Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The next day, Aiko went to explore the city.

It was during the day, since there were more shadows than during the night.

The guards around the walls were also less alert. This allowed Aiko to easily sneak into the Capital.

The first thought that went into her mind was...

'This place is a mess...'

Aiko was used to the previous Capital where most things were harmonious, but that was not the case over here. Instead of most walls being white or grey so it doesn't sting the eyes, most walls were either red or green, sometimes purple. It really hurt Aiko's brain...

The longer she walked around, the more absurd this Capital became.

There were missing walls here and there, dilapidated buildings or straight-up ruins.

There were a lot of homeless people, so this whole Capital smelled pretty bad.

The roofs had holes and a lot of them, so Aiko had to be careful about where she went.

The only thing presentable about this city were the guards patrolling everywhere.

They had nice and shiny armour with good-looking spears. Some of them even had swords on their waist. There was a stark difference between the state of the buildings versus security.

Aiko could only tilt her head, not understanding what was happening.

Fortunately for her, Mortals could not see her as she was hidden, as for Immortals... as long as Aiko didn't look at them, she would be fine, so there was no danger too.

Aiko went around the districts, most businesses were doing well for some reason. The buildings were maintained and even enriched in some places with signs made out of gold or long carpets put everywhere.

It was an odd sightseeing such 'glamorous' buildings right next to ruins...

The deeper Aiko went inside the city, the stranger it became. There were even more guards and dilapidated buildings, but no ruins, just empty plots of land.

How did Aiko know it was empty and not just a street? Because it had the outlines of a house with walls and everything.

Moreover, the road changed from dirt to a rocky road, but not a nice one made out of slabs but just rocks of different shapes and sizes, so it was quite bumpy. Not for Aiko, she was still alright, but carts running along the streets were making really bad rattling noises.

Aiko's ears hurt from that, so she went even deeper.

The road did not change much, but the amount of guards running around almost tripled. At this point, Aiko thought that there might be some kind of celebration where, the King or Emperor or whatever that dude is, is securing this place to prevent any mishaps.

There were also no beggars around and no dilapidated buildings, just empty plots of land.

This sight was even worse than when there were dilapidated buildings, as the Capital felt like it was in a sorry state, like they did not have enough money to keep it maintained.

'Or maybe the prices were too high?' Aiko tilted her head. This place either had buildings accompanied by golden signs or no buildings at all.

It kind of felt like a bad joke, like someone planned this so that the innermost part of the Capital was made solely out of gold? Aiko could not really guess their intentions...

'Let's move forward...' Aiko shook her head. So far almost no one spoke, so Aiko could not pick up any rumours. Moreover, those who did speak cursed their rulers for his lavish spending and for seeking Immortality when he was Mortal like everyone else.

At this point, Aiko could pick up quite a lot of Cultivators around, but they were all small fries with only either Qi Gathering or Foundation Building. They held no danger for Aiko, but it was bothersome since there were so many of them...

However, for the sneaking Aiko, it was still smooth sailing, even when a few Golden Core Cultivators appeared, it was still fine as they aimlessly wandered around which caused holes in their formations.

Aiko had quite an entertaining time with them. This is what she would call entertainment, others trying to find her while she would rob-

*Cough*

'Nononono, I can't do that right now...' Aiko sadly stared at the Storage Pouches that were running from her... 'I should explore more before taking them.'

Aiko nodded to herself. This took great restraint on her part to just not steal everything they owned, but she also understood that if she stole it now, they would be on high alert, which was counterproductive to her plan.

...

Aiko was now in front of the Palace and to her surprise, they even ran those lights during the day! Aiko could not understand why they would do something like that! Such a waste of resources!

'You should've given me those resources if you are going to waste them like that!' Aiko cried in her mind, but there was nothing she could do about this, but to continue deeper.

The wall was no issue to Aiko even if there were no shadows.

Her [Earthen Walk] took care of this without a hiccup and Aiko was inside.

Her head popped in front of a Cultivator that felt quite dangerous, but for some reason, he was not moving and even had closed eyes!

