Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko dashed again. Her Stamina was rapidly depleting, it seemed like this battle would have to be her last one before she would need to retreat.

They were in a panic, but most of the damage was done by those at Peak Foundation Establishment, who were frustrated at her quickness. While they had much greater speed, they had a hard time tracking her in the grass, coupled with the fact that they had to avoid their fellow Taoists... which didn't help them.

She dashed again, seeing someone fall into the grass, she narrowed her eyes. The man started to scream, sending shivers down the Panther's back, who vowed again to hunt some delicious meat for her.

What was happening to that person who fell? He was greeted by Darkness whispering and tempting him. Abusing and loving him. Torturing and helping him. It was a pure nightmare to be in the Darkness with a [Shadow Fiend].

Soon he let his guard down and-

*Crunch*
[Level gained.][Level gained.][Level gained.][Level gained.]....
[Level: 20 (2nd Evolution)]
[You can Evolve into [Worthless] Beast]
[Levelling up further will allow you to Evolve into [Common] Beast.]

Aiko frowned cutely. Previously, it was enough to reach Level 10 in order to Evolve, but now it takes 20. This was bad since she had to hunt many more Beasts to Level up.

She shook her head, resuming the 'hunt'. The Darkness guided her again, and she skilfully scratched yet another person. Seeing that her Stamina was approaching 25%, she distanced herself.

Those at the Peak of Foundation Establishment noticed this, but those who weren't were still throwing their fireworks around.

The Nascent Soul Cultivators were at their limit. "RETREAT-"*PUFFF*

Buddy slammed his hooves into the Nascent Soul's chest the moment he was distracted, mortally wounding him. The Panther seeing this jumped at him and-

*Crunch*

The Panther took his life swiftly. Soon after everyone died and none were spared.

Buddy huffed. "This is it for me, I'm too injured..."

"Yeah, my Stamina is low." Panther agreed.

Aiko jumped on his back again, lying down.

"It seems like she is also exhausted, let's call it a day." The Horse snorted and they left the place after completely robbing them.

...

Along the way...

"You know that I have never seen such a majestic Beast like yourself-"

Panther was trying to desperately flatter Aiko, who was snorting at him.

Buddy laughed with glee at him. "Once we get into the Village, we will split the treasures and you can do whatever you want with them."

Aiko nodded at him, her ears flapping happily.

Panther sighed, trying to remember if he had any good meat stored in his home...

...

'This way, this way.'

The Darkness spoke. Aiko straightened her ears to listen.

'This way, treasures, this way.'

Aiko tilted her head, since this was the first time, or rather second time counting her Evolution, that the Darkness spoke to her clearly.

She looked towards the path that was highlighted on the ground.

Aiko slapped Buddy's back a few times, alerting him.

She waved a few times as if saying goodbye.

"Do you know the path to our Village?" Buddy asked, noticing that she wanted to leave.

She tilted her head.

"Here." He gave her a small pebble. "This can guide you towards our gates, use this to enter and I will be able to find you." He nodded at her.

Aiko nodded back and jumped down. She was very curious about where the path would lead her.

The forest was completely silent... which was a complete lie, since the forest was in utter chaos.

Tremors and wailing could be heard all around her. Far enough that it wouldn't affect her, but close enough that it would alert her.

Yet the Darkness was guiding her towards one of the tremors and moans. She was scared, but Darkness reassured her.

Aiko didn't know what to say, since she couldn't speak, but with her [Enhanced Sight] she could see it.

A battlefield. Many against one. Yet the one was prevailing and killing the many. Not without wounds, but it was amazing to see how well they fought.

Darkness guided her to a nearby tree. She could see that everyone was alert because of her, but since she was just out of their range, they didn't do anything to her. They had bigger problems on their hands.

"How about it, Saintess? Just one night and you will be free of all pain and suffering." The deranged guy giggled as he lost his head.

She had a cold aura around her, unmoving. Yet she scoffed at those lowlifes. "As if you would survive our first encounter."

It was the truth, they were at their wit's end trying to anger her, distract her or do anything that could help them kill her.

Unfortunately for them, she was a Saintess. If she were to be distracted so easily, she wouldn't hold that title, which only a few had.

She rotated her wrist, cutting another 5 heads off in the process. Aiko's eyes shined as the only thing she could see was a very thin line of energy leaving her sword, yet that thin energy was cutting them effortlessly.

"SHIT! FUCK! FUCK EVERYTHING!" One of the many lost his mind and rushed at her. She pierced his heart without effort, but because of her exhaustion failed to notice that he was gathering his energy to blow himself up.

*BOOOOM*

The sky shook and even Aiko was blasted away, but fortunately, because of [Enhanced Manoeuvrability] and [Enhanced Flexibility] she came out unharmed from the blast, jumping from tree to tree to slow herself down.

She went back under the tree to watch the show further. Another fighter sent a huge Lion out of his body and rushed towards the Saintess, but she crushed it. Similarly, a big Phoenix came out of her body and roared. Paralysing and injuring everyone in the vicinity.

-5HP

Even Aiko was caught at the edge of the radius and shivered. Fortunately, some kind of warm current inside her cushioned the pressure, vastly decreasing the damage, otherwise, she would have already died. It was only now that she realised it might not be a good idea to be there. She still had 4hp left, but only 1 Vitality out of 115.

