Chapter 1331 Peak Of Life, Saint Gate’s Sect Lord
On the arena, Gongsun Huiying’s longsword moved like the rain and lightning, attacking fiercely, aiming for her opponent’s life!
Shang Li was caught in a straitened situation. However, he came from a great teacher clan after all and his standards weren’t low. Even without the determination to obtain a victory, it was still possible for him to come to a draw in this match
The more Gongsun Huiying fought, the more anxious she was. Seeing that she couldn’t take down her opponent after so long, she couldn’t help but shouted, “Are you a man? Is it very interesting to be a coward?”
Shang Li felt very awkward and looked toward Sun Mo who was next to the arena. Shang Li wanted to ask if he should retaliate.
However, Sun Mo didn’t give him any instructions.
“Haha, she’s going to be driven to death from anger!”
Qin Yaoguang laughed and clapped happily.
“Two wins and one draw, it’s a sure win!”
Lu Zhiruo was satisfied.
“It’s over!”
Sun Mo let out a long breath. Given how forceful Saint Zhou was and how unwilling he was to admit his losses, he’d definitely be anxious to get a win after losing two consecutive rounds. Therefore, they’d just have to be on the defense.
The more anxious Gongsun Huiying became, the more loopholes appeared in her attacks. However, Shang Li was too conservative and didn’t dare to retaliate. The match dragged out for half an hour and they came to a draw.
At the instant Li Wanjun announced the results, Sun Mo’s close supporters immediately cheered loudly.
He had defeated a saint!
From today onward, Sun Mo was undoubtedly the number one great teacher in the Nine Provinces!
“Teacher!”
Li Ziqi hugged Sun Mo out of agitation, tears streaking down her face. Her teacher had finally proven that it wasn’t that she wasn’t outstanding enough but that Saint Zhou didn’t have good judgment.
Saint Zhou wanted to walk off in fury, but after seeing this scene, he suddenly sighed and turned to walk toward Sun Mo and Li Ziqi.
The moment he moved, everyone fell silent again and stared at him.
“What the hell? He’s unconvinced? He wants to have a battle personally?”
“He’s a saint after all. It can’t be that he can’t afford to lose, right?”
“He is probably the first saint to be defeated by a secondary saint, right?”
The audience discussed amongst themselves. The entire Nine Provinces had known about the grudge between Saint Zhou and Li Ziqi. “Great Teacher Li, with regards to my refusal to accept you as my personal disciple, it’s due to the limitations of my abilities and I wasn’t able to see your potential. I’ll offer my apologies to you here!”
Saint Zhou said and suddenly bowed for ten seconds.
“Saint, you don’t have to do this. We’re all great teachers. Which of us haven’t committed any wrongs before?”
con
Li Ziqi broke into a smile. “Moreover, I have to thank you. Without your rejection, I won’t be able to meet my teacher!”
To speak the truth, Li Ziqi hated Saint Zhou. However, she was also thankful toward him. If he had taken her in, how could she have met her teacher?
Saint Zhou straightened his back and then looked at Sun Mo, reaching out his hand.
Sun Mo laughed and shook his hand.
“You have a good disciple!”
Saint Zhou sighed. “As for you, you’re even more outstanding. I feel ashamed of my inferiority!”
“Good, very good. Let bygones be bygones, and all will be well!”
Li Wanjun clapped.
After that, Saint Zhou left, and his close supporters followed behind him, feeling very angry.
“Father, why did you have to apologize?”
“You fool, Sun Mo is only 40 years old. Now that he has become the sect lord, he’ll at least be in this position for 500 years. Moreover, he is a secondary saint. How long do you think his influence in the great teacher world will last?”
Saint Zhou reproached, “If I don’t take the initiative to apologize, will you guys still have a chance to stand out after I die?”
Everyone looked very dejected. That was true. At the thought of their archenemy standing at the top of the great teacher world, they’d feel that their futures were very bleak.
“Keep a low profile in the future!”
