Vale somehow managed to come in without breaking the door, as he barked at her anxiously.

"What happened, Vale?" Xiaolin literally jumped to wrap her hands around the huge dog, trying to calm him down.

Vale just barked, giving signs of his worries.

"Is it about the Master?" she asked.

The white dog woofed and nodded his head heavily.

"Is he in danger?"

Vale repeated the earlier reply.

Anxiety pricked her mind, and Xiaolin forgot anything she had heard before now.

"Danger," she asked, "What sort of danger? Is he hurt?"

Vale wailed, unable to give an answer.

Xiaolin bit her lips. "Can you lead me to him?"

Vale woofed in agreement and crouched down, as if asking her to sit on top of him.

"Are you serious?" Xiaolin asked.

"Woof!" Another bark of affirmation.

At last, Xiaolin could only agree with the spirit of the guardian and decided to ride him. Vale, although looked fluffy and cute, his stand was firm, like a hundred years of Iron tree. And she could feel him growing.

Vale's body grew harder and a bit bigger as he paced out of the inn. His speed rose as the dog accelerated more to rush in the direction of the mountains. Xiaolin literally had to cling onto his fur to not fall off.

Mist still reigned over the land and more on the mountains as they shot through them. Over her head, she found drifting clouds gathering, clamouring to the prelude to the store.

***

Gale flew deeper into the mountains as the group of masked assassins chased after him.

Whoever sent them after him, they had a clear plan behind everything. Not everything could be a coincidence. A master scriber capable of breaking complicated formation structure and doing it silently; and then this female practitioner, who turned out to be capable of flight.

She was chasing after him, matching his speed, leaving him no space to leave them behind. Not that Gale wanted to.

Gale was pretty sure she would catch up to him soon, provided he already had trouble keeping up with his diminished ability.

Abruptly, a few bolts of arrows shot in his direction, leading him to drop into the cover of the forest, as thick branches and their canopies hid him. Gale slowed his pace as his purpose of fleeing the assassin was complete.

There was one simple reason he brought the group of gold rankers into the thick wilderness. Yes, the thick ironwood forest was a difficult terrain to battle in, but that wasn't his reason.

Gale simply didn't want to ruin the wheat field, not to mention their fight left the script formations broken, which would be tremendously difficult to complete. Not to mention, if the group was really after Sumei, the fight in Stormhold would be difficult for him.

That was why he brought them to the mountains, where he could fight them without worrying about anything. Here he could get loose freely, as none of his misfires could damage anything important.

The masked woman moved down into the forest right after him, but with Gale's instant acceleration, she wasn't able to keep her eyes on him, not to mention the camouflage provided by the thick mists made it even more difficult for her.

Gale disappeared from her sight as she flew in and out around the thick branches to get back on his track.

The red demon-masked assassin joined her right after, gliding from one tree to another. He gestured with his fingers to tell her something. Eventually, she moved to another side to search, leaving this area to him.

Gale was hiding a dozen trees from there. He brought out a couple of small vials of the recovery potion and ingested them one after another without any consideration. They would help him get back a lot of his Qi a lot quicker within a few seconds, more than he was capable of with his circumstances.

But it would also render his spirit incapable of any natural recovery over the time of the next couple of days, at the very least.

After done with that, Gale leapt into the air again, using this natural obstruction of mist to conceal himself. But he had enough of running away for now. As the Qi was recovering in his system, he looked for an easier target to open his book.

Onto one of the Low Gold then.

It had been a long time since he had a real fight, a fight where he was ready to kill. Gale didn't feel like he missed anything.

With his second and third fate lock released, Gale moved onto the two figures approaching the thick ironwood forest at their relatively slower speed.

Gale remained hunched down in the thick mists, waiting. Before they could regroup, he had to decrease their number by at least one.

With that in mind, Gale pumped up a lot of Qi into his third fate lock in order to increase his speed, while his second fate lock provided him with enough enhancement to handle the super speed.

historical

The two low gold exchanged glances, finding nothing but thick mist and trees. One of them moved up on the tree to find the others, and at that very moment Gale acted.

Gale's body sprang into motion, shooting towards the lone figure on the ground, lightning buzzing on his body and spear. Mist swayed along with his moment, as the low gold finally noticed his approach. But it was already too late.

Before he could even lift his arms up to defend himself, the Stormsong dug into his chest, drilling through his cloak and chain mill.

Blood bobbled up in red. The man screamed.

Gale pushed forth, bursting his opponent's heart.

A silence again.

The other low gold on the tree turned and met Gale's eyes. Before he could decide anything, Gale withdrew his spear and shot at him, spinning his weapon in a couple of full arcs.

Gale threw the spear, aiming for his chest. Lightning pulsed through the weapon as it approached the low gold. There wasn't much distance between them.

In his blight, the gold ranker could only jump off the tree, as the spear tip missed him by an inch, kissing his cheek, and drawing a slight cut.

The spear plunged through the ironwood, creating a hole in it to stick to another tree dozens of metres away. Gale shot for the open opponent who was dropping from the tree, recalling his weapon.

Stormsong dematerialised and formed in Gale's back as he thrashed a spinning kick into the low gold's chest. The low gold—caught off guard—was sent flying as his body collided against an Ironwood. The tree shook violently, but before it could calm down, another stammering blow hit there.

Gale launched himself after him, the spear coming to his palms with a shake of his shoulder.

The low gold's eyes were brimming with fear as he defended himself drawing his palms before him, as they glowed in some superficial fate-lock ability. But before the light could coalesce completely for the ability to release itself, Stormsong drilled into his palm, rendering the Low gold to leave everything and scream.

Gale wasn't done. The spear tip dug through the arm to plunge into the masked assassin's head. Mist drifted and swayed, as Gale found he missed his shot, enough to miss a critical blow into the assassin's head.

The spear tip pierced through the ears to dig into the ironwood as the assassin struggled to break free, screaming out of his mind.

Gale jabbed his right fist into his face mercilessly. The unique sound of a chin breaking could be heard as Gale plunged his fist again in the same spot, executing another critical blow, ramming his elbow into the assassin's neck.

Gale proceeded to continue on the ruthless process of brutalising his victim, getting the open chance, but abruptly, goosebumps crawled up on his skin in a danger sign.

Gale spun, leaving the half-dead low gold, and found the red demon—the high gold and also the leader of the group—was onto him, shooting molten liquid fire at him, unafraid that it could kill their partner as well.

The fire was overbearing, easily raising the temperature to over twelve hundred degrees Celsius. Fire of this calibre would eat through his Qi defence to burn him alive if Gale wasn't ready for it.

Although Gale wasn't ready for it, he had other ways to evade the blow. His left palm chilled in a familiar coldness as he raised it in front of the approaching molten fire.

A portal opened between them, easily enough to drop a person through it, but not enough to devour all the flames. Gale pushed more Qi into increasing the hole, but he barely had any time in hand.

The liquid flame plunged into the void hole, the centralised, most intense firepower missing Gale completely, devoured by his void lock, but the less intense firepower flung into the half-dead assassin.

The Guardian emblem provided him with enough defence that Gale wouldn't burn outright when most of the fire was taken care of. As for the burning indignation that pricked his mind, Gale simply ignored it.

The molten fire flowed for a could have seconds and then the temperature came down as Gale let out a breath of relief.

The leader of the assassin was looking at him intensely, but Gale didn't have a stare to contest with him. He simply didn't have time for it.

He spun and created another void hole right on top of the assassin, whose face he devastated a moment ago.

The surrounding temperature rose again.