Aimless Ascension

The mark was too faint to be a fate mark, not to mention fate mark patterns weren't like this. As a genuine fate mark enthusiast and scriber, Gale knew this better than most people.

Essentially, a practitioner needs to get in contact with some supernatural element—naturally bourne elements, or fate locks, to be marked by fate. The mark was just a physical manifestation, as it leaves a mark on the body as well as on the spirit.

Through the mark, a practitioner's aura changes as some superpowers manifest within them.

"Do you mind if I check it closely?" Gale asked after some hesitation.

Xiaolin nodded, not understanding.

"It may be a bit uncomfortable for you," Gale said. "I have to touch there to pierce through with my Qi sense."

Xiaolin nodded, unable to meet his eyes.

Gale hesitantly drew his palm towards her abdomen. Although the ointments removed most of the scars, still faint tear marks were left on her skin. Without more treatment, they would take about a month or so to heal. Thankfully, most of the marks were hidden away with the clothes.

Xiaolin didn't meet Gale's eyes for the whole time as he touched her abdomen. She shook slightly, drawing a heavy breath, then outright shivered when Gale drew Qi into her abdomen.

She was clearly feeling it, pressing her lips tighter as she shook under Gale's touch.

Gale lifted his eyebrow to look at her. Xiaolin was all too red. She never had the touch of the opposite sex in her maiden life, not to mention in her sensitive area. He could feel her skin shiver as wild ideas ran through her head.

Gale hated to admit it, but he was tempted. Hell, no straight male couldn't help being tempted by her pristine beauty. Even though Linlin was petite, she had an extrinsic attraction about her, which led men to stare at her, wanting to possess her.

Gale wasn't too much of an exception to this rule, either. He had always been weak against women, especially against those fatally pretty ones, which had led him to many troubles over the years. On that note, most of the fatally pretty women were dangerous. Getting into trouble for them was just too easy.

That reminded him. Didn't he already get into trouble with the Han Family? True, he took the matter into his own hand from the beginning instead of walking away.

Gale never really regretted it, and will not.

"Master?" Xiaolin called meekly, lifting her head to look at him.

Gale focused, stopping for his thoughts to run wild.

"Yes." Gale focused on the problem. "I was having some thoughts."

"Did you find out anything about the mark?" she asked.

"I'm looking," Gale said as he drew Qi to the mark proficiently. Thankfully, it didn't devour his Qi like what happened to him. Gale hummed, inspecting the mark in all the ways he could do without any test.

"Master? Did you find anything?"

"I'm not sure," Gale said. "I'm almost sure this isn't a common fate mark." He drew his palm back to show her the spiral mark that held all his left wrist. It still seemed to be growing along with the space. "You hear my story and know something like this happened to me. However, genuinely, I don't believe your case is like mine. You never got in contact with anything highly volatile, other than the pure crystal. But pure crystal doesn't have this effect."

Xiaolin bit her lips in lament. She had hoped this was something big, related to her weird constitution. Or may even be a fate lock mark. Of course, the chances were slim, one in a million, but there were people with inborn fate locks.

Alas! It seemed she wasn't so fortunate.

Gale's voice drew into her ears as she lamented.

"Well, even if it isn't a fate mark, it's something unnatural. I have a couple of hypotheses about this."

Xiaolin wrinkled her nose, wanting to know more.

"Linlin," Gale said, "by any chance, do you have any secret lineage?"

Xiaolin was fast to shake her head.

"What about your mother?"

"I never met my mother," she said, frowning. "But there was a fat chance of her coming from some great bloodline. Father always said she was a commoner, a quartermaster's daughter in the army. She died after giving birth to me."

Gale frowned and decided against saying something on the topic. Rare bloodline and lineage were never that common to appear everywhere. Even if there were young masters of big clans who fuck around in commonplaces, their clans have a contingency for it. They never liked for their bloodline to carry through every whorehouse.

