At noon, Fang Yun and Li Wenying went to the Confucius Academy.
Fang Yun didn't expect that after getting off the bus at a street near the Confucius Palace, Li Wenying took him through the streets and alleys, to a food street, and then tasted the delicacies of this street.
Li Wenying was no longer the powerful sword-browed man, but like an old man who was nostalgic. He not only took Fang Yun to eat, but also talked about his studies in the Confucius Academy and the Holy Academy. There was no preaching, just like an old man introducing everything here to the younger generation.
"The original owner of this noodle shop was a fat man, and the portions were very generous."
"Look at this slab of stone. It is said to be more than 500 years old and still very strong."
"How about the words on this plaque? I wrote them when I was a Jinshi."
"Look at that lady selling tofu pudding. I once gave her a love poem. Sigh..."
"Oh, Mr. Zhou, you're still here? Why don't you go home and retire?"
Along the way, Li Wenying occasionally chatted with his old acquaintances. Those people treated him the same as they did back then, saying what they should say and laughing and scolding him without any hesitation when necessary. They even revealed his embarrassing past experiences in front of Fang Yun.
However, Fang Yun discovered that Li Wenying was nostalgic, as if there was something special hidden in his heart.
Fang Yun and Li Wenying ate a lot of delicious food on this street before heading to the Confucius Academy.
Li Wenying said as he walked, "I can't remember what the Shushan test is about, but I know a thing or two about other holy places. For example, the Eight Dou Wen Hall, which is unique to the Confucius Mansion, not only tests combat ability, but also emphasizes strategy, while the Sea of Learning emphasizes talent, and the Holy Tower emphasizes perception. However, holy places such as the Holy Ruins and Denglongtai, which are closely related to the demon clan and the dragon clan, are dangerous. If you are not strong enough, you will die even if you enter, so a Holy Ruins Road is arranged for the final screening."
"Of course." Fang Yun said.
"There are many secrets in the Holy Ruins, but saving your life is the most important thing. Don't lose your life for some treasure..."
Li Wenying gave some more instructions and Fang Yun listened carefully.
The two entered the Confucius Academy and walked for a long time before they came to a villa called Renyong. Fang Yun heard the name and guessed that it should be a quote from "The Analects of Confucius": "A benevolent man must be brave, but a brave man need not be benevolent."
This villa, like the other villas, is very large, like a small square, with a flat stone floor.
At the innermost part, there is a row of tall Wen Halls, full of ancient style, as if they were built during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Standing at the entrance of the Wen Hall are more than a dozen old Confucian scholars, among whom is Confucius, who I met at the Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday. These dozen people are chatting in low voices, occasionally looking at the crowd opposite them.
There seemed to be an invisible line in the courtyard dividing the crowd into two parts.
The first group of people were very close to the entrance of Wendian. They were either wearing scholar's clothes or juren's clothes.
Another group of people were standing more than ten feet away, wearing clothes from various countries, and seemed to be here to see someone off just like Li Wenying.
Fang Yun knew that the other people from Jingguo who participated in the Holy Ruins would travel together and take a ship to Kongcheng. He looked around, but there were too many people and they were all hiding from him. He couldn't find anyone from Jingguo.
The two walked into the crowd, and Li Wenying said, "Go in, I believe you can pass smoothly."
"The student bids farewell." Fang Yun said, walking towards the crowd.
Fang Yun walked and looked at the thousands of people in front of him. He found that there were many mechanical beasts or small spiritual beasts in the crowd. Mechanical beasts and spiritual beasts were their companions and would also encounter dangers in the Holy Ruins. If they were to be brought into the Holy Ruins, they would have to pass through the Holy Ruins Road.
The most eye-catching one was a huge mechanical elephant, more than ten feet tall, covered in black iron armor. It looked very much like a normal war elephant, but if it weren't for its two sharp metal spikes, no one would have noticed that it was a mechanical elephant.
A young man who looked less than 20 years old sat cross-legged on the mechanical elephant with his eyes closed.
"A mere juren can own such a large mechanical elephant, and such a large mechanical elephant must be loaded with Yinjiang shells. The owner of the war elephant should be an important figure in the Mohist school. The value and power of this war elephant far exceeds any jinshi's literary treasures, and it is probably comparable to the Hanlin literary treasures."
Afterwards, Fang Yun took a quick look and found that many of them had very special temperaments, some were flamboyant, some were indifferent, and some were unrestrained, but they always managed to attract people's attention.
Before Fang Yun could get close, he saw Li Fanming and a dozen other people hurrying to greet him. Qiu Chi, the scholar from Qi State, was the most enthusiastic. He strode over and said, "Fang Yun, we have been waiting for you for a long time. Many people were discussing the three poems you wrote last night. Now that I think about it, it was a great honor to witness them with my own eyes last night."
Li Fanming looked at Qiu Chi helplessly, knowing that he was trying to curry favor with Fang Yun, but since they were all friends, he couldn't tell the truth.
"Brother Qiu, you're too polite." Fang Yun said as he looked at Li Fanming curiously. He saw that he was slightly hunching his back with two animal claws on his shoulders. He didn't know what he was carrying behind him.
Fang Yun was just wondering if it was the stupid rabbit that Li Fanming had mentioned yesterday, when he saw two rabbit ears rising from behind Li Fanming, followed by a chubby rabbit head. The rabbit's eyes were very smart, and it looked at Fang Yun curiously for a few times, then retracted its eyes and patted Li Fanming's right shoulder with its right paw.
Li Fanming showed a helpless look, reached out and touched Hanhubei, a carrot appeared in his hand, and he passed it behind him. The rabbit fell off him, squatted behind him, held the carrot with its two front paws and slowly ate it, making a crisp sound.
