Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”You will see one day.” Mei smiled lightly, but she had no intention of allowing Aiko to join them, especially after hearing those disturbing reports.

Moon Aiko looked around, seeing those simplistic Runes and a thought crossed her mind.

”Mind if I try something?” Moon Aiko wanted to see what changed with her abilities.

”Just don’t destroy anything.” Mei chuckled and slowly shook her head.

”I’m not using destructive abilities.” Moon Aiko rolled her eyes but still focused so that she wouldn’t make any mistakes.

’Let’s see...’ Moon Aiko activated the [Devouring Sun & Glacial Moon Manifestation].

It had two parts, as you might see. One for the Sun and one for the Moon.

The Sun part was destructive, so Moon Aiko skipped it, not to mention if she used it, it would be very nerfed in her case.

The Moon part was interesting, since it was quite a bit different from what she was used to.

[Moon Eyes] now became the [Eyes of the Stilled Moon].

And its effects were startling.

First, it would lock onto any Qi within a certain distance. In Moon Aiko’s case, it was 10 metres around her.

Now, that might seem weak, but the effects didn’t end there.

She also could count what types and how much Qi was in the area she was observing, with inhuman precision.

If there were any Qi that flowed, for instance Mei’s body, Moon Aiko was able to observe the flow and see if anything was out of ordinary.

She noticed that Mei was injured, since her energy didn’t flow all that smoothly.

”You should rest.” Moon Aiko didn’t notice, but her eyes glowed with a soft light-blue hue, making her quite ethereal.

”You have noticed?” Mei was visibly disturbed, since she hid her weakness under layers of illusions and lies.

”It’s not getting worse for now, but it also is not improving.” Moon Aiko nudged Mei to take better care of herself.

”Seriously.” Mei shook her head. She didn’t expect to be lectured on health from Aiko.

The next effect was ’highlight’. It allowed her to highlight any Qi formations around Aiko. Be it Inscriptions, Arrays, Formations, Talismans, Treasures...

Anything that had Qi flowing through it, she was able to see it.

It also allowed her to see the mistakes, since the flow of Qi would be interrupted or slowed if those formations were incomplete or poorly crafted.

Or maybe they were supposed to be slowed? But even in that case the flow would have very consistent colour, making it very easy to see where it went wrong.

For example, most ’Locking’ Arrays on the doors were non-functional. A slight Qi deviation would be able to disable it, without alerting the subsequent systems in place, making stealing very easy.

Another effect that it gave to Aiko was to be able to see the exact shape of the whole formation as long as she had enough information about it, but if she was able to get the whole picture into her mind, then she would be able to affect it.

Moon Aiko was not sure how to do the last part, but there might be abilities that could help with that.

Re-sealing her Seal, the true power of the [Eyes of the Stilled Moon] were revealed.

The total distance covered anything where her senses could reach. It was not just the reach of the Divine Sense, but her sight, smell, taste, hearing and even touch played a major part in collecting all the information.

The information would be overwhelming as the distance Moon Aiko was able to cover was substantial, but that’s where the ’stilled’ part came in.

The literal world was frozen in the given moment that Moon Aiko activated her eyes’ ability, allowing her not to be overwhelmed with information as it was not being adjusted in real time.

Of course, Moon Aiko was also unable to move in this state, but that was not a problem as long as she was able to ’observe’.

[Observing Moon]

Moon Aiko was not sure if that was the right way to call it as the first word was smudged, but you could imagine this as a superior version of the [Eyes of the Stilled Moon].

Well, superior would be an understatement as it allowed Moon Aiko to see strange floating threads, Ghosts that were normally hidden among many other things.

However, in this state she was greatly overwhelmed as her mind was unable to keep up with both the sensation and information.

’My Qi is actually slowed in several parts...’ Moon Aiko thought that [Eyes of the Stilled Moon] would be able to see through everything, but that was not the case.

If the [Eyes of the Stilled Moon] were to be compared with the ’[Observing Moon]’ then you could only compare it as:

Exceptional Sight vs. Absolute Sight

Of course, the Absolute Sight would win by a vast margin.

”Uffff...” Moon Aiko suddenly got a splitting headache, which was only natural since she was trying to use powerful abilities without the corresponding Essence.

In that way most of that pressure was offset by her Beast Core which hit rock bottom within a few moments.

”Are you alright?” Mei was questioning her sight when she noticed that Moon Aiko’s energy suddenly vanished.

