Fang Yun met Xun Long and walked towards Wen Dou's position.
Fang Yun was a little curious and didn't understand what Xun Long was trying to do since he was a Jinshi, not a Juren.
Xun Long was dressed in white swordsman uniform, tall and with a serious look. He put his hands behind his back like an old gentleman and said, "Fang Yun, I'll give you one last chance. If you withdraw from the literary duel today, my Xun family will call it a draw. We will write off the previous events and will no longer pursue your fault of crushing Xun Ye's literary courage. If you persist, this will be the place where you will be defeated!"
Fang Yun immediately said with a tongue that burst out like thunder: "Stop chattering like a nagging woman! If I have done anything wrong, there is the Kongcheng Criminal Department below, the Holy Court Criminal Palace in the middle, and the Saint above. Your Xun family has been saying that you suspect me. Have you reported it to the police, or do you dare to ask for a judgement from the Saint? Stop saying these nonsense that you don't even believe in. You just don't dare! If you insult me and break Xun Ye's literary courage again, I will ask for a judgement from the Saint immediately! In front of the people of Xizhou, dare you repeat what you just said!"
Xun Long glared at him and said, "How far do you want to go! The Xun family is a thousand-year-old family. No matter what you do, you have already offended the Xun family. As a scholar, how can you be so reckless! You can't even give in for the Sub-Sage Family, how can you talk about serving the human race!"
Some people frowned because Xun Long not only scolded Fang Yun, but also set a trap in his words.
Fang Yun responded coldly, "Let alone taking a step back for the sub-saint family, I can even take a step back for the half-saint family! But I want to ask, can Xun Ye, who watched someone die without helping, represent the sub-saint family, or can you, a Jinshi who shows off your lip service, represent the Xun family? The Xun family is not just your house, not just your current Xun family members, but also the Xun family heroes who have fought for the human race for generations, and the ancestors who have pursued the holy way for generations, the military merits, their spirit that will last forever, and Xunzi's holy way! Who among you can represent the Xun family! Who dares to represent the Xun family!"
"you… "
Fang Yun interrupted Xun Long's words: "If it is for the heroes of the Xun family, let alone taking one step back, I am willing to take ten thousand steps back. However, it is not the Xun family that insults me, slanders me and harms me, but some idiots like you who cannot distinguish right from wrong! You all know why Xun Ye's literary courage was broken, but you still pretend to investigate me. The real Xun family would not do such a thing! The old patriarch of the Xun family is still here. If he says that I, Fang Yun, am wrong and that I broke Xun Ye's literary courage, I will stop the literary fight immediately! The patriarch of the Xun family will not speak. You, the fake Xun family members who are under the guise of the Xun family, are simply embarrassing!"
"How dare you insult my Xun family!" Xun Long was furious.
"You brought this humiliation upon yourself!" Fang Yun looked at Xun Long calmly.
Xun Long took back his hands from behind his back, clenched his fists, and said, "I have one last question for you. Will you withdraw from this literary duel?"
"So much nonsense! Let the tenth candidate come. I'll leave after I win the literary duel." Fang Yun said.
"You can't win! The candidate for the tenth literary contest will arrive soon, and this contest must begin within a quarter of an hour. Do you have any objection?" Xun Long's tone was filled with strong confidence, but behind the confidence was a tremendous resentment.
"Nothing." Fang Yun knew that Xun Long must have some means, but at this moment he was no longer afraid.
Xun Long looked up at the sky. He looked at Wenqu Star and said, "Xun Long, the Jinshi, has the blood of Xun family, but he has nothing to repay. Fang Yun has repeatedly bullied our Xun family. Xun family has repeatedly tolerated him, but he is aggressive and wants to destroy our Xun family's thousand-year reputation by fighting a state with literature! Today, Xun Long, the Jinshi, apologizes to Wenqu Star. In order to wash away the stigma of our Xun family, I am willing to break my literary courage! Split the Wen Palace! Resign my literary position!"
