CH 140

At Dao Feng Mountain, in the Holy Academy, the Eastern Sage's Pavilion.

The eyes of the Eastern Sage, Wang Jinglong, sparkled with a strange light that eventually faded, leaving a faint smile on his face.

"What a man you are, Fang Yun. Even I underestimated you. With you among the human race, there's nothing to worry about."

His smile quickly disappeared, replaced by a chill, and then he stood up and walked out.

With each step, he covered a hundred miles, and behind him, the wind and clouds rolled, and thunder roared.

Everyone in the Holy Academy looked up in surprise to see the sky filled with dark clouds, within which lightning flashed and thunder roared. A strange power split the thousand-mile cloud cover in two, revealing a clear sky, which was extraordinarily magical.

"The Eastern Sage is angry!"

"Grand Academician Da Sheng seems more irritable than usual today, creating clouds for thousands of miles. Surely, some demon king or barbarian king must die."

"Or a Grand Academician?"

"No way."

"It's very possible."

Outside the Yuhai Prefecture Academy.

The crowd in front of the gate lingered for a long time, huddled together discussing in low voices. Some talked about Fang Yun, some about the Jing Kingdom, and some about the debate.

Around Fang Yun were his classmates and those he had interacted with before, while many scholars watched Fang Yun from a distance. They clearly wanted to come over and greet Fang Yun, but they were too shy, afraid of being too brash.

Unlike before, the crowd now looked at Fang Yun not with curiosity or fervor, but as they would look at Li Wenying. They regarded Fang Yun as a respected elder, the true leader of the literary world in Jiangzhou and even the Jing Kingdom. They felt a spiritual closeness to him that was not there before.

Those who were older saw the far-reaching impact of this event and were happy that the Jing Kingdom had produced such a true leader-level genius.

The gap between a literary genius and a literary leader is huge. Semi-Saint disciples like Yan Yukong were widely recognized as more talented than Fang Yun, but they were far from being leaders. Now, Fang Yun was at least the leader of the literary world in Jiangzhou. In a few days, when the "Literary Report" published this event, he would undoubtedly become the leader of the literary world in the Jing Kingdom.

Before long, someone beside Fang Yun exclaimed, "Brother Qian, how come you're here?"

Fang Yun looked in the direction of the voice. It was Qian Boshang, who had just shattered the Courage to Write. He was sitting in a sedan chair.

"Brother Qian!" Fang Yun parted the crowd and walked over.

Qian Boshang showed a leisurely and composed smile, "I heard you were coming here, so I had them bring me. I know about what happened just now. Fang Yun, you did well!"

His simple praise was more comforting than any flattery.

"I'm just like you, one of many," Fang Yun said modestly.

"But you are the most outstanding!" Qian Boshang said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Alas, the Left Chancellor was unharmed before. We all guessed it had something to do with the protection of those two families. Now that this has happened, we can almost confirm it. If we could really cooperate with the barbarians to exterminate the demons, I would have no complaints about sacrificing the Jing Kingdom. But the problem is, what if we are sacrificed and the Mohist and Diplomat families fail?" Qian Boshang said.

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"There's nothing we can do but silently pray that the Holy Academy still has justice."

"Feng Shaoyu is just a Presented Scholar, originally not qualified to get the true text of the Great Scholar. That Semi-Saint should not have instructed him to do this, but his disciples might have. Fortunately, a Sage killed Feng Shaoyu. Otherwise, Fang Yun would have been in danger."

"This matter must be published in the 'Literary Report'! If the Holy Academy does not hold certain people accountable, I will go to the Holy Academy and knock on the door until I die! The Jing Kingdom has been oppressed by the Qing Kingdom and the Wu Kingdom for so many years, they don't care, we can bear it! But Fang Yun has emerged, and they dare to treat Fang Yun as a thorn in their side, I absolutely cannot bear it!"

"Brother Cao is righteous! If you go to the Holy Academy, take me with you!"

"I'll go too!"

