100 Shifting Intent

Jack focused all his intent on lowering the effectiveness of the attraction sigil with four separate severing sigils that looped themselves around it before he activated the Clear Water spell.

It took its usual open-ended ball shape and started attracting viscous white liquid from a stone basin in a slow and steady manner. Jack carved it to hold around fifteen liters of water just for testing out his purification abilities.

The viscous liquid slowly gathered in the spell's structure without any issue so Jack called out "How's it looking out there?"

From outside the house, Yin Ping's voice called back "The damned thing's rolling towards you again."

Jack's brows furrowed in annoyance and he stopped giving spirit energy to the spell. The structure soon fell apart and the water plopped back into the basin.

He walked out and saw a sealed clay vase lying on the ground in front of his new laboratory. The lab consisted out of a basin filled with white water, a large flattened stone on which he had a few scrolls with notes, and some leathers for sitting down and reading.

Jack glared at the clay vase like it killed his best friend and fought the building urge to stomp it to bits. 'With my luck, I'd get cut and get some more of that s*it on my meridians.' he thought and calmed down.

After looking up at his long-haired friend, Jack asked "Did it move slower this time?"

Yin Ping thought about it for a couple of seconds before he nodded and answered "It did, but I'd guess it was because you focused more on severing the attraction sigil than it did with anything else."

Jack started to glare at him, but when Yin Ping rolled his eyes at Jack, he sighed and picked up the sealed vase.

He stared down at the vase and said "I just don't understand why it works like that for me. Every grade four and higher moron on this side of the River knows how to do this, but I just can't get it to work right."

Yin Ping studied his friend for a second before he suggested "We could always just learn it the way that the White River family and the Tribes do it."

Jack's head snapped up and he exclaimed "We can't!" When he saw Ying Ping's raised brows, he lowered his voice and continued "Even the Kui Tribe has issues with the white water and they get all of their supplies from the White River family. I doubt that any of these people understand particles enough to remove all of the cursed stuff from the water."

A smirk appeared on Yin Ping's usually serious face when he said "Maybe you're overthinking this. You have your head so much in the specific parts of the spell that you're ignoring the big picture. Didn't the Haechi scroll say that they improved their purifying abilities by shifting their intent from the White River family's ancestors to their own?"

Jack snorted at his friend's suggestion and retorted with "What? Should I try to focus my intent on my ancestors?"

Yin Ping spread his hands helplessly and said "Might as well, we tried everything else during this past month."

Just when Jack wanted to joke that he wouldn't know on which ancestors to focus, a couple of bird cries sounded out across the camp. The two friends exchanged excited glances and then sprinted towards southern sentries.

A few of the old company members joined them in their run, while most just left their houses and looked towards the south.

Only the new recruits looked around at all the sudden activity with confusion while they sat in front of Kuang Bindun's house and practiced reading and writing. They knew that the Immortals' Lament used strange other shore cries to communicate, but they still didn't know what each meant.

Jack and Yin Ping met up with Shi Furui, Bai Maolong, and Ma Ruiman near the sentry that cried out the signal and they all watched the southern horizon where two people ran towards them.

Fifteen minutes later, old Long and Tong Huakun didn't slow their sprint at all before they collided into Bai Maolong and Jack and almost took them down to the ground.

Old Long gasped like a landed fish in Bai Maolong's hands, but he still turned a triumphant gaze towards Tong Huakun and exclaimed "I win!"

Tong Huakun extricated herself from Jack's arms and stomped up to old Long to growl "You cheated!" while she pointed a finger in his face.

Old Long snorted and gasped out "A win… is a… win." His eyes narrowed as he added "Or will you… not honor… your word?"

Tong Huakun looked a little lost, but before she could say anything, Jack butted in with "What's this about?"

"Nothing." "None of… your business." Both Tong Huakun and old Long said at the same time while they focused their gazes on Jack.

He blinked his eyes a few times and turned to Tong Huakun to declare "Fine, but don't come running to me when he takes your house."

Before Tong Huakun could say anything back, Jack turned to old Long and asked "How was it?"

Old Long looked a little annoyed when he said "No questions on if I came across any dangers on my long journey? Zero care about if I am tired or hungry?"

Jack shook his head and replied with "You wouldn't be here if anything got to you, you'll rest when you're dead, and you'll eat when everyone else eats. Now, talk."

Old Long glanced at the people standing around them; he lingered on Tong Huakun, and asked "Here?"

Jack kept his eyes locked on the old man and answered "Yes, I trust these people."

Old Long snorted and argued "Well I do not. Where can we go to talk in private?"

Jack made his brows furrow and turned towards Tong Huakun to say "I apologize for this old man, but this is urgent. We can catch up tomorrow when you've had time to rest." He turned towards the rest of the group and added "Show her around our camp."

