The Ten-Nation Competition was extremely time-consuming and the time was never fixed. The longest "Journey of Ten Thousand Miles" was full of obstacles and lasted for ten days and nine nights, causing many people to sleep outside the gates of various academies for more than ten days.
With the help of the wind from his pen, Fang Yun's sailboat was terrifyingly fast. After Fang Yun reached the other side of the river three hundred miles away, he looked back and saw no sign of a single ship.
Fang Yun got off the boat and looked ahead. The road ahead was flat, with nothing but reddish-brown land.
Then, a voice sounded in the sky.
"With the help of the poetry of the rapid march, we will march forward two hundred miles at full speed."
Fang Yun's expression finally changed slightly, and he understood the theme of this journey of thousands of miles.
There are many possible test questions for Traveling Thousands of Miles, but each competition has a certain theme. Last year's theme was "cleverness", so there were piano music setting sail and chess moving forward. The theme of the year before last was "difficulty", and all kinds of strange terrains, like swamps and snow, are common, as are the blood pools of the demon tribe, the killing forests of the barbarians, the ice caves of the ancient land of Ten Colds, and so on.
The questions in this exam had been similar before, so Fang Yun guessed that the theme this time was "speed", so there were not too many obstacles and the questions were relatively orthodox.
The voice in the literary world also spread throughout the ten countries, and everyone watching the competition in front of the huge light screen heard the third question.
The scholars of Jing State almost all thought to themselves that it was terrible at the same time.
There were tens of thousands of students watching in Jingguo Academy, and when they heard the title, they instantly became excited.
"It's not fair! Fang Zhenguo is only a Juren, and the others are Jinshi. How can a Juren's poetry be compared with that of a Jinshi?"
"Look at Yun's face above the screen. I'm really worried about him!"
"There is a huge gap between the literary status of Juren and Jinshi. Even if Fang Yun's own poems have a lot of precious light, they can't compare to the war poems of Jinshi, unless he can form a poetic soul! But poetic soul is too rare!"
"Even if he has the soul of poetry, the difference in total talent is too big. Even if he is a newly promoted Jinshi, his talent is ten times that of a Juren. Even if Fang Yun's talent is ten times that of an ordinary Juren, he is only equivalent to a newly promoted Jinshi."
"The advantages Fang Yun built up in the past have completely vanished here."
People from all over Jing Country who were watching the Ten Nations Competition were cursing loudly, and they were almost pointing at the nose of the person who set the questions and cursing him.
Fang Yun sighed inwardly. This was unfair to him as a candidate, but fair to the entire competition. Now that things had come to this, there was no point in complaining. He could only think of a solution.
Fang Yun was thinking about the war poems. If he was to write new war poems, those powerful ones would require a high literary rank to write. The other war poems might not be that good, and were not as good as the full war poem "Night Attack" by the Juren.
"The golden belt is tied together with the battle robe, and the horse rushes through the snow to Lintao. The flag is rolled up to rob the demon king's tent at night, and the barbarians are slashed without the precious sword."
Fang Yun picked up his pen and finished writing. This poem formed the original Baoguang and the handed down Baoguang. Then Fang Yun put on golden armor, rode a war horse, and galloped forward at an extremely fast speed.
If there are enemies ahead, this battle poem will form a big Guandao to kill them, but there are no enemies ahead. This poem is also a rare battle poem that can move quickly, protect and kill enemies, which can concentrate power in one place.
The "galloping" power of this war poem is strengthened; the golden armor representing protection and the broadsword representing killing the enemy quickly disappear, while the war horse representing the galloping pace becomes more solid and more powerful.
Many Jingguo people thought Fang Yun's speed would be very slow, but after a closer look, they were slightly relieved.
"As expected of Fang Zhenguo. Since this poem has two layers of precious light, its power should be 50% of that of a Jinshi's fast-moving poem. But in his hands, its speed is 70% of that of a Jinshi's fast-moving poem. It's truly miraculous."
"Then we can rest assured. Fang Yun's running speed is indeed not as fast as others, but he has opened up a large gap. It will be difficult for others to catch up with him."
"That's right. If it's a Jinshi from the Holy Academy, he can probably catch up with Fang Yun, but these Jinshi from the Upper House can only catch up with Fang Yun a few miles away at most."
"The premise is that he still has enough talent. If his talent is insufficient and exhausted halfway, then the possibility of our Jing country competing for the ninth place is very slim."
Fang Yun rode the translucent war poem horse quickly forward, and starlight was emanating from the horse's eyes.
The power of the Star King increased the speed of the warhorse by 40%.
Time passed slowly, and after a quarter of an hour, the warhorse under Fang Yun disappeared, and Fang Yun once again wrote a new "Night Raid".
Since the light screen was divided into several pieces and showed not only Fang Yun, many people did not notice anything, but those experienced readers were inexplicably surprised.
"This is so weird! The average war poem of a scholar can last for two hundred breaths, about one-fifth of an hour. Even if he uses all the power of the war poem to run fast, he can only last for half a quarter of an hour at most. But how can this "Night Attack" last for a quarter of an hour?"
"It's incredible! If he was also a Jinshi, he could easily win first place among students with his eyes closed!"
"Look, the scholars from the great powers are already approaching the storm zone."
The sky was covered with dark clouds, the wind was howling, the waves were surging, and dozens of ships of different sizes and shapes were sailing forward.
Unlike Fang Yun who chose a small boat, these Shangshe Jinshi all chose larger boats to avoid capsizing. This reduced their ability to control the boats to the minimum, and they could only use their calligraphy pens to create strong winds to blow the sails forward.
