Chapter 72: A Tiger’s Education
Old Third was rather confused, but as he stared at his eldest brother, he nevertheless nodded without any hesitation.
Although more than ten years had already gone by, after gaining human intelligence, he nevertheless remembered that he mustn’t defy Big Brother. Otherwise, he would be beaten up.
w.a.n.g Hu led Old Third to his home. At this point, Big Treasure and Little Treasure had already twisted their little heads over to them a long time ago, and they were watching them curiously. Their big eyes were fixed on Old Third.
Di Baijun and Su Ling, who had originally been cultivating, were also looking over.
It was just that one of them was secretly watching out of the corner of her eye, whereas the other was doing so curiously.
After they entered, w.a.n.g Hu spoke to Silly Girl happily.
Roar~!
“Baijun, this is my third younger brother.”
Di Baijun stopped cultivating. The look in her eyes turned a little awkward for a moment before she subconsciously tried hard to make it look a little more amicable. Then, she looked over.
w.a.n.g Hu also subtly gave Old Third a look.
After a brief moment of confusion, Old Third roared.
Roar~!
“Sister-in-law.”
At once, Di Baijun’s expression froze, and the ground underneath her paws broke a little.
She took a deep breath and suppressed the emotions welling up in her. With an expression that was still somewhat stiff, she glanced at the shameless jerk.
Instantly, she almost couldn’t hold herself back—that shameless jerk was behaving as though nothing had happened and was looking elsewhere.
That shameless jerk must be doing this on purpose. He must be.
Roar~!
“Good afternoon, Sister-in-law.”
Old Third glanced at Big Brother and then at his sister-in-law again. For some reason, he couldn’t help but feel like this was rather dangerous. Nevertheless, he greeted Di Baijun again, except that his voice had become a little more unsure.
Di Baijun blinked a few times as she tried hard to keep her emotions under control before giving him a soft grunt of acknowledgment.
An even brighter smile immediately appeared on w.a.n.g Hu’s face. He patted Old Third on the head and turned to Silly Girl with a smile.
Roar~!
“Baijun, apart from you and I, this fellow is the first among the tigers to break through to the Transformation Realm. Not bad, right?”
His voice carried a hint of showing off. No matter what, this was indeed his biological younger brother.
The fact that the first among the tigers to break through to the Transformation Realm was his biological younger brother was indeed something worth showing off in front of Silly Girl.
Di Baijun’s eyes narrowed. She glared at him and gave a soft reply.
Roar~!
“Not bad.”
Old Third was rather weirded out. His sister-in-law’s tone didn’t seem quite right, and yet he couldn’t understand why either.
w.a.n.g Hu immediately turned away and avoided eye contact with Silly Girl. As though nothing had happened, he spoke with a smile again.
Roar~!
“Big Treasure, Little Treasure. This is your Third Uncle. Greet your Third Uncle.”
Roar~!
“Third Uncle.”
Big Treasure and Little Treasure obediently greeted Old Third with their young, child-like voices.
Old Third nodded. A look of puzzlement came over his face, and he raised the question on his mind right away.
Roar~!
“Why is their fur white, Big Brother?”
Roar~!
“You probably won’t understand. This is because their bloodlines have awakened. Big Treasure and Little Treasure are peerless geniuses among the tigers,” replied w.a.n.g Hu seriously right away.
Di Baijun secretly spat in disgust at his reply. To think he was already boasting like that when Big Treasure and Little Treasure hadn’t even started cultivating yet. How shameless was that?
Old Third believed him, however, and he nodded with great astonishment.
Roar~!
“This is Su Ling, our housekeeper.”
w.a.n.g Hu then looked over at Su Ling.
Old Third looked over as well, upon which his eyes lit up somewhat. Just as puzzled as he was earlier, he asked another question.
Roar~!
“Big Brother, what’s a housekeeper? Why didn’t you eat her?”
