The Path of the Sage

Upon hearing Zhang Poyue's words, many officials showed an expression of 'I knew it would be like this'. Zhang Poyue was known as the toughest man in Jing Kingdom, even Li Wenying, the Left Chancellor, and the Literary Chancellor couldn't handle him.

Some people shook their heads repeatedly, thinking that his words were too unscrupulous.

Zhang Poyue stroked his large beard on his chin and said to Fang Yun with a smile, "I originally planned to go to the West Suburb, but when I heard the voice of the Semi-Saint, I came to see. I didn't expect the little beast from Qing Nation wanted to escape, so I just took care of it. You don't have to worry, the Sword Eyebrow Duke will definitely solve it. I'm going to stay on the Dragon Patrol Ship these days, don't disturb me if there's nothing important." After saying that, he turned and left.

The officials were left speechless with laughter. It was indeed Zhang Poyue, who would definitely take action when necessary, and would never show up when he should hide. Once he went to the Dragon Patrol Ship, the Poetry Duke would definitely not be able to do anything to him.

"By the way, I'll have someone send you an egg today!" Zhang Poyue's voice came from afar.

Everyone turned to look at Fang Yun, curious about what kind of egg Zhang Poyue would send.

Prefecture Chief Dong whispered to Fang Yun, "Commander Zhang killed Shi Dehong, the Poetry Duke won't bother you, he will only go after him, you don't have to worry."

Fang Yun nodded, naturally understanding that Zhang Poyue was helping him.

The few people from Qing Nation walked out dejectedly, while the people from Jing Kingdom watched them leave with raised eyebrows and high spirits.

Feng Yuanjun loudly said, "Our Jing Kingdom hasn't had a Book Mountain Champion for a hundred years. Today, Fang Yun bravely won the first place, which is a great joy for our Jade Sea Prefecture and even Jing Kingdom. Fang Yun, why don't you leave a calligraphy work to commemorate this prosperous era and encourage future generations to climb the Book Mountain?"

Everyone looked at Fang Yun expectantly, because famous sentences and couplets have a great motivational effect on scholars. Now, every scholar's family in the river has a copy of 'Inscription of the Shabby Room'.

"Then I will write a couplet to encourage learning, to inspire all the scholars."

The academy never lacked the four treasures of the study, and immediately someone brought a table with the four treasures of the study.

Many students looked forward with anticipation, hoping to see Fang Yun's personal calligraphy work, which was better than what was sold in the bookshops.

Fang Yun picked up the brush and after a brief brewing, he began to write. During the process of writing, the sound of reading and the sound of boating on the sea came from under his brush.

Listening to this sound, no one cared about the content of Fang Yun's writing anymore. They either stared at Fang Yun's face or his brush, and no one could hide the shock in their hearts.

In the Holy Origin Mainland, calligraphy is the first of the six arts of a gentleman, and the first of the four friends of a literati: chess, calligraphy, and painting. There is no shortcut, it requires long-term hard study and practice. Therefore, people who are good at calligraphy are sometimes more respected than those with higher literary positions. Once they reach the third realm of calligraphy, a random piece of work is worth a thousand taels. If it is a fine piece of calligraphy, it is often worth tens of thousands.

As for the works of the fourth realm of calligraphy, they are treasures that even the Dragon Clan covets, and even the Semi-Saints rarely reach.

Everyone speculated that Fang Yun, who was so young and could reach the first realm of calligraphy with a sound when the pen fell, might reach the third or even the fourth realm in the future.

Fang Yun, with no distractions, slowly wrote the couplet to encourage learning.

There is a path to the Book Mountain, diligence is the way.

The officials behind Fang Yun were startled when they saw half of it, almost wanting to stop him.

Before Confucius established the Holy Academy, Book Mountain and Sea of Learning were just ordinary phrases. But since the two sacred places of Book Mountain and Sea of Learning were established, almost no literati dared to write the names of the sacred places into their poems, articles, and couplets. If they wrote poorly and were criticized and judged, that would be fine. The most terrifying thing was that if there was any disrespect or deviation from the original intention of the establishment of the sacred places, they might be counterattacked by the power of the sacred places.

