Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko was now running around with 8 tails behind her.

Everyone was speechless and questioned their sanity, but Aiko just shrugged at them.

”It’s not like I’m cheating, you know?” Aiko tilted her head.

She definitely was cheating for the normal Fox, or maybe they just didn’t want to admit that Aiko had it easier.

”Since you got stronger, we will now try Alchemy with the Divine Sense.” Mei suddenly dragged Aiko away. She was greatly bothered by the number of tails that Aiko had.

”You will also have to activate the Heavenly Suppression Technique. Keep at most 3 Tails.” Mei said. ”I will try to get at least 4 Tails before we enter, but if I can’t manage that, you will have to keep 3 Tails.” Mei then explained. ”It’s to keep you safe from others. If I don’t have more tails than you when I have higher fame, people might target you for believing you have more Treasures than what you are supposed to have.”

”Isn’t that a bit too late?” Aiko tilted her head. ”I already ran around with 4 tails during business.”

”But you only ran around when Muscle Peak used our service.” Mei commented. ”Those guys are completely harmless, so you don’t have to worry about them, but you have to worry about everyone else.”

”Okay.” Aiko nodded gently. ”So about the Divine Sense...”

”What’s wrong with it this time?” Mei was slightly startled that Aiko would talk about her Divine Sense.

”For some reason, I can switch between them, but I’m not sure what effects that wolf brings...” Aiko stared at the very knowledgeable Mei.

”If it’s close to what dragons have...” Mei narrowed her eyes. ”It’s raw firepower. You can command it to automatically defend you and attack when others get into range, but keep in mind that if you can’t defend completely, your Mind and Soul will be harmed!” Mei warned Aiko.

”Got it, no defending against powerful individuals.” Aiko nodded quickly.

”Good, let’s sit down and go through the Divine Sense Alchemy.” Mei sat down with Aiko.

”I won’t make you use your Divine Sense on Herbs to cut them, since I know that is impossible for you, but you will still mix them and protect them during the refining process.” Mei explained.

”Like when you shielded that turd?” Aiko questioned.

”It’s not a turd, but impurities!” Mei’s eyebrow twitched.

”So black turd.” Aiko nodded and Mei could only sigh.

”Prepare the Herbs and I will guide you through the process.” Mei massaged her temples. It seems like Aiko was in a playful mood, which will cost her a few headaches.

Aiko quickly prepared the Herbs, thanks to the [Alchemy Mastery] it was a lot quicker since she could faintly see where she should cut.

It seems like the [Alchemy Mastery] came with a guidance system, but you needed to level it up a lot for it to manifest.

That was fine for Aiko as she now had Divine Sense which should propel her [Alchemy Mastery] even further.

The Herbs were cut and sorted, the Pill Cauldron was warmed up.

”Don’t check it with water. We will use your Divine Sense.” Mei stopped Aiko from using the water to determine the temperature.

”...” Aiko blankly stared at Mei. ”Isn’t this jump in difficulty a bit too harsh?”

”You need to learn more skills to stay protected from others.” Mei nudged Aiko.

”Ugh, fine.” Aiko didn’t like this jump in difficulty, but there was nothing that she could do about it, especially when Mei stared at her like ’that’.

”How am I supposed to get the temperature?” Aiko tilted her head. She could get shapes and colours, but she was unsure about the last ones.

”It’s simple-” Mei started to explain to Aiko, but Aiko ignored it, since...

[Pill Cauldron Temperature: Too Low]

”It has this kind of thing too...” Aiko was speechless.

Mei pinched Aiko for ignoring her. ”How do you intend to learn anything when you don’t pay attention?!” She was a bit hurt.

”The system told me the temperature...” Aiko shyly looked away.

Mei could feel her blood rising, at this rate she would definitely cough up blood. The system these days is getting more and more unfair for the hard-working folk!

”You will still learn how to do it without the system!” Mei was adamant on this part.

”Okay.” Aiko nodded without rejecting Mei, which startled her a bit.

”It won’t be easy.” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”It will be easy.” Aiko smiled from ear to ear. She could not get the temperature from the Divine Sense, but that didn’t mean that this would be hard.

The system showed her the temperature, which meant that she had to learn the different ’feelings’ from the system and adapt them to her Divine Sense.

This was a lot easier than the colour or shapes, as she had a ’guarding rail’ that she could grasp whenever she would falter.

Mei’s face distorted like she was chewing something bitter, but she soon sighed and continued.

”The way that you measure the temperature is by the behaviour of the Cauldron. That’s why most Pill Cultivators take care of their Cauldron.” Mei explained.

Aiko speechlessly stared at her. ”What kind of lousy- Auauauau.”

Mei pinched Aiko’s cheeks, since she didn’t want to admit that this was not the best way to do things. However, those that tried to use relics called the ’thermometer’ degraded the Pills thanks to the impurities on the tool.

