Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

*sluuuuuuuuuurp*

”This is quite amazing...” Yuqi laughed awkwardly as she watched the small seedling slurp every possible nutrient in this place.

”I wonder where it learned that...” Witch Aiko pondered near them, since the seedling was doing well enough alone.

Both Feifei and Yuqi stared at her like it was the most obvious thing under the sky.

”What?” Witch Aiko felt hurt when she saw them looking at her like that. ”It’s not like I consume everything in my path.” She pouted like she was really offended.

”That’s true.” Both of them slowly nodded their heads. ”You will only take things that are precious.” That was the most Aiko-like thing that could happen.

”Oi.” Witch Aiko felt like they were picking on her on purpose.

”It seems the seedling cleared this area.” Yuqi immediately changed the topic since she didn’t want to get on her bad side.

”Hm...” Witch Aiko jumped down and approached what was clearly a sapling and not a seedling.

[Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling (Ranking: ???)(Tree Demon)(Progress: 12%)]

’Yeah, no. How is this still seedling and only 12% filled up for the sapling stage???’ Witch Aiko felt like this was the biggest glutton yet and that was only because she contracted it.

’My future finances seem bleak.’ Witch Aiko seriously nodded her head. It seemed like she would have to expand her business further than she planned until she sated those little rascals.

’Let’s not mention the Beast that Dai Lu was carrying. I have a really bad feeling about that one.’ Witch Aiko pinched her nose bridge.

She gently tugged on the ’seedling’ until she was able to uproot it without resistance.

”It’s... incredible that it allows you to just take it with you like this.” Yuqi was flabbergasted since even she would be unwilling to be carried like this.

”Is that a bad thing?” Witch Aiko was confused why this was abnormal. How was she supposed to carry the ’seedling’ around otherwise?

”... You know what? Just do your thing. I feel like if you keep going like this, the Immortal World will have a word with you even before you ascend.” Yuqi shrugged like this was no longer her problem.

”Why would they do that? It’s not like I killed them.” Witch Aiko shrugged.

Feifei silently watched since she remembered a certain ’invasion’ inside the Secret Realm and wondered if Aiko was really unaware of it or if she was just trolling Yuqi.

”Knowing you, you probably did and didn’t even notice.” Yuqi sighed. Trying to reason with this being was useless. You were better off to be a spectator in this situation as you could just turn your brain off and watch the disaster unfold in real time.

Witch Aiko rolled her eyes. ”Whatever, let’s move.”

The ’seedling’ suddenly pointed in a certain direction.

”...” Everyone was speechless how greedy this little thing was.

”I feel like I will go bankrupt even before leaving this place.” Witch Aiko couldn’t help but voice her inner thoughts.

”And here I thought you didn’t care about it.” Yuqi chuckled. At least some parts were the same for everyone, but Aiko had serious issues when it came to common sense.

’No, maybe that’s for the better.’ Yuqi would no longer engage with Aiko’s insanity and would just watch from the sidelines.

...

The group walked towards the general direction where the ’seedling’ was pointing them to.

There were no longer any walking flowers around, since pretty much this whole area was drained out of every useful resource, letting it rot like it was not its business.

Witch Aiko was a bit speechless and concerned since it seemed like the ’seedling’ had an increased effect on its surroundings the longer it did this.

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However, without that she would already go bankrupt, so maybe it was a good thing? Protection, nourishing, growing, everything at the same time didn’t sound like too bad of a deal.

’However, if the seedling does this later when we are out of this place, things might get troublesome...’ Witch Aiko shook her head, she was very concerned about that part, but it would be difficult to change.

She didn’t really want to restrict its growth, but if necessary she would have to lock it inside the Moon until she had more time for it.

She had to do a lot of digging and many other things, but she was alone for it, so it would have to wait for later.

Witch Aiko slowly nodded her head as she set up the ’seedling’ on the ground to let it feed again. She could also see those hateful walking flowers running towards them, so that was another reason for her to set it down.

Witch Aiko also noticed something very obvious, or rather the system was trying to hint at something.

The main reason she believed that was the case, was the overly jarring arrow pointing into a certain direction.

This had never happened so it had to be something good, but looking at it closely, it was the same direction where the ’seedling’ always refused to go into.

