Heart to Heart

Pan Yingnu's face darkened and just as he opened his mouth to berate old Long, Zahng Dong raised a hand up to interrupt him.

He didn't even look at his younger disciple brother as he asked "How do we know that you are not trying to scam us?"

Old Long didn't even take a second to think about it as he took out a robe from his Star Bag, Jack's old disciple robe in fact, and said "I traded some food for a few robes like this one." He looked a bit embarrassed as he said "You never know when they might come useful."

The two Slaughtering Sword School disciples looked at the robe for a second before their eyes widened and they both exclaimed "The Eternal Rest Mountain branch!"

Pan Yingnu leaned over to his disciple brother and whispered "… Elders … rewards … Eternal Rest … Senior Brother…" Jack had to focus everything he had into his ear meridians to pick that much up.

Zahng Dong had a hint of greed flash through his eyes as he almost ordered old Long while grasping the sword at his hip "You will follow us to meet our Senior Brother, you can negotiate your fee with him."

Old Long ignored the threat posed by the younger man as he emptied his cup, said "Lead the way.", and stood up.

When the rest of Jack's group stood up too, the two Slaughtering Sword School disciples had wary looks in their eyes. Zahng Dong motioned towards Jack and the rest and told old Long "Leave your men here."

Old Long's brow furrowed as he said "I never go anywhere without my assistants. I assure you that they will not get in the way." He turned around to give Jack and the rest a glance and then turned back to tell Zahng Dong in a stage whisper "Brother Zhang, please give me some face. They would just get drunk and cause trouble if I left them here."

Zahng Dong's resolute expression didn't change as he said "I do not care. You either come with us to get your money alone, or we hunt you all down without the money."

A hint of fear flashed through old Long's eyes as he gave a glance to Jack and the rest, as if to say 'This will cost extra.', and sighed. In the next instant, he looked back at Zahng Dong and agreed with "Very well."

He didn't even look at the rest of the group as he waved a hand at them and instructed "You lot stay here, I will return soon."

Jack and the rest gave him various murmurs of acquiescence and resumed their drinking, while the two Slaughtering Sword School disciples escorted old Long outside.

The tavern fell silent and, just as the barkeep indulged himself in fantasies of asking the four remaining Immortals to pay the tab of the two that just left, Kuang Bindun asked "Now?"

Jack nodded his head and confirmed "Now." He stood up, looked at the barkeep, and threw him a pouch with a few spirit stones as he said "You never saw us."

The barkeep gave him a bow and a knowing smile as he stored the pouch under the bar and watched Jack and his group leave the tavern.

When they entered into a side alley, Ma Ruiman asked "Is he gonna stay quiet?"

Jack shook his head immediately as he answered "Only for tonight, maybe."

Ma Ruiman's brows furrowed as he asked "What about the shady guys in the corner and the drunk guy?"

A small smirk appeared on Jack's face as he said "Those guys want to meet cultivators even less than we do, and the drunk guy works for the bartender as extra security."

Ma Ruiman's eyes widened as he asked "How do you know?"

Jack gave him a glance and answered "Would you want to involve cultivators in your criminal activities?" He turned around and added "The guy lying on the table kept looking at us and the barkeep through his eyelashes. He's really not good at his job."

Just as Ma Ruiman wanted to ask another question, Jack interrupted him as he said "We're far enough, follow me. I think I know where they're going."

With that, Jack and his men used Moon Step to jump up onto a roof and sprinted towards the only large stone house that had a Light Orb.

Old Long walked a few steps in front of the two Slaughtering Sword School disciples. Just as he wondered whether he should make a break for it, he heard a bird's cry in the vicinity.

With an internal sigh of relief, he opened his mouth and asked "How much longer do we have to walk to get to your Senior Brother?"

"Just a few breaths more and we shall reach our base here in Cloverleaf." Zahng Dong said while a slight smirk played on his lips.

"Oh, you have a base here already? The Slaughtering Sword School sure does move decisively." Old Long complimented as his eyes scanned the dark streets around him.

Pan Yingnu's chest puffed up as he bragged "Of course, we have to make them know who rules them now. A paltry peasant tried to threaten us with some relatives in the Endless Cycle Sect, so we executed his entire family and took over his shack as a base for the time we spend here."

"Turn right." Added Zahng Dong as they reached an intersection.

