Chapter 66

Though connecting with the other researchers was still bumpy, Song Yi’s daily life returned to its proper track.

No matter how awesome a kid was outside, she still had to come back and suffer the beating of basic courses. Otherwise, there would be a generational gap when she tried to communicate with other people! That “feeling” of hers really was not something ordinary people could keep up with.

This was probably why cultivation in the Old Era had placed so much emphasis on talent. Without talent, you could not even touch that kind of feeling.

Song Yi looked at these untalented “juniors” and shook her head helplessly. She was kindhearted, so she did not say anything to strike them down, but this had to be the worst cohort ever, right?

The cultivation world had declined. Back in the day, people like them really would have found it hard to survive…

But then she thought about it another way. People with ordinary talent could still do such important work. Was that not a kind of progress in this world too?

What could this Old Ancestor do? The capable should do more work. She could only rely on herself to learn a little more.

Song Yi returned with a gait that disowned all six relations. Lin Ze hurriedly dragged her back to her seat and told her to keep a low profile. “Did you forget you skipped quite a few classes and left a lot of homework undone?”

Song Yi waved him off casually. “Don’t worry. The teachers must have already seen my domineering aura. They won’t do anything to me.”

What was wrong with giving a genius like her a little special treatment? Even Teacher Yuan had admitted she was amazing.

In the next second, the smug child was picked up without the slightest dignity. The homeroom teacher said, “Come to my office.”

There really was special treatment. It was make-up lessons: she had to make up everything she had missed!

Song Yi did not know whether it was her imagination, but she felt that all the subject teachers’ expectations of her had risen. They would no longer let her casually muddle through.

The Old Ancestor, ravaged by schoolwork, had her majestic stride turn into pitiful little steps.

Damn it. Didn’t they say geniuses in this world were all treated very well?

Today was another day of Song Yi trying and failing to turn over and become the master.

But it was not a big problem, because a piece of good news made Song Yi happy again.

The homeroom teacher of First Grade Class One announced a special piece of news: a special transfer student would be joining their class. For the sake of the harmonious relationship between humans and demon beasts, they had to treat him kindly.

“Now, let’s invite him to introduce himself.”

They looked around for quite a while, but still no one came up to the podium.

It turned out that the iron-eating beast cub was already sprawled on top of Song Yi’s head, and had accidentally turned Song Yi’s hair into a chicken nest.

Song Yi cared quite a lot about her appearance. If it had been someone else, they would have long since been sanctioned by her iron fist. But who would be harsh on a cub? Her eyes curved into smiling slits as she affectionately stroked the soft little cub.

Everyone followed the homeroom teacher’s gaze and looked over. They immediately burst into laughter and envious sighs. “Can I pet him too?”

“I want to as well!”

“Is he really our classmate?”

In Mystic Wonder Secret Realm, everyone had seen plenty of rare demon beasts, so iron-eating beasts were not that unusual. But this was school. This was the only one in the whole school!

“Ahem. As everyone can see, from now on, Student Tie Yuan will be joining our class and studying the basic culture courses with us. However, for some beast studies content, he will go to other classes to learn.”

First grade had not begun choosing directions yet, so there were no specialized courses.

“This is a new measure for cultural exchange between the demon-beast race and the human race. We must learn from each other and progress together. If possible, more members of the demon-beast race will join cultural exchange in the future.”

The children’s focus landed on the last sentence. “Teacher, does that mean I can raise an iron-eating beast cub in the future too?”

“I still like white tigers better.”

“Teacher, are there blue sparrows? Blue sparrows are super pretty.”

The teacher’s head was full of black lines. Those were all things for the future. These little kids were thinking way too far ahead. It was not even a sure thing yet, and they were already picking?

Forget it. Let them dream.

He also gave Song Yi a special reminder: Tie Yuan was not an ordinary demon beast, and she could not treat him with the attitude one used toward an ordinary pet. A caretaker’s role was more to serve as a bridge for exchange and introduction between the two cultures.

Also, a cub who was used to living among demon beasts might not necessarily adapt to living among humans.

In other words, Song Yi did not need to worry much about his eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing. What she needed to worry about was Tie Yuan’s physical and mental health, as well as his studies, and to deepen communication and understanding between the two races.

Full of confidence, Song Yi said, “No problem. Leave it to me.”

She might not necessarily be able to handle other things, but cultural exchange? She was familiar with that!

After all, she had come from the Old Era and accepted the ideas of this new world. Wasn’t that cultural exchange? With herself as the test subject, teaching the cub would be much easier.

But seeing her agree so readily, the teacher instead began to hesitate. Song Yi was quite reliable when it came to some unreliable matters, but when it came to matters where she should be reliable, she might not necessarily be reliable.

The fact that she was making such a solemn vow actually gave people a bad feeling.

