Chapter 404 – Old Friends

Packing everything up and putting in a few finishing touches, Aiko was ready to depart.

Not needing to be with others meant she could get a nice speed boost from all her Skills.

When she left in her pseudo-human form, nobody really paid attention to her as she was using her concealment.

But once she was inside the forest, she immediately transformed and charged forward like a bullet.

'Since the 'compass' works well, I can just charge towards my destination without a worry of being lost.' Aiko chuckled to herself as she sped up further.

She did notice a few breaths trying to follow behind, but once she also used [Wind Jump], she was easily able to lose them.

'I know I should probably guide them around, but I really want to work on my stuff. I also need to Evolve again, so that I won't attract more lightning.' Aiko clicked her tongue gently. She was like a lightning magnet in her current disposition, which bothered her greatly.

She couldn't do anything about it yet, since she was missing a lot of levels.

That would naturally change over time, or she could use System Meat, but she didn't want to use it so haphazardly.

Yes, she had a lot of meat inside her inventory, but what if it could be used on other Beasts too?

'I'm not that pressed about this yet, so I will hold out for as long as possible.' Aiko nodded gently.

Nobody was following her, and most Beasts didn't even notice her.

That made Aiko quite happy, since she won't be bothered for some time.

*Thud Thud*

Suddenly, Aiko could feel a faint vibration through the ground.

'Marching?' Aiko tilted her head. While the sound was faint, it was not singular, it felt like there were many that walked the same path, causing these tremors to spread all around.

Aiko paused and thought about it. 'I wonder what they are marching for.' She was curious why there was someone marching.

...

Sneaking around, she found the origin of those tremors.

It was a large army travelling across the lands, but...

'Only a couple are Cultivators, and they are even weak ones...' Aiko clicked her tongue. They were so conspicuous, yet no real Cultivator was in sight.

She perked her ears and tried to listen to them, she was trying to figure out where they were going.

"We have finished one war with 'that' Kingdom, yet we are going to war again?" One soldier complained.

"I heard that war is too lucrative, so most families decided to band together and pressure the Emperor." Another soldier sighed.

The third soldier sighed. "I heard that the Emperor wants to expand his inner harem and that we are invading this Kingdom since the first and third princesses are Twins."

"How does that even work?" The soldiers kept joking about this, but the atmosphere was more or less bleak.

Aiko shook her head gently before disappearing from this place. She was not really interested in this war or those princesses.

Aiko already had a few Princesses in her group, and that was enough. She didn't need more.

Moreover, her main plan didn't change all that much. She would visit that Village and return as soon as possible.

Aiko nodded gently as she disappeared from that place.

...

Aiko kept dashing through the forest until she reached a stage where she felt a strong feeling of deja vu.

'Why is this reminding me of something...?' Aiko paused and looked around. The place was definitely familiar, but she couldn't figure out why.

'Lady Liu is recovering well, so I don't need to do anything about it.' Aiko was quite happy, so she sped up once again.

...

Arriving in front of the strange Village. The feeling of déjà vu hit her ever more strongly.

The walls were made out of dark wood and looked quite tough. There was only one gate into the Village, and there were Beasts standing guard.

Other than the walls, the main gate looked quite damaged. It seems like there are fights every so often, but only the gate was damaged, which puzzled Aiko.

'Should I just jump over?' Aiko narrowed her eyes. She could still use her [Earthen Walk] that was integrated into her incarnation, but she didn't really like going under the ground any more.

It took a lot of time to take care of her tails, and the special coating that her teacher taught her was only for water and not dust.

'I will have to invent or buy something later.' Aiko clicked her tongue. She placed her small paw on the wood and realisation hit her.

'This wood is seriously tough! It would take a lot of energy for me to damage it!' Aiko blinked.

Aiko looked around when a sudden voice startled her.

"What are you doing here, snooping around?"

Aiko turned around to see the lizard talking to her with other Beasts behind him.

Aiko blinked multiple times.

"Another Fox snooping around. Do you want to die?" The lizard slithered his tongue.

He was a large, bulky bipedal lizard with a thick tail. He was quite literally built like a mountain.

His scales were dark brown, but Aiko had a feeling that these were not his real scales. Slit eyes with long tongue.

"You wouldn't do that." Aiko chuckled. "You have already fed me a few times, that would be a shame, wouldn't it?" She laughed, seeing his dumbfounded expression.

