Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko pulled out the teeth from her Storage Ring. They were small, but part of it was filled with poison.

'I wonder what I can do with this...' Aiko tilted her head. It was poisonous and it was small...

She could try to throw it into the enemy's mouth, but you need to crack these teeth in order to activate the poison.

Aiko couldn't think of a way to use this poison, so she entered the room with those two bird-brained lovebirds.

"Here." Aiko slammed the teeth on the table and they paused.

Aiko rolled her eyes when she saw their judgmental expressions. "It's those poisonous teeth." Aiko didn't want to be with them in the same room without Lady Liu, so she left, leaving the duo still questioning their ears.

"Ah!" Chen Shi suddenly understood. "It's their teeth that have the poison sack." He pointed at those sorry bastards that were tied up and hung up from the ceiling.

"Oh..." She nodded slowly, she was not at all interested in poisons, so she didn't understand them. Moreover, from her fights against a certain bitch she earned poison immunity, so there was no need to care.

Seeing her disinterest, he didn't try to explain. Not everyone was interested in what he was doing and he used to be of similar mind, until he found out that it threatened his Dao path!

He then realised that poisons are quite miraculous, like the gift of fire bestowed to mankind. If utilized correctly, it would be an irreplaceable gift. Otherwise, it was of great harm.

Chen Shi became fascinated with them and researched them thoroughly. He then realised that there was also a way to incorporate poison into your advancements.

This made the advancement actually easier, but he needed to test it more before he would apply it to himself.

First, he would need to research these teeth and find a way to block their escape and next would be the actual poison that threatened him!

...

Aiko walked outside. Her team was surprised that she didn't cause any trouble, but at the same time, they were happy since they wouldn't need to deal with the sulking Aiko.

They didn't know how to prepare meat properly, nor did they have authority like Mei that would be able to soothe Aiko.

The Umbra Fox wanted this peacefulness to not be disturbed, while the Blood Fox thought that she should learn how to soothe Aiko, so that she has one more card against Mei in the war over Aiko.

They both had different thoughts, but one thought was shared. It was a good thing that Aiko was happy.

Aiko went under a pagoda with a single table. On the table was a small playing board and on the sides were two bowls. One was filled with white stones, while the other was filled with black stones.

Aiko touched them and they were smooth, but very easy to hold.

"What is this?" Aiko never saw this game and had no recollection of ever playing it.

"It's a Go board, Mistress." The Umbra Fox knew this one, since the seniors forced her to play it and with each loss they were supposed to take a piece of clothing off.

Fortunately, the Umbra Fox had many layers and she was a fast learner, which allowed her to barely stay clothed and win against those bastards.

She didn't have fond memories of this game, but if Mistress wished, she would teach her.

"Since there is nothing to do, let's try it." Aiko nodded gently, she was bored and it would take a few days for those two birdbrains to finish.

At worst it would take 10 days, but at that point, they would be forced to stop, since that's the time when the council was held.

Aiko was still interested in their decoration sense and judging from this courtyard it was exceptionally high.

"How do we start?" Aiko asked.

"You choose the colour of your army and one of us places the first piece, you then need to conquer more territory than your opponent." She explained the gist of it, but once they started playing, she would explain more.

Aiko was amused by their terminology, she didn't quite understand why they called it territory, but that wouldn't stop her from enjoying this game.

...

The Umbra Fox won 9 times out of 10.

Aiko was completely crestfallen that she lost that badly and she would be enraged if the Umbra Fox told her that she let Aiko win one round so she wouldn't feel that bad...

Aiko sighed, this game was not difficult to understand, but playing it against an opponent was difficult.

She somewhat liked it, but at the same time disliked it. How could she lose 9 times in a row?!

Aiko felt that the Umbra Fox was suspicious. She was under the suspicion of purposefully losing the game so that Aiko could win, but this claim was hard to support, as the last game in which she won had been an extremely close call. So, she could only begrudgingly dismiss this thought.

Aiko sharply turned towards the Blood Fox, she didn't believe that she would lose against her as badly as against the Umbra Fox.

The Blood Fox smiled gently and sat in front of Aiko.

Aiko once again took the black stones and made her first move against the Blood Fox...

...

'10 games... 10 games... yet I didn't win a single one.' Aiko was crying rivers of tears. 'How the fuck am I this bad at it...'

Her team panicked, since they didn't think it would affect Aiko this badly.

"Are you playing Go?" A soothing voice drifted into their ears.

"They are bullying me…" Aiko cried out when she heard Lady Liu's voice.

Lady Liu giggled. "Let's play a game."

Aiko felt apprehensive towards those words, since she lost 19 out of 20 games. She didn't want to lose more...

"It will be fun, I promise." Lady Liu smiled gently.