But at this point, what else could they do besides let Song Yi try? The cub was not close to anyone else.

And besides, in school, all the teachers would be keeping an eye on things. No matter how you thought about it, nothing should go wrong…

And so, behind Song Yi, there was now a special seat. Among the crowd of students, a fluffy head was still very distinctive.

A classmate with skillful hands even sewed the cub a school-uniform cape, making him look surprisingly proper.

Oh, you ask why everyone did not call him by his name?

Because this name, with its extremely demon-beast-like characteristics, was just too rustic. Calling him Cub felt more affectionate.

Song Yi stroked her chin, and inspiration flashed through her mind. “Cub, do you know what the first step to integrating into the human world is?”

Tie Yuan shook his head in confusion.

“It’s getting a nickname or a pet name! Take me, for example. I’m someone with lots of nicknames now too.”

Names were a broad and profound culture, and the demon-beast race still could not grasp it, so the name they had given Tie Yuan was strange. But it did not matter. Nicknames could also be used to call someone, and they were even more affectionate. Just like how Wenwen and the others would not seriously call her by her full name.

Song Yi said firmly, “Then from now on, I’ll call you Old Tie?”

Look at that name. How intimate!

Song Yi expressed great satisfaction.

Lin Ze nearly spat out a mouthful of water.

He ordered Li Wenwen to drag Song Yi away. “Don’t harm someone else’s little cub!”

With this level of naming skill, what was the difference between her and the uncultured demon-beast race?

Even calling him “Yuanyuan” would be a little more normal!

This was, after all, a moment that might represent the human race’s cultural level. They could not let Song Yi mess around.

Song Yi and the cub happily obtained matching sorrowful backs.

But very soon, Song Yi perked up again, because she learned why Tie Yuan had only come to school so late. Not only did the two races have to negotiate arrangements for his identity, he himself also had to take make-up lessons, or else he would not be able to keep up with the current first-grade progress.

“Studying is too hard. Why do I have to suffer like this?” Tie Yuan flattened himself into a pancake. He should have acted a little stupider.

Yes. He did not want to be treated as a “classmate.” He only wanted to be a pet who stretched out his paws for clothes and opened his mouth for food.

But he was unwilling to give up such a good opportunity. He had heard that on the human side, there were lots of fun things, and Song Yi was one of the more interesting people he had chosen. If he missed this one, who knew where the next one would be?

Unexpectedly, Song Yi said firmly, “Cub, I can tutor you!”

She had found another place where she could show her value!

“You might not believe it, but back then, I was last place. Don’t look at my current grades and think they’re still ordinary. I think I’m the student who has improved the most in the whole class! This proves my studying has been effective.”

Lin Ze looked at them suspiciously. He had heard that when one bad student met another bad student, they could always find a strange sort of confidence.

Song Yi’s academic progress really had been huge, but Lin Ze doubted whether she had the ability to tutor another cub.

For now, he would listen and see whether she really had some ultimate trick.

But as he listened, Lin Ze’s expression became more and more distorted.

“Cub, math is actually a subject that depends a lot on feeling. If you keep feeling like you don’t know how to do it, then you really won’t. If you feel like you do know, then your brush will move as though guided by a god. Don’t doubt the answer in your heart, because that is the answer the Heavenly Dao has given you. Understand?”

Tie Yuan nodded excitedly. The person he had chosen really was reliable. She reduced complexity to simplicity, and he was able to accept it at once.

The Guiding Spirit Brush began to move, clicking and clacking as it filled in the answers.

Lin Ze glanced at the answers. Out of ten questions, one was right, and that one was even a multiple-choice question. He had no idea whether Tie Yuan had guessed or really knew it.

One really dared to teach, and the other really dared to believe.

Lin Ze wanted to drag the unreliable Song Yi away, but Tie Yuan warily clung to her. “She’s my caretaker, so she should teach me to study. I don’t understand what the teacher says, but I understand what she says.”

Lin Ze: …Are you sure you really understand?

He could only start with Song Yi. Song Yi also looked at him with sparkling eyes. “See? He understood!”

Sure enough, she was still very talented at giving guidance.

Lin Ze almost could not bear to strike her down, but facts still had to be stated.

“You understand as soon as you hear it, but get everything wrong as soon as you do it, right?” Lin Ze held his forehead. “At least check the answers for him.”

After checking the answers, Song Yi put on a stern face and still tried to prove the correctness of her teaching method. “This is because he hasn’t built up the feel for solving problems yet. It’ll be fine once he does more.”

Lin Ze shook Song Yi, trying to make her wake up. “A wrong process can’t produce the correct result, hey! You have to teach him with a slightly more normal method!”

Song Yi was deeply regretful. Old Tie actually could not inherit her mantle. It seemed he could only take the route of an ordinary person.

