on the grassy meadow while his ten retainers were busy cleaning up the manor and arranging his living space. It was somewhat exasperatedly amusing to him that his followers demanded the opportunity to personally make sure his abode was presentable for him. Carl could have just used a few cleaning spells from the wizarding world and got the job done before they could even start, but he held back to not damage their self-esteem and pride in doing their job as his followers.
That was one of the things it had taken a while for him to get through his head the first time he'd become a lord. Delegation and allowing his subordinates to do their jobs, even when he was perfectly capable of doing such things for himself.
Even when he finally accepted the presence of servants doing their jobs without feeling guilty, he still drew the line at having other people bathe him or wipe his ass. Sometimes people got a little too much into role playing, and he didn't need a bunch of people acting obsequious around him to stroke his ego.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, Carl closed his eyes and examined his surroundings closely.
He could feel and almost see the flow of dense natural essence around his mountain in currents and eddies. The density of natural essence in the Black-White College grounds was much higher than outside. He hadn't seen or studied the formations that the Black-White College used to create such an environment yet, but he could only assume they used some nice ones to produce such a thick amount of natural essence for the students to use.
The dense natural essence would naturally speed up the student's efforts to practice techniques, since they could refill their reserves that much faster due to the high level of energy. If a student planned to advance their cultivation level, however, it would be better for them to purchase liquefied elemental essence instead of the environmental elemental essence.
Each student was given a stipend of 50 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence every ten years as part of their stipend. If that wasn't enough for them, they could use the Black-White pellets that was the college's currency to purchase more liquefied elemental essence, or they could go to the market and purchase more resources on their own dime.
A beeping noise caught his attention. Carl flipped open his communicator and saw that Anko was calling him. He accepted the call with a smile.
"Don't tell me you're going to do the white haired old man cultivator thing and hole up in a cave for years, Carl?" Anko demanded as soon as their call connected.
"I'm boooored Carl!" Naruko yelled over Anko's shoulder into the communicator. "Join us on a tour of the school to see what we can do around here!"
Carl laughed at the two's enthusiasm and energy. "Fine, fine. I was just thinking of what to do first, and a tour sounds great. Where shall we meet?"
"We're already all gathered at this nifty restaurant that someone set up." Anko said and sent directions to Carl. "Better get here soon, there are already a bunch of guys sniffing around your girls, Carl!"
Anko cut the call before he could respond. Grinning to himself at their antics, and determined to give Anko a spanking for attempting to make him jealous, Carl put away his communicator and immediately took off. It wouldn't do to let a bunch of arrogant genius-type students get the wrong idea in their heads that they had a chance with his girls.
It didn't take him long to arrive at the location Anko gave him. The restaurant was built in the same area as the school's library, where students could go to read travelogues, histories, geography books, and other such non-cultivation knowledge the school had accumulated to increase their student's general knowledge and education level. It really would look bad on the college itself if their students were strong but ignorant sounding when interacting with outsiders.
The restaurant his girls were at was a three story building. It was built with the center space open so the private rooms that lined the walls on the second and third floor could look over the open seating on the first level.
Upon entering, Carl saw that his people on the first floor were spread out over several tables, laughing and chatting as they ate the dishes that had already been delivered. He noticed that they had somehow convinced the two people that tested with them, Silkthread Nan and Bloodrinker Bladask, to join them.
Bladask was apparently in an eating contest with Choji, Kiba, and Akamaru off to the side as the piles of empty dishes next to them showed how hard fought the battle was.
Nan was chatting with Sakura and Ino on another side talking about fashion and the interesting style of Sakura and Ino's robes.
Carl saw that there really were a few men eyeing all the women that came with him from the Naruto world, not just his girls. A few clusters of men were eating at a table off to the side, nudging each other and encouraging themselves to go talk to the gorgeous goddesses.
He chuckled upon entering the restaurant and unfurled his hidden power and the momentum of his dragon might to be felt by everyone there. Heads snapped around to stare at him standing in the doorway with a variety of expressions, depending on their cultivation level and willpower. There were many who stared in shock and decided not to mess with this new guy, while others felt their dignity was challenged and glared fiercely at Carl.
