She didn't go find Jie Ciao or his friends afterward, even after recovering, but Hei Tian did- he gave Jie Ciao a good thrashing - from what Kou had heard from Li Zhi and Xiu Shihong. Thrashing was a bit of an overstatement both the boys were actually almost evenly matched with an edge for Hei Tian, but the boy was so angry that he used everything he had in the first move, something Jie Ciao simply did not expect.

One of the protectors had to step in and separate the two afterward, Hei Tian would not get any spirit stones for 2 weeks from the sect as a punishment, a deal he gladly took for demolishing the other boys face.

Now sitting in front of her he was Hei Tian, a day after he went to thrash Jie Ciao. He seemed to be somewhat proud of himself as he pushed out his chest a bit when he saw Kou. That action did let her slip into a fierce grin for a moment before she quickly composed herself! She was not here to congratulate him after all.

"You ...Shouldn't have done that... I'm thankful." Kou fought with her words for a bit. "But... I want to pay them back on my own - I will ask you for help when I need it?" Kou did not at all want to offend Hei Tian or make him uncomfortable, but for her finding the right words was rather hard.

Luckily Hei Tian seemed to have understood her as he nods slowly. "Mh - I should've warned you beforehand that those guys are up to no good, you aren't the first they use for their means, usually they stick to other boys..."

"Anyway! You are my friend and if you need help just tell me and I'll see what I can do."

They parted ways after that.

It has to be said that children that cultivate mature a lot faster - their minds and bodies are constantly fed highly potent energy in form of Qi, while the children in the outer sect still are children for other cultivators - compared to a normal mortal they would usually be a lot more mature and the capabilities of their minds comparable to grown adults.

What remains is their temper, a Child will - Cultivator or not often act out of compassion - even with better knowledge, that is what happened to Hei Tian, of course, he knew that what he did was stupid - that did not stop him strong doing it.

Sometimes the best way is the dumbest way after all.

A few weeks went into the land, slowly the end of the "No fights or arguments" period would come to an end, not that this had anything to do with Kou to be honest, after the experience she had with Jie Ciao, she cut off most contact with people - she stuck to her small base of friends, Hei Tian, Xiu Shihong and Li Zhi - well and of course Shi Shi.

The friendship between those children did deepen bit by bit as they spend more time which each other, while Hei Tian was always a bit fidgety around Xiu Shihong - it was not a problem when interacting - Li Zhi with girly and studious nature fit right in into the group and quickly became friends with Xiu Shihong - albeit apart by a few ranks both of them were nobles so that was to be expected.

As for Kou? She remained her usual self, she didn't let stuff get to her, and remained in the background - which does not mean that she didn't interact with the others, she always answered if asked something, and helped out if possible.

At some point, the 4 of them started to have little sparring matches against each other now and again. These fights would usually end in Xiu Shihong crushing everyone but Hei Tian without breaking into sweet.

The fights Kou had with Li Zhi were a lot more competitive, Li Zhi was girly but she was no shy wallflower. Her arts involved Water the most, she would engulf herself into a shield of Water that would lash out with whips whenever someone attacked, she did focus a lot on defense and less on offense.

This was obviously the biggest problem for Kou - if she was lucky she would land a jab at the wind-based Hei Tian, or the fiery Xiu Shihong - before she would land flat on her back crushed beneath them.

But with Li Zhi it was different - she could not harm her at all - and Li Zhi was usually to slow to react to Kou's speedy attacks, which would end in long drawn out battles in which one of the two girls would forfeit - letting the win go to the one that was able to out sustain the other.

Li Zhi just as Kou was on the very edge of the first realm - while the other two were already in the second. So most of the time they grouped up like that.

It goes without saying that Hei Tian and Xiu Shihong made a fantastic pair, one already handsome young boy and a doll-like princess, their elements complimented each other.

It went to a point that the 4 of them were even seen together outside of their training sessions - Kou would always keep herself in the shadows - with the others being in the front. Kou had heard about different power structures in the outer sect, different groups had laid claim to areas already, each power had multiple people in the second realm, and it was not rare for them to send people to recruit her little group.

An effort that was politely crushed by Xiu Shihong, the girl still kept her polite and refined persona up for outsiders, but kept a firm policy - she did not see any need in establishing any powers or joining people - this kind of child's play was beneath her.

One night as Kou was sitting in the backyard taking in the absolute darkness Qi around her she was fumbling around with the cloak she had gotten, in all this time she had not found out what it actually did, but Xiu Shihong, as well as Hei Tian, were quite clear about this cloak not being ordinary, it must have some kind of ability - but to find out what it was .. was the problem.

And she rarely had time to actually sit down and try different things she had to cultivate while the moon was still weak - as the darkness Qi was usually the strongest just after dusk and just before dawn - that and sleeping took most of her night away.

As for day time, she still attended her lessons - cultivated at noon to take in pure light Qi, and spend time training with her friends, not to speak from the missions she had to do to get her income back up, her free days were taken up by Shi Shi's training and just being together with the older woman.

So Aykou found herself dreadfully short of time, she had not even gotten around to checking in on her daggers that should be finished soon, she actually looked forward a little bit to the training year finally being over, the training wheels would be away and everyone was free to do what they wanted.

People would set out to explore further away areas, an influx of magical items and wealth would appear and certain factions would form - usually around one or two very powerful people, there would be fighting and there would be giving and taking.

This actually did excite Kou a little, being able to freely steal from others sounded rather fun? As long as they did not manage to catch and pin her down they could not blame her in front of the elders.

Her friends did not seem to be put off by things like that either. The usual answer was that "The one is taken from is at fault for not being careful enough." The cultivation world really was a wild place, it was quite weird how all these noble blooded - people would devolve into robbing and fighting beasts the moment they saw some good fortune.