Chapter 76: Debut
Gao Ben stood on the rostrum and looked at the lecture hall that could hold three hundred people. At this moment, as many as two hundred people were seated, and he couldn’t help but flash an arrogant smile from the corner of his mouth.
“Zhang Hanfu, can you see this? This is the power of a famous school graduate to rally supporters, what rights does Sun Mo have to compete with me?”
Gao Ben felt some disdain in his heart.
He was actually used as a tool to beat Sun Mo down, making him feel that his talent was wasted on an insignificant person. His opponent should have been Liu Mubai.
Gu Xiuxun?
Zhang Lan?
Sorry, Gao Ben didn’t regard them in his eyes.
“I reckon that not even halfway through the public lecture, those students in Sun Mo’s cla.s.s will be running over to watch me teach, right?”
Gao Ben cleared his throat and was preparing to commence his first lesson after the bell rang.
This was going to be his starting point of becoming well-known in the world.
...
“Greetings, Teacher!”
Under the lead of Li Ziqi, 5 students bowed and greeted in unison, spreading their voices within the cla.s.sroom.
Some intern teachers, who saw this scene through the windows, couldn’t help but feel envious. When would they start to have such treatment too?
Sun Mo smiled and looked at the students one by one.
Even if it was the sickly Tantai Yutang or the tattoo-faced Jiang Leng, Sun Mo still felt happy while looking at them because they were his own students.
Sun Mo’s character was as such, once a student was allocated to his cla.s.s, he would teach them with his heart and soul. For this reason, Sun Mo never had the time to find a girlfriend.
As No. 2 High School was a good senior high school, Sun Mo’s occupation was considered pretty good. Therefore, many people had introduced some women to him, but they were all rejected because Sun Mo really had no time to meet them.
Ding!
“Congratulations on recruiting 5 students at the student recruitment meet and completing the mission. Now, according to the students’ apt.i.tudes, you have won yourself a black-iron treasure chest. Please keep up the good work.”
The system’s voice sounded, and at the same time, a big black iron treasure chest fell in front of Sun Mo’s eyes.
“How can this be? I thought I could at least get a silver treasure chest!”
Sun Mo was in shock. Was something wrong with this evaluation system?
“What kind of dream are you having? All your 5 students have a huge shortcoming each.”
“Li Ziqi, Xuanyuan Po, and Tantai Yutang all have extremely high potential values, but Li Ziqi’s athletic abilities are extremely bad. On the road of cultivation, she practically doesn’t have any prospects. It would be lucky if she could step into the blood-ignition realm in her lifetime.”
“In the Nine Provinces where martial artists were honored the most, Li Ziqi can be considered a useless person. Even if she has rather good innate skills in other areas, she is unable to reach the Longevity Realm and will only live up to a hundred years at most, what use is there?”
“Then why did you announce a mission for me to take her in as a disciple?”
Sun Mo questioned.
“That’s a test for you!”
After the system explained, it continued to nag.
“Xuanyuan Po is very suitable for combat, but his brain is filled with muscles. If he doesn’t change this shortcoming, he will definitely die fast.”
“Tantai Yutang will have an early death as well.”
System spoke a huge pile of ‘blah-blah’, but as for useless people like Lu Zhiruo and Jiang Leng, their potential values were so low that it was disinclined to even give them a mention.
“I think they are all pretty good though?”
Sun Mo questioned.
“You’re holding onto the Absolute Great Teacher System, yet you’ve recruited 5 students of such standards, don’t you feel ashamed?”
The system reb.u.t.ted violently.
Since Sun Mo hadn’t recruited at least 3 high-level talents, it was definitely a form of humiliation to the Absolute Great Teacher System.
“Alright! Alright! Aren’t you annoying, quickly take your leave!”
Sun Mo talked back to the system without a good mood. He walked over to the papaya girl and touched her head. “Let’s go in and prepare for the lesson!”
“Teacher, you must be careful!”
Lu Zhiruo looked at Sun Mo worriedly.
