Translator: Lordbluefire
When Li Ziqi finished handling all official matters, she saw that the sky hadn’t darkened yet. Hence, she used the portal constructed by the eight-gate cloud to return to the Central Province Academy.
The teleportation gate was constructed in the little sunny egg’s bed chambers. She could use it to freely access the Wind King Divine Hall and Sun Mo’s villa in the school.
The campus was brightly lit. Some students just got off their classes, and they were discussing the content they had just learned while heading to the canteen for a meal. Some of them even headed to other classrooms for their night classes.
No one was slacking. The learning atmosphere was very dense here.
Li Ziqi went to the headmaster office to greet An Xinhui.
“Teacher’s wife, do you receive any news from Teacher recently?”
The little sunny egg blinked her eyes. This was her main objective in coming over.
“Sun Mo dotes on you so much. Even if he doesn’t write to me, he will surely write to you!”
An Xinhui teased.
“Teacher’s wife, please drink some tea!”
Li Ziqi giggled. But after that, her lips twitched in frustration. “Teacher is so loathsome, he has left for a year but didn’t even send a single letter back, making us worry for him.”
“Maybe it isn’t convenient?”
An Xinhui explained. “I’ve done some investigation. The prison warden of the Great Prison of Desolation often has conflicts with the Saint Gate. Also, those great teachers who were sent there can be considered to be banished. So, Sun Mo probably wouldn’t have a good time there.”
Li Ziqi felt worried when she heard this.
An Xinhui comforted her. “You don’t have to be too worried. Sun Mo has little silver. If there’s danger there, he will be able to flee.”
“Mn!”
Li Ziqi nodded yet wasn’t convinced in her heart. Given her teacher’s temper, he wouldn’t choose to flee easily. He would either conquer the enemies or die in the process.
(Sigh! I hope that everything is smooth-sailing for Teacher.)
After Li Ziqi finished speaking with An Xinhui, she left the office and headed to the darkness illusion dojo.
Xuanyuan Po was a cultivation fanatic and liked to stay here, spending all his time challenging the various illusionary opponents.
Li Ziqi persuaded him to go to some lessons or others might mock him for having shallow knowledge. However, she was rejected.
“My goal is to become the number one spear saint in the Nine Provinces. All other matters are like floating clouds to me!”
Xuanyuan Po didn’t care about the evaluations of others. In fact, he didn’t even mind whether his three meals per day were delicious or not. It was good as long as they could fill his belly.
Li Ziqi felt helpless, but she still seriously explained the essence of some cultivation arts to Xuanyuan Po.
Since their teacher wasn’t around, as the eldest disciple, the little sunny egg had to take up the responsibility of guiding her junior martial siblings. Besides, she did have such capabilities.
Before Sun Mo left, he gathered all the knowledge he had learned before and branded them into Li Ziqi’s mind using Soul Imprint.
With regard to those cultivation arts, although Li Ziqi wasn’t adept at using them, she understood their theories and principles very well. She was just like the female character Wang Yuyan in the novel demi-gods and semi-devils.
On the fifth level of the darkness illusion dojo.
“Baiwu!”
Li Ziqi wasn’t surprised when she saw the iron-headed girl there.
She was another cultivation fanatic, but she wasn’t as crazy as the combat addict. Ying Baiwu would still go for some lessons. She was especially interested in weaponsmithing.
This was because she felt that weapons were her best friends.
That was right, the iron-headed girl had no friends. Even between fellow students of Sun Mo, her interactions with the others were very little. If she wasn’t cultivating, she would be studying.
“Eldest Martial Sister!”
After Ying Baiwu greeted her, she continued to spar against a darkness illusion.
As for the combat addict, he was too focused and didn’t notice Li Ziqi’s arrival.
After taking a look, Li Ziqi left for the library.
Helian Beifang and Lu Zhiruo were currently studying here quietly. Helian Beifang’s goal was to become a military god, hence, he read more military books. As for Lu Zhiruo, she read everything.
“Zhiruo, your reading choices are too scattered!”
Jiang Leng’s voice suddenly rang out from the side. “You won’t improve like this.”
