74 Return

After walking back to the western part of the White River Outpost, Jack and his men spent half an hour to find a large cheap inn specializing in renting out multiple rooms to people that stayed in the city. They had to pay five spirit stones per day to rent two rooms; one room for Jack and Kuang Bindun, the other for the rest.

"This damned city does not accept any other currency except for spirit stones." Old Long complained while they sat and ate a late lunch in the inn's dining hall.

Jack looked around at the other long tables in the dining hall and said "Try to talk to some of the other people from the outside, see if they're willing to trade some of their spirit stones for gold."

Old Long snorted while he chewed his dry bread; a second later he swallowed and asked "What gold? You barely have enough for a few months of supplies for the company."

Jack looked into old Long's eyes, gave him a small smile, and said "Your gold, of course."

Old Long spat a few pieces of bread straight into Jack's face while he laughed. A dozen seconds later, when he caught a breath, he looked up at Jack's still serious face and exclaimed "You must be joking! I have spent most of my life slowly working and saving up to get where I am now. I will not just spend it for whatever foolish little enterprise you have in mind."

Jack wiped the spittle from his face with his sleeve and asked "How much will the gold you've saved up help you on the other side of the River? When the people that do the most business with the tribes there only use spirit stones, what currency do you think that the tribes have?"

Old Long's hand froze on the way to his mouth and his eyes started flicking as he did some calculations. With an exasperated grunt he slammed his hand back down on the table and grumbled "Damn you, boy, you are right. These few months have made me rusty."

He sighed as he looked around the room and continued "These people will carve me up. I'll be lucky if I get one spirit stone for two gold coins."

Jack shrugged as he said "We can't do anything about it now. Change all the coins we have into spirit stones, just leave enough for buying some extra supplies on the outside."

When old Long gave him a suspicious look, Jack added "I will not ask you to give any of your earnings to the company. I might ask you for a loan that I will pay back if our funds start running dry, though."

Old Long's eyes narrowed for a few seconds before he declared "I want double returns on any future loans."

Jack returned the narrowed gaze with one of his own as he responded with "Don't be ridiculous. Do you want us to run out of money even before we really start? Think about the possible opportunities in the future. I can give you one-fifth of the loan in interest."

They went for a few more rounds and ended up with Jack having to return two-fifths of the loan in interest when he loaned anything from old Long in the future.

When they finished, old Long gave a satisfied smile, which then turned sour as he thought about how much gold he was about to lose. He stood up and went to find someone willing to exchange spirit stones for gold while cursing under his breath.

Jack signaled for Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong to go with him as bodyguards before he turned to Ma Ruiman and asked "Found anything?"

Ma Ruiman's eyes opened and blinked a few times from the glare of the Light Orb's in the ceiling. He looked at Jack and answered "I think so; they're a bit further away so I couldn't get the gist of their conversation, but they should have gone to the wilderness a few times already."

Jack nodded his head and stood up as he said "Let's go."

Ma Ruiman grabbed a couple of bottles of the local wine that they ordered with their meal and followed after Jack. He had the task to locate people that knew more information about the other side of the River than what the general traders knew, so he spent the entire time listening in to the conversations around the hall to find someone that had gone there before.

Jack allowed Ma Ruiman to lead the way to the other side of the hall. Half a minute later, Ma Ruiman stopped in front of a long table that had seven people seated at it and shouted over the noise of the hall "Hello Brothers, my friend and I heard that you visited the wilderness before." He raised the two bottles of wine into the air and asked "Would you mind sharing a few stories with us over some drinks?"

A burly man in his thirties, whose cultivation Jack couldn't sense, gave them a glance then turned to Jack and demanded "What do you want?" with a gruff voice.

Jack gave him a friendly smile and said "Our employer over there…" he nodded at old Long, who was in the middle of some serious negotiations with a middle-aged merchant, and continued "… is taking us to the wilderness on some new scheme of his without gathering any practical information first. We would like to hear about the situation there from someone more experienced."

