Aimless Ascension

There were two main reasons Gale came to this town, even though the world had so much to offer. The first was obvious. Gale was tired and needed a quiet place to settle. As for the second, it was even simpler.

Gale loved to travel a lot and the home of the very first school of spirit arts was one place he had on his bucket list for a while. The Eastern domain had intrinsic pride over their spiritual art heritage for a reason, after all. They were the first people to discover a viable path to spirit art, which later moulded the path to divinity.

Gale had already visited the first home of spirit arts before coming to Wayshire, which left only the first reason he was still in town. So far the town showed promise to fulfil the first reason. The people were nice, and Gale hadn't even dipped much into the local cuisine.

However, that changed when some blokes attacked the carriage he was in with Shi Jun, the Master Crafter, on the way back to the town.

Gale and his companion Vale were too late to discover the first attack when fire arrows struck the carriage, breaking the back wheel and the fulcrum. The carriage broke down as multiple arrows infused with tyrannical Qi traversed through the darkness to find their way towards the broken-down carriage.

Gale was late to stop the first-round attack, but he wouldn't be the second time. Lightning flashed in his eyes as he lurched from his spot. A wild surge of Qi pulsed out of his body, working reflexively to create a Qi shield.

Gale might have failed to make it work on time on his own, but fortunately, he was not alone. Vale joined him as the shield took shape, enveloping the broken carriage and horses, which were squirming on the ground.

"Bandit?" Gale asked Shi Jun, who was ready with a large sledgehammer in his hand.

"Probably," the master crafter said, "though I have my doubts."

He shoved his foot on the door to break free out of the carriage. Gale followed behind in tows with the hound.

"How long will your shield last?" Shi Jun asked, his eyes scanning all around to look for the hidden culprits.

Gale found holes in the shield, with arrows sticking out. The bandits weren't fools. They attacked the same spot repeatedly to break the shield. If it weren't for Vale, the shield would collapse even before forming.

"Enough time for them to lose the advantage," Gale said and turned to Vale. "Protect the driver."

"Woof!" Vale sprinted to where the driver fell. Fortunately, he was only unconscious, not dead, though they couldn't say the same for one of the horses. It was way past saving.

Gale supported the other horse to stand back up on its feet. He dropped the Qi shield on one side to let the horse run away. Taking care of that, he too came out with the master crafter, who sprinted right past him towards the bandits in the open.

"You guys almost ruined my good tunic," Gale grumbled, but soon he had to spring out of the way as a fiery arrow shot passed him, missing him by only a few inches.

Shaking his head, Gale looked at the archer who shot at him. He was currently fumbling with another arrow.

A predatory smile crept on Gale's lips as Qi surged through his legs. He released Stormsong for a moment as wild wind Qi shove him in the archer's direction.

The next moment, Gale was right before him, his foot in a position to shove the copper practitioner to the ground. Gale followed the move with some mercy, but the man didn't move again. Unconscious, with multiple ribs cracked.

Gale didn't have time to waste, as there were more of the bandits left to take care of. He spun, his right arm flashing recklessly in the air to catch an arrow. The attacker was another copper ranker, but much younger, probably of Xiaolin's age.

The young bandit was clearly nervous after seeing how Gale manoeuvred his arrow. He didn't shoot again, turned his head and fled with everything he had.

Gale refrained from chasing as there were iron rankers around to take care of. The Master Craftsman was already engaged with one of the Iron rankers and was holding his own.

Gale didn't need to worry about Shi Jun. He released Stormsong in quick succession to move in the air, dodging the arrows. He took care of another copper ranker, shoving the arrow into his gut until an iron ranker tailed behind him with a bastard sword.

Gale brought out his Iron-ranked sword too and matched with the bandit, wisps of Qi rushed, surrounding the contact of the swords. They exchanged over a dozen moves in mere seconds, but within them Gale managed to draw a bloody wound on his opponent's lower body, using his superior agility.

He did that while constructing multiple unstructured Qi shields to obstruct the arrows—others were shooting at him. Within a few seconds, all the bandits knew they weren't a match.

"Withdraw!" screamed the bloody-legged iron ranker. "We need to withdraw!"

"If only it is so easy," Gale muttered. He slammed the sword against the sober iron ranker, flinging him away to advance to the annoying counterparts still firing arrows, even though Gale's Qi Shield rendered them all useless.

"Whose bright idea was this?" Gale asked, but he didn't stop for an answer, though. It was one of the tactics of his younger days. Talk shit to your enemies to confuse them. You'd think only fools would fall for that, but you'd be surprised to know the result. "I'll spare you if you answer."

The copper ranker was scared shitless, discovering the towering fellow flying towards him with a longsword glowing in blue light. The sword was coming exactly towards his neck.

"It's the boss," he screamed. "He decides everything. Please, I don't know anything."

The bandit closed his eyes as the sword drew closer, yet nothing happened after a couple of seconds passed. Sobbing in relief, the bandit opened his eyes to peek, but before he could sense anything, a fist smashed him in the eye like an iron club, rendering him senseless on the spot.

"Here's your spare," Gale said, tossing a few spare copper marks on the unconscious bandit.

____________

The fight scene isn't finished, and a few things you guys should know, I hate the lazy xianxia fight where the MC screams moves like 'Soaring Dragon Sword' and the opponent trash-talks for a minute about how superior his technique is and screams back, "Take my 'Mountain Crumbling Fist'.

Yes, there will be techniques and skills, but not like most translated Xianxia books do. I'm not saying they were bad. I remember getting excited about such moves in my early days as a reader. Anyway, I might use those things as a parody at some point.

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