Translator: Lordbluefire

  “I admire Great Teacher Sun very much!”

  Jiang Yuzhen was gallant and straightforward, expressing the feelings she felt towards Sun Mo. “If Great Teacher Sun doesn’t mind, I wish to interact more with you!”

  Upon hearing this, all the young men revealed expressions of envy and hatred.

  Jiang Yuzhen’s personality was very direct. If she liked someone, she liked someone. If she didn’t like a man, she would directly say that she disliked him. So, after she turned 16, she had rejected the pursuit of countless men.

  Now, Sun Mo was the first man that got her to publicly proclaim her feelings.

  If Sun Mo’s EQ was slightly higher and he knew how to get women to like him even more, he would surely become a prince consort of the Qi Empire.

  Many men—once they became prince consorts—were basically just a vassal of the princesses. However, Sun Mo was different. He was extremely talented and was a new rising superstar in the great teacher world. He would surely gain great authority in the Qi Empire.

  If he was a little more black-hearted and good at schemes, he might even be able to shape the Qi Empire into his own vision and change the surname of royals to ‘Sun’.

  In just a few instances, all the major officials here on the scene decided to think of ways to stop Sun Mo from becoming the son-in-law of the Qi Emperor.

  “Things are bad now!”

  Li Xiu felt anxious as she watched. She calculated a bit and discovered that although the Great Tang had princesses that were of marriageable age, they were incomparable to Jiang Yuzhen be it in terms of looks, talent, or even status.

  “I have to think of a solution and not let Teacher get swindled away.”

  Li Ziqi also felt somewhat anxious.

  “Many thanks for Princess’s love!”

  Sun Mo tactfully declined. “However, I already have a fiancee.”

  Regardless of how much Sun Mo wanted many wives and concubines and even thought about visiting prostitutes, he still had to appear as a role model in terms of speech at the very least.

  This was the basic requirement for great teachers.

  “According to my knowledge, An Xinhui is merely exploiting you, making you work tirelessly for the Central Province Academy. If not, why doesn’t she marry you?”

  Jiang Yuzhen asked.

  “Honestly speaking, this has nothing to do with An Xinhui. I was the one who was too busy and had no time to speak of romance and marriage!”

  Sun Mo explained.

  When the queen heard him speaking of his responsibility, she didn’t feel that he didn’t know what’s good for him. Rather, she felt that he was affectionate and real.

  (A man that can protect women is then a good man!)

  Jiang Yuzhen smiled. She liked Sun Mo even more now.

  She really admired men like this who could be completely focused on their dreams because she was the same type of person. What was love? She didn’t understand that. She only wanted a talented son who could inherit the Great Qi in the future.

  “Let’s discuss matters like these in the future!”

  Grand Tutor Su interrupted everyone. He then stared straight at Sun Mo. “Teacher Sun, what’s going on exactly with those spiritwave cannons?”

  “I have done research with Ziqi and we feel that for all cultivation arts, they are simply applications of energy like spirit qi. The stronger a cultivation art is, the more they can unleash greater might with a lesser amount of spirit qi. For spiritwave cannons, it’s a method to replace cultivation arts and directly make use of spirit qi energy!”

  Sun Mo didn’t conceal anything and shared his understanding generously. “If you want the might to be greater, we can simply increase the spirit rune’s conversion ability!”

  Many people were confused but to people of Grand Tutor Su’s level, these words actually allowed them to gain some enlightenment.

  “So this is the case!”

  Grand Tutor Su sighed ruefully. He then bowed deeply to Sun Mo. “Many thanks to Sun-laoshi and Li-laoshi for resolving my doubts!”

  This answer consisted of a very bold hypothesis and inspiration. Usually speaking, no teachers would be willing to divulge these insights to another. One could only say that Sun Mo’s heart was truly magnanimous.

  “Teacher Su, you are too polite!”

  Li Ziqi hurriedly dodged the bow. However, her sense of worship toward Sun Mo became even heavier.

  The research was clearly her teacher’s effort, but he was willing to list her name along with his. This was clearly done to increase her fame.

