Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

A small Spider sneaked around inside a large city. It was looking for any kind of amusing thing that it could take with it and show to Aiko.

Its first visit was to a red-light district.

Even during the day, the sky was oddly dark. Like someone put a blanket over it. There was odd smoke in the air, which unsettled the Spider, but since it didn’t stick close to the ground, it was safe for the time being.

Looking around, most entertainment was behind bars and with collars around their limbs. It was obvious that these were not your typical courtesans.

Sneaking further in, the thickness of the smoke got even worse, but at least the little Spider was able to find its origin.

He saw these things when Mei created something for the group. They were called Arrays, and depending on their usage, they could be both good and bad.

Considering the current circumstances, these were definitely bad.

Shaking its head. He nudged the Array to see if it could be disabled.

The first time didn’t do anything, but on the opposite side, the second nudge, it completely collapsed upon itself.

The smoke didn’t thin immediately, but it also didn’t produce any more.

From this, the little Spider got a few Spirit Stones, which made it very happy.

It scouted around for more Array and slowly dismantled all of them.

But because of the nature of the Arrays, none really noticed it as this phenomenon happened often.

There were always some rodents or drunkards who would stumble upon them and interrupt them, so nobody raised any fuss over it.

With its speed, the Spider was able to disable all of them, and most of the courtesans snapped back to reality.

There was silence in the red-light district for the first time in a long time, but that silence didn’t last long.

Soon, screams and roars filled the district as most courtesans went berserk, slaughtering anyone in their path.

At that time, a small group of Foxes encountered it, but the Spider just waved its leg before walking away.

The Foxes were confused about its intentions, but since it helped them, they let it go.

The Spider earned quite a few Spirit Stones, and he slowly exchanged them for some yummy food.

Unlike his owner, it was unable to store anything inside its body, since it would corrode due to the poison.

It didn’t have any tails that could store anything inside, and its behind could only carry so much before it would become too chunky...

...

The Spider’s next destination looked like a glorious mansion or maybe, possibly even a palace.

Sneaking inside was much harder than the red-light district. There were guards everywhere, and the Arrays were a lot more sensitive, too.

The good thing about its body was that it could easily climb walls and ceilings, and for some reason, those parts didn’t have as many Arrays as the floors and open fields.

With that, it was able to get inside unnoticed.

”Saintess...”

”Don’t call me that. I told you I’m already too tired to predict the future.”

”But...”

The Spider ignored their conversation since it was attracted to a certain room.

Sneaking towards it, it was obvious that it was heavily guarded as the Arrays covered all blind spots.

”Saintess, we really need to predict the future! We are under a siege!”

”I already told you I’m tired. Do you wish that my predictions were inaccurate, so that you can blame me? Don’t think I have not noticed your lustful gaze towards me!”

”That’s not it!”

The palace shook, and a few Arrays temporarily shut down.

The Spider used this opportunity to get closer to the most guarded room. Well, in theory, it could be called a safe, but it didn’t look like one.

Inside, there were many pedestals with weapons, but the Spider wasn’t really interested in anything like that.

What did interest it, was a very round marble wrapped in gentle flames.

It remembered that its owner was trying to raise some kind of flame inside her body, so this might be quite useful for later.

It immediately stuffed it into its mandibles before sneaking away.

It didn’t take all that much time, and an alarm was sounded in the whole city. Sure, the siege was pretty bad, but-

”THE SOLAR FRAGMENT WAS STOLEN! EVERYONE TO ARMS!” One angry Cultivator roared across the whole city.

Thanks to this disturbance, the Humans were on high alert, and the Foxes had to retreat, but at the end of the day, the high alert just tired those Humans out.

Why? Because the little Spider was already outside the city, sneaking away.

This was only one of the cities that it wanted to visit, but it would first need to store this marble away. It was too obvious as it shone quite brightly...

...

In the next city, there was nothing of interest to the little Spider, so it just sneaked into the mansion to troll those people.

It would tilt the candles, mess up the decoration and prepare candle impalers for those who wished to sit.

Overall, this was a mild annoyance which upset the Cultivators inside, but since they were unable to find the origin, they only roared about it.

