Luckily the Water did not vanish. Kou had watched Li Zhi for a while letting the girl rest, but finally, she showed signs of waking up so Kou quickly pulled her tail away, no need to have the girl know of her act of kindness. Instead, she reached out with a Hand and shook Zhi roughly so her wake may come even sooner than expected. Being woken up to rudely made her groan and Kou allowed herself another grin before returning to her stonefaced expression.

"Done napping?" Kou pulled her hand away and got on her feet, quickly followed by Li Zhi, the girl was rubbing her eyes. "Could've woken me up more nicely.." She mumbled. "I had ... a nice dream there was some super soft and fluffy cloud.." She stretched and yawned before directing her gaze at the hole. Luckily it was still filled, it looked rather eerily, however, almost pitch-black - only the blue light of the forest reflecting on it.

Kou stiffed slightly and her tail wrapped a little closer around her hips this time "Mh, Clouds are fun.." She mumbled shaking her head as she moved over to the hole leaning down to look into it. "Can't see nothin...so we just dive?" Li Zhi joined her by her side fumbling around in her bag "Yes! That we do, Here - take this." She handed Kou a small ...blue leaf. Curling her nose Kou took a sniff from it and looked it up and down, seemed like a normal leaf to her just blue.

Li Zhi observed her and grinned herself this time. "This is a special magical herb, it's called Watertongue - if you press it against your palate you can breathe underwater for about an hour, it's a bit bitter however, my family grows these, and I got a few to be prepared, Water Cultivators can rarely actually breath underwater so we have to find other methods." Kou.. nodded slowly her golden eyes glued to the leaf full of suspicion...Bitter?..Urg..

While Kou was still staring at the leaf Li Zhi put one into her mouth and straight up dove into the hole without a word whatsoever to Yun Kou! Kou ...groaned and put the leaf into her mouth, her tail unraveling around her hips standing straight up as her expression became ugly. "So bitter...What do you mean, a bit?!" She stomped her left feet and quickly followed Li Zhi - diving down into the water. It was comfortably cool - and once she was underwater her eyes adapted quickly so she could see. At first, she held her breath, not trusting this weird leaf whatsoever but after a few minutes of swimming down she could not hold it anymore and took a deep breath... it was...surprisingly easy, it just felt like on land.

Still..it was weird to breathe normally underwater and she found herself trying to hold her breath all the time, just out of plain reflex. Finally, after a few more minutes she found Li Zhi hovering in front of an opened Copper Gate. "Come on, let's go." She spoke! Apparently, you can speak underwater with the leaf too - so Kou tried to replay just to see a bunch of bubbles leaving her mouth and seeing Li Zhi laughing at her. Heck! "I can speak because of my family's art if you want something you have to gesture." The girl hummed, she was like a fish underwater - she swam faster than Yun Kou could turn around in an instant and everything! Making Kou wonder why she even needed her for this!

The tunnel behind the copper gate was just a plain rocky cave filled with water now - no pathways just a straight line, swimming for a few more minutes and finally she could she Li Zhi swimming up - there was a surface here! Kou kicked the water harder and speed up jumping out of the Water like a dolphin and landing on rocky ground! Another Cave! How lovely! Spitting out the leaf she quickly rinsed her mouth out with Water and sat down "A bit?" She asked looking at Li Zhi

"Ah... well if I've said a lot would you have put it in?" The girl rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and looked around... This cave was filled many stalagmites and stalactites, made of a weird blue crystal-like stone. It looked a lot like Ice, to be honest, but it was not cold or see through. Suddenly it began to rumble and making all she spikes shake. "W...Well! This is your part!" Li Zhi stood near Kou and than, the horror started.

Everything rumbled and fell! Kou had to pick Li Zhi up and start dashing in Zigzag back and forth narrowly avoiding stalactites that shoot at her like arrows, but the ground was spiky too! The Stalacmites were swaying back and forth and falling over trying to crush them on their path! HECK! Kou was already out of breath, she had to carry Li Zhi the girl would not be able to avoid all of this! Using shadow hunter continuously she narrowly avoided spikes piercing and crushing her but made little to no progress in getting forward. The worst? THOSE things grew back in mere seconds!