Saint Zhou sighed. He didn’t expect that his arrogant rejection of Li Ziqi back then had become the greatest stain in his life.
This contention for the sect lord position had the attention of the entire Nine Provinces.
Sun Mo had a great battle result, achieving two wins and one draw. This pushed his reputation to the peak.
Someone said that Sun Mo had actually won two rounds as Gongsun Huiying was more talented than Shang Li. However, the match ended up in a tie thanks to Sun Mo’s guidance.
Right now, many people were envious of Coal Briquette, Bai Xiaoquan, as well as Shang Li for being able to acknowledge Sun Mo as their teacher. It was because as Sun Mo’s status became extremely high, it was very difficult to become his students.
Just like how a country mustn’t be without a ruler for a day, the saint gate mustn’t be without a sect lord for a day!
Seven days later, Sun Mo assumed the position officially.
He became the youngest Saint Gate’s sect lord in the Nine Provinces’ history.
Sun Mo didn’t seek to leave his name in history, but he wanted the world to become better. He wanted there to no longer be cases of young children like Coal Briquette having to risk their lives yet still being unable to fill their stomachs.
After one month of familiarizing himself with his duties, Sun Mo called for a Great Teachers Meet of the Nine Provinces.
All schools, regardless if they had the famous school titles or were just ordinary schools, must send a representative to attend the meeting.
During the meeting, Sun Mo announced five changes!
The first one was that from that day onward, the Saint Gate would mobilize funds to show great support in botany, the study of beast taming, and other subjects related to people’s livelihood. To put it simply, this was to encourage more great teachers to take the initiative into researching how to increase crops production and animal farming.
In the past, everyone pursued alchemy and weaponsmithing. Only those without the ability would learn botany and other subjects. However, Sun Mo wanted to change this situation.
As the saying went, money could do anything. Therefore, Sun Mo gave them a huge bonus. If there was a Grandpa Yuan[1] amongst them, many people in the Nine Provinces would not starve to death.
The second one was to promote weaponsmithing, undergo technological revolution, and increase productivity.
It was to put in effort to let the Nine Provinces move from being an agrarian society to an industrial society.
The third one was to establish the patents department in the Saint Gate.
Right now, everyone kept amazing arts and techniques to themselves. Even a vendor selling fried dough fritters would only pass down his secret recipe to his sons and not daughters.
The unique recipes that were beneficial to society were all monopolized by individuals, with them fearing that the recipes would be stolen. Therefore, it was impossible to increase the productivity and scale of private workshops.
Sun Mo’s patent policy aimed to let them contribute their monopolized skills. While earning patents, they’d also be able to expand production and promote societal and technological progress.
This required the dependence on the Saint Gate’s reputation and martial prowess. Therefore, Sun Mo established a new department that was fully equipped with the most advanced spirit runes firearms.
To put it simply, they were the armed debt collector team.
If there were people who didn’t pay the patent fees, they could just wait for their entire families to be arrested and sent to mine coals!
The fifth change was to establish a professional skills academy, providing children with unique specialties to have a new path.
In current times, there were usually two paths to advance in life. One was to take the imperial examinations while the other one was to cultivate and become a great teacher.
Sun Mo now opened up a third path.
If a student was unable to sense spirit qi and couldn’t cultivate, it didn’t matter. Even if they didn’t have the capabilities of studying the Four Books and Five Classics to become a government official, it didn’t matter either. They could go to this school to pick up a skill.
There were similar jobs in the past, such as varying apprenticeships and master craftsmen. However, society referred to them as craftsmen and didn’t show them enough respect.
Some craftsmen were even slaves.
This change introduced by Sun Mo raised their statuses in society and allowed for sharing of techniques. If other people were to use these skills, they’d have to pay the patent fees.
After this change was announced, the craftsmen erupted with tremendous enthusiasm in their work. After all, who wouldn’t want to live better lives?
In the past, craftsmen were nothing. But now, even the great teachers recognized their work as a skill. They could even gain a grandmaster title.
