Aimless Ascension

Contrary to the excitement Gale showed, he didn't act excitedly, instead, he acted more reserved, adopting a contemplative look.

"I'm sorry, I didn't understand your act," Wang Li asked, evident confusion in her tone. "Didn't you want to show something in action?"

"Shh," Gale hissed. "Let me come with the vibe first. Obviously, girls hardly get excited by a "fuckboi" acting like a monkey. From what I can from her, she seemed like a reserved and polite girl, who spent most of her life in a sheltered environment. I have to act accordingly."

"What's a fuckboi?" His disciple asked in the middle, breaking the vibe Gale was building. To his delight, there was no term to describe a fuckboi in a single word in the common tongue.

"It's better if you don't know about it," Gale said instantly. "But remember to stay away from anyone resembling a fuckboi. Your master forbids it."

"Master, I didn't know it is," Xiaolin said, confused. "How do I stay away from them?"

"Hmm, your concern is valid," Gale thought out loud. "Let me give an example for you to understand. The closest thing to a fuckboi you ever came across should be Han Xiao."

Xiaolin's eyes widened as she nodded heavily. Meanwhile, the older woman coughed, which caught Gale's attention. "So, shouldn't you start your act? She'll leave at this rate."

"As I mentioned, don't kill my vibe. Let me get into it first," Gale said as she drew in a deep breath. He refreshed his aura and adopted a calmer and more confident persona.

His disciple sniffed, discovering the change in his aura. "How do you do that?" Xiaolin couldn't help but ask. Wang Li hadn't noticed anything with her senses yet.

"There's still too much for you to learn, love," Gale said with a laugh. This was hardly anything, far from the chick-magnet aura that he tried to cultivate in his early years. "Do you know what gets girls turn up? Preferably a face like Sun Ziang, but I'll make it do with my profoundly mysterious aura."

Both women threw an incredulous look in his direction, equally unbelieving.

"What? You don't like secrets? Or mysteries?" Gale snorted. "Gals dig what they don't understand. Come on, let's finish our business, I have all the time to pick up girls."

There were two tailors in the shop, one older and the younger one seemed to be his son as he held too much resemblance to the balding Oldman. The youth welcomed us all, he was acting nervous since the first beautiful girl arrived at the shop, but now with three, he was barely keeping his stuff inside.

"Welcome, Big Sister Li," the youth stuttered when he greeted Xiaolin, "Xiaolin. You too, Senior Gale."

Gale turned his head to give Wang Li a quizzical look. Well, although the valley was huge, the town wasn't that large. So he shouldn't be surprised if they knew each other.

The Innkeeper smiled politely at the youth. "How have you been, Xiao Yun?"

"I'm well, big sister, just too much work during the festival time," the youth said.

"Well, guess what?" Wang Li said, lifting off the bag holding the clothes Gale bought for her. "We brought more work for you."

Xiao Yun lifted his eyebrows, but nodded regardless. Wang Li gave him the clothes to check as the youth brought it out.

"This is good. Is this for you or Xiaolin?"

"This is for the madam," Gale said in her place. He was about to say more, the other pretty girl in the shop was getting impatient with how they were wasting her time.

"Brother," the girl said politely, "please finish with my request first."

"Ahh, yes miss," Xiao Yun said. "Please come to this corner. You can leave after I measure your sizes."

Gale turned his head to give the girl another look. Now that he looked carefully, he noticed the reason behind her queasier expression. Even though she kept her expression flat and polite, her uncomfortable vibe didn't miss Gale's seasoned senses.

"Friendly advice miss, breaking through quickly is good, congratulations to you for that," Gale said in a serious tone. "However, you shouldn't leave other things to only focus on cycling. Take note of yourself, you look like you'll be in the middle of a breakthrough any moment. That would really be problematic if you weren't prepared for it."

Everyone stopped at what they were doing, including the balding woman, who barely gave any stare to the three beautiful women to stare at Gale.

