As October arrived, the autumn nights gradually grew longer. The sun had just risen and everyone had finished breakfast.
There was a pavilion on the left side of Fang Yun's yard. Fang Yun and four others sat on stone benches, and the other six sat on wooden benches on the side of the pavilion.
"The Ten-Nation Competition consists of three rounds. Although the final ranking is calculated based on the total score, the last place in each round will be eliminated. Alas, I also participated in the Ten-Nation Competition last year, but was eliminated in the second round." You Nian said.
"With Fang Yun here, we have a great chance of getting into the top nine. As long as we get one place higher than last year, others will have nothing to say and won't be able to find fault with Fang Yun!" said Qiao Juze.
Gong Yangyu smiled and said, "The Ten Nations Competition will be held in an hour, so the top people from other nations will definitely watch today's "Sacred Way". As long as they read the "Sacred Way" and then look at Fang Yun, they will definitely feel awe, and our chances of taking ninth place will be even greater!"
Everyone's eyes lit up and they nodded in unison.
Qiao Juze said, "We have all experienced the ups and downs. It doesn't matter if we read "The Holy Way" late. Let's go to the competition venue. Chen Jing said that he and some classmates from the Holy Academy are waiting for us. By the way, Fang Yun, he also said that he wanted to thank you in person. If you hadn't written that strange red and white poem, his wedding banquet would have been laughed at."
"You can't thank me for this. If the young Duke hadn't forced me to write a poem, that poem might not have appeared." Fang Yun said.
You Nian was a little nervous and said, "Brother Qiao, are the people Chen Jing brought all students from the Holy Academy? Then we should be careful. Among the ten countries, our Shangshe Jinshi is indeed the leader, but everyone knows that the most talented Jinshi can only be in the Holy Academy, and the most powerful Jinshi in literary warfare can only be in the Ten Cold Ancient Land, Liangjie Mountain or Zhenyu Sea. Compared with them, we are still far behind, so much so that the students of the Holy Academy don't even participate in the Ten Countries Competition, otherwise we Shangshe Jinshi will not have the opportunity to show our talents."
Gong Yangyu said: "Brother Qiao, I met Chen Jing at the wedding banquet, and his eyes seemed unusually bright. Could it be that he has already obtained the 'star position'?"
Qiao Juze glanced at Fang Yun before smiling at Gong Yangyu and said, "Yes, after he got married, his grandfather took him to Chen Zu's place of retreat, and with Chen Zu's grace, he obtained the first star position."
Fang Yun's heart moved.
The human race's literary status, literary mind, and gifts from heaven are all thanks to the power of the star Wenqu. The verbal sparring was developed by later generations, and the star position was improved by the sub-sage Zengzi who took the power of the demon clan, and finally formed the power of the human race with the help of Confucius.
Star position is different from Wenxin. Wenxin provides indirect power. It has no direct killing power, but star position adds powerful power.
Generally speaking, only Hanlin can open up star positions, but the bloodlines of the saints have the opportunity to open star positions in advance, and once opened, they will obtain star positions of different degrees according to the literary rank of their ancestors.
Chen Jing is the descendant of the semi-saint Chen Guanhai, so the first star he opened is the semi-saint will. After that, whether it is a battle poem or a verbal battle, whether it is a literary outburst or a loud scolding, as long as there is an intention to attack, the will of Chen Guanhai will be attached. That power is negligible to Chen Guanhai, even less powerful than his original body blowing a breath, but it plays a decisive role for the Jinshi.
An ordinary Jinshi can never defeat a star-level Jinshi of the same level.
This is why, even though Fang Yun was a genius before, many children from semi-saint families were still not afraid of him.
Fang Yun was indeed good at poetry and writing. But in the decisive literary battles later on, Fang Yun's advantage was no longer obvious, and the disciples of the Saints' families had a huge advantage.
