Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Witch Aiko kept walking towards the direction where the arrow pointed until she suddenly stepped into completely white plains.

Everything was unnaturally white. The grass, soil, trees, everything.

A few steps more and then even those things disappeared, leaving only completely flat terrain in front of her.

[You are suddenly being attacked.]

[Your [Soul Domain] is being challenged.]

[Your [Soul Domain] is not yet grown.]

[Your [Soul Domain] is being stimulated.]

There was a subtle change that Aiko noticed in front of her. There were suddenly high walls in front of her, blocking her view and road, but at the same time, those same things felt intimate.

It kind of felt like she could do anything with this wall, but at the same time she couldn't.

*Rumble**Tack*

She could hear something pouncing on this mighty wall, trying to tear it down, but there was no dreadful or concerning feeling associated with it. Or rather there was no feeling to begin with because the wall in front of her was protecting her.

Witch Aiko stepped towards the wall.

[Soul Domain]

She had it for a while, well, not quite this one, the lesser version of this thingy.

The usage was always passive, but it was never considered passive. It was a kind of strange Ability that never made any sense.

Witch Aiko gently shook her head. She couldn't understand this thing.

That was because the Soul could never be understood by the feeble mind. The Soul was something much more than the restrictive space of the mind.

Soul could only be understood by another Soul. Ghosts also understood Souls, making them quite the enemy that would always grumble their minds and wore down their Soul.

The Soul had several protective walls that kept everything inside, but only protected from the most basic threats on the outside.

As such, Soul Cultivators were both powerful and feared, but not just anyone could understand their Soul and improve it as they willed it.

What was currently in front of Aiko, would be considered a fourth wall. A wall that was not supposed to keep things inside, but keep things outside.

This wall was utterly useless in maintaining the Soul, but was exceptional in protecting her.

However, the [Soul Domain] was still very undeveloped. A single wall can't protect anything if the enemy tries to climb over it.

[Your [Soul Domain] is growing.]

A translucent barrier was formed at the top of the wall, encompassing this whole area and protecting it from whatever just climbed to the top of them.

It was an ugly, monster-like sludge and liked to consume anything in its path.

This was the only thing that truly prevented intruders from destroying this place, because even before they noticed, it would already sneak inside their bodies and into their Soul, tearing them apart.

Karmic backlash? There was no such a thing if the being that created this place no longer existed...

The place was solely sustained by the Souls of the Cultivators that stumbled upon this place and their residues would be trapped into flowers, never leaving this place until they were completely drained.

Of course, Aiko and Yuqi were completely unaware, since they couldn't see the residual Souls or anything else about the flowers. As such, there was no direct karmic backlash as long as they didn't find out.

The monster-like slug banged on the translucent barrier, but was unable to barge in.

It immediately jumped down, trying a different method.

[Your [Soul Domain] is growing.]

Simple, but neat tiles appeared under Aiko's feet. They were nice to walk on and very smooth. There was no shine to them, so Aiko was not blinded and she quite liked it.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The tiles were everywhere within the boundary of the walls and protective barrier. It felt kind of like it was trying to protect from intruders from below, but that was not the case.

The protective barrier that seemed like it only reached the top of the wall and everything above it, was actually encompassing the whole area, including the walls themselves and anything that was under them.

They why would the [Soul Domain] suddenly grow these tiles?

It's a stimulus.

As long as you give anyone good enough 'reason' they would do anything for you. It's the same for the [Soul Domain].

It's not quite conscious, but at the same time it might as well be considering it was reading Aiko's entire being.

She liked neat tiles, but also rocky roads and rivers with bridges.

As she kept imagining those things, the scenery was subtly changing.

It was impossible to make any significant changes immediately as the [Soul Domain] was still growing itself.

Nothing elaborate was possible, but rough or repeating patterns were.

The river was quite... straight, too much in fact, but that was only natural. As long as the [Soul Domain] was stimulated, it would be able to grow more elaborate and increase the protectiveness.

The Sun rose in the sky, burning everything outside the protected area.

