Chapter 926: Perfect Rewards, Great Teacher Halo
Sun Mo was currently in cla.s.s and was speaking about the essence of Sword Controlling Art.
This was a cultivation art cultivated by a fifth-year student. Because his cultivation method was wrong, the spirit qi in his body had run rampant and injured his meridians.
All of a sudden, the sounds of favorable impression points flooding in rang out in Sun Mo’s ears.
The speed of the notifications was like a machine gun firing rapidly at captives. The tempo would also occasionally become quicker.
Now, it was like a troop of artillery soldiers using a blanket-style rocket to nuke the entire enemy’s army.
Sun Mo hurriedly told the system to stop showing the notifications. In just this short while, he had gained over 100,000 favorable impression points, and it was extremely noisy.
However, Sun Mo didn’t feel joy nor sorrow. After all, after one ate a crab once, there would no longer be a sense of freshness. Sun Mo had obtained such a quant.i.ty of favorable impression points before.
Just like the saying, human desires are boundless.
Sun Mo continued to teach, but in his heart, he understood that the congratulatory team must be here. If there were no unexpected accidents, he would be the champion.
If not, if he simply just pa.s.sed, there shouldn’t be such a huge commotion.
Outside the cla.s.sroom, the first batch of students ran over as they panted heavily.
“He got it, he is the champion!”
Everyone had been seriously listening to the lecture. Although there were several hundred students gathered outside in the corridor, the atmosphere was very quiet. Hence, these words clearly resounded through the area.
After one, two seconds of silence, some of them began to shout involuntarily.
“Teacher Sun is ever victorious!”
BOOM!
In the corridor, it was as though a pot had exploded. All the students started talking and they hurriedly asked the batch of students who said it for more information.
The chaotic atmosphere along with the exclamations of shock and cheers also caused Sun Mo to be unable to continue on with his lecture.
Ka!
Sun Mo opened the cla.s.sroom door.
Bzz!
The students in the corridor all fell silent. They lowered their heads and felt lingering fear.
Among the crowd, a few of the great teachers were filled with incomparable envy when they saw this scene.
(Sun Mo’s influence is truly terrifying!)
“What’s the matter?” Sun Mo asked.
“T…teacher Sun, you became the champion.”
A bold student spoke. After that, he added another sentence with his tone filled with wors.h.i.+p. “The number one ranker’s position in the 3-star great teacher examination!”
“Oh!” Sun Mo nodded. “I understand. Thank you for coming over to inform me.”
Sun Mo took out a stack of banknotes and pa.s.sed them all over. “The few of you who came to report the news should split this. Also…”
Sun Mo glanced at the others. “Please stop making noise.”
He then closed the door and continued teaching.
The students all had dumbstruck looks on their faces.
Huh?
(He was breaking the record, right? Teacher, why are you still so composed?) If it was them, they would have long since been mad with joy.
Seeing Sun Mo continue to teach as though this was no big deal, the students all felt deep veneration for him at this moment.
What was referred to as great teachers of the Nine Provinces?
This was it!
But this lecture of Sun Mo eventually couldn’t continue.
Gu Xiuxun rushed over and said that An Xinhui wanted to arrange a star-receiving ceremony an hour later. She told Sun Mo to quickly go and prepare himself.
“There’s no need to make things so ceremonious.”
Sun Mo furrowed his brows.
“Vice headmaster w.a.n.g Su has also agreed.”
Gu Xiuxun pulled on Sun Mo’s hands and led him away. “Don’t hesitate. This is no longer an individual matter but the glory of our entire Central Province Academy.”
When he felt the softness of Gu Xiuxun’s little hand and seeing the faces of the surrounding students filled with glory and pride, Sun Mo smiled.
This was then the greatest value of him obtaining the first place!
It wasn’t for himself but for the sake of this entire school, for all of these students.
In his world, why would those students from Tsinghua and Peking have pride on their faces when they spoke about their schools and would feel a sense of superiority? It was because the name of their schools was famous throughout China.
What Sun Mo had to do was to make the Central Province Academy become the most excellent famous school in the Nine Provinces. The one and only.
