85 Bloody Hillside

Jack's people knew something happened when they spotted him sprinting towards them without slowing down.

With a few quick shouts, Shi Furui arranged a circular formation that had cultivators on the outside and normal people on the inside. He and old Long stepped a few meters towards Jack and waited for him to come while they watched their surroundings.

A minute later, Jack slid to a stop in front of them. He took a few deep breaths to regulate his breathing, glanced at the concerned faces of his company, and said "Around twenty Lolin Tribe riders are coming our way. There's no way to hide or run."

The eyes of the entire company widened, and old Long and Shi Furui both opened their mouth to speak, but Jack raised a hand to stop them as he continued "We don't have time to debate this."

He turned towards old Long and ordered "Run as fast as you can towards the Haechi Tribe caravan and make them come here to reinforce us."

Old Long opened his mouth to ask "What if they…"

Jack interrupted old Long as he growled "I don't care what you have to do, stab one of them and run back, do anything, just get them here."

Old Long exchanged gazes with Jack for a long second, before he nodded his head and took off running in the direction that Jack pointed out.

Jack turned towards Shi Furui and said "Have everyone gather as many rocks as they can in the next five minutes. We have ten at most before they spot us."

Shi Furui nodded his head and turned to shout orders.

Jack called old Long's former main assistant to himself and ordered so that everyone could hear "You will take all the rookies and non-combatants and lead them towards the Haechi Tribe's caravan as fast as you can. Do not hide or go somewhere to the side, just run straight after old Long."

The toothless man frowned and asked "Wy not?"

Jack glanced at the horizon for a second before he turned back to him and answered "Because they can't allow for any witnesses to stay alive."

From the corner of his eye, Jack saw a few of the rookies looking ready to argue to stay, and Zhu Lielei even stopped collecting rocks and stared at him.

Jack scanned all of their faces before he stopped on Zhu Lielei's and asked "Do you have something to say?"

She squared her thin shoulders and ignored the glare that Xu Weifa gave her to say "We want to fight too."

Jack's eyes narrowed and he started walking towards her. On the way, he reached out with his left hand and grabbed one of her two friends by the neck and dragged him on the ground while the teen struggled in vain to make Jack release his hold.

When he came to the frightened Zhu Lielei he grabbed her neck with his right hand and lifted her up to his eye level. He stared into her terrified eyes for a second before he growled "You're not ready."

He let the two teens collapse to the ground while they coughed and gasped, while he looked around at the frightened faces of the rookies. When he saw the rebellious spirit leave them, he declared "You would all just get in our way. Obey orders and you might live long enough to fight by our side one day."

With that, Jack left them to stacking rocks on a pile while he looked around for the best ground to fight the coming battle.

Four minutes later, he decided on a large nearby hill and called out "Enough!" He turned to old Long's former assistant and ordered "Time for you to go."

The assistant gathered the non-combatants and rookies in a dozen seconds and made them walk fast in the direction of the Haechi Tribe caravan.

Jack walked over to the small mound of rocks and collected most of them into his Star Bag. He looked at his old friends, gave them a lopsided grin, and said "Let's see if you lazy bastards remember your training."

With that, he took out his Haechi-leather long coat and put it on. It took a few short minutes to explain the plan, and for everyone to grab ammunition and get into position.

A couple of minutes later, only Jack and Yin Ping stood on the hill that Jack chose for their stand.

They watched as the Lolin tribesmen spotted them and halted. Jack focused his gaze on the leader so he saw him bring his hands to the sides of his face and stare at them through the hands. He thought he saw a shimmer of spirit energy between the leader's fingers for a second, but he couldn't confirm it.

When the leader lowered his hands to his sides, he let out a guttural cry that sounded like a horrible mixture of a wolf's howl and a stag's mating call. All of the Lolin tribesmen followed his example and added their cries to his before they all charged towards Jack's position.

Yin Ping glanced at Jack and asked "Are you sure that you want me operating that thing?"

Jack glanced at him and gave him a shrug. He looked back at the oncoming enemy and answered "There's a five percent chance I might regret it. I'm willing to take the risk."

Yin Ping snorted and turned back to watch the cantering beasts. After a few seconds, he said "I didn't expect the Lolin to look like that."

Jack gave a grunt of agreement as he focused on the beasts. The Lolin had the head and upper body similar in build to hyenas, but their legs and their lower body had dark-grey snake-like scales over them.

He heard that the horse-sized beasts could run for days with only a little rest and nourishment. They were ideal for travel on the barren environment that the White River created.

As the enemy neared, Jack took out his camouflaged cylinder and a pouch with over twenty metal balls in it from his Star Bag. He took out three metal balls for himself and gave the pouch over to Yin Ping.

