Chapter 1230: Daily Life of An Imperial Preceptor
Translator: Lordbluefire
Li Ziqi’s ascension to the throne was very smooth.
The other countries that self-proclaimed to have some statuses in the Nine Provinces all sent diplomatic groups over to the Great Tang.
All the royalty of the various great empires coveted Sun Mo’s G.o.d Hands and Skyward Spirit Runes. As for the royalty of some small countries, they wanted to take Sun Mo on as their teacher and use this chance to forge a connection with Li Ziqi so they could get some political and economic benefits.
So, the number of people who came to offer their congratulations were truly plentiful. It felt like the Great Tang was the most flouris.h.i.+ng and prosperous of all countries.
However, Li Ziqi was unhappy. Because once she became the emperor, she had to take care of so many things every day, and she would have no time to follow beside Sun Mo to learn.
The only thing that was gratifying to her was that after Zheng Qingfang had been cured of his old illness, he was in high spirits and decided to take the Premier’s position once again. In addition to Li Xiu’s a.s.sistance, Li Ziqi didn’t need to be too fatigued.
After the ceremony, Sun Mo temporarily resided in the royal palace. This was something Li Ziqi had requested.
Time simply pa.s.sed like that.
In the meantime, Sun Mo partic.i.p.ated in the art of spiritual control examination and obtained the grandmaster certification. As of now, the hard conditions of taking the 6-stars great teacher examinations—18 great teacher halos and grandmaster-level expertise in two subjects—had been met. He could partic.i.p.ate in the 6-stars great teacher exam if he wanted to do so now.
…
Saint Gate’s Headquarters.
“I just saw Sun Mo. He’s really young!”
“What is he doing here? Is he planning to work in the Saint Gate? The Sect Lord will definitely not let such a talent go!”
“In any case, his future is boundlessly bright.”
The staff of the Saint Gate whispered to each other. After a while, the news of Sun Mo coming to the Saint Gate had spread to everyone.
Sun Mo stayed for half an hour. After he wanted to leave, Su Taiqing personally escorted him to the door. This scene caused many people to be stunned.
One must know that even 8-stars great teachers might not have such preferential treatment.
“I’ve checked things. Sun Mo came here to take the partic.i.p.ation certificate. He wants to partic.i.p.ate in the 6-stars great teacher examination!”
A staff with some connections exposed this news.
“What? Didn’t he just obtain his 5-stars t.i.tle last year? He wants to take the 6-stars t.i.tle so quickly?”
Everyone was stunned. For a high-level examination like this, let alone rising 1 star per year, it would also be considered very fast even if one took five years to advance.
“Geniuses can never be judged by normal logic. Ze, he’s 25 years old and has comprehended 18 great teacher halos. Isn’t this somewhat too impressive?”
“He is also the Great Tang’s Imperial Preceptor!”
Upon mentioning this, everyone was convinced.
Those who could obtain the t.i.tle ‘imperial preceptors’ were extremely rare. They were usually old seniors with high prestige.
A young imperial preceptor like Sun Mo was truly the first in the history of the Nine Provinces.
The main point was that he didn’t benefit from this for nothing. He had nurtured a princess that a secondary saint rejected and turned her into an absolute genius.
During the Five Empires War Discussion, Li Ziqi had displayed her brilliance and proved her outstandingness.
This was all due to Sun Mo’s guidance.
“In the future, Great Teacher Sun will be qualified to contend for the Sect Lord’s position!”
When someone casually said this, everyone silently decided that the next time Sun Mo came here, they would have to find a chance to speak a few sentences with him and get him to become familiar with their faces at the very least.
…
In the Central Province Academy, the students were all very joyful. This was because Her Majesty Li Ziqi had announced that the Central Province Academy had become the national school of the Great Tang.
According to the rules, ‘B’ grade schools weren’t qualified, but who told Li Ziqi’s personal teacher to be none other than the vice headmaster of the Central Province Academy?
“When will Teacher Sun return? I miss his spirit runes lectures!”
