Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko shied away as Mei was staring at her. She was holding her throbbing head.

The Dragon was sleeping, just in case something more ridiculous happened, so he avoided the stray arrow.

Aiko squirmed a bit further, just in case Mei wanted to bully her again, but fortunately, that was not the case this time.

”Have you separated the water from the Herbs?” Mei asked with a sigh.

”Yes, and I keep doing that as the Herbs keep ’dropping’ water.” Aiko nodded innocently.

”At least that’s a good thing, we do not wish to turn the Herbs’ Element into that of Water or at least not all of them.” Mei explained to Aiko.

”Even [Heavenly Blessed Light-Water] would do that?” Aiko asked Mei curiously as she sneaked next to her.

”...” Mei had once again trouble hearing. She definitely didn’t hear the words ’Heavenly’ and ’Blessed’ from Aiko’s mouth right...?

Mei stared at Aiko without blinking. She was trying to observe Aiko to ensure that she was not making fun of her.

Unfortunately, Aiko was just smiling innocently, so Mei was unable to figure it out.

”This is Heavenly Blessed Light-Water?” Mei asked Aiko, just in case she was imagining things.

”Yes.” Aiko nodded happily. It seemed that this water was better than what Mei expected!

Mei... fainted again.

...

The next day Aiko was sitting next to Mei taking care of her.

”Are you sure you are not ill? You faint so often...” Aiko was concerned about Mei’s well-being.

Mei pinched Aiko’s cheek. ”And whose fault is that?!” She was unhappy that Aiko was trying to play innocent when it was her fault to begin with.

”And you-!” Mei kept glaring at Aiko. ”Next time you should tell me the whole name!” She kept kneading Aiko’s face until she agreed to do so.

Mei sighed, lying down. She would nuzzle Aiko’s tails as punishment for the time being, since this was the only thing that had any significant effect on Aiko.

However, Mei was too excited about the fact that the Herbs were a grade higher than she expected, all thanks to the special water. That meant that she would be able to get even better Pills and instead of creating the 6th Grade Human Transformation Heavenly Pills; she could create the 8th Grade Human Metamorphosis Pills.

It does sound like that Pill is less effective since it doesn’t have that shitty ’heavenly’ in its name, but that was not the case! This 8th-Grade Pill allowed oneself to completely reconstruct the body, which was the 3rd way to improve her Human Physique!

Mei nodded happily. With this she would get the perfect Human Body and even the Forbidden Technique would not be able to reduce her Cultivation that much over time, allowing her to focus more on other pressing issues.

’In that case, I will speed things up...’ Mei narrowed her eyes. She had enough Souls to get all 9 Tails, the only reason she did not do that was the fact that it would be too obvious, but now! Now that she could obtain the perfect Human Body, there was no need to hold back! She would definitely be revered in the Mainland Sect, which would bring a lot of benefits to her!

Mei nodded happily once again. Aiko was both a blessing and a painful curse on her mind. One bestowed everything that Mei wanted, but the other reminded her about Aiko’s abnormality...

”Give me the Herbs, I will give them a good squeeze.” Mei licked her lips as she stood up.

Aiko was startled by this sudden change of behaviour and backed away a bit.

”You are acting like I would bite you...” Mei was shaking her head.

”Wouldn’t you?” Aiko was guarding her body, just in case.

”You-” Mei sighed before kneading Aiko’s face again.

...

They returned to the temporary Alchemy station where Mei cleaned and squeezed the Herbs.

Aiko kept pulling out more and more Herbs as Mei happily squeezed them off the [Heavenly Blessed Light-Water].

She would then place them in front of Aiko again, so that Aiko could store them later.

This repeated for a long time, until all the Herbs were squeezed.

”None of them changed Element?” Aiko asked curiously.

”No, since it’s not simple Light-Water.” Mei shook her head. ”Thanks to it, not only did we get better Herbs quality, but we also enhanced some of their properties without breaking the balance.”

This was too difficult for Aiko to understand for now, but she would keep these words in mind.

”How much [Heavenly Blessed Light-Water] we have left?” Mei asked Aiko.

[Tails Storage(2,400m3): [Heavenly Blessed Light-Water 999L], [Primordial Soul Wood], [100 Ghost Parade Lamp(Slightly Damaged)], [Talismans], [Tools], [Cleaned Herbs - lots]]

”999 litres.” Aiko said to Mei.

”Excellent.” Mei was making sure to extract as much of the special water out of them as possible. This would allow them to use it for as long as possible!

