Chapter 16:

Chapter 16:

The five of us made for an amusing sight to those remaining in the outpost I imagined. Their snickering certainly made that image obvious as there were a few sect member milling around doing odd tasks such as cleaning.

"Here to give up?" A young looking man with silver hair asked.

He had the same white uniform as the other sect members I've seen so far.

"No, we're here to see what supplies we can requisition, what information we have available and if there's a map we can look over." I replied.

We were at the center of the small outpost now and the entire settlement was looking at us.

The man nodded at that with a pleased smile.

"There's one group every now and then that bothers to remember the fact that the sects are a part of the Army, even if we're not bannermen. If only there were more of you. Follow me I'll give you what I am allowed. You won't be allowed to stay here for the night by the way so you'll have to make shelter somewhere else." He said and motioned for us to follow.

He headed to one of the buildings in the settlement I assume acted like the central warehouse. It was certainly the largest of them and I assumed it served as the supply depot of the outpost as there's few reasons to make a building this large.

I nodded at that and motioned for my friends to follow.

In my past life there were stories of sects and cultivation, and more often than not they were independent and above royalty or other forms of government, or at the very least only nominally under Imperial authority with a very large degree of authority in their lands.

The Empress has decided that she wants exactly none of that, despite what the common man might think. I've read enough in the archives to see the patterns and notice sects are mere regional offices of the same special forces branches, and while they might have a certain degree of autonomy, they are as a whole a part of the Empire's armies and the cultivators in them soldiers sworn to the Empress.

The most damning thing was one little passage where she described the treachery of the Stellar Sect Blade and she described them as no longer fighting under her banners.

The little ceremony earlier also cemented that in my eyes. The Banners being kept equal with that of the Sect was nearly unheard of. This is due to the fact that to do such a thing with anything but another military banner was sacrilege.

"Those that fight under the shade of the banners belong to the Empress and must act as such." I said simply, my words an imperfect echo of the passage I read months ago.

It seems that, those words were the correct ones to say as the man's face morphed into a proud smile.

"Yes, too many fools forget that and think themselves above it. Your fellow applicants left and are on their own, if they succeed then all is good and if they fail then they only have themselves to blame. Regardless of that, whether or not they ask for supplies here, does tell us what sort of people they are." The silver haired man replied.

We entered the warehouse without incident and I saw something quite interesting. Between the rows of drawers there was a map, one ten times as tall as I was the described the local area plastered on a wall.

"Can we get a copy of the map or make one ourselves?" I asked simply.

Said map was a map of the local area, and most importantly showed the area we would have to go through, the small rivers, and even locations for supply drops or hidden sleeping spots if the bed sign there was anything to go by.

"You can make one, maps can only be requisitioned by sect members." He answered promptly.

"Bao, get to it. Focus on general location of sleeping spots and supply drops" I ordered.

She's the one that loves drawing and painting and if there's anyone among us that can draw something useful in whatever time we have here, then it's her.

"On it." She responded and proceeded to start pulling out her drawing kit and doing her best to replicate the map on a smaller scale.

"You have a cartographer?" The man asked.

He sounded impressed.

"She prefers calligraphy, but she does love drawing most things, including maps." I corrected.

The others continued behind me silently as it seems that they've decided to follow my lead right here and now.

"Still quite useful, now, what do you need? There's limits to what I can provide, but they include cultivation related assets primarily." He asked and turned to us.

"Food, ways to filter and store water, something to clean ourselves with, something that can protect us from rain as we sleep, Navigation aids, knowledge of local fauna or flora." I enumerated.

"Food, is on the shelf line number 14, knowledge of local fauna and flora on number 15, water proof tarps to protect from the rain on 22, I can't provide anything to help with navigation besides letting you copy the map, camp and cleaning supplies at number 21." He answered and pointed to each shelf line in question.

I turned to my squad and dispensed their orders.

"Da Xiu, you're on food duty get whatever looks like it'll last the longest, Yu Zong filter through the flora and fauna scrolls and ask Bao for something to write the knowledge on if you don't have any, she has spares. Ya Xue camp and cleaning supplies as well as the tarp to protect from rain. Leave your backpacks with me and I'll handle the sorting with what we keep as spares and the duplicates we don't need from among our kit." I ordered.

They did as I asked with a nod as it seems that they'll listen, for now at least.

Three backpacks and two packs were left at my legs as their former owners proceeded to do as I ordered.

"Leadership is not easy young man." The elder cultivator said.

"It isn't but someone has to do it elder." I replied and looked at him uncertainly.

