Chapter 889: A Day in the Life of Chujiu (Side Story 1)

Chujiu was an iron-eating beast.

As the former guardian beast of the Jiuli Clan and a descendant of the exclusive mount of the ninth-realm Evil God Jiuli, it possessed a body that defied the heavens, a savage will to fight, and the bloodline of an ancient species.

This was exactly why it now held a critical position on Silver Sword Peak—the mascot.

Silver Sword Peak had a long-standing tradition of assigning a mascot, and over time, the role had quietly expanded in scope. Official duties included picking flowers, watering plants, feeding spirit hounds, enhancing spiritual fortune, sweeping floors, drawing talismans to sell, and even parading flower carriages through the sect...

No one questioned why the list was so long. The previous mascot, Liu Xiaoyu’er, had followed it to the letter every day.

Back when Chu Liang first started building his business, everyone around him contributed a lot.

Liu Xiaoyu’er had since retired with honor. As for Chujiu, despite having peak seventh-realm battle strength and even the merit of helping slay an eighth-realm Eminent One, it was still a small, chubby creature that waddled rather than walked. All those complicated chores? They were far too much trouble for the little creature.

Now, it had only one official responsibility on Silver Sword Peak—munching on bamboo.

That was right. It was another sunny day.

After waking up, Chujiu slowly opened its eyes, yawned, and pushed open the fence around its enclosure. It waddled into its cafeteria at the slow and steady pace of an old lady crossing the street.

A vast bamboo grove stretched out before it.

“Waaah! Chujiu’s out!”

Excited shrieks rang out the moment it appeared.

Outside the bamboo grove was a restricted fence. Beyond that fence, a crowd had already gathered. These were people who had gotten up early just to line up for a chance to see Chujiu.

Chujiu didn’t understand why people screamed when they saw it, but something deep in its blood told it this was normal. In the past, Jiuli worshipers had also gone mad with fervor for the iron-eating beast.

So in Chujiu’s mind, these people were its followers.

However, they were a little different from its followers in the past.

The worshipers of Jiuli used to kneel and chant with reverence, calling out, “Great Iron-Eating Beast!”

These new ones, however, just screamed things like, “Jiujiu! Mommy loves you!”

Maybe this was simply how people expressed their faith these days.

The instinct to protect was etched deep into Chujiu’s bones. As a guardian beast, it believed that everything it did was for the sake of protecting this mountain. Every stalk of spirit bamboo before it was not a meal but an enemy to be vanquished.

Chujiu munched on bamboo shoots one bite at a time. With every satisfying crunch, its followers erupted into cheers.

Look at them

, it thought.

They’re cheering me on.

With such encouragement, Chujiu devoured its bamboo with even more gusto.

That always-smiling man named Chu Liang had promised that for every day it spent battling stalks of spirit bamboo here, he would reward it with a spirit plant. To Chujiu, the act of eating in return for even tastier things was a brilliant arrangement. It considered itself extremely smart for having agreed to do this.

A moment later, the familiar voice of Shang Ziliang rang out nearby.

“Move along, move along. Some of you have been watching for ages. Give others a chance to see the ancient iron-eating beast up close.”

He had volunteered to take care of Chujiu.

As someone who had been single his entire life, he had only been working as the guard of this park for two days when some onlookers jokingly started calling him “Chujiu’s Dad.” At first, Shang Ziliang found it amusing. Then he realized there was a sizable crowd of beautiful female cultivators referring to themselves as “Chujiu’s Moms.”

He had never expected that he would suddenly find himself with a harem. But it was not a bad feeling at all.

From that day on, he approached his duties with great enthusiasm, arriving at Silver Sword Peak on time every morning. His main task was to gently remind Chujiu’s overly enthusiastic “parents” not to linger too long. As for keeping the area secure, that was unnecessary. The little creature could fight far better than he ever could.

“Aww, we’ve waited all morning. Let us stay a little longer,” a female cultivator said sweetly.

Shang Ziliang chuckled and smoothly redirected their attention. “Chujiu is not the only one on the Silver Sword Peak. We also have Liu Xiaoyu’er and Liu Xiaoyu. They are the koi sisters and were the very first generation of mascots here. Do you remember them?”

