Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Fang Jia was training in her room, so there was no time for Aiko to butt in.

That was quite a good thing, since Old Lei sought her out.

”I heard you finished business with Patriarch.” Old Lei was so short that Aiko felt tall for once.

”We are still working on it. They need to gather more data on how much they should give Pills to them, among other things.” Moon Aiko explained briefly.

”Good, that means you are free.” Old Lei nodded with a stiff expression.

”What are you up to?” Aiko was suspicious about his behaviour.

”I will teach you all about Forging Cultivation and Cultivators.” Old Lei proclaimed, but Aiko could only nod slowly.

”First, I will let you watch me again.” Since Old Lei had his daughter back, his mind sprang to work, and he was back to peak condition.

”You want me to correct you again?” Aiko shook her head unhappily.

”Haha, as if.” Old Lei snorted at her. ”After I let you watch, I will explain the whole process. You will then try it yourself, and then I will explain the different path.”

”Isn’t there just one path?” Aiko tilted her head.

”There are multiple.” Old Lei shrugged. ”For example, one path specialises in Treasure, while another...” He narrowed his eyes. ”Specialises in Flying Treasures.”

Aiko’s ears perked. She heard about flying ships, but Flying Treasures? She only encountered that flying sword, and even that was mediocre at best.

”Hehe.” Old Lei laughed happily. ”I will teach you later, but you need to get your basics right.”

”Okay.” Aiko didn’t decline this kind of thing, since she was concerned that she wouldn’t get a good teacher later on.

While this guy was short, his demeanour was more to her liking, even if he was sometimes a bit like a bull.

”When will we start?” Aiko nudged him.

”We can now, but I will be running here and there, because of my daughter.” Old Lei explained.

”That is fine.” Aiko happily nodded. ”At least I can absorb more information or scold you for improper smithing.” She teased him slightly, so as not to make him too upset.

Old Lei snorted unhappily. ”Sure, sure. Let’s go.” He believed that it was better to show her his real skills before doing anything else.

...

Old Lei hammered the metal inside his Forge, although he no longer needed to do that, because his Divine Sense was powerful, he still liked the sound of hammering.

”Nice, isn’t it?” Old Lei smiled as he looked over the young Fox with closed eyes.

”I usually don’t like sharp sounds, but this is nice.” Aiko felt like this was quite nice music, but she couldn’t explain it.

She should be hurt by that high-pitched sound, because of her overly sensitive ears, but that was not the case.

”This is what happens when Forging Ancestor hammers normal metal.” Old Lei said proudly.

”We don’t have to use as much strength as Mortals, and we have more control over our hammer; as such, most of the sounds are simple and not really painful. You can estimate someone’s Forging Cultivation Path by letting him hammer metal.” Old Lei explained and then added. ”If the ring is painful, unstable, ’wrong’, or simply doesn’t sound like music, then he has holes in his basics, causing a ripple effect to his skills.”

”I see.” Aiko nodded. ”But that doesn’t explain why you need to use blacksmithing before Forging.” She couldn’t understand that part.

”Because of the movement of the metal. The grains, lines, everything.” Old Lei smirked.

”Ah!” Aiko nodded, understanding what he meant. She already worked on those things, but maybe it would be different if it were done by a hammer? Was that what she was missing?

”You seem interested. How about it?” Old Lei smiled happily. His new student didn’t seem as stubborn as Fang Jia.

”I will prepare for it.” Aiko nodded slowly and opened her shop.

She browsed it slowly, trying to find smithing-related stuff for now.

[Blacksmithing], [Gold Smithing], and so on.

They were cheap, but she was not really interested in them.

”[Smithing Mastery] and [Forging Mastery].” Aiko narrowed her eyes. It should be possible to slap them into Divine Skills later.

Each of them also costs quite a lot. 10,000 Skill Points each, which was impressive considering one was Mortal and one was Cultivation type.

Aiko found it weird, but still paid the price for [Smithing Mastery]. She would buy [Forging Mastery] once they advanced to that part.

She also tried to find others, but most were already included in [Smithing Mastery], so Aiko gave up.

”It’s quite hot...” Aiko didn’t like the increase in temperature, but she believed that [Thermal Regulation] would gain levels with this.

”It will get even hotter once you start moving, but if you get too hot, just run out of my house and take a plunge into the lake.” Old Lei chuckled.

”Is that why you had that lake?” Aiko felt slightly speechless.

”For what else? When you start this journey, it’s so unbearably hot that you wish you could jump into any kind of water.” Old Lei shook his head. ”To begin with, the issue with bathtubs is that one jump is all it takes to force all of that water out. Then you are left with no water, and you need to fill it up again. That either takes time or money if you use water-based Treasure.” Old Lei went on a long rant, so much so that Aiko almost fell asleep.