  Some high officials who were weak cultivators didn’t understand Sun Mo’s words. But after seeing Grand Tutor Su executing the etiquette of a disciple to Sun Mo, they understood that every single one of Sun Mo’s words was worth their weight in gold.

  Xia Taikang and Wei Wu`an could only bow down to fate and no longer dispute whether Li Ziqi’s methods were cheating or not. Hence, the first place in the army unit warfare belonged to Great Tang.

  Li Xuan’s countenance was completely pale.

  He started to feel jealous of Li Ziqi. Why did she have such an outstanding teacher?

  For this round, the victory purely came from the spirit rune Sun Mo invented. It had nothing to do with one’s ability to command or the strength of one’s army unit.

  If he had such a spirit rune, he could win too.

  “Xuan`er, you seem to have some resentment toward me?”

  Han Cangshui glanced over as he asked.

  “This student doesn’t dare!”

  Li Xuan lowered his head, but there was indeed some resentment toward Han Cangshui in his heart.

  …

  On the day the army unit warfare ended, the Qi Emperor grabbed hold of Sun Mo.

  “Beloved Subject Sun, please don’t reject me this time around. You have to sleep on the same bed as This Emperor!”

  Sun Mo had no solutions and could only agree.

  He actually wanted to add something more. (You are treating me like a bro, right? Why don’t you get the queen along so we three can sleep together!)

  Usually when the emperor suggested sharing a bed with his subjects, it was because they wanted to express amiability. This was a preferential treatment that only highly esteemed officials were entitled to.

  Sun Mo knew that the Qi Emperor coveted his God Hands, Skyward Spirit Rune, and the spiritwave cannons. So, he couldn’t be bothered to waste words and decided to give the Qi Emperor the full treatment.

  —

  “I’m flying! Quickly look, This Emperor is flying!”

  The Qi Emperor floated in the air five meters above the ground. He was so excited that he was like a chubby kid as he floated left and right.

  “Your Majesty, please be careful!”

  The eunuchs and palace maids were all frightened badly. If he fell and injured himself, all of them had to die.

  “Great Teacher Sun, is this queen worthy of you tattooing a flying spirit rune on?”

  The Qi Queen’s phoenix eyes stared at Sun Mo imposingly.

  If this brat dared to reject her request, she would tell the guards to drag him out and behead him…

  But this naturally couldn’t be done.

  Hence, she could only use beauties and money to persuade him.

  However, Sun Mo most probably wouldn’t lack things like these.

  “The queen’s body is too valuable. I have to get His Majesty’s agreement before I can proceed!”

  Sun Mo glanced at the queen’s voluptuous figure and suddenly felt that he should be the one personally doing the tattoo. There was no need to trouble his disciple Li Ziqi.

  “Your Majesty!”

  The queen acted coquettishly.

  The Qi Emperor waved his hands. Right now, he truly treated Sun Mo as his brother. “Beloved Subject Sun, how do I do the woosh woosh?”

  “Just tattoo the spirit rune on your right arm and that will do!”

  Sun Mo mentally mused that the Qi Emperor was truly too casual and unfocused. Fortunately, he had no malicious ideas or he could very well ambush the Qi Emperor several times.

  Woosh~

  A beam of light shot out and blasted into a fake mountain in the distance.

  Rumble!

  A large part of the fake mountain collapsed.

  “Haha, this king is also an expert now!”

  The Qi Emperor was very happy.

  He was lazy and didn’t like to train hard. Hence, his cultivation base was very low. Now that he could blast a fake mountain with a lift of his arm, this feeling was too awesome.

  Excellent!

  “This queen wants it too!”

  The queen requested.

  Although Sun Mo didn’t insist on keeping this a secret and getting the idle people here to leave, the Qi Emperor knew the rules very well. He got all his officials, eunuchs, and palace maids to depart. So right now, there was only Sun Mo, the queen, and the Qi Emperor in the room.

  The queen was disrobed and was lying down on a bamboo couch.

