CH 186

The Holy Academy is the center of the ten nations, and the center of all scholars in the world.

Fang Yun originally thought that this matter was only circulated among the Semi-Saint Prominent Families, but he didn't expect that someone deliberately spread it, and the Jing Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and Meng Family were all suspects.

"They not only want the Ji Family to target me, but also want others to snatch this blood-dripping beast skin from me. As long as I am in Jade Sea City, the blood-dripping beast skin is safe. However, once I enter The Holy Land, it's hard to say."

Then, Li Wenying sent another letter by carrier pigeon.

"This year's Holy Land has been confirmed. Because it appeared two years in advance, the power around the Holy Land is extremely strong, and only Presented Scholars or those with lower literary ranks can enter. Today, you go to find Feng Yuanjun and receive a Swallowed Lake Pearl. He will explain to you about this year's Holy Land. On the tenth day of the eighth month, I will take you to the City of Confucius at the foot of the Holy Academy Mountain."

Fang Yun replied with a letter thanking Li Wenying, then went to the Academy and met Feng Yuanjun in the Academy Hall.

After sitting down, Feng Yuanjun laughed and said, "I heard that your music has not only made great progress, but also sparked a city-wide discussion among musicians. In the past, people only talked about Fang Yun when discussing poetry, but now people say 'When it comes to music, they talk about Fang Yun'. Even if you are at home reading and playing music, your reputation can spread far and wide. It's really enviable."

"Master Feng is too kind, it's just a coincidence."

"Now everyone who sings 'The Fairy of the Magpie Bridge' only sings your line 'If two hearts are long in love, what does it matter if they are together day and night?' Do you also think this is a coincidence? Have you read the 'Literature Report' on the tenth?"

"I have read it, the words on it are a bit exaggerated." Fang Yun said.

"How can that be called exaggerated? A single person repelled the Dragon King, and an Accomplished Scholar surpassed the Poetry King. You deserve it. However, the more important thing is in the Holy Land." Feng Yuanjun said, and handed over a white shell the size of an egg on the table.

Fang Yun carefully took it.

Feng Yuanjun said, "There are only three Swallowed Lake Pearls in the entire Jiangzhou, located in the Prefecture Government, the Prefecture Academy, and the Prefecture Army. As for the other Swallowed Lake Pearls in the Prefecture Army, they nominally belong to the Holy Academy. Master Li specifically borrowed the Academy's Swallowed Lake Pearl for you, you must not let down his painstaking efforts."

"I understand." Fang Yun carefully looked at the white shell. This thing can be held in one hand, as white as jade, looks very small, but it is actually the same kind as the Heaven and Earth Shell. It is something that cannot be bought with any amount of money.

Feng Yuanjun said, "When the Swallowed Lake Pearl was alive, the shell could contain a hundred miles of seawater. Once a thousand-year-old Swallowed Lake Pearl dies, it can be sent to the Dragon Palace to be made into a Swallowed Lake Pearl that the Dragon Clan can use, and then sent to the Holy Academy, it can be made into a treasure for the Human Clan by the skilled craftsmen of the Mo Family's Gongshu Family. The Swallowed Lake Pearl is one zhang square inside. It can store a lot of things, it is very precious, and ordinary wealthy families do not have it. At least a Semi-Saint Prominent Family can have it. As for the better Drinking Pearl of the River, excluding the Semi-Saint Prominent Families, there are only two in the entire Jing Kingdom."

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Fang Yun nodded, tried to guide the talent energy in his body into it, and saw a crack open in the white shell, with a white light inside the crack, and then "saw" the scene inside the Swallowed Lake Pearl. The place of one zhang square is like a small storeroom, with some clothes, weapons, and stationery inside, including two Presented Scholar's Treasures of Literature.

One is the Canglang Pen, which is very common in Jing Kingdom. It can immediately transform into the War Poetry "Canglang Row" to attack people. The other is a rare fast-moving literary treasure, the Galloping Horse Paper, which is infused with the power of the ancient poem "Galloping Horse".

