Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The bird lady guided them towards a few openings, but Mei didn’t like any of them, so they settled on a nice plain with a meadow some way away.

The bird lady almost sulked when Mei was so indecisive, so this decision was pushed forward to not upset her too much after what Aiko did to her.

Everyone disembarked for the last time for the time being. They would have to stay here for a while, but this place was... quite peaceful.

”There are no monsters around. We usually used these plains for yummy livestock, but we can’t go so far any more and the livestock died out.” The bird lady explained as she guided them around.

”I believe the right wording would be: We ate them all.” Mei retorted, but she could feel that this place was devoid of any Beasts or animals. Was it because the factions made this into a safety zone that there was no blood in the soil?

That was probably the main reason why there were no Beasts around, since most of them would be looking for two things. One would be fresh blood, since that means the prey is still fresh or somewhat fresh. The second one would be Spirit Stone, since they could lead them to Spirit Stone Mines which would greatly improve Cultivation over time.

Mei nodded her head gently. This place was not too bad, so she was very happy about it.

Moon Aiko also liked this place, it was oddly peaceful, which she never experienced before, but there was another thing that impressed her.

That was the ambient Qi, because this place had the most stable Qi that she ever witnessed. That means that anything from Pill refining to Inscriptions would be exceptionally easy as you would remove one of the reasons why those things sometimes failed.

The plains had a very fresh coat of green, there were some small creeks here and there, which added quite the nice ambience.

There were not too many trees around as these were purely plains. The meadow was some way away, which was perfect. Most Foxes would probably like to live there, since the trees would provide some shade and each tree was spaced just enough that there wouldn’t be an issue with moving things around.

”Just to let you know, but you won’t be able to do anything fancy here.” The bird lady warned them. ”That means no Pill Refining.” She glanced at a particular Fox. ”Or Inscriptions and what not.” She waved her hand gently.

”You want to preserve the natural flow of Qi, right?” Mei understood that feeling because finding a place like this was exceptionally difficult. The natural Qi had a very gentle soothing feeling for both body and mind. So anyone who was hurt or had their Soul damaged, would be able to rest here and recover more naturally with fewer hiccups.

”Yes, especially since we will be injured.” The bird lady nodded her head. ”We still need a place to recuperate, and this place is perfect for that.”

”I couldn’t agree more.” It seemed like Mei was a very good friend considering how smooth their talk was, but looks can be deceiving.

One shouldn’t judge a book by its cover as it can mislead one to their demise.

Moon Aiko helped the Foxes around, since she didn’t want to really do anything. The wood inside the continental flying ships would be used for the housing.

The houses itself didn’t need to be all that big. Just big enough to house their individual needs and storage.

Most Foxes would spend most of their time on these grassy plains as it had a soothing feeling. This would further speed up the recovery of the Foxes who were in the rehabilitation centre before.

With that everything would be covered and Moon Aiko would be able to run around without worrying about them.

It’s also good that the Muscle Foxes are clumsy bastards. They are cute and huggable like big teddies, making them quite well liked with the rehabilitating Foxes.

Bin was especially popular once he wooed his ’wife’.

Moon Aiko nodded her head gently as she stashed her flying boat.

A familiar worm fell out of it, but this time even the worm didn’t protest. It seemed like this place was truly perfect for resting.

Moon Aiko nodded her head. She wanted to share this place with the Demonic Foxes from the Sacred Realm, but she didn’t have enough Demonic Discs for that, not to mention they might have issues if they couldn’t move around.

Moon Aiko decided to recreate this place in the future, for those that need rest.

...

The bird lady waited until everyone was settled down. It didn’t matter if things were delayed for one or two days, as long as this whole deal was finished within a year, so they had enough time to recover even a little bit.

The bird lady walked over. ”Is everything finished? May we start setting up those Movement Arrays?”

”En.” Mei would oversee everything, just in case they tried to pull something foolish.

The whole process was going smoothly. It seemed like they had dedicated Human Stage Beasts that dealt with Runes and everything, since you either needed fingers or agile claws to be able to write them down.

Thanks to those things, Mei was able to observe everything in real time and call them out if they really attempted something that she didn’t like. She didn’t really want to go with Aiko this time, since they were talking about THAT Fire Bird Empress.

Moon Aiko also observed it, since Arrays were still known to her and she had a lot to learn. It also didn’t help that anything to do with space was no-no for her.

”There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it.” Mei nodded her head gently. ”In that case I will wait a bit more before going to rest.”

