Title: The Elders March. Part 2. The Logic of the Mad
Alternative Title: The brotherhood did choose The Minions' life.
Xxx
(Madness level: the builders)
Centurion Praesentinus Diogenus newest headache walked on. This madman was an incredible subordinate, able and capable of providing so much creature comfort, perform so many duties at once and did so while finish them fast and even made great reports, The little ones, not the book ones, still. This is the less crazy one in the entire brotherhood? Really? At last, he knows why he is called the 'dependable one'.
"Legionary the builder reporting for duty sir, I have the write reports here with me" the platina man said, with a single paper in one hand and a small book in another.
"Give me a verbal report, I want your feedback on this". He commanded.
"Yes sir, we are ahead by a week in the march schedule, we also gained 14 days of food and water; and 10 days' worth of a first heavenstage salary by doing some work in the city" this is what he was talking, this rabbit hole has no end. They reach the rock bottom and digger it deeper.
Massaging his temples, while the legionary waited, he look to his side at his, new, wardrobe…one that has an art of himself raising a spear and with what looks like a dead hunter on the ground to complete the scene, that art was life size, the crazy one got the message behind his, unspoken, command and walked to the wardrobe, opened a secret compartment were his now hides his alcohol, the mad man got one drink, and start adding herbs, honey and fresh milk to a glass; how them discovered that he like this combination with his drinks he has no idea, and he also don't want to know.
After drinking. He put his hands together and command the legionary once more, this time verbally.
"Report what else you crew is planning. What they already started first. Then speak to me what else they tried to do that you are holding back" yeah this is the thing, the number of crazy ideas that this poor bastard needs to listen and (try to) stop is absurd, no wonder he is also mad. Which is one more reason to always have less mad subordinate if he desires to have this crew add to his troops in the future.
"Another young master wants his sewer fixed; this one will pay more for mural art of his political enemies drowning in the area where the shit flows with the water. Said bonus would make for a significant payment on itself." Stuff like this.
"Continuing the report, the third brother had learned some new recipes from the local homeless, there a significant number of 'birds' "the mad one said while making air quotes "that, for some reason, people call instead of flying rats for think that they are true birds, these 'birds' …" making another air quote "…had been allowed to move freely on this city, seems like a dead for years now, core elder used to watch them. The reason why this happened changes from person to person. One says that the core elder was using those to easy his own dao from some heart demons from getting worse, another say that his got insights from those flying rats, some say that he had the dao of flying rat".
The platina green man waits, to see if was allowed to continue.
"Seems like that the flying rats are allowed, to this day, on his family garden where they still grown some strong herbs. Some of the herbs that the family sell in the market and in the black market are good even for 8
th heaven stage cultivators" the rabbit hole has no end.
"We had report from the legionaries that some of the stronger stray cats can kill most of those, so called, birds. And we already know which birds to avoid. Because we watched the oldest felines actions and witness some of the young ones being slaughters, be dismembered then consumed to the last piece of fur" and this is the less insane brother.
Making a gesture to a refill, his soldier dutiful refill it. And waited.
"Call two of my personal assistances, you know who I am talking about" the green man nodded, walk to the door, open it and raise two fingers of his hand.
Say what you want of those mad ones. But they do try to help with everything they can. Like these new, and now essential, introduction to his way of command. More (mortal) scribbles for paperwork that can be delegate, (mortal) scholars that look for the even most minuscule of advances in the local laws and other matters, a (mortal) barman, among others. Like these two old ladies that are deaf and are great masseuses. The three (mad) people walked to his desk and wait further order that would never be spoken. There was a pulse of Qi from the builder neck. And the 'young' man continues to show that he was spectacular at reading body language and act/react to the will and wishes of his superiors. Which is a powerful tool in the cultivator world.
He starts to use hand sigh and translate what he was saying "Our Centurion wants something new, so close the windows, use the lamp array and the blue clothes to make this area a cozy blue to help our superior to relax. Burn one of incense in the box number four, while I prepare the tea." He starts moving to (new) tea set. Which was, another, show of madness inside madness that exist in the brotherhood, because that was made from 'bone porcelain'. Still the best damn set he ever had.
