On the arena, Gongsun Huiying’s longsword moved like the rain and lightning, attacking fiercely, aiming for her opponent’s life!

  Shang Li was caught in a straitened situation. However, he came from a great teacher clan after all and his standards weren’t low. Even without the determination to obtain a victory, it was still possible for him to come to a draw in this match

  The more Gongsun Huiying fought, the more anxious she was. Seeing that she couldn’t take down her opponent after so long, she couldn’t help but shouted, “Are you a man? Is it very interesting to be a coward?”

  Shang Li felt very awkward and looked toward Sun Mo who was next to the arena. Shang Li wanted to ask if he should retaliate.

  However, Sun Mo didn’t give him any instructions.

  “Haha, she’s going to be driven to death from anger!”

  Qin Yaoguang laughed and clapped happily.

  “Two wins and one draw, it’s a sure win!”

  Lu Zhiruo was satisfied.

  “It’s over!”

  Sun Mo let out a long breath. Given how forceful Saint Zhou was and how unwilling he was to admit his losses, he’d definitely be anxious to get a win after losing two consecutive rounds. Therefore, they’d just have to be on the defense.

  The more anxious Gongsun Huiying became, the more loopholes appeared in her attacks. However, Shang Li was too conservative and didn’t dare to retaliate. The match dragged out for half an hour and they came to a draw.

  At the instant Li Wanjun announced the results, Sun Mo’s close supporters immediately cheered loudly.

  He had defeated a saint!

  From today onward, Sun Mo was undoubtedly the number one great teacher in the Nine Provinces!

  “Teacher!”

  Li Ziqi hugged Sun Mo out of agitation, tears streaking down her face. Her teacher had finally proven that it wasn’t that she wasn’t outstanding enough but that Saint Zhou didn’t have good judgment.

  Saint Zhou wanted to walk off in fury, but after seeing this scene, he suddenly sighed and turned to walk toward Sun Mo and Li Ziqi.

  The moment he moved, everyone fell silent again and stared at him.

  “What the hell? He’s unconvinced? He wants to have a battle personally?”

  “He’s a saint after all. It can’t be that he can’t afford to lose, right?”

  “He is probably the first saint to be defeated by a secondary saint, right?”

  The audience discussed amongst themselves. The entire Nine Provinces had known about the grudge between Saint Zhou and Li Ziqi. “Great Teacher Li, with regards to my refusal to accept you as my personal disciple, it’s due to the limitations of my abilities and I wasn’t able to see your potential. I’ll offer my apologies to you here!”

  Saint Zhou said and suddenly bowed for ten seconds.

  “Saint, you don’t have to do this. We’re all great teachers. Which of us haven’t committed any wrongs before?”

  con

  Li Ziqi broke into a smile. “Moreover, I have to thank you. Without your rejection, I won’t be able to meet my teacher!”

  To speak the truth, Li Ziqi hated Saint Zhou. However, she was also thankful toward him. If he had taken her in, how could she have met her teacher?

  Saint Zhou straightened his back and then looked at Sun Mo, reaching out his hand.

  Sun Mo laughed and shook his hand.

  “You have a good disciple!”

  Saint Zhou sighed. “As for you, you’re even more outstanding. I feel ashamed of my inferiority!”

  “Good, very good. Let bygones be bygones, and all will be well!”

  Li Wanjun clapped.

  After that, Saint Zhou left, and his close supporters followed behind him, feeling very angry.

  “Father, why did you have to apologize?”

  “You fool, Sun Mo is only 40 years old. Now that he has become the sect lord, he’ll at least be in this position for 500 years. Moreover, he is a secondary saint. How long do you think his influence in the great teacher world will last?”

  Saint Zhou reproached, “If I don’t take the initiative to apologize, will you guys still have a chance to stand out after I die?”

  Everyone looked very dejected. That was true. At the thought of their archenemy standing at the top of the great teacher world, they’d feel that their futures were very bleak.

