Pseudo Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast

Although the footsteps of the elves have spread across the entire northern region of the Folded Ear Continent, the elven civil officials and Rus Wang have both chosen to remain silent about expanding toward the south.

There is no other reason.

The pace of expansion is simply too aggressive; the elves were merely filling in the map colors for Rus Wang. In reality, the initial Levant Region—and even the Levant Region as a whole—had too few people, a sparse population density, and a level of regional development that was practically zero. There was simply no appetite to digest it. Even with Rus Wang providing steam locomotive technology and the vehicles the elves cobbled together based on the Soul Tools he distributed, they could not bridge the massive void in available manpower.

Since being taken in by Rus Wang in the Levant Region, the elves have experienced 198 years of development, survived a nationwide Soul Master riot, and finally set off again after "healing" their wounds. Their total population has only just barely crossed the 8 million mark. This is unavoidable; elves live for over three hundred years, have a two-year gestation period, and their bodies do not mature until they are forty-five. (I have calculated this based on a population growth rate of 0.5%: 3 million * (1+0.5%)^240, then subtracting some for birth, aging, sickness, death, and turmoil.)

Even if the elves start having multiple children in their fifties, the available manpower remains very low by this calculation. They still occupy the northern lands of the Folded Ear Continent, which is larger than the Eurasian continent. This can no longer be described as over-expansion; it is like a rubber band stretched to its limit from both sides, at the point of snapping at any moment. Rus Wang is not so cold and heartless as to seize elves who are still in children's bodies to use as labor.

Therefore, after deciding to make another trip next year to that continent—which is not yet the Sun Moon Continent—Rus Wang and his wives plan to spend some time in the Elf Kingdom.

After transforming into human form at the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast level, the intelligence of a Soul Beast is on par with that of humans and elves. As long as they climbed their way up step by step before becoming a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, rather than relying on the inheritance of their ancestors, they are generally not simple-minded, low-intelligence children, but rather live and think like normal adult elves and humans.

Furthermore, the Heavenly Tribulation is a hurdle in the heart of every Soul Beast. The dragon race was particularly unlucky due to the infighting of their ancestors, which caused them to suffer through the lightning tribulations as well. Thus, after urgently reaching the hundred-thousand-year threshold for the sake of survival and resources, those Soul Beasts who have crossed this hurdle are generally in a "Buddhist" state of mind. Possessing long lifespans, they all hope that the Heavenly Tribulation triggered by reaching two hundred thousand years of cultivation will come as slowly as possible.

In reality, because the concentration of heaven and earth energy in the core area of the Nanshan Rainforest is so intense, the cultivation growth rate of Soul Beasts there is extremely fast. This leads to Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts who have survived the Heavenly Tribulation and successfully transformed simply abandoning their core area territories to move to the Elf Kingdom, only returning occasionally. They remain in a rather awkward state of being "famous but ownerless."

As for the ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts in the border zone between the mixed circle and the core area, those who can be assigned land there by Rus Wang are also intelligent enough not to engage in petty, underhanded behavior. If a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast were to return one day to check on things and they happened to be occupying the nest, it would undoubtedly be courting death for a creature with such strong territorial awareness, and they would lose their lives on the spot.

Now, counting all the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts in the Nanshan Rainforest, it is surprising that every single one of them has chosen to transform and move to the Elf Kingdom, which leaves Rus Wang both amused and exasperated. So, the Nanshan Rainforest is for cultivation, and the elven cities are for living, is that it?

But it makes sense; the improvement of the elves' cultivation levels does not essentially require any part of a Soul Beast's body. Under the Mental Contract method of his son, Barus, the two can even become mutually beneficial partners. Plus, besides trees, constant rain, and ponds, the Nanshan Rainforest has nothing worth looking at, far inferior to the elven cities which have entered a period of rapid development in culture and entertainment. Since they are not in a rush to reach two hundred thousand years of cultivation, choosing to enjoy life makes the latter an inevitable option.

"Where are Thalassa and the others?"

After Rus Wang, in his human form, returned to the new suburban manor he purchased in Ravenna with a basket of vegetables and Brachiosaurus meat (the kind from Jurassic World, which Rus Wang physically domesticated and handed over to the elves to raise as pack animals for cargo), he saw only the large house and courtyard. Seeing only Tingxiao (the World-Breaking Thunder Dragon) sunbathing by the pool, he immediately asked.

Tingxiao took off her sunglasses and said, "It seems they saw their second or third litter of cubs helping the elves with work and went to check on their recent situation. As for me, I didn't see my cubs, so I just came back."

The offspring of Rus Wang's bloodline develop intelligence very early, and his wives often choose to drive them out of the core area of the Nanshan Rainforest when they are forty or fifty to let them live independently. Under Rus Wang's notification, the cubs often like to gather in the Elf Kingdom. Firstly, it is easier to cooperate in groups so they can seize a territory of their own in the Nanshan Rainforest later. Secondly, it seems that because of the Mental Contract method, and perhaps because they are half-siblings with few other female dragons, some developments have occurred among the cubs that even Rus Wang did not expect.

It is normal for the wives to go and check on the cubs who have been driven out to live independently.

"Since they've gone to see the cubs, let's go, Tingxiao. Let's go to Barus and Elena's place and have a look."

Whenever he mentions his eldest son, Rus Wang gets angry. His eldest son's current "XP" (experience/fetish) has been completely warped by his own game of "elf raising." After confirming his relationship with Elena, he has been hiding from his father's dragon claws for over a hundred years.

If it weren't for the massive commotion caused by Elena breaking through to become a Title Douluo, he wouldn't even have had a chance to catch Barus.

"That's perfect. Let's see what's going on with his 'pseudo-hundred-thousand-year' Soul Beast status."

When Tingxiao heard they were going to see the firstborn of the eldest sister, Thalassa, she became interested as well. After all, it is impossible not to be interested in a Soul Beast that relied on the Mental Contract method to raise its cultivation to the hundred-thousand-year level through the first Title Douluo of the elves, Elena.

As for why it is a "pseudo-hundred-thousand-year" Soul Beast, it is mainly because when Barus and Elena were doing a series of experiments when she was at level 92, the Mental Contract was dissolved, and Barus regressed back to the twenty-thousand-year level, while Elena remained at level 92.

Barus thus gained a very clear understanding of how he, at the 4,000-year level, boosted Elena from level 19 to level 25, and how, by the time he reached the 20,000-year level, the level 92 Elena was "carrying" him, and how it would be at the 100,000-year level.

But none of that is important. What is important is that under this Mental Contract method, the brothers and sisters of the same father but different mothers—all the Hundred-Thousand-Year transformed Soul Beasts living in the elven city—were shocked at the time. One must know that not having to trigger the Heavenly Tribulation is an extremely fatal temptation for them.

At worst, they could just swallow their pride and play the "elf raising" game themselves.

However, given that Barus says he is at a "pseudo-hundred-thousand-year" cultivation level rather than his own true hundred-thousand-year level, whether it will trigger a tribulation, and whether the Mental Contract method can offset the massive power of such a Heavenly Tribulation, remains to be proven through experimentation.