Whether they were elderly in their seventies or eighties, or children of a few years old, whether they were women or unmarried girls, whether they were literate or illiterate, at this moment, they all gathered behind Fang Yun, moving forward in a mighty wave.

Fang Yun was like their spiritual pillar, and also like the brightest God of Literature in the night, leading them to the front of the Holy Academy.

The entrance of the Holy Academy was cordoned off by the bailiffs with cloth strips to form a spacious open space, serving as the arena for the competition. More than a dozen bailiffs were guarding around the open space, which was stained with blood everywhere.

Inside the arena, four Presented Scholars and five Accomplished Scholars from the Qing Nation were sitting on chairs, facing some officials from the Jing Kingdom. Each official had a solemn expression, among which Feng Yuanjun from the Prefecture Holy Academy looked the worst.

Outside the competition arena, a Jing Kingdom Accomplished Scholar was being supported by several people, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was a large pool of blood on the ground in front of him.

A boisterous voice came from the side door of the Holy Academy.

“Hahaha, you trash from Jing Kingdom, are you here to die? Idiots! People of Jing Kingdom, all you have to do is kneel before us and beg for mercy, saying Jing Kingdom is inferior to my Qing Nation, and we will spare you.”

“What are you looking at? But you are still human beings, Fang Yun, that coward, hasn’t dared to come yet, even you are better than him. What? Are you angry? I am Feng Shaoyu from Qing Nation, if you are not convinced, come and fight me!”

Among the nine scholars from Qing Nation, except for two who were laughing, most of them were expressionless, but two of them frowned, very dissatisfied with Feng Shaoyu’s words.

Fang Yun understood halfway through listening. Feng Shaoyu was probably from the Prominent Family of the Path of the Saints. Sometimes he was eloquent, making the dead sound alive and the living sound dead. But when necessary, such as during negotiations between two nations or when rallying, he would use various ways to infuriate the other party to gain the maximum benefit.

Moreover, the words of the Prominent Family were always filled with the power of The Courage to Write and talent, making it easy to deceive or infuriate others.

Everyone present knew very well that Feng Shaoyu was extremely arrogant on the surface, but in reality, everything he did was to draw out Fang Yun. He could never be so arrogant. But even knowing this, many people couldn’t help themselves.

“Feng Shaoyu, right? I’m coming to fight you!” Fang Yun said as he walked forward.

The several officials hurriedly stood up, looking at Fang Yun with both surprise and joy.

“Who are you?” Feng Shaoyu looked disdainful, but his eyes were extremely vigilant. He was obviously not as arrogant as he appeared on the surface.

“Jing Kingdom’s Fang Yun!”

Fang Yun said, walking towards the arena cordoned off by the bailiffs.

All nine people from Qing Nation stood up, and Feng Shaoyu, instead of being angry, revealed a smirk of a successful scheme.

“Hahaha, Fang Yun. No matter how high your literary talent is, you were still drawn out by me, weren’t you?” Feng Shaoyu continued to mock.

Fang Yun calmly said, “No matter what you say, you won’t infuriate me. As for you drawing me out, I believe you will regret it when I beat you.”

“Haha! Beat me? Okay, as long as you win me in the literary duel, you can beat me as you like! Even if you beat me to death, it’s okay! However, I, Feng Shaoyu, am after all the top scholar of a state, you have to at least win over an Accomplished Scholar to qualify to compete with me. Don’t blame me for being ruthless then!”

Towards the end, Feng Shaoyu’s eyes suddenly became sharp.

Fang Yun said, “Alright, let me first experience your ruthlessness. Then I’ll beat you.” Saying this, Fang Yun looked at the nine people from Qing Nation.

“Accomplished Scholars of Qing Nation, who will have a literary duel with me first?” Fang Yun stood straight, slightly lifted his chin, a sharp aura like a sword blade emanated from his body, causing a slight sting in the eyes of the people from Qing Nation.

The people from Qing Nation were secretly shocked, guessing that Fang Yun’s talent or literary palace was too strong, so the aura that leaked out formed a substantial deterrent.

