Chapter 400: Taking on A Master
After stepping into the Longevity Realm, a cultivator’s aging would rapidly slow down. However, one couldn’t get younger. The earlier one entered the Longevity Realm, the longer they could maintain their youthful appearance.
Everyone loved beauty.
Sun Mo naturally also didn’t want to become a wrinkly old man.
Ding!
Congratulations. Because you used Soul Imprint to deal critical damage to the darkness illusion gemstone’s consciousness, your proficiency level has been upgraded and is now at the half-step grandmaster-grade.”
The system congratulated him.
“Isn’t your reward a little too stingy? Can’t you just upgrade me directly to the grandmaster-grade?”
Sun Mo grumbled. It was like your girlfriend finally promised you that you could sleep with her. But when night came, she didn’t allow you to do anything else but sleep next to her. What was the difference between this and not letting you sleep beside her?
Was that a prank?
“No!”
The system rejected cleanly.
“Very good. Open up the merchant store then. I want to buy a time emblem!”
Sun Mo currently didn’t lack favorable impression points. Before this, Tantai Yutang alone had contributed 10,000 points.
“Aren’t you being a little too petty, nursing every small grudge that you can?”
The system suddenly felt that Sun Mo had become more narrow-minded.
“Stop talking nonsense. Quickly!”
Sun Mo urged.
After he got the time emblem and used it, Sun Mo heard the familiar system notification sound.
Ding!
“Congratulations, your great teacher halo ‘Soul Imprint’ has been upgraded to the grandmaster-grade. Please continue to work hard.”
Sun Mo revealed a smile
Very good, it was time to handle the gemstone’s consciousness. But after Sun Mo called out a few times, no one responded to him.
“Where did that fellow go?”
Sun Mo frowned and meticulously tried to sense it. However, there was no response.
“It can’t be right, has it died?”
Sun Mo didn’t understand. He searched the place and in the end, he found a walnut-size gemstone in the corner of the great hall.
The gemstone’s body was silvery white, flashing weakly at certain intervals as though it was breathing.
Sun Mo surveyed it.
The darkness illusion gemstone was a top-tier secret treasure. Because it was too rare, it wasn’t recorded in the mysterious darkness species list.
The greatest effect of this gemstone was that it could create a darkness illusion dojo. Every lifeform that entered could be replicated by it.
This gemstone contained boundless imagination ability and could copy any lifeform. The copies would also possess the entirety of the actual target’s combat strength.
Through tens of thousands of years, this gemstone had killed too many lifeforms and devoured the consciousness of some extremely powerful ones. Sun Mo could summon them inside the darkness illusion dojo and use them as a sparring partner.
Note!
Because this gemstone had lost its ‘consciousness’, it was in a damaged state. After recovery, the illusions it created might possess their original-self’s memories, knowledge, etc, reaching the state where one could pass off the fake as the genuine.
“Did that consciousness really die?”
Sun Mo sighed. However, the gemstone itself wasn’t bad either.
If he constructed a darkness illusion dojo in the Central Province Academy, the students would be able to enter and spar against their own illusions, swiftly overcoming their flaws.
RUMBLE~ RUMBLE~
The darkness spire started to collapse given that the darkness illusion gemstone’s consciousness was gone. Cracks began to appear everywhere.
Sun Mo immediately rose and went to look for his students.
...
Swish~
Ming Xian’s longsword slashed past the neck of the illusion, beheading it.
“It should die now, right?”
Ming Xian panted heavily. He clutched his chest and stumbled backward.
Although he didn’t die, he was heavily injured.
Sadly, his thoughts were too optimistic. A few seconds later, a new illusion materialized inside the arena.
“The battle has just started!”
After the illusion spoke, it began to launch furious attacks.
Ming Xian’s brows were increasingly furrowed. He knew that before he could find the flaw of the illusion, he would surely be killed by it.
“I’ve been too careless!”
Ming Xian felt some regret. He wanted this powerful secret treasure, hence, he became somewhat hot-headed. His self-confidence had led to his current predicament.
Bang!
Ming Xian was sent flying through the air.
“Forget it. Dying in the hands of such a powerful secret treasure cannot be considered as something difficult to accept.”
Ming Xian felt some despair, not believing that Sun Mo and Gu Xiuxun could obtain the secret treasure. Hence, if he died in battle, it meant that this trip to the darkness spire was a failure.
“No, I cannot give up. I’m Ming Xian. I still want to become a great teacher and a saint. I cannot die here!”
Ming Xian encouraged himself. Seeing that mere words were useless, he directly used Priceless Advice to stir his spirits. That didn’t seem sufficient either, hence, he cast another Complete Focus.
Ming Xian’s battle intent surged again.
Swish~ Swish~ Swish~
Ming Xian unleashed his ultimate skills, and his sword slashed the illusion into pieces.
This time, Ming Xian didn’t let himself feel joy. Instead, he made good use of the time to rest because he knew that more illusions would appear. But even after waiting for a few minutes, nothing happened.
“Mn? What’s going on?”
Given Ming Xian’s intellect, he didn’t believe that he had killed the gemstone’s consciousness.
At this moment, the arena suddenly started to tremble violently. After that, it vanished and reverted to its original form.
Ming Xian discovered that he was standing in a corridor. The entire spire started to shake furiously.
“Who killed the gemstone’s consciousness?”
The answer soon revealed itself. Ming Xian discovered that Gu Xiuxun appeared at a place not far from him.
“It’s Sun Mo?”
Gu Xiuxun had a look of wild joy on her face. She didn’t expect that Sun Mo could actually accomplish this.
Honestly speaking, when she started to fight against the gemstone’s consciousness ‘real body’, she felt despair because there was basically no way for her to win. However, no one had expected that things would actually take a new turn.
