98 Hopefuls

Jack started the next morning's practice as usual, but a young boy that looked around Jack's real age came running up to their training grounds.

One of the sentries stopped him and asked for his business. Once he found out, he walked over to Jack and informed him that Elder Ran finished preparing the Haechi hide for transport.

Jack's eyes shone at the news and he had Kuang Bindun take over the practice while he followed the excited boy back to Elder Ran's workshop.

The Elder's huge hand reached down to the boy's torso when he patted his head and gave him a small clump of sugar as a reward before sending him off.

"That's my great-great-great-grandson, mercenary. He's only six years old and already looks like that. We try to feed him food from the other side when we can, but it's becoming harder with each year." Elder Ran said while he watched the young boy skip away in delight.

He turned to look at Jack with a serious face and added "I don't mind wiping you all out and using the Haechi hunt earnings to feed him good food for the rest of his short life so don't try anything stupid."

Jack gave him a solemn nod and declared "I think that you will have to stand in line."

They locked gazes for a dozen seconds before Elder Ran started chuckling and said "Indeed." He turned around and started walking towards the house from which acidic smells wafted into the surroundings.

Jack followed in his wake, but Elder Ran waved a hand in the air and declared "Wait here, boy. I don't want people I don't know snooping inside my workshop." With that, he lifted the leather curtain and entered a house that had white smoke drifting out of the doorway.

With nothing to do, Jack looked around and wondered where the huge Haechi beast's carcass disappeared. He glanced at the stinky house but shook his head because he doubted that the Elder would take meat they planned to give to the Tribe inside of that. After thinking about it for a while he shrugged his shoulders and started whistling.

A minute later, Elder Ran walked out of his misty workshop while holding a large bundle of white in his muscular tattooed hands. Compared to the hide Jack got when he skinned his first Haechi, this one looked like completed leather.

The Elder stopped in front of Jack and said "It should hold for about twenty to twenty-five days without spoiling, more if it's kept dry. I would send it off right now if you want it to reach the other side in decent shape."

Jack took hold of it with reverence and stored it in his Star Bag. He looked up at Elder Ran and asked "When should I bring you the second beast?"

The Elder thought about it for a second before answering "Give me two days to sort the first one out. After that, you can bring one to me every three days."

Jack nodded his head and thanked Elder Ran for his hard work before he turned and walked towards Pan Baibao's house. He wanted to find Tong Huakun, but it never occurred to him to ask where she lived.

Pan Baibao's gray hair looked like she just got out of bed when she finally allowed him entrance to her house.

When he sat down at the stone table, she asked "What do you want?" in a dry voice.

Jack looked at her tattooed wrinkled face and said "I need directions to your granddaughter's house."

Pan Baibao gave him an annoyed glare and snapped "You could have asked anyone in the Tribe for that, why come and wake me up?!"

His eyes widened when he realized that she had a point. In the Raging Ox village this became common sense to him, but after getting abducted to the Endless Cycle Sect he buried that knowledge in the back of his mind and relied on the experience from his old life.

Jack looked stunned for a second before he rallied and said "Of course I didn't come for just that. I would like to come and visit you after the midday meal so we can exchange knowledge on the Clear Water spell."

Pan Baibao studied him with narrowed eyes for a couple of seconds before she sighed and relented "Very well, I will prepare the Tribe's leather scroll for you by then."

After that, she gave him directions to her granddaughter's house and shooed him away.

Jack found Tong Huakun practicing some of the moves from the company's standard practice in front of her house. She detected him as soon as he entered her sensing range, but she still brought her set of exercises to a close before she smiled and waved him over.

"What brings you to my home so early in the morning? Shouldn't you be leading your men in their morning training?" Tong Huakun asked as she wiped the sweat off of her brow.

Jack gave her a shrug and answered "Other tasks took me away from them. I need a fast and trustworthy person that can guide one of my men to the Tribal Assembly."

Tong Huakun's brows furrowed when she asked "How important is this?"

Jack's face turned serious as he answered "Very important. I will need the guide to wait in the Tribal Assembly to take my man back here when he returns from the White River Outpost, and to arrange some additional things if things turn out well."

Tong Huakun gave him a firm nod and said "Then I will go."

Jack's brows rose in surprise before he asked "Are you sure? Don't you have other duties here in the Tribe?"

Tong Huakun shook her head and answered "My job is to make things work out between the two of our peoples. I have already notified the members of the Tribe about the recruitment for this afternoon, so I don't have anything to do until we start going on hunts again."

She glanced up at the sky for a moment before she continued "Just let me pack my things and notify my grandmother and the Chief. I should be ready by the time your company finishes their morning meal."