The journey was peaceful, but also stressful. Everyone had to be on guard, so they didn’t have all that much time to rest, at least the Fox Elders.

Mei noticed that this place was covered with Protective Array, and she also discreetly took control of it, so even if they would fall out with these Beasts, she would still be able to keep this place safe.

Moon Aiko wondered what she would encounter once she stepped on this.

”This leads to my domain. The others are still... hesitant, outside of the Holy Deer, who is currently busy with Relics, so I will be the first one in your care.” The bird lady smiled before stepping on the Array herself and disappearing.

”Be careful, if anything happens just run away.” Mei smiled faintly. Moon Aiko grew up too quickly, so she had many shortcomings, but that also didn’t mean that Mei wanted to change her.

Well, it should be said that she no longer wanted to change Aiko, because most previous attempts failed, so her only purpose was to enjoy life and teach Aiko about Cultivation, so there were no silly mistakes like before.

”I will.” Moon Aiko had a good feeling about this, so she stepped onto the Array and disappeared.

”We really can’t go with her?” Danji came over with the Twins.

”Not for this one. She is a bit... odd.” Mei scratched her head. That bird liked to bathe in lava, so almost everything was covered with it.

Mei would be somewhat fine, since she had her Bloodline to counter it, not to mention she was also of [Sacred Volcanic] species.

”Will she be fine?” Yuxi murmured.

”I think they should be worried, not us.” Mei chuckled, since she could vaguely feel the immeasurable heat emanating from Aiko.

Most of the time it was concealed by something powerful, which was a good thing, since it would be a problem if something happened to Aiko due to it.

”Let’s just wait and see.” Mei was slightly worried that Aiko might be scammed by them, but if that was the case, they could just cut the deal short, making the other Beasts pressure that bird for more rewards.

Everything was thought out by Mei... but even she didn’t expect what Aiko might do.

...

Moon Aiko opened her eyes and scorching heat assaulted her body.

The bird lady covered Aiko with her barrier to protect her from it, but...

’Her energy overpowers my heat energy...?’ The bird lady was confused. She couldn’t figure out how such a weak and tiny Fox was able to generate enough heat to push her back.

”This place is nice~” Moon Aiko felt nice and cosy, since her two energies were more in sync.

Thanks to this unique place which had a ton of fire energy, she was able to stabilise her condition even further, making her even more powerful.

’Now she is growing stronger?!’ The fire bird lady made many funny expressions, which made Aiko laugh out loud.

”What?” The fire bird lady snapped at her for laughing.

”Nothing~” Moon Aiko quite liked this kind of exchange, since she would be able to tease this bird lady even more.

’I wonder why Yanqi was so silent...’ Moon Aiko completely forgot that the bird lady was around, since she didn’t try to squish anyone with her boobs, and now she was wondering if she was fine.

The fire bird lady noticed her strange expression and suggested. ”If you want to go back and check something, you can. Unlike the other Arrays, this one doesn’t consume more just because you use it often.”

”Eh?” Moon Aiko was startled. ”Wouldn’t that be more expensive in the long run?”

”En.” The fire bird lady chuckled. ”But we need to keep you happy if we want to get a good ’treatment’, so this is the least we can do.” She already noticed that this Fox liked straightforwardness, so she wouldn’t hold back.

Everything would be a lot easier if everyone would be just a bit more honest...

”I’m fine for now.” Moon Aiko nodded her head in appreciation. ”I’m impressed you thought so far ahead.”

”It’s not like that. I just treat you how I would wish you would treat me if things were reversed.” The fire bird lady chuckled weakly. It seemed like she spent too much time outside and grew weaker.

”Do you need help?” Moon Aiko was startled when her expression suddenly turned weaker.

”I’m fine. It’s the usual Contract thing, so you don’t have to worry.” The fire bird lady shook her head. She still had her pride, even if it killed her.

The only time she would throw her pride aside, would be when she met someone worthy to serve.

She really was not the ruling type, since it came with too many bothersome things that she didn’t like to do.

”Shouldn’t we speed up?” Moon Aiko finally took in her surroundings, and they were as surreal as one would expect of Beasts.

There were mountains covered with boiling magma, instead of rivers and creeks there was lava flowing freely.

It was startling how much darker it was over here as this place was covered in smoke, clouds and ashes.

The trees were perpetually burning, There was no grass and the only Beasts around were those with Extreme Fire-based Physiques.

”It... might seem depressing, but this place isn’t actually that bad...” The fire bird lady tried to ’advertise’ her land, but she knew how grim it looked on the outside...