Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”I will deal with these.” Yuan turned back to normal after those Elders were tied up and had their energies sealed.

”Break a leg.” Mei chuckled, dragging everyone away. ”But the Treasures are ours, since it’s still part of the Treasure Pavilion.”

”Ugh. You are relentless.” Yuan groaned, but a deal was a deal, and she was happy that the Seer was once again energetic. ’Although I wonder why she is keeping up with Divination.’ She couldn’t understand why the Seer kept those ugly lines.

Mei left with White Aiko and others, to leave space for Yuan to do her thing.

The Demonic Foxes were curious, but it was more fun to be with the main group, so pretty much everyone left.

”I wonder what will happen to them.” Moon Aiko was curious, but not curious enough to keep up with ’THAT’ face.

”So Yuan scares you too, huh?” Mei knew that Aiko was sensitive to certain faces, but this much...

”Obviously, have you seen her face?” Moon Aiko shuddered.

[Additional Energy balance underway.]

Another system message popped up, this was like the 3rd one Moon Aiko got, and the energies were still not balanced.

”Yuan can be scary, but she is also very sweet.” Mei patted Aiko.

”Whatever...” Moon Aiko sighed. ”We are going for the broken Treasures, right?”

”Indeed.” Mei nodded her head.

”I wonder how that will end...” Moon Aiko was not looking forward to the work ahead, but it was much better than eating those Pills-

”Wait, why don’t I need to eat Pills any more?” Moon Aiko never asked that question before.

”We have precious lotuses that can be used to recover Dai Lu to her prime.” Mei chuckled.

”So Grandmaster will no longer be a cute granny?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”Who are you calling granny?” Dai Lu grabbed Aiko’s head.

”I mean... you already have wrinkles, so...” Moon Aiko whistled innocently.

”Why do you have to fire so many rude words at everyone.” Dai Lu shook her head.

”But it’s the truth...” Moon Aiko pouted.

”Some truth is better left untold.” Dai Lu said seriously.

”So that they can’t progress, can be deluded or turn arrogant? No, thank you.” Moon Aiko shook her body in disagreement, since it was impossible to shake her head.

”...” Dai Lu let go of Aiko’s head, not sure what to say more.

It was true that some information was better left untold, but who decides what should not be said and what should be said?

There are no universal rules that say you have to tell them those things, but also no rules to say you shouldn’t.

It was a very hard balancing act, depending on whom you talked with.

Someone like Aiko and Mei would rather have all the information at their disposal, while someone like Yuan would prefer not to know.

What was even worse, the one that tells the ’thing’ had to decide if it was a good idea or not.

The problem with that is everyone is unpredictable. Even Dai Lu had her moments of rather not knowing at first, but later down the line it helped her immensely.

”You shouldn’t overthink things. The more you dwell on them, the harder the decision becomes.” Mei smiled bittersweetly as they walked towards the stash with the broken Treasures.

”I think that everyone has a point, but it’s just...” Dai Lu sighed.

”Strange hearing it from someone so young?” Mei giggled. Moon Aiko was eccentric, so maybe that allowed her to have a different point of view.

”The worst thing is that I can’t even refute it, even with my experience.” Dai Lu didn’t like that part, but it was not like she would hold it against Aiko.

”All is good as long as the message is good.” Mei smiled as she patted Dai Lu’s back. ”Sometimes you need the younger generation, as they are silly and not burdened by worldly means as much as we are.”

”For a bit I completely forgot that you are much older than I am.” Dai Lu laughed awkwardly, but she was quite happy about this opportunity.

”It will take me about a month to refine those Herbs and about another week to create that Pill, so either follow Aiko around or do some leftover work.” Mei gestured to Dai Lu.

”Right...” Dai Lu nodded her head. She should do something to settle her mind, since even she didn’t expect for the Southern Sect to be so generous.

”I think it’s because of their Saintess...” Mei still felt weird about Aiko having multiple partners, but after experiencing ’THAT’ she knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep up.

”Interesting.” Dai Lu smiled. ”I never knew that you would be at Aiko’s mercy~” She hummed mischievously, slapping her tails with her own tails.

”Off with you.” Mei rolled her eyes as she pushed Dai Lu to do some work.

”Fufufu~” Dai Lu giggled as she grabbed Chen Shi.

”Why me?!” Chen Shi never understood these carefree Foxes.

”I like to watch someone playing with Runes, and we still need to repair the continental flying ships.” Dai Lu hummed, dragging him away.

”He seems a lot happier than before.” Chen Yanqi popped out of nowhere.

”Why are you not following them?” Mei tilted her head.

”He ran me dry with the flight, I’m still resting.” Yanqi stuck out her tongue playfully.

”Still intimidating.” Moon Aiko stared at those balloons hatefully.

”You will get used to it. Most Immortal Female Cultivators have a rack that could topple mountains.” Mei sighed, shaking her head.

”Can we skip Immortal World?” Moon Aiko seriously pleaded since she didn’t like it at all.

”No, we can’t.” Mei sighed. She also hated that since she never had anything in her previous life.

Mei gently touched her chest, feeling happy that it was a lot bigger than in her previous life.

”What’s that face for?” Moon Aiko was taken aback.

”You will understand one day.” Mei chuckled.

