“Hey! Look at that guy there, he is ploughing the land faster than any of us are able to do!” From a distance, a man dressed in a brown shirt was lying prone on the ground with his binoculars looking at Jin.
“But it looks like he had difficulty ploughing the land despite that rate he is going.” Another man in grey commented as he took the binoculars from his friend. This was the first time both of them saw this unknown farmer around the area and there were suspicions that this was the person they had been looking for.
“How could anyone not pay tribute to the Jacks if they wish to create a farm in this area?” A guy in a yellow shirt was crawled was crawling angrily towards them. “It is either he does not know the rules or he was the one we are all looking for” Brown spoke out.
“If that is so, why are we being so cautious against him? We could just walk towards him and clobber this little boy.” Yellow was not in agreement with Brown.
“You want the same incident to happen again after that Z scarred monster ambushed the entire hideout just for that bag of seeds?” Grey replied with spite to Yellow.
“That is why Boss is going to ask his cousin for reinforcements. After you confirmed the seeds are in the possession of that farmer, we will strike. Seeing how the farmer moves, he probably used large amount of money to hire that Z scarred loser once and it appeared like he does not have the capability to go against us.” The person in yellow shirt spoke with a certain animosity in his tone.
“Hahaha! He will not take us by surprise this time round again” Brown scoffed.
“Ah! Shhhh! You guys are making too much noise!” Grey was enraged that they might expose their hiding place despite being at least a few kilometres away from Jin.
“Look! He is really holding on to the seeds!” Grey sneered when he saw Jin took out the exact same satchel that was missing from their base.
“Then we shall act now before he stupidly plants those seeds.” Brown wanted to pounce on the opportunity.
“Well, if he does. Hold any actions for now.” Grey suddenly changed his orders and stared at Brown whom he reluctantly acknowledged it. “Yellow, gather our remaining brothers to take revenge and let’s hope boss will bring his reinforcements,” Grey commanded Yellow and he sped off into the wilderness.
“You previously said to strike immediately. Are you really that afraid of that Z scarred loser and a useless novice farmer boy?” Brown was still angry he could not strike while the iron was hot.
“Stupid, take a look at the side of the farmer. There seems to be a great white snake with a little girl playing some sort of instrument.” Grey returned Brown the binoculars and he managed to catch a glimpse of the little girl.
“Ah, so you think we should kidnap that girl and use her for a ransom since he is rich??” Brown asked Grey which Grey responded with a knock at Brown’s head.
“Stupid! Are you ignoring the fact there is a Great White Snake?!” Grey barked at him.
“With our strength and speed, we can definitely outrun that Great White Snake!” Brown retorted but Grey knocked his head once more.
“How stupid can you get! This means the farmer is not an easy one. We should wait for more brothers to come and attack all at once. Let’s see what will happen when you mess with the Jacks.” Grey smiled as he continued to survey the situation with Brown.
Separately, Jin was ploughing through the broken barren land for about 2 hours straight and he finally got the hang oo ploughing as he tried to be as systematic he could after creating a row of ploughed land. After laboriously loosening the soil, Jin was thinking of sowing some seeds before he continue ploughing additional land.
Hence, he thought to open the satchel which Zeru, his Bellator and Shifu, gave him to take a look at it. The seeds inside the satchel were sparkling like diamonds and he knew he would not be able to identify them. Perhaps he might know what he would be planting if Shu the Treant gave him some details. “Since they are sparkling, I guess they are worth quite a lot too.” Jin shrugged his shoulders and suddenly felt the strain from the weight of the living armour.
Fortunately, Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress was happily playing her Zither with her Great White Snake lying lazily right beside her. The tune was the only thing that broke the monotony of the back breaking ploughing. For some reason, the tune motivated Jin further and he appreciated any help or encouragement he could get.
Meanwhile, the living armour was circulating around him and shifting their weight to counteract his centre of gravity. This constantly made him lost his balance and he had to shift his weight regularly to make sure he does not fall and break the momentum. Fortunately, the previous self image training of chi allowed him to picture how to control his chi for his lower limb muscle movements in order to not fall from the weight of the living armour. Jin also used Lazy Panda Swipe technique to power his arm movements which made ploughing of the land much easier.
“Two hoe spaces for one seed. So judging by the amount of land you have ploughed, you need at least a third more. After that, you can call it a day. I would fertilise the land with the Tear of the Treant over the night so plant the seeds tomorrow. Like what I have said. Your objective is to plough, plant and water the plants when needed.” Shu commented and Jin acknowledged with glee. A little more and he can relax!
Another one hour in Farm World passed by. The living armour got heavier, Jin was breathless from all the work but he finally ploughed the land required for the seeds.
“Alright Ke Mi, I will talk to you another day, it is time for your Master to return back.” Shu smiled at Ke Mi and she disappeared after waving goodbye.
“Thanks Shu but how do I return?” Jin asked as he bent down to put his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“Inside the tent has an open portal waiting for you to jump in. I had informed Zeru.” Shu replied.
As Jin went into the tent and returned to the real world, the Jacks’ first wave of reinforcement arrived. “Grey, I brought the brothers along. Boss said that he would arrive the next day with a special guest but let’s finish this as soon as possible so we can make Boss proud! Is that farmer still there?” Yellow was jovial.
“Right in the tent resting. Let’s strike now, the little girl and snake had disappeared!” Brown did not know how such a large snake disappeared right in front of his eyes but he did not care. He knew the farmer was still in the tent.
“Then let’s go!” Yellow gestured to his brothers the small tent and they rushed madly to the tent.
Meanwhile, Shu wanted to extend its roots before noticing the commotion from afar. “Perhaps I should not cultivate the land for now.” Shu kept its roots to itself and camouflaged its face with some of its tree bark.
The Jacks arrived at the tent and surrounded it with no weapons. Yellow took the initiative to rip open the tent to find no one was inside.
“What! Where did he go?!” Yellow was particularly annoyed.
“His scent seemed to stop here too.” Grey kneeled to smell the ground.
“Is he underground?” Brown asked as he searched but it was of no use.
“Argh! That’s why I said we should have struck him when he was holding the seeds! Now we would not know where the seeds are.” Yellow became frustrated.
“No worries, judging from this freshly ploughed plot of land, I believe he will be back,” Grey said.
“Then let’s thrash his land, this will give him a warning not to mess with the Jacks!” Yellow shouted which the other brothers agreed with and even Grey was surprisingly accepting to this act of rashness.
“Haha! These humans. How are they going to destroy the ploughed land? With their own hands and legs?” Shu smirked a little and some of its leaves rustled from the movement. However, Shu later realised it was dead wrong and its mouth went wide open for a moment.
They were indeed using their hands and legs to destroy the ploughed land as each and every one of them began to slowly metamorphose into a beastlike form.
The Jacks were a clan of werejackals.
