Shentu Yu felt that this couldn't go on any longer.
As a cultivator... or rather, a beast cultivator, he shouldn't be shedding fur so frequently. But his disciple showed no restraint when petting him, and since they were both of the gold and fire dual systems, her frequent forceful petting caused him to lose much more fur than usual lately. Although still thick, seeing the shedding was not very pleasant.
"Hey, Master, your hair has been a bit rough these past few days," his oblivious disciple even said to him.
With the loving heart of an elder, he endured for about a month before deciding to find something for his disciple to do, so she would stop fixating on the Iron-Eating Spirit Beast.
He went to his fellow disciples and took back the teaching pearls he had given them earlier, then handed them to his disciple, telling her: "You should start studying. Don't wander outside until you've finished learning."
At least this would give the master a few days of rest.
Xin Xiu was given the teaching pearls by her master, who briefly explained what they were - the cultivation world's version of online courses. Self-study was her forte; if adults couldn't self-study, they'd be eliminated from the online world long ago. Moreover, she used to work in gaming and often watched related online courses to expand her skills and horizons.
The only pity was that these teaching pearls couldn't be rewatched; they were one-time use items.
Although obsessed with pandas, she hadn't forgotten that she came here to cultivate, and tasks needed to be completed. So after receiving the teaching pearls, she obediently stayed in the bamboo house to study.
Xin Xiu sat on the fluffy cushion in her room. As a substitute, it provided some comfort on days when there were no pandas to pet. She activated the teaching pearl by pinching its fur, and before her appeared the beautiful and gentle face of Senior Sister Bai Fei, as graceful as Guanyin Bodhisattva, except slightly transparent, as if she were truly present.
So this was an immersive teaching method. Xin Xiu suddenly recalled those classic online cultivation novels where the protagonists encountered miraculous inheritances - could they have been something like this? Online lectures from experts?
Senior Sister Bai Fei's recorded image had already begun speaking. She didn't use long passages of classical Chinese or recite incomprehensible syllables, but explained the common knowledge of the cultivation world in the plainest terms.
Their cultivation primarily focused on the body, which acted as a vessel. The human soul resided within this vessel. The difference between ordinary vessels and spirit tools in the cultivation world lay in the word "spirit." In other words, one had to cultivate their body into a container filled with spiritual energy. When the body became pure spiritual energy and could undergo a qualitative change together with the soul, it would leave the realm of mortal flesh and be called "transcendence."
What once again subverted Xin Xiu's common knowledge was that this cultivation world had no cultivation levels like Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, or Nascent Soul.
What was going on? These were the settings of the progenitor of online cultivation novels, used in countless stories. How could they just say they didn't exist?
But they really didn't. The difference between cultivators and mortals here was simply transcendence. Among these transcendent cultivators, there were very powerful individuals who might cultivate to become human immortals, which was the pursuit of most people in the current cultivation world.
Of course, there was also a small group of confident geniuses whose goal was to become true immortals beyond human immortals. Unfortunately, there was only one true immortal in the current cultivation world - their Shuling Mountain's founder, the LingZhao Immortal.
The reason he could cultivate to become a true immortal was said to be due to a great opportunity. Countless people had tried to imitate him but failed to reach true immortal status. Several hundred years had passed, and he remained the sole true immortal in the cultivation world.
In Shuling Mountain, only a few people had cultivated to become human immortals. The rest, no matter how powerful, still hadn't achieved human immortal status. Even her master, who in her eyes could create small worlds, hadn't yet become a human immortal. This showed how difficult cultivation was.
However, everyone seemed to be in no hurry to cultivate and level up. Unlike those cultivation novels she had read where people rushed to upgrade, the cultivators she had seen here didn't seem to have this sense of urgency. Perhaps it was because this was indeed an activity that required a long time. In an environment where hundreds of years could pass in the blink of an eye, people naturally became less hurried.
Since this was a one-time lecture, Xin Xiu pulled back her wandering thoughts and continued to listen to Senior Sister Bai Fei. She had already begun talking about spells.
