<h4>Chapter 73: An Announcement to the World</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion
Wen Ting stared at Fang Lang.
He kept staring silently.
‘He almost killed the examiner? Did I hear that right?
‘Why do you have such a pitiful look on your face?
‘You’re the one who almost killed him! Where is all this self-pitying from?’
“What exactly happened there?” Wen Ting interrogated, furrowing his brows.
A situation like that should not have urred in a practical assessment. The fact that Fang Lang almost killed the examiner must have meant there was real friction between the two.
More importantly, the examiner was a third-ss cultivator. How did a boy who just became a sword master almost pummel him to death?
Fang Lang took some time to manage his emotions, then narrated what had urred in thebat hall in detail.
The moment Fang Lang mentioned the examiner was a foreign soldier from Asi Luoshan’s army, Wen Ting’s expression changed drastically.
“Li Puyi!” Wen Ting eximed.
He raised his clenched fist abruptly.
Atst, he understood why Fang Lang almost killed the examiner—he was a foreigner!
Usually, examiners would be picked from third-ss cultivators of the Tang Army. No foreigner had ever been allowed to take part in the Imperial Examination. After all, the Imperial Examination was meant to select the geniuses among Tang Dynasty’s citizens. If a foreigner was involved in the exam, there was a risk of betrayal. The foreigner could assassinate the geniuses of the Tang Dynasty!
“Li Puyi is insane! What does he take Luojiang Academy for?”
Wen Ting—who had always maintained a calm and elegant exterior—was infuriated.
The next moment, he vanished from his spot.
Fang Lang watched as his mentor vanished into thin air. Fang Lang spat out a mouthful of stale air. Many were involved in the incident but Fang Lang never considered the possibility the third prince had altered the rules of the Imperial Examination for the sole purpose of causing him trouble. After all, Fang Lang was just a nobody.
He thought the third prince’s faction must have always wanted to test this out. It was just a coincidence Fang Lang got caught up in it. Simrly, Fang Lang ruining his ns was also a mere coincidence.
Fang Lang felt the looming sense of threat intensifying.
He left the exam venue and was met with the perfect sunset. The entire evening sky was painted crimson red!
Fang Lang hadpleted both his theory andbat exams, marking the end of the Tang Dynasty’s triennial Imperial Examination. Fang Lang stretched out his body. He felt as if a heavy burden was lifted off his shoulders.
Within the examination tower, thebat exam continued. Nheless, it had nothing to do with Fang Lang anymore.
Upon exiting the examination tower, he was met with Old Fang’s kind smile. Fang Lang reciprocated with a smile of his own and entered a carriage with his father.
As the setting sun glowed, the shadow of the carriage was stretched out long and narrow.
“Lang’er, the Imperial Examination is over. You should get some proper rest,” Old Fang advised with a smile.
“I can’t. If everything goes as nned, the final section will being up soon.”
At the same time, Fang Lang wanted to study the ‘Splitting Punch’ reward he obtained earlier.
“Are you really not gonna rx? How about we... take a stroll at the entertainment house?”
Old Fang suggested in a serious tone after a moment of thought.
Suddenly, Fang Lang went quiet.
In an instant, the carriage was filled with nothing but silence.
...
After Fang Lang left, Wen Ting and Headmaster Cui arrived at the examination tower together.
The headmaster—who always wore a cheerful smile—had a dark expression on his face. The head examiner from the Ministry of Rites was leaving when Headmaster Cui burst through the doors of Luojiang Examination Tower. Headmaster Cui raised a hand and gathered all the spiritual energy in the air, turning them into a rune. He knocked the head examiner over and pressed him hard against the ground.
“I’ve been asking around about the other examination towers. Luojiang Examination Tower is the only venue with foreign soldiers acting as examiners! Who ordered you to do this? The rules are supposed to be irond! How is it fair to bully the students from Luojiang? Do you think this old man won’t make a scene out of it?
“Outrageous!”
Headmaster’s rage made the sky turn dark. Even the setting sun outside was quickly dimming.