”Gosh, I hate this...” Moon Aiko didn’t like when everyone was saying that she should wait to know more.

”Well, you will be very busy to even think about it.” Mei chuckled sinisterly.

”Now you are just wishing me something awful.” Moon Aiko grumbled when they stopped in front of the stash.

It looked like a normal warehouse, similar to the Treasure Pavilion, just with fewer guards.

”So this is it, huh?” Moon Aiko sighed.

”Good luck.” Mei chuckled.

”I swear. I will make something that will blow your mind so that you don’t have time to assign me these jobs.” Moon Aiko swore with a serious expression.

Mei raised her eyebrow. ”But you were the one-”

”Shush!” Moon Aiko shushed Mei before walking inside.

”Maybe I should call her team to keep her company?” Mei titled her head.

’No, wait, that would mean calling over Danji...’ Mei groaned. ’Let’s just return to do the rest of the paperwork...’

...

”You are late.” Danji said seriously.

”What are you doing?” Mei was shocked to find Danji behind her desk doing paperwork.

”Demonic Foxes are no joke with their intelligence.” Danji proclaimed. ”I have fixed a few things with the help of some of the Foxes.” She gestured to the papers on the table.

”No, before that, why is this whole study filled with papers?” Mei thought that she had only a few papers to go through left.

”Because Yuan stashed these when she didn’t want to work.” Danji said seriously as she picked up another piece of paper and looked through it.

”Ugh. I swear I will spank the tails out of her!” Mei groaned, realising that Yuan was not that good with paperwork.

”You should ask Aiko what to do about this, maybe she can come up with something nice.” Danji teased Mei, knowing that they had a happy time without her.

”Now, now, don’t sulk.” Mei rolled her eyes. ”We both know she is no joke.” She shuddered lightly.

”That’s not how you should act, you know. ’Mighty Queen of Diggers’.” Danji teased her even more.

”What’s with that nickname?!” Mei cringed just hearing it. This had some serious firepower behind it!

”I mean, no normal person would consider digging a secret vault.” Danji shrugged.

”That was not my idea, but theirs.” Mei immediately stopped her to correct that record.

”Huh?” Danji was momentarily stunned. ”When did that Chen bastard become so wild?”

”I think Aiko infected him.” Mei shrugged.

”So it is contagious...” Danji nodded her head seriously.

”Right?” Mei joined her.

”Those papers are about the scale of the new Array and the overall distance.” Danji pointed at those papers which filled most of the room.

”What about those?” Mei pointed to a smaller stash in the corner.

”We need Aiko for that, since only those Ghosts will know the locations of all secret stashes.” Danji shook her head.

”Damn...” Mei cursed under her breath before sitting down and picking up some papers.

”But I didn’t think you would be finished so soon...” Danji looked at Mei.

”If Aiko didn’t join the digging, the Foxes would never turn so enthusiastic.” Mei shrugged. For some reason, Aiko was a great motivator for everyone.

”I wonder why...” Even Danji had a hard time understanding her own kind...

-----

”Fucking hell...” Moon Aiko cried out when she saw the mountain of broken Treasures.

”I thought they would at least sort it, but I will have to do that by hand just to keep similar metals together...” Moon Aiko almost cursed all the generations of the Foxes managing this place.

”It is a pain in the ass to adjust everything, but we can do it in bulk.” Grandpa Flame popped up. Now that he didn’t need to warm up that place, he had a lot of free time.

”You can? Didn’t you say it was a pain in the ass?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”I grew stronger.” Grandpa Flame said proudly.

”Because of those cursed Treasures?” Moon Aiko tilted her head to the other side.

”Smart.” Grandpa Flame chuckled.

”But that strong?” Moon Aiko didn’t feel like he was any different.

”It’s not about temperature, but the area and precision I’m able to command.” Grandpa Flame proclaimed.

”No wonder you are ranked as 7th Spiritual Flame.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”I’m nowhere that powerful.” Grandpa Flame denied it vehemently.

”Huh? But the system tells me that you are seventh?” Moon Aiko was confused.

”Could it be the potential that I have? If so, I could see that.” Grandpa Flame nodded his head seriously.

”Is that so?” Moon Aiko asked the system about it.

[Most rankings are based on potential instead of current strength.]

[We are also adjusting the potential to include the Immortal World once it’s more relevant.]

”I didn’t think it worked like that.” Moon Aiko was startled.

[Not before, no. We have been adjusting the system as we went along to make it easier to understand the limit of everything.]

[This would allow you to choose the right decision based on knowledge that you have already acquired.]

”Then what would his rank be right now?” Moon Aiko was curious.

[Outside the 1,000 ranking, but inside 10,000.]

”That’s... quite weak. I should feed him more.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

[We suggest him to get more area and precision under his control as that would allow him to jump into the 1,000th ranking.]

”Huh? Does that make so much difference?” Moon Aiko was startled.

[Because he already commands a powerful Spiritual Flame, but the problem is the overall control. While all Spiritual Flames have perfect control over certain areas. He is far from that control, making him drop significantly.]

[But because of that it’s pointless to show his current standing as it changes almost daily, and it’s not a good indication of where he stands.]

”I didn’t think everything was so complex.” Moon Aiko was even more startled once she realised that things were more complicated than one thought...