Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko went to play with her lamp as she left the Demonic Foxes in everyone's care. It was important to check if everything inside was going well.

Aiko focused her mind as her Soul was pulled inside.

She was swimming in Ghost Qi when she noticed that there were a lot of new things inside this place.

Couches, beds, lamps, pelts, dressers. It puzzled Aiko.

'How did they get these things inside...?' She tilted her head.

Aiko swam around a bit more before encountering the strange group.

It was obvious that the main being of this place was Lady Liu and her sister. Meanwhile, Slave 1 was doing all the work for them.

Aiko blinked a few times if she imagined things.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Aiko speechlessly reprimanded them.

All of them were startled and approached Aiko with a bow.

Aiko felt incredibly weird that Lady Liu would bow towards her.

"Enough, enough. Don't do this again, it feels weird." Aiko dismissed them and asked again. "So, what are you doing?"

"In order to settle and stabilise my sister's Soul, I have taken it upon myself to make her comfortable." Liu Ru bowed again.

"Wait, I feel like you are skipping a few steps." Nightmare Aiko groaned. At times like these, there was supposed to be Moon Aiko!

Liu Ru paused and glanced at her Sis, but her Sis just nodded.

"Allow me to explain." Liu Ru coughed. "How Souls work is quite peculiar. When they have a vessel, they are easily settled inside and they are not affected by outside influence." Liu Ru formed a circle that represented the vessel.

"However, everything changes when you lose your vessel." Liu Ru removed the outer membrane and the vessel started leaking.

"Once you lose your vessel, you will start to lose your Soul. If you are not dragged into the underworld and washed away properly, you will lose your sense of self and eventually your existence." She kept explaining.

"It takes a lot of time for Souls to adjust, but they are usually left with the most powerful feeling, usually vengeance, and they become Wandering Ghosts." Liu Ru pointed at her sister.

"My sister is a bit different. She was 'inflicted' by a 'curse' that would make it that once her Soul is settled into her vessel, if your vessel is unable to maintain itself and uses the Vitality of the user in order to repair itself. The natural loss also increases over time as more cracks appear on the vessel until it becomes unmanageable." Liu Ru explained more and more about what was happening.

"As such, my Sis's Soul is very worn out and has lost a lot of its abilities, including speech. She was trying to find you in order to bid farewell, but well." Liu Ru shrugged as she pointed at Aiko.

"You have messed up their plans and now she is freed." Liu Ru sighed happily that she chose Aiko as her Master.

"I got it so far, so why are you making the furniture and other things?" Aiko nodded, somewhat understanding what happened to Lady Liu.

She would later investigate why they did it to her and for what reasons, but it puzzled her that Lady Liu had such an apologetic expression.

"In order to 'mend' the Soul, well that part is impossible but, you need to make the Soul comfortable, make it feel like she is in the realm of 'living' and not the realm of the 'ghosts'." Liu Ru pointed.

"She has recovered by about 5% so far, but we are unable to deconstruct what we constructed from the Ghost Qi." Liu Ru sighed. "So we are taking out time and trying not to spend too much of Ghost Qi."

"So you are trying to make a home for Lady Liu so that she can talk again?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Among other things, but yes, that is one part." Liu Ru nodded happily that Aiko understood.

Aiko nodded gently and waved her hand, dissolving everything from the Ghost Qi and making everyone slightly nauseated.

"Call me when the Ghost Qi is low, I will dissolve it and you can prepare more things." Aiko nonchalantly left, leaving everyone speechless.

"Didn't you say that it was impossible to deconstruct them?" Liu Ru glared at Qiang.

"I didn't lie." Qiang rolled his eyes. "I'm unable to do it, but since she is a Fox, she has a high affinity for Yin." He shrugged.

"Why didn't you say something then?" Liu Ru was harsh until her Sis stopped her.

"Wouldn't it be awkward if you called our Master and she wouldn't be able to do it?" Qiang rolled his eyes.

Liu Ru was at a loss for words, since what he said could happen and they would have to deal with the aftermath.

She coughed awkwardly. "Can we resume the creation?"

"You are not doing anything, so just do your best to translate what your sister means." Qiang was too tired to address her as Empress.

Lady Liu even said to speak to her comfortably, but Liu Ru kept glaring at him, making everything awkward.

...

Aiko was back in the real world, but she observed the Lantern. She had some plans for this, yet she didn't have the means to improve it yet.

What was nice was the Primordial Soul Wood. It was now freed from Slave 1, which meant that she would be able to work with this material.

