Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Their wooden sticks met in the air, but Aiko’s stick was obliterated once again.

”Why is your stick so much harder? I control my energy perfectly to reinforce it, but I still can’t match you.” Moon Aiko pouted at Mei.

”That is because I have more experience. The whole stick is not even, the energy applied can’t be even either. This is the most basic Qi adjustment you can experience without harming yourself.” Mei explained her reasoning, but as one might expect, Aiko has her own head.

”But...” Moon Aiko didn’t believe that she couldn’t make up the difference with her ’slowed’ down ’world’.

”It’s not that simple. With each impact we challenge each other’s energies, making them clash violently. Unless you can also adjust the rebound, your ’weapon’ will suffer compared to your enemies.” Mei shook her head. When it came to battle of weapons there was a lot more to watch out then one might expect.

”Rebound, huh...” Moon Aiko did notice her energy ripple, but she didn’t think much of it.

Turns out that was quite the deadly ignorance, so she would have to be more careful moving forward!

Moon Aiko adjusted her mindset and tried to restrain the ripples as much as possible...

...

’It broke again...’ Moon Aiko stared at her shattered wooden stick.

”Now you have a different issue.” Mei was patient, since Moon Aiko was a quick learner.

Sure, you could skip these steps by giving her all the answers, but that would coddle her too much.

Moon Aiko needed more independent thinking and problem-solving skills and this would challenge her mind to work a lot more than if she were to give her the answers.

”I feel like you are bullying me.” Moon Aiko pouted at her.

*cough*

Mei awkwardly coughed. She might be a bit tougher on her, since Aiko threatened her with bedtime...

”The issue is the same you had with your soles.” Mei smiled awkwardly. She saw Aiko’s accusing gaze, but she couldn’t really run away this time.

The world was dangerous out there, especially since another ’Delegation’ was on its way.

”I put too much thought into making it perfect?” Moon Aiko couldn’t understand it.

”This stick is still a living thing, unlike metal, so you have to approach it with that in mind.” Mei chuckled. ”But even with metal you have to get used to the structure, so don’t underestimate the difficulty!” She warned her about that part, since she didn’t want to see Aiko discouraged.

”I see, since there are too many bends, the impact has nowhere to go and it shatters from within.” Moon Aiko inspected it.

At first her issue was the strain on one part from not using energy properly, but this time she used so perfectly that her energy introduced microfractures that caused the stick to fail.

”Hmmmm...” It was hard to adjust her energy since every branch was very different, making things difficult for her.

However, the living are easier to manipulate, since they naturally absorb Qi as they live.

The only adjustment that one needs to make is more in tune of: Inject energy in such a way that it wouldn’t damage the internal structure of the object and maintain that energy so it won’t shatter from impact.

’But I think we can take this further...’ Moon Aiko believed that further adjusting the energy inside the stick might introduce unexpected gains.

”Let’s try this again.” Moon Aiko was already skilled with injecting things, from her Inscriptions, but she would have to put it slightly differently.

First, inject the wood slowly with energy, that way the stick gets used to it without breaking.

The second was to introduce enough energy to fill the whole ’container’.

The third would be to make it full and at the same time empty enough, so that if energy ripples through it, the energy inside would just disperse it through the ’container’!

’Oho?’ Mei noticed that subtle change and was impressed by what Aiko was trying to do.

However, this kind of thing wouldn’t work in this situation, so it was already predetermined that Aiko would lose.

*Shatter*

Even when Mei knew it would shatter, she still worried about Aiko.

That was because this time it shattered into uncountable splinters!

”Are you alright?” Mei stepped closer to look if Aiko had any injuries.

”I was just surprised. I didn’t expect it to shatter like that...” Moon Aiko groaned, so far her ideas were far from ideal, but this situation perfectly portrayed the difference in experience.

”This would work better with metal, since the ’damage’ I would inflict would be negligible, but we are still talking about living things, so you have to approach it differently.” Mei smiled gently. She would let Aiko explore this until she asked for answers.

And when she did, Mei would only give enough so that Aiko understood the reason behind it, but not the whole story.

That way Aiko still had to figure out the proper way to do this!

”Because metal has a more solid structure.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

If you tried to ’peel’ metal that would be extremely difficult, but it was very easy to peel wood. This difference is what was bothering her.