What Aiko did not know was that this Cultivator set up a boundary around the entire perimeter of the palace. The moment she tried to jump over the wall or go through it, he would be immediately alerted!

Unfortunately for him, Aiko did not go through the wall or above the wall, but below the ground. He set it up as a simple boundary that did not account for the underground portion.

As such, Aiko was free to explore!

Aiko dived inside the ground again since she didn't want to test her stealth in front of someone dangerous.

Popping her head out of the ground she was on a nice plot of grass. It seemed like the maids were currently drying clothing, so Aiko went into a nearby bush in order to hear their gossip.

"Poor Princess..."
"It's her fault for being born like that."
"I feel you are jealous of her."
"The prices went up again..."
"Tell me about it. Yet we are still using light even during the day..."

The gossip poured out of their mouths until the eunuch stopped them and they dispersed.

'Seems like this is the right Capital, but why do they keep their lights always on...' Aiko could not understand that part.

'Is there some kind of night demon?' She tilted her head, but she could not figure it out.

She sneaked once more, but this time under the numerous buildings. Some of the buildings stood on legs, so there was a slight space between the ground and the floor.

This allowed Aiko to move sneakily, but if there was one demerit to this, it was the amount of cobwebs that her fur gathered.

Aiko could only bear with it for the time being.

"The Princess's accommodations are quite poor."
"Well, she is used as a whore and not a concubine, so that's natural."
"Poor Princess..."
"It's unfortunate that she has that strange disposition..."

They sighed as they walked away. Aiko found it quite useful that she had such sensitive ears.

She could gossip about others without them noticing her.

Sneaking away, she picked up yet another set of voices.

"We have gathered the corpses."
"It was not all that difficult since that Kingdom is pretty much in ruins."
"Yeeeah, but I never imagined I would be digging up graves."
"Tell me about it, grave-robbing was not on my list of things I want to do."
"But we had to do it..."

They sighed before resuming their talk about poor food and accommodations.

Aiko felt curious about what those corpses might be. She already had her guesses, but that was for later. She would find those corpses to check on them later.

Aiko would first try to find out where the Princess was, do something about her or leave her be for the time being. Then go around exploring for the corpses.

Aiko walked below the floors soundlessly to not attract attention.

She mapped out the floor arrangement by the changes in the wood. The more lustrous and nicer-looking food, the more important the place above was.

She traced all those places, trying to find the worst place so she could check if it was the Princesses, if not she would just continue walking around.

Unfortunately, the Princess could not be found in the side Palaces, so she either was in the Royal Palace or somewhere else.

'I hope he doesn't have a secret fucking place like it was in the previous Capital...' Aiko narrowed her eyes.

She didn't want to enter the Royal Palace yet, since it might bring her trouble, so she should sneak around a bit more-

"Can you believe that the Emperor is having sex with corpses?!"
"It's unbelievable! We should run away as soon as possible, who knows what will happen with our poor corpses once we die or get killed by him!"
"Yeah!"

The trio ran away quite quickly and Aiko gulped.

She pinched her nose bridge and sighed. Now she would have to go into the Royal Palace... but now that she knew where the corpses were… She could just find the Princess and any Treasures that were not bolted to the ground and book them out of there!

Aiko walked around the outside of the side Palaces, but could not find anything of value or anything hidden from her.

The Royal Palace was the last thing she could explore and she hoped that she would find her target...

The Royal Palace was as lavish as any other. Carpets woven with golden strands, golden signs pretty much everywhere. Lavish Paintings and decorations. Nothing of value to Aiko as none of it had any Qi inside.

Aiko couldn't care less about those things, as she still did not find the Princess she was looking for. It was also slowly getting dark and guards started to pile up everywhere, so it was time for her to retreat just in case.

The moment she exited the Royal Palace, a translucent barrier was erected, and Aiko had a bad feeling about it. It was a good idea that she bailed in time or otherwise something might've happened to her!

Aiko could only shake her head and nod at her luck. It was a good thing that her luck was better than previously, but it would be nicer if it was much better and already found the Princess for her!