When he raised the loaded cylinder to his shoulder, the Lolin riders just reached the foot of the hill and started their charge up.

A few seconds later, a soft *thump* sounded out and a warrior on the right flank of the mass of riders stiffened as a hole appeared in his chest.

Most of the Lolin tribesmen didn't even realize that one of their men had already died as they passed the halfway point of the hill.

While Jack loaded another metal ball into his cylinder, four strands of spirit energy left his body through his feet, traveled through the ground, and entered four piles of stacked rocks to his left.

Yin Ping focused on two additional piles on the left, while Kuang Bindun, Shi Furui, and Ma Ruiman focused on two piles each on the right. Xian Kuotian did all he could with the one pile they arranged closest to the top and in the middle.

The Lolin riders noticed the cultivators hiding behind the hill as soon as their leader came into sensing range, but they didn't care since they didn't sense anyone powerful. They decided to just charge up the hill and kill everyone and didn't realize that the piles of rock were arranged in a specific formation on the slopes.

Jack took aim at the man in the lead and saw him focusing his suspicious gaze back on Jack. In the last second, Jack gave the cylinder a jerk to the left and shot the other man whose cultivation he couldn't sense right under his right eye.

As soon as he made the shot, Yin Ping and Jack jumped down to the other side of the hill and grabbed a couple of rocks that stood there waiting for them. Everyone else tucked their heads back into cover and grabbed a rock in each hand.

A second later, the piles of rocks began exploding like fireworks while men and beasts started screaming in pain and terror.

Jack shouted out "Now!" and threw the two rocks he held in his hands over the top of the hill. Twenty-six other rocks joined his two in their flight soon after.

As the last metal ball entered the cylinder and the thrown rocks caused another wave of pain and misery, Jack crouched and gave a nod to the waiting Shi Furui.

When he got the order, Shi Furui waved his hand towards the rest of the fighting men of the Immortals' Lament, took out two Spirit Capturing knives from his belt, and led the men to the right on a flanking maneuver.

Jack watched them move and then stood up to sprint back up to the top of the hill.

As soon as he got there, he saw the gaping maw of one of the Lolin just a couple of meters away from him. A quick glance up allowed him to see the bloodied leader of the Lolin raiding party sitting atop the beast.

Jack didn't hesitate as he aimed straight at the oncoming beast's open mouth and fired his last metal ball through it.

Even before the shot reached the Lolin, Jack already used Moon Step and launched himself backwards down the hill.

The quick decision saved his life as the enraged Lolin raider leader missed with his spear stab by just a few centimeters.

The last thing Jack saw before he fell behind the hilltop was the dying Lolin rear back on his hind legs and roll down the other side, taking its rider with it.

Jack slid a few meters down the hill on his back and stopped only when Yin Ping grabbed his leg. He gave Yin Ping a quick "Thanks!", handed the cylinder to him, and scrambled back up to the top of the hill. While he moved, he took out a couple of Spirit Capturing knives from his Star Bag and prepared himself for anything.

When Jack crested the hill, the familiar sights, smells, and sounds of combat hit him right in the face.

The Lolin tribesmen still looked shaken as a good third of them lay dead on the slopes of the hill, while the rest had various injuries inflicted on them by either the explosions or Jack's men.

Shi Furui led six teams of two people per team to stalk the wounded Lolin raiders on Jack's right side, while the Lolin leader just climbed back up to his feet on the midpoint of the hill.

When he saw the chaos his men found themselves in, the Lolin Tribe leader gave out a variation on the Lolin howl and the beast and men moved as one back towards him.

Jack didn't hesitate as he pushed Moon Step to its limit and caught up to the last man in the Lolin tribesmen's line of retreat.

The surprised grade four man only had time to raise his spear up halfway before Jack slammed his two knives into the man's chest and rolled down the hill with him.

After a few meters of rolling, Jack managed to untangle himself from the dying man and scrambled back up the hill. He looked down at his leg and saw a shallow scratch on the Haechi hide coat.

With a sigh of relief, Jack ran back up to join Yin Ping and just shook his head at the former's confession that he missed both of the shots he took.

Jack placed two fingers in his mouth and let out a quick whistle. As soon as he did, the Immortals' Lament's fighting men glanced up and started retreating back towards him, leaving the corpses of the Lolin and their riders on the hill's slopes.

He saw a few bleeding wounds on his men, but all looked ready to continue the fight.

When Shi Furui reached Jack, he turned to stare at the Lolin raider's leader and asked "What now?"

Jack took a deep breath, let it out, and said "Round two."