Once he was sure everyone had felt his commanding dragon presence and had gotten the message that he was not someone to mess with lightly, he pulled his presence back inside and stalked across the floor to where his girls were sitting.
"Anko." Carl practically growled at her while she impishly grinned at him with a gleam in her eye. He was inwardly amused at her antics while outwardly showing his possessive side.
Casting a look at the other five girls he was in a relationship with, he could see that while they hadn't been part of this little mischief, they were enjoying the spectacle. Well, if they wanted him to act the part of the jealous and possessive lover, who was he to deny them?
Despite the societal taboo of showing affection in public, and with nothing more than a kiss for each girl, Carl left no doubt among anyone watching that Anko, Naruko, Karin, Hanako, Yakumo, and Tenten were taken.
Carl ignored the hoots and cheers that Kiba laughingly sent his way as he calmly sat down at the table. Looking at the red faces of his girls, and how frustrated they were that they were in public and couldn't take it any further, he grinned at a job well done. If they were going to play games, he would play games.
The frustration they felt all day long would make the action later that night even better.
And it might be petty of him, but seeing the frustrated jealousy and barely leashed anger in the men who had hoped to get close to his girls was quite amusing to him. 'Better go find some girls of your own, lads, if any will have you!'
The waiter came by and Carl ordered a few more dishes to eat and enjoyed the party atmosphere that had developed among his group of friends and Bladask and Nan.
After they finished eating, the group split into smaller groups as they all went to different areas of the campus to tour the campus separately. Carl ended up with Anko, Naruko, and Tenten as they headed for the Arena first thing. It seemed the rest of his girls wanted to go look in the Dao Repository Vault first thing to see if they could buy anything interesting with the 1,000 Black-White pellets they had been given upon becoming a student.
Carl grinned when he saw Shikamaru and Temari head for the library hand in hand. Shikamaru might be lazy, but he liked learning new things as long as no one was forcing him to. And Temari had long decided to entice him to do interesting things with benefits rather than browbeat him like Shikamaru's mother did to his father.
As Shikamaru once commented, Temari was the "least troublesome" woman he'd encountered, which apparently made their relationship work.
Regarding relationships, Carl sometimes wondered why the rest of his friends hadn't engaged in stable relationships. They were still enjoying their youth with their "friends with benefits". It really wasn't any of his business what they did, as long as it didn't turn into a jealousy fueled blood feud.
Though, thinking back to his first world in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's kind of what he and the gang done. Even though he'd had a stable relationship with Harmony, Amy, Marcie, and Fred, it really was similar to the friends with benefits thing his friends had going on now. So really, it wasn't anything to worry about.
'Besides, my friends grew up as ninja. A high-stress environment, no matter how powerful one gets, can definitely encourage the need for stress relief,' Carl thought.
Despite thinking of these things about his history on the Jumpchain in the back of his mind, Carl continued to cheerfully chat with his girls as they made their way to the Arena.
The Arena was a large black structure that somehow made one feel that it had an air of proud dominance. Many battles had been fought inside, and it seemed to have soaked up the feeling of the victorious fighters who battled inside it, powerful and proud.
Carl looked around the lobby to see if there were any information pamphlets that explained more detailed information about how the Arena worked than what was in the student handbook.
It seemed there wasn't anything there to warn a new student about the tradition that had risen around betting Black-White pellets and new student crushing. Carl only knew about it because he'd read the source material so long ago.
Carl figured there could be several reasons the management of the Black-White College allowed the practice of new student crushing to continue. First was to encourage competition among the students. Competition led to motivation for the students to improve so they wouldn't lose. Losing in the arena meant the loss of revenue, but real fights outside the school environment was a matter of life and death.
Also the new students that were accepted into the Black-White College were all geniuses. They knew how prestigious the college was and often felt quite arrogant for being accepted, feeling they were on top of the world and quite powerful. It was just right for the College to use the senior students to crush the newbie's towering arrogance so they wouldn't be carried away and think they didn't have plenty of room to improve. And the senior students gained some revenue by crushing the new students that allowed them to purchase more cultivation resources so they could improve their strength as well.