“The koi sisters!” someone squealed with delight.

The sisters had been immensely popular back in their day, with a devoted fanbase of their own. A good portion of the crowd began moving toward their garden.

“Yes, yes. Just follow this path straight ahead and you’ll find their little flower garden,” Shang Ziliang said, guiding them with ease. “And don’t forget the Golden-Furred Hou. It was there during the flower carriage parade on the Red Cotton Peak.”

“Ehh?” someone muttered with doubt. “It was in the parade?”

“Of course. It was the one pulling the carriage,” Shang Ziliang replied.

Everyone felt speechless. Still, a small group of curious onlookers wandered off to check out the Golden-Furred Hou.

“If you keep going that way, you’ll see our Silver Sword Peak’s master, Di Nufeng. She is also—”

The crowd immediately burst into groans and hisses before scattering in all directions.

Shang Ziliang could only shake his head. He thought,

Senior Aunt Feng on Silver Sword Peak really isn’t even as popular as a good dog.

By noon, following Chu Liang’s instructions, Shang Ziliang brought spirit fruits over for Chujiu. After all, eating bamboo all day could get boring.

He carried a basket filled with vibrant red spirit fruits, walked up to the fence, and called out loudly, “Chujiu, come here!”

Chujiu waddled over right away and caught the fruit in its chubby little paws, then began chomping away with soft huff-huff sounds.

Its adorable behavior once again drew a round of enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

And just like that, from morning to night, Chujiu’s busy day of eating came to an end.

“

Huuu

...” The little creature waddled back inside amid the crowd’s reluctant sighs, thinking to itself,

Another day of glorious battle has come to an end.

It had definitely eaten a bit too much.

This usually marked the end of its shift. However, sometimes... overtime was required.

Take tonight, for example. Two shadowy figures slipped into the enclosure, quietly dismantling the barrier as they whispered to each other.

“We’re really just going to steal the iron-eating beast like this? Are you sure it’s okay?” one of them asked nervously.

“Relax. I already scouted the place. Aside from the beast, there’s not a single guard in the whole enclosure,” the other replied.

"But the iron-eating beast itself is an ancient vicious beast, it could—”

“Come on, you saw it during the day too, didn’t you? That pudgy little slowpoke. What’s there to be scared of?”

“Exactly. Silver Sword Peak has been making a fortune off this thing. The black market is offering fifty thousand spirit stones for it now. One job, and we’re set for life.”

“If only we had the resources and strength of the Mount Shu Sect. We could open our own little zoo and make money every single day. How great would that be?”

“Enough talking. Open it, quick. If Di Nufeng finds out, we’re dead. I heard she’s got fangs, a monstrous face, and eats people alive. She's more terrifying than any diabolical cultivator.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it...”

Click.

With a low hum, the enchanted tool buzzed to life, and a gap split open in the barrier. The two figures slipped through the opening with barely a sound.

There, in the middle of the enclosure, sat a round, slow-moving creature. It blinked at them with innocent eyes, a wide grin stretching across its pudgy face.

“Look, it’s smiling at us,” one of them said with a chuckle.

That's right. Chujiu was smiling so happily.

In its small, simple mind, eating bamboo all day was a hard, exhausting job. But fighting? That wasn’t work. Fighting was fun. Fighting was playtime.

Back in ancient times, the Jiuli clansmen would throw powerful spirit beasts into Black Iron Mountain like playthings, just to give the iron-eating beasts something to hunt for fun.

After a full day of hard work, someone had finally come to play.

Chujiu cheerfully raised its paw.

“

ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

”

In a nearby loft, Di Nufeng rolled over in bed, her hair a mess and her clothes tangled. She scratched her backside with a scowl, yawning through half-lidded eyes.

She paused mid-yawn and mumbled to herself. “As if milking profits all day wasn’t enough... now they’ve figured out how to squeeze money out of the night too. Can’t even get proper sleep anymore. But this probably won’t last much longer. At this rate, there won’t be any thieves left in the Southern Regions soon... mm...”