Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko was slightly frustrated by them, but it was not like she could force them to answer everything.

She would just wait until they met to clap their cheeks for this.

For now, she would explore her home and try what was special about this place.

From what she could find. Her own home was just that. A home where she felt at peace. This kind of feeling would be hard to explain and even harder to imitate in the real world, but Aiko felt she must do it.

There was something so familiar with this place that she just loved.

"Yeah, no way that I will be able to recreate this." Aiko shook her head. She could never see herself try to do anything like this, but she might give it a try.

'Alright.' Aiko nodded her head as she sat down on the couch. The general outline was like this:

The main door.

Hallway.

Doors leading to other rooms.

Living room.

Kitchen.

Bedrooms.

Storage rooms.

Cellars or doors leading into dark dungeons.

Second floor.

And that's where she ended. She didn't explore the second floor yet since this place was bigger than she expected.

The furniture was also more lavish than she expected, but she didn't dislike it at all.

There was simply something odd about this place, but at the same time this place called out to her.

Feeling at peace, Aiko slowly drifted to sleep...

-----

"So Aiko is gone again...?" Mei was no longer surprised about this. Aiko would always disappear and then reappear with something new. She just prayed that, that something new wouldn't be even more outrageous than the last one.

"You are not concerned?" Danji covered her mouth with her sleeves.

"We can feel her connection, and she is not hurt, why should we be concerned?" Mei sort of gave up on worrying about Aiko, but at the same time she was quite anxious about her disappearance.

"Well, we can always try to look for her." Dai Lu suggested, but she was not sure where to even start.

"Our Ancestor only located a distortion in space, so we might be able to trace it back through that?" The Nightmare Owl suggested.

"Let's wait for a bit. Knowing Aiko, she will be back soon." Mei waved him off. That was because she knew how anxious the Nightmare Owl Clan was. They wanted to deal with their situation as soon as possible.

"Very well." The Nightmare Owl didn't like this idleness, but it was not like he could force them. She was their companion so he couldn't just call them out.

He grumpily left the room, but he didn't throw a fit or make a fuss.

"I kind of feel sorry for him." Yuxi voiced her opinion, but she also didn't push anyone to go look for Aiko. Knowing their Mistress, she was having fun somewhere while also collecting things, so there was no need for them to look for her.

"Gosh, you are so relaxed..." Danji shook her head. Everyone was way too relaxed about Aiko going missing, but it seemed like Mei had the highest authority here, so as long as she didn't look for Aiko, others wouldn't either. 'What a tough battle.' She was not sure if she could match Mei in this.

"Not really." Wanshu shook her head. "Everyone is anxious, but everyone also knows Aiko."

"You talk back more now, huh?" Danji 'hissed' at her.

"Since Mistress is not here, who will stop us?" Yuxi chuckled.

"Seriously..." Dai Lu shook her head. She didn't teach these rascals to be so mischievous without their Mistress around, but here they were doing just that!

"It's fine. It's not like we are causing problems." Wanshu smiled at Dai Lu.

The main rule was to not cause trouble with or without Aiko around, so as long as they obeyed that rule, Dai Lu would only scold them and not increase their 'training'.

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"Well, I feel like we should prepare for when Aiko returns. I feel like she just might break common sense again." Mei shook her head, sighing.

"What? She already broke it so many times, so we won't be as surprised." Danji rolled her eyes.

"The only things that are left are the Mind and Soul, no?" Dai Lu tilted her head.

"The mind is already done. When she almost killed them with her beauty. Although that was temporary for some reason." Mei leaned back. It seemed like the Heavenly Dao interfered a lot with Aiko, but there was no way to battle against it.

"Now that you mention it. That did happen." Dai Lu nodded her head seriously and everyone went silent.

"Surely she is not dabbling into Souls, right?" Nobody knew who said those words, but everyone gulped nervously with the same thoughts. 'Surely not...'

-----

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" *SMASH*

Aiko was laughing cheerfully while bashing the heads of the previously scary wolves.

"Who knew that a nice rest can do so much~" Aiko hummed. Once she rested in her home, she felt like a different person.

The uneasy feeling about the space inside the safe area also disappeared, making things even more bizarre.

