Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Layer after layer, rock after rock. They dig a hole straight down towards the Spirit Stone Mine.

All the Foxes knew some kind of movement skills, so getting in and out was not an issue, but even then Moon Aiko created a ramp for the Muscle Foxes that carried those rocks outside.

She was impressed how smoothly everything went. There were no ambushes, cave-ins or other difficulties.

It was... very calm.

”Food is finished.” A Fox shouted down into the hole, stopping the work.

The Muscle Foxes were quite tired, since they mostly used their muscles instead of Beast Cores. The aim to progress their growth of muscles was endless, but now that they had even more strength they were obsessed Body Cultivators.

Moon Aiko followed them outside to join her own group.

Everyone was already sitting around a campfire, roasting some spiced meat.

Moon Aiko sat down next to Mei and Danji to prevent them from bickering.

”How was today?” Mei seemed upset, which was obvious since Moon Aiko dumped a huge amount of soil into one place, which is exactly what Mei didn’t want.

”Everything is progressing well.” Moon Aiko had this sensation that Mei might strangle her if she said more, so she kept things short.

”The Muscle Foxes are quite enthusiastic.” Danji mentioned them, since they seemed quite happy that they didn’t need to deal with the soil.

”Yeah. I’m thinking about making Massage Chairs for them for free.” Moon Aiko mentioned this, so she could get their opinions.

”Just for them?” Mei raised her eyebrow.

”Obviously not, but the Muscle Foxes are currently bringing the biggest gains, so once we can offset the costs with Human Cultivators and Beasts in the Human Body Stage, then we can make it free for everyone.” Moon Aiko gestured, since she didn’t want to make it so that only some of them could get all the benefits while the others couldn’t.

”Moreover, I also intended to make other ’attractions’, but I have no idea how to price them, so for now they are on the back-burner.” Moon Aiko mentioned this again, since she was serious about it.

”We will talk about this more once we can actually put things in motion.” Mei nodded her head slowly. She never expected that Aiko would actually stick with this.

”This is wise, since we don’t know how many Human Cultivators would be interested in this and how the Heavenly Massage Parlour would act towards us.” Danji mentioned this, since this will be an important part for later once they actually encounter them.

”There is also a ’Gourmand’ Cultivator. So if you set up a restaurant, you should expect them to come.” Chen Shi mentioned it from another campfire.

”Gourmand?” Moon Aiko was curious, since she would like to eat the yummiest food that ever existed, but she also didn’t want to experiment with chefs.

Sure, she would get Ming Qian as her Spiritual Cook, but that didn’t mean there were only a few recipes. Only by experiencing new things would he be able to grow and thus Aiko would enjoy her meal more!

”They are... odd Cultivators. They usually don’t care about race or what you do, as long as you are not clearly a Fiendish Cultivator.” Danji bit of a piece of meat. It was nicely roasted, but the inside was a bit too raw for her liking, so she just put it back above the fire.

”These Cultivators like to walk around restaurants and rate them. Later on they created a whole Clan that manages the pioneers and testers.” Danji chuckled. She knew that Aiko would be interested in this.

”Oho, please continue.” And she was right, Moon Aiko was very interested.

”Pioneers would seek new restaurants and rate them, while testers would test them every few months to see if their quality improved or degraded. Thus, this creates an ecosystem which also gives rewards.” Danji chuckled somewhat sinisterly, because she knew that Aiko would like the next part too.

”It starts with stars, from 1 to 5, the more stars the better the food. Then from 6 to 9 stars the food also has to be affordable, without that you wouldn’t be able to get those. Then there is a special category with 3 Immortal Stars. Each star is separated by a huge skill chasm, so earning just 1 will spread your name through the whole Mortal Realm.” Danji narrowed her eyes.

”We could use that.” Moon Aiko smirked, since she quite liked this easy system.

”If you can get 3 Immortal Stars, then even Immortal World will get interested in you, but that’s not good for us.” Mei mentioned this, since this part was very important.

”So we can only get 2.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

”We can’t affect it, and lowering quality on purpose would ban us from getting Immortal Stars.” Danji warned Aiko about this part too.

”It’s unavoidable, but we will have to face it.” Mei sighed. She was clearly not happy about this, but if Aiko wanted to do something like this, she would just walk next to her.

’I should stop trying to restrain her, unless she does something too crazy.’ Mei thought that she was too protective and limiting, so she would allow Aiko to let loose a bit.

”But since Aiko wants to have it moving all the time, then even Immortal World won’t have it easy.” Danji chuckled.

”Ah, right.” Mei’s eyes sharpened. She completely forgot this part.

