The Divine Son's School

Lavoisier and his "compilation team," made up of veteran and newly recruited technicians, threw themselves into the near-mad work of writing textbooks like clockwork mechanisms wound tight. The air itself seemed filled with a scent of ink—made from plant sap and charcoal powder—paper, and feverish excitement. Zhou Beichen was not idle either. He knew well that textbooks were merely vessels for knowledge. The soil that would carry that knowledge and allow it to take root and sprout needed a firmer physical space—a real academy.

His gaze settled on a relatively level stretch of high ground at the edge of the settlement, close to water and with an open view. It had originally been designated for expanding the residential district, but Zhou Beichen overruled all objections and set the land aside for "educational use."

"What we're building is not merely a house," Zhou Beichen said, forcefully sweeping an arm as he faced the gathered heads of the craftsmen and Lorgar, who stood quietly listening. His eyes shone with the light of someone planning the future. "We are building the Earthly Heaven Divine Son Basic Education Academy! It will be the cradle of countless future administrators, craftsmen, scholars, and even clergy! It will be a lighthouse where the flame of knowledge never goes out!"

"Basic education... academy?" Lorgar repeated the awkward, unfamiliar combination of words, a flicker of confusion passing through his violet eyes. He understood "basic," and he could grasp the meaning of "education," but combining those words with "academy"—a place for systematically and broadly imparting knowledge—was still a concept he needed time to digest. He looked at Zhou Beichen like a student seeking guidance. "Father, does this mean... scattering what Lavoisier and the others are writing among more people, like sowing seeds?"

"Exactly!" Zhou Beichen nodded and tried to explain in terms Lorgar could understand. "When we grow crops, we can't rely on the wind alone to blow seeds into the fields. We need to cultivate orderly furrows, dig irrigation channels, select suitable seeds, and sow and tend them at the right time and in the right way. This academy will be the furrows and channels of knowledge. The textbooks will be carefully selected, superior seeds. Here, we will systematically cultivate every kind of 'crop' needed to build Heaven on Earth!"

The metaphor was crude but vivid, and realization gradually filled Lorgar's eyes. He nodded slowly. "I understand. Unstructured growth is inefficient, and its results are uncertain. Only systematic cultivation can yield the expected harvest. This academy is... a high-yield field for knowledge." His conclusion carried an insight that struck straight at the heart of the matter.

Zhou Beichen smiled and gave the craftsmen their orders. "Begin construction! Use our best mortar and stone! It must be sturdy, spacious, and bright! This will be one of the settlement's most important buildings in the future!"

Once the order was given, the entire settlement's resources began flowing toward the project. The craftsmen, whether old hands from the original settlement or newcomers brought by Lavoisier, erupted with astonishing enthusiasm after learning the purpose of the building. To take part in constructing a place that could change countless lives and perhaps even write history was, to them, an honor beyond measure, far surpassing labor performed merely in exchange for rations.

Once people had read more and seen more, they no longer remained content with merely filling their stomachs. Higher spiritual needs—a sense of participation, achievement, and historical mission—began to sprout in their hearts. What Lavoisier had brought was not only technology, but also souls long suppressed, yearning to shine.

Lorgar effortlessly lifted massive stones and set them precisely into the foundation. Buckets of mixed mortar were passed hand to hand and packed into the gaps between the stones. Wooden frames were skillfully erected to support the future roof. Work chants, hammering, and the craftsmen's discussions never ceased from the construction site, which boiled with activity. Even Faith Guard members off duty and ordinary residents who had completed their day's work came voluntarily to help, carrying lighter materials or bringing drinking water and food. The whole settlement seemed like a single body, working in concert toward one goal.

Just as the academy's foundation began to take shape and its walls started rising, shocking news arrived from Lavoisier's side—the first draft of the textbooks had been preliminarily completed!

The speed far exceeded Zhou Beichen's expectations. He had originally thought that such systematic work, built from nothing, would take at least several months, if not longer. When he entered the stone house temporarily serving as the compilation office, piled high with draft pages and reference materials, he found a group of people with sunken eyes and untrimmed beards, yet gazes blazing like ghostly flames.

As the chief person in charge, Lavoisier had grown so thin he was almost unrecognizable, but his spirit was in a state of extreme excitement. He held a thick stack of Colchis paper booklets, simply bound with rough hemp cord, as though cradling a newborn child, and tremblingly handed them to Zhou Beichen.

"Pastor Beichen... I have not failed my mission... These are... the first through fifth volumes of the Earthly Heaven Basic Reader, along with the first drafts of Practical Technology and Workshop Regulations and New Covenant Guide and Moral Discipline..." His voice was hoarse, but it carried indescribable pride.