"We already know the upper years are going to try to scam us of our Black-White pellets. What else is there to know? We just need to fight and win!" Anko carelessly said after Carl muttered about the lack of information.
"And we all know you plan to scam them back, Anko!" Tenten laughed. "I wonder how much we can scam from them before they catch on?"
"I'm hoping to at least triple my money." Naruko eagerly held up a fist to show her fighting spirit.
"Too bad it's not a game of chance, or you wouldn't get so little return." Carl retorted, getting a laugh from the girls at that bit of truth. Even knowing about the original Naruto's luck at gambling and figuring that the same would hold true for Naruko, Carl had been amazed by Naruko's incredible luck at gambling establishments. She never used ninja powers to win, but her luck was so abnormally high, she rarely lost.
Climbing some nearby stairs, they emerged from the tunnel in the viewing stands. The stands didn't go all the way around the arena floor, they only stretched about a fourth of the way around the arena floor. There were several groups of students mingling around the seating, watching two men fighting on the arena floor.
They took seats nearby that had a good view of the action in the arena. Carl saw but ignored the sly glances the other students sent their way. Obviously they were already eyeing the newbies with plans to get them into the arena.
Both combatants in the arena were in the mid Zifu Disciple level. One of the combatants was fighting with a staff while the other was trying to keep his distance and fight with various fire spells. The one with a staff seemed to be focused on Fiendgod body refining, while the fire wielder was focused on Ki refining.
The staff wielder used his control over his understanding of staff dao to mobilize his energy to block and deflect the various fire spells coming his way as he attempted to close with the Ki refiner. Occasionally the Fiendgod body refiner would swipe his staff at the Ki refiner and a beam of staff energy would shoot forward, causing the Ki refiner to make a gesture and raise a shield of burning flames to block the long distance attack.
The two combatants engaged in a chase around the arena floor as various fireballs, fire waves, staff blows, and other such firework like displays erupted between them. Both fought to obtain dominance in the fight, but it appeared they were equally matched for the moment.
During the fight Carl noticed that several senior students suddenly began flooding into the Arena and mingling with the students that were already there. They were excitedly talking with each other and giving significant glances towards Carl's group.
'It looks like the students already here are calling their friends over to get in on the "Rookie Smashing" event where they convince us to go into the arena and bet all our Black-White Pellets,' Carl amusedly noted to himself, unconcerned about how the older students were gathering more and more numbers in the arena area.
He returned his attention back to the fight and the commentary between Tenten, Naruko, and Anko as they talked about the strong and weak points of the combatant's skills.
The Ki refiner had a good set of movement skills that let him keep his distance from direct combat with the Fiendgod body refiner. That was something that was absolutely essential for someone focusing on Ki refining, since close combat with a Fiendgod body refiner would be absolutely disastrous for someone that wasn't a Fiendgod body refiner.
Fiendgod body refiners sought to make their bodies as strong and tough as Immortal treasures, whereas Ki refiners focused more on their control over the various energies they had access to through their Dao. Basically, Ki refiners were the cultivation world's equivalent of wizards. As glass cannons, they weren't nearly as tough as Fiendgod body refiners, though they were definitely dangerous.
After a long grueling fight between the two, the Ki refiner seemed to run low on energy first while the Fiendgod body refiner was still kicking. Seeing the weakness in his opponent, the Fiendgod body refiner got a burst of speed out of nowhere and caught up with the Ki refiner. He landed a dozen blows on the Ki refiner in an instant, and the Arena Spirit judged that the Fiendgod body refiner won the match and put up a barrier that protected the Ki refiner from taking crippling damage to his body.
"So! You're one of the new students, aren't you? I heard you think you're pretty hot stuff."
Carl looked over at the group of senior students that had surrounded his group. They hadn't wasted any time after the match ended to make their move. The one who spoke just now was barely restraining himself from glaring at Carl in jealousy. Anko sent a nonverbal message telling the rest of them that she thought these students and their intimidation methods were cute, causing Naruko and Tenten to giggle.
