The Path of the Sage

“Good!” The unknown Semi-Saint praised.

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The talented scholars originally thought that the second line was better than the first in both sentence and imagery.
If it were put into poetry, it would probably not be inferior to that of a prefecture.
Moreover, the Semi-Saint's approval indirectly acknowledged Fang Yun's second line.

Tanyu and Nie Shi, the two long-time followers, had been holding their breath for a long time.
Hearing the Semi-Saint praise Fang Yun, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Even if Fang Yun couldn't pass, the Semi-Saint should show some mercy and not deliberately attack Fang Yun's literary palace.

The Marquis of Wei and Liu Zicheng's faces changed slightly.
A child scholar being praised by a Semi-Saint was the greatest honor, not much inferior to the double armor of a saint.

The people around Liu Zicheng were a little panicked.
If Fang Yun really passed the saint's selection, the court would definitely protect him.
Going against him would be no different from suicide.

Guan Yaoyuan whispered, “Why panic? This is just the beginning.
How could the Sage only ask one question? The harder ones are sure to come later! Legend has it that someone answered the first question and passed the saint's selection, but fainted during the second question.
The Sage is fair and just and will never let such a thief pass the saint's selection!”

Liu Zicheng glanced at Guan Yaoyuan and expressed his gratitude, then looked at Fang Yun, squinting his eyes slightly, thinking about something.

The Semi-Saint's voice once again echoed in the sky, “I am standing on the mountain at this moment and have come up with the second pair of couplets: 'Fog locks the mountain top, mountain locks the fog.
You have one hundred breaths to think about it.'”

This sentence evokes the image of mountains shrouded in fog, and mountains surrounding the fog, which is more vivid than the first line.

The Marquis of Wei exclaimed in surprise, “It's a palindrome!”

Immediately, someone wrote the seven characters “Fog locks the mountain top, mountain locks the fog” on paper.
The seven characters read the same forwards and backwards.

The people who had previously cheered for Fang Yun furrowed their brows.
This palindrome was tens of times harder than stacking characters.
Palindromic couplets often took a long time to ponder before they could be matched.
Even if they were quick-witted, it wouldn't help much.

Wan Xue was nervously watching Fang Yun.
He was Fang Yun's examiner for the county test.
Since Fang Yun became famous, he had been trying to strengthen their relationship so that he could rise with Fang Yun in the future.
If Fang Yun had any problems, he, with his qualifications and connections, would never have a chance to rise and would be limited to being a scholar in the prefecture's literary academy forever.

Fang Yun closed his eyes, seemingly imagining the scene of fog-locked mountains and water-locked skies.

After forty breaths, Fang Yun suddenly opened his eyes and said, “Fog locks the mountain top, mountain locks the fog.
The sky connects with the water's tail, and the water connects with the sky.”

“Good!” Wan Xue couldn't help but exclaim, taking the pen from another official and completing the couplet on the previous page.

The students thought carefully and were sincerely impressed.
Even those who had befriended Liu Zicheng began to admire Fang Yun.
Answering a palindromic couplet in a short amount of time was not any easier than writing poetry.As soon as the first line of text appeared, people seemed to immediately see the scene of misty mountains.
The second line not only formed a palindrome, but also depicted the scenery perfectly, immediately evoking the image of the distant horizon where water meets sky.
The two scenes complemented each other and, although they were just a pair of couplets, were as beautiful as a painting or poem.

“Great goodness!” The Half-Sage's voice was filled with joy.

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Liu Zicheng and Wei Yuanjun exchanged a glance, both seeing in each other's eyes a sense of retreat and regret.
It was possible that this unknown Half-Sage would pay special attention to Fang Yun in the future, and Fang Yun would surely settle the score later.
The consequences would be unimaginable.

Suddenly, Wei Yuanjun bowed towards the Holy Temple and loudly declared, “Although Fang Yun has talent, his character is despicable.
He is a great villain.
If we want to rigorously examine this person, his poetry and literary works are not enough.
We should test his understanding of the Path of the Saints! Please, Sage, judge for yourself.”

At this moment, even the low-ranking officials were angry.
Other Semi-Saints from different countries did not want to harm Fang Yun.
They had already recognized Fang Yun's talents.
Wei Yuanjun, as a citizen of the Jing Kingdom, was pushing the kingdom's talented scholar to his death.
It was unbearable.

Wan Xuezhen angrily said, “I will testify against you!”

The Half-Sage suddenly snorted coldly and said, “What a noble and loyal official for the human race and the Jing Kingdom! To help you achieve your goal, I will personally inform Watch the Sea Brother about this matter.”

Wei Yuanjun's face turned ashen, his legs weakened, and he had to lean on the table to stand.

The people around Wei Yuanjun scattered like the tide, and even Liu Zicheng looked like he wanted to avoid him and left quickly.

