"Where did she go?!"

"What happened?"

"Some girl defeated the grand elder in the arena."

"A girl? How?"

"She was small too, nobody knows what she looks like but she had white hair and wore a thick cloak."

"White hair? Then it can't be that Monster girl from the Xiu clan, she has black hair! What other girls would be strong enough to do something like that and disappear!"

Words such as those were quickly filling the whole city, those people that had been there in the arena found themself suddenly very popular and quickly the rumors got out of hand, that there was apparently another young monster in the empire! The white-haired shadow! A cultivation level that was clearly hidden and a power to rival the old generation!

Grand Elder Lo and his sect kept quiet - but send out all their eyes and ears to find that girl, not to fight her but to recruit her, having such a seedling to groom and grow would probably result in their second core formation cultivator in the next 100 years! Which would put them on par with the Wu clan! And unlike everyone else that was looking for the girl, they had the edge of Elder Lo having seen her face!

Oblivious to all of this Kou had made her way back to her temporary lounging and found herself confronted with a few female servants, they had brought clothes and brushes, water and make-up, wondering were that girl they were supposed to serve had gone.

Kou that had just faced an old powerhouse and won was helpless against the assault of giggling maids all older than herself - she could feel no hostility from them at all, they clearly just sent here to do their job - but Kou felt very helpless as she was overwhelmed with words and reason and less so power. It remembered her very much of Xiu Shihong and her other friends.

"N...Not in the ears... Hwwwh..." Kou had always taken baths but, she never used any soap, where would she get soap from after all. The woman quickly had undressed and shoved her into a hot tub of water that was full of oils and soap and other ... things Kou had no idea how to call, she felt the grippy hands of the woman all over her as she was cleaned like a child, weakly trying to defend herself somewhat. But these women all were mortal or barely in the first realm, if she just used a little to much force they would die,.. Kou was not quite confident in holding back, she never actually had to hold back anywhere, after all, full strength ahead was usually the best answer to any situation on a lonely island

And so Kou ... just let it happen, and... to be honest, it did not feel too bad after getting used to it, having them massage her head to work in ... that weird substance they had smeared all over her hair, how they brushed her tails, it all...felt kinda good, like a spar day so at some point, Kou just gave up and let them do their thing.

Just when they tried to style up her hair with many ornaments and weird knots did she stamp her food on the ground to stop them... but was quickly talked down...she once more realized she was fairly weak to the assertive type... so she compromised for a loose and simple braid that would hang over her shoulder.

And now she sat in her courtyard alone and slightly traumatized. "Court ladies.. are frightening..." She mumbled as she pulled on the elaborate white dress with pink cherry blossom designs they had put her in. This was ...heavy to walk in and heavy to wear, it was not practical for fighting at all, the quality was enormous, it was way better than her usual clothes in that way. Her Qi moved more smoothly, and she could tell that the dress was quite the treasure that would even block attacks from people in the third realm.

Still...How was one supposed to walk like that, and why did her shoes have heels? A few steps taken and Kou fell on the ground with a groan, she kicked away the shoes, barefoot was better than these weird tiny shoes with heels!

Any court lady would pale at Kou's conduct but luckily the ladies had gone into a side courtyard to rest leaving her alone...Kou was not aware and did not care about things other women saw as important, and even if she was these dumb shoes that just hurt were clearly out no matter what.

....

In the morning the ladies returned this time, they wanted to prepare Kou for the outing with the young Master, the moment rogue, and make-up was brought out was the moment Kou jumped on the roof and growled at them, finally shocking the young ladies, that girl had been rather docile until now, a bit of a country bumkin but clearly a good girl! So how was she throwing a tantrum about make-up!

"Young lady, please come down, while your complexion is naturally beautiful, a little color will bring wonders! That way you will impress the young Master!" The one that spoke was the eldest of the bunch a lady in her early thirties with an elaborate hairstyle. "Just some red around your eyes, and some pink on your cheeks and you will turn the heads of everyone even more!"

Kou's ears twitched and tilted backward, why would she want to turn heads, her 2 tails that had been skillfully guided through small holes swayed back and forth behind her as she jumped down. "I don't want to, Xiu Shihong tried to do that before once already and I don't like it, it feels itchy on my face."

A gasp went through the gaggle of women, their young charge knew the young scion of the Xiu clan! The one that was commonly called a genius among geniuses! The desert monster! Xiu Shihong! The Chamberlain had told them the young Master had brought a female of unknown origin and to get her ready for an outing, neither of them was aware of her standing! To them, she was just some girl, maybe in the late first or second realm, nobody to be overly scared off but that changed things.

Pale-faced they exchanged glances remembering how friendly they had been on the day before and the group collectively got to their knees pressing their foreheads on the ground "Pardon us please young Lady."

....

