Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”The Enforcement Hall never looked like this.” Dai Lu paused her steps briefly while walking towards the continental ships.

Both her and Mei were wearing a single piece dress, making them stand out. Especially the Grandmaster, since everyone knew that she was old and injured.

”But you can also say that the Fox Village was never this happy.” Mei nudged her gently while giggling.

”Certainly.” Dai Lu nodded her head seriously. ”So how many do we have?”

”3 repaired and fully functional, but we have extracted the Floating Stones from the others, so we can have a max capacity of 12.” Mei smirked. She was never this rich in her life, since all Floating Stones were hoarded by big families in the Immortal World.

The Floating Stone was not much different when you compared them with the Immortal ones. The only difference was that most Floating Stones would decrease in size when they touched the Immortal Qi.

But with 12 of them that she could use, she would still be able to build at least one floating vessel!

”You are kind of scary right now...” Dai Lu took a step back, since she didn’t want to be close to Mei.

”I thought that you were teaching Aiko.” Mei narrowed her eyes.

”I did want to do that, but when I saw the Enforcement Hall I wanted to see more.” Dai Lu pursed her lips. ”It’s not like she is not doing anything. I have given her homework.”

”Do you believe I’m foolish for doing it like this?” Mei turned around to face Dai Lu.

”I know you are a lot older than you make it seem, but I have never seen anything turn well with the Enforcement Hall.” Dai Lu shook her head. She didn’t believe the Enforcement Hall would be able to survive like this.

But that was also her age talking.

”Aiko sorted the Foxes, so there are only a few troublemakers, and even those are doing it only because they were so used to chaos before that they didn’t see anything wrong with it.” Mei sighed. It was a lot of work, but she would be able to make it work!

”...” Dai Lu pursed her lips. ”It’s true, but I didn’t think you would be teaching common sense.”

Mei sharply glared at her and Dai Lu whistled innocently.

”Tsk.” Mei clicked her tongue. She was quite upset that Dai Lu didn’t believe she had common sense.

Well, she did have Aiko as her partner, but that didn’t mean it changed anything! W-well, maybe her aching body changed... but that’s about it!

”So what is her homework?” Mei was curious, since if it was Aiko it shouldn’t take too long.

”Using 3 techniques at once.” Dai Lu chuckled.

”You really hate her, huh?” Mei stared at her blankly.

”Hm? It’s nothing like that.” Dai Lu waved her hand in front of her mouth. ”I want her to learn that different techniques use different ways to discharge our Beast Cores, so we can’t mix and mash techniques together willy-nilly.”

”You think she won’t try it...?” Mei kept staring at her.

”... She wouldn’t, would she...?” Dai Lu pursed her lips. ”I should’ve been more blunt with the homework, shouldn’t I have?”

”En...” Mei chuckled. Even the mighty Grandmaster had issues facing Aiko.

They walked around for a while, their energies concealed.

They wanted to see the Foxes without the pressure of their titles. Their natural inclinations, communication and so on.

They first encountered the Muscle Foxes. Well, they might be called Brawny Foxes now, since they didn’t have such huge muscles, but most of them loved their current bodies more than before.

It was not just about strength and stamina. They were unable to touch their backs and other parts of their bodies, making it difficult to wash among other things.

They also loved the Massage Chairs and had many small shrines worshipping the inventor of such a wonderful product.

”Is that fine...?” Dai Lu pointed at the small shrines and the worshippers.

”They are not crazy yet, so.” Mei shrugged like it was not a big deal since they were quite cute in their expressions.

Moving further they encountered the Shadow Foxes. Well, not all of them were true Shadow Foxes, but you can categorise them like that since they all belonged to the Shadows Peak.

They were getting information even within the Fox Village and recording for Yuan for later.

They were quite cute, always hiding in the bushes, or on the branches. Some were hiding even on the ceilings of the latrines.

Both of them found their behaviour adorable so they watched them for a while.

The next were the Demonic Foxes.

They were quite solitary Foxes, because both their intelligence and prowess vastly dwarfed normal Foxes.

They also didn’t really like to mingle with them, since the normal Foxes didn’t know how to solve some issues, making the Demonic Foxes roll their eyes every time.

Thanks to that, the Demonic Foxes were not as welcoming as other Foxes, but they were by no means rude. While they did keep their distance, they would answer questions and act in a polite manner, since they knew that the old Fox Village was no more.

Since this was the standard, everyone adapted to it and made an effort to spread this behaviour.

