Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

With the deal sealed, time progressed like a river.

A few weeks passed by, and Chen Shi returned to Aiko completely speechless.

"Where are all the Treasures?" Chen Shi didn't want to believe his eyes.

Moon Aiko just pointed to the corner where a huge pile of small metallic beads were located.

"..." Chen Shi almost fainted, since he didn't expect Aiko to go through all of it without bickering.

"It's time." Moon Aiko triumphantly smirked at him.

"Ugh..." Chen Shi didn't want to do any of that, but a deal was a deal.

"Can you sort the metals by their category before I return?" Chen Shi needed his tools if he wanted to accomplish anything.

"It will cost ya." Moon Aiko smiled.

"Yeah, yeah." Chen Shi waved his hand as he walked outside.

...

With his tools, he came back to a well-organised pile.

"Let's talk about what we will need." Chen Shi narrowed his eyes.

"We should definitely do that, but I will do most of the Runes, while you will fill up the spacey-stuff." Moon Aiko suggested.

"You think you can do better than I?" Chen Shi snorted unhappily. It was obvious his ego was hurt.

"Obviously." Moon Aiko immediately did a beautiful jab. "And while we are at it, we will also redo the Lamp."

"How do you intend to do that?" Chen Shi frowned.

Moon Aiko took the Ghost Flag and poked the Lamp.

"You are trying to create another abomination, huh..." Chen Shi shook his head. "And how do you intend to do that?"

"That's for us to figure out." Moon Aiko would drown him in work so that he could feel what she felt every day.

"You just want to torture me." Chen Shi declined this work.

"I won't deny there is an ulterior motive, but it's better if they have a nice home~" Moon Aiko used Yue as the reason for this, making Chen Shi squirm uncomfortably.

"So, we should add Runes like-" Moon Aiko started to explain.

"You can't do that. You should-" Chen Shi joined, since the sooner this was done, the better for everyone.

...

They worked on the Treasure for a whole week before they had the basic arrangements done.

"With our current metals, we can barely make this work, so it will take a few years of meditation to clear their Qi." Chen Shi explained.

"That is fine." Moon Aiko nodded. "As long as it's possible, then all is good."

"But why do you have to have the Spirit Stone Inscription?" Chen Shi didn't understand.

"I just want to test something." Moon Aiko shrugged. It was better if they stayed in her tails until their Qi was completely changed. That way, she didn't need to worry about them being injured.

"We have a few more things to do." Moon Aiko smiled.

"You..." Chen Shi sighed, but still joined.

...

"We can finish it with this." Moon Aiko nodded.

"But now it depends on whether you can make the Runes work properly." Chen Shi narrowed his eyes.

"You will help me with that." Moon Aiko smiled. She realised that she didn't have enough Qi to fill everything up, so she would just do the Runes and let him handle the connections and space-related stuff.

With that, she would be able to apply her extreme cursive and get even more performance out of it!

Moon Aiko drew it on a piece of plank, so that Chen Shi could see.

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"Indeed." Chen Shi nodded his head. "I never imagined you could make them that twisted, but still working."

"Yeaah." Moon Aiko nodded her head. The Runes she wrote were nothing like those that Chen Shi did, but their effects and efficacy were still there.

"This will be a pain in the ass." Chen Shi frowned, because he realised he would really have to do all the connections by himself.

"Alright, let's create a blueprint." Chen Shi simply gave up since Yue visited him a few times with hopeful eyes, making him unable to back off from this project.

"Sure, we should also adjust the whole thing. Let's make it a large disk where we can put pillows on-" Moon Aiko explained what she was aiming for.

"You are just trying to create some comfort bedding!" Chen Shi couldn't believe her.

"So? They will meditate on it for years, so might as well make it comfortable." Moon Aiko shrugged.

Chen Shi rolled his eyes. "What if it breaks?"

"Because it's too thin?" Moon Aiko tilted her head. "You don't have to worry about that. I have that covered." She said proudly.

Well, she didn't really have it covered, but she would just allow them to use it inside her tails, making the fragility irrelevant.

Chen Shi sighed. It was definitely a good idea to make it thin, since fewer resources would be used up on it, but that didn't mean he was feeling uncertain about the outcome of this Treasure.

"Should we make it a bit thicker?" Moon Aiko noticed his odd expression and asked.

"We should." Chen Shi nodded his head.

"Alright. Take the metals to Forging Cultivator and let's get on it later." Moon Aiko nodded her head.

"You won't make it?" Chen Shi narrowed his eyes.

"This is important, so I won't touch it. Similarly, with the Lamp, we will only do the final product and not the forging part." Moon Aiko explained.

