Xin Xiu found one thing very strange - her master would occasionally talk to that ill-tempered baby panda. After the panda did something naughty or got angry at her, her master would comfort it like consoling a child after an argument, and then scold the baby panda.
This series of actions left Xin Xiu puzzled.
After a few such instances, Xin Xiu speculated that this new panda could actually speak human language.
"You can actually speak human language, right? I've been taking care of you for several days now, why don't you say something to me?" Xin Xiu crouched in front of the tiny baby panda, trying to tempt it with a bamboo shoot.
The baby panda did make a sound, but it was in panda language that she couldn't understand. If it couldn't speak human language, it surely couldn't be because her master could speak panda language - that wasn't some foreign language one could easily learn.
While the baby panda was still making "ang ang ang" sounds, Shentu Yu walked by and said, "Don't make unreasonable requests."
Xin Xiu: "Ah, Master, I was just joking."
Shentu Yu: "I was talking to her. She's taking advantage of your fondness again to make unreasonable demands. It's improper."
Xin Xiu: "..."
Xin Xiu: "Master, where did you learn panda language? I want to learn too."
Shentu Yu patted her head, shook his head, and walked away. Before leaving, he admonished the panda: "Don't throw tantrums at her."
Xin Xiu pondered, could it be that panda language was some kind of special skill that her master couldn't teach her? Or was her cultivation level still too low to learn it? As she contemplated, she bundled the panda into her arms.
The soft baby panda's fur wasn't as black as its mother's, but it was finer. Its two little ears were also soft. When it lay there turning its body, its little belly trembled, rising and falling with each breath. It was incredibly cute, like a little stuffed bear toy.
However, the cute baby panda didn't like being petted for long. After just a few strokes, it would struggle to leave, rolling to the side to lie down.
The little panda indeed wasn't as patient and gentle as the big mama panda.
When Xin Xiu forcibly grabbed the little ball of fur to pet it, she felt a bit like a bully. Because the baby panda had been scolded by her master, it didn't dare show its claws to her anymore. Occasionally, when she petted it for too long, it would just raise its paw in a gesture of daring to be angry but not daring to act, showing a bit of an exasperated look. But because its black eye circles formed a figure-eight shape, it always looked particularly innocent and pitiful, making even its fierce expressions seem like it was just being adorable.
After keeping it for just a few days, Xin Xiu discovered that this little one had started running around everywhere, hiding in various corners where she couldn't find it.
Xin Xiu wondered: Could it be that pandas really like hide-and-seek activities? The mama panda was like this too.
"Ha, found you!" Xin Xiu picked up the baby panda from the top of the cabinet.
"Found you again." Xin Xiu pulled the baby panda out from between some rocks.
Although the baby panda was an Iron-Eating Spirit Beast, suppressed by Shentu Yu's aura, it still didn't have much human-like thinking. It was more driven by its fierce beast instincts. Not being naturally close to humans, it got annoyed by Xin Xiu's constant hugging. It stood up on its hind legs and swatted Xin Xiu away with its paw, sending her tumbling right to Shentu Yu's feet as he was coming up the stairs.
Xin Xiu wasn't bothered by being pushed and rolled over while playing with her pet. She used to raise dogs, and when playing with them, they would often get overly excited, nuzzling and pouncing. Being knocked over by them was quite normal. Sometimes when the dog was happy and ran very fast, she would be out of breath running behind it holding the leash. When they ran too far and she was too tired to walk back home, the dog would act coy and refuse to move, and she'd have to carry it back home on her back.
But Shentu Yu didn't think this incident could be overlooked. He picked up the baby panda and took it away, telling Xin Xiu before leaving: "I'll get you one with a better temper."
He indeed brought back another one not long after. At least, it was probably another one. After all, they were all the same fluffy balls, with the same black paws and black eye circles. Unlike dogs that have different patterns and colors, pandas are basically all one color, so Xin Xiu had trouble telling them apart.
This baby panda didn't randomly get angry at her chair or create various furniture corpses, but it really ate too much. Xin Xiu left it in the room for a while, just taking an afternoon nap, and it ate the stairs leading to the next floor.
Xin Xiu thought: Master told it not to chew on furniture or throw furniture around, and it indeed did as told.
Not only did it chew the stairs, but it also chewed the wall, creating a rather neat shape like a door. Xin Xiu looked at the new door the baby panda had opened for her in the wall. This door was treacherous, standing there looking down was a six-story height, one step out and you could fall. Whistling wind and clouds rushed in from outside, no wonder she felt cold while sleeping earlier.
She crouched in front of the suspended hole that used to be the stairs and looked for a while, discovering that the baby panda was now chewing on the fourth-floor stairs. If she had woken up any later, the fourth-floor stairs would probably have been gone too.
Xin Xiu looked around, found some rope, tied it to a pillar to serve as stairs, and slid down to the fifth floor, then stepped on the rickety fourth-floor stairs to go down.
If giant pandas have such good appetites, wouldn't this entire bamboo building be eaten up by it?
Master and disciple sat facing each other in the courtyard, with a large pot of purple bamboo shoots with meat slices and stir-fried vegetables between them, along with a plate of newly pickled crisp sour bamboo shoots. The two of them ate on one side, while the baby panda sat under the corridor pillar watching them eat. Because it had chewed up the stairs and walls, Shentu Yu had drawn a circle around the pillar, making it stay inside to reflect on its actions, not allowing it to come out.
So the baby panda could only futilely twist around that round pillar, leaning forward to scratch the pillar one moment, then rubbing its tail the next - the scene looked like a panda pole dancing.
