After the results were announced, everything went according to plan, and Fang Yun successfully completed his talent baptism.
This time the talent infusion was the same as the previous one. After Fang Yun woke up, there was no one around him.
As he turned around, he saw many newly-appointed scholars at the door with familiar envious looks on their faces.
For other candidates, this was the third time their talent was infused, but for Fang Yun, it was the sixth time!
He appeared before the Holy Temple three times and took the imperial examinations three times. And each time, the talent he gained in the Holy Temple far exceeded that of his peers.
The Grand Secretary could only receive six enlightenment sessions.
Fang Yun nodded slightly to those people and did not leave immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and experienced the sixth initiation of talent.
Changes have occurred in Wen Palace.
The surface of the Wen Palace used to be rough and primitive, with a barbaric atmosphere, but now it seems to have taken a step back. There are cracks everywhere on the outer walls of the Wen Palace, and red magma flows in the cracks, just like a crater.
This magma exudes a strange aura. It has the power to burn everything and the ability to give birth to everything, making the walls of the Wen Palace a hundred times stronger than before!
Others don’t understand what this is, but a semi-saint will know at a glance that this is the appearance of a planet that has just been formed. Fang Yun naturally knows it as well.
Fang Yun was puzzled, as there was no record of such a Wen Palace in either the records of the human race or the ancient demon heritage.
The new Wen Palace was full of power. Fang Yun knew it was a good thing. Since he really couldn't figure it out, he stopped thinking about it.
The second big change is the murals.
The original murals were the same as the legends in Fang Yun’s memory, with characters from human mythology and legends such as Huangdi unifying China, Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, etc. They were all legends from ancient times. The characters headed by the emperor were even recorded in the official history "Records of the Grand Historian".
But now all the murals have been distorted by unknown forces, with ups and downs, as if they were scribbled by a child. Nothing can be seen and they are almost completely ruined.
Fang Yun's spiritual clone walked over and touched the murals, but did not find anything wrong. Instead, he felt that these disordered murals were pregnant with incredible power.
The third major change is that the star light of Wenqu in Wen Palace has become more intense, increasing tenfold.
No matter what a scholar does, it will affect his literary palace and literary courage. Whether fighting with the enemy or competing in literary competitions, he will suffer injuries of varying degrees. If he recuperates for a while, he can reach a higher level. However, if he suffers from continuous serious injuries, his life span will be shortened. This is why semi-saints and sub-saints cannot extend their lifespan for too long even with the longevity fruit.
However, this Wenqu Starlight has a strong recovery ability. When Fang Yun wrote the policy paper for the Saint Pen Review that day, he used his low literary rank to forcibly control such a profound Saint Dao, which caused his literary courage to be damaged. It would take at least half a year to recover and then strengthen. With this Wenqu Starlight, he can recover in three days at most.
Fang Yun felt that the light of the Wenqu star was very much like the amniotic fluid that nurtures a fetus, but the amniotic fluid nurtures human life, while the light of the Wenqu star nurtures human power.
In addition, all aspects of the Wen Palace have been improved. Juren is a watershed. It is the limit of the lower level of the Wen Palace, while Jinshi is the power of the middle level. Only when you reach Jinshi will there be a qualitative change.
Fang Yun was looking forward to the upcoming Jinshi examination.
After leaving the Wen Palace, Fang Yun discovered that Guan Yin had received many letters. Some of the people who sent the letters were very important, so Fang Yun had to quickly browse through them to see what the content was to avoid delaying important matters.
"Marquis Fang Wen, when you become a Jinshi, would you be willing to join my Sun family to comprehend the sacred way of military tactics?"
Fang Yun glanced at the signature on the letter again, Sun Tingjing, the current head of the Sunzi family. Fang Yun looked at the time and saw that it was sent when he was offering sacrifices to the saint. It seemed that this head of the family was very decisive and made a decision in less than half an hour.
When the relationship between people like this is not familiar, they will never be open and talk about everything. The reason for the invitation, how to comprehend the holy way, whether it is free of charge or mutually beneficial, nothing is said in the letter.
Fang Yun's mind raced, and he quickly figured out the whole thing. Sun Tingjing valued his talent in the art of war.
The "bitter self-destruction" strategy is nothing. To put it bluntly, it is to make the enemy make a wrong judgment and make a wrong move at the cost of one's own injury. Everyone can use the "bitter self-destruction" strategy, but it is impossible for everyone to use it perfectly. The timing alone can make the difference.
Fang Yun used the self-torture tactic shortly after he left the examination room. His judgment of the timing was very accurate. He then contacted Cai He and the Queen Mother, using their power to make the self-torture tactic successful. So it was understandable that Sun Tingjing came to find him.
However, cooperating with a Semi-Saint family is not just a matter of agreeing to it. The process is actually very complicated. A Semi-Saint family may be willing to train a human genius for free, but the resources provided are bound to be limited. If you want to get more resources, you must pay a price.
What does the Sun Tzu family need from me
Fang Yun needs to consider carefully.
Then, Fang Yun saw letters sent by great scholars from Sun Bin's family, Wu Qi's family and other semi-saint families. They all first congratulated him and then said that they could cooperate if there was a chance. There was nothing substantive in it, but it was just laying the foundation for possible cooperation in the future.
Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief. The meaning of this was very unusual.
When the "Three Character Classic" was published on the day when it was enshrined, except for the noble families of Jing State, most of the noble families of other countries sent people of the same generation to congratulate and send letters. But now, those who sent the letters were either the heads of the families or the great scholars. This was an improvement in status, which was far more significant than becoming Marquis Wen.