“Stop dreaming, even if he returns, you won’t be able to get any seats.”
“That’s right, he is now a great ancestor-level spirit runist. Even great teachers from other schools who came here to consult him would flood the lecture room.”
The students discussed and were all hoping for Sun Mo to quickly return to school.
When Qi Shengjia entered the cla.s.sroom, a group of people immediately stood up.
“Brother Qi, please sit here!”
“Brother Qi, my position has a better viewing angle.”
“Shengjia, let’s have lunch together. I’ve invited you three times, please don’t reject me again.”
Qi Shengjia felt a headache from all the noises. He was truly not proficient in handling such situations, but it also wasn’t good to ignore these people. Hence, he could only squeeze a smile out.
Luckily, the starting bell rang out swiftly.
20 minutes later.
“Shengjia, do you understand now?”
The teacher asked with a smile, “If you have things you don’t understand, feel free to question me, don’t feel restrained!”
Qi Shengjia hurriedly bowed. “I understand. Many thanks for Teacher’s concern.”
The honest guy understood that he could get such preferential treatment because he was considered as Sun Mo’s half-disciple.
Back then, he was truly too fortunate that Sun Mo guided him.
His life had become better.
“I will definitely work harder and not lose face for Teacher!”
Qi Shengjia was prepared to increase his training load by two-fold.
“I feel so terrible!”
Seeing his roommate being fawned upon by so many people, Zhou Xu felt so unbearable that he wanted to cry. “Back then, I also had the chance to enter Teacher Sun’s tutelage. In the end, I missed the opportunity. Say, do you think I died in my past life from falling into a latrine? If not, why would I be so unlucky?”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
w.a.n.g Hao gritted his teeth and started to bang his head against the table as he convulsed intermittently. Right now, he couldn’t bring himself to hear Sun Mo’s name, or he would feel so bad that he had to mutilate himself.
Sun Mo was the Great Tang’s imperial preceptor. This thigh was so thick that even if w.a.n.g Hao could hug a strand of hair from it, his entire family would benefit for three lifetimes!
…
In the modern era, Sun Mo was just a normal teacher with a slightly higher status. Although he would occasionally give lectures about the Three Principles of the People, Marxism, and Deng Theory, he couldn’t make it when it came to actually putting them into practice. So, he didn’t dare to suggest this recklessly to Li Ziqi.
After all, there was no right of speech if there was no inquiry. If he said something wrong, millions of commoners might have the wrong belief and end up suffering.
However, Sun Mo had another tactic.
He might not dare to make any changes to the political system, but he could always tinker with technology and use it to produce a better system.
After becoming a great teacher, Sun Mo’s memory grew stronger and stronger. Those books he had read in the past could all be recalled easily. Even if he couldn’t remember them, he could simply use Unrealized Dream.
Hence, Sun Mo improved the loom and invented the spinning jenny, allowing women who spun clothes to be capable of working alone, replacing twenty with the power of one person.
“Teacher, this machine might be simple, but it’s definitely an era-changing invention!”
Li Ziqi looked at the machine as her eyes shone with excitement.
Li Xiu also sighed in admiration. But she had a question. “The appearance of this machine can replace human labor. But what should we do about those people who lost their jobs?”
“Eh!”
Li Ziqi started and looked at Sun Mo.
“Expand further and further!”
Sun Mo suggested.
“The quant.i.ty of silkworms is almost the same yearly. If it’s a prosperous year with a higher amount of supply flooding the market, the price of silk will fall and vice versa. If we want to expand, we have to seize control of more fields belonging to other countries. In terms of earnings, this might not be profitable.”
Li Xiu cast a glance at Sun Mo. “The more important thing is that the silk market is simply so big. Even if we break new grounds, I’m afraid the supply would overwhelm the demand.”
Sun Mo fell silent.
“In this era, the roads are tough to traverse and there are many bandits. Those who can venture to far markets are all powerful merchant caravan groups. They won’t be able to ‘digest’ so much silk.”
Li Xiu sighed.
