Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The conversation went well enough. The Grandmaster seemed to know Vicious Jade Fox from somewhere, but neither Mei nor Aiko asked from where.

”But seriously...” The Grandmaster lamented. ”The Northern Sect is trying to play Sages. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Moon Aiko glanced at Mei.

”The Northern Sect is using the Seer in order to predict what happens. It’s mostly about Treasures and other Heavenly Phenomenons.” Mei explained. She knew that Aiko didn’t keep up with the news, so it was better to say it upfront like this.

”Riiight...” Moon Aiko groaned. That’s why the Northern Sect fought them so much.

”Sometimes I wonder what they see in those Divinations.” The Grandmaster shook his head. ”They are like rabid dogs.”

”Don’t insult rabid dogs, they are cute in comparison to them.” Moon Aiko showed her disdain openly since she was troubled many times by them.

The Grandmaster paused briefly, but then he laughed loudly.

Mei only shook her head, but this was fine too. As long as Aiko left a good impression all was good!

”Anyway, if neither side minds, we can establish some basic cooperation while on this continent.” The Grandmaster suggested, since he couldn’t really speak for the mainland Sect.

”We won’t be joining the Fox Sect.” Mei calmly sipped her tea.

*Pffft*

The Grandmaster spat his tea out when he heard this news. He never imagined that a Fox would be unwilling to join the Fox Sect!

”What- No, Why?” The Grandmaster was curious about why they would be so unwilling.

”The Fox Sect doesn’t have anything we need.” Mei said simply. It was obvious she wouldn’t elaborate on her plans and that was fine for everyone around the table.

”So the Beast Sect?” The Grandmaster would never suspect them wanting to join their Sect, so what was left was the Beast Sect.

”Indeed.” Mei nodded her head briefly.

”Aright.” The Grandmaster nodded his head. ”I will have a talk with the Beast Sect, but you still should prepare for some resistance on their side.”

”We have gathered materials and resources from the Fox Village and Delegations, so I believe they will take it.” Mei chuckled darkly.

”Right...” The Grandmaster completely forgot that they sank several continental flying ships.

”Would it be possible to borrow one continental flying ship from you?” The Grandmaster said seriously. Their capacity was full, but they had quite a lot of prodigies this cycle, so he wanted to send all of them over.

With the Fox Village gone, there was a high likelihood that all the Sects will lose their minds over territory, so he was also considering leaving this place.

”That will depend on what you can offer.” Mei chuckled darkly.

”Can we also include fixing the ship in that offer?” The Grandmaster ruffled his hair, while their Delegation was over, they had only simple Inscription Cultivators, which were not enough to fix any major damage that might’ve happened.

”It will cost you.” Mei knew what he was talking about, so she would naturally raise the price.

”Ruthless.” The Grandmaster laughed, but then he paused. ”I will have to return for the time being as I can’t decide this alone, unfortunately.”

”If you put a very good word with the Beast Sect, I will consider giving you a discount.” Mei knew how to motivate someone, especially when they knew the true worth of continental flying ships.

The Grandmaster ruffled his hair. ”Let’s hope that you never open a business.”

”Oh my, but we already have business and it’s blooming~” Mei teased him, since they were in good graces for the time being.

The Grandmaster looked around. ”I pity the other Foxes...”

”It’s not like we are extorting them, you know?” Moon Aiko rolled her eyes.

”Anything that she does is nothing short from extortion.” The Grandmaster shook his head.

”Maybe I should raise the price...” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”Anything that she does is nothing short of a miracle. We all wish that she would keep going as she is!” The Grandmaster immediately changed his tune, since his ’salary’ depended on this!

Moon Aiko giggled. ”This is fun.” She gave thumbs up to Mei.

Mei chuckled. ”There is more to see~” She patted Aiko gently.

”I will look forward to that.” Moon Aiko smiled happily.

”But not after the ’discussion’.” Mei smiled sinisterly.

”Oh...” Moon Aiko no longer smiled happily.

”Then, I will excuse myself.” The Grandmaster cupped his fists before disappearing.

A silence permeated the place.

”So...” Mei glanced over to that huge ass thing. ”What exactly happened?”

”That’s the lid of the Cauldron that I blew up accidentally.” Moon Aiko explained why and how it ended up over here.

”Seriously...” Mei pinched her nose bridge. ”You know how dangerous that was? If he believed that we attacked him, we would be fucked.” She sighed softly, shaking her head at Aiko.

This situation was avoided because the guest this time was very amiable.

”We will no longer jump to conclusions.” Dai Lu suddenly spoke up.

