Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko yawned, clicking her teeth. She was stretching when she noticed an odd stare on her.

Mei was looking at her.

”What is it?” Aiko yawned again.

”You slept for 3 days again.” Mei’s lips twitched with worry.

”Is that so?” Aiko didn’t mind that she slept a bit longer.

Mei sighed. ”You are worrying me, you know that?” She said that while shaking her head.

Aiko looked elsewhere, she couldn’t help with her condition.

”We got the bracelet.” Mei places the recognition inhibition bracelet in front of Aiko.

Aiko’s eyes shined as she saw the very elaborate Inscription. This was much better than what she could do!

Mei noticed Aiko’s glint in her eyes, but she only smiled. ”I hope you will now properly learn from the Jade Slip.” Mei petted Aiko’s Fox form.

Aiko nodded a few times. ”I will, I will.” She already has the Ability called [Perfect Memory], so there should be no problem remembering a few Herbs.

Aiko transformed into her teen form, stunning everyone present. They were charmed until Aiko put on the bracelet.

”This... feels odd?” Aiko said, tilting her head.

Mei coughed awkwardly as if trying to hide her blush. ”You are not allowed to take it off.”

”Of course I won’t!” Aiko was very happy with its effects.

[Beauty: 17,292,600*1.55 -> #1,729,260*1.55]

# Your stat was suppressed.

It was over a million, which was still bad, but much better than in the tens of millions.

Aiko nodded happily and hugged Mei.

Mei felt strange as Aiko was much more affectionate than before and she was also prettier, so Mei had a hard time with her.

She was inclined to spoil her rotten, but at the same time, she tried to control herself, so that Aiko would learn the beneficial knowledge before anything bad happened again.

Mei sighed, she didn’t expect that one day, she, as the queen, would have to deal with herself and try to stop herself from spoiling someone.

’I have already spoiled him, but how did that end...’ Mei fell into a melancholic state.

”I really like you Mei~” Aiko giggled, the bracelet was also a nice fit and she didn’t mind wearing it, unlike the bracelet from the Shadows Peak.

Mei was stunned, but then smiled lazily. ”It’s good that you like it. Now, go, go and learn from the Jade Slip so we can play with Herbs later.” She felt a bit better.

Aiko pouted after realising that her technique didn’t work and returned into the Jade Slip.

She started from the beginning since she only remembered the basics, but now that she has that Ability everything will go smoothly.

...

Mei observed the once again diligent Aiko, who didn’t thrash around and who quietly learned by herself. She didn’t believe she was learning, so she asked her about a few Herbs, but she was shocked.

’How can she know so many of them? Didn’t she struggled to learn just a few Herbs in a day?!’ Mei narrowed her eyes, she didn’t believe that the system would have something so miraculous that it would change her attitude...

’I wouldn’t believe in that system if I didn’t see the poison being suppressed by some mysterious energy...’ Mei shook her head. She didn’t believe many things, but she will have to start believing them over time, or something bad might happen.

She let Aiko learn, while she prepared all the basic, but robust tools, so Aiko could play around with the Herbs alongside her.

’They need to be very robust, since Aiko has a tendency to slap things, saying that she is ’fixing it’ when she is upset.’ Mei giggled, remembering the palm imprint that Aiko gave to the Massage Chair when she was upset.

...

50 days passed and Aiko learned every single Herb on the Jade Slip.

She looked at Mei in triumph, while Mei was frowning.

’No way she learned all the Herbs in such a short amount of time.’ MMei wanted to be open minded and believe in Aiko, yet she couldn’t do so as she believed that it was an outrageous feat.

”I will test you and if you do well I might give you a surprise.” Mei smiled, if Aiko really completed this in such a short amount of time, she would give her the first set of Alchemy equipment.

...

Mei tested Aiko on the Herbs’ effects and natural habitats.

Aiko was able to answer it precisely like she was reading it from the Jade Slip.

Mei was shocked as it took her around a year to learn it, yet Aiko had completed it in an incomprehensibly short period of time.

’No... did she not take it seriously before?’ Mei thought and in that case, she felt even more inferior...

She sighed, feeling a bit crestfallen.

”Did I get something wrong?” Aiko was worried. She played around a lot of the time and learned only when she wanted to... but that Ability said she just needed to read it once and she would remember it. No way she got it wrong, right?!

Mei sighed when she looked at the confused and frowning Aiko. ”You got everything correctly.”

”Yay!” Aiko smugly cheered and Mei held her temple.

”I have two things for you.” She couldn’t be outdone by a junior, so she would give Aiko, her lifelong knowledge about flora.

Her smile twisted. ’Let’s see how you deal with over 10,000,000 pieces of flora!’

Aiko shivered, seeing Mei’s smile.

Mei coughed, seeing Aiko freeze. ”Come here.”

”No.” Aiko replied on impulse and she cried out inwardly that Mei was too scary with that smile.

Mei was stunned that Aiko would reject her so quickly. ”Come here.” Her face softened.

Aiko gulped with worry and approached her. She was sure Mei was plotting something, but she would have to deal with it when push comes to shove...

