Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”Everything being complex doesn’t stop us from doing things.” Grandpa Flame shrugged.

”That might be true, but it’s concerning.” Moon Aiko shook her head.

”Even if it’s concerning, we have to push forward.” Grandpa Flame picked up some pieces and melted them.

”Wait, shouldn’t we shave them first?” Moon Aiko wanted to stop him, but it seemed like his control was much better than before.

”I can actually separate them now, but it does require some finesse.” Grandpa Flame nodded his head.

”Alright...” Moon Aiko was startled that it was so easy, or maybe it wasn’t easy, and Grandpa Flame just improved that much.

”Still, it would be better to at least sort it, so the burden lessens for me.” Grandpa Flame suggested as he levitated another piece with his flames.

”I can do that.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

Since Grandpa Flame was using something similar to Divine Sense, it was time for her to use it too.

Well, her own Divine Sense, but you get the point.

Levitating many pieces, Moon Aiko inspected all of them slowly in order to sort them. It was quite difficult since even if the piece had the same colour, it didn’t necessarily mean it would be the same metal.

There were minute differences, but that was still not enough to say that those metal pieces were different.

”What do I do when there are non-metal pieces?” Grandpa Flame picked some pieces from the prepared piles and inspected them.

”We can’t really reuse them if I don’t shave those parts.” Moon Aiko shook her head at him.

”But it’s not like we will be able to use it even after you shave it.” Not every material was reusable, Grandpa knew it, so he didn’t want her to get her hopes up.

”I know, but some wood can still be melted and kneaded together.” Moon Aiko gestured.

”That might be true, but that’s only once, if you try it a second time, the outer layer would burn, making it not only hard to control, but you would lose quite a lot of material thanks to it.” Grandpa Flame gestured.

”That’s why nobody is trying to recover those things, huh?” Moon Aiko nodded her head. It was not like there was no way to deal with this, but it would take too much time.

”Set those pieces aside and I will discuss it with Mei later, we first melt all these metals and then do some research.” Moon Aiko gestured to Grandpa Flame to make another pile for these pieces.

”I can do that.” Grandpa Flame spat all those pieces that could still be reused for later, while melting those that were only metallic.

”Some are harder to do.” Grandpa Flame frowned. ”Hey, how about you give me some Beast Core Energy?”

”Hm? Is that possible?” Moon Aiko blinked at him.

”If you want your Spiritual Flame to burn hotter, you usually have to use some of your Qi to make it happen. That’s why Spiritual Flame is more effective than Flame Arrays, but you still need to control it.” Grandpa Flame gestured.

”But...” Moon Aiko felt too puzzled about what he was saying.

”I’m a Dragon, a Spiritual Flame with consciousness. That means I can naturally gather Qi from the surroundings, which most Spiritual Flames can’t do.” Grandpa Flame chuckled proudly. ”Thus I was able to bypass that part without burdening you.”

”That’s incredible.” Moon Aiko’s eyes sparkled.

”Praise me more~” Grandpa Flame laughed happily. ”But yeah, for this to work, I will need your help. Since you have bigger Beast Cores, it will be easier on you, but tell me if I start to consume too much.” He gestured to Aiko, since he didn’t want to hurt her.

”I will tell you.” Moon Aiko gave him the approval and could immediately feel something leaving her body.

’It congregates close to my heart?’ The Beast Cores were letting energy flow close to her heart and she noticed that the connection with Grandpa Flame was there. ’Maybe I should inspect my body later...’ Moon Aiko slowly nodded her head. It was important to do that from time to time, since her body was changing way too much!

”I should be able to melt this stuff soon, but I have to first get used to using your Beast Core Energy.” Grandpa Flame groaned, since Aiko had too many different energies inside her body.

”How about using the Fire-based Beast Core.” Moon Aiko suggested.

”Oh, right... That was a thing...” Grandpa Flame didn’t believe it at first, since this is something only Dragons were supposed to do.

”Let’s see.” Grandpa Flame tapped into that Beast Core.

*Whoosh*

His previously gentle flame turned into a ferocious beast that burned everything in its path.

”Ayayayayaya.” Grandpa Flame immediately extinguished those flames, but the damage was already done.

What he was trying to carefully melt turned into useless ash and some pieces of the broken Treasure around him also melted into puddles of metallic substance.

”Oi.” Grandpa Flame appeared in front of Aiko’s face with a serious expression.

”Yes?” Moon Aiko smiled innocently.

”Do you think ’that’ is normal?” Grandpa Flame pointed with his flame at those piles of ashes and melted metals.

”Whatever could you mean~” Moon Aiko hummed innocently, since it was his fault that something like that happened.

”Nonono, you can’t say that after what happened! To begin with, what you are currently doing is only done by Dragon-folk since their Bloodlines are powerful and ferocious!” Grandpa Flame would have none of that.

