Chapter 571 - 39: Fire of Sin

September 15, 2016.

As countless students returned to school to begin a new academic year, the entire landscape of Earth—and indeed, the Human World—began to shift rapidly with humanity’s expanding footprint.

The first to sense this change were the students of Zhengguo’s three Extraordinary Academies.

The reason was simple: starting this year, all practical courses and new student orientation were no longer held on Earth. Instead, they took place in the Beast God Realm, at Zhengguo’s "Two Realms Base."

Wilderness survival, live combat drills, simulated ruin exploration—all were indispensable for cultivating outstanding Transcendents. However, conducting such training on Earth was extremely difficult. Each session consumed vast sums of money and wasted countless resources. Finding suitable locations was a challenge, and setting them up was an enormous drain on both manpower and finances.

But in the vast expanse of the Beast God Realm, nearly every primitive, undeveloped region was a natural crucible for training—a veritable Holy Land for Cultivation.

Whether it was gloomy swamps teeming with feral beasts, dense primeval forests thick with miasma, or giant blood-sucking insects several times larger than anything on Earth, the environment alone was enough to make the new students—who all considered themselves heaven’s chosen prodigies—cry for their mommies and daddies and scream for help.

The senior students, who had thought themselves safe and were laughing and pointing at the miserable new recruits on screen, also went pale when they received the news: they were heading to the Beast God Realm for "retraining."

Aside from the natural environment, their opponents included various Spirit Beasts from the Beast God Realm who were cooperating with the humans for testing and training purposes.

"My training partner is an Ostrich Spirit Beast. When I first got the assignment, I didn’t think much of it."

One student, Mr. Li, who wished to remain anonymous, didn’t speak during his interview. Instead, he sent a WeChat message, still clearly shaken: "An ostrich. Just a flightless bird, nothing to be scared of—that’s what I wanted to say, but it’s just so damn big."

According to Mr. Li, his training partner was an Extraordinary Tier ostrich skilled in the Eagle Claw Skill and the Thirty-Six Kick Techniques. It stood a full nine meters tall, its body a mass of corded muscle. Just standing there, it looked like a Furious Vajra.

On top of that, this Ostrich Spirit Beast was also a master of Crane Fist, which it had practiced to the point of perfection, just a hair’s breadth from the stage of manifesting its spirit and attaining an Unbreakable body. After all, the Beast God Realm had received the inheritance and teachings of Immortal Gods. It was perfectly normal for Spirit Beasts to know Martial Arts, and with hundreds of years of Cultivation, their mastery was naturally superb.

As for why an ostrich would know Crane Fist, well, you’d have to ask its ancestors if they had a certain... story to tell. After all, with bloodline inheritance being what it is, there was definitely a Spiritual Crane somewhere in its family tree.

Training with the Spirit Beasts of the Beast God Realm shattered the students’ preconception that "Spirit Beasts only rely on instinct and Divine Techniques." In reality, just as the Divine Bird Peacock studied its own Divine Techniques and the Water Qilin was skilled in various Profound Yin Spiritual Techniques beyond just spouting water, it was a grave mistake to underestimate the power of the Beast God Realm.

"It’s all Professor Su’s fault!"

One Miss Jin, who also wished to remain anonymous, declared adamantly, "We’ve all seen his combat footage, which gave us the wrong impression! The Divine and Spirit Beasts he fought were slaughtered before they could even use a few of their abilities, to say nothing of Martial Arts. It tricked us into thinking all the Spirit and Divine Beasts in the Beast God Realm were like that!"

"Yeah, seriously!" another woman, a Ms. Li who also wished to remain anonymous, chimed in, clearly eager to stir the pot. "He was one-punching Divine Beasts! It made me think, ’Hey, I could do that too!’... It’s all Professor Su’s fault!"

Such talk, shifting the blame to others instead of reflecting on their own lack of strength, was naturally unbecoming.

Soon after, Miss Jin and Ms. Li both received a WeChat message. They went pale, left a hasty "I’m off to training..." and vanished without a trace.

While humanity began its exploration and construction efforts in the Beast God Realm, Harmony City—the bridge of communication between the two realms, nominally established by the Water Qilin Ann Duo—had begun to take shape after several months of intense work.

The first phase of urban infrastructure was complete, and the first pioneer residents from the Mao and Feather Races had begun to move in.

In addition to stimulating massive domestic employment in the infrastructure sector, the Zhengguo Government, after careful deliberation, finally made a decision: starting from March 2017, it would officially open a "tourist" channel, allowing a select number of ordinary people to apply for sightseeing trips to the Beast God Realm.

Similarly, the Celestial Pool Realm, homeland of the Celestial Pool Dragon King, would also be gradually opened to the public in one or two years. At that point, the government would also begin to decentralize, granting private enterprises and even independent individuals the right to explore Otherworlds.

When it came to public opinion, the government believed it was better to guide than to suppress. Since the public already knew about Otherworlds, it was better to open up some channels rather than indefinitely holding them back. This would not only satisfy their curiosity but also gradually guide civilian efforts in preparation for even larger-scale "Otherworld pioneering" in the future.

And for Su Zhou, all of this meant one thing.

The stalk of wheat that nurtured his "True Soul" had finally ripened, just as the new Order took firm root in the Beast God Realm.

It had been a long time since Su Zhou last obtained an Evil Soul—not since he had advanced to the Commander Tier.