Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko was kicking around watching Mei Refine Pills.

*Munch*

Sometimes Mei would give her a small marble that tasted really great. It was like those bonbons that were liquid inside. It wasn't overly sweet, but it had a refreshing taste each time.

Aiko stared at Mei focusing, each single Pill took her hours to make.

'I don't think I have the patience to do that, but then again, watching it and doing it are too different things.' Aiko thought. From watching it she would definitely not have the patience to slowly prepare everything as everything was just too complicated, but maybe doing she could change her mind.

'There is not much to do anyway, maybe I should visit Alchemy Peak...' Aiko was interested in those tasty marbles.

...

Mei exhaled. "We should go now." She spoke gently.

Aiko's face twisted, but she didn't say anything. She watched Mei clean her place, leaving with her.

"This will be such a bother." Aiko sighed. She would need to recover her Beast Core Energy, but eating was expensive. Mei already ran out of ingredients and the rest is stored in Grandmaster's place.

"Who told you to eat so much." Mei poked Aiko's inflated cheek.

"I'm not talking about food." Aiko swatted Mei's hand pouting again.

Mei giggled but didn't say anything. She knew that Aiko didn't like gatherings, but this one was necessary for them.

'I made a bet that more than half of the Elders would get kicked out.' Mei licked her lips. She calculated it was around 70%, but if the Patriarch did something she would lose, so she put up a lower number just in case.

They arrived at a large plaza, different to the test Aiko was taking as that one was inside a building.

There were 20 mats for test takers and likewise, 20 Human Elders were watching over the mats.

'This place is big...' Aiko stared around, the audience seats were arranged in a circular motion. The North were where all Elders, including the Fox ones, were. The East was for Human Inscription Cultivators. The West was for Fox Inscription Cultivators and lastly the South. That place didn't have normal seats, but low tables with chairs similar to that of the North side.

The South side was much smaller but had a more lavish decorum. It seemed like only those that had some kind of Token could sit there.

"That is for [Inscription Master]s and above." Mei explained to the curious Aiko.

She already learned some of her body language, the happier she was the more her tail swished around, when she was sad the tail was like a corpse, unmoving. If she was curious her tail tip would make a slow circling motion.

Aiko nodded. "Can we go there, it's less stuffy." Aiko grabbed Mei to drag her there.

"Do you have the Token for that?" Mei smiled seeing the distressed Aiko.

"I don't have it, but I passed!" Aiko defended herself, still trying to pull Mei towards the South side.

"Why not visit the East si-"

"No." Aiko immediately flatly denied that and Mei was startled.

"Why not?" Mei narrowed her eyes smiling.

"They are too chummy." Aiko gestured a hugging motion.

"You don't like it?" Mei giggled.

"They smell bad." Aiko simply said, unaware that almost everyone in there was watching her.

"Is that so?" Mei's eyes turned crescent moon shape. It was a good thing for her since she didn't need to care about Human Cultivators appealing to her.

"And they don't feed me well." Aiko grabbed her stomach. "I'm hungry." Aiko's eyes shined at Mei.

Mei felt burdened once again as her storage rings dwindled in good meat.

"I don't have anything." Mei was honest at first, but now she also learned how to lie with a straight face. Can you blame her? Aiko's consumption increased by more than 10 times once she got this pseudo-human form.

Aiko pouted, trying to drag Mei there.

"We can't go there." Mei smiled gently.

"Hmpf." Aiko pouted her ears twitching in displeasure.

"I don't believe that!" Someone suddenly yelled attracting everyone's attention.

"Young miss..." The old servant was wiping his sweat, it was difficult to manage youngsters...

"I don't believe that little whore is already [Inscription Master]!" That shrieking girl pointed at Aiko and everyone followed the line of sight.

They were already aware of that little cutie with a foul mouth. They were no longer surprised by her name as 'Vicious Cub'.

They exchanged glances between them, but they noticed that the little Cub paid zero attention to the Peak Elder's daughter.

"I want a duel!" She proclaimed pointing at the Cub.

The Patriarch already had a headache as he accidentally agreed with the Jade Fox on a bet. Now he was regretting it since he paid no attention to the Elders, but it was obvious that he would regret it.

"Little Vicious Cub." The Patriarch spoke gently.

Aiko didn't pay attention to him either still trying to pull Mei into the South part.

The Patriarch's lips twitched and stifled coughs drifted from the surroundings. Now Aiko was paying attention to the strange atmosphere.

Aiko tilted her head, meeting the Elder's daughter's eyes. She then met the Patriarch's gaze.

"What is it? I'm already [Inscription Master] so we should be allowed to go there." Aiko stated plainly, completely disregarding their words.

A stifled laughter drifted from the spectators' seats on the West side and seats containing the Fox Elders. They were holding their laughter back because they had never seen in their 500 visits someone disregard the great Patriarchs so much!

*Cough* The Patriarch awkwardly coughed. "Little one do you accept that girl's Duel?" The Patriarch couldn't care about the Elder's daughter's name. He always caused a fuss and brought him so much trouble and paperwork.

Aiko stared at the girl, looking away immediately still trying to push Mei towards the Southernmost empty side.

The coughs and stifled waves of laughter intensified.

"Y-you dare disregard me whore!?" Tao Xuefeng was livid.

Aiko didn't even glance at her.

"Are you sure you don't want to accept the duel, you would be able to enter the southern side." The Father of Tao Xuefeng spoke loudly.

