Chapter 411 – Sampling and Deal

Aiko returned to the guest room or hall. Well, it was pretty big, so it was probably a hall.

The duo was still bickering, but fortunately, Aiko had something to do now.

'Sample tea.' While Aiko didn't care too much about the taste of tea, her companions loved to drink it.

Aiko thought that while she was in her Moon Form, she should gather as much research material as possible and come up with some tasty tea for others.

However, that proved quite difficult.

'This one is tasty, but the resources are cheap.' Aiko knew that Mei loved quality, but she was not sure how she would react to cheap tea.

Another tea was too mellow for Aiko's taste, and it was expensive, too.

Like this, she sampled quite a few teas, but none of them piqued her interest.

All of them had different demerits and not many benefits.

'Mei keeps talking about Spiritual Teas, but I have no idea how to create one, and she always calls the leaves precious, but she doesn't say how they are supposed to look.

In the corner of their eye, everyone was watching over the Vicious Cub, including the Fang family.

This was sort of a rite. It was to demonstrate the taste of the user and how cheap they were.

Likewise, it would also uncover their snobbish demeanour if they only cared about price.

However, what surprised everyone was the fact that the Vicious Cub didn't like any of them, not a single tea.

This greatly upset them, but they had to follow their Patriarch's words.

They couldn't use rare poisons or anything that enhanced the flavour of the tea just yet.

Everything has its purpose, but they were unable to gauge the taste buds of the Vicious Cub.

Aiko noticed that more and more of them are paying attention to her.

"What?" She tilted her head. "You are no longer bickering? Why?" It was an abrupt pause that made her suspicious.

The group glanced at each other before looking at their Patriarch.

"You don't like any of them?" Lian narrowed her eyes.

"They are not magical." Aiko shook her head. All of them had their issues.

Lian chuckled. "So you are really just after Spiritual Tea."

Aiko's ears perked. She didn't know if she had ever had Spiritual Tea, but she really wanted to try it.

"But what can you offer me in return?" Lian smiled sinisterly.

Fang Jia pursed her lips. While she wanted her mother to be nicer to Aiko, she also knew that the Spiritual Tea couldn't be handed over so easily.

There was a process to this, and one had to offer something in return or be a long-time VIP customer for the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

Aiko didn't really have anything to offer, or rather, she didn't have anything to offer that she was willing to part with.

"Do you have any rare poisons?" Patriarch was not a cruel person, and since she saw the Vicious Jade Fox ponder on it so carefully, she would naturally help her out a little.

"Hmmmmm." Aiko had a slight reaction, but it made Lian wonder.

'Why is she so hesitant?" Lian tilted her head.

"I do have rare poison, but I can't take it out." Aiko groaned unhappily. She would be more than happy to get rid of the poisons inside her body, especially that exotic one that was made just for Inscription Cultivators.

"What kind of poison is it?" Lian's curiosity peaked. There were a few poisons that would be bad if they were handed over, and she wondered which one the Vicious Jade Fox would introduce.

"I don't know its name." Aiko shook her head.

Lian frowned and wanted to dismiss the Vicious Jade Fox, but...

"It's that exotic poison that cripples Inscription Cultivators." Aiko suddenly proclaimed, and the hall fell silent.

"Do you have it?" Lian had a serious expression, so much so that even Fang Jie was startled.

"Yeah." Aiko nodded.

"Can you give it to me?" Their Heavenly Treasure Pavilion was hit by this poison and quite a few Cultivators were crippled by it.

What was worse was the fact that the poison assimilated with the person, making it difficult to extract or research.

"No." Aiko shook her head.

Lian's face twitched. "I will give you tea leaves if you give me that poison." She would offer a large quantity of tea leaves, since this was a big deal, yet the Vicious Jade Fox didn't want to trade it?!

"Ah," Aiko was startled by her demeanour. "You misunderstood, it's not like I don't want to give it to you, but it's carefully sealed inside my body, so that it doesn't affect me." She didn't know how those seals worked, since they were done automatically by [Witch Fox Incarnate].

Lian's eyes widened. "You were also affected by it?" She didn't believe that certain rumours were true about the Vicious Jade Fox.

"Yeah, early in my life, I was poisoned. I had to deal with it for a few years, but since I was really good at inscribing, I was able to ignore it more or less." It did greatly slow the inscribing capabilities, but it was not like she was completely crippled.

"How did you deal with it?" Lian was both curious and willing to pay the price for this information.

"I used a Pill from Jade Fox, although nobody explained to me how to use Pills..." Aiko groaned.

"Afterwards, the poison sort of melted into my bones, but later was sealed by my Divine Ability." Aiko explained it briefly, since she didn't know enough about the Patriarch to trust her that much.

