Chapter 75 – Qi Paradise

Chapter 75 – Qi Paradise

"This place is too shabby!" The Blazing Fox said with a frown.

"There is not enough Qi, I feel too weak." The Glacial Fox agreed.

"You finally arrived," Mei said with a smirk. "We are taking that place."

She pointed at the secluded courtyard with very extremely thin Qi.

Nobody protested against it. They were happy that they didn't need to take the place with the least amount of Qi.

Mei licked her lips, she will have to brush up on low-ranked Arrays and raise the Rank of this Array while removing the other Arrays.

Aiko was also smiling, she also didn't like this place, but since the mean Fox said it like that it should be alright.

She took out her Jade slips and learned more Runes, while Mei was tweaking the Array.

"Is it that easy to tweak it?" Aiko asked with curiosity in her voice.

"Yes, they didn't try to infuse it with part of their Soul and since we are in the eye of the formation that is unguarded I can easily change how this Array behaves." She smiled from ear to ear. This Array was very low in Rank but had quite a large zone of influence.

If she tweaked it correctly they would be swimming in Qi, while depriving everyone else of their Qi.

She laughed sinisterly and a shiver went up Aiko's spine.

She couldn't create any Runes since this place was deprived of Qi and she didn't want to use those materials as one-time use objects. Now that she knew how to create and connect Runes she would always start with the Qi Gathering Rune so her experiments could last longer.

Aiko felt the Qi returning already and stared at Mei.

"Done?"

"Not yet." Mei said gently, she only removed the reversing Array but didn't restart the Qi Gathering Array. She would have to make some changes and tweaks.

Aiko stared at the fired up Mei and tilted her head. She had never seen her with such a devilish smile. She wondered if her previous kind and gentle mean Fox was a lie...

Aiko returned to writing down Runes, but something felt off.

"Why are the Runes that were on the Vase so different?" Aiko asked Mei who was focusing on her work.

"Because they used fluid motions and tweaked the Rune a bit, I will teach you about it once I finish this." She was fiddling with the Array while licking her lips.

...

Aiko was near Mei and observed her, the Array was almost finished, but it was strange.

"The symbols are the same?" Aiko tilted her head.

"Correct." Mei smiled. "Inscriptions, Arrays and Formations use the same set of Runes, but you place them in different sequences and with different connections. Inscriptions use Ink, Arrays use Chalk, while Formations use precious materials or Formation Stones."

Aiko nodded. She could understand some Runes but had a hard time understanding why they were in such weird places.

"Let's not talk about Arrays for now." Mei moved back to the table where Aiko was writing down Runes.

"The Rune for Strength looks like this." Mei wrote it with a stiff hand and it looked exactly like what Aiko was doing.

"But you can also Inscribe it like this." Mei's motion became incredibly fluid and Aiko was staring at her like she was creating some kind of painting.

"It's crooked." Aiko pointed at the Rune that flew well but also looked crooked.

"Making the Rune fluid is difficult, but it magnifies it's power." Mei said gently.

"I see..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. 'Isn't that just using cursive though?'

'What if I used real Calligraphy on it? I have that skill...' Aiko smiled.

She practised Rune Inscribing in front of Mei.Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

Mei... wanted to run away. 'Why is she so good when I just show it to her?!'

She was doubting the time she had to spend to adjust one Rune and felt a headache. 'I have spent thousands of years just to master all the professions, but she just had to do that.'

"That is true." Mei kept her neutral expression. "But who will you take it from?" She smiled in a mean manner.

"I have an idea." Aiko stood up and left the courtyard.

...

She finally spotted one red tail going around the corner and followed it. Aiko's hair was black so she had barely any presence.

She tailed the Blood Fox until they arrived at her courtyard and Aiko spotted a nice low table.

She moved towards the low table picking it up without a sound and turning around.

Their eyes met one with confusion and the other with shock.

Aiko fiddled with her toes. This was an awkward situation...

"Umm..." Aiko didn't know what to say now that she was caught during the act.

The Blood Fox still had a confused expression. "Do you need that table?"

Aiko hummed and nodded. Her hair changed back to the colour of the moon from embarrassment. She now felt kind of bad about it, now that her alignment turned more neutral.

"Um... would you like to eat with us?" Aiko couldn't meet her gaze and murmured.

"Eat?" The Blood Fox was confused. 'They don't have their own table?'

Aiko coughed at that piercing gaze. "Well... this and that happened..." She tried to avoid the responsibility.

"What will we be eating?" The Blood Fox asked.

"Meat!" Aiko beamed.

The Blood Fox stared strangely at this little thief and wondered what happened to that table. 'I will know once I arrive there.'

"Then lead the way." The Blood Fox smiled gently hiding her emotions.

Aiko runs back with Blood Fox following her.

Aiko arrived. "I have the table!" She beamed.

Mei massaged her temples. 'She really went ahead and stole it... and why is that Passion Fox following her?' This situation was stranger and stranger.

The Blood Fox met Mei's gaze. "That would be my table." She gently murmured towards Mei.

Mei sighed. "Did she get caught?"

"By accident, I didn't know about her." The Blood Fox felt bitter, she was quite proud about her detection as she was able to gauge one's emotions quite well, but she wasn't able to detect this little one.

"She promised you something once she got caught?" Mei thought as that was the only reason why would the Blood Fox come here.

"Yes. I will burden you with my meal." The Blood Fox smiled.

Mei felt tired. "Seriously..."

The Blood Fox stared around, the Qi in here was thick and there was even a light fog.

"Do you mind if I stay here?" The Passion Fox asked the Jade Fox.

"As long as you don't disturb us or the Qi in the air." Mei narrowed her eyes at the Passion Fox.

"That is fine, my courtyard lacks Qi and I feel uncomfortable." She squirmed.

"You are more susceptible to charm as you are a Demonic Beast." Mei gestured. "Each courtyard has Charm Formation."

The Blood Fox frowned. "Filthy Humans..."

Mei didn't say anything and stared at the Passion Fox who froze, she followed her gaze and arrived at the 'modified' low table.

Mei coughed. "You can take any room you want."

The Blood Fox didn't say anything and only smiled, now she understood why they needed a table.