Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Li Xiu moved along, not asking about the guardian. She was worried that further questions might anger it.

The path was paved by dirt, you would never expect normal payment in these kinds of Peaks.

Unnatural man-made formations might clog up the Qi, making it difficult to extract from the surroundings.

Aiko didn’t bother much about them. She was slightly unhappy that she was shaken off, but that couldn’t be helped.

It seemed like the snake had a bad temper and didn’t like warm things. Sun Aiko understood that.

Nodding to herself, the duo came across what appeared to be a small house.

”This is my home.” Li Xiu smiled.

Aiko questioned her sanity, why such a dilapidated hut would be her home.

However, once she stepped forward, the scenery naturally changed.

”This Peak has a special natural formation that conceals and deceives the heavens. Not even Mystic Ability can see through it.” Li Xiu explained.

”Mystic Ability?” Sun Aiko was curious about what that was.

Li Xiu paused her steps to properly think about it. ”It’s something like Beasts’ Divine Ability, but for humans?” She tilted her head slightly, but this was the best comparison she could give.

Aiko nodded blankly. Another special thing just for humans, huh?

Looking around. The small, dilapidated hut was no more. In front of her was a large garden, spanning around 20x20 metres. There was one large tree and a large pond.

It seemed like the pond hummed in particular light, but Sun Aiko just thought that it was the Sun’s reflection.

Shaking her head slowly, she looked around. The grass was not maintained at all, and there were weeds growing everywhere. In some places, the wood was broken and decayed.

”This isn’t much better.” Aiko protested.

”That’s because I was away for a few years; this is what always happens.” Li Xiu shook her head.

Her Master was unwilling to allow her to use spiritual materials like Spiritual Wood and such.

This created a very poor scenario where she was just waiting for this place to crumble each time she left.

”So you will be fixing it now?” Aiko narrowed her eyes. While she was energetic, she didn’t want to have to do anything with it.

Li Xiu shook her head. ”Not yet. I will show you around first and then get to cleaning.”

”Uh-huh, depositing me into dust while you play outside.” Sun Aiko didn’t like that idea, since dust could bake into her fur due to her heat.

She jumped from Li Xiu’s arms onto a nearby tree.

”Ohhh, such warmth.”

Aiko was shocked when something suddenly spoke to her, so much so that she almost fell down.

”...” Li Xiu didn’t expect that kind of reaction either. That tree was always asleep and only sometimes regulated the natural Qi so that she could speed up her cultivation.

Yet Aiko took only a few seconds to wake it up, and the surrounding Qi immediately spiked.

”What is this?” Aiko slapped the tree with her tail.

*moan*

The tree moaned from that whip. ”That’s nice~, more~”

Sun Aiko felt sudden disgust, and she immediately jumped down to stare at Li Xiu.

”Believe it or not, I had no idea this tree was alive.” Li Xiu lied through her teeth. She didn’t want to believe that the tree she sowed would turn into a masochistic pervert!

Yet the ambient Qi spiked once again, making her upset even more.

Sun Aiko naturally didn’t believe her. She even gazed at her with severe judgment and prejudice.

Li Xiu immediately felt hurt and tried to defend herself further. ”How was I supposed to know that the system would give me a perverted tree?!” She didn’t know what to say to Aiko, so she just blurted that.

”System?” Aiko immediately picked up on that word.

”...” Li Xiu pursed her lips. When she was flustered, she always said something stupid.

Fortunately, her peers were likewise stupid, so they just treated it like a slip of the tongue, but that gaze from Aiko...

It was obvious she would have to explain it somehow.

Aiko’s judgmental gaze made her sweat.

”I-i-i know! How about I show you around!” Li Xiu didn’t want to explain it at all! Aiko would absolutely think she was stupid!

”...” Aiko thought that she had already heard about this, but she couldn’t remember it for some reason? Was her brain overloaded with so much information, or just lazy?

Moreover, that reaction from Li Xiu was also suspicious, but she would rather leave this area and be away from the nasty tree.

”This is the main hall, that’s for visitors if someone happens to come by.” Li Xiu explained.

The main hall was very minimalistic. There was one large low table with pseudo-chairs surrounding it. There were a few more tables on the side, probably because the group was too small for the big table.

Shaking her head, Aiko observed a bit more.

There were no chandeliers or anything like that, just a few windows on the right and left, and that was it. There were no carpets or anything decorative, just a very minimalistic hall.

Li Xiu then guided Aiko deeper inside.

Another small garden followed, this was about 10x10 metres. It once again had a nice pond, but this one really shone. There was also a nice willow tree...

