19 For a Better Future

"En Ghlish?" repeated Kuang Bindun with a confused expression. He looked down at Jack and asked "What does this En Ghlish have to do with cultivation?"

"No, it's not En Ghl…" Jack started saying, but he gave up and sighed instead. He rubbed his forehead and said "Never mind, I'll explain it later tonight. Let's get back to work." They went back to the door and waited for new dead people.

After a while, a poor looking bald man carted in a malnourished dead teen in servant's clothes. Jack ran in front of everyone to receive him. After the older man left the body with him, Jack dragged it to a free table and got ready to work.

He grabbed a clean knife and stripped down to his underwear. For a second he looked at the poorly washed bloodstains on the back of his uniform that accompanied a couple of holes made in the explosion and sighed. He tried to wash them with just water but had no luck. And he predicted that he had a better chance of knitting a new uniform than the chances of Du Angliang giving him one if he asked nicely.

Jack stripped his subject down and went to the bottom of his right foot where he made the first incision. When he reached the knee a shadow fell on his work.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the teen that he almost killed with the explosion, Shi Furui, standing behind him while looking at the corpse and frowning.

Jack gave him a quick nod as a greeting and turned back to his knife work. While he continued peeling he asked "How can I help you… Shi Furui was it?"

After a few seconds of silence he heard Shi Furui's perturbed voice say "Song Tanda, why are you doing this… butchery? We just need to check the usual hiding spots for treasures, not this desecration."

Jack didn't mind Shi Furui's words, in fact, he felt surprised that no one asked him about it before. He waved his bloody knife for Shi Furui to come stand next to him as he continued working.

He felt a mental struggle happening behind his back, but after a few seconds Shi Furui swallowed hard and stepped up next to Jack to look at the corpse.

Jack gave him a glance and asked "Why are you the only one that cares about what I'm doing?"

Shi Furui's frown kept getting deeper and deeper as he watched Jack's knife peel a stretch of thigh while he answered "I wanted to thank you for what you did the other day, but that doesn't mean that what you're doing now isn't wrong. The others won't care as long as you don't touch their food or disturb their sleep." He hesitated for a while before he continued "Neither would I, it's just… when I came closer and saw you doing that" he motioned towards the corpse" I couldn't stop myself."

Jack nodded his head in understanding and after a few seconds said "I'm learning."

Shi Furui looked at him in confusion and asked "What can you learn from this?" as he pointed at the bloody leg.

Instead of answering Jack pointed at a thicker string of meridians on the thigh and asked "Do you know what these are?"

Shi Furui looked at the meridians for a second, then back at Jack as if he saw an idiot "Those are meridians, everyone knows that."

Jack smiled slightly as he said "Of course, but which meridians? What do they connect to? What concentration of spirit energy could you possibly push through them? How would you use them in regards to moving your leg and your body?" He looked at Shi Furui with a serious expression as he said "Would you know where and how hard to stab a blade to disable them?"

Shi Furui felt a cold shiver as all of the hairs on his back stood up and he took a step back from Song Tanda. He couldn't believe that a boy who looked at least 3-4 years younger than him said these things. After a few seconds, he steadied his nerves and came back closer. He looked at the grouping of meridians, this time in a way in which he never thought of before.

A few seconds later, he asked "Can you teach me?"

Jack looked at Shi Furui from the corner of his eye, then focused back on his work as he hummed softly.

Shi Furui hesitated as he watched Jack work for some time and finally said "I don't mind giving you some of my stuff, or doing some favors for you in exchange."

Jack hummed for a few more seconds before he stopped and said "You got yourself a deal. We'll start in a couple of days; I need some more hands-on experience myself before that."

Shi Furui nodded his head and thanked Jack before quickly leaving as Jack's blade reached the groin.

At midday, the servers brought the rice, but Du Angliang didn't come out with them. He just sent word that they could go up to the Elder's manor after they've eaten, and to take the corpse cart with them.

Everyone lined up and Jack took his usual spot in the back of the line while the servers served them the food. After they all ate, three of the teens started arguing about who would ride on the cart. They exchanged some muffled words and in the end, two of them united to take claim to the cart seat together, while the third one had to walk in the back with the rest.

'So they have the highest cultivation here.' Jack thought with a hidden smirk while he watched the dejected third teen from the corner of his eye and took a mental note to find a way to get closer to him.

During the first couple of days, he noticed that the way the boys lined up for food and in the courtyard of Elder Yu didn't follow any traditional custom that he knew of. If they went by strength or height then Kuang Bindun wouldn't stand in the upper middle part always. So Jack hypothesized that they lined up by cultivation base. And the three arguing teens right now confirmed his hypothesis since they always lined up at the top.

They followed the cart, on which the two victorious teens squeezed in the seat for one, to the Elder's manor and proceeded to do their grave digging job.

When they finished they lined up in the manor's courtyard and waited. For almost two hours. Only then did Du Angliang show up. He managed to get rid of his limp, and his arm looked normal again, but he still had some swelling under his eyes and his nose looked slightly crooked, ruining his previously handsome face.

Jack only glanced at him once, and then returned his eyes back to the floor in his position at the back of the line.

This time when Du Angliang called out the names for the graveyard shift an undertone of fury accompanied his usually cold voice. He didn't even glance at Jack as he called out Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui, but Jack could feel Du Angliang's focus on his every move.

Jack kept his face calm and collected through all of it and could only give his new friends a small smile of support as they followed after Du Angliang into the manor.

After the selection, everyone went towards the path for their houses. Jack picked up a sturdy stick and a length of wood from the forest, and some pottery pieces from the trash heap, and brought them home, where he started to carve symbols in the length of wood with the pottery.

