She would skip out on lessons today, there was no way she could listen to the elder with the still remaining headache. And so the day slowly trickled by - while Kou was assaulted by the pain, apparently failing was part of cultivation too - failing to open a meridian, failing to make a breakthrough - messing up an art, these things could hurt a cultivator as Kou was experiencing it first-hand today.

Soon it was afternoon and she got a sick visit from Li Zhi - the girl brought her notes for Yun Kou to read through later. "Well everyone goes through this from time to time, you are just rather unlucky it's your head, other things might be more... bearable."

"In like one or two days you can probably try again, this time you know not to let your Qi slip." She neatly placed her notes on the bedside table "The lessons today were nothing too special she just went over some things again and helped some students with specific problems, I noted everything down properly, by the way - I might need the favor you still owe me soon, I've found something a little bit down the mountain."

Kou was raising her eyebrows a little but nodded, she did promise to help Li Zhi so she would. She was just about to ask questions when a jade piece suddenly appeared inside the room, Kou was shocked and moved out of the way as the piece landed on her bed.- while Li Zhi seemed just curious - and later bemused by her friend's reaction.

"That is just a message Jade, well .. calling them jade would be a bit of an overstatement, they are cheap rocks that contain one-way messages, you can send them to people from the market for a small fee, well to their place of residence at least." The girl explained which let Kou calm down once more, she picked up the green rock sending some Qi inside.

A young but manly voice could be heard - in the background, there were many noises - hammers hitting iron and fire burning hot. "Miss Yun Kou your daggers are done, you should pick them up soon - There is some pest that keeps bothering me to sell them to him." Xie Kiel sounded thoroughly annoyed "It is honestly just some little bigshot turd that wants to force his way."

With that, the jade crumbled into pieces... what an untidy way to leave a message Kou would have to clean her bed later...

Now she had another headache coming thought, with her mood being at rock bottom already she crawled out of bed and got properly dressed, an effort in which Li Zhi had to help a few times as Kou was more than done with the world at the moment and didn't really care if her tunic was the right way around.

"I... come with you in case something happens." Li Zhi would not leave her to go alone so Kou grunted and nodded - if Kou had mastery over the elements right now there would be big and terrible thunder clouds in the air that is for sure! Her usually twitchy fluffy ears were lying down against her head and she looked really grumpy with her eyes narrowed and a grim expression on her face, it was quite the difference between now and her usual deadpan look.

It was little surprise that they got a few glances when they crossed the outer sect to go to the market, Kou usually traveled off the beaten path - making tracking or even seeing her aside from the lessons rather hard, and Li Zhi was known to be rather timid, so seeing the angry looking Kou and Li Zhi together spun a myriad of rumors already! Not that those two would ever know about it...

The market was rather busy at this time, the merchants were shouting about their wares, a fact that made Kou just grumpier - too many people too loud. That was her assessment of the market, Li Zhi did stay close by Kou's side half a step behind the smaller girl, she had come here so that Kou would not be alone with her headache, but she didn't like people swarms at all...

They quickly made their way through the loud market - luckily Xie Kiel's workshop was somewhat remote and the people that seemed to enjoy the bustling atmosphere around the market, - but unlike last time there were actually people here this time.

It was those huge towering red-haired twins and a smaller black haired boy, Kou had seen these twins on multiple occasions but never really found out their names, all she knew was that they were giant and red-haired.

The smaller boy, on the other hand, was the one that shot Kou glares from time to time, this boy was rather handsome, comparable to Hei Tian in looks - but with his black hair and dark blue eyes he seemed colder, he also had a rather snobby air around him, his clothes had golden rims and he actually wore rings on his fingers, Rings...that looked rather expensive and would probably give her a pretty penny in a pawn shop...

As Kou's mind was drifting off as to what she would do with those rings the trio turned their attention to the two girls - both redheads looked over Li Zhi and then at Kou and grinned at her in a friendly way, while the little boy's eyes became even colder - as if he had seen an insect

"If it is not Yun Kou - the dirty street rat." The boy snarled at her without any restraint his voice was dripping with venom. "I don't know what you are here for but you may stand back and wait for us to finish business I don't want to catch some disease from you.."

Kou looked at him with a blank stare for a moment, what was he talking about? He could not get sick - he was a cultivator as if Kou had the means to make him sick in any way. Deciding that it was not worth thinking to much over, the boy was obviously a bit stupid she turned to Xie Kiel "Here to get my order.."

The two redheads did not take the insults quite as easy as Kou they exchanged glances and looked down at the smaller boy in an uneasy manner while continuing to flank him.

Li Zhi stared at the boy for a moment until her cheeks turned red, but clearly, she was not charmed, the girl was angry and opened her mouth.. but closed it immediately ... she stomped her left feet on the ground, an action that brought her the attention of the terrible boy.

He was just about to blow up at Kou and Kiel for ignoring him - but now his attention was on Li Zhi. "Oh, Miss Li - what a pleasure to see you again, as I see you have got yourself a little pet, how nice... I would've thought the Li house had more class, to be honest."

Li Zhi's family was noble as well - but they had no land they lived in the capital, her father was an official at court, he did not have a high or low rank, their houses were said to have come from a bastard prince, they had a rather high standing many generations back but since then they had have been in decline, still as a young noble girl Li Zhi had her outing at 6 and had join get-togethers with many other noble children, on one of those she had met this boy before.

His name was Fu Tengfang, his father had made a killing in import and export, quickly bringing his family into the top earners inside empire, the famous "Fu" pavilions apparently could get you everything if you had the funds for it - their wealth was of such extent that even the emperor noticed and bestowed a title onto his father, while this title was not hereditary it still allowed him and his sons to wear the imperial phoenix symbol - a thing that this boy flaunted about like none else, even now the large red phoenix was on his robes.

"Mister Fu, it is nice to see you once more." She did not say any more about Kou or anything, scolding Fu Tengfang might put her family at odds with the Fu pavilion, a situation she would rather avoid.

Fu Tengfang was just about to exchange some pleasantries, but quickly shook his head a few times staring back at Xie Kiel "You peasant smith, have you still not packed up my daggers? Get them ready, already so we can leave this backyard."

While he was snarling again his eyes almost popped out as Xie Kiel handed the weapons he had his eyes on to this despicable girl. "What are you doing, peasant, I told you already I'm buying these!" He quickly stepped forward but was met with the end of Xie Kiel's forge Hammer just in front of his nose.

"Listen turd, I don't fucking care who you are or what you say - this is the Ancient Cloud Sect and we have rules, I have a contract with this girl and she already paid for the weapons, so SHUT up I can't stand your shitty ass voice."

Xie Kiel was... rather frank in his words but he quickly released the aura of the 3red realm suppressing Fu Tengfang on the spot, the boy couldn't even move properly, just his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

While all of this was happening Kou was .. quite content with getting her daggers, she "politely" nodded towards the twins and the boy and turned around, apparently she had no further business here, she had thanked Kiel and saw no reason to stick around while these people argue over something that .. had nothing to do with her.

Kou, of course, was not so dumb to not see that Li Zhi was rather uncomfortable around the boy so she simply grabbed the taller girls hands and pulled her off, leaving the boy flabbergasted while the twins chuckled to themselves