Fang Yun walked alone on the road to the second pavilion, thinking about his worries.
"This mountain of books is really difficult. I used to think that even if I couldn't reach the fourth mountain, it wouldn't be difficult for me to reach the third mountain and the third pavilion like the other four great scholars. Now I think I underestimated the scholars in the world. If the first pavilion is so difficult, how difficult would the second pavilion or even the second mountain be? Reflect on yourself, you must reflect on yourself!"
Fang Yun walked to the second pavilion and found that the two scholars from the semi-saint family were staring at each other with extremely depressed looks.
Then the two of them seemed to sigh, and then began to write on the paper.
Fang Yun was shocked. These two people were like this in the second pavilion, which meant that the second pavilion was extremely difficult. It was impossible for a scholar from a semi-saint family to be stumped by the first mountain. Even if he was unlucky, he could still reach the third mountain.
Fang Yun looked up and saw two words written on the plaque above the second pavilion: couplet.
"It can't be another absolute, right?" Fang Yun thought.
When leaving the first pavilion, the paper in front of Fang Yun disappeared. Now stepping into the second pavilion, a new piece of white paper appeared with questions on it. There were three couplets in total, and one could pass the test if he answered two of them correctly.
Ordinary couplets are not difficult and can be matched with a pair after some time. However, when Fang Yun took a look at these three, he thought to himself that this pair of couplets was really tricky, and was no less difficult than the one chosen by the semi-saint that day.
"I don't know which semi-saints came up with these questions and then just left them on the mountain of books. Whoever encounters them will be unlucky. It's hard for a semi-saint to ask a scholar questions, just like the hardest questions in asking for the words of a saint. Let's start with the first question. The first question is a palindrome, and it's a homophonic palindrome with the same pronunciation but different characters. It's the same even if you read it backwards. How hard is this mountain of books!"
Xiushan has beautiful green mountains with light rain.
Fang Yun looked at the people in the second pavilion again and found that the two men had been constantly gesturing at the paper, thinking about the second line of the couplet. He looked down again and saw that thousands of people were crowded in the first pavilion.
"No. It was said before that half of the people who climbed the Book Mountain could reach the first pavilion, but how come less than 20% of them can go up now? Is the strange wind this year particularly strong?"
Fang Yun didn't think any more about it, and soon wrote the second couplet on the paper.
Xiushan has beautiful green mountains with light rain.
The cedar wind blows the ancient cedar fragrance.
After finishing writing, Fang Yun continued to look at the second couplet.
Undress me and give me food.
"This is the content of the "Historical Records Biography of Huaiyin Marquis". Han Xin said that Liu Bang gave him his own clothes to wear and his own food to eat, and he was very grateful to Liu Bang. If you use the content of a famous book as the first couplet, you must use the content of a famous book as the second couplet. This is a collection of sentences. It is easy to find. I guess those disciples of wealthy families are good at this. They read a lot of miscellaneous books."
Fang Yun thought for a moment, and it seemed that there was no sentence that could be used as the second couplet in the holy books he memorized. Since it was a collection of couplets, it couldn't be too unknown. The second couplet had to be the work of a great scholar. Now he quickly read the works of the great scholar and looked for a sentence that could be used as the second couplet.
It took Fang Yun half an hour to find a sentence that could be used as a couplet from "Shuo Yuan" by Liu Xiang, a great Confucian scholar in the Han Dynasty, and then he wrote the second line.
Take off your clothes and clothe me; give me food and feed me.
Spring breeze blows people, and summer rain rains people.
The words "clothing", "food", "wind" and "rain" in the two couplets are all nouns used as verbs, which can be said to be a clever couplet.
Fang Yun looked up and saw that there were four more people in the Second Pavilion, all of them were from the Saints' Families. Then he turned around and saw that the people in the First Pavilion had hardly changed.