“Since she doesn’t even know what she likes, it isn’t bad to give books of every subject a read or two.”
Li Ziqi smiled. “Don’t worry, she’s still young and has more than enough chances to find out her interest.”
“Ze, you sound more and more like a great teacher.”
Jiang Leng was envious.
“Thanks for the praise!”
Li Ziqi turned her head and surveyed Jiang Leng. “How are things? Have you comprehended the self-taught halo, yet?”
Upon mentioning this, Jiang Leng’s expression turned dim as he shook his head.
“Don’t be anxious, you will definitely be able to achieve it!”
Li Ziqi consoled him. She knew that this junior brother of hers had the thought of becoming a great teacher. However, the self-taught halo wasn’t something one could comprehend just because they wanted to. “Just wait for Teacher to return!”
“Mn!”
Jiang Leng nodded. He knew that a few of his martial siblings only became enlightened due to the pointers of their teacher. “Oh right, if you meet junior martial sister Yaoguang, you have to lecture her properly. Recently, she has been running wild and doesn’t seem to be working hard in studying.”
“Alright!”
Li Ziqi frowned. Among all of them who entered Sun Mo’s tutelage, although Qin Yaoguang always seemed jovial and acted very familiar with everyone, this girl was very scheming. She had never truly integrated as a whole with everyone before.
Once their teacher left, Qin Yaoguang was like a freed sheep, wandering everywhere without coming home.
It was easy to find Tantai Yutang. He was always in the medical lab.
When Li Ziqi saw him, she subconsciously covered her nose. “How many days has it been since you last took a shower?”
(Some of these specimens must have rotted, alright?)
“Do you have something you need me for?”
The sickly invalid’s hand movements didn’t stop. He was simultaneously dissecting a spirit beast while observing its bodily reaction after being poisoned.
Seeing Tantai Yutang’s appearance, Li Ziqi shook her head. “Take care of yourself. If you have anything you need, you can tell me about them.”
“I’m living very well now.” The sickly invalid chortled. “Ah, I’d like some corpses of humans.”
“That’s definitely not allowed!”
Li Ziqi warned. “Don’t act recklessly or I’ll be forced to cleanse the filth under Teacher’s tutelage.”
Although some people in the Nine Provinces did work in the line of being test subjects, they did so for money and were willing to sell themselves. However, Li Ziqi didn’t permit the sickly invalid to dissect human corpses.
“People like you are the stumbling block that halts the advancement of human knowledge in medical studies!”
Tantai Yutang shrugged.
Li Ziqi paid more attention to morality.
After exiting the experimental lab, the little sunny egg stood in the campus and breathed heavily a few times.
The night wind brushed past her face, containing a hint of fragrance.
Speaking of which, these martial siblings of hers were all weird in their own way. Only Xianyu Wei resembled a normal student the most. She ate, she learned, she played, and she had no other weird hobbies.
(Sigh, I wonder when will Teacher return! I miss you so much!)
…
Ji Han was in closed-door seclusion for nine months. However, it wasn’t because his heart state was already tranquil and peaceful that he came out. Rather, there were some tasks in the great prison that he needed to personally handle.
Recently, other than working, he had a new hobby, and that was to try and solve the second great riddle. He would spend time heading over to the location to take a look at it. This was because he was worried that if Sun Mo woke up, he would directly solve it. At that time, the people of the great prison would be greatly embarrassed.
Today, Ji Han continued to work hard at the second riddle but had no harvest at all.
“I’m basically clueless!”
Ji Han felt so much melancholy that some of his hair actually dropped. (Should I just give up? He might have succeeded once due to a fluke. It’s probably impossible for him to solve all the riddles, right?)
Ji Han consoled himself. He was preparing to head to the restaurant aboveground to order two dishes and drink some wine to relax. But before he could leave the first level, the spirit qi in the surroundings was like a tsunami and abruptly started surging toward a direction.
“Did someone have a breakthrough?”
Ji Han was extremely experienced and could judge that someone must be making a breakthrough. After that, he followed the direction in which the spirit qi was flowing and rushed over.
