The Archive was as always a hotspot of activity there were many other outer sect members on the first floor going over art after art in the search for that hidden bit of good fortune.
There had been a rumor about a super powerful art on the first flour that only a chosen one would get, that did not interest Kou very much - such art would only bring problems.
She quickly passed by the flocks of people, she had handed her token to the elder before and he gave her access to the second floor, on this floor there was almost nobody - just a few people that kept to them selfs, no chatting no big groups of children, these people did not care about hidden fortune.
Kou had a few ideas as to which art she wanted, with her new cultivation technique she cultivated mostly Light and Darkness Qi, she had a Darkness art already - but none for light.
The Light element… Light Arts had many different aspects, speed, illusions, energy, heat. Just to point out a few, the light was everywhere and influenced anything just like darkness. Without light, there was no darkness, so these two elements did work together rather well.
Kou went over the Arts there were not even half as many as down-stairs but while most of them were not as complicated as shadow's bounty - they hold their own profound powers and techniques. Here she found real arts, it was not just a child's play - these things needed proper cultivation to it and if the user was not proficient, these arts might even hurt him.
After spending more time in this dusty room full of scrolls jade and bamboo sheets, then it would be healthy for any girl of barely 8 years of age she found a scroll that caught her attention.
She had gone over many things - Like the "Holy Lance strike" Which summoned a beam of light to pierce your enemies or the Profound truths of Light - it would create Illusions and the better you became in the art the more you could do with them.
But the one she picked was simply called "Spiritual weapon" It was a technique with multiple stages just like shadow's bounty, with each step you did with it the technique allowed you to summon one weapon of your liking, that weapon would be ethereal and attack enemies and if possible deflect incoming strikes.
It was a hard technique and its destructive potential was limited, but that was fine with Kou! She picked this one up because of its wide vanity! Always having a weapon on hand was something Kou found was preferable to large exhausting all-out attacks, and the technique would work well with shadow's bounty - it would not create something big and glowing.
She opened the scroll fully and immediately the information inside of it was imprinted into her mind. It hurt just like last time she did this, her head felt like a melon being split in two, this was nothing special so nobody minded her going down on her knees holding her head.
"Awful..." She mumbled a good 5 minutes later as she left the building, her ears were tilted all the way against her head and she looked somewhat dejected, her head was still throbbing with information. The spiritual weapon had 9 steps! She could not even barely grasp the information on the later steps! For now, she would be able to do the first two.
It would call upon a weapon from her imagination, appearing hovering next to her as a floating ethereal weapon, it would consume a fixed amount of Qi when summoned and another smaller amount each time it was used - she could hold it herself and wield it using less Qi and mental strength.
Or let the weapon attack on its own, that would need a lot more Qi and still had to give it orders mentally.
She quickly made her way back home - Xiu Shihong was not around so she stormed into the cultivation chamber, to practice. "Ok...a stable mental image, fill it with light Qi and it should appear." She mumbled the instructions and closed her eyes.
The image of a spear appeared in her mind - a simple long stick with a pointy end - there is not much you can do wrong with that, is it? She slowly directed her Qi into the image filling it up.
What appeared in front of her was not a spear but a wet noodle flopping about on the ground, she quickly severed her connection with it - the noodle disintegrated and the Qi she used for it was lost...
Half a day later.
Kou was frustrated! She clearly saw a spear in her mind! But every time she filled it with Qi it would become unstable and weird, a mental image seemed to be more than just recalling the shape something had, and so she gave up for today!
As she left the chamber her ears hanging low with narrowed eyes and a scowl on her face she was greeted by Xiu Shihong, the girl seemed to have returned in the time Xiu had spend failing.
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"Good evening Yun Kou, you look like something evil has bitten you?" Xiu Shihong sat on a chair one leg over the other in a relaxed position, with how pretty she was even as a young girl she looked a little bit like a miniature adult.
"Cultivation going bad, new technique is difficult," Kou mumbled curling her nose slightly in displeasure.
"Oh? Did you get a new art?" Xiu Shihong was rather curious about this - in her opinion, the girl in front of her had talent that rivaled those prodigies of the big houses, she had never seen her struggle with any cultivation, after all, grasping things quite quickly.
"Mh, I have to have a mental image of something.." Kou grunted and sat down herself grabbing herself an apple and eating it up.
Xiu Shihong tilted her head "Sadly I can not help you with that, my arts are all very direct the only thing I ever have to do is direct Qi and think of fire and explosions." She grinned fiercely, an expression outsider's would never get to see.
