There was an ancient saying – Lingering sound falls incessantly on the ears for three days.

  This meant that if a person’s voice was very pleasant to listen to, it would cause others to pause involuntarily as they felt reluctant to leave. Even if the voice stopped, their ears could still hear the lingering echo for many days.

  When a great teacher’s lecture was conducted perfectly, the effect of Lingering Sound would also occur. Students would feel reluctant to leave the classroom and yearned to continue listening.

  Such a state was similar to when one ate a delicacy or drank an excellent brew.

  When a great teacher had outstanding talent and had conducted many lectures that made students feel reluctant for the class to end, they would then comprehend Lingering Sound after a while.

  Sun Mo carefully appreciated this great teacher halo. It didn’t merely amplify his voice, but it would also cause his voice to be filled with magnetism.

  His voice would become so pleasant to listen to that even kids who hated learning would calm down and listen attentively.

  “Good stuff!”

  Sun Mo was very satisfied. The range of usage for this great teacher halo was very broad. It could be used for every lesson, even for private lessons where he tutored his personal students.

  Naturally, it was also extremely difficult to comprehend this halo. The possessors must have excellent gift of the gab, inner character, and comprehension ability, as well as a strong reserve of knowledge. Only when all these factors were combined would students wish to continue listening to your lecture.

  To give an example, Sun Mo’s Medical Cultivation lecture was extremely popular. One had to enjoy the same popularity in their lectures for three years before they had a chance to comprehend this halo.

  Hence, this halo was extremely prestigious and only old great teachers who had both talent and learning could grasp it.

  “My lucky mascot is truly impressive.”

  Sun Mo laughed and patted Lu Zhiruo’s head.

  “Hehe!”

  The papaya girl smiled radiantly.

  “Open the last chest!”

  Sun Mo was fine with anything now. In any case, he had profited immensely today after obtaining Lingering Sound. Evidently, the luck of Lucky Goddess Lu wasn’t something an unlucky person like Sun Mo could conjecture.

  After the purple light faded away, a palm-sized skill book appeared. It was so heavy that it could be used as a brick to kill people.

  Ding!

  “Congratulations on obtaining the mid-tier planting technique. Proficiency level: elementary.”

  “Are you forcing me to evolve on the path of a druid?”

  Sun Mo teased, feeling joy in his heart.

  In the great teacher world, a planter wasn’t a popular occupation. After all, one had to deal with mud, fertilizer, seeds, and all sorts of things like those every day. It simply wasn’t cool at all.

  Moreover, their production rate was low. Even if you had a saint-tier seedling or plant, how long would they need to grow?

  Nature had its own laws. For example, divine-level medicine or fruits would at least need several hundred years to completely mature or even a thousand years as they needed to absorb the spiritual qi of heavens and earth.

  Even an old freak at the Longevity Realm wouldn’t be able to live long enough for the plant to produce fruits multiple times.

  Look at the occupation of an alchemist and a weaponsmith. Even if they used a year to produce a top-grade pill or a weapon, their profits would still be much higher compared to a planter.

  However, Sun Mo didn’t feel like that. Planting was something that concerned a large-scale program of lasting importance to everyone’s livelihood. In this world, any species that wanted to continue living on had to eat things that were grown from the earth.

  In the modern world, even China focused on agriculture, let alone the Middle-Earth Nine Provinces who were akin to countries in the feudal era. Whether or not the root of their country was strong depended on how much grain and foodstuff the country could produce.

  Strictly speaking, to the general public, Sun Mo’s mastery of planting techniques actually benefited everyone. It was the most useful skill to have.

  “This subject can be taught to untalented students or even common people who can’t sense spirit qi.”

  A few ideas immediately appeared in Sun Mo’s mind.

  If he could manage to do so, even if the Central Province Academy had no way to enter the rankings of the Nine Greats, it would still be considered a holy ground.

  “System, use three 10-years time emblems to upgrade the elementary-grade planting technique.”

  Sun Mo instructed.

