Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko woke up, the situation was even more bizarre than before. Now they were grinning and giggling at each other?!

Aiko rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t understand how it got to this, but all was well as long as they went hand in hand.

Yawning, she stood up, but she was caught by Mei. Aiko was still half asleep, so she was more like a stringed doll, still sluggish.

Mei hugged her gently until Aiko woke up completely.

”How about trying Alchemy?” Mei asked with a plan in mind. ’If she practised Alchemy, she would not only know about Herbs that could be beneficial for her if collected, but Alchemy also needs to know how to refine Pills. That means they need to control flames with precision. This precision will be important in purifying her body.’

Aiko thought about it for a moment. She still had to figure out why those pieces of swords felt familiar.

Aiko fidgeted. She didn’t really want to drive away the Blood Fox and Umbra Fox, but she couldn’t talk about the system in front of them.

”Leave for now.” Mei gestured towards the two.

”I will visit my brother for the Herbs and return tomorrow.” The Passion Fox didn’t reject Jade Fox’s command this time.

Aiko stared at them blankly, weren’t they at war just a moment ago? How did this happen??

They left, leaving them alone.

”Mei...” Aiko didn’t know how to say she felt intimate with the swords.

”Take your time.” Mei said gently while sorting through some herbs.

Aiko kept sitting as she still felt a bit tired. This was strange as the tiredness came in waves and she didn’t understand why, since she felt alright.

Noticing Aiko’s puzzled expression, Mei said gently. ”Because of the poison inside your body. There might be side effects, such as pain, tiredness, queasiness and so on.”

Aiko slowly nodded, this could explain everything...

”Did you do something with that system again?” Mei asked, narrowing her eyes.

During Aiko’s sleep, she observed her and found strange energy reducing the effects of the poison, but not purifying it. This was incredibly strange to her until she remembered about that strange system.

Aiko nodded sheepishly. ”I have purchased [Poison Resistance], otherwise I wouldn’t be able to move my arm.”

Mei sighed. This system was too powerful, she was worried that Aiko would rely on it too much, but in these instances, it was nice to have it...

”What did you want to talk about then?” Mei gently stroked Aiko’s silky hair.

”Well... I... feel intimate with some swords?” Aiko murmured.

Mei paused for just a moment before resuming. ”I see, may I see the-” She then realized that Aiko didn’t say a sword, but swords. ”Swords?”

”Sure.” Seeing Mei puzzled, but still with a non-judgemental expression, Aiko was happy and pulled out the remains of the broken swords.

Mei stared at them even more confused.

Usually one would feel intimacy towards one sword that would fit their needs and could also indicate that they were developing a sword heart, but this whole situation was strange.

She couldn’t understand why Aiko felt intimate towards these broken swords.

”May I research these swords for a few days?” Mei asked gently. She would not deprive her little sweetie of her toys, but it was important to figure out why she felt intimate about them.

It would be bad if those swords had evil spirits in them that would try to possess Aiko.

”Also...” Aiko didn’t know if she should ask.

”You worry too much.” Mei hugged Aiko gently like a caring mother. ”Just tell me your worries and I will help you.”

”I have this Divine Ability called [Soul Palace].” Aiko said slowly, but she could already feel Mei being stiff as a block of wood.

”S-Soul Palace?” Mei stuttered, she couldn’t believe that Aiko earned that Divine Ability from legends.

”Yeah, but it says it’s [Undeveloped]. What does that mean?” Aiko asked Mei. She couldn’t use her book to find information on it and it didn’t seem like Mei would leave her alone, so she could only ask her.

”It means you have not built the Soul Palace.” Mei pondered, from the snippets of her memories she pulled a bit of information.

”This is long forgotten Divine Ability. It starts with the passive effect that is depleted over time. This effect protects your Soul from any kind of interference. It shrouds your Soul in a Palace and the assailant or Ability has to pass through the Palace before having any kind of effect on your Soul.”

”As it implies, the passive effect has been depleted and now you need to develop the proper Soul Palace that will protect you.” Mei explained slowly after recovering some information bit by bit from her memory.

”How do I do that?” Aiko asked.

”You first need to condense your outer Soul into a Soul Foundation for the Palace.” Mei paused. ”It’s a bit too early for you to start doing that since your Soul is too weak, but since you will be staying in here with me, we will tackle the Souls and everything. So this might be the best opportunity for you to build at least a basic Soul Palace.” Mei still didn’t understand why those Souls screamed at Aiko.

When Aiko heard the ’tackle the Souls’ she shivered. She didn’t want to experience that bullying again.

”It’s alright.” Mei soothed Aiko. ”It’s important for you to learn Alchemy first before anything. Alright?” Mei devised the plan and lured Aiko into it.

Aiko nodded gently, everything was better than those ugly-looking, bullying Souls.

Mei nodded, she was happy that Aiko was once again obedient. Then she sends a telepathic message to that strange ’Beast Core’.

