Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

‘She is hiding?’ The gorgeous girl from the Delegation tilted her head. ‘Was there something so exceptional that she would need to do that?’

The girl suddenly frowned. ‘Those bastards said that there is no impressive Fox when it comes to Shadow Element, yet if I were not focusing, I would be unable to locate this little Fox.’ Her opinion about the Fox Sect degraded greatly.

‘Should I have a word with the Delegation?’ The girl pondered. This was an issue that needed to be dealt with; otherwise, this Fox would be unable to develop.

‘Maybe I should go to the Beast Sect…’ The girl narrowed her eyes. ‘While she would be the weakest Beast in the Beast Sect, they wouldn’t at least see her as a commodity that they can use to gain leverage over others.’

‘I will think about it.’ The girl sat near the door to wait for the Fox, just in case something happened.

---

Witch Aiko was left speechless.

‘The Beast do not have Meridians and Dantian, but they have something more powerful, something more precious.’

‘The ability to store Qi in their muscles and bones without the need of external influence!’

‘Beasts just grow stronger as they live and gather the natural Qi, of course, extreme environments would make them even more powerful, but we are talking about the ability to nurture the body!’

‘Especially Foxes, which can also nurture the Soul, are formidable opponents!’

‘But I’m getting ahead of myself, I can’t even sit properly due to the stamina of the Beasts, so I will have to be more careful moving forward.’

‘I don’t need to know about your love life.’ Witch Aiko felt like she just read something she shouldn’t have.

‘The way Qi interacts with the human body is quite special.’

‘First, you need a breathing technique. This allows you to draw in the Qi particles “semi-naturally”. Next, you need a place to store it, but before moving on to that, let’s look over Qi.’

‘You need to be able to observe Qi in order to draw in. The higher the skill in observation, the more you will understand about Qi and the better you will get at Spirit Seeking.’

‘Spirit Seeking allows you to locate places with high Qi ambience and appraise Spirit Stone Mines.’

‘Once you reach the extreme, you will be able to observe the flow of Qi inside their body in greater detail.’

‘This allowed me to see how Qi interacted with the human body.’

‘It didn’t.’

‘The Qi was drawn into the lungs through the Breathing Technique, but that’s where it ended.’

‘Until the Meridians noticed that Qi, it would stay in your lungs, and possibly harm you.’

‘The supposed Qi Meridians would extract the Qi from the lungs or body and move it around through “channels”.’

‘This allowed the body to get used to the Qi, so it can interact further.’

‘Over time, the first Dantian was “Manifested”. I still don’t understand that part, if the Dantian is before you start Qi Cultivation or after.’

‘The Qi pathways would naturally lead to the Dantian, which allowed the storage of Qi.’

‘Reducing or blocking the Qi pathways would result in unnecessary burden on Meridians, either widening them or damaging them.’

‘Widening was a very delicate work, which even I couldn’t do. The amount of precision was so staggering that even Immortals would have problems with it.’

‘There is a special stage where you need to “open” your Meridians, but that in itself has issues.’

‘You need at least 9 Meridians out of 20 to use most Cultivation Manuals. The problem with that was that if you break your Meridian, it will hinder your cultivation with severe pain and Qi leakage.’

‘Now moving onto the Beasts, which don’t have this kind of problem.’

‘Beasts are mostly born as animals. Stupid and unfeeling. They don’t need to practise or think, since the only thing they do is breathe.’

‘Most animals won’t be able to get to the next stage, but those that do, and attain intelligence, will allow them to further hone their bodies.’

‘There is no answer on how they can so naturally nurture their bodies with Qi, but there is a way to create a Beast Core, as animals don’t have one.’

‘The creation of Beast Core is very elaborate and quite frankly stupid.’

‘First, you need five-coloured Qi to take shape. This would be the vessel that would form the outer part of the Beast Core.’

‘It would either turn paper-thin or thick.’

‘Depending on the thinness, the absorption rate is adjusted. If it’s thin, it’s fast; if it’s thick, it’s slow.’

‘The important one was thick, since it blocked most impurities from entering the body.’

‘The Beast Core naturally bleeds energy, or rather, the excessive energy from the Beast Core gets turned into nurturing energy.’

‘This energy can not be considered Qi, as it doesn’t share any similarities.’

‘You could also see it as comparing water to oil. While those things are technically liquid and flow, one is not like the other, and you can’t really mix them together.’

‘The Beast Core leakage doesn’t really leak outside the body, unless the body reaches perfection.’

‘Which means you can’t locate Beast based on the Beast Core leakage.’

‘The energy from Beast Core is like nutrients that seep into the Beast’s body, making them tougher the longer they live.’

