Hunter and Hunted

Jack just stood there, with a confident smile on his face, while the Haechi representative laughed for a dozen seconds.

When he calmed down enough to talk, he praised "I always heard that you people have a great sense of humor, but only now have I, Ran Huankuo, witnessed it for myself." He went back to sit behind his desk and asked "Now, tell me, friend, what do you really need from the Haechi Tribe?"

Jack shook his head at the Haechi representative, Ran Huankuo, and explained "I am afraid that you misunderstood me, so let me start from the beginning."

He placed a hand on his chest and gave a shallow bow as he continued "My name is Jack Song; I am the leader of the Immortals' Lament mercenary company, you can call me Jack. On the other side of the river, I came across a beast and killed it. Later on, I found out that the beast was a Haechi and about the wonderful properties its body has. Due to this, I have asked around and found out that only the Haechi Tribe from this side of the River has access to the fierce beasts."

Jack studied the dark eye slits of Ran Huankuo's mask as he said "The stories also say that the Haechi Tribe suffers great casualties while hunting the beasts. My way of hunting will not cost your tribe any lives. I believe that through our cooperation we can both grow more prosperous than we have ever been."

Ran Huankuo didn't laugh this time. After several seconds of silence, he asked "Friend, Jack, you do not wish to trade with the Haechi Tribe?"

Jack shook his head as he answered "No, I wish to grow with the Haechi Tribe."

An enormous feeling of danger enveloped Jack as he saw the muscles on Ran Huankuo's arms flex into cords on the desk.

It looked like the man had to use his entire force of will to hold himself back from strangling Jack on the spot.

Even with the dangerous aura in the room, Jack remained standing in a relaxed pose as he waited for Ran Huankuo to say something. On the inside, though, he had Moon Step ready for usage at the first sign of hostile intent while his hand hung right next to his Star Bag.

A dozen seconds later, Ran Huankuo released a long-held breath and growled "I am sorry; friend Jack, but I cannot help you with your wish." He stood up and started walking for the doorway as he added "Excuse me, but I have to go back to my post."

Jack could only sigh inwardly and follow the angry man out of his house. 'At least he got my name right.' he thought as he considered the slightly lilting accent of the tribesmen.

Once they exited, Ran Huankuo stopped and looked at the arrangement of Jack's men, then checked out the few hidden ones that waited in ambush spots. He glanced over his shoulders at Jack, snorted, and stormed off back towards the White River family's ship.

Old Long watched the Haechi representative's annoyed figure disappear behind a mud house and turned towards Jack with a smirk as he said "I see he got to know you well, boy."

Jack shook his head as he retorted "Imagine what would have happened if we sent you to talk to him instead, old man."

Old Long's smirk turned into a frown and he opened his mouth to say something, but Jack interrupted him as he looked at Shi Furui and ordered "Recall the men back. We have to do this the hard way."

Jack led the Immortals' Lament through the streets of the earthen town until they found a man without a mask and asked him where they could find lodging for the night.

He pointed them towards a group of mud huts and houses that the White River family maintained, and explained that they could only rent housing there because none of the tribes offered those services.

Jack could only thank him and lead his people to the White River family's establishment. Once they got there, he had to grit his teeth and use a good chunk of his remaining funds to rent several huts for the Immortals' Lament.

Once everyone settled in, Jack used the last couple hours before nightfall to take Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong out to gather information. He left old Long with the rest as deterrence, while he tasked Ma Ruiman with talking to the people that stayed in the houses around them.

The rest of the company didn't seem to mind taking an early rest after the tiring voyage across the White River.

Jack and his two friends traveled the neat streets and alleys of the Tribal Assembly for fifteen minutes before they managed to find a member of a tribe that didn't just direct them towards their tribe's representative.

The burly man acted friendly enough, but when Jack asked him if he knew someone who could lead them towards the Haechi Tribe he acted like he wanted to spit at them. In the end, he just growled a few curses at them and stomped off.

The three men could only exchange confused looks and continue their search.

Five minutes later, they saw a man in a golden robe walking back towards the White River family's complex of rental houses.

Jack walked towards him, bowed a little with clasped hands, and asked "May I ask you a couple of questions? My friends and I are new here and do not understand how certain things work in the Tribal Assembly."

The man, whose cultivation Jack couldn't sense, frowned a little as he glanced towards his direction and commanded "Speak quickly."

Jack thanked him and asked "How can we find out who belongs to which tribe here?"

The man chuckled as he shook his head and answered "You cannot. That is the point of the Tribal Assembly. All of the tribes are in war with most of the other tribes. The reason they wear their masks and unidentifiable clothes is so they can assume the guise of anonymity."

Jack's brows furrowed as he asked "How do we do business with them if we cannot find the tribe we want?"

