The next week went by in a flash - she continued to visit all the lessons, did some hunting missions on the side for points and spirit stones, quickly her gainings outgrew her spendings and her smile pile of spirit stones grew once more.

Her cultivation did stagnate a little - not moving much further up. And Kou after class spend all of her courage in actually asking the elder about it.

“The first realm is just a tiny fragment of cultivation - stepping into the second at this time of your life would already put you into the elite of this empire, many people may never even reach that far. Your talent is satisfactory but your foundation is simply not strong enough to advance at the speed you are used to up til now.”

Kou also asked the elder - since she had always only brushed over it - over the higher tiers of cultivation to which the woman raised an eyebrow slightly but did go over it nevertheless.

“After Yellow comes red, after which comes violet - followed by gold.” She explained the first four realms. “After one has reached the peak of violet one may break thru into core formation, the Qi inside you solidifies over the first 4 stages - that is why in other empires they simply call the 4 stages foundation building.”

“We actually don’t know very much about core formation - there a just few in our empire that comes that far, we do however know that there are 4 kinds of cores - Yello, Red, Violet, and Gold - from worse to best.”

“Thank you, honored elder, for taking your time with me.” Kou bowed somewhat stiffly - all that politeness was still weird to her, but it would not do good to upset the elder.

The woman nodded and simply vanished again.

Apparently all of this was information that most people had already found out by now or did know from the get-go - the elder did never see it necessary to teach them anymore then what they would need to succeed in the outer sect, everything else would come at the time, but she was not someone to decline a good disciple some easily given information.

Kou made her way outside, while on her way down to the training fields she went over what the elder had just told her. If you read between the lines doesn’t that mean the elder herself is not in core formation? So if she is not in core formation - is the in the fourth or third realm?

On her way she ran into a group of boys, she knew them - they just like herself were stubborn once that followed Elder Gui each day - over all this time even while the elder started to raise the speed they had to use they all kept up.

Most of them were commoners, they lacked the innocent and pampered world view Hei Tian had and were a lot easier to be around. “You white-head.” One of them called out - making Kou curled her nose - she never had spoken much with them and, she had never really introduced herself.

The boy that had called out jogged over - his sect uniform was torn off at the shoulders showing his arms - they were .. rather bulky for a boy around 9, he was also rather tall, with short scrubby brown hair and green eyes.

“Want to go down together? Ya almost the only girl that still keeps up with the elder so ya got our respect!” he made an attempt to slap her shoulder which Kou quickly sidestepped.

“Go together then..” She mumbled - she did not want to offend the boy and his group they were just trying to be friendly - at least that was how it seemed to her moving between the larger boys did somehow feel a bit weird - she was the only girl around and everyone was at least 2 heads taller than herself.

“I’m Meng Fu.” The tallest and the one that had called her out introduced herself and went by introducing his 3 friends “This is Fang Yu.” A skinny boy with long black bangs. “Wang Xioachun” A handsome boy with long brown hair bound to a pony-tail - he.. winked at her - which made Kou immediately take a step back from him.

“Hand finally Jie Ciao” Jie Ciao was the smallest of the group still a lot taller then Kou though. He had a lean build, bald head and .. in generally looked like a tiny monk

Kou stayed silent for a little while before Meng Fu awkwardly laughed “So what’s your name?”

Oh! So that was her turn to introduce herself, who would’ve guessed… she kind of had hoped he would leave it at that.

“Yun Kou, hello.”

Her answer was simple and straightforward - Kou was the very image of a simple and straightforward girl as she looked back and forth between the boys while they exchanged looks.

“We were wondering…” Started Meng Fu slowly “If you want to join up with us for … something, we kind of need someone that is small and quick.” He rubbed the back of his head “ I rather not talk more about this here, could ya meet us later and we talk more in detail?”

Kou’s eyes narrowed slightly - her suspicious nature immediately ringing all the alarm bells in her head - as much as she wanted to decline immediately - she still shoved all the warning signals off to the back of her head.

She had been part of some thievery in her life and whenever tall and strong males were involved she usually got the bad end of the deal - doing the work and not getting anything for it - maybe a punch.

Still, this was a sect and she wanted to interact with more people to learn - to at least pretend that she cared about pretenses. “Talk after training then, meet up back at the training field.” She looked back and forth between the boys but neither of their faces seemed to be hiding anything - Meng Fu nodded

“Good! After training then.” And with that Kou fell silent again - not partaking in the idle chatting between the boys - she did, however, listen even if nothing of it really caught her interest.

The training quickly went by - by now Kou and everyone that did this almost every day was hardened up enough to not drop down dead right after training, she was still able to comfortable jog back to the training field.

Quickly she found the quartet - all 4 of them with spears in their hands bashing against training dummies, how this was in any way helpful for training went over Kou’s head but she would not make the effort to ask.

The first to notice her was Jie Ciao - the monkish boy turned around hiding his hands in his sleeves and did a very monkish bow “Our guest is here friends.” His voice was serene and pleasant.

The other boys quickly stopped their bashing and grinned “Good ya here!” Meng Fu quickly stepped forward before looking back and forth a bit. “To be on point with ‘ya. We found a trail site, on the mountain - but to get in we need someone to … open it up, and it so happens that none of us fit into the hole that leads to the door.

”So we need someone smart strong and… eh tiny to help us - and we thought since you are respectable we offer it to ya - of course, we share everything the trail brings between all of us.“

He then went on about where exactly the site was and how these sect trails usually held ether arts or other useful things for the disciples. Kou was really suspicious about all of this but still agreed, after all, they could not hurt each other for another few months, so working together and making some favorable acquaintances seemed to be the way to go.

However she quickly parted with the boys - they did invite her to train together for a bit - but she felt rather uncomfortable with them, they were a bit overbearing and overly friendly and that simply did not sit with her.

She quickly made her way back home - for once she meets Xiu Shihong inside sipping on some tea while reading a book.

“Welcome back, Yun Kou you seem to have been quite busy - I almost feel neglected” She joked, Yun Kou did know the other girl good enough to realize that she was joking by now so she simply nodded.

“Very busy. Have to do missions and cultivate, Hope Xiu Shihong was fine without me.” there was little concern about this in Kou’s mind - Shihong could probably do whatever she wanted anyway.

“It was a bit lonely I have to say - but I have great news - your new gown has arrived, you will be quite thankful for my recommendation soon.” She pointed to a package on the table.

Kou nodded slowly and went to unpack the package - a lot of dark cloth came forth - metal pats and chainmail.. belt? Sturdy boots and metal clad gloves.

Kou had no idea how to put this on, overwhelmed by the amount of fabric in front of her she turned to Xiu Shihong, a silent cry for help in her eyes. And the other girl was oh so happy to help, she grinned and got up - picking up everything and dragging Kou into her own bathroom.

The next 20 minutes … actually were not that bad. Xiu Shihong stripped Kou down to her underwear, lamenting the fact that a young girl should wear cuter things while doing that - the busy girl then went on and undid Kou’s ponytail - grabbing a brush and brushed Kou’s hair first.

Afterward, she expertly bound it to a small bun on the back of her head, while leaving Kou’s bangs to fall into her face, it was a lot more girly than her usually high ponytail.

Then she went about dressing Kou…