Xin Xiu would take a bite of food, look at it, look at it again, and finally said: "Master, you should send this baby panda back." Wild Iron-Eating Spirit Beasts are not suitable for keeping as pets.
After saying this, she bit her chopsticks and thought, being treated like a child by a group of old immortals, she had really started acting like a child. She was behaving more and more youthfully, actually doing childish things like clamoring to keep a pet and then regretting it halfway. Thinking back, she seemed to have done the same thing when she was eight years old.
Then later, when she was in her teens, she started raising dogs and kept at it for ten years.
Xin Xiu held her bowl, eating while pondering the problem, "Master, why do all these furry animals dislike being petted by me? I don't think my technique is that bad."
Shentu Yu held his bamboo chopsticks silently.
In fact, he couldn't judge her technique, as he had never allowed others to pet him like that. However, he thought the main problem was probably that she petted for too long.
When his disciple liked something, she would be particularly affectionate towards it, with an enthusiasm that was too much for fur to handle. Regardless of technique, she would pet for a long time, reluctant to let go. Naturally, furry animals wouldn't like it.
"You've just started cultivating and can't control your gold fire spiritual energy well yet. The energy coming from your hands naturally wouldn't be liked by ordinary birds and beasts," Shentu Yu could only come up with this reason to comfort his disciple.
Is it a problem with gold fire spiritual energy? Xin Xiu looked at her hands, suddenly realizing that this was probably like having dry hands - when touching fur, it easily produces static electricity. No wonder the two baby pandas didn't like her petting them.
Xin Xiu felt dejected, thinking back to the water-element Third Elder and wood-element Fifth Elder, realizing that they indeed were more popular with small animals. She thought sourly: "I guess I'm only suitable for raising dogs."
Only her dog would never dislike her, no matter how she petted or hugged it. A dog that has recognized its owner will always gently indulge them.
Just as some people might find their dogs particularly clingy and annoying, only expressing affection clumsily. Generally, long-haired animals simply wouldn't like enthusiastic fur-loving humans, let alone humans whose petting causes static electricity!
How miserable, truly miserable!
But that's not right, she still had the mama panda. Although there were no dogs in this world, she still had a mama panda that didn't dislike her and allowed her to pet it freely. It must truly love her.
Xin Xiu immediately perked up, feeling that it would be better to go pet the mama panda.
She began searching all over the mountains for traces of the mama panda, convinced that it was the cutest, most beautiful, and best to pet among all pandas. In terms of touch, this was indeed true. Although the cubs were soft and adorably tiny, the giant panda was like a fluffy warm water bed. When they became more familiar, she would definitely sleep on the mama panda's belly.
Seeing his disciple searching for him all over the mountains, Shentu Yu occasionally felt a pang of conscience. His disciple often thought of him, always wanting to prepare food to show filial piety to her master, yet he deliberately avoided her.
As a top-tier artifact forger, Shentu Yu had to start considering other methods to satisfy his disciple's interests, such as forging an Iron-Eating Spirit Beast for her.
So, should he forge a "living" Iron-Eating Spirit Beast, or merely create a lifeless object in the shape of one?
Long ago, Shentu Yu was not as he is now. When he was most passionate and arrogant about the art of artifact forging, he had once forged another body for himself—a body indistinguishable from a normal human's. To make that body truly become a "person," he went so far as to extract his own soul to forge it. In the end, he succeeded.
His master, LingZhao Immortal, said that this creation had already surpassed the realm of "artifact forging." Being a demon, yet forging a living human body, simultaneously possessing both human and demon bodies, sharing one soul controlled by a single consciousness—it was unprecedented, tantamount to challenging the laws of heaven.
Because of this body, it attracted lightning tribulation, striking for three days and three nights, causing him to spend nearly a hundred years recovering his vitality.
Since then, he began to control both bodies simultaneously. The human body would travel the world year-round, collecting various materials for artifact forging, while his original form became increasingly lazy and reclusive, spending each day in his true form resting in the mountains, with most of his consciousness focused on the other body.
The consequences of his youthful arrogance persisted to this day, and Shentu Yu never again attempted to forge living beings. However, with some modifications, it wasn't impossible to forge a spiritual artifact capable of developing its own "spirit."
Like swords and other weapons often carried and used by their owners, artifacts that embody their owner's principles are most likely to develop a spirit. Though not human, these spirits can grow alongside their owners and be controlled by them.
Shentu Yu decided to forge a "spiritual artifact" in the shape of an Iron-Eating Spirit Beast to accompany his disciple.
Xin Xiu was unaware that her panda "mother" was going to great lengths to escape being cuddled, preparing to make her an "artificial intelligence" panda. At present, she was with a dozen senior disciples, preparing for a divination class with one of their junior masters.
The divination teacher hadn't arrived yet, so the senior disciples were chatting idly, bringing up Shentu Yu.
"I joined the sect late, so I'm not clear about what happened with Senior Brother Shentu about three hundred years ago. It was Senior Brother Tao Jun who told me. Oh, you probably don't know Tao Jun, he left the mountain decades ago and hasn't returned. We don't know what he's doing out there. He joined the sect early and witnessed the lightning tribulation back then. They say the lightning struck non-stop for three days and three nights, carving out a basin at the junction of the back mountain and Secluded Bamboo Mountain."
"There are speculations that Senior Brother used human souls to forge artifacts, which brought divine punishment. But my master says that Senior Brother Shentu probably created something extraordinary, though we don't know exactly what it was."
