Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

[Digging Site: Lv.8 -> Mastered]

”Phew.” Moon Aiko worked hard and earned a whopping 3 grams of the [Black Primordial Metal].

It was quite the achievement, since she had to go through many pickaxes, but that was not her main goal.

With [Mastered], the efficacy of that ability would skyrocket! She was now able to mine a whole 125cm3!

In other words, her hitting area was around 5x5 if she didn’t stretch it.

With the [Mastered] ability, she was able to even stretch it, as long as the total didn’t exceed 125cm3!

Now, Moon Aiko would craft the new batch of pickaxes, but this time with something special.

The tips would be coated in that [Black Primordial Metal]. Sure, it was not the best, since she was unable to melt that metal at all, at best she was able to warm it up slightly, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t cause anything if she added it to the tip of the pickaxe.

With that new tool, the mining should speed up. For now, Moon Aiko was looking at 1m3. She wanted to do a bit more, but it already took her a lot of time to do this much, so it was unrealistic to want to do more.

However, thanks to the stretched [Digging Site], she would be able to mine more effectively and maybe even possibly rip a few pieces off of this damned wall!

...

The new pickaxes were cooked, while the Treasures floated around Aiko, slowly integrating with her body.

”Now that I look at it, why is this process so slow?” Moon Aiko complained to the system.

[Princess...]

It was obvious the system was frustrated by her, but it still explained.

[You want something that surpasses the Deity Realm, while still being in the Mortal World. It wouldn’t be shocking if you shattered that Mortal World by your simple existence, much less accomplish it quickly.]

”So it will take time in order to prevent the destruction of the Mortal World, huh?” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”Wait, is this another ’past Immortal World Physique’?” Moon Aiko nervously laughed.

[Precisely.]

”Well, f-” Moon Aiko stopped herself and stared at the hateful black wall.

If she had time to complain, then she had time to mine!

*Ding Ding Ding Ding*

It took her some time to get used to using her tails on this wall, and it hurt a little bit, but by simply humming, she was able to recover that lost HP almost immediately.

Moreover, there was another thing playing for her.

[Prehensile Mastery: Lv.1->2]

As long as this improved, she would have an easier and faster time mining!

...

The sparks flew around her as her pickaxes wore down quickly. This made her concerned about the future.

She already repaired them hundreds of times, yet she was unable to get all that much from them.

Well, she did get 100 grams of the [Black Primordial Metal], making it easier to coat more and more pickaxes in it, but there was a slight issue with it.

’This metal behaves strangely, sometimes it’s heavy, sometimes it’s light...’ It was hard to say if she had 100 grams or 50 grams. This concerned her greatly since her progress would be highly deceiving.

”Just keep digging.” Moon Aiko nodded her head, not realising that her system was watching her.

-----

”Do you think we should help her...?” A shadowy figure scratched his head.

”Leave her be, she will give up and ask for help soon.” Another shadowy figure rolled her eyes.

”You think the Princess will not hate us?” The first shadowy figure seemed concerned since this was quite the mean prank.

”It’s impossible to get that kind of metal in Mortal World.” The second shadowy figure shook her head.

”Nüwa will complain...” The first shadowy figure sighed.

”That fat fish can complain all she wants.” The second shadowy figure snorted unhappily.

”You are still upset that Nüwa Blessed her first, huh?” The first shadowy figure snorted at her.

”N-no?” The second shadowy figure was flustered and kicked her playmate’s chin.

-----

Moon Aiko kept digging until there was a hole big enough to stick her head inside. Of course, with flattened ears.

It was not all that impressive, but it was something, much more than what Aiko thought she would be able to do.

Now that the surface was damaged, the digging went quicker than before.

It was still highly deceiving due to the weight changing constantly, but that was fine. As long as Moon Aiko could see the progress, she would keep going.

[Smithing R-2->3]

Her [Smithing] improved, since she was trying to make her pickaxes more ergonomic.

Her [Arts Mastery: Stage 1->2] entered the second stage due to her [Smithing].

She was supposed to obtain it sooner, but for some reason, she was unable to do that.

That was fine since she would now focus on [Forging] and the [Inscription]. Slowly improving those pickaxes over time.

[Special Spiteful Pickaxe]

[Description: A very spiteful creation, can mine pretty much anything without Extreme Qi in a Mortal World and some things in the Immortal World.]

[Rarity: ??? (How am I supposed to rate this??? *Sweats*)]

[Materials: Divine Steal (Core), ??? (Incomplete, Tip), ]

[Effects:

Fuck you: Durability increased during raging.

Fuck you: Damage increased against inorganic beings.

And fuck you in particular, wall!: Bonus damage against wall-like structures.

]

Moon Aiko marvelled at her creation before digging a bit more. Those effects were just because of her [Forging] attitude, but it was not enough for her to get-

[Forging R-2->3]

Never mind. She was able to get the 3rd Rank, so it was time to move on to [Inscription]!