"Thank you all for your high regard!" Fang Yun thanked deeply. He didn't expect them to lend him so many things, especially the Swallowed Lake Pearl. If it is lost, not only will Li Wenying be punished, but Feng Yuanjun will definitely be dismissed and investigated, and he will never be able to hold a key position in the future, unless he can become a Grand Academician to go further.

Feng Yuanjun smiled and said, "This Holy Land is extraordinary. Everyone suspects that there are treasures coming into the world. Those Semi-Saint Prominent Families have invested a lot of money, and the scholars of big nations like Qi Kingdom and Wu Kingdom are eager to try. Our Jing Kingdom has always been weak, and it is not easy to lend you these. It's a pity that you are not a Presented Scholar. If you were a Presented Scholar, I would definitely help you borrow a few more Imperial Scholar's Treasures of Literature."

Fang Yun said, "Thank you, Master Feng. But since everyone suspects that there are treasures coming into the world, then the number of places to enter the Holy Land should be more than usual, right?"

"Yes, not only are there more, but it is five times that of eight years ago! Among them, each of the ten nations has fifty Presented Scholars and fifty Accomplished Scholars, and each Semi-Saint Prominent Family can have thirty people, Sub-Sage Prominent Family can have fifty people, and the Sage Confucius Prominent Family has a full one hundred places. According to the rules, the Sage Confucius Prominent Family only keeps fifty places, and the rest are competed for by the children of other Semi-Saint Prominent Families. However, now there are only forty-nine left, one of which is yours."

Fang Yun showed a helpless look and said, "I don't lack a place in Jing Kingdom. Master Dong really knows how to give me trouble. So there are thousands of people entering the Holy Land this time?"

"How is that possible? These are just places, not qualifications. Among these four thousand people, only one hundred can enter the Holy Land in the end." Feng Yuanjun said.

"Only one hundred people? That's too few." Fang Yun said.

"Eight years ago, only thirty people could enter! Let's not talk about other things, did you see some books in the Swallowed Lake Pearl?"

"I saw it.""Inside are travelogues written by people from Jing Kingdom, all about The Holy Land. Some things are too... peculiar, so they can't be sold." Feng Yuanjun's expression was somewhat strange.

Fang Yun glanced at Feng Yuanjun, a thought crossed his mind, and he saw the shell of The Swallowed Lake Pearl open, spraying out a beam of white light. The light flew to Fang Yun's hand and quickly enlarged. When the light dissipated, a book was revealed.

Fang Yun quickly flipped through a few pages, the more he read, the more shocked and fascinated he became. After speed-reading the book, he lifted his head, holding the book and asked, "Are the records in here all true?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have shown it to you." Feng Yuanjun replied.

Fang Yun frowned and said, "So, the power in The Holy Land is very peculiar, even the binding power of oaths doesn't exist?"

"There is no power of 'etiquette' to bind in there, this is one of the characteristics of the ancient land. It is precisely because of this that once All the Saints obtain the ancient land, they can transform it. For example, why can people gain power and obtain The Heart of Literature when they go to Book Mountain? It's because Book Mountain has been changed by the power of Sage Confucius."

"The book says that even if people from ten nations kill each other in The Holy Land, it doesn't matter, because it's a rule tacitly agreed upon by All the Saints. Once they leave The Holy Land, anything that happened inside cannot be used as an excuse to attack others. Neither the ten nations nor the Holy Academy care. There seems to be more to this, right?"

Feng Yuanjun was silent for a moment, then said, "There are many opinions on this matter, and there is no conclusion yet. If the Sages don't speak, we can't make rash judgments."

"Alas, it seems there are many secrets in The Holy Land." Fang Yun said.

"Every ancient land has great secrets!" Feng Yuanjun said solemnly.

"By the way, how do you select one hundred people out of thousands?" Fang Yun asked.

"Eighty are selected from the Presented Scholars, and twenty from the Talented Scholars. You cross The Weak Water, pass through the strange wind, you don't need to think too much about it. You are a Talented Scholar, as long as you rank in the top twenty among the Talented Scholars, you can enter The Holy Land."

