Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

{What Aiko does when no one’s watching...}

Mei just fell asleep. There was some time before Aiko could start bothering her without actually waking her up. She would use this time to get rid of all the impurities stored in her tails!

Aiko sneaked away, only the Dragon noticed, but he would not tattle on her, so it was fine.

She rushed through the forest.

During her tile around the ’garden’ she noticed strange holes in the ground. Aiko didn’t like those holes, since the sounds inside were incredibly creepy.

She stopped in front of one of such holes, staring down deep inside she could see some cobwebs.

’Perfect place to ditch this filth.’ Aiko nodded happily and placed her tails above this place before using the [Tails Storage] to dump the impurities down.

A great waterfall was created all thanks to a single Fox.

Once the ’water’ hit the bottom, it made a disgusting squishing sound. It sounded like someone shat themselves and then some.

Aiko recoiled from that voice, but she wanted to dump the rest of it into the hole.

*Hiss*

A very disgusting hiss sound from deep inside the hole. It was reminiscent of the spider’s hissing.

’Better burrow them completely with this.’ Aiko believed that she was inflicting justice on those vile spiders!

The dumping took a whole hour before it was finished. The cave down was half flooded with a thick browny-black substance.

Just looking at it made Aiko want to puke, but if that didn’t do it, the smell definitely did. It was much, much worse than your common diarrhoea!

Aiko shivered before leaving this place. She didn’t like staying away from Mei for too long, just in case she would encounter another creepy, enraged Beast!

...

{Back to the current timeline}

Mei was focusing on creating the 8th Grade Human Metamorphosis Pills, everything was in place and she started to pick up Herbs.

One after another were slapped inside by Mei’s Divine Sense. The insides were toasty, but Aiko could see Mei adjusting the temperature for each Herb individually.

’Isn’t this a bit too difficult?’ Aiko gulped. She would certainly be unable to recreate this skill.

Aiko would need to spend more Skill Points to match Mei’s skill!

Aiko watched Mei closely as the day passed, but Mei was still not finished.

’Isn’t it supposed to take at most 6 hours?’ Aiko was confused.

Mei was only halfway through the Herbs, but a day had already passed. How was that possible?

Mei never stopped moving her hands. It was difficult to create a 6th Grade Pill, much less 8th Grade. Each Grade was not as simple as twice the power, but it could result in 20 or more times of power. As such, the requirements, in order to create such a precious Pill, were likewise much higher, especially for those who do not have Immortal Qi.

Another day passed and Mei finally used all Herbs, but this was not the end. She now needed to mix the Herbs in a specific combination, or all of them would be ruined.

Mei was constantly frowning and she also started to munch on the supporting Pills. They would replenish her reservoirs well for the time being...

Another day passed and Mei was panting. Her face was flushed and she was focusing intently. She was currently in the final stretch of coagulating the Pills.

This step was likewise hard, since if the Pill was too hard, it would be difficult to absorb, but if it was too soft, it would turn into a gooey substance and decay quickly.

As one of the final steps was happening, the sky darkened and clouds emerged.

”She is overdoing it again.” The Dragon clicked her tongue. ”We should make room, Mei’s Pills will be blessed by the Heavenly Lightning.”

The Dragon guided everyone away while setting up a boundary, so that no one could invade Mei’s alchemy place.

Satisfied with his work, he calmly waited.

The clouds gathered above Mei, ready to strike any moment, but for some reason, they were waiting, like they were unwilling to strike it to begin with...

Mei was calm, she knew that the hardest hurdle was already past her and the only thing she had to do now was to guard against this Heavenly Lightning so it didn’t strike her!

She gathered her Beast Core Energy to form a protective film. It was not as powerful as normal Qi protective film, but since Mei still had more Beast Core Energy than Humans, it would offset this difference.

The clouds roared as the Pills were approaching their final form. The moment Mei would lift the lit, it would strike the Pills, blessing them in the process.

She was waiting for it patiently...

Now!

Mei lifted the lid and the Heavens roared down on her little Cauldron. It was obvious that they didn’t want to do it, since this force would surely shatter her Cauldron.

But that didn’t matter to Mei as the Pills were finished and even blessed!

The Heavenly Lightning connected with the Cauldron, blinding anyone in its vicinity. Right after this, a medical scent spread all around the forest. It was a thick and soothing smell, one that could drive Beasts mad.

Yet none would approach this place, as the Dragon’s tyranny was well known.

The light subsided and the Pills emerged in a beautiful green colour and round shape. Added to that, there were streaks of lightning running across the Pills. The maximum amount was 9 streaks, but for this instance, Mei could get at most 5.

