Cultivating Civilization - Chapter 92

Tong Huakun and Jack returned back to the Haechi Tribe in the afternoon.

The Immortals’ Lament sentries noticed them first, but only one out of the four ran back into the house Jack shared with Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun to notify them, while the rest stayed on guard.

Jack’s brows furrowed as he realized that not one rookie stood on guard, only grade three cultivators from the Gravediggers.

He didn’t want to let Tong Huakun into his camp without checking on things first so he turned to her and said “You should go get your grandmother and the other Elders arrange a meeting with the Chief now. I’ll meet you there once I’ve cleaned up a little.”

Tong Huakun glanced at the Sun for a few seconds and then nodded her head as she agreed “I need to clean up too, come to my grandmother’s house before dusk.” With that, she waved her hand at him and started walking towards the town.

Jack followed her with his eyes, only when she went out of sight did he start walking towards the waiting Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun.

As soon as he reached them, Jack asked “What happened?” with a serious expression on his face.

He saw some of his people look out through the leather flaps of their doorways as he passed by, but no one came out to welcome him back.

Shi Furui glanced around them for a second before he said “We should talk inside.” With that, he turned around and led the way back to their house.

Once inside, they sat down on the ground around a flat piece of rock and Shi Furui said “I have forbidden everyone from going out of their houses except on official company business.”

Jack’s brows furrowed as he repeated his question “What happened?”

Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui exchanged glances before Kuang Bindun started talking “For the first couple of weeks everything went well, even some of the Elders joined in on the language lessons.”

He looked down at his hands as he continued “Then a group of people from the White River family came to the Haechi Tribe and asked for you. They acted like you were some kind of felon and didn’t believe us when we told them you went hunting Haechi beasts with Tong Huakun.”

Shi Furui slammed his palm on the rock table and exclaimed “That old woman didn’t tell the Chief that you were going with Tong Huakun out to hunt! She only told the Chief that Tong Huakun needed some rest and managed to get her leave from her job.”

Jack’s face darkened for a few seconds before he sighed and said “I guess we should have expected something like that. After all, she didn’t know if I told them the truth. If I had, then our success would have buried any anger that the Chief might have had, and if we failed they could have gotten rid of us and acted like nothing ever happened.”

Shi Furui stared at Jack for a couple of seconds before he asked “We’re not going to get back at her?”

Jack gave him a shrug as he answered “That depends on what happened next.”

The house fell silent for a few seconds before Kuang Bindun opened his mouth and continued his story “The White River family people promised food for a hundred days to the person that gave them information on your location. Some of the Haechi tribesmen decided that they would abduct one of our people as a way of making us talk.”

“What?!” Jack shouted as he stood up while rage radiated out of him.

Both Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun flinched from his outburst, but Shi Furui reacted fast as he explained “It’s fine, no one from our side got hurt. We broke the limbs of the three grade two men that tried to abduct Xu Weifa during morning practice and gave them to the Tribe. The old woman managed to convince the Chief that he should tell their people not to approach us until you came back.”

He looked at the flap of leather that served as a door and continued “Ever since then I haven’t allowed anyone from the Haechi Tribe, even the ones that ignored their Chief, near our people while we trained, ate, or practiced English; and I forbade our people to leave their houses otherwise.”

Jack took a few seconds to calm himself down as he breathed through the rage that took him at the moment he heard someone dared to touch one of his people.

‘I would have burned their corpses and roasted meat over the flames.’ Jack realized as he looked down at his slightly shaking hands. ‘I can’t let emotions get the better of me like that. Don’t want to be that person again.’ he concluded and sat back down on the floor.

Jack looked at his friends and said “You did good; maybe better than I would have. Did anything else happen after that?”

Kuang Bindun smiled and gave him a nod as he declared “We do have some good news; two of our people broke through to grade four after the incident. I think that the pressure finally got to them.”

A smile cracked Jack’s dour face too as he exclaimed “That is good news! I’ll have to reward them with something nice once all of this is done with.”

He turned to Shi Furui to say “Tell me more about this White River Family group.”

