Aimless Ascension

The sound of muffled wailing reverberated from the room as Gale waited outside, fidgeting with his foot against the floor. He left Twilight to apply ointment on Xiaolin a few minutes ago and his disciple had been wailing since then.

It was never really easy to hear someone cry, but Gale couldn't do anything about it. There was no medicine that could relieve her pain, with no side effects. The drink he gave should soothe the pain as it takes effect, but it wouldn't be until Twilight finished with applying the herbal ointment all over her.

Xiaolin had brought this upon herself, overestimating her own endurance. However, this event would give her a broad perspective and let her through a catharsis. Most of her cells had calmed down already, though Gale had detected the restlessness in her blood cells, getting through some purging process.

This incident naturally changed her. Well, change was a broad word. It most probably altered her physique a little. Xiaolin could probably endure pure crystals a little more, though Gale would leave her a couple of weeks to rest before he would let her practice again.

Gale's musing came to a halt as the door of the room opened. Unlike her usual way, which was to disappear using her spiritual nature, Twilight got out of the room like a normal person opening the door.

"Don't just leave yet," Gale told her as he got into the room to check on his disciple. "I have something to discuss with you."

Xiaolin's body was covered in the blanket, as she was probably only in her underclothes after applying the ointment to her body. A thick herbal scent was all over the room, as Xiaolin looked at him with teary eyes. Tears dripped down her cheek even where Twilight applied the ointment, since her cheeks bore tear marks as well.

"It's burning," Xiaolin barely managed to say. "My skin is burning."

"You'll be alright," Gale said and considered. After a second thought, he touched her on the cheek and released his second fate lock, Guardian Emblem.

The Guardian Emblem is probably one of the best fate locks in the world in the region of Physique. It lets him empower his physical power and Qi reinforcement to a tremendous degree. With just this, it could have been one of the most tempting fate locks, not that Guardian Hounds were that easy to find.

The point was that the said effect wasn't really the primary function of the fate lock. The primary function was what the name suggested. It was guarding, protecting–the more Gale acted on accords to that, the more powerful Vale and the fate-lock would become.

The opposite was true as well. His bond with Vale would weaken with the fate lock if he gave in to wanton killings. Though it was more complicated than that. Sometimes, no almost most times, Gale had to kill to protect. On none of those occasions, his fate lock had weakened, nor Vale became unrest.

The bond had more to do with the principal and living up to them. Gale made a couple of mistakes before learning that.

Anyway, the reason the point was relevant here: Gale was using the Guardian emblem to protect his disciple from the burning ache. Gale wasn't fully aware of what he was doing, save for applying the Guardian Emblem to Xiaolin with the Intent of protecting her.

Fate locks were too complicated for him to make sense of completely, even though he could artificially create fate locks. Well, they weren't as complicated as Guardian Emblem or any of his other two fate locks.

The Void lock on his left palm was likely the least complicated fate lock of the three, though it involved dimension laws, one of the most complicated laws of the universe.

Anyway, it seemed the guardian emblem was working as the ghastly expression on his disciple's face vanished slowly as she breathed deeply. Of course, the Guardian Emblem wasn't healing Xiaolin, merely protecting her from the agony. She would need just as much time to heal.

Gale continued on like that for a few minutes, as an itch started to grow in his chest. A frown appeared on his brows.

"I didn't know I could do this," he muttered, shrugging off the burning pain growing in his chest. So by protecting his disciple from the pain, he was shielding her with himself on the line.

Well, the pain wasn't anything enduring, though. With the gold body and his tolerance, it was barely a burning itch in his chest. Gale had gone through far worse than that to complain about that.

Gale only stopped protecting after the burning ache decreased as he could literally feel it through the fate lock. Xiaolin was giving his big eyes in his direction, unsure what to say.

Gale caressed her hair and wiped her tears off. "Rest now. I'll make something delicious for you to eat."

Gale found Twilight standing at the door in her awkwardly edgy presence.

"Thank you for this," Gale said. "I'll surely remember to add a good tip to your services."

"No need," she said, not even looking in his direction.

"Anyway, you have to do this for two more days. After that, I think Xiaolin would have enough energy to apply the ointment on her own. Although I would like to ask you to work as her handmaid for about a week if you weren't so unnerving to normal people and weren't too good at your job. Still, thank you."

Twilight nodded. "Are you finished?"

"Oh right, I forgot to ask, are you free to go on a long expedition?" Gale asked, recalling the case of Sun Ziang. "The pay will be good, and I think your presence will help that bloke quite a lot."

"Details," Twilight uttered a word.

"It hasn't been decided yet," Gale started to explain about the expedition and who it was from.

Twilight was considered after hearing everything. "Since there's no urgency," she said in her grave tone, "I'll let you know later."

"Alright," Gale said. "That reminds me, what happened to Shi Fan, is he–"

The black-cloaked figure disappeared before Gale could finish.

Gale clicked his tongue.