Progress Of The Port Mission

While the outposts near the Little Lake suffered minor casualties to speak of, the land mission's forces were also victims of some attacks and even assaults from the other major organizations. Though almost all of these were simple attacks, like scouting parties facing each other and exchanging lives, there was truly never a time that an 'ambush' happened between them and the land mission's forces.

Even then, from the land mission and their outposts spanning over the entire central-eastern riverbank, their losses over the past 3 months weren't just about their sect disciples, numbering about the thousands in total to the point they had their total amount of disciples to even less than half, as they lost hundreds per every 1 or 2 of their outposts being attacked and in the end forced to be driven away further to where the forces of the port mission were stationed.

Then, as their commander left outpost 2 with a whole 200,000 new disciples for his land mission, their few thousand remaining disciples became just a few thousand and 200,000 more in their numbers. This would allow them to easily recuperate the lost temporary outposts for the simple aid of taking care of the Little Lake without having another major organization building a port around it.

On the other hand, outposts 1, 2, and 3 got what they each deserved, which was an actual equal number of sect disciples. While the stronghold itself received its own quantity as well.

Each outpost, from the 1,150,000+ sect disciples designated to become the port mission’s newest flesh and blood for its completion, gained more than 200,000 disciples. From about 71% of them were all below the Phrenic realm or below, mostly at the Spiritual Ligament realm.

On the other hand, the stronghold got a total of 550,000+ new flesh and blood into their ranks, insanely increasing the number of things that the otherwise ‘timid’ and defensive-always outposts could do and giving the stronghold much more maneuver at the time in case it was needed for more troops to be deployed from it to the 3 outposts defending it to death.

As such, if it came to more enemies from the major organizations, all attacking them at the same time, then it was now more than doable for these outposts to defend themselves. Only if it became a really difficult situation for whatever reason for the outposts to defend themselves would the large number of troops in the stronghold come out and meet the enemy alongside the outposts’ forces.

And from the 1.15 million new sect disciples, 816,500 outer and inner disciples formed part of those below the Phrenic realm cultivation base or below, with 333,500 belonging to the Spirit Gathering realm core disciples. Their stages might all vary within their respective realms. But they each had shown their worth, however big or important, to the sect with their previous records. Or at least for most of them.

In the outposts, those at or below the Phrenic realm numbered around 142,000, while in the stronghold it was an amount of more than 390,500. The rest were of course all at the Phrenic realm and the Spirit Gathering realm.

About 58,000 of those above from within each outpost and 159,500 for the stronghold. Combined with the previous sect disciples who had already been battle hardened for the last 3 months, the stronghold now had a total of 573,000 sect disciples and still around 140,000 subordinate cultivators. While outposts were a bit different since they’ve been suffering losses differently.

Outpost 1 had the least number of losses among their ranks, their total sect disciples amounting to more than 227,000 with more than 20,000 subordinate cultivators still at their disposal.

Outpost 2 had the most powerful attacks made against them during this whole time that Ciemnosc wasn’t around. So they had 220,000+ sect disciples and more than 26,000 subordinate cultivators now at their full disposal.

Finally, outpost 3 had around 224,000+ sect disciples and more than 25,000 subordinate cultivators at their disposal.

And so, with this, the true pressing manner of failing to have enough forces to defend the outposts in the next several weeks or months should the major organizations go all out in order to group tens of thousands of their members to attack them in waves or directly all out - was partially resolved. There was still a now lacking amount of armored cars for the new Spirit Gathering realm disciples, but that could be taken care of thanks to Ciemnosc…

As the day came with its afternoon and most of the people were distributed and carried over to their respective outposts, and those for the stronghold had naturally also arrived at their destination as well as the land forces were already on their way back with a lot more of help from Ciemnosc to form encampments more solid and efficient than random outposts. Ciemnosc, at the stronghold, had already brought the other 3,000 Craftspeople into the stronghold and sent the other few hundred to each of the outposts.

After all, though the outposts did have a whole lot of industries, factories, and manufacture for processing resources and forming some of the necessary components for tools or their armored car’s repairs - it was the stronghold the only large enough city-like base which could actually produce brand new, more armored cars for commander Ciemnosc’s army.

. . .

It was the night of the 90th day of the mission. Ciemnosc was standing on the balcony of his mini-mansion within the stronghold.

With his head changed positions every now and then to either gaze at the dark deep blue sky or at the freezing-like but perfectly flowing water of the Little Lake’s most shallow areas. His hands held each other behind his back, sometimes, it was the right hand holding his wrist, and some other times it was the left hand holding his right wrist.

Ciemnosc’s figure, as he stood on the balcony and looked westwards, was lonely. Mosto was a floor below Ciemnosc. His snoring could be heard only by him despite the soundproof array installed within Mosto’s temporary bedroom, it was just one of the bad things about being such a special and unique monstrous genius in the world, but Ciemnosc could live with that.