Bluntly speaking, it meant that even if production increased, it wouldn’t be able to get delivered faraway. Moreover, merchant caravans depended on horses and mules. The efficiency was too low.
“Repair the roads. Right, we should build railways!”
Sun Mo could only grit his teeth to think of a solution. “We will be able to expand domestic demand then!”
Wait a minute, there were new problems. What about manufacturing steel? And how did one create a steam engine?
Sun Mo suddenly discovered that governing a country and wanting to allow the commoners to lead a better life couldn’t be done with a single sentence. This was a very long-term process.
“Railway? Steam engine? What are those?”
Li Xiu’s eyes were filled with doubts.
“Let’s not think about them for now. The cotton we wear will all be produced by machines. It will definitely be cheaper than human labor and we can wage price wars!”
After Sun Mo finished speaking, he discovered Li Xiu was looking at him like how she would look at a fool.
“Sun Mo, human labor is dirt-cheap!”
Li Xiu laughed. Sun Mo didn’t know such matters too well. Paying money to workers? What a joke, they could simply get refugees from other places and promise to feed them if they were willing to work hard.
Pak!
Sun Mo patted his head. (How did I forget? There are slaves in this era. They aren’t considered humans but commodities instead. They aren’t even as valuable as mules owned by the landlords.)
Zhou the Exploiter was someone whose deeds went into the history books.
“In that case, let’s ignore human labor for one. We will still be able to produce things faster if we use machines. At that time, we can dump our goods at a low price and wage price wars. Then the cloth used by everyone in the Nine Provinces would be produced by our Great Tang.”
As Sun Mo spoke until here, he suddenly inhaled a breath of cold air.
“What’s wrong?”
Li Xiu blinked.
“Nothing!”
Sun Mo had thought about the adverse trade balance. If you earned silver from commoners every day, but they didn’t have a way to make silver, who would be willing to spend silver?
If others wanted to protect the silk trade of their countries, they could lighten tax as a light measure or even close off all trade routes to the country as a heavy measure. Ultimately, war would surely be triggered.
In history, many artefacts of China such as porcelain vases, silk, and tea leaves were imported to the Far West. But what did the Far West sell to China?
Opium!
After China banned opium, the wars.h.i.+ps and soldiers of the Far West slaughtered their way over.
“Forget it, I better go and teach agriculture science or how to improve seedlings to promote intensive farming!
Sun Mo prepared to start from the basics so everyone could be freed from hunger.
“Sun Mo, you don’t have to be unduly humble. Some of your ideas are really filled with inspirational thoughts!”
Li Xiu consoled.
She really wanted to give birth to a child with Sun Mo. Their child would surely be very outstanding.
…
At night, Sun Mo recalled all the knowledge in his mind on how to make a country wealthier and stronger, while he taught his students during the day.
Xuanyuan Po, Ying Baiwu, Xianyu Wei, and Jiang Leng—these four students were more focused on cultivation and raising their strength.
As for Tantai Yutang, other than medical arts, he was also interested in the governance of commoners. So, Sun Mo also taught him some things about that.
After Qin Yaoguang heard a lesson on this, she felt that she had gained much harvest and decided to join in as well.
As for Helian Beifang, he was interested in cultivation and military matters. Hence, Sun Mo still had to teach him military lessons, explaining the terrain of the Nine Provinces, listing examples from ancient times in his previous world, as well as teaching him the Thirty-Six Stratagems and Art of War by Sun Tzu.
In order not to lose face, Sun Mo expended a lot of brain cells in writing up his lesson plans.
Although Lu Zhiruo might not be intelligent, she was willing to learn everything, including the medical arts.
Sun Mo wanted to persuade her that she might be biting off more than she could chew. But after seeing how much hard work the papaya girl was putting in, he couldn’t bear to say that.
At the very least, her willingness to put in the effort was worthy of praise.
When the ceremony was over, Jiang Yuzhen didn’t return to her country right away. She stayed behind. She had planned to pursue Sun Mo, but she actually followed the others and attended his cla.s.ses instead.
