Zhou Baoxian just nervously laughed as he rubbed the back of his head.
"So…yeah! That happened. Sorry."
He laughed nervously again to himself as Wu Li and Xue Hua just stared blankly at him.
Around an hour had passed since the conclusion of the scuffle between Zhou Baoxian and the young master Ren Jiang. Upon being released, he and Fang Zhiyong went to the mountain where the rest of the former soldiers of the unit of the ravine were housed by the Illuminated Sword Sect.
They quickly got settled in. When Baoxian found out that Wu Li and Xue Hua were gathered at Wu Li's house, he went there to greet them. They were now all seated around Wu Li's table, drinking from cups of freshly made tea.
"Baoxian, we quite literally haven't been here for even a day yet," Xue Hua says with obvious disappointment.
"Yes yes, I'm aware," Baoxian says with a sigh. "But I have plenty of reasons to hate that guy. So it was kind of satisfying to see him so perplexed when he tried to attack me. It's a shame that we were stopped by that senior disciple."
"A senior disciple, huh?"
"A pretty impressive guy, I have to admit. He was able to stop Ren Jiang mid swing by just looking at him."
"Able to stop him by just looking at him? Sounds a bit familiar."
"Ah, the disciplinary dog," Wu Li says with a slight sneer.
Before he was sent to the ravine, he had a bit of a bitter history with Hu Liang, the practitioner of the Codex of the Fatal Gaze. Admittedly, that was because Wu Li was a bit unruly, especially when it came to the revenge plots he hatched against some of his bullies in the sect, but that didn't change the fact that he didn't exactly have the most positive view of the senior disciple.
Baoxian just smirks at him. Both he and Xue Hua were very aware of the disdain Wu Li had for Hu Liang.
"At least he didn't let the young master get away scot free," he says. "Plus, he let both Zhiyong and I off the hook."
"Hu Liang was always straightforward with his job," Wu Li says. "If amazingly narrow minded and short sighted. If only he was better at seeing the bigger picture sometimes…"
Baoxian just laughs at the miffed look on Wu Li's face. Xue Hua takes a sip from her teacup.
"Nothing we can do about that," she says. "He's a senior disciple, we don't hold a candle up to him right now. You'll get your chance in several years if you work hard enough, maybe…"
"Several years? I won't even need several years," he says. "It'll take me three at most to breakthrough to the Aura Manifestation Stage. Then I'll be able to finally get revenge on him for making my life in the main school so miserable."
"Get revenge on him for doing his job? You yourself claimed that you were quite the delinquent during your time here. He's probably as happy to see you back as you are to see him right now."
"True, but still…"
That conversation was promptly cut short from a sudden, yet short fluctuation of qi that they each felt coming from their robes. Simultaneously, they all reached into their robes and pulled out a jade pendant each.
Jade pendants was how the sect communicated with its disciples. It was a much faster form of communication than just simply sending messages, especially if somebody important needed to get one sent to many people quickly. It could also be used by disciples to quickly and privately send messages back to their elders or to each other. It could even be used to make formal, sect-recognized battle declarations. And of course, they were also used by the sect to keep track of their disciples.
All inner disciples were required to keep a pendant on them at all times. Being absent without one warranted punishment, maybe even expulsion if the disciple's circumstances were bad enough. Besides that, it was impossible to lose unless the disciple possessing it consciously wanted to lose it. The moment it was provided to a disciple, the disciple was required to charge it with his or her qi, thus tying it to them as long as their cultivation remained.
As glowing characters began to etch themselves out onto the pendant, all three of the cultivators within the house's eyes widened. The same message was etched into all of their pendants, yet it surprised them all nonetheless.
At this time, the next day, the returning members of the unit of the ravine shall congregate at the examination area for their initiative skill assessment, overseen by honored sect elder Starry Sky. There will be no opportunity to dismiss the summons.
Wu Li looked up at his two fellow former squadron leaders, both of whom were still staring at their pendants.
"Tomorrow? Why so soon?" he asks. "Are they not going to give us any time to truly settle in and prepare for the assessment? I thought they usually gave each new batch of inner disciples a week to prepare."
"And why is a sect elder overseeing our skill assessment?" Baoxian asks. "Why would a sect elder care about something like this?"
"Whatever the reason for that, what I'm more concerned about is how the exam is going to change," Xue Hua says, laying her pendant onto the table. "Because there is almost no chance that a sect elder would attend the examination just to simply oversee it. In fact, I'd put my bets on it being harder than usual."
"But why? He can't just be doing it to make an example out of the codexless, right?" Baoxian says.
"Yeah, it just doesn't make sense to," Wu Li says as he puts his own back into his robe. "They didn't have to go through the efforts of bringing us back to the sect's main school. And the sect shouldn't care too much for us codexless soldiers to bring us back to the main school just to make an example of us."
"Of course they have to make things so much more complicated for us," Baoxian says with a sigh. "About what I expected from the sect, though."
He slowly gets up.
"Well, looks like we're going to have to get back to training much earlier than we anticipated," he says.
Xue Hua just nods. Wu Li just sighs before taking another sip of tea.
"Shame," he says with a sigh. "I was looking forward to lazing around more before actually having to be a disciple."
Xue Hua just sighs disappointedly while another bout of laughter takes over Baoxian.
