Chapter 482: All Matters Concluded

Gao De had just stepped outside when he ran straight into Florala.

Florala, who had just returned from planting trees in Varal Bay.

“Master, Florala has returned!” the little one’s eyes sparkled.

“Did you plant all the tree seeds?” Gao De asked.

“Planted,” Florala declared proudly, her chest puffed out, as if the words “seeking praise” were written across her face.

“Remarkable—such a wide variety of tree seeds, only Florala could manage them all,” Gao De sighed.

Even ordinary tree species have complex requirements to take root and thrive, let alone magical tree seeds.

Within the sacred land opened by Yujiatexila, nearly a hundred tree species now grow, many of them magical.

So far, all trees have grown normally and vigorously—none of this would have been possible without Florala’s care.

“Florala has both ability and diligence—I admire people like her most.”

“Next time, I’ll bring back even more magical tree seeds for Florala,” Gao De promised.

“Magical tree seeds!”

“Yes.”

“What’s that in your hand?” Florala suddenly noticed the newly compiled Standard Glyphology textbook in Gao De’s grasp.

“A textbook I prepared for Anna,” Gao De answered honestly: “She’s clever—she’s cut out for this.”

“Oh~”

“Oh~” Seeing no reaction from Gao De, Florala said “Oh~” again.

“Of course, Florala is even smarter—but this subject simply isn’t suited to you, so I won’t teach it to you,” Gao De realized and added, thinking it through.

It’s not that Florala isn’t suited to it—it’s that it isn’t suited to Florala.

“Oh!”

“Shall I go find Anna? Will Florala come with me?” Gao De asked.

Florala moved faster than her voice—she landed on Gao De’s shoulder first, sat down, swung her little legs, then chirped: “Yes!”

“Then let’s go.”

When they found Anna, the girl was hunched over a parchment, muttering to herself while shaking her head.

“What’s Anna doing?”

At the sound of Gao De’s voice, Anna immediately tore her attention from the parchment and fixed it on him, exclaiming excitedly: “Big Brother Gao De!”

Gao De leaned closer and saw the parchment bore the basic “Hundred Sounds” chart of Esian.

The mumbling she’d been doing was precisely reciting the Hundred Sounds.

“Sister says we’re settling permanently in the Northlands—we must learn the local language as soon as possible,” Anna pouted.

She’d thought Sister, having been “recruited” by Gao De for work, would have no time to give her lessons—and she’d be free.

Reality proved Esha had plenty of methods.

If she couldn’t teach during the day, she’d tutor Anna late into the night; if she had no time for formal lessons, she’d simply assign more homework.

“That’s true,” Gao De agreed on this point—he’d worked hard to master Esian himself after arriving in the Northlands.

“But Sister wants me to keep studying music, painting, literature too.”

Anna counted on her fingers, her mouth rattling like a clapper: “We’re not in Xidian anymore—why do we still need to learn these things?”

“Sister says she’ll send me to a Phoenix school someday.”

Gao De ruffled Anna’s hair and smiled: “You’ve got a point.”

Music, painting, literature—useful, yes, but not essential.

These things are best learned only when one is genuinely interested.

“Big Brother Gao De, are you here to see me?” After complaining, Anna looked up at him, eyes hopeful.

“Yes,” Gao De nodded without hesitation. “I’ve prepared a special gift for you.”

“A gift?” Anna’s eyes brightened further.

“Ta-da~” Gao De pulled out the still-warm new edition of Standard Glyphology from his robe.

“What’s this?” The girl’s eyes widened.

“I just wrote this Glyphology textbook,” Gao De said, seeing Anna’s face begin to droop—he relished his mischief before adding: “Study this, and I’ll tell Esha you no longer need to learn music, painting, or any of that.”

“How’s that?”

“Really?!” Anna’s eyes bulged.

Glyphology was one subject; the others were several. Anna was good at math—she knew which was the better deal.

Besides, if she had to study anyway, she preferred this one.

Because it was simple!

Far simpler than painting or anything else!

“It’s a deal,” Gao De beamed. “I’ll start by teaching you the Six Laws of He Xi—since I’ll be leaving the Northlands in a few days, we must make the most of our time. As for basic glyphs, you’ll need to practice them yourself.”