Song Yi could only recall the way the teachers taught and began stumblingly passing knowledge to Tie Yuan. Unfortunately, she did not have the teachers’ foundation. She could not express things clearly, so she could only explain with wild gestures.

However, while she lectured with surging passion, the fluffy head was already nodding bit by bit and about to fall asleep.

Song Yi’s urge to draw her sword stirred restlessly.

Lin Ze hurriedly stopped her. “Think about it. The teachers have taught us for so long and still haven’t gone berserk. We have to learn the teachers’ good self-restraint.”

Tears of repentance welled in Song Yi’s eyes. Teacher, you have truly worked hard.

“And studying is a long-term process. It’s normal not to see results right away, so don’t be impatient,” Lin Ze added.

Tie Yuan probably sensed the killing intent. With a jolt, he woke up from his sleep, his eyes bleary, as if they held tears. “Sorry, Little Yi. I was wrong.”

Looking at the dumpling’s pitiful expression, Song Yi revealed a resolute expression. “You weren’t wrong. What’s wrong is this world. Sure enough, schoolwork should never have existed!”

The cub was about to cry already. How could she blame him?

Lin Ze, who had witnessed Song Yi’s entire transformation, wanted to roar in his heart: He isn’t crying. Those are half-asleep tears. Little Song Yi, you’re a principled person! Get strict for me!

He felt that the biggest mistake he had made was stopping Song Yi from drawing her sword. In this kind of situation, as expected, he should have advised fighting instead of peace. With Song Yi’s method of spoiling him, it would be a miracle if this cub learned anything.

Song Yi seemed extremely unprincipled in some matters, but in other matters, she seemed very principled.

She looked up at the sky with a world-weary air. “The sins created by the human race should still be repaid by me, a human.”

Anyone who did not know better would think she was talking about some major matter that would affect the structure of the cultivation world. The truth was—she had decided to help Tie Yuan do his homework.

She might not even have been this serious when doing her own homework.

This included even the beast studies courses Song Yi herself did not attend. She did all of them for him too.

But as someone from the Old Era, it was impossible for Song Yi to say she understood demon beasts very well. At most, she understood how to kill them.

She did indeed know a few beast-taming cultivation methods, but beast-taming in the Old Era was all about the strong being respected and thus taming others. It was very different from beast-taming science in the New Era.

Song Yi’s greatest improvement in beast studies during this period was probably learning which parts of which beasts tasted better and what cooking methods worked best.

She used everything she had learned in her life to finish all of Tie Yuan’s homework.

Very soon, the homeroom teacher of First Grade Class One was sought out by the collapsing beginner beast studies teacher.

In beginner courses, the focus was on understanding each other’s habits in order to establish harmonious relationships between humans and beasts, and between beasts and beasts. The difficulty was still relatively low.

The homework left for Tie Yuan was not difficult either: “In this school, what demon beast has left the deepest impression on you? Why? What kind of relationship have you established?”

He could go to the beast-taming garden to take a look, or chat with his classmates. There was still a rich variety of possible answers.

Ordinary contracted beasts did not need to take basic culture classes, but they would still study beast studies courses together with their masters, also known as poop-scoopers, and make progress together. Contracted beasts all had relatively high spiritual intelligence, so beast-to-beast socializing should not have been difficult.

And yet, for such a simple assignment, the answer given was enough to make someone’s heart seize up. “Blue wolf beast. We established a stable food-chain relationship. Its tastiest part is… The cooking method is…”

This was a friendship assignment, not a food assignment, hey!

The homeroom teacher: …

This homework gave him a mysterious sense of familiarity.

“Do you know what’s even more outrageous? What’s even more outrageous is that when I asked everyone to invite their new friends to class, he really brought an entire roasted wolf over! The whole class was crying from hunger!”

The homeroom teacher: …

What happened was this. Tie Yuan told Song Yi, “We have to bring the friend we wrote about in yesterday’s homework to class.”

Song Yi asked in confusion, “What friend?”

Tie Yuan also scratched his head blankly. “I don’t know either.”

“Then you must have heard wrong. They probably asked you to bring ingredients.”

Tie Yuan swallowed. “Right! It must be ingredients!”

The human culture of homework had tortured him badly enough, but he extremely approved of the food culture.

“Don’t worry, Cub. Leave it to us. We’ll definitely make you look super impressive,” Song Yi said, patting her chest.

She had heard that transfer students like Old Tie were easily excluded. In Class One, she still had some face. But in other classes, that was hard to say. She had to help him hold up the scene.

She led the others to specifically go ruin Old Yang’s trial tower for a while, picked out the best one, roasted it, and let him bring it to class.

Li Wenwen’s envious tears nearly flowed from the corner of her mouth. “I’ve decided. In the future, I’m choosing beast-taming direction courses. Being able to openly eat during class and hold a food appreciation meeting is just way too awesome…”

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