Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Chapter 72 – Queen wants Refund

Aiko arrived at their abode and changed into human form. She could sustain this form for more than half of a day. This meant that she didn't need to meditate so much.

Aiko arrived behind her mean Fox, she was making Pills so Aiko didn't disturb her and watched from the side.

The Queen was smoothly operating the Pill Cauldron and it made a nice humming sound.

Aiko was very sensitive to sounds and felt very nice whenever she was listening to the mean Fox's Pill Refining. Soon she fell asleep on the mean Fox's tails.

The Queen knew about her halfway through and was happy that she knew the basic etiquette when it came to not disturbing alchemists when they were Refining Pills.

The Queen finished another batch and sighed. She made more of those Pill Candies, they were cheap when it came to the materials, but so difficult when it came to Refining.

At first, she didn't want to create those Pills, but the more practised she realized that her roots lost their touch. Instead of making 4-5th Grade Pills, she returned to 1-2nd Grade and realized it was much harder.

'I have become rusty...' She thought.

She mostly refined Pills above Grade 6 when she was up there, but now that she realized how much she still had to learn her head hurt a little bit.

In this way, she was grateful towards her little sweetie. She needed to polish her basic Refining Skills and had a good excuse for it.

She caressed her sweetie's hair and smiled and her lips curved into a small smile.

Aiko woke up due to the gentle strokes.

She blinked, "Stinky Fox." and yawned.

The Queen stiffened and she pinched her cheeks.

"What do you mean by stinky? I will have you know that I bathe ever so often." The Queen was displeased.

"Mean Fox." Aiko felt wronged so she spat another thing.

"How am I mean?! Don't I give you plenty of yummy things?" Now the Queen felt wronged.

Aiko paused and opened her mouth. The Queen's brows twitched, but she still gave her Pill Candy.

"Yummy." Aiko smiled hugging the Queen.

The Queen sighed. "Call me Mei when we are alone alright?"

"Mei... Mei... okay." Aiko repeated Mei's name a few times and nodded.

The Queen felt strange, very strange. A tear rolled down her cheek and she hugged her little sweetie.

"Aiko." Aiko said faintly since she was burrowed in Mei's bosom.

"Aiko..." The Queen smiled cuddling Aiko.

"Haha." Aiko laughed since it tickled.

She hugged Aiko for a few dozen minutes before letting her go.

"I want to create a massage chair!" Aiko said while staring at Mei.

"Again with the chair." Mei pinched her cheeks.

"It's nice!" Aiko protested.

"Okay, Okay, but we only have a few days before we arrive there so let's create blueprints first.

Aiko nodded, she didn't know how to process things or what materials to use, so she was fine with just blueprints.

She would be able to create it later from those blueprints or have someone create it and she would just do the finishing touches.

Mei glanced at Aiko's tail. "Your tail is stiff."

Mei smoothed her tail but was startled. 'No way, surely not...'

She gently used a paralysing Pill on Aiko's tail and they separated.

The Queen's eyes shook. 'T-two tails?!'

One had to know that to achieve additional tails they had to sacrifice part of their Souls. Sure their Souls were boosted by their Bloodlines, but those parts couldn't be sacrificed since it would remove their Bloodline.

She also felt that Aiko had not consumed any Souls as it would leave an imprint on her Soul.

The Queen frowned. "Let's postpone the blueprints." She needed to fix this problem as soon as possible.

'10-Tailed Fox...' She glanced at Aiko and her Souls quivered. Only 1 in 100,000,000 Foxes that reached the stage of Kitsune were allowed to gain additional tail, but her little sweetie already had one now.

She didn't know the effects or anything, but she knew that it was not good if others found out about it.

'They would try to contract her even if it killed them.' Mei frowned and stared at the cute Aiko who was now frowning.

"I will teach you suppression technique so that you can hide your additional tail." Mei said seriously and Aiko narrowed her eyes.

"Why?" Aiko asked.

"Because you will be hunted with 2 tails." Mei answered.

"But other Foxes have 3 and more?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Because they sacrificed Soul to acquire them," Mei said seriously. "However you have not consumed any Souls and even if you did sacrifice your Soul for it at this stage it would cripple you." The Queen said seriously.

Aiko glanced at her status, those tails weren't special and the system wouldn't tell her anything. She just had 2 tails because she had 2 different species.

"I will teach you the suppression technique. This one is different to others since it allows you to travel from upper worlds to lower worlds without being restricted by the Heavenly Dao." The Queen spoke.

Aiko nodded, she didn't want to tell her too many things just yet or at least until their Karma was tied or something like that.

"Is that the only benefit?" Aiko asked placing her hands on Mei's lap.

*Cough*

Mei was startled by the sudden interest. "Yes, even if you suppress your tails it will not affect your Cultivation. If you manage to get high attainment you will be able to even make conditions to it."

"For example, you can make a condition that whenever your life is threatened part of the suppression loosens and lets you use more power." Mei narrated it with enthusiasm.

Aiko was now very interested, while the system wouldn't talk to her as much she would be able to search that.

Mei bestowed the technique into Aiko's mind and waited patiently.

Aiko processed that information, now that her mind was more powerful everything was much easier for her.

[Enhanced Mind: Lv.1->2]

Aiko was startled, but happy at the same time, it seemed like she would have to ask people to send information into her mind for her to level up [Enhanced Mind].

Aiko searched the shop for information about this technique and frowned.

[Heavenly Suppression Technique(Prototype, Incomplete)]
[When someone is suppressed, because of Heaven they receive this technique to counter it, but it's incomplete and consumes a vast amount of Energy to sustain.]

