Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Mei was going through the blueprint for the [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] that Aiko gave her.

It was quite elaborate and complex apparatus, but still manageable, since she saw similarly crazy things in the Immortal World.

Meanwhile, Moon Aiko was reshaping the lid, so that it would fit once again. It was nice that it was from softer material, since it allowed the pressure inside to be released without more explosive force.

Sure, the lid did fly away, but the actual Cauldron didn’t move by much. Moon Aiko believed it was because some of that force was dispersed through the bending, but... well... she wouldn’t try to test it again since Mei ’scolded’ her.

With that in mind, Moon Aiko went ahead to melt those broken Treasures, which would be normally useless.

”Oh, and if you can make them into small ingots, it would help us in storing them.” Mei noticed that Moon Aiko would be melting things again, so she made sure that the assignment was clear.

”I will do my best.” Moon Aiko didn’t have any moulds, so it would still be her Divine Sense that would shape it.

Moon Aiko just didn’t want to deal with more materials and how the ingot moulds should work and heat up and blablablabla.

Considering the mountain of broken Treasures, it was simply not feasible for Aiko to care about such things.

Even if those ingots would be slightly bent, it would still be better than making them into those balls and sludge-like things.

Moon Aiko focused on the broken Treasures and lifted them up. She was picking only things that had similar metals inside.

There were a few things that were bothersome, but Moon Aiko wouldn’t be able to affect them without giving herself even more work.

So the process was simple.

The majority is supposed to be one metal, while the minority would be sorted as it melted.

This would prevent the whole thing from possibly combining or burning to ash.

This might draw out the melting process, but considering just how much she was able to melt at once, it more than makes up for it.

Now the only thing left was to just melt those things!

...

Moon Aiko looked over and was shocked.

Mei pretty much made 1 to 1 replica of the [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] with the clay-dirt alone!

She was pretty shocked by the size of it, since it was supposed to be 20 metres tall, but Mei’s was slightly bigger.

”You usually use Levitation Stone to keep it suspended since it would be bothersome if the vibrations affected the final product.” Mei shook her head gently. They could not spare such a thing for this, and it was not like they were in the Immortal World, where quakes were the norm.

”How complex.” Moon Aiko shook her head. She never imagined it could be upgraded like this, but that was only natural since she was thinking too simply!

”How about attaching it next to a flying ship, so that you can smelt ore as you go?” Moon Aiko rubbed her hands and Mei’s body visibly stiffened.

Mei softly sighed. ”You know, you are probably the only one who comes up with these crazy things.” She shook her head gently, but she could understand where Aiko was coming from.

With such a thing attached to the flying ship. It would be able to transport only the purest metals, instead of the rocks and other useless things.

This would greatly increase the yield of everything, while also reducing the rubble and consumption of Spirit Stones... in theory.

Mei tilted her head a few times, trying to figure out how it would work.

”Maybe if you joined two flying ships together and suspended it between them?” Mei gave up thinking simply and just went Aiko’s route, as crazy as possible.

”In that case we can do more than just one~!” Moon Aiko proclaimed, humming happily.

”You mean we would separate the smelting process from the purification process?” Mei tilted her head, seriously thinking about it.

”Since the smelting is the slowest, we could have two smelters and one purifier.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously right next to Mei.

”Metal is melted.” Grandpa Flame warned Aiko, since he knew that she would ignore it for a while.

Her research was more important than those lovely metals.

He could respect that, but then she also might accuse him of not telling her sooner, so just in case he would announce when the metals melted.

”Thank you~” Moon Aiko trotted right back, pulling out the molten metals with her Divine Sense

Mei just watched the whole process before focusing on her own Cauldron.

She would fire it just once, in order to make sure it was as well done as possible and then she would start taking it apart.

Why you might ask? Because she didn’t need the whole thing. Mei only wanted the Pill Refining part and that was it.

She didn’t need the Forging part and she definitely didn’t need the mixing part, since it would only bring her headache.

It was better to take care of Herbs than it was of those damned metals!

Mei also didn’t like the heat, since most Pills required less heat than the majority of the metals.

Moon Aiko moulded those things into something that resembled ingots. It was not perfect nor polished, but it was good enough to take less space than those balls that she made from mixing metals.

Mei fired the Cauldron at low heat through special Formation. She didn’t have Spiritual Flame like Aiko and she also needed greater precision compared to what Aiko’s Spiritual Flame could do.

As such this was the best she could currently do.

