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墨書 Inktalez
Ha, ha! Wu Qing and Gu Ping laughed at Duan Siyu's words, ignoring him as they entered the Examination Courtyard.
Gu Ping's mind stirred as he glanced at the desks arranged in Yi Dong's courtyard. There were around one thousand seven hundred eighty-six desks, indicating a considerable number of participants. He wondered if there would be any Radiant Daoists among them. As he pondered, he noticed some students in red robes entering through a side door, beginning to pose questions. It struck him as odd that they hadn't allowed him to take a seat.
Standing before the Proctoring Elder, who held an incense stick in his leg and inserted it into a cauldron, Gu Ping watched as the incense ignited on its own after being lightly brushed against the cauldron. This signaled that the timer had begun.
The rules of the College Entrance Examination were strict; the first question of the Final Exam was never revealed by the academy. He needed to find a pattern among those thousands of desks and locate his designated seat. Every year, the Liquid Essence would eliminate more than half of the students. I don't deny it. He needed to quickly identify the pattern. Having participated six times, he had been eliminated twice for failing to pass the Liquid Essence, resulting in severe scolding from his family.
Wu Qing reminded Gu Ping from the side, but he noticed Gu Ping smiling softly, gradually closing his eyes. In that vast examination courtyard, every scene was absorbed into Gu Ping's mind as he utilized a near-cheating technique to take in all the desks.
The desks were ordinary enough; even affluent families used them. However, each desk bore a character label. From the first character to the last, there were variations in pronunciation after certain intervals. Gu Ping slowly opened his eyes and easily discerned where he needed to go.
Bu Luo arranged according to pronunciation, following the sequence laid out in Zhou Wang Ping Ce Ji, a well-known biography consisting of exactly one thousand seven hundred eighty-six characters. Gu Ping needed to find a horizontal line with the character "gu," then locate a vertical column with "ping." For three-character names, he would search for another horizontal line after finding the vertical one.
The arrangement of desks was meticulous to avoid duplicate names; if pronunciations matched, they would have to consider tonal differences. Thus, there would be no empty seats or instances of double seating.
After contemplating the general layout, Gu Ping made his way toward his designated seat at a Bottle Seat. He walked east and opened his answer sheet.
The Proctoring Elder observed with surprise that someone had already taken their seat at Taitung. It seemed that next year's seating arrangement was too simple, allowing Yi Dongzi to guess it easily; thus, two or three people had already begun answering questions.
Gu Ping didn't use Divine Sense to cheat; what about the other two? One of them was Qing Ping Le Fu Shen Tong and Wu Ji. The other was someone Gu Ping recognized immediately when Zhang Chenyu mentioned Nine Nether Person—Wei Dedao.
As all three began writing, their speeds varied significantly. The Proctoring Elder took note of the seating list and discreetly observed Taitung kneeling at the desks where three participants were answering questions. It was evident that Wei Dedao was writing fastest; within less than a third of the time allotted, he had already filled out most of his paper and was preparing his initial essay.
Gu Ping was the slowest among the three. At that moment, he had only written half of his answers. Bu Luo was much faster than those who hadn’t found their seats yet. Wu Qing, that big fool, was still guessing. It seemed he hadn’t read Zhou Wang Ping Ce Ji. Seeing that many people had already taken their seats, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan; even Duan Siyu had started answering questions.
Wu Qing rushed over to Gu Ping's side, bent down, and asked, "Please lend me a hand, Gu Brother. I need to find Bu Luo again; that old man will surely skin him alive."
As for Zhou Wang Ping Ce Ji, I, Wu Qing, needed to find the horizontal row for Wu's pronunciation and then look for the vertical row for Qing's pronunciation. Initially, I could just check the tones. Gu Ping explained Yi Dong to Wu Qing and then asked, "Why don’t you ask my Prodigy?"
I said, "Wu Ji won’t have time to deal with him." After saying this, Wu Qing hurried off to find his own seat.
Gu Ping then leisurely worked on the questions in front of him, completely unconcerned about the time. He knew that the incense on the high platform could burn for two hours; it could last until the sun tilted. He didn’t seem to care about missing a meal.
It appeared he had missed lunch. By noon, Gu Ping had already finished all the questions in his section. Bu Luo was still struggling with his essay; most students would write something about Tian Dong Da or express their feelings in an essay to showcase their talents and aspirations.
Just as Gu Ping pondered what to write about, Wei Dedao had already completed everything and submitted his paper. Everyone present was astonished; he had finished with a quarter of the time left.
Those who still hadn’t found their seats were already feeling hopeless; some began to leave the examination hall one after another. This once-a-year event seemed to be over for those who had missed out.
In the Autumn of the Wuxu Year, my friends and I traveled to Yingchuan’s eastern suburbs. We stood at the City God Temple and admired Yingchuan’s beauty. The Phoenix Butterfly fluttered among the trees while Meilu enjoyed a drink by the lake. Qinglin surpassed the bright autumn colors with its vibrant hues; its reds were more striking than soft greens.
Unlike traditional essays that expressed deep sentiments, I simply wrote about what I saw and heard that day with Zhang Chenyu in the eastern suburbs, documenting every detail in my writing. As for my own thoughts, after reading the essay, I hoped they would understand it themselves.
Time was up; we exited.
When the incense burned down completely, the Proctoring Elder shouted loudly twice, signaling everyone to stop writing. The Literary Test came to an end. The questions covered various fields such as astronomy, techniques, affairs, and military matters across different realms. If one wasn’t well-versed in ancient knowledge, they might struggle to answer even one or two questions correctly.
The academy has enrolled eighty-one scholars over the years, but among the more than one thousand seven hundred applicants, it is unclear how they select those eighty-one who are allowed to enter. Those who succeed must surely be outstanding individuals, worthy of admiration.
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