In the early morning light, Du Angliang led Jack through the forest that surrounded Elder Yu's manor. Jack had to quicken his step to keep up with Du Angliang's long gliding ones.
After a few minutes, they exited onto a wide clearing near the foot of the mountain, allowing Jack to see his new home for the first time.
In front of him stood four additional mountains spread in a circle around a valley that had a shimmering lake right in the middle of it. Jack could see a lot of grand building made out of some kind of reflective stone all around the mountains, and even a small town on the coast of the lake.
"That is Tranquil Lake Town, most of the servants of the sect live and work there." Du Angliang opened his mouth for the first time on his trip and proclaimed as he pointed at the town. He looked at Jack out of the corner of his eye and said "Our Master's servants only start their work there; most of our time is spent here, on the Eternal Rest Mountain."
Du Angliang turned towards the path leading down the mountain and started walking on it. At that moment Jack saw a person from a neighboring mountain standing on something vaguely round take to the air and leave the circle of mountains. He opened his mouth, looked at Du Angliang, thought about it, closed it, and followed after him.
On the way down they went past a few people going up the mountain. The majority of them bowed their heads when they saw Du Angliang and hurried on their way, only some of them nodded at him in greeting, or ignored him. Jack didn't want any troubles so he kept his eyes locked on Du Angliang's feet and his mouth shut.
But even so, he noticed that the people that kept their eyes down like he did all had the similar thin, worn out look; while the people with confidence had nicer clothes and a fuller build.
Even with Du Angliang's pace, it took them almost 15 minutes to get to the bottom of the mountain and the entrance of Tranquil Lake Town. The crowds grew bigger, but they could still walk without bumping into people.
'There are no old people here.' Jack thought as he took glimpses of the people that passed him. The oldest shabby looking person he saw looked like he just turned 35, while the oldest nicely dressed person looked at most 25.
Du Angliang took Jack into a light-gray stone building that stood on the main road. The thing that caught Jack's eye was that while other people went in and out of all the other buildings from the main road, only the one they entered didn't have people swarming around it.
Inside, Jack saw more than a dozen teenagers sprawled around the floor in dirty white robes. Most of them just stared at the ceiling with dead eyes, while only a few engaged other people in conversation.
When the teenagers saw Du Angliang enter they quickly jumped to their feet and lined themselves up along the wall. Jack didn't even see a small frown on Du Angliang's face as he looked at the lined up teens and said "Get to work."
The teens bowed and said "Yes, Senior Brother Du." unanimously, and scurried out of the back door in a shaky line.
Du Angliang took Jack to another door that connected the lobby area to a smaller office-like room. Inside he had a couple of bookshelves half-filled with scrolls and a desk with a chair behind it.
'Like a child trying to imitate a parent.' thought Jack as he looked around the room.
Du Angliang sat on his chair and, for the first time that morning, looked Jack up and down fully.
He tried to play it off like he didn't care, but Jack could see a tiny hint of derision shine in Du Angliang's eyes.
"From this point on you belong to Elder Yu and the Endless Cycle Sect." Du Angliang said while looking at Jack's eyes. After a few seconds of silence, he broke eye contact and pointed to a cabinet standing next to the door "Take a work and ceremonial uniform from the top and bottom drawers."
Jack went to the cabinet. The top drawer had coarse white robes of various sizes; some even had faint blood stains and stitched up tears on them. He dug out the one that looked the most like it would fit him and closed the drawer without comment.
In the bottom drawer he did the same thing, these robes were made out of a better material and had a small black crest of a circle with a smaller circle inside emblazoned over the heart.
After picking up his uniforms Jack returned to stand in front of the desk.
"Your workday will start at dawn each day. Every morning you will come here together with the other servants." Du Angliang said as he folded his arms and leaned back in his chair "Each peak will send their dead to us. The bodies come to the back door where we take and prepare them for burial. After the midday meal, we take the bodies with a cart up the Eternal Rest Mountain to our Master's estate, where we leave them. Then, unless the Elder tells us not to, we go to the back of the estate to the graveyard and dig the graves for the new dead people."
