Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Ah Cy gave Aiko the toxic Herbs so that she could do her thing.

”There is also this poison, but I advise against using it as it’s seriously powerful.” Ah Cy warned Aiko.

[This is perfect Corpse Hell Poison. Your current Physique and Bloodline are unable to deal with it. Please don’t drink it.]

Moon Aiko nodded her head. When even the system went out of its way to give her this message, this must be a very serious situation.

[It’s not really serious, as this would be perfect material in forming a new Physique. However, for that, we need to still have the Corpse Hell Poison when you are creating it.]

Moon Aiko rolled her eyes. It should’ve started with that and not with the warning! Well, the warning was still nice, but she wondered how she would be able to consume it if it was dangerous.

[Bath.]

”No way!” Moon Aiko yelled out like she was being tortured.

Ah Cy stiffened and looked back.

Moon Aiko awkwardly coughed. She was so shocked that she yelled out by accident. She stored that special poison in her tails.

”Are you sure that you are alright?” Ah Cy narrowed her eyes.

”I’m fine.” Moon Aiko looked away. ”I survived the Sacred Realm, so I can survive anything at this point.” She shrugged, but Ah Cy’s curious gaze couldn’t be concealed.

Moon Aiko rolled her eyes slightly, but let Ah Cy get close.

”So what actually happened? Every major Sect is up in arms that someone destroyed the Sacred Realm.” Ah Cy was curious about what Aiko did to cause this whole mess.

Aiko sighed slightly. She would tell her about what happened in the Sacred Realm, but leave some things out just in case.

...

Ah Cy blankly stared forward, like her brain couldn’t process that information.

”So...” Ah Cy blinked a few times, but her gaze didn’t change. ”The Fox Village sent Foxes to use Seal on you, but instead of hindering you, it helped your Evolution.”

”That spiralled out of control, destroying everything in its path, and you have somehow found a way to escape it.” Ah Cy looked at Aiko like she was looking at someone stupid.

”Fine, fine, if you don’t want to tell me about the Sacred Realm, you can keep it to yourself.” Ah Cy pouted, not believing what Aiko said was the truth.

”But I’m telling you...” Aiko never met someone so difficult to convince in her entire life.

”Yeah, yeah.” Ah Cy waved before leaving the room.

”...” Moon Aiko felt hurt by her demeanour, but couldn’t really blame her.

Looking back at what happened if she didn’t mention the system- Well, even if she did, nobody would still believe her.

The Sacred Realm was very close to being a Mortal World, so destroying one was similar to being able to destroy a Mortal World.

Even if her transformation was temporary, the fact that she obliterated it still stood.

Aiko shook her head gently. She would later find Li Xiu to comfort her wounded heart.

For now, she needed to increase her proficiency in her techniques to conceal her beauty and make herself faster!

First up was the [Moonless Mist-

[Moonless Mist Shroud 3/? -> 4/9]

Moon Aiko blinked slowly. What was this ridiculous-

[Gale Steps: 2/9->3/9]

[Illusionary Steps: 1/9->2/9]

”I have not-”

[Lightness Technique: 8/9->Mastered (Beast)]

”...” Aiko just stared blankly at her system. She only revised basic information about the Techniques, and they just spontaneously levelled up!

Now, Aiko was really curious what she could accomplish, so first she bought the [Spiritual Insight].

[The system is going through a revision to accommodate the changes with Beast Cores and your current abilities to further reduce the overhead.]

[As the system gets more efficient, you will be able to obtain more missions and rewards from them.]

[Spiritual Insight (Stage 1)]

[Effect: Size measurement]

The first stage was about the dimensions of objects. Aiko could precisely see how big something was, but it was harder to transfer it to different locations.

[Spiritual Insight (Stage 2)]

[Effect: Size measurement.]

[Effect: Size displacement.]

The second stage allowed her to ’transfer’ objects into different places, allowing her to imagine how things would look if they were in different places.

This made Aiko slightly dizzy since the objects were now in multiple places, which confused her slightly. She would have to get used to this stage.

Shaking her head slightly, Moon Aiko adjusted her mentality.

[Spiritual Insight (Stage 3)]

[Effect: Size measurement.]

[Effect: Size displacement.]

[Effect: Object Qi measurement.]

The third stage allowed her to see how much Qi was packed in a given object. What was more is that she also could see that not every Spirit Stone was completely packed, and some had hollow points.

For some reason, at this stage, Aiko’s head started to hurt.

And that was because her Divine Sense was not powerful and stable enough to transmit all the given information.

She would have to work on that later, but for now, it was time to do a few more things.

[Melody of Healing (Cultivation Manual - High Heaven)(Stage 1)]

[Effect: Through sound, your Health is slowly recovering. (Can’t be used as [Embryonic Breathing] as this technique requires constant activation through sound.)]

There was now a lot more information about the [Cultivation Manuals], so Aiko should revise those soon.

’System, can I combine Cultivation Scriptures?’ Aiko narrowed her eyes.

