Aimless Ascension

Gale was mostly silent on the wagon, continuing on with the story of the Dragon Prince. The journey would easily take two hours, and there was nothing productive to do. It would bore him to death if not for the piece of fiction, though he couldn't say he was entertained.

The story was the same: a lone boy chasing after immortality, making all types of trouble on the way, yet miraculously saved by some godly senior or finding treasure behind waterfalls. Gale could swear he had read dozens of stories where the protagonist found treasures hidden behind waterfalls.

After a couple of times, it wasn't even interesting anymore. It's really hard being a picky reader, especially in this medieval xianxia land. There's no website to choose a book from. Just pick up what's selling. But it was always some heroic adventurer or some romance that lonely housewives like to read that was selling.

It's truly hard to pick gold from junk, especially in the case of fiction.

Gale clicked his tongue and closed the book. His eyes met with Xiaolin for once, but she became busy nuzzling Vale immediately.

"Do you want something to read?" He asked. The teenage girl was probably bored to death herself. After all, younger people had less attention span. As she had prepared hurriedly, she probably forgot to pick something to do on the way. "Come on, don't be shy. I got some good collection."

"What is the one you're reading now?" Xiaolin asked, lifting her head to face him.

"This?" Gale lifted the leather-bound. "The Dragon Prince by Lin Se. This isn't really worth my time, but you might like it." Well, probably not. Still, he handed her the book.

Xiaolin took it hesitantly. But her expression turned baffled, finding another leather-bound emerging out of thin air on Gale's hand. "What?! How?"

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"I have a voidlock," Gale said as if that explained everything, forgetting that the mortal girl wouldn't know what a voidlock was. He showed her the new book. "This is the first volume of Lord–"

"Lord of the Heartflame," Xiaolin said before he could finish. She blushed. "I have read it a dozen times."

"Well, it's a famous book. One of the gems I could find."

Gale had read the adventure of Lord Heartflame once already, but it's always better to read a book that you like twice instead of reading something boring. That's his philosophy on reading.

"I had the entire set of Heartflame," Xiaolin said, staring blankly at the book. "Father brought it for me from the capital."

Her shoulders slumped, remembering.

"What happened?" Gale frowned. "If you don't mind me prying."

Xiaolin remained silent for a while, slouching on her seat, wrapping her arms around the book in a lock. Even with her frail figure, she looked smaller. "He never returned," she said, at last, staring below. "Father went to the capital to sell the grains. It has been over a year and a half, but there's still no news of him."

"Oh, I'm sorry. That's awful." Gale's voice trailed off, unsure what else to say. He added after a while, "The enforcers or other departments didn't find anything about it?"

"They had better things to do than look for the father of a lone mortal girl," she said grudgingly.

Gale opened his mouth to say something, but his inner awkwardness took hold of him as he closed his lips. It took little to offer a few words of consolation, but they would just be empty words. Gale was pretty sure Xiaolin had those plenty.

Xiaolin opened the book and turned page after page. She busied herself staring at the few illustrations, with no mood of reading.

Gale couldn't really do anything for her that would be helpful. Not at the moment. Perhaps after he deals with his pain, he could look for it, but as far as he was concerned, the result won't be likeable.

Xiaolin's father was already missing for over a year. The most probable occurrence was death through some unforeseen accident, which was nothing uncommon in this world. Apart from the spirit beasts or monsters, humans were at the top of the list to make this kind of disappearance happen. This was another reason Gale hated this world.

The brutality and the sheer callousness towards life. He almost got used to it.

Whatever happened, they didn't even care about sending out a message to the person's family. Very few things could be crueller than that.

Gale sighed. The frail girl still seemed like she was waiting for her father to come back. He couldn't—or better shouldn't—give her false hope.

***

Most of the journey carried on in silence. Xiaolin started reading the book after a while, while Gale found other things to keep himself interested. Well, he spent the rest of the time solving word puzzles, which was still tough even though his mastery of the native language has increased exponentially over the years.

He still wouldn't be able to beat his senior brother or sister.

As the carriage stopped, Vale was the first one to get out. Xiaolin and Gale followed right after.

Fresh wind kissed Gale's cheeks as he checked out his surroundings. The mountain with white cliffs stood like a guardian on the horizon as rich earthly Qi breathed in the air. Fields of green, yellow and golden held in the surroundings, most ready for reaping.

Insects buzzed as the searing sun provided the much-needed heat in the chilly weather. Gale could get used to this. He liked the tranquillity here, even though he preferred the busy city life most of his life. He guessed he was at that time of his life now.

"Uncle Feng, you can leave the horses near the house," Xiaolin told the wagoner. "We won't stay here for long, so no need to prepare anything."

Gale's eyes perked up at the mention of the house and found the house and a barn about a hundred metres away, currently in no state of living. Hedges had outgrown all around the house as if to swallow it down. Only the thin line of the path before it remained somewhat distinctive, though full of green grass. It appeared the house had been out of care for some time.

"So this was your house?" he asked, capturing the vast land with his sight.

"Is," Xiaolin corrected. Her mood seemed to have refreshed reaching here. "I don't plan on selling all of it."

Gale nodded as it made sense.

"Uncle Feng will take care of the horses and carriage," Xiaolin told him. "Come on, Senior. I'll give you a quick tour of the land."

Gale nodded and gestured to her to lead the way.

"Where did Vale go?"

"He should be around somewhere," Gale said. He concentrated and felt a tug on his spirit in the other direction where Vale ran off to. "Don't worry about him. He'll turn up in his time."

The farmland wasn't in any shape of farming. Well, that's what happens when you don't take care of it for over a year. Corn, rice and other grains had grown all over the place on their own, as a dozen or so goats and cows huddled around, consuming the crops without restraints.

Tall trees flourished in the far hillside, but more of them started to grow even in the farmland, as if to swallow the land in its wildlife. In another few years, no sign of this farm would survive.

Gale found a few houses and farmland on the way. Well, mostly farmland full of crops ready for reaping. The land owned by Xiaolin was by the hillside, and it seemed like a river wound its way just by the periphery of the land, which was nice.