Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko was silent and calm.

Her team stared at her speechlessly and the Beasts breathed a sigh of relief.

What made Aiko so calm, you ask?

Oh, it's very simple.

Meat banquet! Lots of rare and delicious meats were served in front of her and she munched on it happily.

[Gained Level.]

She even gained levels from this meat!

Aiko's eyes shined brightly as she kept eating and eating.

The other Beasts' lips twitched. Those meats were delicious, but incredibly hard to find. One would eat it by savouring each single piece, yet this little Fox just downed a chunk of meat at a time.

The Foxes and other Beasts were upset, but they were not upset enough to disturb her so that her mouth could cause another mayhem!

"You really love meat..." The Lion with the snake tail shook his head. 'Some things just never change.' He remembered how this little Fox devoured so much meat during her stay at the Village...

The Lion sat with Aiko, because he was just there to keep the other Beasts in check.

He was not the strongest, but he belonged to the largest Beast Sect there was, so in other words... If they didn't give him face and decided to fight each other, it would be like disrespecting the Heavenly Beast Sect.

They didn't dare to do that, since that Sect also produced large quantities of resources needed for Beasts to attain their true forms.

For Aiko that would be the Kitsune.

For the Lion it would be the Heaven Devouring Lion, but with a twist, since he had a snake tail.

Aiko munched until she felt somewhat full and then stared at him.

"What is it?" He looked back at her like he was looking at a cute daughter.

"Can it talk?" Aiko pointed at his tail.

"It hasn't developed intelligence yet." He shook his head.

"Oh..." Aiko was slightly disappointed, she wondered if that tail could also talk, which would allow him to insult people with much higher firepower.

'It's always better if you insult someone in a duo, since your partner would be able to cover you if you ran out of ideas...' Aiko narrowed her eyes.

...

The council was underway and naturally, the Beasts and Humans didn't get along. They would glare at each other, but at the same time, they had to hold each other's hands with a smile, since it would be bad if the Beast Stampede became worse.

They could only temporarily swallow their grievances and cooperate.

The Beasts still looked in a certain direction. They ignored the Emperor and other Sect Leaders, they were only interested in solving this crisis and... Lady Liu.

Lady Liu didn't just teach Humans, but also Beasts. Some more than others since some Beasts had poisonous aura which would make it difficult for Lady Liu to teach them.

But all of that meant nothing in the face of those Beasts. Their main point was that she didn't discriminate against them, nor did she reject them when they asked her to teach them things.

Some wanted her as a bride, since there were very few kind Humans left, but the impenetrable barrier called 'Inscription Saint' and 'the Great Roc Mother of Collapse' stopped their thoughts.

None of them would anger them, outside that stupid snake that just wouldn't back off even when warned.

Lady Liu chatted with the Beasts, since some of them were previously her students.

Most of the Beasts had sharp edges and were difficult to deal with, they were pretty stubborn, not to mention she was a Human.

This spawned many difficulties and later brewed greater trust and admiration towards this Mortal.

They were saddened to hear the news that she wouldn't be able to cultivate, but that couldn't be helped...

They didn't have treasures that could help, since most of them just swallowed the treasures in order to absorb their energy slowly and over time.

This would allow them to passively gain Beast Core Energy, but only those with powerful stomach acids could do that, which weren't many...

The Beasts bickered against the Human Cultivators.

The Humans were trying to use the Beasts as meat shields, while the Beasts tried to distance themselves from this issue so that it fell only on the Human Cultivators' head.

The Inscription Saint and his team were mostly silent. They didn't really care either way, since all his homes were pretty much a 'nuclear bunker' that was reinforced by the power of the 'world's core'.

He didn't need to do anything and would survive the fallout, the problem was Lady Liu.

She liked some places, which meant that he would have to protect those places, but the main issue was that those places were too far apart, so it would be difficult to protect them all himself.

He will have to choose between either Lady Liu's dislike or tearing himself apart trying to defend everything...

"Like I said, the Beast Tide would include flying beasts!" One Sect Leader said while he glared in a certain direction.

"Why are you looking at me?" The Great Roc Mother tilted her head. "Just because I have wings doesn't mean I caused it." She clicked her tongue. "Seriously, the Human intelligence has declined." She shook her head, staring at him.

He turned red from anger, but he could only cause trouble in here. Once they left, he was the weakest Sect Leader on this table and would get trashed by anyone easily.

Aiko sniffed the air. There was a strange smell.

She stood up. The Lion tilted his head.

*Sniff Sniff*

Aiko was like a dog following the trail of the smell. Her hair naturally turned black and her eyes were dyed in a strange colour of red.

Some Beasts noticed that one presence disappeared and they had difficulty in finding it, but once they found it, she was near the Sect Leader that was dissing them the most.