'Although I don't have anything that I want to make just yet...' Aiko sighed. There were many things she wanted, but she didn't want to pair just precious materials with average materials.

Aiko looked around. Mei was nearby preparing her things.

"Finished?" Mei glanced at Aiko as she kept working.

"Not yet, Lady Liu is settling down in her Soul." Aiko shook her head.

"You have plenty of time." Mei said. "They want you to take a solo mission, but we can easily delay it for two months." She added.

Aiko narrowed her eyes. "You want me to stay? You want to bully Moon Aiko?"

Mei coughed awkwardly. "I unfortunately won't have time for that since the old fogeys made their move, so I will be quite busy."

"Isn't it quite dangerous to leave then?" Aiko raised her eyebrows.

"Quite the opposite, actually." Mei chuckled. "They won't be able to send too powerful Foxes, and even if the Elders spread how powerful you are, not many would believe them. As such, you will be safe as long as you leave in time."

"It feels suspicious." Aiko clicked her tongue. "What if they are not that stupid?" She stared at Mei with piercing eyes.

"In that case, you will be in trouble, but as long as you can deal with it, you can get lots of Treasures." Mei sighed. It didn't seem like Aiko was all that interested in Treasures as she didn't even twitch at that word.

"What? Don't like it?" Mei tilted her head.

"I don't like it, yeah. I don't want to deal with them. I want to make my blueprints and find a way to get Lady Liu into a Human body." Aiko sighed.

"Why not nurture her as a Ghost?" Mei suggested, steering the conversation in a different direction.

"Why and how?" Aiko asked Mei slowly. She was unsure about keeping Lady Liu as a Ghost.

"Because she can retain her prime strength, and you won't need to worry about Spiritual Roots and Physiques all that much." Mei nudged Aiko.

"Ah..." Aiko nodded. "I completely forgot that Humans were different from us." She sighed. "But I'm not sure if she will agree."

"She will." Mei chuckled.

"Why do you think that?" Aiko felt suspicious.

"You said that you want to take care of her. In other words, her Soul is trying to settle without a vessel." Mei then continued. "As such, she wishes to stay as a Ghost."

"That makes no sense." Aiko speechlessly stared at Mei.

"Not quite. The Lamp can keep Ghosts that have not settled down yet in their form as you captured them. Sure, the Inscriptions might be damaged, but it's not the work of the Inscription but the material inside the Lamp." Mei explained slowly. "Them wanting her to settle means that she wants to also stay as a Ghost."

"But what if she is doing that only to talk with others?" Aiko was not convinced.

"Hmmmm..." Mei paused. "It's still unlikely. You can learn to control the surrounding Ghost Qi and write messages with it." Mei explained her reasoning.

"..." Aiko still didn't believe it. "I will just ask Lady Liu later." She sighed.

Mei shrugged. That was also an option and she would not hold it against Aiko if she didn't believe her.

A Ghost appeared near them. "We have run out of Ghost Qi."

*Pffft*

Mei choked on her tea, but before she could ask what she meant, the duo disappeared.

"How in the world can they run out of Qi..." Mei couldn't comprehend it.

...

Aiko was back inside the Lamp and the air inside was definitely thinner.

She snapped her finger and Ghost Qi hit their faces at full force.

"Can't believe you have thinned it so much..." Aiko was speechless.

"We did our best to prepare everything for Lady Liu. Now we just need to redo it again, but only keep things that Lady Liu feels like keeping." Liu Ru thanked Aiko with a bow.

"Does Lady Liu want to stay as a Ghost?" Aiko immediately asked the important question.

Lady Liu nodded gently, words were not necessary for this kind of thing.

"Is it because of the outside world?" Aiko asked differently, and Lady Liu paused.

It couldn't be said that she hated the outside world, but she didn't wish to keep her living form. It was sort of a punishment for the deed that she did in her young years.

"Are you sure?" Seeing Lady Liu so adamant about this Aiko felt like there was something amiss, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Let her settle down first, Mistress." Liu Ru bowed towards Aiko. "After that, she can tell you all about it."

"Hmmmm... Fine." Aiko didn't pursue this matter any more. "I hope you will get well soon." She cupped her fists before disappearing.

"She is like a hurricane, quickly coming and going..." Qiang was speechless.

"She definitely is..." Liu Ru sighed, but soon after narrowed her eyes. "I don't think you have time to talk. You need to finish all those things again!"

Lady Liu smiled apologetically for her sister, and Qiang could only smile bitterly.

From someone revered and worshipped to a lowly carpenter...