Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko lay on the Princess's chest. 'It's soft and feels nice, but it can't beat that stinky Fox...' Aiko paused. 'Now that I think about it... I hope she is doing alright. It has been quite a chaotic day and she had no time to think things through. She was under the impression that everything would be solved after she escaped, but now that she actually stopped. It wasn't all that good idea.

'It was lucky that I got someone gentle and from what that guy said, those blessings are working wonders so I don't have to worry about being tamed, but worry about being skinned...'

She sighed, but only bubbles came out as her mouth was under the water. She swam around since the water was nice and warm. She wasn't all that interested in this 'Princess', she would eat and leave later.

"Princess, there will be a banquet 3 days later, so the King asked you not to wander around." The servant politely told the message from the King.

"So he doesn't want me to wreck more havoc after a few snobs can't match my pace, got it." Princess gently washed herself and the servant sighed. "The King only wants the best for you Princess."

"Mother*, wants the best for me, not him. He wants to increase his land and thus married so many third-rated whores." Princess coldly said.

The servant sighed but didn't say anything. They had this conversation so many times, that it was better not to mention it, but 3rd concubine ordered the servants to do this.

Princess clicked her tongue. "Useless whores that want to ruin this place."

She sighed. She had not yet picked any Sect, most of them were completely useless to her as they didn't have any forging legacy. She could join her mum, but she wanted to know the bigger world and go for some kind of Sect. She didn't know it would be so difficult to find any decent Sect as most of them were trying to brainwash their disciples. Naturally, she didn't want that.

'But it's no better here, poisons, assassins'... She shook her head, she would surrender and come back to her mum since her father is completely useless and lets the whores do whatever they want, thus mortals are suffering. Mortals were suffering from famine, but instead of doing something for them the King's concubines spent it on their jewellery and dresses.

Aiko swam around, ignoring everyone who tried to come close to her. She eventually was quite angry at the attention she was getting and returned to the Princess since it seemed like there was a natural barrier that didn't allow others to approach.

'I wonder if she lets me roam around...' Aiko thought. If she could explore this place and find some treasures she could conf- *Cough* move them to a different location. She still had the pouch from that Fairy, it seems that it will stay hidden on her body or everyone just ignored it... She knew that the Fox knew about the pouch, but didn't take it away for some reason. She couldn't ask why and she honestly wasn't really interested in her answer as long as she could keep it.

They got out of the bath and Princess tapped on some kind of strange device. It blew hot air towards them.

'I think I do remember what this is... but at the same time I don't...' Aiko frowned, feeling a bit lost. She knew that she lost a lot of memories, but she didn't know it was that bad.

They were dry in a few dozen seconds. It was fast and it didn't smell like something was burning all the time.

"Time for your fur~" The Princess giggled. The grooming brush was already in her hands ready for action.

Aiko didn't like that stare and didn't move from her place.

"I won't hurt you come on, I will be gentle~" The Princess was too enthusiastic to Aiko's liking and only moved once she was promised good food, she was still hungry and wanted to eat.

'Awwww, this is sho sho nice~' The Princess melted while she groomed Aiko's soft fur. 'I could do this for my whole life.' Princess hummed.

Aiko stared around. This place had many expensive, but useless things. She wouldn't take anything that wouldn't benefit her.

...

In front of Aiko was a whole feast. She thought about taking some and then giving it to the Fox for reference, but then thought against it, just in case those Humans would want her pouch. She wouldn't want to give it to them!

Aiko stared at one meat. It felt... wrong? She tried to find meat that gave her the same feeling as what that Fox gave her, but only some pieces were like that and the others... just weren't good enough.

Aiko played a picky eater and the servant who bought the food frowned.

"You shouldn't spoil the beast, Princess. They don't know any better, they should eat everything so they can grow strong." Said the Cook to the Princess. He was haughty because he was picked out of all the participants and was granted the greatest honour. Serving the King.

"You should cook more and speak less. What my beasts eat have nothing to do with you."

"Prince-"

*Smash*

The Princess swiftly picked up a glove and smashed that Cook's face. He was blasted out of her room through the window and landed in a nearby pond. She scoffed at this useless servant. All of them were useless unless they were trained by her or her mother. Only those servants can humour them as they have extensive knowledge and discipline, not this... thing.

Aiko nodded in appreciation and returned to pick and choose her food. She was extremely picky and only about every 1 out of 20 meat pieces landed in her stomach. That meant she didn't eat much, but enough she wasn't starving.

"You only like the highest quality huh~" The Princess hummed. "What an expensive pet~" She didn't really mind that as some other beasts were as picky as Aiko and all of them were highly intelligent.

