Chapter 141 – Outside Air
Aiko left the Fox Village with her team. It was a quiet morning, yet they all felt better.
"Is the air inside the Fox Village polluted?" Asked the Blood Fox.
"I wonder about that too." Aiko nodded, she felt much better outside the Fox Village than inside. It was just this constant feeling of strangeness that gnawed at her slowly when she was inside the Fox Village.
The Umbra Fox was silent, she had a similar opinion, but she was still too scared of the Vicious Cub.
That was one of the reasons she accepted this mission. She wanted to understand the Vicious Cub better, so she could understand why she feared her so much.
The Forest was silent, they walked slowly. There was no time limit, so there was no need to hurry, added to that, they all enjoyed this clean air.
...
They didn't take any paths, but they still went in the general direction in order to reach their goal. They were all powerful Beasts, some just more than others.
Aiko moved a bit slower than the duo, she still felt a bit sleepy from the poison, but not sleepy enough to the point that she wanted to lie down.
"Where are we going first?" The Blood Fox asked Aiko.
"To the prosperous Waterfall City. Part of the Divine Pond Empire." Aiko talked slowly.
"Strange names..." The Blood Fox commented.
"Tell me about it..." Aiko also thought that they had the strangest naming scheme on this continent. "Anyway, don't get used to this too much, since we will eventually leave."
Mei already told Aiko that this was a small place compared to the main world. She did not understand how there can be multiple worlds, but she didn't question Mei. She was powerful and saw many things, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that she had experienced another world.
Aiko was very much looking forward to this, she wondered if those worlds would be any different to this one...
They arrived in front of a road.
"Should we take it?" The Blood Fox tested Aiko.
"I don't like meeting others, let's stay inside the forest for the time being..." She paused. "Keep your senses sharp, just in case a Beast is tailing us."
The duo nodded, while they didn't agree with walking in the forest, the prerequisite of keeping their senses sharp made them more willing to follow Aiko.
Their mission wasn't the princesses, but Aiko. They would scold her for bad decisions so she could learn well and not endanger others.
It would be good enough if Aiko learned most of those things on this journey when things were still peaceful and not many humans would be interested in them.
They had the Recognition Inhibition Bracelets and Aiko had 2 of them. So they were pretty much safe from weaker Cultivators and the stronger ones wouldn't be interested in them, since each Human Cultivator had a limited number of 'positions' they could let their Beasts occupy. And if they were foolish enough to go beyond it, then loosing their mind was one of best outcomes, with full on soul dispersal being the worst.
...
"There is something sweet smelling." Aiko sniffed something delicious.
The Umbra Fox was the first one to talk. "Let's go around it."
"I agree." The Blood Fox agreed with the Umbra Fox.
Aiko felt sad she couldn't find out what smelled so good, but she wouldn't go against the team, since they wanted to go around and the Umbra Fox even talked, Aiko would listen to them.
The duo was surprised that Aiko gave up so soon, since usually she would insist on finding out what and why it smelled so good. Yet this time she didn't even make a sound and followed their lead.
"Aren't you curious?" The Blood Fox nudged Aiko.
"I'm dying of curiosity." Aiko didn't conceal it, but she still pouted.
"Then why didn't you order us to go there?" The Blood Fox wrapped her hand around Aiko's waist very naturally to support her walking.
"Because you didn't want to go there." Aiko shook her head. "I'm no longer alone outside, so it's important to listen to all sides." She commented.
The duo nodded. They felt safer knowing that Aiko had plenty of common sense to spare for them and would listen to them in times of need.
"Anyway." Aiko walked forward slowly. "Why didn't you want to walk inside the forest?" Aiko asked so she could distract herself from that sweet smell.
"Because there are other Beasts." The Umbra Fox said. "We have the smallest Beast Cores out of all of them, so it's difficult to contend with other Beasts of the same Rank." She explained her reasoning.
Aiko knew that they had smaller Beast Cores, but she didn't know the difference any more than that. She was never really curious about it, since the only Beasts she met were the horned horse with his friends and that lazy lizard. She should visit their village again soon...
"We will stick to roads when we are further from the Fox Village." Aiko somewhat understood their worries, but they were still in the vicinity of the Fox Village, so it was relatively safe. She also wanted to avoid encounters with humans, since they are quite... 'resourceful' when it came to weapons.
Aiko massaged her arm and the duo understood Aiko a bit better. They would do their best to avoid humans until Aiko wished to meet them.
The Umbra Fox stared strangely at Aiko, she never imagined that Aiko was just another Fox worried about Humans. The more she unwrapped Aiko, the more she knew about her and how similar they were.