The man looked at Jack like he just saw an idiot as he said "You talk to the representative. Anyone on the street will gladly guide you to their own, you just have to find the right one."

Jack cursed on the inside, and just as he planned to ask another question, the man interrupted him and declared "I answered your two questions; I do not have time for more." With that, he left Jack and his friends standing in the middle of the street with awkward looks on their faces.

They tried to ask a few more people while they walked around the town to get its layout, but they all gave them the same advice. As the sun started setting, they could only start heading back towards their rented huts.

While they walked, Bai Maolong glanced at Jack and asked "What if we don't get a guide to the Haechi tribe lands or they refuse us when we do?"

Jack kept staring forwards as he answered "We will and they won't."

They walked a few more steps before Bai Maolong asked again "But what if we don't or they do?"

Jack stopped, looked around them, switched to English, and declared "Then we start raiding their supply lines while we make them think that different tribes did it. In the meantime, we strengthen ourselves and weaken them."

Kuang Bindun's brows furrowed as he said "I don't like that plan."

Jack sighed and agreed "Neither do I, but we'll have to do it if we get forced into a corner." He switched back to the native language and continued "Let's go get some food."

When the gloomy trio returned to their rented huts, Kuang Bindun made the few of them that stayed awake a simple dinner.

While they ate, Ma Ruiman swallowed his mouthful and asked "So, are we joining the caravan back to the Haechi tribe or not?"

Jack shook his head as he started saying "We still haven't found a way…" In the middle of his sentence, his head snapped up to stare at Ma Ruiman for a few seconds before asking "What caravan are you talking about?"

Ma Ruiman had a confused look in his eyes as he asked "Didn't I tell you about that? A couple of the White River family girls told me that the tribes send the goods they trade back home once all of the ships leave for the White River Outpost."

He looked up at the ceiling for a second before he shook his head and added "Must have slipped my mind. I had a few other things to worry about at the time." A wide grin appeared on his face when he finished his story.

Jack almost punched the lecherous bastard in the teeth, but he managed to hold himself back enough to growl "When do the caravans leave, exactly?"

Ma Ruiman thought for a moment before he shrugged and said "Not sure, but shouldn't be long after the ships leave."

Jack stared at him for a few seconds as he decided whether he should punish or award his friend. In the end, he decided to do neither and commanded everyone to try and find out more information on these caravans.

From the time spent on the Unbreakable Fortress, Jack knew that the ship only stayed docked here for three days so he worried that they wouldn't be able to find out more about the caravans in time.

The next day proved his worries unnecessary. Everyone in town knew about the caravans and that they left a day after the last ship did. Ma Ruiman even found out that the tribal representatives had to stay in the Tribal Assembly as a part of their duties so they would send one of their subordinates to lead the caravans.

Jack decided to only pay for that day and took the Immortals' Lament out of the Tribal Assembly on the third day. He led them towards the north and out of sight of the Tribal Assembly because he knew that the Haechi Tribe lived somewhere in the northern mountains.

After some searching, he left them hidden in an out of the way basin and returned back to the Tribal Assembly when night fell.

After going dark, Jack found a spot from which he could monitor Ran Huankuo's house without getting caught and waited.

Just as the day started turning bright, two people came to Ran Huankuo's house and left with him a few minutes later.

Jack didn't have any trouble following them as they walked towards the northern end of the town at a normal pace and didn't seem to care who saw them.

Once they exited the town, Jack saw four full Kui-pulled wagons that had large tarps thrown over them to hide what was inside.

Ran Huankuo talked to one of the two people that came to his house for a while and then sent the caravan off with his eyes on one of the paths that led north.

Jack watched as the woman shouted something at the other sixteen tribe members and made the first wagon move.

When he made sure that he remembered the direction they took, Jack withdrew and started running back towards the Immortals' Lament while he gathered spirit energy.

A few hours later, they found the right tracks and Jack changed out of his coat to his camouflaged robes, before he went on ahead to scout out how distant they were from the Haechi Tribe caravan.

He found them a couple of hours later. Usually, it wouldn't have taken as long, but he had to make sure that no one spotted him in the barren landscape.

After following them for a while, he made sure that they would keep to their current route and ran back to his people.

Jack made the Immortals' Lament maintain its movement speed and checked on their quarry several times a day until they stopped for the night.

In the next few days, he kept to his routine and refused the offers of the others from the company that wanted to take his place. Jack trusted his men, but he couldn't risk an accident with something so important so he didn't mind pushing himself.

On the fifth day of their journey, on his way back from checking on the Haechi Tribe caravan, Jack lay on a hill and saw a clump of men riding some kind of beast moving in their direction.

They were just a speck on the horizon and still had some time to reach the Immortals' Lament, but Jack had no doubts that they would see his people before he managed to hide them.

He took a deep breath, stood up, and started sprinting towards the Immortals' Lament.