[It is possible, but it will cost you Providence and Cultivation Points. However, some Scriptures won’t be able to be combined as they might contradict each other. (Providence is unaccounted for, as you have too much of it.)]

Moon Aiko slowly nodded her head. So it wouldn’t cost her Providence for now, since her Providence was being suppressed. Aiko guessed that once the Providence was not suppressed, it would actually cost her something.

[You are correct.]

Aiko nodded her head slightly and looked through her Scriptures.

[Supreme Sacred Sun Scripture (Complete, Immortal Form)]

[Introduction: The indomitable Sun that rules through force!]

[Delicate Sun Scripture (Complete, Immortal Form)]

[Introduction: A delicate Sun that caresses its believers.]

’Can I combine them?’ Moon Aiko tilted her head. Sure, they were very different in their approach, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be combined.

[Both Scriptures contain Yang and Sun, so it’s possible to combine them.]

[Cost: 10M]

[Ten Thousand Suns Scripture (Incomplete, ??? Form)]

[Description: Currently contains only two Sun Scriptures, so its power is very limited.]

[Introduction: Sun that gently glides along the horizon.]

’Explain properly.’ Moon Aiko didn’t like the ’poetic’ lines.

[Introduction: Allows you to nurture Sun inside you and possibly claim the Throne once you ascend!]

’A bit better.’ Moon Aiko nodded. ’Does it help me control the power inside me?’ She narrowed her eyes slightly. It was important for her to strike a balance.

[It will help you along the journey to understand the Sun better, but it won’t directly help you control it.]

’Seems a bit cheap.’ Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t mind it too much.

’What if I wanted to upgrade everything?’ Moon Aiko licked her lips.

[System elements upgrade would cost you: 100M Cultivation Points.]

[However, it also includes various Skills and adjustments.]

’Do you take IOU?’ Moon Aiko hummed innocently.

[*Sigh*]

[It is possible to go into negative with Cultivation Points, but once you reach the first negative number, you won’t be able to use Cultivation Points until they turn positive.]

[It’s also possible that this feature will be restricted in the future to prevent impulsive spending.]

Moon Aiko nodded her head slowly. ’Tell me more about it.’

[Skills will be moved and adjusted to better fit your current progression. The removed skills won’t make you weaker, as you would have something more powerful somewhere else. It also expands some features previously unused.]

[The previous system already locked some features, which were supposed to make you weaker, but this upgrade would be able to adjust it so that only features that would scam you would be blocked. (For example, you won’t be able to buy [Stealth] if it’s useless at your current stage.)]

’Let’s go through it then- However!’ Moon Aiko licked her lips. ’Some things are ’missing’ from my system, so use those to offset the price so that I don’t go bankrupt.’ She would just let the system figure it out by itself.

’I also want my birthday gifts!’ Moon Aiko glared at it.

[...]

[Adjusting. . .]

[[Cultivation Gift] has been changed to [Origin Cultivation Gift] to make up for the lost birthdays.]

[Removing: [Divine Ability Gift], [Ability Combination Coupon x1], [Profession Coupon] ]

[Cultivation Points: 21,667,287 -> 0]

[Combining: [Supreme Sacred Sun Scripture (Complete, Immortal Form)], [Delicate Sun Scripture (Complete, Immortal Form)] into [Ten Thousand Suns Scripture (Incomplete, ??? Form, Evolving)].]

[Creating new tabs: Body Treasures, Martial Skills, Movement Skills, Auxiliary Skills, Divine Arts]

[Removing...]

[Moving...]

[Adjusting...]

Moon Aiko rolled around while she observed the changes. A lot of things got locked out, but that was fine.

Thanks to her new Witch Beast Core, she could even hide her energies as long as the balance was right, so something like [Stealth] was like decoration.

There were a few things that she kept, like [Digging Site], while others were moved up a notch, boosting their capabilities, like [Sun & Moon Nurturing Meditation (Stage 1)].

Overall, it was a pretty nice change, but Aiko still looked over it all.

Divine Arts:

[Arts Mastery: Stage 1 (Inscription R-1; Alchemy R-1; Assassin R-1; Smithing R-1; Forging R-1; Go R-2; Heavenly Fingers R-1; Divine Calligraphy R-1)], [#### Needle Technique Stage 0]

This was probably the biggest(?) change that she experienced.

Instead of levels, it turned into Stages and Ranks. Her Go was now ranked as 2, which seemed like a downgrade, but-

[Ranks are based on Immortal Ranking.]

[Rank 1 Immortal = Rank 3 Mortal]

[Rank 2 Immortal = Rank 6 Mortal]

[Rank 3 Immortal = Rank 9 Mortal]

So she didn’t lose anything from it, but now it would be harder to raise the [Stage] of [Arts Mastery], especially since she now had additional Art inside. The [Divine Calligraphy] changed places, which also slightly changed its effects. She would still be able to make a mess out of her calligraphy, but now it was a bit adjusted...

She would have to figure out the effects once she started to create Runes or anything again.