Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Chapter 45 – Explorer Aiko and Asshole

Aiko woke up the next day refreshed once again.

She stretched inside her Den and ate her food. She was already used to that chilling sensation when she did that.

Her Stamina was full, so she readied herself to dive down.

She moved through the soil avoiding the numerous shiny rocks along the way and made it to the strange cave.

This cave was magical for Aiko. On the walls were shiny crystal-like rocks that illuminated the whole cave. The texture of the cave was also strange as there were no sharp corners. It wasn't smooth per se, but you wouldn't find anything to slit your hands or legs on.

Aiko was at the starting point of this burried cave. It was well hidden from others.

Aiko was curious about these shiny rocks. As they were also slightly warm. She liked these kinds of rocks as they were smooth and warm, the perfect material for her Den.

She slowly walked through the illuminated cave and arrived at the first checkpoint. Along the way she tried to take those stones with her, but she wasn't able to damage them in the slightest, so she gave up for now.

The first checkpoint was an extremely large room, with many symbols. Those symbols looked old, almost withered, they weren't from this age, but Aiko was startled... she thought she didn't understand, but she could understand some of those strange and archaic symbols.

'Puzzle... solve... time... question...' Aiko was puzzled as to why she knew those words, but soon she understood.

[Linguistics: Lv.1->2]

She understood a bit more of those words, but this thing was just a simple puzzle about levers and their order.

Well, it was simple... but Aiko didn't want to think about it too much since those puzzles got harder with each lever. She eventually gave up and flicked them at random, eventually getting the right combination.

This took her almost half of the day, but she was satisfied because she didn't like puzzles about history, not to mention she didn't have much historical knowledge to begin with so it would be impossible for her to solve.

Little did she know that brute forcing this one was the intended solution...

...

"Hey, hey, isn't that!?" The audience was in uproar.
"A S-spirit Stone Mine! She found a Spirit Stone Mine!" Another shouted his eyes bulging to unimaginable size.

The Queen sat there puzzled, it looked like a Spirit Stone Mine, but those Spirit Stone Shards were in order and sequence...

'Inheritance ground.' She clicked her tongue. Those were either extremely good or extremely dangerous. She hoped it was not the latter.

The Elder who was sitting under the projection had ears like an elephant once he heard the words Spirit Stone Mine.

He was doing his best to maintain this projection, but also peek inside so that he knew the location, he really wanted those Spirit Stones, there were never enough...

...

"Sect Leader, this..." Those Elders were excited, they now had reason to wage a war.

"Don't be too happy yet." The Sect Leader scolded them. "We don't know what that place is and don't tell me you have not noticed the pattern, especially you Elder." She looked at that perverted Elder as he coughed.

"Of course, I have noticed Sect Leader, it seems to be part of a large Inscription leading even into a bigger Array." He explained and his nose got longer from arrogance when he saw those ignorant Elders looking at him.

"The first Inscription is to reinforce that place, unless you deplete all the energy or Forcibly rewrite that Inscription it can resist Cultivator at the Golden Core stage, BUT."

He smiled even wider once everyone was looking at him. "That is only a single Spirit Stone with inscription. If we combine all of them and we have not even seen the whole thing, we could get the combined reinforcement power of Peak Mahayana."

The Elder puffed his chest as others were surprised by this defence.

"Is that true Elder?" The Sect Leader didn't believe that.

"I swear on Heaven and Earth that I have not told a single lie." He swore with his Cultivation on the line.

The other Elders waited for the Heaven Lightning to strike him, but it didn't. He was unharmed and they turned more serious.

"This is bad Sect Leader, that means there is something precious hidden inside." One Elder said and his body shook, what if it was an inheritance of something he needed? He really wanted to head out and steal it from that furball!

He was stuck in his Cultivation and couldn't advance, his age was considerable and almost was approaching its end.

"Nobody leaves. We will first assess this situation." The Sect Leader stopped them. It was too dangerous to leave and interfere with the testing grounds. Not to mention there was something wrong with those testing grounds.

...

Somewhere far away a person sneezed. He looked at the chessboard that was changing constantly.

"Surely she didn't survive that fight, right?" The person was confused. It already thought that it was dead, but apparently, it wasn't.

"Is that why that bitch laughed at me?" It thought for a moment and shook her head.

"Each faction sends hundreds of sons/daughters of 'Heaven' down. If at least we can get half of them to this place we win..." It smiled and tried to readjust the chessboard, but it became even more messy.

"That bald fucker is also interfering?!" It was furious at that baldy and left the room. Unaware that one chess piece was completely wrecking the other pieces on the chessboard.

...

Aiko arrived at another checkpoint, unaware that she was observed by other factions.

This checkpoint consisted of arrow/dart traps that were hurling constantly from side to side. Even if someone managed to get the rhythm, it would change over time, making it difficult to predict.

Aiko didn't like this room at all, her stamina was quite low, but [Meditation] could fix that!

She found a nice and cosy place around nearby shiny rocks and settled there.

'This hardness is bad, but it will get bonus points for the warmth.' Aiko thought almost dozing off.

'Right let's activate [Meditation] first.'

She meditated her time away, waking up with a full tank of Stamina.