As Ciemnosc heard snore after snore, he had already become relaxed while gazing at the simply obscure lands of the world without any light to illuminate anywhere outside the stronghold’s perimeter. Even then, his eyesight could go farther from what anyone could be able to see with their naked eye, as he could even look at the mid-deep areas of the Little Lake if he wanted to.

“Alright Schnell, speak.” Ciemnosc suddenly said as he gazed slightly up with his head slightly inclined backwards. At the next second, a shadow could be seen coming from below and ‘running’ upwards on the wall up to Ciemnosc’s balcony.

The mini-mansion itself wasn’t any bigger than most buildings in the ‘working section’ of the stronghold. But it was still impossible for someone at the Spirit Gathering realm to walk on walls like it was nothing, that was if they either didn’t have any tools to allow them to do just that kind of thing or a very strange and rare technique of sorts. Schnell had the former, of course.

“Sir, wow! Your Spirit Sense is really wide and powerful! I could barely feel it despite having cultivated to a much higher realm than you.” Schnell said, becoming apprehensive of his overly enthusiastic self midway after he had already raised his voice and spoken too many words in that volume. But seeing Ciemnosc only give him a side glance for that matter, he explained himself as best as he could.

“Sorry, Commander. It’s just that it has been a long time since you were here, I was glad to see you coming back, even if there are rumors about Miss Valeria not coming back and all that stuff… Me and my people whom you’ve given the greatest of chances to make use of their innate capabilities, are always at your service.” Schnell bowed, not much but in a heartfelt demeanor.

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“...” Ciemnosc kept his silence for a few more seconds while giving Schnell a side glance before moving his lips and speaking after making a little smacking sound. “Someone with your capabilities has to maintain calm, then. And as for the others, the good news is you can now get 30 more people under you. Additionally, there is 4 downstairs who have good enough qualities to join you. Consider them an extra.”

“!” Schnell, all at once and out of the blue, became incomparably excited as he looked up at his Commander. Then, without any ceremonial extra act, he clasped his hands and bowed again towards Ciemnosc. “Many thanks Commander! I won’t fail you, nor me nor my people!!”

“Have you managed to get an answer?” Finally, Ciemnosc asked what Schnell was more than prepared to respond to since it took him way too much time to even just get clues about it, let alone the time that it took him to just find the supposedly important place that his Commander entrusted him with finding.

“The place was found not too long ago, less than 2 decades ago, and has been unusually becoming more and more powerful as time passed. The hills, steep and large make it difficult for anyone to try and invade their surroundings, let alone the place where they are specifically located, which is all surrounded by artificial hills and even wide lakes with great profundity.”

“Commander, with all respect, if we are to ever try to conquer this place in the future, we at least need a type of flying vehi-” Schnell finished saying his report and then began speaking his mind out, it wasn’t a thing to shut up and behave like a robot when dealing with Ciemnosc’s casual orders anyway.

“Shh.” But Ciemnosc ‘casually’ shushed Schnell, who had no choice but to immediately shut up, not that he minded as if he was insulted and shamed for life. But he did pout a little and looked at the side of the mansion to see some buildings with their lights on.

“You may leave now, just take those 4 out of my sight, and don’t let me see the, for the time being,” Ciemnosc said as he closed the papers that Schnell brought to him after his intel-gathering mini mission was over, putting it in his Covert Space bag to later on keep on reading it again and again before burning it into ashes for good.

“Yes sir!” Schnell made a quick salute and then disappeared, his shadow blurring as it made its way downwards and reached the ground. Without making any sound, much to Ciemnosc’s enjoyment, he opened the doors, entered through the main entrance of the mini-mansion, and made those 4 on the first floor become tensed up in an instant.

Only to, however give out some heartfelt words of loyalty and gratitude to Schnell once he sternly spoke to them of what their future would now become. As for clearing up their misunderstanding of him ‘begging’ Ciemnosc to spare them and to let him use them for his whatever ‘special forces’ thingie or so, Schnell simply let it be, ignoring it.

It didn’t matter what they believed, since they were now part of Schnell’s people, and he was Ciemnosc’s people. Hence his people were the Commander’s people. They would come to know, after the necessary rigorous all-rounder training, that it was Commander Ciemnosc who they responded to no matter what - not to him himself.

“...” On the other hand, Ciemnosc rested his hands a bit more on the handrail of his balcony and enjoyed the night landscape a bit more, before finally moving away once he cocked his head several times from left to right. Entering back into his bedroom, he got himself nude and fell flat on his bedroom, his thick but non-glamorous bed sheets feeling so damn amazing and fresh that made him close his eyes purely in enjoyment.

As he kept his eyes closed in a resting fashion, his body began moving within on its own, his blood ‘boiled’ a little, it gained some sort of a rush and his Power Energy was becoming too obvious that even a random Spiritual Ligament realm would be able to notice he was in the 7th stage of the…Phrenic realm!