She was still apprehensive, but she did trust Lady Liu, since even etiquette lessons were fun.

Aiko took the black pieces, but Lady Liu made the first move. Aiko then placed her black stone on the board.

They played for a while, but Lady Liu interrupted Aiko.

"Don't place it there, this will cause you to lose, if you place it here you will have a higher chance of defeating me." Lady Liu slowly guided Aiko. She wouldn't be able to change her thought process, but she would be able to alter it slightly, making it easier for Aiko to win subconsciously.

Lady Liu was exceptional when it came to teaching others. She was slow and gentle with her teachings, explaining everything until the disciple understood.

And if they made mistakes, she gently corrected their course, so that they could understand what went wrong.

They kept playing like this for a long time.

…

"Let's stop here." Lady Liu said gently and chuckled when she saw Aiko's shocked expression.

"But I was so close to winning..." Aiko was sad as this was the first time she could see victory in plain sight.

"We will continue tomorrow. I'm too tired to continue." Lady Liu gently caressed Aiko's head.

"Oh..." Aiko completely forgot about the time and the fact that Lady Liu was not a Cultivator.

"I'm sorry." Aiko's ears dropped alongside her tails. She knew that Lady Liu was old, but she was so engrossed that she didn't notice her exhaustion.

"It's alright, I had a good time." Aiko was a much better opponent than Chen Shi, since he was stubborn and learned only the hard way.

Aiko on the other hand didn't change easily, but when she did, it was a significant change.

Lady Liu could remember those days in the Immortal World that she spent playing Go. One could say she was undefeated, but looking back, those bastards just let her win because they were interested in her...

She gently patted Aiko's head. She was simple, yet pleasant to teach and work with, but unfortunately, she wouldn't live long enough to enjoy it fully.

Aiko escorted Lady Liu to her room. She wanted to watch over Lady Liu, but she was shooed away.

Aiko could only sigh. She didn't want to upset Lady Liu, so she would just return to play Go with her team.

...

The next day, Aiko met with Lady Liu. They would play the Go game again.

The chances of Aiko's victory were now about 5% against Blood Fox and 15% against Umbra Fox.

Aiko was happy that she was improving.

She played against Lady Liu, but she never won. Yet... yet for some reason she didn't mind. It was a strange feeling coursing through her body.

Aiko knew that she lost, but she was not as pouty as before.

She was unaware that this feeling was a feeling of improvement. Aiko was unaware that she was improving, but her subconscious was aware and as such it rewarded her with this kind of feeling to push her, so she would keep going.

There were also times when Darkness would appear and try to help her, but Aiko refused to listen to them. She would use their help against the Umbra Fox and Blood Fox, but not against Lady Liu.

Lady Liu was too soft and gentle to be cheated by her. She wouldn't cheat her on purpose.

"You are playing Go?" The Great Roc Mother finally got bored with that poison fanatic and strolled around.

She was overjoyed to see Lady Liu, but froze slightly when she saw Aiko.

'He was right... She is like a glue.' The Great Roc Mother could understand some of his 'feelings', but just because she understood, didn't mean she shared them.

She was overjoyed that Lady Liu was lively enough to play Go games, since they were tiresome and required a lot of brain power. Yet, Lady Liu was laughing happily with Aiko.

The Great Roc Mother came closer and sat nearby. She would observe them for a while and maybe join them later...

But she wouldn't interrupt their games. She loved that Lady Liu was happy and laughing around.

Her Vitality was too weak to do anything big and it didn't help that the curse was holding her back. She was aware that Lady Liu was like a Phoenix, a majestic being that ruled the skies... but with broken wings, slowly burning itself to death...

The Great Roc Mother wanted to help, but she was not as smart as Lady Liu and not as knowledgeable as Chen Shi. She could only watch from the sidelines...

Suddenly, a hand caressed her head. She looked up and saw the smiling Lady Liu, which blinded her eyes and warmed her heart.

"It's alright, I'm enjoying myself." Lady Liu said gently.

The Great Roc Mother wanted to say something, but all of her words were stuck in her throat, unable to escape. She could only weakly nod and conceal her endless worry...

...

Chen Shi finished inspecting the teeth and weapons. He wanted to research it for a bit more, but there was just not enough time.

He walked outside and there were already people running around to prepare for the envoy.

Chen Shi sighed. He was quite close to solving the mysterious poison of those teeth, but the swords were harder to solve.

He already stored the poison in a special flask that was supposed to preserve it, but for some reason, it was still slowly decaying.

He never saw such tricky poison and he was concerned if he would ever find a cure for it, but there was no time for such meaningless thought. Chen Shi would lose his Dao path if he didn't solve it, so he would solve it.

Moreover, in a few months, there would be a large auction from the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. He had a great chance of encountering something that could help Lady Liu...