Jack rolled up a scroll that explained body sigils up and stored it in the light-blue Star Bag that he took from Li Manning. He ignored the slight twitch of the stretcher that shot a stab of pain through his broken legs and took out a new scroll.
They traveled through the forest outside the Endless Cycle Sect for over a week since Jack woke up.
He spent the days absorbing spirit energy, using the Beast Recovery Method, and sorting out the scrolls that he took from the library.
The Beast Recovery Method didn't disappoint Jack; he only had to focus on imbuing the blood vessels around his legs and making sure that his bones and ligaments healed the way he wanted them to.
His bones already started to feel a lot better than when he first woke up. He could even move the broken toes on his right leg a little, but he didn't dare move around too much due to his ligament injuries.
Since Jack had time to spare, he spent a couple of days to sort out the scrolls from the library in various groupings from a quick scan. He would have to do a more thorough job with the sorting when they reached a place where they could rest for a while.
The rest of the time he spent by reading up on all the scrolls that mentioned body sigils. At first, he ignored the ones that didn't have any of the sigils that appeared in the Chaotic Hawk Assault technique, but as time went by he started reading them all out of interest.
He still didn't find all of the sigils from the Chaotic Hawk Assault in the scrolls, but he had a lot better understanding of it now. If he had to use it again he felt sure that his legs wouldn't break like dry twigs in the first few kicks.
Their path through the forest passed relatively peaceful. A pack of around twenty wolf and wild boar hybrid creatures came to annoy them for a couple of nights, but the men had no problems in dealing with them.
Bai Maolong even lamented that they didn't return any more; he liked the way they tasted very much.
After talking it over with the men, Jack decided to keep them going on the path towards a remote village that Shi Furui pointed them in. The map that Mai Yining gave him marked out a number of small villages in the relative vicinity of the Endless Cycle Sect.
If Jack didn't pass out when he did, he would have taken them in a totally different direction, one that took them to an even more distant village. He realized that Shi Furui weighed Jack's comfort with the security of the entire group and it annoyed him a little, but he let it pass because they couldn't waste time on backtracking.
A shadow fell over the scroll that Jack took out to read. He didn't even look up as he sighed and said "I'm not going to raise the offer, old man."
Old Long stopped the words that threatened to come out of his mouth and closed them. He looked down at Jack for a few seconds, and finally complained "I earned more than double of what you are offering for fifteen days in less than five days with my store."
Jack glanced up at old Long's greedy eyes and suggested "You can always take your chances and go back to it." When he saw the flash of anger in the old man's eyes, he smirked and looked back down at his scroll.
They continued walking for a good minute before old Long growled through gritted teeth "I will not agree to a lower salary than the servants, boy!"
Jack's brows furrowed as he looked up at the old man and said "Tan Boli's family are free people, equal to any other, and you will either leave this group or respect that." He kept staring at old Long until he received a nod in response, after which he continued "The entire family will get a bit more than only you would, and only when they find a forge where they can practice their craft. Until then, only the wife will get paid for her job."
Old Long snorted in dissatisfaction and retorted "I have people to take care of too."
Jack rolled his eyes and said "I have already made an offer to them; it's up to them if they want to accept it or not. If in the future you need assistants I might get you some, but for now, we only need you."
A few more minutes passed in silence as they moved through the forest, old man next to crippled boy.
Finally, old Long's face twisted in pain as he opened his mouth and said "Very well, I accept your offer."
Jack smirked and looked up at the old man as he said "It's a pleasure to have you on the team, Quartermaster Long." His face turned serious as he added "Try to steal from me and I will hunt you down and skin you."
Old Long's eyes widened a little, but after a second he gave a sharp nod of understanding.
Jack's smile returned as he said "Great, we will make it official once we reach the village. Until then, just enjoy the scenery."
Old Long grunted and walked ahead.
Jack chuckled for a second, before raising his head up a little and looking down the line of walking people. A few meters behind him, old Long's former assistants carried the teen that used to have a sword stabbed through his stomach.
Jack raised his voice as he asked "You doing alright, Kuotian?"
The teen, Xian Kuotian, waved a hand a little as acknowledgment and answered "It hurts a lot, but not as much as before."
Jack gave a quiet sigh of relief and said "That's great, just keep your spirit energy circulating through the meridians near the wounded flesh."
"Will do, Tan… uh I mean, Jack." Xian Kuotian said and resumed his recovery.
After Jack woke up he found out that Xian Kuotian fell into a fever from infection. All he could think about doing was to keep Xian Kuotian awake and instruct him through which meridians to circle his spirit energy. It looked bad for a few days, but his body slowly fought off the infection and he started getting better in the last couple of days.
Jack lay back on his stretcher and continued to study the sigils for the cultivation of body techniques.
A couple days later, a bird cry sounded out a few hundred meters in front of the group.
The entire column stopped in its tracks. Jack and his men had excited expressions on their faces, while the rest of the group just stood around and waited as they got used to the way of communication that Jack's unit used.
Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui ran out towards where the bird cry sounded out, and then ran back in a few minutes.
They walked up to Jack and Shi Furui said "We've reached the village from the map."
Jack had to restrain his enthusiasm as he asked "How does it look like?"
Kuang Bindun spoke up as he rubbed his hands in excitement "Not more than a hundred houses, looks like a simple farming village at the end of a winding path that leads towards the horizon. The people are working in the fields right now."
Jack thought about it for a few seconds before saying "Furui, Bindun, Maolong, and two more volunteers will equip some of the swords that we took from the dead Slaughtering Sword School disciples." He stopped to look at their dirty camouflage uniforms and continued "You will go down into the village to scout it out after everyone changes into something more presentable."
When the entire group changed their clothes and cleaned up a little, Jack added "Remember to secure a roof over our heads for the next few nights. If you're convinced that the Slaughtering Sword School or the Endless Cycle Sect don't have any spies there, ask the Village Chief to meet with me."
They all had serious looks in their eyes as they nodded and started walking towards the village.
An hour later the scouting party returned without Kuang Bindun. When Jack asked what happened, they said that he stayed behind to get things ready.
Jack's entire group got excited when they found out that the village looked secure. When Jack gave the order to move out they immediately started walking at a quick pace towards the village.
As they exited the forest, murmurs started spreading throughout the group. Jack had an idea to ask the men that carried his stretcher to turn him around to see, but he kept it to himself and endured the burning curiosity.
When they entered the village proper, Jack started seeing short wooden houses that reminded him of the Raging Ox village. The wood they used here had a reddish tint, but the style of the buildings looked almost identical to the ones that he learned to build from his father and brothers.
A lump in his throat prevented him from breathing for a few seconds before he managed to get a hold of his emotions. He blinked his eyes a few times and started to observe the village with a critical eye.
He didn't see any people along the path that they passed, which meant that they stayed away from fright, or from experience.
Jack didn't like either option.
They stopped in front of the nicest house in the village, where they met Kuang Bindun and an old man who looked like he just reached his sixties.
The old man bowed deeply towards Jack and said "Greetings, Immortal. I am the Village Chief of Redwood village. How can I be of service to you?"
Jack's brows furrowed as he waved a hand towards the Village Chief to straighten up. While he did he gave Kuang Bindun a disapproving look, which made Kuang Bindun look down at his feet in shame.
"No need to do that, Chief. We're just mercenaries that got lost in the woods. We will pay a fair price to rent a few houses for several days. Just think of us as a nice way to earn a few extra coins." Jack stated as he tried to make the Village Chief relax his stiff posture.
The Chief gave Shi Furui a quick confused glance and said "There is no need, Immortal. We will offer you our homes as a gift. You can use them as long as you wish to."
Jack snorted and waved his hand in dismissal as he repeated "Nonsense, we will pay our fair share and you will take it."
The Village Chief looked lost as he bowed once again and complied with "Yes, Immortal."
Jack sighed and lay back down on his stretcher. A second later he raised his head and glared at Shi Furui, who had the decency to lower his gaze down too.
"Furui, Bindun, take me into the house for a quick chat." Jack said in a cold voice towards the two called out young men. A second later he directed his voice towards the rest of his group and added "The rest of you go ask the good people of the Redwood village to come and meet me here."
Everyone except for Xian Kuotian and old Long scattered to do as Jack commanded.
Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui picked up Jack's stretcher and carried him inside the Village Chief's house, leaving the Chief outside to make old Long company.
Once they walked to the back of the house and placed Jack's stretcher down on an old squeaky bed, Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun stepped away from him like he would burn them if they stood closer.
Jack studied them for a few seconds, before his calm voice asked "Furui, what did you say to these people?"
Shi Furui looked up with panic in his eyes as he answered "Nothing, I swear, Jack." He hesitated for a second before continuing "We just told him that we were from a lost group of mercenary cultivators like you told us to, but then he started to call us Immortals and offered everything up for free."
Jack turned to Kuang Bindun and asked "And you did nothing to correct this impression?"
Kuang Bindun shrank into his huge frame as he answered "I thought that we could save up a few coins, and the Village Chief didn't seem to mind."
Jack glared at his two best friends with disbelief in his eyes for a few seconds, and finally lay back down on his stretcher with a sigh. He stared at the ceiling of the old wooden house as he said "Tell me, you two. How are we any better than the scum that kept us in servitude if the first thing that we do once we escape it is to continue the cycle?"
No one spoke for a full minute before Kuang Bindun finally said "I'm sorry, Ta… Jack." Shi Furui echoed his sentence a second later.
Jack sighed once more and looked back up at his friends as he explained "I'm not mad at you two for doing this, I'm mad at myself for not teaching you better." He lay back down and continued "We will pay for everything that we use in this, and every village or town we pass through in the future. Is that clear?"
When they both answered in the positive, Jack added "Go out and see if the people have gathered. Come to get me when everyone's there."
They almost ran out of the door.