The whole audience was in an uproar.
"are you crazy!"
"Mad! Mad!"
"He can become a Hanlin in one year at most!"
Afterwards, a crisp sound of the Jinshi Wendan breaking spread throughout the venue, mixed with the sound of the Wengong cracking, but the Wengong cracked but did not shatter.
Xun Long's body was shaking continuously, and then blood came out of his nose and mouth, but he still stood straight with his head raised.
The blood flowed, staining the white-robed scholar.
Fang Yun was stunned. If the Wendan was broken by external forces, the power of the sub-saint family could repair it. However, if the Wendan was broken by himself, even a half-saint could not repair it, because it meant that the person had given up the saintly way and would definitely not be tolerated by the saintly way. He did not expect that Xun Long would dare to do this.
According to the ancestral precepts of some noble families, if one destroys his own literary courage, his bloodline will be cut off.
Almost at the same time, Fang Yun understood Xun Long's purpose. Xun Long's literary rank was reduced to that of a Juren, which not only allowed him to participate in literary competitions, but most importantly, if it came to a competition of poetry, he could abandon the titles of Wen Gong and Wen Dan, as long as he had talent.
Xun Long is now nominally a juren, but his talent is that of a jinshi. It will take at least an hour for the talent of a jinshi to completely degenerate into that of a juren.
During this hour, the power of the war poems written by Xun Long can retain 90% of that in his heyday. The only shortcoming is that he cannot use the war poems of Jinshi degree. It has nothing to do with talent, but with literary status.
The talent of a Juren is as broad as a finger, while the talent of a Jinshi is as broad as an arm. Not only is it much thicker, the power contained in its talent also far exceeds that of a Juren. Moreover, the speed at which its talent can attract the vital energy of heaven and earth is also slightly faster, so it can speak fluently at a faster speed.
The battle between the talent of Jinshi and the talent of Juren in literature and poetry was almost a one-sided crushing victory.
"Fang's fortune is in danger!" Li Fanming looked worried.
"If Fang Yun had been a juren for a long time, he might be able to compete with Xun Long, but Xun Long is close to being a Hanlin, while Fang Yun has just become a juren. It can be said that the difference between the two is one and a half literary ranks!"
"Alas, no wonder Xun Long brought his son here. It turns out that he wanted everyone to witness his dedication to the Xun family. Even if he becomes an ordinary scholar, the Xun family should take care of his son. If I am not mistaken, before Xun Long came, he had already agreed with the person in charge of the Xun family that his son would be included in the family tree regardless of victory or defeat."
"well… "
With a series of long sighs, Xun Long pointed at Fang Yun and said, "Fang Zhenguo, I am the candidate of the tenth round! I will challenge you in a poetry contest, do you dare?"
Fang Yun looked at Xun Long with a gleam of lightning in his eyes, and said in a deep voice: "To protect Xun Ye in order to gain a higher position is unkind; to frame me knowing that I am innocent is unjust; you destroy your own literary position and disrespect Wenquxing, which is what Xunzi said about 'no heaven and earth', and you also ruin the reputation of the Xun family and bring shame to our ancestors, which is what Xunzi said about 'no ancestors', which is disrespectful! Unkind, unjust, and unrespectful, I will win the tenth literary duel!"
"Fang Yun, you will pay the price for what you said today! I propose to ban you from using your literary mind! Please help me, Holy Temple!" Xun Long's eyes were red, he could not tolerate Fang Yun using all the most important Confucianism's "benevolence, righteousness and propriety" to deny him.
Fang Yun remained calm and said, "I propose to ban the use of the Juren War poems."
Although he was well prepared, Xun Long was still extremely angry. His greatest reliance was the poems written by the Juren in the battle. He was not afraid even if Fang used his own poems to fight, because the talents of the Jinshi were enough to make up for the deficiencies in all aspects. But now he could only use the poems written by the Xiucai in the battle, which greatly limited the role of the Jinshi's talents.
