Chapter 132

Hearing that Qi Bai was going to teach something new, Mouse Lin immediately asked: "What is it?"

Qi Bai didn't keep them in suspense. He walked outside and wrote the two characters for "Mouse Lin" (鼠林) on the ground.

Mouse Lin asked curiously: "What is this? A totem?"

Qi Bai shook his head: "This isn't a totem. These are characters. Every sentence we speak has corresponding characters."

"Look," Qi Bai pointed at the ground, "this is your name."

Mouse Lin's eyes moved back and forth between the two characters on the ground, murmuring: "My... my name?"

Qi Bai smiled: "Yes, your name. Once we learn all the characters, we can record everything we think of."

A hint of confusion flashed in Mouse Lin's eyes. He might not yet understand the meaning of characters, but Sheep Luo and Marten Lan both stepped forward.

Sheep Luo even bent down and reverently traced the characters on the ground with both hands, as if feeling some invisible energy that others couldn't perceive.

Qi Bai's gaze was firm: "With characters, everything we do today can benefit our descendants."

Compared to healing methods and hunting skills, learning characters might seem boring and unable to improve daily life. But Qi Bai still wanted to teach the tribespeople characters.

It wasn't just for current convenience; more importantly, characters could ensure the continuation of civilization. In a sense, characters could be considered the starting point of civilization.

Not to mention distant examples, just the old priest and his student of the骁 Ox Tribe dying unexpectedly during migration caused huge losses to the tribe. Qi Bai didn't want the Black Mountain Tribe to face such a day someday.

As long as they recorded everything they did now, even if they weren't in the tribe, everything could continue.

So not just characters, Qi Bai integrated several other important skills and decided to directly establish a school.

If nothing else, just the children in the tribe—their thinking was still flexible. Given the conditions, Qi Bai believed they could quickly absorb this knowledge.

After several people confirmed teaching assignments, they began setting up the Black Mountain Tribe's first school.

The building they were currently in was at the front of the plaza, separated from the young beast den by two huge trees.

Qi Bai walked to the brick podium: "First, we need a huge black stone slab."

Mouse Lin said: "I know, like the big stone slab you brought when we studied in front of the stone wall before, right?"

Qi Bai nodded: "Yes, but we have more students now, so we need a bigger slab."

Seeing the area Qi Bai outlined, Mouse Lin patted his chest: "Don't worry, I know where to find such slabs. I'll go find Bear Feng to bring one back now."

With the blackboard settled, what they needed now were desks and stools.

Fox Huo had made some tables and stools earlier, but those had been moved to the young beasts' houses to serve as their dining tables.

He couldn't take tables from the young beasts, and even if he moved all those tables over, they still wouldn't be enough.

After thinking it over, the log tables used during the courtship days were most suitable.

Since the logs were long, one wooden table could seat over ten people, and they were easy to make.

With these low tables, they didn't need stools either—they could just make cushions from dry grass. Anyway, the room's outer walls had heating walls on two sides. When the room filled with people, it definitely wouldn't feel cold, so sitting on the ground would be fine.

Rabbit芽 and Marten Lan both thought Qi Bai's idea was feasible.

Marten Lan said: "I don't think we need to make those cushions. Whoever wants to learn can prepare their own."

Rabbit芽 smiled and added: "Right, even if I had to sit on the ground, I'd still want to come learn."

Qi Bai thought about it and agreed. They were preparing enthusiastically now, but how many tribespeople would actually attend classes wasn't certain.

And judging by the tribespeople's reactions, probably more than half would come. With just a few of them, they really couldn't make that many cushions.

After Rabbit芽 and Marten Lan left, Sheep Luo watched Qi Bai measuring positions for wooden tables in the room and asked after a moment: "Are you really going to teach this knowledge to everyone?"

Qi Bai stopped and turned to smile at Sheep Luo. Sheep Luo had finally asked this question.

When Qi Bai first said he wanted to start a school in the tribe to teach every tribesperson, Sheep Luo had looked surprised, but after slight hesitation, he agreed to the proposal.

After that, Sheep Luo never mentioned it again.

Qi Bai certainly didn't think Sheep Luo, who had received priestly training since childhood, would suddenly change his mind. Qi Bai had been waiting for Sheep Luo's question.

Sheep Luo spoke slowly: "My original tribe was very powerful. Every hunting season, the hunting team brought back endless prey."

"My teacher was the tribe's only priest. His wisdom earned him everyone's admiration in the tribe."

"You have even more knowledge than him. You could become a priest like him, no—perhaps even greater than him."

Sheep Luo looked at Qi Bai with complex emotions: "But no priest would make the entire tribe his students."

Qi Bai understood Sheep Luo's meaning.

