Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The others kept playing, so Moon Aiko looked around for a bit more before returning in front of the cabin.

She gathered some Solar Essence again, but for her, it was quite boring to be so high up in the sky.

The main reason being, there was just not enough stimuli and she couldn’t experiment on anything in front of so many individuals.

While they were now part of the new Fox Village, that didn’t mean that Aiko felt comfortable sharing certain things.

”It should take us about half a day and we can land.” Mei suddenly came next to Aiko and spoke softly. ”How are you holding up?”

”I’m fine, the little games were also interesting...” Moon Aiko was curious about the overly old Fox, but not curious to so openly ask.

”What are you curious about?” Mei knew that Aiko wanted to ask something, but hesitated.

”Who is that overly old Fox?” Moon Aiko murmured under her breath.

”As you might’ve realised, she was the teacher of the current Seer, but also someone whose skills were beyond what was normally possible.” Mei didn’t explain anything, since she didn’t want to reveal her secrets. Aiko should ask the ’overly old Fox’ herself.

”Hmmmm...” Moon Aiko was curious, but that curiosity can wait. ”Do you have any manuals about meditations?” She was curious if she could convert or improve her current way of gathering different energies.

”The Fox Villages library was robbed, but I guess you are not asking about that, right?” Mei smiled meaningfully. She knew that Aiko wanted her personal knowledge and not some third rated knowledge.

Moon Aiko nodded her head briefly. She knew that it was shameless to ask Mei like this, but she didn’t have anything else to do, then just support this boat with her energy.

”Hmmmm...” Mei pursed her lips. There was a lot of bias in her knowledge, so she would have to pick as many ’neutral’ things as possible.

There weren’t many, but this should be enough to occupy Aiko so that she was not bored.

Mei pulled out a Jade Slip out of her Storage Ring and imbued it with her energy before giving it to Aiko.

Moon Aiko glanced at it and system immediately evaluated it.

[Heavenly Breathing Manual (Low Saint)]

[Gathers the ’Heavenly’ particles and converts them to different energies. While this breathing can be used anywhere you want, the efficacy is less than ideal.]

[River Enchanting Sleep Breathing Manual (Spirit)]

[Gathers water-based energies while around moving rivers of water. This breathing portrays the unique challenges of Qi specific manuals.]

[Sleepless Starless Night Breathing Manual (High Heaven)]

[Gathers energy when meditating during the night with starless sky. Gathers ice/star/darkness-based energies. This breathing portrays what happens when you greatly restrict yourself.]

[Dewless Morning Breathing Manual (Low Heaven)]

[Gathers energy during morning without dew. Gathers water/fire(sun)-based energies. This breathing portrays the unnatural phenomenons that you might find in the different Sects.]

[Unity with Nature Breathing Manual (???)]

[####]

[Gathers energy when attuned with the nature. Gathers nature/wood/earth/water...-based energies. This breathing is the abomination of twisted and desperate desires.]

[It is not recommended to test this technique as it might erase you if you are not careful.]

”Most of them are safe to use, except the last one. Each manual has two parts, they are modified to work with both Beast and Human Physiques, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility.” Mei smiled as she leaned closer to Aiko. ”The last one is when your desperate twisted desires bring fruits of hard labour.”

”I know that you will never want to hurt those around you, but you also have tendency to do things that are unexpected, so I wrote that one down to warn you and remind you to not go too far.” Mei softly warned Aiko. She was not too worried about this part, since she knew that she was smart, but just in case Aiko was curious what might happen, she prepared it and would let her experience it.

”That’s a lot...” Moon Aiko wondered why the last one didn’t have rank, but she wouldn’t dwell on it too much.

[That Breathing Manual can’t be considered as normal. It was created under extreme circumstances and can’t be used unless you have extreme desires.]

’Then why would you even name it?’ Moon Aiko was confused.

[It’s important part of your study, so you won’t get caught off guard when you meet someone that uses something extreme. There are more than just one extreme desire. Some also use extreme types of Qi to empower them.]

’So, just for experience?’ Moon Aiko nodded her head.

”Thank you.” Moon Aiko gave Mei a light peck before focusing on the Jade Slip.

Mei pursed her lips. Aiko was quite reserved when it came to intimacy, but at least she showed her appreciation.

Moon Aiko looked over the individual breathing manuals, but they were vastly different to what she expected.