"It's another shitty prototype..." Aiko murmured, but suddenly her body froze.

"How do you know it's a prototype?" Mei was glaring at Aiko. Her heart was beating fast. 'No way that they would send someone down to finish me off, right? But how does she know this is a prototype? I'm the only one that I know of that has this technique.'

Aiko had now quite a powerful Soul and as such the coercion didn't work on her completely.

Aiko glared back. "I won't tell you!" The glare startled Mei and she eased her pressure on Aiko, but her eyes were still trained on Aiko.

Aiko huffed, she felt a bit dizzy from the sudden hit of pressure and it took her some time to recover.

Mei felt pain and confusion in her heart, but she needed to get to the bottom of this.

"Why won't you tell me?" Mei observed Aiko.

"I don't trust you completely!" Aiko said. Sure her cooking was delicious, but she still held a grudge over the pain when her Beast Core shook.

Mei frowned, it's true they have not spent enough time with each other to fully trust...

Aiko was looking through the things to find anything remotely useful that could help her.

[Karma Bound]
[Karma]
[Invisible force that dictates things.]
[Two people bound together will share fortune and misfortune.]

'Does that mean she won't harm me?' Aiko thought.

[That is only half correct.] The system replied.
[It is possible for them to hurt you, but it would be unwise as they would share that misfortune.]

'So what if we share the same misfortune.' Aiko frowned.

[... It is safe.] The system said gently.

For some reason, Aiko was familiar with this voice, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. It was a very soothing feeling, especially for her Soul, it swayed happily from that voice.

'Can I tell her about this if I bound her Karma?' Aiko asked.

[You can, as you will share fortune and misfortune. If she tries to tell your secret to others, it would be the same as telling her own secrets.]

'I still don't understand.' Aiko said, but for some reason she felt safe.

[You are my 'child', I would never hurt you.] There was some sadness in her voice and it affected Aiko's Soul.

[Blessing of ####]
V
[Blessing of Nüwa]
[Sage's Blessing]
[1st Effect: Child of this World]
[2nd Effect: Karma Companion will never betray you]

[Take care, little one, we will be watching...]

Aiko felt the system's tired voice and snapped out of it. Mei was staring at her strangely.

"If you bind Karma with me I will tell you!" Aiko said firmly.

Mei was shocked that this little rascal knew about karma and felt threatened.

"####, ####, ####?" Mei asked in a strange language.

Aiko tilted her head. "What kind of rubbish is that? It hurts my ears." She clutched her ears, those words were grating her sensitive ears.

"Golden Palace?" Mei asked one more thing.

"Never mind." Aiko shook her head. "I don't want to be with a gold digger that wants to build Golden Palace."

Mei narrowed her eyes at the first words but almost slapped Aiko for the rest.

"W-what do you mean gold digger?!" Mei's body shook.

"Don't think I have not noticed that I'm missing 2 Rings!" Aiko said righteously.

Mei stared at her blankly, she now knew that she had no relationship with them, but still felt annoyed that she would associate her with gold diggers.

Mei pinched her nose bridge. "You have consumed them during your Evolution."

Aiko was shocked and her mouth formed a triangle.

"And before you say anything that includes that fancy Moon Stone." Mei smirked staring at the wobbly rascal.

Aiko almost fainted at those news and glared at Mei, trying to find a lie in her words. 'N-no way."

She collapsed weakly. 'No way I have burned so many resources...'

Mei liked this kind of victory, but she still pushed forward. "Just so you know below you was also a Spirit Mine, you have also consume-W-wait your Soul! Your Soul is leaving your body!" Mei panicked and tried to soothe Aiko.

"It's over I can see the light!" Aiko said weakly staring forward.

Mei panicked but then had an idea. She pinched Aiko's cheeks. "I still have a special Pill Candie that you have not tasted yet."

*Slurp*

The leaving Soul immediately returned and Aiko beamed at her.

Mei felt powerless and sighed. 'No way that she is from their faction, she would eat all of their treasures. It's not bad if she binds my Karma, I could use some improvement...' Mei thought staring at Aiko who was salivating.

Mei fed Aiko the Pill Candy and said. "Fine, but you have to tell me everything!"

Aiko nodded and made a sweeping motion.

[Karma Bound]
[Opponent agreed to bind her Karma, do you wish to use this?]

'Yes.' Aiko nodded and Mei tilted her head.

Soon in between them appeared parchment that was glowing with faint light, but Mei's Soul shook.

'D-D-Divine Dao Scroll?!' Mei almost fainted.

Two Soul imprints appeared on the Scroll and she snapped back.

"W-wait! This is-" She felt something restrict her Soul.

'D-divine Dao Chains...' She was in complete and utter shock.

'I thought it would be some simple Karma Binding Divine Ability, but this...' Her body shook looking at Aiko as if she was looking at a monster.

One has to know that the Divine Dao Scroll is the highest possible Parchment one could obtain. It was blessed by the Dao itself and thus anything written on it was the Law.

This was not a simple Karma binding spell that would fade over time, but an extremely powerful Law that bound their Souls with Divine Dao Chains. These Chains were the only ones that would survive the destruction of Dao, which meant that they were now bound for all eternity even if they didn't like it.

Aiko smiled happily as now she was protected, but Mei was staring at a Monster with a cute appearance. She couldn't fathom where she found something like the Divine Dao Scroll.

"I-I need some rest." Mei was too shaken and Aiko stared at her in worry.

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