Jack drove the caravan's first wagon through the cheering crowd. The beaming faces of parents and grandparents helped replace the rictus masks of agony the Lolin tribesmen's corpses still had in his mind, for now.
All of his prior experience told him it wouldn't take long to forget them. At least while he remained awake; he never forgot a face in his dreams.
The drivers couldn't fit all of the wagons in the small square in front of the Chief's house, so Pan Xinfa left orders to keep the fifth and sixth wagons outside of the town for the parents with older children.
When they parked the four remaining wagons, the Elders performed their ceremonial welcome and, after Pan Xinfa gave Jack and Gong Derui a questioning look, the drivers started handing out the food.
This time, Jack allowed himself to deal out a bit more of the food than usual. Once the other drivers saw, they remembered that they brought more than six wagons of food and doled out larger potions too.
When the caravan guards took their share, Jack stored his reminder and walked towards the waiting crowd while Gong Derui went to report on their journey to the Chief.
Unlike last time, Jack hardened his heart and gave his share away to the children of the new members of the Immortals' Lament. A lot of younger people didn't notice this fact, but he saw several grandparents giving him appraising looks and knew that the story would spread.
When he turned back towards the Elders, he saw most of them giving him a different look. It contained excitement and wariness in the same measure. A few had disgusted gazes, while some touched their chest with their fist in respect when he glanced at them.
Unlike the rest of them, Pan Xinfa remained stoic and waited in silence with Gong Derui who kept glancing at his great-grandfather.
"You surprise me yet again." Pan Xinfa declared when Jack joined the duo.
He gave the Chief a polite smile and replied with "I aim to please."
Pan Xinfa shook his head and said "I didn't say that I was pleased. What you did might turn a number of tribes against us. When we raid others, we don't aim to kill them indiscriminately, we aim to rob. You just broke that unspoken rule."
Jack locked gazes with the Chief and asked "Do you think that they sent almost a hundred warriors just to raid your food?"
Pan Xinfa remained silent for a couple of seconds before he released a tiny sigh and answered "I do not, but the others will focus on what you did and ignore that."
Jack's kept his gaze on the Chief and said "Then send a message back to the Assembly and have Ran Huankuo tell your side of the story to everyone that would listen. Get people on your side, muddy the waters, embellish a little. Do whatever it takes to make the other tribes question the Lolin."
Pan Xinfa's brows furrowed and he asked "You want us to give out false information to our allies?"
Jack nodded his head and said "Yes." without hesitation. When he saw the protests rising in the Chief's eyes, he added "We can either do this the honorable way or the smart way. It's up to you to choose which."
Pan Xinfa closed his mouth and thought about it for a while before he commanded "Leave the food that you carried for us here and give us some time to discuss your suggestion. We will let you know by the end of the day."
Jack thought about pushing the Chief some more, but in the end, he did as told in silence. When he finished, he gave Pan Xinfa and the other Elders a long look, turned to Gong Derui to say "Tell your grandfather what I told you.", and left the Haechi Tribe to make their decision.
He had left his men back in the Immortals' Lament's camp before he went to deliver the food, so when he came back the entire camp had a festive environment.
The White River family group had just finished shooting practice when they returned and the ones that developed friendships with his men remained in the camp for the celebration of their first successful mission.
"Welcome back, boy!" Old Long exclaimed and threw a hand over Jack's shoulder before anyone else could get to him.
He lowered his head to the boy's ear and whispered "Nothing unusual happened. The rest of the morons kept to their best behavior." and released him to the rest of the company.
After some enthusiastic greetings, Jack allowed the rookies a break from the evening's lessons and gave out extra drinks and food for everyone to have a good time.
Xu Weifa and her helpers took the additional work without complaint. They knew that the entire company needed a bit of fun and relaxation from their daily training.
She even gave Zhu Lielei a break for the evening and allowed her some free time with her friends.
When he managed to extricate himself from the company members that didn't go on the mission, Bei Kangping and Tong Huakun caught Jack on the way to his lab.
Tong Huakun gave him an apologetic smile and said "Ruiman spread the word of your victory over the Lolin as soon as they entered the camp. We thought you wouldn't mind the men having a celebration."
He waved a dismissive hand and declared "I don't mind, they needed a break from the monotony anyway."
Bei Kangping jumped in with "They say that you took on more than a hundred raiders and won." His eyes narrowed and he asked "How can fourteen men do that much? Did you not tell us something about your weapon?"
Jack shook his head without showing anything on his face and said "The men used the tactics I taught you during practice. With time, you will be able to do the same thing."
He saw that he didn't convince Bei Kangping, but he didn't care.