"When do I wear the ceremonial uniform then?" Jack asked as he looked at the clothes in his arms.
Du Angliang blinked at the interruption and said "You will address me as Senior Brother and will not ask questions of your betters unless you are first addressed by them. If you do not comply you will be whipped. Do you understand?"
He stared at Jack until Jack bowed his head and said "Yes, Senior Brother."
Du Angliang nodded his head and continued "After the graves are dug we go back to our homes and are free for the rest of the day." He paused for a second before continuing "At least that is how your first week will look like. If you manage to survive we can talk about other things in the future."
Jack's blood froze when he heard that casual remark. 'Why wouldn't I survive?' he thought and almost said before catching himself.
*clap*
Du Angliang snapped Jack out of his thoughts with a clap as he said "Now, put on the uniform and follow me outside." He stood up from his chair and walked out of the office.
Jack watched Du Angliang leave, looked at the doors that led to the outside, did a quick calculation of his chances for survival if he ran for it, and put on the white uniform.
Since he came to this new world he quickly forgot to care about the smells of other people, but he could never ignore the familiar stench of death that smacked him in the face as soon as he stepped foot into the walled-off courtyard in the back of the building.
In it, some of the white-robed teens carried dead bodies to large wooden tables, while others even cut some of the bodies open. Du Angliang walked from one table to the next and gave either criticisms or advice to the person working there.
Jack inhaled deeply of the familiar stench, looked the courtyard over once again, and walked towards Du Angliang. He stood next to him and bowed slightly while still holding his old and new clothes in his hands.
Du Angliang gave him a disappointed look as he said "Not even some heaving?"
Jack gave him a slight bow as he said "I have seen dead bodies before, Senior Brother."
Du Angliang sighed and waved for Jack to follow him.
They walked to the middle of the busy courtyard where Du Angliang clapped his hands a few times. In a couple of seconds, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
Du Angliang pointed at Jack and said "This is Song Tanda. From today he will join us in the service of our glorious Master, Elder Yu." As he said the name of the Elder everyone in the courtyard bowed their heads.
Du Angliang allowed the silence to spread for a few seconds before he continued "Song Tanda is on the usual one week trial so you don't have to explain too much. Just show him where to put the bodies and how to dig the graves." He looked around for a second, clapped his hands a couple of times, and shouted "Go back to work!"
'He's not doing this for me.' Jack realized as he looked at the dead eyes of the teens around him. 'They all know what they should do already, but this sick bastard likes to lord it over them and put on a show.'
Jack stood there without saying anything as Du Angliang looked at him and said "Put the clothes on a free table, you can take them with you later, then go to the back door and help with the bodies." After he finished talking he went back into the main building without even glancing at the others.
As soon as Du Angliang left, the atmosphere of the courtyard changed. If before everyone had an air of concentration about them, then now they allowed the mask to slip and carried an attitude of apathy.
Where before two people carried a body carefully towards a table, now one person dragged the dead body by its legs. Even the people that previously carefully used their instruments on the bodies now cut them without a care for the damage they did.
Jack opened his eyes wide as he looked around at the uncaring teens. A second later a large callused hand dropped on his left shoulder and almost made him drop to his knees. Jack looked up and saw a broad grinning face looking down at him. But Jack couldn't find the will to live even in that grin, only slight mirth at the tiny bit of freedom gained.
"Don't worry, boy. That snake Senior Brother of ours won't return until midday meal. He's off to lick the asses of the Young Masters." he said as he patted Jack's shoulder. He turned towards the back of the courtyard and said with a wave "Come, I'll show you what to do."
Jack quickly found a clean table to drop his clothes off and followed after the large teen.
The large teen introduced himself as Kuang Bindun and taught Jack how to greet the people that dropped the bodies off, and then how to prepare them for the tables, and how to place them in the carriage when the teens at the tables finished their part.
