Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”Had your fill?” Grandpa Flame grumbled, since he knew what was coming for him.

”Yeah, it was... an interesting experience.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She didn’t think there was so much to a simple intimacy, but she was proven wrong.

”So, now we have to do that, huh?” Grandpa glanced at the mountains of broken Treasures and shuddered.

”Yeah, nothing else to do for the time being.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”How about using the Cauldron to speed things up?” Grandpa Flame suggested, since he didn’t want to do it by hand any more.

”Now that you say it...” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. ”I think that it’s time to properly refine it~” She hummed happily.

”Never mind! I’m happy to do it by hand!” Grandpa Flame immediately rejected Aiko’s experimentation, since he would lose hair- heat over it!

”Are you sure?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”More than sure! Don’t you dare pull out any tricks!” Grandpa Flame scolded her.

”There are no tricks, but they will join us later.” Moon Aiko licked her lips.

”...” Grandpa Flame just sighed.

With Aiko’s help he was able to melt more broken Treasures than when he was alone and to add to that, Aiko had to rest from time to time, since he was consuming the energy in her Beast Core.

”But...” Grandpa Flame pondered, for some reason the whole ’sucking’ thing didn’t work out as well as he had hoped to.

”What is it?” Moon Aiko glanced at him while sorting the unsorted broken Treasures.

”Why do I feel that my consumption of energy lessened?” Grandpa Flame was confused.

”It’s true, since you are more accustomed to this.” Moon Aiko smiled.

”... Have you planned that...?” Grandpa Flame felt like he was played by her.

Moon Aiko just smiled.

”Seriously...” Grandpa Flame grumbled.

...

Moon Aiko was sorting the broken Treasures, but that was not her main aim. She sorted those Treasures faster than they were being smelted, so she hoped that she could refine her Cauldron in the ’downtime’.

Grandpa Flame would grumble a lot, but he still did his part, so Moon Aiko was able to focus on it.

’The more mixtures I have, the more complex the Cauldron becomes. As such it’s better to go with the compartment style, but there are a few issues with it.’ Moon Aiko frowned while she looked over her blueprints.

The main issue was the heat spreading throughout the Cauldron. The special compartments were exceptional when it came to their effects, but that was not the same for heat distribution.

Even if she made a perfect compartment that was able to perfectly align into her Cauldron, the efficiency would still be less than if she did it as a ’built-in’ option.

This bothered her greatly since it limited what she could do.

’Let’s not think about this part, yet.’ Moon Aiko believed she would be able to find some kind of filler to keep those two ’seamless’ while also having the benefits of being able to take them out.

For now, the main focus was the shape.

She realised that the shape had to be perfect if she wanted her [Divine Sea] to acknowledge its existence.

The connection between it and her was important, mainly for manipulation.

Due to Grandpa Flame having a connection to her, the whole energy ’consumption’ thing changed greatly.

The efficiency rose, while the consumption lessened, allowing Moon Aiko to do a lot more with less energy spent on it.

With careful movements, Moon Aiko redrew the whole blueprint closer to what it was intended.

She was using the smaller versions until now, but the main version would be around 20 metres high.

As one might expect, that kind of size was... a problem. Well, since things changed greatly now, she didn’t need to care about the size, as long as the function was perfect.

She had a lot of precious materials on hand and some of those mixtures would be perfect for her Cauldron.

There was no way she would be able to do the 20 metre version, but something like 5 metres should be within her limits.

Thanks to Grandpa Flame melting those metals, she could use these temporary metals to form the ’perfect’ Cauldron.

This in turn would allow her to melt more metals more quickly, allowing her to get more materials for her Cauldron and experiments.

First, the bottom layer once again, but this time modified.

There were 3 legs to it previously, but Moon Aiko added one more for the additional support.

This would slightly change the effects of the Cauldron, but that would be fine for the time being. She was not trying to make the most perfect Cauldron, but a Cauldron that could facilitate her current needs.

There was no point in overthinking it, just pure efficiency.

...

A day later, the plans were adjusted with the important metals on site.

The Twins woke up and were quite giddy, but seeing Aiko’s serious expression, they sneaked out for some more fun.

Those toys that Aiko made were a lot more impressive than they thought, so they were looking forward to another round...

Meanwhile, Moon Aiko was hard at shaping the whole Cauldron.

Since just the bottom part was 3 metres, it was a lot of work to properly shape it.

She quickly realised that any imperfection inside would affect the flow of energies.

What she might’ve not expected, was that Cauldron making was an art. Someone had to train a lot to spot these imperfections and appraise a Cauldron.

