The rest of the day proceeded normally. Jack informed Shi Furui about going to the graveyard shift with him while they worked on a new corpse.
By now they knew how all of the major meridians looked and how they operated in general. At this point, they would test out a meridian's usefulness during the night, and then check to which meridians it connected to and how they could use them together to get better results while circulating spiritual energy through them.
After the digging of the graves, they lined up in the manor's courtyard as usual. When Du Angliang looked at them this time he had a hint of excitement fluttering around the edges of his eyes.
"Song Tanda" Du Angliang called out the first name. Almost everyone else seemed to feel relief that he didn't call their name out. Some of the smarter ones had a look of understanding while they glanced at the knives on Jack's belt. A few of the more cold-hearted teens even had a slight look of glee on their faces.
Kuang Bindun's warnings about the dangers of the first night rang in Jack's head as he walked to stand behind Du Angliang. The chances that someone would get killed doubled during that time, and they weren't that good, to begin with. One teen already died during Jack's stay with the Gravediggers, and a couple others had injuries that left them bedridden for days.
Jack gave the concerned Kuang Bindun a reassuring smile and proceeded to watch the faces of the other people whose name Du Angliang called out. He named five other people, Shi Furui had a determined expression as he nodded to Jack and stood next to him, the others had the usual mixture of dread and anticipation that Jack got used to seeing when someone got called out of the line. They clumped behind Du Angliang, close together, but still on their own.
Du Angliang dismissed the rest of the group while he led Jack and the others towards a distant room of the manor. When they arrived in front of it he bowed down and said "Disciple Du Angliang asks for permission to enter."
Everyone else followed his example in bowing, as did Jack, without missing a beat. In the corner of his eye, Jack caught a small hint of stiffness from Du Angliang's posture and smirked at the ground.
After a few seconds, the door opened on its own. Du Angliang went inside while the rest of them waited for him. A minute later Du Angliang returned while carrying six metal rings that had sigils etched into them, and a familiar-looking pouch which he tied to his waist.
He handed the rings out one by one, when he got to Jack and tried to give him one Jack looked up at him and said "I'm sorry, Senior Brother, but Elder Yu said that I should help you out with the capturing of spirits, not their luring." Jack slid out one of the knives from his belt and said "See, he even gave me these knives."
Du Angliang stared at Jack for a second and lowered his extended hand with the metal ring. "Ah yes, now that you mention it I do remember something about that." he said without any change in his expression. With a final cold glare, he turned and walked back into the room to return the last metal ring.
Du Angliang exited the room a few seconds later, closed the door, and said "Let's go."
He led Jack and the rest back to the graveyard where he commanded "Put them on." as he looked at the five teens that had the metal rings.
The boys either gulped or took a deep breath, but they still complied and pulled the metal rings over their heads. As soon as the rings touched their necks a shiver went through them as the sigils on the rigs started to light up. Somehow, the rings started shrinking. Only when they firmly encircled the necks of the teens did they stop glowing.
Jack watched the entire thing with wonder. Even with the warning from Kuang Bindun he still thought that it looked frightening and miraculous at the same time. Everyone else seemed to consider it as just another part of their lives as he couldn't see any of the emotions that he felt while watching the rings in their eyes.
Du Angliang looked at the darkening sky for a second and then said "About an incense stick worth of time until we can start."
He looked back down at their group with narrowed eyes and pointed at some of them while saying "You, you, you, and you." Du Angliang pointed out the four other teens, leaving Jack and Shi Furui standing frozen. He continued while pointing at the West side of the graveyard. "We will start at that side and work our way up to the middle." He turned towards Jack and said with an encouraging smile "You can take the rest and start from the other side; we will meet up in the middle and cut the time for the patrol by half."
Jack wanted to stab the poorly hidden smugness out of Du Angliang's eyes, but he calmed himself down and said "I have no problems with Senior Brother's suggestion, but wouldn't it go faster if we both had the same number of people on our teams?"
Du Angliang shook his head as he chuckled "No, no, you misunderstand. The more people you have around you the more spirits you will attract. Just having one other person go with you is perfect for learning." He turned towards Shi Furui and said while gesturing at him "And you will have Shi Furui with you, he has even more experience with patrols than me so there is no need to feel frightened."
Jack prevented the frown from forming on his forehead as he cursed inwardly and asked "Then can you please lend me a few more knives for protection, Senior Brother?" as he glanced at the pouch on Du Angliang's waist.
