Aimless Ascension

That means there's something wrong with her constitution.

"Energy getting sucked away from the body, that's something I'm familiar with," Gale murmured. His own case was somewhat similar to that.

As Gale wasn't a native to this world, his physical body and maybe even his psyche differed from the native. Basically, his body was inferior to the bodies of the native people who went through all sorts of evolutions through the ages, supernatural or natural.

But he shrugged all those inferiorities off after he advanced to the iron rank where his body went through commutative transformations. It took Gale almost two years. Both of them seemed to have practised spirit arts for around the same time—six years—yet Xiaolin didn't seem to make any progress.

True, he had many resources and ways Xiaolin probably didn't have access to, but six years was a long time to remain in the initiate rank if one practise regularly.

"Were there any complications with your birth?"

"I had a weak constitution and remember being weak and skinny as a young child. But medications solved most of them before I was a teen. Only later, after practising Spirit arts, did I find out there's another problem."

Gale nodded. All he could feel of her was a thin air of spirituality that one could accumulate even without practising spirit arts.

"If you don't mind," he asked, "I would like to check. I'm not really a physician, but your case is something I'm familiar with."

Xiaolin perked her head, but no hopes kindled in her eyes. She nodded, as Gale hadn't treated her wrongly in any way.

"Give me your hand," he suggested.

Taking her palm into his palm, Gale braced himself, sucking in a slow breath. This was going to be a delicate business. He closed his eyes and ran his spirit sense through her being quietly. This was something only the gold rankers and very few specific silver rankers were capable of.

He could detect her internal or external organs through this process if he liked, but what he was trying was gazing up at the way she practised spirit arts. The path at which the worldly energy travelled through her body and condensed into Qi.

An invisible aura washed over Xiaolin as she jolted.

"Calm down, take a deep breath," Gale instructed.

Xiaolin breathed in slowly. "It was like when my father brought me to the capital to see a physician. He did something like this, even though it was more . . . violent. I don't know if 'violent' is the word to describe it, as it didn't harm me."

"It's natural to feel like that." Gale opened up about his eyes. "Every creature had a natural aura, a psyche about them. Think of it as a personal space that only belonged to you. When I or that physician tried to inspect it, you intuitively felt like your personal space was being violated. Gauging someone's rank through some technique is like that too, though it was more on the acceptable level. There are no ways around it."

"Aura, I thought only practitioners had that."

"Practitioners have it more than normal people, but everyone has them." Gale paused for a moment, trying to come up with an example. "Can you explain how you know someone is staring at you without looking at them?"

"That's aura?"

Gale nodded and moved on with his study. It was really hard to find the exact imaginary paths, even though they tend to go the same way on identical creatures. What Gale needed to look for was the residual energy left behind—It should have been quite impossible, but Gale had no trouble finding the way.

It seemed the years of practice had left behind more than just a few signs. There were literally marks. Miles of intricate pathways crudely carved through her body and seemed to have fused with her.

Gale could imagine how much effort she put in there just feeling them.

After a little while, he managed to find the way the Qi dispersed from her body. It was all over the place. She was literally like a balloon with a thousand nano punctures.

"You mentioned visiting a physician? When was that?"

"Four, five years ago," she answered. "I was twelve at the time. Father first thought I didn't have the talent in spirit arts, but later he found out my Qi was diminishing over time. The faster the more I accumulated."

"Hmm," Gale sounded curious. "What did the physician say?"

"That my meridians are faulty. I can't accumulate Qi. He said the problem would be solved as I rank up, but even advancing to copper would be difficult. He prescribed many medications, but nothing helped."

"Well, I have no medication for you." Gale finished his inspection and shrugged. "Your doctor was right about one thing. The problem will diminish as you rank up. At Iron, you probably won't feel it."

But there's a big barrier between copper and iron. It was where real practitioners were filtered out of the dregs. Yet, Xiaolin couldn't even reach the copper rank. Her problem was far more terrible than what Gale went through, and the lack of resources in this rural area rendered her useless in spirit arts.

Gale could find more than a couple of ways to remedy those. Sadly, Xiaolin probably couldn't afford any of those. 'If I make an artificial fate-lock just to dismiss the effect . . .'

"Grandma Wang mentioned the same thing," Xiaolin said. "Maybe If I sell the land and accumulate enough spirit marks, it won't be this hard."

Gale shook his head. "A normal body has a specific speed of absorbing energy, and that won't increase just because you have more spirit marks. There's a method to spirit arts after all, if not anyone can be a master."

Xiaolin's face went ashen after hearing him. She was probably aware that her body would dismiss Qi faster the more she accumulated them.

"That boulder you saw with Shi Fan could help."

Xiaolin's spirit perked up. "But didn't you say it causes toxicity, senior?"

"It does, but it also helps fasten the speed at which one accumulates spirit energy. Why else do you think Shi Fan was at iron rank at your age?"

"He's Iron?" Xiaolin's eyes went wide as she turned towards Vale in her lap. The normal-looking dog that thrashed an iron ranker like nothing.

"I know he's special." Gale smiled.

"That crystal," Xiaolin asked, "how much does it cost?"

"That's really a bad idea. Just getting in contact with its radiation will kill you within a week or two. As for absorbing it . . ." Gale shook his head, indicating it was a terrible idea.

Xiaolin's shoulder slumped again.

Gale felt bad because of the slip of his tongue. He had less life-threatening ways to share, but now was not the time. He needed to be sure first, lest he give her false hope yet again.

"The universe is vast. There are solutions to every problem," Gale told her, though it was intended for both of them.

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