The student who spoke was wearing white Chinese robes, and it perfectly showcased his face turning slightly red due to feeling like he was mocked. Cause he was.
"That's me. The new guy." Carl simply replied. He then sat there staring at the dude for a while, not reacting to his blatantly provocative tone of voice. After all, the guy hadn't actually asked a question or introduced himself.
Inwardly Carl was laughing at the various expressions everyone was making when he didn't play to the script the other side had in mind. They expected that he would be brash and easily provoked, making their job of scamming his pellets easier.
Some of the other students that came with the guy in white frowned at Carl's nonchalance and how he didn't immediately salute them as a senior. Carl heard the phrases "arrogant", "doesn't know his place" and a few others being whispered between them. His smile grew a little larger upon hearing the crowd whispering things that were so very tropish.
It never ceased to amuse him how similar the crowds in these different worlds were. Like a bunch of junior high students egging on a fight, they loved to watch and create drama.
"Fight me in the arena! Unless you're too scared! Not man enough to go a few rounds?" The white clothed student blurted out angrily all at once, not even giving Carl a chance to respond.
"Meh." Carl replied while using his pinky finger to clean his ear. Sure enough, Carl's nonchalance pissed the guy off something fierce. "I don't think I will fight you."
"I see! You're too cowardly to face a real man!" The student in white mocked Carl, getting some in the crowd to laugh.
"Not at all." Carl's relaxed tone of voice was unexpected to the crowd. They expected a teenager like him to be full of piss and vinegar and be furious at being mocked. Then he would carelessly jump into the trap they laid for him. They were annoyed and confused why Carl wasn't following the script. "I just don't think such a low level tactic that you're using should be rewarded by me doing what you want. It'll just encourage you to repeat such brainless acts in the future."
The crowd busted up laughing at that, causing the dude in white to turn a deeper shade of red as he fumed angrily.
Before the guy could explode, Carl pointed to the side where Tenten, Anko, and Naruko were playing a game of rock, paper, scissors.
"Besides, it seems that Tenten just won the deciding match to see who goes first. And since you offered challenge, I'm sure she'll be more than eager to take up your challenge."
"You know it!" Tenten cheerfully announced.
"I swear she cheated!" Naruko grumped.
"Of course she did, sunshine," Anko laughed at Naruko, even though she was annoyed that she didn't win either. "Ninja, remember? If you're not cheating, you're not trying." Naruko just gave Tenten and Anko a glare in reply.
"Oh, right? What's your name?" Tenten asked the dude in white that tried to instigate Carl into a fight. "And are we putting up a bet on this fight or what?" Seeing that the guy in white stood there with his mouth opening and closing like he didn't know what to say, Tenten grew impatient. "Come on, I don't have all day!"
"My name is Seven Bridges! And we don't have to put a bet up, if you don't want." Seven Bridges almost stammered the last bit as he blushed this time, looking at Tenten with passionate eyes.
'Is this guy a stammering virgin?' Anko sent to the group. 'How stereotypical!'
Carl's lips twitched, but he refrained from laughing so he wouldn't distract Tenten's prey.
"Nice to meet you, Seven Bridges. I'm Tenten. But I've got all these Black-White pellets, and I don't know what to do with them! If I bet them on a match, it'll at least be exciting! Besides, I always liked to gamble. At least this way I'll have a little bit of fun." Tenten acted like she was clueless, and Carl could see that many of the male students were buying it hook, line, and sinker. The female students, on the other hand, rolled their eyes and seemed a bit grumpy at the naivety of their male counterparts and how much they were drooling over the new girl.
Looking at Seven Bridges' face amused Carl. He seemed to be torn between continuing the Rookie Smashing that the senior students usually engaged in and trying to protect the gorgeous Jade Beauty in front of him from losing her college currency. He didn't know that he'd already fallen into the honey pot trap that Tenten used. Ninja were sneaky like that.
