Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”Hmmmm...” Aiko’s Uncle paused for a moment. He was only allowed to say so much, but this time it should be fine, right? After all, she called him Uncle, which didn’t happen in several dozen millenniums.

”Let’s see.” The Uncle acted as the most important person in this place, which was somewhat correct as Aiko was yet Aiko.

He looked at the Soul that was inflated like a balloon tilting his head.

”We can try a few things without risk, but I would suggest you simply contract her.” The Uncle looked all over. The cuts were clean, so nothing was leaking, the original Soul was also not damaged, but the ’thoughts’ were drifting all about, so further compression or ’popping’ would be ill-advised.

”I can try that later, let’s first try other things.” Aiko tilted her head slowly. ”It won’t hurt her, right?”

”I can assure you that the pain she is going through right now is a lot worse than what we will do to her.” The Uncle shook his head. These types of low-grade techniques were simply too many and even if you would get rid of all of them, there will always be that one old guy that will just come up with a new one.

As such, even destroying all of them would not result in a beneficial outcome.

”...” Aiko thought about it for a while before going through the motions.

It’s true that once you are overwhelmed by pain, additional pain won’t do much to you, as long as it doesn’t pass a certain threshold.

It might even feel like they were tickling her, which would be quite upsetting.

”No, the idea is that we poke many small holes and let the Essence flow freely, but as it shrinks, it would naturally close those ’holes’. Moreover, thanks to those holes being so small, we won’t have to worry about her personal thoughts and feelings escaping.” The Uncle gestured as he poked the smallest hole. The Essence that was stuffed into that poor Soul burst forth, but as her Uncle said, it didn’t result in her losing herself.

Aiko followed suit, poking a few additional holes, but almost immediately it was apparent that they would have to spend years on this.

”Did he pump her with some premium stuff that she heals so quickly?!” Aiko was completely speechless. She didn’t believe what she was seeing.

”No.” The Uncle shook his head. ”That’s thanks to her unnaturally fast healing ability. Her Soul is pretty much on par with Immortal Souls when it comes to sturdiness.”

”I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.” Aiko clicked her tongue. Poking the Ancestral Beast further would be meaningless as that ’membrane’ healed much faster than what was leaking out.

”That seems to be the case. Unfortunately, that also means that most of the plans have to be abandoned. Her Soul is simply too unique to keep her in this state for too long.” The Uncle caressed his chin. ”How about you visit her in her dream?”

”And then what?” Aiko tilted her head at him.

”You can ’make’ food for her, and it should decrease the bloatedness of her Soul.” The Uncle nodded his head. Since most plans had to be abandoned, it was better to go for the best variant left. After this one, Aiko would have to contract her to prevent her losing her mind.

”Okay, visiting her dreams...” Aiko scratched her head. Did she ever do this? She did invite someone close to her before, but how does she do it to a complete stranger? Was it enough to just call her?

”Oh?” Aiko blinked her eyes. She was now in empty white space, again, but this time, there was no huge Soul around, nor her Uncle and that horndog. It could be said that this place was completely empty.

Aiko looked around to see if she could spot anything interesting and as expected.

There was a lone floating island far in the distance.

Aiko simply ran towards it without looking back. Why should she look back when her goal was in front of her.

’It’s both huge and far away?’ Aiko titled her head. No matter how fast she ran, that floating island was not getting any bigger.

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’How strange...’ Aiko paused, before resuming her walk. Since running wasn’t doing anything, she might as well take her time with this.

She could oddly feel that this place was operating at a different time speed, so she was not too worried about the Ancestral Beast.

Walking toward it, things finally changed. The island was slowly getting bigger.

Aiko had no idea why running didn’t work but walking did. She was just glad that she found a solution so soon.

”Hmmm...” Aiko suddenly paused, her face twitching.

”He didn’t tell me how to make food out of it.” She clicked her tongue, looking around. Maybe it was a good idea to practise beforehand?

However, as this place was not hers, she didn’t gain any buffs. She was struggling because she couldn’t even grasp the energy...

And that was only obvious.

This energy was specifically crafted for the Ancestral Beast. As such the compatibility between them was near perfect.

