The Train Convoy set out on its journey.

Shen Cong soon found that buying Brother Dao's escape pod hadn't been such a great idea, because now there was no shaking the dog off... Brother Dao could chatter from morning to night, and out of all that talk, almost none of it was real conversation.

The Train Convoy bumped and jolted its way to Hengyang.

By then Shen Cong had had enough of Brother Dao's noise. "Brother Dao, starting today I'm giving you a job. You'll learn Cicada Language from Researcher Li, and then you'll be in charge of teaching it to the four-legged dragon and Yellow Great-Immortal."

The four-legged dragon's intelligence had shot up until it was close to a grown adult's. On top of that, it had recently reached nuclear-grade, and its command of Activity waves had climbed to a new level.

It was ready to start learning ways of using Activity waves, Cicada Language among them.

But Shen Cong had no intention of wearing himself out teaching it. However smart the four-legged dragon got, it was still a lizard. With no grounding in science, real communication would be hard.

Brother Dao's grounding in science was comparatively good.

Have Researcher Li, who knew Cicada Language, teach Brother Dao, then have Brother Dao teach the four-legged dragon and Yellow Great-Immortal, and the dog's energy would be used up perfectly.

Brother Dao, sprawled on the roof of Car One, cut a sidelong look at the four-legged dragon sprawled on the roof of Car Two. "A moron like that isn't worth my teaching."

But Shen Cong threatened it.

In the end, Brother Dao took on the challenge.

Over the next few days, Researcher Li taught Brother Dao Cicada Language. Brother Dao was particle-grade and understood Activity waves deeply, and its long stretch of schooling among the humans in Changsha City had left it quick on the uptake. After a few days of lessons it had the language down with ease.

Then it started teaching the four-legged dragon.

Just as Shen Cong had expected, the result was a comedy.

"Dumb snake, today I,…