Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Moon Aiko created illusions all around them.

"I hate you..." Chen Shi groaned unhappily.

"Hm? Why?" Moon Aiko knew he had a couple of reasons, but this was a bit absurd.

"The Fox Clan's illusions are the closest to reality, so anything you create inside your illusions can be replicated almost directly." Chen Shi sighed, shaking his head.

"Really?" Moon Aiko blinked. She never heard about such a thing.

"Obviously, you wouldn't know, since illusions are only taught on the mainland, so this place doesn't gain anything." Chen Shi snorted.

"But I can also see you have not refined your illusions yet, so they can't be directly converted- Why are you looking at me like that?" Chen Shi shuddered when Aiko smiled at him.

"Aren't you the best person to help me with making my illusions as close to reality as possible?" Moon Aiko happily moved her tails around.

"No." Chen Shi immediately denied. "I'm only here for Runes." He crossed his arms.

"Che." Moon Aiko spat out unhappily.

"I can give you a few Jade Slips about illusions, but you will have to learn things yourself." Chen Shi would help just enough that Aiko wouldn't try to blackmail him.

"That's enough." Moon Aiko conjured her Massage Chair. "I have most simple contractions figured out, but Qi is a different issue."

"Obviously. Qi is ever-changing, so it will take you a while to implement it into your illusions, but Inscriptions are more or less stable, so it won't take that much time." Chen Shi explained slowly. "Once you get Inscriptions figured out, you will be able to do much more since you will have some kind of baseline for Qi."

Moon Aiko nodded her head. "That makes sense. I do like Inscriptions and Arrays are simple enough as long as I can figure out how to create the baseline, but I don't like Talismans or Formations."

"I figured as much." Chen Shi nodded his head. "I like Inscriptions, but don't like everything else, since it's too stifling."

"With Inscriptions, you can let loose as long as you have good materials and ink, but the others require a lot more work to make something better." He sighed unhappily.

"I can see that." Moon Aiko nodded her head.

"I will get you some Jade Slips about Runes for other occupations and see for yourself if you can skip the whole process like I did." Chen Shi pulled an Inscription Jade Slip and placed it in front of Aiko.

"You are being generous." Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.

"You have dirt on me." Chen Shi shrugged.

"I can't believe I actually like this side of you." Moon Aiko shook her head speechlessly.

Chen Shi choked on his saliva. "Don't say it like I'm some kind of villain!"

"You are not?" Moon Aiko tilted her head.

Chen Shi almost coughed up blood at her blunt response.

"Well, I will thank you, since this will save me a lot of time, since I can't get the hang of this thing." Moon Aiko glared at the Storage Pouch.

"Right..." Chen Shi raised his eyebrow. "How you are unable to do a simple Storage Pouch is puzzling."

"My body rejects mediocrity." Moon Aiko said seriously.

"..." Chen Shi was left speechless, but he didn't dare to say anything in case Aiko shot at him again.

"What? Do you have a problem with that?" Moon Aiko pouted.

"No. It will just make it more difficult for you to create things." Chen Shi shrugged.

"Because most of them are mediocre." Moon Aiko sighed.

"Right." Chen Shi nodded his head.

"Seriously." Moon Aiko pouted even more.

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"But this is an interesting contraption." Chen Shi was quite interested in the Massage Chair.

"If you work for me, I will show you heaven." Moon Aiko smiled happily. If she could rope him in, she didn't need to worry about repairs!

"I'm already taken." Chen Shi protected his body, but there was a strange twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm talking about the Massage Chair, you bastard!" Moon Aiko threw at him the very expensive Array Core.

"Don't throw it! This can't be bought!" Chen Shi yelled at her.

"Come at me then, bastard!" Moon Aiko rolled up her sleeves like a gangster. It seems like she was too affected by her sisters...

"Don't tempt me!" Chen Shi also rolled his sleeves.

"Not bad." Moon Aiko admired his muscles for a moment before returning to their fight.

Chen Shi sighed before sitting back down. "It's not easy to succeed and become a Rune Cultivator, so you have to be careful. It could be said that Rune Cultivators are the most sought-after profession."

"Why is that?" Moon Aiko settled down, since she didn't really want to fight.

"That's because they can adjust Arrays, Formations, anything Rune related without actually touching it. It's a very powerful, but draining profession." Chen Shi demonstrated that by swapping some Runes on the Storage Pouch.

"Whoa." Moon Aiko's eyes sparkled, but she also noticed that Chen Shi was quite tired.

