36 Leadership

The next morning Jack joined Du Angliang as they prepared to go to Elder Yu's manor. As Jack started walking towards the forest, he noticed that Du Angliang still hadn't moved. He looked back and asked, "What's wrong?"

Du Angliang shook his head a little as he said "I brought the cart over as my last official act as the Senior Brother, from now on you will have to command this rabble." He pointed a finger at the gathered Gravediggers and the empty cart.

Jack almost slapped his forehead as he realized his mistake and walked back to his gathered unit. They greeted him with encouraging smiles and light ribbing. 'Can't believe they used to look like dead men walking only a year and a half ago.' Jack thought as he looked at all of them.

After a second of reminiscing, he straightened his back and looked them all in the eyes, just to notice the faith in them. He nodded firmly and turned to Shi Furui "Take the cart and lead them down to the town. I'll come join you as soon as I can."

Shi Furui gave a slight nod and shouted "Let's go, Senior Brother Song gave an order!"

As Jack turned to the forest he thought he saw a slight frown on Du Angliang's face that disappeared as soon as Jack noticed it. Neither of them said anything as they walked on the path towards the Elder's manor.

When they arrived at the courtyard they had to wait for a quarter of an hour for the study doors to open. Once they did, Jack and Du Angliang walked in and bowed to Elder Yu together.

The Elder looked at Du Angliang and asked "Angliang, have you explained all of the duties that your Junior Disciple Brother needs to perform in your stead?"

Du Angliang nodded his head firmly as he answered "I have, Elder."

Elder Yu gave a slight smile as he said "Well done, depending on his success you might receive additional rewards." He got a mischievous look in his eyes as he said "Catch!" and threw a bulging pouch at Du Angliang.

Due to serving the Elder for years, Du Angliang wised up to his tricks long ago. He simply grabbed the pouch from the air when it neared him and opened it to look inside. As soon as he did, a wide smile that broke through even his cold demeanor spread over Du Angliang's face.

He looked up at Elder Yu and gave him a deep bow while saying "I will be forever grateful, Elder."

The Elder waved a hand in dismissal and said "You have executed your tasks admirably while in my service. It is only natural that you receive a reward." The door to the courtyard opened and Elder Yu added "Go now to the back mountain, you are free until the inner disciple selection."

Du Angliang had a fire burning in his eyes as he said goodbye and left the study.

The Elder turned his gaze to Jack and asked "What do you think about your new duties?"

Jack took on a relaxed pose as he said "They seem simple enough. I'll have to go over Senior Brother Du's accounts later today, but I don't foresee any issues rising up."

Elder Yu nodded his head and said "Good. Notify me if you encounter any problems." He paused for a few seconds as he studied the mess on his desk, suddenly he exclaimed "Aha!" as an old scroll got covered in light grey spirit energy and floated out of one of the piles to land in his hand.

He stood up and walked over to Jack's side as he opened the scroll. While holding the unfurled scroll in front of Jack, Elder Yu pointed a finger at a decent painting of the body's meridians and said "To make the spirit energy leave one's body you have to first…"

Before he could continue Jack cleared his throat and said "Elder."

The Elder frowned and a hint of his insanity leaked out of his eyes as he snapped "What!?"

Jack raised his left hand and connected his thumb and forefinger with a strand of spirit energy.

Elder Yu's eyes widened as he stammered "H-how did you do that?"

Jack looked at his hand and started connecting each finger with each other while he said "Well, you told me to figure it out on my own. So I did. I thought you knew, Elder. While I practiced the Air Blast spell last night I felt sure that you noticed." The structure in his hand had nine strands of spirit energy in it, only needing the last one to finish forming the spell.

He looked up at the Elder's confused blinking eyes and asked "Want me to show you, Elder?"

Elder Yu looked down at Jack's hand for a few seconds, before looking back up and saying excitedly "Yes." He turned towards the door and started walking while adding "Come to the courtyard, I do not want my texts to get damaged."

Jack followed the Elder slowly as he had to concentrate on holding the flow of spirit energy stable while moving.

Once they exited the study Jack walked a dozen meters in front of Elder Yu and extended his hand towards the empty courtyard.

He thought about following Du Angliang's advice but decided against it since he didn't want his first showing in front of the Elder to misfire. He connected the last strand of spirit energy and shot out an Air Blast from his hand.

