105 Welcoming Party
When the White River family's column neared the camp, Jack saw the two brothers that came to take him previously in the lead.
He, old Long, and Tong Huakun stood in front of the camp to welcome them.
The abrasive brother grunted as he came to a halt and scanned the new buildings in front of him. "At least you had the good sense to build lodgings for our stay." He said when his eyes rested on the welcoming party.
Tong Huakun tensed, but Jack just shook his head and replied with "I am sorry, but those are our houses. If you want to build your own, you can talk with the Chief. Otherwise, you will have to rent your lodgings from the people of the Tribe."
He ignored the eloquent brother's opening mouth and looked over his shoulder towards the four people behind the two brothers.
"Welcome to the Haechi Tribe, Wu Angrui. I hope that you had a comfortable journey. For you, we have prepared the best accommodations that we could in such a short time." Jack said when he locked gazes with the White River family armorer that made his coat.
She gave him an exhausted smile and declared "Thank you, Jak. It took more out of me than I expected, but I managed to get here without issue."
With a look to her right, she asked "Can my maid stay with me in these accommodations that you prepared or does she have to find housing for herself?"
Jack looked at the short woman that kept her eyes down in deference and managed to keep a straight face when he answered "Of course she can. Even if you think it a bit too cramped we can add a room just for her in the coming days."
On the inside, he thought 'If this powerful woman's just a maid I'll eat my cylinder.' From the entire White River family column, the only people whose strength he couldn't sense were the two brothers in the lead and this maid of Wu Angrui's.
When Wu Angrui thanked him, Jack turned to the two men on her left and asked "Are these the leaders of the new recruits who I have to teach how to shoot?"
The eloquent brother jumped in to answer "Indeed, these are the brightest young generation members of the White River family. Let me introduce…"
"I don't want someone like you introducing me and my men." A handsome young man interrupted without even looking at the greasy man.
The two brothers didn't even flinch as they stepped out to the side and allowed full view of the two men standing next to Wu Angrui.
They both clasped their hands and bowed their head slightly while saying "Greetings, we hope to learn a lot from you." The White River family members behind them all followed their example. The ones that had a lower cultivation than Jack bent down in a proper bow.
His brows rose a little in surprise, but his party clasped their hands too and welcomed the newcomers.
After the greetings, the young man that stopped the brothers from talking said "I am Bei Kangping; my father explained to us how important your technique can be for the family, so please tell me if any of my men disobey you and I will take care of it."
Jack glanced at the group of around fifty people and saw several disgruntled looks. A crooked smile appeared on his face when he declared "I would like to thank the Captain for his consideration, but I will take care of anyone causing trouble personally."
The two young men gave the teen in front of them considering looks, but they didn't object to his intention of punishing their men.
Jack motioned to old Long at his side and said "Please follow my quartermaster on a tour of our camp where you can relax with some food and drinks while you wait for your houses."
He looked at the two brothers and motioned to Tong Huakun while he continued "You can follow my scoutmaster to the Haechi Chief. He can help arrange lodgings for the members of your group."
In the end, he looked at Wu Angrui and motioned a bit to the side of the camp where two buildings stood and said "I will escort these two ladies to their new home and join you in the camp later on."
Before anyone could object, Wu Angrui gave an exhausted sigh and declared "Yes, I would like that very much." With that, she started walking towards the two buildings Jack pointed out.
The two brothers exchanged glances, but could only follow in silence behind Tong Huakun towards the Haechi Tribe proper.
Old Long gave a merchant's smile to the remaining White River family members and started regaling them with tales of all the wonderful things he happened to acquire while in the wilderness as he escorted them to the camp.
The two young men seemed to take it well and even inquired about a few.
Jack stifled the chuckle that threatened to burst out and hastened his step to join Wu Angrui and her maid.
At first, he planned to have Tong Huakun escort the two young men to the Chief to take care of their lodgings, but after the Captain's son showed him their real hierarchy he had to make some quick changes.
On the way to the two buildings, Jack saw Wu Angrui's shoulders stiffen a little so he said "The Haechi Tribe's builders did their best with what they had, but they do not have a lot of materials at hand. If you want, I can send a few men to look for some in the Tribal Assembly."
She jumped a little and looked at Jack to say "No, no. There is no need for that." She looked back at the two stone buildings and sighed.
One was built by joining two smaller stone houses together and treating them as two different rooms, while the other looked like a bigger Tribal house which she could use as a workshop.
Wu Angrui looked down at the bag on her hip and complained "I think I brought too many things to fit in that." She placed a strand of hair behind her ear and added "Father told me to only pack a few things, but I did not listen."
Jack chuckled and said "Do not worry about it, soon enough you will get used to living like the rest of us savages."
She joined him in the laugh and followed him into the two-room house. He felt the maid's gaze on him at all time, but he ignored it and acted like normal.
After showing the house that he had decorated in the Haechi Tribe's style, Jack took the two women to the workshop.
Wu Angrui looked around the empty space and asked "Jak, why show us an empty room?"
Jack gave her a pained smile and thought 'I'll have to bring up my name later.' He reached towards his waist and ignored the sense of danger coming from the maid to take out a large bundle of white out of his Star Bag.
