Return To The Outposts!

Outskirts of the eastern outpost, also known as outpost 2 or central outpost led by Shidar. Day 83 of the mission; at night.

Vrooom~.

"Heh? What is that!" In a group of a dozen people, about 2 whole teams at most, a person barely heard the surging sound of an engine moving a large and heavy object through the ground before directly pointing at it and screaming at the top of his lungs for his other fellow sect disciples to hear. Immediately, his partners looked to where he pointed and saw lights coming from the thick, tall bushes in front!

“Get away!!” One of the disciples shouted out loud with a face filled with surprise and terror at being so close to being run over by the huge armored car. His shout alarmed but also woke the rest of them up and helped them dodge the incoming armored car before it managed to reach them. However, the armored car had by then already stopped, leaving sight of sprawling disciples on the dirt and grass with an armored card being just a few shy meters away from the nearest disciples.

Tooh~, step step.

The opening of a hatch ensued, followed by the sound of metallic footsteps. The disciples, who were awkwardly starting to stand up once again could see a figure standing on the roof of the armored car. It was a slender and tall figure, but it somehow gave off a childishness to himself…

“Who are you, and why the hell have you not saluted me already?” Though the words were harshly spoken, Ciemnosc’s tone was still calm and even soft for that matter. He also said those words with his arms crossed and looked down at them as they looked up at him from below.

“Sir is that you?!” A disciple said, recognizing Ciemnosc’s figure at last. These weren’t new recruits but the ‘elite’ of his corps, a Spirit Gathering realm core disciple of the sect. And hearing the disciple’s words and exclamation, the other disciples became astounded, while Ciemnosc’s disguised face by the darkness of the night was accompanied by his questioning words. “Who was patrolling before you? Like a couple of hours ago, which groups?”

“Ah, sir. That was one of their teams. They finished their round just about 30 minutes ago. We are recently patrolling here, commander.” The disciple who spoke at first responded, seemingly the team leader of both teams or of the same team. But Ciemnosc’s right eyebrow was lifted as he asked yet again, “Who is ‘they’?”

“Oh…right… Commander, there are…err, like 2 sides on our corps. There are some who are still at the orders of you, sir. But others are…well, not content with commander’s strength and leadership, so they basically grouped together and declared themselves as a different force altogether…while you, commander, was uh… Ahem, gone.”

It could be seen very obviously how embarrassing and humiliating of a situation this entire ordeal, which happened before Ciemnosc came back, made the disciple feel as if he even had difficulty calling Ciemnosc commander due to having such taboo bullshit like that happen while he was gone. But the disciple didn’t forget to be detailed in his explanation; he continued.

“It is led by both Joah and Jenlin, while there is also the one that…uh…” The disciple hesitated, clearly apprehensive of the weight of the next words he almost spoke out. He looked upturned at Ciemnosc as the latter then asked him directly, “The one that what, speak already, why even bother hesitating when that can be considered disobeying my orders?”

“Urrh, ahem!” The disciple stopped being so wishy washy and finally began speaking like a soldier, a warrior. “Yes, commander! It is Oscar, sir, the one they are trying to brainwash people by telling them how much better of a talented, rising genius he is, and compared to you, he could become a Conflagrate realm cultivator anytime within the next decade! While sir, on the other hand, would take about half a century to reach where this Oscar currently is in terms of cultivation base.”

“However, their ‘side’ is only a few hundred big. They have never before shown much in the eyes of our fellow sect disciples, while the subordinate cultivators were deeply afraid of looking at the other side because they are the weakest bunch and want to avoid any reprisal from their ‘masters’ which were the sect disciples in each of our outposts.”

“Hence, they hadn’t been able to stir up any…trou…be… Oh fuck!” In the middle of his words, the disciple realized what was going on and how it came to be that despite being in the range of the line of communications, not a single notice or report from a messenger arriving was given. Only then did the disciple realize why the commander was so suspicious…

“Go ahead and warn them, I’ll continue moving forth, tell Shidar ‘to be ready’ because I won’t stop until I arrive at outpost 2. And tell her that I order the other outposts’ leading figures to bring their entire armored cars’ divisions to the outpost unless they want some canning.” Ciemnosc commanded while going back into his commanding vehicle, not even giving the disciples any other glance and preparing to move his armored car forwards once more.

“Oh,” the disciple in question nodded and saluted with his right hand to his forehead at Ciemnosc, who could see it within the armored car’s surveillance arrays and with his Spirit Sense alone. Then, the disciple began to speak to his Identification Token, as the device on his collar wasn’t for such long-distance communications, while Ciemnosc’s armored car continued driving west.

However, in the middle of the disciple finishing relaying Ciemnosc’s orders, he and the 2 teams around witnessed an ever so majestic sight with their eyes, the most grand of them all in their lives yet.

