Wang Hu chuckled inwardly. As expected, Silly Girl had taken the initiative to be nice to him.

She was too embarrassed to agree to take care of Old Third so she had decided to express it in a roundabout way instead.

Wang Hu shook his head sternly and said seriously, "Baijun, Old Third isn't a child anymore. Neither must we treat him like a child either. It'll be too late if we don't discipline him now. We would only have brought him harm when that happened.

"You don't have to bother yourself with this. As they say, the eldest brother is like the father. As his eldest brother, I won't ever make the same mistakes that I made in the past again. I'll definitely teach him well. This way, I won't have any regrets in the future. He'll also thank me for it."

His voice was firm, resolute, and filled with determination and force.

Di Baijun could fully feel his determination. When she thought about it, that indeed seemed to be the case. The jerk was right to take such actions.

However…

She felt rather frustrated again. The jerk had only just told her two days ago that he wanted her to be nicer to Old Third, and yet he was going to discipline Old Third severely himself now. In that case, what was she supposed to do?

She wanted to ask him, yet was too embarrassed to, so the troubled Di Baijun could only muse over it by herself.

Wang Hu didn't say more either. He walked over to Su Ling and said openly, "I saw what happened today. I've already taught Old Third a lesson just now. Continue to reprimand him when you're teaching him tomorrow. I'll be watching there, too."

Su Ling, whose confidence and self-assurance had been steadily increasing over the last two days, found her confidence punctured again because of what had happened today.

She stood up at this point, however, and watched Wang Hu with idolizing eyes.

The demon lord, no, the lord was too awesome!

He had actually taught that ferocious fellow a lesson for her sake!

For a moment, she felt an upsurge of emotions and became incredibly high-spirited. She said with determination, "Yes, Su Ling will definitely do her job well and will not let her lord down."

"Yeah. Work hard and cultivate." Wang Hu nodded and gave a word of encouragement.

"Understood."

Wang Hu walked over to the spot that he usually occupied and also began to cultivate. He had never ever dared to be lax in his cultivation.

He didn't own any cheats when it came to this. All he could do was painstakingly cultivate and become stronger bit by bit through it.

At present, his shoulder height had already reached slightly over 9.2 meters tall while his body length was roughly 16.2 meters.

His combat strength improvement rate had significantly quickened. From this, one could tell the influence one's environment had on one's cultivation.

In worlds with incredibly rich and ample spiritual energy, it was likely that one could even naturally attain the First Realm or the Second Realm without cultivating.

The night passed peacefully. The next day, after the hunting and other tasks were completed, lessons took place once more.

Su Ling felt incredibly pleased when she saw Old Third again.

His buttocks had become a whole round bigger than before due to swelling. It even seemed like he was being exceptionally careful with his hind legs when he walked.

Su Ling burst into uproarious laughter inwardly, but she still felt rather piqued even after that.

Hmph. Be fierce to me again, why don't you?

Let's see whether you dare to be so fierce to me again or not.

My lord will definitely take revenge on my behalf.

Confidence and self-assurance filled her like never before, and she raised her head high and puffed out her chest.

Yelp!

"You must loudly and determinedly repeat everything I say today. Have you committed that to your memory?"

Wang Shan instinctively became angry. How dare that tiny little fox talk to him like that!

However, before he could even glare at her, he immediately withered and cast a fearful glance in the direction where Wang Hu was. He felt very aggrieved.

Never mind. I'll just obey what Big Brother says instead.

He nodded reluctantly to indicate that he had understood.

The lesson went into full swing after that. Under Wang Hu's intimidation and his first-hand experience with pain, Wang Shan became well-behaved and obediently took the lesson.

In the evening…

After thinking long and hard, Di Baijun got Su Ling to bring some newly-purchased bedsheets and mattresses over to Wang Shan and teach him how to use them.

A smile surfaced in Wang Hu's eyes as he watched, and a heartwarming feeling took over him.

He knew very well that there was only one reason why an existence like Silly Girl, as well as why someone with a personality like hers would actually do something as trivial as that—without her even realizing: Silly Girl was starting to also care about him.

It was because she cared about him that she also cared about his younger brother.

He didn't say much and continued to cultivate instead.

In the blink of an eye, another day went by. In the evening, Li Tong called to inform them that Elder Li would be coming to pay them another visit.

Wang Hu's demeanor turned grave, but he didn't reject the visit.

He was fairly puzzled after he hung up. What had happened to cause that high-ranking official from China to pay him another visit?

He thought back to all the news that he'd seen recently, but he couldn't come up with any decent analysis.

In that case, it must have something to do with more secretive matters. That was why there was no mention of anything on the Internet.

He mused over it with a frown for a considerably long time before he put the matter aside temporarily.

It was fine as long as they didn't harbor any malicious intentions. He would naturally know what was going on the next day.

At 9 a.m. the next morning, when Su Ling and Wang Shan were both out hunting, the sound of an airplane rang out once more.

Di Baijun brought the two little fellows into the cave while Wang Hu watched the airplane approach by himself.

Shortly after, they—two humans and a tiger—met at the same place as before. Li Tong didn't come this time, however.

"Your Excellency, we've met again. Li Tong has some business to attend to so he wasn't able to come. Please forgive me," said a smiling Li Aimin amicably.

Roar~!

"Why have you come?"

Wang Hu didn't stand on ceremony and asked directly. He didn't speak in Mandarin either. In a situation like this, speaking in Mandarin was—to a certain extent—equivalent to him backing down.