’I wonder what I will find there.’ Considering how obvious the system was, it must be something that she couldn’t do without.

’I will just walk towards it later.’ Witch Aiko nodded her head. Maybe it had to do something with the place trying to kick her out, but she would never know until she encountered it.

”What is in that direction?” Witch Aiko nudged Yuqi, since she was able to estimate the Qi in the given directions, maybe she would be able to tell her what was there.

”I have no idea.” Yuqi shook her head. The main reason being that there was just ’nothing’ in the truest sense.

There was some Qi, but it was nothing to speak of. It felt more like a dead-zone than anything else.

”There was simply nothing there for what I can tell.” Yuqi carefully explained to Aiko since it seemed like she wanted to go there.

”Hmmmmm...” The system would definitely not lie to her right now, so there must be something that doesn’t have Qi or what Yuqi can’t find.

Either way, it must be something good that she could use~!

...

A day later, the ’seedling’ was finished with its business. It now had 17% progress towards sapling, but it was difficult to say if the progress was slow or fast.

It was simple. This place no longer held as much Qi and nourishment as before. This in turn meant that the ’seedling’ might be taking its time to extract the nourishment from the walking flowers.

”They are not really powerful.” Yuqi explained that while those walking flowers were uncanny, they were not powerful enough to threaten them.

The only major danger would be getting surrounded and buried alive.

Well, even if they were buried alive, there were still ways to get out, but that was beside the point.

They walked slowly towards the direction where the ’arrow’ was pointing them. It also didn’t seem like the others could see it, so Aiko was probably the only one who was able to see the arrow.

That was good, since it would be troublesome explaining everything about the system and what it was doing.

She also didn’t have enough knowledge about the system, so it was not wise trying to explain it to others.

Well, Mei and others were fine, since they were part of the team, but Yuqi was kind of all over the place, so it was better to not mention it for the time being.

The ’road’ towards the place where Aiko had to go, was quite rough. As you might expect, there were no real roads and all that greeted them were ugly faces on flowers that were trying to chase after them or just suddenly pop up like it was the most natural thing.

At some point Yuqi was hesitant to follow so Witch Aiko discussed it with her.

”I just don’t like the energy, no, not even that. There is simply something wrong with that place.” Yuqi shook her head.

Feifei didn’t really feel strange or rather she didn’t feel anything and the same was Aiko. If the system didn’t point her into that direction she would be no wiser.

Shaking her head gently, there was only one way to figure out what was wrong with that place, and she would do just that.

...

They kept walking towards that direction, but over time it was more and more obvious that that place was odd.

There were no longer any walking flowers around. The flower field also slowly turned more and more barren, and it was not the fault of Yuqi or her ’seedling’.

It was obvious that this place was iffy, but how and why?

...

The flower field pretty much died out over here and there was subtle pressure on their mind.

It was barely noticeable, but just in case she put everyone into her tails for the time being.

The system also hinted a bit more about this place.

[This place can nourish the Soul, and it’s possible that you will ’unlock’ unexpected potential.]

This didn’t quite explain why this place was devoid of any flora, but Witch Aiko should be able to find out eventually, or at least draw some conclusions.

Her current main conclusion was that the ’Soul’ part was not really good for flowers or flora in general and that was what caused this unique ’phenomenon’ to manifest.

However, that was a simple conjecture, and it was hard to say if she was right.

There were still no more buildings, but the arrow was slowly pointing her to the ground.

’Another digging site?’ Witch Aiko tilted her head. She was also considering taking some of the dirt she collected from the ’Holy’ Deer territory.

She wanted to see if the soil was any different to what was around her, but it was not like she wanted to test it out directly.

The subtle pressure kept her mind focused on what was in front of her. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She didn’t know, but for now things were not getting more difficult, so she would leave it at that.

There were a few suspicious things, like the sudden mountains in front of her, or the arrow pointing lower and lower.

This called for her Table Map, but even that was unable to grasp the essence of this place.

There was some kind of chamber down below, but it was hollow, as if nothing was there.

However, the arrow pointed in the same direction, so that couldn’t be true.

Witch Aiko could only keep going and see if the system was trolling her or not...