Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko slammed the door open, but there was nobody there. She looked around and found the Inscription Saint massaging his nose.

”What are you doing here?” Aiko asked, puzzled.

”I was going to the kitchen when I heard something ridiculous.” He was still massaging his nose from when the door hit him. ”Can’t you open the doors in a normal way?” He glared at Aiko.

Aiko just shrugged. ”Not my problem, you are snooping behind a door.”

Aiko was not concerned about him, any decent person would not be standing behind a door, waiting to be hit by it.

”Have you connected yourself with the Inscription Carving Pen?” He suddenly asked with narrowed eyes.

”I forgot...” Aiko thought about it so much that that thought completely disappeared from her mind.

He shook his head. ”Take your time, but you should still do it soon so that the Embryo could develop further.”

”Embryo?” Aiko tilted her head.

”It’s an undeveloped Spiritual Sense.” He said lightly. ”You have Sword Embryos, Fire Embryos, Treasure Embryos and so on.” He yawned. ”Each of them is indispensable to the Cultivators of higher Rank, as they can achieve independent thought.” He explained.

Aiko nodded lightly. ”That is nice.” She liked the idea of having an autonomous Pen, she really should nudge it as soon as possible.

”What if my Divine Sense is powerful, but hard to control?”

He frowned, but said slowly. ”You should develop your Divine Sense more before you try it. While most Spiritual Embryos are powerful when it comes to their protection, that is not the case for Treasure Embryos, those are incredibly fragile when it comes to outside interference as even the weakest Divine Sense could wipe them out...” He sighed. ”At least until they fully mature or are connected to a Cultivator, but at the former point you would already be in the Immortal World.” He chuckled sadly.

Aiko slowly nodded. ”Is there a place where I can develop Divine Sense?” Aiko asked.

”On what stage are you at?” He asked cautiously.

”Fully opening my Divine Sense so it matches my mind.” Aiko said slowly.

He cautiously probed her with his own powerful Divine Sense.

*Slap*

But his Divine Sense was slapped back like it was a fly.

His lips twitched, he expected her Divine Sense to be crude, but he didn’t think it would also be mischievous!

He ruffled his hair, annoyed at this situation. He really wanted to teach this rascal a lesson, but with this kind of Divine Sense... it would either end up in a bad injury or destruction.

”There is a training room, but I will watch over you so you don’t destroy my ship.” He glared at Aiko.

”Since when did I destroy anything that you owned?” Aiko snorted at his attitude.

”We have that table you turned into dust, the Inscription ink you spilt. Moreover, you even cut the legs of another table.” He was recounting some things she had done.

Aiko coughed awkwardly. ”It’s just tables, do you have to make a big deal out of it?” Aiko didn’t meet his eyes.

”What about the Ink?” He narrowed his eyes, now he understood why everyone liked to tease her. It was quite entertaining...

”If that brat didn’t cause trouble, would it have end up like that?” Aiko scoffed again.

”And by brat you mean yourself?” He chuckled.

”Oh fuck off.” Aiko growled at him, she was not a brat!

He laughed. ”Anyway, I will prepare some tea and we can move to the training room.” He chuckled, leaving the angry Aiko behind.

”Bastard! Just you wait, when you relax your body, I will stick a fucking flag into your ass!” Aiko roared behind him, but he kept laughing.

Lady Liu had room just next to Aiko so she heard the whole commotion and chuckled. These girls were really cute and amusing, she liked them quite a lot, especially since they didn’t try to run away from her.

She yawned again and went back to sleep, this commotion woke her up, but she didn’t mind.

She would rest properly and visit them again to teach and play around.

’Since we are now on the ship, they have their tails out...’ She suddenly thought. ’I have never seen a Fox with such large ears.’ She really wanted to ruffle Aiko’s ears and hair, but at the same time, she was reluctant.

’Most Foxes would scoff at me if I asked them that and would leave, I hope that doesn’t happen with Aiko...’ She was concerned that she would sour their current relationship.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know that was a needless worry as Aiko wouldn’t mind someone close playing with her ears. Moreover, Lady Liu was cute when she tiptoed around them, she was much more sensible than other Humans, so much so that Aiko sometimes wondered if Lady Liu was even a Human to begin with...

Aiko sighed, shaking her head. She would never know Lady Liu’s past since the mind is wiped with each reincarnation, but that didn’t stop her from imagining things.

Aiko returned to her room and glanced at the Inscription Carving Pen. She was really tempted to use her Divine Sense, but stopped herself since she didn’t want to damage it.

The duo was still staring at her.

”What is it?” Aiko stared back at them.

The Blood Fox stood up and came close to Aiko. ”You should conceal your skills for the time being...”

”A little late for that.” Aiko chuckled. ”I already ran tests with these things back in the Fox Village, so most Elders already know about it.” She shrugged, not concerned.

