Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Fang Jia was too shy to openly pursue Aiko with intimacy, so she could only attract Aiko's attention and let her do her magic.

"Let's do some Forging." Aiko nodded slowly.

"I wonder how Old Lei will look like when you say that..." Fang Jia was convinced that Old Lei would cough up blood from her enthusiasm.

"I can't complete my Cauldron if I don't know anything about Forging Cultivation. I don't want to redo the Cauldron from scratch each time." Aiko shook her head.

"But you still have to swap metals that the Cauldron is made out of since you will always find something better." Fang Jia shook her head. There was always something to do with the Cauldron.

"I think I won't take your approach since there are too many issues with it. Of course, my path is likewise difficult but more stable." Moon Aiko nodded slowly.

"I'm not as crazy as you are, so I have to take things like that." Fang Jia clicked her tongue. Moon Aiko was too smart, or maybe just too observant?

She didn't know, but what she did know was the fact that Moon Aiko would reign over anything she touched, given enough time...

...

"You have come." Old Lei smoked his pipe one last time before putting it away. "Ready for your lessons?" He was very enthusiastic.

"Yeah." Moon Aiko nodded, and Fang Jia hid behind her.

"Since when were you shy?" Old Lei snorted.

"Since when were you kind?" Fang Jia retorted back.

Both of them clicked their tongue before walking towards the smithy.

'They are still fighting.' Moon Aiko couldn't understand their conflict.

She walked with them to the smithy, which was normally used for mortal smithing.

"This time, we will do the real deal, so watch carefully." Old Lei said.

"You will use a hammer?" Aiko blinked in confusion. She believed that hammers would cause impurities.

"This is different as this hammer CAN be used with this metal, but if used with other metals, it would naturally degrade them." Old Lei explained.

"Does that mean we can still use hammers?" Aiko tilted her head.

"If you think you have the means to create a hammer for each metal and their mixtures, sure. But the best is with Divine Sense." Old Lei shook his head.

"It might be difficult at first since your Divine Sense might 'burn' a little due to the intense heat and melting metal." Old Lei continued his explanation. "However, that's where the mortal smithing came in. Your body was accustomed to the heat, so it was not as shocking for the rest of your being."

"I see." Moon Aiko liked old people. They knew their stuff well!

Old Lei picked up his hammer and made several metal ingots levitate.

Aiko watched as those ingots floated into the semi-transparent Cauldron and slowly heated up.

"It's nice that you can also see inside." Aiko marvelled at this idea.

"But because of that, it can only handle this metal." Old Lei clicked his tongue.

"I see." Aiko believed that the demerit was worth it. In order to show how it actually worked and what you are supposed to do.

"Keep in mind that we are currently not making Treasure, but just merging the metals into ingots, which can be used later with more metals or resources to create a Treasure." Old Lei explained.

"Can you reheat the metal if it cools down?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Yes, but only if the last step was not to make it into Treasure. If it was, that metal becomes useless." Old Lei chuckled. He made many mistakes and had to throw a lot of metal aside.

"Does that mean that the step between metal and Treasure produces some kind of special interaction?" Aiko tilted her head. She couldn't understand why the metal couldn't be reheated again.

"You are spot on." Old Lei smiled. "The last step between metal, or resources and Treasure is that it releases a lot of Qi, which binds them together, allowing them to display their 'traits'." Old Lei didn't know how to properly explain this step since it was not understood all that deeply.

"I see... more research is needed." Moon Aiko nodded.

"Seriously, I feel like you will become a pioneer at this point." Old Lei shook his head as he worked the metal into proper shape before trying to join it and mix it together.

"I already am, but I can always go for more." Aiko shrugged like it was not a big deal.

Old Lei's face twitched, but he didn't question her. Anyone who would try to question this Fox would suffer a painful headache, which drove everyone away.

...

Melting, shaping and mixing. This process was much longer than how Pill Refining was, but at the same time, it was also simpler.

Unlike Pill Refining, Forging doesn't require too much adjusting when it comes to temperature or counting your breaths.

What was required was a powerful, resilient Divine Sense and tenacity to go through the whole process.

"Say, why can't you just take small pieces of metal and try to mix them together to see the results?" Moon Aiko questioned as she turned her eye Abilities on.

"It's hard to see if it was successful or not. It also is harder to observe, so you need a lot of metal to see if anything happened..." Old Lei sighed. He would love to experiment, but he was not perceptive enough.