  When Sun Mo’s hands were placed on the queen’s shoulders, her body trembled because she subconsciously squirmed.

  “Queen, please do not move randomly or there might be a mistake!”

  Sun Mo warned.

  “Oh!”

  The queen bore with it.

  Half an hour later, Sun Mo completed the Skyward Spirit Rune. As for why the amount of time it took was longer for the queen than for the Qi Emperor?

  It was naturally because the queen was a female and paid more attention to aesthetics. So, Sun Mo tattooed the Skyward Spirit Rune in the form of a peony flower on her back.

  “I…isn’t this a little too beautiful?”

  The Qi Emperor was shocked. After that, another fire ignited in his heart. The love he felt for the queen, which had long since faded, began burning again.

  “Someone, quickly bring a mirror over for this queen to see!”

  The queen stood up from shock and urged in a loud voice.

  Sun Mo turned and shifted his gaze away.

  The palace maids quickly brought over a large mirror.

  The qi queen turned her head and held her breath. She then looked at the peony flower tattooed on her back.

  Too beautiful!

  As expected of the king of all flowers.

  No, one should say that with Great Teacher Sun’s skill, even a blade of grass could become the king of plants if he drew it.

  (I like it!)

  The queen smiled in admiration but suddenly she started.

  (Wait a minute, didn’t I ask for the Skyward Spirit Rune?)

  “Great Teacher Sun, this…”

  The queen grew anxious. No matter how beautiful the peony flower was, it was useless if it couldn’t allow her to fly!

  “Queen, please don’t be anxious. This peony flower is the Skyward Spirit Rune. I only changed its external look for beauty’s sake!”

  Sun Mo explained. “As long as you channel spirit qi into the spirit rune, you will be capable of flight.”

  The queen immediately did as she was told. After that, she discovered her body growing lighter as she left the earth’s surface.

  “Ah, I’m flying!”

  The queen was so agitated that her face was flushed.

  “Beloved Subject Sun, since you can tattoo a peony flower, can you tattoo other designs?”

  The Qi Emperor’s gaze was filled with a little resentment. “If I knew that you could do this, I would have asked you to tattoo a dragon for me!”

  “Hehe!”

  Sun Mo consoled the Emperor. “I can do that now too. My Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands can perfectly remove this spirit rune tattoo.”

  Upon hearing this, the Qi Emperor suddenly felt deep veneration for him.

  After the queen was done flying, the Qi Emperor laughed and invited Sun Mo to bathe with him.

  Sun Mo didn’t reject it. But 15 minutes later when the queen entered, he was completely stunned.

  “Ah?”

  Sun Mo jumped in fright and directly dove into the bathing pool.

  “Beloved Subject Sun, what’s wrong?”

  The Qi Emperor was puzzled.

  “Your Majesty, this…”

  Sun Mo was awkward.

  “Oh, it’s to improve our relationship!”

  The Qi Emperor stretched his hand and pulled Sun Mo up.

  “You really don’t treat me as an outsider!”

  Truthfully speaking, the nobles were always very wild when they were playing. After all, they had reached the peak of their lives, and their remaining joy in life was to pursue stronger excitement.

  Did the Qi Emperor lack women?

  Nope!

  He regarded his lifespan, health, and strength even more importantly. After enjoying the ancient massaging technique, he could clearly sense that his body seemed to feel younger by thirty years.

  The most terrifying thing was that those minor problems plaguing his body like his fats and back pains had all vanished. Now, he didn’t need to stop drinking alcohol and could continue feasting on good food with no restraint.

  What did a mere queen count for?

  At most, he could dispose of her and establish another one. However, if he could use a single queen to recruit Sun Mo, that would be immensely profitable.

  As long as he formed a good relationship with Sun Mo, he would be able to enjoy eternal youth.

  Sun Mo didn’t lack money and also didn’t seem to be too fond of women. In that case, he had to use emotions, something like guilt from taboo acts to recruit him.

  Bluntly speaking, the Qi Emperor had always been a selfish person. He loved himself the most.

  Naturally, Sun Mo didn’t do anything like what he had assumed.