She was still 'mother' of Fang Jia, so that gave her some credibility, but that was it.

Lian had a serious expression on her face and pondered on it. "Is it possible to seal the poison in other people?"

"I have no idea." Aiko shrugged. It was not like she had any test subjects for that research.

"How about getting that poison out of your body?" Lian was asking about the possibility of extracting that poison from her.

"No idea again." Aiko shook her head. The poison was sealed inside her body, so it was not like she needed to deal with it.

"Any Techniques for that?" Lian kept pressing on, as this was an important matter for both her and her Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

"Don't have any." Aiko shook her head again.

"What if you got such Techniques?" Lian narrowed her eyes.

"I don't have any Beast Techniques, so I have no idea." Aiko kept shaking her head. Her neck started to hurt a bit from that constant motion.

"Huh?" Everyone inside the room blinked at her.

"What?" Aiko snorted unhappily.

"You don't have Techniques? Why?" Lian was confused.

"Jade Fox said that you need a certain baseline of Divine Sense before you should learn it." Aiko shrugged. She also had her arsenal full, so it was not like she really needed it.

"What if I provided the Techniques?" Getting the poison was important, so Lian didn't mind parting with some of her Techniques.

"Jade Fox said that I shouldn't take the Techniques of others. They can easily harm me." Aiko shook her head, crossing her arms like the letter X.

Lian frowned. 'I don't like Jade Fox, she teaches too well.' She clicked her tongue.

"What about information about that Cauldron?" Lian pressed on with more ideas.

"It's not worth being crippled over information. If I can't use that information, doesn't it turn useless in the end?" Aiko speechlessly stared at her.

Lian had her words stuck inside her throat. What the Vicious Jade Fox said was indeed true. It was not worth the danger to obtain either of those things, as she could come to conclusions on her own.

This information would just speed up her advancement, which was irrelevant for the long-lived Beasts, unlike Humans.

Lian pursed her lips. She was wondering what she could offer the Vicious Jade Fox in order to gain that poison or at least seal-

"What if we prepare someone with poison inside their body? Can you try to seal it? We would naturally reward you for it." Lian narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not sure if I can do it or how long that seal will last." Aiko didn't like those things, since she was open to being attacked by them if something went awry.

"That is fine, even if they die, we can gain a lot." That was the attitude of Immortals; those who had their Cultivation stuck were not worth the resources, and the best they could do was to be a good testing subject or servant of the lowest class.

Aiko didn't mind sacrificing others for her research, but she was on the edge about it.

"Of course, they would be criminals. We are not desperate enough to use normal people (yet)." Lian was enticing the Vicious Jade Fox.

"I suppose we can try it." Aiko didn't mind researching her abilities. It was about time that she went through them and cleaned them or changed them into something more useful.

Lian nodded happily. "Dear?"

"Lian?" Fang Jie tilted her head.

"You don't mind spending time with her till we prepare everything right?" Lian didn't want to impose this on Fang Jia, since the Vicious Jade Fox's kinks were still... a bit too much.

"Jia will take care of it." While Fang Jie didn't mind spending time with Aiko, that didn't mean that she didn't find Jia's eyes bothersome.

Fang Jia had sparkling eyes that were saying: Me! Me! I will do it!

So much so that Fang Jie was greatly bothered by it.

'I don't want her to be hurt by a Fox, but she is so deep that no matter what I do, she will be hurt.' Fang Jie found it strange that Fang Jia only briefly reacted to the information that Aiko had one lover, or partner, so much so that it felt like she was the carbon copy of her mother.

'Although I did tighten his belt once we started dating.' Fang Jie nodded. It was questionable if her daughter could do the same, but she was still of the same blood.

"Thank you~!" Fang Jia hugged her mother happily.

"Forging?" Aiko noticed Fang Jia's sparkling eyes.

"Forging!" Fang Jia nodded with a twinkle in her eyes.

Aiko gave her thumbs up and they both ran away...

Lian sighed. She was so close to achieving her goal where everyone inside her Heavenly Treasure Pavilion was cured of their illnesses, so close, yet so far.

If the Vicious Jade Fox was able to seal poisons, she would be able to learn how to seal other things, too.

This was a bit detrimental for Lian, since eventually, the Vicious Jade Fox would be able to seal the Heavens, but what can you do?

...

"I have my own Forge, so we won't be using that." Fang Jia licked her lips.

"We will use that, right?" Aiko nodded.

"Yeah." Fang Jia nodded back. "I have my own place that is close to the Patriarch's place. It's protected by Arrays and other things, so nobody would be able to eavesdrop on us!" She proclaimed and hoped that Nightmare Aiko would return soon...