  “Keep a low profile in the future!”

  Saint Zhou sighed. He didn’t expect that his arrogant rejection of Li Ziqi back then had become the greatest stain in his life.

  This contention for the sect lord position had the attention of the entire Nine Provinces.

  Sun Mo had a great battle result, achieving two wins and one draw. This pushed his reputation to the peak.

  Someone said that Sun Mo had actually won two rounds as Gongsun Huiying was more talented than Shang Li. However, the match ended up in a tie thanks to Sun Mo’s guidance.

  Right now, many people were envious of Coal Briquette, Bai Xiaoquan, as well as Shang Li for being able to acknowledge Sun Mo as their teacher. It was because as Sun Mo’s status became extremely high, it was very difficult to become his students.

  Just like how a country mustn’t be without a ruler for a day, the saint gate mustn’t be without a sect lord for a day!

  Seven days later, Sun Mo assumed the position officially.

  He became the youngest Saint Gate’s sect lord in the Nine Provinces’ history.

  Sun Mo didn’t seek to leave his name in history, but he wanted the world to become better. He wanted there to no longer be cases of young children like Coal Briquette having to risk their lives yet still being unable to fill their stomachs.

  After one month of familiarizing himself with his duties, Sun Mo called for a Great Teachers Meet of the Nine Provinces.

  All schools, regardless if they had the famous school titles or were just ordinary schools, must send a representative to attend the meeting.

  During the meeting, Sun Mo announced five changes!

  The first one was that from that day onward, the Saint Gate would mobilize funds to show great support in botany, the study of beast taming, and other subjects related to people’s livelihood. To put it simply, this was to encourage more great teachers to take the initiative into researching how to increase crops production and animal farming.

  In the past, everyone pursued alchemy and weaponsmithing. Only those without the ability would learn botany and other subjects. However, Sun Mo wanted to change this situation.

  As the saying went, money could do anything. Therefore, Sun Mo gave them a huge bonus. If there was a Grandpa Yuan[1] amongst them, many people in the Nine Provinces would not starve to death.

  The second one was to promote weaponsmithing, undergo technological revolution, and increase productivity.

  It was to put in effort to let the Nine Provinces move from being an agrarian society to an industrial society.

  The third one was to establish the patents department in the Saint Gate.

  Right now, everyone kept amazing arts and techniques to themselves. Even a vendor selling fried dough fritters would only pass down his secret recipe to his sons and not daughters.

  The unique recipes that were beneficial to society were all monopolized by individuals, with them fearing that the recipes would be stolen. Therefore, it was impossible to increase the productivity and scale of private workshops.

  Sun Mo’s patent policy aimed to let them contribute their monopolized skills. While earning patents, they’d also be able to expand production and promote societal and technological progress.

  This required the dependence on the Saint Gate’s reputation and martial prowess. Therefore, Sun Mo established a new department that was fully equipped with the most advanced spirit runes firearms.

  To put it simply, they were the armed debt collector team.

  If there were people who didn’t pay the patent fees, they could just wait for their entire families to be arrested and sent to mine coals!

  The fifth change was to establish a professional skills academy, providing children with unique specialties to have a new path.

  In current times, there were usually two paths to advance in life. One was to take the imperial examinations while the other one was to cultivate and become a great teacher.

  Sun Mo now opened up a third path.

  If a student was unable to sense spirit qi and couldn’t cultivate, it didn’t matter. Even if they didn’t have the capabilities of studying the Four Books and Five Classics to become a government official, it didn’t matter either. They could go to this school to pick up a skill.

  There were similar jobs in the past, such as varying apprenticeships and master craftsmen. However, society referred to them as craftsmen and didn’t show them enough respect.

  Some craftsmen were even slaves.

  This change introduced by Sun Mo raised their statuses in society and allowed for sharing of techniques. If other people were to use these skills, they’d have to pay the patent fees.

