She felt a lot better the next time she woke up, the scene in front of her had not changed - it was still dark outside and she could see the tree canopy over her, slowly she sat up, while it did hurt it was not quite as unbearable as last time, taking in her surroundings while scratching the back of her head her eyes land on a simple wooden plate that was placed on the ground next to her.

On it was a big chunk of cooked meat, it still seemed to be hot, Kou’s mouth was watering already so dug in, no table manners required! Picking it up with her hands she sunk her teeth into the meat, it was delicious! It hat a somewhat crunchy texture to it - and the inside had a weird grayish color. Not that that would stop her at all - she had eaten things that had mold on them, her stomach was iron!

And unlike those things THIS was really tasty! She felt strength flush back into her body with each bite as if her whole body was rejoicing at the taste.

It did not take long for the whole piece to vanish into Kou’s mouth - she dropped down again patting her stomach letting out a small burp, a completely satisfied expression on her face she closed her eyes to continue sleep.

Then her brain kicked back in and she stiffened suddenly were was she actually? And why is Shi Shi not here? And how long had she been down?!

Shooting back up - to her feet this time she took her time to properly look around. She was still in the forest, left, right and in front of her were trees, and behind her was a smallish hill with a cave entrance.

In front of the said entrance was a small garden with flowers. Kou assumed that this cave was Shi Shi’s home so after testing her legs a little she made her way over to the cave carefully.

Now her deep routed suspicious nature came out again, she used hunting shadow’s to approach quickly, to her wonder she realized that she could use the art much better than before! In her life and death struggle, she had continuously improved slightly - so the Qi drain on her right now was a lot lower than before.

At least that stinky spider was worth something… Fighting it was a really scary thought and Kou was not sure she would go for a fight next time too, even if fighting brought improvement.

It was simply way too scary, she could still remember how her heart was pumping how she had to put every ounce of willpower into not panicking. She stopped near the cave entrance, her hands wandering down to her belt - but the daggers… of course, were not there - they were probably still in the giant spider.

After Kou had awakened the giant spider corpse was already gone.

Biting her lower lip she remained standing behind a nearby tree. She could just run off back to the sect, the bag with her sect mission stuff was still on her belt. But just going away without meeting the person that saved her again would sit wrong with her, at least she had to know what that person wanted in return…

She also felt this weird connection to that old woman, something inside of her wanted to trust her unconventionally, and that rubbed her in all the wrong spaces, it was such a foreign feeling, she did not ever really trust Hei Mei, even if she was thankful for the woman's teachings.

Stomping her feet she abandoned all pretense of being steahtly, this was kind of frustrating! That woman… spirit… Shi Shi. Had saved her so why should she harm her now? With that mindset, she made her way into the cave.

The care actually was not that big - about the size of her own home in the outer sect - there were a few bookshelves a big desk and a fireplace, it had a cozy feeling to it.

Next to the desk still in her human form was Shi Shi - the old lady was currently writing something, seemingly fully concentrated on that. Kou slowly came closer and then came to a halt next to the desk… waiting for the old woman to finish up

Minutes trickled by and after a while, Shi Shi spoke: “Aren’t you patient lil’ thief - I’m done now, and I see you have not fled my humble home.” Shi Shi turned around her kind golden eyes falling onto Kou - that gaze made Kou uncomfortable so she stepped back a little.

“Well Well, no need to fear me.” Shi Shi chuckled and put down her pen. “But what you think certainly is true, saving you did not come free of charge.” Shi Shi got right to the point even without Kou having to say anything.

Which for Kou was rather convenient.

“You see, I’ve been living here in the woods alone for a long time, the sect has contracted me - to set up trails for their little students here and there.” While she spoke the fluffy and long fox tails sway back and forth behind her.

“And as it so comes I need some help with that - so I will enlist you for it, of course - it won’t be unpaid - I will train you in some arts that you might find useful.”

The old woman looked down at Kou and Kou looked back up, somewhat expressionless before she narrowed her eyes slightly. “What is the catch.” She asked in a very businessman kind of manner.

This made Shi Shi laugh “Oh the catch is that you have to be my test dummy for the trails of course, but my teachings will make up for this.” A foxy and slightly dangerous grin now adored the old woman’s face and Kou found it was a lot more fitting than the kind smile…

Still… she nodded. “Will do, but I have to attend sect lessons too - Don’t know much.”

Shi shi nodded slowly “At least for the time being this is fine, the time those lessons will continue to run will run out shortly anyway, You will come here on each free day you have until then, and when the lessons end we will negotiate new times, lil’ thief.

