Opening her eyes Kou immediately jumped out of bed! She was already in high spirits - today she would try and use her first Art! Even her blood seemed to rush a bit faster as she rushed out of her room - her robes in disarray.

Her excited charge was immediately stopped however as she crashed into Xiu Shihong, the girl - as frail and doll-like as she looked was unmoving and hard as a brick wall - Kou literally bounced off her and fell to the ground while the other girl did not move an inch

“I’m sorry” Both of them spoke at the same time, - which Kou reacting confused and the other girl bemused.

Xiu Shihong reached down and helped Kou up “Are you hurt? I did not expect you coming out like this.” The other girl's calm voice carried a hint of laughter with it

“Nuh..Not hurt, sorry.. just excited.” Kou’s ears gained some color as she stood up and in her nervousness, she fell back into her haggard speech pattern. “Want to use me’ new art .. now that meridians are open.” closing her mouth she realized what she just did and bit her lower lip - frustrated.

This time Xiu Shihong did not seem amused, the girl’s slender and white arms reached out and adjusted Kou’s robes slightly and nodded. “Well, That is certainly a prospect to be excited about, would you mind if I join you? I could probably help you a little?”

Xiu Shihong had made small requests like that before, but Kou had always denied them, she did not want the other girl to be bored or think her even more pathetic then she actually is, but this time she had just rudely rushed into the other girl so Kou could only nod weakly.

“Ok..”

And with that it was sealed - they left the house together making their way down the mountain, it was quite the weird couple, one was a dignified young lady, as cute as a fairy - while the other was a scruffy wild child with unorderly hair and robes, while she had a cute face her suspicious glares and narrowed eyes made this quite hard to notice.

Kou was good at keeping people away from her, it was something that the years on the street had instilled into her, you could not trust anyone. So she was really bad with people like Hei Tian and Xiu Shihong that would try to get close to her.

Since it was still early the training field was mostly empty the stands with training weapons were still full and everything was tidy. Xiu Shihong went to the side and sat down urging Kou forward.

Nodding slowly Kou closed her eyes - she had been going over the technique for weeks now, The Ancient Cloud Cultivation technique was a neutral one, so QI that was taken in could be used for any techniques - of course, some Qi would get lost this way but that was fine.

Kou let her Qi rush into both her legs, slowly according to her will the Qi attuned her meridians to darkness, it felt weird - like her legs were suddenly being cold. The attuning went without any problems and soon enough darkness flickered around her legs - This was Hunting Shadows, the base technique of Shadow’s bounty - each step would be improving or adding to Hunting Shadows.

For now, it would give her a speed increase so she started to run around the training field. She was a lot faster than her old top speed, her legs a blurry mass of shadows as she rushed back and forth like a shadowy specter. The feeling was intoxicating - and she was on an all-time high for a moment, it was so much that she did not even realize the draining of her Qi.

Each moment she had the technique active it would suck some of her Qi away, and as Kou was dashing back and forth suddenly she came to a halt - she felt nauseous and everything was spinning in her head. Xiu Shihong luckily was there and caught her fall - so Kou did not land face first to the ground.

“Well, now that this is out of the way - You will need to learn Qi control Yun Kou, you can’t just let all your Qi rush into one specific area like you just did.” The girl helped Kou to a nearby bench to sit down and rest for a moment.

Kou had to spend about an hour sitting crosslegged to replenish her Qi up to a point that she could continue practicing - but this time Xiu Shihong did not stay silent. “Now, concentrate on your Qi, direct it into your legs - imagine your Qi like a huge lake, last time you simply drained the lake fully, this time you have to build a dam, be specific with the amount of energy that you let flow out - and do not use more than needed.”

Xiu Shihong seemed earnestly trying to help and did not even look amused as she did so often. Which motivated Kou to give it her all - regulating the Qi that flowed into a technique was a lot more difficult than just pushing all her Qi into that direction.

About 20 minutes later Kou finally got it - a constant but regulated flow of Qi was flowing to her legs supplying the technique - minimizing the amount of Qi wasted as she started to move back and forth again, she was just as fast as she was before while using not even half the Qi!

Coming to a stand before Xiu Shihong - Kou forgot herself and grinned happily! “I did it! Thank you!” doing something not alone was a lot more fun after all. Xiu Shihong seemed satisfied and nodded “I will expect nothing less from my room-mate, good work.” she gave Kou an unladylike thumbs up.

“You will, however, need to work on Qi control more, this has to be like second nature for you - controlling your Qi has to be subconscious!”

Nodding slowly Kou sat down cross-legged once more to meditate to replenish her used up Qi.. calming down a little she dropped her shoulders “Thanks.. for helping, …having someone that… knows all of this, is helpful.” She mumbled in her usual way.

The amused glint returned to Xiu Shihong’s eyes “Don’t worry about that - I’d rather have my roommate be competent.” She smiled on that “Not everyone has the honor to become my friend, so you should be proud about that.” Well, that was worded quite entitled but the sound if it was just amused - so Kou did not take it to heart to much.

Friends, huh? Well… I never really had any friends but if this girl wants to be my friend… I will be her friend. Kou’s golden eyes darted to Xiu Shihong and nodded slowly. “I’m… happy to have my first friend.”

Xiu Shihong grinned and nodded to that - quite unlike her usual calm and ladylike self. “Well let’s get back to training then I will give you a few more tips!”

And so the rest of the day went by uneventful - Xiu Shihong and Kou spend almost all of it in the training field, with Kou dashing back and forth and Xiu Shihong giving advice.

At some point she even started to hurl small fireballs at Kou - that she had to dodge, while it might seem dangerous from the outside, Kou was pretty sure she had never had more fun in her entire life.

And making her way back home with Xiu Shihong exhausted - actually felt a lot more comfortable than when they came down the mountain.