  After giving the two of them a massage, he simply left.

  “What do you think?”

  After seeing the door of the room closing, the Xia Emperor’s countenance turned cold.

  “Do you feel younger by 30 years?”

  The Qi Emperor glanced at his queen. Her skin was clearly tighter than before.

  “Your Majesty, I…”

  The Queen gulped down a mouthful of saliva, not knowing what to respond.

  “I’ve sent people to investigate Sun Mo in detail. It isn’t too much to say that he’s a genius that might not even appear every 10,000 years. He possesses several peak-grade saint-tier cultivation arts and a magical massaging technique. He is even a great ancestor-level spirit runist, a grandmaster botanist, and a grandmaster puppeteer. He even invented a few powerful medicinal packets, causing him to roll about in wealth.”

  The Qi Emperor sighed ruefully. “His accomplishment as a Dual-Sage in Calligraphy and Painting doesn’t mean anything in his resume! Someone like him is like an unrivaled subject. Obtaining him means that the national strength of my Qi Empire will enjoy a drastic improvement.”

  “Your Majesty, are you not overestimating him a little too much?”

  The queen frowned.

  “I’m actually afraid that I am underestimating him!”

  The Qi Emperor had a self-mocking smile. “I really envy Li Yingqi. He gave birth to a good daughter that Sun Mo was fond of!”

  “Yuzhen isn’t bad either!”

  The queen praised. Although Jiang Yuzhen was the daughter of the previous queen, her relationship with Jiang Yuzhen wasn’t bad.

  “That Li Xuan has mediocre talent and is too ambitious. If he becomes the Tang Emperor, Great Tang will definitely decline in a few short decades. But with Sun Mo present, this isn’t for sure.”

  The Qi Emperor sighed. “Could the Great Tang truly be blessed and have the protections of the heavens?”

  Who would have thought that a princess rejected by a secondary saint could become the most dazzling genius among the crown princes and princesses of this generation after she obtained Sun Mo’s guidance?

  Look at Xia Taikang, even he was crushed.

  “In the past, both alchemy and weaponsmithing were the most popular professions that are highly regarded by the entire country. The former allows one to have a longer lifespan and maintain their health, while the latter is then useful in war preparation. Whoever has the better weapon will be the strongest. However, Sun Mo’s spirit runes are actually changing the world.

  Flying soldiers tossing lightning rods or unleashing spiritwave cannons. Who could win against them?

  Although Sun Mo had no enmity toward their country, what if he grew unhappy one day or became crazy? He could lead a bunch of flying soldiers to fly above the Qi Palace and toss down numerous lightning rods. If that happened, wouldn’t the Qi Emperor die?

  The safety of an emperor couldn’t depend on the benevolence of an enemy. Hence, he had to depend on the sharp blades they had to protect themselves.

  Look at the poor state of the country in the modern era that gave up on having nuclear weapons.

  It was simply like a toilet bowl. It wouldn’t be able to dodge whoever wanted to take a piss in it.

  The queen saw the Qi Emperor shivering.

  “We have to obtain Sun Mo’s friendship!”

  The Qi Emperor looked at the queen and patted the back of her hand. “If we cannot defeat him, we have to join him. It isn’t enough for him to become our ally. He has to become my sworn brother!”

  “W…what should I do?”

  “Help me persuade Yuzhen. This kid has been very self-opinionated since she was young. But this time around, for the sake of our Qi Empire’s future, she has to compromise. Regardless of whether she is fond of Sun Mo or not, she has to marry him.”

  The Qi Emperor’s tone of voice brooked no rejection.

  Chapter 1218: Thousand-Mile Surprise Attack, Wondrous Plan To Take Down an Enemy!

  Qi Emperor Palace, Taihe Hall.

  It was 8 a.m, and all the important characters of the four diplomatic groups had arrived.

  “The second round is the commander’s battle. But for this batch, there’s something new, a thousand-mile surprise attack. The mission is to take the heads of a few bandit leaders that are wreaking havoc in the Qi Empire’s borders.

