Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The next day, the Alchemy Peak Elder guided Aiko into her hall.

There she stored most of her Herbs and other catalysts for Alchemy.

Aiko sniffed around. There were many Herbs with overpowering scents, while some had wild ones.

”This place is big.” Moon Aiko nodded in appreciation.

”It’s my hall and my lifework.” The Alchemy Peak Elder spoke slowly. She was not too happy that such a young Fox would touch her precious Herbs.

Aiko looked around, but then stopped.

”We will make weak and powerful detoxification Pills.” Moon Aiko told the Peak Elder.

”Do we need it for that poison?” The Alchemy Peak Elder frowned, but didn’t voice her opinion just yet.

”We need to establish the degree of power necessary to detoxify it.” Moon Aiko glanced around. There were different containers here and there.

”You first need to neutralise that poison.” The Alchemy Peak Elder finally couldn’t bear it and voiced her opinion.

”And how did that work out for you?” Moon Aiko clicked her tongue. She hated stubborn fools the most.

The Alchemy Peak Elder glared at her, but she was unable to refute her words.

Why was that? Because they failed in neutralising that poison, even with the most expensive and precious antidote Pill.

”How many detoxification Pills do you know?” Aiko glanced at her.

”Around 200.” The Alchemy Peak Elder could never compare to the sharp-tongued officials, so she just gave up refuting her for the time being.

”I’m guessing the most powerful might be too powerful, so we will go for the middle and low end.” Aiko nodded slowly.

The Alchemy Peak Elder paused. She didn’t expect this youngster to be sensible. ’Most of them would roar about the most powerful Pills, but that is not the case with her? Did someone teach her old Alchemy?’ Her favourability towards this young Fox slightly increased.

”It will take a day.” The Alchemy Peak Elder tried to intimidate the young Fox, but she just yawned.

”Then I will go to sleep again, my eyes are still tired.” Aiko immediately left the place, leaving the flabbergasted Peak Elder alone.

”... I can’t believe the Patriarch likes this Fox...” The Alchemy Peak Elder shook her head.

...

The following day, Aiko was grumpy. A certain someone didn’t allow her to sleep in.

”If you are soooo good, then why didn’t you just give me the Pills yesterday? Do you know how much concentration you need in order to achieve that desirable result?” Moon Aiko clicked her tongue. She was somewhere between her Moon and Nightmare Form.

Lian’s lips twitched, but she just sipped her tea. She would not butt in between these two, since she knew that both of them were quite prideful.

”That’s what you get for being so stuck up.” Old Lei snorted happily. ”If you need anything, glasses or such, just tell me, little one.” She was buttering up Aiko like crazy.

Why was he suddenly like this? He was able to reunite with his daughter after a long time, and her body was even in pristine condition!

What his daughter suffered from, was a mixture of Cursed Poisons and Forging Impurities. Those two combined into something truly vicious and dangerous for everyone around.

However, he heard from her daughter about a strange Fox that cured her.

Naturally, he was a doting father, so he looked for any kind of rumours to give to that person.

There was a certain prodigy Alchemy Cultivator who went around curing important figures, but he was not good enough in his own eyes.

His daughter had a twinkle in her eyes when she talked about her saviour, so he searched again.

To his dismay, it was the same Fox that scolded his Forging Cultivation, which upset him greatly.

Well... he had to yield. Nobody was able to cure his daughter. Yet a young Fox came, cured, and went, it made him quite speechless.

’It’s always a good idea to curry favour with prodigies.’ Old Lei nodded his head. ’But not that Alchemy Prodigy, that guy is farming girls.’ He clicked his tongue in annoyance. He only ever had one wife.

...

Aiko begrudgingly sat down with the Pills.

”You should bring the less important members who were poisoned, since this is pretty much live testing about the reaction.” Moon Aiko explained that this was pretty much experimental testing.

”Bring the least accomplished here.” Lian commanded and waited for them.

...

Aiko had in front of her 5 young guys who were poisoned. Each degree of poison was different, which would help her gather more information.

She used the weakest one with the weakest Pill and watched the reaction.

’Whoa, I can see the Pill going around his body!’ Nightmare Aiko was curious about what would happen to them and watched the different colour spectrums.

The ’black’ spectrum was obviously the most important. Aiko could see the black stuff lessening, but there was something strange about it.

”Peak Elder, how does detoxification work?” Nightmare Aiko tilted her head since the reaction was different from what she was used to.

The Alchemy Peak Elder rolled her eyes. ”Detoxification needs to be given in the perfect amount, otherwise the thing you are trying to detoxify can rebound with more strength. There are instances where that is not the case, but those are not considered poisons or anything like that.” She expected a lot from this Fox, but was quite disappointed.

