Hei Tian was strolling down the streets, his face somewhat sour which was weird as he was now in the very late stretches of the mid-second realm already, just half a step away from breaking into the late second realm! He had grown a few inches and after having lost most of his baby-fat he looked a lot like a young hero! His striking eyes making one shiver! He was very good looking for his age - with long brown hair flowing down his shoulders and his manly and handsome face.

The reason for his sour face, however, was the gaggle of girls that surrounded him at all times these last couple of days. The peace period was soon gone and people wanted to stick to strong people, for these young ladies of soon to be marriageable age, the prospect of getting Hei Tian's attention was quite enticing! He was the scion of the Hei family, someone that could very well become the next sect Master! Many parents even explicitly told their girls to try and woo the boy! And so he was constantly surrounded by pretty girls with doe eyes, battering their lashes at him while giggling shyly

Hei Tian was wholly focused on cultivation - while he looked like a teenager his head was still in the clouds, his interest for most of the other sex was limited to his friends, and even there it was purer in nature, well...aside from Xiu Shihong - he really looked up to the girl and he found her very pretty! And so he found the crowd around him rather awkward, it often stopped him from what he actually wanted to do - just like now as he was surrounded by girls, in the middle of the market street.

"Hei Tian, please read my letter.." ... "Hei Tian, isn't the weather so nice today? How about a stroll around the woods ~" ... "Hei Tian, I've baked some cookies for you." .... "Hei Tian Do you think I look pretty? I want your opinion."

He was about to get a headache.

Kou was back on the roofs, after her visit at Kiel's she felt really good about her current situation, she had a decent defensive treasure in her cloak and good weapons! Your equipment often was just as important or even more so than your actual cultivation, a person with a high-level treasure he could use would quickly outmatch even those that were above him in pure cultivation! Kou was ready for the peace period to end soon! Suddenly her ears twitched - she heard a familiar voice down on the streets. "I'm very thankful for your letter, I will read it once I get home... But for now, I need to g... Oh...thank you for the cookies.." Hei Tian was standing in the middle of the road surrounded by prettied up little dolls. The boy had a rather sour expression as he dealt with the gaggle.

Kou blinked. What was going on? Did those girls try to stop him from moving? Every time Hei Tian would try to weasel his way out of the group another shy maiden approached him with a trinket of sorts. The boy looked very helpless as his deeply rooted righteous and nice character did not allow him to be rude to these girls in a situation like this! Kou grinned and watched the whole ordeal for a little while longer before a plan formed in her mind!

She had been kinda hungry! Jumping around the rooftops made her belly protest the fact that it was empty and Kou was happy to oblige this desire - and having Hei Tian here in an obviously bad situation just gave her the prospect of a free meal! She pulled her hood further down so that her face was hidden and jumped off the roof. Landing next to Hei Tian in the middle of the girl gaggle. It was an impressive jump! Nobody would've guessed someone would just jump down from the roof and land on their feet like a cat!

Hei Tian blinked - others would not but he immediately could tell who this was the combination of Dark and Light Qi was rather rare, and her size matched Yun Kou too! But Hei Tian did not get to great the girl he had not seen in a long time now - she simply grabbed his wrist and while everyone was looking at them - simply jumped back up to the roof pulling Hei Tian with her. He could've stopped her if he wanted to of course but Hei Tian was actually quite.. happy to be abducted this way - it was a chance to get away from those girls!

These girls were all privileged little ladies that usually got what they wanted! So seeing Hei Tian so easily pulled away from them left them in shock for a moment, standing there with their little mouths wide open exchanging looks of disbelief. Then most of them started to complain! "Who was that! That was too tiny to be a boy! Who would steal Hei Tian, and she was in the second realm too!" Some of the girls that had jet to give their presents to Hei Tian tried to chase after him and the unknown person but there was no way they could catch up, all of them were at most in the late first realm, while the most of them were just in the middle.

Well, aside from one girl, a pretty young lady, she was a bit taller than most girls and had already started to develop, she always stood closest to Hei Tian and both of them looked very good together, just that the boy did not pay her all that much attention. She was already in the second realm and her round beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as she watched Yun Kou and Hei Tian disappear - jealousy burning in them. She did not know who that girl was... but she would find out!

"He, thanks for that." Hei Tian rubbed the back of his head with his left hand, they were now far away from the main street in a dark alleyway, none of these uppity girls would ever set a foot into such a dirty place far from the main street - this was a place very similar to the one Kou had called home for most of her life.

