Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Mei and Moon Aiko arrived at their small workshop.

Well, pretty much the whole place with the broken Treasures became their workshop, since it’s quiet and nobody would bother them.

”So, this is it, huh?” Mei looked at the huge Cauldron, but it felt like it was missing something.

”I will give you the blueprint later.” Moon Aiko chuckled. ”But yes, this is an incomplete version, since I don’t have that much time nor resources.”

”You know that most Forging Cultivators would spit blood at you by this point...” Mei shook her head. Who was insane enough to use a precious meteorite as material for this thing. Moreover, Mei felt like Aiko was not finished with reinforcing it.

”If they have such frail hearts, then why are they cultivating in the first place?” Moon Aiko rolled her eyes, since this was ridiculous.

”Because they are afraid of death...” Mei shook her head, but then suddenly shrugged. ”Or their pride is so high that they don’t want to acknowledge that they also were once ’peasants’.”

”You mean mortals? That’s so ridiculous.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

”That’s human nature.” Mei shook her head again. Humans were complicated creatures, so it was better to ignore them for the most part.

They would always come up with the most ridiculous reasoning to take what they want and then teach it to the younger generation.

The Mortal World was exploited like this for a long time, so many places that Mei remembered were long gone...

”Well, fuck ’em.” Moon Aiko snorted unhappily. She would have to deal with them once she arrived at the Human Body Stage, but until then she could just brush them off.

”Things are more complex than you might think.” Mei sighed at her, while inspecting the Cauldron.

”You do know that I don’t care about such things.” Moon Aiko knew that was a bad idea, but there was nothing she could do about it. She didn’t understand others all that well, only her team was good enough to follow her, while the rest were either too slow or not right in the head.

’I’m definitely not the strange one.’ Moon Aiko convinced herself since she didn’t want to be the odd one.

”What do you think?” Moon Aiko smiled at Mei.

”A work of art, but difficult to use.” Mei sighed. She would kill for something like this when she was alive the first time. ’Well, I’m still alive, but it also feels like I’m dead.’

She just acted so differently compared to before, it was like there were two Meis!

”It’s not for Pills. Most metals won’t care for the rushing Qi, but I will have to definitely do something about it.” Moon Aiko knew that the ambient Qi rushing inside was a good thing for fast melting, but when it came to fragile Herbs, any kind of deviation would cause immense instability and backlash.

As such this whole thing was only good for one thing.

To melt large batches of the broken Treasures, so that Moon Aiko has more time to do the fun stuff.

”I also spotted the Twins with a new toy...” Mei trailed her words, but it was obvious what she was hinting at.

”Would you look at that, I suddenly want to learn more about Cauldrons.” Moon Aiko said innocently, but it was plain obvious that she was avoiding that ’question’ like a plague.

”I don’t have much to say about this.” Mei played along, since she found it amusing.

Not to mention. Aiko already melted so many useless Treasures that it freed up a lot of space that would be used on the continental flying ships.

As such they would be able to bring even more Treasures and other things, without leaving anything behind.

Sure, Aiko could store everything in her tails, but it would be trouble explaining WHERE the things came from.

”Here.” Moon Aiko tapped Mei’s forehead to transmit the blueprint for it.

”This is crazy...” The transmission was so smooth and painless that Mei actually caused herself to get a headache.

”What’s wrong?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”You know how crazy this blueprint is, right?” It not only highlighted how to build it, but it also included the various effects that the whole thing could have if a masterful craftsman was able to build it.

”Do you have any notes?” It was different transmitting techniques, compared to information, so most useful information was stored in Jade Slips or on paper.

Well, paper didn’t last all that long and Wooden Slips wouldn’t either, so pretty much Jade Slip was the only way to preserve information for a long time.

”En.” Moon Aiko pulled out a huge pile of notes, with information about the thickness, materials and effects.

A lot more than Mei expected, but still within reason. It would be bad if Aiko over overdid it... again.

”That’s a lot.” Mei frowned, but this time she was not against reading it.

That was because she could use the upper part of the [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] for Pills, which perfectly aligned with her Cultivation Path.

”Do you have any materials to spare?” Mei was willing to do research if it came to her ’hobby’.

”Yes, but not that many.” Moon Aiko pulled out all the metals from within her tails and Storage Rings, but it didn’t seem like Mei was satisfied with this.

”Do you need something else?” Moon Aiko tilted her head, puzzled why Mei didn’t like these priceless metals.

”Yes, clay or something simple, so that I can get the feel on how this [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] should work.” Mei didn’t want to use metal, since conductivity differed from one another.

She was looking for specific resources that would allow her more easily observe the condition and effects of the Cauldron.