At once, the friendly smile on Su Ling’s face froze just as she was greeting him.
Roar~!
“You can’t eat her,” replied w.a.n.g Hu, causing the light in Old Third’s eyes to dim.
Roar~!
“I’ll ask Old Third what the current situation is like first,” said w.a.n.g Hu to Silly Girl.
Then, he endured Silly Girl’s sharp knife-like eyes and gestured to Old Third to follow him and brought him to the side.
When he felt that they had more or less put enough distance between Silly Girl and them, he immediately whispered to Old Third.
Roar~!
“Not bad. Remember this: no matter what kind of situation it is, no matter what happens, you must always address your sister-in-law as Sister-in-law.”
Old Third didn’t understand, but he nevertheless nodded.
Satisfied, w.a.n.g Hu began to ask Old Third about his general situation during the last few years.
To be honest, there wasn’t much to ask about either. It was all the same repet.i.tive events.
Before the awakening of spiritual energy, he was nothing more than a normal tiger. Everything was for the sake of survival. Even family wasn’t anything much to cherish.
After the awakening of spiritual energy, he started to cultivate.
Around 20 days ago, he experienced the second spiritual energy nourishment and took the opportunity to break through to the Transformation Realm and gained human intelligence.
After getting used to it during these 20-odd days, he came to look for w.a.n.g Hu.
w.a.n.g Hu nodded lightly. His voice turned fairly serious, and he looked at Old Third seriously.
Roar~!
“Old Third, you’ve already grown up, and you’ve also attained initial success with your cultivation. It’s time that you make a contribution to the tigers.”
Old Third became even more confused. Make a contribution to the tigers?
Why?
Roar~!
“Big Brother, why do I have to make a contribution to the tigers?”
The look in w.a.n.g Hu’s eyes became even sterner. His eyes bore straight into Old Third’s, so much so that fear arose in him again. Only then did w.a.n.g Hu speak seriously again.
Roar~!
“Do you know what animal species you are?”
Old Third shrank back and gave him a soft reply.
Roar~!
“A tiger.”
Roar~!
“What about me?”
Roar~!
“Big Brother is also one.”
Old Third couldn’t help but lower his head. He didn’t dare to make eye contact with his eldest brother anymore.
Roar~!
“Raise your head,” barked w.a.n.g Hu softly.
The look in his eyes was filled with a sense of having expected better from Old Third.
Old Third lifted his head timidly.
w.a.n.g Hu barked grimly at him again.
Roar~!
“You’re a tiger. I’m a tiger. Our father and our mother are tigers. Your children are tigers. Our whole family is made of tigers. If you don’t make any contribution to the tiger species, then what do you want to do?
“Continue living like how you did in the past before you gained intelligence? Sleep after you’ve eaten, then eat again after you awake?
“I’ll tell you… that’s not a tiger but a pig. If you’re a tiger, then you should contribute everything you have to the tigers. Your life from this point on should be dedicated to striving for the better good of the tigers, do you understand?”
Old Third was utterly taken aback and unable to react at all. Yet, he didn’t have the guts to rebut w.a.n.g Hu either, and so he could only nod repeatedly as w.a.n.g Hu shouted at him.
w.a.n.g Hu sighed inwardly. Old Third was ultimately still too lacking in education.
The Old Third had only just gained human intelligence. Although he had the past ten-odd years of experience as a foundation and wasn’t completely a blank slate, he was still relying more on his past habits and instinct to go about things.
Tigers had always acted independently. Thus, he didn’t have any concept of tigers as a clan at all.
How would this do?
The tigers that he gathered had to be conscious of the need to be united, of course. Otherwise, even if he had seemingly established the tiger clan by relying on his might and prestige as the Tiger King, they were, in truth, nothing more than just a bunch of tigers in a state of disunity and were utterly useless.
Roar~!
“Do you understand now?” asked w.a.n.g Hu sternly.
Roar~!
