Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Moon Aiko visited the provisional treasury.

”Jade Fox allowed me to take some metals with me.” Moon Aiko didn’t dilly-dally and immediately told her demands.

The Fox that was at the register blinked at her a few times before using a Talisman to verify that claim.

”Wait, weren’t you with the boom boom Fox?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. All of those Shadow Foxes looked the same so it was hard to say if this was the same one.

”... yes...” She whispered quietly. Her partner was abused before, but thanks to the new reforms she was getting good treatment.

Moon Aiko saw that she was not welcome and didn’t converse any further. She just waited for her to verify that claim before getting those sweet metals.

”i have verified your claim.” She kept whispering, but fortunately Aiko’s superior ears allowed her to easily hear her.

”I won’t take too many, I just want to figure out the best ratios of their mixtures.” Moon Aiko walked into the provisional treasury and took a few kilos of each metal.

The Shadow Fox kept blinking at her, but she didn’t say anything, so Moon Aiko just left the place without messing with her.

”Some are quite... strange.” Moon Aiko turned towards the provisional treasury. It was a nice wooden building guarded by quite a few Elders, but most of them passed the screening, so there was no need to worry about them.

What worried her were the eyes of several Foxes, but that was not her work to do for the time being, so she would promptly ignore it.

’It’s time to mix some metals.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head as she walked back to her ’workshop’.

The Twins were still resting on the side, so Aiko used Grandpa Flame to melt those metals and start combining them.

”You know that several of them are priceless, right?” Grandpa Flame was concerned that Aiko robbed the Fox Village of all of its resources.

”Possibly, but it’s not like a failed combination makes the metals into a waste. Sure, there will be some losses, but that is much better if we can discover something nice.” Moon Aiko licked her lips. She was looking forward to what she would be able to figure out.

The sample was also a lot purer than the one at Feet Shin’s place, so she hoped that the tests would go smoother.

The Twins were interested in what Aiko was doing, but once she lifted all those metals into the air effortlessly, they reconsidered their training.

Then once more, she dispersed those molten metals into small blobs all over the ceiling, there were hundreds if not thousands of them.

The Twins... chose to give up and not look over here, since it felt like all their hard work was for nothing.

They would just take out their beds, jump under the bedsheets and ignore the insanity that Aiko was currently doing!

Moon Aiko chuckled before paying more attention to what was happening to the metals.

”Some of them are interesting...” Moon Aiko stilled her eyes on several of them.

”Because they erupt in Qi when they are being combined?” Grandpa Flame also saw that. There were few raw metals that were able to do that and as you might expect, they couldn’t be bought for Spirit Stones or Treasure!

”Yeah, but the thing is, the metal itself doesn’t degrade and instead you can control the concentration of Qi inside it.” Moon Aiko smiled faintly, but that smile scared the living shit out of Grandpa Flame.

”You know... You are definitely the only one who would try to ’control’ the whole process. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt...” Grandpa Flame groaned.

”Well, the control is very easy, the speed at which you let them combine directly determines the amount of Qi inside the mixed metal.” Moon Aiko gestured that it was a lot simpler than he might think.

”Nononono, you can’t just say that like it was nothing! Most wouldn’t even dare to think of this because their mind wouldn’t be able to bear it if they ruined the resources during the mixing!” Grandpa Flame felt like Aiko had no consideration when it came to precious resources. For her, it was like any other resource that she used for her projects, with no mental burden whatsoever!

”It doesn’t take that long...” Moon Aiko pouted.

”Uhuh, then how long does it take?” Grandpa Flame didn’t want to hear the answer, but curiosity got the best of him.

”A few seconds to... well, a few days?” Moon Aiko whistled innocently.

Grandpa Flame got very close and personal with Aiko. ”You are not planning on doing that right?”

”Of course not...” Moon Aiko shook her head. ”Yet.”

”Take that last word back!” Grandpa Flame yelled at Aiko, since he didn’t want to keep those metals at perfect temperature for a prolonged period of time.

”Fine.” Moon Aiko pouted at him, but it was not like she could do it right now.

She still had many other metals to go through and then return what was left of it.

She also had to record what effects those metals had and what they could achieve.

It was a lot of work, but she was looking forward to it!

...

......

.........

Moon Aiko finished this after... a long time. So much so that even Mei visited her.

”I thought something happened to you.” Mei sighed softly.

”No, I’m doing fine.” Moon Aiko smiled. She mixed rest with tests, so it took longer than she expected.

”They told me you took quite a lot of resources.” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”A few kilograms.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”It’s not that much.”

Mei’s lips twitched. ”That’s a lot, you know?”

”Is it?” Moon Aiko didn’t believe it was a lot since there were many more in the provisional treasury.

”Yes, some of them we won’t be able to get again, so using them like this can be quite painful.” Mei shook her head. This was how Aiko was, but at least she hoped there was something that could help them.

”I have finished most of them, there are a few last ones, but yeah.” Moon Aiko nodded her head as she placed those notes in front of Mei.

