Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Mei and Aiko came into Ming Xiuying's room.

Ming Xiuying was lying on the bed watching them closely.

"How are you feeling?" Mei softly asked while Aiko looked around.

Aiko didn't have time to look around previously since she was too focused on helping her, but now that she had time, she would look to her heart's content.

"Much better, there is still this strange unsettling feeling, but that should go away." Ming Xiuying gazed at Aiko.

"Yeah. It should go away once you flush your system of that impure Qi." Aiko commented back, her Darkness already told her about the temporary effects of this forceful 'banishment'.

"I'm glad you will be alright." Mei nodded happily.

"So I can whip my husband to cook for you?" Ming Xiuying narrowed her eyes.

"Sharp." Mei giggled.

"Is Grandpa's cooking really that good?" Aiko narrowed her eyes.

"Better than mine." Mei chuckled and Ming Xiuying looked at her speechlessly.

"What?" Mei tilted her head.

"Since when were you able to admit defeat...?" Ming Xiuying couldn't believe her ears and what she saw.

"You will get used to it when you hang out with this little monster." Mei ruffled Aiko's hair.

"You are going to brush that." Aiko didn't protest, since she would be able to rope Mei into giving her some nice brushing.

"That excludes your tails." Mei narrowed her eyes.

"Tsk." Aiko clicked her tongue. "I will ask Blood Fox then." She smirked.

"Tsk." Now Mei was the one who clicked her tongue. "You are too reliant on her."

Aiko blinked a few times as if she were looking at a dummy.

"She was hand-picked, so we better use my team well." Aiko expressionlessly replied.

"Brushing doesn't count in their work." Mei denied Aiko's intentions.

"Now it does." Aiko folded her arms like she was protesting against Mei.

"Seriously..." Mei sighed, massaging her forehead.

Ming Xiuying observed this whole thing wordlessly. Mei was way different to what she used to be. There was still some air around her from her previous behaviour, which suggested that this transformation was just a recent one.

It was still unimaginable that someone was able to change Mei to this degree.

Aiko was truly a stubborn Fox to be able to cause such a thing.

...

Aiko sat down around the table and waited for Mei. Her new Grandpa was running around, trying to please his wife so she could recover quickly.

It was only natural that he behaved like that, since he was overjoyed that her health improved at a rapid pace.

"I wanted to taste his food." Aiko pouted, but didn't throw as big of a tantrum, since the couple's scolding took too long.

Mei rolled her eyes. "Give them time."

"I know." Aiko rolled her eyes at Mei. "I'm not a child."

Mei squinted her eyes. "Remind me. Who was the one chasing a vase on the-"

"Fine! Fine! I'm a bit childish, happy?" Aiko puffed her cheeks. She felt quite sour at being called out like this.

Mei giggled. "Just give them a bit more time and you will have something tasty to munch on."

"When is the Tournament?" Aiko changed the topic, since she didn't quite like where this was going.

"In a few days, a few weeks at most, it depends on when the East and the West come." Mei shook her head. "So at worst… a month?"

Aiko nodded. "How many Foxes did we lose during the Secret Realm?"

"Foxes? You mean the one from the Fox Village?" Mei pondered on it and calculated the numbers.

'Does Mei know that there were more Foxes inside?' Aiko felt quite strange about this.

"We have lost about half? Overall, our losses were the heaviest." Mei shook her head after counting the numbers.

"What other Foxes come into the Secret Realm?" Aiko asked gently.

"The South had some kind of entourage of Foxes and the Fox Village also sacrificed Demonic Foxes, in order to enter the Secret Realm." Mei played with her tea, since she felt disgusted at the thought.

"Huh?" Aiko blinked. "Why?"

"Because Elders are stupid." Mei rolled her eyes. The one who was the best at politics and cultivation would be the one who ruled the whole continent.

Since most Foxes indulged too much, the overall political strength decreased substantially. As such, the Fox Village had to make sacrifices to make ends meet.

"Idiots." Aiko sipped her tea. "What are Demonic Foxes good at?" She suddenly asked.

"Demonic Foxes are not THAT different from normal Foxes, but their powerful constitutions make them the most suitable for war." Mei said softly.

"In other words, those idiots are weakening the Fox Village." Aiko nodded to herself.

"Not quite. Demonic Foxes are hard to manage and too feral to be too useful in wars." Mei chuckled. "That is, if we exclude you from the occasion."

"The calming effect, huh?" Aiko blinked slowly. She was more than aware of her effects on others.

"But doesn't Yuxi have a similar effect?" Aiko suddenly asked.

