Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko gave up on talking with others. She would go have fun outside!

’I still have Cultivators to kill, since not all that chased me kept chasing me...’ Aiko narrowed her eyes.

She would test the unpowered tails against Cultivators, and then give them energy before doing the same.

She also wanted to test other things, but that is only if there are enough test subjects.

’From what the Blood Fox said, there are only a few Cultivators remaining thanks to the ruckus I caused.’ Aiko clicked her tongue. ’Couldn’t they wait for me?! Why did they have to run away? This makes everything so complicated!’ She groaned unhappily.

The movement with this body was still a bit stiff, since it had not been long since she Evolved, but it was still a lot better than with the Dew Form.

’I also have to keep in mind that my stats would get nerfed when attacking Human Cultivators.’ Aiko would be unable to stretch against Human Cultivators, so she would have to find a different target.

’I do remember being chased by something ape-like, so that will definitely be my target!’ Aiko grinned evilly.

She blended with her surroundings, thanks to the powerful [Nightmare Incarnate]. It was even harder for anyone to spot her since it involved both shadows and illusions.

’It sort of feels natural?’ Aiko tilted her head. It felt weird being so familiar with her Abilities.

’Well, it’s alright, since I spent so many years evolving.’ Aiko nodded gently.

She licked her lips as one of her tails shot forward.

It instantly pierced the Cultivator and ripped out his heart.

’Why the heart, though?’ Aiko tilted her head, but her tail munched on it with a blissful expression. ’Oh, it’s like food?’

[Little Nightmares (-)] -> [Little Nightmares (G: 9th, 1 E)]

[Your Little Nightmare ate a Human Heart, raising its Grade to 9th and Energy by 1!]

[You can spend that energy on reinforcements and other things.]

’Oho?’ It’s been a while since Aiko heard the system, but it was always useful whenever it did.

’Do they have to consume hearts?’

[What they eat determines their Grade, while how much Qi inside the thing determines their Energy.]

’So I can feed it anything as long as it is made out of Qi?’ Aiko blinked.

[Correct.]

’Cool~’ That meant she could use her tails to eat other Beasts! Maybe she will Level up?

[Level up!]

’???’ Aiko was confused and noticed that the other Cultivators were dead. None of their bodies twitched or made any movements. Her Tails happily munched on their hearts.

’I can Level by killing Cultivators?’ Aiko tilted her head. ’Or is there some kind of prerequisite?’

The system didn’t answer her, which puzzled Aiko.

She then felt her tails communicating with her, but while Aiko could understand what they meant, she could not understand what she heard.

’So, by extracting their hearts you can give me a bit of their Energy, but instead of feeding it to me, you feed it into a mysterious black hole?’ Aiko blinked a few times. She was unaware that something like that was in her body.

’Where is it?’ Aiko asked.

’It’s near my Beast Core?’ Did she have yet another strange thing in her body?!

Aiko frowned, but pushed that idea to the back of her head. ’I will ask Mei about this later, since she can inspect bodies carefully.’ She decided to leave it to an expert. Everything would be left to the experts, so that she didn’t have to work too hard!

Aiko sped on from the scene. She was not interested in their Storage Pouches, since she noticed strange Runes on them. It would be bad if it could alert them of her position or make loud noises.

Aiko realised that she had a lot more sensitive ears than ever before. She was able to pick up the faintest sounds, which made her wary of almost everything.

’I will have to learn every sound and what they mean...’ She groaned again. This was yet another homework assignment for later.

’I have to take the Treasures from the Beasts and learn how to create them myself. I will have to create the Cauldron, check the system, and check the other Incarnations.’ Aiko recounted just the few things she had to do, but she already groaned unhappily. There was too much to do! ’And let’s not get started on Mei’s homework...’

’It’s fine to run away, right?’ Aiko narrowed her eyes. She wanted to avoid this kind of work!

She groaned yet again as she arrived at the next scene.

There were around 3-4 groups fighting between each other.

They were the Muscle-head Cultivators, the Cultivators with pans, the Sword Cultivators and a group of girls.

Aiko found no interest in muscle heads. Their bodies were bulky and screaming from pain.

The Cultivators with pans smelled quite bad, so she likewise had no interest.

She did have some interest in those Sword Cultivators, since they were 50 by 50. In other words, half male and half female.

’They look quite pretty~’ Aiko hummed happily. She would definitely smack them and do some tests on them.

The last group was the most interesting one.

’I think that one of them feels familiar?’ Aiko tilted her head.

