Cultivating Civilization - Chapter 110

“Are you going to tell them?” Jack asked when he and Tong Huakun stopped their advance on a mountain that had a view of the distant Haechi Tribe.

She observed the tiny people living their harsh lives in the town for a few seconds before she said “I don’t know. Depends on what you do in the future.”

Jack nodded his head and declared “I can live with that.” His voice turned serious and he added “Until then, you’re still my subordinate and have a mission to execute. Understood?”

Tong Huakun gave him an annoyed look, but she kept her mouth shut and nodded her head.

They started running towards the town at a light pace and Tong Huakun asked “How do you think the shooting competition went?”

Jack gave her a relaxed shrug and said “The guys won without issue. Even though Bei Kangping’s men learn a bit faster, most of the old members of the company practiced the Air Blast spell a lot longer. Some have used the cylinder for target practice too.”

Tong Huakun nodded her head to signal that she had the same idea, but she then asked “What about the next three competitions?”

Jack’s face turned a bit serious and he answered “I’m not sure. If they lose one of the next two matches I’ll forbid them the practice of any other spell or technique until they win the lost spirit stones back.”

Tong Huakun chuckled but didn’t ask more. She just started learning English and had a while to go, but Kuang Bindun told her that she learned faster than anyone he taught in the past.

Most of the company just thought that she learned fast, but Jack suspected that her cultivation had something to do with it.

Once they reached the town, Tong Huakun went to give a report on the hunt to the Chief while Jack went to find Elder Ran.

He found the large Elder in his workshop and left the first Haechi beast with him.

Jack and the Chief made an amendment to their original arrangement in which the Immortals’ Lament would give their part of the meat and bones of the beasts to the Tribe, while the Tribe would give their part of the horns over to Immortals’ Lament.

After that, Jack would buy out the half of the hide that belonged to the Haechi Tribe with spirit stones and got the whole thing to do with as he pleased.

In this hunt, they managed to catch eight Haechi beasts after spending almost forty days in the mountains. Tong Huakun told Jack that they would have to change their hunting ground for the next time because they exhausted the current one.

When he returned back to the company’s camp the evening’s language lessons just started.

All of the older members stopped everything and ran to welcome him back, while the new Haechi recruits looked delighted by the fact that he brought some income back to the Tribe.

Shi Furui and the rest started bragging about their victory in the shooting competition almost as soon as they saw him, and he congratulated them on their success without showing any concern for the future.

He saw Zhu Lielei standing in the back of the crowd without her bandages and called her over to ask “How does it feel?”

She looked a little hesitant, but still whispered “It hurts a little when I talk or chew.”

Jack frowned down at her and asked “Why are you whispering?”

She gave a few glances to everyone gathered around them, and then dragged him away from the curious eyes and ears. He knew that if some of the cultivators wanted to hear them they could, but he didn’t think that his friends would do that.

They hid behind one of the houses and she admitted “I look weird when I talk.”

Jack could see it as soon as she opened her mouth. Her lower jaw had a slight tilt to the right when she spoke. If he hadn’t looked for it he wouldn’t have noticed it at first glance.

He gave her an encouraging smile and said “It’s fine, no one in the company will care. It gives you character.”

She looked down and whispered “I don’t like it when the people in town stare.”

Jack looked down at the small girl and wanted to give her a hug. He hadn’t forbidden his people to go to town after the arrangement with the Chief, and Zhu Lielei had a lot more contact with them than the rest of the company.

He considered it for a second and decided against it. Instead, he lifted her chin up with a finger and said “Don’t worry. Cultivation makes the impossible possible. Remember how my legs were when you met me? After a couple years of cultivation, you will be able to fix your jaw without issue.”

When he saw the gleam of hope in her eyes he knew he said the right thing. He thought about saying that how she looked like wouldn’t matter to others, but he didn’t want to lie to her if he didn’t have to so he gave her something to strive for instead.

She grinned at him and he saw the hole where two of her left molars used to be. ‘Gonna have to figure something out for that too.’ He thought and led her back to the English lesson.

While most of the camp learned, Jack went to clean himself up and visited Wu Angrui.

He caught her in the middle of breakfast. Her maid almost didn’t let him inside her house, but once Wu Angrui found out that he came back she welcomed him in.

When he sat down on a wooden chair at her wooden desk, Wu Angrui asked “How did your hunt go this time?” and took a bite of her food. It looked a lot better than anything that they had in the camp.

The excitement in her eyes betrayed her inexperience. Jack knew that if old Long didn’t negotiate a specific price for the hides with her father, he could take at least twenty percent more than agreed upon.

He let out an internal sigh at the loss and said “We caught eight beasts this time. None of them are damaged and I gave the first over for processing before coming here so it should be ready in three days.”

Wu Angrui’s face spread into a smile after she swallowed. She exclaimed “That is excellent!” and slapped the table. In the next second, she looked surprised at her action and took a deep breath while her cheeks got a rosy complexion.

“I finished processing the other hides into leathers and will start to work them into armors soon.” She announced and looked at Jack’s dirty coat with dissatisfaction.

Before she could start complaining about it, he jumped in with “I hope that you are not too bored here. The Haechi Tribe are not known for their festivals.”

She waved a half-hearted hand at him and said “It is not that bad. I have my leathers to work on so they keep me busy.” A second later, she added “I do miss the shops on the Outpost’s main street from time to time.”

Jack pretended to think about something and then suggested “You know, I was planning to have some fun back in the camp tonight to celebrate the successful hunt. Maybe you would like to come?” As soon as he said it, he shook his head and added “No, you would not like the game we usually play.”