Mei was happy with this outcome and asked Aiko for certain Herbs. She would now start practising for when she would try the 8th Grade Human Metamorphosis Pill!

Aiko placed the Herbs in front of Mei, but since this would get boring quite quickly, Aiko set up her own little Alchemy station for her own practice.

Mei smiled gently and focused on her own little station.

They kept working, sorting Herbs and preparing them for the time when they would refine them into Pills.

...

The team was likewise working hard. They were practising their Divine Sense, so that they could Cultivate Beast Techniques. For the time being, the Blood Fox was the only one that was preparing for her Evolution, but as silently as possible to not startle Aiko.

When Mei was practising, she created a few Pills for the Blood Fox that she could use during her Evolution.

Mei did not push for the Blood Fox to get Aiko’s favour. It would take some time for the Blood Fox to realise her mistake, but Mei hoped that it would not be late at that point.

Unfortunately, if it was too late, the Blood Fox could only blame herself and her fate that was too short for glory.

Not everyone would be able to reach ascension in their lifetime. Most of them would not reach ascension even if they were given multiple lifetimes!

That was the one unchanging fact that Mei could not change, but fortunately, her body was in good form, so she would have an easier time ascending than what she achieved previously.

’I wonder if Aiko would destroy the Heavenly Immoral Gates... surely not.’ Mei chuckled at that ridiculous thought. There was no way that Aiko would be able to break something that’s unbreakable for Mortal World Cultivators.

’But she would destroy it if she got upset in the Immortal World...’ Mei believed that Aiko would definitely destroy those gates once Aiko Cultivated a few years in the Immortal World.

Mei looked around. Aiko was paying close attention to her Cauldron, so Mei waved at the Blood Fox.

The Blood Fox tilted her head, but still walked next to Mei.

”Here. Use it well and all.” Mei gave the Pills that the Blood Fox needed in a small pouch.

”Thank you. I will excuse myself.” The Blood Fox nodded gently before disappearing.

Aiko these days does not pay much attention to her team. She was either working with Herbs or her Divine Sense, so she was too busy to care about them all.

That meant that the Blood Fox could take her time with the Evolution.

She also brought with her the special ’bedding’ that she timed some time ago.

Mei turned back to refining. She would keep practising until she was somewhat sure that she could succeed with the process.

She didn’t need to be 100% sure, but sure enough that she could succeed was good enough.

Most would not do it like this, but since this Pill was considered an Immortal Grade, that meant that only Immortals could produce it.

While Mei was Immortal, she did not have any Immortal Qi to affect the process. As such, ’good enough’, was the best she could hope for.

...

A few weeks later, Mei finished her preparations. It took her some time, but she was satisfied with her practice. It was not perfect, but good enough, and that’s all that mattered.

Aiko also finished quite a few Pills. She was able to finish the 3rd Grade Healing Pill and Blood Pill.

Mei was satisfied with this progress, but there was also a strange sense of unease. Aiko was doing quite well, getting around 5-6 Pills of a good quality. She still wasted quite a bit of resources, but that was because her breathing was uneven from her excitement.

That would fix itself over time, since Mei went through something similar.

”Aiko, can you please finish your Pills and wait?” Mei asked Aiko. For these kinds of Pills, she needed to set up an Array and not have any distractions. If it failed, at best she would lose the Herbs, but at worst the Cauldron would explode.

We were talking about a Pill that took 4 dozen Herbs to refine into a Pill, so the power inside the Cauldron was immense! So much so that she would have to ask her old friend to shield others, just in case.

”Sure!” Aiko nodded and slowly packed up her things. She noticed how serious Mei was, so she didn’t want to fool around.

Mei set up an Array and fed it a few Spirit Stones. This Pill Refining would take a lot of time. There were almost 50 Herbs and she needed to shape all of them and then combine them piece by piece. She also prepared a few 5th Grade Mind Restoration Pills and 4th Grade Qi Restoration Pills.

The latter would not be as helpful since the Beast Core would convert only some of it, but it was still better than nothing.

Mei looked over the Herbs. They were all washed and looking all pretty. The special grass was also under the Cauldron, which would enhance the flames and make them more gentle towards the Pills.

The supporting Pills had their own little bowl for easy access for when Mei needed them.

Her tools were prepared. The Cauldron was warming up. The Dragon set up another Defensive Formation around Mei and everyone else.

Everyone was huddled behind the Dragon just in case something went wrong and the Dragon was ready to shatter the space to get Mei away from the Cauldron.

Everything was ready for the 8th Grade Human Metamorphosis Pills!