Chapter 1200: Dinner Banquet Commotion!
Translator: Lordbluefire
What did Li Ziqi write?
She wrote that humans needed to establish a shared destiny, have a common goal, and put aside all prejudices, contradictions, and massacres, working together to realize a majestic goal so that everyone would benefit.
When Sun Mo saw this, he shook his head. (Your thinking is too advanced and it’d be weird if other people could understand it!)
“Princess Ziqi, what do you mean by this? Can you explain it?”
Grand Tutor Su spoke up to ask.
“Although our lives are peaceful now, this is temporary. It’s because as long as humans go through development, there’ll eventually come a day when they face opportunities or threats!
“Regardless which it is, humans can only grab onto opportunities and resolve threats if they possess sufficient strength!
“We shouldn’t just focus on the benefits in front of our eyes. Instead, we should look forward to 1,000, 2,000, or even 10,000 years later. We should establish a firm foundation for our descendants!”
Li Ziqi’s words were like a fantasy story. 1,000 years later? Even remains would have turned into ash. However, the little sunny egg’s tone was exceptionally solemn and serious.
Li Ziqi had experienced five rounds of the Black-White Game and had seen too many society structures and mindsets. Which of them was the right one?
Li Ziqi had no idea, but what she knew was that humans would definitely continue to advance. If they wished to do so more steadily, faster, and further, there was a need to twist humanity into a rope so that everyone would work together toward a common direction.
“Our current goal is to excavate the Darkness Continent!”
Li Ziqi thought of those science-fiction movies she had watched in the Black-White Game. “And in the future, it’ll be the great ocean of stars! We’ll eventually be leaving the Nine Provinces and head to a broader universe to search for life’s end point and meaning!
“…”
Grand Tutor Su looked stunned. (What are you talking about? Who’d be able to understand this?)
“Leave the Nine Provinces? Universe? What are these things?”
“I don’t understand!”
“Although I don’t understand, it sounds very amazing!”
Even the well-learned high star-level great teachers were muddled by many technical terms Li Ziqi had used in her article, let alone ordinary scholars.
“This is my beloved niece?”
Li Xiu subconsciously looked toward Sun Mo. (What on earth did you do to her? Had she been taken over by some great ancient figure from the legends? That wasn’t right, even a great ancient figure wouldn’t say things like this, right?)
Li Ziqi got off the arena and came back.
“Eldest Martial Sister, what were you talking about? Can you explain to me?”
Qin Yaoguang felt curious.
“They are just useless knowledge!”
Li Ziqi smiled in self-mockery and then looked toward Sun Mo, lowering her head to admit her mistake. “Teacher Sun, I don’t think that I’ll be able to get first place for this round.”
“Since you know that, why did you still do it?”
Sun Mo felt curious.
Although Xia Taikang’s political ideal was domineering and sounded like that of a tyrannical ruler, it was still within the perimeters in which people could understand. However, Li Ziqi’s article was too forward.
Hoping that the people in the Nine Provinces could understand such a mindset?
It’d be better to wash up and go to sleep!
“I don’t know either. I only feel that since I’ve seen some ‘light of dawn’, then I have the responsibility to let everyone take fewer detours. Several centuries is too long yet too short in the long river of history!”
Li Ziqi sighed.
“Eldest Martial Sister, you’re speaking so profoundly. Are you using koans?”
Xianyu Wei scratched her head, unable to understand it at all.
Sun Mo smiled and rubbed the little sunny egg’s head. “I’m very proud to have a student like you!”
Hearing this, Li Ziqi’s face instantly beamed. She couldn’t help but shake her head slightly in response to her teacher’s stroking.
Seeing this, Han Cangshui felt a little jealous and disappointed at the same time. He couldn’t understand the conversation between Sun Mo and Li Ziqi, but the six senses of a high star-level great teacher told him that this was definitely a lofty topic.
This teacher-student pair had surpassed him.
