Aimless Ascension

To give Xiaolin some field training, Gale decided to take her into the mountains and hike. Nothing too serious for her first try, but they were playing to go into deeper areas where common people shouldn't venture no matter the time.

But it seemed with the appearance of the innkeeper, they had to delay the trip for a later date.

"I don't know," Wang Li said, carrying Rong'er. "I won't feel safe taking Rong'er to the wild."

"And you won't feel relieved leaving him here as well," Xiaolin said, frowning. She turned to her master. "Maybe we should cancel it this time around."

Before Gale could reply, the older woman opened her mouth to answer. "No, you don't have to cancel your plans because of me," she said. "You two can just venture into the mountains while we'll wait in the house."

Gale shook his head. "No, that won't look good for us being the host," he said. "I guess we can do it after the festival."

Wang Li clearly looked uncomfortable as they cancelled their plans for her. But nothing she could say could convince them to venture on their own, leaving her on the farm.

"Then, we should start decorating the new house now," Gale said. Although most of the heavy lifting was done, there was plenty of small stuff they needed to put in the house to make it seem a desirable place.

Without the pure crystals, Xiaolin's training cycling had mostly stagnated. So she should have extra energy to share as well.

"Wang Li, with your power, you can easily groom the garden," Gale told her. "Of course, you don't need to do it if you don't feel like it."

"No, I'm fine with it," Wang Li said. Working in the field meant more experience for her in using her fate lock. Besides, Gale had helped her and her family greatly before. The script constructs for the inn's lawn, the instalment payment for the fate lock, and many other small things.

"Xiaolin, you go help her throughout the process, while I'll give a finishing touch to the constructs. I'll show you something really cool after I'm finished."

"Where is the garden again?" Wang Li asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You mean where it is supposed to be?" Gale corrected her shamelessly, as he hadn't yet had time to make room for the garden. It was still green lunch grass before the house.

The innkeeper shot him a flat look.

"I guess I'll help you to plough the land," he gave in.

"No need. We two women can do just fine, just show us where we need to work."

Xiaolin nodded heavily, agreeing with her elder sister's words.

"Well, in the front of the house, and around the outdoor staircase," Gale instructed as he led them towards the new mansion. "Don't forget to leave room for walking."

Wang Li snorted as if she didn't need that reminder. Instead, she stared up at the weird-looking mansion. The outdoor staircase made it look even odder. The flat shape of it just seemed odd in comparison to what she came across all her life. She guessed this was what the building looks like in Gale's world.

The building looked smaller from the front, but it should be spacious with the two floors, taking up huge areas in the back. They had mostly used ironwood and augmented concrete for the building, giving it a thousand years of longevity. Well, that was, as long as no high-rank cultivator ran rampant here.

Still, it would take a gold ranker to cause actual damage to this mansion, and considering the defence construct the master artisan put in place, even they wouldn't have it easy.

"Oh, that reminded me," Gale said as he brought out a few thin fist-sized wood slabs. "I forgot to give you this."

"What is this?" Wang Li asked, arching an eyebrow.

"An entry pass of Stormhold," Gale answered profoundly. "Took me days to perfect it."

She took one of the slabs and inspected it to find only a weird claw mark in them. The mark reminded her of lighting—she guessed it worked well with the name, Stormhold, but she feared Gale had used his trustworthy companion to make the dent in it.

More importantly, she still couldn't understand what this thing exactly was.

"Entry pass as in?"

"It will give you free access to our humble farm," Gale said with a smile.

"What about the ones that don't have a pass and try to pass in?" Wang Li arched her eyebrow, curious.

"That would mostly depend on their intention," Gale said with a knowing look.

Wang Li couldn't say she liked that vague description all that much.

"Okay," the foreigner said, as he wasn't done with giving her just the slab. "Let's register you to the house first. You need just to give me a little of your Qi."

Gale brought a small gem out of his void look and tossed it to her. Wang Li caught it with her copper flexibility. She put her effort into spirit arts since then, well, she had no better things to do.

"I guess that would do fine. Infuse some of your Qi into it, I'll register you after this."

Wang Li looked at the gem dumbly for a moment and then followed with what the foreigner said. She wasn't sure if she had ever heard anything like this before, not even in stories.

She tossed back the Qi-infused gem to Gale, who just let it disappear into the void lock. His control over the fate lock was rising pretty easily. It wouldn't have been effortless like this before.

"From now on all you have to do is show that pass to the new Stormhold Signboard to get free entry."

"Hmm," Wang Li was still frowning. "What if someone else uses this pass instead of me?"

"It won't work," Gale said. "If you enter with the pass once, it will not work with other people."

Wang Li could only nod in amazement. "I'm not sure if I follow how this all works, but thanks for the pass, I guess."

"No need to thank me. With your relationship with Xiaolin, this is nothing. This is merely a safety precaution in case something like what happened transpires again and I or Vale are not there to protect the home."

Wang Li nodded, while his disciple, who was looking at all the exchange sheepishly, straightened.

"Master, what about me?"

"What about you?" Gale arched his eyebrow at her. "The pass? Why do you need a pass when this farm is yours to begin with?"

"But. . ."

"What? Are you having second thoughts about living in it with me?" Gale asked.

"No," Xiaolin was quick to answer, "not at all."

"Do you need a few of the passes to give to your friends?" Gale asked. "I made three variants of those: one time pass, pass for friends and family, which I gave to your elder sister, and the last one was mostly transactional."

Xiaolin shook her head and then remembered her uncle Shan and his family.

"I'll give them theirs later. Don't worry about it. Now let's get going with the work."