“Yes, I understand now,” replied Old Third right away.
Roar~!
“What have you understood?”
w.a.n.g Hu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
A trembling Old Third couldn’t help but take a few steps back before he immediately gave his reply.
Roar~!
“I must contribute to the tigers.”
w.a.n.g Hu nodded. After a moment’s pause, he spoke seriously again.
Roar~!
“Remember this, too—I, your eldest brother, am now the king of the tigers. Vowing loyalty and devotion and serving the Tiger King are equivalent to making contributions to the tigers. Understand?
“Do you understand now?” asked w.a.n.g Hu sternly.
At the sight of Old Third nodding without any hesitation, he became mildly satisfied and went on.
Roar~!
“This is what you must teach the other tigers when they come here in the future. Make them understand that contributing everything they have to the Tiger King and the tigers is a supreme form of honor and glory for them. Otherwise, they’ll be traitors of the tigers, and their behavior will not be tolerated by heaven and earth. They’ll definitely die a terrible death.”
Old Third hastily nodded again.
Roar~!
“Look for a place nearby to stay at first. I’ll teach you some common knowledge in a few days.
“Oh, right. Recite what I told you just now ten times every day and engrave it firmly into your body and soul. Don’t you forget that now.”
w.a.n.g Hu’s tone softened a little at the last line.
Roar~!
“I’ll definitely keep it in mind, Big Brother,” replied Old Third firmly.
Roar~!
“Yeah. Find somewhere to live first, but not too far. You must be able to hear me when I call for you.”
Old Third heaved an obvious sigh of relief. Then, he turned around and ran off.
w.a.n.g Hu curled his lip disdainfully. Was he that scary?
The next moment, however, his thoughts s.h.i.+fted to something else.
Educating Old Third had reminded him of something—the tigers had no concept of community.
He had to start thinking about how he should educate the whole tiger clan now. He would start with Old Third and come up with a systematic way of brainwash—no, species education.
In this increasingly dangerous world, battling alone would never work. Tigers were such powerful individual existences; how could he allow them to be in a state of disunity and end up being taken out one by one?
As the Tiger King, he had to be responsible for the whole tiger species. He must properly study how to go about conducting species education.
Yeah, he would ask Silly Girl about it right away when he returned. After that, he would also look it up on the Internet.
After making up his mind, he walked toward Silly Girl.
Upon noticing the shameless jerk walking toward her, Di Baijun—who had been keeping an eye on them out of the corner of her eye—instantly retracted her gaze in a practiced manner.
She had a cold and sullen look on her face, and there was an incredibly cold and fierce aura all around her.
That shameless jerk must have done that on purpose just now. He must be the one that had taught Old Third to do that.
She would ignore him for the time being and settle her scores with him again when Su Ling went out hunting and Big Treasure and Little Treasure had fallen asleep.
Hmph!
w.a.n.g Hu could tell right away that Silly Girl was upset about the ‘sister-in-law’ term of address from just now. This wasn’t a problem, though, because he had already thought of a solution.
He ignored that cold and fierce aura around her and approached her naturally. Then, he said gravely, “Baijun, I’ve discovered a huge problem about the tigers.”
Di Baijun’s gaze s.h.i.+fted at once. She couldn’t help but frown and look at the shameless jerk. The importance of the tigers held a little more weight.
“What kind of problem is it?”
w.a.n.g Hu smiled inwardly at once, though his voice remained just as serious as before. He said, “I realized that the other tigers don’t have any concept of community at all. They are used to having an independent lifestyle, have no idea of unity at all, and have never thought of contributing their strength to the tiger species.”
Di Baijun’s brows locked together the moment she heard what he said.
The shameless jerk was right.
She immediately realized that because this situation had also been present among the mortal tigers of her clan back in the Wild World in the past.
Tigers were used to being individual existences right from the start, especially the mortal tigers.
They naturally also stayed the same even after they gained human intelligence.