”I have some dirt...?” Moon Aiko pursed her lips, but still pulled out the numerous and different dirts that were stored in her tails.

”That’s... quite the collection.” Mei didn’t know what to think about this, as this was a lot more than she expected.

”I collected it while I was in the Nightmare Forest.” Moon Aiko shrugged like it was not a big deal.

”You have not ruined that place, right?” Mei suddenly had a bad feeling about it, but this was too precious to pass out on.

”I took it in moderation.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”So you ruined that place, huh...” Mei sighed, but Aiko felt like she was being insulted.

”Hey! That’s rude.” Moon Aiko pouted at Mei.

”What? Are you telling me that you collected only a bit and not the whole thing.” Mei raised her eyebrow.

Moon Aiko coughed awkwardly. She definitely did take the whole thing, but she didn’t think it was an issue.

The places where she took it from were either abandoned or overgrown with weeds. As such she didn’t believe it was ruining those places, as they were ruined from the beginning!

Looking at Aiko’s expression, Mei chuckled. ”Just next time don’t take too much. I have no idea what we should use this on.”

”We can make a garden.” Moon Aiko said seriously.

”What? Who will take care of it?” Mei narrowed her eyes. She obviously knew that Aiko wouldn’t be able to take care of it, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t play along.

”Feifei, obviously.” Moon Aiko would delegate all the work to her team, so that she didn’t need to work and could indulge in her research.

Mei stumbled, not expecting that kind of answer.

”Are you sure she will agree?” Mei didn’t think it would be that easy.

Moon Aiko immediately pulled out Feifei. ”Would you like to start a garden and nurture it?”

Feifei was confused for a while, with a snack still in her hands. ”I would like to...”

Feifei blinked a few times before responding properly. ”Yes, a nice quiet garden would be nice, but it needs to be big enough so that others can join me.”

Mei sighed. She didn’t expect Feifei to readily agree to this.

”Oh? How about a lake too?” Moon Aiko was curious if she could expand the scope of normal ’cultivation’.

”For fish or recreation?” Feifei was curious what Aiko was planning.

”Do we really need fish?” Moon Aiko glanced at Mei.

”Some of the scales can be used for Pills, yes.” Mei nodded her head seriously. ”Some of them are tasty too, but it takes them quite a while to mature.”

”What do you think?” Moon Aiko asked Feifei, since she would be the one managing it.

”I’m not sure about the fish, but I can take care of the lake too. I will need water either way.” Feifei chuckled happily. She wanted to invite the frail Demonic Foxes over later, so they can all have some grand fun~!

Moon Aiko saw that mischievous smile, but she didn’t really want to engage with it, so she changed the topic. ”Are you good with the food stockpile?”

”There is enough food. The Demonic Foxes don’t have a normal appetite now, so we are fine, but I would like them to improve their condition.” Feifei sighed gently.

”The Demonic Discs are for that, but I do agree we have to do something to speed it up.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”Ahem...” Mei coughed, since it seemed like those two completely forgot her.

”Yes?” Moon Aiko turned towards Mei.

”I will be preparing the Pill for Dai Lu later, would you like to watch?” Mei chuckled seeing the two of them light up like candles.

”I would like to.” They said in unison.

Feifei wasn’t really interested in refining Pills herself, but the process was still fascinating.

Meanwhile, Aiko really liked how Mei looked when she was working, so she naturally wanted to see it again.

”Okay. There will need to be more preparations since I would like to reach the Heavenly Grade, but we will see.” Mei had grand plans, since Heavenly Pill would not only heal Dai Lu, but it would also restore part of her strength and vitality!

Vitality was the most important one, since it would allow her to keep the tails.

If she didn’t have enough vitality, she would just lose those tails again, not because they would be cut off, but because they would just rot away...

Rotting like that was exceptionally painful, so Mei wanted to avoid that kind of path.

”But are you sure it will work?” Moon Aiko was curious if such a Pill truly existed.

”You would be shocked how many miraculous Pills are out there, but the problem is with skill and resources.” Mei sighed softly. She was quite upset that so many Herbs were extinct already, since they were very easy to use and could even enhance the final result of the refining!

”Right...” Moon Aiko knew that Human Cultivators almost never planted Herbs and when they did, it was more for spectacle than practical use.

”We will go through them one day, since one day we will be able to make demands to others.” Mei chuckled looking forward to that.

”We should speed things up. I want to be in that future already.” Moon Aiko wanted to touch and use more precious materials, since it felt like she would be able to ’attain’ something from it.

She was not sure what it would be or when it would be, but she knew that it would be very important to her.

Those were the signs of early Cultivation Path awakening, but since Moon Aiko was so versatile, it would never manifest without the others...