’Mei can be nice and scary at the same time...’ Aiko sobbed in her mind.

In one moment, she would be served delicious food and in another, tortured with arduous amounts of knowledge. She didn’t like that!

Aiko sat next to Mei, but before she could completely sit down, she was moved on Mei’s lap.

Aiko stiffened, she was worried that Mei would torture her with those ’Herbal Concoctions’, they were just too bitter!

”What’s wrong~?” Mei teased, seeing the scared Aiko.

”Nothing.” Aiko sniffled.

”Then, here.” Mei placed something in front of Aiko and Aiko flinched, closing her eyes and waiting for her impending doom.

But nothing came? Her nose was not picking anything bitter? What’s going on?

She opened her eyes slowly to find a bunch of torture tools in front of her.

”These are Alchemy Tools.” Mei said softly, stroking Aiko’s silky smooth hair. ’Her hair is so nice...’

Aiko looked over the tools:

Shears & Sickle

Caldron

Tray

4 knives: {Yin; Metal and Wood. Yang; Metal and Wood}

Cutting Board

Mortar and Pestle

She looked over to the tools one more time, but those tools were the ones that she heard about way back when she joined the Fox Village. Curiously, picking the shears, they were well-made and had a perfect grip for her even if she grew up.

She had only one type of Shears and that was wooden, the sickle on the other hand, was made of metal. Aiko didn’t quite get the difference as she didn’t learn them, but she knew that Mei wouldn’t give her something average.

”I will explain these tools to you a bit later.” Mei smiled gently.

”Here is the Jade list about Materials used on the tools if you ever need something replaced. This will work until you are a [Pill Master].” Mei said slowly.

Aiko nodded, she liked them and they also looked quite robust, which was what she required as she had enough of fixing things.

”Before we start anything with this, let’s talk about business.” Mei smiled like the devil and Aiko shivered.

”Let’s extor-*Cough* sell the usage of the chair to the Foxes in this Village and earn Spirit Stones.” Mei smiled with the same vigour as when Aiko would extort someone.

”The chair won’t last long if it is kept on your or Grandmaster’s setting.” Aiko didn’t want to fix it every god-damn day!

”That is alright as we will be only working in the first 3 gears.” Mei nodded slowly, calculating it.

”There are plenty of weak Foxes so we can extort a bit from them, but with the more powerful ones, we will need to use the second and third gear. As such, we will have an easier time extorting them in the open.” Mei smiled.

”Will they agree to it?” Aiko hoped that they wouldn’t agree, so she didn’t need to keep maintaining the chair. It was fine to use it as a recreational Massage Chair, but not so often that she would have to fix it every single god-damn day!

”No.” Mei said and Aiko brightened. Mei’s lips twitched at this, so she poured cold water over Aiko’s hope. ”But they won’t have any other way to get these benefits~” Now she looked like a complete devil!

”Is it that good?” Aiko didn’t believe that something she had done on a whim would be used like this, not to mention so beneficial that others wouldn’t mind being extorted for it.

”It’s exceptional, you would not be slighted if you opened a large business with this and provided it to other races.” Mei said in a serious tone, startling Aiko.

”Whoa...” Aiko didn’t expect this. This meant she would get Spirit Stones, which she needed for her future Evolutions... or at least if she wanted to be safe during those Evolutions.

”How do we go about this?” Aiko asked.

”The Grandmaster will protect the Massage Chair with us and we just collect the Spirit Stones.” Mei smiled.

”That’s not all right?” Aiko narrowed her eyes and pierced Mei with them, she didn’t believe she would do so little work.

*Cough*

Mei blushed. She didn’t expect she would be found out so soon. ”The Grandmaster will also use that Massage Chair here and there.” Mei looked away from Aiko’s narrowed eyes.

”I knew it! This is punishment, right?!” Aiko cried out.

”It’s not!” Mei defended herself, but it was indeed true that each time the Grandmaster would use it, it would cause the breakdown of the Massage Chair.

”It’s a good idea to improve the prototype.” Mei smiled, trying to soothe her.

Aiko sniffled. ”And who is going to create future prototypes?!” It was HER who would need to create and build those prototypes manually!

”You will get 70% of the Spirit Stones.” Mei continued soothing.

”90%!” Aiko pressed on Mei’s shoulders with a wronged expression.

”75%, I can’t do more!” Mei didn’t think Aiko would bargain so harshly.

”85%! No less than that!” Aiko pushed harder on Mei’s shoulders.

Mei smiled like a mischievous Fox. She slid backwards, letting Aiko fall on her in this questionable position.

”80% and you can have me~” She teased Aiko, but in reality, she hoped that Aiko would still bargain as she also needed those Spirit Stones. She also knew that Aiko would not agree with her terms and would state something else that she would wan-

”Okay.” Aiko blushed. She had never seen a more beautiful person than Mei, so if Mei wanted to use her like this, she would also use Mei.

’Advertising is important...’ Aiko browsed Mei’s body, making her go completely stiff.

Aiko smiled in acknowledgement and kissed Mei on the cheek. ”Thanks for the generous business~” Then she ran away, leaving the stupefied Mei on the floor...