[Very Special Spiteful Pickaxe]

[Description: A very spiteful creation, can mine pretty much anything without Extreme Qi in a Mortal World and some things in the Immortal World.]

[Rarity: ??? (Seriously??)]

[Materials: Divine Steal (Core), ??? (Incomplete, Tip), ]

[Effects:

Fuck you+: Durability increased during raging.

Fuck you+: Damage increased against inorganic beings.

And fuck you in particular, wall!+: Bonus damage against wall-like structures.

]

[Inscriptions:

Qi Gathering: +200%

Self-repair: +1 max % per second

Durability increased: +50%

]

’This should be enough.’ Moon Aiko nodded as she didn’t want to overdo it for the time being, and observe how it would act with all these things paired together.

Thinking that she did a good job with this, she copied this process onto other pickaxes before resuming mining.

...

It was still a pain in the ass to mine this damned wall, but it was certainly visibly quicker, which allowed her to earn a whole kilogram of this stuff.

Of course, that kilogram turned into 100 grams the next second, but that’s not something she could affect...

With her newfound toy, she kept at it again and again...

...

...

...

[Inscription R-2->3]

[Assassin R-1->2]

[Prehensile Mastery: Lv.2->8]

[Demonic Intimidation: Lv.5->6]

[Myriad World Linguistics: Lv.1->2/99]

It was simply incredible what she was able to gain over time by just glaring at the wall and trying to imagine killing it in myriad ways.

Halfway through, she even imagined that the wall was talking to her, taunting her that she was not doing enough damage to it! What audacity!

So she created this beauty!

[Vengeful Spirit Pickaxe]

[Description: A very vengeful creation, can and WILL mine pretty much anything in its path in a Mortal World and some things in the Immortal World.]

[Rarity: ??? (.....)]

[Materials: Divine Steal (Core), ??? (Incomplete, Tip), ]

[Effects:

Fuck you!: Greatly increased durability during vengeful crusade!

Fuck you!!: Greatly increased damage against inorganic beings!

And fuck you in particular, wall!!!: Devastating damage against wall-like structures!

]

[Inscriptions:

Qi Gathering: +200%

Self-repair: +2 max % per second

Durability increased: +150%

Comfort: +200%

Resource recovery (Qi, etc.): +25%

]

No wonder she was able to get so many good things! This thing was wild.

”Only I can create something so good.” Moon Aiko marvelled at her creation with great vigour.

The system nearby shuddered, since it didn’t expect Aiko to go through this whole thing. It was considering its options, even running away from here and letting someone else take over!

”Alright, I have around 8 kilograms, it seems like 10 kilograms marks the 1m3, but as the weight is too unstable, it’s hard to say.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. It was not yet time to do anything more, so she would wait for a bit.

She wanted to start with the saplings, since she was already very bored with mining, but she was also very close to completing that damned system!

[Make your own Hollow Moon!]

[Cleared: ~0.7/7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 m3]

[First Tree: ~0.7/5m3]

[Sapling: ~0.7/1m3]

Moon Aiko sighed, but she was quite happy. She didn’t have to dig 5m3 just to put a damn small sapling in there!

She also had a feeling that the system did that at the last moment, but she was so occupied by mining that she didn’t mind it at all.

Shaking her head gently. She resumed her hunt!

...

[Make your own Hollow Moon!]

[Cleared: ~1/7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 m3]

[First Tree: ~1/5m3]

[Sapling: ~1/1m3]

[Prehensile Mastery: Lv.8->Mastered]

”Oh, right. I completely forgot to upgrade things. Can I even do that?” Moon Aiko clicked on the [Digging Site] first.

[Not eligible in the Mortal World.]

Moon Aiko wanted to slap the system for this, but she held back. She still needed her system, so she had to be nice!

[Prehensile Mastery: Mastered]

[Pinnacle reached. Please find the corresponding Cultivation Manual for this technique.]

”Motherf-” Moon Aiko almost immediately flipped the damned black wall when she saw that text.

She gave up clicking on anything for the time being, lest she would get angry again.

But now it was finally time to get to the {Grafting}!

Moon Aiko opened the [How to grow bonsai 101] and excluded the bonsai part and immediately went to the {Grafting} chapter.

It explained what she had to do to make the {Graft} a successful one.

The first one was Vitality for both the grafted pieces. This would prevent it from premature dying, and if she dropped one more [Vitality Drop] during the connection phase, it would greatly enhance her success chance.

She was grafting two seedlings.

[Heavenly Blood Tree (Seedling)] and [Comprehension Tree (Sapling)].

Now, one might think she can’t do anything about these, but that was not true.

By dropping Vitality on the [Comprehension Tree (Sapling)], Witch Aiko forced it to regress to {Seedling}.

Now, grafting is usually done with ’sticks’, but this book also talked about {Seedlings}.

The process was quite simple.

You cut the {Seedlings} in half and douse them in Vitality to prevent withering.

You then join those two seedlings together like you would glue two pieces together.

