Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

A week of resting, and Chen Shi finally visited Aiko.

”Finished?” Moon Aiko blinked her eyes at him.

”More or less.” Chen Shi chuckled. It was not as bad thanks to his friend doing most of the work.

”So...” Moon Aiko propped up her chin. ”What did you figure out?” She was looking forward to some kind of breakthrough that would severely reduce the time required without causing them more pain.

”Just some nice things.” Chen Shi smiled and pulled out the first Demonic Disc.

Instead of a black disk, this one was blue and startlingly thin.

”What effects does it have?” Moon Aiko already knew that it increased efficiency when it came to consumption of Spirit Stones, but that might rouse some suspicion, so she held back.

”This one increases the efficiency at which the Spirit Stones are consumed. I have not tested the numbers yet, but it should be significant, since the main metal is all about Spirit Stones.” Chen Shi nodded his head.

”That might be nice, but it depends on the rate.” Moon Aiko pursed her lips.

”Definitely.” Chen Shi agreed with that, so he stared at Aiko.

Moon Aiko pulled the Demonic Saintess out of her tails and onto the Demonic Disc.

”New one?” The Demonic Saintess was startled that they had made a completely new disc so soon.

”You can thank this devil.” Chen Shi snorted and stared at Aiko.

”What? Don’t tell me it was not useful information?!” Moon Aiko pouted.

”That’s the most upsetting thing about it! It was way too useful!” Chen Shi’s fists twitched from that absurdity. He hated how the information allowed him to not just improve the Demonic Disc, but his future and current Treasures too!

”Heh.” Moon Aiko smiled proudly.

”It’s not working?” The Demonic Saintess already had a good grasp of this thing and tilted her head.

”It uses Spirit Stones to run, so run me some calculations.” Moon Aiko smiled, but then she turned towards Chen Shi.

”What?” Chen Shi felt like something was amiss with Aiko.

”You are paying, since it’s your creation.” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.

”What? Why?!” Chen Shi glared at Aiko.

”Because you might say one thing, but what if this chews through my Spirit Stones? Then I will go broke, and you will be happy!” Moon Aiko glared back at him.

”Ridiculous!” Chen Shi kept glaring, but he still stuffed one Spirit Stone into the Demonic Disc.

The Demonic Saintess pursed her lips. Each time she came out of the tails, these two were going at it, but over time, it got worse and worse.

”So, how is it?” Moon Aiko kicked her legs around, since she was slightly bored.

”Around 500 years without pain, but it’s around 1 Spirit Stone per 30 breaths.” The Demonic Saintess sighed.

”That’s ridiculously expensive.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

Doing the maths, 30 breaths was one minute. That was 60 Spirit Stones per hour. Moving further, that was 1,440 Spirit Stones per d-

”Nope, this one is a dud.” Moon Aiko shook her head, frowning greatly.

Just one day, there were almost 1,500 Spirit Stones, and it would take 500 years...

*Shudders*

”What’s the next one?” Moon Aiko asked Chen Shi.

”The next one is this yellow one.” Chen Shi pursed his lips. ”This one is quite special since it requires both high ambient Qi and high purity Qi.”

”But if we can get both of them at the same time, the effects shouldn’t be too bad, right?” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.

”With a bit of adjustment, it shouldn’t have limitations, as long as you can raise enough ambient Qi and high-purity Qi.” Chen Shi gestured.

”I made sure that it worked well for longer periods of time, but we can’t really test the effects here, since it would drain this place quite quickly.” Chen Shi warned Aiko about it.

Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”We can’t test it, but this is a really nice Treasure, so I would get 5 of them.”

”What am I, some kind of walking workshop?” Chen Shi frowned that he had to create even more of them.

”Do you really want me to answer that?” Moon Aiko glanced at Chen Shi, since she quite liked the colour.

”...” Chen Shi scrunched his face. It was obvious he didn’t want to hear the answer.

”The next one is the red one.” Chen Shi pulled out a Demonic Disc that was red.

”I don’t like it.” Both Aiko and The Demonic Saintess said in unison.

”Obviously.” Chen Shi rolled his eyes. ”This one uses your Vitality in order to purify your body and adjust it to normal Qi. As you might expect, it’s not the most gentle Demonic Disc, but I figured you might be interested in it.” He shrugged gently.

”I indeed am interested in it, but there is no way I can currently use it.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

”That’s true. With your current disposition, one sneeze, and you would keel over.” Chen Shi chuckled.

”Don’t even try it, or I will spread your nicknames around.” Moon Aiko threatened him.

”I don’t have nicknames.” Chen Shi shrugged.

”Obviously, I would come up with nicknames.” Moon Aiko chuckled.

Chen Shi took the red Demonic Disc away and pulled out the pink one.