"Strange! The Book Mountain is really strange this year. Logically, this shouldn't happen. It is said that there is a trace of Confucius' thoughts on the Book Mountain. If you pass the ninth Book Mountain, you will be accepted as a disciple and become a direct disciple of Confucius. It's okay for the descendants of other saints, but if the descendants of Confucius' disciples see someone who has passed the ninth mountain, they will probably call him their master. It's a pity that the Book Mountain has restrictions on the level of literature. Those who are too high cannot enter, and those who are too low are not good enough. I don't know which mountain I can reach in the end."
Fang Yun continued to look at the third couplet.
Fish swim in the stone hole, the autumn river is cold
At first glance, there's nothing special.
"The first one is a homophonic palindrome and a collection of sentences. This couplet can't be that simple. What kind of strange couplet is it? It's not a palindrome, not an embedded word, not a split word, not a hidden word, and it has nothing to do with classics, history or poetry. What is it?"
After thinking for a while, Fang Yun suddenly realized.
"These seven characters are actually surnames! If you think this is a couplet that is meant to be a study of artistic conception, you will be fooled. Once you have determined the answer, there is no way to regret it."
So Fang Yun began to look for the surnames in Qishu Tiandi. Since Qishu Tiandi's thinking was faster, he quickly came up with a couplet.
Fishes swim in the stone holes in the cold autumn river.
Cypress trees grow in dense forests and high mountains in summer.
A fish is in the river and a tree is on the mountain, which is very neat.
"Huh..."
Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief and looked up. There were already more than twenty people in the second pavilion, but the first pavilion was still crowded. Not to mention the people at the foot of the mountain. Thousands of people were staring at the single-plank bridge and dared not approach. They could only endure the strange wind blowing, but they were reluctant to leave. After all, there were benefits to staying in the Book Mountain.
"This year's Shangshushan is such a tragedy. I don't know how many people will scold the examiners, although in fact it has little to do with the examiners. I don't know who the culprit is. If I knew, I would scold him too!" Fang Yun shook his head, rechecked the answer, and then silently recited in his mind to complete it.
The second pavilion emitted a white light that no one else could see and it fell on Fang Yun.
This time the white light was denser than before. Fang Yun felt warm, as if his whole body was melting. His talent increased again, and the increased talent did not have any hidden dangers. It was as solid as the talent he had gained through slow cultivation, as if it were a gift from heaven.
"The extent of the enhancement of literary courage is even greater. No wonder the disciples of the saintly families will try to form a vortex of literary courage before climbing the Book Mountain." Fang Yun couldn't help but think of Yan Yukong's literary courage. Once it was released, the grass and trees were crushed to pieces, but there was no murderous intent or aggressiveness.
Fang Yun slowly walked towards the attic of the second pavilion and climbed towards the third pavilion.
The scholars in front of the second pavilion raised their heads one after another, looking at Fang Yun's back, speechless. Some of them kept blinking, trying to make sure they were not mistaken.
These scholars all knew the difficulty of these three couplets. With their knowledge, they could definitely answer them correctly as long as they had enough time, but the problem was that it took too long.
But why is Fang Yun so fast
Everyone looked at Fang Yun silently, then looked at each other silently, and lowered their heads to continue thinking.
A scholar muttered quietly: "If anyone dares to say that poor children don't read enough books in the future, I will not ask the emperor to judge, but Fang Yun to teach him a lesson! I hope he gets stuck in the third pavilion, so that we still have a chance to catch up."
No one heard what he said, but he knew that everyone was feeling depressed.
People on the mountain cannot speak, but people below the mountain can.
"Look, Fang Yun is climbing up the third hill! Haha. Who said that there is no one among us poor family students?" Someone pointed at Fang Yun's back and shouted.
Everyone at the foot of the mountain looked at Fang Yun together.
"No wonder he can kill people with just a single move. This Fang Yun is really amazing."
"Maybe the questions in this year's Shushan exam are easy."
"Look at those disciples of the Saints' Families. Some of them have greater potential than the four talented people at the bottom of the rankings. Do you believe what you said?"