“Who are they?” - “Oh, are those the ones who came here first?” - “Woaaah! I can see the what was it called? …Oh right, outpost! I can see it from here!” - “My god! We’re finally arriving. My poor horse is thirsty. It also needs water!” - “...Your horse do be kinda cute tho…” - “... … …”

“What the…” Hearing all sorts of stuff, really, all sorts of stuff from the sect disciples that came towards them right behind the commanding vehicle of their corps’ commander. The disciples of the teams looked on with their mouths agape and their eyes not fully opened but looking as surprised as eyes that were. All in all… they were flabbergasted seeing the wide and extremely long line of people moving on the ground and through the air.

“I think…it is no longer going to be ‘commander’ how we call our leader…” The disciple said, his Identification Token in his right hand slowly, so slowly lowering itself down as he looked at the insanely huge tail of the armored vehicle. No wonder it moved so slowly despite being the fastest vehicle of the sect.

“...He- he may just be called…from now on as…General!” Said the awestruck disciple, awe striking the rest of his subordinates within the teams, including the other team’s team leader, and making them all feel a sense of greater reverie than ever before. And that was already too much, for a kid, and for a Link Consolidation realm 7th stage inner sect disciple…

… On the other hand, Ciemnosc continued to traverse forwards in the direction of outpost 2, his armored vehicle was there, and it had nothing wrong with it. It was merely moving really slow due to the people that he had to make sure weren’t defecting, playing around or sabotaging their surroundings. Quite a few dozens had been beheaded for that matter after all, though others weren’t beheaded.They got their brains crushed by Mosto instead.

They became docile due to the tyrannism of Ciemnosc. He had all rules in this mission and over them; completely. If he so wanted to punish somebody, that somebody could become nobody if he also willed it. It was in such a way that the low realm disciples and Spirit Gathering realm disciples came to know of the difference between the sect and a ‘great mission’ like this one.

It was even more so when there were a total of 2 revolts. And they were even early on in the march towards the Little Lake, barely an hour after coming out of the sect’s territory and still within the organizational territory.

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For whatever reason, perhaps at the thought of being protected by the sect still and feeling smug and arrogant enough to do as they wished. But whatever the case it was, Mosto was ganged upon by a few hundred when he crushed 2 cute, beautiful girls’ heads for violating the rules set by Ciemnosc as soon as they were all selected by the sect and introduced to Ciemnosc.

That was the first revolt, which ended with almost 100 lives of the lower realm disciples; as for the 2nd and last revolt, it was for the discontent and mere disgruntled thoughts and emotions from the sheltered lower realm disciples who either never went to arenas or that much at least, or were basically never defeated, always fighting those that are weaker than them and vulnerable to their weapons and style for fighting - or killing.

As for any other revolts, well, after hundreds were made a mess out of Mosto’s annoyed face and corporeal movements such as running through the crowd of insubordination…no more such things happened during the rest of the march towards the Little Lake.

On the other hand, to the surprise, but a mildly gladdening one, of Ciemnosc, a huge, large 100,000+ of those Spirit Gathering realm cultivators, Phrenic realm, and, lower realm disciples were…basically under the orders of grand elder Jing Zhu to accompany him not just to the Little Lake, but also to follow his lead and every order until new orders were given to them from her.

On the day of departure from the sect’s territory, Ciemnosc met Taldes right a few hours before finally leaving. From there, he learned a bit about the situation with the grand elder’s power. Basically, those 100,000+ disciples sent to his aid in the disguise of being ‘mere’ volunteers were just a small detachment from a contingent of a small force that was under her.

Indeed…just like that, Ciemnosc came to know of the extreme popularity and capability of the grand elder. And he could, of course not help but become amazed as he received the disciples with indifference. It was all about the play, and how one acted, wasn’t it?

In any case. As it came to marching out of the sect’s territory, within the organizational territory of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, Ciemnosc was yet again amazed at the discipline and orderly behavior of those disciples. For a quick reorganization of his corps, Ciemnosc already had sect disciples and subordinate cultivators differentiated from each other.

Besides that, within both different bodies of the corps, if it could still be called that, as it was now an army at the very least straight up. There was already an ‘inner differentiating’ that separated the cultivators at the Spiritual Ligament, Spiritual Condensation, and Link Consolidation realms from the Phrenic realm cultivators and the Spirit Gathering realm cultivators.

Hence, this ‘small detachment’ from the grand elder’s forces, to incorporate them into his army, Ciemnosc gave them the name Hidden Head corps, or HH corps for short.

Hence, this HH corps became quite the ‘ones to follow’ for everyone else that was behaving like an unruly brat out of home for the first time, thinking they could rule the world and not knowing of the world’s dangers and insecurities that bad parents don’t teach their kids with.

Their doctrine was simply admirable. In a way, many had been in battles, and some rarely haven’t gotten to kill or even refused to do so. While most were naturally killed, some had been through real battles and some through large or even overextended battles, which were not a war only because either party involved or more were just not willing to go that far yet in this generation.

But now, such things are changing. In any case, the concept of an army and of war was still totally new and even unheard of for this generation, only when they saw the Hidden Head corps and their mannerisms did they begin understanding what a warrior would be made of…what it meant to be a soldier.

