“Battle starts!”
The main examiner announced. After that, he retreated and did his best not to obstruct the competition. However, he would still be able to intervene in moments of danger to prevent an examinee from being seriously injured.
“Teacher Sun, you can attack first!”
Because Liu Tong had a higher cultivation base, he could afford to appear magnanimous. Besides, he wished to win this beautifully to have a good start.
“You don’t have to be so polite!”
Sun Mo pulled out his wooden blade and wasn’t anxious at all. He then activated Divine Sight to observe Liu Tong’s stats.
Strength: 39. Do you think his nickname as ‘little tank’ is fake? He can crush your skull with a single punch!
Intellect: 35. Standard of an ordinary person. A little inflexible. Due to being mocked at and ridiculed for a very long time, his thinking is a little prejudiced.
Agility: 27. His legs are shorter than rabbits. Wanting him to run a race? Are you purposely making things difficult for him?
Endurance: 37. Simple, honest, and tenacious. Bluntly speaking, you are an industrious and conscientious old ox and can handle all sorts of dirty and tiring jobs. After all, you already have no looks. If you are still lazy on top of that, your life would really be lackluster.
Will: 33. Wavering. Although you look calm on the surface, you hate others ridiculing you a lot. If someone shows respect toward you, you would actually feel grateful and respect them.
…
Potential value: Extremely high!
Note: A genius that’s burdened because of his appearance. He has no personal teacher, so him being able to achieve his current accomplishments was all due to his own hard work.
“System, are you sure there’s no mistake with your evaluation?”
Sun Mo’s eyes showed doubt.
There was no solution to it. (A 40-year-old man at the third level of the divine force realm, yet you are telling me his potential value is extremely high? Are you kidding me?)
“Ugly is the original sin!”
The system used five words to describe the first half of Liu Tong’s life.
“…”
Sun Mo fell silent, suddenly feeling that Liu Tong’s plight was a little pitiful. The reality was as such. The better looking someone was, the more opportunities they would be able to obtain.
Being talented was like being pregnant; everyone would be able to see it as time passed. But because Liu Tong looked like Wu Dalang*, no one would bother to look at him.
Sun Mo didn’t move and Liu Tong felt embarrassed to take any action. However, he didn’t feel that Sun Mo was afraid of him.
“Sun Mo actually chose to use a wooden blade?”
An average-looking examinee was curious.
“A wooden blade could be a top-grade weapon too!”
An ugly examinee ridiculed.
When they were speaking, they suddenly felt someone pushing them from behind. They unhappily turned their heads, but before they could grumble, they immediately put a smile on their faces.
“Sorry, please make way!”
Li Ruolan smiled and swept her hand through her hair.
The two examinees looked at Great Reporter Li, who had bright eyes and beautiful teeth smiling at them, and instantly felt as though they were in love. They subconsciously stepped aside, opening a path up for her.
“She’s so beautiful when she smiles!”
The ugly examinee clutched his heart as his mind swayed. To someone who had never experienced love between the opposite sexes before, this moment was the peak of his life.
“Say, she’s smiling so sweetly at me. Do you think she is interested in me?”
The average-looking guy’s heartbeat increased. His gaze followed Li Ruolan’s back as he asked.
“Stop farting, she’s clearly smiling at me!”
The ugly guy instantly became unhappy. (By saying this, you are insulting my goddess okay?)
After hearing the dispute from behind, Li Ruolan smiled faintly. As beauty ranked #11 on the Beauty Rankings, she only needed to smile to resolve many problems.
“Luckily, the battle hasn’t started yet!”
After squeezing her way to the front and obtaining a good seat, Li Ruolan took out an image-recording stone and aimed it at Sun Mo.
“It’s Li Ruolan, the gold-medal main writer and reporter of [Great Teachers Report]! I didn’t expect that even she would come to watch Sun Mo’s battle!”
“Are you talking nonsense? If she doesn’t look at Sun Mo’s battle, would she look at yours?”
“I really hope Sun Mo will lose the competition!”
The spectators whispered to each other. Several people were envious of Sun Mo’s popularity and hoped he would lose.
“Teacher Sun?”
Liu Tong frowned. (What is he doing? Does he want to compete in patience?)
“Might I be so impudent as to ask where Teacher Liu is currently teaching?”
Sun Mo’s thumb caressed the hilt of his wooden blade. He was wondering how much he should offer to recruit Liu Tong.
The data showed that this fellow had excellent talent in weapon-smithing.
“What do you mean?”
Liu Tong’s face turned dark. Sun Mo was talking about his sore spot.
“Don’t misunderstand, I just want to ask if Teacher Liu has any interest in working at the Central Province Academy?”
Sun Mo issued an invitation. “As for the salary, we will do our best to satisfy Teacher Liu.”
Boo!
Even before Liu Tong could reply, the examinees around them already started booing. In fact, some people even cursed Sun Mo for being shameless.
“Teacher Sun, please pay attention to your words!”
The main examiner frowned and reminded Sun Mo out of kind intention.
The other examiners also didn’t know what Sun Mo wanted to do. Could it be that he really felt Liu Tong was talented? (Something is wrong, you guys are not acquainted with each other before this, how would you know if he is talented or not?)
“Sorry, I’ve misspoken.”
Sun Mo apologized. He was only worried that he might crush Liu Tong so bad later that the latter became autistic and hated him. At that time, he wouldn’t be able to succeed in headhunting Liu Tong.
“Are you teasing me?”