...

This ended up being most cities, which meant that the little Spider had to change its approach.

It was now aiming to disable all the Arrays it possibly could.

With its limited knowledge, it would not be able to disable anything big, but these cities had many, many small Arrays. It would not be a stretch to say that it could learn about them until it could disable the big ones.

The spider disabled the Arrays that it found the most annoying. It was mostly those smoke Arrays, detection Arrays and so on.

With this, it was quickly able to amass knowledge and move to the bigger Arrays.

The first one would be an Array that kept the ambience the same. This Array was commonly found around Herbs so that sudden cold snaps would not ruin them.

However, that Array didn’t have any alarm, as nobody really wished to ruin precious Herbs.

That was not the case for the little Spider, as it slowly turned all of them off before moving onto the next stage.

The chaos was increasing in the cities, making infiltration both easier and harder.

Easier because the Human Cultivators were looking for a small intruder and not for Foxes, but harder because there were many Human Cultivators.

This was fine for the Foxes, since they could merge into their surroundings and sneak around.

Nobody knew that the little Spider was the cause of the chaos, but everyone was happy that they had an easier life.

Unfortunately, the little Spider didn’t find anything else, so its journey was slowly coming to an end...

-----

[Before Sacred Realm]

It was an endlessly empty space without a floor or roof. There was no sense of direction and no light to speak of, yet both Feifei and the Demonic Foxes didn’t mind it.

There were many Treasures inside that they could play with, and the sense of weightlessness, that they had never experienced before, was incredible.

The Foxes would swim in this endless space while Feifei would roll around.

Each of them had their own fun, but there were a few issues.

”What will happen if something happens to Aiko?”

”How would I know that?”

”But aren’t you hungry too?”

”A bit...”

The Foxes discussed mundane things, since those voices were unable to reach this place.

It was a completely maddening silence, but they loved it.

Nobody was yelling at them or trying to hurt them. It was the perfect paradise for them.

”I wonder if we will get more friends inside here...”

”Definitely. You know Aiko.”

”True...”

The Foxes had to admit that Aiko attracted trouble, but also allies.

Well, those allies were mostly of the same race as they were, but that was beside the point.

All that mattered was more friends inside here, so it was just a little bit less boring.

”You should calm down.” Yu clapped her hands.

”But don’t you want to eat too?”

”We are hungry!”

”We want toys!”

Yu rolled her eyes. This kind of situation had never happened before Aiko, since they wanted to keep their image, but once Aiko turned around, they would turn into children seeking amusement.

”We need to keep rations just in case Aiko does something for a few years.” Yu narrowed her eyes.

”True...”

”If you say so...”

”Still hungry...”

Yu sighed gently and distributed a bit of food between them.

For some reason, this place had halted time for certain things. They didn’t spoil or go cold. As it was prepared, it would stay like that until it was pulled out of this place.

Of course, the Foxes were not affected by this, but they could feel that their ageing was slower inside. A lot slower.

This meant that, in theory, they would be able to cultivate in here, but there was a problem.

There was no Qi inside the Tails; the only indication inside was when Aiko arrived in a different place, and the temperature and humidity inside changed.

’It must be hard on her...’ Yu narrowed her eyes. She would do her best to keep these rascals in check, but who knows how it will end up?

All of them were too energetic to keep in one place, and there was not enough entertainment inside.

Most of them were also like sisters, so they were not all that willing to indulge in carnal desires.

”I found a book!”

”You found something new?!”

”Show us! Show us!”

The Demonic Foxes immediately swarmed her.

”Ohhhhhhhhhh!”

They found quite a few books describing something else.

”I’m calling dibs on ’How to take care of Tails’!”

”Hey! I wanted that one!”

”I will take ’How to massage 101’!”

”Stop pushing!”

There was uproar, and Yu could only sigh. A book was kicked to her legs.

’’How to please your partner’...’ Yu read the title but coughed awkwardly. She didn’t expect Aiko to hide something like this.

’I shouldn’t...’ Yu tried to distance herself from the book, but she was too curious...

’A small peek wouldn’t hurt, right?’ Yu gulped nervously as she opened that book...