"Ugh." She felt the throbbing pain in her side before anything else. All the pain the small cuts on her Skin would bring her was drowned out by it. Shifting her weight up she sat, her dim golden eyes flashing in the blue twilight of the cave, the first thing she noticed was the corpse of the giant batt, there was not a small amount of malicious joy in her voice as she grunted while staring at it. That damn beast got what it deserved! Attacking them while they are busy avoiding all of that already!

Her upper robes were gone. Her midriff had been bandaged but the bandage was already bloody red. The pain in her side paired with the substantial Qi drain almost made her faint again as she got up on her feet. Almost falling over as she made steps towards the creature's corpse, with slightly darker glowing eyes focusing on the beasts. Then suddenly there was a noise! Kou shoot around dagger in hand - Ah... Just Li Zhi. Letting the Dagger drop Kou continued to carefully move over to the corpse. "Ah...I..I went to look to find any herbs... you should .. not move and rest Kou!"

Rest? Kou felt awful. She could endure the Wound it was just a flesh wound and would heal in time. But her almost absolute Qi depletion was far more dangerous. "Mh.. Gonna be fine in a ... moment." Mumbling towards Li Zhi she continued to struggle her way to the bat but was quickly helped by Li Zhi. The other girl would not try to argue with Yun Kou but would simply help her for now. With not a small amount of glee, she noticed her other dagger still deeply ingrained into the bats head and with a dark snicker she slowly pulled it out cleaning the blade on one of the creature's wings. "Hrm...No fire, Well... ate worse." She mumbled - just glancing at Li Zhi for a moment before she used her dagger to simply cut off a piece of the pat stuffing it into her mouth rawr as it was. It was disgusting. Kou could see herself enjoying the meal if it was properly cooked but as it was now. It was simply disgusting. But ... she ate worse.

Li Zhi would've never guessed that the girl would do THIS! She was left flabbergasted! Did Yun Kou not know that Demon-Beast meat was dangerous for Cultivators? Quickly she moved forward to stop her .. just to stop herself mid-movement. Kou had an awakened bloodline. This was probably one of the benefits of the said bloodline? Li Zhi had heard about these things. Most of the "Predatory" bloodlines would be able to draw strength of demon and spirit-beast flesh. Predators were somewhat rare in the empire so you rarely saw these things. But it was certainly not unheard of - she knew of a Wolf-bloodline-clan that would go on big hunts to strengthen their children. Still.. this did look rather...revolting. "Ah...I'll wait over .. there while you do this...yes, yes."

The bats' energy filled her. Kou could feel how her dangerously empty dantian quickly filled up again, it was to a degree that she actually made some progress in cultivation just with this! A Rank 2 Beast even if weak like this one was still quite different from a Rank 1 Beast! While it did not heal her wound, her body quickly felt better until she was back to full capacity! Still... it tasted horrible. She would have to find a way to cook things on the way in the future. Maybe she should just stick to Xiu Shihong. While she could not quite guess the reaction Xiu Shihong would have if Kou told her she stood by her side because she was so skilled in roasting things. The simple thought of it made Kou chuckle to herself.

A few minutes went by and she finally felt full. With her Qi back in peak status and slightly improved cultivation, she still felt the pain on her side, but for now, this would have to do. She had not been able to eat everything so her eyes wandered over to her cloak. she frowned. If she just had a spatial treasure she could actually use she could take the rest of the bat with her to be a snack later... but for now, she was content to just take its core crystal. It would fetch a good price on the market so the trial was already a success in Kou's book.

Li Zhi noticed her being done and came over carrying Kou's robes with her. "Ah...you are done. I've mended your robes for you while you were...eh... eating." Handing her the upper robes Li Zhi made a step around Kou quickly helping the other girl to properly dress again. Unlike her body, her clothes were perfectly fine - no sign's left of the cuts and the deep gush at the side. Kou was rather thankful. Without the defensive enchantments on the cloths, she would've been hurt a lot worse probably. In fact, everywhere her cloak had covered was completely unharmed. Her back and head didn't even have a scratch! Maybe she could've just went through the whole thing while hiding herself and Li Zhi underneath the cloak. She silently thanked Xiu Shihong for her teachings and pushing her into getting the clothes. Once more her friend had proven her wisdom in Kou's eyes. And defensive charms like her cloak their use.

Now that she felt better Kou wanted to get going. "Want to keep going?" She looked at Li Zhi. The girl seemed to be rested well enough - Kou had probably been knocked out for a while so Li Zhi herself had some time to restock her Qi and rest a little: Currently, they were in a small cavern. The blue glowing rocks were still around but this time none attacked them. on the other side there seemed to be another tunnel leading even deeper down. Kou and Li Zhi slowly inched towards the tunnel entrance looking it up and down carefully.. there seemed to be no spikes in it... that was a plus, neither Kou nor Li Zhi could sense any beasts nearby as well - and so... they simply moved into the tunnel to continue their trial.

Half an hour passed and Kou's left eyelid was twitching slightly. How long was this tunnel supposed to be! There had to be some way to get through this faster! Li Zhi had just her water she was not fast at all and Kou? She did not really want to run right now at all. Her Qi was restored but her side still hurt a lot so carrying Li Zhi and just running was out of the question. Curling her nose she whacked her brain. Li Zhi had Water.. and Ihave Ice! That could work! She still remembered how the streets in DongZhou would get all slippery and people would slide up and down the streets, usually ending with them face planting!

