The students of Gu State who were sitting in the meeting hall and watching the light curtain lamented continuously that their eleventh ranking had completely disqualified them from entering the "Read Ten Thousand Books" program.
"such a pity… "
Someone said something, but those three short words expressed their disappointment.
In the literary world, the eyes of many top Jinshi became enthusiastic, because there was a fundamental difference between the second and first ratios, there was a reward!
The eliminated students from Guguo have no chance of receiving any rewards.
"I must strive to have the chance to ring the bell!" said Lü Xuzhi, a Jinshi from the Confucius Mansion Academy. He was second only to Kong Deyu among the ten people ranked in the Confucius Mansion Academy.
"I competed for the bell ringing once last year, and this year's goal is to win it twice!" Yun Xunsong said firmly.
The other students did not look down on these two people. Not only had they been famous in the Ten Countries many years ago, but they also ranked among the top in both last year's and this year's trip. Others might say that it was arrogant, but they said that it was well deserved.
Xun Li said: "Yukong, you fought for the bell twice last year, you must fight for it at least three times today! Our Qing Kingdom depends on you!"
Yan Yukong glanced at Fang Yun and said weakly, "If you had been to the Holy Ruins with me and knew how Fang Yun studied in a wheelchair, you wouldn't have said such a thing."
"Hehe, I heard Delun say that. So last year I dared to say it once, but today I dare not say it even once." Kong Deyu laughed.
The other students were confused and didn't understand what it meant.
A voice sounded in the sky: "There are a thousand books on a row of bookshelves, a thousand books for each person, and ten thousand for a country, so it means reading ten thousand books. The faster you finish, the higher your score will be. You will take your seats first."
A hundred people immediately walked over and sat down at the table.
"You can read quickly by waving the book with your hands and turning the pages with your mind. The first person to finish reading 100 books will ring a 'ringing bell'. One sound of the bell is equal to ten, and the person who activates it will get 50%, the students in the same palace will get 30%, and the rest of the students in the palace will get 20%! For every 100 books, the bell will ring. If one person activates the bell continuously, he or she will get an extra point, and the points will continue to accumulate! Start!"
As soon as the voice disappeared, a hundred students waved towards the bookshelf in front of them.
The first book from the bookshelf in front of each person flies out.
Fang Yun took a quick look and saw that the book flying in front of him was "Records of the Savage Prairie", and the signature was someone Fang Yun had never heard of.
At the same time, Fang Yun saw from the corner of his eye that the book that flew to Qiao Juze was "Collection of Folk Songs of Shanzhou", the book that flew to Yan Zewei was "Twenty-two Skills of Repairing Qin", the book that flew to Gong Yangyu was "Yang's Yitong" which explained "Book of Changes", the book that flew to Chen Liyue was "Volume 3 of Leizhou Local Records", and the book that flew to Younian was a collection of novels "Guolao Tanyuan".
Fang Yun nodded secretly. He had learned relevant knowledge before coming to the Ten-Nation Competition. This second competition, reading thousands of books, is said to draw on the strengths of various schools of thought. It is a more complex and more challenging test than the imperial examination and the Book Mountain.
Traveling thousands of miles tests a scholar's practical ability, while reading thousands of books tests his learning ability.
For scholars, learning ability is the foundation of everything.
Not to mention the top scholars of Jingguo, even Fang Yun had never read any of these books, because these books were not sold on the market at all. They were only sold a few decades or even hundreds of years ago, and even if they were available, no one would read them, because they had little effect on the imperial examinations and literary positions. It would be better to read the books of semi-saints or great Confucian scholars in the same amount of time.
"Records of the Savage Grassland" flew in front of Fang Yun. Fang Yun moved his mind, and the book immediately turned the page, and the preface appeared. The preface was written by a friend of the author of the book. Fang Yun knew the author of this preface. He was a scholar of the Kong family a hundred years ago. Fang Yun had long memorized the names and simple experiences of all the scholars, great scholars, and saints in the history of the human race. There were too many people below the scholars, and he did not spend time memorizing them.
Fang Yun did not skip reading the preface because it was not important, but read it carefully.
This book was written in ordinary black words on white paper, but in the blink of an eye, the edges of the black words on the entire page were glowing with a faint white light.
This means that Fang Yun has completely read the page. If he cannot finish reading and cannot understand the basic meaning, the text will not shine and he will not be able to turn the page. He must read it again and understand it again before he can turn the page.
Fang Yun has been baptized by too many talents, and his brain and literary skills are extremely strong. His reading ability has long surpassed that of reading ten lines at a glance. It only takes him a blink of an eye to read a page, and he can understand the basic meaning of the text at the same time.
Doing this requires a certain amount of talent and literary courage. If the literary courage is not strong, one will quickly become mentally exhausted. If the talent is insufficient, one will not be able to understand.
Reading thousands of books also tests one's talent and literary courage.
After reading the first page, Fang Yun turned the page with a thought. After another blink of an eye, the edges of the black words on the second and third pages all glowed white. He turned the page again, and the text on the fourth and fifth pages appeared before his eyes...
The book in front of Fang Yun was turning pages at an extremely fast speed, as if it was blown by the wind.
Fang Yun turned the pages too frequently. When others turned the pages, there was a slight "whooshing" sound after a few breaths, but when Fang Yun turned the pages, the sound was continuous and loud.
Many people couldn't help but turn their heads to look at Fang Yun, and were immediately frightened by Fang Yun's terrifying speed of turning pages.