-----
Wu Li steps outside of his house, double checking to make sure he still had his sword, before walking off the porch and off of his land. As he left, the red, dome-like formation surrounding his property glowed slightly in acknowledgement of his departure. He began his way down the dirt path leading away from his settlement.
All of the houses on the mountain that were given to the veterans of the unit of the ravine are connected by a simple web of dirt paths, all of them leading to a small town area run by the sect's servants, a place of leisure for tired cultivators. The sect had three of them, one for each of the squadrons, effectively splitting them up so that everyone lived in one of three communities along with everyone else who had been in their former squadron. An oddly considerable decision made by the sect.
The one pertaining to Wu Li's spot on the mountain was his current destination.
It doesn't take Wu Li long to reach the small town, no more than the time it took for an incense stick to burn.
The town was alive with energy. People, both cultivators simply strolling around and servants rushing from place to place, filled the streets. The air was filled with the noise of chattering, shouts every now and then, laughter, and music. All around Wu Li were establishments of all different kinds: banks, theaters, inns, restaurants, shops, and more.
It didn't exactly look like a town that was hastily put together.
Just for how long were they planning to bring us back to the main school? he wondered.
Not much time passed before he was spotted. A group of four passing cultivators, of which were waiting at a nearby stall selling steamed pork buns, spotted him the moment he walked by the stall. The friendly atmosphere around them brightened as they all scrambled to line up, standing side by side, shocking the man frying pork in a wok behind the stall's counter.
"We offer our polite greetings, squadron leader!" they simultaneously say.
That catches the attention of everybody nearby. They all turned their heads to his direction. Even the nearby servants stopped their work and directed their attention to him.
"Squadron leader!"
"It's the squadron leader?!"
"That's him?! Squadron leader Wu Li?!"
"Hey, be more respectful! Do you know just whose name you're invoking?!"
Before he knew, he was surrounded by a ring of his former squadron members
Wu Li inwardly sighs.
He wasn't one who liked attention all that much, but he didn't exactly hate it either. Besides, he'd gotten very used to it at this point. After all, he was popular back at the military encampment, even among the soldiers of the other squadrons. Almost like an idol amongst the veterans, almost on the same level that Xue Hua was to the men of the camp, except Wu Li was liked by just generally everyone.
Not exactly knowing what he was supposed to say, he just waved with a friendly smile.
Thankfully, that didn't set off too large of a reaction from the crowd of disciples all around him. Even if that was just because all of them had their heads bowed towards him.
Eventually, one of the disciples emerged from the crowd, pushing through the ring with a slightly annoyed look on his face. One of the few present who wasn't bowing his head.
Just like all the other cultivators there, he was a young man, appearing in his early twenties with handsome features. His crow black hair was cut short, reaching down to just the tips of his ears.
"Sorry, sorry," he says as he pushes his way to the front of the ring.
Once he finally makes it outside, he clasps his hand and does a quick bow before raising his head again.
"Former vice squadron leader Wen Jing greets former squadron leader Wu Li," he says with reverence as he maintains eye contact.
Wu Li just sighs.
"Guys, I'm not your squadron leader anymore," he says. "There's no need to be so polite."
"Of course not," Wen Jing says reassuringly. "Now, squa-, I mean, honored fellow disciple Wu Li, what brings you here?"
"I'm just here to enjoy myself," Wu Li says. "Nothing more than that. Now please, raise your heads. And go back to whatever you all were doing. Just act as if I'm not here."
"YES, SQUADRON LEADER!"
Their voices rose up all around Wu Li, making him wince slightly.
It took a moment, but he finally managed to get them to disperse. Soon, they were all strewn across town once again, going about their usual business. However, the atmosphere was notably more bright as conversations began to steer to the topic of Wu Li.
"So, how have you been settling in, squa-...fellow disciple?" Wen Jing asks, sticking close to Wu Li's side.
Among all of Wu Li's supporters, it was without question that his former vice squadron leader was his most ardent. Even before Wu Li had risen up to the rank of squadron leader, Wen Jing was his close supporter. The two of them were like two peas in a pod to the rest of the squadron, where one was, the other could also be found.
Before, Wen Jing was very vocal about his dream of "dying a spectacular death while fighting for the sect." Wu Li tried to steer him away from that mindset because of how reckless and self-sacrificing it made him, but all he managed to do was shift that goal to "dying a spectacular death for Wu Li." At least that made things ever so slightly easier for him.
"So, um, fellow disciple, what do you think of the recent announcement concerning the initiative skill assessment?" Wen Jing asks.
"Ah," Wu Li says, rubbing his chin. "The other squadron leaders and I were just talking about that not too long ago, actually. It's a bit baffling to us why a sect elder would decide to oversee an initiative skill assessment. There's most definitely some alternative motive, but I have no idea what it could be. It's safe to say that we're a bit spooked."
"Well, that just means we'll have to start training again earlier than expected, doesn't it?" Wen Jing says.
"Don't remind me," Wu Li says with a groan. "I was looking up to just relaxing these next couple of days, too."
Wen Jing just laughs.
"So, do you want to spar?" he asks.
"For sure, but definitely not before I give the nearby watering hole a thorough inspection."
Wen Jing laughs again.
"You're the same as ever, squa-...fellow disciple," he says. "It's not favorable to be so attached to earthly desires, you know?"
"Are you coming or not?" Wu Li asks with a slight scowl.
Wen Jing just laughs as Wu Li whips around haughtily and begins looking for an inn.