met free Chapter 35 The First Enlightenment Movement for Soul Beasts
Chapter 35 The First Enlightenment Movement for Soul Beasts
As early as when searching for household registration records, Di Tian secretly resolved that he must make these soul beasts in the core circle learn human writing.
During the Spirit Pagoda era, contact between soul beasts and humans increased significantly. When Di Tian saw his ferocious beasts scratching their heads and staring blankly at the cooperation documents handed to them by humans, he felt powerless and helpless. Nevertheless, he had to admit that he himself was not much better when faced with those convoluted terms.
After Zi Ji's graceful and flowing dragon shadow carried Bi Ji and Huo Yutong, transforming into a streak of purple light in the sky and flying towards the far north, Di Tian took a deep breath and summoned several giants from the core circle of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Di Tian cleared his throat and announced his well-considered decision:
"Starting tomorrow, all soul beasts with a cultivation level of over 100,000 years must begin learning human writing and language."
As soon as the words were spoken, the scene fell silent. The ferocious beasts looked at each other, as if trying to confirm whether they had misheard something.
Xiong Jun was the first to get angry, yelling, "Why learn that stuff?"
Humans are cunning, and their writing must be full of intrigue and treachery!
Instead of wasting time, why not cultivate more and increase your cultivation level!
The Demon King said, "Our soul beast inheritance relies on bloodline memory and soul resonance. What's the point of those human graffiti?"
The Red King's three heads growled, and although they did not explicitly object, their six eyes were filled with disinterest.
Only Di Qiu squatted quietly to the side, her ruby-like eyes sparkling with curiosity and bewilderment.
Di Tian's forehead veins throbbed slightly, and he said in a deep voice, "Foolish! Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."
In the future, we will need to interact with humans and even establish our own order. If we don't even know their writing system, how can we sign contracts? How can we formulate laws?
He couldn't help but recall that in his previous life, only a hundred years after Huo Yuhao ascended to immortality, humans dared to manipulate them with just a few sheets of paper. Of course, he only heard about it later from Bi Ji.
"No need for further explanation, starting tomorrow, learn ten characters every day! Anyone who can't learn them..."
A golden light flashed in Di Tian's eyes, and a terrifying dragon's might spread out, "You will bear the consequences!"
Then Di Tian arrived at the cave they had previously opened to store human soul tools.
He began to rummage through the storage soul tool, taking out books, paper, and pens. After taking them out, he started reading. Since he didn't have any literacy textbooks, he found a few simple books to use as teaching materials and taught them to recognize words.
Di Tian flipped through the books one after another, then he stopped. Why did this book seem so strange? The first few pages were fine, but this page started to... He still finished reading the whole book anyway.
Humans have really got creative.
Finally, he found a book that was barely suitable: "The Complete Collection of Children's Fairy Tales"—a picture book.
The next morning, under the "persuasion" of absolute power, the first and perhaps most chaotic literacy lesson in the history of the Star Dou Great Forest reluctantly began.
(Actually, some of the soul beasts with 100,000 years of cultivation did not come for various reasons, and they were informed of the reasons.)
Di Tian transformed into a dragon and used his claws to carve a neat "一" character on a large, smooth blue stone.
"Look carefully, this character is pronounced 'yi', which means 'beginning', and is the simplest."
Xiong Jun stared at the horizontal line and muttered, "Isn't this just a stick? What's there to learn?"
The Demon King attempted to condense a more "artistic" "one" using his soul power, but it turned into a twisted vine, which he then admired to himself.
One of the Red King's heads seemed to understand and nodded, while the other two heads began to bar their teeth at each other.
Di Qiu was quite serious, mimicking Di Tian's movements with its front paws, scratching at the soil.
Di Tian suppressed his anger and taught the second character: "人" (person), which consists of a left-falling stroke and a right-falling stroke.
"Look, doesn't this look like a standing human figure?" Di Tian tried his best to explain.
Xiong Jun laughed heartily: "Human? A weak little guy standing on two legs? That's a vivid description!"
But why write it this way? It would be so much simpler to just draw a little person!
The Demon King pondered, "Why can't three points of support be more stable?"
The Red King's three heads began to think independently, asking and answering their own questions. The left head said, "Does this character look delicious?"
The one in the middle said, "No."
The person on the right said, "It doesn't look appetizing at all."
Di Qiu looked at the character "人" (person), then at his own claws, seemingly both confused and longing.
When Di Tian began explaining the character "大" (big), the scene completely spiraled out of control.
"The character '大' (dà) resembles a person with outstretched arms, signifying something enormous..." Di Tian struggled to maintain his composure.
"Big? How big can it be? Is it as big as my real body?" Xiong Jun shouted, about to reveal his true form to show off.
Soul beasts with over 100,000 years of cultivation have controlled their size for ease of movement.
The Demon King has begun weaving various complex patterns in the air with vines, patterns he considers "large".
The three heads of the Red King started fighting amongst themselves over which head should be used to represent the word "big," and they growled at each other.
Unaffected by the chaotic scene before him, Di Qiu kept his eyes fixed on the words on the bluestone, his little paws still scratching at them.
"Silence!" Di Tian finally lost his temper and let out a roar containing the might of a dragon, which made the entire core circle buzz and all the soul beasts freeze.
Many soul beasts that had been sleeping were startled awake by the dragon's roar. For them, Di Tian's lectures and Xiong Jun's arguments were the best lullabies. Some plant-type soul beasts even disguised themselves as plants.
In the core area of the Star Dou Great Forest, apart from Di Qiu showing a bit of pure curiosity and the Demon King's off-track academic desire, only a few soul beasts were listening attentively.
Looking at the group of "students" in front of him, Di Tian suddenly felt an unprecedented weariness and deep doubt.
He stared at the blue stone inscribed with only three characters, then at the group of still bewildered and even somewhat impatient soul beasts, and an idea uncontrollably popped into his head:
Making these guys learn to read... that's probably the stupidest and most regrettable decision I've ever made!
Di Tian took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to throw these "students" out of the Star Dou Great Forest.
"That's enough for today." Di Tian waved his claw. "Disperse."
The soul beasts scattered instantly, fearing that Di Tian would change his mind.
Only Di Qiu glanced at Di Tian's desolate figure, then at the strange symbols on the bluestone, tilted his head, and seemed to want to memorize them.
Di Tian stood alone beside the bluestone, lost in deep self-doubt.
The thought of having to teach them to read for countless days and nights to come made Di Tian feel like he had aged ten thousand years, and he could only sigh incessantly.