Chapter 506: The Filthy-Rich Xiong Xiong Meilan

After confirming again and again,

Jiang Ding finally realized

that this was simply a panda born with slow reactions.

No wonder, despite her outstanding aptitude, she had only just reached the great completion of Eaglet Inner Qi at this point. After all, her twin sister Hua Hua Xiaoye had already reached late Qi Refining, and it would be no surprise for her to hit the peak of Qi Refining within three years.

"Senior Jiang, do I chop down here?"

"Senior Jiang, is the inner force for the sword thrust channeled like this?"

"Senior Jiang…"

Hua Hua Xiaohua practiced her sword with vigorous energy, excitedly asking questions from time to time. She had never had a day like today before — just from practice, she could clearly feel her own small improvements—

Of course — before this, she had barely practiced at all; it was a complete zero foundation.

"…"

Jiang Ding opened his mouth, then swallowed back the words he was about to say out of habit.

Forget it. She's just a little kid, not someone fighting for her life — why be so harsh?

So he kept giving pointers, correcting her mistakes in sword practice and inner force circulation, letting her swordsmanship improve bit by bit — there was plenty of room for progress.

She practiced her sword continuously for several hours, periodically replenishing herself with medicinal soups that restored inner force and qi-blood.

"Not bad."

Jiang Ding also discovered one of Hua Hua Xiaohua's strengths.

She was stubborn, with good resilience. After persisting for so long, even though her sinews and bones ached and sweat had soaked her fur through, she never complained of being tired — she really didn't seem like a child barely in her teens.

It seemed the outside rumors calling her lazy and playful were entirely a misunderstanding; she was simply much slower in her reactions.

"Ding-ling…"

A faint ringtone sounded from his phone. Jiang Ding glanced at the caller's name: Hua Hua Chenggong.

A fairly important person, he supposed.

Forward it to the main body, see if he picks up; if not, forward it back.

……

"Hua Hua Chenggong…"

Jiang Ding, while refining his flying sword and inscribing the thirteenth Earthly Fiend restriction, casually answered the call.

Before him, a light screen slowly unfurled.

Two giant pandas appeared.

Much taller than Hua Hua Xiaohua — standing upright, about 1.8 meters — their fur was white, with black limbs and ears, and the same black eye sockets like dark circles.

They looked… pretty much the same.

Jiang Ding couldn't tell them apart.

Nascent Soul realm aura — in terms of demon beasts, that was the Demon Sovereign realm.

"Greetings, two seniors."

Unable to tell which one was Hua Hua Chenggong, Jiang Ding greeted them warmly.

"Great Sun Sword Son? You're refining a treasure — sorry to disturb you."

A gentle female voice came from the panda on the left, sounding apologetic, as if about to hang up.

"No trouble at all."

Jiang Ding shook his head slightly, indicating he could spare some attention.

Cultivators' sense of time varied enormously. If he really waited until he was free, Hua Hua Xiaohua would probably have finished her college entrance exams already — what would there even be to talk about then?

"Sword Son, I'm really sorry."

The panda on the left with the gentle female voice apologized repeatedly, then pointed at the panda beside her and said: "This is my husband, Xiong Xiong Meilan. This fellow is so dumb — he can't even help his daughter with homework, and he's a Nascent Soul cultivator, no less!"

"Greetings, Senior Xiong."

Jiang Ding instantly memorized the two's spiritual sense fluctuations and greeted them warmly.

"Sword Son, first meeting — I've long admired your great name."

Xiong Xiong Meilan's voice was somewhat deeper.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they got straight to the point.

"Sword Son, what do you think of Xiao Hua's talent?"

Hua Hua Chenggong asked.

"Very good, actually. Her cultivation aptitude is excellent, her resilience is good, she's not afraid of hardship, and she's made great progress."

Jiang Ding offered politely.

"No need to be so formal."

Hua Hua Chenggong didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Xiao Hua — well, because of some innate soul defects, she's a bit slow in her reactions, but her soul isn't weak — it's more than twice Hua Xiaoye's, and she can almost be called the panda cub with the best soul talent in the entire panda clan, only slightly inferior to the Old Ancestor back in the day."

"Really?"

Jiang Ding was surprised.

He knew Hua Hua Xiaohua's soul was relatively strong — much stronger than humans of the same level — but he had assumed every panda was like that.

Then his heart stirred slightly.

Great Sun Sword Pavilion, Great Sun Sword Dao.