With those words, Shi Shi - without Kou being able to do anything about it scooped her up and carried her out of the cave, there was no escape from this at all - this old woman was super strong! ”One more thing for the future, I advise you to stop eating normal food - you should go hunt for beasts in the mountains every so often to sate yourself.“

“Your body is a little special - I will tell you about it at a later date - but you can trust me that spirit beast meat is quite beneficial for someone like you. After all, that chunk of spider meat piped you right up again, even after being hurt so badly, hu?”

Kou curled her nose in the woman’s arms. So that was what that meat was… It was a little worrisome that this old spirit apparently knew much more about her body then she herself. But that was just one more reason to attend these lessons…

As Shi Shi carried her they went through something membrane like - it stuck to Kou a little but Shi Shi pulled her out. They were in the forest still but unlike Shi Shi’s home she knew this part - it was not far away from the outer sect.

As Kou looked around she found no little hill or cave behind Shi Shi just more forest.

Shi Shi let her down again, and somewhere within Kou she felt a little sad about it, an emotion that was quickly suppressed. “You’ll find your way back home from here on your own when you come to see me come back here and call Shi Shi and I’ll get you.”

“I will, goodbye - and… thank you.” Kou was somewhat bashful about thanking the old woman, it might not be a good idea to spend more time with her - it made her feel weird, but this weird feeling … was not particularly bad.. just unfamiliar.

With her words spoke Kou dashed off back to the outer sect. Her first stop is the Mission board - handing in her spoils at the counter and receiving 20 spirit stones and a few sect points in turn. With this, she had enough points to pick another art in the archive.

But she would leave that out for tomorrow - she wanted to go visit Li Zhi and ask for her notes of the day she had missed while sleeping in Shi Shi’s home.

She had only been at the other girl's home once, her roommate was a chubby girl with curly hair, quite arrogant and feisty, the type of person Kou could deal with the least - so she never went for another visit.

Li Zhi’s house was in the better parts, it was almost twice as big as Kou’s and had a wide garden. Li Zhi had planted a lot of herbs here and Kou spotted her crouched over some herbs.

As Kou is she approached almost silently - certainly not making enough noise for the other girl to notice, before speaking up. “Helloh.” The simple greeting startled Li Zhi and she almost fell over, but Kou caught her robe and pulled her up before the girl’s body flattened the herbs

“Yun Kou.. Hello... You should really say something before you are standing right behind someone you know.” The girl sounded a little nervous.

“Will do that next time, Can I see your notes? I was stuck in the forest for a bit.”

Kou immediately came down to the point, the word notes also immediately changed Li Zhi’s behavior, she nodded strongly “Of course! Come in Come in! Let me just wash my hands, the lesson you missed actually was quite interesting, the Elder spoke about bloodlines!”

And then the girl went on and on about the lesson. While Kou looked at her tidy notes.

Bloodlines.

There are a few distinct races in this world.

There are the humans, you can divide those between mortals and cultivators - 1 in a thousand had the change to reach highs in cultivation so the number of mortals was enormously higher than the number of cultivators.

There are beasts. Simple animals that could cultivate to become demon beasts slowly growing stronger over time just like a cultivator, these demon beasts were dangerous and wildly arrogant and self-centered. And if one reached a certain realm they would be able to take a human form.

And Spirits, Spirits are forces of nature they come in two kinds.

There are those spirits that are ethereal, that the eye can not see. These spirits govern the law of the world, they are unbelievably powerful, but they are mindless, just like a force of nature.

And then there are spirits that had given up a large part of their powers in exchange for freedom, while those spirits could still grow in strength they could never go back to what they once were. Most call them Spirit Beasts.

Over the centuries, the line between spirit and demon beasts became a little blurry, so much so that they even established their own kingdom.

The line between humans and them never became as blurry - but over the millennia there was always a human that would come together with a spirit or demon beast, leaving their offspring with special bloodlines.

These bloodlines quickly became diluted in human society, but every now and again there would be offspring that could access it. Granting them special powers.

For instant, there is the Shu clan in the east of the empire - their bloodline is still thick and many children are born with some kind of future of a pangolin - they were rather famous for their defensive powers.

After that was some information about awakening once bloodline with pills and other things, apparently even children that were born 20 generations later could have thick enough blood to awaken the bloodline if they were lucky. But usually the thicker the blood was the more chance you had to awaken it.

Kou thanked Li Zhi for her help and promised to help the girl with a mission in return at some later date. Before making her way back home.