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Li Zhi... wanna go fast?" She tilted her head gently to the side and glanced at Li Zhi, the other girl was somewhat depressed by the length of this tunnel herself so she quickly turned around "Are you feeling better again? The faster we are the faster we can get out of here, right?" Li Zhi was happy to hear of any to go faster! She was worried about Yun Kou and honestly had enough of caves for a while. Sadly she failed to notice the slight evil glowing in Yun Kou's eyes as she placed her hands on Li Zhi's shoulders... firmly and started to explain....

5 Minutes later they were shooting down the tunnel, Kou laughing and Li Zhi screaming. How that came about? Simple! Kou made Li Zhi shot water forward and froze it - as the tunnel had an incline they kept on gaining speed! At some point, they were so fast that everything around them seemed to become a blur. Poor Li Zhi sat up front while she rode her own Water beam that just BARELY was able to be faster than the two girls. Li Zhi was praying to each and every deity she knew off to please let this be over quickly!

Luckily Kou's Ice-flame feed by the Qi she absorbed from the bat was strong enough to freeze the water almost instantly! While it slowly drained her Qi Kou had a lot of fun! They were so fast! The walls went by as blurry images the wind hitting her face and rushing through her hair making it fly into the air! It was amazing, almost like flying! Kou was very much looking forward to the point when she on her own was able to go as fast as this! "Yahhhhoooooooo!"

Meanwhile.

Feng Fendai was of noble birth! Her father was a first ranking official in the imperial court and a core formation Master, he was actually the Minster of the Right! A direct advisor to the emperor! The mightiest man in this empire! She was soon 12 years old, just a little older than Yun Kou herself!

Nobles like her usually got engaged quite early up from the age 12 and were married off the latest when they turned 15. But not she! Feng Fendai was marveled up for her pretty face and great cultivation talent! She had already stepped into the second realm and was almost in the middle stage already! There were many letters of introduction with portraits of young Masters send to her! Usually, this would have been done the other way around, but Feng Fendai had always gotten what she wanted - and she did NOT want to marry any rich snob!

"Find out what you can about that girl that took Hei Tian with her." She waved towards another girl just a little younger than herself. Equality was just a phrase in this sect, many girls would fight each other to become her maid and so Feng Fendai had ample maids to do her bidding. And the Girl with a maid-bunny hair-do quickly nodded "Of course Miss Feng." She quickly retreated out of Fendai's personal chambers.

Biting the pink colored nail of her left thumb she looked up to the ceiling her pretty face carrying a frown at this moment. She stood up her pristine white robe falling down next to her - her hair was done up and she wore silvery hair ornaments, she just looked like a pretty white lotus flower. If not for the frown on her face. Feng Fendai was not simple, she looked delicate and gentle. But those that stood in her way would be crushed!

But she had to be careful. She came to like the image of being a tender flower in the eyes of others. It was a lot more satisfactory if others looked at her like a precious gem after all. "I wonder who that girl is, what is her connection with Hei Tian. What exactly does she want from him and why is he so friendly with her.." Feng Fendai wanted to become powerful, more powerful than her father or even the emperor, she would not become that way at court marrying any of the royal prices and just being used to breed more prices for them. Her goal was still very much bound to marriage but she wanted to marry into wisdom and technique, and not into Royalty and decadence!

"Hei Tian is my age, he has an agreeable appearance, and is rather stupid so he is the perfect puppet with which I will unlock the secrets this sect holds, making them mine! Many may be oblivious about the old sect Master but my father is not! He has told me that the goal of surpassing core formation lies in the claws of that old fossil. Kukuhkhuh." She laughed to herself "It will not take to long until I'm able to get my hands on it.."

"Well. First things first - of these girls that Hei Tian seems to call his friends only the Xiu spawn is troublesome - the Li girl and that other "thing" that could not even step into the second realm are of no concern for me, once the peace is over I will see to it that they have... some accidents. Uhuhuh."

The Scene closed and Jie Ciao took a deep breath. Spying on his pawns was rather amusing sometimes. The girl will make for a good concubine at some point. Well if she survives that is. His thin eyes turned around. There were 5 Mirrors around him showing the daily life of different people. He was currently in a black granite cave, everything even the furniture seemed to be made out of black stone - but he did not seek riches and pleasantries, he seeks power - that was all.

"It if rather convenient for me that all my pawns seem to develop an inherent dislike for my goal, now I just have to deal with that old woman somehow and I'll be free to play my hand, until than... It would not be too bad to let the girl develop a bit more, from the formula... the more powerful the furnace is the more power I will gain out of it.." His gaze wandered to his "friends" chained to a wall each of them drained up and near death. He had to keep them alive, for now.. just so that the elders would not get on to him...

"These were just the test subjects, as just mere humans they will not be nearly as potent as a furnace as this girl will be... Still, gaining late second stage power just from those 3 seems to be an adequate trade-off..."

Jie Ciao grinned. His grin was uncomfortably wide and together with his narrow eyes, it gave him an almost demon-like visage. This Sect, this empire, and this world - would soon play around the palm of his hand. He was destined to rule after all~