  If he didn’t improve the elementary-grade planting technique to the grandmaster-grade, there would be no way for him to learn the mid-tier planting technique.

  Sun Mo’s body was cloaked in green light as a vast amount of knowledge flooded his mind, allowing him to have a brand new understanding of planting techniques.

  Ding!

  “Congratulations, your proficiency in the planting technique has been increased to the grandmaster-grade.”

  After the system congratulated him, it asked, “Do you want to learn the mid-tier planting technique?”

  “Learn it!”

  As Sun Mo’s voice faded, the brick-shaped skill book shattered into motes of light. After that, they shot into Sun Mo’s glabella.

  After the motes of lights entered, they were akin to seeds that fell into his mind. They took root, germinated, and then rapidly grew.

  In an instant, they transformed into all sorts of strange-looking plants. Their vast root system pierced into his neurons and released a large amount of high-level knowledge.

  Very soon, Sun Mo’s mind was completely filled. He felt pain from a sense of swelling.

  Sun Mo waved his hands and cast Encyclopedic Knowledge on himself as he started to memorize the knowledge carefully.

  Li Ziqi and the others tactfully stopped speaking after they saw Sun Mo sank into silence. They then stepped back a little.

  “Why do I feel that Teacher has grown stronger again?”

  Lu Zhiruo surveyed Sun Mo, feeling a little puzzled. Her teacher didn’t seem to have done anything! ……

  When Sun Mo awoke, it was already late night.

  Li Ziqi and Lu Zhiruo stayed here. Actually, Ying Baiwu also wanted to remain behind, but she was chased away by the little sunny egg. After all, the iron-headed girl was going to participate in the student battle two days later. She had to reserve her energy.

  As for Tantai Yutang, that sickly invalid had long since sneaked away after making an excuse that he was unwell.

  “You are finally awake!”

  Li Ruolan who was sitting on a chair stood up. She then walked elegantly over. “Sun Mo, can I ask you a few questions?”

  Because her fountain pen was broken, Li Ruolan directly used an image-recording stone to do the interview.

  “Regarding the fact that you accepted Ma Zhang as a personal disciple, do you feel very great pressure?”

  “If a woman sleeps late, it’s very easy for them to get wrinkles. Besides, they will age very fast.”

  Sun Mo truly had no time to deal with a reporter.

  “Teacher Sun, can I treat your answer as a sign of evasion?”

  Li Ruolan smiled, as sweet as a blooming flower. This was her ultimate killing move that had always been successful.

  “The condition of your skin is already at 27 years old.”

  Sun Mo scared Li Ruolan.

  “Eh!”

  Li Ruolan subconsciously touched her face and felt a little panic. “I’m only 18, don’t talk nonsense!”

  “What a coincidence. I’m 18 too, I’m still underaged!”

  Sun Mo rolled his eyes and stared carefully at Li Ruolan.

  “What are you doing?”

  Li Ruolan’s right hand fastened her collar. (I’m not going to let you look.)

  “Recently, have you been staying up late? You should drink less tea that makes you stay awake. Even your ‘great aunt’ has been late for quite a few days now.”

  After Sun Mo spoke, he could no longer be bothered with this beautiful reporter.

  “Eh? How did you know? You have God Hands and not God Eyes. You didn’t even touch me, yet you know my ailment?”

  Li Ruolan was curious and chased after him. Her eyes shone with the luster of gossip. As expected, this Sun Mo truly had enough value to make her continue chasing after him.

  However, what the hell was a ‘great aunt’?

  (My mother only has a few older and younger brothers!)

  “Reporter Li, the time is no longer early. My teacher still needs to participate in the match tomorrow. Please excuse us!”

  Li Ziqi blocked Li RUolan.

  (Do you think you can do anything you want just because you are beautiful?)

  (Sorry, my teacher doesn’t care about this.)

  “That’s true!”

  Li Ruolan turned her eyes and aimed the image-recording stone at the little sunny egg. “Can I interview you then?” ……

  Sun Mo returned to the hotel. After a simple meal and washing himself up, he went to sleep. He then woke up in the morning like every other day.

