"Gwaju! Gwaju!" The little creature suddenly chirped twice, its voice high, sweet, and pleasant, rather like birdsong.
"You can understand me!" Li Xiaoya exclaimed in delight, rising to his feet without thinking. Only then did he remember that the adorable little creature was still on his shoulder, and he feared it would run away again. To his surprise, it merely swayed its plump body, blinked, and remained on his shoulder, chirping twice merrily. "Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Hahaha! Can you only say 'gwaju, gwaju'?" Li Xiaoya blinked and laughed as he gazed at the little creature.
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Just as I thought!"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Come play at my house!"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"All right, let's go!"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Shall I give you a name?"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Hehe! How about Idiot?"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Hahahaha! Just kidding!"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"You keep going 'gwaju, gwaju,' so how about I call you Guagua?"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
"Guagua!"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!"
And so, Li Xiaoya chatted with the little creature, Guagua, all along the way, his childish spirit bubbling over. He was only ten years old, after all. Faced with such an adorable, fluffy little creature, he soon cast his injuries to the back of his mind and devoted himself to teasing Guagua as he walked home.
Several times, however, Li Xiaoya tried to reach out and stroke Guagua, only for the little creature to vanish in a flash, then reappear on his shoulder a moment later from who knew where. After this happened a few times, Li Xiaoya realized that Guagua disliked being touched and had to give up. Perhaps things would improve once they grew more familiar with each other.
"Grrr, grrr, grrrrr..." Just as Li Xiaoya was nearing home, his stomach began to rumble. Only then did he remember that he had eaten nothing but a little roasted sweet potato early that morning. Before he even reached Treasure Immortal Town, people had chased him for much of the day, and then Scarface Chen had hunted him down and nearly killed him. Having barely escaped death, he had encountered and picked up the adorable little Guagua. Between his delight and his childish nature, he had become so absorbed in playing with the little creature that he forgot his hunger entirely. It was already past noon, and he was so hungry that his belly seemed pressed flat against his backbone. Only when the temple of his five viscera lodged its protest did he remember that he had gone most of the day without food.
"Ah! There's no way I can go into town for food now. Xu Dagang and the others will beat me to death if I go back," Li Xiaoya muttered, lowering his head in thought. "Right! I'll go see whether Hunter Wang's traps have caught anything!" Naturally, he thought of finding food where Hunter Wang had set his traps. With his mind made up, he turned and headed deeper into the mountains.
While Li Xiaoya was happily making his way deeper into the forest, a hundred li away from him...
"That Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma is truly cunning. It actually doubled back along its original route!" the young woman in palace robes said from the air, sounding somewhat irritated.
"It doubled back? Then why didn't we find it along the way?" the girl asked, curious and puzzled.
"That is precisely where the little creature's cleverness lies. Even with my powerful divine sense at the nascent soul late stage, supplemented by several secret arts, I can only detect the traces of five-element fluctuations left by its movements. As for its actual body, because all five elements coexist within it-perhaps owing to its unusual constitution-I cannot sense it at all. Last time, if we had not lured it with its favorite food, the Ten-Thousand-Year Red Umbrella Mushroom that we Three Immortals of the Heavenly Dao obtained together, catching it would have been harder than overcoming a thousand trials and ten thousand ordeals! But when we baited it last time, it ate that mushroom along with the Immortal's Intoxication. Now we can only track it with divine sense, get close, and seize it with lightning-swift methods. As I just said, this little creature is very clever. It knows we are tracking it and cannot detect its actual body, so after coming here, it doubled back along its original route. That makes it much harder for us to locate it among the traces of its movements. Our search area has grown larger, and it may even seize the chance to escape the range of my divine sense," the young woman explained to the girl as she turned and flew back.
"Oh! I never would have guessed that little creature was so intelligent!" the girl exclaimed.
"Why else would our sect exhaust every scheme to obtain it? You've truly infuriated me!" The young woman gave her a somewhat reproachful glare.
The girl's small face flushed at those words. Knowing that her master was blaming her for losing the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma, she lowered her head, gently bit her lip, and fell silent.
Seeing her like this, the young woman's heart softened again. After all, this was her most beloved granddaughter as well as her young disciple. She sighed inwardly, said no more, and continued searching for the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma.
By evening, the sun was sinking in the west, tinting the mountains with a thin blush of red.
Beside a small lake.
A muntjac roasted over a fire, its skin browned and crisp. Li Xiao Ya held a piece in his hand, eating until his mouth was covered in grease, and mumbled, "What incredible luck! Such a big muntjac—it'll feed me for days. Guagua! It really is delicious! Are you sure you don't want any?"
"Gwaju! Gwaju!" Guagua was now lying lazily in his arms, looking up at him with a hint of puzzlement.
When Li Xiaoya reached the places where Hunter Wang had set his traps, the first three were utterly empty, without so much as a rabbit hair. At the fourth, no prey had taken the bait either. Just as he was about to head to the fifth spot, he unexpectedly spotted this big fellow grazing near a trap. His eyes shifted as a plan sprang to mind. He gathered a pile of small stones, circled behind the animal, and threw them to drive it toward the trap. His luck held, and he finally succeeded in making it take the bait and step into the iron jaws.
Then he killed the large muntjac, took it to the lakeside to gut and wash it, and built a fire to roast it. He did not get to eat until evening. One thing worth mentioning was how strange Guagua truly was: neither the killing of the muntjac nor the lighting of the fire startled the little creature in the slightest. Later, it simply settled into his arms and slept soundly. This made Li Xiaoya all the more certain that Guagua was a wondrous animal and had saved his life, and he could not help growing even more affectionate toward it.
After finishing his muntjac meat, Li Xiaoya put out the fire, took out an oilcloth bundle, and spread it over his shoulder. He hoisted the remaining meat onto that shoulder and headed home, thoroughly satisfied, teasing Guagua and making a jumble of "gwaju, gwaju" noises along the way.
"Master! Look! That person's wounds really have healed!" a girl's sweet voice suddenly rang out from nearly a hundred zhang above Li Xiaoya.
These were none other than the girl and the young woman who had saved Li Xiaoya.
"Oh! So they have! That boy was lucky!" The young woman glanced down casually at her words. "That's-!" That seemingly harmless glance revealed Guagua standing on Li Xiaoya's shoulder, and she could not help crying out in surprise.
"The Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma!" Hearing the young woman's startled cry, the girl looked closely and also spotted Guagua on Li Xiaoya's shoulder. She, too, exclaimed aloud. Guagua was none other than the spiritually awakened creature formed by the transformed Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma.
"Why is the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma with that boy? How strange!" Although both were overjoyed, the young woman's cultivation was deeper, and she regained her composure first, speaking with a trace of puzzlement.