”As such, it’s easier to just big up a large hole and fill it with rainwater.” Old Lei finished his two-hour rant before looking at the young Fox.

”Why are you not doing anything? The forge is almost stone-cold!” He snorted unhappily.

”If someone didn’t take so much time to talk about this story, I wouldn’t have to wait around for you to finish.” Moon Aiko believed that all stories were worth listening to. It was definitely not because there were some stories that didn’t finish, and she was still upset about it. Certainly not!

Old Lei snorted again, but let her go for now. Fang Jia would never listen to him like this and would always interrupt him, so he would let the little Foxy do her thing.

”I will help you fire the forge.” Old Lei sighed, but a flame appeared before him.

”You also have a Spiritual Flame?” His eyes widened. ”While its firepower is not much, it looks easy to control.” He nodded in appreciation. ”With this, once you start your Forging Path, you will have a much easier starting point, good.” He nodded happily.

”Is there a difference?” Aiko tilted her head.

”You won’t understand for now, but you will soon.” He smiled knowingly.

”Okay.” Aiko nodded, a bit suspicious again, but she let it slip.

”First, you need to heat the metal; it needs to be glowing, but not too much or it starts melting.” Old Lei explained.

”Is that even possible?” Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”Listen here.” Old Lei started yet another story...

...

6 hours later, he was finished and so was Aiko.

[Smithing Mastery: Lv.1->Mastered] -> [Arts Mastery: Lv.1 (Inscription, Alchemy, Assassin, Smithing)]

Moon Aiko went nuts with the levelling once she understood how to do it.

It was quite simple, actually, you just needed to increase how much you learn about a given subject, and the levels would just flood in.

This allowed Aiko to merge that skill and also make Old Lei flabbergasted.

”Are you sure this is your first time smithing?” He couldn’t believe his eyes.

”I learn quickly.” Moon Aiko still frowned at her younger self, since she now believed that when she was in a younger life-stage, she was able to learn a lot more than right now.

Another thing that also helped her was [Thermal Regulation]

[Thermal Regulation: Lv.2->4]

This kept her somewhat cool, but she was still bothered by the heat. Unlike the heat from the desert, this was a strange kind of dry heat that made her skin uncomfortable, like she was slowly roasting alive.

”You should take a dip, and I will tell you a bit more about Forging Cultivation.” Old Lei smiled.

”Okay.” Aiko didn’t reject it since her clothing pretty much stuck to her body. ’I will need some proper clothing later.’ She clicked her tongue before simply jumping into the lake.

*Splash*

A few bubbles formed on the surface of the water before Aiko resurfaced.

”This is incredible.” Aiko felt alive once again.

”Hehe.” Old Lei chuckled again. ”You understand why I dug this hole now?” He smiled with glee.

”Good job.” Moon Aiko gave him a large thumbs up, since this was quite an amazing feeling.

”Praise me more.” Old Lei laughed before walking away. He was going to take care of his daughter before Aiko finished her dip.

He was quite happy that he knew her name, since he understood that Beasts were quite stingy with it, and for good reason.

...

Old Lei returned and invited Aiko back to his home, where his daughter was being taken care of.

”By the way, you can call me Lei Hai, and my daughter is Lei An.” Old Lei suddenly exclaimed.

”Okay.” Aiko nodded slowly. She didn’t expect to get their full names so soon.

”My daughter can be quite stubborn, but she means well.” Old Lei apologised in advance.

”I was thinking about this, but what kind of race are you?” Aiko tilted her head. From her understanding, only Humans and Foxes at this stage had a Human body.

Old Lei chuckled. ”That is a secret for now, maybe once we spend a few years together, you will get to know that.”

”Ah, I see.” Aiko nodded knowingly. ”Something that can’t be said openly or enemies would appear all around us.” She stroked her chin slowly.

Old Lei twitched. ”You should curb that smartness before someone hurts you.”

”Thank you for your concern.” Aiko would naturally not do that, and Old Lei understood that by this point.

”Why do I even worry about you? You will go and do something crazy anyway.” Is the feeling he got from Aiko, especially now that she has learned blacksmithing so quickly?

He didn’t need to correct her all that much, since it felt like she already knew about grains, cooling and other things.

He was completely unaware that Aiko had already gone through that whole process in order to rearrange the metal into a perfect structure.

She might’ve failed for now, but she was now ever so close to finishing it, and that would allow her to create a lot stronger and more powerful Treasures!