This is how the head of a wealthy family is treated.
The world is so realistic, but this is also "etiquette".
However, in addition to the military strategists, many great scholars from the Legalist school also took the initiative to congratulate him, and Fang Yun did not have time to think deeply about it.
There were a lot of letters, so Fang Yun didn't continue reading them. Instead, he walked out, not wanting to keep those people waiting for long.
The baptism of talent has ended. In the academy of literature, there are not only the successful candidates and local officials, but also officials from Yuhai Prefecture and friends from Shengxu, all at the door.
Fang Yun found that everyone else was acting normal, but the way those newly elected scholars looked at him was very strange. That look was no different from the way they looked at Li Wenying, Jiang Hechuan and others.
Fang Yun stepped out of the temple's threshold, dropped his robe, bowed to everyone, and said with a smile: "Good morning, everyone. What happened?"
A candidate who ranked very low hurriedly shouted, "The Holy Court has issued an order. Because the Holy Pen's evaluation of this imperial examination is a sign of the great prosperity of the human race, all candidates this year are allowed to enter the Book Mountain!"
Fang Yun was stunned. This was a great gift from the Semi-Saint!
After I climbed the mountain of books last time, the number of Jinshi candidates for Jing State was doubled this year, which would only affect a few dozen Jinshi candidates.
Before entering the Book Mountain this time, the Semi-Sage increased the number of candidates in his own name, which affected too many candidates. Jiangzhou is a small state, and the number of candidates for the Juren exam each year is less than one-tenth of that of the largest state.
There are a total of ninety states in the ten countries, and the number of candidates this year exceeds thirty thousand. Originally, only two tenths of the candidates could go to the Book Mountain, which was no more than six thousand people, but now there are at least twenty-four thousand more.
These 24,000 people should be grateful to Fang Yun, because it was Fang Yun who helped them enter Shushan. In the future, when they see Fang Yun, they will at least call him Half-Master.
Even if only one percent of people can break through and become a Hanlin or a Grand Secretary in the future, the benefits to their luck will be immense.
"Thank you, Lord Fang Wen!" All the candidates, regardless of their ranking, thanked Fang Yun together.
"You're welcome." Fang Yun was very happy. The main reason for the increase in the number of places in Shushan was the Wenquxing Dong and Wenquxing Zhao that he had triggered. He could accept this gratitude calmly.
Gezhou Mu said: "Fang Yun, you must be prepared. Today, the number of people whose literary courage was broken and whose literary palace was cracked has exceeded a thousand. This matter involves a great deal of things. Although it is God's will, no one dares to write an article to accuse you, but the resentment may deepen."
Yan Yukong said, "My opinion is slightly different from Lord Ge's. Although our human race has frequent internal disputes, not all of them are ignorant of the big picture. After the Holy Pen Review came out, the worst group of people lost the possibility of pursuing the Holy Path, and they no longer posed a threat to Fang Yun. The rest of the people knew that Fang Yun was not an ordinary person, and they were frightened, so they naturally retreated. Fang Yun's move hurt people, but also saved people. At least from now on, no one will dare to come to Jingguo to compete in literary competitions."
"That makes sense." Everyone nodded.
Han Shoulu said slowly, "So, to end war with war, even if it means fighting; to end killing with killing, even if it means killing; to end punishment with punishment, even if it means severe punishment."
"As expected of a rising star of the Legalists, you hit the nail on the head, good!" praised Gezhou Mu.
Fang Yun was stunned, and suddenly realized. No wonder the Legalists, especially those from the Shang Saint family, paid more attention to him. Han Shoulu's words came from "Shangzi", also known as "Shangjunshu", which is Shang Yang's book of sage ways.
What Shang Yang meant by this was that if one wanted to eliminate war, one could use a larger-scale war to exchange for peace; if one wanted to reduce killing, more killing would not hurt; in order to prevent the people from committing too many crimes, one could use severe punishments to deter the people and thus reduce criminal behavior.
The core of Shang Yang's Legalist doctrine is "to stop evil and stop wrongdoing, nothing is better than severe punishment", using severe punishment to stop crime.
Although Fang Yun believes that it is not good to use too heavy a sentence for a minor crime, he also agrees that a severe sentence must be imposed on a major crime. The reason why the laws of later generations have become increasingly lenient is partly due to humanitarian considerations and partly to the improvement of the rule of law. However, many major crimes are lightly punished, which is actually the need for the ruling class to protect itself. Major crimes such as financial and economic crimes are impossible for civilians to commit, and such crimes are extremely destructive and are obviously more serious than killing dozens of people, but the sentences have been repeatedly reduced, which is very intriguing.
Both the military strategists and the legalists have the idea of "stopping killing with killing". In addition to offending some corrupt scholars, Fang Yun's behavior this time gained him a stronger ally.
Li Fanming smiled and said, "I am from Qi. No more than twenty people in Qi have had their courage crushed by Fang Yun. No one will hate Fang Yun, but will look down on those people from Qing."
"It is impossible for us in Jia Country to have any grudge against Fang Yun. If Fang Yun's actions can reduce friction between Qing and Jing, we don't care if tens of thousands of people die."
Zong Wude of Qing State whispered, "Alas, those who still want to target Fang Yun in the future will not stop even if there is no such self-torture. However, before, those people's target was Jing State, but now it has changed to Fang Yun."
Fang Yun understood what Zong Wude meant. If the enemies before were numerous and widespread, then the enemies now are few and elite.
Many people looked worried.
Fang Yun smiled and said, "What do you think, are the demon saints more terrifying, or are the rats of Qing country more powerful?" (To be continued...)