Hope... even as a concept, is difficult to cultivate in a cultivation society. How can one hope when those who seek to destroy it are so much more powerful than oneself? It requires a person to be naively optimistic to the point of foolishness, because it is a vulnerability. A point of exploitation. A button that an opponent can press to dissolve a person's dreams for the future, in essence...defeating them. For if a person has no dreams, they will never want to be more, they will never push for change, will never affect the world. Hope is the Achilles heel of the psyche.

  It is also a person's greatest strength.

  Hope is a driving force - it's the glimmer of light that pushes us forward through the darkness. It's like lifting the stone off your heart - whether lifted by a person, setting forth toward a goal, removing it yourself, or just the sheer belief that lifts the stone. - Chené.

  To blindly wish for better when all other facets of existence point towards desolation is the defining feature of hope. It is a person's last bastion of defence against a chaotic world. Ivor Hansen had extended a hand of salvation in Gareth's darkest time. Where he had been expecting betrayal and exploitation, he had instead received a warm bed, a friend, two caring mentors, an authority figure with morals, superpowers, and the tools to regain his autonomy. He had hoped for a better future and, though it wasn't always sunshine and daisies, he had taken the first few steps to making his dream a reality. Hope had borne fruit.

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  He could breathe fire, had a heart of ice, and had spoken to literal gods; yet the cognitive dissonance remained that he didn't have much wealth to his name, didn't even own a house, or have a girlfriend. He could lament those facts and wallow in self-pity, never making use of his agency to change those 'facts'. He could also do what he had been planning to do: put one foot in front of the other, put his best foot forward, and take the world by storm. Not out of some materialistic, vainglorious pursuit of wealth, but because living life was fun.

  He was in a world of magic, mystery, mayhem, and adventure. The world was his oyster, ripe for the shucking! He just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other, increase his body cultivation, master more skills, and one day he'll achieve his actual goals: Finding Ian and the Doctor, then putting them in the ground with extreme prejudice. He wasn't strong enough to do that just yet, but he held out hope that the coming years would yield what he needed to get there.

  Who knew what the future would bring? He might even fall in love, into the labyrinth... or both.