Whether they were old men in their seventies or eighties or children of a few years old, whether they were women or unmarried girls, whether they were scholars or illiterate people, at this moment they all gathered behind Fang Yun and moved forward in a mighty manner.
Fang Yun was like their spiritual pillar and the brightest star of literature in the dark night, leading them to the gate of the Academy of Literature.
At the entrance of the Academy of Literature, the police had cordoned off a large open space with cloth strips as a fighting arena. More than a dozen police officers were guarding the open space, which was covered in blood.
Inside the arena, four juren and five xiucai from Qing State sat on chairs, and opposite them sat some officials from Jing State. Every official had a gloomy face, and among them, Feng Yuanjun from the Prefecture's Academy of Literature had the worst expression.
Outside the fighting arena, a scholar from Jingguo was being supported by several people. He was wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was a large pool of blood on the ground in front of him.
An arrogant voice came from the side door of the Academy of Literature.
"Hahaha, you idiots from Jing, are you here to die? Idiots! People of Jing, as long as you all kneel down in front of us and kowtow and beg for mercy, saying that Jing is not as good as Qing, we will spare you."
"What are you looking at? But you are still human beings. Fang Yun, that coward, has not dared to come yet. He is even worse than you. What? Are you angry? I am Feng Shaoyu of Qing State. Come and fight me if you are not convinced!"
Among the nine scholars from Qing Kingdom, except for two who were smiling, most of them had no expression on their faces. However, two of them frowned and were very dissatisfied with what Feng Shaoyu said.
Fang Yun understood after listening halfway that Feng Shaoyu was probably a strategist. Sometimes he was very eloquent and could say the dead were alive and the living were dead. But when necessary, such as when two countries were negotiating or challenging each other, he would use various methods to provoke the other party to gain the greatest benefit.
Moreover, the words of the diplomats carry the power of literary courage and talent, which can easily deceive or anger others.
Everyone present knew that Feng Shaoyu was extremely arrogant on the surface. In fact, everything he did was to lure out Fang Yun, and he could never be so arrogant. But even though they knew he was like this, many people still couldn't help themselves.
"Feng Shaoyu, right? I'm here to hit you!" Fang Yun said as he walked forward.
The officials hurriedly stood up and looked at Fang Yun with surprise and joy.
"Who are you?" Feng Shaoyu had a look of disdain on his face, but his eyes were extremely alert, and he was obviously not as arrogant as he appeared.
"Jingguo Fangyun!"
Fang Yun said this and walked towards the arena surrounded by officers.
All nine Qing people stood up, but Feng Shaoyu was not angry at all. Instead, he showed a hint of satisfaction that his evil plan had succeeded.
"Hahaha. Fang Yun, no matter how talented you are in writing, weren't you lured out by me?" Feng Shaoyu continued to sneer.
Fang Yun said calmly: "No matter what you say, it won't anger me. As for the fact that you led me out, I believe that when I beat you, you will regret it immensely."
"Haha! Hit me? Fine, as long as you beat me in a literary duel, I'll let you hit me! I'd be fine even if you beat me to death! But, I'm Feng Shaoyu, the top scholar in a state, and you have to be better than a scholar to be qualified to compete with me. Don't blame me for being ruthless when the time comes!"
At the end, Feng Shaoyu's eyes suddenly became sharp.
Fang Yun said: "Well, let me see how cruel and ruthless you are first, and then I will beat you." As he said that, Fang Yun looked at the nine people from Qing country.
"The scholar from Qing country. Who will challenge me in a literary duel first?" Fang Yun straightened his body and raised his chin slightly. An aura as sharp as a sword blade emanated from his body, stinging the eyes of everyone from Qing country slightly.
The people of Qing were secretly shocked. They guessed that it was because of Fang Yun's talent or Wen Gong's power that the leaked aura formed a real deterrent.
A young man in black came over and bowed to Fang Yun. He said, "Fang Maocai, everyone serves their own master, and I have to repay my gratitude, so I have to participate in the literary duel. I hope you can forgive me if I have offended you."
"Someone from the Xi family?" Fang Yun asked.
"Xi Molu."
"You want to tarnish the Xi family with your despicable behavior?"
"Fang Maocai, you misunderstood. I didn't come here to target you. I just came to help my friend from Qing Kingdom. Don't worry, I won't take action against you and I won't tarnish the name of the Xi family." Xi Molu said.
Fang Yun sneered and said, "The people of Qing insulted the innocent women of Jing, and you didn't take action. In order to annex Jing, Qing suppressed Jing for more than ten years, and you didn't take action. Our country clearly shed blood and tears and was full of anger to fight against the barbarians, but you didn't take action! Now, you, Qing, bully the people of Jing, and you take action! If your dispute with us is about the Saint Path, and it concerns the foundation of a family's Saint Path, I won't say a word. But you, a disciple of a semi-saint family, come to bully and hurt the people of Jing. How can you have the face to say that you won't take action now! You don't take action? I will take action!"
Xi Molu was both ashamed and annoyed. He was ashamed because he really shouldn't have come to Jing Kingdom, because the Semi-saint families seldom participated in the literary battles between the two countries. They either plotted behind the scenes or argued with other Semi-saint families in the Saint Academy. He was annoyed because he was a descendant of a Semi-saint family after all, and had never been humiliated like this, especially when the other party was from a poor family.
Fang Yun paused for a moment and looked at the ten people from Qing country seriously. His eyes became brighter than the Wenqu Star in the sky. There was a sense of magnanimity as if he was illuminating the world with his talent. Then he slowly uttered words that shocked the whole audience.
