Chapter 307 – Misfortune after Misfortune
Aiko ran through the forest. This was the easiest way to lose the flying bastard, which she succeeded in.
She was running towards the first temple thingy. It would take her some time and unfortunately, there was not much to do along the way.
She met a few Cultivators, but they were injured and someone else got to their Treasures first. It didn't seem like Aiko would be able to obtain all that many Treasures thanks to the competition.
She hoped that she would at least find something shiny inside the Memorials or temples or whatever she should call them.
The first one might look ruined, but there should still be some hidden scraps that Aiko could scavenge.
She sped through the forest for a few days until she arrived at the ruined temple site.
Cultivators were running all around and creating something on the ground. Aiko was slightly curious, but her senses also warned her about the possible danger.
As she was about to turn around, something near her exploded.
"We have found the one that destroyed this Inheritance!" One Cultivator shouted towards the small Fox.
'What the fuck?! How can he see me?!' Aiko was unaware that they created a Soul Seeking Array and unjustly accused the small Fox. All they cared about was the fact that they found a possible outlet for their emotions.
Aiko had her stealth activated, but she was still seen through since her Soul was quite large.
Aiko immediately sped up as fireworks of different energies exploded behind her.
'No matter! I can still hide in the next Memorial site!' Aiko proclaimed in her mind, but she quickly noticed she wasn't as fast as before.
She then remembered Mei's words. "You will be suppressed if Human Cultivators attack you."
"It wasn't me, you brainless bastards!" Aiko yelled at them as her speed dropped.
"She called us bastards!""Kill her for calling us brainless!""Kill that whore!"
The overly fast peanut gallery sped towards Aiko, and just like Aiko they had their own Techniques to bypass the 36k restrictions.
Aiko could still use her sprint in conjunction with the [Lightness Technique] to temporarily boost her speed, and lose them with her double jump acrobatics.
This gave her some breathing room, but a certain duo of Cultivators was still able to keep up with her speed and acrobatics.
One was distorting the space around him, whilst the other was clad in lightning.
Aiko was furious that she couldn't lose them, but the one distorting the space soon gave up.
"I will leave it to you, Brother." He yelled loudly.
"Your stamina is awful! I will introduce you to some fine women to improve it!" His brother yelled back.
Aiko really hated those kinds of talks, so she threw a flag backwards with her tails.
The lightning-clad Cultivator didn't expect retaliation, so he was defenceless. He was hit with Aiko's flag in the gut and he flew backwards.
That thing packed quite the punch and it was especially powerful if you didn't defend against it.
"Brother!" The space-distorting Cultivator yelled.
*Cough Cough* "I'm alright brother, but we will need another Array!" He yelled out.
"I will tell them." The space-distorting Cultivator said.
Aiko sped up towards the next memorial, hoping that she would make it in time to hide inside in order to ambush them.
She also slowed down a bit in order to regenerate her lost stamina. Since she was pushing her speed to the limit, her stamina dropped much more quickly. This caused Aiko some pain during the regeneration, as it was quite slow compared to her consumption.
This Secret Realm was to blame for that since it was skewed towards Human Cultivators while punishing Beasts, but Aiko did not expect it to be so bad.
Her wounds only consisted of a few singed spots, which healed within a few moments of rest.
Aiko was lucky that she was small. If she was bigger it would be much harder to dodge those projectiles while keeping her speed...
...
In a few days, she arrived at the next memorial. Aiko was hidden within the shadows, observing the situation. There were only a few Cultivators in here, so it seemed she would be safe as long as she sprinted inside.
Aiko wondered if she should go inside now or later, since it was slowly getting darker. She would easily be able to run through the night, but once it would approach morning, Aiko would turn into the big form which would cause her a lot of problems.
The main issue would be the fact that her strongest defence [Moon Crust] would be sealed in her Dew Form. This caused a huge issue for Aiko as she would be quite vulnerable, but thankfully she was still quite the tank, so she would be able to withstand at least a few fireworks.
Aiko decided to go inside right now and find a nice, cosy place where she could recover some of her mental power. It would not be perfect and she would be quite cranky, but that didn't concern her as the Cultivators would pay for it.
Aiko sneaked around them, as far from them as possible, until she was able to enter this place.
She didn't notice that one familiar girl glanced at her and rolled her dice. Her beautiful, quite mature face frowned and she stood up.
