"CHAAAA!" One swift kick and another one of those giant fish was dead in the Water! Kou let out a frustrated groan as she sank down on the deck of her small raft. Neither her or Xiong or anyone else for that matter had an idea how to build a boat, so they just made it stupidly sturdy. The trees it was made out of were actually not really trees but the corpses of high-level 3rd realm beasts...That just so happened to look like trees! They were actually pretty sneaky, sitting still all day acting like trees and then they would attack things that went past them our tried landing on them!

Hiding in plain sight pretty much!

With one flick of her sleeve, all the corpses around her were sucked into her special storage. "Mhm...Fish is gonna be tasty.." she nodded while looking north. Who she knew she was looking North? She had gotten a small compass from Xiong! So her course was steadily towards the empire.

It had been a good week now that she was on sea, luckily she could move the raft without any wind.

There was just one big problem with this whole thing... Kou flopped on ber back sprawling tails, legs, and arms out as she stared upwards. "This... is ... so.... BORING!!!!" She yelled out into the air, not that anybody would hear here, the worst-case scenario would be some weird fish monster that got spooked by her. There was just so much time one could sit still and cultivate - aside from the odd weak ocean monster every now and then NOTHING happened, and she had barely been on sea for a few days.

The empire did not sail these seas at all - obviously! The common cultivator in the empire was in somewhere around mid to late second realm with the elite already in 3th, the amount of core formation people that were currently alive did not extend over a few hands worth of people. Most creatures she had come across until know had been early to the late third realm. A force that would need a small army to combat! The manpower required to travel these seas and explore did simply not outweigh the expenditure of manpower... well in the emperor's eyes at least.

....

Kou was sitting crosslegged on the raft, energy filling the air around her as she let out a sigh and opened her eyes, golden light shoot out of them and Kou nodded slightly. "Just a little bit more and I'll be in the late fourth realm.." Slowly she glanced around, she had drifted off course while cultivating the raft now going North-west instead of North. "Mhm... Need to adjust the course.." Kou was about to change the sails as the raft came to a halt as if it had just crashed into something.

Her brows sunk as she looked around, it was just ocean around her nothing else, so why was the raft suddenly still and did not move anymore? "Weird.." Kou slowly approached the edge of her raft and perked over it. Nothing... She reached out and quickly pulled back her hand. Some kind of force field stopped her from moving forward!

She closed her eyes and steadied her breath focusing her Qi she struck out, Energy in the form of her palm suddenly crashed against the barrier and she could hear it crack, but not break. Curiosity spiking she repeated the palm strike a few times. What happened afterward was weird, it looked like as if part of reality was shattering in front of her as the barrier cracked and shattered even more as Kou hit it once more.

It was simply a barrier to hide everything inside from outside eyes, it was not particularly powerful but almost impossible to find without being multiple realms over the creator. For Kou, this was simply dumb luck and she glanced forwards, a small Island was in front of her this one honestly was small, the Island she had spend the last few years on had been enormous, big enough to host that giant mountain and such! Compared to that this place was like sand corn swimming in the waves.

"Mhm...Why would there be a barrier around something like this.." peering inside the barrier she saw a half-destroyed temple on the island, it did not look like anyone would live here, the thing's roof was not even intact... A roof of sorts was needed to live in peace, Kou knew that from her own time on the streets! Not that a cultivator would mind if he got wet or it was cold...

"Mhm..." Kou shook her head and made her way inside, paddling the raft forwards quickly, like that it did not take her long and the raft went on shore, pulling it up and away from the waves Kou left it behind to explore the Island, even if it was twice the size it was she would still only need at best half a day to scout out every nook and cranny here!

Curiously she glanced around, it seemed like a very normal small island, the animals she could see were .. just animals even while circling the shore she found nothing of notice so she slowly made her way up to the temple building, it was resting on the only small hill this otherwise flat island hat surrounded by thick vegetation. She used her tails to push branches and brambles out of the way, she was not in haste so she would rather avoid harming anything for no reason. Therefore it took a little bit until the arrived at the fallen in building. Clearly it had been a temple of sorts as large religious looking statues were everywhere, half-broken and overgrown. These statures all seemed to stand on various flying objects and from what Kou could tell they all were the same person. Carefully she inched inside the building. While she did not feel any threat here, it was still better to be careful!