Wu Angrui almost broke her plate when she pressed her chopsticks down and asked “What kind of game?!” She took hold of her excitement and added “I wouldn’t mind going if it celebrates the hunt.”

He gave her a weighing look and said “It is a game from my homeland. The rules are pretty simple so everyone can learn it, but only a few manage to master it.”

She leaned closer and asked “When does the celebration start?”

Jack didn’t hesitate to say “I will send someone to get you after the evening meal. Is that alright with you?”

Wu Angrui nodded her head and agreed.

With that, Jack stood up and excused himself.

The excitement fell off of Wu Angrui’s face when she asked “Won’t you stay a while longer? I will send the maid to make us some tea.”

Jack saw that the young woman had nothing better to do and wanted to waste some time, but he would rather take a chance at the water that he cleansed than touch anything that they gave out.

He gave her a polite smile and said “I am sorry, but I have to go and tend to the needs of my company so that I am free later tonight. We will have to postpone to another time.”

With that, he turned around and left the house as fast as he could. The longer he stayed there the more he felt the eyes of the maid on the back of his neck.

When he got back to the camp, he ended the language lesson early and called the winners of the shooting competition, Shi Furui, Kuang Bindun, Yin Ping, Bai Maolong, and Ma Ruiman, to his house.

They all gave him confused looks, but he ignored them and took out a thick stack of rectangular papers from his Star Bag; none of them bigger than his hand.

Kuang Bindun’s eyes shone and he asked “Are those the pictures you drew just before you went hunting?”

Shi Furui nodded his head when he saw them and added “They should be, old Long got furious when he found out that you wasted so much of the paper and colored ink he bought.”

The others chuckled, but Jack spread the papers across the table and looked up at them with a smirk before he said “It’s time I taught you guys how to play a game from my homeland. We call it Poker.”

During the next couple of hours, he taught them all the tricks that he knew and informed them of his plan.

When one of the sentries ran into the house and informed him that Tong Huakun came to the camp with the two White River family leaders, Jack thanked him and ordered him to go lead Wu Angrui to his house too.

Tong Huakun led the two men into the house and saw a Light Orb-lit room in which five of Jack’s closest men sat around the table while they had rectangular papers and cups of wine in front of them.

Bei Kangping stepped out and asked “Why have you called for us?”

Jack stood up and gave them a friendly smile while he said “I wanted to talk to you about your progress before we start tomorrow’s training. We should”

At the same time, the four of them twitched towards the center of the camp.

A second later, Jack excused himself and walked out to greet Wu Angrui and her maid.

When they came back into the crowded house, Jack escorted Wu Angrui to her seat while she ordered her maid to stand outside.

Bei Kangping looked at everything on the table and the newcomer before he asked “Are we interrupting something?”

Jack waved his hand in dismissal as he sat down and said “We are celebrating a successful hunt with some drinks amongst friends and a game from my homeland. You can report your progress while we play, or you can join us and have some fun.”

Bei Kangping’s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to refuse, but Wu Dianrong preempted him with “How do you play this game?” and went to sit next to his distant cousin.

Jack turned his gaze to the usually silent White River family leader and started explaining “It is quite simple. There are four different sets of thirteen cards”

He didn’t have to explain for long for everyone to understand the rules. Cultivators had experience with learning new symbols all the time so a few simple ones proved no challenge.

They played a couple dozen hands to get everyone familiar with how the game worked and then Jack suggested “How about we make this more interesting?”

Wu Angrui looked excited just from being among people so she took the bait immediately and asked “How?”

Jack gave her a grateful smile and answered by taking out a pouch with fifty spirit stones from his Star Bag.

He placed it on the table and said “We place one spirit stone as a deposit for each round. Depending on the hand we get, we can either continue playing by investing more spirit stones or giving up. The game ends when one person holds all the spirit stones.”

When he finished his explanation, Wu Angrui didn’t even think about it and took out fifty spirit stones out of her Bag.

Bei Kangping still looked suspicious, but Wu Dianrong followed after Wu Angrui and placed his spirit stones on the table.

Shi Furui, Yin Ping, and Ma Ruiman followed suit, but Kuang Bindun and Bai Maolong declined. During their practice matches earlier, Jack decided that the two of them didn’t have what it took to become great Poker players and had them drop out to make it look more realistic.

Tong Huakun also had to follow their example and declined to pay in. Jack explained the rules of the game to her on their hunt and she had talent, but she had a different task tonight and couldn’t play.

She gave a disappointed look to Bei Kangping and asked “What about you, Bei Kangping? I can’t waste my spirit stones, but surely a White River family member has some to spare.”

That broke Bei Kangping’s last barrier. He nodded his head with pride and placed his fifty spirit stones on the table.

Jack smiled at them all and started dealing.

An hour later, Bei Kangping looked at his cards, took a deep breath, and declared “I am staking my entire wealth.”

With that, he pushed his reminding ninety-four spirit stones to the middle of the table.

Jack squinted at him for a dozen seconds before he said “As am I.” and pushed the rest of the spirit stones on the table to the middle.

They locked gazes for a moment in which no one at the table breathed, and showed their hands at the same time.

Bei Kangping’s face spread into a smile when he saw that Jack had two tens and two sevens, but he had three queens.

Just when he planned to take his share of the spirit stones, Jack raised a finger into the air and moved his last card that hid behind the others into the light. A third seven.

Bei Kangping’s face fell while he watched the mercenary company’s leader take his winnings and store them in his Star Bag.

Jack looked up at the dispirited White River family leaders and said “We should do this more often.” with a wide grin.