The Path of the Sage

Mi Fengdian looked at the slowly approaching Wang Jinglong and said, "Since the Eastern Saint is here, we should communicate with a snap of our fingers."

"No need. Those who should know will naturally know, and those who don't, well, they just won't."

A hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of the three Semi-Saint examiners, but none of them said anything, continuing to watch the phantom of the nine Book Mountains.

Under everyone's gaze, Fang Yun slowly stepped into the third pavilion.

Dictation.

Fang Yun looked at the two simple characters on the plaque, guessing how the test would be conducted, when suddenly the sounds of insects and birds rang in his ears, rising and falling, quite pleasing to the ear.

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An old man with white hair and beard appeared a zhang in front of Fang Yun. The old man was thin and tall, his eyes full of spirit.

"I speak, you write. It ends in two quarters of an hour, and you cannot make more than five mistakes. You have three chances."

"Yes, elder." Fang Yun politely bowed.

The sounds of insects and birds had not yet ended.

Fang Yun immediately understood that this was a test of one's attention, memory, concentration, and discernment. When discussing strategies on paper or speaking eloquently, one is most easily disturbed by the outside world. Any accident could lead to failure and death.

A brush soaked in thick ink appeared out of thin air in Fang Yun's hand. He quickly lowered the brush onto the paper, took a deep breath, and was ready to write at any time.

"Boom..."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning appeared in the sky, falling right between Fang Yun and the old man. Fang Yun instinctively retreated to avoid it. The dazzling light made his eyes slightly painful, forcing him to squint. The thunder roared at the same time, causing his ears to ring.

This thunder and lightning were too sudden. No one could have expected a bolt of lightning to appear out of nowhere at this time. However, the lightning itself was not what shocked Fang Yun.

What shocked Fang Yun was that as the lightning appeared, the old man opened his mouth. When the thunder ended, Fang Yun only heard one word.

"...virtue."

Fang Yun almost spat out a mouthful of blood in anger. The person who set this question was simply shameless, without any clues. This wasn't dictation at all, it was just playing with people! There were too many sentences ending with "virtue" in the classics of the Saints. How could he possibly guess?

However, the old man completely ignored Fang Yun. He looked up at the sky and continued to speak the second sentence: "Do the words of the small-minded have any commonality? A gentleman must be discerning."

Fang Yun didn't dare to think too much, he quickly left a blank line and wrote the second sentence first. This was a quote from Yan Zi in "The Family Sayings of Confucius". Fang Yun remembered it very clearly and wrote it down immediately. At the same time, he couldn't help but guess what the first sentence was.

The old man continued to speak the third sentence without any pause: "When a bird is about to die, its song is sad; when a man is about to die, his words are good." During this process, the sound of a strong wind and rustling leaves suddenly came from the surroundings, along with the chirping of insects and birds, causing irritation.

Fang Yun cleared his mind and began to write. This third sentence was a widely circulated quote from Tseng Tzu.

Then, the old man continued to speak sentence by sentence, maintaining a constant speed. The increasing noise around him did not affect the old man at all.

In addition to the initial chirping of insects and birds, there was soon the sound of wind and rain, followed by the crowing of roosters and barking of dogs. The noise grew louder and more chaotic.

Fang Yun, who used to study for only two hours a day, was not affected at all thanks to his Courage to Write. He was not only able to continue writing, but also kept thinking about the first sentence.

"What exactly was that sentence? There are too many classics of the Saints that end with the word 'virtue'. I can't possibly guess!"

"Even the Book Mountain wouldn't set a question that relies on guessing. There must be some trick I don't know."

The Book of Oddities remained motionless, offering no help to Fang Yun.

"Let's recall, that's right! I didn't hear the first sentence, but I heard the next five sentences. They were quotes from Yan Zi, Tseng Tzu, Hsun Tzu, Zithi Zi, and King Wen of Zhou. That's five Semi-Saints. The seventh sentence was from the Half-Sage Han Feizi, and all the sentences after that were from Half-Sages. So, the first sentence is very likely a quote from the Semi-Saint Mencius."

"Mencius has said too many sentences ending with the word 'virtue', such as 'Aim for the Dao, rely on virtue', 'With the virtue of King Wen', 'Honor the virtuous and nurture talent, to demonstrate virtue', and so on. I need to narrow it down further! But how?"

Fang Yun continued to think while dictating. Although the noise was getting louder, he was able to write down every word without missing a single one.

Before long, Fang Yun finally had a clue.

"Speech speed! Pauses! I get it! His speech speed has remained constant from beginning to end, and even the pauses between sentences are the same! Although I didn't hear his words clearly, I saw when he opened his mouth and remembered when he closed it. I know roughly how many words that sentence had. I definitely have a chance to guess it!" Fang Yun was overjoyed.

So, Fang Yun first recalled all the sentences Mencius had said that ended with the word "virtue". Then, based on the old man's speech speed, he estimated that the sentence should be between twelve and fourteen words long. Finally, he eliminated all the sentences that didn't have enough words.Next, Fang Yun tried one by one, and finally found that the phrase "Qiu was also the steward of the Ji family, and could not change his nature" matched the old man's speaking speed most closely. Moreover, this was the first two sentences of a whole sentence. If he was not careful with the punctuation, he would easily miss this sentence.

Fang Yun immediately wrote down this sentence at the fastest speed, remembering the old man's words at this moment, and then quickly finished writing.

Just a dozen breaths later, the old man's speaking speed suddenly increased, which was more than twice as fast as before.