Everyone responded in kind, and Ye Feng laughed, "Looking at this situation, if the Holy Academy doesn't give us an explanation, Fang Yun just needs to call out, and at least a hundred thousand scholars will go to the Holy Academy and knock on the wall. I'm afraid Dao Feng Mountain will be knocked down by us."

Everyone laughed together, feeling especially warm in their hearts. It had been a long time since the Jing Kingdom had something that united everyone. Even the enthusiasm for resisting the barbarians had been gradually worn away by the Left Chancellor and others.

Fang Yun smiled slightly and didn't say much, listening to their continued discussion.

During their conversation, Fang Yun, in order to know his enemy and himself, sorted out the lineage of the Diplomat family and found a problem. He felt strange in his heart.

"The founder of the Diplomat family, Guiguzi, is really strange. His disciples, such as Zhang Yi, Su Qin, Sun Bin, and Pang Juan, have records in many credible historical materials like 'Shiji', but he doesn't. They say he's a Military Strategist, but there's no historical record of him leading troops, no military achievements. They say he's from the Diplomat family, but no one can point out which country he lobbied or what specific things he did. However, one thing is certain, he must be a great educator, and the book 'Guiguzi' is of great value."

The Guiguzi of the Holy Origin Mainland was also a hermit, and there were no historical records of his deeds, so Fang Yun didn't pursue it and focused on the current Diplomat family.After the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the role of the strategists diminished significantly, and the foundation of the Saintly Seal almost disappeared, merging into the miscellaneous and military strategists, and for a time, they vanished from sight. It wasn't until the rise of the Ten Kingdoms, which nearly returned to the Warring States period, that the strategists regained their strength. However, due to their unstable foundation, no one is currently able to attain the Saintly Seal.

As the night deepened, people gradually left, but the crowd around Fang Yun never diminished. Soon, Feng Yuanjun hurried over from the literary academy, his expression extremely solemn.

"Fang Yun, I just received some news," Feng Yuanjun said as he walked.

"Does it concern me?" Fang Yun asked.

Feng Yuanjun said gravely, "The Eastern Saint went to Jing Kingdom and executed the Great Scholar Teng Jiu of the strategists in the palace of Jing Kingdom, in front of the King of Jing."

"Ah!" The crowd was in an uproar.

"That was a Great Scholar, how could he just die like that?"

"The Eastern Saint would never execute a Great Scholar for today's incident, it's strange."

"Hmph, usually when a Great Scholar commits a crime, they are exiled to the front lines or the Two Realms Mountain. The Eastern Saint executed him directly, there must be a deeper reason."

"Other than the crime of betraying the human race, there is no other possibility that would make the Eastern Saint take action."

"Lord Feng, is there any news about others?"

Feng Yuanjun replied, "Yes. Two Grand Academicians, four Hanlin Scholars, eight Imperial Scholars, and ninety-six Presented Scholars, along with their clans, have been exiled to various front lines to fight against the Demon Barbarians. They are not allowed to return to Jing Kingdom within five generations. The three clans of that Great Scholar have also been exiled to the front lines."

Fang Yun suddenly said, "In the battle last year, Jing Kingdom lost one Grand Academician, two Hanlin Scholars, four Imperial Scholars, and forty-eight Presented Scholars. The number of people exiled this time is exactly twice that number."

Everyone suddenly understood and their spirits were greatly lifted.

"It seems that the Eastern Saint understands, but after all, he didn't have conclusive evidence to deal with those people before. Now that they have gone too far and posed a great threat to Fang Yun, the Eastern Saint doesn't need evidence to take action directly, and they can only swallow their teeth when they are knocked out." Qian Boshang said.

"Last year, one of my friends died in the battle. I will write a letter to his family about this. Not only to let them remember Fang Yun's kindness, but also to let them know that there is still justice in this world!"

"Hmph, if it weren't for Fang Yun, where would we go for this justice? Wouldn't we just die in vain?"

"You're thinking too extreme, if the human race wants to be strong, there must be sacrifices."