Fang Yun, on the other hand, thought to himself that this was just one Semi-Saint reporting on another Semi-Saint.
Even if Wei Yuanjun had a hundred lives, it would not be enough for him to die.
Not to mention that his background was just that of a Left Chancellor.
Even if the Left Chancellor, Right Chancellor, Assistant Chancellor, and Literary Chancellor were combined, they could not compare to the only Semi-Saint in the Jing Kingdom, Chen Guanhai.

“Deserved it!” The usually silent Tan Yu said, loosening his grip on his knife.

Except for Liu Zicheng and a few others who secretly rejoiced, everyone else looked down on Wei Yuanjun.

The Half-Sage said, “I originally planned to give you three couplets, but since you want to be tested on the Path of the Saints, I will change the third question.
Your prefectural examination paper was rated as first class, and ordinary exam questions cannot stump you.
So, I will test you on reciting the Analects backwards.
You have one hour to recite more than 10,000 words of the Analects.
You can make no more than three mistakes.”

The audience was in an uproar.

“Recite the Analects backwards? This is unheard of! How can this be considered a test on the Path of the Saints?”

“I calculated the time.
It takes two and a half hours to read the Analects aloud at a normal pace, and reciting it backwards will definitely be slower.
To require someone to do it within an hour is unreasonable.”

“Even Imperial Scholars cannot do it.
Only Hanlin Scholars can do it.”

“That's right.
Even if we memorized it, reciting it backwards within an hour is impossible.
After all, we understand it in a certain order, and reciting it backwards will interfere with our understanding.”

The students did not even care that a Semi-Saint was present and expressed their opinions one after another.
This method was too difficult, and everyone present could not do it.

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“Reciting the Analects backwards is unheard of.
How can this be considered a test on the Path of the Saints?””You dare to question the Semi-Saint? Shut up!” Wei Yuanjun said.

“Wei old thief, are you satisfied now? If you don't die, I will curse you every day!” Wan Xuezhen's eyes were blazing.

Suddenly, a Talented Scholar tore off a piece of his robe and said, “Liu Zicheng, I want to befriend you.
Although there is the Left Chancellor's influence, I still think you are a worthy friend.
What you and Wei Yuanjun did this time was too much.
From now on, we are no longer friends.” He finished speaking and walked away from Liu Zicheng.

Many people looked down on Liu Zicheng even more.

Liu Zicheng remained calm, with a faint smile on his lips.
Ordinary people didn't know, but he had learned from Liu Zhi that “reciting backwards” was one of the topics tested by Book Mountain, which had stumped countless people.
Even Imperial Scholars found it difficult to pass, let alone Child Scholars.

Wei Yuanjun breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Fang Yun definitely couldn't recite backwards.
If he failed the Holy Selection, the Imperial Palace would definitely collapse, and Fang Yun would never be able to seek revenge on him.

Wei Yuanjun no longer paid attention to Fang Yun, but thought about how to protect his family after being dismissed from office.
The more he thought about it, the more desolate he felt.
He thought he could gain the Left Chancellor's trust by suppressing Fang Yun, but in the end, he had offended two Semi-Saints at the same time.

Beside him, Gao Minghong sighed softly, about to advise Fang Yun to give up, but he felt it was inappropriate to say so and could only comfort him, “Don't listen to their nonsense.
As long as you are sincere in your heart, you can recite backwards.
You should try.”

“Okay.” Fang Yun nodded and said, “May the Sage be above, can I prepare for a moment before starting? If I recite backwards directly, I'm afraid there won't be enough time.”

“Sure.”

Everyone looked at Fang Yun with various strange eyes.
Did he really want to try? Did he really think he could pass the recitation backwards?

Gao Minghong was speechless, wondering if his persuasion had given Fang Yun blind confidence?

Fang Yun closed his eyes, and the book world of the Strange Book immediately appeared with the book “Analects of Confucius,” and all the words were reset in reverse order.

Fang Yun used his mind to speed-read the reverse order “Analects of Confucius” in the book world, reading it several times.
Wei Yuanjun immediately said, “Time's up.”

“This official is a dog!” a young Talented Scholar with a hot temper couldn't help but curse.

“Such cursing is an insult to dogs!” someone said.

Wei Yuanjun's eyes flashed with a fierce light, secretly remembering the person who cursed him.

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“Let's begin,” the Semi-Saint's voice rang out.

Fang Yun bowed towards the Holy Temple, closed his eyes again, and saw the entire “Analects of Confucius” in reverse order before him.
He began to recite it.

“People all know what is without being told, but if they don't know, it's useless to tell them.
They establish themselves without doing anything, but they know the importance of ritual…”

Fang Yun's speed of speech was even faster than normal recitation, incredibly smooth, without any stumbling, and with ups and downs in tone.
Those who didn't understand would think he was reciting some particularly profound All-Saints classic.