Du Angliang's brows furrowed as he said "Why would you need more when you can barely activate three? Elder Yu would have given you more otherwise."
Jack acknowledged his statement with a nod, but he pasted an earnest expression on his face as he said "Of course, Senior Brother, but if I use up my spirit energy I'll stop to cultivate so I can get some more spirits for Elder Yu."
He could almost see the gears turning in Du Angliang's head as he processed that statement and weighed the pros and cons. After a few seconds, he took out three extra knives from his pouch with a sincere smile.
"Fine, just be careful." Du Angliang said as he offered the knives.
Jack took them and thanked Du Angliang with a smile of his own. After that Du Angliang warned Jack to be careful once again and led his party towards the West side of the graveyard.
Shi Furui and Jack headed in the opposite direction.
When he felt certain that Du Angliang couldn't hear him, Shi Furui turned a skeptical eye at Jack and asked "You do know that if you take time to cultivate during the patrol that we'll both die, right?"
Jack smiled as he looked at the last light of day over his shoulder and said "Of course."
After a few seconds in silence, Shi Furui sighed and said "You have a plan."
Jack nodded his head and confirmed, "I have a plan." He looked up at Shi Furui and said "Here take these, they'll get in my way." as he offered him four knives.
Shi Furui took them without complaint and expertly stored them over his body.
They soon arrived to their starting point and Shi Furui took the time to explain the route to Jack "There's a path to follow that the Elder set up." He said as he pointed at a slight clearing in the nearby forest "It leads through the forest and around the cemetery. It's not that wide so I'll go first and you watch my back."
He hesitated for a few seconds before saying "We usually meet around three to six spirits on each side of the graveyard. Any chance that plan of yours has that covered?"
Jack glanced at Shi Furui and said with a slight smirk "No problem, Bindun told me all about spirit encounter rates. You probably won't like it though."
Shi Furui sighed and turned to gaze at the sky together with Jack as darkness covered everything.
After a while, he turned to look at Jack with a crooked smile and asked "Shall we?"
Jack looked back at him with a serious face and said "Once we enter that forest your life is in my hands. Anything I do or say will remain between the two of us. We either live together or die together. You fine with that?"
Shi Furui's face sobered up as he stared into Jack's eyes for a few seconds before nodding his head and saying "Sure." He lifted his hand up and touched something on the metal ring on his neck to turn it on.
Jack saw the choker let out slight shimmers of spirit energy into the air around Shi Furui and asked "How does it feel?"
Shi Furui shrugged his shoulders and said "It somehow tugs on the spirit energy from my dantian and releases it outside. I can feel it leaving my body, but I can't see it. It would take over half a day for it to exhaust my reserves so it's not that straining."
Jack grunted and they started walking towards the forest. Just before they entered Shi Furui stepped out to the front and led the way.
A few seconds after they entered the dark forest Jack exclaimed "F*ck!"
Shi Furui quickly as his eyes roamed the bushes around them while he hissed "What?"
"That bastard sent us to the East side! Kuang Bindun said that you always start the patrol on the East. Spirits must start to gather earlier here since the Sun goes down in the West." Jack complained as he looked at the dark forest. With the help of his circulating spirit energy, he could only see a few meters into the darkness. Even when he focused on imagining the spirit energy strengthening the rods in his retinas he could only gain an extra few meters of improved sight.
Shi Furui looked at him in confusion as he said "Ist? Vest?"
Jack caught himself in his anger and took a couple of deep breaths while saying "Never mind, I'll explain it to you later."
Shi Furui gave him a sidelong glance, as if questioning his decision to stick with Jack, but gave a slight shrug after a couple of seconds and continued down the path.
After over 10 minutes of following the path, Jack saw something shimmering at the edge of his vision. He tugged at Shi Furui's shirt and pointed at the shimmer while saying "Can you see that?"
Shi Furui looked at where Jack pointed and strained his eyes to see something. After a couple of seconds, he said "I can see some trees and bushes. What about you?"
Jack furrowed his brows as he said "Something's there, floating in the darkness."
Shi Furui looked harder but still couldn't see anything. He hesitated for a second but decided to say "Look, I don't see it, but I trust you. We should get away from it."
Jack waited for a few seconds before shaking his head and replying "Let's wait for a bit."
Shi Furui furrowed his brows as he asked "You sure about this?"
