Translator: Lordbluefire
It had been six months since the conclusion of the Number One Hero Battle of the Nine Provinces, but its popularity hadn’t weakened. Instead, as time passed, news of it spread wilder and wilder.
Hence, Sun Mo’s fame grew increasingly greater.
In the past, he was only known as a rising superstar, the leading character of the new generation. But now, some people were already saying that he was the brightest constellation in the entire great teacher world, the most impressive great teacher of all.
In the past, when people evaluated Sun Mo, they wouldn’t compare him with the other senior high star-ranking great teachers because they felt this would be unfair to Sun Mo. But now, they no longer cared.
Sun Mo’s outstandingness was rare even in the entire great teacher world.
When professionals evaluated whether a great teacher was outstanding or not, they would look at his or her star-rank, the standard of their learning, their prestige, and their social connections. But ordinary people would only look at whether a great teacher could teach impressive students or not.
In this regard, Sun Mo’s students had used their strength to prove that they were the strongest!
Li Zigi had followed Sun Mo for so long and was naturally influenced by his modem thinking. Besides, she had also been in the Black-White Game before and knew the importance of ‘dissemination and promotion’. Since that was the case, in private, she spent a large amount of money to arrange a large
number of people to boost Sun Mo’s fame.
This method could easily enhance Sun Mo’s popularity.
With regard to Sun Mo’s results, they were all verified. This was different from modern popular celebrities who didn’t even have their own representative work and could only depend on their looks.
‘When the poor people heard of Sun Mo’s name, they could only sigh and feel that although this great teacher was good, they were too poor to pay the learning fees.
When the rich heard of Sun Mo’s name, they immediately brought their children to Jinling. Even if their children couldn’t enter Sun Mo’s tutelage, they wanted their kids to join the Central Province Academy. As long as their kids were in the same school as Sun Mo, they believed that the performances of
their kids would surely gain Sun Mo’s appreciation.
As for those nobles who had power and authority, they did their best to look for connections, wanting to treat Sun Mo for a meal and ask some education-related questions regarding their children.
However, since Sun Mo had entered seclusion, all these letters were placed on An Xinhui’s desk. Who told her to be Sun Mo’s fiancee and also the headmaster of the Central Province Academy?
“Right now, Sun Mo is the only great teacher in the Nine Provinces that’s in a tier of his own.”
Gu Xiuxun helped An Xinhui to open the letters and screened through them. As she checked the signatures, they were all from marquises, premiers, princes, and princesses.
Many members of royalty and nobility had even sent people over to check if there was a chance to enter Sun Mo’s tutelage.
For many great teachers, if they could accept descendants of royalty as students, that would be equal to building up an additional social network, and it was also a type of recognition. Hence, great teachers usually wouldn’t reject it. This was why the royalty felt at ease to bring their children over to take
great teachers as their personal teachers.
However, because Sun Mo’s fame was too great, they didn’t dare to take the risk. If they were rejected, the ones being embarrassed would be their children.
After all, since he could nurture Li Ziqi, someone who got denied by a secondary saint, into a genius… It was enough to prove that Sun Mo’s judgment had no problems.
Right now, the two words ‘Sun Mo’ were equal to power.
“Sadly, he’s in seclusion!”
An Xinhui sighed.
At such a time, even if he didn’t take this chance to go on tours to give lectures to expand his influence, he should show his face in school to gain some sense of existence. But Sun Mo actually ran off to the Wind King Divine Hall for closed-door seclusion.
‘What did these thousands of letters count for?
In fact, even the Nine Greats also sent invitations, wanting to respectfully invite Sun Mo over to their schools to give lectures.
‘What treatment would he receive?
(Don’t ask. If you ask, you are looking down on him!)
The conditions the other parties gave were simply too good. For example, the Nine Greats even proposed a student-exchange program.
No matter how arrogant An Xinhui was, she wouldn’t assume that the Central Province Academy could win against the Nine Greats. So, one could say that if the students and teachers of the Central Province Academy went there for an exchange for one year, it would surely be greatly beneficial.
