What looked back at her from the still surface illuminated by the eerie bioluminescent light was a changed person!

Her skin always had a slight yellow thinge and sickly complexion, even after cultivating made it better, it was still there, telling signs of her past life that she was unable to wash away.

Now her skin was smooth, pale - but not unhealthy so, a pink shade was on her cheek and lips, her eyes were still large, but now nobody could every say her eyes were yellow, they had a deep amber color - like a sea of liquid honey.

From what she could tell she did not grow at all but her body felt a lot better, the small pains and aches that still remained from her years on the streets were completely gone now, it was as if she had stepped into the next realm already.

A moment of feeling her dantian proved otherwise, while she felt like her body had been cleansed and the Qi was able to flow a lot more smoothly - there were no changes to her cultivation base, she was still in the late yellow realm - and rather early in that.

Feeling around her body further brought a few more things to Kou’s attention, for once her hair was now fully white, it had even grown a little - rebellious strands of hair falling into her face.

On top of her head, she found two large fluffy ears with black tufts and tips, they looked rather soft and twitched slightly as she stared at them, it was quite unreal looking to her, seeing her own reflection change so much in so little time..

She did find that she did no longer have her old ears - while her hair hid this quite well she felt a bit sad about it, after all, she had lived with those ears for all of her life and now they were gone… it left her feeling a little robbed.

She had felt a burning sensation on her head earlier so that was were those ears came from, but her behind had felt the same but she did not see anything change there, she even rubbed over it once just to be sure - her skin was really soft now.. but otherwise, nothing noteworthy changed on the behind department.

The bath in the pool had left her refreshed and she felt quite comfortable as she went back to put on her clothes, it was a bit difficult putting them on alone, but after some time she managed

Kou’s understanding towards these ears and what they meant was limited, it did not feel wrong at all and so while others might’ve panicked, her heart was calm and she just wondered if the way up would be hard too. She was also a little hungry - but content otherwise, none of her alarms were set off - her body felt fine, she just accepted it.

The newfound ears twitched slightly as Kou started to find out how to use them, she could tilt them down almost hiding them in her hair, turn them from side to side - she could hear a lot better too!

With her usual somewhat deadpan expression she started to climb back up, quite happily she realized that this time there was no gravitational pull at all, she could comfortably go back up, taking her only a small amount of time to go back up.

Quickly she found Shi Shi smocking in the shade of a tree - looking quite comfortable, Kou’s left eyebrow twitched slightly… This was not good - the feeling of familiarity she had with that old woman was a lot stronger now - so strong that Kou approached her quickly without keeping her usual distance.

It was hard to fight once blood, her mind was sharp and she did not like trusting anyone - but her whole body felt like she could trust this old woman, there even more - she wanted to be near her, quite the conflicting emotion if you consider her usual behavior.

While Kou was fighting an epic battle with herself, she had no time to retreat when Shi Shi’s hand reached out and patted her on the head making a gentle circular motion brushing against the ears that started to twitch.

The woman had such a warm smile in her face, the wrinkles around her eyes light up that and the comfortable feeling she got from the hand of her head made Kou melt away she could not fight against this, might as well embrace it.

Kou’s head pushed slightly against that hand and she stepped in closer sitting down directly next to Shi Shi, the old woman did not say anything she reached out with her second arm and pulled Kou into a hug.

Shi Shi had to fight against tears - this girl looked so much like herself when she was a child, it was quite emotional, her blood-line was rather thick too, the pool was not enough to fully awaken her, but right now she was not a simple cultivator anymore - she was a member of her line.

While she never stayed with her children in all her years she spent time grooming them, usually leaving them when they reached adolescence, while others might stick with their children all her live - Shi Shi was wild and untamed, she would continue traveling the world - HER offspring would be powerful enough to thrive on their own.

But now in her older years, after falling deep - to a point that elders from a backwater sect like this could suppress her - her old heartfelt soothed by the company of one of her own, she did not intend at first to tell Kou that they were this closely related, but she could not think about the girl as some distant relative anymore.

For Kou this was the first time she felt like this, her heart was calm and her mind empty - her tiny arms wrapped around the old and frail body and hugged her gently, she knew from instinct that this old woman was part of her family, it had not to be said at all.

Family was something alien to Kou, she had always been alone, fighting for herself, sure she sometimes worked together with other children, but that was just to steal and survive.

This was entirely different, for the first time in her life she felt…actually safe and sheltered, it was an indescribable feeling for a girl like her and melted her numb heart a little.

After a while, Shi Shi started to talk again. “I’m quite surprised lil’thief, that pool should’ve been enough to fully awaken you, but it seems to have only partially worked, you will have to work on the rest yourself, gathering the materials for that pool was not easy at all.” She chuckled.

Kou nodded slowly rubbing her head against Shi Shi’s hand in the progress “Mh… How do I work on it myself? Also… what exactly … happened?” While everything felt right she still wanted to know.

Shi Shi chuckled “Mh, I’ve realized your bloodline is my own - so I took it up to awaken it, you are of the shadowfox line, just like me - you can call me granny in the future if you want to. It means you are not fully human, you are like many of the noble cultivation houses and have the blood of spirits in your veins, it will bring you benefits in the future.”

“Your innate powers will slowly show as you grow, I will also impart some arts onto you in the future, for now, I give you this.”

Shi Shi poked Kou’s forehead with her left index finger, a green light flashed for a moment, as a torrent of information rushed into Kou’s head, it was a cultivation technique! One that seemed a lot more advanced than the Ancient Cloud one.

It was mostly centered around darkness and light Qi, if she cultivated according to the technique, Darkness and Light arts would cost her less Qi and would be stronger - it also went far beyond the Ancient Cloud technique, that one stopped at the 3rd level of Cultivation - but this one went many many levels beyond that!

Kou’s head actually hurt a little and she could not comprehend the information for the later realms at all, concentrating her mind on the appropriate section of the technique, this was easy enough to understand, she would be able to switch to this without much of a problem.

“Good, little one - We will part for today - I think you still have something to do?” While talking Shi Shi adjusted Kou’s clothes, she had put them on wrong, of course.

“You should be able to get through the barrier on your own now, so you may visit me whenever you want, and now hush.” She shooed Kou away, it was clear that the woman was a bit emotional right now looking after the departing Kou.

Kou herself felt weird as well - and just before she would be out of sight she turned around and yelled: “See you, Granny.” These words felt weird too and she quickly turned around - fleeing like a shy maiden in front of a handsome man.