Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko didn't buy the Forging Skill yet since she wanted to know how different it would be with and without Skills.

Aiko easily levitated the metal and used the Cauldron provided by Old Lei.

Heating the whole thing was easy, thanks to her Grandpa Flame.

Old Lei's face twitched when he saw that ridiculous flame that stared at him.

'What the hell is that Spiritual Flame?' Old Lei caressed his chin.

"Anything else?" The metal was already heated enough, but Aiko wanted to combine them.

"Oh, right." Grandpa Flame nodded. "Let's get to it."

The Cauldron heated up even more, and the heat inside the room started to rise.

Fang Jia was concerned that the whole room might get too toasty, but Aiko had the time of her life.

[Thermal Regulation: Mastered]

She already watched it rise previously, but she didn't pay too much attention to it since the difference was negligible.

However, things have now changed.

[Thermal Regulation] turned from mildly useful to incredibly useful in the span of a few moments.

Once it reached the Mastered stage, Aiko could feel like she was not too hot or cold. It was the perfect temperature, which allowed her to focus the best!

Aiko immediately worked on her metal more closely. She was supposed to mix them together carefully, but since this was her first try, she didn't know the exact process.

Some resources inside her Cauldron just didn't want to mix together.

It was not because Aiko lacked Divine Sense, but because the metals inherently resisted being mixed together.

This puzzled Aiko since she went from "somewhat easy to do" to "impossible to accomplish".

Moon Aiko tilted her head a few times before she came up with a way to allow her to do this.

The resources were not allowed to touch the walls, but that was not an issue.

Aiko would create a whirlpool inside the Cauldron, forcing those metals and resources to mix together.

Of course, there was an issue that the metals would try to 'run away' from the centre, but Aiko's Divine Sense was powerful enough that she could create a containment space for it.

She would not allow the resources to move from the centre, and the whirlpool would force those resources to mix together.

"Hooo." Old Lei came next to Aiko, admiring what she was doing.

"Is there something wrong?" Aiko tilted her head, while Old Lei mixed those metals together with his Divine Sense and hammer. She didn't have one.

As such, she had to come up with her own way to do this.

"This is a very unique way to do this, and you would not be able to accomplish this if you didn't have a powerful Divine Sense." Old Lei nodded in appreciation.

"I might've underestimated just how ridiculous your Divine Sense is." He smacked his lips. "Keep at it, and let's see how well it will mix."

There was not enough information about this kind of technique that Aiko was using. Most would take those resources and knead them like dough until everything was mixed together.

Then, they would use their specialised hammers to evenly spread all materials.

Meanwhile, Fang Jia was having some trouble with this part. Her Divine Sense was not powerful enough to cope with the heat and heavy resources.

"You are doing well for your first try, but if you feel like you are in too much pain, just stop. We can always take out another Forging Cauldron." Old Lei was gentle in his approach, so much so that Fang Jia doubted her ears.

"What do you mean by that?" Fang Jia didn't believe that the stern Old Lei vanished just because Aiko stormed into this place.

"You will injure your Mind and Soul if you keep going like this." Old Lei added before returning to his position to observe both of them at the same time.

...

Aiko kept mixing, increasing the spinning force in order to continue to mix them together.

But she realised something strange.

'It's not mixing together, but merely creating its own 'camps'.' Moon Aiko had activated both of her eye Abilities, making it exceptionally easy to see that those resources actually didn't mix together.

'It seems I will fail this one.' She noticed that Grandpa Flame didn't increase the temperature any more, which meant the resources would not be able to bear more heat than this.

This limited Aiko in what she could achieve, but at the same time, made her wonder what was wrong with it.

...

After an hour, Fang Jia was finished, and Aiko gave up. The metals just didn't want to mix together, and they were in this strange stage of seemingly 'mixed' together.

"Oho." Old Lei nodded.

"You have both mixed it perfectly, but why didn't you pause sooner?" Old Lei glanced at Aiko.

"What do you mean by that? It's far from being mixed." Aiko shook her head.

"Is that what you believe?" Old Lei paused.

"It's what I can see. It's not really mixed together, but they form small camps and just nudge each other away." Aiko tried to explain what she saw, but it was difficult since she couldn't come up with a good comparison.

