Finding another one of those apes was not that hard, Kou knew from her time here that these beasts did not like each others company but always stayed somewhat close to each other, just because those apes loved to fight.

Therefore they were the perfect target for Yun Kou! Quickly she found her next target! This ape was a full head bigger than the last one and had quite a few scars, his face had an expression that very clearly said "Arr What ya want from me PUNK? I gonna beat you up!" He was that kind of "Person"!

Well...maybe that was just imagination, but it very much reminded her of those people that would often meet up in the back streets swinging around clubs and sporting weird hairdos, growling and intimidating everyone that was dumb enough to come close! The kinds of people that would regularly get beaten up by the guards and later say they "Won the fight"

Kou chuckled darkly, and that was the first thing that beast heard, a chuckling, from behind him. He quickly turned around his eyes narrowing. Just a few meters in front of him was ...something, a tiny creature clad in shadow. Suddenly eyes opened and inside the shadows, he could see golden eyes slowly turn ice-blue!

He had lived through many battles so he grunted and quickly picked up his primitive stone club growling at the shadow to intimidate it while widely swinging about his club! What he saw was new and scary but he was not someone to get scared of something this tiny!

The shadowy creature kicked off, the speed in which it approached him was fast! But he could react to it! Raising his club he blocked the ice-clad spear that shot in his direction, but the creature suddenly abandoned its weapon and dove down! Using his own club as a foothold! He just barely managed to back up. But the creature still managed to cut him, in its hands was a weapon of light! Was the spear just a decoy?!

He let out a roar, this roar had Qi in it and pushed the creature back it made a black flip in the air and landed in the shadow of a tree nearby, staring at him, those cold icy eyes staring him down... were kinda unnerving, he had fought many beasts in his life but this one.. just after this first exchange gave him the chills... those icy eyes surrounded by dark shadows, he could not even see it's expression...

This was fun! That big oaf used his club to block her attack and she had more than enough space to use his club as a foothold and dive downwards cutting him with a blade made out of light. The wound was shallow but she got first blood. She was just about to make her next move when the beast suddenly roared. An ear-shattering roar that had a pushing force in it and she was pushed over 20 feet away from a ringing noise rattling her ears... having good ears was not always a plus...

The Spirit Weapon in her hand was rapidly losing its form, Kou still had trouble maintaining it for long amounts of time, so she threw it! The light was smashed by the stone club! That was exactly what she had wanted, she used the creatures swing to spring into its shadow before she had just moved normally only utilizing speed, but this time she used the technique, she could feel the Qi filling her body and suddenly she appeared behind the creature, both of her daggers in hand.

But the beast was on guard! She only got her daggers to cut into its hide just drawing little blood before it shoots around one of its four arms reaching for her. She quickly jumped backward...and continued, The jungle was full of shadows, and each shadow was a possible position out of which to launch an attack.

"CRIIIIIIIIIK" She had jumped and struck out but the beast had blocked with its club. Heavy! Strong! Stronger than her! Kou barely managed to avoid the incoming grabbing arms and backed off, She could hear cloth ripping, the beast had grabbed part of her sleeve and ripped it off, it was really close! She should avoid getting into those things hands or she'll be ripped into pieces..

Clicking her tongue she shook her head... An open confrontation like this was not her strong point, it probably never would be. But...Now it was time to stop restraining herself, the fight had already lasted long enough...

He was slightly out of breath. The tiny thing was fast but lacked strength, it could not get a proper blow in, at this rate this would come down to stamina, he would clearly outlast her, after all, he mostly stood still while she moved around a lot. He did not have to take the fight into his own hands, just keep blocking and he would win.

With a grunt, he focused on the shadowy thing...Suddenly he felt a chill down his spine, for a moment he mistook it for fear, but quickly he realized he was ..cold. There was just one place on this island that was cold, the highest peak that carried snow on it, other than that it was mostly tropical and very warm, therefore this beast had never been cold before.

The Aura around this shadowy thing had completely changed. It was no longer a shadow, he could now clearly see what she was, a small thing, with pale skin and long fluffy hair, behind her back was a long and just as fluffy tail gently swaying back and forth. A pair of large white ears with black tufts on her head twitched slightly.

