20 Full Bellies

In the next three weeks, Jack had a routine that he stuck to.

At dawn, while everyone else went down to the Tranquil Lake Town with Du Angliang, he would go to Elder Yu's study and imbue Light Orbs until he nearly exhausted his spirit energy.

During those sessions, the Elder tried various testing methods and special devices, often times painful enough to make Jack lie on the floor and drool, but he always ended up with a disappointed look. Elder Yu usually kept quiet about the results of his tests, Jack suspected that he didn't want to look incompetent in front of his servant, but the Elder always looked a little more deflated after each session.

The only things Elder Yu let slip out from his findings were when he mumbled in dissatisfaction when he found out that Jack had an average concentration of meridians in his body, and when he praised him on his excellent use of the cultivation technique due to his unusually pure spirit energy.

Jack stored every little tidbit of information that the Elder provided and hoarded them like gold in his mind.

After his morning tortures, he would go down the Eternal Rest Mountain on his own while taking the scenic route. He tried to explore their part of the mountain as much as he could. Kuang Bindun warned him that other parts belonged to other Eternal Rest Elders and that they didn't appreciate trespassers.

When he arrived in the Tranquil Lake Town courtyard he proceeded to help out with the corpses, until he found an appropriate one that looked like no one would look for and started his teaching session with Shi Furui.

Three weeks ago, when he started to teach Shi Furui, Jack asked him if he knew of any material that could stretch really hard when pulled but would go back to its original shape when released. He couldn't figure out how to explain the concept of rubber any other way.

Fortunately, Shi Furui knew of a frog species called the Poison Arrow Bullfrog that lived around the Tranquil Lake. Most people ignored them since they had poisonous meat, but their legs were made out of a special substance that when worked over a fire would become exactly what Jack looked for.

Every other day that Du Angliang didn't select him to go into the graveyard shift, Shi Furui would go to the lake and catch one or two of the head-sized frogs and bring them to Jack.

At first, Jack asked Kuang Bindun the same question about the special material, but he didn't know. He said that if Jack wanted to find out about something like that that he should ask Shi Furui because he was one of the people that lasted the longest in their line of work that he knew of. When Kuang Bindun first got sent there Shi Furui had already worked at the cutting tables.

This surprised Jack somewhat, but when he studied Shi Furui's movements and actions in the next few days he realized that everything he did had a prior calculation of pros and cons behind it. It didn't surprise him at all that a person like that would survive for that long.

So every night that Shi Furui brought him the frogs he would cut off their legs and save them for processing on the next day. At first, Jack tried to dissect a couple of the frogs, but they didn't have any poison sacks on their bodies, and he didn't have the tools necessary to check which organs produced the poison, so he gave up on it.

Every day after digging the graves Jack would gather some wood in the forest, and then light a tiny fire in his home where he would work on the legs as Shi Furui showed him. After that, he cultivated and waited for Kuang Bindun to return if Du Angliang selected him that day.

Since the day that the Elder scolded him, Du Angliang only picked Jack's friends every other day, one each day. This lowered the stress on Kuang Bindun, but it made Jack wonder if his friends would return alive each night.

After two weeks he gathered enough Poison Arrow Bullfrog leg materials to make what he wanted; a slingshot. The frog legs didn't have enough materials to make a proper slingshot band from just a few, so Jack had to meld them all together and then stretch the clump out into the shape he wanted it to stay with the help of the fire. After it cooled down it took the shape of a wide elastic band.

Jack cut a piece of the elastic band off and then sliced it by length into four identical parts. He used two of the lengths to tie a part of his old clothes onto the middle of the main elastic band and used the other two lengths to tie the ends of the band to a thick forked piece of wood that he smoothened and flattened the ends of previously.

When he finished he held a brand new slingshot in his hand and chuckled as he looked at the amateur workmanship. When Jack tried to pull the elastic band he could only pull it to his elbow. Even when he moved his spirit energy into his arms to strengthen them, he could only pull it to his shoulder.

