Fang Yun stood within the pillar of light, his eyes wide as he stared at the giant brush and jade seal in the sky.
Suddenly, the entire City of Confucius lit up, and a golden Bagua diagram several miles wide shot up into the sky. With a gentle turn, an invisible force dissolved the collision between the giant brush and the jade seal.
A strange thunderous sound echoed in mid-air, as if divine beings were conversing. Then, the giant brush and the jade seal disappeared.
The hundred pillars of light vanished, and Fang Yun and the others officially entered The Holy Land.
The Tyrant let out a sigh of relief, a drop of cold sweat sliding down his forehead.
The bodies of the remaining members of the Meng family trembled uncontrollably.
“Huh? Why is there a Presented Scholar who didn’t enter The Holy Land?” someone suddenly shouted.
Everyone looked in that direction, and saw a Presented Scholar standing there. A few people recognized him as the genius from the Jiang family, a prominent family in the Wu Nation, who was ranked fifty-fourth on the path to The Holy Land.
The Presented Scholar Jiang showed a hint of panic in his eyes, and nervously bowed to The Tyrant, “I hope The Tyrant keeps his word, not only forgiving the sins of my Jiang family, but also granting us a piece of the Great Scholar’s Treasures of Literature.”
“Hmm.” The Tyrant nodded slightly, casually took the Great Scholar’s pen holder from the table and threw it to Presented Scholar Jiang.
Everyone looked at each other, unable to understand.
The members of the Meng family slowly recovered, not only were they no longer terrified, but they were also extremely excited, as if they had received some great news.
Someone close to Presented Scholar Jiang suddenly said, “I remember! There was a spirit beast beside this Presented Scholar Jiang, but it’s gone now! Spirit beasts are not human, how could they enter The Holy Land?”
“If someone splits their divine consciousness and occupies the body of the spirit beast, they can enter.”
“But the one who passed the path to The Holy Land was Presented Scholar Jiang, not that person. How could the power of the Holy Academy not distinguish?”
“I… I don’t know.”
However, the people from the All the Saints’ prominent families all showed a look of realization, and they all looked at the seats where the Han Xin’s prominent family was sitting. Every member of the Han family was gritting their teeth, daring to be angry but not daring to speak.
“Building a plank road in the open, crossing the river in secret. The first of the ‘Three Chapters of Han Xin’.” someone slowly said.
Others nodded in agreement, finally understanding why The Tyrant targeted the Han family.
“But, the method of splitting divine consciousness requires a Semi-Saint to do it. The Tyrant is just a Hanlin Scholar, how could he…” The person stopped speaking halfway, suddenly closed his mouth, and dared not say any more. Then he hurriedly left.
However, the Grand Academician from the Confucius family said, “It only requires saintly blood and a few classic sacred texts to do it, such as ‘The Commentary of the Book of Changes: The Great Treatise’, ‘The Spring and Autumn of Lü Buwei: The Great Music’, and so on.”
With the reminder from the Grand Academician, many people immediately recalled the original texts of these two sections and found the method of splitting divine consciousness. There was a lot of discussion.
Li Wenying figured everything out, staring at The Tyrant with murderous intent in his eyes.
The Poet immediately said, “Not good! Fang Yun and the others don’t know that the spirit beast is The Tyrant’s split consciousness. If the spirit beast attacks, Fang Yun will undoubtedly die!”
The Military Marquis’s carriage moved, slowly driving away.
The murderous intent in The Tyrant’s eyes gradually faded, but the color of arrogance was still there. He slightly raised his head and said, “The big plan has been accomplished, waiting for the day of becoming a saint. Those who have helped me will be greatly rewarded!”
The hearts of The Tyrant’s enemies sank to the bottom. It was clear that The Tyrant’s plundering of the treasures of many prominent families was not out of greed, but mainly for this Holy Land. He must have discovered the great secret of becoming a saint in The Holy Land eight years ago, so he spared no effort to do so. This meant that the humiliation they had suffered before could never be washed away.