It was even more so when there was the first ‘ambush’ that the whole 1.35 million sect disciples experienced. However, it was a goddamn mess, mostly because Ciemnosc didn’t explain, gave an example or 2 about it nor did he teach these people what to do in the case that a ‘convoy’ this long of sect disciples and horses, camels, and pelicans should so in an ambush.

But, to even start explaining to these people what to do, it would be not with ambushes but with skirmishes that the enemy would use to harass them. After all…how in the fuck would an enemy force the size of their own ambush them without being utilized? Concealment array formations couldn’t be anywhere near as large as what could be for this much of heads.

Which was exactly what happened. There was no real ambush against the whole army. It was instead Ciemnosc who was actually receiving several ambushes, with Mosto coming to his rescue every single time, annihilating a total of almost about a few thousand on his own from the organizational territory all the way to the outskirts of the corps’ outposts.

As for the forces that attacked him, they consisted only of the Moribund Yearning Cult and the Eagerburning Flames Sect. The reasoning was explained to Ciemnosc the moment he was about to depart from the sect’s territory by the always incredible and loyal Taldes, who in the knowledge of Ciemnosc, has already received a Supreme grade Powerful Stone from grand elder Jing Zhu.

What Taldes reported to Ciemnosc was simple; big momma grand elder Jing Zhu struck yet another deal with the Preferential Light Justice after Ciemnosc showed his huge, thick, and immense brain in the grand hall and even traded off with the major organizations like it was nobody’s business and in such a manner that was rather generous.

Hence, a quickly thinking, clever and efficient grand elder managed to convince a grand ancestor to make her bring her sect, master, to ‘talk’. Thus, a new deal was made, with grand elder Jing Zhu managing to convince the sect master this time not just to send out orders not to ambush the newly coming army to the Little Lake of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect but to also convince the others of not putting any actual decisive forces against Ciemnosc’s new army.

The way she did it was simple, grand elder Jing Zhu simply relied on what her birds told her in many messages, not only about Ciemnosc’s crazy achievements, but the little bit of time spent together with her— or ‘there’ at this point…? —little Ciemnosc that the sect master spent with…

All in all, with some flattery, some reminding of Ciemnosc’s efforts and his potential as well as the great, huge chance of committing a never before-seen alliance, not a temporary alliance but an alliance. And, of course, along with some extra words to remind the sect master of the Preferential Light Justice Sect of her emotions and thoughts she had back then, and she was in the bag; well, she and the whole sect for that matter.

And so, a cute and sweet sect master went over to communicate with the 2 other major organizations without the knowledge of the all-so mighty Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, dwindling the already low numbers of their members within the latter’s organizational territory and in the central west of the Region.

Of course, this was also a hidden threat, for doing this meant that Ciemnosc would have larger forces to deal with in the future since the forces that escaped the borders of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s organizational territories and crossed through them to rush towards the Little Lake would be reuniting in their hidden camps and wait for an even greater chance at striking and finishing them up.

After all, even if there were tens of thousands of Spirit Gathering realm members of their organizations that they could send, they also had many subordinate organizations from which they could directly recruit and then send into the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s organizational territory - nothing could stop the other major organizations, and it was even more so because of the always existing corruption within said borders - bribes were but the most normal thing for such strong forces to go through into the center and western center of the Region…

And it even seemed as if there were more and more bribes of such going through, also being ‘allowed’ as well, lately. In short, even if there was not many forces ‘ambushing’ Ciemnosc’s new army, there was a massive gathering of enemy forces that were surely going to ally up to one another to face off Ciemnosc’s command; outposts and strongholds as well as that damned port that had yet to be finished so there was still some time…

Besides, after studying for so long and sending Craftspeople in quantity and of high quality, the other major organizations could now confidently send their forces into the battle and build a ‘definitive’ port with ships that would be actually useful for battle and immeasurably made for and only for cultivators.

Hence, it was now more than ever in the entire history of the world that the notion of sending their entire armies into the Little Lake was the most important event or soon-to-be war in the entire world, with such a great event happening in the ‘main’ Region of the world.

There were resources for the last few generations, ever since General Hanato Wang, that had been kept since his death and the earliest demise of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect.

There was manpower big and large enough all over the Region to make sure enough cannon fodder was to be sent to death in the eyes of all 4 major organizations. Well, except for the Preferential Light Justice Sect, which in the last few dozen years, it had begun to show and see its own members with utmost care. They were the major organization with the least number of members in their infrastructure after all, but the second most powerful ‘if’ compared to the always strongest - major organization in the world nowadays.

There was logistics now, in a way. Though it was rather poor considering they all came from one little boy and not from their own hands. It wasn’t like there wasn’t an attempt to create their own, there was, but such projects would take, at the very least, 8-10 years to a few decades - and that was without confirming that ‘their’ version of ships and a port would be better or even equal to the little kid in question.

Those discoveries only worked up the major organizations' upper echelons and Craftspeople. Not only did they debate on whether to kill or capture, hence giving birth to the death of a few thousand of the strongest and team working core disciples/core believers of their sects and cult to be cut their shoes and sent off to heaven - but also to delve more into whether or not to accept into dissecting him publicly, for the sake of the world of cultivation and the new realm!

…