Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”There are... a lot of them.” Moon Aiko pursed her lips when she saw rows upon rows of broken Foxes.

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”We have gathered all of them here. Those that were already cold were burned with remnants of Heavenly Flame, so that their Souls could rest peacefully before reincarnating.” Mei explained, but even then, there were around 150 thousand Foxes still present.

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”I will see what we can do.” Moon Aiko slowly nodded her head. This sight was quite dreadful, so many lives lost because of a few jerks seeking power.

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”Not used to this?” Mei gently patted Aiko.

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”It’s different when you don’t see the consequences and when you see them.” Moon Aiko pursed her lips.

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”The stampede would look similar if not worse, but since you were not part of it, you will never experience it.” Mei shook her head.

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”Are stampedes that bad?” Moon Aiko thought that they might wipe out a few cities, but that was to be expected?

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”On the mainland, there are regular stampedes, where the population of Beasts rises so much that they seek more resources from human settlements.” Mei gestured, and a small illusion was conjured on her hand. ”The cities are besieged, but since they have some kind of Protective Array, they usually survive the calamity.”

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”Why are you letting some of those illusions into the city?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

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”Not every Beast can be stopped by the Array. If there is a powerful Beast that would be able to shatter the Array, then the Array lets the Beast in, in order to minimise the damage.” Mei experienced that one by accident.

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”I see... since there are too many Beasts around, it’s better to let one in rather than the whole group.” Moon Aiko understood their intention, but even then, it would end in slaughter.

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”Thanks to that, some Arrays can also distinguish if the Cultivators inside can deal with the Beast. If they can not, then the Array would send them some way away from the city.” Mei marvelled at that idea, but most Arrays didn’t have this function, since it consumed a ton of Spirit Stones.

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Moon Aiko activated the system so it would scan all Foxes in here and decide what to do with them.

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”Can we also create Arrays that absorb the shock?” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. She had some ideas about that part, but she was not skilled enough to suggest the Runes.

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”There is, but the problem would be what would you do with it?” Mei smacked her lips. ”Most Arrays would redirect the shock into the Earth, where most of it would be neutralised, but even then the Array would sustain some damage.”

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”Scratches accumulate...” Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”We can’t convert that force into Qi, right?”

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”There is no such thing, since the force is pure muscle, usually. If it were a Qi technique, then yes.” Mei nodded her head.

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”How about Beast abilities?” Moon Aiko figured that those might be absorbable.

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”Unlikely, the ’Qi’ that we use is Beast Core and not Dantian. We are using the raw, unfiltered force, while Dantian only keeps the most ’pure’ and ’essential’ form of Qi.” Mei shook her head. ”The absorption array works by filtering the Qi by its element and then storing it temporarily to refine it. Then it would use that Qi to counterattack or heal.”

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”But because Beasts have unpredictable Qi, you can’t make such a general rule into Runes and typing all of them would only increase the consumption?” Moon Aiko thought that she understood the gist of it.

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”More or less. The thing about Arrays, is that you have limited size that you can do before you need to set up an ’Array Core’. Once the size and complexity go over a certain limit, then you need outside help in order to keep it stable.” Mei sighed. She did play with Arrays, but those were so troublesome that she dropped them later on.

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”Does that mean the Array Core wears out?” Moon Aiko didn’t like that part, since the more things she created, the more she would have to maintain.

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”Yes and no. Depending on the quality, it might never wear out in your lifetime, but if it’s constantly bombarded, then any kind of material would inevitably wear out.” Mei sighed.

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”Have you tried it?” Moon Aiko felt like there was a story behind it.

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”Yes, in one Sacred Realm, I had to use Array Core to keep us alive. Someone let out Beasts from the mountains, causing larger-scale stampedes, but this Sacred Realm was special in that it would lock you inside for a year or two before letting you out.” Mei sat down. At that time, it was a close shave, and even then, almost half of them died.

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”So the Array Core kept you alive?” Moon Aiko thought that was quite incredible.

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”No, the Array Core allowed us to sleep. If we kept it going all the time, then we would run out of Spirit Stones in a few days.” Mei sighed.

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”That’s... what would run out faster, the Spirit Stones or the durability on it?” Moon Aiko was curious.

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”I’m not sure... The Array Core was a bit worn out, but it should hold longer than our Spirit Stone reserves.” Mei thought about it again. ”That is, if there won’t be a Beast that can shatter it in one hit.”

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”Does that change things?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

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”As with the cities, the Array would try to block every hit possible, but if it can shatter the limit of the Array, then some of that damage would get transmitted to the Array Core.” Mei explained with her illusions.

