Aimless Ascension

"Sumei, I was actually thinking about you," Gale said after landing before her.

The woman shot him a sceptical look. "Really?" she said, "then why did it take you half a dozen of my cry to notice me?"

"That," Gale said, smiling, "because I was busy thinking about you."

Sumei snorted. "You don't lack girls to think about this poor woman."

Gale gave her an incredulous look.

"What?" Sumei challenged. "Don't give me that look that you're oblivious to their presence."

"Hmm," Gale hummed. "I'm really curious as to whom you're addressing."

"Fine, I'll enlighten you then," Sumei rasped. "First that cute petite girl, she probably had nothing on her mind other than you all the time. Then there was that creepy girl."

"Twilight?" Gale arched an eyebrow.

"Whatever," Sumei clicked her tongue. "For the records, I hadn't left you in that abandoned farmhouse that other day. I merely discovered a cloaked figure carrying you there."

Gale blinked, hearing about this for the first time. A few days ago, he had a confrontation with Han Shitian, a gold ranker, where Gale had to pull all his power to defeat the practitioner in a short time, which in retrospect led him to feel discomfort in his spirit.

To relieve the pain, Gale drank a few mouthfuls of high-level spirit wine. The alcohol solved the issue with discomfort, however, it got him senseless when he was flying. Finally, Gale dropped into a wheat field in the middle of nowhere.

All this was completely unbecoming of a gold ranker. And Gale's power as a gold ranker had been dwindling for some time now, still, he hadn't thought he wouldn't be able to endure it that much for such a short time.

He had completely miscalculated his forbearance there. That was unlike him for most parts, though there were examples of him overestimating himself.

Thankfully, he already covered a substantial distance from the Hans residence, when he fell unconscious.

That day was still surreal to him. He remembered dreaming of Saarya and then waking up to find Sumei. . . Later, he went to the inn with Xiaolin and Vale.

But now he was finding out there was another person who looked after him when he was unconscious.

"Okay, that only made it two," Gale said, "even though Twilight doesn't count. I literally paid her spirit marks to look after--"

"Yourself?" Sumei raised an eyebrow.

"My disciple," Gale said truthfully, "and the farm. I guess her professionalism took me into account as well."

Sumei clicked her tongue as if she couldn't believe his words even a bit.

"Then there's the innkeeper," she said, throwing him a knowing look.

"Umm, what is that look supposed to mean?" Gale arched an eyebrow. "And for the record, Wang Li has a kid, and has better things to worry over than a fool who couldn't stop himself from getting into trouble."

"But I have seen you with her more than a few occasions to have this idea," Sumei said. "And the point still holds, you think more of her than this poor woman."

It was Gale's turn to shake his head. He was about to say something, but she beat him to it.

"Don't try to deny it," Sumei said, her eyes challenging. "I hate those people who'd lie through their teeth just because it will leave them in a good light."

"Fine, I'll admit it," Gale said, sighing. "She's attractive."

Gale hated to admit it, but Wang Li made more sense to him than Twilight, who he barely talked to more than a couple of times, and even then it was only him talking. Twilight simply stood like a log, nodding or shaking her head to respond to him.

"At least, you're a bit honest this time around," Sumei said, with a curve in her lips. Probably happy about winning the challenge. "Her husband was a total prick, though, who'd leave such a woman like her."

Gale chose to be silent instead of making any comment to her remark.

"You might want to act quick," Sumei said, still with that smile, "women like her don't stay single for long."

Gale groaned. He certainly didn't want or even like to talk about this kind of topic with a woman.

"I can't figure out your intentions behind all this talk," Gale said, grunting.

"I merely worried that the mysterious farmer expert doesn't live life in regret," Sumei said. "You look like someone who already has too many regrets for your age."

Gale was momentarily lost on what to reply to that.

"Anyway," Gale said, "believe me or not, you were in my mind."

Sumei gave him a thorough glance and finally said. "I believe you."

"Thank you."

"So, I was the fourth girl on your mind," Sumei said with a teasing voice. "Can't say I'm proud of that rank."

"Maybe a close second or third," Gale said, "but you were in my mind."

"What can I say," Sumei said with an exaggerated bow, "I'm blessed."

