Aimless Ascension

Xiaolin gobbled up everything her master made for her. With her body feeling better, she had no trouble doing it all alone, although the prospect of her master feeding her made her think more than twice.

Torn between the delight of what had happened yesterday and her shame, she decided to eat on her own.

The food wasn't anything delicious though, simply nutritious salads with the addition of that detestable green drink that her master loved to feed her.

"How are you feeling?" Gale asked her.

"Better than I hoped," Xiaolin answered, not looking at him.

"Good then, we can examine a little on where you have improved after this," Gale said as he got off the bed. "I'll be waiting on the roof of the new house. You can take your time preparing."

Xiaolin hummed in agreement as her master left her room.

Xiaolin squeaked in delight again and then stopped, chewing the vegetable slowly.

'Master accepted me,' she thought, 'but it doesn't feel like anything changed though.'

It was about the same as before. Her master made the meal most of the days before she could wake up and trained her as he instructed today as well.

Xiaolin frowned as she considered. Perhaps it wasn't just to make her uncomfortable.

When that got off her mind, Xiaolin closed her eyes and concentrated on the bond mark. Slowly, her mind drifted to feel the presence of another person. Her master cleaned the dishes just in the next room.

He had no idea she was spying on him like this and--

"I guess you figured out how to operate the mark," Gale yelled back, as Xiaolin swallowed, cutting off her concentration on the bond mark immediately.

Chuckling to herself, Xiaolin thought it should be the time for her to check out how her cycling had changed. She closed her eyes again and imagined the revolving sphere.

Immediately, thick wisps of energy came to her grasp as she absorbed them.

"Whoa," Xiaolin grasped. Her speed of absorbing energy had increased to a tremendous degree.

Feeling good about herself, she checked out a little more and didn't wait there ceremoniously. She went to the old bathroom and do the work she had been dying to accomplish after the advancement.

She checked on herself. Completely naked.

It was quite easy to remove her thin robe, as she had worn nothing underneath yesterday. Then she focused on the face reflected in the mirror.

At first notice, she couldn't actually recognise it. It felt like someone else's face. Just to be sure, she pinched her milky white cheek and the person in the mirror imitated her completely.

The face in the mirror held more resemblance to her than she recognised at first, but it was more perfect. And then came her bleached-out hair. Xiaolin touched it, as it felt like feathers to her touch.

She drew in energy from the environment, and just as her master told her, her hair shimmered in a dim golden light. The intensity rose with the amount of energy she absorbed. Xiaolin's heart grew excited.

Xiaolin wasn't sure which one she liked the most, but this new hair certainly stood out more. Even more so when it was literally shimmering.

Then came her height. Honestly, she would sell her hair to get a few more inches. Her master said she had grown a few inches, but she certainly didn't feel like it. Another change was how she put some mass to her body, while it was where she desired, more on the lower body. She was happy with it.

Lastly, she inspected the mark on her abdomen. It remained stamped on her flat belly as if nothing serious, but it had almost killed her.

Just as her master said, it felt incomplete. It glowed in a golden shimmer whenever she drew in energy. That was just about it after omitting the part where she checked out more of her womanly parts.

Refreshing herself, Xiaolin changed into her training robes and got out to meet her master.

The test her master put her through was simply around cycling. The speed at which Xiaolin absorb energy had increased by a lot of margins. After a few tests in this regard, they find out it took her barely a minute to fill a fifth of her energy pool, which was already twice of her previous pool of energy.

Then the speed was cut off by halves and lessened even further as she reached to her saturation. Of course, even the decreasing speed was still a few folds higher than her regular speed.

So without pure crystals, she would need about a couple of hours to fill herself with energy. That was never possible before the advancement.

But with pure crystal, it would be totally a different story. Unfortunately, she absorbed the last bit of pure crystal on her advancement to taste it out.

"I'll get more of it later," Gale reassured her.

As pure crystal was the main reason behind her advancement, Gale couldn't be cheap out on that. Though he had to plan this carefully, as he couldn't let Xiaolin go through the calamity faster. She was hardly prepared for this one. If it wasn't for his third fate lock, she would have died.

Gale wasn't sure how much he could even help next time. He had to put some serious extended thoughts in this regard.

"More importantly, is the energy emitting from your body on its own?"

"It is," Xiaolin said, but she wasn't that distraught about it. "But the rate hasn't increased, also I can keep them inside if I concentrate now."

It was also easy, if she was with less energy. For example, when she was barely one-fifth full, she hardly emitted anything, but when she was full, it emitted out just as fast as she used to. It would take her a day at the very least to go on from full to nil doing nothing.

A big improvement, she would say.

"Hmm," Gale hummed in contemplation. "I think your lineage is not about cultivating Qi like how normal humans do, but accumulating them, using them, and being done with it. Well, I can be wrong, but this seemed likely."

"Meaning I'll always have lost energy?"

"Probably not," Gale said. "But that would change after you go through a couple more calamities, at the very least. Honestly, I think you'll be a sight to watch when you complete your lineage mark."

The day went just like that. Gale treated her completely usually, though he was a bit open about showing his affection. But with all the work he had, he couldn't give her more time.

The mansion would be ready within a week and Gale had to complete the defence construct by then. Xiaolin simply watched him as he worked throughout the evening.

Nothing happened that day that could make her heart flutter like yesterday.

The next day came and went just about the same, Gale treating her only as a disciple, not giving her enough time that he promised.

Xiaolin wasn't satisfied with it.

So she came knocking on his door at night.

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