“...” Ciemnosc opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling, his eyes helpless as he…advanced into the 8th stage of the Phrenic realm. In his little mind, he reluctantly thought. ‘Wow, have I been not only neglecting but also restraining my cultivation this much for so long? I couldn’t even notice that I was…’naturally’ breaking through, holy shit.’

. . .

There was going to be a whole week and a half worth of time where the Preferential Light Justice Sect, Eagerburning Flames Sect, and the Moribund Yearning Cult’s members would give Ciemnosc a most peaceful atmosphere where not a single attack would come from them whatsoever.

Of course, that didn’t mean that there would be no scouting and no guarding of the outpost, its perimeter, and its surrounding lands, even more so for the stronghold. As every single time that someone’s capabilities of either being skilled at tactics or strategy and of going so far to achieve anything were underestimated - bad things happened to the ‘bigger ones’ on the battlefield.

As such, right now, everything was still ongoing as normal, and as always in the daily life at the outposts or the stronghold. With the stronghold having a much higher number of disciples and subordinate cultivators and a much more grand array formation for surveillance, it was the outposts who had it easy to train their new troops and to set them right to where they needed to be for the near future when it came to battling to either defend…or attack!

With Commander Ciemnosc’s orders reaching everywhere, even the land mission’s forces, the outposts began to crazily focus all of their manpower and resources on training the new flesh and blood, teaching them from the manufacturing and processing of resources to the tactics which they have to learn and not just be told to do in the spur of the moment as it has always been the case within the sect.

Teaching strategies were difficult without practical examples, so many of the ‘classes’ for such matters were done outside the outposts, on the open field where it would be much easier to realize the things that need to be taught and where examples can be shown and explained much more detailedly with live-action images expressing the instructor’s words.

The stronghold was of course equally fucked, but with many more numbers. Despite always having been the ones with the least number of sect disciples among the port mission settlements of the then corps - now army.

With the aid of the loyal and changed subordinate cultivators, which had dropped off the attitude of being sent here or coming here to become heroes the fuck away and keeping their mentality to that of a soldier’s job to protect their stronghold and to learn from their superiors, they were even extremely helpful assistants for the Phrenic realm and Spirit Gathering realm instructors teaching all that Ciemnosc has taught them more specifically since the beginning of the mission; more or less.

It wasn’t like the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect didn’t have rules, military doctrines, or tactics and strategies of their own - rather, they were both obsolete and uncared for so long already. Even in the times that General Hanato Wang was alive, kicking and conquering most of the east of the Region, such things were lacking even in the last few years of the General’s life.

Only his command was the king of the battlefield, and that’s without talking about his immense power and the dominance he had over the other major organizations’ upper echelon. History tended to exaggerate, but that was not the case when it came to General Hanato Wang, whose respect was fully gained by even the mortals who secretly disdain cultivators - let alone those major organizations who got their asses wiped, shat on, and cleaned yet again by him in a matter of complete and utter dominance.

Records of how he was able to face the 2 strongest from each enemy major organization - be it the sect master and the grand ancestor as well as the pastor and the preacher of those times. There were even half a dozen battles in which General Hanato Wang faced them off and their brutal face-off ended in a stalemate, whereas not a single living soul was capable of admiring this view up close as they could be in the aftermath even if they were about a bit more than 100 meters away from where their battle was ongoing.

It was, in fact, in the last battle against these 6 formidable figures of the entire world that General Hanato Wang suffered mortal wounds to his person. His cultivation base was already at its utmost limit and his life as a General was already so full; completed.

However, for this last battle, it was not due to General Hanato Wang’s injuries the reason why he no longer battled the 6 most formidable figures of the entire world for fear of dying, as he had been critically injured since the very first battle of this kind, level, and magnitude.

Instead…it was because he no longer had any more enemies to battle 1 v 6-like. All he could do, as he solidified his new territory gained for the sect all across the Region, was to ensure that enough inspection of the new territory and setting up extremely dense defense lines all over their largest organizational territory for the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect before death could claim yet another legend of the world.

If he knew what the younger generation ended up accomplishing, instead of waiting for time and amassing resources, manpower, and stability - to lose all that was gained and even lose their previously already owned territory of the desert at the east… General Hanato Wang was to surely be rolling in his grave if he wasn’t burned to ashes as per his request. For real for real; ah.

But…that was something Ciemnosc had long ago no longer cared about after thinking about those stories of the most recent General of the world, conqueror and more powerful individual than any other of his time. Right now, he was focused on supervising his ongoing project, finally getting to complete most of it; finally building the port to its complete state!

With his hands behind his back and standing a few tens of meters away from where the port began and was embedded into the eastern riverside of the Little Lake, Ciemnosc looked up at the bright light blue sky and the sun barely rising. At the same time, tens of thousands of people were also nearby. These weren’t just onlookers, as each had a toolbox of their own with and or along materials that consisted purely of wood, some sort of fabric, and smallish tools not even the overall size of a teenager’s fingers.

At the outposts and stronghold. There were images from arrays projecting the last few tens of seconds of the port being built. Everyone was simply excited to see this day finally come!!

…