"What's wrong, Senior Sister?" The very familiar guy asked her. His way of addressing changed, since in his voice there was a hint of worship.
"We will leave this place, so we are not caught in the aftermath." The dice girl said.
"Okay." He immediately agreed. While he did wish for Immortals to teach him, nothing beat the safety that came from following his Senior Sister and he would keep going like this for as long as possible!
...
Aiko was inside the memorial when the whole place rumbled. Aiko was shocked and jumped inside as she watched the whole memorial crumble.
'What's wrong with these places?!' That was the second place that crumbled, no wait that was not the point!
"You-!" The Cultivators outside glared at Aiko. It seemed like there was yet another misunderstanding.
"It wasn't me!" Aiko yelled out.
"You can tell that to Yama!" One Senior Cultivator yelled out and gathered his Qi for his Martial Technique.
This energy was much scarier than those simple fireworks, and Aiko immediately dashed away before they could attack her.
Fortunately, her speed was top-notch, as there was no suppression on her just yet.
She was able to get away quite easily, but she still could faintly feel them chasing after her.
Aiko sped up towards the last Memorial. She did not believe that she wouldn't be able to obtain at least something from the last one! Anything would do at this point as Aiko was completely livid that she could not obtain anything and that she was just misunderstood by others!
"I will rob you blind, you fuckers." Aiko cursed.
"Oh, little Fox, we meet again." A voice interrupted Aiko's thoughts.
It was a guy riding a dragon.
Aiko tilted her head, but could not remember anything about this weirdo. "Who are you?"
The Dragon with the Young Master almost crashed.
"Hahaha." He laughed bitterly. "It doesn't seem you are in the best mood, so I will come later." He bid farewell, which was the best thing he could do against the angry Aiko.
Aiko ignored him. She didn't care about him enough to chase him. Moreover, he was the only one who didn't attack her immediately, so she appreciated his temperament.
Aiko shook her head as the Dragon flew away. She sped up towards the last Memorial.
...
A few days later she was at the last Memorial and there were even more Cultivators.
Aiko was still able to sneak inside with some difficulty, but fortunately, no one noticed her.
Inside this Memorial Temple was a very large maze.
'If you want to do a maze, then don't make it so you can see the whole maze. It defeats the whole point...' Aiko shook her head.
She memorised the maze and walked down to enter it.
She walked forward, then left, then right and then-
"Why is it a dead end?!" Aiko was confused. She backtracked towards the beginning, but- "It's another dead end?!"
Aiko's mind spun. She could not understand what was happening. Why could she not find the exit point of this place? Did the maze change?
Aiko was puzzled. "Maybe it has those 'hidden walls' like in 'that' place?" She tilted her head. This was quite likely the case, so Aiko went back to the first dead end and punched it...
There was no reaction... at least not from the wall.
"AAAAGH! THAT HUUURTS!" Aiko screamed as she rolled on the ground. Those walls didn't budge even when she used her near million strength.
Aiko could not understand why the wall was so tough when there was no Qi fluctuation, or was that wall just naturally that tough?
"That's impossible." Aiko had never encountered such a wall before, and why would some kind of shitty memorial have such sturdy walls?! It did not make any sense to her.
She did not know that these memorials housed small remnants from Immortals. That meant that if those remnants were harmed, the Immortals would also be harmed in turn!
As such this place was built like a 'fortress' it was supposed to give you a sense of awe and prevent you from having any thoughts about destroying this place.
Unfortunately, Aiko did not know about this, so she was unable to make a calm judgement.
She walked inside the maze again and again for days on end. Aiko had to even sleep in here just to calm down her nerves since she could not destroy or burn this place down.
But over time, her nerves were grounded and she was really upset that she could not even leave this place!
*Rumble*
"What is happening? Maybe it will allow me to exit this place?" Aiko was hopeful.
*Rumble Rumble*
"... Not again!" Aiko cried out as the whole place collapsed on her.
She used her strength in a desperate manner, but then...
*Poof*
She turned into a big Fox which pretty much cut her strength to a bare minimum.
Aiko was slowly buried by the rouble, but since these pieces were too big, she was able to squirm her way out of this place.
She was hopeful that it would be safe outside since she did sustain some injury from the falling rocks and dust.
But that was just wishful thinking. When her head popped outside she was surrounded by the Cultivators who immediately strained their eyes on her.
"I'm innocent!" Aiko immediately yelled out when she saw them readying their weapons...
