Daofeng Mountain, Holy Temple.
On the left side of the Square of All Saints, there is a Ten Nations Tower.
The Ten Kingdoms Tower has ten floors in total. Each floor has a vermilion gate with plaques on them inscribed with the names of the ten kingdoms.
On the highest point of the Ten Kingdoms Tower is inscribed "Qi Kingdom", ranking first and looking down on the human race, while below it are Wu Kingdom, Shu Kingdom, Yun Kingdom, Jia Kingdom, Qing Kingdom, Yue Kingdom, Shen Kingdom, Jing Kingdom and Gu Kingdom.
Whenever people from big countries passed by the Square of All Saints, they would hold their heads high. However, people from Shen, Jing and Gu would blush when passing by and dare not look at the Ten Nations Tower.
The order of the Ten Nations Tower from top to bottom is exactly the same as the order of last year's Ten Nations Competition.
In the literary competition, Fang Yun entered the majestic Mount Lushan and disappeared, while several top Jinshi candidates stared at the steep mountains in a daze.
"There are four questions in this journey of thousands of miles. The first question is like a blessing from heaven for Fang Yun, and the second question is impartial to him. The last two questions are almost difficult for the candidate. However, he is able to surpass all the others. He is really a rare man."
"There were similar questions in the previous Travel Thousands of Miles, but if you look closely at this mountain, its shape is much more majestic than before. This mountain is not easy to climb."
Yun Xunsong bowed forward and raised his head and asked, "Excuse me, how can we climb the mountain?"
"You can use your talent, but you can't use it to mobilize the energy of heaven and earth. You... just consider yourself unlucky."
A group of Jinshi candidates were at a loss whether to laugh or cry. The person who presided over this journey of thousands of miles must be a great scholar. Logically, this great scholar should have given a serious answer, but in the end he said something that hinted at gloating over someone else's misfortune, which was really rare.
Ma Yuan smiled and said, "I understand what this great scholar meant. When they set the exam questions, they must have been aware of the two candidates, Fang Yun and Yan Yukong, and they also knew that the last two questions would not be favorable to the candidates. But in the end, the fourth question helped Fang Yun."
Kong Deyu suddenly snorted and said, "I heard that the question of traveling thousands of miles was opposed by a certain scholar, so it was changed to favor Jinshi. What a pity. You lose more than you gain."
The Shangshe Jinshi present was well-informed and immediately understood after hearing that it was most likely the Lei family who was making things difficult for Fang Yun, but it was also obvious that someone was helping Fang Yun, so the first and fourth questions were both related to poetry.
"I think the most unlucky one is Yan Yukong. With his ability, he should have been ranked in the top 30 out of the 110 people in this journey, but now that the third and fourth questions have been asked, he may be ranked outside the 70s."
Xun Li looked at Jiaguo's Lei Shisan with an unfriendly look. Although the Lei family and Qingguo both regarded Fang Yun as an enemy, they had always been rivals in the Ten Nations Competition. Last year, Jiaguo ranked seventh and Qingguo ranked eighth. If it was really the Lei family's interference in the Ten Nations Competition that caused the number of empty chips in Yanyu to decrease this year, Qingguo would also be a victim.
Lei Shisan immediately turned his head to look at the other party, ignoring Xun Li's attitude, and then said: "Everyone, hurry up and write poems about mountains. If you write too late, Fang Yun will leave quickly, and it is very likely that you will be lucky enough to avoid a mountain."
Ma Yuan said: "Don't worry. Since we can't mobilize our vitality for the next 300 miles, we can only use our bare hands and direct talents. Fang Yun won't run too fast. After all, he is a juren, and we are jinshi. There is a little hope to catch up with him."
Lei Shisan and Xun Li's complexion improved immediately. This was good news for Qing Kingdom and the Lei family.
But Kong Deyu shook his head and said, "I have talked to my cousin Delun about Fang Yun. He is different. Not to mention that he dares to eat dragon balls, the three times of talent before the saint have made his body close to that of an ordinary demon general. In terms of walking and climbing with bare hands, Fang Yun is definitely better than us!"