  Today, the third round of the Great Teachers Battle would begin and the top twelve in the upper and lower brackets would be determined. Tomorrow, a heavyweight confrontation would happen.

  It was finally Sun Mo’s turn at the sixth match.

  “#178 Sun Mo and #1,903 Wang Qing. Please get up the stage!”

  The main examiner announced.

  The audience instantly fell silent. All of them were waiting to watch a fascinating match.

  “Teacher Wang!”

  Sun Mo didn’t expect to run into someone familiar. This person was none other than the young great teacher who had sprained his ankle during the announcement date for the written examination result.

  “Teacher Sun!”

  Wang Qing clasped his hands and smiled. “I didn’t expect that when we meet again, it would be in such a situation.”

  “Yeah!”

  Sun Mo didn’t use Divine Sight to peer at Wang Qiung’s stats. “Should we begin?”

  “It’s fine!”

  Wang Qing shook his head. “If you didn’t help me with your massage that day, I most probably would still be lame!”

  After Wang Qing saw Ma Zhang taking Sun Mo as a personal teacher yesterday, he understood how greatly Sun Mo’s massage had helped him.

  Without Sun Mo, with his leg disability, it would be very difficult for him to even win the initial match.

  Ding!

  Favorable impression points from Wang Qing +500. Friendly (760/1,000).

  “It’s nothing much. There’s no need for you to mind it too much.”

  After hearing the notification, Sun Mo felt that this Wang Qing wasn’t bad.

  “Not only so, because of your guidance that day, my Greencloud Divine Leg broke through the bottleneck and my cultivation base improved to the next level. Hence, regardless of the reasons, I shouldn’t fight you!”


  Wang Qing persisted.

  “What does he mean? Is this another case of forfeiture again?”

  “What are they doing? Is it so difficult to just fight?”

  “From their words, it seems Sun Mo helped Wang Qing before?”

  The audience felt depressed because they wouldn’t be able to see Sun Mo’s fascinating performance. The examinees also felt depressed because there was no one wasting Sun Mo’s strength and stamina. Didn’t that mean that Sun Mo was a step closer to obtaining the championship?

  “Aiya, how many pieces of news did I miss out on?”

  Li Ruolan felt vexed. (Should I just follow Sun Mo every day?)

  “Are you guys going to fight or not?”

  The main examiner asked.

  “Teacher Wang, you can’t act like this!”

  Sun Mo bitterly smiled.

  “Teacher Sun, leaving aside the fact that you helped me, even if you didn’t, your selfless action of helping Fang Wuji is worthy of my admiration. Such moral and conduct is what I look up to. You have not recovered fully yet, right? Hence, if I fight with you now, it can be considered that I’m taking advantage of you. There’s no point even if I won.”

  After Wang Qing spoke, he didn’t wait for Sun Mo to reply. He simply shouted ‘I forfeit’ and jumped down the arena.

  Hua~

  Seeing how decisive Wang Qing was, all the examinees were stunned. One must know that a great teacher could only take the examination five times. By doing this, Wang Qing was wasting one of his chances.

  “Teacher Wang, why are you doing this?”

  Sun Mo felt depressed. “This is the first time you are taking this examination, right? What would you do if you cannot pass it?”

  Si~

  After hearing this, the examiners all cast sidelong glances. This Wang Qing had a pretty good character. One must know that for ‘A’ grade schools and above, they would never hire teachers who failed the examinations before. Not even once.

  However, Sun Mo was still the most impressive one. He actually made Wang Qing voluntarily give up. How charismatic was this?!

  “Teacher Sun, believe in me!”

  Wang Qing gestured with a thumbs up and was extremely optimistic. “In the loser bracket, other than Xie Cang, I have no one else in my eyes.”

  [1] great aunt is a slang for menses

  Chapter 578: The Initial Appearance of the Mastermind Behind the Scenes

  The matches in the Great Teachers Battle continued. The weak were eliminated while the strong became the victors.