In their cultivation, they needed to learn spells, and the term "spell" could be understood by breaking it down. What is "fa" (law)? Xin Xiu listened and summarized: "Fa" is the understanding of all things in the world, probably like the various formulas and theorems summarized in mathematics and physics. This is "fa." And "shu" (technique) refers to skills, the various processes that can apply "fa."
Those incomprehensible heavenly books they heard at night while in the World in a Basin were a kind of "fa."
Learning spells was like understanding mathematical formulas and then using these formulas to solve specific math problems. Cultivators understood the composition of all things in the world, familiarized themselves with their constituent elements, and thus could use them to do various things, from turning clouds and rain, moving mountains and filling seas with a wave of the hand, to condensing water balls and flames out of thin air.
Experts could summarize different "fa," while ordinary people could only learn and use them. This was the difference in enlightenment. Xin Xiu knew she couldn't see through the rules of all things, but she could still learn, and that was enough.
There were some other theories that Xin Xiu found interesting, such as the section on flying. Humans can't fly, but cultivators can fly when they reach a certain level, and how high they can fly depends on the purity of their bodies. Here, Senior Sister also elaborated on the separation of pure and turbid energies at the beginning of the world, with the pure rising to become heaven and the turbid sinking to become earth.
Birds didn't count; they could only fly as high as the human eye could see. But cultivators could break through the clouds and reach higher places.
Hearing this, Xin Xiu's mind began to ponder questions about the atmosphere and oxygen. When these seniors flew to the sky, did they fly out of the atmosphere? Did they actually see the universe? Or did this world not have the Earth and Milky Way of her world at all?
Then what was the true face of this world?
Lost in thought, she missed the end of Senior Sister's lecture on flying.
Xin Xiu: "..."
Fortunately, another senior also mentioned it in their lecture, and this time Xin Xiu listened carefully. To fly, one still needed to work on their body. Humans can only walk on the ground and can't fly with their own bodies because they are born full of turbid energy. Their cultivation involved expelling the turbid energy from their bodies and filling them with pure energy, naturally allowing them to float and ride the wind.
Pure energy was different from spiritual energy. If spiritual energy was the mana needed to cast spells, then pure energy was what increased a person's health bar. Although not entirely accurate, this was the explanation Xin Xiu found easiest to understand.
Pure energy, turbid energy, and various spiritual energies were mixed in the world. Their cultivation involved separating what they needed from the world, letting it enter their bodies, making spiritual energy circulate within the body, and retaining pure energy.
Hearing too much made her head spin. After listening to two lectures, Xin Xiu summarized: Pure (hydrogen) energy enables flight.
Senior Brother Jing Chengzi's lecture was much more interesting. He taught divination and fortune-telling, how to read a person's facial features and energy, saying that a person's good and evil could be discerned from the pure and turbid energies in their body, and that a person's character, whether impatient or lazy, was related to the imbalance of the five elemental spiritual energies in the body. This lecture was delivered with great wit, making Xin Xiu laugh out loud. She summarized the content of the class as "How to Be a Qualified Charlatan."
Jing Chengzi also mentioned flying at the end, perhaps because flying was what most cultivators cared about most. Xin Xiu was actually very eager to fly too, especially after listening to the previous two lectures, she wanted to go up to the sky and see for herself even more.
Senior Brother Jing Chengzi didn't talk about how to cultivate flying, but rather how to fly with the aid of spirit tools. Cultivators who hadn't mastered cultivation yet could borrow spirit tools if they wanted to fly.
"Spirit tools are not easy to come by in the cultivation world, especially for some lone cultivators in the mountains and wilderness who find it hard to obtain even one spirit tool. But Niece Xiu certainly won't lack for them. If you want one, you can just go and sweet-talk your master a bit. Brother Shentu may seem aloof, but he's actually very easy to talk to. Niece Xiu, you should give it a try."
Jing Chengzi winked at her like a mischievous child, as if this wasn't just a video lesson, but he was actually seeing her in person.
Xin Xiu was moved by his words. She had realized from the moment she arrived that her master was easy to talk to - he doted on her even more than her grandfather did.