When he finished he looked at the result and thought 'Good enough.' with a satisfied smile. He placed the carving on the table and lay on his bed to rest and finally replenish his dried up spirit energy.

Jack stopped his cultivation as Kuang Bindun slid the door open.

Kuang Bindun dragged his tired body into the house and slumped down on the ground with his back to the wall.

Jack saw a line going across Kuang Bindun's upper arm that looked a lot like he imagined the wounds on his back did. He furrowed his brows in anger as he asked "What happened?" and pointed at the wound.

Kuang Bindun took a glance at the wound on his arm, furrowed his brows for a second, sighed, and said "It's nothing, just a little encouragement from our dear Senior Brother. I can take it."

Jack's frown deepened as he walked to stand in front of Kuang Bindun. He looked him in the eyes and said "Give me some time; I'll take care of it."

Kuang Bindun looked at this boy that almost stood as tall as he did when he sat on the ground, and believed him. He slowly nodded his head "Sure, Tanda." Then he broke their eye contact and looked around the room while he said "So, shall we start with this En Ghlish thing? What should I do?"

Jack smiled and said "You need to sit there" he turned to grab the carving from the table and gave it to Kuang Bindun "and study this."

Kuang Bindun squinted at the carving as he said "Study what? I can't see anything."

Jack laughed and said "Give me the time for half an incense stick to burn and we can get started." He sat down on the stool in front of Kuang Bindun and took out the now dim Light Orb.

15 minutes later Jack opened his eyes and looked at the wide eyes of Kuang Bindun. He raised an eyebrow and asked "What?"

Kuang Bindun shook his head slowly as he said "I can barely believe you can do imbuement at the first grade even after seeing it with my own eyes, but I guess that nothing about you should surprise me anymore."

Jack chuckled "Forget about that, you have greater secrets to unravel tonight." he said as he pointed at the carved piece of wood. He tossed the glowing orb to his cot, took the stick from the table, and went to stand next to Kuang Bindun.

He pointed with the stick at the first carving and said "This is the letter A. It's the first letter of the Alphabet of the English language."

Kuang Bindun frowned at the new foreign words and complained "What does any of this have to do with cultivating through the skin?"

Jack furrowed his brows slightly and said "It has everything to do with it." He looked at the unconvinced face of Kuang Bindun and continued "But I guess I could tell you two of the major reasons that you have to learn it before I can teach you how to practice my cultivation technique."

Jack moved to pace in front of Kuang Bindun as he started talking "The first reason is that this will help us communicate secretly without anyone knowing how to crack the code. It will make it easier to discuss sensitive topics in public and have no fear of anyone listening in to our conversations and doing who knows what to us both. And we can make a plan of action in front of an enemy without him knowing what we're planning to do."

He stopped pacing and looked at Kuang Bindun as he continued "And the second reason is that the English language simply has the words and concepts that will enable me to teach you my techniques. I have no idea how to convey them to you in this one, or even if it's possible."

When Jack finished his speech Kuang Bindun thought about it some more and finally nodded his head "Fine, but this better be worth it, Tanda or I'll tell on you to Du Angliang myself."

Jack snorted and said "No, you won't." as he moved to stand next to Kuang Bindun again.

After a couple of seconds Kuang Bindun agreed "No, I won't" and focused his attention on the carving.

In the next hour, Jack taught the pronunciation of all the letters of the alphabet to Kuang Bindun and instructed him to practice writing them in the dirt with the stick, while he sat on the bed and started to recover his spent spirit energy.

A few seconds after he started he heard an astonished "Wow…" from Kuang Bindun. Jack opened his eyes and looked at him with a question in his eyes.

Kuang Bindun couldn't keep the wonder out of his voice as he said "You're absorbing spirit energy from your entire body now."

Jack smirked and said, "Not quite yet, I still have to work on the head and the brain tomorrow."

A shiver went through Kuang Bindun's body as he remembered the state of the corpses on which Song Tanda worked on. He lowered his head back to the carvings and didn't dare look back up.

Jack studied the large, thin, battered body of this new friend of his for a while, and finally asked "Bindun, what does Du Angliang make you do in the graveyard shift?"

Kuang Bindun froze, and only after a dozen seconds opened his mouth while still staring at the carvings in his hand "He makes us walk through the graveyard and the forest around it with special collars made by the Elder clamped around our neck. The collars somehow sap our spirit energy slowly and release it into the air. This lures the hungry spirits of departed cultivators to us so he could use a special device given to him by the Elder to catch them."

He stopped talking there for a while, and just as Jack thought he wouldn't say a word anymore, he continued "They hurt us, Tanda. Their talons are ten times worse than Du Angliang's whip. If he's not fast with the capture device, or if there are too many of them, you can die from the pain. I've seen people die from it, a lot of them. Some of the dead even turn on us and attack us."

Finally, Kuang Bindun looked up from the carving at Jack with bloodshot eyes as he said "They don't care about it, though. Not Du Angliang, not Elder Yu, and certainly not the Sect. We're just stepping stones to them, a means to an end of greater glory." He took in shuddering breaths as he continued speaking "I hate them, Tanda. I HATE them!"

Jack got up from the cot and went to comfort his sobbing friend. As he patted his back he whispered in his ear "Don't worry, we'll figure something out. I'll figure something out."

When Kuang Bindun calmed down and went back to his studies, Jack went back to his cot and to his cultivation.

'I'll certainly figure something out.' he thought as he pushed his meridians to absorb spirit energy to the brink of where it caused him pain, and then beyond.