Aimless Ascension

On the fourth day of her recovery, Gale reassessed her health and changed the bracelet to a newer one, which let her have some freedom in cycling energy. Well, fifty percent more to the initial twenty percent, so it was thirty percent now.

Well, at least, she wouldn't knowingly blare the alarm. The last time was really embarrassing when she unwittingly proceeded to cycle at a faster rate during the bath.

Her master hadn't left until she stopped cycling back then.

On the seventh day, he assessed her health again as a dumbfounded expression spread across his face. He removed the bracelet again with an uncertain look on his face. But unlike the other time, he didn't latch a new one to her wrist but worked on that one.

"Something wrong, master?" Xiaolin asked, picking her brows.

Gale shook his head. "Probably something unexpectedly good," Gale said.

They were on the roof of the mansion. After the ground floor became habitable, they shifted in, even though their personal room would be on the first floor. Well, even the half-baked state of the mansion provides more security than what the old house could ever provide.

Well, after Vale came back, they had nothing to worry about, but they couldn't always leave the security to the fluffy boy.

"What is it?"

"I needed to do a couple of tests to confirm this," Gale informed her, "but apparently, it seems your body went through some development the last few days after the incident. Well, it has probably been happening since the beginning of your cultivation with pure crystal. The incident was only a turning point."

That means, even if Xiaolin listened to him completely and stayed to her schedule, the incident was bound to happen at some point. Well, it wouldn't be that radical, as Gale would be present by her side at that point to dissolve the matter before it escalates.

"What development?" Xiaolin was curious. Obviously, it was her body, and she probably felt the change, even if intuitively.

"Do you know why those stones are called pure crystals?" Gale asked instead. "Is is exactly what the name suggests."

"It purifies the body?" It wasn't that hard for Xiaolin to make the connection. "How is that possible, when it is mostly used to boost cycling speed?"

"That's a side effect of the purifying process," Gale said. "Well, magically speaking, the cycling process is required for purification."

"But what does the purification do?"

"It purifies the body and makes it more magical," Gale said with a smile. "And the more a practitioner's body becomes magical--"

"The easier it gets for him to absorb energy," Xiaolin completed. Her eyes sparkled. "Is that what happened to me?"

"It happens to everyone when pure crystals are introduced into their system," Gale said, trying to tie down her enthusiasm. "However, the change is faint, almost unnoticeable for most people. It was so inefficient, people mostly forget that it has that effect on people as well. After all, a practitioner becomes magical quicker through the advancement metamorphosis than through the purification process."

To his estimates, most normal practitioners would need about a couple of hundred thousand gold marks worth of pure crystals to complete the purification which could compete against a gold ranker's body.

However, as a third of the way through the purification process, most practitioners already become gold rankers through the boosted cycling speed. Well, in a way, spirit arts are the way to refine the body so that it can store more Qi. In that way, most of it made sense.

What didn't make sense was his disciple.

Xiaolin nodded as she considered his world. "However, that is not the case with me?" she could detect it, but wasn't absolutely sure.

"Exactly," Gale agreed. "From what I'm seeing, pure crystals act more as a catalyst for purification for you compared to boosting cultivation speed. It is roughly ten times more relevant in your case compared with other people."

"That means if I were to intake more pure crystals--" Xiaolin began, but she was cut short by her master shortly.

"Hold your breath, Cupcake."

Gale re-clocked the script in her bracelet and latched it to her wrist yet again. Her health recovered earlier than he assumed, but he would still like to take safety measures. The alarm bracelet was one of them.

"Do you want to tear your body apart for quick gains?"

Xiaolin almost nodded, but under her master's gaze of disapproval, she clenched her teeth and shook her head.

Gale clicked his tongue. Apparently, he didn't approve of this way of quick gain. Who would have thought? In his early years, Gale was all about finding quick ways to raise his strength.

"I know all this seemed like delicious meat before a starving wolf," Gale said, "but I assure you, the meat is full of slow-working poison. These short gains will come to bite you in the back, eventually. I'm telling you this from my experience."

"Master, you said most poisons don't work on me," Xiaolin couldn't help but add.

"We'll see about that when you recover completely until that you'll do no such thing to even think about those things."

"Yes, master," Xiaolin said in a completely spiritless tone, slumping her shoulder.

Gale laughed. At least she was showing some expression, other than always looking at him with the expression of worship. Well, as they were growing familiar with one another, she was loosening up her personality. Now she didn't act all reserved and respectful all the time, though she would need to lose a lot of her reserved personality.

"Your body has been through a lot of stress these past few days," Gale said. "We should do something to rectify that."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Acupuncture should come first," Gale said. "Unfortunately, I'm not skilful in that area."

"Acupuncture?" Xiaolin hummed. "Grandma can do it. She put me through that a couple of years ago." Xiaolin didn't have a good memory of that.

"Great, that settles it then. We'll leave for the town in a couple of days.