Tong Huakun broke the stare as she turned towards the old woman to state "Grandmother, I cannot lead his people into the mountains. I have to go back to the Tribal Assembly soon, and even if I didn't have to, the Chief would never allow it."
Jack nodded his head in agreement as he turned towards the old woman with gleaming eyes and added "Besides that, how good of a guide would a caravan guard even be?"
The old woman's eyes widened for a split second, but she sent Jack a slight nod as Tong Huakun turned towards him with narrowed eyes and asked "Do you doubt my ability to hunt Haechi?"
Jack raised his hands up in the air as he explained "I don't doubt that you can kill a Haechi if it comes across your path. What I need is someone that knows the state of the mountains and the best hunting grounds."
Tong Huakun glared at Jack as she growled "I've hunted in those mountains for longer than you've been alive, boy. Even with the couple years I spent in the Tribal Assembly I know them better than you know the back of your hand."
Jack's brows rose in surprise as he asked "Does that mean you could lead me to hunt for Haechi through the mountains without getting us lost or killed?"
Tong Huakun slammed her hand on the flat slab of rock as she exclaimed "Of course!"
Jack pretended to think about it for a second before he gave her a satisfied nod and said "Very well, I will go with you to hunt the Haechi beasts." When he finished his sentence, he extended his hand over the slab of rock towards her and waited.
Tong Huakun stared at his hand as confusion swirled in her eyes and asked "What?"
Jack gave a slight shake of his hand as he explained "Back where I come from we shake hands to seal a deal."
Tong Huakun's eyes turned from confused to angry as she stood up and shouted "Not that, I never agreed to take you anywhere."
Jack's brows rose in surprise as he asked "What? You just gave a passionate defense of the case that you should lead me, and now you're going back on your words?"
Tong Huakun's brows furrowed as she said "That's not what I was…" She stopped herself and let out a long breath, before she sat down and continued "It doesn't matter, I have obligations to the Chief and the Tribal Assembly. I cannot just go out on my own."
As soon as she said that, the old woman finally decided to open her mouth and declare "I will take care of my brother and other people can take over for your duties in the Tribal Assembly."
She looked at her granddaughter and continued "If what the boy says is true we have to risk it."
The old woman took Tong Huakun's younger hand in her wrinkled one and said "At thirty-seven you look like I did at fifty-nine. Things just keep getting worse for our tribe; we cannot just keep walking down the same path and hope for the best."
Tong Huakun looked down at their clasped hands for a few seconds, before she looked up at Jack and declared "If you've lied or if you try to deceive us, I swear that I will kill you even if it's the last thing that I do on this world."
With that, she moved her right hand out of her grandmother's and clasped Jack's still waiting hand.
Jack gave her a firm handshake as he said "I will do everything in my power to help as many people as I can."
When they ended their handshake, Jack turned towards the old woman and asked "If you don't mind, can you tell me more about this problem you seem to have? Maybe I can do something to fix it."
The old woman studied him for a few seconds before she pointed a finger at one of the flattened out boulders and a strand of spirit energy exited it. Her spirit energy picked up an earthen pitcher filled with clean water, filled up three cups, and brought them in front of the three seated people.
Tong Huakun gave a low hiss as she took out the bone from her tied-up hair and grumbled "Grandmother, you shouldn't have done that." With that, she stood up and went to a nearby rock that held a stick of ink and a grinding stone.
The old woman just smiled at her granddaughter and moved the finger from which the strand of spirit energy exited closer to Jack. A few seconds later she said "Watch closely, it's coming."
Jack's brows furrowed a little in confusion, but he moved spirit energy into the meridians around his eyes and focused on the old woman's tattooed finger.
Just a moment after Jack concentrated on the finger, a glimmering white line appeared down its length. The old woman let out a small hiss of pain but her finger remained straight so that Jack could see everything.
Jack looked at the white line for several seconds before his brows rose in surprise and he exclaimed "Meridians?!" He quickly scanned all of the woman's visible tattoos and realized that they all lay in the usual places that people had meridians on their bodies.
At first, the lines made no sense to him because of their random arrangement of starts and stops, but when he connected them with other meridians he knew lay under the skin it all made sense.
Jack doubted that a lot of people in this world had as much hands-on experience in examining the layout of meridians on actual human bodies so he felt certain in his assumption.
The old woman confirmed his conjecture with a nod as she pulled her hand back and said "Yes, the cursed White Water interferes with cultivation at first, but once you accumulate enough of it your meridians turn into this and you can't use them anymore. It also speeds up aging somehow, that's why we try to give the children as much as uncontaminated food as we can."