Qian Boshang said in a low voice, "I'm not afraid of sacrifice, I'm just afraid that the merits brought by our sacrifice will be monopolized by certain people. When it comes to rewarding merits, they only remember themselves and their descendants, but forget us and our descendants."

Everyone fell silent, this was an unsolvable problem.

Suddenly, a letter-carrying wild goose flew over. After reading it, Feng Yuanjun said, "Shi Jun apologizes for his disciple Shi Dehong's words and actions. He has decided to compose a poem and present it to the people of Jing Kingdom at the Qixi Literary Meeting in Yuhai City."

"Hmph, what kind of gift poem, it's nothing more than knowing that he's in the wrong, but he can't just lose like this. He wants to suppress Jing Kingdom with a poem, so he won't lose all his face. If someone from Jing Kingdom composes a poem that surpasses his, it would seem ungenerous, after all, he has apologized."

"After all, he is one of the Four Great Talents, and he didn't participate in this literary battle. His willingness to apologize is already the limit, we should give him this face. However, this Qixi Festival will be changed to a poetry meeting." Feng Yuanjun said with a smile.

Everyone smiled knowingly. At the Qixi Poetry Meeting in Yuhai City, even if Shi Jun sent a poem, he wouldn't be able to suppress the literati of Yuhai City. If a good poem came out, Shi Jun would definitely lose face.

However, this kind of thing is a very common dispute over literary fame and spirit, and everyone didn't take it to heart.

A loud voice suddenly sounded not far away.

"Is Fang Yun here?"

Fang Yun recognized the voice as Zhang Poyue's. He turned his head and saw Zhang Poyue and Zhao Hongzhuang walking towards him.

Zhao Hongzhuang seemed worried, but when she saw that Fang Yun was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Poyue, on the other hand, seemed to not care about anything.

"Commander Zhang, aren't you riding the patrol dragon boat anymore?" Fang Yun joked.

"Since Shi Jun was scared away by Jianmei Gong, I naturally don't need to ride it. But in a few days, I won't be Commander Zhang anymore, I'm going to serve in the Dingyuan Army." Zhang Poyue said.

Fang Yun knew that there were four armies in the north of Jing Kingdom, namely the Left, Right, Front, and Rear Armies. The Dingyuan Army was the Front Army, and the Left Army was severely damaged by the Wolf Savage last year. The Right Army has always been very stable, and the Rear Army was controlled by the Left Chancellor.

Fang Yun didn't know much about the military situation in Jing Kingdom, but he knew that the Front Army was the deepest into the grassland. With the Left Army being severely damaged, the Front Army was likely to be the next target of the Wolf Savage. It was far more dangerous than Yuhai City.

"Has it been settled?" Fang Yun asked.

"It's settled. I'm no longer a third-rank commander, but a second-rank Front General. I've been promoted, it's a good thing." Zhang Poyue seemed very happy.

"Congratulations to General Zhang on your promotion." Everyone congratulated together.

Zhang Poyue proudly stroked his goatee and said, "Tomorrow I will host a banquet at De Yue Tower to entertain guests. You must come, and prepare a poem to send me off, or else I won't leave!"

"So this is the reason General Zhang came to find me?" Fang Yun asked with a smile.

"Yes!" Zhang Poyue had no shame at all, then he added, "Don't fool me, at least make it a county-level poem."Fang Yun said, "Since the general has given me an egg, I will present a poem to the general tomorrow."

"Prepare well. When the time comes, I will have you compose a poem on the spot. You will create a line with each step, completing the poem in four or eight steps. The title of the poem will be 'Fang Yun Presents to Zhang Poyue'. We will all become famous together," Zhang Poyue said.

Fang Yun looked at Zhao Hongzhuang helplessly, with a wry smile on his face. Zhao Hongzhuang wore an expression of resignation.

People around them were snickering, thinking that the general was indeed outrageous, even his demand for a poem was so domineering.

...(To be continued.)

PS: Third update.