Inside the "Temple" Was more structured like a school of some sort, and Kou could tell that there had been fighting here, a few bones were still around, the classrooms were destroyed and even the living quarters were completely whipped just barely noticeable under the rubble.

There were a few things left undamaged however there were stone tablets and small ornamental texts everywhere. "Farstriders school.."She curled her nose slightly, she had not heard of that "School" but there were countless lesser sects and schools all over the empire, many of which would fight over the little territory and land that was free from the control of the 4 big sects, there it really was the law of the jungle the strong devour the weak, but that did not seem to be the case here, this Island was clearly not inhabited anymore no other sect had taken over this place simply got destroyed, and from what she could tell from the damages there had been fights of cultivator against cultivator here. "It's probably not worthwhile digging through the rubble for something the attackers leftover... but I might as well see if I can find anything left over..."

There were a few spirit stones minor ones only.. but the more the better, right? All the spirit-stones in her storage would probably get lonely if she did not add every other she could find to the sizable pile inside of it. "Hehehe..." Snickering to herself as she made a sport out of it to unearth everything she could.

About half a day went by and Kou was covered in dust. Her haul? A small pile of spirit stones a few minor technique formulas and .. some weird blue stone that continued to glow faintly. "Mhm...These formulas aren't really suitable for me but... it might fetch a good price somewhere..wonder what the orb is about.." She had tried everything she could imagine prying the secrets the Orb held from it, but Kou was not all that confident in any of the more "complicated" arts of cultivation such as divination or runes, or anything for that matter that did not mean to steal or fight. Getting frustrated with the Orb she chucked it away.

The glimmering orb flew through the air and hit one of the larger half-broken statures. A rumble shook the place. "H..Heee!" Kou was just about to head outside and did not think anything would happen therefore she was caught off guard and quickly found herself behind one of the statures her tails puffed up and her ears tilted back a bewildered expression on her face."What.. just happened.."After the rumble had subsided she slowly inched her way forward jumping from cover to cover like a stalking cat that slowly neared its pray... The seemingly solid base of the statue had moved to reveal a slender stairway leading down into the dark.

What had caused that? The orb she had thrown had landed in the statures hand activating whatever formation was inside of it that opened up this tiny hidden stairway that had been overlooked by whoever had assaulted this place. curling her nose she moved towards the entrance, complete darkness greeted her just a few steps down, but darkness was her best friend in life - and her very own darkness shrouded her in loving embrace as she stepped downwards, quickly she was not to be seen anymore, in the dark she was a phantom of darkness, unaffected by it relishing in it.

She had mastered hunting shadows to the extreme, so much so that the technique had long since become her very own variant of it. What was seen as an intermediate movement technique that was subpar at best in the sect had become one of her biggest strengths, by now with her mastery of it it was comparable to top techniques only given to people in the upper echelons of the sect! Part of that came of her lack of any other techniques making her master every step of this, the other was that she was naturally adapt to the darkness.

The spiraling staircase leads far underground, surely so far that Kou was already many many meters under the sea at that point "Mhm...I don't really like the prospect of being crushed by seawater at all... " Still she continued on downwards until she found a large hall, unlike the temple everything here was still untouched rows of benches were in front of a large altar. Said altar was not empty, there were a few items most prominent of them a glowing piece of jade, as well as a dagger. Both of them laid to the feet of a mummified corpse of an ancient-looking old man.

"Urg..." Kou slowly inched closer, she was not a fan of corpses and this one just looked plain creepy, as she inched closer she could see the inscription of on the altar. "Founder Farstrider, an adviser to the 15 emperors of Ning, Sage of cultivation." Kou flinched, that old guy reminded her of the one she had encountered all the way back in the sect trail, the one she had gotten her cloak from and almost died too.