'Why make things difficult when-' She dove inside the ground and slowly moved through it, she observed the meticulous traps and its mechanism, being mesmerized by it, but she didn't have enough time to completely appreciate it as her Stamina was draining.

She got to the other side of this place and frowned. 'If this place wasn't so vast I would dove straight to that exceptionally shiny room...' Aiko thought.

She was unable to cross that distance as it was much further than from her Den, plus later on the crystals covered the entire cave system, which made it difficult for her to squeeze through.

She walked to another checkpoint, this one was about swimming.

Her senses warned her and she didn't want to jump in, so she would bypass this place once again.

...

There were approximately 3 rooms left. Aiko could no longer bypass those tests as now the cave was completely covered with shiny rocks that she couldn't pass through.

Aiko frowned cutely as she observed another trap checkpoint.

Spike traps, rock traps, guillotine traps, you name it, we have it all~.

Aiko could not use her [Earthen Walk] any more and was hesitant to continue, but she still needed some treasures to fill her quota and get rewards.

Aiko thought about it and alternated between [Quick Double Jump], [Enhanced Climbing] and [Meditation].

She didn't expect that she would be able to sink her little claws inside those shiny rocks. She scratched them and climbed them, making good progress, avoiding rocks and pitfalls.

Using [Quick Double Jump] as it was much faster than her top speed with [Sprint].

She was able to come almost unscathed from this. She did have a few burns and scratches as some traps she didn't expect and her [Intention Perception] only warned her once she got too close to them, but that was not enough time to react to them.

Aiko moved to the 2nd last checkpoint. 'Another puzzle.' Aiko groaned and didn't want to do it, but she spent another day doing the puzzle as it was much bigger than the previous lever puzzle.

And here she is. The last room. She managed to get all the way here and expected some grand reward, heaps of gold, ornate swords and crowns.

'N-nothing...' She stared speechlessly almost sobbing. 'T-there is nothing, b-but old shitty sarcophagus..' She cried silently.

All that work and time spent just for her to encounter this shitty sarcophagus...

...

Old soul was left in his room. He used his friend's Inscription knowledge to build himself this place to give his legacy, his life's work to the fated person who would find him...

As if! He had waited for so long to possess a powerful body so he could Cultivate again, but only old bastards came!

'At least give me beauty so I can pass the time in here.' He cried tears of blood. 'I have been waiting for so long that anybody would do... hm?'

He noticed a presence that entered his cave system. 'Fuck! Now even dumb Beast can find my cave!? What was that shitty bastard making this cave for when it's this fucking useless!'

He cursed and cursed only for him to pause... 'What the... why is a dumb Beast clearing my tests so fast?!' He couldn't believe what he just saw. 'Blessing, this is a blessing the Blood Gods finally heard my prayers!' He cried even more tears of blood and waited for this fated per-Beast to come.

...

"Welcome to my inheritance grounds, little one!" A booming voice startled Aiko. She was wary of it.

"No need to be so alarmed. I have treasure for you as the one who cleared all of my tests!" The voice said smiling in his mind. 'Now come!'

Aiko's ears perked as she heard the words treasure. She needed those, she wanted those.

She came closer and 2 books flew out of the sarcophagus.

"Now choose!" The voice said, but Aiko looked at him like she was looking at some kind of idiot.

'I don't want shitty spoiled books! Give me pretty swords, crowns or at least gold!' Aiko protested.

'Highly intelligent Beast.' His old soul shook. 'Unlimited potential.' His soul almost ascended from such wonderful news and he ignored the protesting Aiko.

"One Book is from my friend, a revered Moon Goddess!" He told the little Beast.

Aiko stopped complaining and slapped her paws on the ground. 'I have Moon Stone... I wonder if I can combine it together...' She was deep in thought.

The old soul shook happily from having that little Beast's attention. "The Second book is the real deal! The Blood Tyrant Cultivation Scripture. A one-of-a-kind-" He was explaining proudly as he was the one who created this book.

"Oi, listen to me this book, no! This book is the real deal!" He yelled at Aiko, making his body projection in front of her. That old soul was almost completely nude but had an incredibly chiselled body that even Aiko in her Beast form was attracted to for a moment.

He stopped Aiko from getting that Moon Goddess Scripture.

"Listen well! This book is only strong during the Full Moon! While my book-" He gestured at the old bloodied Scripture. "My book is powerful at all times! You just need a little blood."'And let go of your sanity if you are not powerful enough.' He smirked.

Aiko didn't like that book. 'Shitty bastard, I already have Moon Stone, I don't need this shitty book, I want this one!' Aiko protested.

"Oi, no! Bad! Take this one!"

There was a strange sight where old souls were hurling bloodied Scriptures at small insignificant Beast.

And that small insignificant Beast was dodging every single one of the Scriptures, only trying to take the lightly coloured and somewhat well preserved Scripture.

"THAT'S ENOUGH YOU STUPID IGNORANT BEAST." His aura flared, smashing Aiko into a nearby wall.

-10,000HP
v
-700HP
-93 Vitality

Aiko immediately passed out.

The old soul huffed. 'Shit I almost killed it, that would be really bad!' He frowned.

"I will just take over your body!" He yelled not wasting his time.

His soul moved inside Aiko's defenceless body...