"Should I continue" the builder asked while the centurion moved to a portable bed, which was also the best he ever had while doing campaigns in other regions.
"Processed" he said.
He then continues with the hand gestures and translating. "Use your expertise, if you had any technique that you were keep as secret, then use them, the centurion also wishes you guys to focus on the back, feet and temples face. Still use your experience if that don't make sense or other area call for more attention." This is an amazing ability. They said the first builder could read people extremely well. Seems to be true if the second one plus the 'living will' can read his wishes to this degree.
The two, very old and muscular, ladies nodded, one start to throw peppers to the oil she was preparing the other went to his fireplace and put some ceramic balls close to the fire.
xxx
10 minutes later he had organized his thoughts, and while they continue to work, he continues to command the builder.
"This was a good find but is too good for us. I will report the birds matter to the higher ups. And with their direction we will see what we will do" he waits until the ladies finish a muscle knot. Shame that they can't handle more than 30 minutes of work on his steel like muscles. Maybe he will spare some stones if these two can/would use the damn things. 'Evil stones' ha! One more reason why they are crazy.
"There a change of using the living birds to get new seeds, using them as sources of intel and all kinds of things. This could very well be worth even a minute or two of our estimate cores elders" the mad man in the front of him nodded to that.
"Still, I sure you stopped some stupid ideas, share them all now that I relaxed" the green legionary paused, there were multiple exchange of QI of the 'young' man with the hidden gear that holds the previous (and certainly insane) builder.
Then an avalanche of crazy hit him. From giving 'doggos' to young masters, some bizarre plots and even the brotherhood 'stealing' some men and women into the night to marry. That one he allowed because they already paid the bride/groom price with the parents and the 'stealing' was either for showing off or because the bride/groom was into that.
Some of the new blood made sense since they could have or already have talent/skill/blood that some in their family had shown in the past. Other ones made less sense but that is madness for you.
But two of the especially crazy ideas either need more information or need to be stopped at all costs.
"Your brothers want to buy books and paper for what?! and offer to guide the damn blacksmiths?!?"
The man in front of him nodded. "There a intel coming from the front that some of the foundation establish and even a core elder in the, so called, 'noble' knowledge sect has a dao related to storage of knowledge" so far a sane line of thought "they have being besieged by many years and don't have many opportunities to trade" ok, this is already a little bid insane "so by getting books from these local, especially the ones less than useful in our lands would be something we would want to share"
"Then why only taking the ones from locals?" he interrupts the madman "Oh, I see, you want to weak the foundation of the damn blacksmiths? If so, this plan already has my blessing, but I want the list of all the books you guys want to get, but why the papers?" is horrible that this make a bit of sense.
"We also have a lot of laws books from the desert and for some reason, economical logs of the Jinshen, and their whole culture of their mortals. But the reason why we need paper is because we running out of those" by making too big reports?
"Because each member of the brotherhood to the last mortal member decide to share their more exotic finds that we believe are not of use for cultivators and that don't touch into golden devils' traditions and other information about our land" madness "someone had decided to bring porn from all factions, in this matter we got some kind of patron, most likely a core elder given the size of the contribution that he/she/it had send us. Enough porn to last a cultivator in Qi condensation a lifetime even reading every day from the moment he become a cultivator to his or her or their death. We only know that he/she/its symbol is a bull. We are unsure if this symbol is because the master that teach us five original brothers was a bull. Or some other kind of message". So much madness, and now there a change of us pleasing a core elder by doing their pranks? This is a blessing and a curse. And a ton of madness in a single idea.
To easy himself and to remember why he allow them to do all these mad things, He move to eat the homemade-like lunch that one of his assistances brought. Pork with herbs and honey? In the style of his hometown? Yeah, having the brotherhood as subordinates has lot of pros/cons.
After tasting the almost divine pork, he asked "and the guider matter".
Once more there was Qi being thrown back and forward by the two builders. The living one finally opened his mouth and said "We are unsure how the blacksmiths get the guiders for the waterfall, the consensus in the brotherhood is that our clan glorious leader, Old Gold, would not allow an opportunity like that being lost, but we are also unsure that if in 100 years the guilder return to the clan when the trials happens or if the blacksmith use all those stones to raise the guilders like pigs to be slaughter when they get, metaphorical speaking fat enough, to be use as gravebrozen of a higher grade. So, our oldest members thought to offer ourselves".