’Can you deal with the poison?’

’No. It’s too filthy.’ The Seed answered, while ’glaring’ daggers at Mei.

’I see... how useless.’ Mei clicked her tongue.

’You are useless! Your whole shitty family is useless! Your grandpa is useless!-’

Mei ignored the rebellious Seed, she hoped that she would be able to extract it from Aiko’s body, so she didn’t become rebellious like that Seed...

Aiko was unaware of what was happening and asked Mei. ”Where do I start?” She wanted to start it, lest Mei change her attitude.

”Here.” Mei gave Aiko a Jade Slip with the introduction to 100,000 Herbs. This didn’t have their effects when Pill concocting, but it had pictures of how they looked and what they did in their raw form.

Aiko took that slip slowly, placing her mind into it. She almost fainted immediately. ”S-so many of them?!” Aiko cried out.

Mei felt helpless, yet she was also smirking inside. ’I had this exact same reaction.’ She giggled. ”It’s just an introduction to Alchemy.” She shrugged.

Aiko’s soul, she had to learn countless amounts of Herbs and yet it was still considered ’just’ the introduction?!

Seeing the speechless Aiko, Mei giggled with glee. ’Who told you to injure yourself.’ This was her way of taking revenge. You didn’t necessarily need to know about all 100,000 Herbs, but Mei would naturally not tell her that.

”This is my cumulative knowledge, don’t give it to anyone, okay?” Mei gently caressed Aiko’s head.

”A-all of this?!” Aiko was shocked.

”Mm.” Mei gave her a positive answer and Aiko deflated.

”C-can I do something else?” Aiko was intimidated by the sheer amount of knowledge.

”Sure, we can return for the Soul-”

Before Mei could finish, Aiko screamed and placed her hands on Mei’s mouth. ”I will do it! I will do it!!” Seeing the crying yet serious expression, Mei laughed in her mind.

She gently patted Aiko.

Aiko went into a nearby corner, doodling with a crestfallen expression.

Mei let her play around, as this couldn’t be forced. She would let her slowly learn and explain to her anything she didn’t know. Even if she wasn’t able to refine Pills... she could still concoct some useful ones, but the most important part was the precision and flame adjustments.

’If she learns well, we will be able to slowly burn the poison in her bones...’ Mei nodded slowly.

While this way was very painful, it would allow Aiko to use her hand like before. The more pressing issue was the poison in the bone marrow.

She did seal it temporarily, but that is not a solution. If Aiko got too far from her, the seal would disappear and it would continue to spread.

Aiko was doodling unhappily, but she knew that if she didn’t start, Mei would go with the Soul solution... Aiko was not ready for that just yet.

She picked up the Jade Slip and slowly read through it.

It was very difficult and slow to read, much less comprehend the information in the Jade Slip to the point that she didn’t even notice Mei left the place.

...

Mei visited one familiar Forging Cultivator.

”Hey! Come out!” Mei ruthlessly kicked the door several times.

She chuckled. ’It seems like this bastard reinforced the doors.’

”Hey! Come out or I will kick down your door!” Mei shouted.

”HAH! Try it!” A laugh drifted from inside. It was the Bronze Fox.

Mei’s lips twitched. ’Just because he reinforced the door a little, he is getting haughty.’

*Kick**BOOOM*

”AAAGH!” The Bronze Fox screamed as he was hit by the broken doors.

”What the-Auch.” The Bronze Fox didn’t understand how such beauty could be so violent.

Mei walked inside his room and sat down on a chair that looked somewhat clean, this was the only chair that could be considered clean from all the others. ”Look over this for me.”

Mei placed a few broken swords in front of him.

He paused, normally she would come in and make him create Pill Cauldrons, but for some reason, she came in with broken swords today?

”What do you need me to do?” The Bronze Fox didn’t understand.

”Just tell me if there is anything strange about those swords.” Mei snorted coldly.

He shivered and touched the swords, Mei was looking over the whole process.

Her powerful Divine Sense could not find any remnants of a Soul, nor any kind of Array that would tamper with Mind/Soul. She couldn’t understand why Aiko felt so intimate with this lot of gar-

”Ah! A treasure!” The Bronze Fox suddenly yelled, startling Mei.

”Are they?” Mei was looking at him suspiciously.

The Bronze Fox ignored that gaze and explained in hopes that he could keep them.

”These swords are ordinary, but the core of the sword isn’t. The core of the sword was forged with rare meteorite!” His eyes sparkled. ”This meteorite has different properties depending on the amount of heat you subject it to. As such, it’s peerless material for Forging Cultivators!” His breath quickened, if he could get his hands on it, it would be a blessing!

”I see...” Mei nodded slowly, she had never seen this kind of exaggerated expression from the Bronze Fox, so it must be the truth. ”Let’s talk about the effects.” Mei smiled like a devil and the Bronze Fox shivered.

He understood that he would never see this kind of material again if he didn’t fulfil her wishes...