He released the elastic band and it slammed back into position with a satisfying *snap*. 'This is even better than I expected. I wonder how well the ammunition will fly.' Jack thought as a wide smile appeared on his face.

In the next week, he practiced with his new slingshot whenever he could find some alone time.

One evening when everyone already went back to their houses, and only a bit of sunlight remained on the horizon, Jack went into the forest to practice.

Just as he picked up a few rocks and stood 15 meters opposite of a thin tree he heard the honks of a flock of some geese looking birds. They had a small horn on their beaks and looked smaller than the geese that he knew, but that didn't bother Jack because they flew in the direction of his shooting range.

He pushed spirit energy into the meridians in and around his eyes to enhance his vision and looked around the forest for a second to see if anyone lurked in the shadows. When he saw nothing he moved his aim to where he predicted the geese would fly through. He pulled the elastic band with all that he had and loosed.

The stone shot off into the sky in front of the flock of birds, and around 10 meters above them. Just as the leading bird passed under it, it started to fall back down. The next second the stone fell right into the middle of the flock of birds and exploded with a soft *crack*.

Bits of stone fell all around the place, some even hitting the tree behind which Jack hid. When the rain of projectiles ended Jack quickly looked and saw three birds falling from the sky. The rest of the flock scattered all over the place in a panic.

Jack followed the falling birds with his eyes and quickly ran in the direction of where they landed. He had to climb a tree to get one, but he managed to find all three in a few minutes.

He decided to end his practice then and there and ran back to his house to hide the birds. When he convinced himself that no one saw him, he returned back to the forest to gather wood.

With a decent pile of wood stacked into a corner of his house, he relaxed, took out the Light Orb, and started cultivating while he waited.

After an hour the doors of his house slid open and Shi Furui came in while carrying two large frog corpses. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the pile of wood in a corner, and the three dead birds lying in a small pool of blood on the table.

He dropped the frogs to the ground and stared at Jack with incredulous eyes.

Jack smirked at the expression on his friend's face as he asked "Hey Furui, wanna have some roasted meat?"

Shi Furui swallowed audibly as he turned his eyes back to the dead birds and said "They'll never let us keep them, and there's no way we could hide the fire." He looked back at Jack and continued with narrowed eyes "What are you scheming now?"

Jack spread his hands and put on an offended mask on his face as he complained "What? Do I have to always scheme something? I just wanted to treat my friends to some fresh meat, and this is how you repay me?"

Shi Furui kept his eyes narrowed as he said in a deadpan voice "Yes."

Jack lowered his hands in dejection and sighed "Fine." He looked up at Shi Furui and said "Follow me to Bi Tuohui's house." He got up from his bed, grabbed the birds by their legs, and walked out of the house into the night.

They went to the second to last house where Jack knocked on the door. After a minute he knocked harder.

"Do you want to die?!" an annoyed voice shouted from inside the house.

"Do you want some fresh meat?" retorted Jack.

After a few seconds of silence they heard cursing from inside the house, and then the door slid open revealing Bi Tuohui standing in his underwear and shooting daggers from his eyes at Jack.

When Bi Tuohui turned his gaze to Shi Furui he immediately cooled down and looked back at Jack with a frown while asking "What do you want?"

Jack gave him a knowing smile and said "To have some dinner." while he waved the dead birds in front of Bi Tuohui's face.

Bi Tuohui's eyes followed the swinging birds like they hypnotized him for a few seconds before he shook his head and looked back up at Jack. He asked once more "What do you want?"

Jack lowered the swinging birds and said "Your protection while we roast the meat." He stopped talking and looked like something pained him as he continued "We can give you a quarter of a bird as payment."

Bi Tuohui snorted and started to close his door.

Jack extended a hand to stop the door and said "Fine, we can give you half of a bird, but that's as high as I'll go."

