Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox
Chapter 452 – Exploration time!

Aiko opened her eyes drowsily.

"Huh... that happened." She yawned a few times but didn't believe what happened in her dream.

'There is no way that Mei would willingly wear those clothes.' Aiko was completely convinced that it was her wild dream, and that was surely not Mei.

'The usual Qipao can't compare. That short skirt almost didn't conceal anything. Pair that with the very wide cleavage...' Aiko shook her head. That was definitely not Mei.

She was unwilling to wear the very modest clothing that Aiko got from the Ghost Lady, so there was no way that Mei would willingly wear something like that.

'Moreover, her boobs were too small...' Aiko narrowed her eyes. Mei, in her dream, had a very modest chest, which made the wide cleavage even more prominent.

Aiko shook her head a few times and yawned again.

"We have found something interesting if you would like to go explore?" The Demonic Saintess had the situation under control, but it seemed like Aiko was quite bored.

"En." Aiko's ears perked. She was not yet ready to deal with her teacher, and Lady Liu also needed some time to sort out her thoughts.

She had already read most of the first book, so what was left were the other books and books which shall not be named!

"What kind of interesting thing will you show me?" Aiko's eyes lit up. It was time for her to move around a bit so that she could obtain something new to occupy herself or something that would allow her to progress with her new flag.

"I already formed a team for you to guide you." The Demonic Saintess giggled. "It's a very old structure, and it doesn't seem to be explored yet, or at least we didn't explore it yet, and it's very unlikely that someone would be able to find it."

"So there is a chance that Children of Heaven can find it..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. 'I wonder if I can screw one or two so that I can upgrade the tools? It also gives me Providence, which is cool and all, but I need to have some kind of use for it.'

"You know about that stuff?" The Demonic Saintess was quite startled. "Yeah, it's likely that one of those bastards will be able to find it if Immortal helps them..." She sighed with an upset expression.

"Well, I will get going for now and deal with the rest later." Aiko nodded happily. It was time for exploration!

...

As the Demonic Saintess said, there was a team waiting for her.

It was completely composed of the Sacred Demonic Foxes. We had Shadow Demonic Fox for concealment. The Wind Demonic Fox for speed and the Lightning Demonic Fox for damage if something unexpected popped up.

Aiko nodded gently. It was unlikely that she could take her Demonic Foxes for the time being since she wanted all the speed she could get.

"I will leave my team in your hands." Moon Aiko turned around. "They can get a bit of stretching, but don't drag them into the war. If our opponents were that powerful, they would get one-shotted." She didn't want her team to engage in this war since they wouldn't be able to deal with their opponents.

"It's our war to begin with, so I wouldn't drag them into it." The Demonic Saintess rolled her eyes. Aiko was feeling like that nagging nanny who would always scold her if she was plotting something bad.

This time, she didn't plot anything bad, but she was still scolded by Aiko...

"I'm not scolding you." Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. It was somewhat easy to guess her thoughts since she reminded her of someone.

"I didn't say you were." The Demonic Saintess pouted and shooed Aiko away.

...

Aiko walked through the Forest slowly. Unlike her speedy self, she was trying to take in the surroundings for better navigation later.

The Forest was quite dim because of all the huge trees. They were about 3 times the size of normal trees in the Mortal World, and as such, they towered high above Aiko.

The air permeating through the Forest was very dry like you were in the desert. There was no hint of any kind of moisture, even when this place was covered by the trees' crowns.

The trees themselves were very rough to the touch, and in some places, there were some kinds of spikes coming from within. They were between the colour of normal brown bark and desert sand.

Those spikes were supposedly used to suck out the blood of the opponents, so the area around the palace was exceptionally dangerous.

What was even worse, your sight would get distorted when you got too close to the trees. They appeared further than they actually were.

"This is Illusion Desert Forest. We have nurtured it for defence." The Shadow Demonic Fox said happily.

"Wait, you created this sinister and hostile place?!" Aiko thought that this was made naturally since she couldn't feel the touch of creation.

"Yes. It took a while since we didn't want to create this place artificially, so we just nudged it over the centuries to suit our needs." The Wind Demonic Fox chuckled. "We are Foxes, so illusions are no problem with us. The dry air is bad if you stay here for prolonged periods, and that's why the palace has a Defensive Array that is made to counter it."

"Whoa..." Aiko's eyes shined slightly. When she encountered the previous handmade gardens, there was always that kind of oddness, the touch of creation.

The best garden was at Fang Jia's home, but even there, there were hints of artificial creation.

Aiko got a few ideas about how to make her own garden later on. She would definitely include poisons and other things to make it as colourful as possible.

Moreover, if you include poison flowers, weeds wouldn't grow as fast, if at all, which would save a lot of trouble for Aiko.