Of course, you douse it with more Vitality so that it will have a higher chance of success.

Then you have to give it a lot of neutral Qi, but since Moon Aiko has a lot of them mixed out, she used Spirit Crystal instead.

She ground the Spirit Crystal into fine powder before letting the grafted seedling slowly absorb it through its frail roots.

[Grafting process initiated.]

[0%...0.0001%... 0.0002%]

’This will take a while...’ Moon Aiko frowned, but she was not impatient.

”Let’s take some nice dirt next.” Moon Aiko nodded her head as she commanded her system to move the portal for some nice soil...

The system cooperated, maybe too nicely, making Moon Aiko wonder what they were up to.

She grabbed some dirt without checking. It was black dirt, which made her instinctively want to slam it with a pickaxe, but she endured it, as that soil was very soft and smelled nice.

She easily transferred it into the core, making everything much easier for herself as she didn’t need to wait around.

For good measure, she added water from the [Ancient Blessed Spring Spiritual Light-Water].

It was important to keep the soil in good shape, especially since the metal was a bit warm.

Light was an issue, which Moon Aiko was unable to solve for the time being.

Maybe there was some obscure way with her current materials, but the best she could do was take a Warming Stone and make it shine brightly with Inscription.

Of course, the Warming Stone was quickly consumed, so she had to add more and more things until it was stable enough that she could leave it be.

Nodding her head slowly, she turned her way towards the grafting process.

[Grafting was successful.]

[Heavenly Blood and Mortal Comprehension Seedling]

[As the comprehension part is not complete, it could not completely Evolve into a higher grade.]

[The Seedling will die if it doesn’t receive {Spirit}.]

Moon Aiko nodded her head while reading through it. She would improve the knowledge part later, but it was finally time to include the {Spirit} part.

[Seedling~]

[Do you wish to merge [Seedling~] into [Heavenly Blood and Mortal Comprehension Seedling]?]

[Yes/No]

Moon Aiko, of course, clicked yes. She was quite looking forward to it as she was concerned about the unmoving [Seedling~].

The small green seedling shone in front of her body, while a tiny seed emerged from her body and joined with the green seedling.

They both shone and whirled around each other before meeting and merging together.

[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling (Ranking: ???)]

The name changed slightly, but there was no longer mention of the Mortal World, so that was probably a benefit of this thing.

Moon Aiko placed that {Seedling} into the core of that Moon and waited for the system to tell her what to do next.

[The baseline connection was established. You will be able to retrieve or give 1 resource each day.]

”Can I still mine?” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. If she could only mine 1 gram a day, then that would be horrible.

[En.]

”Good.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She was looking forward to what would happen next.

[Initiating the process of merging the [Hollow Moon Physique (Incomplete)] with [Glacial Origin Moon]...]

[The process is underway.]

[The Ritual Array is fully functional and establishes an intimate contact with Species.]

[Undergoing pseudo-Evolution.]

[As this is not a complete and normal Evolution, it will not count in the system.]

The priceless Treasures whirled around Aiko as they were giving her the much-needed Ice Essence, which established the connection to the [Glacial Origin Moon]...

-----

The hill outside the Treasury was quickly covered in a chilling show.

The Moon was high in the sky, but instead of that familiar grey, this one was pale blue.

But that was not the end of it. Other Moons appeared high up in the sky, covering the world in their wonder.

”It’s been a while since I saw so many Moons...” Mei shook her head.

”So you are not going to comment on why there are so many of them, huh?” Dai Lu’s lips twitched. She couldn’t believe that Mei became even more shameless while she wasn’t looking.

”What? At this rate, Aiko might make one of those Moons hers.” Mei shrugged and said that without much thought.

”Gosh...” Dai Lu wanted to resign since she already knew that Mei jinxed it.

”What about the coldness, you won’t mention why you harvested the Herbs even if they were not fully grown?” Dai Lu elbowed Mei, since she was quite upset that she had to eat those smelly Pills.

”Hey! Don’t hold a grudge against me! You already have one more tail!” Mei protested, since Dai Lu was slightly more healed than before.

Dai Lu rolled her eyes. ”I hope you have secured those Herbs, since this will cause us to have quite the cold nights...”

”It will be fine.” Mei nodded her head slowly. It should be fine, but who knows what might happen. This was Aiko they were talking about.

”I think I will rest during this Winter, since it’s getting quite cold.” Mei shuddered slightly before moving her body inside.

”I’m definitely not staying outside.” Dai Lu followed her, and soon others also came...

-----

Moon Aiko whirled in the torrent of cold energies. It was less chaotic than her usual Evolution, but that was because they were not changing as much as her normal Evolution would do.

Species: [Devouring Sun & Glacial Moon Fennec Fox (Female, Mature, Three-True-Tails (Pseudo Four-Tails))]

Bloodline: [Blooming Tree under the Glacial Moon Kitsune (Dormant)+[Seedling]]

More and more changes were happening to Moon Aiko, as she was slowly drifting to sleep...