Therefore, even if Fang Yun's talent is higher than Yan Yukong's, in the eyes of more people, Yan Yukong has a better future than Fang Yun, because once Yan Yukong becomes a Jinshi, the Yanzi family will definitely take Yan Yukong to the Yanzi Mausoleum as soon as possible to obtain the sub-saint will of the sub-saint Yan Zi and form the first star position.
With the will of a sub-saint, Yan Yukong's talent may still not be as good as Fang Yun's, but in times of danger he can rely on his star position to gain more powerful strength, greatly improving his survivability. However, Fang Yun does not even have the will of a semi-saint, so no matter how talented he is, he can easily fall.
The children of the saintly families were so strong in literary battles that even if some of them could not be ranked among the Eight Talents of the Imperial Academy or even the Four Great Talents, their actual combat skills were far superior to those who were famous throughout the continent.
Especially those geniuses from aristocratic families who have fought for many years in the Shihan Ancient Land, Liangjie Mountain or Zhenyu Sea. Like Li Wenying, they do not have the strongest talent, but have unparalleled literary combat ability.
For students, scholars and juren, what they compete in is writing and learning ability, but for jinshi, hanlin and daxueshi, more emphasis is placed on literary battles. Literary battles are not everything, but they are the best way to hone literary courage, train the mind and lead to the path of sainthood.
Except for Confucius' disciples during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, no semi-saint was inferior to his peers in literary warfare. Even Tao Yuanming, a genius, was unable to be canonized as a saint because of his insufficient ability in literary warfare. In the end, he burned his boats and entered the demon world alone, and experienced bloody storms before he had the basis for canonization.
Fang Yun glanced at Qiao Juze again and thought that it seemed that he had already determined that he was the King of Stars, otherwise he would not have looked over when the star position was mentioned.
Fang Yun’s Star King is now just a power bestowed by the Demon Ancestor, but after being promoted to Jinshi, he can use the power of the Star King to forcibly open up a star position and list the Star King as the first star position.
However, many people still do not believe that Fang Yun can become the King of Stars. After all, if Fang Yun is not counted, the only human being who can become the King of Stars is the Dragon of the Kong family, and it took the whole Kong family’s strength, even using Confucius’ relics.
Fang Yun looked at the rest of the people and found that more than half of the upper-level Jinshi were in high spirits. This was the best opportunity to get to know the students of the Holy Academy.
"Let's go to the dean's residence and ask for instructions before heading to the competition venue!"
Everyone quickly walked towards the competition venue, chatting about the first competition as they walked.
"Ten men can travel ten thousand miles, one man can travel a thousand miles. I just don't know how the test will be conducted this time."
You Nian said, "There is a group of old teachers in the Holy Academy who love to make things difficult for students. Every time the Ten Nations Competition is held, they will change their ways. Last year, they traveled thousands of miles and set sail with a piece of music. Three years ago, it was even worse. Even the Confucius Academy, which ranked first, only got 80 chips in the first round. I hope they can be more serious this year, otherwise we will have no chance of survival."
"Unfortunately, these 10,000-mile journeys are completely separate, so Fang Yun can't help us even if he wants to. As for the second competition, Fang Yun can't help us either. The third competition is possible, but the price may be that Fang Yun will be distracted, so try not to ask Fang Yun for help. Alas, I always feel that we have harmed Fang Yun in this competition." Cui Wang sighed after he finished speaking.
Qiao Juze's face darkened. He said, "Cui Wang, although you are older than Fang Yun, in our eyes, you are more like a child than Fang Yun. With your talent, you would have been sent to the Holy Academy early, but you are too young and your will is not strong, so you are still staying in the academy. With Fang Yun here this time, we have a chance to get ninth place, and the people of Shen Kingdom will definitely confuse us. And you must be one of their breakthrough points!"