"That's good."

Feng Yuanjun looked at Fang Yun and slowly said, "There are dangers everywhere in The Holy Land, even geniuses with the potential of Semi-Saints have died there. But even so, the disciples of All the Saints' Prominent Families are eager to enter, there must be great benefits that we don't know about. Even those hidden and low-key Prominent Families, every time The Holy Land opens, they will send out their elites, even the Kong Family is no exception. So, you must do your best to qualify, and then suppress the ten nations with your literary prowess at the Mid-Autumn Literary Meeting."

"Don't worry, Lord Feng, I will do my best."

"That's good. Go home and prepare."

Fang Yun bid farewell to Feng Yuanjun, and read the book in The Swallowed Lake Pearl on his way home. After finishing a book, another book would appear in the world of strange books.

The more Fang Yun read, the more he felt the difficulty of The Holy Land.

After reading seven travelogues, Fang Yun suddenly took out all the books, then flipped through twenty-four travelogues, only looking at the authors.

Except for four authors who were unknown or died young, the other twenty authors were all big figures who left their names in Jing Kingdom. Each of them had at least become a Grand Academician, and eight of them even became Great Scholars. The names of Li Wenying and Wen Xiang were among them.

"This Holy Land, it seems to be more special than I thought." Fang Yun thought.

When he got home, Fang Yun rested for a while and then practiced the zither. After a while, he suddenly stopped, lifted the zither and looked down. There were many cracks on the wooden zither stand.

"After all, it's a Treasures of Literature zither, both the strings and the sound contain powerful forces. Ordinary zither stands can't bear it, I'm afraid even stone ones won't last long, there should be a way."

Fang Yun entered the world of strange books. He had bought hundreds of books related to the zither and put them all in there. Except for the scores and teaching books, he hadn't read the rest.

Reading books in the world of strange books was very fast. In just a quarter of an hour, Fang Yun found a solution.

"It turns out that using the bones, horns, and fur of various monsters can prevent this situation from happening. Especially when playing war songs, these things must be padded underneath, otherwise the zither stand will be shattered, causing the zither to fall. My zither is an Imperial Scholar's Treasures of Literature, I can use the materials of a monster general of the same level, and the materials of a higher level monster marquis are even better."

Fang Yun searched for a long time and found that the only things in his house that could pad the zither were the blood drop beast skin and the dragon horn of the Dragon King.

"The beast skin is too small, it can't be used. The Dragon King is a monster king, one level higher than the monster marquis, it seems a bit wasteful. The book says that the effect of using dragon horns to pad the zither is excellent, it can reduce the sound of the zither transmitted downwards, and concentrate the power of the zither sound in front, which is equivalent to indirectly enhancing the power of the war song. In the future, when I have a better Treasures of Literature zither, I may really need to use the dragon horn of the Dragon King, so I might as well cut four sections of the dragon horn of the Dragon King and stick them under the zither, so that no matter where I play the zither in the future, it won't hurt the zither stand."

Fang Yun did as he said, took the dragon horn and found that it was really hard. He had to use a particularly hard saw to slowly saw it off and then polish it. So he took a dragon horn to the Dragon Pavilion and asked the craftsman of the Dragon Pavilion to help cut four cylindrical sections of the dragon horn.

When sawing the dragon horn, some powder fell off, which was collected by the craftsman. The powder added up was only the size of a little finger's nail, but the craftsman carefully packed it for Fang Yun.

Fang Yun weighed it, although there was little, it was quite heavy. He casually asked, "How much is this dragon horn powder worth?""If sold in a pharmacy, this would be worth at least a thousand taels of silver."

Fang Yun silently looked at the four one-inch-tall dragon horn qin pads, each one worth no less than fifty thousand taels of silver.

Then, Fang Yun made another trip to Wenyou Xuan, asking the qin maker to help him stick the dragon horn qin pads under the Zhen Dan Qin. After trying it out, the sound indeed had a subtle difference compared to before. (To be continued.)