Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

”They are snarly and boring...” Moon Aiko observed the cannons, but there was nothing exceptional about them. Just very mediocre cannons with below subpar performance.

”Them or the cannons?” Mei asked jokingly, but Moon Aiko replied seriously.

”The cannons are even more boring than they are.”

”...” Mei’s lips twitched. Yeah, this was the Aiko she liked the most. No cunningness, just cold facts.

”What’s so wrong about it?” Mei asked out of her curiosity, but...

”To start with, the conversion rate between your Qi and the cannon’s Qi is less than 1/5th. If it lost only half the Qi it would still be justifiable as the cannon needed to ’coat’ itself with Qi so that the damage is reduced. However, 1/5th is more than just subpar, you would have better luck by just using your own Qi to deal any significant damage at that point.” Moon Aiko shrugged. Whoever made this thing knew jack shit about Runes or Inscriptions, they even incorporated Arrays which further drove the consumption up.

However, unlike the Inscriptions, the Arrays were at least somewhat well-made. That’s what Moon Aiko thought about it.

”Honestly, if I did such Arrays... I would rather hang myself.” Chen Shi appeared out of nowhere, appraising the Arrays.

”Huh?” Moon Aiko thought that the Arrays were at least decent.

”Hm?” Chen Shi tilted his head. ”You will know later, but this part and this part can’t be used in tandem with Inscriptions, it introduces loops and reverses the Qi flow, causing the cannon to blow up.”

”But it didn’t blow up?” Moon Aiko tilted her head. She was really lacking in Arrays, maybe she should study more?

”That is because of these, they were used to maintain a certain level of Qi inside the cannon, preventing it from damaging itself.” Chen Shi gestured to a certain part of the Array, and tracing all the Runes responsible for this. ”However, if you look here...”

”Huh? The cannon is already cracked?” Moon Aiko blinked her eyes.

”En. That is because you have to saturate the cannon with Qi in order to protect it, but because of these burdensome Runes, you will inevitably run into this problem.” Chen Shi chuckled, shaking his head.

”So, in order to protect the cannon from the Inscriptions and Arrays, you need a bare minimum stable Qi inside, but because it starts without Qi, just drawing the Qi into it already damages the cannon. Meaning that if you can’t make a proper connection between Inscriptions and Arrays, all your creations will be cracked.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. She didn’t like this type of creation at all. What kind of idiot would be willing to waste so many materials to make such a subpar product?!

”This is from the mainland.” Chen Shi shook his head, telling her the origin.

”???” Moon Aiko had so many questions, but she didn’t know if he would be willing to answer them.

”What is it?” Chen Shi smiled. ”If you are curious what cannons that are supposed to be used on the mainland are doing here, that is because their creator is a novice.”

”...” Moon Aiko was bewildered why would anyone allow such defective good to circulat-

”The main reason behind this is that they either don’t have time to reuse these materials or don’t know why. So they sent it onto the small islands to at least get some use out of.” Chen Shi sighed, shaking his head.

”That’s just ridiculous. Are the islands used as garbage bins?!” Moon Aiko couldn’t understand why they would even try to move such defective products! Melting them would have better use than this!

”En. The Upper Mortal World uses the Lower Mortal World as dumping grounds. While the Lower Mortal World mainland uses the islands as their dumping grounds.” Chen Shi explained this relationship very simply, but it was so much more rotten than he made it seem.

He didn’t want to discourage Aiko too much from exploring such places, but he also needed to give her at least basic information so that she could understand why there were so many low-quality products circulating around.

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”It would be better if they hang themselves.” Moon Aiko clicked her tongue. This was sacrilege of craftsmanship! Even if you are a novice you are supposed to make at least the basic quality of products and not this garbage.

”...” Chen Shi only shrugged. He shared the same opinion, and he even taught a few of them about Runes, but most of them were unwilling to put in the work to create something exceptional. For them, as long as it worked, it was good enough.

Moon Aiko was quite annoyed, and she wanted to slap those enemies a few times, but Mei and Danji were still interrogating them.

”Let’s just return.” Moon Aiko quickly stashed those cannons. Not because they were good, but because she could simply re-smelt them and make use of those materials.

”Very well.” Chen Shi only replied once before wordlessly following. Chen Yanqi was still asleep, like ’that’ Shadow Fox who was previously part of the delegation.