  The Qi Emperor sat on his throne and chortled as he looked at everyone. “Whoever can get the most heads the quickest will be the winner!”

  “Alright, I’ve finished speaking about the rules and requests. The concrete content is in the book and the time limit is half a month. As for what to do, you guys can make your own plans!”

  A few eunuchs hurriedly passed the books with the content of the commander’s battle to everyone.

  “Royal Father, I’ll take my leave first!”

  Jiang Yuzhen directly took it. She didn’t view it carefully and decided to leave first.

  This round was clearly advantageous to Jiang Yuzhen. However, no one cared too much about this because the home ground advantage was a hidden rule that everyone agreed to silently.

  “Great Teacher Sun!”

  A little eunuch bowed and passed the book to Sun Mo.

  “Thanks!”

  Sun Mo politely replied. This caused that little eunuch to feel overwhelmed by favor from a superior and he directly contributed 1,000 favorable impression points.

  To put it unpleasantly, no one treated eunuchs as humans in the palace. Sun Mo was the only one that would say thank you to them.

  “Are there any judges following them? What if someone cheats?”

  Sun Mo frowned. At the very least, there had to be people bringing image-recording stones to record, right?

  “The Qi Empire is on their home ground and they will definitely have an advantage. Moreover, which empire wouldn’t bring along some hidden trump cards?”

  Li Xiu’s lips twitched. “Ziqi, just give up this round. Rest well and prepare for the individual battle!”

  “That’s right, the Qi Empire is the host, and they definitely will obtain the first place. The first two parts of this battle are simply to allow them to boost their fame. Jiang Yuzhen would win for sure.”

  After Han Cangshui finished speaking, he changed his tone. “But the more this is so, the more we have to seize the food from the mouth of the tiger. Xuan`er, let’s go!”

  There was no need to ask. Han Cangshui would also personally set out.

  “Teacher, what should we do? Should we give up?”

  Xianyu Wei felt that it was more important to let her eldest martial sister rest well. After all, the Great Tang had secured the most victories as of now. As long as she could perform well in the individual battle, Great Tang would be number one for sure.

  “Ziqi, what do you think?”

  Sun Mo didn’t mind it.

  “I want to win!”

  These four words expressed her intentions clearly. They were filled with battle intent.

  She was Sun Mo’s student. This battle not only concerned her reputation, but it also involved her teacher. She definitely had to win this beautifully.

  “Eldest Martial Sister, I’ll go with you!”

  Tantai Yutang recommended himself.

  “I want to go too!”

  Helian Beifang liked commanding soldiers to fight wars.

  “Let’s go back and discuss in our hotel!”

  Sun Mo glanced at them. Everyone knew this wasn’t a convenient place to continue speaking hence all of them soon departed. ……

  In the hotel, in one of the guest rooms.

  “I feel that speed is a crucial asset in war. If we want to win, we have to find those bandit heads before Jiang Yuzhen.”

  Tantai Yutang was now frowning very intensely. “But I’m afraid that before Jiang Yuzhen even arrived, someone would have executed those bandits and prepared their heads for her.”

  “Jiang Yuzhen isn’t someone like that.”

  Sun Mo shook his head. “Even if the Qi Emperor wanted to do this, Jiang Yuzhen would never agree!”

  “It will definitely be too slow if we bring our soldiers. We might as well rush there using Little Silver and offer high prices to recruit soldiers from there.”

  Helian Beifang suggested.

  “That type of soldiers won’t be able to fight well, right?”

  Lu Zhiruo was worried.

  “What if someone obstructs us and we won’t be able to recruit any soldiers?”

  Xianyu Wei was also worried.

  “Can you guys change your thinking a little? Why do we need a group of soldiers just to kill these few bandits?”

  The sickly invalid was speechless.

  “I thought this round was supposed to test one’s commanding ability in warfare. With no soldiers, how can this be tested?”

  Xianyu Wei was astonished. “Besides, the information given by the Qi Emperor states that out of the four bandit leaders, the weakest one has 3,000 bandits under his command!”