He's the superior officer, he should have introduced himself first then asked us who we are, but he didn't which was making me feel awkward. There is propriety and when one meets someone of higher rank then it's up to them to introduce themselves first.

"I would have normally introduced myself by now, but unfortunately that is reserved for sect members. I am however not an Elder, but a Practitioner. t I suppose you wouldn't know the difference yet but there is one and is rather important. Just don't call me Elder, that title has meaning." He said softly.

I don't want to deal with that nonsense for now, I have far too much to do to worry about what that would mean.

"Thank you for enlightening me Senior, with your leave I'll get to doing my duties." I said and proceeded to remove my backpack.

"I'll leave you to it and inform you when you and your squad must leave."

My backpack touched the ground softly and I bowed once again.

"Thank you senior."

The man turned and left and I bent down towards the backpacks of my squad to sort out the contents

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Food, food, food. What food will last the longest?" I asked myself as I looked over the shelves.

Rice usually last long, so I took three bags. I also took two far smaller bags of salt that should last the five of us for a month just in case.

I considered taking one of the fishing poles but we already had two from what I recalled, mine and that of that Bao Xiaoli girl.

"Flatbread, yes, that last long and doesn't need to be cooked if we can't cook for some reason." I muttered and took a few of them as well.

This, combined with what we also have should last us enough time, now time to bring it back.

"What have you taken?" A female voice asked.

I did my best to not act as if she's spooked me but a quick glance at her showed that she did notice.

"Supplies, five pieces of flatbread, three bags of rice, two of salt." I answered.

"I'll note it down, but you'll want to take the red sacks with rice, that one was pre-cooked and will both last longer and be easier to cook." She said and something clicked in my mind when I saw her red hair.

She's the woman that took the banner, and that means that she's trustworthy.

"Thank you senior sister." I replied jovially and did like she proposed.

One does not dismiss the advice of family after all.

"Shen Xifeng, I am Shen Xifeng junior brother." She introduced herself.

"I am Da Xiu senior sister." I introduced myself with my best attempt at politeness.

Yu always says I should work on that more, judging by the fact the senior sister's smile was still honest then that meant I did a good job still.

"A pleasure to meet you junior brother Da Xiu. I will note down what you requisitioned, but I am curious to learn more of your squad's leader." She said softly with a twinkle in her eyes.

I could recognize those eyes anywhere.

"How much did you bet on us?" I asked bluntly.

The woman giggled at my question.

"We start the betting pool just after Nightfall, so we're trying to gather information to hedge our bets. The cherry skirts went to shadow their juniors hoping they'd catch some good seed, while most of the other sect members went with them when they saw nobody was coming back in." She revealed once she stopped giggling.

Never heard the cherry skirts description before, senior sister is truly wise to teach her juniors much.

"I can't tell you much besides his name, Tai Su, we've just met today and didn't have the chance to get to know each other but he seems… fine." I answered.

"Fine?" She asked as she sensed my hesitation.

"There's something weird with the way he reacts to things, one moment he's normal, the other is as if I'm talking to another person that happens to share the same body. The body language changes suddenly. It's the way his eyes look at things that starts reminding me of grandfather's and one moment I'm not standing near a man my age anymore, but near a dragon looking over a meal. I'm not against it, but it's weird." I clarified.

Tai Su is a strange man. He's determined, I'll give him that, but my first thought of him is that the moment he senses he has power over something he coils around it as if he's a dragon with his horde and he immediately decided that Zu, the cherry girl and I just belong to him now.

He seems to know what he's doing at least and one could get worse squad leaders, but it doesn't change the fact that the way the man immediately started acting as if we're a unit meant to be working together was weird.

"So the good type of weird then?" Senior sister asked.

Damn it, I forgot her name, well senior sister will have to do.

"Yes Senior Sister." I replied happily.

"Well, I won't keep you for long then, take care junior brother." She declared and then was gone.

I looked around for her but could no longer see her.

"I need to learn how she does that." I muttered.

Well, nothing I can do about that for now, time to get the food back to the group.

In the distance I could see Tai Su and the girls and I headed towards them. It seems that senior sister kept me occupied a quite a bit, but no matter. Everyone seemed to have gathered what we needed which, was definitely more than we started with.

'Maybe we can actually do this.' I thought happily as I headed towards my new squad.

"I brought foood!" I declared loudly.

The others looked at me and unlike the old looks I am use to that showed me that people were annoyed with my rudeness, Tai Su just looked relieved that I brought the food.

"Good, come here and help me arrange the food, I need to arrange things properly to prevent spillage." The man asked.