"Shit luck, it seems that there are not enough words on the pages. Humph, the thousand books for each person are evenly distributed, the overall number of words is not much different, and the overall meaning is also similar. Don't think you are having fun now, be careful that you will be uneasy later!"
"That's right! Let's continue and ignore him. I don't believe he can keep up this speed!"
After a few people whispered, they continued to flip through the book.
Qiao Juze was right next to Fang Yun. When he was reading page 24, he suddenly stopped involuntarily because he saw Fang Yun waving at him out of the corner of his eye!
Qiao Juze hurriedly turned his head to look at Fang Yun, and saw that there were only a few pages left in Fang Yun's first book. When Fang Yun finished reading the last page, the second book flew in front of Fang Yun and automatically opened the cover, while the first book flew back to its original place on the bookshelf.
"I want to die." Qiao Juze muttered to himself, then lowered his head to look at his book. He had read less than one seventh of the whole book.
Ordinary Jinshi can keep an eye on all directions and listen to all directions, not to mention the most outstanding Jinshi from the Ten Kingdoms. Fang Yun's action of changing the book immediately shocked all the Jinshi. The eyes of the most outstanding more than 30 Jinshi lit up, and they all saw the title of Fang Yun's second book.
"Zhang's Complete Book of Seven Stars, Volume 4".
Xun Li suddenly laughed with gloating, "Haha, the last book was just a lucky one, it was a book with very few words, but this "Complete Book of Seven Stars" is a book of arithmetic, and its difficulty is second only to the "Book of Changes" and other books!"
"Show us page by page if you can!"
"Arithmetic books have always been the most hated by students like me. I don't believe that you are not afraid of it!"
"hey-hey… "
Xun Li, Lei Shisan and all those who were hostile to Fang Yun were extremely happy.
This is one of the difficulties in reading thousands of books. Novels and history books are easy to read, but professional books are very difficult to read. Moreover, these books are very biased. Even if many scholars can remember everything they read, they can only read these books carefully and seriously at the same speed as ordinary people, and study and understand their meaning repeatedly.
When reading thousands of books, people often read dozens of books in the first hour, but may not even finish reading one book in the next hour.
It’s not that they can’t read, but that they can’t understand the meaning of the text.
Kong Deyu was stunned and shouted, "Are you still going to let people study? If you keep talking nonsense, I will ask the great scholar to shut you up!"
The others knew that the Kong family and Fang Yun had always had a good relationship, so they stopped ridiculing Fang Yun and continued to read with a smile, while their ears continued to listen to the sound of Fang Yun turning pages.
Fang Yun ignored him, remained calm as usual, and continued to read the book in front of him.
Cui Wang couldn't help but whispered, "Fang Yun, will you read this book slowly?" Although he asked this, his tone was full of worry, unlike others who gloated over other people's misfortunes.
"It will be much slower." Fang Yun said casually.
The students of Jing country sighed one after another, while a few students from other countries chuckled softly while reading.
Yan Yukong also had a faint smile on his face, but his smile seemed a little different from others.
Fang Yun's speed of turning pages was indeed slow. He used to be able to finish reading a page in the blink of an eye, but now it took him two blinks of an eye.
Crash...
Fang Yun turned the pages of Zhang's Complete Book of Seven Political Principles at a speed far exceeding that of everyone else, even if some people were reading the simplest poems or travel notes.
At first, everyone was skeptical, thinking that the beginning of the book was very simple, but when Fang Yun turned half of the pages and still read at the same speed, many people became confused. Their expressions changed, and they racked their brains for words.
Their reading speed begins to slow down.
Other things can be deceiving, but you cannot be deceiving in "reading ten thousand books". Because it is a rule set by the saints that you can only turn the page after you have finished reading and understood it. Even if Fang Yun is a half-saint, he can't think of turning the next page if he doesn't finish reading and understand it.
Cui Wang was surprised and delighted, and couldn't help asking again: "You call this a lot slower?"
Fang Yun did not slow down the speed of turning the pages at all, and said: "The page turning interval is twice as long as before, of course it is much slower."
Dozens of top scholars rolled their eyes, and several of them were laughed at by Fang Yunsheng.
"Anyone who believes Fang Yun's words is a fool!" Yan Yukong laughed in a low voice.
Kong Deyu smiled and said, "Who was talking nonsense just now? Keep talking! Speak loudly! Let me listen carefully, and let the people of the ten countries listen carefully!"
The person who had ridiculed Fang Yun the most before lowered his head, blushed, and tried hard to read the book in front of him.
At the same time, endless laughter and cheers broke out in the conference hall outside the literary world and in front of all the literary academies in Jingguo.
The Jingguo students next to Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief and continued to study hard.
Not long after, Fang Yun waved again, and everyone stared at the book flying towards Fang Yun.
"Reading Yi Xiang's Sayings".
Many people were secretly happy in their hearts, as books like the "Book of Changes" have always been obscure and difficult to understand. Although this book is not famous and was at most written by a university scholar, it is not as profound as the books written by great scholars or semi-saints, but it is definitely not easy to interpret.
Fang Yun's speed of flipping through the book finally slowed down again, and the reading time of some pages was obviously much longer.
Many people secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but they soon discovered that even though Fang Yun's reading speed slowed down, he still read faster than everyone else on average per page.
"This bastard!" Kong Deyu shook his head and smiled helplessly. After that, he no longer paid attention to Fang Yun and read the book in front of him seriously.
Those who were not hostile to Fang Yun did not read at the same speed as before, but those who were jealous of Fang Yun had some distracting thoughts in their minds and began to read slower. The speed of this slowdown was so low that no one noticed. (To be continued...)