Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The journey this time was quite long, since they had no intention of landing just yet.

Mei was looking for something interesting that would warrant landing, while Dai Lu was still chatting here and there with the Grandmaster from the Southern Sect.

Moon Aiko would just lie around or sleep, since she was low on energy, but then she had a different idea.

Since she didn’t have much work to do, why not check on her familiars!

The first one was Grandpa Flame.

*Groaned*

”And here I thought I would have a vacation...” Grandpa Flame sobbed.

Moon Aiko was concerned because of that reaction, but she chose to stuff him back in, since she didn’t want to hear him complain more.

’It’s never a good idea to try to comfort someone who doesn’t like you.” Moon Aiko was convinced that her research upset Grandpa Flame.

Well, she was not entirely wrong. It was not about the research, but the ungodly amount of work that Moon Aiko would undergo in pursuing her research.

Anyone would be tired if they did just 1/10th, but Moon Aiko would not stop there, making Grandpa Flame hate the word ’research’.

Since Grandpa Flame was ’done’, she would check on her Spiritual Water.

The water was gently quivering and Moon Aiko was unable to control it well.

’I wonder what happened...’ Moon Aiko was unaware that Danji stuck that ’pearl’ from the lake into her Spiritual Water and so it was currently merging together.

Soon she would have two Elemental Spirits with their own consciousness, which was extremely rare in the Mortal World.

Even One Elemental Spirit with consciousness and sense of self would warrant the highest treatment, but for two? That was pretty much unheard of!

It also didn’t help that Human Cultivator only viewed the Spiritual Flame as the only Elemental Spirit. They never considered the other elements since they were mostly useless to them.

Next one was the Seedling.

It was still inside that small space, being nourished by the water and soil Moon Aiko left inside it.

Looking closely, about half of the nutrients from the soil were depleted and there were even signs that some parts were turning into sand, very fine sand, mind you, but still sand.

’I will have to replace it soon.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head slowly. She was the only one who was able to see what was in front of her.

Even the most perceptive Fox Elders could only perceive slightly distorted space and nothing more.

Moon Aiko wondered if she should dig now, but with her low energy that might not be a good idea.

Why might that be? Well, the flying boat was powered by her and helped by others, but her energy was what made it float. If her energy ran out, no matter how much the others supplied, it would be meaningless.

In simple terms, Moon Aiko was something like a converter, that converted the unfamiliar energy into familiar energy for the flying boat.

The next one she pulled out was her small Spidey. She should really come up with a name, but it was difficult to say what kind of name she should pick.

She long noticed that its gender was quite fluid. When it was not near Aiko or someone it wanted to flatter, it would turn into male and bully them, but when it was close to Aiko or her group, then it would turn into female to flatter them.

’Or maybe for hugs?’ Moon Aiko was suspicious, but it was not like the little Spidey was able to talk, yet...

’I hope it’s not like me.’ Moon Aiko liked the idea of two disasters, but then when it came to negotiations... that would make things difficult for everyone.

Moon Aiko gently shook her head. ’It’s impressive enough that it can understand me, so let’s leave it at that.’ She didn’t need more than that.

Spidey tilted her head as she was held by her owner.

She didn’t struggle or try to run away.

Moon Aiko slowly observed Spidey. It didn’t seem injured, but its energy was weak.

”What happened to you?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

Spidey tilted her head.

’Right... I forgot she can’t talk...’ Moon Aiko scrunched her face. She didn’t expect this kind of communication barrier.

The Spidey quickly weaved a few webs, making words out of them.

”You are trying to increase the quality of your spider silk?” Moon Aiko didn’t believe that was possible.

Usually you would hunt certain spiders since they had the given Bloodlines and other distinctive features.

This would allow you to almost always get the same quality and effects from the spider silk.

However, it seemed like Spidey was using her own energy to completely violate that rule and make her spider silk more-

”Wait, are you increasing the Qi density of the spider silk?” Moon Aiko suddenly thought that this was her plan.

Spidey saluted, as if impressed that her owner was able to guess it.

”Is that even possible?” Moon Aiko turned towards her team.

Mei pondered for a bit before answering. ”In theory, but the difference is too faint to be worth it.”

”I heard there are even some Human Cultivators that are running artificial mines, so this is not completely out of the ordinary.” Danji nodded her head slowly. Sure, it was inefficient, but it did provide benefits!

Moreover, Moon Aiko was always in a safe space, so the Beasts that were with her didn’t really need all that energy.

”Artificial Mines?” This was the first time Mei heard about that.