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”So the possibility that it would shatter increases.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”But doesn’t that mean normal hits also wear it out?”

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”Not quite, you can imagine the Array Core as a shield with certain sturdiness. Anything below a certain line would not damage it at all, but once you go over it, the damage would accumulate.” Mei knew it was much more complex, but for now, this was good enough.

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”Thus the rule about the powerful Beast...” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow. ”But what if they can’t fight those Beasts AND it can also shatter the Protective Array in one hit?” She had to ask this, since it felt like Mei didn’t talk about this on purpose.

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”In that case, you overcharge the Array Core.” Mei smiled at Aiko.

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”Overcharge? You stuff it with Spirit Stones?” Moon Aiko thought that was quite ingenious.

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”No, well, yes, but the overcharging works by removing the limits imposed by the Inscription on it. The limit is there so that the Array Core doesn’t get shattered by accident.” Mei chuckled.

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”Doesn’t that mean that someone has to figure out the limit of the materials and convert it into a limit of the Array Core?” Moon Aiko didn’t think those craftsmen would do something like that.

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Mei scratched her cheek, feeling quite embarrassed talking about this.

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”What is it?” Moon Aiko’s eyes sparkled.

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”They lowball it...” Mei coughed awkwardly.

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”...” Moon Aiko did expect it, but that didn’t mean she was not surprised.

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”Yeah, it’s not something they want to talk about, so don’t ask about it.” Mei warned Aiko, since those guys can be quite petty.

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”So another thing we have to introduce, huh?” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

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”...” Mei felt like this was a bad idea, so she tried to stop Aiko. ”You don’t intend to make Array Cores, right? You don’t have the skill set for it.”

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”What do I need then?” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes at Mei.

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”...” Mei sighed softly. ”First, you need to improve your Inscriptions. I’m not talking about power but stability and compactness, since Array Cores are usually small.”

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”Okay.” Moon Aiko thought that with a few adjustments, she would be able to do that.

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”Then you need special materials, which are only held by Sects.” Before Aiko could interrupt her, Mei kept going. ”And no, this Village doesn’t have such materials, I already checked.”

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”Tsk.” Moon Aiko clicked her tongue.

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”Seriously...” Mei chuckled. ”You would be the only one to attempt something as wasteful as that.”

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”Without experiments, we won’t move.” Moon Aiko rolled her eyes.

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”That’s true, due to that monopoly, most Beasts have to find Array Cores in the Secret/Sacred Realms, and even then, if they are damaged, they have to give them to humans to repair them.” Mei sighed.

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”Why don’t Beasts try to- Ah...” Moon Aiko scratched her head.

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”Yeah, we need Dantian for such delicate repairs, and while you can repair Array Cores in the Human Body, since they have a monopoly over the technique, we can only do some patchwork.” Mei chuckled darkly.

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”And they don’t want to share it with the Beasts, huh...” Moon Aiko frowned when her system suddenly dinged.

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”Yeah, because we would become more skilled than they are.” Mei shrugged.

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”I have the numbers. We can only save around 20 to 25 thousand Foxes, depending on whether we want to make Pills or not.” Moon Aiko was shocked at the low number, but it didn’t seem like she could increase that number.

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”So the rest will have to peacefully die...” Mei expected that, so those 20 to 25 thousand were still a lot in her books.

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”Let’s sort through them.” Moon Aiko sighed.

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”I will see how much we can save, since we have limited Herbs.” Mei nodded her head.

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...

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”They are not in bad shape.” Mei thought they would be worse, since they could only somewhat check those 200 thousand Foxes.

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’’But it will still take a lot of work.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

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”If we got honey, we could speed this up, since we could use it as Essence for Pills.” Mei sighed.

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”Here.” Moon Aiko pulled the special Honey, since the Empresses inside her tails prepared quite a bit.

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”Thank you-” Mei smiled until her lips froze. ”Hold on, where did you get this? It’s brimming with energy.”

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”Crimson Bees-” Moon Aiko tried to tell her, but Mei shook her by her shoulders.

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”What do you mean, Crimson Bees?! Do you know that they are supposed to be extinct?!” Mei felt flabbergasted at this.

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”Seriously...” Mei felt like she would need more anti-headache Pills.

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”Found them in Nightmare Forest.” Moon Aiko smiled.

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”Yeah...” Mei massaged her forehead. ”What and how would they be there...” She couldn’t understand why someone would leave such a precious resource to Beast.

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Unless they didn’t, and they had to abandon those Bees.

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”Are they healthy?” Mei suddenly turned towards Aiko.

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”Let’s go inside, and I can show you.” Moon Aiko smiled, but it was better to be sheltered before pulling them out.