Liu Tong’s countenance sank. Right now, let alone being headhunted by people, he was even extremely cautious when doing his current job.
This was because once he lost this job, he would not be able to find a new one.
After his graduation, he had been jobless for five years before he got his first job.
“Let’s speak again after we finished fighting!”
Sun Mo didn’t want to be misunderstood.
“Good!”
Because of Sun Mo’s words, Liu Tong grew angry. He no longer waited for Sun Mo to attack, and his right leg directly exerted force as he rushed forward.
BOOM!
Liu Tong was like a flash flood erupting forth, arriving before Sun Mo in the blink of an eye as he pierced out with his long spear.
Ferocious Tiger Hunting Bite!
“How fast!”
“How ferocious!”
“Sun Mo is in for it now!”
Cries of alarm and surprise rang out in the surroundings. Once someone acted, everyone could tell if that person was an expert or not. Although Liu Tong merely rushed forward, his momentum, his speed, and his timing of piercing forth with his spear were all extremely optimal. He also brimmed with a biting cold aura.
Sadly, to Sun Mo who had activated ‘copy’, he was as slow as turtle crawling,
Ding!
Sun Mo didn’t even move. He merely angled his blade and repelled Liu Tong’s spear.
“Excellent!”
The main examiner praised loudly.
The strength Liu Tong displayed was extremely great, far surpassing Sun Mo. However, he was repelled just from Sun Mo’s simple action. This indicated that Sun Mo’s eye-hand coordination was top-grade and was extremely accurate. It was like hitting a snake at the 7-inch spot from its head, using the minimal amount of force to achieve the greatest result.
The main examiner felt that this could be considered an art.
“Cough, cough!”
However, he felt embarrassed. After all, with his identity, he mustn’t do or say anything that would be considered partial to an examinee.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Sun Mo brandished his blade, accurately repelling each of Liu Tong’s ferocious attacks.
Li Ruolan’s image-recording stone had long since been aimed at Sun Mo. His battle posture was simply too graceful.
Liu Tong was extremely valiant, each of his attacks was filled with the beauty of strength. But Sun Mo easily neutralized all his attacks with a wave of his blade.
“Liu Tong, you won’t be able to win.”
Sun Mo sighed. Liu Tong cultivated the Five Tigers Gate Breaking Spear. Although his proficiency level had reached the grandmaster-level, this cultivation art was merely a peerless earth-tier one. Even if he could practice it to the maximum proficiency level, it would still be useless.
As for Sun Mo, he had so many heaven-tier arts and it depended on his mood whether he wanted to train in them or not.
“Win against me first before talking!”
Liu Tong roared. He shook his spear in rage and rushed over.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
His spears struck out suddenly. Each strike of his spear caused a large amount of spirit qi to gush forth, instantly forming five ferocious tigers that lunged toward Sun Mo.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
Tiger roars filled the sky.
Sun Mo didn’t dodge. He merely waved his blade slightly.
Water Dragon Roar, Eighteen Words Order!
The wooden blade emitted sounds of breaking the wind barrier. In the span of a few breaths, the five ferocious tigers were pierced through with a thousand holes and appeared like beehives.
“The difference in their cultivation arts is too much!”
“Yeah, he won’t be able to win!”
“It’s actually the Five Tigers Gate Breaking Spear? Even my clan’s slaves wouldn’t train in that!”
Some great teachers with good judgment involuntarily shook their heads. Liu Tong would lose for sure.
Liu Tong also discovered this point and had a mournful look on his face. His own ultimate skill was easily repelled by a casual move…
“But I won’t give up!”
Liu Tong gritted his teeth and unleashed his ultimate skill again.
If his opponent was strong enough and had a good enough cultivation art, Sun Mo would still be interested to exchange blows to experience the fight properly. Alas…
Sun Mo’s wrist turned and he used his blade to force the tip of the spear away. After that, he punched out with his left fist.
Eternalism, Great Mercy!
Bang!
Liu Tong couldn’t even grasp Sun Mo’s move and he already felt a punch on his chest. He then stumbled and fell from the impact.
There was no solution to this. In the small nameless school he was from, Liu Tong’s opponents only had earth-tier cultivation arts. How would he have ever seen a peerless saint-tier cultivation art before?
This was the disadvantage of someone with a lack of knowledge.
Pu!
After he fell to the ground, Liu Tong coughed up a mouthful of blood. He struggled and stood up, wanting to continue with the fight.
“Stand up, f*** him!”
Someone cheered for Liu Tong.
“Teacher Liu. As a great teacher, judgment is very important. Can’t you see that you can’t defeat me?”
Sun Mo sighed.
Liu Tong’s spirits stirred. After being silent for a few seconds, he explained, “I just don’t want to give up. Even if the ray of hope is faint, I still want to try it!”
Honestly speaking, Liu Tong was very reluctant. It had been 40 years, and he had no wife nor nightlife. He had spent all his time in training and smithing weapons, and even his personal student was someone with a lame leg.
When he brought his personal student to come and participate in the 2-star great teacher examination, he knew many people were laughing at him behind his back, feeling that he was indulging in fantasy.
Upon thinking of this, Liu Tong’s expression turned resolute again. It was fine if he couldn’t become a 2-star great teacher in his entire life. As long as he could win against Sun Mo, that would be the most glorious moment of his life and was enough for him to brag for a few years.
Even if he was defeated in the end, when he returned, he could still face his headmaster.
[1] A shorty in a folklore story whose wife cheated on him due to him being too ugly.