  The lineup for the upper and lower bracket also gradually got clear. Those in the upper bracket were somewhat stronger. However, there was a dark horse in the lower bracket.

  This person was none other than Shan Shi.

  He insta-killed his opponents no matter whom he encountered.

  He used a long and narrow sword and had extremely quick attack speed. Even a highly-graded graduate from Jixia Academy who had received cheers from the audience had both his arms severed with a single sword slash. He didn’t even have the chance to struggle.

  Yes, Shan Shi’s attack pattern was the same throughout the battles, severing the arms of his opponents with a single slash. Not only was his technique bizarre, but it was very brutal as well.

  Naturally, this was the Great Teachers Battle. Let alone heavy injuries, one even had to take responsibility for death themselves. If they were afraid, they could always choose to forfeit.

  Although the examiners didn’t like Shan Shi’s character, they had no reason to expel him from the examination grounds.

  For a time, everyone in the lower bracket was jittery and they were praying that they wouldn’t encounter this brutal dark horse.

  Gu Xiuxun and Sun Mo were in the upper bracket.

  During the fourth round, after the masochist fought an intense battle and passed smoothly, it was Sun Mo’s turn. His opponent wasn’t weak and had defeated a seeded candidate from an ‘A’ grade school earlier. He could also be considered a little dark horse.

  “We will be able to know Sun Mo’s true strength now!”

  The audience was filled with anticipation.

  “Wang Bumin, fourth level of the divine force realm. Please guide me!”

  “Sun Mo, third level of the divine force realm. Please guide me!”

  After the two of them exchanged greetings, the battle started. Wang Bumin took the initiative to rush forward madly.

  He wanted to defeat Sun Mo quickly. That was Wang Bumin’s battle strategy. After all, Sun Mo was someone who cultivated in a saint-tier cultivation art. The moment Sun Mo used it, Wang Bumin was afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle it.

  Sun Mo wasn’t anxious either. For the sake of accumulating experience as well as observing Wang Bumin’s cultivation art, he simply focused on defense, allowing Wang Bumin to attack freely.

  “Sun Mo, why are you not fighting?”

  “F***, can the match be nicer to watch? In this situation, what’s the difference between them and turtles?”

  “Attack, quickly attack!”

  Many of the people cursing were Sun Mo’s fans. There was no solution to this. In their eyes, Sun Mo should have swept through all opponents with invincibility, effortlessly subduing all his enemies. Now that he was turtling up, it was simply too embarrassing.

  It was like when some fans watched their e-sports team in a tournament. There was no need for any cool tricks or to reverse the situation. They only wanted to see absolute dominance where there was no chance for the opponents to fight back, completely crushing their spirits!

  However, in the eyes of true experts, Sun Mo’s defense was simply seamless and impregnable. One could say that this was a textbook defense and there were many details that were worthy of observation for the sake of learning.

  “There’s no way for this Wang Bumin to win!”

  “If it was me fighting and I saw such a turtle (Sun Mo), I would definitely despair!”

  “I feel that Sun Mo seems to be able to predict the attacks of his enemies? Isn’t this a little too terrifying?”

  The examinees discussed. Although Wang Bumin’s attacks were beautiful, all their attention was on Sun Mo.

  Bai Shuang folded her hands across her chest and stood in the preparation area as she gradually furrowed her brows. The concept in Sun Mo’s moves seemed to be the Grand Universe Formless Divine Art.

  As a top graduate from the Skyraise Academy, not only had Bai Shuang seen the Grand Universe Formless Divine Art many times before, but she had even learned the first level to stimulate her potential.

  Because of what she was seeing right now, Bai Shuang had a familiar feeling.

  “It can’t be, what am I blindly thinking about? The Grand Universe Formless Divine Art is the ultimate divine art of my school. Sun Mo has no qualification nor any opportunities to learn it!”

  Even people like Bai Shuang who had achieved many glorious deeds for their school had no qualifications to learn everything.

