Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

They arrived at the plaza of the Inscription Association.

Aiko had the constant feeling of being watched and she didn't like that at all.

"This place is no good." Aiko grabbed Mei's clothes.

"Well..." Mei had similar thoughts, but since they were already here might as well exploit her prowess to get some goodies.

"At first you were supposed to stay at the Inscription Hall for 3 months and learn from each other, but since you are a month late, we won't be extending that time." The Patriarch said staring at the pretty Fox and Rune Fox.

"Better for us, this place smells bad." Mei stared at the Patriarch and said in a normal voice.

A few Elders frowned, but they couldn't say anything as it was not their turn yet.

"That is true, we don't have that many disciples and when we do they don't like cleaning." The Patriarch agreed. He despised cleaning, so he never cleaned his place.

Aiko stared around. Except for the Patriarch with blond hair, everyone had black or brown hair. He had such a unique and blinding colour that he stood out.

This plaza was located on one of the 3 peaks of this place. Each peak was shrouded in mist and it was quite a magical sight, but even that magical sight couldn't make up for the bad smell.

"It smells like shit..." Aiko commented.

The Fox Elders smiled faintly. They couldn't say anything, because they didn't dare, but that didn't mean the Jade Fox with her Mate couldn't say anything.

"Sweetie you have to understand that not everyone likes to bathe." Mei smoothed Aiko's hair.

"Stinky Humans." Aiko nodded adding another insult.

The Human Elders were already red from rage, but they really couldn't go against the Rune Cultivator. If they caused discomfort to their Patriarch, they would surely lose their heads.

The Patriarch chuckled. "That is quite the strong opinion." He was smiling and not smiling at the same time.

"As strong as your odour." Aiko frowned and waved her hand in front of her nose to clear the air.

*Pfft*

Some Fox Elders finally couldn't endure it and strange noises left their mouths.

The Patriarch no longer smiled. "I'm only interested in you because of your Runes."

"See? Now that is something I can agree with, at least you are no longer talking rubbish." Aiko nodded smiling.

Mei was having a tough time ignoring the popping veins on the Patriarch's face. She really wanted to laugh, but at the same time, she didn't want to trouble her sweetie, since she was looking forward to learning more Runes.

The Patriarch turned around with hmpf, followed by the Human Elders.

Wei came towards the Jade Fox and said. "I have no intention to protect you."

"Why would you protect us?" Aiko spat at him. "At best you might be a good chair, but that's about it you bald fuc-"

Mei finally couldn't endure it and covered Aiko's mouth, she would have a really hard time keeping a calm face with Aiko's slippery mouth.

Wei's forehead twitched in a similar fashion to that of the Patriarch.

"Don't think I won't dare to hur-Ujhlksdg" Wei foamed from his mouth.

Aiko blew on her small fist that cracked those eggs at a speed incomparable to before.

Mei laughed loudly patting Aiko's back. "Nice, nice! Let's go."

Aiko nodded and walked with the Jade Fox. The nearby haughty servants turned obedient within moments and guided them around.

They told them about history and whatnot, but Aiko wasn't listening, she was looking around at the vast expanses of forest and mountains. It was a truly magical sight, she wished she could see this from above, flying through the clouds.

They were guided into their side of the Inscription Hall but were stopped halfway by the Human Inscription Cultivators.

"Oh my, isn't that those vixens? And here I thought they gave up and tucked their tails between their legs." A very irritating female voice assaulted their ears.

Aiko hated those high-pitched voices, the Princess's voice was of higher pitch, but it was not grating on the ears, she had quite the smooth voice.

Aiko observed the situation where Foxes bickered with Human Cultivators. Both sides flared their Qi, but it had no effect on Aiko and she immediately lost interest.

She stared around, this place was completely huge, there were massive ornated pillars supporting the roof, but even then this felt like one of those old cathedrals built by Great Architects.

She sneaked away from the ground, but Mei still watched her.

She looked around the pillars. All of them were carved with dragons and phoenixes, some even had some Inscriptions engraved, but those were mostly to increase the durability and were too boring for Aiko.

She sniffed the air, but there was too much dust and she sneezed.

"Kya!" A body rushed towards her, much faster than what Aiko could manage in her Human form and trapped her between huge soft pillows.

"I have never seen something so cute before." She smothered Aiko, but Aiko didn't like her, she smelled too bad.

*Poof*

She turned into Fox and dashed away at top speed, startling that person.

"Wait! This Elder wants to play with you~!" She giggled excitedly.

Aiko rushed away from this weirdo and into Mei's embrace. She was safe there.

Mei was looking at her holding back the smile that was creeping up on her face, she was really happy that Aiko would find her whenever she was troubled. This meant that Aiko thought about her a lot.

