Gu Chen, a poor archaeology student, is excavating the tomb of Empress Dowager Bo from the Western Han dynasty when a drop of beast blood sealed away for two thousand years floods his body.
When he wakes, he finds a round, black-and-white cub in a corner of the construction site.
It is busily munching on the site’s steel rebar.
One bar at a time, the pile gets smaller.
When it finishes, it burps and spits out a gleaming little ball of pure gold.
Gu Chen: ?
[Ding! An ancient iron-eating beast cub detected. Bloodline contract bound. The iron-eating beast can transform metal into spirit gold for the Host to forge divine weapons.]
From then on, Gu Chen’s life takes a path no one else could have imagined
Other people’s divine beasts soar through the skies and roam the earth, summoning wind and rain.
His divine beast chews on rebar.
Other people’s inheritors risk their lives fighting over treasures in secret realms.
He sends Hu Hu in to eat its fill, and the treasures roll out on their own.
Other people’s mighty warriors battle to the death, fighting until heaven and earth grow dim.
Hu Hu sits down, burps, and all the fighting spirit in the arena vanishes. Both sides stare at each other in bewilderment.
The Records of the Grand Historian says the Yellow Emperor fought Chi You at Banquan with Pixiu, winning after three battles.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas says Zouyu is a benevolent beast that does not eat living creatures; when the Zouyu banner appears, weapons fall silent.
Ancient texts say the iron-eating beast is black and white, eats bronze, iron, and bamboo bones, and has a furnace of creation in its belly.
No one knows that all three legends are embodied in a round panda who spends his days chewing rebar, burping, and casually spitting out gold.
Even fewer know that deep within those sealed bloodlines lies the last secret of an ancient battlefield.
It is a memory older than the Yellow Emperor, another side of the Battle of Zhuolu that the histories never recorded, and the bloodline of a people almost completely erased from history
Chi You’s mount.
Hu Hu’s take: Whatever the bloodline is, I’ll eat first and ask questions later.
