The summer wind gusting through the mountain city brought along with it an intense perplexity.
“A school is supposed to be a place that educates people, right? The occupation of a great teacher is one where they nurture talents. They most probably also wish for their teachings to be spread through the entire world, right? But why would they still be so selfish and keep the valuable things to themselves? If they open up the top-graded cultivation arts to everyone, wouldn’t they be able to help more people?”
Li Ziqi couldn’t understand this. “For people like Han Xi, if she proved her loyalty and contributed to her school, even if she managed to get a top-graded cultivation art now, her golden years of her life would have already been wasted, she has at least wasted 15 years in her youth!”
Tantai Yutang and Lu Zhiruo sank into contemplation.
Xuanyuan Po basically wasn’t concerned about this. Jiang Leng glanced at the little sunny egg while mentally musing that she had a good heart, but her way of thinking through things was a little too innocent and pure.
Tantai Yutang was much more direct and directly mocked Li Ziqi’s naivety.
“If you want to get something, you have to pay the price!”
Tantai Yutang’s lips twitched. “If not, what do you suggest? Should the school give them the top-graded cultivation arts in advance? What if they encountered villainous students who might rebel and pose a threat to them in the future?”
“However, the eldest martial sister’s words have logic. For example, for someone like me, if I didn’t encounter Teacher and even if I were lucky enough to enter a school to work, I would most probably need 20 years before I had the chance to come in contact with heaven-tier cultivation arts, right?”
Ying Baiwu questioned. As for saint-tier cultivation arts, there was basically no need to think about that.
“Let us not discuss this question anymore.”
Lu Zhiruo raised her arms in a depressed manner and hugged her head before squatting on the ground. She felt that both sides were correct, but she thought that something was incorrect in them both.
“A bunch of people who want to court trouble for themselves!”
Xuanyuan Po shook his head and walked toward the distance. He then sat down in the shade of a tree and started to enter meditation.
“If we can’t make sense of it, let’s not think about it anymore. We can directly ask Teacher!”
Jiang Leng suggested.
Swish~
The gazes of all of them turned over.
“Before I answer, I wish to ask a question. What is knowledge?”
Sun Mo smiled. “Naturally, knowledge is a very broad concept. It can also include cultivation arts, darkness secret arts, etc.”
“Knowledge is knowledge, what else can it be?” Lu Zhiruo was puzzled. “It can’t possibly be a person, right?”
“Baiwu?”
Sun Mo glanced at the iron-headed girl.
“Knowledge is money. It can transform into food and fill our bellies.”
Ying Baiwu spoke directly. Her system of values was always so plain and simple. But her words weren’t wrong.
“An excellent explanation.”
Sun Mo praised.
The iron-headed girl immediately revealed a happy smile. She silently clenched her fist. (Hmph, I can also be the student our teacher likes and dotes on the most.)
Actually, Ying Baiwu understood that their teacher was very fond of Li Ziqi because Li Ziqi was intelligent and had her own ideas. Li Ziqi was different from her who only knew how to cultivate.
“Yutang?”
Sun Mo asked.
“A boring question!”
The sickly invalid’s lips curled.
Bang!
Ying Baiwu lifted her elbow and knocked it into the sickly invalid’s arm. He was really rude.
“Hehe!”
Sun Mo didn’t press him. He then looked at Jiang Leng.
“Knowledge is power. It’s the foundation of a person’s life!”
Jiang Leng pondered.
“That’s correct too.”
After Sun Mo evaluated, he turned to Li Ziqi. “What do you think?”
The little sunny egg frowned so severely that her brows could squeeze a crab to death. Evidently, she thought deeper than the others but had no way to filter her thoughts into a clear concept. Hence, she didn’t speak.
“Ziqi, knowledge is a tool of domination to ensure the stability of the ruler’s social class.”
After Sun Mo spoke, he suddenly paused because he had no idea what consequences would there be if he said this to his students.
“What?”
The papaya girl had a lost look on her face. Ying Baiwu was the same as well. Her knowledge reserve and life experiences determined that she wouldn’t know stuff like this.
