Yuki kept pressing forward in trying to open up as many meridians as possible. After two weeks, the pain only grew stronger to the point that she could no longer take it. The time between meridians being opened also slowed and in the end, she had only opened fifteen meridians. She tried for the sixteenth, but the pain was so great she felt that she would pass out. She could only stop for the time being and take a rest.

She slowly opened her eyes to find her parents both staring at her with worried expressions. “Mother? Father?”

“Yuki, are you okay!?” Fuka did not know if something bad had happened or not. She only heard her daughter cry out in pain before slowly opening her eyes.

“Mmm…. The sixteenth meridian hurt too much, so I decided to stop for now. I will continue pushing forward. Why is it light out?” Yuki had lost all sense of time and was confused as to why it seemed like it was mid day.

“Yuki, you have been sitting here for two weeks….” Akihito replied.

Yuki froze. She did not realize she had been sitting there for so long! But what surprised her the most was she did not feel hungry at all or thirsty. She didn’t even feel weak! In fact, she felt much stronger. She clenched her fist a few times and smiled brightly, only for that smile to slowly fade as a smell completely overwhelmed her. “What is that smell!?” Her eyes watered up as her nose burned. She did not even know where the smell was coming from.

Fuka giggled as she smiled warmly and said: “I will get a bath ready for you. You have been pushing the impurities out of your body for a few days. Don’t you realize how dirty you look?”

Yuki looked down at herself and sniffed and almost burst out crying right there. She had never stunk so bad in both of her lives! It then hit her. She turned to look at her tail only to see that it was stained with black splotches! Her poor fluff was ruined. “Mother, quick! I must wash my tail!”

Akihito burst out laughing. His daughter never changed. When it came to bathing her tail came first! Yuki pursed her lips as she stood up while holding her tail. “Father, it's not funny. The fluff must always be in perfect condition!”

“Yes, yes, your fluff must be perfect.”

---

Four more years passed and over these past four years, Yuki had opened up fifteen more meridians giving her a total of thirty meridians opened. While painful, she had weakened them slowly until they finally opened. Without external help like the qi pill she took, it was not a very easy task. But because of this, her strength soared. She could now fight rank one demonic beasts with ease. Even more so than the adults who were in the full circle of the body fortification realm.

On this day, before she could go out and practice against the demonic beasts of the forest surrounding her village, Elder Eijiro called her to the training grounds. Like always, the training grounds were busy with the many youths. Even some her own age who actually already reached the peak of the body fortification realm. Many actually looked up to Yuki, who was pressing forth with her meridian opening. Currently, in the entire village, she was the one with the most meridians opened.

“Yuki!” A young male fox around thirteen years of age came running over. He had a wooden sword in his hand. As so as the young man called out to her, he was automatically picked on by the other young foxes.

“Look! He’s going to try again!”

“Hehe, how many times has it been now?”

“He has tried to beat her over three hundred and fifty seven times since they were nine years old. Each time he usually gets sent flying.”

“So many times!?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t realize that the only thing Yuki cares about is cultivation. She has no eyes for anything else. While she is not cold and is nice to all of us, she also keeps her distance as if there is a barrier that blocks her from truly befriending anyone. She has been like this since she was young. But her hard work is slowly paying off. In the village, only the elder is stronger than her now, and she is only twelve!”

“It is a shame, though. Out of all the girls, she is the most beautiful of our generation. Whoever gets to be her mate will be the lucky one.”

All the male foxes could only nod at this last statement. They all felt it was a shame.

*Whack!*

“Ahhh!” The young male fox was sent flying once again. He was so persistent about trying to chase after Yuki that she told him at the age of nine that if he wanted to be her mate, he would need to beat her in a fight, but sadly….  He always gets sent flying...

“Yuki!” Another voice rang out. This time was a female fox. She ran over and hugged Yuki’s arm, causing all the boys to become jealous. It could be said that Yuki had the ability to charm not only the boys but the girls as well. And as such, one of the young fox girls had already been charmed by her. And out of all the foxes in the village besides her family, only this young fox girl was able to get close to Yuki.

“Chi, you are bright and early. I thought you liked to get your beauty sleep?” Yuki asked with a smile. Chi was the only one she could call a friend. They lived next door to each other in the village, so it was only a matter of time before they became friends. Chi liked to hang with her every chance she got, but Yuki did not mind because Chi also did not bother her when she was cultivating. They only spent about an hour a day together chatting but even so, over the past few years, they had become close friends.