“Teacher, cheer up!”
Li Ziqi waved her little fist.
As for the other 3, their att.i.tudes were as though they were facing a pa.s.serby.
Sun Mo had gotten used to this. After all, it was too impractical for students to start wors.h.i.+pping a teacher they were not familiar with.
However, Sun Mo wasn’t discouraged. He believed that they would approve of his teaching abilities one day or even wors.h.i.+p him.
“Open the treasure chest!”
The treasure chest opened up after hearing the voice. After the brilliance flashed through, a giant medicine packet was left behind.
“A pity it isn’t an ancient whale oil!”
Sun Mo pouted.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The melodious sound of the bell rang. It was 9 a.m.
Sun Mo didn’t go in immediately but waited outside the door. He closed his eyes and counted silently to thirty before he entered.
Swoos.h.!.+
When Sun Mo stepped into the cla.s.sroom, all gazes suddenly became focused.
There was neither a slight transition nor a pause in Sun Mo’s footsteps. He maintained a calm appearance and stood on the rostrum.
“Good morning, students and teachers. I’m Sun Mo. This is my first public lecture and I’ll be elaborating on my teaching philosophy.”
Sun Mo started to speak. His clear and candid voice sounded across the entire cla.s.sroom.
Jin Mujie, who was seated in the last row, scanned Sun Mo from head to toe with her beautiful eyes and praised him in her heart.
Sun Mo’s bearing was extremely flawless. It was unbelievable that he wasn’t a little bit nervous at all.
His ability to resist stress was extremely formidable.
“Our teacher’s image and temperament are so good!”
Li Ziqi smiled.
The azure robe on Sun Mo’s body fitted him just right and gave him an even more sunny and fresh appearance. It felt as though he was in the warm breeze of a summer day.
“Cheer up, teacher!”
Qi Shengjia was encouraging Sun Mo. However, just as he finished calling out those words in his heart, a sharp voice interrupted Sun Mo’s speech.
“Teacher Sun, you’re late!”
Swoos.h.!.+
Everyone’s gaze looked toward the left side of the cla.s.sroom.
Zhou Yong was smiling and enjoying the attention on him and then added on again, “Teacher, you’re late!”
“Oh no! Oh no! This Zhou Yong was indeed creating trouble!”
Qi Shengjia got anxious.
A few intern teachers had expressions of rejoicing, especially Zhang Sheng who was hiding in the back row. He wished to jump and clap for Zhou Yong.
Sun Mo turned his head slightly and looked over.
Zhou Yong, a sixteen-year-old spirit-refinement cultivator. He has opened up 6 acupoints.
Strength: 11, sufficient usage will do, there’s no need for a bicycle!
Intellect: 13, cunning and full of wisdom, but these aspects are not used on the right path and used to harm people instead.
Agility: 13, even though speed is his forte, it is too lousy.
Will: 10, horrible!
Endurance: 8, young people who don’t know moderation, excessively indulging in debauchery.
...
Potential value: average!
Remark: he is arrogant and prideful. He looks down on others and enjoys teasing people for fun. He is a little sc.u.mbag.
Seeing the system’s evaluation, Sun Mo could comprehend Zhou Yong’s mentality now.
In a school, there would always be a few bad students. For a student like Zhou Yong, he was just trying to seek a form of psychological thrill from bullying others.
Swoos.h.!.+
Everyone’s gaze landed back on Sun Mo. They were waiting for his answer.
“This is a talent’s right!”
Sun Mo spoke.
Swoos.h.!.+
This reply was like a hurricane in the tropics, blowing away the entire cla.s.sroom and causing a widespread commotion instantly. Everyone was indescribably surprised and stunned.
“Is Sun Mo crazy?”
Ludi was stunned. This sentence shouldn’t have been said. As expected, he could hear some students start to mutter.
“How arrogant is this teacher!?”
“He’s so full of himself!”
“His reaction to contingencies is extremely terrible!”