Throughout history, ruling classes always tightly controlled the most important resources. In the beastmen world, the knowledge priests possessed—medicine, mathematics, calendars, etc.—were their means of maintaining status, so they wouldn't easily teach this knowledge to others.

This could be seen from Sheep Luo's experience. The priest from Sheep Luo's original tribe wanted to select the most suitable disciple without threatening the priest's unique status, so he made students compete. Only the winner could stay in the tribe as the new priest, while other priest students were expelled to find new tribes to survive in.

That Sheep Luo could see this clearly showed he was different from other confused beastmen. He had seen power, understood its meaning, and knew power required methods to obtain.

Qi Bai was deeply moved that Sheep Luo was willing to say this to him. Only by considering him close would Sheep Luo discuss this, wanting him to solidify his status among all tribespeople.

But Qi Bai knew knowledge was endless. He alone couldn't accomplish anything.

Qi Bai smiled slightly and said: "Priest Grandpa, the Beast God has given me much knowledge. I believe rather than me alone having it, he would prefer this knowledge help his people live better lives."

Hearing this, Sheep Luo didn't speak for a long time before finally saying with some relief: "Perhaps I really wasn't suited to be a priest."

Qi Bai shook his head seriously: "No, Priest Grandpa. If you weren't the priest of Black Mountain Tribe, the knowledge I have wouldn't be able to be used. You are a truly remarkable priest."

Qi Bai spoke from the heart. After going to the trading day and seeing the chaotic outside world, he better understood the Black Mountain Tribe's value. If he had been reborn in Sheep Luo's original tribe, that old priest definitely wouldn't have tolerated him. The best outcome would probably have been expulsion—he never could have accomplished so much.

Hearing Qi Bai's words and thinking about his fellow priest students from before, Sheep Luo straightened his back a little.

No wonder Sheep Luo genuinely liked Qi Bai—perhaps he appreciated this honesty.

Regardless, with the priest's support, the Black Mountain Tribe's school transformation was completed in just one day.

Originally, no one understood why Qi Bai had set aside such a separate spacious room. Now they knew it was for tribespeople to learn knowledge.

Although after implementing the points system, Qi Bai explained numbers every noon, that was completely different from sitting in a classroom—just the sense of ceremony was much greater.

Especially for Niu Shuo and Niu Xu. Their original骁 Ox Tribe had a priest, and they knew this knowledge was only for priests to learn. They never expected to obtain it so easily now.

So the next morning, when Qi Bai arrived at the school carrying a rectangular wooden box, he found everyone crowded into the classroom.

Those who came early could sit behind wooden tables. Those who came late sat by the walls. The last to arrive could barely squeeze into the aisles.

When Qi Bai entered, everyone looked over in unison, making him somewhat nervous.

Qi Bai straightened his animal hide clothing and walked through the crowd to the podium.

On the podium was the room's only high wooden table, serving as a lectern. Beside the lectern was a huge blackboard.

Qi Bai had no idea how Bear Feng and Mouse Lin moved such a huge stone inside—he had been startled when he first saw it yesterday.

Qi Bai took out white stones and thought for a moment before writing two characters on the blackboard: "Black Mountain."

All the tribespeople sitting below the podium heard a simple opening statement.

"Today we'll learn our name: Black Mountain Tribe."

And these two characters would become words engraved in the hearts of all Black Mountain Tribe members, never to be forgotten.

The Black Mountain Tribe school opened for about an hour every morning, during which all tribespeople could attend classes.

Currently, Rabbit芽's math class, Marten Lan's herb class, Mouse Lin's drawing class, and Qi Bai's character class took turns.

Actually, Qi Bai also wanted to add some targeted combat training, but he wasn't professional in that area. It would be better to wait for Wolf Ze's return to arrange that.

Learning required constant practice. To make writing convenient, Qi Bai specifically taught everyone to make small sand trays—the rectangular wooden boxes he brought on his first day of class.

Make wood into rectangular prisms, hollow out the center to create deep trays, then fill the trays with fine sand. They could use wooden sticks or fingers to write.

Making mistakes didn't matter—a gentle wipe let them start over.

These sand trays, more convenient than stone slabs, quickly became popular among the tribespeople.

From then on, the Black Mountain Tribe had a fixed daily scene.

Early in the morning when dawn just broke, everyone finished breakfast, wrapped in thick animal hides, and came to the tribe school carrying hide bundles.

The heating walls in the school had already been warmed. Everyone removed their outermost hide clothing upon entering, taking out various sitting cushions from their hide bundles—some woven from dry grass, some sewn from hides, and some less particular people simply folded their hide clothing to sit on.

Then they carefully took out their wooden boxes, filled them with sand, and traced the characters and numbers on the blackboard stroke by stroke.