When a spell master was enraged, they could shake thend and seas.
“I’m going to bring this to the Emperor and he shall punish you for your crimes!”
Headmaster Cui’s long hair and beard fluttered in the wind as he yelled furiously.
The head examiner’s expression darkened, yet he did not dare utter a word. Lying face down on the floor, he clenched his teeth as an odd feeling of grief swelled in his heart.
He could already predict the end that awaited him.
s, though unwilling, he was inevitably caught up in this borate scheme.
The practicalbat assessment in Luojiang Examination Tower came to a halt. After a dy of two hours, order was restored and the Imperial Examination resumed.
Examiners from another examination tower came over to rece the foreign examiners in Luojiang Examination Tower. Finally, the practical section of the Imperial Examination was concluded.
At the same time, it marked the end of both the theory andbat assessments of the Tang Dynasty’s Imperial Examination.
Even so, Headmaster Cui was not satisfied. The moment the practical assessment ended, he picked up the head examiner and started walking on air. Every step he took, runes formed beneath his feet, lighting up the night sky as they made a beeline for Changan.
In the ancient Changan City, curtains of autumn rain fell.
It was destined to be a sleepless night.
...
Changan City, Ministry of Rites’s grading faculty.
In the pouring rain, Cui Cheng—a man very close to mastering the forbidden spells—came rushing to Changan in person.
Multiple pces of the ministry were still burning the midnight oil.
The graders of thebat examination were finally done marking the written scripts. The ministry had brought in hundreds of mentors to mark the exam papers that came in from all the examination towers.
After a long day, they were finally done marking.
Several exam graders gathered together. There were four sets of exam scripts before them.
They picked up the first exam script and revealed the candidate’s name.
“This is the exam script of Wei Sheng from Changan Academy. Major studies section of martial arts mastery, a hundred and eight questions answered with perfect uracy, obtaining one hundred points. Major studies section of sword mastery, seventy correct answers out of seventy-five questions answered. Major studies section of spell mastery, answered forty-eight correct answers out of fifty questions. Total score obtained, two hundred and eighteen.”
Some graders praised the student while others simply stroked their beards.
“This is the exam script of Jiang Linglong from the Imperial Academy. Martial arts mastery, answered a hundred and eight questions with perfect uracy. Sword mastery, answered eighty-eight questions with perfect uracy. Spell mastery, fifty correct answers out of sixty questions answered. Total score obtained, two hundred and thirty-eight.”
Jiang Linglong’s results received a fair amount of apuse from the graders.
“This is the exam script of Li Yuanzhen from the Imperial Academy. Sword mastery, answered a hundred and eight questions with perfect uracy. Spell mastery, eighty correct answers out of eighty-one questions answered. Martial arts mastery, sixty-three correct answers out of seventy-one questions answered. Total score obtained, two hundred and forty-three.”
His results were better than both Wei Sheng and Jiang Linglong’s. Whenpared to the scores from the previous Imperial Examination, Li Yuanzhen would have been the champion!
Thus, his scores made many graders gasp.
“As expected of Administrator Li’s son! Smart and talented! He has the potential to be the next grand chancellor!”
“Yuanzhen must have inherited the right administrator’s talent and intelligence. His future is limitless. He will surely be a man of great importance!”
“It seems like the ‘champion’ title of this Imperial Examination is no doubt Li Yuanzhen’s.”
...
The graders from Li Puyi’s faction were all singing the praises of Li Yuanzhen.
However, when their gaze fell onto thest set of papers, their apuse gradually died down.
The head grader revealed the candidate’s name on the final exam script.
“This is the exam script of Fang Lang from Luojiang Academy...”
The moment his name was uttered, all the graders gasped in shock.
“Fang Lang? The one that scored the highest in the theory exam? That Fang Lang?”
“Well, it can’t be another person with the same name. There’s only one Fang Lang in Luojiang Academy!”
“Damn... That student is terrifying! He topped both the theory andbat exams!”