Long Shisan and Xun Li’s faces fell.
In front of others, Mount Lu is a rolling mountain range. But in front of Fang Yun, it is a translucent shadow that will not have any effect on him. Only the ten mountains formed by the students of the other ten academies can block him.
Fang Yun began to run, faster and faster, soon surpassing the speed of an ordinary person's short sprint.
Fang Yun had originally been in very poor health, but after experiencing six instances of talent falling from the sky, eating many fake dragon balls, being illuminated by the moonlight, becoming the King of Stars, and being nourished by the starlight of Wenqu, he had recently entered the Heavenly Tree, and had been eating the tonic food from the palace, so his body was no weaker than that of an ordinary demon general!
At this moment, Fang Yun could fight lions and tigers with his bare hands.
At this moment, Fang Yun's running speed has reached that of an ordinary demon general, close to the speed of an ordinary scholar using the scholar's speedy war poem!
On the vast black land, Fang Yun ran forward like a leopard.
The scholars in front of literary academies in various countries of the Ten Kingdoms were all stunned.
Fang Yun ran for half a quarter of an hour before the ground shook and a rumbling sound came from the front.
Fang Yun slowed down his pace and saw a high mountain rising from the ground, but in terms of height, steepness or thickness, it was not as high as the Lushan Mountain that he had materialized first.
Mount Lu is not just one mountain, but a group of mountains, but this mountain seems to be just a peak more than 300 feet high.
Fang Yun carefully observed the mountain and immediately thought of the best climbing route in his mind. Then he rushed up the mountain and climbed up quickly by stepping on the protrusions or trees on the mountain.
Fang Yun almost never stopped, climbing higher and higher, more agile than a monkey.
Soon, Fang Yun climbed to the top of the mountain and found that it was indeed just a solitary peak. But it was easier to climb up than to go down. Fang Yun spent more time on the top of the mountain observing and thinking about the route down the mountain, and then slowly climbed down, slower than before.
In this way, Fang Yun ran for a while, climbed a mountain, ran for a while, climbed a mountain...
At the beginning, many people paid attention to Fang Yun, but they soon got tired of it because there was no suspense, so they started watching those people in Lushan.
Those people got lost once they entered Mount Lushan, and kept wandering around the mountain.
People behind continued to enter Mount Lushan, but except for the people from Jing State who could treat Mount Lushan as nothing, everyone else could only enter but not leave.
When Fang Yun climbed the first mountain, the twelve fastest Jinshi had already entered Mount Lu. When Fang Yun climbed the third mountain, they were still in Mount Lu.
When Fang Yun stood on the top of the ninth mountain, Kong Deyu walked out of Lushan with dull eyes.
"Fang Yun, that bastard!"
Gradually, more and more Jinshi left Lushan and continued to travel thousands of miles.
After an unknown amount of time, Pan Jueming, a Jinshi from Gu State, finally walked out of Mount Lushan. He gently wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked around, and saw no one. He was surprised.
Pan Jueming ran to the next mountain. As a Jinshi, his body was much stronger than that of an ordinary person, and he could run at the speed of an ordinary person at full sprint for a whole day.
Not long after, Pan Jueming climbed to the top of the second mountain, and then looked forward, but he could not see a single person.
Pan Jueming thought to himself, "I am a top scholar from Gu Country. Even if Gu Country ranked eleventh last year, I wouldn't be that far behind people from other countries. There's no one ahead of me, so it's impossible that I'm behind everyone. Could it be... I was lucky enough to get out of that mysterious mountain early?"
Pan Jueming looked back at Mount Lushan in the mist, clenched his right fist, and was full of fighting spirit.
"Today will be the day when I, Pan Jueming, will become famous in all ten countries!"
Pan Jueming took a deep look at Mount Lushan and began to descend the mountain.
