mission palace, guards

In the mission palace of the Eunuch Palace, in the inner city of the imperial capital of the Emerald Brilliance Empire. Ji Li, followed by Stone, Ji Shixuan's nickname since childhood and Monkey, Ji Qianyu's nickname since childhood. Stone and Monkey discussed, or rather listened to Ji Li's instructions in his room after the rant of their big brother. Now they were officially accepting the mission. The mission was assigned to them, but they still had to announce that they would start and take a team of guards to protect them along the way, as well as carriages.

The Eunuchs in the empire have a very high standing, respected because of their sacrifice for harmony inside of the empire. At least commoners respected them, the higher ups often found them quite annoying, as they always had to lose a lot of their savings, when they wanted to bribe the eunuchs, in case they even were bribable, which was a rarity in itself.

As Ji Li entered the mission palace, he saw large boulders which stood straight up next to each other in the center of the front yard. Eunuchs were swarming the missions, because although the yard was located in the eunuch palace complex, they missions were not only for eunuchs but also ones that were posted by eunuchs, making it a highly populated by people trying to either curry favor with eunuchs or genuinely searched to work for such respected people.

Ji Li directly went to one of the side buildings instead of staring too long at the mission boards in the front yard. The side building was a small palace itself, much grander than the manager's building where he previously lived in. At the entrance of the palace, there was a plaque that read [Eunuch Mission Hall], apparently a mission hall separated from the busy center building for accepting missions, this hall was mainly for lower-level eunuchs to take on a mission.

Ji Li went to one of the many receptions that were busy. He waited shortly till the person in front of him was finished, then stepped forward with stone and monkey following him. He smiled at the receptionist as he took out a scroll from his sleeve and said "We were assigned a mission, here is the edict. For the mission we need a guard team. I, as a temporary Intermediate Eunuch, have the power to order a small guard team of 8, Ji Shixuan and Ji Qianyu are Junior Eunuchs and are eligible to 4 each, making it a total guard team of 16. Being an Intermediate Eunuch means that there has to be at least one Essence Awakening Stage in the guard team, are there any available?"

The receptionist took the scroll and read through, shocked a bit when he heard that the young man in front of him was actually an intermediate eunuch. Although they weren't rare, it was still a wonder to see someone so young have the same rank as some middle-aged people! The receptionist was a young junior eunuch himself, stood up shortly and bowed with his hands cupped, before he gave back scroll and answered "Esteemed Intermediate Eunuch, we indeed have some available. As your group consists of three, you are eligible to 16 guards and one Essence Awakening Stage guard as the captain. We have a small issue of being short staffed, as many Body Strengthening Stage cultivators were sent out on various missions. We still have some more Essence Awakening Stage guards. Would you accept two Low Essence Awakening Stage cultivators and four Peak Body Strengthening stage cultivators?" Said the eunuch respectfully. For eunuchs the age wasn't something to be concerned about, as the ranking barely had anything to do with age besides the few first levels.

Ji Li thought for a bit and was very thankful as he agreed with the receptionist, then waited at the side while the receptionist used a communication jade, something he read about. Two Essence Awakening Stage cultivators and four Peak Body Strengthening cultivators were in truth much better than just 16 guards, not only restricting the movement less but also making them capable protectors.

Half an hour later, six men were walking steady in silver armor, white capes on their backs with a kneeling robed man in front of a green tree, symbolizing then servitude of the eunuchs, clearly the symbol of the Eunuchs in the empire. On the right side of their breastplate, they had plaques. Two of the men had seven black stars on their plaque while the other four had eight. These black plaques were the plaques of every person that served an imperial official, their ranking being nine the lowest and one the highest. The direct servants had the same ranking in their servitude as the ranking of the official they served, limiting their future. The other servants would have one based on their importance to the official, while rank nine was the rank of every unassigned servant. 

The Eunuch Palace and a few treated this system differently. They would not assign any servants but give them their rank based on their achievements, rank seven for example needed a cultivation level of the Essence Awakening Stage. Ranking up just based on their cultivation level was very difficult, but at least in the earlier levels it was very promising.

Clearly these six men with different ranks were guards. As they approached the reception where Ji Li and the others were, they slowed down and stopped in front of Ji Li who stood before stone and monkey. The two rank seven servants bowed their heads while the rank eight servants bowed their whole upper body. The left one of the rank seven servants looked very stern as he greeted "Xuan Xu greets Intermediate Eunuch Ji Li". The Guard on the right, looking just as menacing but was a bit taller, greeted too "Yi Xiao greets Intermediate Eunuch Ji Li."

Ji Li nodded at their bows and greeting, showing elegance and arrogance as he didn't seem to care about them too much. For all he knows, the both of them might never meet him again, while he would surely suffer if word went out that he was a softie. He looked at the junior eunuch and stretched his hands, to which the junior eunuch gives back the scroll after stamping it with a wooden stamp in black ink. After stamping, he added the timeline and his own signature. He then rolled the scroll together, put it in a black cylindrical box and gave it to Ji Li as he said "The mission has been accepted. In the box, additionally to the mission scroll there is a recording scroll and an emergency scroll. The recording scroll looks just like the mission one, but is empty, while the emergency scroll has a red cover. Upon recording, you can officially declare the mission to be accomplished, give up, ask for reinforcements, ask for certain tools or ask for permission. The emergency scroll is for when you are in a situation you can't control or need help instantly.

On the backside of both scrolls, the various answers will be displayed. Be cautious and I wish you endless greenery, Intermediate Eunuch Ji Li." Wishing one endless greenery was one of the ways to wish one luck and success in the empire.

Ji Li moved forward as he took the box into his sleeve. The bowing guards waited shortly till monkey and stone helped them out of their bowing situation, obviously having been trained to do such things. The pretense was very annoying, at least that was what Ji Li thought. He didn't understand why he needed to do that, but his mentor repeatedly told him that a leader should always be arrogant, and a eunuch should be calm, collected and steadfast when talking with non-eunuchs, keeping the imagine of the respected and mighty eunuchs with a few simple interactions and motions seemed to be mainstream.

He didn't care much about that, but still told stone and monkey what to do in such situations, so it wouldn't become awkward and cause resentful gazes, but awestruck ones! His both little brothers followed like told, feeling a bit confused, but they knew that doing what their big bro said was smarter and trying to make sense of it.

Outside the mission palace were already a carriage prepared for any eunuch that needed one. Ji Li signalized for Qianyu to step forward, which he did. Ji Li then whispered to him "Go to the Junior Eunuch at the table there and tell them an Intermediate need a medium carriage temporary."

While Qianyu followed what Ji Li said, Ji Li signalized for Shixuan to come, and he whispered something differently "Tell the guards to take their horses and follow the carriage. When the carriage comes, just take on the reigns, I taught you that, remember? Just play coachman for a bit till we are out of town. Tell both rank seven guards to just put their horses to the two other horses pulling the carriage and come inside so we can talk. When we finished, you can switch with them and let them reign while you come inside."

Although Ji Li's voice was quiet, both guards knew what he said, and he knew they would hear. Obviously, he was at the same cultivation level and knew it's capacities, especially after getting the second volume of the cultivation manual. The guards also knew that, so they just nodded internally, a bit surprised at how such a young eunuch was so thoughtful. No wonder he's already Intermediate!