The heck? Kou stood there her mouth hanging open as she was just about to say something. Why did they kneel down now? What exactly was going on? Court ladies were really frightening! And confusing too! "Don't kneel, I'm not angry, I just don't want any color on my face!" Kou spoke in a slightly softer tone, hopefully, those women would stop kneeling and leave her alone now. She had never seen them as beneath her or as servants, she did not know how exactly the systems worked, she had been calling them court ladies because that's how you call pretty girls with elaborate hairstyles and flowery dresses on the streets.

Having someone like that kneel to her felt uncomfortable and she wanted them to stop "Get up Get up, and go!" She spoke again and this time they got up, and quickly moved away keeping their heads lowered mumbling "Thank you, young miss." And such things.

The whole encounter left Kou mentally drained and she sat down to recover... She had never been good with people. She was totally unaware of her current status in the world, and what just the name of someone could mean to others. Obviously, she was not dumb she knew that someone named Wu would be a big deal in WU city, but, Xiu Shihong? She knew she was some noble that clashed with the prince, but.. did she understand or care for the meaning behind all of that, their standing? No! She cared about her friends no matter what others thought of them!

Anyway.

She waited for the Wu man to arrive while playing around idly with a loose strand of her hair, she could not go cultivate now when he could just show up at any moment after all...

....

Wu Xiao slowly approached the courtyard, actually feeling somewhat nervous, he wore white just like the dress he had prepared for her, it was his favorite color after all, so it seemed just right, he wore a long-sword sheeted at his side, on it's handle was the coiling snake that was the Wu Clan's symbol.

Pacing back and forth before the entrance he took a deep breath. Truth to be told he had no ulterior motives, Miss Xue was simply beautiful, seemed a bid deadpan, and did not care much for formalities, it was that which he liked. Obviously there was also the fact that she had cultivation rivaling his own, in fact, she would probably win if they both went all out, that much he had understood from their small bout when they first meet.

But that did not hurt his pride at all, this female was clearly groomed and fed by a large clan, far bigger than the Wu clan, just... that even after he had searched for it, he could not find any young ladies that were called Xue that was mentioned before by any of the large families. The Wu clan was near the apex of the empire so they knew most promising young ladies, after all - such people would often end up with powerful young males in marriage.

Maybe the girl was the hidden trump card of some clan? Or maybe she was the scion of one of the big sects.

He stopped his mind. He had gone over this so much already and... did it matter? Of course! Would he be able to find it out if he run circles in front of her door thinking? Probably not.

Therefore he opened the door to the courtyard and stepped inside...

For a moment his breath stopped.

There she was sitting on the ground her white gown spread out around her as she sat there her 2 tails resting on her lap while she played with her hair with one hand. She was like a true fairy out of the stories and her golden eyes slowly moved to his direction and nodded calmly.

She was like a white-lotus! In this dress, she looked fragile like a princess. He felt like he had to protect her at any cost! As she got up he felt the urge to rush forward and help her, but he stopped himself. For a split second he pulled his mind together, he was young master Wu, after all, he would not be stunned by beauty... well, not for long at least.

"Miss Xue, good morning." He lowered his head slightly will the girl just stared at him. "I hope you like my gift." He gestured to her clothes and smiled brightly, a smile that would have some effect on most ladies, but lady Xue just tilted her head to the side her fluffy ears twitching slightly.

...

He came. Time to get up. Kou had been thinking... about nothing really, she simply sat there idling the time away, resting her mind and body. It was a little weird how Wu Xiao stopped dead in his tracks for a second when he came in and stared at her but she did not really care. She quickly got up noticing the twitch in the male as if he had just wanted to move towards her, which confused her as she made her way over to him... after all the door was way closer to him so why should he come to her?

"Good morning." She nodded slightly as she now stood next to him. "It is...agreeable, slightly hard to move in, but ... It seems to be valuable." Kou was fairly satisfied with the clothes even if they were hard to move in if it was a present she could probably sell them somewhere for a nice profit or exchange them for clothes more her style!

...

They moved outside and quite quickly Wu Xiao realized that Kou did not wear any shoes, her naked feet carrying her. His brows narrowed slightly. What were the maids thinking? Why would they make her run barefooted?! He had given a pair of fairly expensive crystal shoes too that would adjust to their wearers' size!

"Miss Xue? Is there a reason you are barefoot?"

Kou tilted her head slightly, they barely had made it out of the courtyard and he had already seen... she rubbed the back of her head slightly "Don't really like heels." She answered truthfully. It was a bit embarrassing, All the girls she saw wore refined-looking small shoes, while she ... always wore boots, while she usually did not care about what others thought of her, she wanted to make a good impression here so Wu Xiao would give her some benefits! Angering him was not really something she wanted to do right now.

Wu Xiao just nodded slightly stunned, this was a first. Usually, a woman would be fairly happy wearing such shoes but it seemed that this girl was a bit boyish when it came to these things, not that he would mind that. He had a fairly poor view on most females, as ... they usually tried to latch onto him with everything they got, being treated normally by one was refreshing.