"You can also draw Runes into Void, but that takes a lot of practice and can endanger your life, so unless you reach the Sovereign Stage, you shouldn't attempt that." Chen Shi warned her.

"The last stage in the Mortal World?" Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.

"That is enough, yes." Chen Shi was not even surprised that Aiko knew about that kind of thing.

"What if someone tried it sooner?" Moon Aiko was curious about that part.

"It's about understanding the Runes, so they might self-destruct, but there are also those who are lucky enough to survive." Chen Shi sipped on his tea before looking at Aiko.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Moon Aiko frowned unhappily. "It's not like I'm doing these things on purpose!"

"Right..." Chen Shi didn't believe that at all.

"What was that?!" Moon Aiko's tails slapped the ground.

"Nothing." Chen Shi sipped his tea again.

"So how about it?" Moon Aiko asked him again.

"How about what?" Chen Shi crossed his arms.

"Work for me." Moon Aiko smiled happily.

"You just want to dump the most troublesome tasks on me." Chen Shi immediately saw through her.

"So what?" Moon Aiko pouted at him.

"I don't want to deal with troublesome things, and the Massage Chair is not unique enough to tempt me." Chen Shi shrugged like he really didn't care.

"What if it could help get Stagnant Qi out of your body?" Moon Aiko smirked at him.

"Still not enough. There are other Treasures that can do the same thing." He didn't really care about it.

"Even if it's built with the most basic materials." Moon Aiko chuckled at him.

"Bullshit." Chen Shi didn't believe that at all. Even the most basic Treasures that could clear Stagnant Qi were of the highest quality!

"I'm not lying~" Moon Aiko hummed happily.

"..." Chen Shi frowned. "If you can prove it, I can consider it." Chen Shi paused his thoughts.

"That's not enough for me, so the deal is off." Moon Aiko shrugged. It's not like she didn't have any other options left.

Chen Shi was startled, but he didn't ask any more.

"I have the basics about Runes, so I will go play for a bit." Moon Aiko stood up. Her cleavage was a sight to behold. "And don't forget to destroy those paintings."

"Of course." Chen Shi said seriously, since he had already destroyed them.

"And send the rest of the Jade Slips here, it seems I will be here for a while." Moon Aiko nodded her head.

"You have already missed one testing event, so I will just band the Elders together later for the test." Chen Shi sighed.

"Hey! I can't help it, alright?" Moon Aiko pouted unhappily.

"Yeah, yeah." Chen Shi waved his hand.

"And I intend to take it once I have finished all your Jade Slips, so bring them here as soon as possible." Moon Aiko giggled before running out. This was quite a nice reward that she got~!

Chen Shi sighed. At the end of the day, he suffered because he let Aiko into his place.

'Whatever, as long as the others won't know, nothing bad will come out of this.' He was convinced that teaching Aiko a few Runes and giving her materials wouldn't make that much of a difference.

Oh... how wrong he was...

...

Moon Aiko went into their room, where Danji still slept.

'Was it that tiring, or does she just enjoy the bedding?' Moon Aiko was curious what Danji liked about this place.

Danji stirred awake when Aiko sat on the bed.

"You can sleep more. I'm joining you back in." Moon Aiko said softly.

"We need more pillows." Danji groaned softly as she claimed all the pillows for herself.

Moon Aiko's lips twitched. She didn't expect Danji to be so possessive over pillows.

'Is that why she likes this place?' Moon Aiko tilted her head.

Danji gently caressed Aiko's cheek. "Don't think too much and go to sleep. This place is nice." She yawned before nestling back into the fortress made out of pillows.

'This is such an interesting side of her...' Moon Aiko was curious about why Danji was like this...

...

Over the coming days, Moon Aiko spent most of her time researching the Runes and adjusting her illusions based on the observed changes.

The Mortal Illusions were very easy, since there was gravity and other forces in play, but when you included the Cultivation Illusions. That's where things got troublesome.

The first order of business was to pair all the different kinds of Qi and their effects.

There were so many of them that it was difficult for even Moon Aiko, so she settled on the most basic elements.

This would naturally limit and make her creation not as close to reality, but that's the best she could do right now.

This left many unique and powerful elements out of the equation, but it couldn't be helped.

The most important were the neutral Qi and the basic elements, since they were almost everywhere.

The rarer elements were mostly in extreme environments or Heavenly Grottos. Neither of which Aiko would visit in the upcoming days.

She then worked on how Inscriptions work in her Cultivation Illusions. This part was surprisingly not as difficult as she expected.

Sure, the numerous elements messed with it, but once she created a basic structure on how they should react, everything sort of fell into their respective place!