A homework less day was rather refreshing - she had more time to escape the house - while she had been here for a while now it was impossible for her to already be used to it - she would rather be outside exploring the almost empty outer sect mountain. Her little adventures even brought some benefits for her - from time to time she found little crystals lying around, mostly in the yards and gardens of the larger houses further up the hill, these little crystals were faintly glowing and she found them rather pretty and so made a game out of it to find as many as she could. The last few days she already had gathered around 40 of them and since she had more time today she would go further up the mountain to look at the mansions.

For her these “Mansions” seemed more like castles, they were bigger than even the big houses back in Dongzhou and had big yards and gardens - the doors were heavy and had symbols on them, not that she would care - she would not break into any of the houses just scavenge around the gardens and yards, her time on the street had given her a keen eye for places people might hide things and she was stubbornly going thru all of the possible places.

A large plant pot filled with soil for instance! No plant was in it right now and she quickly started to dig around the dirt unearthing a few of those shiny rocks. She even went thru all the tiles in the yard, lifted adoring rocks up and even went for a swim in the pond. In that manner, she spend the whole day going thru all the places - increasing her “Shiny rock” count to just about a 100 - it was late evening by then and so she made her way back home dirty from head to toe but immensely satisfied with herself, these stones were so pretty they probably were worth something - even if not they were pretty enough to have and she liked looking at shiny things.

After washing her clothes and herself she spread out on the bed - a few shiny rocks in her hands, the grin of a successful thief on her face “Mhh…” she was wondering about the future, her life did a full 180, she had her own house - food and even someone that taught her albeit Miss Hei being a bit scary sometimes. Kou quite quickly understood that the woman was doing this not because she had to but because she wanted to, helping an insignificant child like her was something that had earned her Kou’s trust, for now, she did not quite know if Miss Hei had any motives or if she really was just “nice”- time would tell.

The next day began early, Miss Hei came a little earlier today this time not bringing any books with her. “Good, we will talk in the meditation room.” Leading the way she entered the small circular room at the bag of the house. “I will give you the most basic information and help you a little in cultivating in the following weeks so that you are at least on par with your peers, we will start with the different stages. The one you are in is commonly called ”Awakening“ This means that you have filled and awakened your dantian with Qi, Qi is all around us, the air the ground each living being, and with special breathing techniques and adequate talent you can take in said energy slowly, there are also spirit stones.”

“Spirit stones are these.” Miss Hei flicked her sleeve and a few tiny glowing crystals appeared in her left hand, clearly, these were the same kind of stones that Kou had “found” all around. “There is a high concentration of Qi in these stones.” She nodded before falling back to the ranking for now. “There are major and minor stages in cultivation, for instant, the yellow spirit realm has 3 stages, commonly called early, mid and late, after Yellow comes the red spirit realm - the one I am in.” “There is also body cultivation just like spiritual cultivation it is split into major and minor ranks, Gold and Silver are the first two followed by Iron. A Cultivator has to always find a balance between spiritual and body cultivation, a weak body can’t hold a strong spirit, just as a weak spirit can’t control a strong body. Today we will work on getting you established in the early yellow while spending the rest of your time trying to awaken your body.”

With that the real training began, Miss Hei corrected the obvious flaws in Kou’s breathing technique, explained how to absorb spirit stones, gifting Kou with 2 of them - explaining to the girl slowly how to feel and guide the energy in the stones - while the first one was mostly wasted - with little energy flowing into her - by the time she had used up the second one she had gotten better in absorbing. “Once the outer sect opens up you will get 5 spirit stones per week from the sect, everyone does and nobody is allowed to get more from sources that are not within the outer sect.” She went on explaining that this was to further competition and fairness - the wealthy and powerful cultivation families and nobles could not just send unending amounts of stones to their offspring, at least not for the first year. Kou quickly realized that all the spirit stones she had found were left behind by previous generations to nurture their little brothers and sisters.

A week went by, Kou was established firmly in the first realm by now, she was able to feel the Qi in things and absorb spirit stones without much waste. Physical cultivation was… more difficult - she could not just sit still and meditate - she actually had to move - making difficult poses while rotating her Qi in her body. “Rotating your energy in your body is the first step to awaken - Qi will slowly sink into your flesh and bones strengthening them.” Miss Hei’s strict explanation run through her head as she was balancing around on her left her body stretching into the air straight while sweet dripped over her skin, she felt her muscles tear and pulsating but she kept up the Qi rotations. “Once your body is in the first realm as well you can work on opening your meridians - one by one, these meridians are necessary to channel spiritual energy - to affect yourself and the outside with it, there are hundreds of meridians in your body - and each one opened and attuned will make your Qi flow easier.”

It turned out Miss Hei’s body training was even more merciless then all the studying, each day she would chase Kou over the mountain back and forth, had her lift things and stand on her arms in weird poses, driving her to the brink of exhaustion each day - before instructing her to meditate, letting the Qi flow through her body to sink into her bones and flesh.

The next few weeks were handled in this manner with Kou slowly inching closer to awakening her body - but the opening of the outer sect slowly inched closer and closer until just 3 days were left. Miss Hei was standing above her her arms crossed behind her back like an old master. “You have done good, from today on you will have to train alone - I have done what I could to bring you up to standard with everyone else.” With the flick of her sleeve, a bock and a small flask appeared in her hands. “I will leave these with you, the book is the sect’s cultivation method, the ancient cloud style, it’s a neutral technique good for beginners, once you have fully entered the first realm you can start with this.”

“This flash contains spirit water, you can use this water when cultivating, it also helps in trying to open up meridians” placing both of these things on the table she turned around looking at the door. “I place high hopes in you, I hope you do not disappoint me and waste my efforts.” Kou tilted her head slowly to the side. “I won’t disappoint - thank you for your guidance over these months, I’m thankful and will try my best to pay Miss back when I can!” Kou now knew that Miss Hei just did these things because was a good person, she might show that aloof and strict side to everyone - but inside she was soft, she had grown to like the older girl quite a lot and having to part from her first “Teacher” left her with a bit of a heavy heart, but.. she would see her again.