The Path of the Sage

Chapter 119: dictation

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Mi Fengdian looked at Wang Jinglong who was approaching slowly and said, "Since Lord Dong Sheng is here, we should use the finger snapping to transmit the message."

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

A strange look flashed in the eyes of the three semi-saint examiners, and they were slightly shocked, but they did not say anything and continued to look at the phantoms of the nine mountains of books.

Under the gaze of everyone, Fang Yun slowly stepped onto the third pavilion.

dictation.

Fang Yun was looking at the two simple words on the plaque and was just guessing what the test would be like when he suddenly heard the chirping of insects and birds, the ups and downs of which were quite pleasant to the ear.

An old man with white hair and beard appeared ten feet in front of Fang Yun. The old man was tall and thin, with a bright look in his eyes.

"I say, you write. Finish in 25 minutes, and make no more than five mistakes. You have three chances."

"Yes, elder." Fang Yun bowed politely.

The sounds of insects and birds chirping did not end yet.

Fang Yun immediately understood that this was a test of a person's attention, memory, concentration, and discernment, etc. When one was talking on paper or speaking eloquently, one was most likely to be disturbed by the outside world. Any accident could lead to failure and thus death.

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

"Boom..."

A bolt of lightning suddenly appeared in the sky and landed right between Fang Yun and the old man. Fang Yun subconsciously stepped back to avoid it. The dazzling light made Fang Yun's eyes hurt slightly and he had to squint. Thunder exploded at the same time, making Fang Yun's ears buzz.

The lightning and thunder came too suddenly. No one could have expected that a bolt of lightning would appear out of nowhere at this time. However, the lightning itself was not enough to shock Fang Yun.

What shocked Fang Yun was that the old man opened his mouth at the same time as the thunder and lightning appeared. When the thunder stopped, Fang Yun only heard one word.

“… Virtue.”

Fang Yun was so angry that he almost spat out blood. The person who set the question was so shameless. There was no clue at all. This was not dictation, it was just a joke! There were too many sentences ending with "德" in the classics of the saints. How could it be possible to guess it!

However, the old man ignored Fang Yun, looked up at the sky, and said the second sentence: "Do the villains have the same words? A gentleman must pay attention to it."

Fang Yun did not dare to think too much, and hurriedly left a blank line and wrote the second sentence first. This was Yan Zi's words in "Confucius's Family Sayings". Fang Yun remembered it very clearly and wrote it down immediately. At the same time, he was unwilling to give up, guessing what the sentence was.

The old man barely paused as he continued with the third sentence: "When a bird is about to die, its cry is sad; when a person is about to die, his words are kind." During this time, there was a sudden sound of howling wind and the sound of wind blowing leaves around. Together with the chirping of insects and birds, it made people feel irritated.

Fang Yun cleared his mind and picked up his pen to write. The third sentence was a saying of Zengzi and was widely circulated.

Then. The old man spoke one sentence at a time, his speaking speed remained constant, and the increasingly loud and numerous noises around him did not affect the old man at all.

In addition to the chirping of insects and birds at the beginning, the sound of wind and rain soon appeared. Then came the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs, which became louder and more complex.

Fang Yun once only slept two hours a day to study. With the help of Wendan, he was able to enhance his self-control and was basically unaffected. He could not only continue to write, but also think about the first sentence unwillingly.

"What exactly is that sentence? There are so many holy scriptures that end with "德" that I can't guess it at all!"

"Even if there are a mountain of books, it's impossible to come up with a question that can be answered by guessing. There must be some technique that I don't know."

Qishu Tiandi remained motionless, and the opponent's luck was of no help at all.

"Recalling, that's right! I couldn't hear the first sentence, but I heard the next five sentences. They were the words of Yan Zi, Zeng Zi, Xun Zi, Zi Si Zi and King Wen of Zhou, five sub-sages in total. The seventh sentence was the words of the semi-sage Han Fei Zi, and the ones after that were all the words of the semi-sages. So the first sentence is most likely the words of the sub-sage Mencius."

"Mencius said that there are too many sentences ending with the word 'virtue'. For example, 'Aim at the Way, rely on virtue', 'and with the virtue of King Wen', 'Respect the virtuous and cultivate talents to show the virtuous', etc., etc., and there is still a second screening! How to judge it?"

Fang Yun continued to think and dictate at the same time. Although there was more and more noise, he was able to write down every word without missing a word.

After a while, Fang Yun finally got some clues.

"Speed! Pauses! I get it! His speaking speed has not changed from beginning to end, and even the pauses between each sentence are the same! Although I didn't hear him clearly, I saw the time when he opened his mouth and remembered the time when he closed his mouth, so I knew how many words there were in the sentence. I definitely have a chance to guess it!" Fang Yun was overjoyed.

So Fang Yun first recalled all the words Mencius had said that ended with the word "德", and then judged based on the old man's speaking speed that the sentence should be between twelve and fourteen words, and finally removed all the sentences that did not have enough words.

Then, Fang Yun tried them one by one, and finally found that the sentence "Qiu was the chief of Ji family, and was unable to change his virtue" was most appropriate to the old man's speaking speed, and these were the first two sentences of the whole sentence. If you were not careful when punctuating the sentence, you would miss this sentence.