  After this change was announced, the craftsmen erupted with tremendous enthusiasm in their work. After all, who wouldn’t want to live better lives?

  In the past, craftsmen were nothing. But now, even the great teachers recognized their work as a skill. They could even gain a grandmaster title.

  Therefore, many skills were presented.

  Sun Mo saw sweets recipes, explosive recipes, and even the preliminary forms of matchlocks being created. There were also other classified skills such as ship-crafting skills.

  Sun Mo’s revolution caused skills to surge and out of which, some of them brought about tremendous convenience to society

  Resources could only display extremely high values when they were unified.

  It was like how after the rubber-making recipe was created and contributed from the south, there’d be people who’d think of using them to make rubber wheels without Sun Mo’s involvement.

  Sun Mo also wanted to introduce common education to all citizens, but he didn’t dare to do so since it’d cost too much money.

  These five changes caused all the representatives who had attended the meeting to be stunned. However, they had to admit that although some great teachers were conservative and stagnant, most of them relied on their intelligence for a living. They only needed to think about it seriously to be able to see the benefits brought by these changes.

  Therefore, these changes were applied.

  In just one year, the effects were shown.

  The Nine Provinces in the past had been like a lifeless fat stay-home guy, but now, it was like a handsome young man who had quitted m*sturbating and getting into a relationship, running endlessly in a life with bright prospects.

  As a result, Sun Mo’s status stabilized even

  more.

  Although he hadn’t died, it was for sure that his achievements would be able to be ranked in the top five of the great teachers historical rankings.

  Every day, there’d be seniors from royal families or established clans who’d bring their children and wait to ask to meet Sun Mo, wanting their children to be taken under his wing.

  Sun Mo didn’t act cold and lofty, refusing all of them. It was because he knew that if he wanted to promote some changes, he must have the support from major characters with great authority and influence. Therefore, he’d take in princes as well as sons of high-ranking officials.

  In the sect lord’s office in the Saint Gate’s headquarters.

  This was an office used by Sun Mo alone. It was big, with 200 square meters and also a resting room, a toilet, as well as a room for his assistant.

  For 24 hours every day, as long as Sun Mo didn’t leave this office, he’d have a female assistant constantly on the standby, ready to work for him.

  “You’re so annoying. What if the female assistant comes in?”

  Mei Ziyu’s cheeks flushed red. She straightened her skirt and glanced at Sun Mo.

  She had just been nourished by Sun Mo.

  “That won’t happen. The work I assigned them won’t be done so quickly!”

  Sun Mo tidied his clothes and poured Mei Ziyu a cup of water. Their relationship had improved by leaps and bounds half a month ago.

  It was by Mei Yazhi’s request.

  There was no helping it. Sun Mo’s status had grown increasingly. Although Mei Yazhi wasn’t scared that Sun Mo would treat her daughter badly, it’d still be better to get the deed done and the deal sealed.

  It’d be even better if Mei Ziyu could give birth to a son.

  “How does it feel after being the sect lord for a year?” Mei Ziyu teased. “Do you feel very important and mighty?”

  “Not really, but it is tiring. There are too many trivial matters.”

  At the thought of these things, Sun Mo felt tired and wanted to escape.

  A sect lord had a lot of work to begin with. Moreover, Sun Mo even introduced a great revolution and thus his work increased even more. If it wasn’t that he had great subordinates, he’d die from overworking.

  “A capable person should do more work!” Mei Ziyu smiled. “Oh right, how is Sister Xinhui?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Sun Mo frowned.

  An Xinhui had wanted to stay in the Saint Gate for a while and spend time with Sun Mo, but An Zaiyi had found excuses to reject her. As for their wedding, it was also constantly delayed.

  “I wonder what Saint An is thinking. He won’t be able to find another grandson-in-law like you in the entire Nine Provinces!”

  Mei Ziyu was perplexed. “But the Central Province Academy seems to be going strong. It has gotten first place in this year’s ‘A’ grade league tournament test and has risen to the ranks of the Nine Greats.”

