It was a nice day today, just about summer now - Kou had been inside the sect for almost 2 years by now, she did not grow all that much even in that time, just a few inches - but she had changed a lot from the dirty and sick little girl that was brought here seemingly so long ago, for Kou the life before she came here felt like it was another lifetime.

Kou still did not trust others easily, kept to herself most of the time and avoided contact with strangers, if at all possible. She only interacted with the few friends she had made like Hei Tian, Li Zhi, Xiu Shihong and of course Hei Mei, and her old "family" member Shi Shi - and while Kou did not show it often they were important to her.

There were a few points in which Kou had changed, she was a cultivator now, she had the means and the will to slowly climb up the stairs of immortality to become more then what she had been - she was determined to become strong, she would never again be the dirty girl in the streets, she would never again have to fight for scrabs with rats and other children - never would she let people bully her just because she was a weak little girl!

She had never been a righteous person, for her - she herself was the top priority followed by Shi Shi and her friends, everything else could go south for all she cared, she had no feelings of filial piety for the sect that raised her itself, she was thankful, but that was it.

Shi Shi would teach Kou today, about their clan's bloodline, there was no time for it yesterday - as Kou had quickly fallen asleep after her breakthrough. The old woman sat on a rock near the pond - said pond had to be cleaned yesterday after she had put Kou into bed, the girl had washed off all the grime in it, which left it in a rather questionable state.

Kou herself? She still felt a bit weirded out by her tail, the way she could move it around like her arms, or how it brushed over her clothes from time to time, stretching out from the small hole Shi Shi had made in them. She would need some more time to get used to this.

From her rock Shi Shi glanced down at Kou, her hand reaching out to pat her head gently. "Come on sit down next to me, we will now talk a bit about your bloodline and what exactly that tail of yours means." Once the youngling sat Shi Shi leaned back a little and looked up into the air while her fingers still gently caressed the little head. "As we grow in power we grow more and more tails, each tail will improve your bloodline power so that it grows alongside you, for now, we will need to find out which power you got, as there are a few different variations in our kind, some of us get Illusion powers, creating body doubles or confusion images - others gain powers that attack the mind, charming them or enthralling them.

"I, for example, have Illusion powers, an ability that is quite useful when creating the trials around the sect, it's the main reason those elders have me working on these trials all over the outer sect mountain..." Shi Shi's brows furrowed slightly and she shifted her weight around a bit before shaking her head.

"Then there is fox-fire, an ability that is not quite rare - but at the same time not too common - it comes in many different variations, there are fox-fires that can enhance your results in alchemy or smithing - while others may be useful for fighting or other things - most common is, of course, the simple flame."

Shi Shi went over a few other things, there were cases in which clansmen got physical enhancements from their bloodline, like an even better nose - or stronger feet. Kou found that particularly interesting, she would not mind being stronger or faster after all. Apparently, tails were not all that bad, the more she got she stronger she would be. She listed curiously and sat obediently next to Shi Shi's legs while the older woman was still caressing her hair.

"Now that the explanations are done, I want you to concentrate, close your eyes and feel, you can feel your Qi and your dantian, but there should be something else, an energy not unlike Qi that flows not in your Qi channels, but in your veins - in your blood, concentrate on this power and draw it out." Shi Shi glanced down with expectation. Kou's bloodline was rather thick and she was curious what kind of ability she would get.

Nodding slowly Kou closed her eyes, using her senses to feel inside of her body, there were no problems - she could feel her dantian, dreadfully empty after her breakthrough, filling it up to the brim with Qi once more would make her step into the next realm. She quickly put away the distracting thoughts, and concentrated on finding that .. another kind of energy, it was not hard to find at all, her blood seemed to brim with energy - not just Qi but something else, something more primal, It felt that this energy originated from herself and not from the world around her as Qi did.

Just as Shi Shi had told her, she drew that power out, her whole body felt comfortable as she did - it felt natural like this was just taking another breath. Nothing really happened, Kou felt the energy she had let lose move around on her skin as she opened her eyes. Shi Shi was still sitting there mixed expression on her face. "Well, I suppose this is rather unexpected, go on - look at yourself in the water." she pulled her hand back from the girls head.

