"Mhhm."

Her nose twitched, a loud sneeze left her mouth and her eyes shot open - disoriented and confused her eyes scanned her surroundings. Giant trees everywhere, together with big green foliage and she could hear the sounds of animals around her, just to be sure she rubbed her eyes a few times before looking around once more. Hm, still exactly the same place.

Sitting there with her memories muddled she simply remained still for a little bit with her ears tilted downwards gently. "What the..." She clearly remembered waking up near a river before, she clearly remembered the warm embracing feeling. But all of that was gone now, she felt... normal.

Normal was usually good, but at this moment Yun Kou felt like she had lost something. Remaining sitting she leaned against the big tree next to her somewhat stunned. It took her some more time to adjust everything in her head. Something or someone had taken her body and brought it far away from the sect. Nothing here was remotely similar, the sect was in a completely different climate. Here it seemed to be summer, it was hot and very humid, compared to the Sects temperate location. Yun Kou shook her head and examined her body. The wound on her belly was almost gone, her side was perfectly fine, her clothes, however, were barely clothes anymore, ripped everywhere with a big amount of it burned away so much so that her belly was just bare at the moment.

Not that she cared much of exposing her flesh to anyone, she had worn just a rug before without any problems after all. Well.. she did grow a bit since that time but she still did not care.

What was a far bigger problem however were the cuffs around her wrists. They were still there, both of them! Kou let out a groan and stared the cuffs down... She would have to get by with those until she found a way to get them off...

Taking off the upper part of her robe she bound it around her hips to keep her pants where they belong, that just leaves her in her under-garments for now, but that was fine it was rather hot here anyway. After the clothing problem was dealt with she directed her gaze around, everything seemed safe for now...

She sat back down cross-legged, breathing in slowly she tried to absorb Qi once more, maybe now that she was not in that prison and in stress she could force her way through the cuffs. To her surprise it was! It was a lot harder and she already felt the sweat build on her forehead as she forcefully absorbed the Qi with her breath.

Well, that was rather uncomfortable... Luckily she had enough Qi after drinking the spirit water. Slowly she extended her left hand and tried to activate her ice-flame...maybe the Cuffs got damaged somehow on her fall. It was still hard but it did not hurt as much as before. Quite quickly her ice-flame formed in her Hand and Kou grinned.

"Good what am I do too now..." That question was left unanswered, there was nobody here that could answer it, after all, Kou was completely lost on what to do, she could get by in cities or in a sect but what exactly were you supposed to do in the wilderness? Aside from the Missions, she did to Hunt Demon and Spirit Beasts she had little to no knowledge about all of these things.

Kou pulled her cloak closer, luckily it was still doing its job of keeping her cool, otherwise, she would probably melt here. Unbeknownst to her, there was a small rune etched into her cloak, her fingers just so happen to brush over it. Suddenly a bright light flared up from that rune and Kou quickly threw off the cloak and backed away.

"Fump." Kou stood behind a tree, slowly she inched around the corner just barely enough for her golden eyes to get a peek on the cloak. It was still there perfectly fine and not glowing anymore. But there was something else as well now! A BIG book. It was the biggest book Yun Kou had ever seen! But it was not just that! There was also a sealed scroll on the book.

Kou curled her nose suspiciously, this very clearly was not normal! She had worn this cloak for a long time and this had never happened! Like on cat paws she made her way over ready to jump away at a moments notice. She picked up a stick on the way and after she finally reached the cloak and that suspicious book she reached out with the stick quickly pulling the cloak closer and backing off again.

Important was the cloak! These few moments without it already made her sweaty. But first she had to examine it! She looked the cloak up and down, but there was nothing to be seen on it, the rune that had activated this was long since gone leaving perfectly fine. Only after making sure there was nothing else on it did she put it over her narrow shoulders again.

"Bweh... nice and cool..." She mumbled before directing her attention back down on the book. Once more she slowly inched closer and poked the book as well as the scroll with a stick. She acted very much like a curious but very suspicious cat! "Mh..." After the book had shown no reaction to the poking Kou came even closer poking the book with one finger. Nothing. After that, she poked the scroll

"Arg!" Light again! The letter flew into the air and started to partially unravel! The scroll hovered in the air for a moment before simply tumbling down again landing on the ground this time. Kou was back behind the tree again, her ears perked up and her tail bushy.

"Hrrrh..." She growled having half a mind to just abandon the book and the scroll. But, it came from her cloak! So she was very curious, but even more so suspicious! If you talked about trusting people, the person she had gotten the cloak from was at the very very very bottom of her list, she did not trust him at all!

She kicked the book out of the way and approached the scroll slowly picking it up ready at every moment to throw the thing away. But it never came to it as her eyes landed on the golden letters.