"Unfortunately I've only got a thousand pellets. That's just too little." Tenten pouted cutely. "I know! I'll borrow the pellets from my friends! That's four thousand pellets. Let's both bet four thousand pellets on the fight, and whoever wins gets them all! That's the way these things go, right?"
"Yes." Seven Bridges unconsciously agreed to Tenten's proposal, then winced as he realized he had trapped himself. He could no longer put up an act in front of the girl to make himself seem more gallant. He had to follow through on what he'd said. Four thousand pellets was a huge amount for him, but he could barely afford it.
Besides, if he showed off his strength and beat this beauty, he could then be magnanimous and return her pellets to her and her two hot friends. There was no way he was returning the new guy's pellets to him, he didn't swing that way and had no reason to be kind to the guy that was stealing the beauty's attention from him!
"Okay, let's go!" Tenten lead the way into the Arena after both of them put up their bet.
Tenten pulled two short blades out of her spatial storage after entering the arena. She flourished them in a circle before assuming a guard position, ready to fight.
Seven Bridges pulled out of his storage a set of seven miniature bridges, each were half a foot long. They floated to the air above and behind his head, forming a rudimentary formation. Carl laughed a bit when he realized how much Seven Bridges loved his name and based his whole fighting style on.
The voice of the Arena Spirit spoke, "Combat begins in 3. 2. 1. Start."
The Ki refiner Seven Bridges immediately began operating his signature Earth level treasures. Normally he was right to be so proud of his set of treasure bridges that helped him channel his water Dao better. Water bullets began forming and shooting from the seven bridges, sending a barrage at Tenten that most Zifu Disciples would be hard pressed to dodge.
Tenten, like all of Carl's friends, had embarked on the path of both Ki refining and Fiendgod body refining. As ninja they all knew the importance of having a strong body, good weapons, and excellent control over their chakra. That experience applied equally well to the cultivation systems of this world and they weren't about to slack off.
Tenten surged forward as soon as combat started, but her momentum was checked by the bullets of water flying towards her. She slowed down and changed direction while deflecting some of the water bullets. She then sped up as she circled around Seven Bridges, forcing him to move to keep her in his aim.
Tenten's tactics caused Seven Bridges to have to focus on multiple things at once, making it harder to control his treasures and be accurate in his aim.
It also allowed Tenten more control over which bridges were able to fire water bullets at her, since Tenten's opponent couldn't keep all seven bridges aimed at her all the time, she was moving so fast.
As Tenten slowly grew used to the fighting style of Seven Bridges, she began deflecting more of the watery projectiles away from her body with her sword light, energy built from the sword Dao she had been studying. As the water bullets flew away, Seven Bridges lost control of the water bullets and they shattered into droplets of water and mist.
Seven Bridges was pretty decent at running away, as he continually moved backwards to keep the distance from the aggressive physical attack style of Tenten. He also kept up the barrage of water bullets to distract and slow her down.
Unfortunately for Seven Bridges, Tenten was really only testing out Seven Bridges' combat methods. Even so, her method of testing her opponent immediately put him on the defensive, so strong was her attacking methods compared to his.
Ever since arriving in this world everyone had been testing out the various methods of new combat and skills they had, combining them with their old skills. They also had the virtual world that Carl made available for training, so they could go all out without fear of killing each other in real life, which allowed them to become quite used to combat at their current cultivation level.
Tenten had a variety of methods she could use to overcome her opponent. If she wanted to she could simply throw a Holy Log at her opponent und use the replacement technique to switch places with the Log when he dodged it to arrive right next to him.
But Tenten realized that she could easily overwhelm him with her physical superiority and her understanding of her sword Dao. She didn't want to end the fight so easily and was suddenly curious about how Seven Bridges would handle an attack method similar to his own.
So she pulled out a dozen swords from her spatial storage and arranged them behind herself similar to Seven Bridges' own treasure using her Ki control. Beams of sword light began shooting from the Sword Array she controlled, aiming at her opponent.
Seven Bridges yelped a bit at the incoming attack that was even stronger than his own. Who said these new students were weak? This Jade Beauty had an even stronger attack than his own!