However, asking her master for a flying spiritual tool seemed too simple a request. There were so many spiritual tools in the bamboo house, and surely many of them could fly. She didn't want to just take any random one.
An idea popped into her mind, and Xin Xiu went to find paper and pen to start sketching.
"Master!"
Shentu Yu appeared silently. One moment he was a fluffy giant panda relaxing on a tree branch, enjoying the breeze, and the next he had transformed back into human form behind his disciple. He had become quite adept at this transformation lately from frequent practice.
Xin Xiu wasn't startled by his sudden appearance. She smiled like a sunflower and held up her drawing to him.
"Master, can I have a spiritual tool that can fly, pretty please~?" She hadn't used this tone of voice with her parents since sixth grade, but now that she was back in the game, it seemed her master was quite susceptible to it.
He nodded in agreement without even looking at the drawing.
Xin Xiu: "Daddy!"
She had sent countless "Sugar daddy, look at me" meme stickers to her friends before, and today her dream had finally come true. Her senior fellow disciples had said rare spiritual tools were hard to come by, but her wealthy master was giving them away so easily.
Xin Xiu: "Daddy, look, I want one like this!"
Shentu Yu took the paper and glanced at it.
Shentu Yu: "I have never seen such a strange object before."
Xin Xiu explained with a serious expression: "Mm-hmm, it's a kind of vehicle called a motorcycle."
And it wasn't just any motorcycle. Before she came to this world, her company had been developing a futuristic sci-fi game. She had designed over a dozen motorcycle concepts, and this sleek black and blue big bike was her favorite. Who would have thought her boss would stubbornly choose the set she liked least, completely dismissing the one she was most proud of.
Fine, if they wouldn't use this design in the game, she'd make it a reality in this cultivation world!
Xin Xiu briefly explained to him how motorcycles worked, then asked, "Master, can you make one that looks like this?"
Although his disciple's desired toy looked a bit strange, she was looking at him with such hopeful eyes that he, as her master, naturally couldn't say no. Besides, he had forged many flying spiritual tools before. Changing the appearance wouldn't be too complicated.
Shentu Yu: "It can be done."
Xin Xiu: *rubs hands together like a fly*
Her master took the stack of drawings she had made and went off to forge the spiritual tool for her. Meanwhile, Xin Xiu decided to repay his kindness by making some sweets to comfort her hardworking "old man".
A honey cake seemed the most suitable option at the moment. Her second senior fellow disciple had come by earlier to ask her advice on how to approach the Iron-Eating Spirit Beast, and had brought her a basket of "chicken" eggs as a gift.
Although they were much larger than chicken eggs and had red shells, she figured eggs were eggs, so they'd have to do.
While beating the egg mixture, she remembered her master's sweet tooth and added triple the amount of honey. Since she didn't have all the ingredients, she made the simplest version possible.
As she waited for the cake to bake, she thought that if she ever had the chance, she should get a cow. Without milk, many desserts couldn't be made, and wouldn't that deprive life of so much joy?
It took her master much longer to forge this spiritual tool than Xin Xiu had imagined. He emerged after three days and placed the finished product in front of her.
When Xin Xiu saw the actual item, she was stunned. Her master couldn't possibly be from this cultivation world, could he? How could his aesthetic sense be so avant-garde and amazing? The creation before her was entirely her dream bike.
Look at the elegant form of this big motorcycle - its shape differed slightly from her drawing, but these modifications made Xin Xiu even more enamored. And that ink-black color! At first glance it seemed low-key and restrained, but the flowing luster and the peacock blue lines inlaid on the exterior were just too beautiful!
This big motorcycle could be described in one word: sexy.
Xin Xiu: Master, you're so talented.
Struck in the heart by this sexy beast, she hugged her master's arm tightly and happily showered him with praise: "Master, how can you be so amazing? Your aesthetic sense is unparalleled, your skills are incomparable, your..."
Her master pinched her mouth shut and nodded towards the big motorcycle. "Go on, try it."
Xin Xiu happily went to test out her new big motorcycle.
