Jack studied the crowd of hopefuls for a few seconds before he jumped down and joined his friends who did their best to control them. Several had already started complaining about the long wait.
Shi Furui let out a sigh of relief when he saw Jack and preempted his questions with "They just kept coming after you left. I had to force everyone that's not here to join the company back to the town. It looks like almost the entire Tribe came to either try out for the company or watch the spectacle."
Jack's brows furrowed when he looked at the crowd again and asked "They're all grade three and below?" His arrangement with the Chief stated that he couldn't take anyone grade four or above into the company because the tribe still needed its warriors.
Shi Furui nodded his head and answered "They are. I'm not sure about their ages though."
Jack also noticed that he had no way of judging how old these people were. The younger members of the tribe aged even faster than the older ones so it could happen that they take on someone with a body of a healthy young man, but with the mind of a child.
Even though he thought that everyone should get training, he didn't want to take children into battle.
He looked to the side, at the crowd of watchers, and saw a figure towering over everyone else in the front row. Around him, other tattooed Elders stood and watched with interest.
Jack told Shi Furui to wait a bit and walked over to the group of old people to ask "Elder Ran, can you help us find out who among the gathered hopefuls is younger than fifteen years?"
The large Elder's eyes had a hint of confusion in them when he asked "Why would you need to know that?"
Jack looked at him with a serious face and questioned in return "Would you take your grandson to a raid?"
Elder Ran's eyes lost the hints of confusion as he shook his head and said "I would not." He looked to his left and right and added "Let's go and pull on the ears of some naughty children."
The other Elders chuckled and followed him towards the crowd of applicants.
In the next twenty minutes, they ferreted out almost a hundred people younger than fifteen and sent them scurrying back home with red ears.
Jack thanked the Elders and walked over to stand in front of the group of around four hundred hopefuls.
He circulated spirit energy through the meridians around his lungs and vocal chords before shouting "Greetings, I am Jack Song, leader of the Immortals' Lament! We will start the process of recruitment shortly, but first I have to set down a few ground rules."
The four hundred hopefuls focused their gazes on him and listened to his every word. Jack could see that none of them took this as a joke. After all, their future and the future of their Tribe lay on the line and they all wanted to do as much as possible.
He nodded his head and continued "I will call on you one at a time. You will be escorted to my house where I will ask you some questions. How you answer those questions depends on whether you will get accepted into the Immortals' Lament or not. When the questioning is concluded, you will be guided to an isolated location by my men and will wait there until we go through all applicants, or we reach our recruitment goal. If you try to tell the questions I ask to anyone while we're still in the process of recruitment, I will ban you from ever joining the company even if you've already been accepted."
Jack studied their faces for a couple of seconds to see if they understood his instructions, and could only sigh when he saw more confused that bright eyes.
He cleared his throat and continued "We will accept up to fifty people this time, and will start with grade three cultivators and make our way down. If you don't get accepted or have a low cultivation and we don't get to you, don't feel disappointed. Work on your cultivation and exercise for our next recruitment drive."
With his foot, he made a long line in the barren ground and added "Make a line here and stand in order of your cultivation grade. Good luck!" After that, he turned around and walked towards his house while Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun stepped up to the line.
The crowd watched his departing back for a couple of seconds before they scrambled to catch the best spot in line. A few of Jack's men had to go into the crowd to settle a few scuffles, but no major incidents occurred.
Jack nodded to Ma Ruiman and Xian Kuotian, who stood on two sides of his house like guards, and entered the house. They would escort the people who finished their interviews to a distant location and make sure that no one made a scene.
The first person Shi Furui escorted to the house was a thin man in his middle age. He had already started losing his hair, and what he didn't lose started turning gray.
For a second Jack questioned his decision of not placing an upper age limit too, but then he sighed internally when he realized that this man might be in his twenties or thirties.
The two exchanged polite greetings and Jack started his questioning by stating "Be honest with your answers; I will know if you're lying and will disqualify you immediately."
"Why do you want to join the Immortals' Lament?" he asked the withered man.
The man looked a little hesitant, but he swallowed and answered "For food."