Jack studied her resolute face and felt relieved on the inside. He would always suspect anyone she sent with old Long, but now he felt secure in him at least reaching the Tribal Assembly. He thanked her and left her to her preparations while he walked back to the Immortals' Lament.

The company still trained so he left them to it and went into old Long's house.

He had to wake the old man up and have him get ready for travel. While old Long packed, Jack returned to the training field and finished the morning's practice with his men.

Right on time, after breakfast, Tong Huakun came to their side of the town with a rolled up leather bag slung over her back. She looked ready and eager for the travel.

As a contrast to her, old Long looked miserable and unwilling. When Jack handed him the Haechi hide roll wrapped up in Kui leather for concealment to carry, he acted like it weighed him down so much that he couldn't walk properly.

In the end, Tong Huakun took pity on him and offered to carry it for him. Jack could only shake his head at her naivety and old Long's look of triumph.

He gave the old bastard his spending money together with the leather for Wu Angrui and escorted the two travelers to the first hill outside the Tribe.

"Don't get killed, old man." Jack said as he watched old Long count the spirit stones that he gave him.

Old Long looked up and responded with a cold snort before he added "I will outlive all of you idealistic idiots, boy."

Jack shook his head while he chuckled and turned to Tong Huakun to say "Look after yourself out there."

She gave him a solemn nod and responded with "Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to him."

Jack laughed at her serious expression and said "I didn't mean look out for dangers, I know you would do that regardless. What I meant to say is, look after your valuables around the old man."

Tong Huakun gave old Long a narrow-eyed look and took a better hold of her possessions.

Old Long raised his nose in the air while the sun reflected from his bald head and declared with pride "I am not some petty thief, girl. When I take something from you, you will smile and thank me for it."

With that, he snorted and started running towards the south.

Tong Huakun exchanged one last goodbye with Jack and followed after him.

Jack watched them until they disappeared into the horizon and walked back to his company.

After the midday meal, a few hopeful people gathered in the piece of land that the Immortals' Lament used for training. Jack greeted them and told them that they would have to wait until the afternoon before he started the selection, but none of them seemed to mind.

He left Shi Furui in charge of checking the newcomers and walked back to Pan Baibao's house.

This time her hair looked combed and her voice had its tribal lilting accent back when she spread a large leather scroll across her stone table and said "These are all the notes that the generations of Elders of the Haechi Tribe have left on the Clear Water spell."

Jack looked down at the brown leather and saw hundreds of notes made with some kind of white ink. He passed the fingertips of his right hand over the words and asked "What is this ink made out of?"

Pan Baibao gave him a grim smirk and answered "That's the white liquid we take out of the water when we clean it. It makes for a surprisingly decent ink replacement."

Jack withdrew his hand like a snake bit him as soon as he heard the first sentence. He gave the old woman an angry glare when she finished talking and asked "Why didn't you warn me?"

Pan Baibao shrugged at him and said "It's only dangerous if it gets into your body. Nothing will happen from just getting some dried ink on your skin."

Jack wanted to curse the old woman out, but he managed to restrain himself when he thought 'They don't know about the possibility of absorption through the skin, I can't blame them.'

He moved his hand underneath the table and wiped it hard against his pants while he took out his Clear Water spell scroll out with his left hand and handed it over to Pan Baibao.

They both started reading the new information they received and lost themselves in it for the next few hours.

Pan Baibao finished the smaller scroll first, but she waited for Jack to finish his first read through the leather scroll in silence.

When he finished, Jack looked up at Pan Baibao with an excited shine in his eyes and asked "Would you mind if I took this back to my house so I can study it more in depth for a couple of days?"

Pan Baibao gave him a knowing smile and answered "Of course not; if you don't mind me taking your scroll to show the other Elders?"

Jack shook his head and said "Please do, the more all of us know about cleansing this damned water, the better."

They both knew that the other would make a copy of the scroll for their side once they had some privacy, but they left that unsaid and concluded their business in peace.

When Jack neared the part of the town where the Immortals' Lament rented out their houses, a mass of people found themselves in his way.

It mostly contained old people and children, but some warriors stood with them too.

His brows furrowed and he thought about yelling for them to make way, but he shook his head and used Moon Step to jump over the few houses standing between him and his company.

Several shouts of "He's cutting the line!" and "Isn't that the mercenary leader?" followed after him.

When he reached the last few houses on the outskirts, the ones he rented, he saw a mass of over five hundred people milling around the clearing where the company did their training.

Jack watched them with wide open eyes and thought 'I might have made a mistake.'