Chương 22: The Incredible Mr Burnout

"It appears that we have a problem," Elder Flower summarised rather accurately as she looked down at the huge army surrounding the mountain of the Illusion Room Sect. Jin's heart skipped a beat and he almost wanted to puke blood at the calm air of the answer. Their mountain, their home, their sect, was surrounded by a gigantic army and her reply was that it appeared they had a problem? For fucking sure they had a problem, they were being invaded!

It was only the strict hierarchy of the cultivation world that stilled Jin's tongue from giving a biting retort. However, the next words made him calm down somewhat.

"I wonder what they want this time," Elder Flower muttered seemingly to herself as they stood still in the air on her floating sword.

"Has this happened before?" Jin asked confusedly, trying to think of reasons why they were currently being besieged.

"The red plume and their insignia are quite obviously marking them as a unit of the Imperial army. It's an organisation primarily responsible for defending the realm and enforcing the law on mortals. They mostly end up working at the border, however. Them being here now likely means that there has been an issue," Flower answered. Jin's heart rate lowered itself to a somewhat acceptable level of approximately 250 beats per minute.

"So they're not here to invade us?" he asked, just to clarify. It was at this that Elder Flower's composure broke and she actually turned around to give him a flat look, as if asking him how he could have ever been so stupid as to believe that. Jin personally didn't know what other reaction he was supposed to have when he unexpectedly found an entire fucking army camping at the doorstep of his sect, but excuse him.

"Of course not, what would an army even be able to do against our sect? It's mostly just composed of mortals, alongside a few imperial cultivators to fill out the command structure. I could probably beat their general without even using my sword," she muttered as if chastising Jin for his idiocy. The inner disciple meanwhile just looked to the sky close to his eyes and released the frustration he was beginning to experience from this stupid situation.

Of course, it made sense that an army wouldn't be able to beat even a crafting-focused cultivation sect. Armies were primarily made out of mortals, as no single sect could field more than even at most 5000 cultivators. Mortals fought in grand battles where hundreds of thousands lost their lives and fields were turned to mud and blood. Cultivators meanwhile fought one-on-one battles in which entire landscapes were rearranged and physics itself lost meaning as they exploded alongside the rest of the surroundings.

"Anyway we should probably just go. They're likely meeting in one of the pagodas," Elder Flower suddenly decided before the flying sword jetted again through the air towards the peak of the mountain, which Jin had not seen before in any great detail. It was a surprisingly modest affair which he knew was reserved exclusively for elders and the occasional core disciple.

Some caves were hewn into the rocky tip of the mountain and simple huts along with more elaborate large buildings looking to be either libraries or workshops littered the space sparsely. Despite the area being smaller than the bottom parts of the mountain the elders had much more space available to them. It looked beautiful and all, however, Jin wasn't really sure what he'd lost there. After all, he was still only an inner disciple and thus very far away from reaching the halls of power of his sect.

"Shouldn't I perhaps be deposited elsewhere before you join the doubtlessly important meeting where it might be considered insulting for me to partake?" Jin asked dubiously as they continued their approach, feeling comfortable enough in his relationship with Elder Flower to voice his opinion. The woman in front of him simply scoffed loudly.

"Are you trying to waste my time? We have to debrief the sect leader on how our mission went. I'm not going to drop you off and then come get you again just to do that."

"Okay," Jin whispered in a low voice and closed his eyes. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Why was he suddenly starting to feel as if simply preparing for that martial arts tournament would have been the easier option in comparison to what was about to happen?

Regardless of any of his hesitations, their flying sword continued pointing stubbornly at a small one-floored pagoda where Jin's enhanced eyes already saw a rather large assortment of beige-robed Illusion Room sect Elders facing what appeared to be a trio of the soldiers that were besieging the bottom part of the mountain.

The only difference was that these soldiers were dressed in more fancy versions of the very same black chitin armour and uniform and had a more imposing air about them as if they were cultivators as well. It was as they drew closer that many of the people present in the pagoda, painted as it was in a creamy white paint topped with golden oriental accents, turned towards the two quickly approaching intruders.

Jin clenched his butt cheeks and tried to pretend that he was not starting to feel supremely uncomfortable about the situation as the flying sword ground to a noiseless but somehow deafening halt in front of the little white staircase leading into the roof-covered structure where a meeting was being held. It was just as Jin reluctantly stepped off the flying sword alongside Elder Flower and she shrunk the weapon back to normal size to clip it at her belt, that an annoying and nasal voice spoke up.

"I see that you finally deigned to join us as well Flower," Elder Lung, the Elder who had judged rather unfairly Jin's attempt to join the inner Disciple ring back in the day, spoke up. Upon having addressed Elder Flower he turned to Jin and turned up his nose, making his moustache look ridiculous from the new perspective that it was being shown in. Moustaches weren't supposed to be seen from below.