  “That’s right, it’s very strong!”

  Sun Mo returned to his desk and was about to start working when a familiar ‘ding’ that he hadn’t heard for a very long time rang out by his ears!

  [1] Yuan Longping was a Chinese agronomist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s.

  Chapter 1332 Number One Famous School Battle of the Nine Provinces

  “Congratulations on becoming the sect lord, reaching a pinnacle in your career! You’re rewarded with one mysterious gift!”

  The system’s congratulation that hadn’t rung for very long finally appeared.

  “System, why have you been dead for the past few years?”

  Sun Mo teased, having the feeling of meeting an old friend once again. “You’ve owed me a lot of rewards.”

  The system didn’t reply and was so quiet as if it had never appeared. Only a chest that was flashing in silver light landed in front of Sun Mo.

  Sun Mo opened it.

  There wasn’t any voice that introduced the item he obtained like there was in the past. It was still silent as a winter day that had a thick layer of accumulating snow.

  There was only a silver turtle shell floating in front of him.

  “Hmmm? This thing?”

  Sun Mo was stunned. This turtle shell required him to collect seven pieces of them to form a complete shell. As Sun Mo had only had six and had been lacking one, he had forgotten about it. He didn’t expect to obtain it as a mysterious prize.

  But wasn’t it too big of a fraud?

  He felt that it didn’t feel like a precious item!

  “Sun Mo, I still have work to do, so I’ll be leaving soon!”

  Mei Ziyu returned to Jixia Academy through the teleportation gate to complete her studies.

  At this moment, Sun Mo took out all the turtle shell pieces and put them together. Then a light beam that was over one feet long spurted out like spring water. “If you can see this, then my mission should have ended, and you should already be standing at the pinnacle of the great teacher world. As a reward, I’ll tell you the secret of this world.”

  The voice belonged to the system, but it should have been pre-recorded.

  Sun Mo continued listening and his expression turned solemn.

  The system’s message was too astonishing, so much so that Sun Mo was unwilling to believe it. However, if he were to take a more realistic approach to consider things, there didn’t seem to be any loopholes.

  After Sun Mo became a saint, he naturally knew how many great teachers there were and what star-level they were respectively at.

  Out of which, saints were the fewest in number, with only a handful of them. Sun Mo found this very strange. After all, there were quite a number of secondary saints in comparison.

  Right now, the mystery had been solved.

  “It’s no wonder I keep having the feeling that I have forgotten some people!”

  Sun Mo got up and walked over to the window, looking at the sky illuminated by the sunset. He suddenly felt that the world was shrouded in darkness.

  In the following days, Sun Mo pushed away some work and started focusing on researching spirit runes.

  Some people said that Ancestor Sun had new inspiration and this made the entire spirit runes circle become agitated. After all, the spirit runes electronic devices that Sun Mo invented had entered every home, bringing great improvements to people’s lives.

  Of course, spirit runes firearms were the most amazing of them all. They allowed ordinary people to be able to explore the Darkness Continent as well. Although the death rate was a lot higher than cultivators, the great returns made people who were unafraid of death keep on flocking toward the Darkness Continent.

  It was another day in July and the sun was hot like fire.

  Sun Mo’s spirit runes invention hadn’t been announced, but a new great topic erupted in the great teacher world.

  An exploration team had found an ancient divine hall that had yet to be explored on the third level of the Darkness Continent.

  The moment this piece of news was reported, the entire Nine Provinces broke into a commotion. It was because this meant that there’d be all sorts of lost secret treasures waiting to be discovered in unexplored terrain.

  The first people who couldn’t sit still were the Nine Greats. They formed explorer groups and prepared to travel there.

  Usually, after people discovered such darkness ruins, the Saint Gate would hide the news and try to keep it a secret. But this time around, too many people already knew about

  Therefore, distribution became a problem.

