107 Competition

Zhu Lielei opened her eyes and saw Jack sitting on the ground with his back against the wall on the other side of the room. She blinked once at him, and he smiled back in return.

A second later, her eyes flashed towards the spot where the man that hurt her, the man that she killed, lay last night.

"He's gone; you will never see him again." Jack's voice drew her eyes back to his young face. Even so, his eyes betrayed the lie that his appearance tried to tell her. Sometimes she wondered why others didn't see it too.

"You understand that you can't tell anyone about what happened last night?" he asked with a serious face.

She rolled her eyes and wanted to say that she wasn't stupid, but all she could do is give him an annoyed blink.

Jack chuckled and mused "I guess you couldn't tell anyone even if you tried."

Bai Maolong's shouted orders came from the outside making her body jerk up by instinct. She moved too fast and a bolt of agony shot through her jaw, but she just blinked away the gathering tears and tried to get out of bed.

Jack stood up in one fluid motion and crossed the room in two light steps to stop her from getting up. "Whoa there, don't move so fast. You're not going back to practice for a while." He said and helped her lay back down on the bed.

She furrowed her brows and blinked twice while letting out a small sound of protest from her throat. Her mouth might not work, but she felt sure that the rest of her body could still do the easier exercises.

When she saw the slight narrowing of Jack's eyes she knew that she had no chance of winning the argument.

"If I see you doing anything more strenuous than chopping vegetables for the next fifty days, I will forbid you from attending morning practice for the whole year." He declared and confirmed her fears.

Sometimes she wondered if he would think of a different punishment, but she figured that he went with the 'if it works don't fix it' principle.

She almost rolled her eyes again, but she stopped herself and blinked once.

Jack's face relaxed and he said "Good, you can still find Ping and Bindun to teach you reading and English in their spare time so use it well. Now, wait here and don't move. I will get Weifa to take you back to your hose."

Zhu Lielei could only blink her eyes once at the thought of the kind middle-aged woman that so wanted a daughter that she picked up one from the side of the road.

A stab of pain warned her off from her unconscious smile and she could only watch as Jack's straight back moved towards the doorway.

When he allowed the morning sunlight in the house, she saw a new faded bloodstain on his once pristine coat.

A shiver ran down her back as the sunlight disappeared behind the entrance flap and she was left alone to remember the events of last night.

After Jack helped Xu Weifa with Zhu Lielei and informed her about what she could and could not do and eat, he went to join in with the rest of the company's practice.

During sparring, he held Tong Huakun down in a submission hold and asked "You've not said a word today. What's going on?"

"Gah…" She tried to croak out. Jack apologized and loosened his hold on her neck.

After she cleared her throat, she said "Those White River family bastards moved in near me and kept coming to me for complaints about their accommodations. I didn't get any rest for the whole night."

When she finished, she tried to squirm out of his loosened hold, but only got her head pushed down into the dirt for her effort.

After a couple of taps, Jack released his grip and helped her up.

"You have to teach me that one. If I get the chance I'll use it on that bastard Bei Kangping. I still can't believe he just let the animal that did that to little Zhu Lielei go." Tong Huakun declared while she stretched her sore limbs out and glanced at the distant house where the small girl rested.

Jack made his face darken before he said "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll give you a chance."

After breakfast, most of the older members of the company had orders to either practice their spells and techniques or to read about sigils. The old and new recruits had reading and writing lessons with Kuang Bindun and Yin Ping.

Kuang Bindun didn't mind the extra work added to his English lessons, but Yin Ping didn't like the new job that Jack gave him after he sorted their stolen library out.

He preferred to research sigils and spells, but Jack didn't have anyone else that knew so much about this world's words so he had to make use of him.

The duo complemented each other well. Where Yin Ping got annoyed with a recruit, Kuang Bindun would come and sort it out, and where Kuang Bindun didn't know some technical detail, Yin Ping would come and offer his expertise.

When the company lined up for their midday meal, the fifty-one young generation members of the White River family crested the hill above their camp.

Bei Kangping and his companion led their group on their own. Jack couldn't see the two higher cultivation grade brothers with them.

Most of the White River family group stayed outside of the camp, while their two leaders walked up to Jack, greeted him, and Bei Kangping asked "When do we start?"

Jack looked down at the bowl in his hands, then back up at the two young men, and said "Guess."

