Jack steadied his step and his mind on the way down to Elder Yu's estate. He planned to execute their escape during the annual Sect competition for inner disciples in four months, but now he gave up on that plan and had to accelerate, or just cancel, some things.
As soon as he arrived at the manor's courtyard the door for the Elder's study opened up and he entered.
He stopped in front of Elder Yu's table, bowed, and said "I beg you to pardon me for the long wait, Lord."
The Elder waved a hand in dismissal as he said "It matters not; you should always spend as much time as necessary for such an important decision." He stood up from the table, walked over to stand in front of Jack with a serious face, and said "In the future, you will address me as Elder. Now, kneel and accept me as your teacher."
Jack heard about this from old Long so he didn't hesitate as he called out "Yes, Elder!" and kowtowed three times in front of Elder Yu.
The Elder had a satisfied smile on his face as he said "Good." He relaxed his formal pose as he poured out questions like an excited child "So, what did you pick from the Spell Pagoda? The Soul Branding Whip like your Senior Brother did? Or maybe the Thousand Wind Blades? You always did have an affinity for ranged combat."
Jack didn't even blink at the mention of his ranged combat skills. He never fooled himself into believing that Elder Yu didn't know about his activities in the forest.
Jack took out the identification medallion as he said "In the end, I chose the Air Blast spell." He looked down at the identification medallion and continued "I think it's the most useful technique for me, but Elder Mu did something with my identification medallion and told me to ask you about it, Elder, without giving me any information about the spell."
When he looked up he saw an already very familiar scene, so he braced himself, and half a second later he felt himself get lifted by an unstoppable force and slammed hard into the back wall. The force didn't stop as Elder Yu bellowed "Air Blast?! You get one chance every year and you pick one of the most useless spells in the whole Sect?!" Jack slid up along the wall, and just before he slammed into the ceiling he angled his head to the side, just to hear a sickening *pop* sound from his shoulder, and an instant later feel a stabbing pain come from it.
After holding him on the ceiling for a few seconds, the Elder calmed down and recalled his spirit energy. Jack fell to the floor and slammed his head hard on the hard wood. He knew that if he tried to brace himself he would get even more punishment.
He calmly moved himself to the kneeling position and kowtowed as he said "My deepest apologies for offending you, Elder. I did not realize that I have made the wrong decision. Thank you for informing me."
Elder Yu snorted coldly and barked "Get up!"
Jack did as told and returned to his usual standing spot, while his right hand hung unnaturally to the side.
Slight embers of anger still flickered in the Elder's eyes as he commanded "Give me the identification medallion."
Jack turned to a corner of the room and went there to pick up the identification medallion that he dropped when Elder Yu slammed him into the ceiling. He collected it and gave it to the Elder.
Elder Yu looked like he debated whether to crush the small stone for a second before he let out a long breath and extended two short strands of gray spirit energy and said "You have to touch these two sigils with strands of your spirit energy. Once you do that, the identification medallion will transfer the knowledge required for studying the Air Blast spell to your mind."
He recalled his spirit energy strands and tossed the identification medallion back to Jack.
Jack caught the metallic stone in his left hand and put it away. He bowed down as he said "Thank you for your instructions, Elder. If I may ask, how does one project spirit energy outside the body?"
The Elder scoffed as he turned around and walked back to his seat as he said "If you could figure imbuement out, you can figure this one out too." He sat down and the study door opened up.
Jack knew the right time to ask questions and the right time to retreat so he said his farewells to Elder Yu and left his manor.
When he entered the forest he leaned on a tree and, with a jerk of blinding pain, set his shoulder back in place. After a few regulating breaths he walked over to a nearby creek and washed the blood from his face.
Once he made himself presentable in the reflection on the water he strolled down towards the Tranquil Lake Town.
Around this time his friends would have their midday meal, or would even be on their way towards the graveyard, but Jack didn't plan to go to them just yet. In the morning the Elder instructed Du Angliang to perform all of his duties one last time today by himself and to give Jack a full introduction to them tomorrow, so Jack had some seldom received free time to kill on his own.
He first strolled down the now familiar busy main street of Tranquil Lake Town and mentally checked off, or crossed out, the places that he needed to visit in the next month or two, and the ones that he didn't have time for.
Once he ended his selection Jack walked into an alley that led away from the bustle of the main street. After a few turns, he found himself standing in front of a three-meter high wall with a large iron door that had clanging noises of metal hitting metal coming from the other side.