However, since Aiko felt more than just fine, she was more than happy to run around and cause havoc, especially since she could now sustain the [Wind God's Blessing] with [Iron Maiden's Embrace].

This delivered a devastating impact with her baseball bat, although she would prefer a hammer or anything more fancy, the bat was the biggest damage dealer with her current outfit.

"Well, I don't like it too much, but seeing those wolves fly through the air like that is just so much fun~" Aiko had a very obscene expression on her face as she greatly enjoyed the feeling of smashing against the flesh and sending it flying.

While the sense of smell and colour was not there. Her other sense more than made up for it, making this quite the exhilarating feeling.

Aiko huffed like she was out of breath, but looking at her face, it was quite the opposite.

"I might get off on this." She never had this feeling before and that was because she was using all five senses before.

But now a lot of her senses were either lacking or missing, which empowered the rest, making her feel things that she never felt before.

"I feel like I could make this into training..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. If she could reduce her senses she might be able to accomplish something that she couldn't with all senses.

She also wondered what would happen if she sealed all 5 of her senses, only leaving her 6th sense around.

"Well, that sounds like a lot of work, so maybe, just maybe one day." Aiko nodded her head. She already had a lot of work on her hands, so creating even more work for herself was simply not good.

"Well, that is if I can clear all these Waves." Aiko felt like the amount of wolves, compared to green uglies, were too great.

"Don't tell me they have respawn points? Or spawning points?" Aiko scrunched her face, trying to figure out which one it was.

If it was the latter, it would be better than the first.

Respawning would mean there would be more wolves over time, while the latter one meant it made new wolves, so she could still thin out their numbers.

"Once going into a melee I also can't find any leaders." Aiko clicked her tongue. It felt like everyone was now avoiding her!

And she was right, most of those wolf leaders were shivering in their bases, just sending other wolves out to keep her company.

This meant that their numbers were thinning, but it was better than dealing with that laughing lunatic!

Of course, Aiko knew none of that, so she still believed that they were still around, just hidden from her.

"But what should I do..." Aiko tilted her head. The wolves gave more Soul Points than the Goblins, but at some point they started to give fewer points.

"Does that mean I can earn only a certain amount of points before it becomes useless?" Aiko tilted her head again. This was quite the great training and farming ground, now that she was rested.

However, if the wolves didn't reward her for her troubles, then fighting them would become exceedingly more useless.

"Ah, whatever, I just want to stop thinking about it..." Aiko groaned unhappily.

*Thunk*

She blasted another wolf away with her bat.

"But seriously. Why does this not break?" Aiko looked at her weapon. It was supposed to be a wooden bat, but it felt like it was hard as a rock, if not more.

Did that mean that all weapons didn't have durability and could be used endlessly? That would be nice.

She also noticed that if her outfit was damaged, it would regenerate once she returned to the safe area.

"Wait, does that mean the weapons are also repaired?" Aiko smirked. Maybe they would even replenish her ammunition? It was possible, right?

Well, for now she would keep hunting and returning, so as to prevent her weapon getting destroyed.

...

"I need a flying pet." Aiko gazed at the forest seriously.

It was not just the scale, but also the winding paths that made navigation difficult.

Not to mention her own [Perfect Memory] wasn't working properly, making everything even more difficult and confusing.

It got to a point where Aiko was almost lost in the forest, but fortunately she somehow managed to return through recall.

"But where am I supposed to get those?" Aiko felt like she would have to clear even more Waves, which would be problematic if she couldn't find the boss of the place.

"Gosh, I swear they are avoiding me!" Aiko stomped her feet angrily.

For the wolves she looked like a sadist who liked to slaughter their kin while laughing madly, which was... Well, not very good for their minds. They were too scared to face her, so at this point, they did actually avoid her.

The main theme of this Wave was detailed exploration, where you would follow the wolves to their dens and wipe them out.

However, Aiko made such an impression that the wolves didn't dare to live once they encountered her out of fear that she would find their dens, making this very difficult to progress the normal way.

"I should buy a map or something, since the wolves no longer drop any loot." Aiko clicked her tongue, however, the rewards were still impressive...