Apprentices would usually start with that, trying to assess Cauldrons, instead of making one, since making one was an arduous journey.

However, once they were able to spot those imperfections and the incorrect flow of energies, they had the most basic baseline to be able to produce something wonderful.

Of course most of their first crafts turned into a dud, but the important part was that they were able to assess that those were truly a bad creation.

If someone used a poor Cauldron, the explosion from the mixed energies might not only kill the person using it, but also the surrounding area.

That’s why most Human Cultivation cities didn’t allow the usage of personal Cauldron, as they were pretty much explosive troubles.

However, Moon Aiko was unaware of it and shaped her Cauldron.

She used her eyes to see the flow of the different energies, slowly adjusting the shape until all of them were in harmony.

Now this was easy to say and explain, but the actual practise was pretty much impossible.

Depending on the area you created the Cauldron, it might affect the elements inside it.

This would then cause issues later down the line.

For example, Extreme Yang Cauldron would break down immediately if it was used or even located in an Extreme Yin environment.

Moon Aiko’s thoughts were still, she used her superior perception to ’slow down’ the ’time’ and eliminate any outer interferences. She only allowed the materials to interact with each other.

...

With the general shape done, there was still a lot to do, but at least now she was able to see the ’Cauldron’ inside her [Divine Sea].

This meant that she was on a good way in creating something nice for herself.

”Aiko.” Mei interrupted Aiko once she noticed that she was no longer hyper focused.

”Mei?” Moon Aiko was slightly startled.

”You should have a rest.” Mei pursed her lips. She was quite... intimidated by this Cauldron, mostly because even the ambient Qi wanted to rush inside and be refined!

”I will have it soon.” Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”You will do that now.” Mei rolled her eyes. ”It’s already been two months...” She sighed softly.

Mei thought about it again and again, but it would be better if Danji was by her side, so that she would actually rest.

”Huh?” Moon Aiko stiffened.

She clearly didn’t seem to realise that that much time already passed.

”Yes, it’s been a long time.” Mei chuckled, but she was... concerned about Aiko.

”I will have a rest.” Noticing that odd attitude, Moon Aiko conceded her work for the time being.

It was not like the Cauldron would run away any time soon...

”We also have visitors, so once you rest, you should meet them.” Mei chuckled.

”Visitors?” Moon Aiko didn’t know what was happening outside, so she was startled again.

”You will know once you have rest.” Mei emphasised the ’rest’ part a lot, so it was obvious she would not allow Aiko to run around until she slept.

”I will, I will.” Moon Aiko nodded her head and obediently went with Mei.

-----

{Somewhere in an unknown place.}

A shrouded figure barged into a shrouded tavern.

”I have news!” The shrouded youth barged in. It seemed like he was too young to be even here, but most of the individuals didn’t mind him.

”What, the ’cattle’ escaped again?” The patrons laughed, it seemed like the mood was quite light, but the overall atmosphere was very gloomy.

”It’s about the Princess!” The shrouded youth chuckled.

*PFFFFFFFFFFFT*

It was a beautiful unison of beer fountains spraying everywhere.

Not just the youth, but even the ’owner’ of this place were startled at their reactions.

”W-what is it this time?” The patrons were clearly intimidated by that sentence, or rather word.

”She is alive and well!” The youth chuckled.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed like they wouldn’t die just because they didn’t watch over her properly, but who would blame them.

This place was previously quite lush, but the Princess didn’t take a good care of anything.

She liked to eat and laze around... it probably happened when her parents left her for a more advanced world.

The Princess became quite indifferent and very apathetic, but her genius still leaked out from time to time, causing everyone a lot of trouble.

”She is alive and well in a lowly Mortal World.” The shrouded youth dropped another bombshell. It seemed like he was enjoying their suffering a lot.

*bang*

They all fell down on the floor in unison.

”S-she is alright, right?” The patrons dreaded what was coming next.

”She doesn’t have any Treasures and her Cultivation Manuals...” The youth trailed those words, but it was obvious what he was implying.

The patrons laughed awkwardly, but they all supported their foreheads with their hands in unison.

”How much time until her parents connect with us?” One patron asked.

”It already happened.” The youth laughed inwardly, but he was also scared about the consequences.

*bang*

Another beautiful display of cooperation! But this time they banged their heads on the table in unison and played dead...

”Beer?” The ’owner’ asked the youth.

”Please, Uncle.” The youth smiled. It was now obvious that he was much, much older than what he looked.

”What about her?” The ’owner’ asked the girl next to him.

”I need something stronger.” The girl said gloomily. Their Princess... might just become even bigger handful than before...