'Outside of being terrifyingly strong, she is not much different from me...' She thought. She had hatred for both Foxes and Humans, but she despised Humans more and that's why she settled in the Fox Village.
...
They walked out of the forest. It was still quiet and peaceful. There were very little to no Beasts around them and where they were, those Beasts were herbivores, so as long as they didn't agitate them, they were safe from them.
"It's nice when it's peaceful." Aiko commented, looking at the Beasts that were around them.
"These are gentle Beasts, we were lucky that we didn't run into carnivores." The Umbra Fox talked a bit more than before, but she still liked to keep quiet and observe the duo.
"I'm a bit hungry, but since they are not hostile, we can just ignore them." The Blood Fox was no longer the insane Demonic Beast that would hunt anything in her path, thanks to Aiko. So she could differentiate between food and not food easily.
"We can hunt later. We have been travelling for a few days already, so let's find a place to nest nearby and rest." Aiko commented. She was now rather weary from the poison.
They nodded. While they didn't need to sleep all that much, they slowed down quite a bit because of Aiko. So it would be better to rest and pick up the pace once again.
...
There was a small meadow nearby with a few large trees. They all nestled close to each other. The Blood Fox and Umbra Fox took their turns guarding, while Aiko slept throughout the night so she could recover.
It was an eerily peaceful night, but nothing happened to them.
The next day, their pace improved greatly.
"Are you really alright?" The Blood Fox asked, seeing the energetic Aiko, unlike the haggard and exhausted Aiko.
"I don't know." Aiko didn't know why she changed so much. "I feel much better sleeping outside." She tilted her head.
This night was the most peaceful one and it was definitely not because she stole the Blood Fox's tails, yet at the same time it was strange...
'I never rested so well when I was inside the Fox Village...' Aiko narrowed her eyes. This was not normal.
They travelled towards a nearby city. They would have to follow the roads now and travel on foot, but Aiko still didn't want to give up on the forest.
So they stayed inside the forest, but kept the dirt path in sight.
...
They travelled like this for two months until the scenery changed.
They did meet a few peddlers and horse-driven carts, but since they walked inside the forest, they didn't meet face to face.
"A proper rock path..." The Umbra Fox was slightly surprised. She read about Empires on this continent and the one that they were heading towards was considered the richest of them all. 'Even so, it's still strange that they would spend so much money on mere rock paths...' She thought. It was unusual for the emperor to do so much for his people. Not to mention, this endeavour was extremely expensive since they had to deliver those rocks here, smash them and create a road out of them.
Aiko marvelled at this road. While it did lack compared to the Fox Village main road, which was nicely decorated with slabs of stone, this had its own charm.
"Let's use the road, it will help us go faster." Aiko hummed and walked towards the road.
The duo looked at each other and shook their heads. Convenience always won Aiko over.
They followed Aiko on that rocky road. It was so much nicer to travel on compared to the grime of the dirt or forest paths, but this convenience meant that they would start to meet many more humans.
Fortunately, because of their outfits, none dared to approach them, which was a relief for Aiko.
She didn't want to engage with other Humans, they weren't worth much in her eyes, outside of their exploitative nature.
...
A month passed. They arrived in front of a smaller town. It didn't have an official name, like most small towns.
They listened to gossip while walking through the town.
They heard that they were close to Jade Pond City, which then had a direct road towards their goal. Furthermore, they also heard that the people thought the prince had gone insane for favouring that witch from the fallen kingdom.
'That must be the princess...' The team thought. This made matters much easier, as juicy gossip was a good source of information. Was it reliable? No, but gossip had to start from somewhere, so while they wouldn't believe them completely... Likewise, they wouldn't ignore them completely. It was important to listen well.
Aiko stared at the Villagers, oddly enough there were only old and haggard males and females. She could not see any children running around.
She found this odd, but she didn't care enough that she would go around and ask.
The team was unaware that large sects were watching over small Villages and taking the children so they could reach 'immortality', but most of them ended up as a handyman, doing basic chores and duties for the Sect.
Why take children and not adults? Children are naive and easily swayed. This allows the Sect to easily manipulate them with words like. 'If you work hard you will be able to join the Sect' and 'If you Cultivate properly you will be able to reach the heavens!' type of bullshit.
Of course, most families didn't want to separate, but there was an unspoken rule that if they didn't obey, their whole family would fall ill and perish from this world. So all Human mortals were obedient in front of the faces of those mighty 'Immortals'.
This was the way of the world. Mortals couldn't beat Immortals, so they could only bow their heads. Without power, you were nobody and with power, you were still nobody because there was always someone stronger that would make you bow your head.
