Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire

  Sun Mo didn’t like crowds. Hence, he would wake up earlier and head to the canteen to have breakfast before the peak period.

  “I’ll get some steamed dumplings and one porridge for takeaway. I don’t want the salted veggies.”

  Sun Mo calculated the money he had in his pocket. Although it wasn’t healthy to eat meat in the morning, the steamed dumplings of the canteen were extremely delicious.

  After moving out of the dorm building, he went onto a path leading to the sports field. He could see many intern teachers finishing their morning practice, and they were currently on their way back.

  Due to the competitive nature of their current situation, it seemed as though there were no mutual greetings among them. Their gazes were filled with disregard for each other.

  “Teacher Sun!”

  Sun Mo heard someone addressing him with an honorific, and he couldn’t help but feel astonished. When he glanced toward the voice, he saw a young girl with exquisite features standing below a maple tree at the side.

  “Oh, it’s you?”

  Sun Mo felt a little surprised. The young girl wore men’s clothes that were tailored fit for her. However, her fair skin, her gentle-looking exquisite features, her slender figure……Everyone could tell that she was a girl with just a glance.

  This girl was none other than Li Ziqi, the person who had wanted to save him but ended up almost drowning herself. The system had also issued a mission, wanting Sun Mo to accept her as his student.

  “Teacher Sun!”

  Li Ziqi smiled sweetly. Her eyes, where the shades of white and black were clearly distinct, immediately curved into shapes of the crescent moon. However, just as she jogged over, her feet tripped on a flagstone after a few steps.

  Pak!

  Li Ziqi was like a frying pan as she fell and slammed into the limestone slab.

  “Are you alright?”

  Sun Mo was badly frightened. He hurried over to help her up, but he soon stopped. Li Ziqi had directly covered her head with her arms and curled into a ball.

  “Boohoo, I lost face again. Why am I so stupid?”

  Li Ziqi really wanted to find a hole and hide in it.

  “Because of your kindness, this ant can continue to admire the scenery of this world.”

  Sun Mo didn’t go to help her up. Instead, he squatted at the side and was staring at an ant that was passing by.

  “Eh?”

  Li Ziqi started.

  “You really are a kind girl!”

  Sun Mo smiled, he picked that ant up and showed it to her.

  “Eh?”

  Li Ziqi was still in a daze, but she soon understood. Sun Mo thought that she fell down on purpose in order to avoid stepping on the ant. Aiya, she turned from a stupid girl into a kind girl in an instant. After managing to save her face, happiness bloomed in Li Ziqi’s heart.

  “No one has ever treated me like this!”

  Li Ziqi felt very strange. In the past when she fell down, her servants, guards, and aunties would be extremely frightened and hurry over to console her. But today, this was the first time she had a different experience.

  By saying such words, she didn’t feel the embarrassment she had felt in the past. Instead, she even felt a little joyful.

  “Have you eaten yet?”

  Sun Mo put the ant down and passed over a handkerchief.

  “Yes, I’ve eaten.”

  Li Ziqi took the handkerchief, slightly started. Only then did she realize that the area above her mouth was wet. Evidently, the skin of her nose was grazed a little, and there was fresh blood flowing down. She hurriedly wiped the blood away with the handkerchief.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Sun Mo wasn’t narcissistic enough to believe that she was here to look for him.

  “The student recruitment meet will begin three days later, and the battle hall’s test is today. Hence, I came earlier to take a look.”

  Li Ziqi glanced at the blood on the handkerchief and she blushed. “I’ll return it to you after I wash it clean!” ……

  The battle hall of the Central Province Academy was pretty famous in Jinling City. The students in there were all experts who were proficient in combat.

  If there were students who wished to have some attainments in martial arts, there was no mistake if they chose to join here.

  “There are so many people!”

  Li Ziqi saw many students gathered outside the battle hall. She was involuntarily speechless. “Are they all challengers?”

  “Yup!”

  Sun Mo was searching for Qi Shengjia’s silhouette. Some of these students were praying, some were using the time to warm up, some had faces filled with confidence, and some were chatting idly with the people beside them.

  The fame of the battle hall was too great. Hence, for the entry test held once every three months, the number of participants would be filled to the brim. In fact, there had been situations where some members of the battle hall had to have three or four fights in a day. In order to avoid such a situation, the hall leader of the battle hall set a rule. And that was, if a challenger failed his challenge, he wouldn’t be allowed to issue another challenge for the next test. He had to wait half a year later.