  Wang Bumin felt despair. If he continued attacking so ferociously, he would be defeated due to over-consumption of his spirit qi. That would definitely be a very embarrassing matter.

  “I originally planned to use my ‘trump card’ when I got in the top 12. I didn’t expect I would have to use it now. Sun Mo, you are really strong!”

  After Wang Bumin sighed, he suddenly retreated and took a deep breath, calming his mind down. He then started to circulate spirit qi.

  Bzz~

  A weak layer of faint reddish glow appeared on Wang Bumin’s chest. Despite his robes covering it, one could still see a hint of the glow.

  “Spirit runes?”

  Sun Mo frowned.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Wang Bumin’s aura instantly surged, exuding a sense of pressure. His enhancement in his aura could be visibly seen. Right now, his blood vessels were protruding on his face and neck. They looked like crawling earthworms.

  “Mn?”

  The main examiner, who was originally extremely bored because he felt Sun Mo would win for sure, suddenly grew serious when he saw this. “Could there be a reversal of situation?”

  “Is this the berserk mode?”

  Sun Mo activated Divine Sight. He didn’t take the initiative to attack due to curiosity.

  Wang Bumin was at the fourth level of the divine force realm. However, his current reserve of spirit qi and combat strength were equal to someone at the seventh level.

  Note: Target’s state is extremely unstable. Please remain cautious.

  Note: This state can roughly last for three minutes.

  After Sun Mo looked at the data, he found the best method to resolve this. With his current strength, he definitely wouldn’t be able to block someone at the seventh level of the divine force realm head-on. However, he would be able to last for three minutes.

  “Sun Mo seems to be very confident?”

  The major characters in the judging panel had admiration in their eyes. If it were up to them, they would definitely seize the chance to attack while Wang Bumin was pumping up his aura. They wouldn’t allow him to accumulate strength.

  “Will something bad happen?”

  Xuanyuan Po stared at Wang Bumin and frowned. “The state that this fellow is in is pretty terrifying!”

  “Yeah, it’s terrifying.” Lu Zhiruo nodded. “However, Teacher absolutely wouldn’t lose.”

  “Zhiruo, it’s not that I’m complaining. However, you are too confident in Teacher. This fellow is clearly using some sort of secret art to enhance his combat prowess.”

  Tantai Yutang’s lips twitched.

  Swish~

  The papaya girl turned her head and glared at him. “Teacher will win for sure!”

  “Okay, okay, okay. Your words are correct!”

  The sickly invalid couldn’t be bothered to argue with a crazy fan.

  “Is Sun Mo going to lose? That would be a sensational topic for sure.”

  Li Ruolan opened her beautiful eyes wide. “However, if you lose, I will have to deduct three marks from you. After all, an imperfect man isn’t worthy of my admiration.”

  Mei Ziyu clutched the corner of her clothes. Wang Bumin’s appearance was truly horrifying.

  “Teacher Sun, sorry. Although you are very strong, victory is mine.”

  Wang Bumin laughed. Because of his protruding blood vessels, his expressions were contorted. This caused his smile to look extremely fearsome. “Goodbye!”

  After launching his victory speech, Wang Bumin lunged toward Sun Mo directly.

  Giving Sun Mo the chance to forfeit?

  (It’s impossible. Only by crushing him completely would my name resound throughout the great teacher world.)

  BOOM!

  Wang Bumin’s speed was extremely fast. His momentum was ferocious and was akin to a cannonball. His shadow flashed and he arrived before Sun Mo in an instant.

  Sun Mo lifted his blade and side-stepped. But at this moment, Wang Bumin was like a bird flying through the air. He suddenly pierced out with a spear, aiming for Sun Mo’s head.

  Bang!

  Wang Bumin’s body suddenly exploded. Leaving aside his tattered robes, a large amount of flesh and blood mixed together and blasted out, sprinkling over half the arena.

  Swish~

  Sun Mo executed the Wind King Divine Steps and narrowly evaded everything.