"Perhaps, you should have kept more contact if you want to top that list," Gale snorted, almost unfazed by her tease.

Sumei lifted an eyebrow. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Where do you stay anyway?" Gale asked. "I asked around a few people, but they couldn't give me anything on you."

"The place I dwell is hardly liveable," Sumei said with a sigh. "You're better off not knowing about it now, but I think you'll find your way there someday. Eventually, I hope."

Gale was almost certain there was an implication behind her words, but with her acting enigmatic, there was no way for him to figure it out at this moment.

"Regardless, these days, you might find me around this mountain range," Sumei continued with a laugh. "If you look, you might even find me sleeping in your stable without your permission, disturbing your sleep."

Gale stared at her as a chilly wind blew, fluttering their robe. Sumei seemed tired after her journey through the mountain range, and she really might not have a place to stay around here.

Well, with her iron-rank strength, it wasn't that hard to get a nice place in an inn. However, there were other private matters which could stop her from taking a place in public.

Similar to Shi Fan, she could simply be hiding from people.

"Here, take this." Gale brought out a Stormhold pass out of his dimension pocket and handed it to her.

Sumei took it and frowned, looking at the ironwood token.

"Now you have my permission to stay in Stormhold," Gale said. "There are plenty of free rooms, so you don't have to bother sleeping in the stable."

"Are you sure about that?" Sumei asked seriously.

Gale nodded.

"With this, I'm allowed open access to your home," Sumei asked again, "are you sure about opening your door for a stray like me?"

"Yes," Gale said.

"Thank you," Sumei's voice seemed to have held more emotions than she ever showed to anyone.

"Alright, it's getting late, and you look like you need to have a roof over your head for the day as well. Come, you might also enjoy the bath."

Sumei only thought for a second before agreeing to her Mysterious Farmer Expert as Gale drew his palm towards her. Sumei gave him her own, as Gale pulled her into his embrace and flew away towards Stormhold.

***

Shi Fan really missed his days of convenience. In the wilderness, he didn't have access to anything his sect could give him, however, that ship had sailed already.

It had sailed the day his master was murdered.

Shi Fan wasn't welcome there. Even his appearance there would create more trouble than he ever would be able to solve. They would interrogate him day and night to get his master's inheritance. But Shi Fan would rather die than give anything to those backstabbing old coats.

"Well, the mountains aren't that bad," Shi Fan uttered as if to convince himself. "At least my spirit arts are growing at a faster rate."

Well, most of the credit would go to the resources his master left him. Still, the mountains had their challenges and threats to always make him put in his best effort.

These days, Shi Fan only had three things in his life. Cycle day and night, practise all day along with hunting spirit beasts, and make food and eat between them.

He couldn't say it was any less than a barbaric lifestyle, but this was the only life he could afford now, even though he had enough wealth to buy luxurious villas.

Shi Fan crept through the familiar path with a dead boar on his back. He was taking the long road to his dwelling, only to check if Twilight had left any messages for him.

Supposedly, she was still in town, working on other commissions. Shi Fan had left her with a lot of his wealth, purely a large part of his pure crystals and gold coins. Also, he had loaned her about a hundred thousand gold coins for her needs which he was completely oblivious about.

Still, he wasn't worried about Twilight ripping him off. Unnerving as her presence might be, she was completely trustworthy with her acts.

Shi Fan checked the tree hole once every week for any messages, and today for the first time, he got something. Putting his hand into the hole, Shi Fan brought a scroll out of there.

Delighted to have some human contact, Shi Fan opened the scroll immediately and found it was not from his friend, but that suspicious-looking foreigner actually.

I read:

Heyo Boyo, I hope no wild beast has eaten you yet because I require your stock of pure crystal again. Jokes apart, I believe you're alive and fine. Also, I really require a large chunk of pure crystal. You know where to contact me. Don't worry about the payment, I don't mind paying double the price of last time. You might even request some advice on spirit arts from me as well.

-- Your favourite mysterious foreigner (In case you're dumb, it's me, Gale. Vale misses you)

Shi Fan swallowed reading the last part.

_______

A huge thanks to Tenthousandsun for the great review. Hopefully, it wasn't filtered by the algorithm for excessive word counts.