The first time he did everything he did it the way they were supposed to do it, then he showed Jack how they usually did it.
All the care and respect disappeared in the second example. They only cared about doing as little work as possible while achieving the same results.
Only the full body search part of the proper way remained in the easy way. In it, they looked for any valuables still left on the bodies. But Kuang Bindun said that they seldom had any luck with that since either the families or the Sect itself took those things before the bodies got to them.
Even the ones that worked at the tables just looked for things that the dead people might have hidden inside of their bodies.
Jack did as much as he could with his injuries and the others didn't seem to care. The only thing that made him feel some trepidation was when he asked Kuang Bindun about the one-week term limit and he said that Jack would find out later that night.
The team managed to take care of all of the bodies well before midday meal, so they all found a spot in the shade and tried to get some sleep.
Jack tried to talk to Kuang Bindun a little to get some additional information but was told to shut up and rest. So Jack tried to rest as much as possible without falling asleep.
At midday, Du Angliang returned with a couple of servants carrying a large bowl filled with rice.
Everyone quickly rose from their rest, ran to a corner of the courtyard for some small bowls stored there, and lined up for their meal. Du Angliang stood next to the rice and served everyone that came.
They had to say "Thank you, Senior Brother." when he gave them the food.
Jack stood last in line and got the smallest amount of food, but his grumbling stomach didn't care as he quickly scooped the food into his mouth with his hands.
After the meal, Du Angliang drove the Kui pulled cart up the Eternal Rest Mountain, while everyone else had to return by foot. Everyone, even the people that belonged to the Sect in full, moved out of the way when they saw the cart moving towards them; leaving a cleared path for Jack and the rest.
It took them almost half an hour to return to Elder Yu's estate. There, they left the cart with the bodies in the Elder's courtyard and walked to the back of the enormous manor.
In the back, Jack saw a huge strip of flat dead land, only a third filled with graves. As he studied the graves Jack noticed that most of them had only a wooden board as a marker, only a few had some kind of headstone.
Du Angliang sent a few of them to get their shovels from a small shack that stood near the graveyard. After everyone had a shovel they went to a spot that looked like it had the freshest graves.
Du Angliang commanded them to dig the necessary graves and left back towards the Elder's manor. In response, everyone started to dig the holes as fast as possible.
Jack furrowed his brows as he dragged his oversized shovel to Kuang Bindun and asked "What's the hurry?"
Kuang Bindun took a quick look over his shoulder at Jack, then continued digging while saying "The faster we're done, the faster we can rest." He kept digging for a few seconds before he took a longer look at the manor and said with dread in his voice "Also, if the Elder notices that you aren't working as hard as you can, you will die."
Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise up as he found a spot and started helping out with the digging. He couldn't dig a grave on his own, but he helped the people that needed it as much as he could.
As the Sun started setting in the West, they finished with the last grave and everyone went to return the shovels.
Jack looked back at the fresh graves and asked Kuang Bindun who walked next to him "Do we have to go back later to bury the bodies?"
Kuang Bindun shook his head as he said "No, we dig them up and the next day they're full."
Jack looked at Kuang Bindun and tried to figure out if he just made a joke, after a few seconds he looked back at the graves, then at Kuang Bindun once more, shrugged, and kept walking.
When they came back to the courtyard of the estate, Du Angliang stood there waiting for them. The cart was gone.
The team lined up once more with Jack standing at the far end.
Du Angliang looked at every one of them, recited a few names, and walked towards a distant room of the manor.
Jack watched as the few teens whose names were called stepped out and followed after Du Angliang with their faces drained of blood.
Everyone else seemed to let out a slight sigh of relief as they started their journey back to their tiny houses.
Jack hurried after Kuang Bindun and asked "What's gonna happen to those guys?"
Kuang Bindun glanced at him and said "Survive your week and you'll find out."
Jack stopped hurrying and fell to the back of the group.
He looked up at the darkening sky and thought 'So, a beatings will continue until morale improves kind of place. I can work with that.' while a smile spread across his bruised face.