Epic Tales

Pan Baibao led the way out of her house while Jack and Tong Huakun followed in her wake.

To Jack's surprise, they didn't go straight to the Chief's house but spent almost an hour walking around town while Pan Baibao called her friends to come with her.

The people Pan Baibao called friends, Jack and Tong Huakun called Tribal Elders.

By the time they reached the Chief's house as night fell, Pan Baibao had seventeen other Tribal Elders walking alongside her.

Many residents of the town had noticed the small procession gathering while Pan Baibao visited everyone she thought would support her and word started to spread.

Jack glanced at the people in side-alleys and streets that waited for them to pass and smirked as he thought 'This is as much for gathering her supporters as it is to inform the entire Tribe that something's happening.'

Pan Baibao halted her procession in front of the large slab of rock that served as a door to the Chief's house and called out "Open up, Xinfa. We have important things to discuss."

After half a minute of silence, the slab of rock slid to the side with a soft hiss of slick stone passing over slick stone. An old tattooed man, wearing Haechi leather clothing, stepped through the door and glared at them.

Unlike the humble demeanor Pan Xinfa exhibited on the first day Jack came to the Haechi Tribe, this time he held the full bearing of a Chief as he looked at the gathered people in front of him with the gaze of a sovereign in his domain.

Jack saw Pan Xinfa's eyes flit over Tong Huakun and himself before they focused on his little sister.

Pan Xinfa stood almost a meter taller than his hunched over younger sister, but she didn't seem to notice or care as she looked up at him with the same gaze one would give to a sibling you fought with but still loved.

They kept their eyes locked for a dozen seconds before Pan Xinfa growled "Can't this wait for daylight?"

Pan Baibao's tattooed lips smirked at him as she gestured at something behind her back with one hand and said "I don't think they'd wait."

Pan Xinfa didn't even glance at what his sister gestured towards, but Jack did and saw five men in gold-colored robes standing at the entrance to the square in front of the Chief's house. He couldn't sense the cultivation grade of any of them.

With a deepening frown on his face, Pan Xinfa held the gaze of his sister and asked "Is he worth it?"

Jack caught the slight hesitation in Pan Baibao's voice as she said "He i-might be. I will leave it for the Chief to decide."

Pan Xinfa looked at the old face of his little sister for a few more seconds before he sighed and relented with "Fine, come in and we'll talk it through." and turned to walk back into his house.

Just as Jack wanted to give out a slight sigh of relief, a nasal voice from behind him shouted "That man is wanted by the White River family; we demand that you hand him over!"

Everyone turned to lock their stares at the golden robed man standing at the front of the White River family group of five.

They seemed to lose a bit of their bravado when all the gathered Elders focused their gazes on them, but a moment later they regained it when they remembered that the Tribes never dared to offend the White River family too much.

Pan Xinfa stopped when he heard the voice and slowly turned around. When his furious gaze landed on the five White River family members they lost their confidence once more and didn't regain it.

"The White River family has no right to say what the Haechi Tribe does on its own land. You will wait out here until I'm finished with the boy." Pan Xinfa growled and entered his house.

Jack glanced back at the annoyed looks that the White River family group gave him and the Chief, winked at them, and entered the house after Pan Baibao.

Inside, Pan Xinfa lead everyone into a large hall that soon lit up with the light of four Light Orbs that stood embedded into the two side walls.

Jack blinked in the sudden light and saw a middle-aged man that had a few greys in his long black hair standing near an old wooden chair on the other side of the hall. Four threads of spirit energy retracted back to his extended hand as he lowered it.

An aura of dignity hanged around the man like a cloak and his facial features made it seem like he could be Pan Xinfa's younger brother.

Jack couldn't sense the man's cultivation so he had no way to know how high it was, but he doubted that the Haechi Tribe would let someone weaker than their Tribal Assembly representative, Ran Huankuo, guard the Chief.

When he looked at the walls of the hall he saw that they had nothing on them, just bare smooth rock. Four round pillars stood a couple of meters in front of the corners of the hall to support the upper floor.