After a quarter of an hour, Fang Yun's speed of speech began to increase, with a trend of getting faster and faster, and he pronounced each word clearly without any errors or pauses.Everyone stared blankly, especially Wei Yuanjun and Liu Zicheng.
Their minds were completely empty, and they couldn't understand how Fang Yun could achieve such a feat.
To have a photographic memory was already the pinnacle of ordinary genius, but for a child scholar to be able to recite backwards like this, he was definitely a sage-like figure.

After a long time, everyone became numb and their minds slowly returned to normal as they listened to Fang Yun's recitation.

Liu Zicheng signaled to a talented scholar next to him to interrupt Fang Yun's recitation and cause him to fail.
But the talented scholar gave Liu Zicheng a look that said, “Do you think I'm stupid?” and moved away from him.

Liu Zicheng then looked at another person, who immediately lowered his head, thinking to himself that no one was foolish enough to try and stop Fang Yun at this point.
It would certainly anger the Semi-Saint, and the consequences could be dire.

Seeing that no one was moving, Liu Zicheng could only remain silent.

At first, everyone didn't understand why the Semi-Saint would test them in this way, but as Fang Yun continued to recite, they gradually understood.
Remembering all the classics of the saints was just the first step.
Fully understanding them was the second step.
Using them correctly was the third step, and the fourth step was to make them your own.

Once you make the classics of the saints your own, every word will be deeply engraved in your heart.
Reciting them backwards isn't about memory, it's about whether or not you have made the classics of the saints your own.

After realizing this, a few people couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for Fang Yun.
They felt that he had the aura of a Semi-Saint, and just being able to look up to him was enough.

Fang Yun continued to recite Confucius' Analects backwards, completely unaware that he was being misunderstood and that many people admired him.

…

Some unrelated thoughts and information about future update times.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from “pawread dot com”.

These past few days, I have been updating twice a day, rain or shine, and even when my family tried to set me up on a blind date, I refused because I know how important this new book is.
I'm not just saying this for the readers; I really want to write a good book and make it successful.

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But after I refused the date, I immediately regretted it.
Why didn't I at least meet them once? I can only laugh at myself for being a conscientious author.

Recently, because my father came back, friends and relatives have invited us to dinner many times, around seven or eight times.
I've only gone twice, and that's only because the restaurant was located downstairs from my house.

I know it's not good to refuse, and I know it's not good to not give face to others.
I know how those relatives and friends will look at me, but I really don't have the time.
I've been disconnecting from the internet and writing non-stop, afraid of being distracted.
Both the editor and readers have said that this book is difficult to write, and I don't want to rush it and risk making mistakes.
Besides, updating twice a day with 6,000 words is already a normal speed, it's not slow at all.I have always liked to release two chapters in a row, and I have mentioned in the related works that there will be at least two chapters released after the launch.
Why do I now have to release one chapter at noon and one in the evening separately? I need to explain this.

There is a “Weekly Member Click Ranking” on Qidian, and readers must log in to their Qidian account, and the clicks of readers with at least 500 points are valid, and they must be at least six hours apart.
Clicking more within six hours is useless.

I want to have a good position on the weekly ranking, so I release two chapters separately.

If I release two chapters together, the weekly clicks will be much less, let alone competing for the top six on the weekly ranking, whether I can enter the top fifteen is a problem.

I have been holding back these things and didn't want to say it, but now I can't hold back because of the things in the book review area.

Because the two chapters are released separately, many readers say that I “cut the chapter”, note that it refers to the plot being separated by chapters.

As a result, some people misunderstood and thought that I “stopped updating”, accused me of not only updating one or two chapters a day but also stopping updating.
I really can't stand it.

Before this, several readers accused me of updating once a day.
Can't you go to the table of contents page and see how many chapters I update a day?

I was bullied by “investors” on the Newcomer Ranking two weeks ago, in the Dream Cup, and on the weekly ranking.
I was also blacked out by peers who tampered with the content of the book on the novel forum.
I had no way to deal with it.
Now, in the book review area of this book, before readers accuse me of updating once or stopping updating, can't you spend a few seconds to see the update time and the number of updated chapters?

Accusing a book of updating once or stopping updating will cause many people who do not know the truth to abandon the book or not read it, which is very detrimental to the popularity.
I cannot be depressed.

Since you readers don't like the chapters being separated, starting from tomorrow, I will release two chapters every night between eight and nine o'clock.
If there are delays due to personal reasons, I will apologize and release more chapters.

As for the weekly ranking, let's not fight for it, but please continue to help recommend the book.
The credibility of the weekly recommendation list is relatively strong.

Finally, let's discuss one thing happily.
Can you not say that I cut the chapter in the book review area? Thank you.

Two updates every day between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, with occasional bursts.