”Then what I was supposed to do? Let those Bloodlines and energies crash into each other? Each Beast Core is a separate entity that is connected by a slim channel, so I thought it would be better if they interacted like that!” Moon Aiko pouted at him.

”You can see even that?!” Grandpa Flame almost extinguished himself when he heard her words.

Moon Aiko snorted unhappily. ”So, everything works and my body is mostly-”

”-Fucked.” Grandpa Flame snorted back at her.

”Oi.” Moon Aiko frowned at him.

”What?” Grandpa Flame snorted again.

”My body is fine.” Moon Aiko slapped him, but her hand passed through him.

”I wouldn’t say that, considering what each Beast Core holds.” Grandpa Flame rolled his ’eyes’.

”But I’m safe.” Moon Aiko didn’t want to play this game with him.

”I will give you that, yes.” Grandpa Flame nodded his head. ”Just give me something less volatile...”

”I only have the coldness of the Moon.” Moon Aiko shrugged.

”Well, shit...” Grandpa Flame groaned, but it was still better than nothing.

He used those energies to strengthen his flames, but he realised something.

”This is actually not too bad.” Grandpa Flame was definitely cooler, but his control improved immensely.

”I think I will be able to separate those wooden type resources now.” Grandpa Flame was impressed by how much things changed by just simply changing the source of his energy.

”Huh?” Moon Aiko was startled, since that meant she didn’t need to shave anything.

”No, let me explain. The hotness of the flame directly affects the speed at which we can progress through this.” Grandpa Flame gestured.

”So we will go slower?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. ”Wait, does that mean you can actually ’melt’ metallic wood because the temperature is not high enough to burn it?” She was startled that such a simple solution was possible considering that if they lowered the temperature it would make it hard to melt other things.

”The Spiritual Flames do not have just one temperature, that’s where you can adjust it in order to be able to refine all kinds of precious Pills. However, my lowest temperature was too high for me to do anything with the more sensitive materials.” Grandpa Flame explained further. ”Thanks to the lowering of the temperature. I can control more things at once and melt them more easily because I only need to increase the temperature and not also try to restrain it.”

”However, that also means we will get some impurities in some metals.” He sighed, shaking his head.

”Which means we will have to smelt it.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”Yes, which means we will still spend more time on it.” Grandpa Flame couldn’t affect this one, since in order to purify those metals, it would require much higher firepower, making his control that much more difficult.

”Then just make another pile, or reuse the pile that was supposed to be for the wooden-type materials for the smelting one.” Moon Aiko gestured before getting to sorting again.

”I feel like this place is much bigger than what it appears to be.” Moon Aiko grumbled, because that huge pile was not getting smaller at all!

”You are not imagining things. This place has its space stretched quite thin.” Grandpa Flame was impressed that this place didn’t collapse already.

”Should we evacuate?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”You would just have to jump out of those doors, no harm done.” Grandpa Flame kept melting those metals like there was no tomorrow, but it was obvious he was a lot slower at the whole process.

”Ooooh?” Grandpa Flame suddenly made a strange noise.

”What is it?” Moon Aiko was curious, since it was unlikely that he would make such noises.

”If you don’t heat the metals enough to melt them, but still enough to make them ’softer’ you can just peel them away.” Grandpa Flame demonstrated in one piece.

”Well, duh, we were doing that before.” Moon Aiko raised her eyebrow.

”Nonono, this is a lot easier than before.” Grandpa Flame smirked. ”Try it.”

Moon Aiko pulled out her tools and tried to separate those two pieces, but it was shockingly easy.

”That’s because of the middle layer, the strange powder, right?” Moon Aiko noticed that the powder misbehaved at certain temperatures.

”Indeed. We won’t be able to do that with the older Treasures, but the newer ones should progress faster now.” Grandpa Flame nodded his head.

”That’s at least something.” Moon Aiko was overjoyed that it wouldn’t take too much time on this, but considering the size of this heap...

”We will be here for months...” Moon Aiko groaned.

”I wouldn’t be so pessimistic.” Grandpa Flame smirked.

”What are you up to?” Moon Aiko was curious why he would say that.

”My control is getting better, so it’s possible for me to do more melting at the same time very soon.” Grandpa Flame chuckled happily.

”Now that’s something I wanted to hear.” Moon Aiko smiled. Anything that could speed up this process would be more than welcome.

”You can focus on your thing and I will do my best with mine.” Grandpa Flame chuckled again.

”I will do my best.” Moon Aiko chuckled back.

She used her Divine Sense and Grandpa Flame was using her Beast Cores.

There was a certain unity between them, making Aiko feel more and more in trance.

She felt like everything was becoming slower and slower. Like minute changes were slowly but surely speeding up inside her body.

She didn’t realise that Auspicious Clouds were forming outside of this Treasure Room...