  “Recruiting soldiers wastes too much time. We might as well bring the royal guards. Because they can fly, the stronghold of the bandits, which are typically easy to defend and hard to attack, will be extremely simple for us to handle!”

  Jiang Leng suggested.

  Sun Mo smiled and watched everything, not expressing his opinion. He wanted his students to resolve this on their own.

  After an entire morning of intense discussion, they had lunch. After that, a small team with Li Ziqi as the leader sat on the eight-gate cloud and set off.

  Their target lived in the Golden Dragon Town, Zhishui Lake. It was the bandit leader Miao Xian with the title of ‘Chaotic River Dragon’.

  This small team consisted of a total of six people. The members were the team leader Li Ziqi, the think-tanker cum doctor Tantai Yutang, the scout Jiang Leng, Qin Yaoguang as well as Helian Beifang who will be in charge of the miscellaneous tasks, and lastly, the team’s ‘pet’ Lu Zhiruo.

  Actually, everyone didn’t want to bring the papaya girl along as they felt she couldn’t fight and wouldn’t be able to think of any ideas. She would just be a burden. However, Sun Mo made the decision and got them to bring her along.

  The papaya girl’s luck was very good. It was enough for her to be a lucky mascot. ……

  The journey on the eight-gate cloud didn’t even need an afternoon. They traveled 300 miles and arrived at the Golden Dragon Mountain.

  “As expected of a treasure ranked ten on the darkness species list!”

  Tantai Yutang praised.

  “What should we do now? Should we directly go over to start killing?”

  Lu Zhiruo seemed to be brimming with desire.

  “We should stay in the town and spread the news first!”

  Tantai Yutang spoke confidently, “Wait for the right opportunity!” ……

  Since Miao Xian could gather a group of a few thousand bandits, it showed that both his courage and brains weren’t bad.

  He knew that if he had to survive, he must have many informants to know the direction of the imperial court in advance. So, during these few years, his informant network had infiltrated the Golden Dragon Town completely.

  Many lake bandits would pretend to be ordinary folks, or they would act as information gatherers to provide info for Miao Xian.

  “Leader, things are bad. The old emperor has listed you as a mission target for the Five Empires War Discussion. The competition is to see who can cut off your head first!”

  A bandit reported with an anxious expression.

  “What?”

  Although Miao Xian looked imposing and tyrannical, he was actually a young man with a very short stature that would look like a turtle if he carried a shell on his back. “Who told you about this?”

  “Someone is already spreading this news in the town!”

  The bandit didn’t dare to conceal anything.

  Miao Xian sank into contemplation. If it wasn’t for his identity, he also wanted to go and watch the Five Empires War Discussion. He counted the time and right now was still in the midst of the war discussion. But even if there was some news, it wasn’t possible for it to spread here that quickly, right?

  “Could it be that someone wants to target me?”

  Miao Xian did a mental run-through of his enemies.

  No matter who became the target of the mission in the Five Empires War Discussion, that target would die for sure. After all, for the sake of glory, the princes and princesses of the five empires would surely think of all sorts of methods to kill that person.

  So, once he received this news, he would surely choose to flee. In that case, the position he left behind would surely benefit his competitors.

  “Wanting to use such a childish trick to swindle me? How naive!”

  Miao Xiao coldly laughed. “Let’s leave. Go and tell our brothers to work harder and pay attention to the movements in the town. They are also to scout areas up to 30 miles away from it. I want to see who has the guts to pull my dragon’s beard!”

  Two days later, Miao Xian was no longer so composed because the spies in the town reported that a group of people had stationed themselves there.

  From the looks of things, they were very rich.

  The moment they arrived, they immediately spent a lot and started to recruit soldiers and buy horses.

  “Damn, it can’t be, right? Did I really become the target?”

  Miao Xian felt a headache, feeling that this was an undeserved catastrophe.

  “No, I have to hurry up and run away!”

  Miao Xian glanced at the surroundings. (But I don’t wish to give up on this successful career!)

  At this moment, a clear voice entered his ears.

  “Hey, wanna make a deal?”