‘They were simply so generous just for the sake of getting Sun Mo to give a few lectures. Sadly, Sun Mo wasn’t home.
“When does he intend to come out?”
Gu Xiuxun frowned.
“How would I know?”
An Xinhui kneaded her glabella, feeling an intense headache. Right now, let alone students, even great teachers kept coming to ask her when Sun Mo would exit his seclusion.
All of them were waiting to consult him.
Because of the existence of Yang Shizhan and Hu Xingjiang, their spirits had been greatly stirred. In the past, Sun Mo had offered pointers to an 8-stars and helped that person to become a secondary saint. This feat was already impressive enough. But now, he actually helped a secondary saint become a
saint.
If it was just once, this might be a fluke, but Sun Mo did this a total of three times. Moreover, Yang Shizhan would always address Sun Mo as ‘Sun-laoshi’ respectfully when he mentioned him.
How great of an honor was this?
“Sister Xinhui, you have to pay more attention. I heard that several teachers have agreed privately that they wouldn’t allow the school to let Sun Mo teach in other schools.”
Gu Xiuxun smiled. “They said that fertile water shouldn’t be allowed to flow to the fields of outsiders.”
“Don’t mention it anymore. There are many high star-ranking great teachers sending employment letters requesting to work here. I don’t even know what to do anymore.”
An Xinhui felt a headache.
Who wouldn’t want a good teacher?
However, the school currently didn’t lack teachers. If they hired more, they would have to retrench those with weaker capabilities. However, those people had stuck by the school when the Central Province Academy was in dire straits, so An Xinhui couldn’t bear to do such a thing.
Also, there was a problem with the student supply. It wasn’t the recruitment season, but the number of students applying had exceeded the target, and the more troublesome thing was those who wanted to transfer schools. If An Xinhui didn’t handle this well, she would become the target of a multitude of
arrows and be isolated by all famous schools.
It wasn’t that transferring schools were prohibited, but this was such a large-scale transfer and they would surely be despised and boycotted by the original school. If An Xinhui said she didn’t do anything to cause this, no one would believe it.
An Xinhui only wanted good students, but she didn’t have the information of these students. If she asked the original school, given the bad relationship, the original school definitely wouldn’t tell her.
“ai, this is a trouble that arose from happiness.”
An Xinhui was troubled but also happy. Moreover, the number of banquet invitations was several times more compared to the past, and the statuses of people inviting were much higher as well.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Someone knocked on her office door.
“Enter!”
‘An Xinhui had a solemn look and was sitting rigidly upright. But after that, she stood up with happiness because the person that entered was Sun Mo. “Little Momo, you have finished your seclusion?”
“Sun Mo, don’t enter seclusion so suddenly and silently in the future. We are all very worried about you.”
After Gu Xiuxun finished speaking, she discovered that her tone was incorrect. It felt like a girlfriend grumbling to a boyfriend. Hence, she snuck a glance at An Xinhui.
Luckily, An Xinhui was surveying Sun Mo and observing his complexion. She didn’t pay attention to that.
“I want to go and get the grandmaster-level weaponsmith certification!”
Sun Mo explained as he passed a list of materials to An Xinhui. “Please purchase all the items on the list for me!”
“What about Ziqi?”
An Xinhui was taken aback. In recent months, Li Ziqi didn’t even want to be an emperor, so she got Li Xiu and Zheng Qingfang to handle everything while she herself acted as assistant to Sun Mo. Hence, all this miscellaneous stuff was usually handled by her.
“The experiment has reached the most critical stage. Ziqi cannot leave halfway!”
Sun Mo felt very vexed too.
‘The grandmaster-level weaponsmith examination was only organized by the Saint Gate once per year. If he missed it, he would have to wait until next year. Besides, he couldn’t delay so he had to participate.
“The examination set by the Saint Gate is too inhumane. Why can’t one take the ancestor-level exam if they didn’t have the grandmaster certification? How irrational!”