Suddenly the corpse shook and it's fallen in eyes cracked open, filling the cave in light. "Finally... a new host..." The corpse stretched out it's left hand slowly reaching out to Kou in his eyes was greed. Kou felt a pulling force around her something that tried to restrict her from moving even an inch.

"AAAARGH!" Suddenly a cry filled the air, as the Hand that was outstretched towards Kou was cut off cleanly at the wrist, Kou had summoned a sword out of her cloak and cut him, shaking off the force that tried to restrict him easily while her golden eyes slowly darkened as she stared at the now bewildered-looking corpse-like face.

....

He was Sage Farstrider - back in his time he had been one of the most powerful cultivators in the empire, even the imperial family was respectful to him and his school and while he could not be counted between the big sects his school was an upper-class power.

His life was glorious and he went undefeated into his old age. His cultivations stagnating half a step into the unknown realm. But he was unwilling and bitter! He did not want to leave this world, he did not want to die the death of a mortal that slowly withered away, he spent all his late years in pursuing techniques, Alchemists to prolong his life, just for all of it to fail. At the age of 1100 he could feel that his time was close, utilizing a forbidden technique he mummified himself - trapping his soul in a state between life and undeath. He had ordered his school to find the most talented youngling, groom him to bring him before this very altar.

That had never happened, he knew not why or how but time went and went and he was drifting in and out, the chamber was built with Qi infused materials so it would not deteriorate even after millennia so he had nothing to tell him how much time had passed. The only thing that had given him hope was that the Qi he had saved inside his body to take over the body of the youngling that was supposed to come was still there and not weakening at all.

Finally. He felt how his formation upstairs was activated and just seconds later a female in her teens stood before him. White silvery hair fell down her back, strands of silver falling into her face, she had not seen a proper haircut in years that much was clear, she wore high-quality garments, however, and with surprise, he realized that she had animalistic ears on her head and two tails behind her. This woman was very beautiful, albeit beautiful might've been the wrong word - it was more of a wild cuteness - that had just bloomed into beauty.

Someone with Spiritblood! His useless underlings had sent him someone so precious! Only the Royal and Aristocratic families had spirit blood! If he took over her body he would not be limited by his human potential anymore! Greed filled him as he ordered the Qi inside of him. "Finally... a new host."

He had spoken, clearly frightening the girl.

Or so he had thought. The girl's golden honey-like eyes suddenly grew dark and pain flooded his body, shocked he saw his arm fly into the darkness. He felt coldness creep up his spine, and the Qi that was supposed to suppress and destroy his new host's soul was used to make him move away from the girl. What terrifying creature was this! She was clearly not older than 13 or 15, but the Aura he felt clutching down on him was clearly peak strength, if he had been at his most powerful state he would be able to fight her but not like this, there was no way!

This Monster child, however, did not stop approaching him, the darkness in her eyes was like swirling whirlpools threatening to suck him, with a swift kick of the girl he was thrown off the altar like a ragdoll crashing into the wall and sliding down to the ground, the Qi he had saved was filling his body now giving him some vitality and making him appear more like an old man and less like a corpse.

The girl's eyes never left him as she picked up the dagger and jade piece, his hearth bleed. The dagger had been forged from the horn of a beast in the unknown realm that he and many other experts had slain together, it was the treasure of the school! A weapon that in its existence alone demanded respect! What hurt him, even more, was the jade piece, it contained the information of a technique that he and the elders of his school had spend most of their lifetime collecting and refining. Each of them had the dream of the sky. Farstrider's school had been famous far and wide for their great flying treasures able to let someone fly at great speed and up to a day of time! The sole reason they were able to establish this grand school so far offshore!

But the truth of their dream was to fly in the wind without the help of any treasures, flying out of their own power. Legends were told that those that stepped into the unknown realm would be able to leave the ground behind. But.. nobody was ever there to confirm it. That jade contained their sacred flying technique! "Don't touch that!" His shrill voice filled the hall but was quickly cut short and devolved to a whimper.