With a satisfied smile, Jack turned around to look at Elder Yu. A scowling face greeted him as the Elder yelled "What kind of control is that?! You just arrange your flimsy spell and shoot it off without directing any of its force! I saw spring breezes that had more strength than that!"

Jack's shoulders slumped as he looked down at the ground and said "Apologies, Elder."

Elder Yu stopped his tirade as he gave a frustrated sigh and walked towards Jack while saying "Not your fault, not your fault. I expected too much after seeing… Even what you did here is astounding."

He walked to stand next to Jack, raised his hand towards the gateway of the courtyard, and said "Watch."

In an instant, a grey speck of light formed in front of the Elder's hand and flew out of the gate. A second later Jack heard the noise of falling trees from the forest.

Jack stared at the distant gateway in half-feigned awe. He long ago knew that Elder Yu could crush him like a bug, and he suspected that when you got to a certain stage of cultivation that anything you do would cause devastation, but he still felt a healthy respect for the power presented in front of him.

The Elder had a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he said "That is a way that someone can use the Air Blast spell. It can vary depending on which part of the spell's structure you give more attention and spirit energy to. But you always have to remember to keep the circulation steady at all times." He paused and pointed his hand towards the sky as he continued "I will make the spell structure larger. Pay close attention because I will not repeat myself."

Jack nodded his head and focused his entire attention on Elder Yu's right palm.

There, strands of light grey spirit energy, as thick as an arm, started to form the familiar spell structure. Jack stared at the slight tweaks that the Elder did to the way he shaped the spirit energy and tried to burn them all into his brain. Ten seconds later the spell took shape, and a ball larger than Jack's head shot out of Elder Yu's palm into the sky. When Jack focused his spirit energy into his eyes he thought he saw a tiny hole in the clouds that floated above them which closed up a second later.

This time he didn't have to feign even a bit of the awe he felt towards the strength of the cultivators of this world. He had seen massive displays of might before from them, but now when he knew more about the whole process he could admire them in a more personal way.

The Elder still had the smug look on his face as he said "Keep practicing, and maybe one day you too will be able to do that." He stopped for a second as a sour thought changed his smirk to a frown and added "Just imagine what you could have done if you chose something more powerful."

Jack bowed deeply as he said, "Thank you for the lesson, Elder."

With a wave of his hand Elder Yu dismissed Jack as he said "That will be all for today, go carry out your duties. I will check on your progress when you bring me the payment from the other organizations in two days." When he finished he walked back to his study.

Jack watched the closing door and thought 'I have to learn more about sigils. He knew which part of the spell's structure to shape to get the effect he needed. Time to visit the library.'

He walked down the mountain and visited the restaurant that made the food for his people's midday meal. It took him a few minutes to get the confused manager to agree to add a pot with broth, and a large plate of roasted meat to the menu, but after Jack offered a bit more money he agreed.

With a satisfied smile, Jack walked to the Gravedigger courtyard to check up on his men. When he stepped foot inside they all stopped their work, frozen between continuing in their usual style and making a show of it for their supervisor.

Jack gave them a relaxed smile as he shouted "We're doing things our way now! No need for the ceremonies!"

A few of them cheered, but most just nodded while a grin hung on their faces.

Jack continued as he looked at where his closest friends gathered "Shi Furui will start teaching the locations of meridians out in the open once the corpses stop coming for the day, instead of doing it with you one by one."

Shi Furui gave him a confident nod as he knew Jack planned to do this.

"After Shi Furui's class, Bai Maolong will supervise your training. Give it your all; these next couple of months are extremely important so all of you have to get into top shape." Jack continued as he received a nod from Bai Maolong.

After Jack scared the laziness out of him it turned out that his family used to run a martial arts temple, but it got attacked and destroyed by their ruler because he coveted their wealth. Bai Maolong wandered around the countryside on his own for a few years and somehow ended up in the Gravediggers. Jack taught him some moves at first, but now he had even better melee fighting skills than Jack.

Switching his gaze to the grinning Kuang Bindun, Jack said "Kuang Bindun will take over language studies after the evening meal. When necessary I will give my input, but I believe that he will do his job well."

Jack looked at everyone's excited face once more and said "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do." He turned on his heel and went back into the building.

Jeers and whistles followed him in.