"I want to let the world know that the people of Jing can be defeated, but not humiliated! Therefore, I will let the ten of you be defeated here one by one, to wash away the shame suffered by Jing. When I become a juren, I will personally cross the river and fight against the Qing Kingdom! When I become a jinshi, I will fight against ten prefectures and seize a state from the Qing Kingdom! I want to let all the scum of the human race know that you can't afford the price of insulting me, and you will also be recorded in history books and become a laughing stock for generations! Only in this way can I hurt you, and only in this way can I make you scums dare not fight among yourselves!"
"You..." Feng Shaoyu was about to speak when Fang Yun interrupted him immediately.
"Shut up! Aren't you Feng Shaoyu of Qing State? It's enough that you got beaten! Which scholar will come first? What are you competing for? You tell me!" Fang Yun's eyes fell on the five scholars.
The five scholars were all older than Fang Yun, and were all top talents in the prefecture. However, they were completely suppressed by Fang Yun's aura at the moment, and no one dared to speak.
Xi Molu stared at Fang Yun. He didn't expect Fang Yun to be so fearless and make such a great vow. Once he made some achievements in the "Holy Way of Courage" in the future, he would surely make rapid progress and no one would be able to stop him.
What he didn't expect was that Fang Yun not only dared to fight a country with literature, but also wanted to fight a state with literature. Even the scholars of Lu State, the leader of the ten countries now, found it difficult to fight a state with literature, and could only slowly annex one prefecture at a time.
There was silence in front of the Academy for a moment, and then a scholar from the Qing Kingdom stepped forward, bowed to Fang Yun, and said, "You and I are both scholars, neither of us has literary courage, so we won't compete in literary courage. I know that your poetry is the best among the scholars from the ten countries, and I won't be stupid enough to compete with you in poetry. So, I want to compete with you in talent!"
Fang Yun looked calm and asked, "How many people from my Jing country did you injure and kill before?"
The scholar looked nervous and didn't dare to answer. Feng Yuanjun beside him immediately said, "He injured seven scholars from Jing State. One of them had his hands and feet cut off by his war poems. Two were unconscious and four were slightly injured."
Fang Yun nodded and said, "Then let's get started."
Feng Yuanjun held the official seal and said slowly: "Since it is a contest of talent in literature, I will explain the rules. I will use the official seal to mobilize talent from the Holy Temple and control the vitality of a piece of heaven and earth for you two to fight for. Each of you can only use one inch of talent at most. The more stable the literary palace is and the more condensed the talent is, the more vitality of heaven and earth you can control. The more vitality of heaven and earth you control, the stronger the vitality impact will be."
Fang Yun already knew the rules. This form of literary competition was originally a way for the Holy Academy to encourage everyone to consolidate their literary talent and condense their talents, in order to prevent students from neglecting their basics in pursuit of the quantity of talent, which would eventually lead to the collapse of their talents and the shattering of their literary talent when they reached a high level.
Feng Yuanjun paused for a moment and asked, "Do you two have any questions?"
"No doubt about it." The two answered together.
"Okay. I will preside over this literary duel on behalf of the Holy Temple. I will not be biased towards anyone. If you feel it is unfair, you can ask for a Holy Judge or appeal to the Holy Court. The vitality shock is extremely dangerous, and you two still have a chance to regret it."
The two looked at each other without saying anything.
The night wind blew, and everyone's clothes fluttered slightly. Everyone shut their mouths and watched Fang Yun's first literary duel quietly.
"In that case, let the literary duel begin!" Feng Yuanjun held up the official seal, which flew into the air and released a hemispherical transparent energy shield with a diameter of three meters, covering the two people inside.
Fang Yun and the scholar bowed to each other and then straightened their bodies.
The scholar said solemnly: "The Jing Kingdom has declined and has been defeated by the barbarians. Such a weak country is a shame to the human race. It is natural and just for our Qing Kingdom to accept the Jing Kingdom!"
After he gave his reasons, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew around the scholar, causing his clothes to rustle, and the wind tended to spread outwards.
Fang Yun said, "I'm fighting you just to defeat Feng Shaoyu!"
After Fang Yun finished speaking, the strong wind around the scholar suddenly dissipated and his clothes remained motionless.
Before everyone could react, there was a sharp sound of air explosion suddenly around Fang Yun, and a strong wind swept through. The scholar was seen as if hit by an invisible bull monster. His body flew backwards and hit the invisible shield with a bang. A sound of bone breaking was heard, and then he spit out blood from his mouth and fell along the shield, unconscious.
The whole place was silent. Fang Yun had clearly only been a scholar for less than three months, but the vital energy he could mobilize was at least three times that of the other party, which meant that the solidity of his talent and the stability of his literary palace were at least three times that of the other party.
Ever since the people of Qing set up the literary duel arena in front of the Academy of Literature, this is the first time that Jing has won, and won so cleanly.
"Good!" Fang Yun's classmates suddenly shouted.
"Fang Yun will win!"
"Fang Yun is invincible!"
The crowd around the Academy of Literature seemed to explode, roaring and cheering wildly, all the resentment erupting completely.
The faces of officials such as Feng Yuanjun had been dark for four or five days, but now they became extremely rosy. They wanted to remain serious, but they could not hide the smiles on their faces.
At this moment and in this place, the will of all the people of Jing seems to be integrated into one, and will never be defeated.
A flash of horror appeared in Feng Shaoyu's eyes, but he immediately returned to normal and laughed softly.
"No wonder the higher-ups couldn't wait to send us to fight with words, and even asked me to do everything I could! As expected! Fang Yun, you did what even Li Wenying couldn't do!"
. (To be continued..)