The Blood Fox frowned, but didn’t continue lecturing Aiko, since it would be fruitless. She already demonstrated her skill, again and again, making it impossible to conceal it from them.

The Blood Fox sat down near the Umbra Fox and they chatted happily about the treasure Aiko gave them.

It might not be the highest quality treasure, but it was pretty much autonomous thanks to the fact that it was always working, no matter what they did.

This greatly eased up their thoughts during combat, since they didn’t need to think about it.

This type of treasure was priceless to anyone, not just Immortals, but also Mortals.

They didn’t need to circulate their inner Qi/Energy to make it work. They could just use it.

Unfortunately for Mortals, most of them didn’t have enough riches to buy this kind of treasure, since most Cultivators either wanted Spirit Stones or other treasures/materials. This greatly inconvenienced the Mortals, since they wouldn’t be able to keep the Spirit Stones from getting robbed, and anything with Spiritual Energy would likewise be stolen.

The only type of Mortal that would be able to buy these things were large ancient families and Royalty. But even they had a hard time actually acquiring this stuff.

Aiko sat down and tapped on the table. She didn’t have anything to do since she didn’t want to use her team as experimental subjects, at least not when they were far away from Mei, who could cure them if something went wrong.

”How is your arm?” The Blood Fox sneaked behind Aiko and wrapped her hands around her.

Aiko didn’t mind this, since they would often do this to pull her onto their laps.

”Stiff, but much better than when we were in the Fox Village.” Aiko said gently, thinking about it. ”It’s so strange how a small change in life can affect you so greatly.” Aiko hummed.

”The Fox Village has too many oddities, we should be careful.” The Blood Fox said and the Umbra Fox nodded in agreement.

”Sure.” Aiko didn’t mind that. ”But I still want to restart the massage business, since it makes quite a lot of money each day.” Aiko thought about it and the fact that they had line after line of customers wanting to use the Massage Chair.

’Fortunately, I won’t have to work as hard as before to create the parts...’ Aiko sighed in relief, that she was able to con this Pen out of that Inscription Idiot.

”You really like this Pen.” The Blood Fox suddenly said when she watched Aiko play with it.

”Yeah, it allows me to Inscribe and engrave with ease.” Aiko explained. ”It feels like I don’t have poison in my arm when I use it.” She smiled gently.

The Blood Fox had a complicated expression. If she didn’t know that the Inscription Saint was after Lady Liu, she would think that he was after Aiko, considering he gave her this priceless treasure.

Aiko munched on a nearby snack while the Blood Fox was deep in thought.

The Umbra Fox observed all of this with a strange expression. This kind of strange triangle often came about when she watched over the Blood Fox and Aiko.

It was strange how obsessive the Blood Fox was, but at the same time, she could somewhat understand it.

If there was a person capable of suppressing her condition by just being in their presence. She would likewise be obsessed with them...

Just... not into this severe degree.

Aiko stood up. ”I’m going to develop my Divine Sense, so I can pair myself with the Pen.” Aiko said and moved towards the door.

Divine Sense.

The duo stiffened. They were forbidden from awakening it back in the Fox Village, but now they could use this situation as an excuse to ”accidentally” awaken it.

”Can we go with you, Mistress?” The Umbra Fox was the first one to ask, since the Divine Sense was way too convenient not to have.

”Sure?” Aiko didn’t know that they wanted to develop their Divine Sense, so she readily agreed.

They narrowed their eyes, but smiled sweetly at Aiko.

Back in the kitchen, the Chen boy sneezed several times. He had bad premotion that his time with Lady Liu would be greatly reduced... but that was impossible. This ship was safely guarded and littered with Defensive and Offensive Inscriptions/Arrays, so it would never take all that much time to annihilate his enemies.

He sighed and resumed the preparation of the tea. This was a special tea that could increase someone’s lifespan, but it was barely working on Lady Liu since she drank it too many times.

He shook his head sadly at this fact, but there was nothing he could do. He already used most means to prolong her lifespan, but even the most powerful Pills increased it by just a few years, instead of hundreds...

He sighed again. The time was running thin and he would have to find a solution soon, otherwise, Lady Liu would be gone once again. He didn’t think he would be able to bear that again.

’The Jade Fox is an Alchemist...’ He suddenly had an epiphany. ’Maybe I could trade some of my wealth to get a few powerful Pills from her...’

He was thinking about this, since most Alchemists were prideful assholes that didn’t want to create Pills and even if they did, it would cost you a fortune not even including half of the Pills that the Herbs would create.

This was daylight robbery, but nothing he could do about it, since he wasn’t an Alchemist. He had to bow to them and shower them with treasures to obtain those Pills...

’I hope the Jade Fox still has a favourable opinion of me and is reasonable in her pricing...’ He sighed. Picking up the tray and leaving towards Lady Liu’s room.