Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Mei was still testing the Cauldron, with each experiment she got a better grasp over it and things got even more crazy.

The Pill Refining Chamber was pretty much the arch nemesis of anyone who appreciated skill.

It allows you to refine the lowest grades of Pills without any pressure. You didn’t need to use Divine Sense, you didn’t need to time it, the Pills would form themselves as long as the Herbs were of high purity and well-prepared.

This mightily upset Mei, but there were things even more ridiculous than that.

’No wonder that anyone who inherits this thing is chased over the whole Immortal World.’ Mei’s face scrunched up when she saw the effects.

When one Forged their armour, weapon, or any kind of tool, then you could also imbue it with the effects of the Pills.

The effects would be permanent, albeit weak, but the most ridiculous part was still yet to come.

Everyone knows that if you create a masterpiece, your tool gets blessed by the Auspicious Clouds.

Everyone also knows that if you create a Pill of Heavenly Quality, then it would also get blessed and its effect would greatly increase.

Now is where the ridiculous part comes in.

The tool gets blessed for being a masterpiece, the Pill gets blessed for being of Heavenly Quality, but since it is already mixed with the tool, the tool would get that blessing instead.

That was not a simple 2*2, the amplification was much more powerful!

The effect you would get from something like that would be the same as what you would get from the Pill and the tool would be even able to jump to higher stages!

It was completely ridiculous! As long as the craftsman was good enough, you could be running with a universal antidote Pill around all the time without running out!

What about the Pills that restored Vitality?! Made it happen!

What about Pills that restore severed limbs?! No problem!

What about Pills that restore your Qi?! We got you covered!

Mei was so upset, but it also explained a lot of things.

Some of her enemies were seemingly immortal, but if they got their hands on such a tool or armour, it was not out of the question.

An armour that constantly heals you?

A weapon that constantly poisons with a myriad of different poisons?

A tool that restored your Qi?

Everything would be possible given enough time and materials.

Suddenly, Mei shuddered. She realised that Aiko had this all the time, but thankfully her skills were not good enough to be blessed.

However, once that time came...

”I need vacation...” Mei groaned and accidentally voiced her inner thoughts.

”You can just rest, don’t overwork yourself.” Moon Aiko patted her back gently.

”I’m fine.” Mei pursed her lips. She was in such a bad position that she was now speaking her mind?! That can’t be happening!

”You should rest.” Moon Aiko said seriously and convinced Mei to sit down and rest.

”You know that you have the craziest things, right?” Mei stared at her blankly, but it was obvious she was intimidated by Aiko’s means to acquire such powerful objects.

”Yeah, but they are all nice and fine as long as we can use them.” Moon Aiko didn’t need to conceal things from Mei, since she now knew that it wouldn’t hurt her.

She could give her all the resources that she could get from the system until Mei was satisfied~!

”You are making quite the scary face.” Mei commented before sighing.

Moon Aiko ignored Mei’s words and handed over a piece of paper. ”What do you think about this?”

On it, there was an elaborate schematic about flying ships and the [The Ever Shaping Cauldron].

When Mei looked over it, she quickly realised that that Cauldron was very familiar.

Looking over the Cauldron that she created with clay-dirt, she was touched that Moon Aiko used it in her plans.

”Why are there five of them? They barely fit...” Mei narrowed her eyes. It was obvious Aiko was overdoing it, but for some reason this time Mei didn’t mind it.

”One is for Pills, two for purifying and two for smelting.” Moon Aiko gestured while counting on her fingers.

”Why the Pill one?” Mei tilted her head. She couldn’t quite understand what Aiko was hinting at.

She did understand the others’ thoughts. The double purifier was probably to make the metals extra pure and thus even easier to store.

The smelting one was obvious because it took most of the time.

”So that they can get enhancing Pills that would help them with the digging.” Moon Aiko gestured, like she already planned this.

”These Arrays won’t work. The flying ship wouldn’t allow it.” Mei corrected Aiko, since it seemed like she had the wrong assumption about Arrays.

”Huh? But it should be fine?” Moon Aiko knew that this should work, so why wouldn’t it?

”No, it would definitely work. On the ground.” Mei chuckled, patting Aiko. ”Once you are in the sky, most elements can’t be used and the balance changes every moment.

”Is that why most things are done with Inscriptions, while only some things with Arrays?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. She thought that would make sense, but then why include Arrays when you could just have Inscriptions?