After seeing the full picture of the rabbit, Fang Yun realized that this rabbit was twice as big as an ordinary rabbit and was extremely fat, as if it was inflated.
"This... is your family's spiritual beast?" Fang Yun couldn't help but compare the rabbit with Nunu, but soon realized that it was better not to compare them.
Li Fanming looked ashamed and said, "Alas, it was fine before. It was very cute and well-behaved when it was young, and very capable. But I don't know what happened. It suddenly ate and drank like crazy this year, and grew up to be ugly. It is also very lazy. If I teach it a lesson, it will just pretend to be dead. For the sake of the Holy Ruins, I can only feed it well. The veterinarians don't understand it either. Now it doesn't even want to walk a few more steps. It either sits in a carriage or I carry it on my back. Alas, I have raised it for so many years, and I have feelings for it. I will just leave it alone. Alas..."
The rabbit snorted a few times to express its dissatisfaction and continued to eat the carrot.
Fang Yun often interacted with Nunu. He looked at the rabbit and asked Li Fanming, "Have you ever talked about the Holy Ruins with others in front of it?"
Li Fanming was stunned, and the rabbit immediately turned its head and looked at Fang Yun vigilantly.
"Now that you mention it, I remember that I did talk about the Holy Ruins in front of it. It changed drastically not long after that." Li Fanming said.
"That's it. It's afraid of dying in the Holy Ruins, so it eats more before it dies. There will be nothing to eat after it dies." Fang Yun said.
The carrot fell to the ground with a thud. The big rabbit opened its mouth wide and looked at Fang Yun. Then, with tears in its eyes, it trotted a few steps and rushed to Fang Yun. It hugged Fang Yun's legs and raised its head, extremely excited, as if to say: You understand me! You are the only one in the world who understands me!
Fang Yun couldn't help laughing. He knew at a glance that he was a lazy rabbit, and said to the rabbit: "In fact, you can't bear to leave Fan Ming, otherwise you would have run away long ago, otherwise you wouldn't stay with him even though you knew that Shengxu was dangerous."
The rabbit was shocked at first, it didn't expect that there was someone in the world who could understand it so well. Then it touched its tears with its paws aggrievedly, showing an expression of being moved that no one cared about its misery but now someone knows about it.
Li Fanming felt bad and sighed, "Forget it, if you are scared, just go home. If you don't want to stay at home, you can go outside. I won't stop you anyway."
The big rabbit wiped away his tears and raised his head. He looked at Fang Yun reluctantly, then walked to Li Fanming reluctantly, indicating that he would not leave.
Li Fanming was so angry that he laughed and asked, "Why? Do you think Fang Yun is better than me?"
The big rabbit didn't even think about it. He nodded immediately, then looked at Li Fanming with a squint and pouted. It seemed to be saying that you don't know why I have changed after so long, and you don't care about me at all!
Li Fanming pointed at the big rabbit and said, "Look at this beast, how can you raise it? It's like a boss!"
The big rabbit rolled its eyes at Li Fanming, picked up the carrot on the ground, wiped it, and was about to put it in its mouth, but then it blinked and handed the carrot to Fang Yun, as if asking: Do you want to eat it
Li Fanming rolled his eyes in anger and said, "You're a traitor! You're a heartless rabbit!" Everyone laughed.
Fang Yun smiled and declined, "Thank you, you can eat it."
The big rabbit nodded, then glanced at Li Fanming and slowly began to eat, making a crunching sound in his mouth.
Qiu Chi said with a smile: "What a clever rabbit! It's a spiritual animal. We don't even have one. What else are you not satisfied with?"
Li Fanming said helplessly: "Let's go, we will start walking on the Holy Ruins Road in a quarter of an hour."
There are at least four to five thousand people who want to participate in the Holy Ruins Road, and most of them are standing here at the moment.
Fang Yun took a quick look and saw that there were too many people. He couldn't see anyone he knew, such as Yan Yukong and Liu Zizhi.
Only a few people were as relaxed as Fang Yun and the others. Most people were a little excited and hoped that they could pass through the Holy Ruins Road. The Holy Ruins were too famous and there were too many benefits in them. As long as they could leave the Holy Ruins alive, they would definitely achieve something.
People came one after another. A quarter of an hour later, a Hanlin at the entrance of the Wendian said, "The Holy Ruins Road is composed of Weak Water, Strange Wind, and Changing Mist. Among the Juren, the first eighty who pass through the Holy Ruins will be qualified to enter the Holy Ruins. Among the Xiucai, regardless of whether they pass through the Holy Ruins Road or not, the first twenty who walk the farthest will be qualified to enter the Holy Ruins. In addition, the faster you pass, the more Moonlight you will get when you enter the Holy Ruins later. The first ten will get an extra double, the first twenty will get 50%, the first thirty will get 20%, and there will be no extra gains after the thirty."
There was some commotion in the crowd, because there was no mention of rewarding Yuehua on the Holy Ruins Road before. It seems that this time the Holy Ruins Road is really different from the past, and they must fight for it with all their strength.
The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became tense. People were fighting not only for the top 100, but also for the top 30, and even the top 10!
Li Fanming whispered, "Among the top ten, the Kong family and the six sub-sage families account for at least seven, and the remaining three candidates are basically those talented candidates, Yan Yukong, Feng Yang and others. You must have heard of their names. By the way, it seems that you and Yan Yukong had a conflict at the Dragon Boat Festival? But he was very generous and praised you many times, saying that his poetry was far inferior to yours, and he did not slander you like other Qing people did."
"Well, Yan Yukong is different from those Qing people. He didn't bear a grudge against me for losing to him at the Dragon Boat Festival. His literary courage has reached the first level and he can enter the second level at any time. I'm afraid he is the best in the Shengxu Road this time." Fang Yun said. (To be continued...)