”Yeah, it’s a technique to get things like the Cold Iron, or Winter Steel.” Danji counted on her fingers the other metals, but she didn’t say their names out loud.

”That’s the first time I’m hearing this, how does that work?” Mei tilted her head. She didn’t believe this was efficient, but if they could create the exceptionally rare metals, then it just might be worth it!

”From my understanding it’s pretty much the same as what the Spider is doing.” Danji shrugged like it was not a big deal, but Mei was quite offended that she didn’t provide more information.

”You are not telling me that they throw normal metal into caves with extreme elements and call it a day, right?” Mei’s lips twitched at her.

”So you already knew about it.” Danji blinked a few times. She couldn’t understand why Mei was asking when she already knew how it worked!

Mei facepalmed. She couldn’t believe those idiots were really making the ore in that way. No wonder the new Treasures suck more than usual! They were using incomplete metals for it!

”What’s wrong?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

Mei grabbed Aiko’s shoulders. ”You did separate the old metals from the new ones right?”

”Obviously, since they didn’t feel right.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. ”But since I couldn’t tell why I never really thought about it.” She shrugged gently.

”That’s because it didn’t completely convert into that metal.” Mei gestured. She pulled out a Cold Iron and ’Cold Iron’.

Their colour was the same and the same could be said about the air, but one of them was colder than the other.

”Whoa...” Moon Aiko blinked her eyes. One was able to immediately penetrate her skin with the coldness, while the other was a more soothing coolness.

”This one has more and wilder energies inside, making it more powerful, while this is a cheap replica.” Mei gestured.

”But it still feels complete?” Moon Aiko believed that as long as they were similar she would be able to work with them.

”That is true, but during forging, the most important part is taming those wild energies to make even more powerful items.” Mei shook her head slowly. ”The reason why there are few good Forging Cultivators is because they are unable to tame those wild energies.”

”Is it that difficult?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”Well, considering how much Yang you have inside your body, I would say it’s impossible.” Mei chuckled.

”Huh?” Moon Aiko was shocked. Why would it matter that her body was hot?

”It’s because of the fragility of that wild energy. You can easily drive it away, but it’s difficult to tame it if you have the opposing element.” Mei patted Aiko, trying to comfort her.

”Oh...” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She quite understood where Mei was coming from.

Moon Aiko stashed her Spidey, since it was quivering for some reason.

She was completely oblivious that some Foxes were looking at Spidey, already trying to figure out how much spider silk they would be able to get out of her.

That’s because they stripped so many spiders of their silk that it was now the most natural reaction once they saw other spiders, no matter their affiliation.

The last one would be Yuqi, the Plant Demon.

Of course this immediately attracted the attention of every Fox on board, since Plant Demons were exceptionally rare and precious materials.

Yuqi’s body quickly formed out of the small flower, looking around Aiko.

”I need a bigger pot.” Yuqi nodded her head seriously, but she was planning to use the bigger space for teasing Feifei.

”Sure, I will get you one, once we land.” Moon Aiko smiled gently.

”Huh?” Yuqi shuddered.

”Hm?” Moon Aiko tilted her head.

”W-we are in the s-sky?” Yuqi gestured timidly.

”That’s what flying ships are for, yes.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously, while wondering why the flirty plant girl suddenly turned so meek.

”C-can I get back inside, p-please?” Yuqi... hated heights and especially the inability to touch the ground.

She wouldn’t mind being burned alive as long as she was touching the ground, but take her on one flight and she would lose her marbles!

It was not just the high that pained her. She could fly as long as the ground was still a decent distance from her, but now there were only clouds around her which terrified her more than drought or fire!

”Okay...?” Moon Aiko was confused, but she would later ask what was that about.

”Plant-based Beasts hate the sky, so try to not take them out while we are travelling high up in the sky.” Mei gestured, since she knew of few other Plant Demons that hated travelling by the flying ships.

”Is it that serious?” Moon Aiko was suddenly concerned that she hurt her.

”I wouldn’t say serious. They won’t die just because they are far away from the ground. They will just feel uneasy and restless. Mei gestured, but then once again she realised this was the Mortal World.

She coughed awkwardly. ”It’s also possible that some of her abilities are locked because she is too far away from the ground. There might be other effects that might plague her too.”

”Okay, I will keep this in mind.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously. She would be more careful about when she pulled her companions out of her tails.

Of course the other Fox Elders were completely unaware that the Plant Demon was pulled out of mysterious space, since they all believed she was contracted with her...