Aimless Ascension

"One thing you must know," Gale told them all, "I'm not playing the good neighbour today." He paused and said to the assassin. "And I'm not your son."

"Now that everything is taken care of. . ." Gale addressed the young master, who was sitting uncomfortably in front of him, sweating profusely, glaring at him with all his might.

"Sit straight," Gale demanded, and the young master followed, straightening his backbone. "Tell me, what do you desire in life?"

Han Xiao looked at him with confusion in his eyes.

"What do you want?" Gale dumbed down the question. "Do you have any ambition or aspiration in life or not?"

"What does it have to do with you?" Han Xiao confronted defiantly, though his voice lost all the venom. Well, his eyes remained defiant to his credit.

"It had nothing to do with me," Gale said simply, "but you'll answer it. Do you know why? Because I asked you."

Han Xiao gulped down the nervousness that crawled out of his stomach.

"So, do you have anything you wanted to become other than a shit stain on your family's name?" Gale asked. "Or do you like being a shit stain?"

"You!" Han Xiao grunted.

"Answer the question."

"I. . ." Han Xiao gritted his teeth to answer. "I wanted to become a gold ranker like my father."

Gale was pretty sure the young master mentioned his father's rank to make him dread the consequences of his action.

"Gold ranker?" Gale repeated. "That's a worthy goal. So how far have you progressed in the last few years? It doesn't seem like much to me. Even a dimwit bull can make it to iron by now if you pour resources through its ass, but you're in most ways worse than a fucking bull. At least the bull had some worth."

At least the young master had the decency to look down. However, anger and indignation pulsed through his blood as he remained clenching his jaw.

"Don't even bother bullshitting like you aren't born with decent talent. I've seen people with worse talent and situations than you making it to gold before they are thirty."

Han Xiao snorted. "You're making it sound like gold rankers are nothing but common cabbages."

"True, gold rankers aren't as common as cabbages," Gale nodded. "But it is not that rare either. You have no idea of what the real world is like, do you? Then let me tell you, in the real world, in a real war, gold rankers are like common cabbages, and they were used like common cabbages."

Gale could easily tell that the young master was sceptical of everything he said. That's why he liked the easy way, which was to beat him to the point where he wouldn't be able to refute any of his words.

It seemed he had to show something to him to make him understand. Preferably something not that lethal, but something that would give him a good scare. And it wouldn't make Gale look like he was bullying his juniors.

Gale proceeded to do exactly that, but the young master had to take the highway.

"At least I'm better than your useless disciple," Han Xiao said. He had to say that. At least, that's all that remained for him to attack.

"What did you say?" Gale asked, the coldness of his eyes boring into the young master."Repeat."

"I said, your disciple is utter trash." Han Xiao was aware he was facing something different, not like those noble sons that he used to go against when he was in the capital. Those eyes and the mercilessness in them told stories of what could happen to him, but he was defiant to his core--much to his merit or demerit.

How dare this foreign bastard come to his home and threaten him like that? Han Xiao would die before he'll bend.

Gale was a bit surprised to find Han Xiao refuting him when he forced a good portion of his aura to remind the young master what he was against. Looks like Gale had to go harder.

Gale searched for his coldest memories and used them through Coercion to intimidate the young master, who perhaps had some worth.

Han Xiao shivered in his spot as goosebumps crawled up on his skin. He could only see those cold eyes of the foreigner where darkness and a faint blue light reigned.

"Why are you fixated on my useless disciple, then?" Gale asked.

"She. . ." Han Xiao could barely say. "She's. . . supposed to be. . . my mistress."

"Really?" Gale narrowed his eyes. "At least I never heard of it."

"Her father. . . agreed," Han Xiao screamed. "Bastard, let me go. I swear I'll kill you if you don't let me go now."

"That seemed like a convenient lie for you to say, with Linlin's father missing." Gale sat comfortably, one foot above another. Of course, this was something the young master had worked on to harass his disciple for months. If it weren't for the protection of the Wangs, he would have got what he was after long ago. "You know what? That doesn't matter. Since I'm her master now, I'll void every agreement you had with her."

"Screw you!" Han Xiao screamed at him, and couldn't endure anymore. He turned to all the others standing in the surrounding area. "Why are you still watching him disrespect your young master? Screw this fucker. Do you think I don't understand why you took her as your disciple even though she's a complete trash? Do you take me for a fool, you degenerate of a master?!"

The legs of the chair Han Xiao was sitting in creaked for once as they crumbled under Gale's pressure. Han Xiao fell on his back, too horrid and out of his mind to care. He was still screaming bullshit and asking for his men to attack Gale.

The men seemed to have got something out of their young master's defiance as they exchanged glances between them, considering to attack Gale together.

"Attack!" Uncle Hao bellowed, rushing at Gale. Dark shadowy Qi swirled around him as the other of the silver rankers joined him.

Gale had his attention fixed on the Young Masters. He was a little late to crush their advances. However, all that didn't change the situation even by a little.

The outworlder lifted his head and jerked his hand in the air as half of the silver rankers were flung away just by the intensity of the force. He didn't let the other half close in the distance, boring all his aura onto them to crash their martial skills they were shooting at him.

When that was taken care of, he released Stormsong almost entirely, save for the manifesting of its form. He stormed them away, tearing their muscles and shattering their bones as if they were nothing but crumbled pieces of paper.

This was the difference between silver and an elite gold ranker. Even if Gale was a shadow of his past, he could bring the force of this momentum with just some concentration.

"Believe what you want," Gale said in an icy tone as he drew closer towards Han Xiao. "But I'll remind you for the last time. Stay away from me and the people I care for, or I'll take away everything you think you deserve. Your power, wealth, family, nothing can save you from me. Just like them, everyone will crumble, and you'll be the centre of it all."

Gale didn't know when, but the young master was already passed out when he finished his sentence. He clicked his tongue.

Gale was about to carry on with his intention, which was to carry these lots of practitioners out of the hands of Han's family, when a potent foreign aura pulsed through the vicinity.

Gale lifted his head and turned in the direction where it was coming from.

"You have some nerve," a voice said through the aura, "to come into my home and do this to my men. And my son. Do. You. Have. A. Death. Wish?"