Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

They swapped their places. The Blood Fox carried Aiko carefully while throwing aside the Mirage Fox. They could pick him up later, it was important to keep Aiko safe, especially since she was about to Evolve.

Her Evolution would surely attract a natural disaster that would pretty much create a beacon for anyone within hundreds of miles.

It would attract many so it was critical to create as many traps as possible, so they wouldn’t get overwhelmed by numbers. It was also essential to keep Aiko deep inside the mountain so they could limit the output of Cultivators, unless they wished to be buried alive.

This would allow them to maintain the status quo until Aiko woke up and hopefully either solved this problem or was able to run away.

The Blood Fox arrived at the entrance of a cave. The cave was very moist and it was not the best place to keep Aiko in, but they couldn’t be picky. As long as it was deep enough, it would serve as a good defensive place.

The Blood Fox walked inside the cave cautiously. The amount of water was abnormal, so there might be some Treasures or Beasts residing inside.

She was right. It had a very young blue serpent trying to guard his Treasure. It looked like a blue shard half submerged in water. It might be a Treasure or it might not be. What was important was that this place was rich in Qi.

This would be able to offset some of Aiko’s monstrous ’eating’ habits.

The serpent hissed at her, but this place was indispensable for them too. Unfortunately, this Beast was not smart. He did not reach that stage yet, so there could be no negotiation.

The serpent rushed at the Blood Fox, trying to devour her, but the Blood Fox was able to store quite a bit of blood along the way and her control for some reason also improved. Was it because she tortured the Mirage Fox? But she had greater control even before, yet she didn’t remember training all that hard...

It puzzled the Blood Fox each time she used her Divine Ability, but it was not distracting enough that she would make mistakes. She wrapped the serpent with Blood Hands and crushed him.

She threw him aside, intending to drain him once she nestled Aiko somewhere nice and on something soft.

This place was not pleasant, the nest was inside the water so it was unusable. The floor was also very damp, almost slippery from the amount of water everywhere.

The Blood Fox had to use wood, carpets, pillows, and anything she could find in her Storage Pouch to build Aiko a nest.

She knew that Aiko would have a hard time sleeping like this, but they couldn’t be with her during her Evolution. They would be battling for their life until Aiko woke up.

After finishing building the nest, that would be safe and dry. The Blood Fox nestled Aiko inside. Her breathing was stable, but she was in deep sleep.

The Blood Fox never saw such Evolution before as most would be conscious during it.

The Blood Fox turned her attention to the young serpent. She intended to drain its blood and store it to not attract the attention of powerful Beasts. They would definitely smell this Blood if she didn’t take care of it.

...

{Meanwhile outside}

Umbra ran around the Forest, scouting possible locations for traps and how to conceal them to the best of her abilities. It was important to mask them as much as possible so that it would prevent them from being disarmed.

She had a few Explosive Talismans from the Assassins, but they would attract a lot of attention, so she couldn’t use them too far from the cave.

You could see it as a sort of last resort before everything collapses.

She also thought that some might arrive through flight, which would render most of her traps ineffective, but that was not something she had any say over.

This was not a Magical Forest where flight was impeded.

”Mask your tracks, we will have to do a lot of legwork.” Umbra said to Wanshu.

Wanshu was excellent at hiding, but not quite as quick. It was essential to hide their tracks, so the Cultivators would not realise they were walking into the trap.

Wanshu made sure to conceal all of their tracks and made it impossible to follow them.

Meanwhile, Umbra gathered the topography of this place and started to think about setting the traps.

There was not much time so it was better to start from the cave and make her way out. This way the most important traps will be already set and the less important ones could be managed on the go.

”Gather firewood, if everything goes to hell, we will burn this forest to buy more time.” Umbra said without batting an eye. It was her top priority to keep her Mistress safe.

Wanshu did not question her, but she felt strange that Umbra would resort to burning the forest down. There were many Treasures inside the forest that they could use if they explored properly, but if it was burned, nobody would be able to get them.

Umbra saw the odd expression that Wanshu was giving, but did not say anything about it. There would be more instances where they would clash, but this was not the time to talk about it. Action had to be taken before the disaster descended.

Umbra did her best to set up traps, while Wanshu concealed them and their tracks.

