Chapter 647 – Lies weaved within
Moon Aiko arrived at the Clothier's abode.
"I'm back." Moon Aiko spoke with a soft voice, but even that was enough for the doors to burst open.
"Where have you been, Master!" The Clothier was clearly sobbing for some reason, confusing her.
"What's wrong?" Moon Aiko tilted her head.
"I have been stuck for months, but first you died, and then you caused war?!" The Clothier couldn't believe so much happened while he was working on more of his clothing.
"You also forgot destruction of the Sacred Realm, stampede and robbery." Moon Aiko rolled her eyes. "I'm here for some plans for new clothes." She nudged him inside, but he suddenly pulled up a table with paper, pen and ink.
"I'm ready, Master." The Clothier had the face of 'praise me for my good work', which made her chuckle.
"Alright, let's start this." Moon Aiko pulled out her sleeves so they wouldn't get dirty.
"First would be some loose clothes that are well ventilated for the Witch." Moon Aiko drew well-covered, but also well-ventilated clothing based on what she took from Liu Ru back when she met her as a Ghost inside a lamp.
"Marvellous." The Clothier smirked. These kinds of clothes would see a lot of 'uses', so he knew he had to make them as comfortable as possible.
"The second one would be like this." The second one was for Moon Aiko, close to what a qipao looked like.
"The bust is smalle- I have seen nothing." The Clothier wanted to comment on how the second dress had a smaller bust size while keeping most of the proportions similar, but once she pulled out a flag, he pretended that he didn't say or see anything.
"It's important that you make it so that it doesn't break if this part gets bigger." Moon Aiko highlighted the chest part.
'Is this insurance for the future growth?' The Clothier thought about it, but he didn't dare to voice his opinion, lest his rear met its end.
"Very well." The Clothier nodded his head.
"I would like a few colourful versions or similar designs. It's important that the first one is always well ventilated, while the second one is close to the skin." Moon Aiko realised that her Forging Mastery would take a plunge if her clothes burned, but if they were very close to the skin, it would allow her to wrap herself in her natural Qi, protecting it from sudden flying hot sparks.
"Yes, should I use material that is in storage, or do you have material that you want me to use?" The Clothier was very dutiful and knew what to say when it came to making clothes.
"I have this, but I'm not sure if this can be used." Moon Aiko pulled out the cocoon that was wrapped around Witch Aiko during the 'poison ceremony'. She also included other cocoons that were left behind by her Spidey.
"This is... very soft material, but I'm not sure if I have the tools to purify it and make it into thread..." The Clothier realised that one cocoon was highly toxic, so he would have to purify it first, while the other cocoons were quite tangled and would require a lot of work and special tools to not ruin them too much.
"You can take your time. There is still a lot of work to do." Moon Aiko gestured before turning around.
"I'm happy to see you, Master." The Clothier spoke under his breath. He was always happy to work on something unique, which his Master always provided.
"?" Moon Aiko was confused why she was being missed by some semi-random dude, but she didn't dwell on it too much.
This journey already took a few hours, so it was time to check on the Muscle Foxes.
...
The Grandmaster's Abode was currently occupied by many Muscle Foxes.
There was a pile of melted Muscle Foxes on the side, and there didn't seem to be any big commotion when Aiko arrived.
"How is it?" Moon Aiko asked them.
"The Massage Chairs work wonders!" The Muscle Foxes replied. They didn't lick her shoes for no reason, as this was truly a work of art for their muscles!
"Okay, what else can you tell me?" Moon Aiko nodded her head slowly.
"It seems like there are other branches coming to join, not just the Muscle Peak. However, the other branches were not allowed to approach this place until we sorted out all the traitors." One of the Muscle Foxes answered. Looking closely, it was that familiar guard.
"Oh, long time no see." Moon Aiko smiled at him.
He was quite flustered that the Vicious Jade Fox still remembered him.
"It's an honour." The Muscle Fox bowed.
"Don't be so stiff. Let's get to the sorting." Moon Aiko would just do this through the system-
[No.]
'Why not?' Moon Aiko unhappily snorted.
[It's something different if you want to know who you can heal, and who you should kill.]
'But you didn't have issues before.' Moon Aiko rolled her eyes.
[The Elders voted that you should experience this without our help.]
'I see...' Moon Aiko nodded her head. 'So I will first sort it based on how I can do it, and then you will tell me who I got right and wrong. You are a genius.' She gleefully smiled at her system.
[... I will ask the Elders...]
It was obvious that the system was somewhat expecting her shamelessness, but they were still not completely prepared for it.
'Thank you~' Moon Aiko hummed while slowly turning into Witch Aiko.