Finally, Li Zhi spoke "I'll blast open a path! Run as fast as you can! Those react poorly to water but they will regrow quickly!" The girl sounded ... sick her face was a bit green even...Kou was not really a comfortable ride - and dragging her around while jumping from shadow to shadow was rather nauseating for Li Zhi. But the girl concentrated stretching out her left hand while Kou still avoided everything that made her way - for a good 20 Seconds nothing happens just Qi that gathered around Li Zhi's Hand, then a strong blast of Water shot forward "Follow it!" Every spike the blast touched stopped dead in their tracks and splintered - each splinter however immediately started to grow once touching the ground quickly forming back into big spikes! Kou luckily was fast enough to avoid those.

Dashing straightforward following the path Li Zhi had made for them, the girl was already gathering more Qi for the next blast, good! Kou had no way to pay attention to her, however! She was still busy running and avoiding stray spikes that seemed to home in on them! Then suddenly she heard a screech that made her ears tilt down! OUCH! Something cut her left side she could smell the blood and she quickly backed off - running even faster now!

"Bats! Kou!" Li Zhi called out. And it was so she saw them, leisurely flying through the storm of spikes, none of those seemed to care about the flying rodents - well ...calling them rodents seemed somewhat wrong, they were about 6 meters in size, gigantic with big eyes and giant maws, and apparently they where after Kou and Li Zhi! Li Zhi redirected the blast she had already gathered upwards, she shot 3 down with that but there were many more, while all of them were in the second realm, they seemed rather weak and only strong in a pack.

Li Zhi continued to send weaker but quicker blasts of Water upwards to hold the bats at bay while Kou had to avoid all the spikes still bleeding on her side, What to do?! Her brain ran quicker than it ever had before, what was she supposed to do! She could probably make her way out if she threw Li Zhi off! She tensed and almost got hit again, and then she threw Li Zhi into the air - the girl got scraped by a spike.... clearly she was more than confused for a moment not having ever guessed the other girl would just abandon her, so she just hangs in the air for a moment with a perplexed stare

Suddenly Yun Kou appeared underneath her - using her shadow, Li Zhi landing on Kou's back "Hold tight!" She wanted to have her arms free for this! Carrying the other girl on her back was a lot easier, she pulled out the black dagger quickly forming the sword with it while dancing around spikes and bats alike. The giant rodents had begun their assault already diving in between the spikes to reach the two of them. Now with the sword in hand, she could block some of the spikes and attack the bats just like that. Li Zhi continued to send small blast upwards - the girl had tears in her eyes!

Finally after the time it takes an incense stick to burn down an opportunity arose - Kou was drenched in sweat, small cuts and the wound on her side covered her... but here it was - one of the larger bats was hovering mid-air and a smaller bat flew over it trying to get some hight for a dive towards the both of them, Kou used the smaller bats shadow and she and Li Zhi appeared on the big bats back! Kou was very quick her sharp blade cut just barely into the creature's throat, just enough to make some blood appear her other hand yanked the creatures head around. "Fly or die!" She growled - these creatures had some degree of intelligence! Even if it did not understand Kou's words it understood the meaning.

Not that it had any other way out anyway - the spikes ignored the bats - but now those they sought to impale were sitting on one do all the spikes targeted the bat as well. The creature took off, quicker then Kou could run it shot forward followed by homing spikes and other bats. Flying the fastest it had ever been in its life because it was very much at stake at this moment! Quickly they left the spiky part of the cavern behind them and all the bats seemed to have lost interest after a while. They shot forward through the tunnel - behind them, Kou could hear traps going off, but they were just to fast to bother. Arrows spike traps - all manner of things that she was very happy to avoid! Finally, in utter exaustion the bat crashed into the ground, Kou and Li Zhi rolling off to the side.

The Bat wanted to turn around but Kou threw the White Dagger at it, hitting it in the neck - killing the exhausted beast...

"Urg..:" Spitting out a mouthful of blood Kou clenched her side

"Yun Kou!" She could still hear Li Zhi's cry but ... she was already drifting off, just as was about to lose consciousness the morbid thought that she kinda tended to lose it quite often crossed her mind which made her grunt in amusement - before her lights went out, for now.