They worked well together and since the Mirage Fox was not around, Wanshu felt like she was doing much better.

A few leaves here and a stick there and the place was concealed. The Talismans were a bit hard to conceal, but it was not something a lot of moss couldn’t conceal. This would leave a strange patch in certain directions, but since there were no traps those ways, it might also work as a good deterrent.

Wanshu had never worked so hard in her life. She felt like Umbra was slaving her away, but seeing Umbra likewise panting, she discarded that thought.

She tried to keep the pace, but setting up traps was much easier than concealing, so Umbra had to slow down at a certain pace. It would be troubling if the traps were not concealed and if the suspicion was raised too soon.

They needed to do their best!

...

{Outside the Capital to the west}

Bai Jing fumbled the dice once again, but this time furrowed her brows. She played the dice a few more times, but the outcome was always the same.

She sighed, it seemed like disaster would be unavoidable and while this Elder did favour her, it was impossible to stop her completely.

But since it was impossible to stop completely, it should be possible to lower their numbers.

”Attention!” Bai Jing clapped her hands and everyone looked her way, even the puzzled Elders.

”Soon there will be a display of ’Heaven’s Gift’.” Bai Jing could see their eyes shine. ”If you do not wish to die and live a long life, I suggest you ignore it. This ’Heaven’s Gift’ will turn into disaster not just for you, but for the Sect too.” She said firmly.

Confusion and puzzlement spread around. There were only a few Sects around and two of those Sects were already weakened, they couldn’t have a hard time unless some kind of old powerhouse appeared.

Bai Jing was satisfied with this outcome. She could see most of them turning away with a saddened expression, but she could no longer feel the will to participate in it.

This should help ’them’ lower the chances of death.

’If even one dies, not only our Sect will be in danger, but this whole continent will burn...’ Bai Jing sighed in her mind. The severity of this situation might escalate so much that even her Divination would not be able to protect her.

She would like to avoid that. She wanted to have a long and resourceful life.

That would be impossible if just one of ’them’ died. She could not see their faces, but she knew the ’main character’. She could only hope that the Elders would not do something foolish, but...

Bai Jing glanced at the Elders, nodding at each other. It seemed like they were hopeless when it came to Treasures.

This was still good enough. This was her limit.

All that was left was to watch the story unfold and disaster to come...

...

{Inside the cave}

The Blood Fox finished draining the young serpent. The smell of blood disappeared soon after.

They were lucky that this was a very young serpent. Otherwise, it would be a tough fight.

The Blood Fox walked back to Aiko and gently fished the Storage Pouch out of her tails.

She did get pricked a few times and she pulled a few sharpened sticks out of her tails. Moreover, there was also a large odd wood inside.

”What happened to the Master?” A voice whispered from within the Primordial Soul Wood.

The Blood Fox was puzzled, but considering it was inside Aiko’s tails it would not be a bad thing for them.

”She is Evolving. A large-scale disaster is upon us, so it would be better to conceal this place.” The Blood Fox held a bit of hope that they could manage that with whoever this was.

She could feel the person nod. ”You should also find the Lamp, that Ghost can also help.” A Ghost appeared from within the Primordial Soul Wood.

”She has much more power since she has a proper container, so we will work together to conceal this place.” He nodded gently.

The Blood Fox could not figure out his face or body, it was hard to say who he was, but the only thing she was certain about was that he was a Human.

”Very well.” The Blood Fox tried to fish the Lamp out of Aiko’s tails. The fluff was getting in her way, but eventually, after a few dozen pricks, she managed to fish out the Lamp.

”You can place it here and we will take care of the rest inside.” The Ghost nodded gently before gesturing to this strange Fox. For some reason, he felt a different kind of danger to other Soul Devouring beings. She was very dangerous, which meant he couldn’t mess this thing up.

The Lamp woke and a yawning Ghost Lady appeared from it. ”Already morning.”

”You stupid.” The Ghost held his head, shaking it at her. ”We need to conceal this place or we will be in danger.”

The Ghost Lady straightened her back. ”No problem.”

The Blood Fox’s lips twitched, but she left the mountain anyway. There would be fights soon and that was impossible to avoid. She had to get together with Umbra and get a briefing from her about the traps, so she wouldn’t get caught in them...