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Gu Xiuxun +500. Respect. (8,000/10,000).
The two of them didn’t say anything. They were running down the stairs instead because the collapse had begun. Huge pieces of wood and stone started smashing down.
At this moment, there were several student groups near the darkness spire. Because of the sudden emergence of the dark fog earlier, all of them split up.
Right now, as the gemstone’s consciousness vanished, the scenes before their eyes changed as the truth was revealed before them.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The spire was collapsing.
When everyone saw this, all of them rushed over without prior consultation with each other.
Beitang Ziwei was carrying a girl with a broken leg. When she saw this scene, her eyes violently narrowed. Who did this?
Ming Xian?
Did he obtain the secret treasure so quickly?
...
“Tantai?”
Xuanyuan Po dragged Lu Zhiruo out and saw the sickly invalid not far away with his head inclined, staring at the spire.
“Let me go, I want to go look for Teacher!”
Lu Zhiruo shouted loudly, crying.
“Zhiruo, calm down!” Li Ziqi roared, “The darkness spire is collapsing. This meant that the secret treasure was obtained by Teacher...”
“But what if he failed?” The papaya interrupted Li Ziqi’s words. “Let me go, I’m going to look for Teacher. Little loachie, bite them!”
“If you enter now, you will die for sure!”
Li Ziqi was crying as well. She was very worried. However, she had to protect the lives of her junior martial siblings.
At this moment, the spire started to topple over.
Bang! Bang!
Large pieces of wood smashed onto the ground, causing dust to fly around.
“Little Silver, are you here? Quickly look for Teacher!”
Lu Zhiruo shouted.
Gu Xiuxun and Ming Xian rushed out and saw Lu Zhiruo who seemed like she was about to go crazy.
“Sun Mo hasn’t come out yet?”
Gu Xiuxun’s expression changed. Could it be that her guess was wrong? She hesitated a little, but after that, she turned and ran back toward the top level of the spire.
“Ziqi, Xuanyuan, take care of Zhiruo!”
Just as the sound of Gu Xiuxun’s voice faded away, a rumbling sound echoed out. The roof of the spire cracked and fell. With a resounding boom, a human silhouette broke through it and rushed out. He leaped over seven meters and jumped onto the parts of the spire that hadn’t collapsed.
After that, he slid down using it.
“It’s teacher!”
Li Ziqi cried tears of joy.
“Teacher Sun!”
Gu Xiuxun ran over.
“Teacher!”
The students also rushed here.
“Let’s leave first!”
Sun Mo urged. If they didn’t leave now, the student groups of the other schools would attack them.
“Teacher Sun, please wait!”
Ming Xian stopped him.
“You don’t have to ask anymore. I have obtained that secret treasure!”
Sun Mo couldn’t be bothered to lie. Right now, he was already in the divine force realm and his confidence level was off the charts. If Ming Xian didn’t know what was good for him, Sun Mo could only send Ming Xian to the yellow river.
Although everyone already guessed this, they were still in shock, contributing a lot of favorable impression points instantly.
“Teacher Sun, you are worrying too much. I only wanted to ascertain the result!”
Ming Xian bitterly smiled. He then clasped his fists. “Congratulations to Teacher Sun.”
“If Teacher Ming wants to ask how I achieved it, sorry but you can discard that notion!”
Sun Mo would definitely not say it.
“Teacher Sun, please feel free to do what you want to!”
After Ming Xian spoke, he turned and left. Even if he was in perfect shape, he wouldn’t take advantage of someone’s precarious position, let alone when he was heavily injured.
From his point of view, as Sun Mo had just finished fighting the illusion, Sun Mo’s injuries would definitely be heavier than him. Sun Mo’s current casual attitude must be a pretense.
Jia Wendong stood at his original location and watched Ming Xian leaving. He then glanced at Sun Mo again, feeling conflicted.
(Should I take him on as my personal teacher?)
(But I’m a student of Mingshao Academy!)
“Teacher, what does the secret treasure look like?”
Lu Zhiruo hugged Sun Mo’s arm. There was a look of curiosity on her face.
Sun Mo casually took out the gemstone and threw it to the papaya girl.
After seeing this scene, Jia Wendong could no longer hold back. He directly knelt and started to kowtow.
“Teacher Sun, student Jia Wendong sincerely seeks to enter your tutelage and become your personal disciple!”
After Jia Wendong spoke, he kowtowed three times.
Upon hearing the sound, Ming Xian halted his steps and revealed a dispirited expression.
Whether a teacher was impressive or not, one would be able to tell by seeing if there were students wanting to join their tutelage or not.
For that battle, Ming Xian was completely defeated. However, he still had a chance. Next year, during the 1-star great teacher exam in spring, Sun Mo would surely be there.
At that time, he must surpass Sun Mo and obtain the number one ranking.
“Wow!”
Lu Zhiruo cried out in surprise, not because of the secret treasure. Rather, it was because of Jia Wendong’s actions. One must know that he was a student of Mingshao Academy.
What great glory this was!
“This should be the way!”
Li Ziqi wasn’t surprised. Jia Wendong had been following her teacher and had seen for himself how strong Sun Mo was. If he didn’t hurriedly ask to become a personal disciple now, how blind must he be?
“Why are you in a daze? Quickly accept him. If this news circulated, your fame would surely resound through the 108 ‘D’ grade schools!”
Gu Xiuxun persuaded.
Jia Wendong’s aptitude wasn’t bad and he was indeed qualified enough to become Sun Mo’s personal student.
“Wendong, you are a student from Mingshao!”
Sun Mo spoke.
Jia Wendong’s heart immediately clenched. (Could it be that Teacher Sun doesn’t want me?) Hence, he hurriedly kowtowed even more to guarantee. “I can change schools!”