Standing up Kou felt... weird, the energy around her moved with her, it was as if she could suddenly influence it just with her will, it was a much higher degree of control then anything she had over Qi. She looked down into the pound and jumped back a little, she was surrounded by dim blue flames, the tongues of flames were in her hair and on her clothes but unlike normal fire, it did not devour them - in fact, it felt quite comfortable.

Kou slowly inched towards the pond again to look down once more, there was one more chance, her eyes had changed, the golden color was gone and she now seemed to have icy blue eyes, it was quite the strange sight and Kou quickly backed off from the pond.

A little lost Shi Shi rubbed the back of her head, a little unlady-like and grinned. "Well, that is fox-fire alright. Listen to me now, your flame will grow increasingly powerful the further you climb up the ladder of cultivation, many flames as I said can be quite useful for alchemy and smithing, others for fighting and some even act as a medium for divination, yours seems to be the fighting kind, but you yourself will have to determine the use of your flame in the future."

Curling her nose a little Kou was just a bit disappointed, to be honest she would've prefered the Illusion powers - it sounded so much more useful, but she did not complain - this was her power, her very own, the fire felt like an extension of her very self - and after using it for a bit it felt ..just right to her, it was a very difficult feeling to describe. Stretching out her left hand Kou concentrated on the flames, they slowly wandered over her body and down her arm -. forming into a floating eery ball of blue fire just above the palm of her hand..

Shi Shi, however, felt the chilly aura this flame had, it was no devouring flame of heat, but an ice-flame, it would freeze things it came in contact with. "This is ... an Ice-flame - that is a bit ..rare." Shi Shi glanced down to Kou, wondering... Which of her children had made a child with someone with an Ice blood line - mutations like these rarely happened, that the fox-fire took on the element of the other parent... they were more often than not weak or very difficult to use..

The sigh she made internally never left her lips as she observed the girl forming her flames to a ball, this was good - she seemed to have control... but Shi Shi would not be of to much help in teaching Kou about her flame. She herself had hopped Kou would gain one of the more powerful abilities of her clan - in that case, she would've been able to teach Kou about all the ins and outs.

"Well, you will have to figure out the best ways to use it yourself - I'd best if you stayed here a couple of days longer, so I can give you basic training on fox-fire, some things are always the same after all no matter what kind of flame it is, we will also work on stabilizing yourself in the second realm, and I want you to do one of my trails as well."

Kou stayed silent throughout Shi Shi's explanation, her attention was mostly on the flame, it was not bright - it did barely give off any light and there was no smoke. Internally Kou had been a bit worried, who had ever heard of a thief that had brightly burning fire with her, smoking up the place... So she was quite happy now with her own fire, it was much like herself.

With still blue glowing eyes she looked up to Shi Shi and nodded. "Ok, training and trials sound good, I don't really want to be outside anyway - it is stressful, thanks" Her fluffy ears twitched - Kou was rather proud of herself right now, she had drawn out her bloodline in the first try, and while it was a bit different from what she had imagined it was still hers! Her tail wagged slightly as she glanced up to Shi Shi - she expected to be praised by the woman.

Being the victim of large blue puppy eyes, Shi Shi was barely able to suppress her laugh - reaching out she once more gently caressed Kou's head, looking at her granddaughter a little bit closer while doing so. Large eyes with long and full lashes, a small face with pink lips, pale skin and a slender figure. She had grown prettier after she had ascended into the second realm. She resembled a young Shi Shi quite a lot, just the hair was different... Her kind had this not quite baseless rumor about them of seducing males, the woman in their clan always tended towards lithe beauty.

Shi Shi herself had left her clan to travel the world and had left many children and lovestruck men behind in her journey after all... the clear proof of that life that had been taken away from her was standing next to her right now.

But she could not see Kou as a seductress, she was too brash for it - and did not care about appearances much, she also had not expressed interested in any girly clothes as of yet, still.. puberty was just around the corner and even the quickly growing children inside the sect would have to fight their hormones. Shi Shi was quite curious about which poor lad would run into the steel wall that was her pretty little granddaughter