And just so nicely, the league tournament would commence roughly about a month later. Since that was the case, let’s rise to the ‘B’ grade first!
…
During these two years, Sun Mo had seen too many major scenes and even fought quite a few life-and-death battles. Hence, he was much more mature now. His results were worthy of a celebration but that was just that.
To the great teacher world, it was a heavenly record. It would take a long time before anyone could break this record.
Hence, many great teachers started to investigate this person named ‘Sun Mo’. After becoming familiar with his deeds, things grew even more shocking.
Traffic in the Nine Provinces wasn’t very convenient. This was why although many people were filled with interest in Sun Mo, they had no way to come over and meet him. However, things were different for the great teachers near Jinling.
During these few days, the number of invitations and letters Sun Mo had received was close to 1,000. Some wanted to get acquainted with him, some wanted to take him on as a teacher, and there were also some letters asking him for a battle.
No matter which era, there wouldn’t be a lack of blindly arrogant people. They weren’t willing to work hard step-by-step and always dreamt about stepping on a famous figure so they could rise.
And Sun Mo already had the qualifications to become their ‘stepping stone’.
At the same time, they could also choose to be wilful.
Sun Mo naturally didn’t wish to entertain such letters. If he had time, he might as well use his time and study in the library.
Just like this, despite the discussions about him growing more and more fervent outside, Sun Mo was quietly contemplating on using his spirit rune design magic cube to test his concept.
From this, Sun Mo really had the aura of an ancestor because his concept was to expand the current domain of the study of spirit runes.
On Sat.u.r.day afternoon, An Xinhui came and looked for him.
At a corner of the old headmaster’s personal library, Sun Mo took up a charcoal brush and bent over his desk, drawing a spirit rune. Beside him, the area was littered with books and several hundred pieces of white paper with various spirit runes drawn on them.
Sun Mo was too focused. He didn’t even notice An Xinhui had been here for 15 minutes.
“Little Momo, you should take a break.”
An Xinhui sighed ruefully. As expected, there were no flukes among successful people.
Sun Mo, who could even make spring come upon withered trees, was actually still so focused on researching the study of spirit runes. This was really a huge encouragement.
“Ah, it’s Sis Xinhui!”
Sun Mo inclined his head and glanced over before lowering it again. “I’m not tired.”
“You have to eat even if you are not tired!”
An Xinhui persuaded.
“Is something the matter?”
Sun Mo was also not a fool. During these few days, An Xinhui was so busy that she could die. Now that she came to look for him, there was definitely a major matter.
“You are the #1 ranker on the Great Teachers Hero Rankings, a new rising superstar that is the focus of all attention. It’s impossible for you to keep hiding.”
An Xinhui sighed. “I’ve already helped you reject many banquet invitations, but there are a few that I can no longer reject…”
For example, the invitation by Li Xiu, the invitation by Zou Wanfu…
The former was the eldest princess of Great Tang, while the latter was the top magnate, the richest individual of Jinling. He had extraordinarily shocking influence in the silkworm and s.h.i.+pping business.
“Zou Wanfu donated ten million taels of silver to the school, and his actions were clearly because of you. It would be inappropriate if you didn’t attend his banquet.”
“Does he have children that want to take me on as a personal teacher?”
Sun Mo was curious.
“Nope. I think he is just trying to lay a bet and form a good relations.h.i.+p with you first. However, there might really be such a case in the future.”
An Xinhui explained.
“Mn, you can arrange the time then!”
Sun Mo wasn’t surprised. In the modern era, one of the things that rich families loved to do the most was to donate money to those world-cla.s.s famous academies. Firstly, it was to boost their prestige. Secondly, it was to expand their social connections.
The banquets of Li Xiu and Zou Wanfu were places where only influential officials and bigwigs could partic.i.p.ate. Sun Mo also wasn’t able to ignore them, so he had to give them some face.
“Speaking of which, the donations I received during these few days have reached thirty million taels because of you.”