Their demands on soul talent were extremely high. They didn't care about anything like Grand Yin Dao Physiques or Five Element Dao Physiques — they only valued sword cultivators who had fought their way up from the bottom.

The Great Sun Flying Sword's amplification of the soul could overshadow any other talent.

Take Chong Chong Chong Guang Zi — he didn't have any kind of Dao Physique at all, but that didn't stop him from suppressing the Dao Sons of the Badaxian Sect. Whether it was one-on-one or one-on-eight, the results weren't much different.

"Sword Son."

Seeing Jiang Ding fall silent, Hua Hua Chenggong felt a slight thrill of joy: "To tell you the truth, we begged the Old Ancestor for guidance, and only then sent Hua Hua Xiaohua to you.

"This child, Hua Hua Xiaohua—her academic scores, tank piloting, warship operation, none of them are any good. As her parents, we just wanted to find her a path."

"Of course, this is only a possibility. If it doesn't work out, that's fine too."

Jiang Ding's heart stirred.

At the dawn of the Immortal Sect's Sword Dao, with the road ahead shrouded in chaotic fog, weren't the talents the Sword Dao could draw upon precisely those misfits who couldn't walk the conventional path laid out in the Immortal Sect's classics?

"Sword Child."

The deep-voiced giant panda Xiong Xiong Meilan waved her large paw: "I heard you're building a Sword Dao Research Center? Giving money or spirit stones is too vulgar, and you wouldn't accept it anyway. Let me put together an R&D team for an initial research center for you—I'll transfer people from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center."

"Research equipment and the like, I'll buy it all and set it all up for you."

"Don't worry, we'll only buy the most expensive equipment, not the best. Whether Hua Hua Xiaohua makes it or not, it doesn't matter."

"Senior…"

Jiang Ding raised his head, and a string of little stars popped out of his eyes.

This was no metaphor—actual little stars of azure sword qi popped out of his eyes, drifting off in every direction.

"Two seniors, you really don't have to go to such lengths."

Jiang Ding said solemnly: "The Sword Dao is just beginning, and it thirsts for talent. If Hua Hua Xiaohua truly has talent in this area, she naturally deserves vigorous cultivation, to bring glory to the Sword Dao. This is my great fortune."

"We understand, we understand…"

The two giant pandas grinned foolishly—cute and adorable, and utterly deceptive.

He hung up the phone.

Jiang Ding took a deep breath. He didn't handle the matter right away, but instead spent several months first finishing the refinement of the flying sword in his hands.

Moon Stream Crystals overflowed, white mist rose, and the crimson sword body once again turned azure.

The thirteenth Earth Fiend Prohibition—success.

Behind him, the Sun Divine Tree rose from the ground, blotting out the sky, gathering the light of the sun. Beneath the tree, Jiang Ding emptied his mind of all thought, sinking into a deep level of meditation, resting to the utmost, recovering his energy.

Then, he would deal with the matter of the super big patron.

A month later, Jiang Ding opened his eyes, a flash of divine light vanishing in an instant.

"Hua Hua Xiaohua's divine soul is roughly four times that of an ordinary person."

"She's full of tenacity, unafraid of the hardships of training. With these two points, the most basic foundation is already there."

"The only flaw is that her reactions are too slow—slower than an ordinary person's."

Jiang Ding thought carefully, repeatedly consulted books on the Sword Dao in the Immortal Sect's library, and finally settled on a Gong Fa: "'Divine Turtle Lava Thorn Sword Canon,' a legacy of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, incomplete—it can only be cultivated up to Nascent Soul stage. It emphasizes striking late but arriving first, defense and counterattack. It refines and condenses lava sword qi into a thorn sword armor worn on the body: the stronger the attack received, the stronger the counterattack."

"If the opponent refuses to strike first, then I strike first and beat them to death directly."

"Even more critically, entering the Dao through the sword—if one practices the sword well, one can condense the divine soul, thereby increasing the divine soul's reaction speed and the speed of absorbing knowledge, which in turn indirectly increases the speed of learning."

"A lava thorn flying sword embryo similar to the Great Sun Flying Sword needs to be refined during the mortal stage, and this Gong Fa is written for humans, so it needs to be modified… this part can be tossed to the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base."

The more Jiang Ding thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He opened his computer and began writing and sketching, designing the Gong Fa and the teaching plan.

Three.

(End of this chapter)