Jiang Leng could understand a little, but it was not very clear to him. As for Li Ziqi and Tantai Yutang, they seemed to have seen something flashing past their minds.
Hence, the two of them turned to Sun Mo, anticipating his continuation.
“The topics we are discussing next are not concrete and have to be considered as probings and conjectures. Do not take them as the truth.”
Sun Mo gave a forewarning.
“The social classes are from top to bottom, the emperor, the emperor’s clan, the high officials, the wealthy merchants, and landlords and lastly, we have the commoners and followed by the last social class – the slaves.”
Sun Mo tried his best to be concise, for example, factory workers and handicraft makers were categorized directly in the commoner’s class, so he wouldn’t touch on them detailedly.
“Have you all discovered this? The higher one’s social class is, the more knowledge they have in their grasp. To slaves, they have no access to learn any knowledge. In fact, some of them might feel that life is just like that. The purpose of their existence is to work for their masters so they will have food to eat and a place to stay. In fact, the thought of rebellion would never even cross their minds. This is because they have no knowledge. They don’t know that people like kings, marquises, generals, and premiers were born into a life that was much better than them.”
“The emperor knows major things like news from the surrounding countries, and he can make policies to aid the people of the country and think of a correct response. Merchants and landlords would know the situation of nearby cities, and they would be able to think of ways to earn more money. As for commoners, they are usually farmers who would never leave their village in their entire lives. They would at most only know the village heads of the other villages near them.”
Lu Zhiruo raised her hand.
“Speak!”
Sun Mo nodded, indicating for the papaya girl to ask her question.
“Isn’t this experience? This is not knowledge, right?”
Lu Zhiruo was doubtful.
“Experience is also a kind of knowledge. ‘Knowledge’ doesn’t merely contain ‘erudition’.”
Tantai Yutang rolled his eyes. (Can you not ask such a dumb question and waste all our time?)
“If a farmer learned that the Li Clan Lord of a location tens of miles away is paying higher wages, he would be able to head there to work and earn slightly more compared to the others in his village. If a merchant learned that a city hundreds of miles away is lacking silk cloth, he would be able to transport some goods over and earn profits there.”
Sun Mo deliberated his words, not wanting to make things too profound or his students might not understand. “Let’s return to the topic of cultivation. What would you do after you learn a top-graded cultivation art?”
“Cultivate it and become stronger than others!”
The papaya girl replied directly.
“And then?”
Sun Mo asked.
“And then?”
Lu Zhiruo was stunned. “Become even stronger?”
“After you become stronger, you would then possess money, status, and fame. So, cultivation arts can be considered a type of power.
“When you want to gain more power, you will definitely harm the benefits of those in the social class above you, causing those above to feel worried that you are threatening their position.
“So, as the one sitting at the peak, without observing you nor ascertaining your loyalty, why would they give you a top-graded cultivation art?
“You have to understand that people are willing to give power to those below not because they admire their characters. They just want to stabilize and solidify their own positions.”
After Sun Mo spoke, as expected, the expressions of Li Ziqi and Tantai Yutang became heavy.
“Yeah, to the one sitting at the peak, so what if some talents are wasted? They would rather not use those who were not loyal!”
Li Ziqi bitterly smiled. She recalled her royal father’s way of dealing with people. His subjects could be foolish and even greedy. But they absolutely could not be disloyal.
“On a small scale of interactions between people or a large scale of countries interacting with countries…valuable knowledge wouldn’t be imparted easily.”
Sun Mo sighed. Even in the modern era, the truly valuable knowledge also had to be purchased with money. So many with intellectual property rights established ‘barriers’…wasn’t it simply because they wanted to enjoy market dominance? This also meant that they could only earn much more money by monopolizing the market.
In fact, even if you were willing to spend a huge amount of money for some particular knowledge, no one would be willing to sell to you.
For example for some countries that had their own nuclear warheads. It was precisely because of this that they had such a high status in the eyes of other countries.
“I suddenly recalled that sentence…’teaching your knowledge to your disciples would only result in you, as the master, dying from hunger!’”
Tantai Yutang chortled.