An Xinhui sighed. Just last year, the school’s income couldn’t cover their expenditure and they were so poor that they couldn’t even afford anything extra. It was already very good if those rich merchants didn’t hit them when they were down, let alone donating.
To think that this year, their situation changed completely. All the rich merchants were vying with each other to donate money.
An Xinhui didn’t lack money now. Hence, she didn’t want the money of some of those merchants.
For example, those who operated gambling dens and brothels. But these people were all powerful bosses and forcibly wanted to give their money to the school. When An Xinhui sent people to return the money to them, they would use various goods and supplies and think of all methods to donate to the Central Province Academy.
An Xinhui knew that all of this was because of Sun Mo’s popularity.
According to Sun Mo’s current rising trend, even if he couldn’t become a secondary saint, there shouldn’t be a problem for him to become a 7-star or 8-star great teacher. Besides, even if he was stuck there, he was still a spirit runist ancestor, a grandmaster spiritual controller, and was someone skilled in various peerless saint-tier cultivation arts. He was simply a walking treasure.
For someone with such super potential to be An Xinhui’s fiance, the Central Province Academy naturally would be able to bask in his radiance. Donating to the Central Province Academy would be equal to giving Sun Mo money. There were no problems at all.
“Since ancient times, there are only a very few people who would send charcoal in winter, but there would be many cases of adding flowers to a brocade. Isn’t this very normal?”
Sun Mo laughed. Even the holy bible stated that ‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.’
For the next week, Sun Mo had banquets queued up every night. He also finally managed to meet with those top-level famous courtesans of Jiangnan.
The 12 hairpins of Jinking, the eight sisters of Qinhuai, he saw all of them.
Usually, if one wanted to hire these top-level courtesans to perform, the invitation fee would be so high that it would be a 7-figure number. Moreover, if you had wealth but no authority, you wouldn’t be able to invite them. But right now, they were all smiling and playing the zither, or accompanying people to drink wine, acting like normal maids. None of them put up any airs at all.
So, these great beauties in the eyes of ordinary people were all playthings in the eyes of these rich and influential people.
In fact, the third richest person of Jinling had directly helped an insignificant girl redeem her contract with the brothel by spending a million taels just because Sun Mo had said that her zither musical arts were good. After that, he gifted the girl to Sun Mo.
Sun Mo’s ego involuntarily swelled a little in the midst of all these fawning.
Luckily, the two seniors Zheng Qingfang and Li Xiu were here, and they kept warning and reminding him not to be arrogant. This was especially so for Li Xiu. She told Sun Mo that he had pa.s.sed her test, but she still had no idea what was the att.i.tude of His Majesty.
A three-time champion still had no qualifications to become the personal teacher of the daughter the Emperor doted on the most.
…
The moon was bright and the stars in the sky were scarce. Sun Mo, who reeked of alcohol, was being sent back to the villa.
Dong He and Little`E hurriedly came over and helped him to wash up and change his clothes.
After some effort, Sun Mo lay on his bed with a quilt wrapped around his body.
“Teacher, are you okay?”
Lu Zhiruo boiled a pot of soup and filled a goblet with it for Sun Mo.
“Mn!”
Sun Mo drank two mouthfuls and his brows furrowed. “What ingredients did you use?”
Sun Mo was a herbalist after all. He could taste a few ingredients.
“Ginseng, young deer antlers, wolfberries, morinda root…*”
Lu Zhiruo counted on her fingers as she listed the ingredients.
Sun Mo’s expression immediately turned dark.
“Who told you to make such a soup?”
This was a greatly nouris.h.i.+ng soup. Would he still be able to sleep after drinking it? He probably had to hold on to a huge dragon with his left hand and play the dragon b.a.l.l.s with his right hand the entire night, right?
“Eh? Junior Martial Sister Yaoguang said that you must be very tired during these few days. I asked her what I should do and she gave me the prescription for this soup.”
Lu Zhiruo had a look of innocence on her face. She completely had no idea what she did wrong.
“I appreciate your filial piety.”
Sun Mo pa.s.sed the goblet back.
“Eh? Is it not delicious?”
The papaya girl frowned and wanted to taste it.
