Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Aiko ran away from the pursuing Cultivators. It was very simple to shake them off as it didn't seem like they had that many brain cells.

'Thanks to the Princess I know this place quite well, It's time to steal from some of the smaller palaces~' Aiko giggled in her mind, her first destination 3rd concubine's palace.

It was a large place, far larger than where Princess lived. It had many expensive vases, ornaments and carvings. Aiko was disappointed.

'Why is there nothing of value.'

She searched the place high and low, but couldn't find anything. This greatly upset her.

'This vase looks expensive...' She thought looking at the beautiful vase.

*Crash*

Aiko giggled. 'This will be fun~.'

She went around the palace and with her tail she would-

*Crash* *Crash* *Crash*

"Something is happening in the empress palace!" Someone shouted.

"Secure the Empress Vault!" Another shouted.

'Vault.' Aiko's eyes shone in greed.

She went around the person who shouted about the vault and tailed him. She was not noticed as most of them were mortals and only a few Cultivators, but they were still too weak to notice Aiko.

The Vault was a large safe-looking thing, way larger than what she imagined, but surprisingly... that was it. There were no symbols on it or anything that would present itself as a defence.

Aiko used her [Laceration] on it and made a big gash into that metal.

Satisfied with her damage she went around to cut down the main holding hinges and all the metal pipes that restrained the Vault doors.

Since she did this cleanly and whenever some big sound happened she was not spotted. She entered that place and was too shocked.

'D-dildos... it's all dildos...' Her eyes shook. This Vault was completely useless to her! 'Why...' As she was about to cry she noticed an inconspicuous box in the left corner of the Vault.

'It won't be another Dildo, right?' She gulped hoping for the best.

She slowly came to it, trying to hypnotize it. Affect it with her luck.

She put a paw on the box, praying to the 1,000 gods and cosmic energies.

She slowly opened it and was shocked! Such a magnificent thing, it could help her in so many ways. Cultivation, weapon refinement, talisman creation-

'AS IF!' She wanted to cry as the box had a dragon-sized dildo inside.

'WHYYYYY!' She cursed that slutty concubine to the 9 Heavens.

She was so angry that she slapped the box away with her paw!

*Roll*

There was a strange rolling sound and she looked its way. It was some kind of vial that was under the dragon-sized dildo. She came closer to it and to her surprise... she was afraid of it.

'It's scary?' Her mind didn't understand this feeling as it was different from when she faced that Fire Lizard.

She immediately put it inside her Pouch.

She trashed the Vault some more, just in case there were more hidden secrets.

She did find another [Storage Ring], but she couldn't open it... better take it with her.

She stored it and left the Vault, not forgetting to smash more vases along the way.

She scouted the other concubines, but couldn't find anything.

She jumped around and towards the big garden with the strange rock, but-

'Don't go there, not yet, not yet.'
'Go into the back of the Main Palace.'
'Yes, yes, go, go.'
'Steal broken sword.'

Aiko was guided by the Darkness. She arrived at the back of the Main Palace.

This whole place was one big mess so she was not spotted and arrived in front of a small shack. The Darkness nudged her to enter it.

She entered the house and was confused.

The shack was much much bigger on the inside than it was outside. On the outside it looked like no more than a 9 square meter shack, but on the inside...

It looked almost like a vast world, with its own light and air currents. It was also midday in here, while outside was already evening/night.

'This... this place is fucking cool!' She praised this place, wishing she could take it away with her, but unfortunately, the shack was too big to fit in her Pouch.

She explored the place since the Darkness told her to stay here, but not take anything just yet.

The place was a plain of grass with few trees, but each one of the trees felt majestic and was incomparably huge compared to normal trees.

Aiko felt insignificant in front of them. There was a sense of oppression.

She licked her paw as she stared at the strange trees, not going anywhere. She wondered if those trees were sapient, but quickly dismissed that thought.

'As if trees could be intelligent.' She snorted at her stupid thoughts. 'I feel like I'm becoming stupid over time.'

But then she was captured by one of those vines.

'Fuck! No way it was real! Curse you World! Curse my luck.' She was trashing around trying to shake down the vine.

"What a cute little beast." A gentle voice drifted from the tree.

"Say say, will you listen to me if I release you~" The voice jokingly asked, but Aiko wouldn't take any chances and nodded like a broken Shake Doll.

Aiko felt like the person who spoke was surprised, but it still let her go. Aiko jumped a few meters away, stopping a bit further from the tree.

She felt the Tree's spirit lessen. "I won't hurt you." The voice spoke gently.

"Do you know how to leave this place?" The voice asked softly.

Aiko nodded, that voice was quite nice and soothing, she liked that voice.

"Will you take me out?" The voice asked, but her voice was quivering.

