Aimless Ascension

"Senior, Miss, please wait outside for a moment. The house isn't ready to treat guests. I'll prepare the drawing room in two minutes."

Leaving those words, Shi Fan scurried into the house at superhuman speed. Xiaolin gave Gale a look as if asking whether this fellow could be trusted.

Gale smiled and crept into the room, disregarding Shi Fan's request. Vale followed while Xiaolin looked conflicted about entering her own home. "Come along."

The house wasn't big, or anything extravagant, but it had enough space to let a family of four get along with no trouble. As Shi Fan pointed out, the interior wasn't cleaned, though no layer of dust covered the floor or any spider webs in the walls. It was marginally cleaned with lots of stuff spread all around, covered by blankets.

Xiaolin perked her head at those unexpected articles that she hadn't left behind. She pulled one of the blankets to find a large bag. A few more enquiries explained that most of the contents were bags full of unknown content.

Other than that, there was a heavy feeling in the house. Not your scary horror house type of heaviness, but a heaviness in spirituality. Gale found the reason for it instantly, merely turning to the corridor where he found the youth, hurrying.

"Ahh, Senior!" Shi Fan stammered, currently in the position of moving a huge chunk of crystallised stone, which should weigh no less than a ton. Only with his superior strength could he manage this feat. There were a few more of those stones, though none of them were resonating as much as the enormous boulder-sized one.

Xiaolin's eyes widened at the sight, while Gale's grew interested, knowing exactly what the crystallised stone was.

"My man Shi Fan," he said, half amused, half serious, "please tell me you have not robbed some wealthy sect."

Shi Fan started to sweat profoundly. His lips parted to say something as his mind rushed to provide a passable excuse to get out of this situation. It would not be easy. Shi Fan knew exactly how much of a shit he got himself into.

Gale smiled and turned to the girl. "Xiaolin, please get out of the house," he told her. "Also, tell Uncle Feng not to enter, either. These pure crystals can cause toxicity to normal people in their mere presence."

Xiaolin went from curious to horrified in the matter of a blink of an eye, as she scurried out of the house in one go. Shi Fan couldn't remain in the position of lifting the Pure crystal for longer. He sighed audibly and put the huge chunk of pure crystal stone, better termed pure crystal boulder, next to him.

Gale turned to Shi Fan, who calmed down on the outside. "You really surprised me here. The amount of pure essence it contained . . . If words get out, it can create a bloodbath in this valley."

Shi Fan breathed calmly, peering at Vale, who stood nonchalantly next to Gale as if he cared nothing.

"Are you still evaluating the success of killing me and my dog?"

"Senior, who are you?"

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself. You can call me Gale, and this is my buddy, Vale. Say hello, Vale."

"Woof!"

"I didn't know dogs could be aware like that," Shi Fan muttered, looking at the intelligible eyes of Vale.

"You don't know many things, but that's off-topic for now. Tell me who you robbed."

"I robbed no one!" This time, the answer came too fast. "All this belonged to my master."

"So you robbed your master?"

"No," Shi Fan shouted. "I didn't."

"So you're telling me your master threw you this amount of wealth with no spatial equipment so that you'll get into trouble and get killed?"

Shi Fan went silent at his words.

"That could happen," Gale said thoughtfully. He almost applauded, moving next to Shi Fan "Did you sleep with his daughter or something?"

"No, Gods! My master never married."

"Fellow disciple then?" Gale smirked.

Shi Fan was silent, staring at him as if he didn't know how to answer.

"Robbing your master, ahh that's something I would approve of," Gale said, turning to Vale. "Ahh, that brings back memories."

"My master is dead," Shi Fan said.

Gale blinked and turned to Vale, who rubbed against his leg affectionately. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said, reassuringly squeezing Shi Fan's shoulder.

Shi Fan nodded and stared straight into his eyes. "You don't want Pure spirit crystals?" his voice seemed like wedging out of his throat, afraid Gale would take his treasures, or even if he couldn't, he would come with more men later.

"That thing is of no use to me," Gale assured. "And even if it were, I wouldn't steal your stuff unless you grieved me badly."

Shi Fan almost sighed in relief. Almost because Gale wasn't finished yet.

"Like if you stole my lunch."

Shi Fan's mouth hung open for several seconds. "Senior, I haven't stolen your lunch," he assured seriously.

"Not yet, you haven't."

"Who are you really, Senior?" Shi Fan asked. "You suppressed my Qi much like the way my master does. It didn't feel like you used much Qi at all, yet you suppressed my Qi."

"Oh, you noticed that?" Gale asked, his voice genuinely curious. He hadn't thought much about the terrible control you showed, but it seemed there was more than what meets the eye.

"Barely." Shi Fan nodded. "Then there's your dog . . . I have no words to describe . . . him? I literally can't feel how strong he is."

"Can you feel how strong I'm?" Gale smirked.

Shi Fan stared at him silently. After several seconds, he repeated the question. "Senior, who are you really?"

Gale sighed. "I'm someone who thinks too much of himself," he said. "I guess that comes with the foolishness of youth. Words of advice, Boyo. Never take yourself too seriously."

"Um, thank you?" He seemed uncertain if it was advice or not.

"Well, at least you're not a total imbecile," Gale said, inspecting the house. "The Ward is almost adequate. We don't see youths interested in scripts nowadays." Now Gale was talking like he was a hundred years old, which might have given Shi Fan the wrong idea.