It was hard falling asleep while being aware of someone being so “close” not to mention that someone was a stranger. Kou fought a bit to get herself to calm down, rolling around in her bed a little. But after a while, she finally fell asleep.

The next day started normal - Kou woke up just before sunrise - they would not have any lessons before noon and she quickly grabbed one of her spirit stones and made her way into the cultivation chamber. While she could just cultivate in her own room - the chamber blocked out any noise and it was calming inside.

Luckily her Xiu Shihong was not in here - and so she quickly stepped inside. sitting down crosslegged she spend the better part of 2 hours slowly absorbing the spirit stone while circulating her inner energy - she could feel that her body reaching the first realm made it a lot easier for her to cultivate.

She could circulate her energy more effective and take in more with each breath she took, her lungs her heart - every muscle in her body was stronger now, - To be honest she felt a little intoxicated by this - the feeling of control and power she had over herself was something she never had before. But Miss Hei had warned her about it and so she quickly shook her head.

Beginners often got caught off guard by the sheer difference between mortal and cultivator - drowning in their new power and becoming arrogant. that wouldn’t do - Miss Hei had told her - quite clearly that nearly anyone in this sect just had to snap her fingers to snap a new cultivators neck. And so taking these words to heart Kou remained “humble” for now, nobody had to know about her jumping around after all! With a grin, she slowly stood up - stretching her body. She knew she was nearing the next level - mid yellow for her spiritual cultivation, eagerly she awaited what changes that would bring for her!

But for now, it was time to move her body around - she left the meditation room and found Xiu Shihong in the main room sipping on a teacup. The dignified and noble air that girl had was somewhat intimidating and immediately put Kou down from her high. Still, it wouldn’t do to be too antisocial.. “Good Morning Xiu Shihong” greeting the girl Kou prepared her breakfast, a few fruits, and dried meat.

“Good Morning, Yun Kou - you seem to be rather diligent in cultivation - doing it so early in the morning.” To Kou’s dismay, the other girl seemed to want to do small talk making her shiver a little, taking a deep breath to calm herself down she nodded slowly.

“I’ve been doing it this way ever since I learned how to do it… ” She did not go into detail how she learned it, some secrets don’t have to be spilled after all. Xiu Shihong nodded slowly. “I usually cultivate when the sun is higher, it benefits me more, but I applaud your determination.”

This struck Kou as a little odd - tilting her head she finally turned around to face the girl properly, her faintly golden eyes looking somewhat confused. “What does the Sun have to do with all of this?”

Xiu Shihong blinked and chuckled “I see… Well, I’d suppose you would learn this soon enough but I don’t mind giving you a little run down about the more advanced things If you like.” Xiu Shihong .. still put Kou on edge a little she paced back and forth for a moment like an uncertain animal before she nodded. “If you can please..”

Xiu Shihong nodded slowly putting down the teacup her fire red eyes focusing on Kou - making her shiver again. “There are many different elements in this world, Qi takes on many forms - Sun, Moon, Star, Fire, Water, Darkness.. and so on - are just a few forms of Qi energy. I would assume the Elder will talk about this in more detail later. While you can take in any kind of Qi and slowly change it to your needs internally - it is by far quicker to just try to find a source of Qi that fits you and take it in. At high noon the Sun Qi is the strongest - so cultivating just before and after it will reap the most benefits for me.”

Brushing a few strands of her silky hair out of her face she looked to the side. “There is also your meridians - opening these will probably be a task you might want to tackle quite soon - you need to open them to use different techniques and arts.”

The girl flicked her hand and a flame started to dance over her skin - startling Kou, making her back off a little - much to the amusement of Xiu Shihong “For this fire art, for instance, I need a meridian open in my arm hand to have it attuned to fire Qi, or for instance if you train in a movement art - you might need to open meridians in your legs and attune it to the arts elements, do you understand?”

Slowly Kou nodded, Miss Hei had brushed over these things but never gone into detail focusing more on bringing her fully into the first realm. Xiu Shihong shifted her eyes back to Kou “Everyone of us will get access to a pass later this day - allowing us into the Art pavilion to select one, each art after this has to be earned. If you want my recommendation I would tell you to get a movement at first, being fast is often better then using fancy attacks.”

Kou curled her nose a little, having to decide without any help would be difficult but - this was a choice she had to make herself. “Can... I look at many different arts before I choose one?” Her question brought back the amused twinkle in the other girl's eyes again. “Of course you can, and you should take your time with it.”

Nodding Kou thanked Xiu Shihong for the information and made her way outside - she would go for her usual run and climbing session before the lessons started. Moving her body around cleared her head of all the stuffy thoughts going through it - and she enjoyed moving a lot more than learning.

Still, she probably would have to spend a few days in that art pavilion to choose something, she did not want to end up useless because her art was bad. Working up a sweat while running she saw few other children outside already, the few that were either sitting around crosslegged or gathered in small groups, none of them paid any attention to Kou.

But Kou did pay attention to them - on multiple occasions could she hear one of the fancier looking people curse to their friends about the sect removing their older brothers spirit stone stash.

This just made her smirk, clearly nobody suspected a theft even before the sect had already started - they all just thought the sect was a bit stricter now that so many nobles were around, to keep things fair for everyone, still, there was a fair share of cursing.

She quickly hid her emotions sporting the usual suspicious somewhat scruffy look that she gave people, she was simply not good with all of this so making friend is going to be difficult, huh?

Her thoughts were disrupted by someone shouting and waving at her, her eyes grew a little larger - it was Hei Tian, the young boy that had given her her name, she had totally forgotten that he would be here too!… Also in the few months, they did not see each other he had grown a fair bit.

Her eyes narrowed a bit, … the boy was nice enough to her before - and they had written some letters to each other, so she broke her run and jogged over to him, staying silent for a moment before greeting the other child - with something that might’ve resembled a smile.

“He, Kou! Long time no see!” The boy was as upfront and energetic as he had been last time - and compared to her somewhat mysterious roommate she might actually prefer that!

“Long time no see..” She repeated and nodded. “Are.. you well? Isn’t your family.. big in the… sect why do you have to be here?” her speech was still a bit awkward - and she immediately got nervous talking with the other child.

“Oh, well - This year many of the bigger noble clans have sent their offspring here to make conections and learn - so my family thought it might be good for me to do the same! But I’m happy to be here without all of that - it is nice to have an honorable competition between peers!” That's what the boy said, but Kou somehow had the feeling that after the initial peace period was over, there was gonna be savage and robbery here.. or worse.

She did however not say anything about that to the boy “Uh, Well that is fine… say do ..you already know arts?” It was something that had sat on her mind now - how far behind people with good background was she actually?

“Oh, Ja, you know the Acient Cloud cultivation manual? It is actually a very neutral kind of cultivation method and there are various arts which work harmoniously with them, I know one of those - Ancient Cloud spear, my grandfather…” He stopped for a moment and looked around a bit making sure nobody was listening in “Told me there are many trails and opportunities in the outer sect mountains so one might get the whole Ancient Cloud set from there!”

Kou nodded slowly - Hei Mei had told her already that the outer sect area was full of hidden secrets placed by the sect - trails and many other things awaited those that were adventurous. The fact that the sect boy knew just one art calmed her heart a bit - that meant most people with good background had at most 1 or 2.

She chatted a bit more with the boy before departing - they did, however, promise to meet here again tomorrow - apparently Hei Tian wanted to join her on her morning run. While Kou was a bit apprehensive about him joining her - the boy was her teacher's cousin so… it felt wrong to tell him off.

After her run was finished she quickly went home to wash up - before she made her way to the teaching hall - soon the first lesson would begin.