The cla.s.sroom wasn’t silent anymore.
“Hmm?”
Jin Mujie was very curious about Sun Mo’s next reply.
Feng Zewen let out a laugh. Was there even a need for him to put Sun Mo into trouble? Sun Mo had already exposed himself.
“This fella is doing it on purpose!” Qi Shengjia stared at Zhou Yong furiously.
In Central Province Academy, some teachers preferred to arrive a few minutes before cla.s.ses started, while some preferred to arrive right at the dot. Others preferred to wait for the bell to finish ringing and would continue standing at the door for another 1 to 2 minutes. They would only enter the cla.s.sroom after the students were seated and had quietened down.
Sun Mo was only late for ten seconds. It wasn’t even considered late at all.
This Zhou Yong was definitely trying to nitpick him.
Even though the new students didn’t understand, the teachers had understood the situation. However, they were not going to help Sun Mo because this was his stage.
“Eldest Miss, you’ve asked me here just to look at this?”
Zhou Lin sat beside An Xinhui and scoffed lightly. If it wasn’t for Eldest Miss who pulled her here, she would never have wasted her time to come.
“Be quiet!”
An Xinhui instructed. She looked at Sun Mo and got increasingly curious. She wanted to know how Sun Mo was going to respond.
In school, it wasn’t a big deal if teachers were late for 2 to 3 minutes. However, since Zhou Yong had questioned him, Sun Mo had to explain himself.
If he were to apologize during his first public lecture, that would be too detrimental to his value. If this were spread out in the future, his reputation would be severely affected. After all, a teacher who was late could not be a good teacher.
Not apologizing? Then Zhou Yong could continue to question Sun Mo as though the latter was reluctant to admit his mistake and had a problem with his moral character. Zhou Yong could even question Sun Mo’s work ethic.
If this matter was spread out, students might start to feel that Sun Mo’s work ethic was lacking. Then no one would attend his public lecture anymore.
No student would like a teacher who was always late. This was a fact.
An Xinhui didn’t expect that Sun Mo’s response would be like this. It was practically displaying his original self.
“Are you saying that you’re a talent?”
Zhou Yong inquired with an innocent expression and suppressed the commotion in the cla.s.sroom.
The teachers all looked at Sun Mo and wanted to see what response he was going to give next. If they were to put themselves in his shoes, this question from Zhou Yong was really very tricky.
Li Ziqi could feel her heart wrench suddenly. If Sun Mo were to reply ‘Yes I am’, then his reputation would definitely suffer.
That was because Zhou Yong could even question that if he was a talent, then why didn’t he get into one of the Nine Great famous schools? The questions were so forceful that Sun Mo would vomit blood.
If Sun Mo were to reply ‘No I’m not,’ then it would go against his previous answer. Zhou Yong could also reply that since Sun Mo wasn’t a talent, then what right did he have for being late?
Just as Li Ziqi was racking her brain, thinking of how to resolve this for Sun Mo, she felt someone pulling her clothes. She turned her head and saw Lu Zhiruo’s expression filled with worry.
“I’m twenty years old now and I’m a teacher in Central Province Academy!”
Sun Mo’s expression was different from what everyone else expected; there wasn’t the slightest amount of anxiousness. He was so calm and collected as though he was sitting under the dusk on a summer day while enjoying a plate of delicious charcoal-grilled Pacific saury.
“Haha, that makes you a talent? When I’m twenty years old, I’d probably be a teacher from Jixia Learning Palace or Heavenly Mystery Academy. My accomplishments will definitely be higher than yours!”
Zhou Yong mocked him. Even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it, no one would dare to question him. After all, that was a matter of the future and who could prove it?
“Is that so?”
Sun Mo laughed. “When I was your age, I had broken through the spirit-refinement realm, opened up 26 acupoints, and was already proficient in the Overflow Rain Sword. I had also gained the ‘self-taught’ halo and displayed my potential as a teacher. What about you?”
Zhou Yong was speechless suddenly.