Aimless Ascension

"..."

The two women stared at him, probably wondering why Gale stopped right at the climax of his escape. Well, he had been at it for over an hour now and the story had progressed from the underground facility to the mines, where he had to work as a slave.

The story was just getting exciting with him finally managing to cycle Qi, when he stopped, getting something through the link between him and Vale.

"It seems something's going on in Stormhold," Gale muttered, knitting his brows.

"Master. . ." Xiaolin's voice trailed off. "You want to rush there quickly?"

"Nah, it's alright," Gale replied. Even if he wanted to rush there using Stormsong, he couldn't just leave these two women on their own. Not long ago, he had been attacked by bandits on this path. "Vale had taken care of it already."

Besides, it wouldn't be long before they reach Stormhold.

Xiaolin remained silent, with a contemplative expression for a while. Obviously, she wanted to hear more of his story. Wanted to know how he escaped/ The older woman was just about the same with a knit in her brows.

"We'll have all the time for my storytelling later," Gale said with a smile. "But in case you're wondering what happened, the living-breathing spoiler is just before your eyes."

Xiaolin pouted.

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"Curious," Wang Li said instead, "why are you playful like that in your storytelling, joking about all kinds of stuff, even in the most terrible situation? Some of them were things I don't even understand. They were probably something unique to the world you're from."

"That was just my brilliant sense of humour," Gale said with a broad smile. "Not everyone can stomach it. Besides, I think the story would be tremendously boring without your big brother Gale's pinch of humour."

Wang Li snorted. "You probably used those weird terms to confuse us."

Gale smiled. She was mostly wrong there. "I like to talk about my homeworld sometimes," he said. "It wasn't always that I could share my thoughts."

"Your world? What is it like?

"It's way more tamed than this one. In case you forgot, my world had no magic," Gale said. "Or even if we had it, it is extremely low in amount. At least I have never heard of anyone having a superpower, save for in the cinemas."

"See that? You're doing it again."

Gale chuckled.

"What about that Jesus fellow?" Xiaolin asked. "You seem to like to curse him a lot."

Gale almost choked. A frown appeared on his brows shortly.

"Jesus had some miraculous powers," Gale said. "Nothing too broad, though, in the scope of your world. Walking on water, healing people, making wine just out of the water, these were something any expert silver ranker could do. He must have been hiding his powers.

"There was another fellow who had divided the sea. That's something I'm not even sure if a Sage could accomplish. You would probably need a sovereign for that."

"I don't know if you're joking or being serious," Wang Li said.

"I'm jokingly serious, or seriously joking," Gale said with a laugh. "The latter doesn't work, so the former."

"Master, didn't you say your world has no magic power or extremely low in volume that normal people couldn't accumulate Qi?" Xiaolin asked. "Then how could people like those you mention exist?"

"They don't exist now," Gale said. "These events were thousands of years ago. That's all we know now."

"Thousands of years ago?" Xiaolin frowned. "Back then, we used to have gods too."

"You, I, nobody can be sure of that," Gale said. "Obviously, there is concrete proof of their existence in history and through the deeds, they left behind. But where are they now?"

"In the divine realm," Xiaolin answered automatically.

"Bah," Gale scoffed. "So they don't care about this world anymore, huh? Well, if I were a god, I wouldn't care about you people, considering what atrocities you have brought upon your realm."

"That's very petty of you to blame everyone for the nasty few," Wang Li said.

"Well, it's probably for the best that there's no god."

"How can you be so certain of that, master?" Xiaolin asked. "Don't all practitioners have a chance of ascending if they reach the end of it?"

"Sure, but I don't know anyone ever can reach there," Gale said and turned to Wang Li. "Your distant cousin's mum is one of the fewest people closest to ascending, but she was at it for thousands of years."

Wang Li frowned as realisation dawned upon her. "You mean the Sun Clan Matriarch? That's Sun Ziang's mother?" Wang Li's expression was incredulous. But the more she remembered the looks of her cousin, the fairer this being the truth got. "What is he even doing in our town?"

"Archaeological studies," Gale answered.

"Again, I don't know if you're serious or joking."

"That's just my charm," Gale amused himself. "I personally think most practitioners of spirit arts are boring and lack a good sense of humour. They are like: cycle Qi in a cave for tens of years, then go back to the people that wronged you and call yourself a daddy and beat all of them up. I mean, these people are profoundly old. Can you believe them acting like this?

"Linlin, as your master, I personally advise you to never go into seclusion training. It can only make you delusional in the best case."

Xiaolin nodded heavily as Gale said all that in a serious tone. Whereas Wang Li just rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, back to the theological debate. I have a question for you, my dear disciple. Ponder over it when you have free time and has nothing to do. Remember, there's no wrong answer."

"What's the question, Master?"

"Can you kill a god?"

"Of course, I can't," Xiaolin said immediately. "I cannot even kill a thing."

"Oops, that's very stupid of me. Let me rephrase the question again." Gale stared at her seriously for the question to have some weight. These kinds of questions are quite necessary to have a broad mind in the martial world.

"Are gods killable?"

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