Xun Long sneered and said slowly, "I will make you lose clearly today! I will let you know the true strength of me, the top scholar of Qing Kingdom, and let you know that the difference in literary rank is enough to crush your insignificant talent!"
"Without further ado!"
The light shield of the holy temple descended, and Fang Yun slowly retreated.
Fang Yun kept calculating in his mind that Xun Long must have composed his own poems for the Scholar War, but since they could not be passed down, it meant that the power of the poems was limited, so Xun Long was very likely to have chosen "Song of the Yi River".
After much thought, Fang Yun decided to use "Arrow in the Stone". Since he couldn't use Wen Xin and his writing was slow, he could only use Koukou Wen Zhang. Even though Koukou Wen Zhang didn't have the original light and the poetry soul light, its power must be extremely strong. Coupled with the power of the King of Stars, Fang Yun was confident that he could at least fight Xun Long on equal terms.
Forcing the genius of the Xun family to lower his position would be a huge victory.
When the two were five meters apart, they bowed to each other, then stood up straight and looked into each other's eyes.
The moment the two people saw each other, they spoke fluently at the same time.
"The forest is dark and the grass is startled by the wind..."
The two people said in unison. Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then many members of the Xun family and the Qing people laughed.
Li Fanming was so angry that he didn't know how to vent. He stamped his feet fiercely and cursed: "How could Fang Yun be so unwise! Even a pig brain knows that this poem should not be used!"
Li Wenying, however, showed a strange smile, because he had already known that this poem was written by Fang Yun.
There was a gleam of joy in Xun Long's eyes, and he also spoke eloquently, but a little faster than Fang Yun.
What's more, the flying speed of the arrow in the stone driven by the Jinshi's talent is at least 30% faster than that of the Juren's!
While Xun Long was speaking fluently, he almost wanted to laugh out loud. A Jinshi is not a scholar or a juren. It is entirely possible for him to master a poem that is as good as that of a scholar in just a few days.
"The Arrow in the Stone" is a recognized strong poem. In terms of momentum, it is naturally not as good as "Song of the Yi River" about Jing Ke assassinating Qin Shi Huang, but it is better in other aspects, especially in its extremely strong penetrating ability and extremely fast flying speed. It has deeply grasped the essence of archery from the Archery Saint Li Guang, and can allow people to practice continuously. Once they reach the third realm or even the legendary fourth realm, they can summon Li Guang's complete holy soul, which is enough to rival the powerful war poems of great Confucian scholars.
As the Xun family was a family of sub-sages, they naturally devoted all their efforts to studying this poem. Xun Long, as the top scholar in the country, discovered the extraordinary nature of this poem and practiced it frequently, hoping to use the power of this poem to create his own war poem and gain the power of Li Guang.
Xun Long spoke much faster than Fang Yun. When he finished reciting the second sentence "The general draws his bow at night", Fang Yun lagged behind by two words.
This means that Xun Long will recite the entire poem nearly half a breath faster than Fang Yun, and this half a breath is enough for the arrow in the stone to penetrate Fang Yun before Fang Yun finishes reciting the poem.
However, something happened that no one expected. Fang Yun's expression changed when he recited the first sentence. After reciting the second sentence instinctively, he stopped.
Xun Long thought that Fang Yun knew he had chosen the wrong poem and was not fast enough, so he gave up early. Suddenly, his blood boiled and he shouted in his heart that the victory or defeat was decided and his name would be passed down through the ages. However, he did not stop, but continued to recite the poems after "Arrow in the Stone". A murderous intent flashed in his eyes, and he did not even want Fang Yun to admit defeat.
Fang Yun did not shout "surrender", but looked at Xun Long with pity.
Fang Yun once said that Xun Long’s actions would be punished, but Xun Long said he was not afraid.
Li Wenying also said that he would punish Xun Long for his crimes, but he did not do so in the end.
If you attack the poet with war poems, all people will abandon you, and the heaven will follow the way of the teacher! (To be continued...)
ps: I really didn’t mean it…