Therefore, many skills were presented.
Sun Mo saw sweets recipes, explosive recipes, and even the preliminary forms of matchlocks being created. There were also other classified skills such as ship-crafting skills.
Sun Mo’s revolution caused skills to surge and out of which, some of them brought about tremendous convenience to society
Resources could only display extremely high values when they were unified.
It was like how after the rubber-making recipe was created and contributed from the south, there’d be people who’d think of using them to make rubber wheels without Sun Mo’s involvement.
Sun Mo also wanted to introduce common education to all citizens, but he didn’t dare to do so since it’d cost too much money.
These five changes caused all the representatives who had attended the meeting to be stunned. However, they had to admit that although some great teachers were conservative and stagnant, most of them relied on their intelligence for a living. They only needed to think about it seriously to be able to see the benefits brought by these changes.
Therefore, these changes were applied.
In just one year, the effects were shown.
The Nine Provinces in the past had been like a lifeless fat stay-home guy, but now, it was like a handsome young man who had quitted m*sturbating and getting into a relationship, running endlessly in a life with bright prospects.
As a result, Sun Mo’s status stabilized even
more.
Although he hadn’t died, it was for sure that his achievements would be able to be ranked in the top five of the great teachers historical rankings.
Every day, there’d be seniors from royal families or established clans who’d bring their children and wait to ask to meet Sun Mo, wanting their children to be taken under his wing.
Sun Mo didn’t act cold and lofty, refusing all of them. It was because he knew that if he wanted to promote some changes, he must have the support from major characters with great authority and influence. Therefore, he’d take in princes as well as sons of high-ranking officials.
In the sect lord’s office in the Saint Gate’s headquarters.
This was an office used by Sun Mo alone. It was big, with 200 square meters and also a resting room, a toilet, as well as a room for his assistant.
For 24 hours every day, as long as Sun Mo didn’t leave this office, he’d have a female assistant constantly on the standby, ready to work for him.
“You’re so annoying. What if the female assistant comes in?”
Mei Ziyu’s cheeks flushed red. She straightened her skirt and glanced at Sun Mo.
She had just been nourished by Sun Mo.
“That won’t happen. The work I assigned them won’t be done so quickly!”
Sun Mo tidied his clothes and poured Mei Ziyu a cup of water. Their relationship had improved by leaps and bounds half a month ago.
It was by Mei Yazhi’s request.
There was no helping it. Sun Mo’s status had grown increasingly. Although Mei Yazhi wasn’t scared that Sun Mo would treat her daughter badly, it’d still be better to get the deed done and the deal sealed.
It’d be even better if Mei Ziyu could give birth to a son.
“How does it feel after being the sect lord for a year?” Mei Ziyu teased. “Do you feel very important and mighty?”
“Not really, but it is tiring. There are too many trivial matters.”
At the thought of these things, Sun Mo felt tired and wanted to escape.
A sect lord had a lot of work to begin with. Moreover, Sun Mo even introduced a great revolution and thus his work increased even more. If it wasn’t that he had great subordinates, he’d die from overworking.
“A capable person should do more work!” Mei Ziyu smiled. “Oh right, how is Sister Xinhui?”
“I don’t know!”
Sun Mo frowned.
An Xinhui had wanted to stay in the Saint Gate for a while and spend time with Sun Mo, but An Zaiyi had found excuses to reject her. As for their wedding, it was also constantly delayed.
“I wonder what Saint An is thinking. He won’t be able to find another grandson-in-law like you in the entire Nine Provinces!”
Mei Ziyu was perplexed. “But the Central Province Academy seems to be going strong. It has gotten first place in this year’s ‘A’ grade league tournament test and has risen to the ranks of the Nine Greats.”
“That’s right, it’s very strong!”
Sun Mo returned to his desk and was about to start working when a familiar ‘ding’ that he hadn’t heard for a very long time rang out by his ears!
[1] Yuan Longping was a Chinese agronomist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s.