The sacred places have spirits, this is something everyone knows.

However, those officials held back. Since Fang Yun was personally named the First Scholar of the Ten Nations by the Semi-Saint, it was not considered taboo to write about Book Mountain and Sea of Learning. They just hoped that he wouldn't write too poorly. Otherwise, if the Book Mountain exerted its power to counterattack, it would be embarrassing.

Soon, Fang Yun finished the two lines of the couplet.

There is a path to the Book Mountain, diligence is the way; the Sea of Learning is boundless, hardship is the boat.

Many literati saw at a glance that this couplet was well-structured and could almost be regarded as a model of seven-character couplets. They nodded repeatedly, and the meaning within it was also worth pondering.

"Boom..."

The Holy Temple suddenly surged with talent, emitting a strong booming sound, and then formed a strong shock in all directions, like a circular wind blowing out.

Everyone had to raise their arms to protect their faces, squinting at the Holy Temple inside the gate.

"Is it over? Did the couplet written by Fang Yun offend the taboo of the Book Mountain?" Many officials felt a chill in their hearts.

However, a strange scene happened. The couplet written by Fang Yun actually floated up with the wind and flew to both sides of the main gate of the academy.

This couplet, along with the paper and the characters, merged into the stone frame of the gate, and then the stone of the gate frame slowly protruded, turning into the fourteen characters written by Fang Yun.

At the same time, the fourteen characters appeared on the gate frames of all the county academies, prefecture academies, state academies, and the Ten Nations Academy in the Ten Nations.

There is a path to the Book Mountain, diligence is the way; the Sea of Learning is boundless, hardship is the boat.

In front of the gate of Jade Sea Prefecture Academy, the whole field was shocked.

All the scholars looked at Fang Yun incredulously, because it was an old story that there were no couplets hung in front of the academy, which had once sparked a discussion among all the Saints.

The academies of the world, the Holy Temples in the academies, the Holy Academy, and the Holy Temples in the Holy Academy, these four places only have name plaques and no couplets. In theory, these places should all hang some couplets.But in the end, all the Saints couldn't make a decision, so they simply left it to the Holy Temples and the Holy Academy to choose. However, this wait lasted for hundreds of years.

But now, the Holy Temple and the Holy Academy have chosen the couplet written by Fang Yun.

From now on, anyone passing by the academies in various places will see this couplet encouraging learning. In terms of literary reputation, this is more terrifying than ten nation-securing poems.

Fang Yun felt helpless. This couplet was written by Han Yu, the foremost of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song dynasties. The literary saint Su Dongpo praised him as the "reviver of literature in eight dynasties", referring to the decline of literature in the Song, Qi, Liang, Chen, Wei, Qi, Zhou, and Sui dynasties and the early Tang dynasty. However, Han Yu was able to rise, reversing the trend of literary decline and revitalizing the vigor of ancient literature.

In terms of ancient poetry, Han Yu was far inferior to the likes of Li Du and Little Li Du. But in terms of prose and his status in Confucianism, Han Yu was even superior. Moreover, he was a great figure who entered the Confucian temple. The entire Tang dynasty was full of shining stars, but only two people entered the Confucian temple. It was not as easy as in the later Song and Ming dynasties.

Fang Yun originally just wanted to choose the one he was most familiar with, and that echoed with the Book Mountain, so he chose this couplet. He didn't expect it to be engraved on the door of the academy.

An official whispered, "This is good. From now on, Fang Yun's status in the hearts of the literati in Jing Kingdom and some other places will be even higher. But in the hearts of the people of Qing Nation, Wu Nation, or a minority of people, I'm afraid they will be extremely jealous and even hateful."