Li Xuan’s article was published too.
His writing was good, in a beautiful regular script. The contents weren’t bad either. People were able to tell that he wished to become a benevolent ruler, but that was it.
With so many emperors and rulers in the course of history, it wasn’t as if there weren’t any benevolent rulers amongst them.
(No matter how outstanding you are, can you be more outstanding than Yao, Shun, and Yu[1]?)
As the articles’ assessment went on, the participants’ ranking was also released.
The judges were 18 prestigious great teachers who were all 6-stars or higher. Moreover, they were also well-learned and could write very well. Therefore, there was no need to worry about there being schemes or for an amazing article to not be recognized.
But the truth was that Li Ziqi’s article was still underestimated.
In the afternoon, the final results were released!
Xia Taikang came in first place. His goal was very clear, his ideals majestic. Although he could become a tyrannical ruler, from the great teachers’ perspectives, there were also countless benefits if the Nine Provinces were unified.
Wei Wu`an came in second. This was because although his ideals were similar to Xia Taikang, he wasn’t as domineering and didn’t dare to say the solution.
Li Xuan’s article was ranked in the top ten. It wasn’t that he was good, but that the others’ weren’t good enough. There were no other choices.
Even though Jiang Yuzhen’s idea was novel, it was too naive. As for Xiang Zhao, he was ranked behind her. It was because this guy wasn’t suited to become a ruler.
Li Ziqi’s ranking was done last. It was because the great teachers were all hesitating.
How were they supposed to rank her when they didn’t understand her article?
In the end, they could only give her a ranking in the middle. However, many great teachers had decided to look for her privately to have a discussion over this.
After the Calligraphy Battle ended, what was left was the last battle—famous painting competition. However, before this, as they were in the last week of the Five Empires War Discussion, on the night where the results for the Calligraphy Battle was announced, the Qi Emperor held a large-scale dinner banquet, inviting the various countries’ delegations as well as great teachers.
All great teachers who were 4-stars or higher could attend the banquet even if they didn’t receive an invitation.
This showed that in the eyes of these top-notch countries, only 4-stars great teachers were worthy of courtesy and respect.
…
The banquet was held in the Taiji Palace. It was very big and grand.
At times like this, the order of seats represented the guest’s status to this country, or rather, to the emperor.
The closer one sat to the emperor, the more highly-regarded or closer they were to the emperor.
The Great Xia was first in overall capabilities, but right now, they sat behind the Great Tang. This made the princes and princesses from the Great Xia’s delegation feel that they had been humiliated. All of them stared at the Great Tang’s delegation angrily.
Li Xiu felt helpless about this too. The Qi Emperor was really too impracticable. (Can’t you put more effort into such respect-related matters? Do you have to turn things like this, making enemies for others?)
Other than a few lines of polite talk, the Qi Emperor spent the rest of his time during the banquet talking to Sun Mo.
“Beloved Subject Sun, it’s too inconvenient to be talking like this. Why don’t you sit over here?”
The Qi Emperor extended an invitation.
He no longer referred to Sun Mo as Great Teacher Sun but changed to address him as ‘Beloved Subject’. This showed that their relationship was closer.
“Your Majesty, that’s your seat!”
Sun Mo rejected.
He didn’t really care about seats, but he didn’t want to sit together with this old man. (I might consider it if it was to sit with the beautiful empress instead.)
Even though the empress was getting on in age, as the mother of a country, her disposition was too attractive. Moreover, she had taken care of herself well.
“Empress, you don’t look too good. Have you been having frequent insomnia recently?”
Sun Mo smiled and asked.
“That’s right!”
The empress stroked her face and then asked, “I heard that Great Teacher Sun’s God Hands can change one’s looks. I wonder if…”
“The empress is born with great beauty and doesn’t need any cosmetic surgery. However, one’s body would always have all kinds of problems with age. It’s still necessary to do some maintenance. Otherwise, one would age too quickly.”
