Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Chapter 12 – Beast and Human

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 everything, but was mostly filled with pill recipes and many, many Pills.

She narrowed her eyes at the little Beast which was licking its paws and ruffling its ears. She sighed, having a weak spot for cute animals was a true sin for her. It got a bit better, but when she joined her Sect, she would always follow her Senior Sisters and Brothers from the Beast Peak, just so she could cuddle with them... The problem was that the Beasts didn't really like her. It was the same with this small Beast. It was cautious of her and wouldn't approach her.

She took a pill bottle out, smelled it and placed it back. There were many pills that recovered her Energy, but that was not really needed. She needed a Blood Replenishing Pill, a Blood Clotting Pill and a Wound Closing Pill.

A Blood Pill was to replenish her own blood. It was a usually ineffective method as it would only replenish a small part of her blood because her cultivation and body would block 99% of it. While it was usually ineffective, after bleeding too much the efficacy would increase to about 20% allowing her to restore quite a bit of her blood, at the cost of introducing impurities. She didn't care about impurities because of her Cultivation Technique, so she swallowed a small handful of Perfect Grade Pills.

The Blood Clotting Pill would stop bleeding, but wouldn't close wounds. It was important for prolonged fights where they would bleed a lot, especially against Demonic Cultivators which could and would make the wounds worse with their poisons and spiked weapons. This was a very effective and highly sought-after Pill since it used one's own blood to create a filter that would block the rest of the blood. She could then take a few more Blood Pills to replenish it, in case she couldn't form the thin film. This allowed Pill Concocters to earn quite a bit of money as long as the success chance of their Pills was greater than average.

The Wound Closing Pill was the only one that didn't do what it said. This pill would reinforce the thin film from a Blood Clotting Pill, making it much harder to break. The film from the previous pill was thin and easily torn, so Cultivators would use a Wound Closing Pill to strengthen the film, allowing them to move more freely without worrying about tearing the film and bleeding out. That didn't mean it was without downsides. The film would certainly be strengthened but also made hard. In certain places, like around joints, using this Pill would actually restrict your movement.

She used her Divine Sense to scout the surroundings. While her cultivation wasn't the highest, her Divine Sense was extraodinary. She easily covered several miles, spotting some of the battlefields, but none were aware of her existence even after the mess she made. She sighed, seeing her fellow Sect members get slaughtered. Her sect posted a notice about an abnormal Beast inside the forest with very generous rewards, especially Sect Points, which were used as the main currency for buying Cultivation manuals or time for teaching from Elders. Her Senior Brothers and Sisters were overjoyed with the rewards and immediately set off. She was sceptical at first so she asked her friend who was good in Divination about it. That friend told her that if she went her life would be turned upside down... She didn't expect that her Senior and Junior Sisters would betray her just because she trained with one Senior Brother...

After swallowing the Blood Replenishing Pills, she used the Blood Clotting Pill in tandem, sealing her bleeding. She then crushed the Wound Closing Pill on her wounds, making the strange red-black film completely blacken and becoming hard as rock. It would allow her to run her Cultivation Technique to heal faster.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the Beast curiously staring at her wounds. Aiko was especially curious about the Pills.

'Those look like Futuristic jells for Soldiers... How do I know that again?'

Her mind was full of bits and pieces of information, she no longer remembered her name or where she came from. What she remembered was that she was not from this World and had known two strange names. Fairy Snow Phoenix and Fairy Jade Fox. She didn't know how these names were of any importance, but for some reason, she couldn't forget them.

The Saintess healed herself a bit and moved, startling Aiko. She stretched before laying down, she would need to recover some of her energy to move on her sword again. She stared at the stars and Darkness slowly approached her.

The moment it touched her she stiffened asthe world turned darker, but made the stars more beautiful.

Her Divine Sense was powerful, thus her mind was strong and resilient. She could still hear those strange voices, but they couldn't affect her like it affected Aiko.

'Isn't she cute? She is the cutest little creature. Why not form a contract with her?'
'She is the hungriest creature. It will be a pain to feed her, kill her and skin her beautiful fur instead!'
'She is so lovable, her fur is nice and smooth, touch it! Stroke it!'
'She is a Beast, an Enemy of Humankind! Kill it, torch it!'
'She is very cute and gentle, a perfect contracted Beast! Every Junior and Senior Sister would be jealous of you~!'
'Beasts can't be trusted, raise her for an Internal Cauldron!'

She ignored those voices... well half of them. She had to agree that the Beast was very cute and lovable... but it also meant that this Beast was a Demonic Beast.