Tong Huakun nodded her head in understanding and watched Jack take old Long towards his lab. Jack had it built away from the rest of the new camp to keep his secrets from prying eyes.

The entire new camp was built in the same principle. They placed it after the first southern hill that hid the Haechi Tribe from anyone coming from that direction. Jack emphasized seeing the oncoming enemy more than hiding from him, and the act of preventing the Tribe from seeing everything they did came as a nice bonus.

Once they entered the lab, old Long chuckled and commended "Nice acting out there, boy. For an instant even I was convinced that you wanted the girl to hear my news."

Jack sat down on his leathers and rolled his eyes before he said "She's nice enough, but she'd report everything we talked about back to the Tribal Elders. I can't have her thinking that I distrust her so I had to make that little scene."

Old Long joined Jack on the leathers and scanned the little house with his eyes. When they focused back on the strange boy, he asked "Do you have anything to drink? I haven't had much ever since I left White River Outpost."

Jack nodded his head, took out some of his almost gone local wine, and poured them both a cup.

After they downed the second round, old Long took out five pouches from around his body, and an obviously opened scroll, and handed it all over to Jack.

He opened one of the pouches and the soft glow of spirit energy bathed his face. It took him a minute to count all of the spirit stones in the pouch and store it into his Star Bag.

After he checked the rest of the pouches, Jack looked up at the old man and asked "Where's the sixth one?"

Old Long shrugged at him and explained "I had to pay for a few drinks to get more information." before he refilled their cups.

Jack grunted and left it at that. He drained his cup and opened the scroll.

It read "Greetings, Jak. I cannot wait to see all of these Haechi hides you set aside for me and try my new designs. My father has relented and allowed me to travel with the other family members that are going to train under you. He said that it was time for me to get some real-life experience. I am really excited to witness the life on the other side of the River…"

In the rest of the scroll, Wu Angrui just kept mention how much she looked forward to her new adventure.

Jack looked up at old Long with wide eyes and threw the scroll at him.

"Didn't I tell you to just secure trading relations with them for now?! What the f*ck did you do?!" he shouted and considered throwing the bottle of wine at the old man.

Old Long swatted the scroll to the side and said "It was not my doing. One look at that letter you sent her and she started begging her father to come. At first, he refused her and made a deal for the rest of the hides, but later they sent someone to find me and informed me that she would come with the White River family's forces that would come here to train and bring the spirit stones with her."

He had another drink then added "I think her father has decent influence in the city when he can attach her to a unit like that. From what I heard, the others are bound to protect her."

Jack ran a hand through his short hair and let out a long breath. He thought for a while and asked "When are they coming?"

Old Long shrugged and answered "It should not take longer than twenty days."

Jack closed his eyes and declared "We'll have to make a house and a workshop for Wu Angrui; something a bit better than what we made for ourselves. I'll have to visit the Chief and ask for some builders again."

Old Long nodded his head and asked "What about the rest of the White River family's members?"

Jack opened his eyes and said "They can pay the people of the Tribe with food as rent. It will keep them out of our sight for the most part and help the Tribe a little."

He set the problem of Wu Angrui aside for now and asked "Did you get in contact with the other merchants?"

Old Long nodded his head and said "I did. While I waited for a ship to the other side I met an old friend, the young man from the Unbreakable Fortress. It turns out that he trades food with some of the other smaller tribes and I managed to negotiate a deal with him. I doubt that the White River family would offer us better prices and in this way we are not dependent on them."

He drank one more cup of wine and continued "In the White River Outpost I got in contact with another trader that exports metals to this side. He already brought a new shipment of various metals here and is selling them in the Tribal Assembly. If we hurry back we can still get some and enough food to keep us going for a while longer."

Jack nodded his head in satisfaction and said "We'll have to make the trip tomorrow. What about the furniture?"

Old Long hesitated a couple seconds before he declared "That will be a bit harder."

When Jack gave him a confused look, he continued "The White River family only allows small quantities of wood to any merchant. I think they are afraid that one of the Tribes might build a boat and sail to the other side."

Jack's brows furrowed and he asked "How much can they take exactly? Tan Boli needs it to make molds and for smithing."

Old Long could only shrug and say "I am not sure. It should depend on how much they trust the trader. We will have to ask around Tribal Assembly."

Jack sighed and refilled their cups. They talked about things that old Long found out in White River Outpost and drank for a couple of hours before the call for the evening meal sounded out.

A bit of haze covered their eyes when they got up and headed for the piece of leather that acted as the door. Jack glanced down at the basin of white water when he passed it and thought 'Shifting my intent, eh? Might as well.' and exited the house.