Jack felt like a bomb went off in his head as he lay his arms down on the flat slab of rock and looked at them. A raging need built up inside of him to cut open his arm and check on his meridians, but he managed to keep it contained as he looked back up at the old woman and whispered "No wonder…"
The old woman nodded her head in agreement as she continued her story "Things were better for the Tribe when I was young, but constant fighting with the other tribes and a few bad deals with the White River family have almost ruined us."
She gave out a self-mocking smile as she added "Pan Xinfa is older than me by sixty years, and yet old age will take me first because of our generation's mistakes."
Tong Huakun clicked her tongue as she returned to her seat and placed the ground ink down on the rock table. She took her grandmother's hand and proceeded to pour some ink into the thin hollow bone.
"No one blames you for our troubles, grandmother. We make our own fate and we keep failing because we're not good enough in our dealings with the White River family and the other tribes." Tong Huakun said as she pierced her grandmother's finger right where the white meridian line shone.
The old woman didn't even flinch as Tong Huakun kept inking her skin. She saw the question in Jack's eyes and explained "It is an old custom to cover the ruined meridians to show our resistance towards the cursed water."
Jack grunted in acknowledgment and waited for Tong Huakun to finish her work. Once she did, he turned to her and asked "When do we go?"
She glanced at him and then turned to look at her grandmother, who said "I will need this day to convince the others in your plan, and Huakun needs to find someone to take over her responsibilities. Get a good night's sleep and set out tomorrow at dawn."
Both Tong Huakun and Jack nodded their heads as one and said their goodbyes to the old woman. Neither of them drank the water that the old woman served them.
On the way back to the Immortals' Lament, Tong Huakun instructed "Bring only people you trust can handle the hunt with us. I don't want to waste my time on taking care of incompetent people." After Jack assured her that he would, she said goodbye and went on her own way.
When Jack returned to his company, he asked for volunteers for an experiment and picked out Yin Ping and a grade three teen from the Gravediggers.
In Jack's rented house, the two volunteers sat around a reserve cooking cauldron and extended their hands over it. Jack took out a knife from his Star Bag and made a careful incision across the upper part of their arms, from their hands to just under their elbows. The two didn't do much more than let out long hisses of pain.
After he did the incisions, Jack leaned in closer and raised their skin a little. Under the skin, numerous thin meridians intertwined themselves with their flesh, blood, and bones, but to Jack's eyes, everything looked normal. He studied the meridians for a few minutes before he gave a slight sigh of relief and took care of their wounds.
Once both of them left the house, Jack raised his own hand over the cauldron and started cutting. A few minutes later, he scanned his meridians with a careful gaze.
Just as he thought everything looked fine, he saw a small speck of white clinging onto one of his meridians.
Jack froze as he stared at that speck while blood kept dripping from his arm into the cauldron. Once he convinced himself that the speck was real, he sighed and took care of his wound while he activated the Beast Recovery Method.
He walked out of his house and ordered the entire Immortals' Lament to gather for a meeting.
When everyone showed up, he gave them all the information he found out from the old woman. Once he frightened his people enough, he repeated that no one should drink or eat anything that they didn't get from the other side of the River a few times.
After he felt that everyone knew what to do, Jack told them that he would go out into the mountains with Tong Huakun to prove their honesty. Everyone wanted to go with him, but he just shook his head and told them to focus on their studies and cultivation while he was away.
The only thing Jack didn't inform his people about was the speck of white he discovered on his meridians.
In the evening, Jack transferred the unsorted scrolls over to Old Long's Star Bag so that Yin Ping could continue with his work, and gave his last instructions to his closest friends.
He told them that if things looked like they would take a turn for the worst they had to retreat back to the Tribal Assembly. Even though they protested his order, Jack wouldn't back down and forced them to swear that they would follow it.
When Tong Huakun came to their part of the town at dawn, she saw only Jack standing out in the open and waiting for her.
She looked around at the silent houses and asked "Where's the rest of your group?"
Jack gave her a confident smile and answered "I'm enough for this trip."
Tong Huakun stared at him for a few seconds, before her face darkened and she stated "This is not a game, boy."
Jack lost his smile as his face turned serious and he said "I am not treating it like it is. My men are good fighters, but they know almost nothing about hunting. I will not endanger them in an unknown terrain without checking it out first if I don't have to."
They stared at each other for a dozen seconds, before Tong Huakun sighed and turned towards the mountains as she declared "Very well, just remember my oath."
Jack chuckled grimly as he said "I will never forget it."
Tong Huakun glanced at him, and then started sprinting towards the mountains.
Jack watched her departing back for a second, scratched his healing arm, and ran after her.