Jack nodded his head and didn't take it as a slight against the man. He guessed that a lot of the people from the Tribes would have this reason as a top priority.
He gave the nervous man a smile to calm him down and asked "If you were to join the company, to who would you give your allegiance? To us or to the Haechi Tribe?"
The man's eyes darted around the room while he answered "To whoever takes better care of me."
Jack's brows furrowed for an instant before he asked "Would you change your loyalty to an enemy Tribe or the White River family if they promised to take care of you for the rest of your life?"
The man froze and looked at Jack with a little fear in his eyes while he exclaimed "Of course not! I'm no traitor."
Jack nodded his head and declared "We're done here." He looked towards the exit and called out "Ruiman, come and take this one."
The man looked like he wanted to argue, but when Ma Ruiman grabbed his arm he could only obediently follow his instructions and leave for the other side of the hill outside of town.
Jack had most of the Immortals' Lament waiting there to serve as security if the rejected people tried to do anything uncivil.
He found something wrong with the next five applicants, and only the seventh gave him hope.
The young man looked like he was in the prime of his life, but Jack could see the cockiness of a teenager behind his dark almond eyes.
After the greetings, Jack asked for the seventh time "Why do you want to join the Immortals' Lament?"
The young man looked him straight in the eyes and answered "To learn your fighting styles and techniques."
Jack nodded his head and accepted the answer without further investigation.
"If you were to join the company, to who would you give your allegiance? To us or to the Haechi Tribe?" He asked and watched the young man's fearless eyes.
The young man thought about it for a couple of seconds before he declared "I will always stay loyal to my Tribe, but I will obey your orders while I'm under your command."
Jack nodded once again, without letting know what he thought of the answer, and asked "Would you try to teach the skills you learned in the Immortals' Lament to other people?"
The young man had to think about this one for several seconds before he answered "I would not while I'm part of the company, but after that, I would."
A corner of Jack's mouth rose to form a smirk for an instant, but he only nodded and continued with his questions.
The young man answered every one by telling the truth. He didn't try to promise that he would stay loyal to Jack and the Immortals' Lament forever, but he would respect their rules and orders without complaint.
Jack couldn't ask for more from the people of the Haechi Tribe for now so he felt satisfied. He never asked any of the people he interviewed whether they were ready to kill or be killed. For the Tribal people, these things could happen each day, and they all knew it and prepared for them.
After the young man answered the last question, Jack stood up and extended his hand to him while he said "Congratulations, you are the first person admitted to the Immortals' Lament from the Haechi Tribe."
The young man stood up with excitement visible in his eyes, but he stared at the extended hand with confusion. A dozen seconds later, they shook hands after Jack explained what it meant and Ma Ruiman came to take him away.
Once the young man exited the house, Jack heard a soft bang that he came to recognize as the Tribal greeting of banging one's fist on one's chest. A second later, a chorus of bangs came from the direction of the watching crowd.
Jack shook his head while a smile spread across his face and yelled "Next!" towards the waiting hopefuls.
Late into the night, he called Ma Ruiman for the last time and said "Please go tell the rejected ones that they can go home."
He exited his house a minute later, with the Light Orb in hand, and saw that a decent number of people still stood and waited for their loved ones.
Shi Furui and the other members of the company joined him on the way towards the area where he sent all the applicants.
On the way there, over three hundred people met them on the way back and gave from dirty and disappointed looks to a few grumbled curses to the members of the Immortals' Lament.
Jack gave them all a friendly nod in return and left it at that.
Once they crested the hill, he saw forty-two new rookies either sitting or standing and joking around with older members of the Immortals' Lament. They all had expressions of satisfaction on their faces.
Jack watched them for a dozen seconds before he squared his shoulders, cycled spirit energy through the meridians around his lungs and vocal chords, and shouted "Attention!"
The older members of the Immortals' Lament stopped everything, straightened out, and turned to look at the people gathered on the hill. Compared to them, the new rookies looked a bit lost, but they followed the examples of the older members and tried to copy them as much as possible.
Jack grinned down at the new recruits and declared "Congratulations on joining the Immortals' Lament! I hope that you won't regret it."