Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”This is a horrible place.” Feifei shook her head, like she wanted to get back into Aiko’s tails for safety.

”You have her.” Witch Aiko raised her eyebrow as she pointed at Yuqi.

”Yeah! And she found them cute!” Feifei vigorously shook her head, like she didn’t want to imagine what horrors Yuqi liked.

”Hey! It’s not like that...!” Yuqi sobbed close to her ear, but it had no effect on Feifei.

”That won’t work on me.” Feifei rolled her eyes. She was already used to Yuqi, so she knew that she was just fooling around and didn’t mean it seriously.

”Alright.” Witch Aiko clapped her hands. ”If you feel like you won’t be able to bear it, I will stuff both of you inside and get out of this place.” She believed that she already got enough loot for this place to just leave it for later.

The group conversed for a while, but eventually Feifei was convinced to stay outside for a bit.

Yuqi led the group, since she was able to ’spot’ the differences in Qi over some distance, which made navigation a lot easier.

These flower plains were too odd to be called natural, but they also couldn’t be called an illusion, since no matter what Witch Aiko did, she could not see through it.

However, she also made a discovery.

Those walking flowers with faces, did not have a brain, or rather intelligence.

Her [Intention Perception] was not able to pick up anything out of them. No hostility, no desire, nothing. They just ’existed’.

It kind of felt like they were puppets controlled by some strings, but that also had a problem. Those walking flowers did not have Soul inside them. There was also no Qi connected to their body, but their bodies did have a bit of Qi inside.

It felt like the Qi inside their bodies was ’just enough’ to finish their orders and then just cease to exist.

However, as their current group was too unpredictable, the Qi was slowly rising.

Not that it would matter to them, since even with that much Qi they wouldn’t be able to approach Yuqi without being obliterated by her ’decay’.

”Hmmmm...” Yuqi was groaning.

”What?” Witch Aiko didn’t want even more bad news, so she was hoping this was nothing too serious.

”Look to that side.” Yuqi pointed to the left and everyone followed with their eyes.

And everyone was also startled by what they saw.

There were flowers coming after them as if they were immune to what Yuqi was doing.

”Wait, rocks?” Witch Aiko noticed that parts of their bodies were filled with rocks, especially parts that were touching the ground and then their hands which were used for grappling.

”It seems like they adapted against me.” Yuqi frowned. While she could still annihilate them, it would require a lot more energy and concentration. Things she would rather not spend on this situation.

”Alright.” Witch Aiko pulled up her sleeve, once again vowing to shorten it or make it so she can roll it up. ”Leave it to me.” She pulled out another hammer out of her tails and was ready to get hammering.

Since nobody was around to scold her, Witch Aiko started to spin like a spinning top, obliterating anything that got within her striking radius.

”You know...” Witch Aiko thought about something.

”What are you up to this time?” Yuqi made a root pillar that protected her from those walking flowers with faces.

”You wouldn’t mind if I tested something, right?” Witch Aiko wanted Yuqi to get ’healthy’ again, since she wanted to try something.

”What? Do you intend to spin even faster?” Yuqi just stared at Aiko who was doing whatever she wanted.

”That’s... not a bad idea.” Witch Aiko briefly considered it, but then she dropped that idea.

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”Alright, alright.” Yuqi waved her hand in front of her face. She would rather Witch Aiko try something normal than something this crazy.

Spidey was also on the root pillar, but he was throwing the Blood Stones at them without mercy and some even hit Aiko’s hammer, which sent a lot of shrapnel all around.

”What do you want?” Yuqi asked Aiko to make sure the next plan is not crazier than what she is currently doing.

”I would like to drain this place completely, including the flowers and Blood Stone Mine.” Witch Aiko smirked. If Yuqi could do it, why couldn’t her little seedling do the same~?

”You are thinking of something crazy, huh...” Yuqi sighed, shaking her head.

”Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Witch Aiko felt offended considering Yuqi’s inclinations.

”Yeah, yeah.” Yuqi withdrew her ’aura’ and many more walking flowers suddenly appeared.

”Fueh-!” Witch Aiko was startled by the sheer scale of things.

She pulled out her [Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling]- Well, uprooted it, before setting it down in this place.

But she also didn’t end there. In order to nourish something as outrageous as this, she needed a lot of resources.