A few snorts of laughter came from around him, but Jack kept his eyes on the two young men and saw Bei Kangping's lips twitch for an instant. The other young man's brows furrowed, but he kept his mouth shut and allowed his partner to do all the talking.

Bei Kangping's face returned to its neutral state and he declared "We will give the men their equipment and get them ready, please join us when you're done."

With that, the two turned on their heels and walked back to their group.

Jack shrugged and continued eating.

When he finished, he gathered every former Gravedigger that reached grade four and above and took them with him to join the White River family group.

He and his nine men, another grade three Gravedigger broke through a couple of weeks ago, walked up to Bei Kangping's ready and equipped fifty-one.

Almost all of them had a gold-colored cylinder made to the exact specifications that Jack stated in the notes he traded to the White River family. Although they had a golden shine, he saw a light blue glow from inside of the cylinders and knew that they made them from Deep Water Iron too.

Only Bei Kangping and his companion had their cylinders made from the White River family's authentic golden metal. They even had a few runes etched on the outsides of the cylinders.

Jack snorted when he saw that and took out three camouflaged cylinders. Tan Boli and his sons almost had to sleep in their forge to get two of them ready for today.

He turned to his men and gave the cylinders over to them before he said "Follow the instructions I give to them."

When he looked back at the White River family members, Bei Kangping's companion asked "Why do you ridicule our weapons when yours are clearly of poorer make?"

Jack looked back down at the sigil-etched cylinders and questioned in return "What do those sigils do?"

The young man's eyes narrowed and he kept his mouth shut, but Bei Kangping answered "They add power and distance to our projectiles."

Jack's brows rose in surprise and he asked "Why can't you just focus your spell's structure for that? I would think that saving spirit energy for more shots would be more important than spending it on imbuing meaningless sigils."

Before Bei Kangping could answer, his companion snorted in return and said "Like anyone at our cultivation grade can just do that on a whim."

Jack grunted and agreed with "I guess so." before he changed the topic by saying "Let's begin."

Bei Kangping's companion grumbled "Finally." under his breath, but Jack saw Bei Kangping's eyes watching him with a hint of curiosity.

The training started with Jack examining the prowess of everyone's Air Blast spell. His men had already learned it, but some still needed time to make it usable with the cylinder, while almost all of the White River family members only knew the basic version.

They would have never even thought about learning it if it wasn't necessary for Jack's weapon so they only had a short amount of time to master it.

Jack spent the entire first training session demonstrating the proper look of the Air Blast spell's structure. He had to make it as large as he could and explain the intent and use of each sigil without completing the structure.

If he tried to finish it in that state, he would give his new students just another gust of wind to join in with the almost constant mountain breezes.

What surprised him was that most of the White River family members picked up the skill a bit quicker than his men did when he first taught them.

'I guess they really did send their best.' Jack thought, then after a second he added 'Or I just became a better teacher.' He shook the musings away and finished up his lesson.

When the White River family members started leaving back to their houses, Bei Kangping came up to Jack and asked "What do you think?"

He studied the passersby and declared "They are good students, but you knew that." A second later, he looked at Bei Kangping and continued "What I'm worried about is their attitude towards my men. Can you do something about that?"

During the session, he saw a lot of the White River family members sneering towards his men and heard a few muttered curses. His men didn't help either with the obvious disdain they had in their eyes whenever they looked at the golden-robed cultivators.

Bei Kangping shook his head and said "I cannot change how they were brought up, but I can channel it."

Jack's brows rose and he motioned for the young man to continue.

"We can set up a competition in using your weapons every fifty days. They would need to hit distant targets with their projectiles to score. Five of your best men against five of mine and the group with the better score wins. Of course, we will not compete to keep things fair. It should make them focus on the competition instead of their dislike of one another." Bei Kangping explained.

'He wants to know if I'm teaching my men something different than his. Clever bastard.' Jack thought and smiled to say "That might work, but what would we reward them with?"

Bei Kangping frowned and asked "Are victory and glory not reward enough?"

Jack snorted and answered "Of course not. We're mercenaries; we don't do things for glory." He pretended to think for a second before he said "How about this; one of us pays the opposing winning team five hundred spirit stones, a hundred per member of the team."

Bei Kangping's eyes widened for a second before he narrowed them and spoke in a cold voice "Fine. I will inform my men."

With that, he turned towards the Haechi Tribe and left in a hurry.

Jack chuckled while he watched him leave and thought 'If you want to play, you have to pay, my boy.'