Elder Flower at this simply glanced blankly at the man, down to the ground, back to the man before tilting her head to the side.

"Huh, did you say something?" Jin coughed into his elbow in a very futile attempt not to break out and laugh at the face that Lung long made at that particular response. The sour old man was just about to reply something ungracious when a more authoritative voice interrupted the squabble before it could devolve. What had Lung been thinking anyway starting a pissing match like that in front of what were presumably outsiders?

Jin wondered as a simply dressed older woman who looked for all intents and purposes as if she was approaching 90 years of age stepped forward and waved her hand and the air.

"Calm down you two. We have visitors," she said first to Lung before turning to Flower.

"Join us and observe, we have things to discuss with General Shroud."

"I agree, sect leader Chun, who would ever be so crass as to waste the time of our precious visitors," Elder Flower said silkily before walking over to the line of elders standing there. At the same time, she dragged Jin behind her with one hand like a plush toy so that he stood behind her on the left. Elder Lung simply huffed and crossed his arms, looking away.

The soldier with the most impressive plumage on his helmet coughed into his fist to restart whatever he had previously been talking about while sect leader Chun gave him an encouraging look, similar to the one an elementary school teacher gave her students when they had to present in front of class for the first time.

"Anyway, as I was saying," the tall man started as he brought one hand onto the pommel of the ornate sword that hung at his side. He looked remarkably young for someone in his position, but of course, that never meant anything in this world.

"The borders have been stirring and perhaps as a response to how the last conflict was resolved, there seems to be a lot of signatures being picked up that are below the level of even an outer disciple. However, these beings are being accompanied by more powerful demons which will likely serve as interceptors for any large-scale eradication attacks and use the opportunity to counter.

After having examined the situation the consensus from the higher command is that we shall let the mortals face the weak masses while a select number of cultivators will be sent to dispatch the demons."

"A hard balance, always sending out just enough cultivators to win the battle, but not enough to reveal all our techniques," one elder close to Jin muttered, before the sect leader spoke up and they all shushed.

"I assume that due to your presence here, you are somewhat interested in modelling some of the threats approaching?" the sect leader asked, her wrinkled face pulled into a small smile. It seemed that she liked the idea of more business coming their way.

"Are there any identifiable markings on the demons with which we could prepare a specific scenario? Just like last time maybe," she suggested. The general shook his head.

"It is not the demons which we were able to group into some sort of class, which we could then prepare against. Rather it is the smaller threats that are appearing in recognizable multitudes. One of our cultivators was able to break through and capture some of them. It nearly cost him his life. We were able to figure out that this entire group, nearly 99% per cent of the actual incoming invasion, is composed of reanimated corpses." One of the elders spoke up here, an old man in a blue robe.

Perhaps one of the elders who didn't make scenarios, but rather the Rooms they fit into.

"We already have so many Jiangshi scenarios, it wouldn't be too difficult to dumb a few of them down so that even mortals could work with them." The general empathically shook his head.

"The only similarity is that they are reanimated corpses, seemingly from the lost civilization of the Dark Side. They are very different in the sense that they do not jump, but rather walk and run. The term we are considering to classify the general category is zombie." Jin swallowed his spit at the utterance of that particular phrase and nearly choked.

Thankfully it was only Elder Flower who seemed to have heard the small conundrum occurring within his throat as she tilted her head slightly to give him an odd look.

"If the only scenario you wish for is to do with the mortals, then us elders will be unlikely to be able to help much. We are too advanced spiritually to understand their limited perception," sect leader Chun mused.

"I do not care who makes the scenario, as long as it accurately reflects the threat at least somewhat, and as long as we can make a multitude of Rooms so that at least the army under my command can cycle through the training," the general replied calmly with a glint in his eye.

"I assume that as always it is only your corps which will undergo the training?" sect leader Chun asked, at which the general nodded.

"The others still refuse to see the use of preparing the lower ranks. This time I am preparing to hold a census to see how effective it truly is. If they do not trust me, perhaps they will trust the numbers. I consider it greatly fortuitous to have been born in the Illusion Room sect and to thus know the value of its products," the general muttered flatteringly. The sect leader waved him off.

"We are similarly lucky to have sprouted a seed as good as you, even if your fate drew you elsewhere in the end." She turned to the blue-robed elder who had spoken previously.

"How is the progress on the multi-access Room modem?" she asked brusquely. The elder in question tilted his head down and smiled.

"Nearly finished, it will be even easier to progress if the users are mortals or lower-level cultivators. However, the progress should perhaps be measured in years, not months."

"Good, you can't rush things like these. Then the only thing we have to decide now is which disciples will have the privilege of working on this contract," sect leader Chun declared. Suddenly all eyes turned to Jin. The general also turned in his direction, although he seemed more focused on Elder Flower instead.

"There is only one way, no?" General Shroud asked aloud.

"We have only a few months before the conflict, so let's do it the traditional way. Announce the competition."