Pan Jueming climbed one mountain after another and finally came down from the tenth mountain. After running for a while, he saw a stone gate with no one in front of it.
After a moment's pause, Pan Jueming smiled. He knew that people from all over the ten countries must be looking at him at this moment. He straightened his clothes, coughed lightly, and walked towards the exit with his head held high.
He became more and more excited as he walked. After reaching the door, he finally couldn't help but look back and look at the mountains. He smiled and said, "Everyone, I'm going out first. Please continue to work hard."
Pan Jueming walked out of the literary world with a victorious smile.
With a flash of light before his eyes, Pan Jueming appeared in the competition venue of the Confucius Academy.
At this time, the eastern sky was pale. It was already the early morning of the next day.
Pan Jueming thought he would hear cheers and congratulations, so he held his head high with a faint smile on his face.
But the next moment, Pan Jueming frowned, because what he heard was not cheers, but ups and downs of laughter, tens of thousands of people were laughing together.
Pan Jueming quickly scanned the entire audience and saw tens of thousands of people laughing so hard that they were bent over, with some people even holding their stomachs as they laughed.
He hurried to see the area where the Jinshi scholars were sitting, and found that there were ten people sitting in each area, except for Gu Guo, where there were nine people sitting.
The Jinshi candidates from Gu State covered their faces and lowered their heads, pretending not to see Pan Jueming.
"Gu Guo, Pan Jueming, Liuchou." A voice sounded in the sky.
Pan Jueming's face quickly turned from white to red, and from red to gray.
Six chips is the minimum number of chips to pass the Wanlilu. If it is less than six chips, it means failure, and there is no chip at all.
Only then did Pan Jueming realize that he was the last person to walk the Wanli Road, and that he had said such words in front of hundreds of millions of people, which indeed made him famous among the ten countries.
Fang Yun smiled and shook his head. It had been five hours since he completed his journey of thousands of miles. He even slept for an hour on Jingguo's seat. He spent the rest of the time reading with his eyes closed in the world of strange books. The reason he couldn't leave was that he was waiting for Pan Jueming.
Many people in the venue have left, and the person sitting now has the lowest rank among the scholars. It doesn’t matter if they don’t sleep for three days and three nights, as they have been waiting for Pan Jueming.
"The first round of the Ten Nations Competition, 'Traveling Ten Thousand Miles', has ended. The chip counts of each country have been displayed on the screen. Gu Country ranks eleventh and will miss the second round, 'Reading Ten Thousand Books'. You can go back and rest. The second round of the competition will begin in the afternoon." The host of the Ten Nations Competition announced the end of the first round.
Fang Yun was just about to look at the light curtain in the center of the venue with everyone else when he heard complaints from people at the Confucius Academy.
"Fang Yun, that bastard, has never had a first place in 'Traveling Ten Thousand Miles' be lower than 80 points in the past hundred years!"
Fang Yun smiled helplessly and continued to look at the light screen, which only showed the sum of the chips of ten people from each country.
First place, Confucius Academy, seventy-eight chips and six.
Second place, Shu Kingdom Academy, seventy-six and nine.
Third place, Qiguo Academy, seventy-six chips three.
Fourth place, Wuguo Academy, seventy-five and eight.
Fifth place, Yun National Academy, seventy-four points and seven.
Sixth place, Jiaguo Academy, sixty-eight points and nine.
Seventh place, Jingguo Academy, sixty-eight points and seven.
Eighth place, Yue National Academy, sixty-six chips four.
Ninth place, Qing National Academy, sixty-five chips and one.
Tenth place, Shen National Academy, sixty-three chips and two.
Eleventh place, Gu National Academy, 62 chips.
The last row is gray.
Fang Yun looked at the final ranking with a helpless smile. This number of chips created the lowest record in the history of the Ten Nations Competition.
Kong Delun said: "Fang Yun is too bad. He knows that Jingguo can't beat us, so he lowers our chips to improve Jingguo's ranking!"
More than half of the Jinshi candidates nodded dejectedly. (To be continued...)