”Won’t there be a problem with moving them?” Dai Lu stared at the huge underground city bustling with life.

”There won’t be any problem. Just because they built this doesn’t mean they want to stay here.” Mei shook her head.

”That’s true. We only took them here so that they wouldn’t be under the watchful eyes of the shitty Elders.” Dai Lu nodded her head, somewhat understanding this.

”Let’s go.” Mei smiled briefly before leaving this place with Dai Lu.

...

The next were the normal Foxes. They were the most carefree out of all the Foxes.

The festive mood was underway since nobody was being raped or abused by the surrounding Foxes. Some did have scars, so they were moved into the rehabilitation zone, but a lot of them tried to keep up with the normal Foxes.

Everyone was polite and kind and while there was mischief here and there, one visit with the Enforcement Hall and everyone kept it within set boundaries.

”It’s...” Dai Lu didn’t have the right word for what she was seeing.

”Abnormal? Crazy?” Mei chuckled.

”En...” Dai Lu nodded her head. ”I would never imagine Foxes smiling and chatting so happily. Do they even know that there is another Delegation on its way?”

”They don’t have to know, but I do believe they feel it. There is subtle tension in the air.” Mei knew that it wouldn’t be completely smooth sailing, since they would be visiting the old Beasts.

”I suppose, but even with tension in the air, they are just...” Dai Lu chuckled, shaking her head.

”Just because they are carefree, doesn’t mean that they are lazy.” Mei warned her, since she knew that Dai Lu was concerned about their stability and progress.

”I can see that.” Dai Lu noticed that some Foxes openly meditated. ”But isn’t that dangerous.”

”There were zones where you can meditate without care. Foxes with stronger powers are stationed around them to keep things in check, and they also happen to be part of the Enforcement Hall.” Mei chuckled, but she was quite satisfied with her creation.

”Whoa, and who is the devil now, huh?” Dai Lu felt like everything was meticulously planned, so much so that she found Mei quite scary.

...

The last ground, not counting the different Peaks, were the Foxes undergoing rehabilitation.

The festive mood spread even to here, but there was noticeable tension in the air.

”I think they are more perceptive to what is happening.” Dai Lu narrowed her eyes as she looked around.

Their golden and red dresses were dazzling, but nobody was able to notice them.

”They were abused the most.” Mei sighed with some complexity in her eyes. ”But that doesn’t mean that this place stagnated. I think this tension comes from the hope that the past won’t repeat itself.”

”They are quite hasty, but they will be the fastest to board the continental flying ships.” Dai Lu knew that they would be crowded a lot, so she already ordered some precious lumber to expand some of the continental flying ships.

”Our numbers dwindled a lot...” Mei sighed.

”True, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect things.” Mei shook her head back.

”I think it won’t take even a month for us to leave?” Dai Lu narrowed her eyes again. She was strong, but her power didn’t stabilise yet, so if she fought, there would be a lot of collateral damage.

”That is my intention. Everything was disassembled or discovered, so there is no holding back.” Mei nodded her head slowly.

”What about the Status Stone?” Dai Lu was asking about the stone which told you if the person was dead, or if they betrayed the Fox Village and so on.

”We will just take the core and destroy the rest. We will create a new, more elaborate Heart Stone.” Mei smiled happily. She was looking forward to that.

”Upgrading it, huh...” Dai Lu sighed. That was easier said than done, but if it was Mei and Aiko, it just might be possible.

”Don’t dwell on those things. Let’s keep moving forward.” Mei turned around once again walking towards the continental flying ships.

...

”They are in better condition than I expected.” Dai Lu noticed that the usable continental flying ships were in a very good state.

”We didn’t just destroy the unusable ones, you know.” Mei rolled her eyes. She was not stupid, so she ordered the others to dismantle the broken ships and use those parts to repair new ones.

For some reason all the continental flying ships were the same and she didn’t like that, but right now it was very useful since they were able to completely repair them.

”That was a wise choice, but I can see some parts being carried into the already repaired ships?” Dai Lu didn’t understand why that was happening.

”If we encounter damage along the way, we can just use those parts to immediately fix them. You have to keep in mind that we have a lot of Foxes, so losing one ship would mean we would lose 1/3rd of them.” Mei sighed. The actual journey will be very hard if something breaks, so she was preparing for the worst.

”That makes sense. Those pieces don’t take that much space, but still it ensures that everything will go smoothly even if something breaks.” Dai Lu nodded her head in appreciation.

A lot of her colleagues died trying to fly over the ocean, so she knew just how perilous that whole thing was!