Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Leaving the mines, there were no more destinations other than towards the Fire Bird Clan. Moon Aiko also quickly lost interest in these places, since everything was very dull.

She quite admired the bird lady, for being able to live in such a dull place. Moon Aiko imagined that most Human Cultivators would already go mad over here.

The main entrance to the Fire Bird Clan were huge glass-like doors.

”They are pretty fragile, but beautiful. It’s very hard to make anything out of this stuff as it likes to break in the most inconvenient places.” The bird lady introduced one of her prides.

”But shouldn’t doors keep others away from what’s inside?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”I mean, if anyone can survive out there, then they will definitely lose patience. And when they do, they will beat this door.” The bird lady said proudly, like she didn’t like her own door.

”Is it loud then?” Moon Aiko couldn’t understand why make something so difficult, other than annoying your opponents... Well, that was probably the best use for doors.

”Staggeringly loud.” The bird lady grinned. ”But it was never used.” She shook her head like she was upset about it.

”You have strange quirks...” Moon Aiko blinked a few times at her before trying to open the door.

”...” Moon Aiko squinted her eyes. ’Why is it so damn heavy?!’

The bird lady pushed those huge doors open quite easily, making Aiko wonder just how powerful she was.

Stepping inside, it was even hotter than outside. It seemed like those doors weren’t just supposed to be pretty, but also hold back the heat.

Looking back at those huge dark doors, the insides were not as well decorated as outside, quite the opposite, actually. The inside felt like it was barely holding together and would melt at moment notice.

Moon Aiko was quite impressed that the doors didn’t already melt.

The floor was made out of something that looked similar to marble. It was black with white streak going through it, but looking closely, it felt like those streaks pulsated every so often. It couldn’t be said that it was alive, but it felt that way looking at it closely.

”These white lines cool the important facilities and structures, so they wouldn’t melt immediately.” The bird lady gestured and whenever she would touch it, it would change its colour to black.

”Whoa.” Moon Aiko always liked when something changed colour based on the heat it would receive, or, well, any kind of external stimuli.

Nodding her head gently, she looked at the walls. They were made out of probably the same material, but most of those walls were white, with black streaks running through them.

The ceiling was similarly coloured to the walls. The only difference between these 3 different parts was that the floor was very shiny, so much that if Moon Aiko squinted hard enough, she would be able to see her own silhouette!

”The main hallway is very simple, since we expect the intruders to rage a lot.” The bird lady guided Aiko further inside.

”You would be an excellent rage baiter.” Moon Aiko was impressed by this ingenuity and would definitely apply it to her future projects.

”Ahem...” The bird lady didn’t really like those nicknames, since all she was doing was protecting her lair.

There were no rooms going through this hallway. No fancy paintings or armour stands, nothing. Just a black and white hallway, with very minimal decoration, due to the heat.

’It seems like this bird lady is pretty minimalistic...’ Moon Aiko was not surprised by this, considering the heat was still rising as they went deeper inside.

Considering that, it was very unlikely that most materials would survive in this environment. At best, they would melt, but at worst they would turn into ashes and nothing would be left of it.

As one might expect, this posed quite the challenges. If even the most basic furniture melted, then how about the food and beds? Moon Aiko was very curious how this lady would deal with it.

...

Deeper inside, they met with completely white doors, but it was obvious that they were holding back immense heat.

”If you won’t feel fine, just go into the hallway and I will guide you to secret quarters.” The bird lady gestured, since the place behind these doors was so hot that pretty much nothing would be able to survive.

Moon Aiko’s hair was slowly changing colour, the more she approached the door. It was not like Sun Aiko would pop out, or at least not yet. Something... was resonating with her Bloodline.

The bird lady beckoned the little Fox to not stand directly in front of the doors. Even she had to be careful when opening her doors, so that her body wouldn’t be shocked by the heat.

Opening the white doors slowly, the heat immediately blasted past them, heating up the hallway further.

The bird lady waited for a few moments before she approached the doors cautiously, slowly adjusting her body to the heat.

Moon Aiko followed her, but what interested her the most was-

[Solar Essence: 0%->1%->2%->3%->4%]

[Your Bloodline is being nurtured.]

[Your Bloodline is being challenged.]

