It didn't take Jack long to find the White River family member. The young man followed the tracks that his group made while traveling to the Haechi Tribe on his way back.
Under the mixed brown and white moonlight, Jack took out his cylinder and two metal balls while he approached the young man in the open. He loaded a metal ball into the cylinder and raised it to his shoulder.
The young man heard something behind him and turned around, only to see mercenary leader nearing him with his weapon raised.
Two sigil-etched daggers slid out of his sleeves and into his hands while he asked "Are you sure you want to do this, mercenary? Even if you manage to kill me, you and your people will follow after me when the family finds out."
Jack's shoulders rose and lowered while he kept walking without saying a word.
The young man started walking backwards and said "Bei Kangping will know you did something when he finds out that I didn't return to Tribal Assembly."
Jack sped his steps up and responded with "A lot of people get lost in the wilderness."
The young man kept backing away and started pouring spirit energy into his daggers.
A second later, he threw them in two different directions a short distance to his enemy's sides.
Jack frowned for an instant when he saw the daggers flying a couple of meters to his sides, but when he saw two spirit energy threads attached to them and to the young man's hands he snorted and started forming three Air Blast spells.
'The moron left himself wide open. Does he think he can outrun a bullet?' he thought as the Air Blast spell went off in his cylinder with a soft *thump*.
At the same time, the young man felt the buildup of spirit energy from his opponent and pulled back on the strings that tied the daggers to his hands while he tried to dodge to the side.
Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize how fast a metal ball can leave Jack's cylinder and reach him at a distance of around twenty meters.
The leg he had just put all of his weight on buckled as its knee got blown out and he collapsed with a scream of pain.
Jack started loading another metal ball into his cylinder when the two daggers at his sides flashed towards him.
With a mental push, the two other Air Blast spells finished forming right in the path of the two daggers and blew them off course.
While the daggers spun away from him, Jack raised his cylinder to his shoulder and shot out the young man's other knee which he just started to use in an attempt to stand up.
To Jack's surprise, the two daggers still floated in the air as he walked up to the screaming young man.
The White River family member looked up at his tormentor with bloodshot eyes, gave two jerks with his arms, and made the daggers fly in the bastard's direction again.
Two Air Blast spells altered the flying path of the daggers once more while Jack clicked his tongue and said "Stop that."
The young man glared hatred at the teen who loomed over him, hissed "You will have to kill me first.", and twitched his arms again.
Jack redirected the daggers a third time, shrugged, and said "Fine." With that, he took out his knife and stabbed it into the White River family member's dantian.
As the young man started passing out from the shock of his raging spirit energy, the last thing he heard was a faraway voice whisper "Congratulations, you're now a peasant."
Jack watched the two sigil-etched daggers float in the air for a few more seconds, before the young man's spirit energy disappeared and they clattered down to the ground.
When he went to pick them up he thought 'He didn't control them with his own spirit energy, something about these daggers made him able to do that. Looks like I'll have to talk with the old man after all.'
It took him a couple of minutes to secure the passed out young man for transport and start running back towards the Immortals' Lament's camp.
Even with the smoothness of Moon Step's movement, the tied up young man still shook from the trip, but he never woke up. Jack had to stop a couple of times to convince himself that he still lived before he would continue.
For the last few klicks he had to go dark and run with the burden of an additional body, but his physique improved so much that it didn't bother him much.
When he neared the camp he could have sworn that he saw something in the corner of his eye, but without spirit energy, he couldn't check for sure. He stopped focusing on it after a minute of looking and sneaked through the blind spots of the guards back to his house.
'I'll have to teach them better.' he thought idly as he passed the leather flap that served as his door.
Inside, Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui sat around the stone table in gloom because they threw a blanket over the Light Orb, while Zhu Lielei slept on Jack's bed.
He laid the tied up young man on his back next to the door and walked over to his two friends while he started using his cultivation technique to gather spirit energy.
"Has she woken up?" Jack asked when he looked at Zhu Lielei.
Both of them shook their heads, and Shi Furui whispered "Not since you put her to bed."