“The ruler might permit you to learn some unimportant cultivation arts. They might even give you some pretty powerful cultivation arts. However, for top-graded ones, they would only disseminate them among other rulers.”
Sun Mo also felt a headache. Such a topic was very troublesome. If those in other circles heard it, Sun Mo might even be captured and beheaded.
His six personal disciples fell silent.
A long time later, Li Ziqi’s lips twitched as she sighed. “Humans are really selfish creatures!”
“If we are not selfish, how would we be humans?”
Tantai Yutang said, “Don’t think too much about it. Honestly speaking, why would I teach you if I had a saint-tier cultivation art? After I taught you, what would happen if you beat me to death? Even if you didn’t do such a thing, you could also use the martial force garnered from this cultivation art to seize my territory. What would I do then?
“Hence, I would definitely ensure that I had complete control over the arts I taught you. So, even if you wanted to rebel, I would still be able to easily crush you.”
Li Ziqi shook her head. “Wrong, it shouldn’t be like this.”
“What should it be like then?”
Ying Baiwu interjected. “On this point alone, I support the sickly invalid!”
“But there are also good people like our teacher!”
The papaya girl looked at Sun Mo while silently musing in her heart. (My father too is a very magnanimous man).
“If humans are so lowly and selfish, we might as well be extinct.”
Li Ziqi felt very sullen.
“Your view of humanity is too noble and high. We are merely wild beasts who can walk erect.”
Xuanyuan Po suddenly spoke out, “After all, at the very root of things, we do things for the sake of survival and reproduction!”
Sun Mo turned his head, very surprised. The combat addict had actually said such philosophical words?
“Teacher, don’t look at me like that. These words are merely something I heard before, and I felt they were very logical. Hence, I usually don’t like to think too much. As long as there’s a fight, it’s enough for me.”
Xuanyuan Po shrugged.
“Wrong, wrong. All the sentences made by you guys are wrong!”
Li Ziqi struggled as she shook her head. “There has to be some areas where they are wrong.”
“Eldest martial sister, you are too kind and think too highly of humans.”
Jiang Leng persuaded her. Li Ziqi had grown up in the palace, under the doting care of her royal father. Hence, she had never seen the darkness of the world before.
“Alright, let’s not talk about this topic anymore!”
Sun Mo spoke. If they continued chatting, they would soon reach the boundary of philosophy. Even those philosophers weren’t able to understand this completely, let alone a bunch of kids.
Yet, Tantai Yutang didn’t wish to spare Li Ziqi. He wanted her to know about the darkness of the world. “Didn’t you say before that your ambition is to build the largest library in the Nine Provinces? If you really accomplished it, would you allow anyone to enter the library to read?”
“Naturally!”
Li Ziqi spoke in a manner as it should be by rights.
“What about illiterate beggars? What about mass murders from other tribes that are not of the same race? Also, what about those swindlers who seek out knowledge for the sake of cheating people?”
Each of Tantai Yutang’s questions was like a sharp needle, each sharper than the last.
Li Ziqi sank into a perplexed contemplation.
“Stop thinking about it. You are still very young. You will naturally gain your own way of thinking after you read more books and walk more roads, seeing more of the world.”
Sun Mo stroked Li Ziqi’s hair.
“Teacher!”
The little sunny egg’s eyes were red. Her tone was filled with sadness. It wasn’t because she couldn’t answer Tantai Yutang’s questions, but rather, she suddenly discovered that this world wasn’t as beautiful as what she used to believe.
Sun Mo originally didn’t plan to say anything, but he felt heartache after seeing the little sunny egg’s appearance. Hence, he made a decision.
“I will let you read a few books!”
As Sun Mo spoke, he recalled the content of those classic philosophical books of his world. He then used soul imprint and branded them into the little sunny egg’s mind.
Li Ziqi suddenly sank into contemplation.
“Teacher, you are so biased!”
Tantai Yutang grumbled.
“I didn’t show you guys these books because your mentality isn’t at a suitable level yet. This is especially so for you, Tantai.”
