She felt weird... her position was weird as well, it was as if she was leaning against something.

Her eyelids were so heavy... but something was moving her around, she moved up and down and she could hear the breath of someone, heavy footsteps hit the ground, the up and down movement was quite comfortable to her.

As nice as this was she still fought to open her eyes, just a slit, in front of her was a messy tuft of brown hair. It was..Hei Tian. Still not quite awake Kou was wondering why Hei Tian was carrying her. The boys back was quite big compared to her and he carried her as gently as possible.

He had a calming scent to him, it was like roasted chestnuts. His back was also very warm - and for a moment she felt like it would be alright to just drift back to sleep and let the boy carry her.

However, her throat was kind of scratchy, that reminded her of their first time meeting. "I'm awake." Her voice was a little hoarse - and she half expected Hei Tian to stop, but the boy just went on. "You can let me down."

"Good that you are awake, but I can't let you down - you are way too exhausted of Qi, I have no idea how you managed this - but I knew It wouldn't be anything good when you went in the direction of those 4"

Hei Tian had not immediately followed Kou - but somewhat later he had checked in on her house to see her come back. The scruffy and unsocial girl was his friend and he did not trust Jie Ciao and his cronies at all, and so he went about trying to follow their tracks - it took him about an hour to find his way to the trial side.

He saw footsteps and the sign's of the door opening on the ground, but there were 5 sets of footsteps coming and just 4 left. Concerned he looked around a few times before he saw Kou swaying back and forth as if drunk, she fell head first into the ground and was out for the count.

After explaining all of this to Kou, Hei Tian still refused to let her down, and in her current state she was powerless to do anything about it soo.. she simply went with it and rested her head on his shoulder - if he wants to carry her .. fine let him. Hei Tian was someone she could probably trust, she felt her friendship for him renewed.

Kou was thankful for Hei Tian's help but she quickly fell back asleep, it was just too hard to stay awake. If she had looked up she would've seen Hei Tian's ears .. being rather red for some reason...

The next time she woke up she was in her bed, Hei Tian was nowhere to be seen - she was alone and felt a lot better - a quick look outside showed her that it was already dark outside, still, she stood up, someone had undressed her? Was it Hei Tian? Scratching the back of her head she curled her nose slightly.

"Shower... " She mumbled to herself, in the end, it did not matter who had undressed her, at least to herself - her clothes were neatly folded next to her bed - and even the cloak she got was there. Unlike her clothes, however, Kou was not self-cleaning - which was kind of a shame... Maybe there would be a way to do that later...

Looking refreshed Kou left the bathroom, all steamy and warm, ready to get back to bed! But before she could jump back under the sheets, someone knocked on her door - well she says someone - obviously it was Xiu Shihong.

Kou wore one of her old sect Uniforms now, they were comfortable enough to sleep in so she comfortably told Xiu Shihong to come in.

Apparently, the other girl was just worried, she quickly began telling Kou how Hei Tian had brought her in a few hours ago - pale and almost completely depleted of Qi, the boy had seemed to be quite angry about something and went out shortly afterward, leaving Xiu Shihong to care for Kou.

"He went out? Like he went back home?" Kou tilted her head to the side why was it so important if he went out or not?

"I would assume by his interactions with me that he has a hunch as to who is responsible to bring you down like this, full Qi depletion is a rather serious thing - it does not seem like you have any problems but others might even encounter cultivation drops, so whoever put you in this situation is rather cruel."

These words stunned Kou for a bit - before she clenched her left fist, she was right not to trust people after all, no matter how nice they make it sound, most people would put themselves foremost, to hell with clan family or friends, as long as they grew in power what did all of that matter? In the end, all of it was just superstition, the way of the cultivation world was the law of the jungle. "I knew I should not trust.."

The inner turmoil was obvious on her face since Xiu Shihong stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone cares about themselves, but there are cultivators that take pride in their family - and defend their friends..." She dropped her head a little. "Cultivation is a ruthless way to the top, but there are always people that are decent."

Shaking her head a little she let out a sigh "I say that but you should not go to do things with people you barely know about, with all your suspicions and distrust towards others you can be surprisingly gullible sometimes."

While Xiu Shihong continued to nag at her Kou rubbed the back of her head and yawned loudly. "My Master told me to make friends.. so I at least got to try.." Her words were lax and lacked compassion as she turned towards Xiu "I give people a chance, and ... those that ruin that chance... will regret it."

Her last words showed a small margin of the fire in her. What fire do you ask? Of course, was angry! Just because she was not sad or did even expect to be used as some scapegoat she would not just sit there and take it!

This was her first encounter with the ruthlessness of other cultivators, and she would strive for it to never happen again. In her mind, the best protection against others was being stronger or at least as strong as them, paying back those that have wronged you can only be done via your own power.

Jie Ciao and his cronies had made an enemy of her now, and they would regret, regret it dearly...

These thoughts were burned into her mind, she had a goal now - aside from just becoming stronger for being stronger's sake. She would become strong enough that nobody could take advantage of her without repercussions.

And strong enough to pay this group of boys back!

She had always been motivated to improve herself, but never did she had a goal to work towards never did she have an actual reason to improve above just... wanting to be better. A human gets drive from his goals - and Kou wanted to be free to choose her own fate, lure her into a trap? Fine, she will lure you into two. Deceive her? She will steal you poor!

Attack her? She will retaliate...

Nobody will step on her, she will never be anyone's path to glory. She won't ever step on others to achieve her goals, but if you stand in her way willingly you better be prepared!

Instead of going to sleep that night Kou climbed up to the roof and started to cultivate, taking in the Darkness Qi around her.