The burly man glanced at old Long and remembered that he took note of him previously. Only a few people in the cheap inn had the same cultivation as he did so he liked to keep an eye of them. Thanks to that, he remembered seeing Jack with him and believed his story.

He thought about it for a few seconds, before saying "My throat gets parched really fast when I talk a lot, I think you will have to bring a lot more than two little bottles of wine."

Jack gave him a confident smile as he stated "What a coincidence, mine does too. We will gladly pay for all of your drinks if you can keep up." With that, he called over a barmaid and ordered a few more bottles.

The burly man laughed and shouted "Ha! Those are fighting words in some parts of the world, boy! Let's see if your bite is as good as your bark!" He turned towards the barmaid and declared "Keep score, whoever falls first has to pick up the tab for the table."

With that, Jack and Ma Ruiman joined the seven people in a drinking game while the older men told ever more exaggerated stories of their adventures in the wilderness as the hours passed.

Jack threw a few of his own made up stories to the mix to make things interesting, while Ma Ruiman bragged about all of the village girls whose hearts he broke.

Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong came once to ask Jack whether they needed help, but Jack just waved them off and told them to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day.

Deep into the night, only Jack and the burly man still sat at the table and drank.

They emptied a cup of the local wine at the same time and slammed it down on the table.

A few long seconds passed. Just as Jack reached towards the bottle to refill their cups…

"You sheating lile sss*it. I'll gechu morrow." The burly man slurred and slumped down on the table. A few seconds later, he let out a loud snore that made all of the cups and bottles on the table let out clanging noises.

Jack sighed and rested his head on the vibrating table for a few seconds too. 'That animal, I had the Beast Recovery Method on the entire time and it still took so long for him to go down.' He thought as he looked back up at the snoring burly man.

With a sigh, Jack stood up, tossed the passed out Ma Ruiman over his shoulder, and started walking towards the stairs for the upper floors where their rooms waited for them. The barmaid that they tasked with keeping score had long ago brought them all the drinks they could want and went to bed. The bright hall only held the snoring figures of the burly man and his men once they left.

Jack almost fell a few times on the way, but he managed to get them both back to their beds in good order. In both rooms, the only question asked was if they had won. He could only give them a tipsy nod and go to sleep.

In the coming days Jack and his men became closer with the burly man, and even met some of his friends that adventured in the wilderness. From their stories, Jack concluded that the wilderness presented the Immortals' Lament a great opportunity and couldn't keep himself from wishing for the days to pass faster.

On their tenth day in the White River Outpost, a voice sounded out across the whole city "The holy bridge will rise tomorrow morning. Everyone that wishes to leave the Outpost has to line up at the main gate at dawn."

Jack and his men rejoiced at the announcement. They had gone a little stir-crazy in the last couple of days and wanted to go back to their friends as soon as possible.

Everything in the White River Outpost was made to get spirit stones parted from their owners, and they all knew that they couldn't spend their money. The long period of looking without touching started getting to them.

On their last day, Jack visited the Wu Armor Store and informed Wu Angrui that they had to go out to get their men, but that they would come back the next time the doors opened.

She promised him that the coat would be ready when he returned. When she talked about the coat she had a little more enthusiasm for it after working with the Haechi hide for the last few days.

On the next morning, Jack and his men gathered in front of the main gate at dawn and waited.

'Looks like hurry up and wait is a policy in every world.' Jack thought as the day brightened while they stood in the street.

Three hours later, the door finally opened and presented the assembled golden bridge that reflected the morning sunlight in front of the gathered crowd. This time no people from the White River family held back the column, so it didn't take long for them to return to the mainland.

Once they returned back to the Immortals' Lament camp, Jack gathered all of his people and declared "You have ten days left on this side of the River. Use it how you think best without bringing shame to the company. Once we cross that golden bridge we're not coming back here for a long time."