  Thankfully, great teachers were revered in the Nine Provinces. The final decision was that the Nine Greats as well as the Saint Gate’s explorer groups would be the first powers to lead the exploration.

  They’d be followed by the ‘A’ grade famous schools, as well as the top-tiered strong empires in the Nine Provinces, such as the Great Tang and the others. The list would then go down

  To sum it up, it’d be dependent on strength.

  Of course, the Saint Gate and the Nine Greats relied on their reputation, so they couldn’t appear too greedy. Therefore, they found an excuse to say that they were going to use the ancient divine hall to carry out the Number One Famous School Battle of the Nine Provinces.

  The school who found the most valuable secret treasures would be the number one in the Nine Provinces.

  This suggestion wasn’t bad. The last contention amongst the Nine Greats was ten years ago, and it was indeed time for them to go through another round of ranking.

  The Central Province Academy, especially, had been waiting for very long, wanting to recover the glory from their past.

  With Sun Mo around, it was an easy feat for Lu Zhiruo to find a leisure job in the Saint Gate. However, she didn’t do that. With Sun Mo as her role model, she wanted to teach and educate people, helping the children. Therefore, she taught in the Central Province Academy.

  Although her star-level wasn’t too high, she was hardworking and serious. She was like a brick that could be moved to wherever she was needed.

  Li Ziqi had stopped teaching students as much. Instead, she led a spirit runes team and tackled some technical problems.

  Take now for example, she was studying spirit qi steam engines.

  As for Sun Mo’s other students, they had all rushed over to the Saint Gate after hearing this matter. If it wasn’t for their relationship with Sun Mo, they’d be unable to enter that ancient divine hall.

  “We can join the Saint Gate’s exploration team!”

  Qin Yaoguang grinned and massaged Sun Mo’s shoulders.

  Sun Mo’s students had all turned of age and Sun Mo couldn’t interfere much in their actions anymore. Therefore, he gave them his silent consent.

  After the three months’ preparation ended, the various famous schools’ explorer groups gathered on the third level of the Darkness Continent, outside the ancient divine hall.

  By the time Sun Mo and his students rushed over, they saw that many tents had been set up and the place was crowded with people.

  “Wow, isn’t that the Heavenly Mystery Academy’s headmaster? He came too?”

  Qin Yaoguang saw many famous people and was very agitated. “Other than fighting for the title of being the top famous school, they’ll also be fighting for secret treasures in this exploration. Therefore, all the famous schools sent out their elites.”

  Tantai Yutang rubbed his palms together, ready to put up a good show, getting his hands on a secret treasure of darkness that could be treated as a family heirloom.

  After finding out about Sun Mo’s arrival, the respective famous school’s group leader came to pay respect to him.

  “This time around, will Aunt Mei be the one to lead the group?”

  Sun Mo didn’t dare to act arrogant in front of Mei Yazhi.

  “En!”

  Mei Yazhi sipped on tea while looking excited. “But the Jixia Academy’s two headmasters have come too. This time around, we’re going to prove ourselves.”

  aro

  Sun Mo welcomed and sent off people. When he saw An Xinhui, he was a little surprised.

  “Headmaster An didn’t come?”

  Sun Mo frowned.

  “He came!”

  An Xinhui sighed. For some reason, when she saw Sun Mo again, she felt that they were even more distant than before.

  To everyone, an unexplored darkness ruin being placed right before them was like an unparalleled beauty who wasn’t wearing clothes. Who’d be able to hold it in?

  When it reached the decided time to set off, the nine groups from the famous schools gushed into this ancient divine hall, unable to wait any longer.

  “Let’s go too!”

  Sun Mo led the 50-men team of judges from the Saint Gate and entered the divine hall.

  Other than them, there were three other groups who’d move separately after they entered the ruins.

  There were no light rays in the ruins and it was very dark. However, this wasn’t a problem for everyone. Other than having prepared illuminating tools, high-level cultivators were able to see things in dark environments.

