Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”Can we return here?” Yuqi asked this, just in case there was something that she wanted, but couldn’t obtain right now.

”Unlikely, I can only go one way for now.” Witch Aiko shook her head.

”That’s unfortunate.” Yuqi sighed. ”Then how about we explore a bit more?”

”Even when you don’t like this place?” Witch Aiko was slightly confused. What changed that she suddenly wanted to explore this place more?

”I still don’t like it, but it’s different if I don’t need to harvest nourishment or seeds.” Yuqi was making sure that she didn’t ruin those materials and seeds, but if she didn’t need to do that... Yeah, everything would be easy for her since she could just apply ’decay’ on everything and not take the nourishment.

”Oh, if you can make it so they can’t approach us, I don’t mind.” Witch Aiko was not against it as long as those ’things’ couldn’t get close to her.

”Well, I certainly will make sure of that since I don’t want to burn.” Yuqi chuckled. Her body quickly altered in colour, making her look more sickly.

The change to the surroundings was not immediate, but soon after. Everything started to slowly die.

The flowers with faces groaned as the flowers closed in order to try and protect themselves. The walking flowers fell over as they withered quickly.

It was a bone-chilling sight to see everything slowly die, without the means to combat it.

”Don’t worry, living beings are not affected by this.” Yuqi smiled. She didn’t consider flora as living, since she couldn’t converse with it.

That also means that Beasts that didn’t have intelligence weren’t considered living by her standards.

”I always wonder what would happen if I contracted you.” Witch Aiko pondered her thoughts out loud.

”No, thank you.” Yuqi wanted to be with Feifei. Sure, Aiko was more delicious and sweet, but Feifei was around more, so it was better that way.

”I feel like you are badmouthing me.” Witch Aiko stared at her.

”You are imagining things.” Yuqi spoke slowly, like she was really sick.

”Tell me if you feel bad, and we will leave immediately.” Witch Aiko would quickly store her before using her Ability, but for now they would explore this place and see if there was anything interesting.

”I can feel different Qi in the soil in different places.” Yuqi gestured, but she didn’t say more. It didn’t feel like she could scout ahead, but more like ’I know what would happen if I sat here’ kind of thing.

Nevertheless, Witch Aiko was fascinated by the idea that soils would be imbued with different types of Qi, allowing a more balanced and controlled way to grow Herbs.

Of course, there were some issues with this and Witch Aiko also believed that Herbs grown that way would be less potent than in the wild, but everything could be adjusted over time to see if she could mimic the efficacy of the wild Herbs.

Naturally, she would have to visit many Secret Realms and Sacred Realms for that, and she would do that once they settled on the mainland.

Her main goal right now was to gather information for Moon Aiko, so that she could figure out how to copy this place, but without all those creepy flowers.

Walking towards an inconspicuous dump on the flower plains, they found a small entrance.

”Cave?” Witch Aiko found it odd.

”Earth and Metal Qi is strong inside. I can also feel Fire Qi, but no Water or Wood Qi. There is also no Wind Qi or any harder to obtain Qi.” Yuqi explained before they even attempted to go inside.

”Are you sure there are no enemies inside?” Witch Aiko remembered that ape and how that ended, so she would like to avoid a situation where she would have to piece her arm together with needles.

”It’s definitely not living, but it’s possible that there are inorganic enemies.” Yuqi didn’t press Aiko and just explained what she could gather. ”I don’t really want to settle my roots here, so that’s all I can tell you.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

”No, that’s plenty.” Witch Aiko smiled at her. This was much easier exploration, but she also had her own ideas.

She pulled out her Spidey. She did want to scold it, but that was for later. There were still a lot of things she had to do.

”Can you try and explore how it is inside?” Witch Aiko asked Spidey, since she knew that it was very quick and attentive.

There was also no issue if it was attacked since its threads were as strong as most metals.

”Are you sure about that?” Yuqi nudged Aiko seeing the small spider go inside the cave.

”Do you want to follow it?” Witch Aiko tilted her head. She knew that Spidey wouldn’t do anything it couldn’t so there was no way she was forcing it on it. Moreover, Spidey also seemed curious about this place, so letting it loose for a bit was not a bad idea.

”No.” Yuqi firmly denied it. She was a bit miffed about this place, so she didn’t want to stay for too long, but she also felt like she should explore it just in case she found something nice.

There has to be some kind of reason that those flowers were allowed to move around without any help. Most flora were not allowed to do that until they reached her Floral Rank.

They waited around for a while until Spidey returned with some kind of diary and a piece of shiny rock.

Witch Aiko first took the diary. It was made out of paper instead of leather, bamboo, wood or anything like that.