Meanwhile, Aiko was like an old intruder, kicking everything around it, but not really doing anything to it. She couldn’t grasp it because her compatibility was that low. Meanwhile, the Ancestral Beast was near perfect, so only she could control it with precision.

Aiko shook her head. It was pointless trying anything right now since things might change later.

Of course, Aiko was not too happy about this. She wanted to succeed with this so that she didn’t need to contract them.

Well, she did want to take them with her, but that didn’t mean she wanted to force it through this!

The floating island was getting bigger and bigger. Now Aiko could see more details, like the cascading water that slowly made it to the edge and then falling endlessly down.

IT was strange as those droplets just passed through the ’floor’ like it was not there to begin with.

The floating island also gained a lot of colours, but most of them were related to nature, so you did have some impossible colours.

Aiko nodded her head as she approached closer, before trying to jump up.

As expected. This was not the real world, so her jumps were outrageous. She wouldn’t have any problem getting on top of the floating island.

However, she had to be careful, as she still needed a ticket home. If she agitated this place, that might turn quite perilous, until the Ancestral beast comes back.

’That would take a while, since the time is not synchronised with the outside.’ It might take years which Aiko was not willing to spend inside this barren place.

’Does that mean that this island is the amalgamation of her experience (Soul)?’ Aiko tilted her head again. She did it so many times that her neck actually started to hurt.

”Sheeesh...” Aiko massaged her neck. Fingers crossed that nothing will go wrong.

...

She was able to jump onto the island and look around. It was as lush as it could get, the middle of the island was one large mountain with many rivers streaming down. Pretty much everything was covered in greenery, even the rocky terrain.

She was impressed by the jungle-like atmosphere, but Aiko was not too worried.

She couldn’t hear any animals, or anything threatening, which meant that this place was pretty much deserted.

’I wonder what this place is about.’ Aiko was curious, but she would have to first find the Ancestral Beast as even her eyes didn’t help her this time.

’It’s unfortunate, but I will have to find her the normal way.’ Aiko clicked her tongue. She was not completely against this idea, if she was not in the current situation.

She wanted to help the Ancestral Beast and leave this place before more things got messed up.

Aiko wanted to rest at home, eat something nice and just laze around...

’Now I’m imagining things...’ Aiko sighed. Looking around, the most probable location for the Ancestral Beast would be the top of this mountain.

”What a pain...’ Aiko sighed again. She was so used to tilting and sighing that her muscles related to those activities were quite strengthened.

-----

The Uncle was waiting outside until this was finished, but he didn’t forget to turn around and pin that individual down with a hand that emerged from his back.

”Stay still.” The Uncle said sternly.

”Yes, sir.” The horndog was no longer moving, not even attempting anything. He didn’t want to lose another part of his Soul, just because he pissed this guy off.

Looking around. The tendrils were withdrawing, no longer threatening the Beast.

”What did you think would happen?” The Uncle never truly understood humans. They said something, but did something completely different.

He... didn’t want to understand them. That would require too much energy on his part and that was a big no-no.

”I thought it would work...” The horndog complained.

”No, seriously. You know what we are made out of, and you still try something so simple? Are you stupid?” The Uncle was left speechless. Nobody was good at fighting them, so everyone had to use their heads.

This was also the same event that banished his race to ’that’ place.

”I thought it would be different this time...” The horndog spoke in a whispering voice. He didn’t want to be heard by others, but he still had to be loud enough so that this handsome guy didn’t just beat him up.

”...” The Uncle sighed. There were simply too many individuals who thought that.

’To begin with, we were never sealed to begin with, our Princess simply got fed up with our previous situation and hid in that place.’ The Uncle shook his head. It was so ridiculous how many of them believed that they actually succeeded.

”So, how is the Immortal World?” The Uncle was a bit curious since he hadn’t visited that place in a while.

”It’s burning.” The horndog replied politely and without negative emotions. His reply was so perfect that it even startled her Uncle.

’Ah, right...’ The Uncle scratched his head. Who would’ve thought that ’the’ Sun would allow Aiko to sit on the throne. It never happened again, and he was wondering how much she would be willing to serve Aiko if she knew it was her...