Char looked at the Fox up and down. She had an even more sinister expression than before, but there was a familiar feeling about her.

"The small brat that ate us out?" Char spat out.

"I didn't do that! You fed me!" Aiko protested.

Char laughed. "What are you doing here?" He was probing Aiko.

"Looking for Foxes, but it's such a bother." Aiko didn't really care about the mission. "So, where is Buddy? How about the others?" She already met the little blackie that was scared of her and Brave Lion, or whatever he was called.

"Buddy is in the Beast Sect, almost moving to the mainland. The Wise Turtle died protecting this Village." Char felt speechless at how innocent the little Fox was.

"Awwww." Aiko sighed. "I would love to meet them." She shook her head. "How about your daughter?"

"You are not going to seduce my daughter." Char immediately felt a sense of danger.

"I'm not going to." Aiko rolled her eyes. Her entourage was already full, so she would naturally not do it. "She is with Buddy, right?"

"How did you guess that?" Char blinked innocently.

"You have a great relationship with Buddy, and since you get a lot of resources if you join a Sect, it would be natural that you, as a doting father, would send her away into a much safer place than this Village." Aiko explained her reasoning.

"I miss the silent, cute, and little Fox." Char sighed, but still chuckled.

"Let's go inside." Char invited Aiko.

"Village Chief! We shouldn't!" One Advisor glared at the little Fox.

"Oh, please. The only one who can challenge her head-on would be me." Char rolled his eyes.

The little Fox didn't really conceal her energy, so he immediately noticed her thanks to his Dragon Bloodline.

'It would be painful to fight her head-on.' While he was confident in his scales, that didn't mean he wanted to damage them.

He would still be able to beat Aiko, but it would take him a long time to recover, so he had to be careful. The battles were getting more and more vicious over time, so it would be unwise to antagonise someone this strong when they meant no harm.

"Sure, but I won't be eating." Aiko could already imagine how much scolding she would get from Mei if her Beast Core degraded further.

"Are you sick?" Char immediately picked up the small Fox and went inside the Village.

"I would get scolded." Aiko shook her head.

"I think I understand." Char nodded slowly. His Village didn't have that high-quality meat, so it contained a lot of impurities.

Those impurities would make it harder for the small Fox to recover.

"Refugees?" Aiko blinked at the Foxes in certain parts of the Village. 'Again, Demonic?' She tilted her head.

The Village looked a lot better than before. The houses looked sturdy and 'healthy'. They didn't look like bleak imitations any more, but a good original.

Those houses were built with bricks, while the roof was made out of either wood or tiles. The contrast was nice, and Aiko felt like she had arrived at a small village.

The residents also looked a lot healthier than before, but there were many injured warriors walking around.

"Yeah..." Char scratched his head. "We have ambushed the Human Sect during some kind of deal, and those were the 'goods'." He sighed.

"As expected. It's a mess everywhere." Aiko shook her head.

"Everywhere? Did something happen on your end, too?" Char narrowed his eyes.

"Can we have a private conversation? I have a few things I want to do." Aiko nudged him.

"Sure." Char chuckled. This kind of Fox was a lot more agreeable than the common ones.

"..." The Advisors kept glaring at Aiko, but everyone ignored them. So they could only swallow their pride and move on from this.

Aiko and Char went into a private meeting room.

As the doors closed, Aiko transformed into her pseudo-human form and stretched her body.

"Agh, this is nice." Aiko didn't stop throughout the journey, so it was unlikely that she was followed, but just in case, she prepared a few heads for the occasion.

"You grew up." Char was impressed by the air around Aiko.

"Dear, are you-" Char's wife walked into the room and saw a beautiful Fox sitting on the ground in front of her husband.

She grabbed her husband's shoulder and squeezed it.

Char's scales creaked like crazy, and he was trying to soothe his wife.

"It's not how it looks! She was the tiny Fox many years ago!" Char immediately explained, and his wife went from Devil mode into doting wifey mode.

"Oh, why didn't you tell me, dear? I would cook something nice for her." Her sudden switch startled Aiko.

'Such strong mood swings...' Aiko shook her head.

"She didn't want to eat, so I didn't want to bother you." Char sighed. "Well, since you are already here, how about staying here-" Even before he finished his sentence, his wife was already sitting down, observing the 'little' Fox closely.

"But she wasn't as sinister before?" She tilted her head.