Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Witch Aiko tapped the ground below her feet. It was quite a nice road considering all the sand surrounding this place, but there were a few startling discoveries.

The stones used for the ’paving’ were quite even and placed like a puzzle, but the sand between them never touched the top of those stones, like those stones repelled the sand.

However, upon closer investigation, the stones were very ordinary.

This had to do with the Natural Formation as it allowed to maintain this place without needing input of Spirit Stones or manual Qi, everything was handled by ambient Qi and natural elements.

That was the most damning thing about this, Natural Formation as implied, was just a Formation that had some kind of ’meaning’. In the case of this place, the Natural Formation distorted what others saw outside a certain distance and concealed this place. Moreover, it also had a preserving effect on anything that was inside, but of course it did have its own demerits.

EVERYTHING was preserved, that included food and other things. So if you wanted to actually digest anything, you would have to walk out of this place to make it happen. Similarly, if you wanted to cook, you also had to go outside, since everything would be perfectly preserved.

What was not preserved was the Qi inside things. So if you had Spiritual Food, just because you would bring it into this place doesn’t mean it would maintain its form. Anything with Qi was slowly sapped away to maintain this place, leaving behind anything and everything without Qi.

”But isn’t that bad? Our Storage Rings use Qi to maintain their forms.” Witch Aiko found this place quite hostile to her since she also had quite a few nice things that relied on Qi to work.

”Not quite. This place adjusts space and time, meaning that Storage Rings, which use space and somewhat time are not affected by this phenomenon. However, everything outside the Storage Rings would be affected severely.” Mei explained before following Aiko around with others. Most of them were simply concerned that she would do something that would wreck this place.

”It’s unfortunate that this place doesn’t have Natural Treasure.” Witch Aiko nodded her head as she ignored Dai Lu. It seemed like Dai Lu wanted to say something to her, but Aiko was currently more interested in this place than whatever she was carrying.

Witch Aiko stared at the water, there was simply something wrong with it, but Witch Aiko couldn’t figure out what.

”This place is completely stripped of Qi, so you will feel discomfort everywhere.” Foxes were especially susceptible to this phenomenon thanks to their small Beast Core.

”No wonder, but I also feel like the rules here are strange...” Witch Aiko looked around, but couldn’t figure out where that ’feeling’ was coming from.

”Maybe because whoever inhabited this place made a hole in the Natural Formation, making it less stable over time?” The bird lady heard some rumours, but they were so ridiculous that she dismissed them.

Who in their right mind would try to adjust a Natural Formation just because they didn’t like it?!

”It’s coming from the palace?” Witch Aiko titled her head. She was unable to pinpoint it and she was unable to see it either, making it quite difficult to locate. The only place that seemed odd was the main palace.

”Then let’s go.” The bird lady recovered quite quickly from that meat, but others were not as lucky, so most of Aiko’s team stayed behind to take care of them.

”I wonder what we can find...” Witch Aiko was very curious if she could find a nice place that would be hospitable for her, since she didn’t like the amount of sand that was ’rolling’ around.

”Treasures, if the Earthen Elephants didn’t move them.” Mei chuckled. If they could secure whatever was inside the Earthen Elephant Clan vault, then they might be able to strike a much better deal with the Beast Sect!

”That’s unlikely, they were very poor.” The bird lady awkwardly laughed. It was her Crow Clan that ’fished’ a lot of metals, so the Earthen Elephants had limited resources to share between each other. That was also maybe why the Ancestral Beast went bonkers and didn’t wait for this little Fox to remove the Contract.

”They are so stupid...” Witch Aiko sighed, mostly because she was unhappy that there were no Treasures around.

”Well, you can’t really say that since this place would be impenetrable for normal invasions.” The bird lady smiled. IT was quite similar to her domain, but different at the same time.

”That is fair, but a house without furniture has no meaning.” Witch Aiko shrugged.

”Unless you are a guy.” The Nightmare Owl laughed.

”Gosh, do you know anything interesting about this place?” Witch Aiko felt weird having such a loud mouth around her.

’I don’t think this idiot knows anything, since he is lazy.’ Xinyue rolled her eyes, but she was right. He didn’t remember most of this place and he relied on what he heard from others to navigate this place.

