Chapter 352 – Cold Qi Pond

"Aiko..." Mei sighed gently.

Aiko was currently pouting at Mei like some kind of puffer fish and she was likewise as prickly as one!

"Not talking to you." Nightmare Aiko pouted even more. No work has been done and she depleted all her Moonlight Essence.

This upset her greatly, since it took days to gather enough to do anything of use with her Moon Form.

"We are moving, pack up." With those words, the pouting Aiko left.

"Did I overdo it too much...?" Mei tilted her head, but for some reason, she didn't regret her decision. Moon Aiko was just too cute not to tease.

...

Aiko walked around the camp. She still had to solve a few things, one of which was the sealed poison. Now that she had the [Witch Fox Incarnate] she could manipulate any poisons within her body with relative ease, but she still had no way to get them out of her body.

It was quite a tricky situation and the easiest solution would be to push all that poison into a toe and cut it off.

Of course, Aiko had no intention of doing that, since that would endanger her life and it would upset everyone present.

Aiko didn't need Mei riding her ass again, especially when she was supposed to be packing up to leave.

They had a 'limited' time in this place before the Cultivators outside would leave them inside this Secret Realm, binding them to it. It was important that they used this last opportunity to plunder the last value of this place before leaving.

Aiko was not in a mood to explore around, since she was bothered by the fact that her team played games, yet she was stuck with the bully Mei.

Aiko had a clear double standard, where she could bully others, but others shouldn't bully her.

That was only natural since none of the Cultivators currently present was able to match her might. The only way she would be defeated would be through elaborate Arrays/Formations, Pills, or powerful treasures.

Fortunately, there were not enough Cultivators left to set up such elaborate traps, so Aiko and her team would be safe. The Pills were very expensive and the stingy sect were unlikely to give them out, and no one would have thought to bring such a powerful treasure inside, and if one was left then its new owner would have left the realm, either content with their new Treasure, or running from the onslaught of her evolution.

They also had the Beast Cores of those 'majestic' Beasts, but most of them were currently asleep.

Aiko's Evolution and bullying pretty much exhausted their energies. So Aiko stored them inside her [Tails Storage].

They could not escape her until they gave her their Treasures!

...

Everything was packed and they could finally move on. Mei needed to reach Fox Form through that Forbidden Technique and that required her to be on a higher Cultivation Stage and have a lot of Qi.

Fortunately, they found a place with abundant Qi, so one part of that was covered.

Mei just needed to Cultivate for a while and reach the Golden Core, but...

"I think that Foundation Establishment should be alright..." Mei said openly.

Normally, one would need to reach at least Golden Core in order to use that Technique, but because Aiko gave her that [Cultivation Gift] and [Bloodline Gift]; Mei was a lot more powerful than before.

This allowed her to use that Forbidden Technique sooner and because she was packed with Vitality, it didn't seem like she would be losing her stages over time.

The last part had to be kept secret, otherwise everyone would be suddenly chasing after Dew Foxes. They were already endangered species thanks to the Golden Palace, but they would definitely go extinct if something like that was leaked out.

They trekked over towards the part which was not destroyed by Aiko's Evolution or the Beasts' rampage against the Immortal Cultivators.

It was quite a small place, but it had the Cold Qi pond. This pond was oozing a lot of Qi into its surroundings and while you did need to have Warming Pills in order to Cultivate nearby, it was still much better than Cultivating in the wild.

The Cold Qi was very pure in nature and as long as that Qi was warmed up, you didn't need to filter it in your Meridians! That means you would be able to gather more Qi into Dantian, yielding twice the result with half the effort!

Aiko would also be able to gather a bit of energy into her Beast Core, but that was only because she had a powerful Fire-based Bloodline and a Spiritual Flame.

Without either of those, normal Beasts are unable to Cultivate near such cold places, due to the necessary Pills not being as effective as they are for humans.

Human cultivators did not gather Qi through their pores, but through their Meridians. As such, they could condense the Pill effect and wrap it around their Meridians, resulting in complete immunity against the Cold Qi.

However, Beasts could not do the same. Beast didn't gather Energy through Meridians, but through pores, through their whole being, which meant that they would consume a lot more Pills trying to wrap their entire bodies in the Pill effects.

It was just not sustainable for them, so Beasts were limited in where they would be able to cultivate.

The general rule was that unless you have extreme Bloodline or Elemental Affinity, you should Cultivate on plains or temperate forests.

If you do have an extreme Bloodline or Elemental Affinity, then you should seek out those extreme conditions in order to Evolve quickly.

Most Beasts that it did apply to would ignore the latter rule. It was not because they didn't want to get stronger, or that they were too dumb to realise it, but most of the time the extreme Qi places were already occupied by far more powerful Beasts.