The surrounding sounds were also constantly overlapping. In addition to the natural sounds, human voices began to increase.

"Steamed buns for sale! Big buns with lots of filling and thin skin!"

"Tofu pudding! Tofu brain! Do you want sweet, salty, or spicy? We have everything!"

"Sir, come upstairs and sit for a while. Our top courtesan at Hongxiu is free today."

"Selling rice dumplings..."

Fang Yun immediately felt the pressure doubled. The natural sounds were meaningless to him, but the human voices were different. They were very close to human life and would inevitably make people involuntarily understand the meaning of those words. Various foods would even appear in front of his eyes, which would inevitably occupy more of his mind.

But now the old man's speaking speed has increased, which is dozens of times more difficult than at the beginning.

Fang Yun noticed that the old man only started to speed up after a quarter of an hour. He broke out in a cold sweat and felt secretly relieved. Fortunately, he thought of the solution before the quarter of an hour. If he had thought of the solution after the quarter of an hour, it would have been useless, because if he was distracted to ponder now, he would definitely make a mistake.

"The initial thunder was not only a test but also a trap! If you don't think about it and just write the latter part, as long as you don't make a mistake, you can still pass the third pavilion. But if you can't let go of the first sentence, you might be distracted and lose everything."

"This is not only testing our abilities but also our choices! If you really encounter a powerful enemy, don't think about killing the enemy, but run away. Wait until you survive, then consider revenge!"

Fang Yun finished the first sentence. With no worries in his heart, he focused on the dictation that followed.

With only a hundred breaths left, the old man's speaking speed increased again, and the sounds of the battlefield were added to his voice.

The sound of drums, shouts of killing, the sound of weapons chopping on the bodies of the demon race, a large number of Presented Scholars speaking eloquently, many demon barbarians using demon techniques, the cries of soldiers, the shouts of demon soldiers, echoed in Fang Yun's ears.

"Kill the demons! Kill the monsters and avenge me!"

"I don't want to die, I still have parents at home..."

"Help, I'm scared, don't kill me, don't kill me, ah..."

"Hahaha, human hearts are delicious, but I still prefer to eat human brains..."

At this moment, Fang Yun was extremely grateful that he had gone to kill demons when he was a Child Scholar. If he hadn't experienced the scene of hundreds of soldiers dying, if he hadn't seen the demons eating people with his own eyes, his mind would have been shaken by these voices.

"The longer I persist, the higher I climb. The more demon barbarians I will kill in the future! I'm not cold-blooded, I'm just gathering strength to kill demons and eradicate barbarians! No one can stop my Path of the Saints!"

Fang Yun's mind was highly concentrated, and The Courage to Write was driven by his spirit, forming an invisible force that enveloped the surroundings, trying to weaken those sounds as much as possible.

Half an hour passed, and the old man stopped. A few breaths later, Fang Yun finished the last stroke.

"Pass." The old man said, and his figure disappeared.

Fang Yun felt extremely tired and immediately sat down to rest. Then, the third pavilion released a white light that fell on him, allowing him to enjoy the baptism of the strange power again.

"The white light of Book Mountain is beneficial to everyone and has no side effects. It is very likely related to the talent of the God of Literature or Sage Confucius. Although Book Mountain has nine mountains, only the first three mountains have three pavilions each. Starting from the fourth mountain, each mountain only has one test. Starting from the fourth mountain, the baptism I receive may be more. If I get it, my Courage to Write may be infinitely close to Yan Yukong's realm. Unfortunately, this time Book Mountain is so difficult, I almost can't reach it, so I won't think about it anymore."

With the third baptism of the white light, Fang Yun's literary palace, talent, and The Courage to Write were all strengthened again, but the mental fatigue could not disappear immediately, so he did not immediately go up, but sat on the ground and silently read "The Analects" to recuperate and prepare for the second mountain.

Fang Yun had a faint worry in his heart. The difficulty of Book Mountain exceeded his original estimate. He even suspected that if Shi Dehong, a disciple of the Poet King during the Accomplished Scholar period, appeared here, he would not be able to pass the three pavilions of the first mountain. The dictation test of the third pavilion was too strange. With Shi Dehong's character, he would not give up the first sentence without answering.

Fang Yun rested for a full hour before he felt his energy recovered. When he opened his eyes, there were already three disciples from the Prominent Family of All the Saints at the third pavilion.

"As expected of the disciples of the Prominent Family of All the Saints. However, looking at them, it seems not good." Fang Yun looked at the three of them.These three were not writing, but sitting on the ground with worried expressions. Fang Yun guessed that they had taken the test once and failed, and were now stalling for time to think of a strategy.

Fang Yun sighed inwardly. This kind of test wouldn't allow anyone to cheat. The longer these people stalled, the harder the following questions would be.

At this moment, a Talented Scholar from a Semi-Saint Prominent Family raised his head. Seeing Fang Yun also sitting on the ground, he sighed, a sense of shared misery in his eyes.

Another Scholar also looked over, casting an encouraging glance at Fang Yun. Fang Yun thought to himself that this person was truly a gentleman. He nodded in return, also giving an encouraging look, and then passed through the third pavilion, heading towards the second mountain.

The three Scholars left in the third pavilion were suddenly as if petrified by a spell, standing in place without moving.

One Scholar said something unknown, then made a gesture of wiping away tears. The other two Scholars looked at him, and indeed felt the urge to cry.

A commoner had actually left all the elites of the Semi-Saint Prominent Families behind. Reality was too cruel. The elders and books in their families had not told them it would be like this! (To be continued.)