He couldn’t figure out why they were so tired. The Runes around them were stable, there was nothing wrong with their bodies, yet they slept, startling, a lot.

...

”Finished?” Moon Aiko smiled at the bloodied Mei.

”Yeah, it’s been a while since I had to use such techniques, but it paid off.” Mei smiled. ”It seems like the Southern Sect is waiting for us by the sea, wanting to move along with us, but the other Sects are trying to convince them that we already left.”

”Wow, they really hate us, huh?” Moon Aiko laughed. If those guys were not so stupid, they could’ve negotiated something, but they just had to be dicks about it and look at how it turned out...

”Well, we will profit either way.” Moon Aiko was not too concerned about what would happen in the near future. She was more curious about the mainland, where all those ’pretty’ things resided.

”En.” Mei agreed on both statements. The Northern Sect in particular had deep hatred for them, probably because they had a powerful Divinator, yet all their plans still kept failing.

The continental flying ship lifted again. Everyone was aboard, even those pesky Human Cultivators.

However, all of them were silent.

From a distance, this continental flying ship didn’t seem all that impressive, but actually sitting on the huge deck, it made them feel small.

This was the biggest continental flying ship that they ever encountered in their life. Even the major Sects didn’t have such a big vessel.

”Impressed?” Moon Aiko chuckled at them, it was fun poking fun at them since they kept coughing blood and squirming uncomfortably.

”...” The Northern Sect Disciples, or whatever they were, were not talking or even making sound. Well, until you hit them, but let’s not mention that part.

Moon Aiko found it amusing how quiet they were, but there had to be something weird about them to make them so quiet.

”Will they blow up?” Moon Aiko asked Mei, but she was actually asking Dai Lu.

”I don’t think so. They already know that they would be unable to do any major damage to this vessel, so they are probably trying to stay alive to tell the tale and badmouth us.” Mei shrugged. Neither of those things were really relevant, unless the Beast Sect took them seriously. Which they wouldn’t as the Beast Sect still seemed to have enough brains to not self-sabotage itself.

”No.” Dai Lu was more straightforward than Mei as she could read their minds. Most of them were crying or just trying to vanish, but even the Elders were unwilling to just blow themselves up to prove their points or cause harm.

”So well-behaved, huh?” Moon Aiko also didn’t feel any hostility and while their faces were pretty ugly, they were still presentable enough, so they could not be considered a special or shadow group of the Northern Sect.

”They have to be.” Dai Lu chuckled, observing them. The Disciples shuddered, and kept shaking like the leaves in the wind.

...

They kept flying for a while, but in the distance, a body of water stretched endlessly.

”The sea... or ocean, is a lot bigger than I expected.” Moon Aiko expected a large body of water, but not THAT large, could she even store all of that into her tails? Well, it might be possible once everything is upgraded, but who knows...

”It’s still small. There are some endless oceans in the Immortal World and that’s also one of the places where Dragons are hiding.” Mei explained that this place was actually smaller than it seemed, which made Aiko speechless.

”No, but if it takes years to cross...?” Moon Aiko pursed her lips. She couldn’t believe it would take that long, but now that she saw the ocean in the distance, she could understand why they thought like that.

”The Immortal World ones might take your entire life to explore.” Mei shrugged like it was not a big deal, but she actually tried to conquer one of the oceans when she was pushed away from succession.

”...” Moon Aiko was impressed, but building something that could cross this and not just fly over it... ’Seems like a good challenge.’ But it would be a while until she reached the Immortal World, so for now she would just keep going as she did for now, making things more comfortable and complex.

Maybe stir up some trouble here and there so that she wouldn’t grow tired.

”But the ocean is quite beautiful, if it would not be so black the further you moved into it.” Moon Aiko felt sinister and familiar with that place, and she could now estimate where she had to go to visit her family.

”That’s the ’drop-off’ or ’dead-zone’, depending on how you look at it.” Mei explained to Aiko, since this would be her first time to see the ocean from such high altitude. ”The lighter the colour, the shallower the water is, but once it becomes black, it will become ’bottomless’. It’s not entirely true that the ocean has no bottom, but it’s so deep that it might as well be.”

”That’s fascinating.” Moon Aiko’s eyes sparkled. It felt like she just might jump out of this continental flying ship, just to test the theory of depth...!

”Don’t even think about it. I don’t want to lose you.” Mei snorted unhappily. Aiko was becoming too daring for her own good, so she still had to rein her in here and there...