novelraw Chapter 73 Animal mouth inspection
Chapter 73 Animal mouth inspection
Students at Shrek Academy attend school for 11 months a year, six days a week, and have a day off on Sundays.
In the seven months since Huo Yutong returned to Shrek Academy, Xingdou has also changed.
With the human delicacies and wines sent by Zi Ji, Di Tian could proudly announce that his literacy lessons had made great progress.
Tempted by the delicious food, the enthusiasm of these soul beasts who love rice... is at an all-time high.
The learning progress has accelerated a lot, and I can recognize many words and count many numbers.
And Di Tian was finally able to carry out his other plan.
Biji's Enlightenment Pill brought hope for awakening intelligence, and Ziji brought back a blueprint for cooperation and development from the human world. However, in order to truly integrate the power of the Star Dou Great Forest, there is still a most basic and core problem that must be solved—how much does he really know about the soul beasts of Star Dou?
Aside from the core ferocious beasts around him and some impressive 100,000-year-old soul beasts, his knowledge of how many races lived in the vast forest, the approximate number of each race, their cultivation levels, and their talents and abilities was actually quite vague.
In the past, he only needed to ensure that there were no external enemies and maintain the general balance of the forest; the specific competition for survival was left to the natural law of the survival of the fittest.
But now, times have changed.
The establishment of the Spirit Tower, cooperation with humanity, and the potential order to be established in the future all require him to have more precise information.
A comprehensive animal census is now imperative.
Thinking of this, Di Tian's gaze swept over the beasts who had just finished class and were taking a break, some sitting and some lying down. He spoke in a deep voice, and his dragon might naturally emanated, causing all the soul beasts to raise their heads in awe.
Di Tian's voice clearly reached the ears of every soul beast, "Next, we need to do something even more important and complicated—find out the 'assets' of our Star Dou Great Forest."
The beasts looked puzzled. Xiong Jun asked curiously, "Di Tian, what's our wealth? Isn't our greatest asset this Lake of Life and the soul beasts that fill this forest?"
"That's right." Di Tian nodded, pointing to the vast and boundless forest. "But I ask you, apart from the close clans you directly govern, do you know exactly how many kinds of soul beasts live in this forest?"
Approximately how many of each type are there? What percentage of them have cultivation levels of ten, a hundred, or a thousand years? What are their respective strengths, and what special talents do they possess?
A series of questions stumped all the ferocious beasts.
Xiong Jun scratched his head, looking bewildered; the branches of the Demon King swayed unconsciously, as if trying to sense his territory; the three heads of the Crimson King looked at each other, and all saw the same confusion in each other's eyes.
They usually focus more on which individuals are strong or have potential; who would care about the specific number of those "weaklings"?
Di Tian took in their reactions without surprise and continued, "In the past, we didn't need to know such details. But in the future, we will."
Biji's pills need to be allocated according to the number and aptitude of the soul beasts. Trade with humans requires us to be clear about what unique resources we possess. Future training and cooperation will require even more knowledge of ourselves and our enemies.
This "animal census" is the cornerstone of our future.
The principle is simple, but in practice, all the beasts can imagine how difficult it is, no less than the previous classification of soul bones, and even more difficult.
Soul bones are inanimate objects, but soul beasts are alive; they can run and hide. Especially low-level soul beasts, when they sense a powerful aura approaching, their first reaction is to hide.
Di Tian had clearly considered this as well. After a moment of contemplation, he began to make arrangements, this time attempting a more refined division of labor:
"This matter requires the expertise of each of you. We will only investigate soul beasts that are ten thousand years old or older for now. There are too many ten-year, hundred-year, and thousand-year-old soul beasts. We will discuss that later."
"King of Ten Thousand Demons." Di Tian first looked at the oldest plant-type soul beast, "Your roots are spread throughout the forest, and your senses are the most acute and have the widest range."
You will be in charge of coordinating and drawing a rough map of the power distribution in the main areas of the Star Dou Great Forest, and prioritizing the statistics on the approximate types and numbers of your plant-type soul beasts. Your sensitivity to life force makes you best suited for this task.
The Demon King respectfully replied, "As you command, Emperor Tian. I will have my descendants assist in sensing, but this will take time."
"Red King." Di Tian turned to the three-headed hellhound, "Your clan's sense of smell is unparalleled in the forest, and you are also incredibly swift."
You are responsible for leading your people, starting from the core area and radiating outwards, to track and identify the activity traces and auras of different soul beast races, and to estimate the approximate activity range and scale of their groups.
The focus is on documenting races with unique talents or those that are numerous.
The Red King's middle head nodded: "Understood. Leave it to me! I guarantee I'll sniff out all those hiding fellows!"
"Bear King." Di Tian looked at the leader of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears again. Bear King immediately puffed out his chest, thinking that he was going to be sent to do "rough work" again.
"Your and your people's task is to 'communicate'." Di Tian's words startled Xiong Jun. "For those powerful soul beast clans that have awakened their intelligence but may be unwilling to cooperate, or have doubts about the census... you will step forward and 'persuade' them to cooperate with the work."
Remember, it's about persuasion, not driving them away or fighting. Make them understand that this is for the future of Xingdou.
Xiong Jun grinned widely and patted his chest: "I'm an expert at this! If anyone misbehaves, I, Old Xiong, will give them a good 'reasoning'!"
Di Tian continued, "I am responsible for summarizing and recording the information reported by the Demon King and the Crimson King."
"Qiu'er, you are sensitive to auras and the trajectory of fate, assisting in verifying the accuracy of information, especially that of those elusive and secretive groups."
With the division of labor clearly defined, the beasts, though still feeling it was an unprecedentedly huge project, at least had a clear direction.
The first large-scale "animal census" in the history of the Star Dou Great Forest began in this somewhat chaotic but pioneering atmosphere.
Due to the "Beast Population Census", many previously hidden soul beast groups in the mixed zone have suddenly appeared, causing great surprise to the teams that come to hunt souls. In recent months, they have only dared to operate in the outer area and dared not go any deeper.
Shrek Academy naturally noticed this unusual activity.
However, the first reconnaissance team sent out had just entered the mixed zone when they ran headlong into a 100,000-year-old soul beast, which terrified everyone so much that they ran away as fast as they could.
Fortunately, it was a spirit beast that excelled at defense against slow speed, which allowed the reconnaissance team to escape unscathed.
Upon learning of this, the academy's leadership dispatched several more elite reconnaissance teams.
However, on these several occasions, the team was detected by the powerful Demon King as soon as they entered the mixed zone.
He used his supernatural powers to create a plant maze, trapping the entire exploration team inside.
When they finally emerged from the maze after overcoming numerous hardships, they found themselves back in the outer area, having gained nothing.