#ImperialEunuch

The presence and act of Tian Xuan had alerted quite a few soldiers of their interactions, those in the stone house has also left after Tian Xuan. Seeing their commander be so free-spirited was a surprise even for them. No matter his personality, this was still the military and the front line at that. But the bigger surprise was that he was chatting so happily with eunuchs, who were known to be rather stoic and more closed off the rest of the people. It wasn’t a cold attitude, but you’d inevitably treat them like Ascetics that enter the mundane world to help the poor.

When they heard the young eunuchs’ words in the centre, their faces paled beyond recognition. So that was why the lieutenant would beat up anyone calling his partner the wife, we always thought it was something twisted, and it was different in turn, but the lieutenant would beat us up even worse, but he’d never explain the reason behind it.

Now, they got to know the reason and also saw how Tian Xuan behaved. For such behaviour, he would beat you up and call it training, and it seems like he did exactly that with the two eunuchs in the back, but when it came to the central eunuch, he only got a pat on the back. It was somewhat shocking, but when they looked at the cold glint in Ji Li’s eyes when he saw Tian Xuan about to tease his brothers too much, they instantly understood.

This eunuch was a true menace if he wanted to be, but it also meant strong support! A few had heard of what Ji Li said, and they spread it in just a few seconds.

Tian Xuan finally stopped teasing and looked questionably at the official behind the usual trio, while a fox was walking besides Ji Li too. “This is Lu Wei; he has taken it upon himself to be my assistant for the coming challenges.” He didn’t put much emotion or emphasis on him, Tian Xuan had experienced the behaviour of Ji Li enough to know that it meant he wasn’t so important, he might be of help, but he wouldn’t be important enough to be remembered, at least not in the long run. But for him to be taken in by Ji Li is enough of a reason to inspect him and think of recruiting him after Ji Li is done with him.

Then Ji Li moved to Lila, the fox, and introduce her happily “She is our new companion for some time! Lila will be helpful in our endeavour during the military…”

Tian Xuan heard something click in his head as he said “Right! You said at the behest of me? Did I miss some letters or something?”

Ji Li shook his head “No, but… our last few weeks made us restless, even the plants are shaking, how could I sit still playing politics? I asked mentor and he told me to just join you and say that I was invited by you” he explained as he took out a scroll “This is our official invitation from you to join the military and be deployed directly in your outpost. Could you sing it?”

One of the people in the back that came from the stone building instantly interrupted when they saw that Tian Xuan was actually going to stamp it with his identification-jade “Commander, we can’t do something just like that- “

Tian Xuan glared at the woman that talked and told her off “It seems from our talk it wasn’t enough, but Ji Li, Ji Qianyu and Ji Shixuan will always be family and their command equals my command. As long as Lila travels with them, she will always have the right.” He ignored everything else and held his jade on the place where he was supposed to sing. The jade shined in green colours; the scroll followed soon. It pulled itself together on its own and a seal of light forms around it. With a final burst, the seal finishes and then dwindles, till all light motes are gone and the scroll unfurls itself once again. Now, where Tian Xuan signed just seconds ago, stands his name with a green tree behind it, meaning the emerald tree has approved of the contract and copies would be sent to all necessary posts.

In truth it wasn’t the emerald tree doing all this, there was a whole logistics department behind it, but the effect of what just happened was only made possible with assistance from the emerald tree, so the logo of it would always be used in all contracts, it acted as the neutral overseer of sorts, obviously a flaw since it has sentience and thereby its own opinion. But its situation is special enough that one can still call it as a valid judge of contracts.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The woman, one that looks beautiful, tall and is only in her twenties, became red with embarrassment. Tian Xuan looked at her in a slightly disgusted way as she rushed out. ‘Wait, what is happening? Why does she behave like a little girl being scolded by… no way, this ain’t true, right? I get human greed, but marriage oaths are much more serious in this world, like they are actually binding… how can she think this way?’

It didn’t matter too much to Ji Li, he was always happy about volunteer sacrifices. From the way Tian Xuan looks like, she probably confessed to him while Hua Jing was away. We cease our talk and I ask for a private talk with Tian Xuan.

There, he briefly explained all their abilities. Not in depth, that would be a breach of privacy, even if he was allowed to do that technically. He shortly explained that Lu Wei was an observation system, but kept the name of it, which Lu Wei mentioned prior, to himself. It was called ‘Water Mirror’, it had different uses that the official hadn’t seen for himself yet, Ji Li became creative and gave him ideas, but an ability the official already knew was the projection of pictures.

With a bit of imagination, Ji Li found out that he could reflect the image that a droplet of water sees from dozens of meters away on a large screen. With more refinement during the journey, Lu Wei was able to make floating stationary observation spheres, and he could then be the control room, as any reflection of it would go through himself before it is projected on the monitor.

Both abilities combined made him an observation tower that would show the current state to his commander and give direct feedback he gets from all spheres while he only shows one monitor. With all combined, he can make a full real-time battle map, and invaluable ability. It would be able to evolve into more, but once again, Ji Li refrained from revealing too many ideas.

Lila’s ability was summarised as special tracking and danger sense. Lu Wei would be able to detect major movement, while Lila would detect sneaky attacks on a smaller scale. Shixuan instantly explained that he had the ability to build and control fortresses, so Tian Xuan told him to arrange his talent and arrays all around the outpost, so he would control a part defence of the outpost. The essence stones stationed all around would be help his energy expenditure.

Joining the talent-reveal, Qianyu explained his ability and reduced it mainly to one part, so he would permanently use his wind on the lowest level for everyone, even if it only made them slightly more comfortable, while spiking the output for whoever is fighting. This passive and active support would be very good for outposts, which were under constant attack and normally never had time to replenish their energy.

Ji Li said he had ways of long-range attack that would debuff his enemies, he would be able to enhance essence recovery and also be good defensively if the enemies came too close. All three eunuchs had abilities which were basically made for war, but their versatility was so very high that they wouldn’t fall back in other occupations either.

Tian Xuan nodded and was thankful for their reveal, he was open about the fact that he didn’t have any Talent Refiners in his outpost, and the awakeners didn’t include any with a special affinity, they were truly ‘basic’ soldiers, so to say. His talent was ‘Vivid Gale’, it would enhance the vitality of the wind, strengthening the natural regeneration, while also strengthening minorly.

Because of his expertise, Tian Xuan could on whoever gains the buff, splitting its usefulness. All of their talents were good for outposts, probably why the system instantly approved, and why the military would pay closer attention on them now.

Ji Li sent them all out as they finished discussing their abilities. He stopped to talk with Xuan “Uncle… you probably guessed this wasn’t out only goal… but in truth, we are lacking in physical foundation. None of us is slacking, but our discipline in that regards can’t be compared to how well we cultivate. Our foundation is a living example, in all truth, I could advance to the talent refining realm without touching my foundation at all, but I worry what comes after, if we advance with poor bodies. We will naturally become stronger with each advancement, but is that truly enough? I feel like this would be an opportunity missed, so I wish for things to turn differently.”

Tian Xuan nodded and said “I will tell the trainers to include you and be strict on you. Don’t worry, all military trainers put their job above any rank and background… for eunuchs, it might be weird at the beginning, but that would settle with time.”