"Not quite. Yuxi can more or less maintain their current state, but she can't improve it." Mei shook her head. "You are the only one who can improve their state without messing with their bodies." She sipped her tea slowly.

"So, if we gained more Demonic Foxes, what would we do?" Aiko asked curiously.

Jun has been trying to make himself invisible for the past few days. He felt like they were discussing something heavy almost every other hour.

If he was too conscious about this, this would definitely mess things up for everyone and he would be blamed for it, which he didn't want!

What was worse was the scary Aiko who easily thrashed that terrifying individual. She was the most terrifying Fox that he ever encountered, even the Fox's Grandmaster looked like a Saint, and that hag was an exploitative piece of vixen!

"I'm not sure..." Mei supported her chin with her hand. "We don't have enough resources to help all of them, so we would have to create a small inside faction with leaderboards and everything... but that would eat up too much of our time." She shook her head.

"Hmmmm..." Aiko scratched her head. "And if we had the materials?" She narrowed her eyes.

"You are underestimating how much materials are consumed during their development." Mei bopped Aiko's nose.

Aiko rubbed her nose a few times. "Then what do you suggest?"

"We can make some simple leaderboards and reward them more if they help us with guarding or something. There is also an issue of them needing either the drugs or your presence." Mei didn't really want to think about it.

"Hmmmm..." Aiko nodded slowly. It seemed like she picked something troublesome.

'Fortunately, they should have enough meat to stay in my Tails for a while.' Aiko nodded again.

"Why are you nodding so much?" Mei felt some suspicion about Aiko's behaviour.

"Nothing. How does the Tournament work?" Aiko changed the topic again.

Mei sighed, feeling something troublesome coming their way.

"I'm not sure. It seems like this time they will kick up some kind of fuss, so we might not get our turn on this Tournament." Mei shook her head.

"Nice." Aiko smirked. She was not looking towards this event, since she didn't want to fight publicly and she would definitely be scolded by everyone if she used her poles.

"Not nice! We won't get any resources from this event!" Mei scolded Aiko.

"Do we need them? We still have the massage business." Aiko tilted her head.

"That is true, but just because we have Spirit Stones, doesn't mean we can exchange them for anything good. A lot of Cultivators prefer to exchange Treasure for Treasure, and not Treasure for Spirit Stones." Mei shook her head at this predicament.

"Oh..." Aiko nodded. "Just teach me Forging and I will come up with something." She sipped her tea.

"Do you believe Forging is so easy?" Mei snorted unhappily.

"No, but we can profit from it, can't we?" Aiko smirked.

"What are you thinking?" Mei narrowed her eyes.

"Our business is quite slow, right?" Aiko chuckled. "I mean, the waiting times are quite long."

"That's true, since we are not booking in advance, there are a lot of Foxes waiting for us." Mei nodded gently.

"Then we can just introduce more things to this business and we will make more resources." Aiko smirked.

"What are you thinking?" Mei felt like Aiko might come up with something good.

"Simple. We can introduce baskets with Pills on the counter. Those who are waiting would naturally feel the need to purchase them." Aiko chuckled sinisterly.

"And since we can use this to exchange for Herbs, we will naturally make more profit than with just Spirit Stones." Mei's eyes shined and Jun gulped nervously.

He was undoubtedly not supposed to hear this, but here he is...

"Since we can exchange Herbs we can get rarer Pills and then we can sell them to the Fox Village and rob them of anything we need." Aiko proclaimed.

"Good idea." Mei nodded gently. "And since we already have many Pills, we don't need to prepare anything in advance and just place them to be sold." She quite liked this idea. Aiko is not that bad at times.

"Yep. That way we can get rid of the low-tier Pills and make more Herbs back. We have improved the refining process, so we will naturally get a lot more than your common Pill Refiner." Aiko proclaimed and Jun choked.

They both turned towards him. "Not a word about this." Mei threatened him.

"I cherish my life." Jun gulped nervously. He was definitely not supposed to hear this part!

Aiko turned towards Mei. "And once we are out of the Fox Village, we can spread our Business to the Human side and with Demonic Foxes in tow, not many would dare to mess with us!" She proclaimed happily.

"So you did acquire more Foxes, huh?" Mei tried to tease Aiko.

"Yep. We just need to find a good use for them." Aiko blurted out, but then she paused.

Mei had quite a mean smile on her face. "Where did you get them?"

"I took them from Monkeys." Aiko looked away since she felt like she was being scolded.

"Monkeys..." Mei narrowed her eyes. "How many?"

"A dozen, I think?" Aiko scratched her head. Mei already knew that there was Feifei in her Tails, so she might as well admit to the rest...