”The problem will be price, if we use the flying ships.” Danji warned Aiko again.

”Not to mention there will be others that would like to shoot it down.” Mei also joined since that would be seriously bad.

”Difficult, difficult.” Moon Aiko just shook her head. She would just get some snacks for the time being and think about how to make it move for later.

’I wonder if I can find some kind of Beasts that would be willing to do that...’ Moon Aiko would take her time with this, since it was important.

They had snacks and chatted happily around the campfire before going to bed.

Their tree house was very simple, but without enough room to accommodate everyone.

Moon Aiko was able to sleep soundly until the next day...

...

Back at the digging site. The process repeated itself, but also slowed down a lot since they were a lot deeper and the Muscle Foxes walked for a lot longer with those rocks.

’It was inevitable.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head slowly. She could create some kind of wheeled transportation, but it was unlikely that the Muscle Foxes would agree to this.

’Let’s just keep at it.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head, but then she heard a clang.

She turned around towards the sound.

”I have found the first Spirit Stone, so we are getting closer.” Bin joined them for today for a bit and immediately found something nice.

”Then you can keep it.” Moon Aiko smiled. These few pieces wouldn’t make much difference for her, but...

All Muscle Foxes suddenly paused.

”Yes, until we reach the Spirit Stone Mine, you can keep those loose Spirit Stones.” Moon Aiko smiled, but what happened next... she didn’t consider.

Steam gushed out of the Muscle Foxes’ mouths as their muscles bulged.

”Diiiiig!” *BOOOM*

The Muscle Foxes entered a frenzy state and dug like their life depended on it and with each Spirit Stone found the whole process only intensified.

Bin also stayed here, since every Spirit Stone counted for him. He would be able to buy her some nice Pills that would improve her state of body and maybe even sturdier be-

*cough*

Bin shook his head. He never expected his wife to be so... destructive.

Moon Aiko was slightly scared, since she was unable to keep up with the demand for digging sites and when she just made a new digging site, it was depleted within a few moments.

The transporting Muscle Foxes also stopped walking and just hurled those huge ass rocks outside the hole.

”A-aren’t you worried that they will roll back down?” Moon Aiko tried to slow them down slightly, because she was starting to become tired.

Sure, her stamina was unlimited, but she had to use her mind in order to choose the digging zone, which took a lot out of her.

The Muscle Foxes who hurled those rocks paused.

”You heard her! Throw further!” One Muscle Fox shouted at the others.

”Ayay!” The Muscle Foxes shouted back and started to hurl those rocks even further.

The Foxes outside of the hole started to panic, because they never expected such a frenzy, but when they heard Spirit Stones, even the outside became a complete working disaster.

”I really want to strangle Aiko...” Mei groaned. She was happy that things slowed down and that she was able to rest, but now the Muscle Foxes suddenly lost their mind because Aiko allowed them to keep those Spirit Stones.

”Don’t be like that.” Danji gloated that Mei was suffering, but she also had her hands full with this.

Mei glared at her and just kept going.

However, this whole ’disaster’ didn’t stop there.

The normal Foxes saw how hardworking the Muscle Foxes were, so they started to hunt seriously. They wanted to make the most delicious meal for them.

Needless to say, another wave of ’gentle’ extermination of anything that walked or tasted good...

...

This lasted for a few days, until they were able to break into the Spirit Stone Mine. After which the whole frenzy quickly cooled down.

”Finally...” Mei plopped back into her chair. She was happy she didn’t need to organise those piles any more, and Danji was happy to join her.

”Next time let’s make sure that Aiko doesn’t do this again.” Danji breathed a sigh of relief that everything was finally over.

”...” Mei wanted to make a snarky remark, but she was too tired.

Moon Aiko climbed up, feeling like she went through another war and joined them.

She really wanted to ask what happened, but Danji was already explaining it.

”Most Foxes don’t earn more than one Spirit Stone a month, so being able to get Spirit Stones so easily...” Danji didn’t need to finish that sentence for Aiko to understand what just happened.

”Be careful with the rewards. Got it.” Moon Aiko immediately knew what to do, but this was truly a shocking discovery. She would have to be really careful with those rewards in the future.

”...” Moon Aiko suddenly paused.

”Don’t even think about it.”

”Don’t even think about it.”

Both of them immediately shut Aiko up, since they knew she wanted to ask about the free Massage Chairs, but if she did that right now, then everyone would go into another frenzy...!

Moon Aiko pursed her lips and chose to remain silent after seeing those bloodshot eyes. She would just ask everything later once the Spirit Stone Mine is explored...