She returned to grooming her own hair, the glove still on her hand ready to smash that nobody if he came back.

Aiko was looking around. The Princess didn't have any servants waiting on her and she has done everything by herself. She could feel servants in the nearby room doing something.

Aiko went inside the next room with the servants observing them.

"We should include that poison from the 9th Concubine." One servant whispered.

"Let's do that, I will also include the one from the 3rd Concubine." The other servant snickered.

Aiko was observing this, thinking how stupid they were. She would be able to hear them in the next room there was no way the Princess wouldn't be able to hear them.

"Here you went~" The Princess gently hummed as she picked up Aiko. The servants froze but resumed everything and brought in the food and other delicacies.

She sat down gracefully like the Princess she was and placed Aiko on the empty spot on the table.

"Do you like anything?" The Princess asked Aiko, smiling gently.

Aiko tilted her head and thought about it. Since she will be here for some time she might as well mess with the servants. They were too stupid anyway and if they were cultivators it would be the nice income of Levels.

She stretched her paw. Placing it behind the poisoned cup and slowly nudged it like a cat until it fell on the ground.

*Crash*

The Princess was startled, she naturally knew it was poisoned as she was trained well, but to think even this beast knew it... she would have to train harder so that she wasn't overtaken!

The crash was quite soothing for Aiko. It seems she was quite upset at those kidnappers, but since she couldn't vent on them she would find a different outlet.

*Crash*

Aiko smiled from ear to ear really liking the sounds of those cups breaking. It felt like they were singing.

"Do you like it that much~?" The Princess giggled seeing Aiko nod. The servants had their heads low not daring to meet her eyes, so they didn't see Aiko nod. They still thought she was just a stupid beast that liked to break stuff.

*Crash*

Well if you exclude the stupid part they weren't all that wrong.

Aiko noticed that all the cups or dishes with poison were already broken and felt sad.

The Princess laughed at that and ate some food. It was not as good as what Mother's servants made, but she didn't need to eat that much so she was not as angry. Her mother though... she would properly destroy those who cooked this... garbage.

She finished eating and Aiko was yawning. Not because she was sleepy, but because she was bored.

"You can go outside, but don't wander too far." The Princess told Aiko during her meal.

Aiko immediately jumped down and left. She would explore and confis- *Cough* move a few things into her pouch or just look around to see what she could move at a better time. Princess had quite a nice garden in front. There was a pond with fish. Colourful at that. There were a few beasts in cages, but they ignored her so she passed around them easily. She used her skill in tandem again and jumped to the top of the wall that was separating the princess place from the servants. This place was huge... but poor. Sure there were plenty of expensive things, but none of them appeased Aiko as she wouldn't be able to use them or sell them. It would be better if there was something she could use, like Beast Cores or meat or those shiny stones.

Unfortunately, this place had none of those so she walked outside of this complex. This place was huge and as such it had many shadows, coupled with the sun going slowly down she was able to blend with her surroundings.

The main road was humongous, it could host several wagons next to each other, 10? or maybe even 15?

Fortunately, the walls were high and the shadows were dark. She calmly walked around. Her Stamina is depleting slowly, much slower because of her speed and calmness.

'Treasure, there is treasure~!'
'Treasure, but it's dangerous! We can't take it!'

Aiko followed the Darkness to where they led her. It was towards the main building far away, but she had time.

She could spot several powerful individuals so she also activated [Stealth]. If something went awry she would also activate [Camouflage], but so far it was fine.

She made her way towards that place without much difficulty as she sneaked around.

'What a curious little creature.' An old fossil stared at Aiko, but since she didn't have any hostile intentions he only observed. He was the guardian of the nearby relic and would not move unless someone tried to steal it.

Aiko was unaware of him and followed those voices.

She came into a large garden. Her objective was in the middle and several beasts guarded that objective.

"Do you think she will finally die?" A woman dressed in lavish clothes the other woman in lavish clothes.

"Unlikely, apparently some stupid beast broke everything."

The woman clicked her tongue. "What useless servants, they can't even get rid of one stupid child."

"They are too scared of her." She shook her head.

"We should've bought some Cultivators to end her life." She sighed.

The conversation went on, but since Aiko was not interested in that she went away deeper into that garden.

The beasts were growling and patrolling the place, at this point Aiko used her [Camouflage]. She didn't want to be found out.

'Interesting.' The Old fossil smiled. 'Finally something interesting and not boring, I wonder what that little beast will do, but since it was a gift from that person, or rather that person forgot it here...' He chuckled looking at Aiko.