[There is an attempt to exterminate your Bloodline, but it is being blocked by another Bloodline.]

[Your Elemental Affinity is being strengthened.]

[There is a miniscule chance to learn about laws in this place.]

[Your [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] is slowly melting.]

[Your [Immortal Heat Devouring Bracelet+] is resonating strongly.]

[Your [Divine Solar Physique] is being nurtured.]

...

...

...

It went on and on, making Aiko speechless. Especially since the Solar Essence was pretty much speechless.

There was a point to be made about this place. And it was that this was priceless treasure to anything and anyone fire related.

Moon Aiko slowly followed the bird lady. Since the system didn’t say that this was a dangerous place, she would go inside. She also already set up the [Jaws of ####], so if anything happened she would just let herself be swallowed.

Moon Aiko stepped inside, the scorching heat caressed her body, but as expected, her clothes didn’t last long.

”Here.” The bird lady didn’t even turn around to know what happened, so she already offered a simple dress.

The reason she didn’t offer more clothes was because... well, she was a head bigger compared to the Fox, so most clothing would be simply too small for her...

”Thank you.” Moon Aiko believed she would be able to protect her clothes with her energy, but that seemed like it failed.

She really did believe though...

”This place doesn’t accept anything that isn’t weaved by Fire Qi Silk. As such only a handful of things can survive here.” The fire bird lady completely forgot to remind the Fox about this, but alas. She pretty much never had any visitors and her family didn’t really count.

Moon Aiko was curious about the Fire Qi Silk. How did it compare to her Spider Silk? Would it have similar properties or did it only have extreme fire resilience?

Moon Aiko couldn’t see far inside, because of the blinding light. She should’ve purchased more advanced vision related skills, but she never expected this kind of situation.

Once she returned from this place, she would definitely buy some!

The fire bird lady guided her around. The middle was her Treasure that she was barely able to refine. It was no stretch to say that she offered her life in order to do that.

The first room was the kitchen. It was much cooler than even the hallway.

”This place has it all. From Arrays to Inscriptions to Natural Formations. Anything that would allow me to keep the heat in check.” The bird lady was proud of this, even if she didn’t need to eat.

It was a very simple kitchen, but this time there was actually wooden furniture and other things. However, most were made out of that same stone that was used on the floor- pretty much everything.

There were fruit baskets, some hanging meat, garlic and so on. Pretty much how a very normal kitchen would look like!

However, Moon Aiko was more impressed by something else... Runes.

Moon Aiko was mesmerised by this craftsmanship, since it was on par with Chen Shi. Even she saw some unique ways to utilise the Runes that she didn’t know before.

”I know you are interested in Runes, but first allow me to guide you around first.” The bird lady turned overly polite, since this was pretty much the first time someone was able to walk in the inner chambers without violently combusting, leaving nothing behind.

”Sure.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She was curious about the other places.

The next room she was shown was the bath, a huge one at that. Pretty much the whole room was one huge bath, with everything you might require.

”We don’t really need to heat the water since we have a heater right behind us, but most of us enjoy a somewhat cold bath.” The bird lady pursed her lips. She was so nervous when the Fox scrutinised everything.

”Geez, I wonder why.” Moon Aiko chuckled. She would also love a colder bath, if she had to live in such extreme heat.

The bird lady breathed a sigh of relief before spinning around and guided the Fox to another room.

This was the living room and-

”M-Mom?!” A familiar bird was- Ahem.

She immediately covered herself. ”W-Why are you here?”

The bird lady rolled her eyes. ”I already told you that we will have visitors.”

”There is no way that the visitor would survive here!” The bird daughter retorted immediately, because she was embarrassed about her current appearance.

”Does everyone have to-” Moon Aiko immediately asked about this.

”No, the heat will bother you, so once you take a nice bath you usually want to... loosen up.” The bird lady was a bit upset that her daughter was doing it in the living room...

The bird daughter ran away.

”I always wondered, but is everyone on such a high stage that they can have the Human Body Stage?” Moon Aiko was curious about that part.

”It’s not that common, but wealthy individuals can ’cheat’ that stage a bit, so you can get something similar to what Foxes have, but with more side effects.

”That’s impressive.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously. There was so much that she didn’t know that she was now more curious about this place than about fulfilling the actual deal...