Why? Because she lacked Immortal Qi to improve the Pills further, but even without that Immortal Qi, she got solid 5 out of 5 streaks across most of them.

8 Pills had 5 streaks, while 2 Pills had 4 streaks running across them.

It was a very good harvest for Mei.

One Pill was used as a filth gatherer, so there was one black putrid Pill, but since that one was isolated, it didn’t ruin the other Pills.

Mei was happy with this outcome as she stored the Pills inside the special bottle that she had prepared in advance. It might not be able to store 8th Grade Pills for long, but it should be long enough for Mei to find a better container!

”Is it finished?” Aiko asked curiously. She never imagined such a disastrous outcome!

”It is finished.” The Dragon nodded and Mei fainted.

”Mei!” Aiko was startled and chased after Mei.

She was sleeping soundly on the ground, but that wouldn’t do! Aiko moved Mei to a proper bed so that she could recover.

”Should I store the Cauldron for the time being?” Aiko asked the Dragon.

”No need to bother, that one is beyond saving.” The Dragon shook his head.

”Why are you so negative, it’s still intact.” Aiko shook her head as she approached the Cauldron to pat it, in order to demonstrate that everything was alright.

Aiko gently patted it, but her hand went through and the whole thing turned to dust.

”HUH?!” Aiko was shocked and recoiled. ”I didn’t break it!” She didn’t use that much strength, yet the whole thing crumbled into dust!

”Of course, you didn’t do anything.” The Dragon chuckled. ”The Heavenly Lightning was the one that did it.” He snorted.

”Why?” Aiko tilted her head.

”Because Heavens do not favour Beasts.” The Dragon chuckled darkly. He would pay the Dao a visit one day and break it completely!

”What do we do now?” Aiko asked the Dragon.

While the place was not destroyed, it still smelled of charred earth, which was not nice on her sensitive nose.

”Leave it be, leave it be.” The Dragon sighed. ”Mei will solve this issue once she rests properly.

Aiko nodded gently and headed to Mei. She would help her rest properly and ask questions later~!

...

A week went by quickly. Aiko was taking care of Mei and practising her Divine Sense when she was too bored.

As such, her Divine Sense underwent a great change, thanks to Mei’s demonstration during her heated Alchemy.

The Dragon was still unsatisfied with the wolf, but there was little to do about it. Aiko would have to subdue it over time or just banish it altogether.

The next day, Mei finally woke up. She groaned unhappily before wrapping herself with Aiko’s tails.

Aiko already knew this would happen, so she wasn’t as affected as before, but that didn’t mean her face didn’t heat up.

It took some time for Mei to properly wake up and sit down, but Aiko patiently waited for that time.

...

Mei rubbed her sleepy eyes. Her Beast Core was pretty much empty and she was recovering slowly, all thanks to Aiko’s overflowing Vitality.

Mei would definitely ask Aiko later about more Vitality, so that her Transformation becomes so much smoother.

Aiko gently caressed Mei’s back, trying to inject some of her Beast Core Energy into Mei, but since she was not familiar with this, it was a failure.

Mei still appreciated this gesture and nuzzled Aiko.

This shocked Aiko and she didn’t know what to do. Mei was gentle, but Aiko could feel that psychological weight on her body.

She could not bear it and collapsed back onto the bed with Mei on top of her.

Mei soon dozed off again and Aiko had a flabbergasted expression on her face.

’Mei was such a bully...’ Aiko thought in her mind.

...

Another day, the duo separated. Neither of them spoke a word, that was especially so for Mei, whose face was completely red. She could not believe the fact that she let her guard down completely.

She glanced at Aiko, but when she noticed that; she blushed away.

’Cute...-’ Mei thought that Aiko was cute, but then she was startled by her own thought process. Everything changed so abruptly after the Alchemy.

Was she really that weak that she would just throw away everything and let her guard down?

Was Aiko truly that harmless?

She did not know the answer to those questions, but what she did know was the fact that her body was rested and her mind replenished.

Even if Aiko had a strange system and skills, these things greatly aided Mei, so she could not be unhappy with Aiko just because...

Mei would have to observe Aiko further, but it seemed like Aiko did not mind Mei all that much.

She was quite accepting of her ’strange’ advances, which troubled Mei.

’I hope she is not like this with others...’ Mei formed a strange fantasy in her mind where Aiko would freely hug others.

A not-so-beautiful frown formed on her face... she no longer wished to leave this continent and go to the mainland.

While this continent was shitty, it was not as shitty as the mainland, with constant wars. Moreover, marriage for connections was commonplace on the mainland, which Mei hated!