Cui Wang's expression changed and he sighed, "Indeed. The Ten Nations Competition is too important. Every few years, someone will come up with a shady plan. There was even a Jinshi who was tempted to stay up all night before the competition, which resulted in him being in a very bad state the next day and having very few chips, causing him to fall behind in the rankings by one place."
"So you must not make any mistakes!"
"I understand! During the days of the competition, I will always be with you and will not give anyone a chance to take advantage of me!"
"That's great!"
Everyone talked as they walked, and soon arrived at the competition venue.
This is a huge semicircular venue, with an open space in the center. Tens of thousands of people are sitting on the steps of the venue, many of whom are reading today's "Holy Word" or "Wen Bao". Some people are gathered together to discuss.
In some places the discussion was heated, and occasionally one could hear the low sound of thundering tongues.
Most of the people here are Juren and Jinshi, and a few Hanlin, Grand Secretaries and great Confucian scholars have not come.
The students of the Confucius Academy led Fang Yun and the other ten people to the lowest staircase, which was the seat for the upper-class people of Jing State.
This lowest step is divided into eleven areas, which are used for temporary stay of the ten countries and eleven academies in Kongcheng.
Fang Yun and others arrived neither too early nor too late, and five people from the academy had already arrived here.
Jingguo ranked tenth last year. So on the left is the ninth Shen National Academy, on the right is the eleventh Gu National Academy, and last year's eighth-ranked Yue National Academy, second-ranked Kongfu Academy, and sixth-ranked Jia National Academy have all arrived.
Fang Yun glanced at the students from the five countries and his gaze lingered for a moment at the Confucius Academy. He thought that they were worthy of being the top academy. They had such a high ranking last year but still arrived early and did not have the arrogance of the host. This alone was enough to explain a lot of things.
Fang Yun discovered that the disciples of the various countries' academies were also looking at him, and four out of ten people from Gu Kingdom showed hostility. The borders of the two countries were not adjacent, but Gu Kingdom was dominated by the Miscellaneous Family and had long been dissatisfied with Jing Kingdom. Moreover, after the end of the Holy Ruins, Xun Ye spread rumors and slandered Fang Yun for killing Weng Ming of the Weng Family of Gu Kingdom. Although it was clarified afterwards, it made the Weng Family lose face. The Weng Sheng Family did not dare to do anything to the Xun Family, so they could only turn their anger to Fang Yun.
On the other side, the people of Shen were wary but not hostile. They were simply afraid that Jing would surpass them.
As for the eighth Yue Kingdom, it was different. After they found out that people from Jing Kingdom Academy had arrived, they whispered a few words and then walked over together with a smile.
Ten scholars in white came together, each with an excellent temperament, and immediately attracted many people's attention.
Just as these ten white-robed Jinshi came forward, another group of ten people came from the passage, but one of these ten people was wearing black-robed Jinshi uniform.
The leader bowed and smiled, "I am Hu Shang from Yue State. I am here with nine classmates to visit you and wish all the students from Jing State good luck in the Ten-Nation Competition. However, I want to ask which one is Fang Yun, the guardian of the country?"
The ten people from Jing State bowed in return. Cui Wang smiled and said, "This is the youngest one." Then he pointed at Fang Yun.
Then the ten people from Yue Country bowed their hands again and said in unison: "Thank you Fang Zhenguo!"
Fang Yun smiled helplessly. What Qiao Juze said that day was indeed correct. Because he had broken the literary talents of many outstanding Jinshi candidates from Qing State, Yue State had a chance to snatch the seventh place from Qing State this year, so the Jinshi candidates from Yue State were very grateful to him.
Hu Shang laughed and said, "Fang Zhenguo, don't think we are joking. When you arrive in Yue Country, we will definitely welcome you with our entire nation!"
Fang Yun said: "You are too polite, I just did what I should do. I can only help you up to this point, and it's up to you guys to do the rest!"
The people around couldn't help but laugh.
However, someone from the new team suddenly snorted and said, "You clown, how shameless!" (To be continued...)