This was especially so for his military lessons. The content caused her to be fully intoxicated and her fondness and wors.h.i.+p for Sun Mo naturally increased. She contributed favorable impression points daily.
…
A month later, in the training hall.
“Today, I’ll impart the Undying Mystic Art to you guys!”
Sun Mo placed his hands behind his back and looked at his students.
“Teacher, is this also a peerless-grade saint-tier cultivation art?”
Qin Yaoguang was curious.
“Mn!”
Sun Mo nodded.
“Teacher, where did you obtain these top-level divine arts?”
Qin Yaoguang was as curious as a hundred cats.
“Secret!”
Sun Mo naturally wouldn’t reveal the answer.
“Teacher, I’ll bid farewell first.”
Jiang Yuzhen prepared to leave to avoid arousing suspicions that she wanted to eavesdrop.
“No need!”
Sun Mo smiled. “I will use Soul Imprint to brand the information directly into their minds.”
A punch for each of his personal students and fifteen minutes later, Sun Mo finished his impartation.
“During these few days, you guys should not do anything else. Just focus on training this cultivation art. If you have things you don’t understand, hurry up and ask me. Six days later, I will leave the school and this time around, I’ve no idea how long I’ll be away!”
Sun Mo instructed.
“Ah? Has the time for the 6-stars exam come?”
Lu Zhiruo counted and discovered that time had pa.s.sed really swiftly.
The requirement for the exam this time around wasn’t for the examinees to teach. Rather, they had to educate. The examinees had to go to the Great Prison of Desolation and make at least three prisoners mend their twisted ways.
This prison was located in a lone island on the Boundless Sea, the third level of the Darkness Continent. Great teachers who had committed crimes of huge impact were all imprisoned here, and they were all 5-stars and above.
Why weren’t they put to death directly?
Because for great teachers of this rank, the knowledge they grasped was wealth. Even if the Saint Gate wanted to kill them, all their knowledge had to be interrogated out beforehand.
At Sun Mo’s level, his teaching ability had been tempered countless times and there would surely be no problem in this aspect. But when it came to re-education, things were different. So, this examination was to see if these examinees were capable enough to make these prisoners turn over a new leaf.
Even saints who had the power of enlightening the ma.s.ses and making people reflect upon themselves with every word had no way to make a great teacher forcibly turn over a new leaf. So, for Sun Mo and the others taking this exam, it was unknown how long they would need.
They might even stay on the island for ten years to no avail.
“Teacher, is someone targeting you directly?”
Qin Yaoguang’s lips twitched. “You are still so young and would surely lack some persuasiveness if they viewed you based on your age. The prisoners might not listen to you.”
“That’s right, this exam is a huge scam! Our teacher’s development will be delayed by several years.”
Helian Beifang was very angry.
“You guys can’t put it like that. Those prisoners are also people with true capabilities. Our teacher might be able to learn a thing or two from them. He would surely be able to profit.”
Lu Zhiruo interjected. Her understanding of this prison was considerably more than others.
“Ah? Teacher still has to learn from others?”
After Jiang Leng finished speaking, everyone laughed. Now, the number of people who could teach their teacher was so few. That person had to be a secondary saint at the very least.
“In any case when I’m not around, you guys must not stir up trouble. Listen to Ziqi in all things.”
Sun Mo warned them repeatedly.
The Great Prison of Desolation would usually forbid people from entering and leaving. So, it was considered an extremely mysterious place to great teachers.
The examinees first had to gather in Yehuo City before setting off together toward the pier leading to the Boundless Sea. They would then take a s.h.i.+p to the lone island.
If there were no guides, no one would be permitted to set foot on the island.
No one knew how long this journey would take. So, Sun Mo was preparing to head onto some decorated pleasure boats to relax first. But when the time came, he grew gutless once more.
A person visiting flowers alone was like someone eating a hotpot alone. There were no friends, and things were too embarra.s.sing.
Hence, Sun Mo ultimately didn’t visit the pleasure boats.