  Wang Bumin was like a dead pig. With a bang, his entire body smashed into the arena as it twitched in pain, which caused him to curl up into a ball.

  “.……”

  Everyone fell silent.

  The spectators who were unhappy with Sun Mo were completely stunned. (Where’s the ultimate move Wang Bumin was supposed to use? Why did you end up losing even before attacking?)

  (Are you here to be a comedian?)

  “Sun Mo’s absolute killing technique is actually so terrifying?”

  An examinee exclaimed.

  “Are you retarded? Clearly, there’s a problem with Wang Bumin himself.”

  Gu Xiuxun had a look of speechlessness on her face. (You are so stupid, but you still dare to come here and take the 2-star examination?)

  “Ah? Really?”

  The examinee was shocked. “I……isn’t his luck a little too bad? I initially thought that he fell because Sun Mo unleashed a very powerful ultimate technique that I couldn’t understand!”

  After the examinee spoke, the nearby examinees also heaved a sigh of relief.

  Honestly speaking, all of them thought the same thing. After all, something like a self-explosion was too rare.

  “Doctor team, quickly save him!”

  The main examiner shouted and rushed toward Wang Bumin quickly.

  Sun Mo hesitated a little but still walked over. Although he might not be able to help, if he walked away like this, it didn’t seem to be too good.

  “This victory……”

  Sun Mo was also speechless. (Could it be that the luck I gained after I patted the papaya girl’s head yesterday wasn’t used up yet?)

  “How is it? I said earlier that Teacher would win, right?”

  Lu Zhiruo was very complacent.

  “.……”

  The sickly invalid was dumbfounded. This could work as well?

  “That’s luck. It doesn’t count.”

  Xuanyuan Po shook his head. He wanted to see his teacher defeating Wang Bumin with martial might.

  “Why not?”

  Lu Zhiruo was unhappy. “As long as Teacher didn’t cheat, a win is a win!”

  Since she was young until now, Lu Zhiruo had participated in many tests. Although she was quite silly, she was able to obtain a good result every time. This was because her opponent would always encounter unexpected situations. For example, her opponent fell sick, or they were injured accidentally before the test, including some unfathomable reasons that forced them to forfeit the test.

  (If things were according to what Xuanyuan Po said, doesn’t it mean that my victories don’t count as well? How can that be?! After all, I wasn’t the one that forced them to forfeit?)

  (It can’t possibly be that I have to jump in a pond just because I’m fighting someone who is suffering from a cold, right? Could I only fight him after I suffered a cold as well?)

  (This is illogical!)

  Ma Zhang led the doctor team and rushed over to the arena to perform emergency aid for Wang Bumin.

  As a 5-star great teacher that had practiced the medical arts for several decades and read a vast number of medical books, Ma Zhang’s experience was extremely deep. He could tell the reason for the injury with just a single glance.

  “He suffered a backlash from the spirit runes he used!”

  Ma Zhang reported.

  Upon hearing this, those major characters who were originally worried relaxed and sat back down. Even the main examiner was calm again.

  This was a classic example of someone suffering due to his own sins!

  The so-called spirit rune backlash would occur only because a cultivator had tattooed spirit runes on his or her body for the sake of increasing their strength. After that, the spirit runes got damaged or there might be a conflict with the spirit qi in their bodies due to some reason, triggering an explosion.

  Usually speaking, it was very rare for cultivators to tattoo spirit runes on their bodies. Because this was a short-cut, a lazy behavior.

  Usually speaking, only those above middle-age or cultivators in a bottleneck would choose to use such a method to increase their strength.

  As for Wang Bumin, he was merely in his twenties and was in the prime of his youth. However, he actually chose to use such a method. Also, the tattoos on his skin were considered quite a lot.

  For people who chose to walk shortcuts, no one would pity them when they became unlucky.

  This was the first time Sun Mo saw someone suffering from backlash caused by their spirit runes. Hence, he wanted to research it more. In the end, Ma Zhang suddenly shouted, “The spirit qi explosion is going out of control. Teacher Jiang, could you please assist?”