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

After just a dozen breaths, the old man's speaking speed suddenly increased, much faster than before.

The surrounding sounds are also constantly superimposed, and in addition to natural sounds, human voices begin to be added.

"Selling buns! Big buns with lots of fillings and thin skins!"

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

"Sir, please come upstairs and have a seat. Our Hongxiuzhao courtesan is free today."

"Selling Zongzi..."

Fang Yun immediately felt the pressure doubled. Those natural sounds had no meaning to him, but those human voices were different, and they were very relevant to people's lives. They would inevitably make people involuntarily understand the meaning of those words, and even various foods would appear in front of their eyes, which would inevitably occupy more of their mind.

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

Fang Yun discovered that the old man started to accelerate after exactly a quarter of an hour. Fine beads of illusory sweat appeared on his forehead. He secretly felt lucky that he had thought of the solution a quarter of an hour ago. If he had thought of the solution a quarter of an hour later, it would be of no use at all, because if he were to distract himself and think about it now, he would definitely make mistakes.

"That thunder at the beginning is not only a test, but also a trap! If you don't think about it and insist on only writing the latter part, as long as one is good, you can still pass the third pavilion. But if you can't bear to give up the first sentence, it will most likely distract you and lead to a complete failure."

"This is not only a test of our abilities, but also a test of our choices! If we really encounter a powerful enemy, we should not think about killing the enemy, but should run away and wait until we survive before thinking about revenge!"

After Fang Yun finished the first sentence, he no longer had any worries in his heart and focused on dealing with the following dictation.

With only a hundred breaths left, the old man's speech speed increased again, and the sound of battlefield was added to his voice.

The sound of drums, shouts of killing, the sound of weapons chopping at the bodies of the demons, a large number of scholars speaking eloquently, and many demons using sorcery. The wails of the soldiers and the shouts of the demon soldiers kept echoing in Fang Yun's ears.

"Kill the monster! Kill the monster and avenge me!"

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

"Help me, 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 suddenly extremely glad that he had gone to kill monsters when he was a boy. If he had not experienced the scene of hundreds of soldiers dying and had not seen the monsters eating people with his own eyes, his mind would definitely be shaken by these sounds.

"The longer I persist, the higher I climb, and the more demons and barbarians I will kill in the future! It's not that I'm cold-blooded, but I'm accumulating strength to kill demons and barbarians! No one can stop my holy path!"

Fang Yun's mind was highly concentrated, and Wen Dan was driven by his spirit, forming an invisible force that enveloped the surroundings, weakening those sounds as much as possible.

After half an hour, the old man stopped, and after a few breaths, Fang Yun finished writing the last stroke.

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

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

"The white light of this Book Mountain is beneficial to everyone and has no side effects. It is very likely related to the talent of Wenquxing or Confucius. Although there are nine mountains in the Book Mountain, only the first three mountains have three pavilions each. From the fourth mountain onwards, there is only one test per mountain. Starting from the fourth mountain, you may get more baptisms. If you get them, my literary courage will probably be infinitely close to Yan Yukong's realm. It's a pity that the Book Mountain is so difficult this time. It is almost impossible for me to reach it. I won't think too much about it."

After the third baptism of white light, Fang Yun's literary palace, talent, and literary courage were enhanced again, but the mental fatigue could not disappear immediately, so he did not go up immediately, but sat on the ground and silently read "The Analects" to conserve his energy and prepare for the next second mountain.

Fang Yun felt a little worried. The difficulty of this mountain of books exceeded his original estimation. Fang Yun even suspected that if Shi Dehong, the disciple of Shi Jun during his scholar period, appeared here, he would not be able to pass even the first mountain and three pavilions. The dictation test in the third pavilion was too weird. With Shi Dehong's personality, it was impossible for him to miss the first sentence.

Fang Yun rested for a full hour before he felt his energy restored. When he opened his eyes, he saw that there were already three disciples from the Saints Family in the third pavilion.

"They are worthy of being disciples of the Saints' Family. However, looking at them like this, it doesn't seem good." Fang Yun looked at the three people.

None of the three were writing, but were sitting on the ground with sad faces. Fang Yun guessed that they had taken the exam once and failed, and were stalling for time to think of countermeasures.

Fang Yun sighed inwardly. This kind of exam would not allow anyone to take shortcuts. The longer these people dragged on, the harder the questions that followed would be.

At this time, a scholar from a semi-saint family raised his head, saw Fang Yun also sitting on the ground, and sighed, with a feeling of sympathy.

Another scholar also looked over and gave Fang Yun an encouraging look. Fang Yun thought to himself that this man was a true gentleman. He nodded and returned the encouraging look, then walked through the third pavilion and headed towards the second mountain.

The three scholars who stayed in the third pavilion were suddenly petrified by witchcraft and stood there motionless.

One of the scholars said something unknown, then made a gesture of wiping his tears. When the other two scholars saw this, they really felt like crying.

A poor kid actually left all the elites of the semi-saint families behind. The reality is too cruel. The elders and books in the family don’t say that! (To be continued...)

ps: Due to writer's block, the second update will be delayed and will be updated around 22:00. Sorry.

But the third update will definitely be completed in the second half of the night!