"I can't believe you are actually sensible..." Chen Shi shook his head.

"You say it like I'm some kind of Demon?!" Moon Aiko slapped the table angrily.

"You are not?" Chen Shi repaid Aiko for the previous jab.

"Tsk." Moon Aiko realised that a bit too late, but not late enough that she couldn't glare at him.

"Enough, enough." Chen Shi waved his hand. "I'm taking the metals to make a disc."

Moon Aiko just snorted, but still patiently waited...

...
......

"That took you a long time." Moon Aiko tilted her head.

"The Forging Cultivator was bitching a bit, so I had to put him in his place." Chen Shi rolled his eyes.

"Would that affect quality?" Moon Aiko frowned.

"No." Chen Shi vehemently denied it. "I made sure that if he did something bad, he would regret it."

"Blackmail. Not bad." Moon Aiko approved. "Here."

Before Chen Shi could defend himself, Aiko gave him a wooden plank with Rune density that made him choke on his own thoughts.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Chen Shi couldn't believe what Aiko was trying to create.

"What?" Moon Aiko tilted her head. "They can't be used?" She was unsure about her craftsmanship, since she didn't use any ink.

"The ink will spill." Chen Shi shook his head. "The precision rose to another level and can't be done with our current tools. We would need at least Numinous Treasure for this."

Moon Aiko sighed. "So, the previous plan?"

"En." Chen Shi paused briefly before handing over the large disc. "We have plenty of space, so you don't really need to squish it. It might be good training, but it's not needed here." He still encouraged Aiko, since it was quite impressive that she was able to accomplish this.

"Alright." Moon Aiko pouted, but would still listen to him.

With enough room, she didn't hesitate to make it larger and thus easier to fill later on.

"I was thinking, but why are you not filling it as you inscribe?" Chen Shi tilted his head.

"Because you can always fix your mistakes." Moon Aiko answered simply.

"You could do that with ink, too, but you just make things longer and more strenuous." Chen Shi shook his head disapprovingly.

"So?" Moon Aiko tilted her head. "Can you swear that you can finish all the Treasures the first time without mistakes?"

"I obviously can't. There are too many variables." Chen Shi knew his limits.

"Then why not make it easier on yourself by not needing to scrape the ink out of the grooves?" Moon Aiko pointed her [Inscription Carving Pen] at him.

"While what you say makes sense, it still takes a lot more time and energy to do it your way." Chen Shi still believed this was a bad way to go around things.

"Whatever." Moon Aiko rolled her eyes.

Chen Shi didn't mind filling the ink later, but for someone so weak, it would be better to fill it immediately.

Sure, she might fail a few times, but that would give her enough experience to make fewer mistakes.

...

"Now it's your turn." Moon Aiko handed over the disc, with large, but elaborate Runes.

"Impressive." With just this, Chen Shi knew that Aiko might be able to reach Inscription Ancestor Rank.

There were no large issues, but it was obvious that Aiko ran out of Qi several times during the inscribing.

"I will fill in the rest, so have a rest." Chen Shi wondered what this would create.

"How about we first talk about the Lamp and Flag, before you do that?" Moon Aiko wanted to work on the Lamp now, so she could rest later and go back to Mei.

Chen Shi rolled his eyes. "You would tire someone to death."

"Possible." Moon Aiko shrugged as she pulled out another blueprint.

"When did you create this...?" Chen Shi was slightly speechless, since in front of him was an exceptionally elaborate schematic of the Lamp.

"I was thinking about redoing the Runes, so I just copied everything on this slab. There are actually two of them. This is an already filled-up version, and I have one more with the smudged Runes, if you would like to review it." Moon Aiko proclaimed and pulled out another slab.

"Why slabs...?" Chen Shi couldn't help himself.

"They are sturdy." Moon Aiko nodded her head. Carving on this was much easier than wood or paper, so she just stuck with it.

"Alright..." Chen Shi rolled his eyes. This was not the craziest thing Aiko did, so he would just ignore it.

...

"There are a few debatable Runes, but we won't know which one is right until we try it..." Chen Shi frowned.

"How can we do that?" Moon Aiko didn't believe that they had enough materials to create multiple Lamps.

"Makeshift Lamp from less impressive materials. It will limit the potential of the Treasure, but it should not affect the actual Inscription on it." Chen Shi explained as he pulled out a few materials.

"We can make it out of wood, since this Soul Wood is not that old, but still very handy." He was willing to sacrifice that much, since he didn't have any use for it anyway.

"Isn't that precious? Are you sure?" Moon Aiko blinked her eyes at it.

"It's fine." Chen Shi waved his hand and waited for Aiko to finish her inspection...