Even for a beast like him, the creature in front of him would fit 'Cute' perfectly. However, the effect she had was immediately destroyed by her ice-cold glowing eyes. It was like looking into an ancient glacier. The chilly eyes were dark and devouring, and he could feel his strength slowly leave him. The cold embrace made him unable to do much as his increasingly rapid breath formed clouds in front of him. He could not move..His already frozen eyes no longer able to see. The last picture in his mind were those terrifying eyes staring at him. Staring... at him.

He was dead.

Kou let out a deep breath and finally relaxed. [ That was something...]

Her Ice-flame was very potent! Just from the first strike with the ice-clad spear it had rested in the apes club, slowly creeping down his arm, he was so heated and into the fight that he did not realize it. Once she had enough of the fight she had woken the dormant Ice-flame and it froze the ape in one go, it still stood there just like he was alive.

Kou grinned and stepped closer and picked up her spear again, a wide swing against the ape shattered him into pieces, his core rolling on the round, Kou picked it up and put it away. She would have to train using the flame more, right now it did not just freeze her enemies but seemingly also her emotion.

"Mhh.." She felt nothing when killing that ape, she had just stared at it, her mind feeling oddly frozen. She was still thinking clearly but ...different, colder. She liked her Ice-flame but she did not like that, so that would be something she would have to train.

A few days later.

Kou was currently stepping into the late second realm, she could feel her whole body drenched in sweat. Whoever made breakthrough be so uncomfortable needed to go to jail in her opinion. Her fluffy ears tilted down tightly against her head and her closed she felt her whole body tighten. There it was.

The cracks in her dantian growing bigger and bigger and than suddenly it was over, her body was drenched in slimy grime, that was the reason she had done this at the beach, quickly she jumped into the waves to wash all of that grime off...

"Urg..." She quickly left the waves and went back on the sand picking up a clay made water bucket, this time to wash the salt off! Now she looked rather sad with her tail and ears losing some volume from being wet, shaking herself like a dog would she quickly put on her clothes again nodding to herself.

"Good!" She opened and closed her fist, she could feel the power inside of her increasing already! She was almost in the 3th realm! Her progress since coming here was very fast, nothing was here to stop her, she was always able to improve somehow, there were many plants and herbs that would help her cultivate and the amount of High-level beast was seemingly endless, giving her quite the amount of cores.

Slowly she made her way back to her "Home" playing with one of the apes' cores, the bigger ape had been just on the brink of the late-stage and his core would be very beneficial to her right now. Once she arrived home she entered her little "Alchemy" hut, she had never done any Alchemy here but every medical herb she had found in her time here she picked and preserved here. Many of them were already beneficial taking them just like this.

It was a bit of a waste but Kou picked a Herb und put it into her mouth, this was Mortal Spirit Grass, it would help her absorb the cores energy better, it would be a lot more potent if she could actually make a pill out of it, but for now this would be enough.

Popping the core into her mouth she quickly swallowed and sat down cross-legged. The absorption was easy enough, she could already feel how the energy in her dantian was growing again.

A few hours later.

She had not been able to fully absorb the core, but at least 50% of its energy was now hers! That was a big step forward, but it was also very dangerous, what Kou did not know was that cultivating like this was actually not often done. It could lead to internal injuries and backlash! Protector Hu actually used a method like this to force his way into the 3rd realm!

Kou luckily had very good innate talent and had a big amount of spirit blood in her veins so for her it was not too dangerous! Kou also always took some time between consuming cores like this, just because it was not tasty at all and shallowing them was very uncomfortable. This way she avoided any real danger!

The Sun was already down and Kou climbed one of the nearby trees, all the way to the upper branches, this way she had a nice view on the ocean, her now once more golden eyes glowing slightly, just like all the stars in the sky. She missed her friends, Xiu Shihong, Hei Tian, Li Zhi, and Shi Shi, she missed training with them or doing missions. She missed Xiu Shihongs bickering when she tried to run around with a bedhead, how Li Zhi always wanted to take notes of everything. And Hei Tian's cheerful self. And ..:Shi Shi's warmth.

She wondered what was going on in the sect, did her friends Miss her? Did they try to find her? Did that Princeling get his face smashed in? The Peace period was long since over, and Kou was probably around 12 by now, she still looked younger than before, her former life of malnourishment and starving still leaving its marks on her. Wondering if she would see her friends again before they all became adults she stared into the sea of stars...