23 Shared Suffering

"How are you doing this?" Shi Furui asked with a slightly trembling voice as he took another careful step on the patrol path.

Jack sighed and for the third time stopped his cultivation to say "I'll explain it to you when we're not in the middle of a forest that wants to eat us. Now, shut up. Keeping my eyes open and gathering spirit energy is hard enough, I can't also answer all of your questions at the same time."

For the fourth time, Jack started absorbing spirit energy through his skin while hanging off of Shi Furui's back. He kept the absorption to every part of his body except for the area around his eyes and the meridians necessary for pushing spirit energy into them so he could retain his night vision.

The first time Jack started to cultivate, Shi Furui threw him to the ground and scurried away while mumbling something about demons even though Jack told him what he was about to do. After Jack managed to convince him to continue, he dropped him again when Jack warned him about an incoming spirit which they managed to circumvent in time.

Previously he instructed Shi Furui on how to carry him while he cultivated, he even told him that he'll observe the surroundings while he did it, but it still didn't help. Jack sighed inwardly as he stopped complaining and focused as much of his divided attention as he could on cultivation.

They slowly moved forward as Shi Furui walked as carefully as he could so as not to jostle Jack too much for him to lose focus.

Half an hour later Jack felt his dantian filling up to the brim and signaled to Shi Furui to let him down from his back.

Jack drew the two sigil-filled knives from his belt and started imbuing them with spirit energy.

"Why don't we just avoid the spirits like the one before?" Shi Furui asked as he watched a knife slowly light up.

"How much does a nice chunk of some decent meat cost in Tranquil Lake Town?" Jack asked in return as he started to activate the second knife.

Shi Furui furrowed his brows and answered "A few silvers at most." He looked up at Jack and asked "What does that have to do with my question?"

Jack ended his imbuements and stored the knives as he once more replied with "And for how much does a spirit stone go?"

Shi Furui looked at Jack in confusion as he said "Depends on the quality. But the most common ones can go for up to a gold coin each."

Jack looked up at Shi Furui and said "Elder Yu promised me that he'd give me a spirit stone for each spirit I get for him." A smile spread on his face as he saw the realization dawn in Shi Furui's eyes.

"No wonder that bastard's so serious about these patrols when he doesn't care about any of the other things that we're tasked to do." Shi Furui said with narrowed eyes. He looked towards the West and spat on the ground before he turned to Jack and said "You can't sell a spirit stone for mortal currency. I heard that you can use it for cultivation, formations, alchemy, and all kinds of other things. Even if you just use them for cultivation you can become an official sect disciple sooner. Exchanging it for coins would waste it."

"Hmpf!" Jack snorted coldly as he turned towards the depths of the forest and said with contempt in his voice "I'm in no hurry to join this s*ithole." He looked at Shi Furui from the corner of his eye and said "I'd rather form a solid troop of companions on which I can rely on to survive and get out of here."

Shi Furui looked at him in stunned silence for a few seconds before he asked "You think you can do it?"

Jack gave him a slight shrug as he replied "Won't know until we try." He turned to stare straight into Shi Furui's eyes and asked "Want to try with me?"

Shi Furui looked down at the little boy standing in front of him and believed that he could do what he claimed. He straightened up the same as when they stood in line in the courtyard and said "Count me in."

Jack nodded solemnly, looked back down the path, and said "Let's go get some nice food."

Fifteen minutes later Shi Furui stopped moving as Jack tugged at his uniform and whispered "Two of them, one on each side of the path. The one on the left side is moving towards us, we should take care of it first."

Shi Furui furrowed his brows as he stared out into the darkness and said "Why not evade these two and find one that's on its own?"

Jack stopped and considered the positions of the spirits for a while, after a few seconds he shook his head slightly and said "We'll take them one at a time, shouldn't be a problem with how distant they are from each other."

Shi Furui hesitated for a second before gathering his courage and saying "Fine, let's do it."

Jack walked to stand in front of Shi Furui and asked "You ready?"

After a deep inhale Shi Furui answered with "Ready."

They moved towards the left spirit, Jack started cycling as much spirit energy as his meridians could handle to keep his reflexes sharp. He didn't want what happened last time to repeat itself.

As the field of dispersed spirit energy that the collar on Shi Furui's neck spread around neared the spirit, it started to float towards them faster. When they finally touched, the spirit started its transformation immediately.

Jack inhaled deeply and prepared himself to pounce on the incoming spirit. Just as it neared the end of its transformation Jack saw the spirit from the right side of the path moving towards them.

'Is it the transformation, or some other spirit thing?' Jack thought as he saw the second spirit move towards the transforming one. He flicked his eyes between the two spirits and did some quick calculations before saying "The second spirit is coming too; I'll try to finish them off before they reach you, but you have to prepare yourself for some pain."

He heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him before Shi Furui said "No problem, for each one that gets to me you owe me some extra meat."

The second spirit just touched the spirit energy field and started its transformation before the first one charged at Shi Furui.

Jack used all of the power of the pulsing energy raging through his body to swing his knives through the paths that he predicted the spirit would charge through.

The knife in his right hand hit nothing, but his left knife nicked the edge of the spirit's immaterial body and made it stop in its tracks.

For a split second, Jack stared at the two horrifying pools of darkness that turned to glare in his direction before he used a backhanded stab and plunged his left knife into its body to turn that glare of hatred into an anguished silent scream.