She then shrugged. ’Let’s eavesdrop on them~!’ Her eyes shone brightly.

”Come on! Don’t make it so difficult on yourselves! Just surrender to us and we will treat you nicely~!” One Cultivator shouted.

’I would treat them nicer.’ Aiko huffed.

”Surrender your Treasures and we will leave your corpses intact!” Another Cultivator shouted.

’Fucking necrophiles.’ Aiko’s body shivered. She would absolutely develop some kind of Technique that would make her body blow up if it was touched by anyone outside her team!

”You will never find the Treasure in this place, so just give up!” One Muscle-head shouted.

’Treasure!’ Aiko’s eyes shined. She had enough of eavesdropping and would spring into action.

’So the Treasure should be hidden, but still somewhere around here.’ She narrowed her eyes.

’That will exclude anything above the ground.’ She nodded gently. ’What is left is anything below the ground!’ She chuckled.

Aiko plopped her large ears on the ground and listened to the sounds from the earth.

It was quite quiet with the sounds of fighting from nearby, but...

’A river?’ Aiko tilted her head. Since when was there an underground river in this place? Aiko never heard of it, even when she was inside the Spider’s Den!

’Treasures! That’s the location!’ Aiko was sure of it!

She immediately dove underground through the shadows. Her [Nightmare Fox Incarnate] was quite insane when it came to this.

As long as it was within her range and under shadows, she would be able to move there!

The only caveat was the fact that it consumed 10 Million Stamina per use! And consecutive uses would get even more expensive!

’Great Skill, but ridiculous consumption.’ Aiko clicked her tongue as she arrived down near the river.

”Blood River?” Aiko tilted her head. ’Were rivers supposed to be like this?’ She questioned.

”Lone Cultivator dared to enter my domain. Very well.” A voice sounded from somewhere, but because of Aiko’s ridiculous hearing, she already found the location.

”Skeleton?” Aiko tilted her head. ”That’s no fun...” She whined openly.

”You have to cross this Blood River in order to get my Treasures!” The voice said. ”You will suffer unimaginable pa-”

”So you dropped dead, huh?” Aiko interrupted him.

”...” The voice didn’t know what to say.

”I can’t believe that someone dropped dead near the Treasure and is making it seem like it’s theirs.” Aiko already noticed something wrong with those Treasures, since they had different air on them than the Skeleton.

”......” The voice was left speechless from her deduction.

”Cat got your tongu- No wait, that’s wrong, you are just a pile of creaky bones.” Aiko clicked her tongue.

”.........” The voice experienced a headache after a long time.

”I prefer living beings, you know.” Aiko shook her head.

”I have no interest in Foxes.” The voice immediately replied.

”But I’m very interested in you~” Aiko licked her lips.

”W-what?” The voice stuttered, not expecting this kind of reaction.

”I would soap you up very well, gently caressing you, until I would test my flags on your relaxed body.” Aiko nodded. She had to prepare more flags for more occasions, so she had to know how much it would be possible to ’stretch’ their backdoors for maximum efficiency!

”... What?” The voice felt something wrong with the last part, but he coughed like he didn’t hear it.

”You will suffer unimaginable pa-” He tried to say it again, but paused. ”What are you doing?”

”Slurping the river?” Aiko tilted her head. Her tails were already inside the river.

”What?” The voice felt like he was talking to someone abnormal...

And he would be right!

*SLUUUUUUUURP*

All 8 Tails were slurping the sludgy blood-red river like there was no tomorrow!

”WHAT?!” The Voice was so shocked he almost passed out into the afterlife!

*SLUUUUUUUURP*

The Blood River was getting thinner and thinner as the Tails worked their magic.

”What are you doing?! You will die if you consume it!” The voice panicked. He wished to take over her body in order to get out, but if she didn’t pass through the river, that would be impossible!

”I will not.” Aiko shook her head. She was not consuming it, just merely storing it into her [Tails Storage]!

And since she had plenty of room inside her Tails, there was no need to hold back!

”But seriously. There is so much [Tainted Blood Essence].” Aiko touched her cheek.

”How do you know its name?!” The voice was halfway into the afterlife at this point.

”Hm?” Aiko stuck out her tongue seductively. ”That’s~ a~ secret~”

The voice passed on into the afterlife...

”Did I overdid it...?” Now Aiko would be bored since she would not have anyone to talk to.

”But there is so much of it...” She already consumed 100,000 litres!

How much more will she have to consume it?!