Old Lei blinked, startled by Aiko's words. He couldn't understand where she was coming from, since this metal was perfectly mixed.

However, Aiko was adamant that it was not actually mixed.

'It feels like when you try to combine water with oil.' Aiko clicked her tongue. It seems like Forging Cultivators are either unable to see it, or they believe it's perfectly mixed and nothing is wrong with it.

She didn't believe they couldn't see it, so it was probably passed down as Forging Cultivators' knowledge, and nobody questioned it.

Or they might've questioned it but were dismissed as crazy.

Aiko couldn't come to a conclusion yet and observed Old Lei's knowledge and dedication.

Old Lei took those mixed resources and placed them away.

"We will do this three more times, with different resources, and lastly, we will try to create Treasures!" Old Lei proclaimed. His students were very smart and very enthusiastic, so he would allow them to see how difficult it was to create a Treasure.

"May I try this one? One more time?" Aiko asked about the first mixing again since she wanted to buy Forging Skill with her Skill Points.

"Sure." Old Lei didn't reject Aiko since those metals were too small to put a dent into anything, and the Treasure would be likewise of a low quality.

However, this would allow them to understand metals and get better at mixing them.

[Forging Mastery]

-10,000 Skill Points

Aiko bought the Skill and immediately got to work.

She instantly noticed a small difference in the handling, but the most startling thing.

[[Forging Mastery] is interacting with [Appraisal]!]

[Materials inside the Cauldron are not compatible. Mixing won't be successful.]

[Appraisal: Lv.3->4]

Aiko was startled, but she kept doing it since Old Lei seemed like he was not doing this on purpose.

He genuinely believed that this was the right thing to do.

Aiko didn't question him for the time being and finished all the mixing.

...

"You have done exceptionally well, considering this was your first time." Old Lei nodded happily at his Disciple and student.

"But we both fudged one of them." Fang Jia sighed. She was distracted for a moment and ruined a Cauldron, while Aiko was the same.

'I didn't fudge it...' Aiko rolled her eyes but didn't try to correct them.

What she was trying to do was to compress those materials to the best of her abilities, but she applied so much pressure that it just blew up in her face.

"That is still perfect. Most would struggle for a few times or run out of Divine Sense, causing them to drop the whole thing." Old Lei shook his head. These two had such ridiculous talent that it was unbelievable.

Especially Fang Jia, who didn't have a Beast's Divine Sense.

She had limited resources, but she used them so well that most Forging Sects would try to poach her for themselves.

'Patriarch will have a hard time keeping her in one place.' Was what Old Lei believed when he saw her in action.

'Moreover, she is more enthusiastic now that she has a companion.' Old Lei smirked at them.

"What is it?" Aiko narrowed her eyes on him.

"Nothing. You will improve over time, but now it's time to create your own Treasure." Old Lei proclaimed, changing the topic. "It will be a pretty bad Treasure since it will be small and won't have as many precious materials as normal Treasures would have, but it will be your first attempt, so this would be perfect."

He turned towards Fang Jia. "You will have to rest for now since this would require significant Divine Sense."

"En." Fang Jia nodded and sat down, observing the two of them.

"I will show you how Treasures are created. We are aiming for the most normal and basic Treasure since anything more significant would require more resources." Old Lei proclaimed and rolled up his sleeves.

"Watch for now, and I will answer your questions later." He lifted his hammer before placing his handmade resources into the forge so that they heat up properly.

...

"Once it's heated like this, you will take it out and squish it for the desirable shape. If you are creating something like armour, it's better to make it into a long sheet. If it's something like a sword, then a long and narrow ingot would do the trick." Old Lei explained as he progressed.

"I'm currently creating the most basic Qi Gathering Treasure. It will be pretty lame, but it's easy to make, and you can see the process." Old Lei focused on his work as he advised them.

"As you go through this process, you will notice that the resources will try to actually stick with each other." Old Lei showed the ingot that he created out of all the materials.

They indeed stick together, but Aiko could still see that they were not mixed together.

"With this, you keep heating it up until the Treasure is almost melted. Then you will shape it into a desirable shape to finish it off, and here you have it." Old Lei quickly cooled the Treasure with water in order to showcase his work.

Aiko was impressed with his skill, but she was not impressed with what he created...