“Yes,” Anna replied obediently.

Gao De had Anna sit back down at the table and opened the “New Standard Glyphology.”

Following his plan, he patiently first told Anna the story of Master He Xi, then moved on to the “Six Laws of He Xi.”

Throughout the lesson, Florala fluttered her tiny wings around them, up and down, front and back, her eyes brimming with curiosity.

Sometimes she perched on Gao De’s shoulder, sharing his view of the strange symbols and numbers—each digit she recognized, yet when strung together, they looked utterly baffling;

Sometimes she watched Anna’s serious expression, wondering if the girl truly understood—and how she managed to.

Time slipped away unnoticed.

The little one had changed positions countless times.

Seeing both absorbed in their world and ignoring her, she flitted out of the room to play on her own.

After a while, bored, she flew back to listen; after listening a while, bored again, she flew out once more.

Repeating this many times, she finally grew tired, settled on Gao De’s shoulder, and, lulled by their voices and the rustle of pen on parchment, half-lidded her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Only when Gao De suddenly stood did Florala jolt awake.

“Done?”

“Done,” Gao De answered Florala first, then turned to Anna: “The Six Laws of He Xi aren’t complex—in fact, they’re remarkably simple. But that doesn’t mean they’re not profound. On the contrary, great theorems are often extremely concise. Also, mastering these basic glyphs requires diligent practice—it’s foundational work; no shortcuts.”

“When I return, I’ll check your progress.”

As he spoke, he reflected inwardly.

Though he’d long known Anna possessed exceptional talent in calculation and glyphs, only now, during actual teaching, did he realize her aptitude for calculation surpassed even his expectations.

A little girl who’d never encountered multiplication, division, or Arabic numerals had, upon first exposure, performed complex robustness checks entirely in her head.

He still didn’t know whether she possessed the same extraordinary talent in glyphs.

He bid Anna farewell and left the room.

Gao De glanced at the little one still perched on his shoulder.

“Master, what is it?”

“Nothing,” Gao De replied, then asked, thinking: “Florala, you were listening to my lesson with Anna the whole time?”

“Not the whole time.”

Most of the time, she was playing.

“Did you understand any of it?”

At this question, Florala instantly tensed, eyes wide, and asked: “Did she understand?”

She meant Anna.

“...Probably,” Gao De said.

“Then Florala understood a little too!”

“It’s only because you didn’t listen the whole time—otherwise, with Florala’s wisdom, you’d understand everything you heard.”

“Exactly!”

“It really isn’t suited to you, right?” Gao De smiled.

“Not suited!” Florala nodded vigorously, fully agreeing.

“If you’re not interested, why did you stay with me all along?” Gao De asked seriously.

She’d already fallen asleep.

“Because I was keeping you company.”

Gao De paused, then laughed.

He thought this was the perfect answer.

He’d said he’d leave the Northlands in a few days, but he ended up staying in Phoenix for nearly ten more.

Two major matters lay before him. As King of Frost Ice, even though he’d already set their direction, their impact on Phoenix’s future development was too great—he needed to be personally involved to feel at ease.

First: Phoenix’s first civil service selection.

Due to the current special circumstances, this selection had no written exam—only interviews.

Gao De had Esha issue the selection notice across all of Phoenix; after three days of promotion, the interviews began.

The interview phase lasted another three days to conclude.

As the saying goes: the bigger the forest, the stranger the birds.

Phoenix’s population now neared a million. True elites by outside standards were hard to find—but “talent”? There was no shortage.

Especially those bold enough to apply—they all had at least a little skill.

In this world’s culture, most people are practical; few entertain the idea of trying their luck without any preparation.

Among them were seven or eight individuals who served as “experts” in construction within their respective tribes, each specializing in different types of housing. Without doubt, all of them were directly recruited into the Construction Force.

In addition, many tribal chieftains from smaller clans came to participate in the selection.

They had never heard of the term “civil servant,” but in the announcement, Amy clearly explained the rights of civil servants; in their eyes, they naturally equated it with “elder.”