"You may wonder why you are here and where exactly "here" is. My Child - your grand-mother has sent you away for many reasons. I will tell you a small part of my story to make you understand why. Many many years ago your Grandmother was an arrogant woman, looking down on everyone. I came to these lands simply to have my fun - very aware that nobody here could've ever been my match. I was already in a realm that was just a myth in this part of the world, Core Formation was nothing more than a pebble in front of me.

In my "Playtime" I made many children - many of whom have long since perished or gone out to find their luck elsewhere. I was never a good mother and only stayed with the children until they could fend for themselves leaving them behind with their fathers or alone. Finding a new place to play. I was young for our kind and full of energy, the world seemed to be in my palm - to do with whatever I wanted. It did not take to long until I had angered one of the hidden powers in this country, an old fossil that tried to fight me head-on. Of course, I beat him - but got hurt badly in the fight, weakened and powerless I fell down into the woods. I was found by a cruel man, someone that was in the core formation stage if I had not been injured to badly I could've just squashed him like a fly."

"But I was. And he had a strange technique - my body was so very weak against it and I could do nothing to fight him off - slowly I was turned into a furnace by this man - he siphoned away my power and youth - Of course he could not use much of it, but what he could absorb quickly turned him into the mightiest man in this empire - Ancient Cloud. He is the founder and master of this sect, and currently asleep. He went out - hunting for my children taking any woman he could find. Few were powerful or even cultivators at all. He drained them fully without remorse." Kou growled her knuckles were white as she clutched the paper the anger inside of her was welling up. So that person might very well be responsible for her parents leaving her alone! Also, how dare he do these things to Shi Shi!

"I've thought I had lost any feelings for family long ago, but seeing that... made me suffer more than anything else he could do. Once he took everything he could he put a seal on me and put me to work. That man, he is so talentless but that strange technique made it possible for him to absorb part of my power. His Soul, however, was never strong enough for all of that, and he mostly remains cut off from the outside world in deep meditation to stabilize his soul. I feel that he will awake soon and I have also found a little brat in the sect that uses the same technique. And he already had you as his goal." Kou became restless and paced back and forth on the spot, she was actually worried for Shi Shi. What would the Ancient cloud do once he was woken up? Would he drain Shi Shi until nothing remained of her?

"That is why I've sent you away to a faraway land, a place I picked precisely because It will be the best training you can get. Our kind grows quickly after awakening, reaching core formation with minimal effort is possible for most of us as we have a long life. But you, you have talent similar to my own. I can not bear seeing you get drained of the only chance you have to rise above everyone. Claim your spot in this world. And show everyone what you are made off!" She gritted her teeth slightly and continued to read her eyes strangely moist but she pulled herself together, crying had never been something she indulged in after all.

"The book I've send with you contains Alchemie recipes up to core formation. The Island you are on is far off the coast of the empire so far that nobody of them knows about it, I found it by accident my self while hunting a Nascent Soul beast for his pearls. It has an abundance of medical herbs and I've often used them to make pills. The liquid I've used to awaken you came from here as well. There are many beasts on this land and nobody will disturb you here. You can slowly and carefully grow on your own.

There a few things inside your cloak, I put a few pill furnaces inside as well as a few other nicks and knocks. You will have to reach the 3rd realm to access them, however. Also, do not remove those cuffs, I've altered them. If you manage to grow with those cuffs as they are your gains will be far greater than any of those pampered sect children. It is just like weight training." At this point, Shi Shi had somehow drawn a smug-looking fox that winked at her and Kou had lost all sentiment she had with her grandmother. However, she very much was interested in this Alchemie book now. she had done a few quests to gather magical herbs for alchemists before. To be able to make your own pills and medicine seemed very good to her ears! One point less she had to rely on others for.

The last few sentences that she could read got her attention back a little moment later.

"You are currently on the northern side of the island. The Monsters here are around first to late second rank. As long as you are careful you can live there quite safely, Hunting beast and devouring their cores and flesh will help you cultivate, later once you are able to use alchemy you can use the medical herbs, beast-cores, and other ingredients to produce pills. Once you are more powerful you can head south, the further south you go the stronger the Beasts will become - far in the south there is a large canyon and there lives a beast-king. He is comparable to a core formation cultivator. You should be careful not to cross him."

"One last piece of advice I will give you. I do not know where your journey will bring you later in your life, I don't know if I ever see you again to tell it to you personally, however. Never... try to seek out our clan."

The rest of the scroll was still sealed. "Hrm..." Kou stared at it, would she have to become stronger than now to read the rest of it? Or would something else trigger the scroll? She did not know but carefully placed it in her pockets.. before picking up the book. No reading time now, she would first have to find or make herself a shelter.