....

Their walk went fairly quiet, aside from the fact that people kept looking at her which at first made her nervous and then kinda angry. It was annoying being looked at from all directions, she was not used to that and did not like it at all. But... Wu Xiao's presence made this a little bit more bearable as he would immediately stare daggers at anyone that looked to long.

Finally, they had made it to a store for techniques. Obviously Kou would not know but this was the best store in the city run by the Auction house that had its roots here it was deeply connected to the Wu clan. It hat 3 levels, on the first people run around freely browsing the shelves for scrolls, bamboo and jade slips. Kou was about to move into that direction but a pretty female quickly approached both of them.

Kou's eyes were momentarily glued to those giants she carried around ...'boing boing' She wore so little, so Kou was fairly certain she used some technique so they did not slip out! It was her first time seeing someone like that so she was a little stunned.

"Young Master Wu, how great to see you again." The female wrapped her hands around Wu Xiao's arm pressing it deeply into her two mountains. Kou wondered if the woman had back problems. But given that she was at the upper range of the second stage, she probably didn't.

Wu Xiao did react a little cold, however, pulling his arm away and glancing down "I've told you before please refrain from touching me, Lin Changying." His words carried an edge to it that was new to Kou, he didn't even sound that angry when they first meet. Well.. maybe he just didn't like the woman? Who knew! Her ears twitched slightly while those two spoke and she simply moved towards the shelves.

"Ah, Lady Xue don't bother with these, we will go up a level there you can look around, all of these are at best thresh that is meaningless past the first level." Neither Kou... nor Lin Changying missed the obvious change in tone, when he spoke to her he was fairly respectful and friendly sounding, while Changying was spoken to like an unsightly bug. Lin Changying bit her lower lip as she glared Kou...

Obviously Kou noticed the glare blinking slightly she looked at the other girl and tilted her head slightly to the side. ' What was her problem? Did I step on her feet or something? ' She kind of wanted to check the scrolls here too but she followed Wu Xiao upstairs. There were far fewer people browsing here, and the numbers in front of the scrolls all were quite a bit higher. Kou with her limited sense of money just shrugged, with what she had currently she could afford to buy out half the house after all.

This time Wu Xiao did not stop her as she moved towards the Shelves, her currently bright and white figure seemed like a fairy as she moved back and forth between the dark shelves starring at the many different techniques. Obviously it was not as far-reaching as what her sect had back then, but everything she wanted was here, and she did not really mind spending money, quickly grabbing all the techniques she wanted. Basic cleaning technique, basic floating technique and some other things that would prove useful in the future.

She spend about half an hour running back and forth gathering what she wanted before coming back to Wu Xiao who had patiently waited for her. Paying for the scrolls went fairly easily because Wu Xiao had paid already! Those scrolls where at best worth a few medium spirit stones and when Kou took out high-class spirit stones Wu Xiao quickly shook his head. "I've already paid, no need to pay me back, it's nothing."

Kou curled her nose slightly, she was suspicious before, but now she was even more... did he want some kind of favor from her? What was his plan? Why would he spend so much money on her? Kou had her own money and being treated like that felt very odd and she was fairly sure she did not like it that much. But Wu Xiao was iron-on not taking her money... so Kou as soon as they had gotten outside, used a moment when he was not looking to slip 2 of her high-class spirit-stones into his robes, that should be enough for the scrolls at least.

"So where do you want to go next?" Wu Xiao looked down on her with a wide smile, he felt fairly good about himself right now - flaunting his wealth a little would surely have some effect on Miss Xue right? Kou, on the other hand, was currently thinking about cleaning out her storage, while she had enough space to fit quite a lot inside, she did not really want to keep all the weapons inside. "Shop to sell weapons, then I want to go to an Alchemist, I need new magical herbs and a new cauldron." She had told him that before already obviously, sadly she seemed not as impressed of the city as he had hoped.

"How about we go to eat something as well? I know a place that serves the best food."

....

Wu Xiao was too preoccupied with his "Date" planing to have heard anything about the night before but that was not the case for the other powers in the city - quite a few people had already puzzled together that that young woman following him around must have been the cultivator from the Arena, after all, white hair was not common at all - and she fit the description of a probably young woman with white hair.

In the shadows, quite a few people were talking angrily. "The Wu clan already is the most powerful one here! Why would they need to pull in another talent! It's unfair!"

"Look at them! Clearly Wu Xiao is intending on charming her and making her his cultivation partner! Finding someone so powerful to dual cultivate with will just push him even further up! We have to do something or the balance of power will fall even more into their favor

"I'm so jealous!" One of them grunted, and the rest of the shadows stared at him for a moment.."Idiot.." They mumbled before continuing to track the two of them as they moved towards the most expensive restaurant in the city...

...