Moon Aiko came out and went through the Pills. She picked the most powerful and gave it to the same person.

’If my assumption is correct, this ’poison’ or ’impurity’ doesn’t have the rebound status like the other poisons and impurities do...’ Moon Aiko’s headache, since she would have to work this out. Her thoughts were also all over the place, so it was difficult to say if she was right.

Nightmare Aiko came out again and observed the reaction.

The black spectrum reacted greatly, and it shrank, but it also left a lot of ’white’ behind.

Aiko was not sure what that meant, and she would leave it to Moon Aiko for later.

Her only job was to observe and ’record’ everything for the Moon Aiko.

That guy coughed a bit of blood, and Aiko noticed a clog on the back spectrum.

’It probably needs a bit of help.’ Aiko stood up and approached the guy.

He blushed furiously, but the next moment he was upside down.

”Hu-GAUH” He was confused, but that beauty struck just below his ribcage.

There was an uncomfortable feeling inside his body, and he started to vomit.

Instead of a pool of blood, he vomited black viscous stuff.

The others recoiled as Aiko kept shaking him like a sack of potatoes.

Nobody questioned why she was standing on a chair. They didn’t dare say that she was short...

Once he stopped, his whole face was messy, so Aiko pulled out a bathtub that she stole from the monkeys and used her [Ancient Spiritual Water] to generate slightly better water than what you would get from a Qi-rich environment.

”H-huh?” The upside-down guy dreaded what would happen to him next, but the young beauty would not wait for him.

*Gargle Gargle*

Aiko kept submerging her body in order to clean him, slightly drowning him in the process.

Lian coughed awkwardly. ”I think he is now clean.”

Aiko paused, but eventually pulled him up.

”I-I can see a fairy.” The guy said with a half-drowned expression.

Aiko’s face twitched, and she dropped him onto the chair before she jumped away.

...

”Alrighty.” Moon Aiko nodded slowly with her research material.

”So you are saying your body feels weird, right?” Aiko asked him.

”Yes, it feels like there is something missing, and it’s harder to control.” The guy told her. She was too pretty, so they were all very cooperative; it was definitely because this beauty was quite ruthless in her conduct. They also blushed throughout the whole thing, but that was because her clothing was slightly messy.

”Can you diagnose him, so I know what that means?” Moon Aiko asked the Alchemy Peak Elder.

The Patriarch had to nudge her, since she was stubborn like the Forging Cultivator.

’I can’t allow my daughter to meet with her! What if she gets the same treatment?!’ Old Lei groaned unhappily, but he would still butter her up.

’That was some kind of ancient water!’ Old Lei’s expression burned, since it was very useful to the Forging Cultivators.

He was not looking to steal it, but to teach her how to use it properly. If she could slowly cool down the metal, it would be able to gain more properties from the materials, and if certain other materials were kept cooler, that would allow them to maximise their effects!

Aiko was slightly startled by his burning expression, but she ultimately thought that it was a good thing.

’I still want to learn Forging Cultivation, so him being like this is positive... I think.’ Moon Aiko was unsure, since she felt like she might suffer later...

”Hm?” The Alchemy Peak Elder tilted her head. ”Why is he malnourished?”

”So that’s what it is.” Aiko nodded. She now knew what the white part meant.

”Right.” Aiko crossed her arms, looking towards the last 4.

They shivered, but for some reason also looked excited.

”You will take 1 lowest pill a day. You will take 2, 3 and 5.” Moon Aiko assigned them the Pill consumption in order to determine how slowly they should take it.

They might have different poisons and impurities in their bodies, but it should be fine, even with some margin of error.

”And I will explain to you what this thing actually means.” Aiko turned towards Lian before dragging her out of that place.

Moon Aiko was already sick and tired of that gloomy place and needed some kind of change of scenery.

...

”Oh, my~” Fang Jie covered her mouth with twinkling eyes.

”I-I can explain!” Lian was flustered as she was dragged by the young Fox away.

”Have fun~” Fang Jie waved her hand, like she was dismissing a friend.

”Noooo! I can explaaaaain!” Lian yelled as Aiko dragged her into the guest hall.

...

”So that’s what happened.” Fang Jie calmly sipped her tea, but she didn’t forget to tease Lian about it.

She finally had some kind of weakness over her, and she loved every second of it!

Lian was too stoic when she was the Patriarch, which created a natural wall that Fang Jie couldn’t cross.

Fortunately, thanks to the kind Aiko, she now had a weapon that could easily tear down that wall.

Did it hurt Lian’s pride? Maybe a little bit, but who told her to be so stoic!?