On the way down the mountain, Jack saw that Kuang Bindun had a fresh cut on his left cheek, going from his ear to his jawline.

He sped his steps up and caught up with Kuang Bindun who glanced at him and then did a double take with eyes as wide as saucers.

"What happened to you?" Jack asked as he looked at the cut.

Kuang Bindun gave Jack a stiff smile as he said "Looks like you'll find out soon enough."

Jack furrowed his brows as he asked "What do you mean?"

Kuang Bindun pointed at Jack's stomach and said "That."

Jack's eyes widened as he quickly glanced at the front of the column where Du Angliang drove his cart, and then back at Kuang Bindun as he whispered "How do you know?" he nodded at the cart and said "Does he know?"

Kuang Bindun shrugged his shoulders as he answered with a "Probably not."

He walked a few steps in silence while looking at Du Angliang and frowning before saying "It's a feeling you get. Works better if the person's on a lower stage of cultivation than you. I only noticed because I hang around you a lot, other people don't care so they won't figure it out in the beginning without looking for it. If you don't want for our dear Elder Brother to find out you better stay as far away from him as you can."

Jack took it all in and walked in silence for a while.

Just before they went into town Jack asked "Can other people tell that I succeeded in my cultivation if there's no spiritual energy in my dantian?"

Kuang Bindun looked at Jack in surprise "Why would you do that? It feels so wrong."

Jack shook his head slightly as he said "Never get so attached to something if you can't bear to let it go, my friend. I learned that the hard way."

Kuang Bindun looked at Jack with a slight smile as he murmured "Friend huh? You're a strange twelve-year-old, Song Tanda."

Jack chuckled as he thought 'Actually, I'm eight. This life really does put a toll on a body.' but he said, "Can you cover for me in the courtyard while I try to exhaust my spirit energy?"

Kuang Bindun hesitated for a moment but nodded his head in the end.

Jack thanked him and drifted back to the rear of the train to get as far away from Du Angliang as possible. With that, he managed to avoid notice all the way until Du Angliang left to enjoy himself in the town.

When everyone started doing their jobs Jack went to a shaded part of the courtyard wall and sat in his cultivation position. He had no problems with getting the energy out of the dantian, but when he started releasing control of it on purpose while it ran through his meridians this time it didn't dissipate, but started to run through the already cleared paths and hurting him.

Every time the uncontrolled energy passed through his meridians it felt like a razor blade went along for the ride. He quickly refocused through the pain and seized control of the energy.

'Why is this happening? Last night when I lost control it just dissipated.' he wondered as he guided the energy back into the dantian. He sat there for a few minutes as he thought about what happened. 'Last night I didn't know what to do or how to do it, this morning I sort of do. Is that the reason? Ah, this is so annoying. I don't have enough information about any of this.'

After a few more minutes he gave up and decided to use the method he used last night. He didn't have the glowing orb so he first tried to form a cycle from his body's meridians and the air outside.

This made him vomit the meager amount of food left in his stomach into his mouth. The sensory input he received when he tried to connect to the outside world overwhelmed his brain and he had to fight with everything he had to cut it and not faint right then and there.

Jack swallowed with a grimace as he wiped the sweat from his brow 'OK, bad plan. What else can I use?' he thought as he looked around at his surroundings.

A few people nearest to him gave him a few glances, but the rest seemed like they didn't even notice him. Everyone seemed to understand what he was doing and left him alone to his task.

'At least they're not totally gone.' Jack thought as he grabbed a fist-sized stone from the courtyard and closed his eyes again.

Once more he guided the spirit energy from his dantian to the palm of his right hand. There he imagined the rock as a part of his cultivation cycle and started pouring the energy into it in the same way as he did with the glowing orb.

At first, he had a few issues with pushing his energy into the stone, but as he got used to it he started to drain the last of it out of his dantian and into the stone.

When the last bit of energy left Jack's body he started to feel like he had just run a marathon. All of the little and large wounds on his body screamed for his attention. He didn't notice it before, but ever since he succeeded in his cultivation he felt less pain from all of the wounds he accumulated on his body.

With a smothered gasp of pain, he opened his eyes and looked at the rock in his right hand.

For a second everything looked normal, but then he started seeing faint shimmers of spirit energy appear on the surface of the stone. Jack didn't know what that meant, but his gut felt certain that it wasn't anything good.

He looked around and found out that he sat in the most deserted part of the courtyard already, only one more teen stood at a table around five meters away from him. He tossed the rock in the most distant place that he could, clambered to his feet, and ran towards the lanky teen with all the energy he could muster.

The teen saw him coming from the corner of his eye and turned towards him in confusion, a knife still held in one bloody hand.

Jack used his bandaged left arm as a shield as he swatted the knife away, placed a leg behind the teen's own legs and tackled the taller boy to the ground.

He felt a sharp pain on his arm as the knife sliced through the bandage and went right across the upper part of his forearm. Jack didn't care as he hunkered down over the teen.

From under him, Jack heard curses and the teen growling "Let go of…" *BANG*

Before he could finish a loud cracking noise sounded out from where Jack tossed the rock.

Jack felt some shrapnel streak across his back and leave a couple of hot burning lines of pain.

All the noise in the courtyard stopped as everyone turned their gaze towards the exploding sound. When the dust cloud settled they saw one ruined table, a number of holes on the courtyard wall, and two twitching bodies dressed in dirty whites lying on the ground.