‘However, there are a few races that are special, but I was only able to observe one.’

‘Foxes.’

‘They are very peculiar, since their Beast Core is small. That means those impurities that enter the body, only settle into their Beast Core and not outside!’

‘This is fascinating, as Foxes are one of the few races that don’t die from Qi drowning!’

‘Well, their Beast Core still can get clogged, but their body would not slow down due to impurities that would clog their muscles and joints.’

‘Of course, this comes at a cost. Due to the size of their Beast Core, they are a weak race that is easily killed.’

‘That’s where their incredible illusions and understanding of humans come from.’

‘You could consider them the perfect partners, since they can understand you well and with illusions, you can challenge any opponent as long as the Fox sees them in action.’

‘A perfect blend of Dual Cultivation and battle training.’

‘The other important races would be the Auspicious Beasts. While their Beast Cores are not smaller, they still are powerful in a way that makes them very immune to impurities.’

‘The most extreme is the Vermillion bird and the lesser family Phoenixes.’

‘They quite literally obliterate impurities before they can even reach their bodies.’

‘But all of them have fatal flaws, so they are not at the pinnacle.’

‘There is one cursed race that can easily rule over them all, but fortunately, they are too gluttonous to care about that.’

‘I got derailed again. There are too many enemies, making my thoughts drift…’

‘Beasts, unlike humans, don’t have Qi pathways. Qi is usually absorbed through the stomach, from eating other Beasts or Herbs. Mortal herbs won’t do, as they don’t have Qi inside them, and Spiritual Herbs are too rare.’

‘Yet with a stroke of luck, Beasts can unlock their intelligence and soar until Heavenly Dao strikes them.’

‘Because Beasts do not have Qi pathways, the hardest and most nurtured part is around the Beast Core.’

‘For a lot of Beasts, that’s next to their heart or even inside their hearts, making them much tougher to kill.’

‘The nurturing is gradual, from my observation, it takes around 100 years for Beasts to mature, while Foxes take 1,000, since their Beast Core is smaller.’

‘That means that Beasts only see their body strengthened after those years, since those enhanced muscles lie dormant.’

‘It seems like that’s a protective instinct of Beasts, making them not use those muscles to prevent unnecessary deaths.’

‘However, if you push Beasts too much, they can throw that instinct out of the window, making them a lot more ferocious due to the pain, and powerful due to not limiting their muscles.’

‘The most fascinating ones are the Foxes.’

‘After 1,000 years, they enter a period where all knowledge gets converted into power.’

‘They call it the “Fox’s Pearl” or “Heavenly Pearl” or “Pearl”… It honestly has too many names, so it gets confusing.’

Witch Aiko paused for a moment. The information was staggering, but the system bothered her with even more information.

‘This is when Foxes truly reach maturity and unlock their potential, making them on par with Auspicious Beasts.’

‘Of course, getting there is no simple feat…’

The book ended there, as if it were cut off, and the book slowly crumbled into nothingness.

‘What a strange book.’ Witch Aiko was speechless, but also enlightened.

[You have gained enough knowledge to visit ####!]

---

The girl sighed.

The Fox was reading for too long, making her grow bored.

Yet soon after, the barrier that the Fox created dissolved.

The Fox was blankly staring towards a certain direction, seemingly stunned.

Her concealment wore off, making the Fox Elder rush over, all flustered.

“What are you doing here?!” The Fox Elder was about to slap the daring Fox when a voice interrupted him.

“We can’t be here?” The gorgeous girl asked.

“Of course, no-” The Fox Elder turned around, joking on his words. “You can visit this place! Why couldn’t you visit this place?! You can read all you want!” The Fox Elder turned meek before running away.

The girl observed the Fox crying for some reason, making her wonder what had happened.

“Something wrong?” The girl was curious.

“I wanna go home.” Witch Aiko involuntarily murmured before quickly turning her head over.

The girl tilted her head.

Witch Aiko wiped her tears. “Who are you?”

“I’m from Delegation.” The girl was obviously not happy about this title, and her cute, but grimacing face said it all.

Witch Aiko scratched her cheeks awkwardly. She didn’t think she would be tailed, since this girl had clearly ignored her before.

‘Was she bored so she followed?’ Witch Aiko never met someone like that, or did she?

“I’m not here to take you away, unless you would want to.” The girl had her own quota to fill, but her Elders hoped she would pick some males into her harem…

Honestly, the girl was sick and tired of harems. Everyone in the mainland had one, in order to both keep the population in check and to please the powerful Foxes so that they wouldn’t go over to the Beast Sect.

“Oh.” Witch Aiko nodded her head. She was quite happy, but this situation… was quite awkward…