The hides of various beasts lay stretched all over the floor as a protection from the cold, while four rickety wooden benches stood arranged in four rows in front of the old high-backed chair. Behind the chair, a dark passage that only showed a few stairs that led upwards stood.

While the Cheif and his sister waited outside and talked, most of the other Tribal Elders gathered, and in the end, thirty-nine of them entered the Chief's house.

The Elders slowly arranged themselves in some kind of order Jack didn't really understand, but only three of them sat on the bench in the first row, with Pan Baibao among them. Most of them sat in the second and third row, while only five sat in the fourth.

When Jack looked at Tong Huakun to ask where they should sit, she just shook her head and pulled him over to a corner of the hall.

Once everyone came in, the man that imbued the Light Orbs walked over to the main doorway and pushed the large slab back into its place. He turned around and looked at Pan Xinfa who had just seated himself in the old chair.

Pan Xinfa gave the man a nod, and he placed a hand on the wall next to the doorway.

Jack felt a stirring of spirit energy and turned his head in time to see a net of sigils light up from the spot the middle-aged man placed his hand and cover the entire hall for a few moments.

Soon enough, the net stopped shining and Pan Xinfa announced "We can talk freely now, no one outside will hear our words."

Jack knew that he spoke those words for his sake and gave a thankful nod to the Chief, but on the inside, he could only wonder where they learned how to do this. He made a mental note to ask around if he still had anyone to ask by tomorrow.

Pan Xinfa looked down at his sister and commanded "Say what you want to say."

Pan Baibao nodded and stood up from the front bench. She walked up to her brother and then stood to his right side as she started her speech "You have all heard of the Immortals' Lament mercenary company that is staying on the outskirts of our Tribe at the moment."

She looked at mostly her supporters and continued "Some of you have gone to observe them and seen their ways. Unlike the White River family that only wants to exploit us, they have come with an offer of cooperation which they have fulfilled until our people broke the peace."

A few Elders grumbled at that, but she ignored them and motioned to her granddaughter and Jack to add "Tong Huakun has led their leader, Jack Song, into the mountains to hunt Haechi beasts for the last thirty-six days."

Even more people grumbled, and a man as old-looking as Pan Baibao stood up in the front row to ask the Chief "You allowed this?"

Jack could see Pan Baibao fight the desire to roll her eyes. Everyone knew that Pan Baibao didn't inform anyone about her plans, the old man just wanted to make a scene and everyone with half a brain knew it.

Pan Xinfa shook his head at the question and answered "Pan Baibao acted on her own volition and will be punished according to her crime." When the old man's face started forming a wrinkled smile, Pan Xinfa added "We will decide on the punishment on a different occasion, we are here to discuss a different matter tonight."

Pan Baibao allowed herself a short spasm in the form of a smile before she returned to her solemn expression and motioned towards her granddaughter.

Tong Huakun acted like she expected this move from her grandmother and walked up to stand next to her.

Pan Baibao reached her left hand up to pat Tong Huakun's shoulder and announced "Tong Huakun will now inform you on how their hunt went."

She saw that the old man in the front row started getting up to his feet again so she decided to preempt him and placed a closed fist over her heart as she said "I swear on my ancestors that I have not instructed her to say anything that she is about to say."

The old man stopped awkwardly with his mouth hanging open for a second. He gave Pan Baibao a narrow-eyed look and sat back down to the sounds of chucking from the back benches.

Tong Huakun waited for the room to calm down and started to tell the full tale of their hunting trip.

Jack couldn't believe that monotonous crossing over barren mountains could sound so harrowing, but she made it sound like that somehow. When she described their valiant struggles of switching between who held the Haechi beast up in the air, Jack started to question if they even went on the same trip.

Each specific Haechi beast hunt would end with Jack bravely welcoming the fallen beast on the ground and giving it the final blow with his sword.

Even some of the previously grumbling Elders leaned in to hear her story better while the old man in the front row's face turned darker with each new caught beast.

When Tong Huakun came to their last hunt, Jack finally found some similarities between what really happened and what she told the Elders.

Their last Haechi was even bigger than the one that tracked Jack on the other side of the River.

Once they hanged him over a decent-sized rock outcropping, the rock broke away from the cliff and the two of them and the beast all fell down the two hundred meter drop together.