"What happened?!" one of the teens furthest from the explosion yelled.

"I just saw the new kid attack Shi Furui and then something exploded behind them." said a carrier that stood closer by.

"I saw the whole thing; Song Tanda sat in meditation for a while, then threw a rock from his hands at the wall and tackled Shi Furui to the ground. Immediately after that the rock exploded and did all that damage to the table and wall." said a teen that stood a few tables away from where Jack tackled the closest teen.

"Imbuement?! Impossible, only sect disciples that passed the barrier to the 4th grade can do that." said an older boy as he looked at the one that reported on what happened with derision.

They continued to bicker amongst themselves as Kuang Bindun rushed to Jack's side and gently dragged him off of the stunned lanky teen that lay on the floor.

"Are you all right?" he asked with concern in his eyes as he checked Jacks bleeding left arm and back. He looked around and grabbed a shirt from the corpse that Shi Furui worked on before and ripped it into something resembling bandages.

Jack coughed a bit of blood in response and gave a mirthless laugh as he said "Think anyone noticed that?"

Kuang Bindun snorted in response and started to dab at Jack's wounds with the new bandages.

The teen that Jack saved, Shi Furui, lay in a daze for a few seconds before he turned his head, looked at Jack, and stammered out "Th-thank you."

Jack coughed once more and said "No problem. Was my mess to clean up in the first place." as he struggled to keep eye contact with Shi Furui and winked at him.

While everyone else continued their argument Kuang Bindun picked Jack up like a baby and carried him to a free table. There he stripped Jack of the shirt of his work uniform and hissed as he saw all the wounds on his frail looking body.

He shook his head a few times and started to bandage Jack's old and new wounds up as best as he could.

Jack broke the silence with a stifled laugh as he said "Didn't think I'd get to see this side of the table this soon."

Kuang Bindun clucked his tongue as he warned "Be serious. Du Angliang will find out about this soon, you might really find out sooner than you'd like."

His statement showed true soon enough as Du Angliang returned in a huff way earlier than he usually did. Either someone notified him about the explosion in the courtyard, or he had more hidden eyes and ears than Jack suspected.

"What happened?!" Du Angliang yelled as soon as he passed through the main door of the courtyard. A few people went straight to report to him, Jack watched them from the corner of his eye and took notes in his head.

After the briefing, Du Angliang walked straight to the table on which Jack lay. Kuang Bindun didn't dare to stand in his way so he stepped away as soon as Du Angliang arrived in the courtyard under Jack's urging.

"So, you succeeded in your cultivation?" asked Du Angliang in his cold voice as he looked at Jack like one would look at an insect standing in one's way.

Jack looked up into his reptilian eyes for a second, lowered his gaze, and said weakly "Yes, Elder Brother."

Du Angliang snorted softly and said "Get up. You will be confined to your house until Elder Yu returns."

Jack's gaze sharpened for an instance, but he didn't say anything except for "Yes, Elder Brother." as he dragged his aching body off of the table.

At one moment Kuang Bindun looked like he would jump in to give him a hand, but Jack warned him off with his eyes, so he gave up after a second of internal struggle.

Du Angliang looked at the trembling boy in front of him and sneered. A second later he turned around on his heel and walked off towards the main entrance in the same fast pace that he always used as he left the words "Follow me." drifting in his wake.

Jack used all of his willpower to move his legs fast enough to follow Du Angliang, leaving the silent courtyard behind him.

When they reached Jack's house his sweat soaked into his new bandages and they stung him immensely. Du Angliang even made him open the door himself.

He could only give a small sigh of relief as he walked into the cool shade of the damp house.

Du Angliang followed him in and said "Give me the Light Orb."

Jack untied his sack pillow and fished out the glowing orb. With a shaking hand, he gave it over to Du Angliang.

Du Angliang looked at the shining orb with some surprise evident in his eyes as he blurted out "You managed to fill it up? When did you succeed in your cultivation?"

Jack nodded his head and said "Yes, Elder Brother. I only managed to cultivate a bit of spirit energy last night."

Du Angliang sneered as he almost shouted "Do you take me for a fool?!" he looked at the orb once more and calmed down "It does not matter, you will answer to the Elder when he returns from his trip." He turned his cold eyes to Jack and said "Take your uniform off; I would hate to ruin it even more while administering your punishment."

Jack looked at Du Angliang's eyes for a second before saying "Yes, Elder Brother." and started to take his clothes off.

When he stood in only a loincloth Du Angliang looked him up and down and said "Turn around and place your hands against the wall."

Jack steadied his breathing and assumed the ordered position. The thing that stood out the most in his memory before the pain begun was the feeling of his hot hands against the cool wall.

"For disobedience, you are punished with two strikes of the whip." Du Angliang declared as Jack saw from the corner of his eye Du Angliang swing his hand and a shimmering whip made of spirit energy appear and lash against Jack's wounded back.

Jack let out a muffled scream as his entire body shook with the unfamiliar pain of spirit energy lashing. His skin broke where the whip passed by, but it didn't bleed. It almost looked cauterized, even though nothing really burned.

"For destroying sect property you are punished with five strikes of the whip." Du Angliang said as he once more started his punishment.

Jack stopped counting when he got to thirteen. He could only lie on the floor and sob. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was his body screaming for some spirit energy to heal itself, and a cool sensation seeping through his skin.