Little Jing smiled and shook his head. "It’s Blessings, Merit, and a blessing! Mother, have you forgotten? Before we left the lands outside the forest, the Beast God there promised to share some Power of Merit with you."
Si Shuo thought for a moment and realized it was true. Her eyes lit up as she said, "You’re right! Now that you mention it, Little Jing, I understand!
It seems that every time we accomplish something major, I feel this wonderful sense of ease wash over my whole body. So, good deeds really are rewarded."
Little Jing looked at the faint golden light emanating from Si Shuo’s body, which seemed denser and more substantial than before. "Mother, what do you think the Power of Merit is for?"
Si Shuo paused, glanced at the males on either side of her, and shook her head. "Maybe it can keep the other Beast Gods in check? But we don’t do anything illegal, so we don’t need to worry about them intervening."
The males didn’t know, either. It was the first time they had heard of the Power of Merit.
In any case, it wasn’t a bad thing, so Si Shuo didn’t dwell on it.
Ever since the various delegations had sent people back to their home countries with Horned Deer Beastmen, Si Shuo and her companions had managed to get the detailed addresses of every location where the Horned Deer were being held.
By day, Si Shuo and her companions worked tirelessly to develop the Guiping Beast Country. Once night fell, they would rest briefly in the Time Array before setting out to rescue Horned Deer Beastmen from various locations. While they were at it, they also searched for the Beastmen who could merge with the Bone Tokens. Of course, they didn’t forget to rob the rich to aid the poor, taking a cut from every place they went...
They sent the rescued Horned Deer Beastmen back to the Horned Deer ancestral lands!
The area was protected by a natural Array, and Si Shuo set up several more sets of Array Flags to guarantee that no unauthorized individuals could enter.
The Horned Deer Beastmen had suffered immensely in the outside world. They were all overcome with emotion upon returning to their ancestral lands.
They elected a new Clan Leader and new elders. Xu Chi became the youngest of the Ten Elders.
The Clan Leader expressed his gratitude to Si Shuo and her family and explained the clan’s future plans. "In the past, we Horned Deer Beastmen were too insular. Knowing the dangers of the outside world, we became overprotective of our young, wishing they would never have to step foot outside our territory.
But the more we isolated ourselves, the weaker our Horned Deer Beastmen became, turning us into lambs for the slaughter...
So, we’ve decided to venture out! This land will become a place for our young to grow and train. The adults will go out into the world, and when they have children, they will send them back here...
This way, first, our clan members can disperse across the land, preventing us from ever being wiped out again. Second, we can better protect our young who have yet to undergo Transformation, allowing them to receive systematic training and unlock their potential. And third, our people will become more worldly and experienced, with a greater variety of skills for survival..."
Si Shuo smiled and nodded. ’A smart move.’ In her own world, the last dynasty had fallen precisely because of its isolationist policies. By rejecting the outside world, they had also rejected communication and progress, choosing instead to live in a self-constructed fantasy.
They were busy for nearly a month, but they finally found all the Bone Tokens and merged them with their respective owners.
With this matter concluded, Xu Chi couldn’t help but hug Si Shuo tightly. "A shuo, A shuo, A shuo..."
Si Shuo knew he was so happy he didn’t know how to express it. She smiled and patted his head. "With the Horned Deer Beastmen suddenly vanishing, I’m afraid their former captors won’t let this go. Your people have a tough fight ahead.
You can’t relax."
"Yes. The painful lesson of our clan’s near-annihilation means we don’t dare slack off or get complacent. We have to raise our cultivation to at least Level 18!"
Besides, this time is different. The Horned Deer Beastmen have plenty of cultivation resources.
After the Five Countries conference, Si Shuo had acquired a Level 19 attributeless crystal stone. She went to the Crystal Stone Mine every day to replicate more attributeless crystal stones.
With such high-level, pure Crystal Stones available, the Horned Deer Beastmen’s progress would be absolutely staggering!
Outside the forest, Si Shuo and her companions had already gained considerable experience from successfully establishing printing workshops, schools, farms, shops, and Martial Arts Halls. Now, it was time to expand their operations.
Supported by the Crystal Stones and resources plundered from several Beast Countries, Si Shuo, Xiao Cheng, and the others determined the locations for new facilities based on the optimal reach for schools, academies, and government learning centers.