”You need to understand how those interact.” Mei smiled softly. ”First one would be Inscriptions. You can imagine them as logic based bricks from which you build your elaborate house.”

”Depending on your skill, that house can be placed anywhere with a little bit of tweaking and enough surface space.” Mei doodled a cute picture of a house and other parts that were purely based on logic.

”That does make sense.” That was probably why Moon Aiko liked it the most. If you have the knowledge, you could just build anything you want.

Of course, it had demerits, but what didn’t have one?

”Meanwhile, Arrays are very different. They are like rivers. As long as you don’t stir them too much or speed them too much, then they will work as long as you supply the ’water’.” Mei licked her lips. ”In some cases you can even use the Dragon Veins, but it’s still better to use them to produce Spirit Stones.” She shook her head softly.

”But can’t you affect the rivers?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”And what would happen if you tried to restrict the river too much?” Mei chuckled.

”Ah, it would just find a way to screw you over.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”...” Mei blinked a few times, clearly not expecting that kind of answer. ”That’s one way to put it.”

”Then how about Formations?” Moon Aiko was curious how Mei would describe that one.

”Formations are pretty much trying to take those rivers and forcibly making them do your bidding. For a limited time they are very powerful, but the longer it goes on...” Mei trailed her words, but it was obvious what she was trying to say.

”It feels like this whole thing was once a single thing. Then someone got disgruntled and said: Nuh-uh, mine is better! And branched out.” Moon Aiko scrunched her pretty face. She was convinced that they were once the same thing, considering the Runes used were also the same, with just slightly altered meanings.

”That is difficult to say.” Mei shook her head.

Nobody knew if the whole thing was once a single thing. Most monsters didn’t live long enough to tell the tale, so it was difficult to find any kind of concrete evidence.

”It must be pretty old if even you don’t know anything about it.” Moon Aiko was surprised that there was something that Mei didn’t know.

”I would prefer it if you spared me.” Mei obviously didn’t like talking about age, since this was her second life.

”Eh.” Moon Aiko shrugged, teasing Mei further.

”Rascal!” Mei ruffled Aiko’s hair before turning towards her blueprint.

”Since you are more proficient with Inscriptions. It’s better if you slap those on the chains and ignore the Arrays. They need the Array Core, while Inscriptions just need ink.” Mei explained.

”But wouldn’t those chains become vulnerability that can easily take down the whole structure?” It would be a mess if Moon Aiko spent so much time on it, only for a Cultivator to pass and cut those chains.

”We can reinforce them further by faintly connecting them.” Mei suggested, since she was familiar with such techniques.

”But that wouldn’t really decrease the vulnerability.” Moon Aiko shook her head. She believed it would be better to suspend with Arrays rather than Inscriptions.

”You are underestimating what you achieved.” Mei chuckled. ”Your Inscriptions are on another level, so have some more pride and work on it more.”

”Fine.” Moon Aiko pouted at her. She was slightly dissatisfied since she had more to offer than just Inscriptions.

”It’s a temporary thing.” Mei soothed her again, since she knew this might be hard on Aiko.

”I know I can add them later, but it just feels cheap...” Moon Aiko pursed her lips.

”You need to study and research more for you to be able to complete it.” Mei shook her head again.

”I know. I just honestly don’t want to sink so much time into it.” It was enough that Moon Aiko’s toys took so much time to create, so she was trying to take it easy for a while.

”Eh.” Mei shrugged, not saying more and just observing the blueprints.

”The insides are quite empty...” Mei looked over at her, playing with the molten metals.

”Maximum storage~!” Moon Aiko gave her thumbs up.

”It’s pretty much a skeleton with nothing inside...” Mei questioned if she really saw that correctly.

”Yeah, isn’t it better to have more storage? We can even reinforce the hull so that others couldn’t steal it all that easily.” Moon Aiko explained her reasoning.

”But it’s too much storage, and where will you house your workers?” Mei shook her head. With this Aiko would look like a slave trader instead of a genuine one.

”Hey!” Moon Aiko pouted. ”Are you forgetting that there are two of them?”

”Oh? So you intend to have one as purely accommodation, while the other one as purely storage?” Mei raised her eyebrows. She kind of understood where Aiko was going with this, but...

”It’s not just about that. Specialised accommodation doesn’t mix well with storage.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

The reason being was that space expansion worked very differently with living beings instead of just ore, so it was better to do it like this.

Well, the blueprint could always be adjusted once she learned even more about Runes, but for now, this would do...