Last Hurrah

On the way down the mountain Jack saw a lot less people on the road, and the ones he did see avoided his gaze. Everyone walked like they had a heavy burden stuck to their shoulders as the protective formation's glow loomed over the Sect.

When he reached the half-empty main street of Tranquil Lake Town, Jack ran straight towards the rickety old Golden Dragon Store. He tried to go through the front door, but it didn't want to open, so he ran into a side street and banged on the back door of the store.

After a minute of banging, an annoyed voice yelled from the other side "Go away, we're closed!"

Jack furrowed his brows a little as he responded with "Open the door, old Long. It's me."

A few seconds of silence later the voice of old Long shouted back "We're still closed!"

Jack's face became cold as he stepped back from the door and cocked his fist back. For a second he pumped all the spirit energy he could into the meridians of his right arm and cycled it between his shoulder and his hand. As more and more spirit energy gathered, his skin started to let out a slight shimmer of spirit energy.

With an explosive exhale Jack slammed his fist straight into the wood near the top hinge. The upper part of the door caved inward with a loud *CRACK*, while it remained hanging on half of the lower hinge.

Jack pulled back his leg and stomped out the last bits that held the door hanging in the air, making it crash down to the floor with a *bang*.

Old Long and his oldest assistant stood frozen in the middle of the room. Jack looked down at his undamaged hand with a grim smirk, gave the two men a glance, stepped over the fallen door, and said "We don't have time for playing around."

His words unfroze old Long as his face became red with fury while he yelled "What do you think you're doing!? I will report you to the Sect!" he pointed at the destroyed door and added, "You better pay for that, or else!"

Jack glanced at the downed door and turned back towards old Long with a crooked smile as he said "Take it out of the sum you got for that overpriced skill you sold me." His face became serious as he continued "The Sect has a lot bigger problems to deal with than one broken door."

He walked past the two men as he said "We need to talk, you can't hole yourself away on this one." With that, he opened an adjacent door and entered the room behind the store proper. With a long sigh, he sat down and poured two drinks from the wine bottle that sat on the table.

After a few seconds of murmured whispers from the other room, old Long walked in to join Jack and sat opposite him. He took a cup and downed it immediately, Jack joined him. They poured another cup and downed that one as well. Jack poured the third round but didn't drink.

"This won't end well." he said as he watched old Long empty his third cup.

Old Long snorted and poured himself a fourth cup as he said "I lived through a couple of times when the Sect-protecting formation got activated. Things always work out in the end."

Jack shook his head slowly as he said "They won't this time."

Old Long's eyes narrowed as his voice dropped down to a whisper "What do you know?"

Jack leaned in and matched his voice to old Long's "I know the people that came to attack with the Slaughtering Sword School. The Endless Cycle Sect has no chance of fighting back against them."

Old Long's brows rose in surprise as he asked "How do you know this? Even I have not heard anything about those people. I only know that the man they came for, gave a large amount of treasure to the Sect and the Eternal Rest Mountain Peak Master to cure his festering wound."

Jack's brows rose too at this information, but he could only say "I can't reveal my sources. Just know that the Endless Cycle Sect doesn't have a future in this world." He leaned back and tried to exude confidence as he thought 'Who would believe me that the man who abducted me to this world used to brag a lot about his Sect's power to his spirit puppets?'

With a single gulp, old Long emptied his cup for the fourth time and studied Jack for a few seconds. Finally, he decided to change the topic and ask "What do you want?"

Jack didn't miss a beat as he started naming the items he needed "I want two pairs of robes for 25 people, no, make that 30, 1000 jin of dried meat, 3000 jin of rice, 20 tents for sleeping out in the open, 50 thick blankets, and 50 waterskins."

Old Long stared at Jack with wide eyes for a few seconds before he shouted "How am I supposed to get all that?! We are in a siege, boy!"

Jack gave him a sly smile as he said "Don't treat me like an idiot. I know that you already sent your other two thugs to buy out supplies from the other merchants while they're still in stock."

Old Long tried to sustain his fake outrage for a few seconds before he sighed and asked "How much will you pay me for this?"

Jack grinned and started the negotiation.

Half an hour later he downed his third cup of the local wine and said "Have it all ready by tomorrow night." He stood up from his seat and added "You and your people are welcome to join us if you change your mind."

With a snort as a response from old Long, Jack left the Golden Dragon Store through the broken back door.

His next stop took him through the deserted alleys to his smith. This time no noises of metal banging against metal rang out from the closed-off workshop.

Jack had to jump the wall to get in after no one opened the door when he banged on it for a full minute.

He glanced at the cold furnace with a frown and walked over to the door of the main house.

After a few knocks and shouts, Tan Boli opened the door. Over his shoulder, Jack saw his wife and two sons sitting at their table and looking at him with fear in their eyes, while they held packed linen bags in front of them.