And what better way to do that than this~!

[You have gained the consent of the individual ’-’. Do you wish to Contract it? (1/2)]

Witch Aiko clicked yes, but then she also added a few drops of her nourished blood onto the seedling.

However, as the seedling was partially an Elemental Spirit, the rules were a bit... outrageous.

Witch Aiko fed the seedling 23 million of her Vitality, rousing it awake.

The seedling creaked as it bloomed into a few green leaves.

Its root system was more impressive than the actual seedling, but that was beside the point.

The seedling tasted delicious Vitality and its roots were able to encompass everything in this place. (A lie.)

The seedling noticed something approaching and its roots suddenly burst out of the ground and wrapped around those walking flowers.

They were all restrained and decayed much more quickly than what Yuqi achieved.

”W-what is that?” Yuqi was shuddering like her life depended on it.

”My little seedling?” Witch Aiko titled her head.

”How can you call that abomi-” Yuqi felt a headache rising inside her mind. It was inevitable at this point since Aiko did not understand the physiology of flowers, much less that of trees.

That seedling had so many conflicting elements that it was a miracle it was still alive, but that miracle was enough to make it into a complete monster.

Even Yuqi at her current stage was threatened by it, but it was fortunately friendly to her.

Witch Aiko stopped spinning since there was no longer any need to do that.

[You have cracked the location.]

[The Endless Flower Field (Heavenly Sacred Realm)]

’Hm? Something new.’ Witch Aiko touched the system message to see what it was about.

[The Endless Flower Field (Heavenly Sacred Realm)]

[Description: A lost Realm that was created by the definitely-not-a-Holy Deer in an attempt to get rid of a curse that he himself drew upon himself. As this is a vast Realm, much more than Sacred Realm, it’s considered Heavenly Sacred Realm, albeit incomplete.]

This description was far from enough, but it was good enough to give her a general idea about this place.

This place was created by that decaying corpse trying to probably prevent the decay.

As this was a Heavenly Sacred Realm, the ’shift’ was not noticeable compared to the Sacred Realm or like any other Realm.

As such, she was really in a different place altogether which means that Mei would be panicking right about now.

’Yeeeeeah, might want to speed up things before Mei wrecks everything.’ Witch Aiko nodded her head repeatedly like that would be a disaster.

However, there was something more important that she had to watch out for.

[[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling] is spreading its roots into all directions]

[[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling] is now connected to the Blood Stone Mine (Low)]

[[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling] is consuming the curses around.]

[[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling is consuming the flora.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[...]

She got one message after another as the little seedling was connecting and consuming everything.

However, one message stuck out to her.

[[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling] is nourishing its Soul.]

This meant that the seed was slowly becoming alive!

’I wonder if her personality changed.’ Witch Aiko still held a grudge for the pain the seed inflicted on her just because she accidentally swallowed it!

’...’

Witch Aiko could feel vague thoughts out of the seedling, since they were now connected together.

She kept observing it as it slowly grew taller and taller.

”You know that I will stick you back into the Moon, right?” Witch Aiko raised her eyebrow once she saw that sapling was bigger than the hole she previously created.

The seedling visibly twitched, as if it understood her words. It stopped growing, but its roots were getting more and more outrageous as they kept spreading and spreading.

The formerly known Blood Stone Mine crumbled, and the whole thing collapsed creating a crater.

The flowers were completely drained for their nourishment as the roots gently glowed from that energy.

This whole place was full of energy, but it could not match the appetite of the tiny glutton.

[The Heavenly Sacred realm is attempting to banish you from this place.]

[All attempts are unsuccessful.]

And it was obvious why. The seedling was previously made to create vast lands, like what they were in right now. Paired it with the comprehension tree and blood tree’s vitality, and you have a recipe for a monstrous tree!

’No wonder it’s now called the Tree Demon.’ Witch Aiko was curious what changes it would have once it was finished growing, but even those roots were too numerous to keep around...

However, the next moment, a lot of those roots suddenly died out, especially in places where there were no nutrients.

”Are you alright?” Witch Aiko patted the seedling, since she was worried it got sick.

The seedling waved its leaves at Aiko, as if trying to reassure her that everything was fine.

Witch Aiko narrowed her eyes and asked the system for help on this, since she was completely lost on what she was supposed to do...