”Sex.” Chen Shi said simply, but even that made Aiko cringe a lot.

”I don’t want you to elaborate, but I also need the exact numbers.” Moon Aiko groaned. She believed that Chen Shi had already tested this one.

”This one is also problematic, as you might expect, since it also amplifies pleasure.” Chen Shi shook his head. ”As you might expect, once you do it a few times, you will get addicted to the more sensitive pleasure, and you will then be dependent on this for that.”

”That sounds like a bad idea on many levels.” Moon Aiko frowned, and Chen Shi stored it back.

”You pulled out the oddest Treasures, you know?” Moon Aiko shook her head at him. It was ridiculous how many bizarre Treasures he could come up with.

”What? I just used the metal mixtures to figure something out.” Chen Shi shrugged again. ”The thing is. Most metals were useless to us, since some of them acted as an increase in durability, which also slowed Qi down. Others acted as complete Qi stoppers and so on.” He shook his head.

”So when you think about it. We are fortunate to just have these working Treasures.” Chen Shi shook his head again.

”Was it that bad?” Moon Aiko blinked her eyes.

”Even worse.” Chen Shi sighed. ”Some metals didn’t even want to let the Inscription Ink stick to them, so some of them were rejected based just on this.”

”Whoa, I didn’t think that metal would reject it...” Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”All Inscription Inks, or just a very selective one?” She narrowed her eyes, since this was very important for the future.

”The lowest quality Inscription Inks worked.” Chen Shi shrugged. ”But you would have to redo it every week.”

”No way I will do that.” Moon Aiko shook her head. If she were to get 100 of those Treasures, then she would die of overworking sooner rather than later.

”I figured you might say that.” Chen Shi shrugged. ”Here.”

”It’s black?” Moon Aiko observed the Demonic Disc.

”It’s just an improved version of the first one.” Chen Shi gestured, but before Aiko could say anything, he had already pulled 4 others.

”How did you know?” Moon Aiko received those Demonic Discs without blinking her eyes.

”I figured you might want them.” Chen Shi shrugged. At times, Aiko can be very easy to predict, but those times didn’t happen all that often.

”Thank you.” Moon Aiko smiled happily. With this, she could do her own maths and try to combine even more metals once she obtained some unnecessary Treasures.

”Yeah, yeah.” Chen Shi waved his hand. The hardest part was not on him, as he didn’t have to handle the metals. He was more or less alright, even if he was tasked to get more of them.

”I mean it.” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”I dread what that could mean.” Chen Shi shivered before standing up. ”I will be getting some rest, so try them out, and if something breaks, then I will take it and redo it later.” He stretched his body.

”Fat.” Moon Aiko called him out.

”Shut it. I didn’t have time for pills.” Chen Shi would naturally not work out and would rather use Pills for this, since his main occupation was not Body Cultivator, but Rune Cultivator.

”So even you use pills for this, huh?” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrows.

”Obviously.” Chen Shi snorted. ”I’m not a Body Cultivator.” And with that, he disappeared.

”He came and went quite quickly.” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”I believe he is scared of you.” Danji chimed in now that everyone was settled down.

”Is he? But I’m not scary...” Moon Aiko tilted her head to the other side.

Both Danji and the Demonic Saintess stared at her, trying to figure out if she was joking or not.

”You are scary.” The Demonic Saintess nodded her head.

”I’m not.” Moon Aiko puffed up her cheeks.

The Demonic Saintess rolled her eyes, but she didn’t even try to argue. Whoever argued with Aiko would inevitably lose.

...

Moon Aiko tested the Demonic Discs on the Demonic Saintess.

The most peculiar was the yellow one, since its output was going up and down, making it night impossible to estimate how long the curing process would take.

”But I feel that if we have a good base, we would be able to raise the effects greatly.” The Demonic Saintess liked this Treasure the most.

”Well, I will stuff them into the tails, and you can try them later.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She would give it a week, so that they could figure out if anything breaks.

If not, then Moon Aiko would finally leave this place!

”I’m quite looking forward to getting back, but it will still take some time.” Moon Aiko sighed, shaking her head.

”We can fly, shortening the distance.” Danji suggested.

”Yeah, but we can’t fly too much, since those fuckers are looking for any kind of excuse to take things away from others.” Moon Aiko snorted unhappily.

”It’s already that bad, huh?” Danji was surprised that the Delegation didn’t wait for all that long.

”And you are supposed to be captured, so you will be spending more time inside my tails, so be prepared for that.” Moon Aiko warned her.

”But I would like to engage with the upcoming events.” Danji narrowed her eyes.

”I will let you free once shit goes down, so you can also play around.” Moon Aiko didn’t reject that notion, since it would be a big help for everyone~!