To some extent, it was actually quite similar.

Originally, after joining Phoenix, as outsiders, they had neither belonging nor security.

Only if they became “elders” could they truly become people of Phoenix.

For this reason, nearly all of these dozens of chieftains, big and small, came to attend the first civil servant selection.

Serving as a chieftain under such harsh conditions in the Northern Frontier was no easy task.

These chieftains generally possessed extremely rich life experience and had profound, intuitive understanding of the Northern Frontier’s climate, geography, and resource distribution.

They knew which areas had stable snow layers suitable for building homes and how to make effective use of limited resources for daily sustenance.

This kind of life experience, accumulated through long-term practice, could be applied to urban infrastructure construction, resource development planning, and responses to natural disasters.

Moreover, their long-term leadership of tribes had given them excellent management and coordination skills.

Within their tribes, they needed to fairly distribute limited supplies, assign members to hunting, gathering, construction, and other activities, mediate conflicts among tribe members, and ensure the tribe’s normal operation.

This ability could be extended to the daily work of civil servants, especially in organizing large-scale construction projects, allocating human resources, and coordinating interests among different districts or groups.

Additionally, these chieftains enjoyed extremely high prestige within their own tribes; if they became civil servants, they could leverage this prestige to push policies and tasks into implementation.

Of course, the drawbacks were also prominent.

Due to their long-standing dominant position in their tribes, these chieftains often developed rigid personalities, accustomed to acting according to their own experience and judgment, and found it difficult to accept new ideas and methods.

They tended to prioritize their own tribe’s interests; in urban management decisions, they might excessively focus on their tribe’s needs, favoring kinship and neglecting the city’s overall interests.

How to leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses would depend on Amy’s coordination ability.

The second matter was what Gao De valued most: “universal education.”

After observing for three or four days, Chief Quintin showed no suspicious behavior during these days.

He had left Phoenix only once, on the first morning, returning with a freshly hunted animal, and had not left since.

Normally, he wandered around the city, as if conducting field research.

Whether this was for Gao De and Su Nai’s benefit, or whether Quintin was simply like this.

But in any case, the shadow stone was extremely important to Phoenix; considering this, Gao De stopped further observation and immediately finalized the “Immigrant Reception Program.”

——This was the name Gao De gave to the initiative of actively recruiting small tribes to join Phoenix.

However, out of caution, Su Nai dispatched one of the clan’s four-ring elders, along with a team, to follow Quintin to the Tuwu Tribe.

The Tuwu Tribe was extremely distant from Phoenix; a round trip would take considerable time, so obtaining large quantities of shadow stones would still take a long while.

But Quintin still had three or four shadow stones on him, and Gao De took them all.

Then, he organized the teachers from Phoenix’s First Middle School as “actors,” himself as “director,” and Deputy Minister of Education Amy as an observer, spending half a day directing Phoenix’s first “shadow lesson”: “Introduction to Common Tongue—01.”

Yes, in the end, Gao De named this format of course “shadow lesson,” not the initially proposed “online lesson”: there was no “net,” no “web,” so calling it an online lesson was somewhat inaccurate.

“Shadow lesson” was vivid and apt: first, it took the “shadow” from shadow stone; second, its form was literally recorded light and shadow.

In this process, Gao De clearly defined the format, standards, and key details of the “shadow lesson.”

After this, all future “shadow lessons” could be recorded according to this standard.

This was necessary; to Gao De, the “shadow lesson” was extremely familiar and fundamentally not complex.

But for the people of this world, it was an entirely new concept, a completely new thing.

Neither teachers nor students could imagine what it looked like.

Even if Gao De explained the concept repeatedly, without an example, they still struggled to understand how to proceed.

So, Gao De needed to show them a sample first.

After completing these two major tasks, Gao De remembered another matter: his first-ring origin had entered deficit status.

He immediately issued another order for the tribe’s hunters to capture various types of earth-vein creatures.

After finishing these tasks, Gao De took the many supplies prepared for him by Su Nai and prepared to travel to Varal Bay to return to the Jin Quehua Dynasty via the Astral Transit.

Just as he was about to leave, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

(End of Chapter)