Well, notes were an understatement as Moon Aiko didn’t use any Jade Slips, but normal paper, making this whole project into mountains of notes.

Mei almost fainted when she saw those notes. She was suddenly reminded of those paperworks that she finished some time ago and it kind of triggered her PTSD.

”Summarise it.” Mei gave up on taking those notes and wanted Aiko to help her.

”This is an interesting mixture.” Moon Aiko placed a small blob into Mei’s hands. ”It’s very soft at room temperature, but if you warm it up, it then hardens!” She said proudly, like it was some kind of huge achievement.

”That’s... not useful at all...” Mei’s lips twitched. She felt like Aiko was messing with her.

Yet those Twins were taking notes for Aiko, for some reason.

”What are you two doing?” Mei had a bad premonition.

”Recording materials that can be used for toys.” The Twins nodded their heads seriously, but seeing Mei’s scary expression they immediately ran away.

”Aiko.” Mei placed her hands on Aiko’s shoulders.

”This one is also interesting. It naturally gathers Qi when it gets cold.” Moon Aiko presented something better, so that she wouldn’t get scolded.

Mei was just about to scold her, but when she saw that metal, she paused.

”How were you able to find this...?” Mei couldn’t believe her eyes, since this mixture was used for ’Cold Caves’, a special cultivation place for Ice Cultivators!

”Mixed and mixed.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She only used a simple mixing, with one metal going against another. If she had more time then she would start mixing several metals together, but that could wait for later!

”Do you have anything like this, but for different elements?” Mei had a very serious expression, startling Aiko.

”I have for: Earth, Fire, Water, Lightning, Ice, Light, Darkness. There should be more of them, but I didn’t want to use too many resources.” Moon Aiko was quite scared of her expression.

”You are amazing~!” Mei suddenly lifted Aiko and spun her around.

”Whoa-” Moon Aiko didn’t expect that kind of treatment and was greatly startled.

Mei placed her down. ”I would like to tell you to keep going, but this knowledge is invaluable. It’s better that we use materials for the bargain instead.” She seriously noted down these achievements and even considered going through the mountains of notes just to find the instructions!

Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”You can take those notes and metals, there are more interesting ones.”

”Oh?” Mei was now much more interested in mixing metals, even if Aiko would mess with her.

”This one is somewhat soft metal, but once you apply a quick force, like a punch, it hardens comparable to the strongest metals.” Moon Aiko explained before handing it over to Mei.

”This would be great training material for Divine Sense.” Mei seriously nodded her head.

”Yeah, then there is this metal that even tries to prevent Divine Sense from touching it. I almost ruined this one since I didn’t expect that effect to suddenly manifest.” Moon Aiko gave Mei another interesting piece of metal.

”These are some seriously good metals, but it would depend on their raw materials. Some rocks have similar effects to varying degrees, so while impressive, rocks are still cheaper...” Mei nodded her head even more seriously than before. She didn’t expect this small project to yield so many amazing things!

”I had a lot of fun, so you can take those notes. I have even more notes from when I was over at the Inscription Association.” Moon Aiko smiled from ear to ear.

”Speaking of that. Chen Shi is doing one last ’moving’ and the Inscription Association in this place would be no more.” Mei suddenly told Aiko the news.

”I think I knew something like that was happening, but I definitely ignored it.” Moon Aiko shrugged.

”He will be coming with us.” Mei chuckled sinisterly.

”Ugh.” Meanwhile, Moon Aiko didn’t quite like that.

”What’s wrong?” Mei tilted her head.

”Make sure that they learn how to properly lock doors.” Moon Aiko said seriously.

”That’s without saying.” Mei nodded back and they high-fived.

”Good, I would be livid if ’that’ happened again.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”Don’t worry, there were already some... issues with their... procreation...” Mei’s face was stiff, since she had to sort through those reports here and there.

”You had it hard...” Moon Aiko hugged Mei.

”You have no idea.” Mei sniffled, feeling quite angry towards him.

”Well.” Moon Aiko smiled. ”It’s time for me to create more tools.”

”Ugh, again?” Mei didn’t like Aiko working like this, since that meant she would be ignored.

”It shouldn’t take too much time.” Moon Aiko smiled. She would just create the toys for the Twins and maybe pocketed some of them for some quality time with Mei.

”I don’t like your expression.” Mei immediately voiced her worry, but Aiko just smiled at her.

”Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad~” Moon Aiko hummed mischievously.

”Now I will definitely worry. I might even have nightmares.” Mei said jokingly.

”Oh, shush it.” Moon Aiko pouted at her and they both laughed.

”So, more work for me.” Mei sighed. Those Souls were very obedient, so everything was going well, but she still missed Aiko.

”Shouldn’t take us too long, right~?” Moon Aiko chuckled sinisterly.

”Oh, I will make sure it doesn’t take long.” Mei chuckled back and both the Grandmaster and Souls shivered. They would have it quite... rough.