"Hm? Why does it feel familiar?" It was a blue Sun that Aiko felt she saw before in a dream or something like that.

Then, another thing appeared in the sky, this time it seemed like a strange Moon. It was completely covered in ice, making it seem like a stark contrast to the Sun, but at the same time, similar due to the colours.

Now, everything outside the protected area was both frozen and burning. It was quite the sight to behold if Aiko could actually see it.

She could vaguely feel what was outside the walls.

'Green liquid?' Aiko tilted her head. She seemed familiar with this toxic substance too, but it was kind of strange.

'Is this how my Soul is?' There must've been correlation to her [Enriched Soul] stat that was inside her system.

Her best bet would be that her Bloodlines share the burden upon her Soul and allow it to expand. That was also why she couldn't use all of her Soul to expand her tails, since she would be pretty much burning her own Bloodlines to make it happen.

'Well, at least it's pretty.' Aiko nodded her head happily as she walked around.

The [Soul Domain] was constantly being stimulated, so there was no need for her to do anything. It was kind of like during the time when that male Fox followed her around.

'What was his name... was it Mirage Shitface?' Aiko couldn't remember his name and that was fine. He was already dead and handed over so he wouldn't appear ever again.

Looking around, the seemingly straight river now had very subtle bends. It was obvious that this was still not perfect, but things were slowly changing into the direction of what Aiko liked.

However, there were still no buildings around, which was concerning.

Buildings were still too elaborate for Aiko to tackle, so the only thing she could do right now was to wait for it to develop enough until she can make buildings.

[Please stay in this place for as long as possible.]

'That goes without saying.' Aiko was slightly concerned about the time outside, but she couldn't really pass on such a good opportunity.

"How about making a huge door here?" Aiko could really figure out what she was looking for, but even then, strange doors that she never saw before manifested in front of her on the wall.

"Hm? What is that?" Aiko was curious and walked all around it.

Those were Dwarven doors. Their might was pretty much guaranteed since they had to protect them from dragons that wanted to make their nest inside the city.

Of course, this was not something Aiko would know, since these parts were still sealed inside her Soul.

However, the [Soul Domain] could easily bypass the restriction and tap into those parts to make wonderful things that Aiko would love.

That was because this was just an extension of her Soul, so it couldn't create something that Aiko wouldn't like.

The banging intensified, but the doors didn't even budge.

"Now I would like to see outside, but let's leave it for now." Aiko was not too fond of the creepy monsters outside, so she didn't really need a window or anything.

She also felt like it would be better to have as few weak-points as possible, doors were already big enough weakness, but she would let it slide since those doors were really cool.

'I wonder if I can open them.' Aiko thought about it, but...

[It's not advised to leave the safe area yet!]

Her system was pretty much freaking out, so she would not try to go out for the time being.

...

The first building appeared after an unidentifiable amount of time passed.

It was kind of hard to gauge the time when everything was constantly lit up, thanks to the Sun high above the sky.

The first building was a simple mud house. It was small and kind of round, like someone digging into the side of a small hill.

Aiko didn't like the size or pretty much anything about it, since she quite liked the homeness of rocks and planks and not the smell of earth.

Looking around, the river was finally finished. A very elaborate and free-flowing river. It was completely contained in the safe area as it was obvious that this place was trying to protect her, but also indulge her as much as possible.

It seemed the rules were as follows:

Protect Aiko at all costs, even if the scenery suffers.

Grow well enough so that Aiko could have more things around her.

If any intruders appear, the first rule can't be overruled in any circumstances.

Try to please Aiko with her own memories. That excludes living beings or even copies.

There were no others walking around her. Even as she imagined Mei and others, none would appear even if just a joke.

This meant that this place was solely for Aiko and nobody would be able to invade this place as long as the walls stood tall.

"Isn't this kind of poetic?" Aiko smirked, but she was quite happy about this place as even grass and colours were now appearing all around.

The grass was very simple, closer to a fur blanket that covered the ground and the colours were incredibly light, so calling them colours was a bit too much.

However, all of these things solely belonged to Aiko, and she loved them all that more~!