Once again he saw a quick image of a young man in servant's clothing before the knife absorbed the entire being of the spirit. He stared at the knife for a second, before he dropped it to the ground and turned towards Shi Furui to say "Give me a new one." while extending his left hand.

Shi Furui had a new knife ready and placed it into Jack's waiting empty hand. Jack thanked him and turned to observe the second spirit's transformation while he urged his spirit energy into the new knife.

As soon as he started to imbue the knife he felt like someone threw a bucket of icy water over his body. With a shiver, he looked down at the knife, and then back up at the hostile spirit.

"What happened?" Shi Furui asked. He looked around and continued "It feels like the spirit disappeared."

Jack checked the charging knife once more before saying "It's still here, just changed its target." He looked over his shoulder at Shi Furui and said "If I go down grab the knives and swing them over me until you hit something,"

Shi Furui furrowed his brows in concern, but he nodded firmly and said "Don't get mad if I get you too."

Jack chuckled as he turned back towards the transforming spirit and said "You won't get any food if you ruin my pretty face."

Shi Furui gave a soft snort and focused his gaze on where he saw Jack looking.

Jack finished imbuing the new knife and got in position to welcome the spirit.

A few seconds later the spirit fully transformed and locked its hateful gaze on Jack.

As soon as it started moving Jack swung his two knives in a crossing motion. The knives met with resistance just as they crossed paths and Jack saw the spirit floating just half a meter in front of him.

Before Jack managed to even think about moving his arms in a stabbing attack, a taloned hand swiped at him and passed through his body. It felt like someone took a rusty spoon and decided to go digging through his meridians wherever the spirit's flashing hand passed.

Jack's body went through spasms of excruciating agony as his knees buckled. He crashed onto the forest floor as the spirit's hands continued to roam through his body and snatch away handfuls of his spirit energy to its mouth.

With every second that passed, he felt a chunk of his already low spirit energy get ripped away. As the spirit emptied Jack's meridians it started to target his dantian. Every time it touched Jack's dantian it felt like a chunk of his life got taken together with the energy.

Just as he started blacking out the spirit's hands stopped assaulting him. Phantom pains kept shooting through every bit of his body where the spirit touched and it felt like hours passed before Jack could think about anything else except for making the pain go away.

When he finally opened his eyes he saw Shi Furui standing over him and looking down with concern painted across his face. A distant voice said, "Try to regulate your breathing; it helps to focus on something else other than the pain."

Jack groaned, turned to his side, and coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood. Somewhere in the back of his mind a part of him that always tried to figure things out thought 'Why do people here spit blood when they get hurt? Is it an automatic self-repair function of their body to get rid of internal bleeding? I'll have to look into it when I find the time.'

After a few minutes of rest, he managed to croak out "Wh-what took you so long?" as he turned his head to stare up at the looming figure that stood above him.

Shi Furui shrugged his shoulders and said "You had a death grip on the knives. I almost had to break your fingers to get them out of your hands." He squatted and looked closer at Jack as he asked "You alright?"

Jack groaned and said "I've had worse." as he tried to prop himself up. Shi Furui gave him a hand and Jack managed to stand on his own without his knees buckling after a minute.

He stretched his body as he said "That thing almost ate all of my spirit energy. I thought I was a goner for a breath there." He turned towards Shi Furui and said "Thanks."

Shi Furui waved his hand and said "Don't mention it." He looked Jack up and down and asked "You feel good enough to travel?"

Jack cracked his neck a couple of times and said "Nothing that a short time on your back won't fix."

Shi Furui sighed as he turned around and crouched to let Jack climb up on his back.

In the next four hours, they stopped to hunt three more isolated spirits and avoided any that had company.

Jack managed to get two of the spirits before they got to Shi Furui, only the last one gave him some trouble because he only had one knife. Shi Furui had to suffer for a couple of seconds before Jack got to it, but no other incidents happened on their lonely march.

It took them a long time but they managed to survive their journey to the midpoint of the patrol route, no one waited for them there.

Jack chuckled as he turned to Shi Furui and said "What do you think that Du Angliang's face's gonna look like when he sees us tomorrow morning? We should hide behind his house and scare him when he goes out."

Shi Furui joined him in the laughter for a few seconds, before he exhaled a long sigh of relief and said "I'd rather go home and get some rest. I'd bet that you'll have to do this with Kuang Bindun tomorrow too."

Jack considered it and said "Yeah, I'll have to ask the Elder to keep the extra knives. I doubt that our dear Elder Brother will lend them to me again."

Shi Furui frowned as he asked, "You sure he'll give them to you?"

Jack shrugged as he answered, "He doesn't care as long as he gets his spirits." He turned and took a last look at the forest as he said "Those spirits wouldn't bother anyone if we didn't go and bother them." Jack turned around and looked into Shi Furui's eyes as he continued "He deliberately turns us into bait just to have some extra servants and test subjects."

Shi Furui didn't seem surprised when he heard Jack's conclusion, he only shook his head a little and said "Wouldn't expect any less."

They took a last look at the forest before crossing the graveyard and going home.

When Jack returned to his house he found Kuang Bindun asleep on the floor with his trusty alphabet carving hugged tight. He learned the alphabet by heart weeks ago, but he still kept it by his side when studying for good luck.

Jack shook his head ruefully as he took a blanket from his bed and threw it over Kuang Bindun's snoring bulk. He crawled tiredly onto the bare planks of wood of his cot and disappeared into a deep sleep.