'But I can see it.' Aiko could see those things, even the strings of Qi the metals exuded while they were melting.

'I wonder if the Qi is supposed to leak like that?' Aiko tilted her head. It seemed like Forging was much more complex than she expected.

'This will take a lot of time...' Aiko groaned unhappily. She didn't think she would have to spend that much time here, but she was...

'Nothing I can do now. Let's just watch and learn as much as possible.' Aiko narrowed her eyes and observed Old Lei closely.

...

"I can't get enough of his Forging skills." Fang Jia pouted. Old Lei was too skilled for her liking, and it put quite the pressure on her.

"It's nice dancing with sounds." Aiko, on the other hand, loved the sound of metals clanking against each other. At some point, she wondered if she was interested in metals!

"You are weird..." Fang Jia pouted.

"So are you." Aiko shrugged.

"How mean. I'm the most normal person there is!" Fang Jia snorted unhappily.

"Say that again when you bring another Divine Steel into my smithy!" Old Lei immediately retorted her words.

Fang Jia clicked her tongue.

"That was an accident! An accident, I tell you!" Fang Jia really accidentally stumbled upon that, but if it was not for Aiko retrieving it and sharing it with her. She would not have anything to recover from the Secret Realm except a few Herbs and metals.

"You are both strange to me. Do you know for how long I had to work to get to this point?!" Old Lei sulked.

"One weirdo comes back with legendary metal. Another weirdo learns smithing within a few days/week!" Old Lei couldn't believe that the two abnormal creatures in front of him believed they were normal!

"Have some shame, alright?!" Old Lei almost cried.

"Now, now." Lei An appeared out of nowhere, soothing her father.

"You are also the odd one since you were able to Forge a Treasure on the first try." However, Lei An was on no one's side and just wrecked the room more.

"An!" Old Lei glared at her, but she just giggled.

"How are you doing?" Lei An greeted the duo.

"As pretty as always." Fang Jia praised Lei An.

"Why, thank you." Lei An smiled.

"I want to do more Forging. It's already been a while." Aiko sighed.

"As diligent as always." Lei An shook her head and giggled again.

"What can I say? I would like to return 'home'." Aiko shrugged.

"Then I wish you luck. I only came here to deliver some iced drinks." Lei An glanced at her father. "Since a certain someone wouldn't allow me to join the fun.

"That certain someone is concerned about your wellbeing since you were locked up for too long." Old Lei dismissed that snarky comment before sipping his cold drink.

Lei An didn't say anything before leaving.

"She is so stoic." Fang Jia sighed.

"I think she was cute and happy." Aiko shrugged.

"... How could you tell?" Fang Jia couldn't understand Aiko.

"I mean, both of our faces are stiff, so we can naturally tell?" Aiko tilted her head like it was an obvious answer to a strange question.

"Never mind." Fang Jia forgot for a moment how abnormal Aiko was.

"Your observation skills are as creepy as they are amazing..." Old Lei shook his head.

...

"Now listen well. Your first duty is to perfectly melt the metal and keep it floating. It can't touch any of the walls under any circumstances. Otherwise, both the Cauldron and the metal would get ruined! You would have to clean up that mess and cry over the ruined materials!" Old Lei explained with a stern voice.

"Now you can use these metals." He placed small metals in front of them.

They would not be used for Treasures but practise, so he didn't give them as much.

Wasting resources was a sin, especially if those resources were finite.

"If you can't melt it perfectly on your fifth try, you should give up on Forging Cultivation Path." Old Lei suddenly declared.

"Why such an odd number?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Because there are limited resources. In other words, if you can't nail something on the first two tries, everything will go out of your pocket. You have to become a good enough Forging Cultivator that you can create a Treasure within two tries while using completely unknown materials for you." Old Lei explained more since he quite liked Aiko.

"We can't research those materials beforehand?" Aiko tilted her head.

"What if those materials are newly discovered?" Old Lei narrowed his eyes.

"I see where you are going with this." Aiko nodded. One had to be skilled enough to predict how the metal would react and act accordingly in order to not ruin it or degrade it.

Degradation was not too bad if you weren't aiming for top-notch Treasures, but ruining the ingredients was a big no-no.

"I think I understand what Forging Cultivation is about." Aiko slowly nodded her head. It was a bit like Pill Refining but with its own set of rules and limited resources.

"If you understand it. Then get to it." Old Lei snorted but still watched them with a warm expression...