After the battle, he told everyone not to mention that he went out alone to fight the Lolin. He knew that the truth would get out soon, but he appreciated every second of the other story spreading out first. The more conflicting stories he could get out on the entire affair, the better.
Even Gong Derui didn't report the use of the new spell in the square. He only mentioned that Jack whittled them down from a distance and then used the wounded raiders to make the rest of the party retreat.
Jack knew that Gong Derui had to report it to the Chief and the three oldest Elders later, but he managed to convince him to keep the truth about how he stopped the raiding party a secret from the rest of the Tribe for now.
He gave the pair an apologetic smile and extricated himself with "Excuse me, but I need to go wash away the dirt of the road. Enjoy the food and drink."
From the corner of his eye, he saw his friends chatting and spreading the story of their brave deeds around the camp.
As night fell, Jack lay on the roof of his lab, hummed an old tune from Earth, and studied the starry sky.
"Why are you using the Farsight spell to watch the sky?" a voice asked and snapped him out of his reverie.
He glanced down at Tong Huakun before returning to his stargazing and said "Come up and I'll show you."
A part of his mind took note of her spirit energy fluctuations when she started heading in his direction, but it didn't sense any hostility and just ignored her.
Her brows raised a little, but she shrugged and jumped up to the roof.
Jack wasted some spirit energy to move the spell right above her head and asked "What do you see?"
She looked up for a few seconds, gave him a confused glance, and then looked up again when he pointed towards the spell.
"I…" she started, but a second later she asked "What is that?"
Jack stood up and joined her in looking through the spell as he said "I think it's the third moon. It's a bit small, distant, and doesn't reflect a lot of sunlight, but it's there."
Tong Huakun locked her wide-eyed gaze on him and asked "Why… How… When did you discover this?"
Jack shrugged his shoulders while he kept looking up and said "A while ago. I needed something to test out my modifications to the spell and the stars looked as a good a place as any."
Her mouth hung open for a couple of seconds before she asked "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
He moved his gaze from the stars to her eyes and questioned in return "Does it matter?"
Tong Huakun stood stunned and only moved when he went to lie down in his previous spot.
"What happened out there? If you think that I believe that dung you sold to Kangping for even a breath, you don't know me at all." She asked the strange teen. He had never acted like anyone she knew, but she never saw this almost melancholic side of him.
Jack didn't even glance at her when he said "Nothing really. The fight reminded me of something from my past." He decided to change the subject and asked "Why did you look for me?"
Tong Huakun watched him for a long moment and then glanced over her shoulder towards the camp to say "Grandmother sent someone over to tell us that they would listen to your suggestions."
She waited for an explanation, but after a dozen seconds of silence, she continued "The rest of them started to play Poker. They want to know if you want to join them in a game for spirit stones. Ma Ruiman even brought a girl from the White River family with him."
He waved a dismissive hand and declared "Let them have their fun. I took their money last time; someone else should win this round."
A second later, he looked at Tong Huakun and added "Get your affairs in order by tomorrow, we're going hunting the day after."
She nodded her head and when she saw that he had nothing else to say, said goodbye and jumped down from the roof.
A few steps after she started walking back towards the camp, she turned around and shouted "What do you mean by reflect sunlight? Don't moons have their own light?"
Jack propped himself up on his elbows to look at her with a crooked smile and said "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Forget about it for now and focus on 'Kangping' tonight."
He saw her posture stiffen for an instant, but the stiffness disappeared after he blinked.
She gave him a slow nod of understanding and turned on her heel back towards the camp.
The next day passed by in the Immortals' Lament's usual routine.
Jack continued his studies of the Farsight spell and his spirit energy in the morning, taught some ambush tactics during the day, and learned that only one more person needed his help with cultivation in the evening.
The rest of the first generation of recruits all managed to break through to the first grade; the more advanced ones already charged forwards towards grade two.
He spent most of the night working with the remaining teen without success, but he tried to encourage the disappointed boy to keep practicing in the future.
When dawn came, he had to send the teen back home and arranged the future training plans for the company and the White River family with Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun.
After breakfast, Tong Huakun joined him in the camp and they said goodbye to the company.
She led them towards new hunting grounds in the north-western mountains and asked "How long do you plan for this one to take?"
He glanced over his shoulder back towards the distant camp and answered "We can't hunt for longer than fifty days, but we have to catch a lot of them so we'll have to skip the spirit energy refilling stops and a lot of sleep."
She frowned at him and asked "Why?"
He looked at her and said "This is the calm before the storm, Huakun. I won't be able to risk staying away from the company for prolonged amounts of time anymore. We have to make the most out of it."