Many people were talking in eloquent tongues.
"Fortunately, I didn't follow Fang's example and use a small sailboat to break in. If I had followed his example, I would have been swept away by the wind and waves here."
"Yes, the big boat is a bit heavy and it's not convenient for one person to operate it, but it's better than capsizing."
"I don't know what the next question will be. I hope we still have a chance to catch up with Fang Yun."
"Everyone from Qi State, you won our Confucius Academy last year because you had the Three Talents of Qi State. This year, your Three Talents have all gone to the Holy Academy, so we at the Confucius Academy will fight for the first place!"
"Hmph, that may not be the case!" A senior scholar from Qi State snorted, but the rest of the people from Qi State did not care at all.
Xun Li of Qing said loudly: "Everyone, our Qing country was only seventh last year, and we will not compete for anything. But are you top five countries willing to give up the first place in the competition to Fang Yun?"
A man from Qi State suddenly sneered, "Since you know that Qing State is only ranked seventh, just shut up. You have no right to speak here!"
"Give in? That's easy for you to say. Can you give up the first place in the student list just by saying so?"
"Idiot, you're stirring up trouble at a time like this, do you think this is just a child's play?"
Laughter broke out. The people here were all elites from various countries. No matter how talented or arrogant they were, they would not let Xun Li lead them by the nose. Some even thought that Xun Li was insulting their intelligence, so they spoke very impolitely.
Xun Li's cheeks turned red with anger, and at the same time he felt a little depressed. He found that Fang Yun had already achieved a certain level of success, and had conquered students from all over the world with his miracles time and time again. In the past, just because of his status as a branch of the Xun family, no one would have laughed at him in public because of Fang Yun.
Xun Li was controlling his sailboat while looking ahead, wondering what was brewing in his mind.
Fang Yun kept using the rapid war poems to move forward. The distance of two hundred miles was enough to exhaust the talent of an ordinary scholar, but Fang Yun had a supreme literary mind and now his talent was three times that of an ordinary scholar, so he could maintain it.
The land was originally reddish-brown, but Fang Yun suddenly discovered a line of pure black fertile soil emerging in front of him, and knew that he was about to complete the two-hundred-mile test.
Fang Yun looked back and saw twelve white figures galloping towards him from a very far distance. The speed of those twelve top Jinshi was faster than Fang Yun.
Even the previous top-ranked Jinren Yan Yukong was left far behind by those top-ranked Jinshi.
At this moment, the people from Jing State who were watching the competition began to cheer for Fang Yun, but the other countries were cheering for their own scholars.
The people behind were getting closer and closer, but in the end Fang Yun was still one step ahead and arrived at the junction of the reddish-brown soil and the black soil ahead of time, completing the third question first.
Fang Yun looked back and saw that the fastest person was five miles away. He breathed a sigh of relief. If he was overtaken by the person behind him, no matter how well he performed before and after, he would never be able to get the ten points for traveling ten thousand miles.
However, this meant that he was once again standing on the same starting line as the twelve most outstanding Jinshi candidates from the Ten Kingdoms. If the Jinshi candidates had an absolute advantage in the fourth question, then his chances of getting ten points would be extremely slim.
Fang Yun was just thinking when a voice sounded in the sky.
"The first person from each academy to reach the black soil can compose a poem or essay to praise the mountain, and gain the power to transform the virtual into the real, forming a real mountain in front of them. Disciples from each academy must climb and pass over the ten mountains created by other academies, and do not need to climb the mountains created by their own people."
Fang Yun was happy and worried after hearing this. He was happy that the fourth question was still about poetry and prose, which was good for him. But he was worried that he was a juren, and his talent was not as good as those jinshi. And this so-called turning the virtual into the real was equivalent to using a holy page, because the holy page could not only enhance the war poetry, but also turn the virtual into the real.
Fang Yun took a deep breath and suppressed the troubled emotions in his heart.
"This is obviously a rare 'poem to stop the enemy', but because it does not belong to war poetry, it can only be formed outside the literary world by using the sacred page to transform the virtual into the real. When it comes to chanting about mountains to stop the enemy, the first thing that comes to mind is naturally the poem "The Road to Shu is Difficult". Once this poem is published, I am afraid that even great scholars or great demon kings will lose the ability to fly and can only climb honestly. However, I am only a scholar, and my talent is limited. If I dare to write "The Road to Shu is Difficult", I am afraid that my talent will be drained after writing only a few sentences. If I don't write "The Road to Shu is Difficult", which famous poem should I write?"
"Du Fu's "Viewing the Mountain"? No, Mount Tai is the first of the Five Sacred Mountains. Mount Tai in Shengyuan Continent is loved by Confucius and was sealed by Emperor Qin Shihuang, so it is the first of all mountains. If I use Mount Tai to stop the enemy, I must at least be a Hanlin."
"Bai Juyi's "Ti Tianzhu Peak" is also a masterpiece of mountain poetry, but it is too mysterious. One must be at least a Jinshi to be able to use it to stop the enemy. We should find some simple poems, but they must have a strong ability to stop the enemy."
Fang Yun was just thinking about it when scholars from various countries arrived one after another.
Among these twelve Jinshi, people from the three academies of Jing, Shen and Gu were missing. People from the other eight academies were present, including Xun Li.
Xun Li is a descendant of a side branch of a sub-sage family. Although he has a narrow mind, his talent and knowledge are not far behind the top Jinshi in the academies of various countries. He will be able to enter the Holy Academy next year.
Seeing Fang Yun right in front of him, Xun Li showed a satisfied smile on his face. (To be continued...)