That person shut up. Now many people have noticed the changes in the Ten Kingdoms. With the continuous accumulation of talent, the number of saints' classics has continued to increase. The number of scholars in the human race has expanded, and there are more and more geniuses, and the Saint Academy is also increasing the number of admissions. The doubling of the number of scholars this year is certainly due to the five movements of Wenqu, but it is inseparable from the accumulation of the human race.
People like Yi Zhishi, Lu Huaijiang, Yan Yukong, Li Wenying and so on would have become famous figures even in the time of Confucius. In the past, only one would emerge every few decades, but now there are several at a time.
"Perhaps this is the era of the revival of our human race."
"The human race got rid of ignorance with King Wen and rose to prominence with Confucius. But I don't know who will be the leader of the revival of our human race."
Inside the Hall of Saints, the three semi-saint examiners looked at the light spot representing Fang Yun in the shadow of the Nine Mountains without saying a word.
In the virtual shadows of the Nine Mountains, the brightness of the light representing Fang Yun increased again, from two times at the beginning to three times.
After a long while, one person said, "Even if all three couplets are correct, it can't double the light. It must be because his couplets are too wonderful."
"If he passes through the three mountains in a perfect manner, he might be able to obtain the legendary top-grade 'writing quickly' literary mind. People like Yi Zhishi have never had a literary mind that reaches the top grade. They only have a chance when they are canonized."
"This is the first time I'm so excited about a scholar going to the mountain of books."
"Do you want to send a message with a snap of your fingers and tell the other semi-saints that they may not pay attention to the scholar going to the book mountain." Mi Fengdian said with a smile.
"Wait a minute, it won't be too late until Fang Yun has climbed the second mountain perfectly."
As soon as he finished speaking, the three semi-saints suddenly looked up and saw a white-haired old man appear at the door of the Temple of All Saints. The man was so thin that his bones were just visible, as if he was about to die. He walked slowly towards them, staggering with every step.
The three semi-saint examiners stood up immediately.
"Mr. Wang." The youngest Mi Fengdian said immediately.
"Brother Jinglong." said the older semi-saint.
"Master Dong Sheng."
The three of them looked serious. Wang Jinglong looked old and weak, and extremely thin, but everyone knew that he became like this because of the life-and-death battle with the demon clan semi-saint. In fact, he was a person with a very hot temper. It was his anger that turned the winter snow yesterday. Other semi-saints were not that angry.
Legend has it that when Wang Jinglong was born, there was a faint sound of a dragon saint howling in the sky, as if it was frightened, so his parents gave him this name.
But the old dragon from the East China Sea would always fight with him whenever he saw him.
Wang Jinglong was holding a teapot in his left hand and leaning on a cane in his right hand, walking slowly. It was hard to imagine that he was a man with a hot temper.
"I'm not busy with the affairs of the East Saint Pavilion. I came to see how my useless young man is doing."
The three semi-saints knew very well that every semi-saint could communicate with the Holy Academy and obtain the Nine Mountains Virtual Image like the three of them, but they were ultimately not as good as those of the Holy Temples. It was obvious that Wang Jinglong did not come for his descendants, but for Fang Yun.
The semi-saints or those who have been canonized as the Four Saints have the highest status in the Holy House.
The Eastern Saint resides in the Holy Court, the Western Saint sits in the Two Worlds Mountain, the Southern Saint plays around in the human world, and the Northern Saint disguises himself as a demon and stirs up civil strife among the demons in the demon world.
In the current Shengyuan Continent, Wang Jinglong holds all the power and is also the most powerful person.
The fact that he came here in person shows that the importance of this Scholar Book Mountain is even greater than that of the Juren Book Mountain in previous years. He may even be using his actions to warn all the Semi-Saints.
Keep a check on your own juniors who want to make things difficult for Fang Yun!
If you can’t control it, don’t blame Wang Jinglong!
. (To be continued..)