  As the sect lord, Sun Mo didn’t need to put himself in danger. There was a small team of professionals in front who’d test if there were toxins in the air, if the underground water was safe, as well as if there were any traps.

  The group advanced gradually.

  Two days passed by. The Saint Gate’s team didn’t not obtain any valuable spoils, but they had seen quite a number of strange murals.

  “Why do I feel that this place is like a spaceship from outer space?”

  Li Ziqi frowned.

  “Spaceship?” What’s that?” Xianyu Wei felt curious.

  IIII

  Li Ziqi didn’t know if she should explain this. It was something she had seen in the Black-White Game.

  “I wonder how Zhiruo and the others are doing.”

  Helian Beifang felt worried.

  “With Mistress An taking care of here, it’ll definitely be fine.”

  The moment Qin Yaoguang said that, her ears twitched.

  “Everyone, be careful and remain silent.”

  Sun Mo raised his hand to gesture to everyone to stop moving forward.

  Very soon, a figure wearing a cloak appeared not far away. His voice was very deep. “Sun Mo, bring your people and leave this place. Otherwise, all of you will die.”

  “Who is this, putting on an act here?”

  Zhou Zhiwang scolded. He was the vice-leader of the team and an expert in the legendary realm.

  “Sun Mo, leave this place! Do it as soon as possible!”

  The cloaked figure hadn’t finished his words when Zhou Zhiwang darted out and slashed out with his blade.

  Boom!

  However, he didn’t manage to hit anything.

  “It must be people from the Dark Dawn. They must be wanting to hoard the treasures here for themselves and are deliberately putting on an act!”

  Zhou Zhiwang spat out thick phlegm and had everyone continue to move forth. He felt that Sun Mo was too careful and if this continued, all the good things would have been snatched by others.

  “Sect Lord, I don’t want to say this, but speed is vital in exploring a darkness ruin!”

  Zhou Zhiwang shared his experience. “I know that you’re worried that we’d have casualties, but this is inevitable.”

  In Zhou Zhiwang’s opinion, Sun Mo was too softhearted.

  “Everyone, be more careful.”

  Sun Mo was very worried. He reckoned that not just the Dark Dawn, but the people from the dark famous school would also not miss out on this great opportunity.

  After exploring for another hour, agonizing cries suddenly rang out from the scout group in front.

  “Stay here and don’t move! Teacher Zhou, protect the group!”

  As Sun Mo said this, he darted out.

  “Sect Lord, save me!”

  A scout was dragged into the darkness by a monster that was flashing with luminous blue light.

  There were no traces of blood or corpses at the scene, but all the members of the scout group had gone missing.

  Zhou Zhiwang was very strong and naturally wouldn’t stay behind to wait. He followed after Sun Mo. “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Sun Mo shook his head.

  “Sigh, I knew that we should have moved together, but you had to send the scout group ahead first. In the end, they still end up in trouble!”

  Zhou Zhiwang was upset. If everyone stuck together, they could take care of each other.

  “Teacher Zhou, if everyone stuck together, there’d be even more casualties!”

  Li Ziqi defended Sun Mo.

  The other party could wipe out a five-men team scout group without any sound within five seconds. How terrifyingly strong was this?

  “Leave this place!” Sun Mo instructed.

  “Why?”

  Zhou Zhiwang was unwilling to do so.

  “At least two-thirds of the people in this group aren’t a match for that monster.”

  Sun Mo explained.

  “You guys can leave if you want, but I refuse to leave!”

  Zhou Zhiwang was extremely upset. As the vice-leader, he had the right to claim a share of the spoils. However, given how careful Sun Mo was, it’d take forever before they could find any secret treasures!

  And now, Sun Mo was still thinking of leaving!

  “Those who don’t wish to leave can come with me!”

  Zhou Zhiwang was planning on splitting up the group. He was in the legendary realm and had the right to do so.