"You might want to spend some sect points on tutoring if you struggle with this? Everyone needs some help from time to time, I myself have requested help from someone in the inner sect for some pointers in various things."
This was true... this was an option - she did not want to ask the elder or Shi Shi for everything - depending on single sources to much would in the end just leave her helpless. Still .. sect points were tight and she did want to buy something else...
And so with a heavy heart, Kou went to her spirit stone stash and... nearly all of it up, just leaving a few behind for cultivation needs and made her way to the outer sect market. Asking for a tutor was quite easily done - this was done in the same building as one accepted missions, Kou's request was for someone proficient in "Spiritual weapon" or arts that require a mental image.
That ate up all of her sect points, one of the inner sect disciples would contact her as soon as someone took up the request. The next thing... was a weapon.
She had just picked up an art that made weapons but Kou still wanted a proper weapon she could wield - up until now she just used sharpened training daggers, and so for the second time she found herself in the production sector of the market. Cultivation, after all, was not just hacking each other until someone dies, there are many different kinds of paths people would take.
Alchemy for one - the art of creating pills and elixirs was the most lucrative and the most saturated, many Senior disciples had put up their stands here shouting about their pills and how they were better than anyone else.
There were also Rune-craftsmen - people that could embed different effects into clothes and weapons - or just produce runes that if filled with Qi would display different effects.
The weaponsmiths and the rune-craftsmen overlapped most of the time - a great weaponsmith most of the time was a rune-master as well - as it was the other way around.
Kou avoided the more flamboyant and upfront stores and stands, the praises on these were not something she could afford, her golden eyes darted back and forth between the stands, and the far end of the street she found a small little stand. No strong man was sitting here hammering iron - it was a boy.
Around 14 to 15 years old he was - lean with well-defined muscles, he was dirty full of soot and ash, in front of him was a well-worn anvil and his forge seemed to have seen better days - Kou approached slowly, curious - this stand had no big sign's or pretty girls calling out costumes for it.
But it had a weapon rack, Kou's limited knowledge was enough to tell her that these weapons were far above what the training weapons in the sect could do, they were well balanced, sturdy - and sharp.
The boy looked over to Kou for a moment he stopped hammering his iron - his hazel eyes stopped at her ears for a moment and his eyebrows rose. "Can I help ya, little Miss?" He was rather polite in his speech.
Kou was taken aback for a moment before nodding - she took out her two training daggers "I want .. weapons like these, but a lot stronger."
Witnessing her speak the boy leaned forward "Ah? Stronger eh?" While not sounding unfriendly at all he did drop the politeness - clearly, Kou was not some noble girl that was obvious by the way she spoke.
"Daggers, eh? What exactly do you want? I'm the best runesmith you can find around, no matter what anyone else says - my old man - was famous and he taught me." The boy boasted a bit, but to Kou he seemed quite honest - and his work showed the effort he put in, it was simply with how dirty everything was that his stand did not have much attention.
"I want ... them to be able to piece things if I fight a giant spider I want them to be able to piece the shell." Kou was quite specific and clear on what she wanted - leaving little imagination to the fact that she had fought such a giant spider.
"Mh.."The boy eyed Kou again, the girl was adorable - it would be really nice if she smiled at all - the deadpan and serious expression she had did not fit at all - rubbing over the thin fuzz on his chin he nodded once more. "Fine - tell me your fighting style and what kind of Qi you cultivate."
Kou tilted her head to the side. "Suprise and kill in one hit, usually. I cultivate darkness and light, If I can't kill something in one hit I'm no good, for now." the, for now, was spoken with confidence, while Kou liked ending fights before they began - she would become someone that could also fight head on... at some point.
The boy smirked and stretched "Good, for my best work I need 70 Spiritstones from ya, little one." He found this girl quite endearing so he lowered the price a tiny bit, he was a proud fellow, his father had been a famous smith before - but he still did not put out such horrendous prices like many of the more established shops did - he loved smithing and as long as he could do that everything was fine.
Kou bit her lower lip and forked over the stones, it just left her with little more than 7 stones - the unwillingness in the little girl was quite clear in the boy, he was already motivated to wash that expression out of her face and make her acknowledged that paying him money for a weapon was the best decision she could make!
"Good, I'm Xie Kiel, a pleasure to work with ya." After this Xie Kiel brought out some paperwork after all this was a sect market - fraud was not possible, both of them had a contract!
Before Kou could leave Kiel measured her hands and arms "I'd be done in about 3 weeks I think." Mumbling he waved her goodbye - already fully engrossed into a plan.