”Because he was already ’burned’ once?” Mei raised her eyebrow.

”Yes. Which is not necessarily a bad thing for us.” Dai Lu smiled faintly.

”Are you alright?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. It seemed like Dai Lu was in a bad mood.

”Everything is fine.” Dai Lu patted Aiko’s head.

”I wonder why everyone keeps patting me.” Moon Aiko covered her head with her hands.

”Because you are small and cute.” Both Dai Lu and Mei said it in unison, making Aiko pout.

”But how do we deal with him?” Mei asked Dai Lu, since it seemed that she was familiar with him.

”What do you mean?” Dai Lu feigned ignorance.

”You know what I mean.” Mei rolled her eyes.

”He knows Aiko, since he was protecting her while her body was undergoing changes. He also played a bit of Go with her on the side when she was resting.” Dai Lu explained.

”That’s not what I want to hear.” Mei groaned unhappily.

”Well, it can’t be helped, can it?” Dai Lu chuckled. ”But you don’t need to worry, he is a nice person now.”

”That’s not very reassuring.” Mei rolled her eyes again. She wanted to have something more concrete than just ’he is nice’.

”Just let Aiko be herself and everything will be alright.” Dai Lu chuckled.

”That’s what I worry about.” Mei sighed yet again. She was quite tired because of Aiko’s eccentric nature.

She could never predict what Aiko would do, which put her on spot.

Moon Aiko stood up and cleaned the lid. It seemed like it was deformed, unlike her Cauldron, so she would have to melt it again and shape it.

”Now that the guest is away, how were you able to blast that thing away?” The thickness of that lid was around 30 cm, if not more, making Mei wonder what exactly Aiko did.

”You shouldn’t have asked...” Dai Lu said without a change in expression, but it was obvious that she didn’t want to hear it again.

”Well...” Moon Aiko told them her tale.

...

Mei sat around the table, while supporting her forehead with her hands.

”Ridiculous...” Mei didn’t believe that the Cauldron would be able to endure that kind of Qi going through it.

”But it’s true.” Moon Aiko pulled out her half-finished [The Ever Shaping Cauldron].

”It’s huge...” Dai Lu knew that it was big, but seeing it in person was something entirely different.

Mei kept staring at it for a while.

”You wouldn’t mind teaching me that too, right?” Mei was confused about what she felt when she inserted her energy into it, so she wanted to find out what exactly Aiko changed to cause such a huge mess.

”I don’t mind.” Moon Aiko smiled. She intended to give and help Mei build her own [The Ever Shaping Cauldron], but everything had its time.

Mei was very busy and so was Aiko. Both of them wanted to take their time and enjoy their time together, so neither of them really asked about that Cauldron.

”Let’s do that later.” Mei stood up and walked over to the Cauldron.

She placed her hand on it and poured her energy into it again.

However, this time she immediately poured 10% of her max Beast Core, instead of simple probing.

The Cauldron hummed before ejecting the excess energy out of the top.

What was more, the energy was ejected ’clean’, meaning that no matter how many times she did this, the Cauldron would be free from her energy.

Saying it slightly differently. Every Cauldron ’resisted’ Qi, so the more you poured, the more Qi would be kept inside until the Cauldron broke or exploded.

That’s why a semi-yearly maintenance had to be done on the Cauldron to keep them Qi free, making further manipulation easier.

But without said build-up, not only could you ignore the whole ’clean it once in a while’, you could also prevent the blowing up part completely!

The excessive energy would not get stuck inside the Cauldron, so explosion was pretty much impossible.

The only way this Cauldron would explode if the Pill was too violent to begin with.

Violent Pill have the tendency to blast and thrash the inside of the Cauldron, damaging it without being able to protect it.

”This is incredible.” Mei nodded her head. ”I can now understand why you did that.” Honestly, if Mei was in Aiko’s shoes she would be even worse with these experiments.

However, it would be better for Aiko to be more careful as she didn’t have nearly enough experience in dealing with troublesome situations.

”Be careful next time, okay?” Mei would leave the scolding for the next time, since she didn’t expect Aiko would create something like this...

”I will~” Moon Aiko hummed before following Mei.

Mei was returning to her post, since there were more holes to dig.

”How is the Fox Village Leader doing?” Moon Aiko asked.

”You mean Yuan? She is currently punishing that one Elder, while setting up a ritual to suck the Souls of the others.” Mei shrugged.

”Punishing?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. Why did it seem like they were doing something else instead?

Mei pursed her lips. ”It will be easier if I show you...” There was no way that she would be able to explain what Yuan was doing. It was simply too embarrassing!