The girl in question blinked in confusion and then a frown perked up her brows. She hardly noticed any powerful vibe from the odd looking foreigner there, which confused her at first. Then she thought this was someone who was higher rank than her, so it wasn't that hard for him to hide his aura from her.

"Your aura control is really terrible," Gale said again, catching her inspection easily. "Even worse than my disciple, well then again, Linlin had hardly any Qi to contest with you."

The look on the uncomfortable woman's face provided enough evidence for him to believe she didn't know Linlin and Wang Li. Well, from how she looked and how high her cultivation was in such an early age, she shouldn't be from this town, but came to visit during the festival.

"Excuse me. . . Senior," the woman chose her word carefully, "but how do you know about my breakthrough?"

"Please, I'm not a senior," Gale said. "I'm just an aimless practitioner wandering around, trusting the twisted words of an oracle."

With the healthy amount of ciphered mystery, Gale changed to topic of the question. "Anyway, to answer your question, miss, your aura is screaming it in my sight, telling me how close you're to a breakthrough."

The woman's eyes widened as she gasped, unsure what to say or do. While Wang Li lifted an eyebrow, she first thought Gale was bullshitting his way through, but it seemed there was much credibility to the master's words. Well, it looked like it had some value from her point of view.

As for his disciple, that was completely another story. She was looking at the stranger girl longingly, hearing she was closer to breaking through to silver. The girl was barely a year or two older than her, yet so far away from her.

"Let me tell you what more I can find out from your poor aura," Gale said with a thoughtful look. "You clearly aren't from this town and certainly in closed door cultivation for a longer period of time. Hmm, for some reason you broke out before you could advance to Silver, is that it? That's probably why you're so anxious. Is the festival really that huge to cut away such an important step in spirit arts like that?"

The woman bit her lips and looked down, which provided Gale with enough evidence to believe his conjecture was right. Well, most of it was guessing work with the little signs his aura sense provided. After all, it would need an Esper or oracle to learn all this just by looks.

"I know it's a stupid reason," the girl said at last, "but my family was adamant about me coming back."

"Well, perhaps it is for the best," Gale advised. "Perhaps you can take a breather from spirit arts and visit the countryside to relieve your stress. Who knows, you might have a new look at your life and prospect of spirit arts."

The girl nodded and bowed her head respectfully. "Thank you senior for your kind words of advice," she said politely. "I'll remember to work on my aura control."

She then proceeded on to complete her task at the shop. The youth came up with the measuring tape and told her to move out of the public gaze.

"We should finish with the measurement as well," Wang Li said. "Rong'er should have woken up from her sleep by now."

They proceeded inside the interior of the shop as well, only to find the other girl with an uncomfortable expression on her face. Well, she was uncomfortable to begin with, however, now for a different reason.

"Do you need help with the measurement?" Wang Li asked, coming to help.

The girl nodded, much to Xiao Yun's misfortune or delight. He was probably torn between the two, considering he was really nervous about measuring up to such a jade beauty and was about to lose the chance.

"Alright, Little Yun, you go talk with Linlin, you two haven't met in months after you stopped coming to Grandma's lesson." Wang Li took the measuring tape from the youth and proceeded to do the work.

Gale moved out and checked on the clothes to hang on the walls of the shop, leaving the two women to do their thing.

Wang Li didn't take much time finishing the measurements. "See you around in the festival, Qing'e. Also, early congratulations on your breakthrough."

The girl named Qing'e perked up a brow, finding Wang Li knew her name. Then she bowed her in recognition and then did the same for Gale. She helped herself on the way out.

"You know her?" Gale asked Wang Li. Qing'e hadn't left yet, but this wasn't any question to make him hesitate.

"Don't worry, you'll see her around," she said mysteriously. A delighted expression came to her face. "You're right, girls really do like knowing secrets that others don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Wang Li was still with the measuring tape. She found Xiao Yun talking with Linlin, while the old tailor busy on his work. That only left Gale for her. "Will you help me with the measurement? Well, that reminds me, I don't know your size, come up, we'll finish this here."

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Only got about 5 comments on the options I provided yesterday. Comment and let me know which gal will you like to end up with the MC first.