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He tried to push the door open, but it stood firmly shut, so he banged on the door with his fist.
After a few rounds of loud banging, the clanging stopped and a rough voice called out "Stop the banging, we're closed." The noises of metal hitting metal continued after that.
Jack furrowed his brows as he circulated a bit of spirit energy through his fist and did one extra loud *BANG* on the door that made it shake in its hinges.
The sounds stopped on the other side of the door immediately. Jack heard running steps, and in a few seconds, the large iron door swung open with a loud *creak*. A short and burly middle-aged man stood in front of Jack for a moment, looking at his clean uniform with wide eyes.
As Jack clasped his hands in greeting the burly man clasped his in response and bowed deeply while he said "Apologies, Lord. I meant no offense. Please punish only this lowly one for his crimes."
Jack froze in place as he stared at the scared man that stood in front of him. Only then did what he did previously register in his mind, and how it must have looked to this normal person. 'Have to watch it, or I'll become just like them.' he chided himself as an apologetic look appeared on his face.
He bowed in response as he said "No, no. Please forgive me, I meant no offense. I just need a capable smith to do some work for me." He stopped for a moment, before adding "And don't call me Lord."
When he straightened up Jack saw even more fear in the man's eyes than before and sighed internally. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he continued "So, can you do some extra work on the side?"
The man struggled to open his mouth for a second, before finally stuttering "W-we ca-can… Sir?" he added tentatively at the end of the sentence with a slight cringing motion.
Jack sighed for real this time and said "That will do." He looked over the man's shoulder at the quiet courtyard and asked "Shall we go in?"
The blacksmith almost tripped over his feet as he jumped and said "Of course, please come into our humble workshop, Sir." He led the way in and Jack followed in his footsteps.
While checking out the workshop Jack noticed two young men with similar features to the short man standing around awkwardly and giving him furtive glances. He gave them a slight friendly smile, after which they paled and looked down at their feet.
Jack shook his head as he followed the smith inside his modest house where his wife offered Jack food and drink. He politely refused as he felt certain that he would get offered what amounted to a week's worth of food for the household if he accepted.
With a half shaken and half confused look, the smith sat down opposite Jack, at Jack's insistence, and asked "Sir, what can we humble blacksmiths do for one such as yourself? We only work with normal metals for the use of the townspeople. Just recently we got a large order for tools to help with the planting season, that's why we closed early today." He looked a little desperate as he said "We don't know how to make weapons for Immortals. It would serve Sir best if you went to one of the towns up the mountains and looked for them there."
Jack felt a slight tinge of sorrow at the man's obvious panic as he said "First, tell me your name."
The man looked like he wanted to bury himself under his house as he exclaimed "I am such a fool! Please forgive me, Sir. My name is Tan Boli."
Jack waved away Tan Boli's apologies as he gave him a slight smile and said "Tan Boli, I'm very pleased to meet you." When he saw that Tan Boli calmed down a little he continued "I don't need a weapon, I came to find out what the strongest metal you can work with is. I will need you to make some specific tools with it."
Tan Boli thought for a while before he said "It depends on the work, Sir. Some metals are better than others for specific things. What would you have us do?"
Jack studied him for a second before saying "I need straight metal cylinders, around 15 cun long. With a hole drilled straight through the whole thing, top to bottom. The diameter of the hole can't be larger than half a cun. I will order as many as you can make in two months."
Tan Boli frowned deeply as he considered Jack's words. After a dozen seconds, he said "Sir, we can make the cylinders, but the boring of the holes will take trial and error until we make it work. I'm not certain how many satisfactory products we could deliver."
Jack dismissed his worries with a shrug as he said "As long as you make at least ten decent products you'll have a happy customer. Now, what kind of metal do you need?"
Tan Boli thought for a few seconds and asked "What kind of price range do we have, Sir?"
Jack gave a confident smile as he said "Price is not a concern. Just give me the metal and the amount you need."
Tan Boli raised his brows in surprise and said a little excitedly "Then, Sir, we can start with 200 jin of Deep Water Iron and see how things go."
Jack nodded and said "Consider it done. I will have it delivered to you tomorrow. Now, let's talk about your salary."
They negotiated for a few minutes where Jack had to constantly raise the amount he wanted to pay, while Tan Boli kept lowering his rate. Jack felt like he got stuck in opposite land for a few moments.
In the end, they came to a reasonable agreement and Jack left the workshop with a satisfied expression as he thought 'The weapons are taken care of, now it's time for the propellant.'