  This was Qi Shengjia’s last chance. Even though his father didn’t complain about the fees, Qi Shengjia would quit school if he failed to join the battle hall this time.

  The school fees were simply too expensive. If he didn’t improve, he would truly not have any face to stay here.

  At eight sharp, the sound of drums echoed out.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  All the students gathered before the battle hall fell into silence. They inclined their heads and stared in the direction of the entrance.

  A young man with a height close to two meters stood there. He was like an iron pagoda and was proclaiming in a bright and clear voice.

  “All challengers, line up before the entrance. After that, proceed with drawing lots. You will enter the competition based on the number you drew. If you missed your number when it’s called out, it will be considered that you have decided to give up.”

  After the students immediately surged forward like a hive of bees when they heard it. All of them wanted to snatch a good position.

  “Silence. Anyone who still jostles and creates a commotion will have their qualification of challenge removed.”

  The young man berated. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was like a clap of thunder, ringing out loud in the ears of everyone.

  The students immediately got into rows obediently. This person who spoke was Zhu Ting, someone that was ranked #5 in the battle hall. He was extremely impartial and followed the rules of the school religiously. Since he said words like removing one’s qualification of challenge, it meant that he would do that.

  Everyone didn’t wish to lose their qualifications just by snatching a good spot. That would be too tragic.

  Once everyone was organized into neat rows, the efficiency became much faster. The students walked to a large metal box and put their hands into it to draw a lot.

  “May the heavens bless me!”

  Zhu Ting immediately cursed at them.

  “The heavens won’t bless you. Your own hard work is the only thing you can depend on. If you are not confident, just scram now. Don’t waste everyone’s time.”

  Zhu Ting continued, “Also, for the rest of you. I want you to move quicker. Do you all think the box is a woman? Why are you putting your hands inside it for so long?”

  Zhu Ting’s words were funny, but not a single student dared to laugh.

  Everyone no longer dared to delay and drew out a wooden plate from the box. In fact, they didn’t even have time to see the number on their lots and hurriedly left to make space for the next participants.

  “The rest will draw lots tomorrow!”

  When 500 students finished drawing the lots, Zhu Ting stopped the next student.

  “Go and make your preparations first. The challenge will begin ten minutes later!”

  After Zhu Ting spoke, he carried the metal box that weighed over 50 kg with a single hand. He then returned inside the battle hall.

  “It’s over!”

  After Zhu Ting’s silhouette vanished, a student tossed the wooden plate in his hand onto the ground and involuntarily wailed in anguish.

  The people beside him glanced at the wooden lot and immediately conveyed their sympathies.

  On the thumb-size wooden plate, there were three characters ‘1, Fang Yan’.

  Fang Yan, a student of the seventh-grade. He was the publicly acknowledged #1 ranker of the battle hall, and this unlucky student drew him out of 500 students. His luck was truly so bad that no one could beat it.

  However, he wasn’t the only one wailing and sighing. Those who had drawn the top 100 rankers looked as though they were attending a funeral.

  Sun Mo didn’t waste much time and soon found Qi Shengjia. Qi Shengjia was seated on the stairs and was listlessly staring at the ground. His eyes were red. It was evident that he just cried.

  “A bad draw?”

  Upon seeing Qi Shengjia’s state, Sun Mo already guessed the answer.

  “His opponent is Peng Wanli.”

  Zhou Xu passed a wooden plate over, but Sun Mo didn’t take it. He already saw the number 106 on it.

  “Your hard work can be seen by everyone. If you continue to train, half-a-year later, you will even win against someone in the top #100.”

  Wang Hao consoled, but even he himself didn’t believe in his own words.

  During these few days, Qi Shengjia was full of confidence and he became more chatty. He, who had always been shy, could even say words like he would pass the test for sure. But after drawing his lot, it was like all his energy and spirit had been sapped away.

  “Teacher!”

  When he saw Sun Mo, Qi Shengjia greeted him in a mournful voice. It was simply like a cuckoo crying blood.

  “Yo, isn’t this student Qi Shengjia? When you were publicly proclaiming that you would pass the battle hall’s test, your expression wasn’t like this.”

  Yan Li came specially to see Qi Shengjia being defeated so he could taunt him later. However, he didn’t expect Qi Shengjia’s luck to be so bad. There was no need for a challenge and it was almost certain that he would lose.

  “Let me see who’s your opponent?”

  Yan Li moved over. “Peng Wanli? Hehe, this guy is the same year as us, but he’s at the 6th-level of the body refinement realm. His Eighteen Arhat Palms is extremely famous. You are only at the 3rd-level of body refinement, how can you win?”