However, his accuracy was spot on each time, so everyone started to wonder if he had a good memory or that great sense of direction for some reason...

’It’s kind of weird hearing the doe to talk to me. I wonder if I can speed her Evolution up...’ Witch Aiko sighed. She didn’t mind hearing words from the little doe, but it was always so abrupt and she even sometimes talked over each other, making it difficult to listen to.

The palace had a huge entrance, bigger than anything Aiko was used to.

Even those lofty Human Sects were smaller in comparison.

There was no gate so to speak, but there was a hint of oppressive energy leaking from the statues.

”Those are dead Earthen Elephants. It seems like their extreme Earthen Qi made them like that.” Mei inspected them closely and was impressed by the purity of these statues.

”Are you sure the Ancestral Beast didn’t make them like this?” Witch Aiko was sceptical considering what was happening around them and how many people died or were tortured.

”...” Mei scratched her head. She was unsure if they were made to be like this or not, but one thing was certain. ”Their oppressive energy is not based on grudge, so it should be by their own volition.”

”Are you sure they weren’t fanatics that blindly followed the leader?” Witch Aiko prepared the worst case scenario, since she didn’t believe that this place was normal.

”...” Mei sighed. She understood why Aiko was so pessimistic, but wasn’t it pushing this a bit too far?

The bird lady didn’t really care about the statues, since she didn’t feel anything.

”Hmmm...” Witch Aiko noticed that this place was surrounded by smaller statues, making it quite creepy.

”What is it?” Mei asked Aiko, looking around. This place didn’t seem too bad, but she wouldn’t want to live here. Cooking and eating were done a lot by Foxes, so not being able to do that here was pretty detrimental to their culture.

”I’m wondering if they used those statues to keep those rodents at bay.” Witch Aiko titled her head a few times, trying to think if this was the reason why there were so many of them.

While others might not feel it as much that would not be the same with small rodents and considering the scale of things it might as well be possible.

”You think they were trying to defend against something?” The bird lady was not too startled since most animals were dumb enough that they could actually find this place.

Now surviving inside or wandering around were two different things, but what if there were small thieves or spies that were trying to take over this place? Then everything would make sense, since these statues would make quite the incredible deterrent.

”Yeah.” Witch Aiko nodded her head. It was not just rodents that made a mess. A lot of birds would shit everywhere, making cleaning a lot more difficult and disgusting.

”Well, there are quite a few thieving animals that are also small, so this place would pretty much turn off-limits for them.” The bird lady nodded her head. She didn’t have those kinds of issues... most of the time, since her domain was too scorching for anything to survive naturally.

”We will only know once we enter.” Witch Aiko nodded her head as she stepped forward.

She could feel a strange sensation wash past her as she suddenly appeared in front of a magnificently paved garden.

The others had the same sensation and it was obvious why.

”So they did create a place where the Natural Formation didn’t work, but to think they would spend so many resources on it...” The bird lady was flabbergasted since Earthen Elephant was one of the weakest Clans there was, when it came to resources.

”You never know what is happening in their tiny brains.” Witch Aiko snorted unhappily. Who would’ve thought that they would desert this place just to take over a Spirit Stone Mine?!

”You might not know this, but there weren’t too many Earthen Elephants, since having the perfect affinity was difficult.” The bird lady shook her head. It was so wasteful to send others away just because they didn’t completely align with the beliefs of the main group.

If they had some elephants with other affinities it would be possible to grow things over here with a few adjustments.

This would pretty much lessen the burden on them greatly as it would be possible to cultivate some Herbs for them to sell.

”What happened to the rest?” Witch Aiko was slightly curious about it.

”They were either banished or eaten.” The Nightmare Owl shared, since he observed it quite closely.

”... What...?” Witch Aiko stared at him in disbelief.

”Limited resources meant you can only employ or have so many individuals under you.” The Nightmare Owl shrugged like it was not his issue.

”So they are cannibals?” Witch Aiko asked the bird lady.

”They didn’t perceive those with different affinity as of the same race, but yes. They were cannibals.” The bird lady didn’t deny anything, since when she was visiting that one time, they offered her some fresh meat and you guessed where it came from...

From that point on, the bird lady refused all food from this place, since you never knew if it was meat butchered from their colleagues or something similar to that...