“Don’t drink it.”
Sun Mo stopped her, but it was too late.
“It’s pretty sweet. Junior Martial Sister Yaoguang said that I should add more sugar. Indeed, her suggestion was correct.”
Lu Zhiruo was impressed. After that, she glanced at Sun Mo in puzzlement. (Could it be that Teacher doesn’t like me? Hence, he didn’t want to drink the soup I made?)
“Forget it, put it down!”
Sun Mo sighed. He truly couldn’t bear to see the pitiful expression of Lu Zhiruo that resembled an abandoned kitten.
Ding!
“Congratulations on obtaining first place in the 3-star great teacher examination and completing your mission. Reward: 1x mysterious treasure chest. Please continue to work hard.”
Ding!
“Congratulations on rising three star ranks in a year and becoming a three-time champion, completing the accomplishment ‘I’m a new superstar’ and taking a huge step forward on the great teacher path. Reward: 1x seven-colored diamond treasure chest.”
Ding!
“Congratulations on becoming the number one ranker on the Great Teachers Hero Rankings, becoming the number one in the younger generation with your fame spreading through the world. You’ve completed the accomplishment ‘Seizing the crown’. Reward: 1x seven-colored diamond treasure chest. Please continue to work hard.”
The system congratulated and rewarded him thrice.
Sun Mo couldn’t help but whistle. He knew the rewards he would obtain this time around would all be very high-end ones.
“Teacher, the time is not early anymore. You should hurry up and drink the soup.”
Lu Zhiruo meant that she wanted Sun Mo to quickly drink the soup, so she could take the bowl and go.
“No rush, come over first.”
Sun Mo waited for the papaya girl to come over. He then stretched out his hand and rubbed her hair.
“System, open the mysterious treasure chest first.”
Sun Mo instructed.
The purple glow faded and a skill book s.h.i.+ning with golden light appeared.
Sun Mo’s eyes brightened as he leaped in excitement.
Ding!
“Congratulations on obtaining the great teacher halo: Sharp Tongue. Proficiency: elementary. Range: three meters.”
“After activating this halo, it will allow your words to have the killing prowess of sharp blades. For light cases, your enemies would cough blood. For serious cases, their hearts might shatter and they might die.”
“Note: Great Teachers should always use logic to convince others and not force. Please use this halo cautiously.”
After seeing the notes in the skill book, Sun Mo couldn’t help it and started laughing loudly.
From ancient times until now, in his old world, there had never been a case of people killing someone with a single sentence. At most, the target would be so angry that they coughed up blood and had no appet.i.te for a few days.
But in the Nine Provinces, if a great teacher comprehended Sharp Tongue, they could truly kill someone verbally.
If Prime Minister Zhuge Liang had this halo when he was verbally sparring against all the scholars in Jiangdong back then, those scholars would have died for sure.
Great Teachers had to maintain their styles. It was too low-end if they went over and fought physically. Only low-ranking great teachers would do this. For those high-ranking great teachers, all of them would undoubtedly choose this method of verbally speaking to determine their enemy’s life and death if they could do so.
One could say that if Sun Mo engaged in a verbal spar with a secondary saint, if he didn’t know Sharp Tongue, he wouldn’t even be able to get a single word out and would only be able to listen pa.s.sively.
“Do you want to learn?” The system asked.
“Of course. If not, should I wait for the new year to arrive? Quickly learn it!”
Sun Mo urged. After learning it, he was extremely unhappy to see that the proficiency level was only at the elementary level. Hence, he instructed, “Use a 100-year time emblem.”
This halo was very practical, hence, there was no mistake to quickly improve it to the grandmaster level.
Although Sun Mo had grasped Misleading Students and Ignorant and Incompetent, the chances to use them were simply too few. And as for a matter like quarreling, it was as common as eating meals.
Ding!
“Congratulations. Your Sharp Tongue halo’s proficiency has been improved to the grandmaster level. Range: 300 meters.”
[1] these are soup ingredients used to make a Yang-boosting soup that will supposedly improve kidney functions and boost male s*x-drive