Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

"This place is too shabby!" The Blazing Fox said with a frown.

"There is not enough Qi, I feel too weak." The Glacial Fox agreed.

"You finally arrived," Mei said with a smirk. "We are taking that place."

She pointed at the secluded courtyard with very extremely thin Qi.

Nobody protested against it. They were happy that they didn't need to take the place with the least amount of Qi.

Mei licked her lips, she will have to brush up on low-ranked Arrays and raise the Rank of this Array while removing the other Arrays.

Aiko was also smiling, she also didn't like this place, but since the mean Fox said it like that it should be alright.

She took out her Jade slips and learned more Runes, while Mei was tweaking the Array.

"Is it that easy to tweak it?" Aiko asked with curiosity in her voice.

"Yes, they didn't try to infuse it with part of their Soul and since we are in the eye of the formation that is unguarded I can easily change how this Array behaves." She smiled from ear to ear. This Array was very low in Rank but had quite a large zone of influence.

If she tweaked it correctly they would be swimming in Qi, while depriving everyone else of their Qi.

She laughed sinisterly and a shiver went up Aiko's spine.

She couldn't create any Runes since this place was deprived of Qi and she didn't want to use those materials as one-time use objects. Now that she knew how to create and connect Runes she would always start with the Qi Gathering Rune so her experiments could last longer.

Aiko felt the Qi returning already and stared at Mei.

"Done?"

"Not yet." Mei said gently, she only removed the reversing Array but didn't restart the Qi Gathering Array. She would have to make some changes and tweaks.

Aiko stared at the fired up Mei and tilted her head. She had never seen her with such a devilish smile. She wondered if her previous kind and gentle mean Fox was a lie...

Aiko returned to writing down Runes, but something felt off.

"Why are the Runes that were on the Vase so different?" Aiko asked Mei who was focusing on her work.

"Because they used fluid motions and tweaked the Rune a bit, I will teach you about it once I finish this." She was fiddling with the Array while licking her lips.

...

Aiko was near Mei and observed her, the Array was almost finished, but it was strange.

"The symbols are the same?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Correct." Mei smiled. "Inscriptions, Arrays and Formations use the same set of Runes, but you place them in different sequences and with different connections. Inscriptions use Ink, Arrays use Chalk, while Formations use precious materials or Formation Stones."

Aiko nodded. She could understand some Runes but had a hard time understanding why they were in such weird places.

"Let's not talk about Arrays for now." Mei moved back to the table where Aiko was writing down Runes.

"The Rune for Strength looks like this." Mei wrote it with a stiff hand and it looked exactly like what Aiko was doing.

"But you can also Inscribe it like this." Mei's motion became incredibly fluid and Aiko was staring at her like she was creating some kind of painting.

"It's crooked." Aiko pointed at the Rune that flew well but also looked crooked.

"Making the Rune fluid is difficult, but it magnifies it's power." Mei said gently.

"I see..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. 'Isn't that just using cursive though?'

'What if I used real Calligraphy on it? I have that skill...' Aiko smiled.

She practised Rune Inscribing in front of Mei.

Mei... wanted to run away. 'Why is she so good when I just show it to her?!'

She was doubting the time she had to spend to adjust one Rune and felt a headache. 'I have spent thousands of years just to master all the professions, but she just had to do that.'

Mei felt tired looking at the smiling Aiko and the beautiful-looking Runes she was creating.

Then insane thought surfaced in her mind. "You wouldn't happen to be able to read Runes, right?" Her mind stilled. 'Please tell me I'm wrong...'

"Sure I can, but only some." Aiko smiled, looking at Mei who was about to faint once again.

"Y-you can read them?!" Mei only knew about one person who could read Runes and that powerhouse pretty much ruled one whole continent in the upper world.

Mei had sweaty palms. She would never imagine that her little sweetie could do this...

"Is it bad?" Aiko stared innocently at Mei but was laughing inside. 'Yes! That expression! I will pay you back!' She was laughing in glee, not realizing that her hair turned black and her alignment deteriorated.

Mei sighed. "You just increased in value." Mei was serious and was considering leading the Foxes to wipe out Humans so that they would not a threat to Aiko.

'If we could create another Rune God, that could mean we could rope in that old bastard and have an easier time in the upper world.' Mei smiled, she knew that her Sect would collapse as they relied too much on her and with her boy toys betrayal...

'It will be difficult for my Sect, but if I only take a few thousand years to ascend it shouldn't be that bad.' She hoped that she would be able to scavenge the remains of her Sect and boost her powers through relics.

'We will be too weak once we ascend, we will have to rely on relics, but most relics in lower worlds will be ineffective in the upper worlds.' Mei frowned, there was still a long journey ahead.

'I will also have to protect her once she 'shatters' her Beast Cores to obtain a proper Human Form.' She sighed rubbing her temples.

She hugged Aiko who was practising and pondered upon things she had to do.

Aiko was Inscribing all the Runes she was able to read. There were about 20 Runes, but fortunately, all of them were very good and versatile, especially the Qi Gathering one. She would be able to create more complex Rune Inscriptions.

