Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

From one illusion, to two illusions. Aiko made her way to 'construct' small pieces together and make them move as they were supposed to.

At first, it was a struggle since illusions do not abide by the basic laws, but with enough tweaking, they are lifelike enough that you could do simple simulations with them.

Aiko had to wonder if things could get even more amazing once she got some kind of Ability to specialise in illusions. Could those illusions be brought to life? It's possible.

Aiko kept tinkering when painful screams drifted from behind.

'Mei must be really mad.' Moon Aiko chuckled as she pieced together the moving parts.

It was quite fun not to assign any rules to them since the things would move in random directions and it was quite a mesmerising sight.

Aiko nodded as she pieced together another part. They were bringing against each other, but there was no real sound coming out of it.

'The clearance is not enough, I will have to adjust the distance between them, but I have chosen this method over it since all the weight doesn't sit in one place.' Aiko pondered on it. 'The bearing is too small to be able to move something heavy as muscles, that's why I made them grind, but that will no longer work with the added power. The parts would wear out too quickly.' Aiko wondered if all of the old Massage Chairs were worn out already.

'I can't do anything about it for the time being, as it would increase the Forging requirements and skyrocket the price.' Aiko sighed. 'Moreover, grinding is the easiest way to offset the burden on the joint, but I also can't use lube since our ears are too sensitive.'

Aiko didn't mind the grinding sound since Mei chose softer materials, so there was no high-pitched sound coming out of it.

You could still hear the vague sound of something grinding against each other, but it was not distracting enough for you to not enough the massage.

'I will have to change that in the future.' Aiko nodded gently, while her current ears were not THAT sensitive, with each Evolution she would eventually hit a wall with the grinding.

'The joints can be strengthened, but no Forging Cultivator would be willing to create something useless from precious materials.' Aiko sighed, while she had to believe Mei with simple materials. Once those materials get a bit rarer, there is no way they wouldn't try to steal them or pocket the change.

'We would be on the losing end.' Aiko shook her head. They had to bring the materials to the Forging Cultivators and it was not just bringing.

They had to either find and purchase them, which means they would have to spend all those resources and the Forging Bastards might pocket the change of their hard work.

'I don't like that.' Aiko shook her head again.

The screaming stopped, but Aiko was not quite finished yet.

"I'm done over here." Mei chuckled happily, that youth endured a lot more than she expected.

"I'm not done yet." Aiko pouted. There were pieces floating around her trying to move in directions, some failing while others mesmerising the audience.

"You really like this part of being a Fox, huh?" Mei giggled. She didn't expect Aiko to like illusions so much.

"I can even make the [The Ever Shaping Cauldron] illusions, so we can work on it later." Aiko said it as a matter of fact.

"Hmmmm..." Mei narrowed her eyes and came close to Aiko. The Blood Fox was busy with the Twins and the only people left in this illusion space were her and Aiko.

Mei wrapped her hands around her body, letting her head rest on Aiko's shoulder.

"I'm working." Aiko immediately shrugged off Mei's advances.

Mei was quite upset, but she didn't move away. "That's fine, it's not like you need to move." Her hands gently traced Aiko's body.

Aiko's body naturally stiffened, since she was not used to this kind of attention.

"Mei, you should really see this." The Blood Fox interrupted their little 'session'.

A vein appeared on Mei's forehead. She was ready to smack the Blood Fox away.

"You should really see this." The Blood Fox stared straight at Mei, which startled her.

"What is it?" Mei was quite angry, but still followed the Blood Fox.

Aiko had free time to continue working on her illusions, but she narrowed her eyes and wondered what's wrong for the Blood Fox to say that.

Aiko followed slowly behind them, wanting to see what was going on.

"These two have... special conditions." The Blood Fox narrowed her eyes. Normally it would be quite easy for her 'race' to learn illusions, but these two were different.

"What's wrong with them?" Mei didn't understand why she was bothered by this.

"Just show her." The Blood Fox rolled her eyes at the impatient Mei.

The twins focused and tried to create an illusion, but it failed in the manifestation stage.

"That's weird..." Mei didn't know what was wrong with them.

"It's not really weird." Aiko noticed a small discrepancy. "Their bodies are connected, so if they won't 'wish' for the same illusion, they won't be able to create it."