Seven Bridges hastily pulled a wooden shield with runes carved into it out of his own spatial storage item. The shield was a low Earth treasure for defense. He channeled his power through it and a bubble of water appeared around him. It barely blocked the sword lights shooting at him. Holes began appearing in his shield, and he lost the opportunity to focus on attack and could only continue to focus on defense, desperately rebuilding his bubble shield.
Seven Bridges didn't get the chance to make a comeback. Tenten, suddenly bored of the fight, charged forward, even as her sword array blasted holes into the bubble shield. In an incredible feat of nimbleness, Tenten dove head first through one of the holes her sword light created.
As soon as Tenten cleared the bubble shield, she tucked and completed a flip, landing on her feet next to Seven Bridges. She didn't give her opponent a chance to get set, and immediately slashed him several dozen times.
All this took some time to describe, but it happened in the blink of an eye.
Naturally the Arena Spirit judged that Tenten won and protected Seven Bridges from being killed by Tenten's attacks.
Tenten soon rejoined Carl, Anko, and Naruko, showing off the four thousand more Black-White Pellets she won, courtesy of Seven Bridges. Naruko was a bit jealous over Tenten's windfall and began eyeing up the surrounding senior students as her prey. The senior students, still gossiping among themselves about the rookie girl who actually won and how useless Seven Bridges was, suddenly felt an unknown chill pass over their skin.
"Okay! I choose you!" Naruko shouted loudly as she pointed at one guy dressed in a green robe. The guy Naruko pointed at had been one of those who had been most disdainful of her man, and she wasn't going to let him off, not when she could extort several thousand Black-White Pellets from him.
"Me?" The green robed student asked in shock, pointing at himself. He felt a bit of happiness that the extremely pretty blonde haired girl was paying attention to himself.
"Yes! Let's fight in the Arena!" Naruko happily said, causing the green robed student's emotions to fall as far as they had previously risen when he realized she wanted to fight him not date him. Naruko then talked out of the corner of her mouth. "Tenten, lend me your pellets, I want to make a killing!"
"Sure." Tenten happily said, already thinking about what she could buy with the extra pellets they were winning.
"Add me in, sunshine." Anko handed over control of her pellets to Naruko. She didn't mind scamming these senior students of all the pellets they owned. Even though Carl had a magical farm that could provide all their cultivation needs, it wasn't a bad idea to supplement her needs with outside winnings so they could spread the resources further among the people of their territory.
"Take mine as well," Carl said with a grin a moment after all three girls looked at him with expectation in their eyes. Of course he was going to give control of his pellets to Naruko. It was already amusing to see Tenten win so much, he wasn't going to stop the fun now.
If the seniors wanted to try to scam them, they should be prepared to be scammed in turn. It wasn't like he doubted Naruko would lose anymore than Tenten had. And the bigger the pot, the more senior students would come out to bet, increasing their earnings.
Losing all their pellets would also encourage the senior students to be more proactive in doing tasks for the College to earn more pellets, which would help them grow better than sitting on their mountain for decades at a time.
"I don't really want to bet…" The green robed student looked nervously at the eight thousand pellets that Naruko set down, but his voice was cut off as Tenten mocked him.
"You just said you would bet, don't go back on your word now." Tenten sniffed disdainfully. If he was going to say nasty things about their man, he had to suffer the consequences.
"You've got to be a man! Don't embarrass yourself in front of everyone by backing out now." Anko looked at him like he was scum if he dared to disagree.
"Come on! I'm just a new student! It should be a good way to show me what you've learned in your time here!"
"…but I've only been here a year longer than you…" The green robed student muttered. A moment later he wilted when he saw the multitude of disdainful and mocking glares from everyone around him, not just Anko, Tenten, and Naruko. He said in a sulky voice, "Fine. But I don't have eight thousand pellets, I've only got three thousand."
"Okay! Three thousand is the bet!" Naruko cheerfully agreed and skipped to the entrance of the Arena with the green robed student following along with slumped shoulders. Even if he didn't have that much, it was the principle of the matter, teaching him a lesson.