  “Shengjia is at the 4th-level.”

  Wang Hao rolled his eyes.

  “4th-level? You broke through recently?”

  Yan Li was astonished. Soon after, he cursed in a low voice. Although Yan Li was at the 5th-level and Qi Shengjia was still one level weaker, he felt unhappy when he saw someone he disliked breaking through.

  “Are you done or not? Quickly leave!”

  Zhou Xu frowned.

  “I’m only reminding him out of good-will. Try not to die from being beaten up. Let alone the 4th-level, even if he was at the 6th-level, he wouldn’t be able to beat Peng Wanli.”

  Yan Li laughed uproariously as he left. This detestable poor ghost was finally going to quit school and scram. Tonight, he definitely had to go out and enjoy a feast to celebrate it.

  “It’s over.”

  Qi Shengjia stood up and walked over slowly. Clearly, he wanted to give up,

  Wang Hao and Zhou Xu didn’t feel surprised by this. If he entered the battle, it was unknown whether his injuries would be heavy or light. If his injuries were heavy, he would need to spend a bomb on medical fees.

  “I shouldn’t have any hopes……Boohoo!”

  Qi Shengjia lifted his hand to wipe his tears as he cried sorrowfully.

  Sun Mo surveyed Qi Shengjia. He saw that Qi Shengjia’s potential was still extremely low. Such a thing wouldn’t suddenly rise due to reasons such as ‘sympathy’ or ‘you are a good person’.

  “System, open the shopping store!”

  As Sun Mo silently mused, the shelf for goods appeared before him.

  The items here were pathetically little. Sun Mo glanced at everything and his vision then landed at the lucky treasure chest at the bottom left corner of the goods shelf.

  “‘Lucky treasure chest’ valued at 10 favorable impression points. There’s a 0.1% chance you will be able to draw a technique, an item, or a cultivation art, etc.”

  As he looked at the note about the lucky treasure chest, Sun Mo decided to gamble.

  Chapter 19: When I’m Teaching Someone a Lesson, How Are You Qualified to Interrupt Me?

  Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire

  When the host completed the missions, the system would give out treasure chests according to the mission’s difficulty. From low to high, the grades were black-iron, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond treasure chest.

  When opening a treasure chest, the host would have a chance to gain a reward. The higher the grade of the treasure chest, the better the rewards would be.

  Other than this, there was another type of treasure chest named lucky treasure chest. This was what the host could get every midnight when the timer refreshed. This same type of treasure chest was also sold in the system shopping store for 10 favorable impression points each.

  Although the chances of getting good items were very low, this treasure chest was like the last life-saving straw in the hand of a drowning person. Although they knew it was useless, the presence of hope would still bring about great comfort to their hearts.

  “System, how many favorable impression points do I have now?” Sun Mo silently asked.

  “170,” the system answered in a concise and comprehensive manner.

  “I’ll buy 10 lucky treasure chests.”

  Actually, Sun Mo knew the answer. His question was to test the system, but sadly, there were no loopholes he could take advantage of.

  The system’s actions were extremely clean, not giving Sun Mo any chance to regret his words.

  “Why do I still have to open the storage cabinet? Just bring them all out, I want to open them.”

  After Sun Mo spoke, a treasure chest before his eyes. He didn’t do anything superstitious like praying for good luck or washing hands to wash away bad luck. He simply mumbled the word ‘open’ silently.

  The chest opened; there was nothing in it. There wasn’t even a consolation note that stated ‘Please try again the next time!’

  Sun Mo continued.

  He opened another chest again but didn’t receive anything. It was so for all the ten chests.

  “.……”

  Sun Mo felt like cursing the system’s mother. He really wanted to curse out loud. 100 favorable impression points for ten lucky treasure chests, yet he didn’t receive anything at all.

  “You are an extremely unlucky person, why are you trying to gamble on your luck? Does your family own a mine? Do you think it’s so easy to gain favorable impression points?” Sun Mo silently mumbled to himself.

  Sun Mo slapped his left hand.

  Pak!

  “Ah?”

  Li Ziqi called out, feeling a little afraid. However, when Teacher Sun was serious, he also looked quite handsome.

  “System, give me another sev……forget it!”

  As Sun Mo spoke halfway, he thought about the lucky treasure chests he would get every midnight. During these few days, he hadn’t been opening them, so he did a quick check and realized that he had five.

  “Open them all!”

  Sun Mo was too lazy to open them one by one.