Bi Tuohui looked at him with dead eyes as he said "You have three birds, and there's only the two of you, and you want to make me protect you for only half of one?"

Jack gave him a confident nod "That's right." After a few seconds of silence, he continued "It's not really just the two of us, Kuang Bindun will join us when he comes back from the graveyard shift. And we need the third bird to do a little trading. So you see, you'll get as much as we do, and all you need to do is stand there and look threatening."

Bi Tuohui looked thoughtful for a while before he said "I want half of what you get in trade."

Jack resolutely shook his head as he said "No way. I can give you first pick."

Bi Tuohui considered it for a moment longer before finally nodding and saying "Alright, you got yourself a deal, boy."

Jack gave him a sweet smile as he responded with "Don't worry, our dear Senior Brother took one of those two tough guys with him today so you shouldn't have problems." When he finished he turned and started walking back to his house.

Bi Tuohui's face turned from smug to sour as he cursed silently, put on some clothes, and followed after Jack and Shi Furui.

Ever since Jack saw him lose the argument over who would get to ride on the corpse cart Jack tried to get closer to Bi Tuohui, but he only respected the stronger members of their little group and ignored him. Jack considered this a perfect opportunity for bonding.

Jack went to the well to clean the birds, while Bi Tuohui and Shi Furui went to get the wood from Jack's house.

Jack set the birds up on spits over the fire right in front of his house and waited.

As the smell of roasting meat spread people started to exit their houses and look at the three teens sitting around the fire. When the number crossed five Jack stood up and said loudly "Don't get any clever ideas. We have one bird which we'll set aside for trading, the rest is for us."

A few people started grumbling, but they shut their mouths when Bi Tuohui and Shi Furui stood up behind Jack and glared at them.

Even the other teen that argued with Bi Tuohui previously only gave them a long look before going back into his house.

One by one people came to Jack and asked what he wanted for the meat. Jack mostly asked for tools like knives and pottery, or for favors they could cash in in the future.

When the birds looked crispy golden Jack took them down and distributed the meat. The three of them each got a half of a bird, the third bird got torn up into multiple pieces for the people that decided to trade, and Jack saved one half. A few people asked if he wanted to trade for that too, but he said that it already had an owner.

Bi Tuohui decided to take a decent looking knife from the traded goods, and Jack kept the rest. Shi Furui tried to insinuate that he should get something too, but Jack ignored him and went back to his home.

As Du Angliang came back with his group he frowned slightly as he smelt roasted meat and smoke. He looked at where it came from and contempt covered his face. He turned away and walked towards his home without looking at Jack's house again.

Kuang Bindun frowned at the pile of still warm coals in front of Song Tanda's house as he went in, but stopped all of his thoughts when he saw the golden sheen from the remaining half of the roasted bird that lay on the table.

Jack smiled at him and said, "Dig in, it's all yours."

Kuang Bindun looked at Jack with wide eyes as he asked "Really?"

Jack's smile widened as he nodded and said "Really."

Kuang Bindun jumped at the piece of meat like a bear ambushing a deer.

Jack watched him with a satisfied smile as he prepared for tonight's lesson.

After Kuang Bindun went back to his home Jack focused fully on his cultivation.

In the last few days, he had problems with storing more spirit energy into his dantian. Kuang Bindun told him that it signaled that he neared the threshold for the second grade and advised him to keep cultivating and using his spirit energy as much as he could.

Still feeling satisfied from the filling meal he enjoyed, Jack focused fully on his dantian and the way it absorbed spirit energy. Just as he started a new cycle around his body he felt a spasm from his dantian and right after it something like a shockwave passed through all of his meridians.

Jack gloried at the feeling of comfort coming from his meridians as he absorbed more spirit energy than he could previously, and started filling his dantian without any obstructions.

He opened his eyes as a huge smile spread across his face and he whispered "Finally, the second grade; time to see what Elder Yu has in store for me."