Soul Beast Century Compulsory Education, the Soul Beasts' Blood Was Boiling!

Jiang Ce's tentacle poked out from Zi Ji's shoulder and waved in the air.

The next second, a mass of jet-black liquid surged out of Zi Ji's body and coalesced into a tall humanoid figure before everyone's eyes.

He faced all the Ferocious Beasts and Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, then spread his arms wide.

"Everyone, how long have you lived?"

"Ten thousand years? Fifty thousand years? A hundred thousand years?"

"Have you ever wondered how humans—who can only live for a hundred years and have neither claws nor scales—

went from being primitive savages with nothing thousands of years ago, who were even afraid of beasts,

to growing stronger step by step?

How did they gradually encroach upon your territory?

How did they slaughter your kind?"

His words left every Soul Beast stunned.

Not one of them could answer.

"Then let me tell you!"

Jiang Ce's voice suddenly rose, exploding like a clap of thunder.

"Because they evolve! They learn! They accumulate knowledge generation after generation!"

"And what about you?"

His arm abruptly pointed at the nearest Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

"You've lived for tens of thousands of years! What have you learned? What weapons do you use? What tactics do you know? Do you have an army? Do you have an organization?"

"You have nothing! You've merely stayed alive! You live by instinct!"

The Soul Beast's face flushed red, but it couldn't utter a single word.

"You're all the same!"

Jiang Ce swept his arm across the crowd.

"You've lived for ages, yet there's less in your heads than in those of a fifteen-year-old human boy!"

"Humans learn to read at two, study knowledge at four, and start researching tactics, strategy, and alchemy at eight!"

"And what about you? You can't even write your own names! You can't even count to a hundred!"

His voice echoed across the lake, making every Soul Beast's eardrums buzz.

"That's the difference!"

"Why are there more and more humans, growing stronger and stronger? Because they have civilization!"

"What is civilization? Civilization is writing! Knowledge! Inheritance!

It's one generation recording its experience and passing it down to the next!"

"But you—your experience is buried along with you when you die,

and the next generation has to start from zero, figuring everything out all over again, shedding blood all over again!"

Jiang Ce lowered his voice, but every word landed on the Soul Beasts' hearts like a hammer.

"Do you know what that means?"

"It means you'll be standing still forever. Forever."

"Tens of thousands of years ago, humans were so weak that even beasts frightened them, let alone Soul Beasts."

"But look at what's happened over all those thousands of years!"

"Humans have developed, and they've squeezed your living space smaller and smaller."

"Because you refuse to change!"

His voice rose again.

"Because you cling to that damnable law of the jungle! Because you refuse to learn!

Because you'd rather tear each other apart in the forest than sit down and think—why are we losing our territory!"

A deathly silence fell over the entire crowd.

Every Soul Beast stared blankly at the figure, forgetting even to breathe.

"But today—everything is going to change."

Jiang Ce suddenly changed tack.

Your Lord has already made a decision."

"From today on, the Star Dou Great Forest will no longer be a free-range pasture!"

His arm whipped toward the sky.

"From today on, you will study!"

"Reading! Arithmetic! Logic! Strategy! Organization! Management!"

"You will build your own civilization! Build your own army! Build your own traditions!"

"Learn the human ways of thinking, their organizational structures, their civilization."

"Don't let your minds, after tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of years, lose to a little human brat who's lived for barely a decade!"

"Are you willing?!"

A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast abruptly stood up.

"Willing!"

Another stood up right after it.

"Willing! I've had enough of this!"

"Study! Damn right, we'll study!"

"Fine, we'll learn to read! Who's afraid of that!"

"I want to broaden my horizons too!"

Their roars grew from scattered shouts into a deafening, wave-like chorus.

The eyes of every Soul Beast lit up.

Their blood was boiling!

Di Tian stood off to the side, his pupils contracting slightly.

What charisma!

Bi Ji covered her mouth, her eyes turning red.

Zi Ji stared blankly at the frenzied Soul Beasts, then looked toward the figure, unsure what to say.