  Swish, swish, swish~

  A bright light flashed. All of a sudden, a book emitting a dense golden light flew out from one of the lucky treasure chests and floated before Sun Mo.

  “Congratulations, you obtained the grandmaster-level ‘Muscleforge Technique’. This was one of the four branch techniques of the ancient massage technique.

  “Using the muscleforge technique on a target can increase the target’s cell vitality, enhance the strength of the target’s muscle, rejuvenate muscle damage, increase strength, and upgrade spirit qi storage.”

  “You are determined to make me get on the path of a masseur, right?!”

  Sun Mo was speechless. The things he wanted most were peak-grade medicine, which could be used to directly upgrade one’s combat strength. However, the muscleforge technique wasn’t bad. It was still better compared to some random stuff.

  “Qi Shengjia, come back here!” Sun Mo spoke.

  Qi Shengjia turned, having a look of despair. “Teacher Sun, I won’t be able to win.”

  Sun Mo’s expression was ice-cold as he walked in front of Qi Shengjia. He lifted his hand and slapped his face.

  Pak!

  The clear sound of a slap rang out, causing a female teacher who was walking by to jump in shock. She couldn’t help but turn her gaze in this direction.

  “Say that again!” Sun Mo berated.

  Qi Shengjia felt that there was nothing sadder than this. What could the pain of this slap count for? “Peng Wanli’s ranking is #106……”

  Pak!

  Sun Mo’s slap interrupted Qi Shengjia’s words.

  “Say that again!”

  “Peng Wanli’s ranking……”

  Pak!

  Sun Mo launched another slap.

  “Say that again!”

  “Peng Wan……”

  Pak!

  This time, even before Qi Shengjia finished saying Peng Wanli’s name, all his latter words were smacked back into his throat by the slap.

  Li Ziqi watched on as her heart trembled.

  “Teacher……”

  Qi Shengjia didn’t understand why he was slapped.

  “You haven’t even gotten on the stage, how do you know you will lose for sure?”

  Sun Mo was very angry. From the time he had taught students until now, he had never hit anyone before. But this Qi Shengjia was too soft and weak. “As a man, you can lose. But you cannot choose to flee even before the battle. Do you know that you look like a pathetic dog?”

  The female teacher involuntarily nodded when she heard this. Her beautiful eyes turned toward Sun Mo as she surveyed him.

  “Teacher Sun, even if he went up to the stage, he won’t be able to win. And if he is injured, he still needs to spend money on treatment after that,” Zhou Xu spoke in support of Qi Shengjia.

  “Shut up!”

  Sun Mo turned and shot a ruthless glare over. “When I’m teaching someone a lesson, how are you qualified to interrupt?”

  “Eh!”

  Zhou Xu hurriedly lowered his head after seeing how fierce Sun Mo was. However, his heart didn’t accept Sun Mo’s words as correct. Although Qi Shengjia’s current actions were very embarrassing, would it be different if he went up the stage?

  “Even if you cannot win, you cannot allow your opponent to win too easily. Treat yourself as a mad dog, go and bite him, bite him ruthlessly. Make sure that the next time he meets you, his first reaction isn’t to think of you as a soft and weak dog, but a mad dog that could take a few bites out of him.”

  Sun Mo lectured.

  Pu!

  The female teacher couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she heard this.

  (This unfamiliar-looking fellow, is he an intern teacher from this year? How interesting.) Just when she was preparing to leave, a buzzing sound rang out. Sun Mo’s body began to emit a layer of golden light.

  After that, the golden light scattered outward, landing on Qi Shengjia’s body and also enveloping others.

  Qi Shengjia suddenly felt an abundance of battle intent.

  “Great teacher halo!”

  A student cried out in shock as all of them turned their heads over.

  “Teacher Sun’s words make sense!”

  Li Ziqi’s beautiful melon face was golden when the rays of the sun fell on her. The education she had received told her that Sun Mo’s words were extremely impolite. But when she thought carefully about it, it did seem to make sense.

  If Qi Shengjia fled this time around like a pathetic dog, in the future, when his opponent encountered him again, he would definitely mock him and wouldn’t be afraid to fight again. But if Qi Shengjia was determined to take bites out of his opponent, even if his opponent was the victor, he would most probably change his route to avoid him the next time they met. After all, no one would want to be bitten by a mad dog twice.

  “Are these the words of wisdom from Teacher Sun?”

  Ding!

  Favorable impression from Li Ziqi +1.

  Prestige connection with Li Ziqi. State: Neutral (5/100)

  Sun Mo, who was encouraging Qi Shengjia, suddenly jumped in shock when he heard the system’s notification. He involuntarily turned and glanced at Li Ziqi.