It felt kind of strange since paper was quite rare.

Meanwhile, Yuqi took the shiny rock, but she soon placed it down once she realised that it didn’t mingle well with her body.

”This diary...” Witch Aiko had a bit of a hard time reading it since the person who wrote it sucked at Rune Language.

As such everything had to be interpreted and adjusted in order to make sense, but even then the sentences were a complete mess, like that person was crazy.

”Hmmm...” Witch Aiko tilted her head. This diary was trying to describe the conditions that one needed in order to create a Spirit Stone Mine, however, many things didn’t make sense.

To start with, you needed a lot of living sacrifices to create a ’Spirit Stone Mine’ which did not make sense.

Spirit Stone Mine was either created from that [Spirit Stone Source] or naturally condensed when the Qi reached a certain threshold.

It was a bit bothersome translating everything, but Witch Aiko went through it.

The thing that they were trying to create was not actually a Spirit Stone, but a Blood Stone.

It was kind of a special stone that could be used in Alchemy and Rituals. Rituals were for the Fiendish Cultivators, but Pill Refining was more interesting.

Sometimes you will need a lot of energy that is ’alive’ in order to finish your Pill. Normally you would use your own vitality for that, but with Blood Stone, you could skip that part.

If the Blood Stone was of high enough quality, then it was even better than your own vitality, since it would be pure from other Qi and wouldn’t need as many adjustments as one thought.

”I think I could recreate this cave.” Witch Aiko nodded her head seriously. While she was concerned about the name and author of this diary, it was undeniable that she didn’t need to go the same way they went.

What they did was use living sacrifices in order to accumulate enough ’Vital Qi’. That was not a real Qi, but something they dubbed it as such.

However, Witch Aiko thought that she could replace it with the fruits of the [Heavenly Comprehension & Blood Seedling]. In theory, it should be possible, because Blood was close to ’Vital Qi’ and Comprehension was good enough to make it seem ’alive’.

Unfortunately, that was just her conjecture, and it was not like she was a Moon Aiko who would be able to analyse it, so it was better with her for now.

”Oh...” The diary suddenly crumbled.

”Did you learn anything?” Yuqi curiously gazed at Aiko.

”Yeah.” Witch Aiko thought she learned something, but it was fortunate she recorded everything with her [Perfect Memory].

”No wonder. It’s rare to see someone place a curse on an inanimate object.” Yuqi slowly nodded her head. It seemed like this place was considered an Inheritance Site, which could mean that those walking flowers were some kind of deterrent to prevent others from obtaining this.

”How about pulling out Feifei?” Yuqi pursed her lips. She could let Feifei obtain the Inheritance and then share it with others or keep it for herself.

”Are you sure it’s safe?” Witch Aiko was concerned that Feifei might get hurt.

”I will do my best.” It was obvious that Yuqi was after Feifei and would keep a close eye on her.

”Now I wonder what happened between you two.” Witch Aiko shook her head. She had some understanding considering how well they mingled together, but unless she heard confirmation from them, she wouldn’t jump to conclusions.

She pulled out Feifei who was munching on some snacks again.

”...” Witch Aiko wanted to scold her, but she didn’t, for now.

”I was just hungry.” Feifei immediately defended herself, as if she felt guilty about something.

As revenge, Witch Aiko used the system to transmit all the information she gathered into Feifei’s mind, making her blankly droll.

”What did you do to her?” Yuqi was concerned since Feifei looked pretty stupid.

”I just shared the information I gathered with her.” Witch Aiko shrugged. It was not like she would fry her brain with this. There might be some pain associated with reading the translation, but that was more of a ’I can’t believe someone would write this...’ instead of ’I’m overwhelmed and my brain is boiling!’.

And as was expected, Feifei eventually snapped out of it.

”I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” Feifei pleaded guilty as charged, but that ’thing’ was so hard to read that it felt like some kind of torture.

”Whoa...” Yuqi looked over at Feifei, but she could feel some unique energy on her that was related to this place.

When it came to Aiko, it felt more like she gobbled up all the energies, not leaving anything strange inside her.

Yuqi wrapped around Feifei to protect her just in case that energy did something to her.

”Don’t you need a room for that?” Witch Aiko raised her eyebrow.

Of course, from the viewpoint of others, it seemed like Yuqi was horny for Feifei and couldn’t wait to jump on her.

”She is not doing anything though?” Feifei was confused why Aiko was saying that. No, to start with, why was Yuqi looking so sick?!

”Ahem.” Witch Aiko completely forgot to explain the situation to Feifei, since she was still in the stage of ’I should punish her for stealing my snacks’...