Gu Xiuxun snorted in disdain.
An Xinhui didn’t manage to bear it and rolled her eyes at Gu Xiuxun.
Someone like Sun Mo would probably appear only once every few centuries, alright?
Besides, great teachers who were qualified to be examiners for the ancestor-level examinations were very few, and all of them were very busy.
If they didn’t use the grandmaster-level exam to get rid of the majority of people, wouldn’t there be a bunch of people coming to partake in the liveliness?
After giving some instructions, Sun Mo sat on his eight-gate cloud and directly flew away.
‘The grandmaster-level weaponsmith exam this year was held at the Rock Dragon Academy in the Rock Dragon City.
Early in the morning, the great teachers that were keen on taking the exam were already waiting outside the school gate.
Among all of them, there was a 30+ years old middle-aged man that attracted the most attention. Over ten great teachers around him were sincerely consulting him.
‘This middle-aged man was Luo Pei from the Jixia Learning Palace. He was considered one of the brightest new stars in the weaponsmithing world.
In his student era, he had invented a type of alloy. By adding it into the weapons, it could raise the weapon’s sensitivity toward spirit qi.
This invention allowed him to have wealth rivaling a country because many weaponsmiths were begging to purchase this type of alloy from him.
“In the exam this time around, Teacher Luo would surely rank at the top. All of us will offer our congratulations in advance!”
Someone fawned.
Luo Pei flashed a reserved smile and just when he wanted to reply humbly, he frowned and glanced at the sky.
Mm?”
Luo Pei was shocked because there was a person descending from the sky.
The others also followed Luo Pei’s line of sight and glanced over. After that, someone shouted out in surprise. “It’s Ancestor Sun!”
“Why is he here? Could it be that he wants to participate in the exam too?”
“[ remembered that he once said publicly that he’s at the ancestor level of expertise for spirit runes and weaponsmithing!”
“That’s a boast, right? How old is he merely? How could he have so much time to learn?”
‘The great teachers whispered to each other. Before Sun Mo landed, all of them had headed over with modest smiles, preparing to greet him.
Upon seeing this scene, Luo Pei’s countenance darkened.
He had heard earlier that some in the crowd were scolding those who fawned on him, saying that they didn’t want face. But now, these people ran over to Sun Mo the moment they saw him. (You guys actually ran faster than rabbits!)
What did this mean?
It meant that their characters were not so upright and honest. It was just that Luo Pei’s status wasn’t high enough to make them fawn on him.
Also…their way of address for Sun Mo!
Luo Pei clearly heard that these people were calling Sun Mo as ‘Ancestor Sun’, but when they addressed him, they merely called him “Teacher Luo’.
“Ancestor Sun, why are you here at the Rock Dragon Academy? Could it be that you are an examiner?”
Someone was curious.
“I came to participate in the grandmaster-level weaponsmithing exam!”
Sun Mo’s attitude was amiable as his gaze swept through these examinees. Since they came here to participate in this exam, it was sufficient to say that they had some capabilities. He could headhunt a few of them back.
“ah?”
Everyone was shocked. (He is truly here for the exam?) After that, they grew depressed.
Ever since Su Taiging became the Saint Gate Sect Lord, he had initiated a drastic reform to the various old rules and bad habits of the great teacher world. Among them, the ranking examinations took the heaviest hit.
In the past, as long as the great teachers passed the exam, they would be able to gain the grandmaster title. But now, no matter how many people participated in the exam, only the top 5% could get the title.
This indicated that only five out of a hundred would be qualified.
Although this rule greatly lowered the number of ‘grandmasters’ in various subjects, their quality was greatly enhanced.
Now that Sun Mo was here, he would surely take a spot. Therefore, the difficulty of the others passing just increased.
Although they were unhappy, the examinees basically didn’t dare to let Sun Mo see their annoyance and unhappiness. They were still smiling as they spoke to him.. There was no solution, who asked Sun Mo’s status in the great teacher world to be so high?