The most basic one, the [Heavenly Breathing Manual (Low Saint)] was perfect for her [Embryonic Breathing], but she could also consider the other ones.

Moon Aiko nodded her head a few times. [Sleepless Starless Night Breathing Manual (High Heaven)] and [Dewless Morning Breathing Manual (Low Heaven)] could be used right after each other if the right conditions aligned.

The [River Enchanting Sleep Breathing Manual (Spirit)] and [Unity with Nature Breathing Manual (???)] were overly unique, since rivers were very frequented and unity... well, she was not really interested in that one.

She could’ve also guessed the dangers behind him with the word ’unity’ right in the title.

However, that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn from them.

The [Heavenly Breathing Manual (Low Saint)] was very stable and unchanging. It required stable and uninterrupted breathing. If one didn’t follow it properly, only Qi deviation would follow them.

The [River Enchanting Sleep Breathing Manual (Spirit)] was very light and quick like the river. It would wash away your lungs, but breathe in too much and you would drown in your sleep.

The [Sleepless Starless Night Breathing Manual (High Heaven)] was stable, like the first one, but the breathing was very deep and slow. If one was not careful about their breathing, they would fall into peaceful sleep and never wake up.

The [Dewless Morning Breathing Manual (Low Heaven)] was light as the river, but deep as the sleep. It could burn your lungs if you are not careful.

The [Unity with Nature Breathing Manual (???)] was the most impressive and scariest one. It required you to empty your mind and breathe with the wind. The gains were immense, but as you might expect, if you are not careful then your mind might not return to your body.

Moon Aiko was impressed by this newfound knowledge. She didn’t expect it to be so complex and sinister at the same time.

The most basic breathing that everyone does, allows you to gather miniscule amount of Qi. That’s also why there are no sudden ’Qi Gathering Stage Cultivators’, because before you can gather enough of it, it would naturally disperse out of the body.

The more advanced the technique, the more restriction it had. The more difficult to maintain, the more power behind it and so on.

Moon Aiko would have to find a way to put as many restrictions as possible-

’No, why would I do that...’ Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. Why couldn’t she come up with several breathing techniques and just rotate them as she saw it fit?

[That’s easier said than done. You don’t have enough experience to make it happen, so please start small. Breathing Manuals are no joke and can permanently cripple you if you are not careful!]

’I get it.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head. Her first {Breathing Manual} would definitely be close to [Heavenly Breathing Manual (Low Saint)].

The important part about that breathing was that you could do it anywhere, allowing for constant stream of Qi.

Stable and powerful should be her name, but that caused problems.

During sleep it would be difficult to maintain. Sure, she did have [Embryonic Breathing], but who says it can draw 100% out of any breathing technique!?

Moon Aiko believed it would try it’s best to make it as good as possible, but that was not good enough.

So her first breathing would be stable, but fluid. That will allow her to sleep and fight, while also maintaining the benefits of the universal breathing.

’Let’s call this Breathing Universe Technique and expand on it later on.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head slowly. Beast breathing was quite easy to create, but the benefits were too small for normal Beasts to use.

However, since she had [Embryonic Breathing], she more than enough benefitted over long period of time, so she didn’t need to worry about that part.

With things like this, she should have more stable stream of energy, but it still couldn’t dwarf her [Dawn Dew Absorption (Stage 1)] and [Sun & Moon Nurturing Meditation (Stage 1)].

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she couldn’t use them through the [Embryonic Breathing].

Moon Aiko pondered if it was possible to already use some restrictions, but for now she wouldn’t touch it. This was good enough for now.

[Breathing Universe (Low Sky]

This was... higher than she expected. The ranks went from Mortal > Earth > Sky > Spirit > Saint > Heaven > ???.

So she was not at the lowest rank, but also not at the highest. For something that didn’t have any restrictions, it had quite high rank and that was probably because it could be used anywhere.

With that out of the way, Moon Aiko slowly opened her eyes.

”We can land now.” Mei leaned back against the wall. ”Or we can keep going, the Elders inside the continental flying ships are reporting good Qi stability.”

”We will land, I need to stretch.” Moon Aiko didn’t hesitate with that, since being so high in the sky was really boring!

But now that they could land, she might find something nice that she could do, something that she could entertain herself with.

”There are no Human Cultivators in the vicinity.” One Fox Elder who was using the Table Map reported. He was pretty much glued to that thing, since it was something he always wanted.

”Good.” Mei nodded her head. ”In that case, let’s descend!”