You see, a Holy Beast has a very soothing atmosphere when not threatened or in battle. They are great pets to soothe your nerves helping to advance in cultivation. Meanwhile, Demonic Beast are the total opposite. They would attack on sight, no matter if you were stronger or weaker. They could also cause various hallucinations. Not only auditory hallucinations like those voices, but there could also be visual hallucinations, somatic hallucinations and many others. They could hinder you or even cause Inner Demons, which practically cripple a Cultivator's path as they wouldn't be able to advance until getting rid of them, which is impossible in most cases.

She recited her knowledge in her head only to pause abruptly.

'Demonic Beasts are supposed to have a repulsive and sinister Aura... But it doesn't have any of that... Is it too young to have it? But the scriptures said that no matter the Rank, as long as it causes those things it is considered a Demonic Beast...'

Her mind was in turmoil. Her knowledge was useless, she was taught not to make theories, but what to do in this case?!

Then it clicked. 'I can present her different types of Cores and observe her. Since she is very expressive I will be able to ascertain if she is Demonic Beast, or just something else...'

She nodded happily at her genius, but little did she know that her knowledge would be questioned yet again...

"Hey~, little one?" She gently stared at Aiko. "I have some cores for you for letting me borrow your ring."

She tapped her own Storage Ring and many Cores fell down, startling Aiko. She was staring at her suspiciously, trying to find the place where they came from, but it had to be said that this Fairy had quite a tight outfit! There was no room for her to hide so many shiny marbles from her!

'I get it that they are small, but... They just appeared in mid-air from nothing!'

She stared at the Fairy. Those orbs were in her hands! She wouldn't approach her!

'It's fine~, it's fine~, she won't hurt you~'
'Just kill her and take those orbs! She is weak and you are strong!'

She shook the voices out of her head.

"I won't hurt you... just let me pet you." The Fairy looked at her strangely, a mixture of want and need in her eyes, but none of hurt.

Aiko was cautious, even though Darkness highlighted paws coming towards Saintess, she wouldn't go so easily! She would wait and then snatch-

"I also have some meat on me, but it's processed..." She looked troubled.

'MEAT!'

Aiko immediately snapped at the word meat and dashed in front of her, her tail wagging like crazy, trying to find the meat.

The Saintess was startled at how easy it was to bring the little Beast closer. She could see those shining light-blue eyes staring at her, searching for the 'meat' on her. That little Beast's tail was wagging so much that she had a hard time trying not to laugh.

"I have it here." She gently tapped her ring and a piece of meat appeared in mid-air.

Aiko immediately activated her [Quick Jump] to snatch the meat, but was caught by the Saintess... not that she cared.

[EXP gained.][EXP gained.][EXP gained.][EXP gained.][EXP gained.]

'This was some high-quality meat!' She munched happily, as she saw the notifications from the system.

'I got her!' The Fairy happily smiled and petted her only to get stunned multiple times.

Not only was her Fur extremely soft, but if she stroked one way, it would make her black-coloured fur into cream-coloured fur! She was mesmerized by the switching colours.
(AN: Imagine those light pillows coloured pillows that if you glide your hand one way nothing happens, but the other way it would turn its texture into a dark one. That kind of colour change.)

She regretted not getting one of those Recording Jades. She knew that her Junior and Senior Sisters would go crazy for those images. Not to mention she could sell it for quite a lot.

She stroked the fur, enjoying the texture while placing the marbles into her hand and showing them in front of the little Beast.

Aiko noticed that hand with shiny marbles, but for some reason only liked a few...

'So many of them look... dirty.' She tilted her head and her ears twitched.

The Saintess was observing her closely, but couldn't quite understand why she was frowning. She then placed each and every individual marble in her hand and Aiko would stop her by instinct if she liked something...

'I... don't even know anymore...' The Saintess sighed. 'She likes all of them, both Holy Beast Cores and Demonic Beast Cores, but the biggest reaction is from high-quality neutral Beast Cores. It also seems she is very sensitive towards impurities. Even if the Beast Core was High Grade, she would ignore it in favour of Lower Grade, but Higher Purity.'

She was... confused. In her learning scriptures, it never said anything about a Beast that would like both Demonic and Holy Cores... Only one or the other. Sure some Beasts would also like the Neutral Beast Cores, but they were less picked as they would be only moderately effective. Yet this little one liked the Neutral Beast Cores the most but didn't mind either Holy or Demonic.

'What to do with you, little one...' She sighed again. This was probably the first time she sighed so much in a single day and most of those sighs were because of this little Beast! 'Your fur is amazing and you can understand me, however your effect on your surroundings is of that of a Demonic Beast, yet you don't have any Aura of said Demonic Beasts...'

She stroked its neck, only for the Beast to growl at her.

'Don't touch my neck when I'm eating! Do you want me to vomit my food?!' Aiko was upset at this thoughtless Human, yet couldn't hate her since she had many treasures...

'Why is she growling at me? I'm just trying to pet you!' The Saintess was upset that another animal didn't like her.