She was unable to figure out the counter behind it.

”Hmmmm...” Moon Aiko thought differently.

”That’s not a good idea.” However, Mei immediately stopped her.

”It was interesting to see you try to offset the energy into your body, but if we were talking about Sword Intent, then that intent would invade your body and damage it.” Mei shook her head. ”The intent would then stop your healing capabilities, pretty much crippling you in the battle, so you can’t use this.”

”Oh.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She didn’t consider that part since she could consume most energies, but since she never went against Sword Intent, she was quite oblivious to its effects.

”I have no idea then.” Moon Aiko sighed. She was quite unhappy that this assignment was so difficult to solve!

”Haven’t you played with vibrations before?” Mei chuckled. She would give her a hint and that should be enough to push her forward.

”Vibrations?” Moon Aiko was confused.

”Let’s fight.” Mei smiled. She would just give a few more hints. It was definitely not to placate Aiko so that she would go easy on her in bed!

”Okay.” Moon Aiko knew that Mei meant well, so she would focus on observing everything!

Their sticks clashed and neither of them were repelled. They both were using the ’rooting’ technique to not get blasted away.

With a few exchanges, Aiko noticed something subtle.

’The response in my arms is getting slower?’ She frowned and observed her hands more attentively.

’The stick shakes?’ Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow. Could this be what Mei talked about?

”You are correct.” Mei giggled. She noticed that Aiko was very close to the answer, so she would answer the question now.

”The vibration uses the natural elasticity of the wood without damaging it as much.” Mei smiled. She was happy that Aiko figured it out.

”So I should use the energy to assist the natural movement of the wood.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”Well, at least for this wood.” Mei scratched her cheek. She didn’t want to give Aiko the wrong idea about this.

”Believe it or not, but I’m very good at biting.” Moon Aiko said seriously as she stared blankly at Mei. ”And believe it or not, but the bed is not far from here.”

”Okay, okay.” Mei immediately waved the white flag. She was no match for bedroom Aiko, so she would naturally not tease her too much!

”Hmph.” Moon Aiko snorted unhappily, but the gains were nice.

She obtained just enough information that she was able to figure out her next toy. Coincidentally that toy also had the tag ’Mei’ on it!

”Let’s fight!” Moon Aiko chuckled, sending shivers down Mei’s back.

”I’m nice. I’m really nice.” Mei nodded her head seriously. She didn’t want to admit that Aiko was plotting something.

Their sticks met once again, but this time the situation changed greatly.

30 strikes, 60 strikes, 200 strikes. Normally those wooden sticks would already shatter, but they were holding on for a long time, surprising even Mei.

”You are adjusting it well for the time being, but you will have to improve your consumption of energy.” Mei warned Aiko, since some Cultivators might be willing to sacrifice the durability of their equipment in order to consume less Qi.

”Why?” Moon Aiko posed the question as she tried to slash Mei’s side.

”Because some might consider weapons as tools.” Mei chuckled. Her stick already had cracks, but she only consumed a 3rd of the energy that Aiko did.

”I see, you consumed less energy at the expense of your weapon.” Moon Aiko was now catching up with the knowledge, so it was easier to understand what Mei meant.

”You are correct.” Mei smiled. ”Usually, Rogue Cultivators will keep several weapons in order to save Qi. You never know what might ambush you, so it’s better to have more Qi, which is harder to recover, as your main tool of escape.”

”That’s pretty advanced stuff.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. This had a lot more depth than she expected.

”But I still don’t like using swords.” Moon Aiko admitted openly, since she didn’t like going up close and personal.

”You can’t always avoid fighting face to face, so it’s good to understand the knowledge and intent behind it.” Mei patted Aiko gently, soothing her.

”Because of the rare instance like the Sword Intent?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”You are correct. If you were unaware it could do that, you would be in danger.” Mei was happy that Aiko had a normal head on her shoulders and not like the vast majority of brainless Cultivators!

”Hehe~” Moon Aiko giggled. This time she didn’t mind getting patted since she was genuinely praised.

”But you still have a long way to go. We will cover even more topics.” Mei licked her lips.

”That’s it, I will absolutely bite you!” Moon Aiko immediately chased after Mei, making her laugh happily...