A young man in black Presented Scholar’s clothes came over, bowed to Fang Yun, and said, “Fang Mao Cai. We each stand for our own masters, and I have to repay a favor, so I have to participate in the literary duel. I hope you will forgive me for any offense.”

“Are you from the Xi family?” Fang Yun asked.

“Xi Mo Lu.”

“Do you want to tarnish the Xi family with your despicable behavior?”

“Fang Mao Cai, you misunderstood. I came here not to target you, but to help my friend from Qing Nation. Don’t worry, I won’t make a move against you, I won’t tarnish the name of the Xi family.” Xi Mo Lu said.

Fang Yun sneered, “The people of Qing Nation insulted the innocent women of my Jing Kingdom. You didn’t make a move; Qing Nation has been suppressing my Jing Kingdom for more than ten years in order to annex my Jing Kingdom, you didn’t make a move; my country is clearly bleeding, crying, and full of anger to fight against the barbarians, you didn’t make a move! Now, you Qing Nation are bullying my Jing Kingdom people, you made a move! If you and us are competing in the Path of the Saints, which involves the foundation of a family’s Path of the Saints, I won’t say a word. But you, a disciple of a prominent Semi-Saint family, come to insult my Jing Kingdom people, hurt my Jing Kingdom people, now what face do you have to say you won’t make a move! You won’t make a move? I will!”

Xi Mo Lu was both ashamed and annoyed. He was ashamed because he really shouldn’t have come to Jing Kingdom, because the Semi-Saint families rarely directly participate in the literary duels between two countries, either plotting behind the scenes or arguing with other Semi-Saint families in the Holy Academy. He was annoyed because he was after all a disciple of a Semi-Saint family, and he had never been humiliated like this before, especially when the other party was from a humble family.

Fang Yun paused for a moment, looked seriously at the ten people from Qing Nation, his eyes became brighter than the God of Literature in the sky, and there was a faint sense of grandeur that illuminated the world with his talent. Then he slowly said something that shocked the entire audience.

“I want to let the world know that we, the people of Jing Kingdom, can be defeated, but we cannot be insulted! Therefore, I will make each of you ten people lose here one by one, to wash away the humiliation suffered by my Jing Kingdom. When I become a Presented Scholar, I will personally cross the river and have a literary duel with Qing Nation! When I become an Imperial Scholar, I will have a literary battle with ten prefectures and take a state from Qing Nation! I want to let all the human race losers know that the price of insulting me, not only can you not bear it, but you will also be recorded in history, and be laughed at for generations to come! Only in this way can you be hurt, only in this way, can you losers dare not fight internally!”

“You……” Feng Shaoyu was about to speak, but Fang Yun immediately interrupted him.

“Shut up! You are Feng Shaoyu from Qing Nation, right? It’s enough to be beaten! Which Accomplished Scholar will come first? What do you want to compete in? You say!” Fang Yun’s gaze fell on the five Accomplished Scholars.The five Accomplished Scholars were all older than Fang Yun and were all talented individuals from the same prefecture. However, at this moment, they were completely suppressed by Fang Yun’s aura, and none of them dared to speak.

Xi Molu stared at Fang Yun, he didn’t expect Fang Yun to be so fearless and make such a big vow. If he made any achievements in “The Path of the Saints” in the future, he would surely progress rapidly and be unstoppable.

What surprised him even more was that Fang Yun not only dared to challenge a whole kingdom with his literary prowess, but he even wanted to challenge an entire state. Even the scholars of Lu Nation, the current leader of the ten nations, found it difficult to challenge an entire state and could only slowly absorb one prefecture at a time.

The academy was silent for a moment, then an Accomplished Scholar from the Jing Kingdom stepped forward, bowed to Fang Yun, and said, “We are both Accomplished Scholars, without the courage to write, so we won’t compare that. I know your poetry is unparalleled among the scholars of the ten nations, and I’m not foolish enough to compete with you in war poetry. So, I want to compete with you in talent!”

