As days and weeks went past Kou continued to train, she actually kind off lost the track of time while giving it her all, Xiong would come around from time to time, share some food or advice for her cultivation, or to just chat with her for a bit.

It was an easy time and fun time, training was fun, Kou always had that sentiment, feeling the Qi fill her body, clearly feeling how each day of training made her stronger and better was great. While her life in the streets was already far behind her she could still remember how helpless she was, how hunger felt and the stares of pity and ridicule, the hits people that caught her would give her.

Confronted with a chance such as this, a chance to become powerful purely through effort, of course she would give it her all every day! Even more so on this Island where many powerful monsters lived that could just rip her to shreds! The faster she grew the more chance she would have to live!

Therefore it was of little surprise that she was already nearing the 3rd realm quickly while consuming cores and herbs as supplement she cultivated every day! And today sitting on a branch of the tree her home was in she could already feel the 3rd realm in front of her, she was just an inch away from it. As she opened her eyes a golden glow was emitted from it for a moment, she felt very powerful at this moment! She was in top condition, already half a step into the third realm. But quickly the picture of that flood dragon appeared in the back of her mind, it was a perfect way to keep her ego in check.

She was still not all that powerful compared to the wide world!

"Good... I need another high-level beast core to breakthrough! And maybe some more herbs... Can't hurt to gather more I want to use the stockpile I have gathered for Alchemie..." The alchemy book had taught her that dried herbs were a lot easier to use for beginners and while Kou was a hard worker if there was a way to make something easier, why not take it?

Xiong actually had given her a nice tip for a training area, it was a bit further away but the beasts were mostly around mid to late second realm with just rare appearances of third and fourth, it was a large canyon on the east side of the island, there were many crystals around here and the beasts were very similar, there were giant scorpions with glowing crystals on their back - big one-horned rabbits.

The most common creatures, however, were those that lived inside the large almost white lake. Creatures resembling large seahorses, they had a dragon-like face, with a large fin on the top of their head. There were also giant upright catfish, they too had large fins on their head. The biggest creatures around that Kou could tell of were eels as long as small trees with a large fin on their head and dragon-like faces.

They remembered her a little of the flood dragon, but they usually were between mid to late third realm so it was not too far away...

Kou's goal was one of those sees horses today, they were usually around the late second realm, so proper enemies for Kou, however...there was one problem here, with the abundance of light Qi there was next to no shadows around, so she could not backstab anyone easily.

She had to lead one out of the water and get it so far away that nobody would interfere in their fight! Luckily Kou had just the thing! While observing these creatures she had seen them coming out of the water from time to time to harvest fruits from nearby trees, these fruits were sucked full with light Qi, they were horribly bitter and Kou did not find them tasty at all.

Her evil plan was slowly forming! She placed a small trail with fruits leading away from the lake, there were still no real shadows around as every tree seemed to glow slightly, but she rather would not fight in its natural habitat.

And then.. the time slowly ticked by, almost half an hour later she saw ripples in the water... The dragon-like head was what she saw first, the creature looked a lot like a seahorse as long as most of its body was submerged into the water. But once it came out the resemblance faded, it had tiny little feet on which it wobbled forward on land, and a long massive tail, it was a bizarre look and actually looked somewhat funny.

The whole body was covered in thin and small white scales, it had already eaten one of the fruits and it's small greedy eyes quickly fond the next, with its head tilted down it followed the trail completely gullible, focused on eating the easy meal more than looking at its surroundings

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

. "It is weird is it not...that spider was way weaker than that thing but it was also way smarter, I wonder why some beasts develop intelligence and some don't" Her thoughts were quickly stopped as the beast neared her hideout, happily munching on the fruits she had placed as bait

Narrowing her eyes she took a slow and deep breath, there was no way for her to use the shadow-jump in this environment, everything had a glow to it, even the creature itself glowed brightly, making it impossible to throw any shadows. She still activated hunting shadows, just because of the speed boost it would give her, even if she could probably not use any of its auxiliary techniques

Then she burst forward speeding towards the beast! There was no hesitation or useless movement, her form was perfect!

The beast had just lowered his head to scoop up another fruit and eat it, it had no time to react! Kou was already in striking distance when it realized the danger, her dagger piercing its left side. Krrrrrrr~! Those scales were hard! Kou's dagger penetrated it, but it was not deep enough to be a deadly wound! And now she had to back off as the massive tail shot towards her like a Warhammer.

Clicking her tongue she made a jump backward avoiding the massive tail, growling in frustration. Now one dagger in each hand the black one quickly forming into the black sword.

"Well... I guess I should've expected this...Still, one hit would've been easier for you and me..." Kou at this point was a lot more confident, she had beaten creatures on her own level before, so this was nothing new, she was not scared at all! Very unlike the encounter with the spider.

The Spider and this Seahorse both had a high defense!

Kou jumped backward even further as the beast was starring at her angrily, opening its mouth Kou could see the light Qi gathering as it shot a beam of light at her, jumping to the left she rolled over the ground quickly getting back up to her feet.

Kou's eyes slowly turned icy blue, as a thick sheet of ice started to form around her sword, the coldness even freezing the grass underneath her feet! Ice was without a question her most powerful ability at the moment.

The Ice coated blade would give her strike the necessary power to actually hurt this beast! Kou grinned, she would never, NEVER again play a fight down to endurance! Kicking off the ground she sped to the side, so fast she actually left images behind - she ran circles around the beast quickly to disorient it!

It worked like a charm, while the beast would mindlessly fire it's beam from time to time while trying to turn with the speeding Kou, it always missed, after a while, Kou put her left foot down and shoot towards the beast, her Ice-coated blade hitting the confused beast into the back, It did not leave a deep wound, more of a small cut. But from that cut, the ice spread out! From then on she would continue to do this every time the beast seemed to have lost track of her movement, soon, ice was covering the beast and it was barely able to move anymore.

Kou came to a halt, sweet on her forehead but a big grin on her face. The beast was barely alife at this point covered in ice and letting out rapid freezing breaths! Kou swung her sword with all her power and gave the now motionless beast a deadly strike. A last loud howl left its mouth...

Kou was just about to get to work to cut out the beast's core as a powerful beam shot in her direction, she was just barely able to dodge to the side. The water was quite far away but she could see the head of a cat-fish like looking creature, just many many times bigger and in full white staring at her, while already preparing the next beam attack!

Kou's eyes went wide, this beast was in the 3rd realm! Getting away from it while also getting her loot was not possible! She either had to fight it or forfeit the seahorse's core. "Why not help him earlier if you help him anyway!" She cursed and jumped backward avoiding another beam that left a sizable crater in the ground. Kou had no real way to attack a distant target, her Iceflame's range was limited in its range.

"Wait... I can just fight Light with Light.. right?" She curled her nose while putting away her daggers - a moment later throwing spears out of light formed in her hands. She never really used Spiritual Weapon aside from target practice - while she was able to form weapons now, she found it tedious and... it was simply not much fun like Hunting Shadows was. But right now, the fun did not matter! She threw 2 of the spears at the cat-fish! She would not give up her loot without a fight!

The spears did not do much but distract the thing, but it kept using that beam so Kou had no way to get closer...well, she did not really want to go any closer to the lake it would just bring more problems, either she had to beat the thing from the distance or ... bait it out somehow...

"That stupid thing does not leave the water at all... he just wants to steal my lunch!" She growled at the frustrating situation, she was quite comfortable avoiding those beams but doing it for too long did not seem like it would be much fun, and an actual fight with it would be more than just disadvantageous for her. Well... whatever she would do in the end, it was quite clear for her that this would be an uphill battle either way...