"I can already enter it." Aiko spoke flatly.

"That is not the case, there is a barrier separating that place, you can't enter unless you have our Token." The Elder spoke again.

Aiko stared at Mei. Mei chuckled. "It is true that there is a barrier, but it's too flimsy to stop you." She caressed Aiko's head.

The Elder flinched and glared at the ignorant Jade Fox.

"Then let's just poke it until it collapses, I don't really want to sit here." Aiko spoke, but she was too light to convince Mei's body to move.

Mei giggled. "Why don't you accept the duel?"

"Because we didn't have our duel, no way will I waste my Beast Core Energy on a small fry." Aiko spoke without blinking as if it was a fact.

Tao Xuefeng fumed, but she was held back by her servant.

"Don't stop me! I will rip that little bitch apart!" Tao Xuefeng screamed.

"You can't Young Miss! You were injured and are unable to fight!" The Servant was gripping her with all his might, but he had much lower Cultivation so he was dragged along by his Young Miss.

"Don't stop me! I will kill that little-"

*Ding*

Tao Xuefeng staggered backwards and the gallery stared at her strangely. They couldn't understand what just happened.

*Plap*

A rock fell from her head down to the ground, she was uninjured but completely infuriated.

They stared at the faint trajectory of the rock, only to spot the duo, Jade Fox and her little beast.

Some had to rub their eyes if they saw correctly.

"Did that little cutie just?"
"Don't ask me, I suck at combat."
"She must've been..."

The gallery was full of murmurs, but they quietened down as they came to a consensus.

They stared at the little Cub in reverence, since they all suffered at the hands of Tao Xuefeng. She was the daughter of an Elder, which gave her the ability to bully anyone she wanted as long as it wasn't a Direct Disciple or higher.

"You dare-" Before the Father of Tao Xuefeng could say anything he was likewise struck by a rock.

Aiko had enough of their sharp noises and screams, she already prepared a small pyramid of rocks ready to throw them.

The place was quiet, Mei was holding her stomach trying not to laugh. Meanwhile, the Fox Elders had to use their Qi to forcibly suppress the laughter that crept in between their lips.

The Patriarch held his head. This will take a lot of paperwork to calm down...

"Since you have 'injured' the girl you will have to duel now." The Patriarch said slowly.

"Eh?!" Aiko was shocked. She was so upset that she wanted to throw more rocks at that shitty brat.

Unfortunately, her rocks crumbled with the wave of the Patriarch's hand.

Aiko looked away pouting.

"I believe that a prize is necessary." Mei spoke gently, but everyone heard her.

Aiko's ears twitched. 'Treasures?'

"Yes, yes, it's only natural for there to be a prize." The Fox Elders noticed that twitch and pushed that motion forward.

"Indeed, since you were insulting our guest it's only natural that there is a prize." The Patriarch agreed and he smiled with glee seeing his Elder's distorted face.

"Meat, Spirit Stones and treasures." Aiko shamelessly counted on her fingers and then nodded.

The gallery laughed at that cute, yet shameless display.

"But that is only if you win, you don't have anything to appeal to us." The Elder snorted.

Aiko pulled out Spirit Crystal and the whole place quietened.

"Seriously? Spirit Crystal, that is too good for those two! Why can't we challenge the little one, why does it have to be that bit-"
"Why am I so poor."
"I want to challenge her, no way will I allow the Elder to get Spirit Crystal!"

The gallery was in uproar. Most of them cried since they were only either [Inscription Apprentice]s or [Inscription Adept]s they had a long way ahead to become [Inscription Master]s.

The others were already [Inscription Master]s so they wanted to rush forward and steal this duel for themselves. Spirit Crystals were incredibly rare and precious, no way in the underworld would they allow Tao Xuefeng to get the Spirit Crystal!

"The purest Meat! A pile of Spirit Stones! Treasures!" Aiko counted again, ignoring the animated gallery.

The Elder had his eyes glued on the Spirit Crystal. 'I need that one to promote to [Inscription Emperor]...' His eyes shined with greed.

"Very well, we agree." The Elder said hastily.

The Patriarch shook his head.

Mei smiled gently.

The Fox Elders frowned.

The Gallery was in uproar yet again.

The place was cleaned with only two test tables in front of each other but with a 5-meter distance in between.

Aiko happily sat down, her tail moving left and right.

Tao Xuefeng also sat down.

The Elders bought Inscription Pens and Inscription Ink in front of them.

Aiko checked her stuff and then checked her opponent.

"Why does she have higher quality Pen and Ink?" Aiko frowned.

Tao Xuefeng smiled like a snake.

The others also saw that, but nobody dared to raise the issue, on the other side the Foxes were trying to raise an issue but were suppressed by the Human side.

It was 200 Foxes vs around 1,000 Humans.

Aiko frowned seeing nobody doing anything about this, but luckily she stored a few rocks in her rings.

*Swish**Crash*

[[Mischievous Cub] Activated! Force increased!]
[[Trickster] Activated! Accuracy increased!

*Shatter*

Aiko smashed her Pen and Inscription ink to pieces, the Ink splattered everywhere while the pieces of the Pen flew somewhere far away.

Aiko snorted and returned to check her table.

The girl was stunned, but that didn't last long as she roared. "You dare to destroy my things!? Do you know how much it cost!"

"Why should I care, you failed to protect your stuff." Aiko cutely tilted her head and stifled laughter spread from the gallery.

This was just too much for them, they didn't expect this little Fox to be so vengeful!