"I'm sorry Sir; we can't finish your order. We might have to run for our lives at any moment now and I'd rather that my family survives than to earn a few more coins." Tan Boli said with uncharacteristic steel in his spine.

Jack studied his resolute eyes for a few seconds before saying "I will give you your entire payment for just another one of those cylinders and however many of the metal balls you can make until tomorrow night." Just as Tan Boli started to frown, Jack added "The Sect's barrier will hold until then, you have my word. After that, you can take your family and join me and my people in our attempt at flight."

Tan Boli's eyes widened as he exclaimed "You're leaving too, Sir?"

Jack gave him a sharp nod as he said "Yes, the Sect will fall soon and I don't intend to fall with it."

Tan Boli thought about the proposal as he glanced back at his family. His wife and he exchanged secret messages with their eyes for a few seconds, before he turned back and said "Alright, Sir. Count us in."

With a wide smile, Jack walked into their house and discussed the details of their flight for half an hour.

When he finally returned to the Gravedigger courtyard, Jack felt seven new grade four spirit fluctuations with his senses. He looked at his gathered friends and called out "How did it go?"

Everyone turned around, and a short and thin teen started blabbing "Shi Furui and Bai Maolong fainted like girls. We had to throw water at them to wake them up from their beauty sleep."

Kuang Bindun walked over and smacked the teen over the head as he growled "That happens when you build up too much spirit energy for your breakthrough, Ruiman. Tanda passed out too, moron."

Jack laughed at the embarrassed look that Ma Ruiman gave him. Out of all of the other members of the Gravediggers that weren't in Jack's inner circle, only he managed to breakthrough to the fourth grade.

He looked at all of the new fourth grade people with gratitude in his eyes. He had asked Kuang Bindun, Shi Furui, Bi Tuohui, Shen Saishuo, Yin Ping, Bai Maolong, and Ma Ruiman to hold their cultivation back so that Elder Yu wouldn't transfer them out of the unit. With Jack's cultivation method they had no problems cracking the bottleneck, but they trusted him enough to stifle their development for a better future for all of them.

Jack jumped on a dissection table, cleared his throat, and announced "The Endless Cycle Sect will fall in a few days." He waited until the astounded murmurs to pass before continuing "Tomorrow night we will initiate the first stage of our plan. Until then we will try to relax as much as possible so that we're in top shape for the escape."

His men looked ready and eager to burst out right now, but they understood the necessity for patience. Most of them held their feelings back for years; one or two days wouldn't make a difference when the goal was in sight.

Jack gave them a quick nod of understanding, a second later his face developed into a smirk as he said "Before that, however, we will perform an ancient military ritual that every man has to go through."

They all looked at him with confused gazes as he spread his hands and said "Those of you that are older than 16 years move to my right side. Those of you that are younger than 16 years move to my left side."

After a bit of jostling, six people stood on his left side, and fifteen stood on his right.

Jack looked at the six teens on his left and said "You will guard the courtyard and take in any corpse when they come." He looked to the teens on his right side and continued "You will follow me."

He jumped off of the dissection table and led the fifteen people out of the courtyard, some complaints followed him out from the six people that had to stay behind, but he tuned them out and left them to their work.

Jack and his men looked conspicuous on the almost empty street, but he didn't care. Most of the officials of the Sect had bigger problems than some outer disciple and his little gang roaming the streets of Tranquil Lake Town.

A few minutes later Jack stopped in front of a large red-colored wooden building that had a stylized sign of a flower over its doors that read "Madam Su's".

Most of the teens understood what Jack meant to do by now, and they gave themselves elbow pokes and excited looks.

Jack walked up to the double doors and knocked on them a few times. A dozen seconds later a part of the right door moved out of the way, just enough for a pair of cruel eyes to look down at Jack and say "We're closed, Lord."

Without missing a beat, Jack took out a bag filled with spirit stones and opened it up to show its content to the man as he said "I will give your mistress five spirit stones for each of my men."

The man behind the door hesitated for a second, before saying "Wait here, Lord."

A few minutes later the doors opened up wide as a middle-aged woman in a beautiful red dress, and with a ton of makeup on her face, greeted Jack with "Welcome to Madam Su's, Young Master!" She took hold of his arm in hers and led him in while saying "What can our humble establishment offer to Young Master?"

Jack looked back at his men and signaled them to follow him. He turned back to the Madam and said "Give my men whatever they ask for. I'll take care of the bill."

The Madam chuckled as she said, "Naturally, they will feel like royalty today." She took him to a greeting room where a few girls in revealing clothes lounged on pillows and added "And what will Young Master have?"

Jack glanced at the girls once, before he sighed and said "A drink. Get me your best wine and a cup."

"Two cups." Bai Maolong added from the back of the group. Jack and the Madam looked back at him in surprise, but when Jack nodded to the Madam to do as Bai Maolong said she only bowed gracefully and went to do Jack's bidding.

While everyone else went to pick their girls, Jack and Bai Maolong sat at a table and drank expensive wine in silence.