Aiko naturally and slowly turned her head towards Li Xiu.

Li Xiu choked at that gesture. ”This is a normal tree planted by my Master!” She immediately defended herself.

”Suuure...” Aiko narrowed her eyes. She didn’t believe this was a normal tree; it was impossible to be a normal tree!

”I’m telling you the truth!” Li Xiu cried out.

Aiko ignored her and looked around.

Like the previous garden, there were many weeds, but in this pond, even fish swam.

’This is nice emergency food.’ Sun Aiko slightly salivated.

”Bad Aiko! Those are not for food!” Li Xiu immediately ’dragged’ Aiko away and into other parts, before the fish died from a heart attack.

The following rooms were not as impressive. Kitchen, storage room, more storage rooms, treasure room and so on.

Only the last room was impressive.

”Hm? There is no dust?” Aiko narrowed her eyes.

”This is my room, so I set up an Array so that I don’t have to clean it.” Li Xiu confessed.

This room was many times more impressive than any other room.

It had a nice round fur carpet in the middle, there was a small table to the left, a full-fledged table that had a window right next to it, so you could look outside.

On the left side, there were drawers and decorated mirrors for one to look at.

The main attraction was still the bed, deeper inside the room. It felt a bit separated by the ’circle doors’. Well, there were no doors, just a wall that had an ’o’ shape carved into it, and they called it a door.

The bed was huge, much bigger than anything that Aiko had seen before.

The mosquito net and soft bedding attracted a lot of attention from Aiko, especially since they were vibrant red.

Everything was in white or red or pink, making it so blindingly shiny that Aiko couldn’t help herself.

”No.” However, Li Xiu still stopped Aiko from jumping onto the bed. ”First is the bath, who knows what was inside that cave?” She shook her head, but it was obvious she would not yield this to Aiko.

”Are we bathing together?” Sun Aiko narrowed her eyes. She would like to splash around, but she also understood that others might not like it.

”W-what?!” Li Xiu was caught off guard and immediately blushed. Her Master would immediately get ideas if that happened, so that could not happen!

”N-no!” Li Xiu stuttered once again, as this would be a serious issue if her Master knew about it.

”Yay~!” Sun Aiko was overjoyed that she would be able to splash water around to her heart’s content.

”...” Li Xiu felt hurt for some reason, but she would not voice it openly. She was the one to reject this idea first, so she had no justification to be upset.

...

Li Xiu moved Aiko to yet another room. This was specifically made for bathing.

”Why didn’t you show me this room before~?” Sun Aiko sulked that such a wonderful room was hidden from her.

”You like it?” Li Xiu thought that Aiko would hate water with such bushy tails, but that was not the case? How weird...

”Of course~!” Aiko would be able to cool down and get rid of the dirt, so it was a double win!

”Then you can go ins-” Before Li Xiu could finish her sentence, Aiko was already midway above the bathing area.

IT was a large room and, in the middle of it, was a rocky bath area. It was nice and pristine, you could see all those different colourful rocks changing colours on the top of the water.

*Splash*

Aiko masterfully landed in that bath and immediately splashed around happily.

Steam immediately rose all around them due to her own body temperature.

Li Xiu chuckled. She now understood why Aiko liked this place and why she didn’t want to bathe with her.

Li Xiu hated it when she was splashed inside the bath, so this was actually good on her part.

’But this water is quite precious...’ She tapped the Array that gathered all the water back into the bath for more uses. It would be concerning if Aiko splashed it all out of the bath.

”I didn’t think you would like it this much.” Li Xiu could no longer see Aiko.

Sun Aiko immediately went into her pseudo-Human Form and splashed around. She was unconcerned about the system and what happened to it, as she just enjoyed the current situation.

”It’s niiiice~” Sun Aiko hummed. She was definitely supposed to learn the [Melody of Healing], but she was having too much fun like this.

”Good.” Just as Li Xiu wanted to go outside, she was grabbed by Aiko.

”You should take a dip too, the water is now warm~!” Aiko needed someone to cool down the water after her ferocious temperature, so she naturally used this situation to drag Li Xiu in.

”Kya!” Li Xiu didn’t expect Aiko to grab her and yelped.

*Splash*

Li Xiu groaned unhappily as her clothes were soaked and partially see-through. She blushed as she tried to cover her bosom, but something was sitting on her.

”See? Nice and warm~” Sun Aiko was happy that someone cool entered the bath, but for some reason Li Xiu was completely red in the face and her temperature also rose quickly...!