The atmosphere in the house turned heavy once more as Shi Furui explained “There are ten of them. Old Long says that five are in grade five, while three are in grade six of the Spirit Accumulation realm. He can’t tell for the two leaders. They only asked about you and didn’t try any more tricks since the Tribe protected us.”

Jack’s brows furrowed for a few seconds before he sighed and stood up. He started to take off his dirty long coat as he asked “Can one of you go get old Long to bring me some water. I have to make myself presentable for the Chief and the White River family.”

An hour later, Jack walked out of the area of the town that the Immortals’ Lament rented out and started walking towards the old woman’s house on his own. The long coat still had some deep dirt and blood marks on it, but he managed to clean it enough that it gave the right impression.

He left orders that everyone should get ready for flight just in case everything went belly up. All of the cultivators from the company wanted to go with him, but he knew that he had the best chances of survival if he went on his own and without a show of force.

Tong Huakun already waited for him in front of her grandmother’s house and started talking as soon as she spotted Jack’s grim face “I didn’t know that my grandmother lied, I swear. If I can do anything to fix what happened, I will. Just don’t think the worst out of the entire Tribe because we have a few bad people in it.”

Jack studied her earnest face for a few seconds before he sighed and said “Relax, I’m not mad at your grandmother. I’m mad at the ones that started it all. She did what she thought was best for you and her Tribe.”

Tong Huakun’s stiff posture relaxed when she saw Jack spoke the truth. During the past month, she started recognizing when he spoke the truth and when he skirted around it, at least she thought she did. At times she couldn’t tell at all.

She nodded her head and led the way into the small rock house.

Inside, the old woman sat in her usual position and stared at Jack with a hint of surprise in her eyes. As soon as Jack noticed it, she tried to hide it by declaring “I never thought that your ludicrous idea could actually work.”

Jack rolled his eyes as he sat down across the stone table from her and said “I’m a man of my word. Too bad you’re not an old woman of her word too.”

Tong Huakun’s eyes narrowed, but Jack prompted her with “What? I said I’m not mad at her, doesn’t mean that I’m not annoyed.”

The old woman chuckled as she glanced at her sullen granddaughter before she looked at Jack and said “I guess I deserve that. Please accept my apology and feel free to call me Pan Baibao.”

Jack’s brows rose in surprise at the name while he stared at this wrinkled and tattooed old woman, but he dismissed it with a quick shake of the head and declared “It doesn’t matter now. How do we go about getting rid of the White River family?”

The old woman, Pan Baibao, ignored the strange look Jack gave her and asked “What do they want from you?”

Jack gave them a casual shrug as he answered “Probably to get me back to the White River Outpost to teach their family members how to use a technique and a tool I sold them.”

Tong Huakun’s eyes widened as she asked “You sold them your technique?”

Jack’s brows furrowed for a second before his face cleared up in realization as he said “Not that one, something else. I got their Clear Water spell in exchange.”

He looked over to Pan Baibao and proposed “If this goes well I’d be willing to trade their spell for your Tribe’s.”

Pan Baibao’s wrinkled brow became a field of hills and valleys as she thought for a few seconds before she said “Our ancestors got ours from the White River family too, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the original.”

She shook the thoughts of the Clear Water spell from her mind and asked “How valuable is this technique of yours to the White River family?”

Jack shrugged his shoulders before he answered with “I’m not sure. If used properly it could be very valuable, but I doubt that they know how to use it. The White River family is too stuck in their glorious past to see the future coming at them.”

He placed his hands on the stone table and leaned in as he added “I’m sure that it would be of much greater use for me to stay on this side of the River with it, than for them to take me and you lost the technique forever.”

Pan Baibao thought about it for a few seconds before she turned to Tong Huakun and asked “What do you think, Huakun?”

Tong Huakun looked at Jack for a couple of seconds, nodded her head, and turned to her grandmother to say “I believe him, grandmother. We cannot keep going like this or we will die out in a few generations like the other Tribes have.”

Pan Baibao nodded her head as she patted her granddaughter’s hand while an ancient sadness flashed across her face. After a second, she rallied and turned to look at Jack as she declared “Very well, boy. My friends and I will stand behind you. All you need to do now is convince my fool of a brother.”

She gave him a toothy grin as she added “Good luck with that!”