The battle resumed, many were already on their last legs and in their desperation they rushed at the Saintess, intending to blow her up. Unfortunately, only 2 of them were able to blow up as everyone below her cultivation had their energy locked and they couldn't blow up. As such, some of that energy was absorbed by those that couldn't blow up, ever so slightly cushioning the blast.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. The Saintess made a translucent wall in front of her, but that was also destroyed. She coughed up blood and fell into the crater that had been created.

Aiko was curious about what happened to her and being encouraged by Darkness, she followed the highlighted steps and safely arrived at the top of the crater.

It was a massive crater, not as big as the 'desert', but big enough for anyone to stare at it with awe.

Suddenly she heard cussing. "If my cultivation wasn't sealed by this forest, I would slaughter their sorry Demonic asses!" She proclaimed while coughing another mouthful of blood and laying back.

The moon was now behind Aiko, casting a shadow inside the pit, but not covering the Saintess. It was still some way from her. The paws guided her down, and when the Saintess closed her eyes, Aiko slowly descended.

She was about 20 metres away from her when she suddenly stared at her paralysing her. Saintess stared at the dumb Beast for a while and realising that it was not worth the trouble and that Aiko couldn't hurt her she laid back down.

Aiko was sweating from this encounter, but seeing she was ignored, she approached a bit closer...

...

The Saintess lay down after staring at that dumb Beast. She was already exhausted and couldn't spare the energy to wipe out that Beast. Yet she kept her senses sharp.

The Beast was approaching... A truly dumb animal that didn't know any better. She looked back at the unintelligent animal, ready to wipe Aiko out, only to freeze.

The dumb Beast demonstrated a plethora of emotions, from confusion to annoyance, scoffing and snorting. She observed the Beast, confused. While it was amazing that this Beast was quick, nothing else was really exceptional about this little furball. Yet, she had this… odd feeling in her heart.

The Beast stopped and walked to a very particular place, greatly upsetting her.

'That is my blind spot.'

The Saintess gritted her teeth and waited for her demise, only to notice that the Beast didn't move an inch.

The Beast lay there staring at her. Was it waiting for her death? The Saintess didn't know. She had never experienced something like this. She had extensive knowledge about Beasts and their Ranks, at its current Rank it should only have basic knowledge, with even cruder intelligence.

Yet this Beast could find her blind spot! It should be known that she never considered Bloodlines, or Divine Abilities, since it was nearly impossible to get them at her current stage, moreover, most monsters had only a 10% Chance to awaken a Bloodline at the Spirit Beast Rank!

She stared at the Beast. The Beast yawned, clearly tired-

'Was that a Spacial Ring?!' Her eyes widened and strained as she noticed a ring under her tongue.

She closed her eyes to identify that ring, at her current cultivation she didn't quite have a perfect memory, but it was close enough that she could investigate that ring.

It was quite a small ring, but very densely packed with inscriptions, it should be the work of at least a Forging Emperor. That also meant its inner size was significant! There would be quite a large possibility of having Healing Pills.

She gritted her teeth as an insane thought was at the forefront of her mind.

"Little one, may I have the ring for a moment?" She stared at the Beast and kindly and gently asked.

It was an insane thought, but she had already suffered a severe blow when her Senior Sister stole her Spacial Ring and sold it at an Auction. This taught her a lesson to never give anyone what was hers lest they try to steal it.

The Beast stared at her, narrowing its... beautiful eyes? The Saintess had never seen a beast with such light-blue eyes. It was mesmerising for her.

The Beast frowned as if thinking about something, so she tried to reassure the Beast while sweetening the deal.

"I will only borrow it for some healing pills. I will naturally pay you in Beast Cores that can increase your Strength." She could see its ears twitching.

Now that she looked closely... weren't they a bit too big? Yet they looked incredibly fluffy! The Saintess really wanted to touch them, but for some reason, she also had some apprehension towards Aiko. Her senses warned her about this Beast.

The Beast nodded, which dumbfounded her. All the knowledge she had was completely useless in front of this Beast that was clearly more intelligent than some Magical Beasts!

The Beast looked at the ground again and frowned, clearly scared of her.

It tried to spit the ring at her so it wouldn't need to approach her, but failed miserably as the ring fell below the little Beast. Its face distorted in anger, but for the Saintess it looked like an incredibly cute creature that was upset its great plan hadn't succeeded.

Aiko tried to grab the ring, with her paws, only to fail miserably again. The ring was unwieldy and stuck on the rocky surface.

The Saintess observed the creature's cuteness, savouring it, until the creature finally managed to pick the ring up, only for it to fall down again. Aiko was upset and stomped her paws into the ground, not doing any real damage.

The Saintess' heart melted and she was soon lost in thought...

'Should I make it my contracted Beast? I have never seen someone so cute, my fellow senior and junior sisters would be jealous, but... It could get hurt because of it...' She had an awful dilemma on her hands.

Aiko had enough and used her [Prehensile Tail] to sweep the ring towards the girl. She puffed her chest triumphantly as she finally managed to get the ring within the Saintess' reach. The girl giggled, startling Aiko who immediately made distance between them, settling back in the Saintess' blind spot, cautiously looking at her.

The Saintess picked up the ring and explored it. She was shocked by the amount of resources it had. 'It seems like this Beast found or stole it from someone.' It had a bit of just about everything, but it was mostly pill recipes and many, many Pills.