Sun Mo seriously didn’t favor nor discriminate against his students. “For something like your world view, ideology and outlook, they are something formed by yourself instead of others imparting them to you.”
The summer wind gusted, and they no longer spoke.
“What’s going on?”
Li Ruolan was hiding behind some shrubbery. Her lips twitched. She was listening so intently and was almost at the climax. However, Sun Mo’s words were truly audacious.
The beautiful reporter looked at the image-recording stone in her hand and pondered whether to destroy it or not. If the content were to be spread out, it would bring trouble to Sun Mo.
Mei Ziyu leaned against a banyan tree and quietly listened. She also recalled that her mother had once worked hard to spread top-graded cultivation arts extensively. Sadly, her mother’s efforts ended up in failure.
“Teacher!”
Li Ziqi suddenly spoke as she looked at Sun Mo. “I feel very miserable!”
“I can understand your feelings.”
Sun Mo patted the little sunny egg on her back. It was precisely because she had read too many books that the little sunny egg would have so many random thoughts. In other words, she was now probing the path of a thinker, but she wasn’t able to find the way.
“Teacher, what should I do?”
Li Ziqi hugged Sun Mo.
“There’s no hurry, you are still very young. Just walk slowly and you will surely find a path that belongs to you!”
Sun Mo continued patting her back gently.
“I’ll recite a poem for you!”
“Mn!”
Li Ziqi didn’t relinquish her hold on Sun Mo yet.
“A serve of spirit in a golden chalice has a price of ten thousand pence,
And ten times more for delicacies dished out on a platter made of jade.
Yet, in the face of such a feast, I could not bring myself to taste,
With wrath, I draw my sword and look around, feeling completely at a loss.
Frozen is the Yellow River when I wish to cross it,
Enshrouded in snow is the sky when I wish to climb Taihang Mountain.
In a pristine creek I angle, idling away my time,
Suddenly, on board of a boat I seem to be, dreaming my way to the capital.
What a trying journey! Such a trying journey!
So full of forked paths before, now where are the ways?
A day with gusty winds shall come to help cleave through the waves,
For me to make full sail and navigate to an open boundless sea.” [1]
Sun Mo’s voice was very light, yet it was very clear. His voice drifted into the ears of his personal disciples and into the hearts of Li Ruolan and Mei Ziyu.
At the instant when Sun Mo’s voice faded, Priceless Advice was activated.
The golden halo illuminated its surroundings, cladding everything with a layer of golden light.
These words were spoken from the bottom of Sun Mo’s heart. He had pulled out his sword and stared in all four directions blankly, feeling that the road ahead was truly tough to traverse!
For humans, they wouldn’t be able to see themselves clearly for the vast majority of the time. They also wouldn’t be able to find the path they truly wanted to walk.
“What’s going on? Why is he erupting with golden sentences again?”
Gu Xiuxun had finished her round of competition. When she didn’t see Sun Mo in the resting area, she came out to look for him and coincidentally saw this scene.
(Golden Sentence ‘Sun’, please stop unleashing your magic!)
(The number of golden sentences you speak in a month is even more compared to the number of golden sentences spoken by a great teacher in a year!)
Li Ziqi’s expression, which was originally dispirited and disappointed, suddenly changed. It was as though a morning bell had rung in her mind and caused her to have a new thought.
“Teacher!”
The little sunny egg lifted her head and looked at Sun Mo’s eyes. “I’ve decided. My library will be open to everyone, regardless of whether they are beggars or slaves, liars or bandits. As long as they enter my library, they will be able to read any book they want to.”
“Naturally, I will limit the categories of books they read. I feel that some books will definitely cause them to become someone useful to the world.”
Tantai Yutang sneered. (How freaking naive, do you think you are a saint, to educate everyone regardless of their background?) He originally wanted to say a few mocking lines, but at this moment, a golden light suddenly erupted forth from Li Ziqi, causing her to appear more holy and pure.
“T…this…”
Tantai Yutang was stunned. Why did he suddenly feel like she had comprehended a great teacher halo?
[1] This is a poem from Li Bai, an ancient poet in China. Source for the poem translation: https://28utscprojects.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/082/