Well let's, try, and see the reasons of the mad for this idea. "Legionary, elaborate why you guys are offering yourselves for this work".
"Yes sir, we don't use stones so one of us could either use those for many plans. If they are forced to use those on themselves by the evil blacksmiths then those evil men will discover than the one of the problems with the builder style breathing is that we can't use stones while using the builder' art. And that we must wait in order to be able to use the spiritual stones once more after stopping using the special breathing, and the waiting time grows larger if the person had used our art for a longer period. Also, we are pretty sure that oaths made to the heaven by us can cause some impressive blowback from the heavens." How is that connected to the breathing arts?! They are truly mad "So, the ideal candidate is someone that is weak, old, can kill themselves fast either by heaven blowbacks or by something else like following a, incomplete, lesson that the first builder shared with us"
Putting the empty plate to the side and putting his head on the table "you know what, I will ask the core elder, about the guilder matter" without waiting his subordinate reaction he continues "now give me the list with the candidates" that made the builder blink. Ha! I know you guys enough to know that you have multiple volunteers.
"Well, here is the list" a list with more than 20 people. Wait, did he just inform me about the names of all these brothers? I am aware that this a big deal.
"The one we favor the most for the position is the first one in the list, brother 40
th, she has very sharp ears, hold no secret in her personal life other than her own name, fulfill each contract that she does to the letter, has little change of growing by using our methods but had done so for more than 20 years, had used the enhanced method that the clan share with the new recruits and, once more I should comment that, like many in the brotherhood, consider her name a secret. So, if for some bizarre reason our Might Leader, Old Gold, wish to focus on her. He could do so while wasting even less of his time". The worse part is that it made sense. Was he going insane too?
Xxx
After some days and enduring even more madness from these workaholic subordinates. Centurion Praesentinus Diogenus called the 'dependable one' to his officer. Which was part of an even greater building. The only bad thing that he could add to these new constructions is that they now are on the style favored by the damn blacksmiths. Because that sells for a higher price to those damn invaders. And he like taking their coin more than he hate the style.
When the builder arrived. The Centurion throwed a piece of paper. And start to walk to his new mirror.
While the mad one read the paper and waited futher commands. Diogenus was look at himself in the mirror that was made of low-quality platina and decorated with 'bone porcelain'. Watching his own, tired, face. And his own brighter eyes. Yes, a bit of energy is a good price to get the recommendation that he got from the elder and the bonus to this year salary.
"Legionary, you will represent the clan with the scions in the secret realm" he started "show that paper in the treasury to get your token" he continues while moving the mirror to get the secret compartment that was in the back of mirror.
Looking at the small array bag that contains some of his best tea. Which was also a tool and an idea that no commander should ever be without when they don't cook their own food. And even if they do so they should continue to have. An antidote. The 100 years tea leaves to be precise. A tea so strong that could remove a lot of impurities. Which, sadly enough, was less than useful for cultivation at his level of power at this point. He then throws the bag at the platina man.
"And take this treasure that can save you from dying from poisoning and other effects that can enter your body" the builder was about to speak but stopped himself. Good. Still is better to reinforce the message.
"You will use that tea one way or another. Because that could also be used to cultivate. And I command you, my legionary, to use that on yourself when you leave that secret realm. I command you to use it if you are in danger and that could help. And I command you to only use in a scion of our clan if they would die otherwise. To not try to go beyond my words or twist the meaning, accept that. Internalize that. And come back to my command alive. Did you understand?
"Yes sir" said the builder while the dead one sends a Qi pulse that he had associated with yes.
Good. Subordinates like these are hard enough to find. Plus, the envy of the other Centurions is worth a little bit of madness. Those last meets in the higher command had being such a treat.
xxx
author notes: yeah that was our previous core that was in the council^^, I hope this is not too much for a final prank
word count: 2951 (counting everything)
@ReaderOfFate,
@Kaboomatic,
@no. another omake to help GS and clan