Sun Mo recommended, “I’ll let Ziqi perform a beauty treatment on you to get rid of your wrinkles. Even though I don’t dare to claim that it’d bring you back to when you were 18 years old, it wouldn’t be a problem to bring you back to when you were 25 years old.”
“Huh? 25 years old?”
The empress’s beautiful brow raised and she looked surprised. If it wasn’t because they were in the midst of the banquet, she’d have pulled Li Ziqi away to get the beauty treatment done immediately.
(Hold on!)
“Great Teacher Sun, can’t it be done by you?”
It was like how many people wanted to look for the best doctor to get treatment, the empress was no exception. It’d definitely be the safest for Sun Mo to do the job.
“Ziqi has inherited my skills!”
Sun Mo assured.
Sigh, this was a good opportunity to touch an empress, applying oil all over her body. Was it not an amazing chance?
But Sun Mo gave up on it for Ziqi’s future.
After the empress tried out the ancient massaging technique, she’d definitely like it and want to do it often in the future. After all, regardless of the era, women had no resistance toward cosmetics and beauty.
When that time came, Ziqi would have gained an ally.
Li Xuan sneaked a look at Sun Mo, who was smiling and chatting happily with the empress. She then chugged down a mouthful of wine, feeling that his pressure had increased tremendously.
(Teacher Han, you’re useless!)
Li Xuan had some complaints in his heart.
“Beloved Subject Sun, can This Emperor have beauty treatment too?”
The Qi Emperor was displeased about his wrinkles for a long time. He also wanted to look like a handsome man.
“…”
Sun Mo was speechless. He wanted to tell the Qi Emperor that a man’s value wasn’t in his face but in his achievements. This could also be interpreted as status and money.
(You’re already the ruler of a country. Even if you look like Tu Xingsun[2], you can get anything you want. Why would you still need beauty treatments? Are you telling me that you don’t wish to work hard as well? Do you want to find an older woman to buy things for you?)
“Yes!”
Sun Mo didn’t mind. It didn’t matter if the treatment was done for one person or two. It was something that could be settled in just several minutes.
“Haha, as expected of This Emperor’s bosom friend! I’ll toast to that!”
The Qi Emperor emptied the great wine in the bronze cup.
“How can there be no poetry in the presence of wine? I heard that Teacher Sun is Gandalf and has written [Journey to the West] and [A Dream of Red Mansions]. I often feel regret over not being able to see Teacher Sun’s great charm. I’d like to take this chance to request for Teacher Sun to compose a poem and bring some entertainment to this grand banquet.”
A clear and beautiful voice rang out.
Everyone turned over and saw that it was a princess from the Great Xia who was requesting for Sun Mo to compose a poem.
“It this little b*tch again!”
Li Ziqi felt displeased. This young lady had been an annoyance since the chess battle.
The princes and princesses from the Great Xia’s delegation immediately chipped in, requesting for Sun Mo to compose a poem.
Everyone had carefully prepared several good poems and articles for the Calligraphy Battle. These people were all members of the royalty and had many people working for them. It wasn’t a problem for them to get their hands on some good poetry.
If they were to throw out a poem after Sun Mo was done composing one, wouldn’t they be able to crush him? It’d also reflect that they had great talent in poetry.
“Is there going to be a poetry competition?”
The princes and princesses from the other countries were raring to give it a go as well, not just the Great Xia’s delegation. All of them had a strong urge to battle 300 rounds with Sun Mo.
As long as they could win against Sun Mo, they’d be able to shoot up to fame!
[1] Early Chinese accounts often speak of Yao, Shun, and Yu the Great as historical figures. Contemporary historians believe that they may represent leader-chiefs of allied tribes who established a unified and hierarchical system of government in a transition period to the patriarchal feudal society.
[2] A character in the Investiture of the Gods that is said to be less than four feet tall.. His face was as dark as soil, but he had amazing capabilities and swift movements.