Aiko tilted her head. 'Is there even any use for a tree? ... firewood for cooking? No wait, how would I transport it to begin with?' She shook her head and the Tree vines plopped on the ground.

"I-I see..." Her voice was really sad.

Aiko shook her head, she didn't mean to answer her like that, but she made a mistake and it turned out like this...

The Tree was confused a small hope sprouted in her heart. "W-will you take me out? I can help you with your Cultivation." The Tree looked desperate.

Aiko nodded a bit reluctantly. 'You better sing me lullaby whenever I want to sleep or I will make you into firewood!' She threatened the tree in her head.

The Tree beamed in happiness and the centre part of the trunk slowly opened.

There was a beating seed. It looked like a wooden heart, but much smaller probably the size of a thumb.

"Please take this, once you are ready you will know what to do, just... don't give me to anyone, okay?" The Tree pleaded and Aiko nodded her head.

Since she would be stealing the sword she would steal this too, stolen things shouldn't be given away or sold. They should be used to enrich yourself. Why steal useless things when you can steal something useful.

Aiko touched the seed and the scenery all around started to warp and wither. The Tree no longer looked healthy. It looked like an old tree that was rotting. The grass plain also waved. It looked like thousands of horses stomped the grass into nothingness.

Aiko was shocked at those sudden changes and was puzzled, but the Tree Heart shined brighter and brighter. So she guessed that this was the cause of all of these things.

The root vines around the seeds crumbled and Aiko caught the seed. She immediately tried to store it inside her pouch, but couldn't so she placed it inside her mouth, being careful not to swallow it.

'It's time, it's time~'

The Darkness told her and she stole the broken sword that was now lying in the middle of the small shack. She was able to store that sword inside her pouch and ran away from this place.

She still had to take that shiny rock with her and nothing would stop her. The city was also in turmoil for some reason so she couldn't delay it.

She didn't know what was happening inside the city, but she didn't really want to know right now. She could always use that secret passage that the Princess showed her.

...

She sneaked around in the shadow. The beasts in the garden were much more agitated from all the loud noises outside.

They were roaring and sniffing around scaring Aiko. She felt their pressure was more than 3x greater than she was here the last time. If they found her it would be difficult to escape from them, as such she shouldn't do anything stupid!

She bypassed the beasts and arrived in front of the shiny rock.

"YOU DARE TO STEAL OUR TREASURE!" A loud voice boomed above the capital.

"Fellow Taoist please calm down, we have not stolen anything." Another voice tried to calm down that voice.

"BULLSHIT!" The voice roared and energies exploded above the capital. "Return that treasure now, while I'm still asking politely."

"Senior we have not stolen anything!" The voice pleaded with the Senior.

"Give. Back. That. Sword." The voice was losing patience.

Aiko ignored that commotion and looked at the shiny rock. She no longer felt anything wrong with it, but... how was she supposed to steal this thing again?

The rock was bigger than the Stinky Fox, so she didn't believe it would fit in this strange Pouch.

She touched the small Pouch pouting.

*Slurp*

Aiko was taken aback as the Pouch slurped the whole rock inside like it was nothing...

'SHIT! That means I could've taken those golden statues?!' Aiko cursed the Pouch for not telling her that it had that feature.

The City was getting more and more restless. There was no time to spare as Cultivation Techniques were lighting up the night sky, the battle was underway and unfortunately the Senior was winning.

She dashed around the Palace for that secret passage.

...

She was inside the secret passage with some difficulty as some parts of the main palace were destroyed by the battle. Those tiles with inscriptions also were not shining making it a very dark place. Fortunately, Aiko still had [Dark Vision: Mastered], as such she was not affected, but that didn't mean this place wasn't eerie.

Aiko walked through that place as the battle above shook the entire tunnel.

'Didn't she say it wouldn't be affected?!' A tile crumbled in front of her and she cursed that Princess. What she didn't know is that this place was sustained by the broken sword she stole and the same thing can be said about the shiny rock. The formation protecting it was also tied to it.

Aiko rushed through the tunnel as it was crumbling. The tunnel was slowly collapsing so she was forced to use her [Burrow], but! For some reason, she was not able to borrow into the walls.

'Why the fuck can't I run away?!'

She panicked and looked around. Spotting another tile fall down and behind that was normal soil.

'Maybe?' She assessed the thing she tried to burrow into and it was that tile.

She tried to burrow into soil and she was able to do that easily.

'So I can't pass through ore? Or is that tile just special?' Aiko thought about it and slowly made her way outside, but the after-effect still shook her body.

HP-10
HP-10
HP-10

She was slowly losing HP. Qi was penetrating the ground and damaging her, which was still better than being above ground.

She hurried away from the City and once her Stamina was almost rock bottom she finally surfaced.

'I'm finally safe...' She huffed, it was some time since she had her Stamina completely depleted so it hit her even harder.