He was unaware that she was next to him and Aiko stared at him expressionlessly with strange eyes.

Sect Leader Huang felt a gaze on him. He looked down to see a little Fox staring at him with strange eyes. He minutely smiled sinisterly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Aiko was faster and used [Lacerate], injuring him.

His abdomen had a pretty bad gnash and he screamed.

"Fuck! That's how Beasts do things?! You have rounded us up and want us killed now!?" He instigated them.

The Beasts stared at the Fox frowning, this whole council didn't move smoothly, but this thing turned from awful to irreparable.

The other Human Cultivators went on guard, but Aiko ignored them.

She walked towards the Inscription Saint and opened her mouth, but she couldn't talk.

She frowned, but Chen Shi already saw her abnormality.

"Do you know what caused it?" His voice was grave, which attracted everyone's attention.

Aiko nodded slightly, while she was unable to talk, she was able to give him the thing that the Sect Leader had in his clothes.

Aiko gave him a bottle and he immediately closed it without checking it.

He wordlessly handed it to the Snake Beast, since she specialised in poisons.

She likewise didn't say anything and took it.

She unbuttoned it and took a whiff. Her eyes turned strange for a moment before her metabolism devoured that poison.

"It's Berserker Powder." She said gravely and glared at the Human Cultivators.

The Beast felt agitated. Meanwhile, Chen Shi tried to figure out a way to turn Aiko back, since she was under the Berserker Powders' control... control?

He tilted his head. Aiko was staring at him blankly with strange eyes, but he could still 'see' the insults that she was hurling at him.

He felt strange, as Berserker Powder was supposed to agitate the Beasts so it would lose all its reason.

"The Beast Tide." He murmured, but everyone heard him, now all eyes were on the injured Sect Leader.

However, Chen Shi felt even stranger since Aiko didn't attack indiscriminately. He couldn't understand how she was not under the effect of the Berserker Powder.

Only Aiko knew how...

[You have been poisoned!]
[Your [Greater Poison Resistance] suppresses some of the poison.]

Aiko took a step back. This bastard was completely useless and none of these fuckers could smell the strange smell.

They were too comfortable with their power that they didn't try to be cautious.

Aiko walked towards another Human Cultivator. The Cultivators were wary of her, but she had a shield called Inscription Saint, which was on her side.

Aiko extended a hand towards the Sect Leader.

They couldn't understand what she was doing, but Aiko was waiting until he would hand over the bottle.

"What is it little Fox?" He kindly smiled at Aiko, while fanning the Berserker Powder, so that it would fully affect her.

[You have been poisoned!]
[Your...]

Aiko rolled her eyes and slashed him, but a defensive treasure blocked her hit. Aiko frowned, she didn't like them even more now and there was rage bubbling inside her.

She transformed into her Fox form, which was rare for a Fox to do.

They prided themselves in their Human form the most and would never transform into their Beast form in front of Humans.

Unfortunately, Aiko was different from other Foxes...

She used [Lacerate] that went from the Early Stage of the Nascent Soul to the Early Stage of the Soul Formation in power.

Aiko easily cleaved his Defensive Treasure and artefact in half and snatched the bottle.

She jumped on the table and gave the bottle to the Snake Lady, which surprised her.

Aiko rolled her strange eyes. Her fur was completely black and she was in the shade, which meant that her boost was significant. Her power now reached the Late Stage of the Soul Formation.

She disappeared from their sight and 3 bone-chilling cries were heard. More Human Sect Cultivators were injured and Aiko had 3 more bottles in her mouth.

This whole thing took less than a few seconds to execute.

Aiko came back to the Snake Lady and handed over the bottles. The Beasts had a terrible expression when they saw how many bottles of Berserker Powder they had. This meant that Humans planned to enslave them while they were in their enraged and senseless forms.

The tension was high. Aiko was clearly affected by the Berserker Powder now and Chen Shi wanted to block her just in case Aiko tried to jump on Lady Liu.

Aiko still had her reason and nobody would stop her from obtaining what she wanted!

She jumped from the table and under. Chen Shi lost sight of her and he could not feel her.

*Yelp*

Lady Liu was surprised when she felt something on her lap and the Inscription Saint snapped towards that sound.

He was worried that Lady Liu was injured, but...

There was a small fluffball on Lady Liu's lap, it inflated and deflated regularly.

Chen Shi's lips twitched. 'This damned Fox!' Even when She lost a lot of her reason, she still knew how to enrage him, especially since-

"Kyaaa! She is so cute~!" Lady Liu was a fluff lover... which meant that he wouldn't be able to separate Aiko from her.

Lady Liu carefully used her fingers to test the fluff. Her heart slowly melted into a puddle of happiness, since this fur was just so silky smooth and pleasant to the touch.

The fluffball twitched for a moment before settling down again, it didn't seem that Aiko minded such attention...