That afternoon, after Jack carried Zhu Lielei to his house he moved her broken jaw back into its proper position and bandaged it before it could start swelling too much. At most he could hope for a clean break which would heal up without issue. Otherwise, the little girl would never look nor talk the same.
When she woke up later in the day, she tried to speak but Jack forbid her from even moving her head too much and taught her to point and blink once for yes and twice for no if she needed anything.
Xu Weifa wanted to take her back to her house after Jack treated the broken jaw, but he said that he had to keep an eye on it overnight and the distraught woman believed and thanked him.
'I wonder if she would thank me if she knew what I was about to do.' He thought and walked over to the sleeping Zhu Lielei.
Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun watched him in silence. They had agreed with Jack's plan earlier in the evening, but they didn't want to involve themselves in it any further.
Jack crouched next to his bed and said "Lielei, wake up." as he squeezed her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open almost instantly and she tried to say something out of instinct. Before she could, Jack placed a finger to his lips to signal her not to speak.
Once she blinked once for understanding, he helped her sit up and said "I will show you something. Try not to panic and remember not to move your head too much, understand?"
When she blinked confirmation, he took a deep breath and moved to the side to allow her full view of the unconscious young man.
At first, she didn't know what she saw, but when her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she flinched and let out a low moan of panic from deep within her throat.
Jack moved back to block her view, locked gazes with her, and quickly whispered "It's alright, he can't hurt you anymore. I made sure of it."
Zhu Lielei's eyes widened and a shaking hand rose to her neck and made a cutting motion while her eyes asked the question.
Jack shook his head and said "No, not yet, but he will die." He took her shaking hand in his own and continued "I brought him here to allow you a chance to take vengeance for yourself. If you don't want to do it with your own hand just blink twice and I will take care of it."
Zhu Lielei stared at Jack for half a minute, before she looked over his shoulder and traces of pity started forming in her eyes.
Jack's eyes hardened and he declared "Do not show mercy to people like him. I am certain that you are not the first, nor would have been the last person he hurt. He deserves what's coming to him."
Zhu Lielei focused back on Jack's eyes, and after a dozen seconds blinked. He waited for a full minute before he nodded his head and helped her out of the bed.
They walked up to the unconscious White River family member and stared down at his prostrated form.
Jack took out one of the sigil-etched daggers from his Star Bag and pressed it into Zhu Lielei's hand.
Her gaze flitted between the dagger and the unmoving body before she looked up at Jack with a question in her eyes.
He asked "Do you want me to show you what to do?"
When she blinked once, he helped her kneel down next to the young man's head and pointed at his left eye while he said "Stab him there once. You have to use the whole dagger in one fluid motion to end it quickly."
She listened to his instructions and positioned the dagger over the young man's head; then a minute later moved it back and looked up at Jack.
He met her pleading eyes and asked "Do you want my help?"
She almost nodded, but then she remembered her orders and just blinked once.
Jack gave her a reassuring smile and knelt next to her. His hand clasped her dagger-holding hand and moved it over the young man's left eye.
They exchanged glances, and when Zhu Lielei signaled her readiness, they started to push down together.
When the dagger passed the young man's eyeball, his right eye opened up and he screamed into the rag stuffed into his mouth.
Zhu Lielei tried to flinch back in horror, but Jack held her hand clenched onto the dagger and kept pushing until they reached the hilt.
The White River family member spasmed a few times before he fell still and didn't move ever again.
Jack released Zhu Lielei's hand and almost fell back when she threw herself at his chest and let long animalistic sounds through her tied-shut mouth.
He positioned himself to do as little possible damage to her jaw as he could and allowed her to cry herself to sleep while he stroked her hair and let out meaningless calming noises.
When she finally fell into a deep sleep, he carried her back to his bed and allowed her a much-needed rest.
"Did we really need to scar her like that?" Kuang Bindun whispered from Jack's back.
He turned around, locked gazes with his friend, and declared "She would have been scarred either way. Like this, she can become a fierce predator instead of easily startled prey."
With that, he went to store the young man's corpse in his Star Bag and clean the new bloodstains from his coat while his friends went to bed.