Aiko smacked her lips as she took in the scenery. The trees' crowns were so high up that she had trouble looking at them as the distortion from the trunk was that severe.

Walking deeper into the Forest, the speed dropped even further. It made Aiko's mind slightly spin since her understanding of depth got seriously distorted.

"Can't we just burn it...?" It was time for Aiko to whine since she wanted to explore already, but she was stuck here.

"These trees don't burn." The Shadow Demonic Fox shook her head and giggled at her.

"Seriously? You really overdid this place." Aiko shook her head. It was truly an amazing Forest if you look at it from the outside, but traversing it would be a complete nightmare.

"We have made it impenetrable, just in case the Human Cultivators invaded this space." The Lightning Demonic Fox snorted unhappily. She didn't like being a babysitter to someone so much younger.

"Ugh..." Aiko groaned and changed her hair. She couldn't calculate her way out, so it was time for the Nightmare Aiko to take over.

"?" The Demonic Foxes were puzzled about this transformation. Well, she had already heard from the Demonic Saintess that she was special, but seeing it with their own eyes was something entirely different.

Aiko stretched her bountiful body before dashing forward. Utilising her insane battle sense, she made all of the trees into her enemies.

The Demonic Foxes were startled at first, but they then picked up the pace to follow Aiko, or rather, they were supposed to be the guides!

...

"I can see why you couldn't find this place..." Nightmare Aiko nodded her head. It was so well concealed that it would be difficult to find naturally.

They were in front of a small hill, and on the side, where the vines were the thickest, there was a small opening that you could crawl into.

Normally, you would be more impressed by the sinister forest desert behind you to notice this, so it might've been truly unexplored.

Aiko shrunk her body with the intention of crawling in, but the Lightning Demonic Fox suddenly hugged her like a toy.

The other Demonic Foxes joined since they had never seen such a cute small Fox. Her ridiculously large ears were the main attraction.

"Ummm..." Nightmare Aiko didn't know how to get rid of them since they were a lot stronger than she was, and she also didn't expect this kind of reaction from them...

...

After a while, they let Aiko go with awkward coughs. They were quite embarrassed that they gave into those impulses.

"It's fine if you like me, but I would prefer that you won't do it outside when we are pressed for time." Nightmare Aiko scolded them like this because she wanted to already head inside.

The Demonic Foxes obediently nodded, and Aiko crawled in. They kept guard outside since inheritance sites were only for those that wanted to challenge it...

'I really need to make some clothing that can change sizes more freely...' Nightmare Aiko groaned unhappily. Her sizes didn't change as much when it came to Nightmare Aiko and Moon Aiko, but if you added the small Aiko into the occasion, it would become a mess of sizes.

She would have to find some kind of material that would allow her to adjust the size more freely, that way, she wouldn't need to deal with constant adjustments!

Aiko finished crawling through the evergreen vines and popped on the other end.

The scenery was startlingly different.

The firm floor was covered with a layer of strange, warm mud. It was very 'grainy' to the touch, making the sensation feel all kinds of wrong.

The scent in the air was that of walnuts. There was also a tinge of pepper and other ingredients.

The moisture was on the lower end, thanks to the desert forest nearby, but it still highlighted the scents wafting from the vines.

It was dimly lit, which was not an issue to Aiko, but it was difficult to keep her body steady, all thanks to that mud.

'This feels like some kind of training...' Aiko groaned unhappily but still pressed on. She was looking forward to what she could find inside!

...

The mud cave led into another mud cave that led into a sort of stony pathway that was still covered in mud.

It felt like this whole place was made out of mud, but masked as stones because even those stones were slippery as hell.

If it was not for the Nightmare Aiko's natural combat readiness, she would've already bathed in that mud!

'Curse you! And whoever made this place!' Aiko regretted that she didn't make any progress when it came to her special flag that could affect Ghosts.

If she had that, she would definitely teach a lesson to the person who made this whole thing!

Aiko kept going on the stone pathway that turned into a strange hallway. Well, it was far from a hallway since it was carved by tools, but still retained that rough rock texture. It could also not be said that it was a cave since it almost perfectly made a square.

Aiko shook her head as she looked around. It didn't seem like this place had any traps, even when she used her [#### Eyes].

It was just a simple hallway leading somewhere.

Aiko kept walking until she arrived at the end.

'Why does this feel like some kind of waste building...' Aiko scoffed and looked below her. Was it truly mud, or was it something else...?

The surrounding scenery was like what you would expect from a sewage system.

Down below her was a steady river of brown goo. On the side there were pathways and high above them, where Aiko was located, were the 'caves' that connected to this place.

It made Aiko wonder about what this place really was, but she vowed that she wouldn't get dirty at all costs!