”I didn’t expect it to drain me so much.” Moon Aiko shook her head weakly. Not only was she disoriented by the slowness of her body, but to add to that she was also now bothered by splitting headaches!

”Let’s go have some rest.” Mei shook her head. It was so like Aiko to overdo it, but things should change now.

Mei will have enough time to teach Aiko step by step, so she doesn’t make more clumsy mistakes.

”Are you sure, don’t you have a lot of work?” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”So are you worried about my injuries or about my work?” Mei almost let go of Aiko when she heard her words, but she wouldn’t sulk right now, not when Aiko needed some support.

”Injuries, obviously.” Moon Aiko rolled her eyes at her. ”Is that even a question?”

”You seem quite cold and distant.” Mei pouted at her, teasing this icy miss.

”Try to feel like you are constantly drunk, and we will talk.” Moon Aiko pouted back. It was ridiculous how bad she felt, but she was unable to deal with it for the time being without deactivating the Seal.

”Phew, better, but we should still rest.” Moon Aiko nodded her head as the world sped up again.

”You always heat up a lot, does that help you?” Mei wanted to understand Aiko’s condition a bit more before jumping to conclusions.

”Yeah, well, it’s complicated.” Moon Aiko scratched her cheeks. She realised that her body had many issues through the ’[Observing Moon]’, so she didn’t know where to start.

”Just take one step at a time.” Mei shook her head as she chuckled.

”The heat helps me overpower some of my powers, making them easier to use, it also weakens my body so that I don’t feel like the world is at standstill.” Moon Aiko briefly explained, but it was really hard to put into words.

”Whoa...” Mei didn’t expect that kind of strength jump, but it was obvious.

Moon Aiko was powerful and was already supposed to have a Human Body, but since something went wrong even more of her energy was disturbed.

Thus, she was unable to utilise her full strength, even if her body wanted to follow.

”Is it that bad?” Moon Aiko pursed her lips.

”If the Fox Village was not as chaotic...” Mei pursed her lips. She knew that was a lie, since she didn’t care enough in the beginning and right now it was already too late to change anything.

Thankfully Aiko had her ’system’ that helped her many times, so it could outdo some of her blunders while also helping Aiko to survive.

”I’m just glad you are feeling better.” Mei gave Aiko a genuine smile, stunning her temporarily.

”Whoa...” Moon Aiko didn’t expect that kind of smile with those killer words and blushed.

”Oh my, is my Moon blushing?” Mei teased Aiko.

”Shush it!” Moon Aiko was flustered and waved her hands, but that only made Mei squeeze her tighter.

”Whoa! Careful, Princess.” Mei teased her even more, since she quite liked her flustered personality.

”You are a bully.” Moon Aiko realised what was happening and puffed up her cheeks.

Mei swept Aiko’s legs and carried her in princess carry. ”But yours.”

And they disappeared from that place.

...

”I really thought you would do something.” Moon Aiko looked around from the bed.

”Not while you are still not finished Evolving.” Mei rolled her eyes. If she messes with Aiko now, her energy might get tangled up and hurt her.

”Mmmmm...” Moon Aiko suspiciously narrowed her eyes.

”I still need to take a few Pills and circulate my energy.” Mei rolled her eyes at that expressive and attentively teasing expression.

”I don’t have to?” Moon Aiko propped her chin on the bed.

”You need your body to naturally adjust before you start circulating it.” Mei chuckled.

”Then why did you allow me to use my abilities?” Moon Aiko was confused.

”If you flush the system beforehand, it will have an easier time adjusting.” Mei gave Aiko a meaningful smile.

”Ah...” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She thought she understood what Mei was talking about.

”But it was already consumed...” Moon Aiko pouted at her.

”I always forget you can see the craziest things with your system...” Mei scratched her cheek, during certain times she was not used to Aiko being able to see everything about her body thanks to the system, so that’s where some of that clumsiness came from.

’I wonder why the system didn’t tell her about circulation and that kind of stuff before...’ Mei was confused, since she knew how impressive the system was, but at the same time, why didn’t it help Aiko?

It felt like the system was not an entity without thought that was helping, but someone behind the sheets pulling the strings.

Of course, since those beings didn’t intend to hurt Aiko, Mei took a step back, but everything would change if they did try to hurt her.

”Those are some nasty wounds...” Moon Aiko commented when Mei spread salve on black-purple wounds.

”Some of these are from the Immortal World, which is...” Mei didn’t know what to think about that.

”You are using the wrong salve.” Moon Aiko was observing her with those ethereal eyes, making Mei shudder.