Since the competition for those spots was fierce, those Beasts were typically extremely powerful, and normal Beasts would not be their match.

The same was true for this Cold Qi pond. The Twins had quite a hard time killing the Beast that was nestled there, but due to their impeccable coordination, they were able to subdue it.

"It's huge..." Aiko commented when she looked at the Beast. It was similar to a turtle, but not quite? It had the head of a hawk and the tail of a scorpion. That meant it had several Bloodlines and its Beast Core was mixed.

"But how did it survive the Cold Qi?" Aiko was confused about this part, since it didn't seem like it had the required affinity for it.

"That's the thing. It didn't." Mei said gently. "If it had an affinity for this place, then Yuxi and Wanshu would already be dead. You have to keep in mind that Foxes are the lowest at the Food Chains thanks to their smaller Beast Cores." Mei explained.

"However, since this dumbass didn't have a proper affinity for this place, his Beast Core was mostly frozen." Mei really wanted to store this Beast for future experiments. "Which means that it could barely use its Abilities." She sighed gently.

Aiko stored parts of the corpses into her tails, startling Mei.

"So you need a good enough affinity to not get suppressed by this place?" Aiko asked gently. She wondered if her [Cold Ocean] Affinity would be enough for this...

"You can always test if you are fated with that place by just going inside." Mei told Aiko gently.

"What...?" Aiko could not quite understand why she should endanger her life to test this.

"You don't have to go deep inside. You will know immediately if you can stay here or not." Mei chuckled and pointed at Aiko's team.

Everyone was shivering like they were out in the open in the middle of winter. Their teeth almost clattering from how cold they were.

"Oh..." Aiko stared blankly. She was not cold at all, so it felt like her team was faking it.

...

Her team was dismissed, since they couldn't stay in this place and Aiko was once again upset that she had to spend time with Mei.

"You are pouting again..." Mei sighed. "Do you hate me that much?" She asked gently.

"How could you bully such a cute girl." Aiko was upset that her Moon Form was bullied like that.

Mei's lips twitched. Nightmare Aiko was able to bully her, but Mei could not bully her back?! What injustice was this?!

"Here." Aiko placed a certain stone into Mei's hand.

"Where did you find this?!" Mei once again almost fainted. She could not understand where Aiko was getting these Treasures! Not to mention, this was not a simple Treasure, but a Natural Treasure.

"Dug it up with the Soul Wood or whatever it's called." Aiko didn't quite remember how she got it.

She got it with the help of the Ghost, who fished it from a cold pond.

This kind of Jade would allow Mei to make it to the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage and maybe even into the Middle Stage of the Golden Core!

That in turn would allow her to form a Golden Pill in her Beast Form, which would boost her bodily functions greatly!

"I will Treasure it." Mei said gently.

"No. You will give it back." Aiko was sulking. Those were her Treasures and they would be reclaimed!

Mei giggled. "Of course, I will return." She narrowed her eyes gently. 'Let's see if you can still be so bratty when I'm in my Fox Form.' She smirked at Aiko.

Aiko took this as some sort of challenge and glared back at Mei.

Mei gulped down the Warming Pill, so that she could continue walking deeper into this place.

"Any Ice Shards or anything like that is mine." Aiko suddenly proclaimed.

"You don't even need it!" Mei glared at Aiko.

"So what?" Aiko pouted before running towards the core of this place.

...

"Is that the eye?" Aiko blinked at the strange Array.

"Yes, you can dismantle Arrays by finding its eye." Mei said gently as she prepared another Array outside of the existing Array.

"What does this do?" Aiko was curious about this thing, since it was complete gibberish.

Why was the door next to the eye and the leg next to the ear? She could not understand the system of Arrays, it simply made no sense!

"Concealing Array for the special Gathering Array. They are not complete and can't demonstrate their full power, but this should be enough for me to make it to the Golden Core thanks to the Ice Jade." Mei nodded gently.

Aiko pouted even more. She was completely ignored by Mei, who was focusing on Arrays.

"How long will that take?" Aiko asked.

"If I drain this place. Around two months and then one more month to finalise the absorbtion." Mei paused. "Afterwards we will have to rush out of this place before it closes or they leave us stuck in here." She snorted unhappily.

They would always close this place prematurely to "punish" greed, although in actuality they did it so that the youths would be hooked on the feeling of exploration and plundering.

That also meant that the Sect who had the lowest death rate had the highest plunder rate. Not because they were able to get most of the materials, but because their Senior remembered this place and could navigate it easily.

They would avoid all the traps or anything that would endanger them, which caused even more severe plundering!