Once inside the Arena, the green robes student straightened up and pulled out a large club as he prepared for battle. It was as tall as he was, and was an Earth level treasure. Naruko got into a combat ready stance and waited.
"Combat begins in 3. 2. 1. Start."
The green robed student was a Fiendgod body refiner. As soon as combat started, he dashed forward, swinging his club. The heavy smashing energy he sent through his club was intercepted by two golden chains that appeared to grow from Naruko's back.
Naruko's Uzumaki bloodline ability with the adamantine sealing chains had been carefully nurtured and taught by her mother in the last world. She only had four of them out at this time, though she could unleash eight of them at once. Naruko was working hard to be able to manifest more chains, like her mother that could bring out a dozen.
The adamantine sealing chains was something the green robed student hadn't expected, but he moved his club to block the attack of the other two chains after his attack was blocked by two of the chains.
The multitude of chains whirling around the battlefield with harsh metal on metal grating sounds was enough to keep the green robed student fully occupied. The 'heavy' Dao that Naruko's opponent practiced went well with his oversized club, but even those heavy blows had a hard time blocking the whirling attacks of the multitude of chains.
While her chains were keeping her opponent busy, Naruko didn't just stand there. She was only at half her maximum chain capacity, so she had plenty of leftover concentration to build up a few wind blades behind her back.
Once she was ready, she sent the four wind blades she had formed zooming in a circular direction to come at her opponent from the sides and behind.
With so many attacks coming at him from every direction, the green robed student was in a bind. He didn't have any defensive treasures like Seven Bridges had, so he simply did his best to block as many attacks as he could and trusted his robust body to tank the hits. He wrongly assumed that Naruko would be worn down by the mental effort of controlling so many independent attacks and once he'd survived the onslaught he would get a chance to counter attack.
Unfortunately for him, Naruko's wind blades and adamantine sealing chains were stronger than his body's defenses. The wind blades and chains slammed into him from several different directions, throwing up sparks from conflicting Daos colliding and a little bit of blood before the Arena Spirit noted that the attack was overwhelming the green robed student and protected him before he could be injured too badly.
Naruko gathered her winnings and came skipping back to the group with a cheerful smile to accept her congratulations from Carl, Anko, and Tenten.
'Hmm.' Carl inwardly hummed as he looked at the crowds of senior students. 'It seems like rather than making the other senior students cautious of challenging us, Tenten and Naruko's winning is making them even more interested. Is that the allure of thousands of Black-White Pellets for these students? It looks like we're going to be rich before the day is out.'
By this time Anko had already picked out an opponent from those she didn't like the look of and had conned them to bet five thousand pellets.
Carl pulled out a tub of popcorn and poured some root beer into a mug to enjoy the spectacle. He chatted with Tenten and Naruko in the stands while Anko abused the earth Dao using Ki refiner with her fire Dao and whip combination.
In the middle of Anko's fight more of his friends began filtering into the Arena area and joined them in the stands, pulling out their own favorite snacks and a table to hold them. After a few minutes there were several tables full of nuts, cheeses, crackers, wine, and other snacks in front of them.
The scene of them casually snacking, laughing, and generally having a good time watching Anko kick butt caused several of the senior students to give them disdainful looks for their "low class" behavior, but it also successfully angered them into wanting to fight the arrogant newcomers.
Carl inwardly mocked and shook his head at those student's pretentious attempts to look dignified or scholarly or whatever. He didn't think being pretentious was as fun as chilling with good friends and loved ones and having a good time.
"I challenge you."
Carl looked up at the stern faced student wearing a green robe with a single sword strapped to his waist that challenged him. The challenger was staring at the pair of Blue Orchid swords Carl had strapped to his waist with an intensity that spoke of someone who loved swords and the sword dao.
This green robed student looked serious about the fight, not like he was sending the challenge solely to beat down the newbie or because he was jealous of Carl's relationship with beautiful girls.
"I accept," Carl replied with a tight grin. This fight might be fun.