In the location, other prison guards had arrived before him.
“Great Teacher Sun is finally going to awaken!”
“Look at the quantity of spirit qi. It’s definitely someone at the Longevity Realm!”
“I can’t help but be impressed!”
Although Sun Mo had entered seclusion the first day he came to the great prison, his name had spread far and wide to the extent that everyone knew about him.
Solving the riddle set by Saint Bai and receiving the inheritance. This was a matter that countless people felt envious of.
“Don’t be noisy!”
Ji Han lectured.
Although he didn’t like Sun Mo, he wouldn’t sneak attack him. All this noise had a possibility of disturbing Sun Mo from his breakthrough.
Rumble! Rumble!
Spirit qi rumbled, and even the metal doors of the prison cells were rattling lightly.
“It has been five minutes, but the phenomenon still shows no signs of stopping!”
Ji Han was envious.
Everyone knew that during a breakthrough, the more spirit qi one gathered, the better the talent of the cultivator was. According to Sun Mo’s situation, he was invincible among his peers.
Finally, after nine minutes, Sun Mo relaxed. The surging spirit qi in his body also calmed down and he opened his eyes.
“Teacher Sun, congratulations!”
Pang Tong and Wu You also rushed over upon hearing the commotion and clasped their hands to congratulate Sun Mo.
“Thanks!”
Sun Mo smiled.
During this year, he hadn’t rested for a single moment and had done his best to digest this knowledge. Occasionally, when he grew tired, he would meditate to alleviate his fatigue and stress. He didn’t expect to actually reach the boundary of a breakthrough just by focusing on digesting the knowledge.
“Teacher Sun, might I be so impudent as to ask you a question? What cultivation level are you at now?”
Wu You was curious.
“Fifth level of the Longevity Realm!”
Sun Mo had been at the third level of Longevity Realm previously. When he had gone to participate in the Five Empires War Discussion, he had eaten a Dry Origin Pill and leveled up once.
He didn’t expect that he would level up again just after a year had passed.
This could be credited to the saint’s inheritance. Although the vast majority of its power had dissipated, just the flow and transfer of knowledge by itself was a very pure type of energy. After Sun Mo had absorbed them, he naturally achieved a breakthrough.
“Si…the fifth level?”
Everyone was stunned.
According to Sun Mo’s current age, he would at least have six centuries more to live.
Such a long time… how many achievements would he be able to obtain then?!
How envious!
“Great Teacher Ji, can we go aboveground now? I wish to take a shower and have a meal!”
Sun Mo asked with a smile.
After a year of meditation, his heart state had been enhanced by quite a bit, and he no longer wished to be petty with Ji Han.
“Sure!”
The rules actually prohibited that, but Ji Han wished to make an exception today.
This was a type of respect accorded to genius great teachers.
“Many thanks!”
Sun Mo clasped his hands.
“Wait!”
Pang Tong called out. “Teacher Sun, since you’ve awakened, why don’t you go and solve the second great riddle as well?”
When Ji Han heard this, his brows pricked and he immediately glared at Pang Tong.
(What do you take the three great riddles here as? Can they be solved just because you want to solve them?)
It was unknown why, but Ji Han suddenly felt somewhat nervous. Hence, he snuck a glance at Sun Mo while hoping in his heart that Sun Mo wouldn’t agree.
“Let’s talk about that later!”
Sun Mo rejected. “No matter what, I ought to pay a visit to the prison warden first!”
After hearing this, Ji Han nodded in satisfaction.
(This brat still knows his manners.)
Actually, Su Taiqing had informed Sun Mo about this beforehand. He had told Sun Mo to do his best and give Hu Xingjiang a good impression when he arrived here. In the end, Sun Mo had gone into mediation for a long time the first day he came here and the visit was delayed until now.
After arriving aboveground, Sun Mo ordered a few dishes and enjoyed them while accompanied by the evening sky.
“Hey, it’s a gift for you!”
Ji Han placed a vat of wine down and took the chance to sit.. “Teacher Sun, listen to my advice and just return to the Nine Provinces. This isn’t a place you ought to stay in!”