Moon Aiko was better for research, but not for socialising, so it was better to get the cunning Witch Aiko to do this-
*poof*
Witch Aiko immediately turned into Moon Aiko, making Moon Aiko facepalm.
"I forgot that Witch Aiko can't come out without Essence." A nice hand was imprinted on Moon Aiko's forehead from that beautiful facepalm.
...
Arriving at the scene, there were a lot more Foxes than Aiko thought there would be.
'This will take... a lot of time.' Moon Aiko groaned.
[...]
The system also didn't expect that there would be so many of them, so they were inclined to help her whenever she asked.
"Make a line, so it goes smoothly." Moon Aiko gestured to the Guard Fox before placing a table with a comfortable pillow right then and there.
The plains were quite expansive, which showcased just how many Foxes there were.
"I'm starting to regret this." Moon Aiko felt like she was chewing something extremely bitter, but it couldn't be helped.
"First Fox." Moon Aiko gestured, and one Fox sat in front of her. Her air was quite strange, and Moon Aiko didn't like it.
"Rejected." Moon Aiko immediately said without thinking.
[Correct. This Fox is allied with the Northern Sect.]
'???' Moon Aiko questioned the system, but was it seriously that bad?!
'How about the Foxes that follow us?' Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes.
['Mei' already cleared them up, even stranglers.]
Moon Aiko was shocked at how efficient Mei was, but as expected of an Immortal, she must've gone through a lot of spies, and things like that, so her natural instinct was incomparable to hers.
Like this, Moon Aiko kept going, for days at a time...
...
[Your starting accuracy was 12%.]
'Shut up.' Moon Aiko couldn't believe how many of them she got wrong.
[Your current accuracy is 26%.]
'Ugh...' Moon Aiko didn't want to believe she was that bad at it!
[If you keep at it, it will only take 5 Fox Villages to get to 80%.]
'You are lucky you are not near me.' Moon Aiko had the instinct to pull out the flag and plant it!
[Please keep going as this will improve your current mission.]
'Huh? How?' Moon Aiko was confused about how this would help with the [Cold Moon (Step 1)] mission.
[You will understand later.]
'You know how I hate how mysterious you are at times?' Moon Aiko frowned. She wanted to know why this was so important.
'But why are there so many Foxes allied with the Northern Sect?' Moon Aiko couldn't understand it.
[Monetary rewards. The Fox Village rarely rewarded anyone, so it created demand for resources, which were fulfilled by the Northern Sect.]
'...' Moon Aiko sighed. There were so many problems here that she didn't want to deal with them.
'Yeah, let's just take everything, even things that are bolted down and leave.' At this time, it was decided that Moon Aiko would even uproot buildings just so she didn't need to deal with so much bullshit!
...
[Your final accuracy was 56%. Not bad.]
'Not bad, my ass!' Moon Aiko was plastered on that table, exhausted from the constant interrogation and sorting.
'Half of the Foxes were allied with 3rd parties. 10% Foxes still believed that the Evil Elders would return since nobody was able to find the [Intoxicating Technique]. 30% were not really loyal to the Fox Village and would leave when things were inconvenient.' Moon Aiko groaned.
'Wasn't there the Heart Test or whatever that was to decide if the Foxes would stay loyal?' Moon Aiko frowned.
[That one was a lie. It would just pressure your heart and mind with temptations and decide if you were able to keep your mind straight or not.]
'...' Moon Aiko rolled on the table a few times. 'Don't tell me that the other tests were bogus too?!' She didn't want to believe it.
[The running test was about getting familiar with other Foxes and deciding if you are fast enough that you can outrun normal Human Cultivators.]
[The Grassland was all about being able to negate or endure simple tortures.]
[The 'cold' river was there so that you can distinguish illusions from the real thing.]
[The mountain was there to test your willpower.]
"..." Moon Aiko couldn't believe the whole thing was a scam!
'Wait, how about the hunt for Humans?!' Moon Aiko felt like that one was the true test-
[That was because the Fox Village was running low on Humans and too many Foxes had their brains fucked out. So they used new Foxes to fill the number of Humans so that they would be able to teach you how to extract Souls through sex.]
"Motherf-" Moon Aiko burst out, but fell silent when she noticed there were Foxes still around her.
She begrudgingly sat down, as if she had been stabbed multiple times.
Moon Aiko couldn't believe that those tests were not tests about skill, but tests about how much torture you can endure if you are captured.
'How many enemies did the Fox Village have to do all that?' Moon Aiko knew that the Delegations uniting was abnormal and that there were still things amiss, but this was still a ridiculous situation!
'I have to ask Mei about this!' Moon Aiko stood up, heading to where Mei was!