Old Long hummed in appreciation for a second and then asked "Do you think that… behaving like that will let you keep your heads for a long time?" as he turned right and passed between Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong.

"Wha…" Pan Yingnu started asking as he and Zahng Dong followed after old Long. Just as they turned the corner, they sensed two grade four spirit energy fluctuations in front of them, and two behind them.

They immediately reached for their swords and tried to back away into the street that they just exited, but they weren't fast enough to prevent two strong fists slam into their solar plexus'.

As they took a couple of gasping steps back, two pairs of hands tightened a cord over their necks and pulled.

The Slaughtering Sword School disciples' eyes widened in shock as they let go of their swords and tried to pull the choking cord from their throats by instinct.

An instant later their hands darted back towards their swords, but they acted too late as Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong rushed forward and tackled them to the ground.

The two piles of three bodies struggled on the ground for a few minutes, until Jack and his men managed to tie the two Slaughtering Sword School disciples down.

Old Long stood a few meters away from them and watched the show with a bemused smile.

Jack finished tying the last knot on the rope tying Zahng Dong's hands to his sides, and turned towards old Long to say "You're not getting any extra money."

Old Long's pleased face turned furious as he hissed "I risked my life for you, I should get double!"

Jack's face remained unmoved as he stated "You should have given them the information for free, and then helped us tail them so we could have ambushed them on their way back to their team. I didn't tell you to get greedy and risk your life and our operation."

Old Long snorted, but he kept his mouth shut as he fumed.

The two Slaughtering Sword School disciples watched the exchange with wide eyes as they tried to bite through the gags that Jack tied around their heads.

Every few seconds one of them would get kicked by one of Jack's men when they either sensed or saw spirit energy building up around their bodies.

Jack watched the show as he turned to old Long and said "Give me a couple collars."

Old Long snorted in a show of displeasure, but he obeyed and took out two Energy Dispersal devices from the Immortals' Lament's supplies Star Bag and handed them over to Jack.

A dozen seconds later, Jack placed the two Energy Dispersal devices around the necks of the Slaughtering Sword School's disciples and turned them on.

Almost immediately, the eyes of both of the prisoners turned round as they lost control of their spirit energy and it started getting dispersed into the air around them through the device on their necks.

Jack straightened out and looked down at his work with a certain professional satisfaction. A second later, he shook the feeling off and started giving orders "Bindun and Maolong, take them. We're too close to their base for comfort. Their Senior Brother shouldn't have the range to sense us yet if he's in the sixth grade of Spirit Accumulation, but if he reached the seventh we're screwed. Fall back to our starting position."

A few seconds later, they left the intersection without anyone knowing what just happened there.

When they returned to the dark one-way street, Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong threw the two prisoners down to the dirty, wet, ground and stepped back to let Jack stand in front of them.

Jack didn't look at the two Slaughtering Sword School disciples at all as he took out his light blue Star Bag and pulled out a camouflaged cylinder out of it. He took a second to admire it, and then pulled out a metal ball from the Star Bag too.

He placed the metal ball into the cylinder, and held it in a reverse grip in his right hand, with the thumb blocking the metal ball from falling out, and the Air Blast spell only needing a single thread of spirit energy to assemble.

After he got ready he looked at the two confused prisoners and started talking "I will ask you some questions. For every question that you do not answer or lie I will cripple one of your limbs. If you try to call for help you will fail because I will kill you. Once you answer all of my questions I will leave you here for your team members to find. I am a man of my word and I give it to you now."

Jack waited for his speech to sink in before he added "I have questioned six Slaughtering Sword School disciples already and half of them survived. If you try to lie to me I will know from what they told me." He stopped for a second and asked "Do you understand?"

The two Slaughtering Sword School disciples glanced at each other before giving Jack a short nod.

Jack studied their unwilling eyes for a few seconds, and then said to Ma Ruiman "Remove Pan Yingnu's gag."

Ma Ruiman glanced at Jack, but did as told and went to squat behind Pan Yingnu to remove his gag.

Once the gag left Pan Yingnu's mouth, he let out a couple of coughs, worked his mouth for a second, and took in a deep breath.

Before he had the chance to yell out a single syllable, his brain matter splattered across the dirty street.

Jack looked at his dead body for a second, before he took out another metal ball from his Star Bag and inserted it into his cylinder.

He looked into Zahng Dong's horrified eyes calmly and said "Let's try that again, shall we?"