"Mh, for helping you I demand snacks." Kou pulled back her hood and grinned for a moment her eyes forming to little crescents. Hei Tian was silenced for a moment looking at her. He broke into laughter and nodded "Sure Sure, I'll get you something on the way back, for now, let's get out of here." He watched her fluffy ears twitch and grinned wider "Oh, and congratulations on ranking up finally! With that our training fights will become more fun now!"

He jumped up to the roof again together with "I will have to adapt to this

"Why are they even?" Kou blinked up to him "They seemed quite happy to have you there.."

Hei Tian let out a sigh "I actually do not know ... They give me letters saying nice things and keep trying to spend time alone with me. I just wanted to buy a new wet stone for my sword, didn't get to do that..." He let out a sigh and shook his head. " I can just try your travel method next time, pretty smart butt unconventional." He nodded.

"Anyway let's get out of here I'll get you something to eat on the way. I can get my whetstone another time."

And so they moved on, Hei Tian got Kou a fried chicken on a stick to devour, it was quite the sight to see Kou dismantle the thing with no care about how she looked while doing it, other girls would always try to be ladylike and act like little fairies, but Yun Kou and to an extent the other two girls did not care much - well at least as long as it was between the 4 of them. Yun Kou did not care in general, that was refreshing for him, girls that were not as strange as those that chased after him were very welcome.

Later that day.

"Good thing to have everyone together again, it has been a while, soon the peace period is going to end so we should put our effort into training." Funnily enough, it was Hei Tian that said that he and Xiu Shihong would probably never get attacked. Li Zhi and Kou were the people in danger!

Kou grinned again her ears twitching slightly in anticipation - she was actually not all that against more action in the future, not having to hold back all the time would be nice! She was also happy to finally see her friends again! The training was always fun as she felt that each session was honing her skills way more than any lesson given by an elder could! Being a cultivator more often than not involved fighting between cultivators after all.

The training was, as usual, Li Zhi that stood at the very edge of fully stepping into the second realm and would probably do so in the next days against Xiu Shihong, they would hone their Water and Fire against each other! On the other side was Yun Kou and Hei Tian! Their last fight was a clear loss for Yun Kou and while she did not see much chance for a win, she wanted to do better this time, but Hei Tian did not give her the chance at all! He rushed her! He never did that! He usually stayed on distance using his wind-blades! But now he was already just a few steps away from her so Kou quickly jumped out of the way and Hei Tian grinned. "I've become stronger too~" He taunted her

Well, this was perfect was it not? Kou had to train on her sword technique anyway and she would not get a surprise hit on Hei Tian anyway! Pulling out her Black dagger she pored Qi inside of it, quickly it transformed into the black sword which she quickly used to block Hei Tian's mighty slash. HEAVY! She was immediately pushed down on her knees! The heck! He was so much stronger than before! She felt like a mountain was pressing down on her and she could only just barely hold her sword up.

Hei Tian grinned "Unlocked a new part of my technique, fun right?" He teased his eyes sparkling in jest! He ...Was not taking her seriously at all! Kou blew up her left cheek and used Hunting Shadows to gain distance jumping into a nearby tree's shadow - her golden eyes focusing on Hei Tian, his robe was fluttering as if there was wind blowing against his back!

So it was like that! He used the wind to augment his speed and strength! Kou clicked her tongue and dashed out of the way as Hei Tian was already on her heels, this evolved into a game of cat and mouse, Hei Tian was not giving her ANY slack whatsoever! But that was just was Kou needed - she went over everything she could do to stop him, Spiritual weapon was not strong enough, Hunting Shadows was barely able to keep her ahead of him.

But what was she supposed to do?! Ice! It clicked, she would have to use her Bloodline power and surprise the boy with it! Just ..How should she do it! Under her cloak, she summoned up her ice-flame, until she blinked. She will just copy him! He had enhanced his blade with wind! So she would do the same with her ice-flame!

In her dash, she stopped all of a sudden meeting Hei Tian's blade head on. "BOOM" a booming noise filled the area as the two of the clashed and Kou was almost stomped into the ground her eyes meet Hei Tian's who was grinning at her still, but his grin stiffened slightly as he saw her eyes, no longer golden, but icy-blue! Her black sword was suddenly covered in some blue flickering flame! He could feel the cold creeping down his sword into his arm in an instant, trying to pull away he shockingly found that his sword was stuck.

Kou grinned this time and kicked him into the abdomen - he was too shocked about her sudden new power and took it - losing the grip on his sword and landing on his behind looking up at Kou speechlessly. Kou called back her ice-flame and grabbed Hei Tian's sword breaking it away.. before throwing it over to him. This was her win, she and he both knew it!

"Unlocked something new too, fun right?" She snickered "Let's keep going." She grinned at him - Now that he knew her new power ..Kou would get beaten to a pulp.