When Wu Angrui saw it, her eyes looked like she just fell in love. She rushed over to him and caressed the Haechi hide with a gentle hand.
"I thought that I should get our business out of the way first so we can relax later." He said as he handed the bundled hide over to her.
With that, he started taking out the bundled hides from his Star Bag and stacked them in front of the charmed girl.
Wu Angrui looked at them all for a dozen seconds and almost drooled, only when her maid cleared her throat and whispered "Mistress, the payment." did she snap out of it.
"Oh, right, right." She mumbled and stored the bundled hide into her golden Star Bag with a little hesitation. After she did, she started taking out pouches of spirit stones and handed them over to Jack.
When they finished their transaction, Jack said "It is a pleasure doing business with the Wu Armor Store. If you are interested, we have some Lolin scales too."
She scrunched up her nose in disgust and responded with "No, they are not good for armor making. At most, they can take a few low-grade hits and they do not take sigils very well."
Jack shrugged his shoulders and said "Never mind then. You can take your time with the Haechi hides you have in this workshop. I will go hunting again in around twenty days, so do not expect anything for at least fifty days."
Wu Angrui nodded her understanding and declared "Do not worry about me; I have a lot of new designs I want to try out."
She gave him a coy smile and added "You might have to return some of those spirit stones to me when you see them. After all, you almost ruined the nice coat I made for you already."
Jack looked down at his dirty-white coat that had a slit in the left side and shook his head while he said "Thank you, but I do not think so. This coat has, and will continue to serve me well in the future."
He turned towards the Immortals' Lament's camp and asked "Would you like to join in our little welcoming party, or would you like to rest?"
Wu Angrui glanced down at her Star Bag for an instant and faked a yawn before she said "I think that I will get some sleep. This journey has been too exhausting."
Jack gave her a knowing smile and excused himself from their presence.
Back in the camp, the White River family members just finished their tour and started receiving bowls with hot broth from Xu Weifa and five other Haechi Tribe women that Xu Weifa took on as her assistants.
He spotted the young man that led the group, Bei Kangping, and started walking towards him with a friendly smile.
Before he reached the halfway mark he heard someone yell "You call this food?!", followed by a *slap* and a woman's scream.
Jack's face turned thunderous even before he saw the unmoving body of little Zhu Lielei lying in the hands of a panicked Xu Weifa.
Spirit energy pulsed in his legs as he used Moon Step and dashed over to the fallen girl's side. Two teeth lay on the ground in front of Xu Weifa while blood flew out of Zhu Lielei's broken jaw.
Jack knelt next to her, placed two fingers on her neck, and felt her pulse still beating strongly. A shudder of relief passed through his body before he turned his furious eyes at the responsible party.
Xian Kuotian and another former Gravedigger had the grade five cultivator in a golden robe pinned down on the ground and cursing. Jack had placed guards near the women that gave out food for their protection, but they didn't move fast enough.
Even before he stood up, Jack had a knife in his hand. He walked up to the held man and proceeded to stab the knife towards his disbelieving eyes.
The knife stopped right in front of the terrified man's face.
"Is this how you reward hospitality?" Jack growled while he still glared at the downed man.
The man that caught his hand before he could execute the White River family member, Bei Kangping, kept a calm face and whispered "Do you want our people to kill each other? Look around you."
Jack snapped out of his rage and followed Bei Kangping's instructions.
Both the White River family and the Immortals' Lament members had weapons out and spirit energy swirling around them. They just needed a single spark and the barren ground would get dyed red.
After seeing his rage reflected in the eyes of his men, Jack finally regulated his breathing and straightened out to look Bei Kangping in the eyes.
"I will not teach any of you while this man isn't punished." He proclaimed.
Bei Kangping studied the resolve in Jack's eyes for a second before he said "I do not have the authority to punish a family member for hitting a peasant. The best I can do is to send him back to the Outpost."
Jack looked down at the pinned man for several seconds and finally nodded.
"Let him go." He ordered Xian Kuotian. When he saw unwillingness in Xian Kuotian's eyes, he snapped "Now!"
The two former Gravediggers released the White River family member and watched him curse and try to clean his dirtied golden robe.
When he tried to complain to Bei Kangping, the latter's voice turned cold as he ordered "Go back to the Outpost."
The man looked around for support, but couldn't find any. He turned back to Bei Kangping and asked "Can I at least get some supplies for the trip back?"
Bei Kangping stared into his eyes and declared "No."
The man who slapped Zhu Lielei looked like he wanted to argue some more, but then he thought better of it, snorted, and turned to walk towards the south.
Jack followed him with his eyes for a couple of seconds before he rose his voice and shouted "The welcoming party is over."
He looked at Bei Kangping and added "Take your men and go to the town. Come back here tomorrow after the midday meal. I don't want to see any of you before that."
Bei Kangping gave him a nod and took his people away, while Jack picked up the unconscious Zhu Lielei and carried her to his house for treatment.
After night fell and everyone went to sleep, Jack went dark and sneaked out of the camp.
He raced Koray towards the south.