Zhou Beichen accepted the weighty booklets and casually opened one. The handwriting was neat. Though there were occasional corrections, the layout was clear and accompanied by illustrations. The contents ranged from basic pictographs and arithmetic to controlling the firing temperature of mortar, simple calculations for waterwheel gears, identifying common desert plants and their medicinal uses, explanations of the central tenets of the New Covenant Church, and clear rules of conduct for settlement residents...

He skimmed through them quickly, his brow relaxing at times and furrowing at others. To be fair, the textbooks were still extremely rough. Much of the knowledge remained at the level of accumulated experience and lacked deeper theoretical support. The illustrations were crude, and some concepts were not expressed precisely enough. As for the New Covenant doctrine, Lavoisier had inevitably added much of his own interpretation and elaboration based on the traditional framework of the Covenant Church, making some passages rather awkward and... fervent.

But this was still a breakthrough from zero to one! It was a narrow path forcibly carved through this desert of knowledge! It was imperfect, yet it was a solid starting point, a foundation that could be revised and improved again and again. With this base, the inheritance of knowledge would no longer rely on scattered fragments and word of mouth, but would have standards to follow.

"Good! Very good!" Zhou Beichen closed the booklets and heavily patted Lavoisier on the shoulder, his voice full of approval. "Lavoisier, everyone! You have accomplished a great work! This is a monumental achievement that will lay a foundation for Earthly Heaven for generations to come! You have worked hard!"

Upon receiving Zhou Beichen's recognition, everyone who had participated in the compilation showed expressions of immense relief and excitement. Quite a few even had tears in their eyes. More than a month of sleepless nights, fierce debates, and repeated revisions—at this moment, all that exhaustion turned into an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

The textbooks had taken initial form, while the academy building gradually rose brick by brick. When the Earthly Heaven Divine Son Basic Education Academy—taller and more spacious than every surrounding stone house, with several bright windows and a small bell tower—finally stood upon the high ground, the entire settlement erupted in excitement. People gathered in the open space before the academy, looking up at the building that symbolized hope and the future. They talked animatedly, their faces filled with pride and expectation.

With both the hardware and software initially in place, the next step was to establish the rules for its operation. Zhou Beichen shut himself away with Lorgar, Lavoisier, and the other core members for several days, and they eventually drafted a document called the Earthly Heaven Basic Education Outline.

The core idea of this Outline was almost a direct copy of the concept of compulsory education Zhou Beichen had known in his previous life, adjusted to suit the realities of Colchis. The Outline clearly stipulated that all children of suitable age within the settlement—provisionally defined as six to twelve years old—must enter the academy for basic education regardless of their background. Courses included basic literacy and arithmetic; basic natural sciences, covering elementary physics, chemistry, and biology mainly adapted to local conditions; practical skills, with preliminary exposure to workshop, agricultural, or medical knowledge according to interest and talent; as well as New Covenant morality and history, chiefly the history of the settlement's development and Lorgar's miracles.

What left all the residents, especially families struggling just to stay fed, utterly incredulous was the Outline's declaration that academy education would be completely free. Not only that, the academy would provide every enrolled student with lunch!

When Zhou Beichen stood at the academy entrance and personally read the Outline aloud to the assembled residents, the scene first fell into deathly silence, then erupted into earthshaking cheers and uncontrollable sobs.

Free! And meals included! They could send their children to school!

In Colchis, in any world they had ever known, this was something unheard of! In their ingrained understanding, knowledge was expensive. It belonged exclusively to the privileged and had to be exchanged for a heavy price. Yet now, the Divine Son and Pastor Beichen were not only opening the gates of knowledge to them—they were even giving away food for fear that no one would come!

What grace! What mercy!

"Long live the Divine Son! Long live Pastor Beichen!" Someone shouted the slogan first, and it instantly triggered a tidal wave of responses. People fell to their knees, kowtowing excitedly toward the academy and toward Zhou Beichen and Lorgar. Tears mixed with sand and ran down their weathered faces. Many parents clutched their children tightly, looking at the brand-new academy as though they could see a wholly different future for the next generation, one filled with hope.

However, Zhou Beichen and Lavoisier soon discovered that they had underestimated both the residents' thirst for knowledge and the impact of this policy.

On the first day of official enrollment, before dawn had even broken, a long line had already formed outside the academy gates. There were not only children of the proper age, but also many adolescents, even young adults, and a small number of middle-aged and elderly people whose eyes were timid yet filled with hope! All of them wanted to enter the academy and learn the knowledge that had once been beyond their reach!

The crowd surged and churned, packing the open space before the academy so tightly that not even water could pass through. The Faith Guard had to devote all their strength to maintaining order, shouting until their voices went hoarse. The spectacle before them far exceeded the academy's original capacity and teaching staff projections.

As Zhou Beichen looked over the sea of heads and the fervent crowd, he was stunned at first. Then a complicated rush of emotion welled up within him. There was comfort, there was gratitude, and there was also a clear awareness of the enormous administrative and resource pressures that were about to arrive.