Mei smiled. "What's wrong?"

"This place smells alright, but it's filled with dust and weirdos..." Aiko murmured, burying her head in Mei's arms.

"Certainly the smell is better, but there are too many weirdos." Mei agreed and broke away from the group, she never liked these kinds of rivalries. It was useless.

Even if you prove to them that you are strong, someone will always be stronger, if you don't spend time polishing your craft you will be left behind while doing something as pointless as challenging others.

"Challenging others is only useful when you have met obstacles during your Cultivation. It can help you achieve enlightenment, but you should not rely on it. The more powerful the person is, the less likely he will want to fight you, so if you can't solve those obstacles by yourself, eventually you will be left behind." Mei spoke gently.

Aiko nodded. The better they were the higher their pride was and the less likely would be to help you, why would they help you if it would decrease their Fame?

Or what if they were defeated? They would lose face and nobody in this world wants that.

Mei walked around pointing at things and teaching Aiko Inscription Techniques.

"This one had the Purity, Durability and Qi Gathering."

"Why the last one?" Aiko suddenly asked.

"Do you remember that table that you have disintegrated?" Mei asked gently and giggled when Aiko frowned.

"At that time I thought that the Elders would eat me alive from their looks." Aiko really didn't like those stares at that time.

"Because that Rune was too powerful, everything in this world has Qi inside, some have more and some less, but if you overdraw Qi from it they will turn into dust. As it happened with that table, the Rune was too powerful and thus 'swallowed' that table." Mei explained.

"Aha, so it's to gather that Qi and use it as some sort of battery to power the rest of the Runes." Aiko nodded in understanding.

"Battery?" Mei narrowed her eyes.

"Do you need to draw that as first Rune or is it fine to do it last?" Aiko changed the topic as she only knew the word, but didn't know from where she knew it.

She only knew that a battery is used to store energy, but didn't know how it looked, what kind of energy it stored or what it did.

"You would need to finish all the Runes at once if you want to draw it as last, so it's advised to do it at first or at least middle, of course, the Runic Array would be stronger if it was last, but some things take months to create and you won't be able to keep that much energy in your Beast Core." Mei was very enthusiastic whenever she taught Aiko.

Aiko nodded, she wouldn't be able to create things for months at a time, so it would be better to make blueprints.

"What will we be doing here?" Aiko asked as they were not on the ground.

Mei found a small courtyard and settled down near a pond with Koi fish inside.

Aiko stared at those beautiful fish but then turned her attention back.

Mei was smiling. 'She has good concentration, this place has the bewitching Array so it was surprising that she was not affected as much.'

Mei was unaware that Aiko had a powerful Mind coupled with Soul. Only some things would be able to affect her.

"I will be teaching you about Runes, as there is no need to compete with others." Mei smiled.

Aiko nodded in understanding. "I don't believe that anyone in here can beat you."

Mei narrowed her eyes. "You think so?"

"Except me of course." Aiko proudly lifted her nose high up and Mei laughed.

"I'm looking forward to our duel." She was still giggling while caressing Aiko's fur.

Aiko turned back into her Human form and tapped the Sect Token, dressing her up.

"Let's start the learning, it will get boring soon." Aiko already heard voices approaching.

"Which place do you like the most?" Mei asked, also noticing those voices.

"Something with a nice view?" Aiko tilted her head. She didn't know herself as she spent too much time in Dens and was not used to normal houses.

"Then let's take that one." Mei pointed at the most secluded place, but also the largest.

Aiko turned around to look, that place was really secluded and there was something strange about it, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"That place has Qi Gathering Array." Mei told her and Aiko looked at her strangely.

"Isn't that Array supposed to, you know, gather Qi?" Aiko frowned, that place was completely deserted of Qi.

"That is only the case when they are not using the Reversing Array. It turns Qi Gathering Array into Qi Repelling Array." Mei smiled.

"Then why do you want to go there?" Aiko didn't understand.

"Because with a few tweaks, we can return it back to the Qi Gathering Array, and since that Qi Gathering Arrays is huge we will have plenty of Qi to create stuff." Mei's eyes were sparkling with mischief and she couldn't help but lick her sweet, tiny lips.

Aiko nodded, not quite understanding what was so good about it.

Mei giggled. "If we gather enough Qi we can experiment with Runes more, didn't you want to create that strange massage chair?" She smoothed Aiko's hair.

Aiko's eyes shined this time. She really wanted to create that chair as she experienced it in the past and she even couldn't forget it, but the mechanism was too difficult for her so she had to consult with Mei.

"Mei? I like you~" Aiko hugged Mei and Mei was startled.

The last time she got so much affection was from her previous Mate, she was really weak to these kinds of advances.

"I like you too." She murmured and the group arrived behind them.