  A young woman clad in men’s clothes. When she saw Sun Mo glancing over, she waved her fist with force to cheer him on.

  “What? What did I do? I can even receive favorable impression points like this?”

  Sun Mo was speechless. However, the top priority was to hurry up and boost Qi Shengjia’s morale, giving him confidence.

  “It’s time I use my ultimate technique. Qi Shengjia, come with me.”

  Sun Mo took the lead and walked toward the battle hall, preparing to borrow a resting room. He wanted to use his ancient massage technique on Qi Shengjia, as he couldn’t possibly use that in this small public square, right? If that was the case, the title of a masseur would probably be stuck with him forever and there was nothing he could do to cleanse himself of it.

  Upon hearing the words ‘ultimate technique’, not only did Qi Shengjia’s eyes brighten, but Wang Hao and Zhou Xu also hurriedly followed him. Li Ziqi didn’t say anything. It was like she was wagging her little tail like an obedient puppy and silently followed behind Sun Mo.

  Since today was the day of the test, various jobs needed to be done. But since the battle hall’s reputation was so great, it was extremely easy for them to find students who volunteered to help.

  Staring at the red armbands the volunteers had around their arms, Sun Mo reckoned that their authority shouldn’t be great. Hence, he directly looked for Zhu Ting, the student who had presided over the drawing of lots earlier.

  “Borrowing a resting room?”

  Zhu Ting frowned and surveyed Sun Mo. Yet, his tone was one of rejection. “Sorry, the resting rooms of the Battle Hall have never been borrowed to outsiders before.”

  “I will only use it for 20 minutes at most.”

  If it wasn’t for Qi Shengjia, Sun Mo wouldn’t have said this. He then continued, “I can pay money for it.”

  “Hehe, the resting rooms of our Battle Hall aren’t something you can borrow just by spending money.”

  Zhu Ting laughed, his voice was filled with a hint of superiority. Even the few students beside him had similar expressions on their faces.

  Sun Mo turned his head and left while noting down Zhu Ting’s name in the small notebook of his heart. Were students from the Battle Hall so impressive? When he formally became a teacher, he would enter the Battle Hall as their consultant and make them call him ‘teacher’ every day.

  “He should be an intern teacher!” a student reminded Zhu Ting.

  “So what?”

  Zhu Ting’s lips twitched. “It’s still not confirmed whether he can join the faculty or not!”

  If it was a teacher of the school asking, Zhu Ting might have agreed. But an intern teacher? Who would care about them?

  Speaking of status, Zhu Ting as the 5th-ranker of the Battle Hall was highly regarded by many teachers, belonging to the category of students that had a bright future. Quite a few teachers had openly expressed their intentions to accept him as a personal disciple, but they were all rejected by Zhu Ting.

  ‘A fine bird chooses a tree to nest in.’ Zhu Ting was also waiting for a good offer. After all, with a good teacher to protect him from the wind and rain, his future path would be much more relaxed.

  “Zhu Ting!”

  Zhu Ting—who was currently acting like a big boss, instructing the volunteers—instantly smiled radiantly before turning his head. At the same time, he sucked in his stomach and pushed out his chest, adopting a perfect posture.

  “Teacher Jin!”

  Zhu Ting called out. His voice was filled with respect and even a hint of amiability. Don’t look down on the words ‘Teacher Jin’, he had privately practiced calling these words out, infusing them with his emotions.

  “Why was that intern teacher looking for you earlier?”

  Jin Mujie was dressed in a moon-white long robe. There were three strands of golden threads being embroidered on the cuff and the bottom of the robe. This was an indication of a 3-star great teacher.

  Zhu Ting didn’t dare to hide anything.

  “Oh, give him a resting room.”

  After Jin Mujie finished speaking, she turned and departed.

  The students merely glanced at each other before hurriedly lowering their heads.

  The consequence of offending a great teacher was an immediate expulsion.

  “Mn!”

  After Jin Mujie left, Zhu Ting chased after Sun Mo. At the same time, he was frowning. Could it be that Teacher Jin was acquainted with this intern teacher? If this was the case, would his earlier attitude cause the intern teacher to feel hatred in his heart?

  “There’s a resting room now?”

  Li Ziqi happily spoke when Zhu Ting appeared and spoke to them.

  “Yes, I will bring everyone over.”

  Although Zhu Ting’s smile wasn’t radiant, his expression was much better compared to his earlier dead-fish look.