"You can create multiple different illusions at the same time." The Blood Fox refuted Aiko's words.

"She is right." Mei agreed, even if she didn't want to.

"But that is only if you are skilled enough to do it, isn't that right?" Aiko rolled her eyes. "It's like giving a toddler manual to cultivate. They will be able to do it, but they need to mature first and learn the language." She had to make simple explanations, since the Blood Fox started to feel the same as Mei... ancient.

The two stiffened and looked towards the twins.

"Do it again." Mei said softly and both of them carefully observed them.

"..." The Blood Fox and Mei felt quite defeated that they didn't notice.

"They really are connected..." Mei was speechless.

"Isn't that obvious, since they are twins?" Aiko rolled her eyes again.

"Nonono, you can't say it like that." Mei frowned. "Even if they are twins it doesn't mean they would be in THAT shape. Usually, twins have a high chance of cultivating Dual Techniques, but Yuxi and her partner took it a step further. They are very close to being one being." Mei attentively observed them.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, so I will excuse myself." Aiko shook her head.

"You won't help us?" The Blood Fox narrowed her eyes, it would be more fun with Aiko around.

"I'm a novice, anything I say might be detrimental to them." Aiko conceded her position of supporter, since there was no point in doing this if it would harm her team.

Before the duo could say anything, Aiko spoke again. "But take these." She took out Beast Cores with the Dream Element.

"That many?" Mei was surprised, while the Twins were shocked.

The Blood Fox didn't bat an eye, since she expected Aiko to take anything that was not bolted down.

"I have used a lot of them on me, but you can take the rest." There was no point for Aiko to take more since she could focus on the other Elemental Affinities for the time being.

Aiko felt the need to play with her illusions again.

"This is a lot..." The Blood Fox frowned gently. "You should start consuming the Beast Cores slowly. You are not like Aiko." She proclaimed.

"I hate that I have to agree with you again." Mei clicked her tongue.

"The feeling is mutual." The Blood Fox replied briefly and a spark flew between them.

The Twins looked at each other and stored the small mountain of Beast Cores in their Storage Rings.

"What, you want to fight?" Mei glared at the Blood Fox.

"What? You want to bully the lower Beast Ranks, Old Hag." The Blood Fox shot back.

"Who are you calling an old hag, you damned mosquito." Another spark flew between them and they were ready to pounce at each other.

*Cough*

A cough interrupted their little exchange.

"What is it?" Mei immediately glared towards the cough, but it was just Ming Qian standing there. "How did you get in here?" She blinked with shock.

"Your emotional state was not right, so I snuck in here. Our booking is coming to an end, so we should be leaving soon." Old Ming smiled from ear to ear.

"Ugh..." Mei glared at him, since she always boasted about her illusions.

"It's fine, it's fine. You will grow strong one day." Old Ming had a nostalgic expression, but Mei's forehead was full of bulging veins.

"Come here, you bastard!" Mei was furious that her own words were used against her, especially from her own cook!

Old Ming winked at the Blood Fox and she nodded back. While she was willing to fight Mei, she would need to weaken her at first.

Aiko was disturbed by the ongoing brawl and yawned.

"You shouldn't use too many illusions for the first time." The Blood Fox gently caressed Aiko's lower back, soothing and promoting her blood circulation to relieve her Beast Core.

"This feels nice." Aiko blinked a few times before almost falling asleep and standing up.

"You will have to wait till we are alone if you want me to soothe your body." The Blood Fox stopped, since her plan was not to put Aiko to sleep. Her plans were more profound than that.

Aiko clicked her tongue. "Then don't soothe me like that if you don't want me to sleep." She was quite upset that the nice feeling vanished.

"I will heed your word, Mistress." The Blood Fox chuckled.

"Don't call me like that." Moon Aiko was not embarrassed about it, but it felt strange to be called like that.

"I will do my best." The Blood Fox narrowed her eyes. It seems like she would have to spend more time with Aiko in order to understand her better and sway her opinions.

She was a Demonic Fox and thus didn't want to share, but at the same time, it was impossible to dominate her partner like Wanshu did.

Aiko would flip her over or beat her up if she tried it, the same way Wanshu did with Yuxi and Aiko might even start to have her if that happened.

'Slow and steady.' The Blood Fox narrowed her eyes as the surrounding whispers supported her...