Fang Lang’s impressive answers in the theoretical assessment made him famous among the graders of the Imperial Examination. Just the progressiveness of his policy essay made it impossible to ignore the boy’s brilliance!
The head grader kept hisposure and continued to read out Fang Lang’s results. “Sword mastery, answered a hundred and eight questions with perfect uracy. Martial arts mastery... answered a hundred and eight questions with ny-eight correct!”
It was pindrop silence in the room.
The head grader’s heart was pumping. His voice trembled as he spoke.
“Spell mastery, answered a hundred and eight questions... ny-two correct... Total score...
“Two hundred and ny!”
Once he finished, the room wentpletely silent.
Both inside and outside the pce, not a single sound could be heard with the exception of the autumn rain striking the pce roof tiles.
“He answered every single question in the major studies section of all three disciplines... Moreover, his uracy is insanely high! The student is an expert in all three disciplines... What a monster!”
The head grader eximed before calming himself down.
Just months before the Imperial Examination, Fang Lang was a nobody. No academy had ever produced a student as exceptional as him. A boy that no one batted an eye at had gone against all odds and surfaced as the grand champion of the Imperial Examination!
A cough broke the silence in the pce. The head grader turned to the other graders and asked, “Have the physical assessment scores of all the examination towerse in yet?
“Once we total the physical assessment score, the honor roll of this year’s Imperial Exam can be confirmed.”
A grader came out from the crowd and reported, “Besides Luojiang Examination Tower, every other examination tower has submitted the physical assessment scores.”
The head grader furrowed his brows but rxed them a secondter.
“Let’s add up the scores sent in from the other examination towers for now,” the head grader said.
“Understood.”
The graders whispered their tasks to one another and began to add up the scores.
Minute by minute, time passed. Just then, a tardy flight sword tore through the rain andnded within the pce. Rain covered every inch of the vehicle.
The physical assessment results from Luojiang Examination Tower had finally arrived.
Just as before, the graders got a sneak-peak of the results before they were released. All their eyes were fixed on the practical assessment results that just came in from Luojiang Examination Tower.
They flipped through the papers and searched for Fang Lang’s name.
Finally, under the dim light of the pce, they found Fang Lang’s unforgettable name.
‘Fang Lang. Physical assessment score: Full marks. Assessment evaluation: It’s a miracle the examiner did not die.’
His score was eptable. After all, most geniuses who took part in the exam scored full marks as well.
However, what was up with that terrifyingment?
The pce fell silent again.
After a long while, the head grader sighed. Fang Lang’s score had already ced him ahead of the majority of students. Even with additional points, it would be difficult topete with him.
“This year’s theory andbat champion can already be confirmed...”
Nheless, topping the theory andbat honor roll did not mean Fang Lang was the grand champion of the Imperial Examination. The grand champion would be decided in the final section hosted by the Emperor himself.
Even so, topping the honor roll was already an unparalleled honor!
He was truly a dark horse!
The biggest dark horse in the entire country!
He was a nobody who managed to surpass the likes of Wei Sheng, Jiang Linglong, Li Yuanzhen and other top-tier geniuses!
It was as if the boy was standing on top of a cliff with his de unsheathed, announcing his arrival to the world beneath. That was the image his earth-shattering scores painted.
The head grader took a deep breath and headed deep into the pce with the honor roll draft in his hand.
He handed the list to the person in charge of the Imperial Examination that year—Lu Taixuan.
Lu Taixuan was drinking wine as he scanned through the list. His gaze fell onto the name on the top of the list. He lifted his brows in astonishment, thenughed.
“Hahaha!
“Good! ‘What of the great mountains that hither stood? The green extended across once warring states.’
“Alright, publish it!”
...
As the autumn rain continued to fall, the sun rose in the east of Changan.
One after another, flight swords carrying the honor roll lists tore through the curtains of rain. Like a blooming lotus, they flew off into every direction, heading toward the 3,000 academies of the Tang Dynasty.
The moment the honor rolls touched ground, the earth would shake in the Tang Dynasty.