The first wave of recruitment notices went out to find craftsmen to handle the construction. The second wave involved selecting the first group of teachers through tests and interviews. The third wave was encouraging everyone to send their children to school to begin their education, painting a very appealing picture of the future for the public.
They described what kinds of well-paying jobs with good benefits would become available after learning Beast Text. The promises were grand and enticing. Furthermore, Si Shuo and her companions announced that the teachers would be paid a salary and receive benefits directly from the palace. Students only needed to bring their own pen and paper; all other fees were waived. In any case, many Beastmen sent their school-aged children off to school, partly hoping the teachers would help look after them.
The children had never been to school before and were too excited to sleep. A small handful of them, however, were worried they wouldn’t do well in their classes.
After all, they didn’t enjoy studying Beast Text. They couldn’t help but doze off the moment class began!
But now, children of all ages were being sent to school by the adults, and they had no way to refuse.
Fortunately, the teachers from the Three-tailed Blue Fox Clan didn’t rely on rigid, rote memorization. They made sure their classes were interesting, which, to put it simply, was a way to motivate the students to try harder.
They started by instilling good hygiene habits...
Amidst all the activity, time flew by. At the end of summer, the grain harvest was bountiful—a full three times higher than normal.
This meant that from now on, they would have enough to eat. No longer would they have to worry about the long rainy season and the coldest season...
Si Shuo and her family also worked hard to prepare for the arrival of the rainy season and the coldest season.
Everything was heading in the right direction, and the Power of Merit surrounding Si Shuo grew even denser. In her family, only Little Jing could see it.
This was especially true after the coldest season. When they tallied the number of Beastman deaths, a routine count they performed annually, they discovered that while the numbers in previous years had been fairly consistent, this year’s count had dropped by a full eighty percent.
The remaining twenty percent were mostly the old, weak, sick, and stubborn who had been unable or unwilling to keep up with the pace set by Si Shuo and her companions.
Somehow, this data was leaked, and soon, envoys from the other four countries arrived one after another to inquire about the situation.
They, too, wanted their own people to live better lives.
So Si Shuo and her companions wrote down all the important points about farming, along with various methods for coping with the rainy and coldest seasons. Of course, she sold these pamphlets at a high price.
The wheels of time turned. Each year brought earth-shattering changes to the Guiping Beast Country. By the time Yanyi and Little Hong returned from their travels to take over the nation, there was only one Beast Country left on the entire Yongchang Continent!
Si Shuo and her companions had accidentally unified it...
As Xiao Cheng handed over the throne, Si Shuo stood off to the side, enjoying the spectacle and witnessing Yanyi’s coronation.
But just as Yanyi was crowned with the glittering golden circlet, the one whose body erupted in golden light was... *her*??!!
A distant yet solemn voice boomed from the heavens: "Welcome to your rightful place, our Main God, Si Shuo..."
Si Shuo froze on the spot. ’What the hell? I’ve become a Beast God?’
At the same time, the Identity Cards on the foreheads of the males beside her vanished, replaced by a nine-tailed totem. This was the mark of a Divine Servant who guards a Beast God!
The figures of the five Beast Gods flickered in and out of view in the sky. All the Beastmen of the Yongchang Continent saw this, and they prostrated themselves on the ground in excitement, their voices joining in a pious chant.
After her initial shock, however, Si Shuo quickly calmed down. She had vaguely sensed this was coming for the past few years.
She and the males had done so much for the Beast World Continent. The Power of Merit surrounding her had grown incredibly dense, and she had even unified the continent. She had become an object of faith for the Beastmen, so becoming a Beast God herself wasn’t so difficult to comprehend.
"Zhi Le, Ji Liang, Xu Chi, Gong You, Xiao Cheng, Yin Jiang, Wei Ce... does this mean we’re going to live as long as the heavens and the earth?" Si Shuo asked, a smile playing on her lips.
The males, who still hadn’t snapped out of their daze, heard her words and immediately regained their composure. They smiled, their expressions gentle and resolute.
"That’s right. We have a very long life ahead of us..."
—END—
The main story is now complete. Next are a few extra Chapters about the children.