Countless animal cries sounded through the forest, panic, and fear everywhere. And in-between all those cries one could hear laughter. A giant shadow with big and sharp tusks was running after this one laughing voice

It was Yun Kou. The girl was followed by a 2 story tall massive Boar. The beast was enraged and with each swing of its head and mighty tusks, it pushed bushes and trees to the side alike leaving a path of destruction in his wake. This was not the first time this had happened. Kou and this beast had a lot of history! Just a few days after she had gotten here she had been chased by it almost to death escaping just by a slim margin.

From then on they had been playing cat and mouse. The beast, or "Oink" as Kou had named it was in the advanced stages of mid-second realm almost half a step into the late. So Yun Kou had quite some troubles at the beginning.

But now she had adapted to the cuffs. And she had been faster, to begin with - soon she would outgrow "Oink" But she would not let this beast live until than, today was the day she would have a big feast! Kou had fun! But she was laughing very much on purpose, the beast had some intelligence and was very very proud and so laughing at it would make it chase even more, exactly what she wanted form it.

Kou had painstakingly prepared for this day and now it was just about time! she jumped straight over the big pile of old leaves, on her face was the biggest grin as she looked over her back just for good measure she harassed the boar. "Come on Oink Oink! You can't catch me!" The beast roared its eyes glowing blood red! It hated that name! Charging forward it only had Yun Kou in its eyes, today he would crush this little pest!

But suddenly his footing was gone! The beast fell! Yun Kou grinned as she heard the pained cry behind her and came to a halt. Carefully she inched closer to her pit. Big success! This beast had very tough hide! So tough that Kou could not pierce it at all! But its belly was rather soft! And while some of her prepared spikes had broken, a lot of them had impaled the beast! It died seconds after falling only letting out that one cry.

"Hehe...Don't worry Oink Oink! I will remember you, through taste! You are going to last me for a week!" Snickering she started to dismantle the beast!

After many trips, she finally had everything back at her home. Her home was a small cave that had formed between the roots of a very large tree, out of wood bones and pelt she had build a little house next to it but most of her time home she spends in the cave. She had made herself a bed, well it was little more than a big pile of pelt and fur, but it was very soft and comfortable.

The big bonus point of this cave was that it was nice and cool down here, and Kou had dug an even deeper hole, that was the place she brought all the meat and things that could spoil to. This little cave was filled with ice. Enough to bring the temperature low enough to preserve the meat. Oink Oink's neatly cut flesh was placed on large chunks of ice. "Hehe... Now I won't have to hunt for quite a while! But the big price is...! Tadaah! Presenting! Oink Oink's core!" It was rather large, most cores were the side of nuts, but this one was almost as big as an apple!

Falling down on her bed she stared at the deep violet core with a grin before yawning, she curled up her tail wrapping around her tiny frame as she let out a big yawn. "Time for a nap!"

Yun Kou had adapted to her life here. It was actually not that different from living on the streets - you had to look out for yourself but if you were capable of that you would run into little to no problems.

Hours later her ears twitched slightly, with another big yawn she got up, rubbing her eyes she blinked "Mhh..." Falling back into her bed she hugged her own tail burrowing her face into the fluff. No animal here could compare to her very own fur! Even the softest of them would pale in envy in front of her tail! This fluff was very comfortable and calming to her. Yun Kou felt lonely sometimes. She never had before coming to the sect, but after half a year alone in this land, she missed her friends. Wondered what they were doing... wondered what Shi Shi was doing.

But Kou understood one thing. To go back and help Shi Shi she had to grow a lot more powerful. And the Island was very much the best place for this!

After comforting herself for a little she slowly got up and left the cave. Entering her small house she looked around. This was just a workshop. Dried plants everywhere as well primitively created fur clothes and weapons made out of bone and rocks. She picked up one of the dried plants and started to chew on it. It was a spirit herb called Dragons Tongue. It was very useful! It was used in many low ranking pills and elixirs but even just chewing a dried Dragons Tongue would improve the amount of Qi one could take in while cultivating.

And so while chewing on it she sat down cross-legged. Kou had long since stepped into Mid Second realm, even with those cuffs that made Qi usage a lot harder. She actually understood why Shi Shi did what she did now. With these cuffs, everything she did was almost twice as effective, with the same amount of time and hard work she could make twice as much progress than before!

While Cultivating she would always think back to the sect. To her little stone house and to Xiu Shihong, Li Zhi and Hei Tian. Shi Shi too of course. Kou had always tried to stay away from people, never fully trusting anyone never getting too attached to anyone. But that was just a big old lie she had tried to tell herself. She very much was attached to all of them. Hei Mai counted to that number too, she never had gotten to properly thank the older girl that had made her start into the cultivation world as smooth as possible. The girl that had spend many hours she could've used cultivating herself.

Kou had long since made up her mind, she would spend all her time to grow in power, she would grow so powerful that the sect would have to respect her! She would grow so powerful that she could beat up that old fart that kept Shi Shi! And she would become strong enough to slap that prince face in front of everyone!

These were her "humble" goals for the future! But for now...Cultivation!

Half a day later Kou slowly got up feeling refreshed and brimming with energy! Stretching out her left arm she concentrated for a moment and a spear seemingly made out of light appeared in her hand she threw it against a tree that had many many wounds from similar practices! Kou had managed to Master Spiritual Weapons early stages! That allowed her to form weapons and use them for a short amount of time! The best thing was! She could let those weapons explode at will! While the destructive potential was minimal at the moment it would grow with time!

"Mh..." Kou looked around it was already very late at night. The perfect time for her to go out and hunt some more! You could never have enough cores after all! Shadows shoot up around her and enveloped her body, she became little more than a fleeting shadow as she moved now. This was the next step in Hunting shadows that allowed her to move without noise while masking her body with darkness. She was almost invisible at night-time! Cultivating the technique further had also increased the speed she got while activating it!

Golden eyes scanned the surroundings. After Oink Oink had been dealt with Kou was pretty sure she was the strongest in this part of the Island. Most creatures here were somewhere in the late first or early second realm. Just rarely in the middle and she had not once seen one in the Late. Oink Oink was very much the closest to it.

This made Kou the ruler of this area! "Hehe..!" She laughed in a rather evil manner as she traveled quickly from shadow to shadow. Thanks to the cuffs Kou's Qi control was now way better than it had been before. She just used exactly the amount she had to and not more at all! There was nothing wasted after living over half a year with these cuffs! Kou probably had better Qi control than people a lot older than her. Everyone could just blast all their Qi out with a technique and make it powerful that way! But using just exactly the amount of Qi that was needed to give a technique the maximum output was quite hard for most people! And who would think about putting Qi suppressing cuffs on their wrists to train! Clearly no noble would!

Kou finally spotted her prey. She was "hunting" But it was less so for food or anything. She was hunting for a fight! There was a creature living here that was very cautious and very shy. It had superb detection skills and catching it was very hard even if you were a lot more powerful as it was also very fast! Kou had no idea how it was called however she called them rabbits.

They very much looked like them! Long ears a small bushy tail strong and thick legs and tiny arms covered in soft fur! They also had giant eyes and big fangs hanging out of their mouth like a saber tiger! Suddenly the beast turned around. It had spotted her! Kou grinned! Let the chase begin then!