”Let me do this by myself.” Aiko pushed Mei backwards. It was obvious that Mei was unsure about this part, so Aiko had to improvise.

”Let’s see.” Aiko closed her eyes and wrapped the whole Cauldron in her Divine Sense.

”Hmmmm...” Aiko tilted her head. There was no change in the Cauldron, even if she blasted it with heat.

’Could it be that the Cauldron has delayed reaction thanks to its thickness?’ Aiko had a few theories, but she was unsure if they were correct.

’Let’s just observe for a bit longer...’ Aiko nodded to herself.

Her Divine Sense danced around the Cauldron. She flew with the sense here and there between the cracks, but she could not perceive visible change...

Aiko opened the lid and dropped water inside, the water boiled until there was nothing.

Aiko observed this closely with her Divine Sense and she could finally see something strange.

’Space distortion?’ Aiko tilted her head again. ’No, isn’t that similar to what you would get on deserts? Due to the intense heat, the whole thing would feel ”twisted”.’ Aiko pondered on it and kept raising the temperature.

The higher the temperature went, the more obvious this distortion was. Aiko was able to observe it easily now.

’This time, let’s turn off the heat and observe it.’ Aiko believed that if she could observe it heating up, it should be possible during the cooling process too.

’No...’ Aiko shook her head. ’It’s impossible, the distortion vanished soon after I turned off the heating.’ Aiko frowned.

She tried to gently lift the Cauldron, which startled Mei.

”What are you trying- No, wait! Bad Aiko!” Mei was confused, but she soon started screaming at Aiko.

*Boom*

The place exploded, thanks to the fact that the ’superheated’ Cauldron was dropped into the water.

Mei was somewhat quick enough to shield them, but it still made their skin red from the steam.

”I’m sorry...” Aiko was so engrossed in her studies that she completely forgot that this could happen.

Mei massaged her temples. ”Are you alright?”

”Yes, my skin is just red, but I don’t feel hurt.” Aiko nodded guiltily.

”So what caused you to do that?” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”I think I found how to guess the temperature. If I can match it with the system’s reading...” Aiko narrowed her eyes. ”It should be possible to create a scale where we can easily estimate the temperature with accuracy!” Aiko proudly raised her fist.

Mei’s face twitched, those large attractions were too distracting. ”Are you sure that the system is not wrong?” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”We will see once we try to create the Pill, no?” Aiko smiled innocently.

Mei sighed. ”Fine, we can test your theory, but how did you find it?”

”Well...” Aiko didn’t know how to explain it properly, so she took her time trying to narrate the whole thing.

”Space distortion?” Mei pondered.

”Heat distortion.” Aiko corrected Mei.

”Does it always happen when there is a high temperature?” Mei tilted her head.

”No, for some reason I could only observe it in that small desert.” Aiko shook her head.

”Oh... OH!” Mei suddenly nodded like a broken doll. ”I think I understand what you mean.”

Mei fired up her own Cauldron and gently raised the temperature.

”Sure enough.” The strange distortion happened in her Cauldron, but only when it was closed. Once you opened the lid, the distortion vanished like it was never there.

”I can definitely work with this.” Mei’s eyes shined, like she found a new toy.

”I told you.” Aiko smiled proudly.

Mei’s expression greatly softened and she gave Aiko a big smooch.

Aiko was startled and tried to understand what just happened.

”Hey! That was my first kiss!” Aiko pouted, but she was not really angry.

Mei licked her lips. ”We are even in that sense.”

Aiko blushed. ”You fiend! I’m the one supposed to tease you!” She proclaimed righteously.

Mei laughed. ”Let’s use your system on this, so I can learn it.” She smiled gently at Aiko.

Aiko pouted again. ”Tsk. Fine, I will reluctantly help you.”

...

They spent a half a year researching this in great detail since Aiko could only estimate the temperature from the system for 1st and 2nd Grade Pills, but the higher you went, the temperature varied more and more.

”I think I can use this up to Grade 3, but we need a more detailed chart for the higher Grade Pills.” Mei pondered on it.

”That is fine, we can use 3rd Grade Pills for now and once I learn more, I will help you with the system.” Aiko smiled.

”Okay.” Mei now believed Aiko about the accuracy of the system when it came to temperature, but the most shocking thing was the results.

100 batches of 2nd Grade Pills yielded 1,100 Perfect Quality Pills!

’I think I can get them blessed if I polish the basics a bit more...’ Mei narrowed her eyes, but this number was simply insane!

It was widely known that the most you could get is 10 per batch and that is if you perfected everything, but now she managed to get 11! Not to mention, all of them were Perfect Quality! She usually had only around 40% chance of success when she quickly made Pills and 90% If she really tried for the sake of Aiko, but now she had a 100% chance!!

Mei giggled to herself and Aiko felt a shiver down her spine.

Aiko hoped that this wouldn’t backfire on her...