"There was a consensus at the time that the couplets in front of the doors everywhere not only needed to have profound meanings, but also needed to be easy to understand, so that anyone who could read would understand at a glance. It's easy to say, but hard to do. Fang Yun did well. He dared to write about the two holy places, Book Mountain and Sea of Learning. Not only was it easy to understand, but the implied meaning was also very profound. Who else would the Holy Temple choose if not his?"

"Luckily it's just a couplet. If Fang Yun were to produce a piece of scripture or policy discussion to spread throughout the world, the Demon Saint and the Barbarian Saint would definitely go crazy."

"But the literati of the ten nations can't help but 'pay attention'!" Feng Yuanjun said.

Yang Yuhuan and Zhao Hongzhuang were in the crowd. Yang Yuhuan covered her mouth, extremely surprised, her eyes full of joy. She didn't understand these things, but she understood from the discussions around her.

Yang Yuhuan looked at Fang Yun, who was surrounded by many officials like the moon surrounded by stars, and the tenderness in her eyes deepened.

Zhao Hongzhuang looked at Fang Yun, her expression dazed.

Seeing that the situation was getting bigger and bigger, Fang Yun decisively said, "Everyone, I'm going home first!"

"Take care, we'll see you off!"

"Go! You get in the carriage, we'll escort you underneath!"

"That's right! You are the number one Accomplished Scholar of the ten nations, and you just wrote a couplet for the academy. We can't let anything happen to you."

"I've been in Yu Huan City for so many years, and it's not easy to meet such a big figure who can shake the ten nations. How can I just watch you leave? I must escort you to your doorstep!"

A group of generals excitedly rushed over and surrounded Fang Yun. The civil officials thought for a moment, half of them didn't move, and the other half walked over.

Fang Yun was stunned for a while before he said, "Everyone, I can walk by myself."

Fang Shouye, who was standing by, laughed and said, "We'll escort... Huh?" After speaking, he looked up at the sky above the Holy Temple.

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Fang Yun also looked curiously, only to see a large flock of text geese suddenly flying in the sky above the Holy Temple. There were at least a thousand of them, covering the sky and the sun, and more and more were coming. Some flew towards Feng Yuanjun, some flew towards Prefect Dong, and only a very few secret texts were invisible and entered the official seals of some officials.

No one had ever seen such an exaggerated scene.

Looking at the thousands of text geese circling in the sky, some people stared blankly, some couldn't help but laugh. This scene was really interesting. Then they curiously looked at Prefect Dong and Feng Yuanjun, wanting to know what was going on.

The two of them opened one text goose after another.

The more they read, the happier they became, especially Prefect Dong, who couldn't stop laughing.

Feng Yuanjun noticed that others were eagerly waiting, and laughed, "A few people are congratulating our Yu Huan Prefecture's Accomplished Scholar for taking the lead. The rest are all asking about the couplet. It turns out that not only has the door of our Yu Huan Prefecture's academy changed, but the doors of all the academies in the ten nations have also added this couplet. Because the Holy Academy has already recorded that this couplet was written by Fang Yun, they all want to verify it, so officials or academy lords from all over have sent text geese to inquire."

Many people looked at Fang Yun with envy. Probably only Fang Yun could cause such a thing in the whole world.

Fang Yun hurriedly said, "I should go."

Fang Shouye laughed and said, "Let's go, we'll escort you together. You are now a big figure that everyone in the ten nations is paying attention to. We can't rest assured to let you go home alone. Let's go."

Fang Yun helplessly walked forward, surrounded by twenty or thirty officials of at least the seventh rank, moving forward together.

People in front made way, many of them laughing as they watched Fang Yun leave, their eyes revealing envy. With so many officials escorting him, Fang Yun could walk sideways in Yu Huan City in the future.

Yang Yuhuan, Zhao Hongzhuang, and the Presented Scholar Pang who was protecting Fang Yun were in the crowd. Yang Yuhuan and Zhao Hongzhuang hurried over. Fang Yun stepped forward and held Yang Yuhuan's hand, not avoiding others at all. Yang Yuhuan struggled a few times, but in the end, she lowered her head and happily followed Fang Yun. (To be continued.)