Gu Yuena's purple eyes reflected the figure, and the corners of her lips slowly curved upward.

"Good. Next, you will become the first members of the 'Soul Beast Century Compulsory Education' program."

"Are you willing?!"

As Jiang Ce reached out to them in invitation,

in an instant,

deafening roars surged upward.

"Willing!"

"Willing!"

"Willing!"

The waves of cheers rolled over one another.

After Jiang Ce's impassioned speech, the Soul Beasts had all understood one thing: if they didn't study and improve,

their territory would be squeezed even smaller in the future.

They had to learn. They had to become civilized Soul Beasts!

Jiang Ce turned and gave Gu Yuena a slight nod, then dissolved back into black liquid and flowed into Zi Ji's body.

Zi Ji's body shuddered.

"Could you... stop for once?"

"No. I'm celebrating," Jiang Ce's voice replied, full of smugness.

"...Celebrating what?"

"The first batch of students enrolling. Century-long compulsory education officially begins!"

At the edge of the crowd, the young man who had been the Sky Azure Bull Python stood with his arms crossed, his blue-green hair stirring gently in the wind.

Beside him stood the burly man who had been the Titan Giant Ape. Both had their eyes fixed on two slender figures not far away.

One wore a coarse hemp robe, with a graceful figure and the mature charm of a woman.

The other wore her hair in a scorpion braid and a pink dress, tilting her head curiously as she studied the jet-black tentacle.

The Soft Bone Rabbit—Xiao Wu.

And her mother.

"Sister Xiao Wu and Auntie seem very interested in that thing," the Titan Giant Ape said in a low voice.

"Mm," the Sky Azure Bull Python answered, his gaze never leaving that figure.

"Should we go over and talk to them?"

"No need. If she wants to come over, she'll come on her own."

The Sky Azure Bull Python's voice was calm, but his fingers tightened slightly.

The Titan Giant Ape scratched his head and didn't ask any more.

Xiao Wu's gaze stayed fixed on that dark, murky tentacle. She wasn't looking this way at all.

...Forget it. If big brother wasn't in a hurry, why should he be?

Xiong Jun lay on the ground, gritting his teeth without a word.

His dark-gold pupils were fixed on the ground, the resentment and fury in his eyes nearly spilling out.

But he didn't speak again.

It wasn't that he was convinced. He knew that nothing he said would matter now.

Their Lord had been completely persuaded by that blob of Black Slime.

All these Soul Beasts had been duped.

Anything more he said would only bring humiliation upon himself.

But—

Xiong Jun cursed viciously to himself.

Study, civilization, century-long compulsory education.

It was all bullshit.

Soul Beasts were Soul Beasts. What mattered was strength, claws, and the law of the jungle.

Not reading. Not knowledge.

He'd wait and see that blob of Black Slime make a fool of himself.

He slowly got to his feet and headed off to tend to his injuries.

Bi Ji watched Xiong Jun's retreating figure and sighed softly.

"He won't come around," Zi Ji said coldly. "That guy's skull is harder than stone."

"What about you?" Bi Ji turned to Zi Ji. "Have you come around?"

Zi Ji fell silent.

That bastard had a point.

Soul Beasts really did need to change.

If they didn't, humans would keep devouring their territory bit by bit forever.

"I... I'll give it a try."

Bi Ji looked at her, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"Then let's give it a try together."

Bi Ji raised her head and looked up at the sky.

Sunlight streamed through the canopy, casting scattered flecks of light in her emerald eyes.

Let's hope so.

It seemed the future of the Soul Beasts was getting brighter.

"So, how are you going to implement this so-called Soul Beast Century Compulsory Education?"

Gu Yuena asked Jiang Ce, then noticed he wasn't answering.

"Could you stop flicking me?"

"Go back and do whatever you want, all right?"

For once, even Gu Yuena wasn't losing her temper.

After all, she'd been put through the wringer by Jiang Ce just as much as Zi Ji had lately.

"Of course, we need to find teachers first."

"Teachers?!"