Jack nodded his head without hesitation as he answered "To beat our enemy we first have to understand it." He grabbed a knife in each hand and started to imbue spirit energy into the one in his right.
When he finished with the knife in his right hand he started on the one in his left.
As Shi Furui saw the other knife's sigils start to brighten up he asked "Why activate both of them? They don't last that long."
Jack looked down at the brightening sigils and said "About the time it takes to eat a meal actually. I haven't fought with knives for a long time. I'm not sure if I can hit it before it gets to you if I only go with one."
Shi Furui furrowed his brows but kept quiet.
As Jack activated the sigils of the knife in his left hand the shimmering thing drifted nearer to them. Jack followed its every movement closely so he saw that at the exact moment when it entered the range of spiritual energy that Shi Furui's choker emanated, it stopped moving and a shiver passed through it.
Almost immediately an unnatural wind started blowing from the direction of the shimmer as its shape started to warp. Jack watched as the shimmer somehow absorbed the spirit energy let out by the choker and morphed into a spirit that looked like no spirit Jack saw before.
It had a vaguely humanoid shape, with arms and a head, but the legs ended in shimmering spirit energy past the knees. Instead of fingers, it had three thick talons, and its pale face had only three holes for its mouth and eyes.
Jack stared at the transformation with wide eyes as he said "Do you see it now?"
Shi Furui turned towards the coalescing spirit with a frown and said "No, we never can. Only Du Angliang can. We just feel it, like when you feel another cultivator near you." He stopped talking while he glanced at Jack and said in a lower tone "I've never even seen Du Angliang notice the spirit even before I could sense it."
Jack stored that piece of information for later as he stepped out in front of Shi Furui with a shining knife in each hand.
The spirit finally ended its transformation and turned its empty gaze at Shi Furui's neck. Jack noticed the change and started walking towards it. Before he could take his second step the spirit started moving with its mouth hanging open and talons extended in front of it.
In a heartbeat it appeared right in front of Jack, and before he even had the chance to swing his knives its lower body passed through him.
Jack felt as if someone threw him into a bathtub filled with ice. His movement slowed down to a crawl, even his thoughts slowed down. Only when he heard a muffled cry from his back did he snap out of the spell.
He turned on his heel and saw the spirit tearing at a crumpled Shi Furui with its talons. It somehow dug out shimmering gobs of spirit energy which it then proceeded to stuff into its wide open mouth.
Jack stood frozen for a second before his instincts kicked in and he charged at the spirit. He reached its back in a flash and slammed both of his knives into it.
The right knife sunk into the spirit as if Jack stabbed it into a chunk of rotten wood; the left knife swung through the spirit like it wasn't there and continued to almost cut the shivering Shi Furui on the ground.
Jack stared as the spirit let out a silent scream and started to fade into the glowing knife. He felt some of that wail and thought that he saw a memory of a young man in servant's clothes, but it disappeared too fast and he couldn't see anything else.
When all the sigils changed from light blue to light grey Jack threw the knives to the ground and knelt down to help his friend.
"Are you OK?" he asked as he propped up Shi Furui's head and looked at his pale face with concern.
After a few seconds of shaking Shi Furui croaked out "Am I what?"
"Alright, are you alright?" Jack said while checking Shi Furui's pulse and breathing.
Shi Furui let out a groan as he turned and got out of Jack's arms "I'm fine, stop touching me." he said as he coughed a bit of blood into the earth. He looked up at Jack and said with a bloody grin "Not the first, nor the last time. Just give me some time to catch my breath."
Jack sat down on the ground with a long exhalation as he said "Of course."
After five minutes Shi Furui got back up on his feet and said "I'm fine now, we can continue." He gave Jack a wry grin as he continued "Du Angliang wouldn't have given me even half of the time you gave me to recover. You've got to toughen up or we won't see the light of day again."
Jack laughed as he said, "He has his ways, and I have mine." He got up and looked at Shi Furui while asking "You sure you're fine?"
Shi Furui scoffed and said "Good as new. I could kick your ass if you want proof."
Jack put up his hands in surrender as he said "Fine, fine. I believe you." He looked at the two knives on the ground and picked them up. He gave the spent one to Shi Furui while receiving a new one. Looking down the dark forest path he said "It's time for the plan."
Shi Furui's face turned serious as he said "So, what do we do?"
Jack looked up at Shi Furui's serious face and said in a deadpan tone "We have to teach you how to give a piggyback ride."