Fang Yun remained calm and asked, “How many people from my Jing Kingdom have you injured before, and how many have you killed?”

The scholar showed a nervous expression and dared not answer. Feng Yuanjun immediately said, “He has injured seven scholars from Jing Kingdom. One of them had his limbs severed by his war poetry, two are unconscious, and four are lightly injured.”

Fang Yun nodded and said, “Then, let’s begin.”

Feng Yuanjun held the official seal and slowly said, “Since this is a literary duel of talent, I will explain the rules. I will use the official seal to gather talent from the Holy Temple, control the elemental energy of one side of the world for you two to compete for. Each of you can only use one inch of talent at most. The more stable the literary palace and the more condensed the talent, the more elemental energy you can control. The more elemental energy you control, the stronger the elemental impact.”

Fang Yun already knew the rules. This method of literary duel was originally a way for the Holy Academy to encourage everyone to stabilize their literary palaces and refine their talents, to prevent students from pursuing the quantity of talent and neglecting the foundation, leading to the collapse of talent and the shattering of the literary palace when they reach the high-ranking official.

Feng Yuanjun paused for a moment and asked, “Do you two have any questions?”

“No questions.” The two answered together.

“Good. This literary duel is hosted by me on behalf of the Holy Temple, and I will not favor anyone. If you feel it is unfair, you can ask for a holy trial or appeal to the Holy Academy. The elemental impact is extremely dangerous, you two still have a chance to back out.”

The two looked at each other and said nothing.

The night wind blew, everyone’s clothes fluttered, and everyone closed their mouths, quietly watching Fang Yun’s first literary duel.

“In that case, let the literary duel begin!” Feng Yuanjun lifted the official seal, and the seal flew into the air, releasing a transparent elemental shield with a diameter of ten meters, enclosing the two of them.

Fang Yun and the scholar bowed to each other, then straightened up.

The scholar said solemnly, “Jing Kingdom is in decline, constantly defeated by the barbarians. Such a weak nation is a disgrace to the human race. It is only right and proper for my Jing Kingdom to take in Jing Kingdom, with both benevolence and righteousness!”

After stating his reasons, a strong wind suddenly blew around the scholar, his clothes fluttering and showing signs of spreading outwards.

However, Fang Yun said, “I am dueling with you, only to defeat Feng Shaoyu!”

As soon as Fang Yun finished speaking, the strong wind around the scholar suddenly dissipated, and his clothes stopped moving.

Before everyone could react, a piercing sound of air explosion suddenly came from around Fang Yun, and a strong wind swept across. The scholar was seen as if he was hit by an invisible bull demon, his body flew backwards, hit the invisible shield with a bang, a sound of bone fracture was heard, then he spat out blood, slid down the shield, and fell unconscious.

The whole scene was silent. Fang Yun had only been an Accomplished Scholar for less than three months, but the elemental energy he could mobilize was at least three times that of the other party, indicating that his talent was at least three times more condensed and his literary palace was at least three times more stable than the other party.

Ever since the people of Jing Kingdom set up a literary duel platform in front of the academy, this was the first time Jing Kingdom won, and it was a clean and neat victory.

“Good!” Fang Yun’s classmates suddenly shouted.

“Long live Fang Yun!”

“Fang Yun is invincible!”

The crowd around the academy exploded, shouting and cheering wildly, all their resentment completely erupted.

The faces of Feng Yuanjun and other officials had been dark for four or five days, but now they were extremely rosy. They clearly wanted to maintain their seriousness, but they couldn’t hide the smiles on their faces.

At this moment, in this place, the will of all the people of Jing Kingdom seemed to merge into one, forever invincible.

A trace of horror flashed in Feng Shaoyu’s eyes, but he quickly returned to normal, then he laughed softly.

“No wonder they were so eager to send us to the literary duel, even allowing me to use any means necessary! Indeed! Fang Yun, you have done something that even Li Wenying couldn’t do!”

(To be continued.)