She was firing that Cauldron slowly in order to harden it. Mei had to make sure that everything was normal and operational since this whole thing was supported by her Divine Sense.

Well not the whole thing. She only supported every middle ’floor’ and ’ceiling’ so that it wouldn’t collapse upon itself.

Most Cauldrons were made out of metal, so they didn’t need to care about such a thing, but Mei was more cautious about this.

That was because every little mistake would snowball over time, making it difficult to establish some kind of groundwork on how this was supposed to work.

...

With the firing done, Mei noticed that Aiko was watching her.

”What?” Mei pursed her lips as she looked over. Aiko was still melting metals, but her attention was wholly on Mei.

”Nothing.” Moon Aiko kicked her legs in her sitting position. ”I just wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to make it out of metal and melt it later...”

”You would have to either cut it into parts or destroy it, since we don’t have anything this big. Not to mention every metal is not suitable for Cauldrons, so if we even have enough for it is questionable.” Mei shook her head. She was aware that this wouldn’t be easy, but she would try her best to make it work.

”I didn’t think resources would be the issue.” Moon Aiko was startled, but considering that what Mei created was around 25 metres tall, it was only natural that it would consume a lot more resources than Moon Aiko’s tiny version.

”I’m glad you understand it.” Mei chuckled as she kept tapping the Cauldron with her knuckles.

”And what are you doing now?” Moon Aiko was fascinated and wanted to know more about what Mei was doing, since she was a lot more experienced.

With that experience, Mei might have things that Moon Aiko was not aware of, which could allow her to expand her horizons.

The most important part was to watch Mei and not disturb her!

”Once you fire clay, it will have this distinctive ’clang’, you will understand it once you fire them enough, but just using that sound, you will know if it’s fired well or not.” Mei smiled as it seemed it was evenly fired.

”Is it similar to Pill scent?” Moon Aiko thought about something that could be like that, but the only thing she came up with was a Pill scent.

”Not bad.” Mei smiled at her. ”Certainly Pill scent will allow you to understand the quality of the Pills, but there are also Pill Refining Cultivators that add scents to it.

”Whoa...” Moon Aiko didn’t even think about that, but to think they would be able to scam others like that.

”Well, that was in the Immortal World, but I’m sure someone would develop it over here too.” Mei shrugged, but she was pretty confident that she was right.

”Would they really do that? They would pretty much turn everyone against them...” Moon Aiko tilted her head. That way their reputation would be ruined and they wouldn’t be able to sell nor buy anything!

”There is also Black Market, which doesn’t care about such things.” Mei gestured as she drew a symbol into nearby dirt.

”Snake?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. What Mei drew seemed like a snake swallowing something.

”This was their old symbol. I’m not sure if they are still using it, but if you come across this, you should just ignore their goods.” Mei chuckled sinisterly.

She knew that White Aiko would be cautious, but those guys were cunning so it was better that Aiko wouldn’t interact with them!

Not because she would be scammed, but because they might give her ideas!

”Awwww, but it seems like fun...” Moon Aiko pouted.

’You really-’ Mei sighed inside her mind. White Aiko might be the most dignified, but when it came to her experiments and overall sinister nature, she could easily match the other forms!

”Ignore them, please.” Mei switched the tactic to pleas, since she knew that would work on Aiko more.

”I will meet them.” Moon Aiko was simply too curious to miss this opportunity.

Mei groaned unhappily. She would be happier if Aiko simply ignored them, but that didn’t seem to be an option now.

”Just don’t do anything too crazy. I’m still not used to it...” Mei pleaded with Aiko, since that was the truth.

”Oh...” Moon Aiko clearly didn’t expect that. ”Then I just won’t show you~” She hummed innocently.

”You do know that’s even worse than just telling me, right?” Mei felt flabbergasted by her attitude.

”I know. It’s fun to mess with y- Auauauauauau.” Moon Aiko cried out, since her cheeks were pinched once again.

”If you like to mess with me, then you don’t mind if I mess with you, right?” Mei smiled sinisterly and kept pinching her cheeks.

”I’m sowwy, please shou!” Moon Aiko cried gently, since Mei was overdoing it this time.

”Hmpf.” Mei seemed quite upset, but still let Aiko go, since it was not exactly her fault. Her nature couldn’t be changed and since Mei picked her as partner, she would have to deal with it.

”Auwie...” Moon Aiko pouted at Mei.

”Nothing too crazy, alright?” Mei warned her, since she needed to get used to this a bit more first.

”Okay...” Moon Aiko said that, but she was already thinking about how to build those flying Cauldrons!