Mei returned to the Arrays to give it a few finishing touches.

*Shine*

The huge Array shined, it was powered up.

A huge flood of Qi assaulted their courtyard. It was getting thicker and thicker, you could almost smell the Qi in the air and light fog settled around their whole wing.

10cm from the ground was another Qi fog.

Mei stared at the curious Aiko who was kicking the Qi fog. She was enjoying herself as it felt like she was walking through the clouds.

Aiko smiled, she picked up bucked to scoop some of this strange fog, but it dispersed the moment it reached above 10cm from the ground.

"Why does it do that?" Aiko asked Mei.

"The concentration of Qi is much denser closer to the ground, so dense that it creates that fog, but once you move above ground where the Qi is not as dense it will disperse to maintain equilibrium." Mei gently explained.

"Does it mean we can do more experiments if we write Runes inside fog?" Aiko asked curiously, it was obvious what she was looking forward to.

"Yes, but you don't have Divine Sense so it's difficult to see through the fog." Mei smiled at the pouting Aiko.

"When can I get Divine Sense?" Aiko asked.

"You can now, but you have to practise a lot to obtain powerful enough Divine Sense to penetrate Qi fog, it's better to focus on Runes for now." Mei guided Aiko towards the best possible outcome.

Aiko nodded, not satisfied about it, but she had her own plan.

She used [Lacerate] on the low table legs to make it even lower. Low enough that the fog barely covered it. Now she could use some of the Qi fog for her experiments, but not enough that it would cover her sight.

She smiled from ear to ear and Mei sighed. "Where are we going to eat?"

Aiko stiffened. They only had one low table and that one low table turned into a platform for experiments.

"Can't you levitate it with Divine Sense?" Aiko asked innocently trying to divert her guilt.

Mei gently flicked Aiko's forehead. "Divine Sense is not a toy to use like that."

Aiko pouted. "Then let's just take another table from other courtyards." Aiko puffed her cheeks.

"What where will they eat?" Mei narrowed her eyes.

"They won't?" Aiko tilted her head. "From what I understood we are the only ones eating things."

The Spiritual Cuisine that could improve one's Beast Core was expensive that most Foxes wouldn't be able to afford it. As such most Foxes like Humans used Fasting Pills to sate their hunger.

"That is true." Mei kept her neutral expression. "But who will you take it from?" She smiled in a mean manner.

"I have an idea." Aiko stood up and left the courtyard.

...

She finally spotted one red tail going around the corner and followed it. Aiko's hair was black so she had barely any presence.

She tailed the Blood Fox until they arrived at her courtyard and Aiko spotted a nice low table.

She moved towards the low table picking it up without a sound and turning around.

Their eyes met one with confusion and the other with shock.

Aiko fiddled with her toes. This was an awkward situation...

"Umm..." Aiko didn't know what to say now that she was caught during the act.

The Blood Fox still had a confused expression. "Do you need that table?"

Aiko hummed and nodded. Her hair changed back to the colour of the moon from embarrassment. She now felt kind of bad about it, now that her alignment turned more neutral.

"Um... would you like to eat with us?" Aiko couldn't meet her gaze and murmured.

"Eat?" The Blood Fox was confused. 'They don't have their own table?'

Aiko coughed at that piercing gaze. "Well... this and that happened..." She tried to avoid the responsibility.

"What will we be eating?" The Blood Fox asked.

"Meat!" Aiko beamed.

The Blood Fox stared strangely at this little thief and wondered what happened to that table. 'I will know once I arrive there.'

"Then lead the way." The Blood Fox smiled gently hiding her emotions.

Aiko runs back with Blood Fox following her.

Aiko arrived. "I have the table!" She beamed.

Mei massaged her temples. 'She really went ahead and stole it... and why is that Passion Fox following her?' This situation was stranger and stranger.

The Blood Fox met Mei's gaze. "That would be my table." She gently murmured towards Mei.

Mei sighed. "Did she get caught?"

"By accident, I didn't know about her." The Blood Fox felt bitter, she was quite proud about her detection as she was able to gauge one's emotions quite well, but she wasn't able to detect this little one.

"She promised you something once she got caught?" Mei thought as that was the only reason why would the Blood Fox come here.

"Yes. I will burden you with my meal." The Blood Fox smiled.

Mei felt tired. "Seriously..."

The Blood Fox stared around, the Qi in here was thick and there was even a light fog.

"Do you mind if I stay here?" The Passion Fox asked the Jade Fox.

"As long as you don't disturb us or the Qi in the air." Mei narrowed her eyes at the Passion Fox.

"That is fine, my courtyard lacks Qi and I feel uncomfortable." She squirmed.

"You are more susceptible to charm as you are a Demonic Beast." Mei gestured. "Each courtyard has Charm Formation."

The Blood Fox frowned. "Filthy Humans..."

Mei didn't say anything and stared at the Passion Fox who froze, she followed her gaze and arrived at the 'modified' low table.

Mei coughed. "You can take any room you want."

The Blood Fox didn't say anything and only smiled, now she understood why they needed a table.