Jack's coat and Chaotic Hawk Assault technique saved him from the worst of it as he managed to either roll down the steep incline or slow himself down with his legs, but Tong Huakun didn't have as much luck.

She tried to run down at first, but after she tripped she rolled down the last hundred meters with only her arms protecting her head. Even so, they both got lucky and didn't break anything.

The Haechi beast needed a few seconds to get its bearings straight after the fall, but it was in a much better shape than the two of them.

Jack lost his rope somewhere in the ruble of the rock outcropping and they doubted that the beast would fall for it again, so Tong Huakun decided that they could only hunt it in the traditional way that Haechi Tribe hunters did in the past.

One of them would bait the beast, while the other would come from the back and stab it in an unprotected spot while looking out for kicks and its horns.

In this way, it took them from morning until the afternoon and a few more cuts and bruises before they managed to bleed the beast out.

Once Tong Huakun finished her epic story, the quiet hall erupted into quiet murmurs and shouted out questions from the Elders.

Pan Xinfa's brow furrowed and he clapped his hands together. An enormous *CLAP* sound echoed off of the barren walls for a couple of seconds. When it ended, everyone quieted down and he pointed towards the other man from the first bench.

This old man had an air of wildness about him, even as age threatened to tip him over into a grave.

He squared his broad shoulders as a long white pony-tail covered his back and asked "You tell us a tale of a hunt that hasn't happened in generations and say that only the two of you managed to accomplish it? Why should we believe anything you have to say without any proof?"

Tong Huakun glanced at the Chief, who gave her permission to speak, and then answered "If you need proof, we will gladly give it to you." She turned to Jack and motioned for him to come over.

He glanced at Pan Xinfa, but when he didn't see an objection he walked over to stand next to Tong Huakun who placed a hand on his shoulder and continued "My friend, Jack, has a Star Bag. He kept all of the beasts in it so we didn't have to haul them back one by one and so they wouldn't rot."

Tong Huakun looked at the Chief and asked "Should we exhibit them all in here?"

Pan Xinfa thought about it for a couple seconds, before he gave a nod and turned to Jack to order "Proceed."

Jack's brows furrowed a little as he looked around the hall and said "I don't think we have the room here." He looked at Pan Xinfa and added "Maybe if you pulled that chair to the side and don't mind the blood that will stain the leathers?"

When he finished his suggestion, all of the Tribal Elders started hissing curses at Jack at almost the same time. Even Pan Baibao came in on the action and cursed Jack's tongue.

After he allowed it to go on for a few seconds, Pan Xinfa produced another of his eardrum bursting claps and stood up from his chair.

He gave Jack a measured look, which Jack took as "If you make me do this for nothing, you'll regret it.", bent down, and carefully picked up the wooden chair with both hands.

The Elders watched him with bated breath as he carried the chair to the side of the room and placed it gently back down on the leathers. When he sat back down on it and it remained in one piece, they all gave out a unanimous sigh of relief.

Jack watched the entire proceeding with a shine of surprise in his eyes at first, but by the end, it changed to a gleam of greed as he thought 'I should import some furniture.'

The thought left him as soon as people started focusing their gazes back on him. He returned his face to a neutral look and cleared his throat.

When he reached into his Star Bag he started saying "This is the first Haechi beast that we caught on our trip. It put up a valiant fight, but after a long fought battle we managed to slay it."

As he said his introduction, he took out the first Haechi they killed in the mountains.

Most of the Elders wondered at the preserved hide and the still fresh gleam of blood from its neck.

Jack allowed them to look at it for a little while before he placed it back in his Star Bag.

He started his story once more "The second one we hunted…"

After a dozen minutes, Jack pulled out the last Haechi beast they killed, the carved up one, out of his Star Bag and said "On this last and ninth beast, we had to use more traditional methods due to the reasons Tong Huakun already stated. Most of its hide and the rest of its body are still useable though."

With slight chagrin at the ruined corpse of the majestic beast, Jack stored it in his Star Bag and turned towards the stunned faces of the Elders.

A smile slowly crept across his face as he asked "Any questions?"