Li Aimin wasn't bothered in the least. On the contrary, he liked this straightforward way of communication very much.

He said with a smile, "Your Excellency, I'm here on behalf of China to discuss a deal with you this time."

Roar~!

"What kind of deal?"

Wang Hu's wariness became even more intense.

Li Aimin told him directly about the large-scale animal invasion currently taking place at the borders. Wang Hu's demeanor became dead serious at once.

Had the other party not mentioned it, he wouldn't have thought of it at all. On top of that, he had been home the whole time during the last few months and hadn't gone out in a very long time, and so he didn't know about it at all.

The moment the other party brought it up, he knew right away that it must be true.

Animals were sentient and would instinctively seek better living environments.

Was there anywhere in the world with a better living environment than China at the moment?

They could disregard faraway areas, but in the case of nearby territories, the animals would definitely be able to slowly sense it, thereby resulting in large-scale migrations.

Additionally, there was no end to this kind of migration. More and more animals from further and further areas would flock to China.

In that case, what did this have anything to do with him?

What was China's objective…?

Li Aimin paused for a moment, and then he came straight out and said, "The large-scale migration of various animal species will not only encroach on the living space of the animals currently living at the borders, but it'll also cause unforeseeable detrimental effects and impact on the Chinese citizens.

"Therefore, we must do something about it. As such, we would like to make a deal with you, Tiger King.

"We would like to entrust part of the borders to you and your clansmen, where you'll be in charge of preventing the animals from invading.

"Although we're both just taking what we each need by doing this, we—China—are nevertheless willing to offer some remuneration."

After the simple explanation, Li Aimin stopped and looked at Wang Hu openly and sincerely.

To be honest, he didn't need to personally make the trip for a discussion like this.

However, the Northern Tiger King was the strongest, and he was also China's benefactor… so his status was special. Given enough time, he would definitely rise to an exalted position among all the animals and hold great influence, and he would serve to set an example for the others.

Thus, Li Aimin decided to personally make the trip.

In addition, he also believed that the Northern Tiger King wouldn't reject the proposal because this was a win-win situation from the start.

Wang Hu indeed didn't have any intention to reject the proposal at the moment either. A large-scale animal invasion into China was equivalent to an infinite supply of food. This could be said to be a top-class advantage to the tigers among all the different animal species.

What were they to do? Tigers had voracious appetites. Moreover, they had cultivation techniques and were even top-class hunters and overlords of the jungle.

This was practically a wonderful opportunity for the tigers. He would be out of his mind to reject it.

Even the dinosaur world couldn't compare to the environment that this opportunity would provide.

After all, even though dinosaurs had thin and diluted dragon blood in them that was beneficial to tigers, the spiritual energy environment in the dinosaur world was simply far too inferior as compared to China.

Besides, the fact that China was willing to do this clearly showed that they didn't want to mass-slaughter the invading animals lest they risked incurring feelings of animosity from all animals.

All the more he wouldn't turn down the goodwill they were showing, of course.

Also, by doing that, wasn't China allowing him to openly take over and rule over an expanse of land as his territory?

As for the fact that China was aware of him gathering so many tigers, this was something very normal. It would be stranger if they didn't know instead.

He contemplated the proposal in detail for a couple of minutes. Li Aimin didn't show any hint of impatience and waited patiently.

Roar~!

"Alright, we can go ahead with the deal. Tell me the specifics," said Wang Hu calmly.

Li Aimin's smile deepened a couple of notches. He gestured to the person beside him, upon which he brought out a map of the north.

Li Aimin pointed at the several meters long map and said amicably, "The concrete range is this part of the border measuring 1,500 kilometers long and 300 kilometers wide.

"Your Excellency, you and your clansmen must stop the animals that invade from this area. At the same time, Your Excellency must also restrain your clan and forbid them from harming our citizens.

"We will also strictly order our citizens not to harm the tigers. Once any problems are discovered, we'll go according to the agreement we made back then. How does that sound?"

Wang Hu briefly considered the proposal, found it viable, and nodded.

Roar~!

"Okay."

Li Aimin nodded. Then, with a slightly more solemn expression, he said, "Your Excellency, should the tigers fail to prevent the animals from invading, thereby having these invaders bring harm to our citizens… we'll be forced to kill the invading animals to protect our citizens. I hope you can understand if that happens."

Wang Hu felt a tinge of gravity in his heart. He knew the purpose behind Li Aimin emphasizing all these.

Sometimes, huge conflicts arose from none other than unremarkable little incidents.

He stayed quiet for a moment before he gave a solemn reply.

Roar~!

"I believe China has an even clearer idea of what to do."

The look in Li Aimin's eyes flickered a little, and he nodded seriously and said, "We definitely will."

He paused briefly, and then he said, "We'll send someone over after this to act as a guide for Your Excellency so that you may familiarize yourself with the area. Also, if we discover the presence of any Second Realm animal king, we'll definitely inform Your Excellency right away.

"Does Your Excellency have any requirements with regard to the remuneration?"

Roar~!

"You can come up with it yourself," replied an unconcerned Wang Hu.

He didn't want to take advantage of them in this matter because, sometimes, there was nothing good about taking advantage of humans. He'd better stay away from them instead.

They didn't say much anymore after that. Li Aimin left with the other person in tow.

Wang Hu stayed where he was and sank into contemplation for a while before he returned home.