The girl's eyes that had been dark before turned icy blue in an instant and a spear out of pure ice as thick as small tree was rammed into the wall next to him shutting him up.

....

What Farstrider did not know was that in the eons he had been his sleep-like state cultivation had evolved far above what he knew, he was barely in the peak 4th realm, even in his prime he would have to spend considerable effort to keep up with Kou. What was powerful for him was weak for her, the Dagger he treasured so much as a decent weapon made out of the horn of a weak core-formation creature, rare, yes but not something unheard of or even too scary for anyone that was part of the bigger sects, of course for Kou it was a good upgrade but that was not the biggest gain here.

She never had found a flying treasure anywhere, whatever had raided this place had picked everything clean, so the technique in the jade piece was what got most of her attention, even today techniques such as this were unheard of and most cultivators used flying treasures, even in core-formation flying was mostly done while riding treasures, only if one transcended that stage would the skies open up to them.

Even in current times, this ancient technique would be worth quite a lot even with its limited combat viability.

....

Kou looked down on the old man, she felt very strange, hot rage was burning in her chest from the moment he had said something about "host" She felt like shredding this fossil to pieces, barely able to hold back. "Anything else of worth here?..." She growled down her ears flicking backward as she stared down the old man. "If you tell me I'll let you live."

Finally, the old man lost it and laughed "Let me live? I'll die now no matter what, my Qi is dissipating and the last thing I see is someone stealing from me! Haha!" He laughed crazily, the hope that had filled his mind all these years was gone, he was nearing his end no matter what that girl did, so why be courteous to her! He had no fear anymore now so he simply laughed at her...

Being laughed at was not particularly fun... Kou curled her nose, her eyes darting around for a bit before she backed off and sat down on the stairs her icy eyes starring at the man that was slowly calming down. His grey eyes were drifting over to her unable to focus.

"Why are you still here?" His question carried annoyance with it as well as dread.. but not from her.

Kou rested her head on her knees while looking over. "If ya gonna die anyway I'll just stay here until you do." Kou shrugged slightly... Kou remembered that the elderly on the streets were kind to her back when she was small, but whenever their time came she could see the fear in their eyes of dying alone. Sometimes she would remain nearby just so the old person could see her. She knew that her presence was of little comfort but at-least they did not die alone.

Kou had little compassion for those that tried to harm her, but that old man clearly was dying and had already given up, he was no threat anymore and nobody should die all alone like that... so she stayed behind her eyes focused on him.

...

Such weakness...That was all that flooded Farstrider's mind.. this girl was showing such weakness in front of him she saw him as no threat... and he was not he could feel the cold embrace of death finally catching up to him after eons of defying it. He stared at those cold eyes that were staring him down, there was ..compassion to be found in those eyes. Slowly stretching out his leftover arm he pointed at the altar "Bury me under it and take what is there."

These were his last words.

Kou did not feel sad for that old man to die, he very clearly was an evil person that was supposed to die long long ago. But she still did what he wanted, shoving away the altar she found a small hidden chamber holding spirit stones. She took all of them before placing the corpse inside the chamber closing it over him. Nodding to herself she disappeared, just to reappear upstairs just moments later.

She left the temple behind there was nothing else for her or anyone to gain here. "Mhm.. I guess I'm quite close to the empire now, just a few more days of travel and I should be back... enough time to try and learn this technique." Between her fingers was the Jade piece, she played with it idly as she made her way back to the shore.

Pushing her raft back into the water she took off once more toward the direction of the empire - while part of her mind was focusing on holding the course another was carefully reading the technique.

Farstriders Steps.

The first few iterations of this technique were mostly just jumping but later on it would allow one to remain and move in the air quite quickly, it was actually not flying but a technique that allowed one to create footholds mid-air. It was purely a movement technique and it seemingly had no uses in combat for most people. Kou's eyes, however, glowed in inspiration as she continued to take in the technique.

...