"The reason I asked is that," Gale said hesitantly, "the mark has some faint resemblance to bloodline or other lineage marks. Of course, it's incomplete, and I'm just not that informed on this topic to draw a conclusion. My senior sister knows the most about this, as for the people who can give any idea. . . Sun Ziang, he should have a lineage mark on his body."

Xiaolin swallowed all the words, but she wasn't too hopeful about that. There was no chance of her being of some great lineage. Her father would never lie about this, and there was no reason to lie either.

"That fella will come to collect his Longread in a few days. We should discuss this with him when we can."

Xiaolin frowned. Mastering all her courage, she said, "Master, I won't show it to him."

"Why?"

"He's foreign man."

"I'm one too," Gale said.

"You're different," Xiaolin said. She couldn't be more flustered than that. "You're my master. You can know everything about me."

Gale shook his head and was about to discuss this topic with her, even though he was uncomfortable talking about such stuff. Of course, not to most people, but Xiaolin was his disciple. He had a respectable image to maintain in front of her.

Thankfully, Xiaolin changed the topic back to what they were discussing before he could start.

"What about the other hypothesis?" she asked.

"Your constitution," Gale said. "My money is on this hypothesis. The mark will probably be the manifestation of the mechanics of your constitution. That would mean your case is more like Vale's."

Both of the master-disciple pairs turned to the white hound resting. Vale lifted his eyelid a little to meet their gazes and went back to his rest.

"Like Vale?" Xiaolin was confused.

"Meaning you're more of a spirit creature than a physical," Gale said, heaving a big breath. "There are advantages and disadvantages to it, but most of the time, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. For example, spiritborne creatures can travel through the spirit world easily, whereas a normal practitioner needs to at least hit Gemheart to even begin the travelling.

"There are specific other powers as well like Vale can Protect with a big capital P. He can also augment his physical power to an absurd level. It depends on many things. . ."

Gale's voice trailed off as a sudden thought struck him.

'If Linlin is like Vale, that would mean. . . She was born of immaculate conception.'

"Mhm, Master?" Xiaolin called, finding him lost momentarily. "Is something wrong?"

"Nah, you don't need to worry about it now," Gale said.

No, absolutely not. Gale wasn't even sure about this. How could he get on with this notion and hit her with such a huge thing? If this turned out to be the truth, then all her life would be a lie.

Gale couldn't do that to her, not when he wasn't even sure.

"Anyway, the chances of my hypothesis turning out real are pretty slim," he said, "But I won't be surprised if you're any one of them or something else. Unfortunately, the mark isn't even 1% of the complete mark for me to read. So don't dream of becoming absurdly overpowered like myself by the night."

Xiaolin frowned, probably picking up something when he told her not to worry. But like the good disciple she was, Xiaolin nodded.

Gale put that idea deep inside his mind and sealed it with the tag to only open about it if it was relevant and if his disciple could handle it.

When that got out of the way, Gale thought about opening up about the big thing he was hiding. It was only right for him to do so, as Linlin depended on him too much. Of course, he won't tell her everything about this, not when she was powerless.

"Linlin," Gale started hesitantly, glancing towards the resting hound in the corner of his eyes. "It might sound a bit abrupt, but your master is hiding something big from you."

Xiaolin lifted an eyebrow, but her reaction wasn't that grave. "I think there's more than just one big thing, Master," Xiaolin snorted cutely. "You have too many secrets."

"Of course," Gale smiled, "most of them were secret recipes that I had taken an oath to never divulge."

Xiaolin snorted.

"Well, I'm about to open up about one of them," Gale said and drew in a deep breath. "How do I start with this. . . Hmm, you might have noticed, I acted a little weak—which was unbecoming of a gold ranker—there was a reason for this."

Xiaolin only frowned. The true power of a gold ranker was foreign to her to even have any idea about this, though she noticed her master acting off character sometimes.

"The reason behind this is this," Gale said as he uncovered the big secret, lifting his left ankle to show her the bulging black veins.

Xiaolin's eyes went wide like saucers as she drew back unwittingly, wrinkling her nose.