“What you are thinking in your heart, I’m afraid someone here might have guessed it. It seems that you indeed have some secrets. However, your split consciousness only has the power of a Presented Scholar. In front of Yan Yukong, Mo Shan and others, your chances of winning are only fifty percent!” someone from the seat of the Military Saint Sun family said.
“I have been preparing for today for more than seven years, what haven’t I thought of!” The Tyrant said.
“What you can think of, we can naturally think of too. That ‘Three Chapters of Han Xin’ is a military book of the Great Scholar, you need to put it on the split consciousness spirit beast, and stimulate it with your main body, so that the split consciousness spirit beast can enter The Holy Land. But once in The Holy Land, your split consciousness spirit beast only has the power of a Presented Scholar, and absolutely cannot use that military book. What you have, the Semi-Saint disciples like Yan Yukong and others also have, what can you compete with?” the person from the Military family said.
The Tyrant sneered disdainfully, too lazy to respond.
Suddenly, a person from the Jing Kingdom said, “If you don’t provoke Fang Yun in The Holy Land, you may succeed. If you go to harm Fang Yun, you are seeking your own death! Once the ‘Words that Pass the World’ comes out, Fang Yun may become a Presented Scholar before becoming a saint!”
“Oh? It seems you don’t know where my target of crossing the river in secret is.”
Many people from the Jing Kingdom felt a chill run down their spines. The positions of those who entered The Holy Land were different. If they used the ‘Three Chapters of Han Xin’ written by Han Xin himself, they could indeed slightly change their position when entering The Holy Land and appear near Fang Yun.
Everyone finally understood that if The Tyrant was just using the method of crossing the river in secret, that thunderous giant brush would not have appeared wanting to kill The Tyrant. It must have been because the crossing the river in secret was targeting Fang Yun, which provoked the Semi-Saint to take action, but unfortunately it was blocked.
The Tyrant had a faint smile on his face, the smile of a victor.
At this moment, a cold and grand voice came from the sky.
“Meng Lintang broke the rules of the Holy Academy with a military book, committed heinous crimes, and was sentenced to guard the sea in the Prison Sea for ten years!”
The Tyrant’s face changed slightly, but he immediately said, “No need to escort, I will set off for the Prison Sea immediately! It’s a pity, Fang Yun, I value your talent, but I value the Meng family more!” After saying that, he left in his Military Marquis’s carriage as if no one else was there.
Under the high platform, countless people sighed.
“The Tyrant, he takes full advantage of the ‘danger’ of the military family. If he doesn’t succeed, he doesn’t. Now that he has entered The Holy Land, prepare for Fang Yun’s aftermath.” A Grand Academician from the Military family finished speaking and left with a sigh.
“Mid-Autumn’s Final Song!”
The square of the Confucius Family Academy was filled with sorrow, and everyone sighed as they looked at the moon in the sky.
In The Holy Land, Fang Yun was looking at the same moon, but the bright moon he saw was hazy, shrouded in mist.”I should first find the village of the Star Demon Clan and get the latest information about the Holy Land from them. With the Moonlight on me, it will surely go smoothly!”
Fang Yun thought to himself, holding his spear upside down to probe the way. His body swayed as he stepped through the mud, walking crookedly through the swamp.
This place was a swamp, filled with black mud and dark green water plants. A mile away was a piece of land, and further away was shrouded in fog.
Not only was there normal water in this mud, but also the Weak Water.
Outside Fang Yun’s literary palace, the Weak Water, like a vast sea, attacked from all directions. The Weak Water here was the same as the Weak Water outside the Holy Land, both were like beasts. However, the difference was that the Weak Water outside the Holy Land was a tamed beast, while the Weak Water here was untamed, full of wildness and more aggressive.
The Weak Water here seemed scarce, but its impact on the literary palace was more than ten times that of the outside of the Holy Land. If Fang Yun were to rely solely on the passive defense of the literary palace against the Weak Water, he would surely be dazed by the Weak Water. However, with the power of The Courage to Write, he could easily resist the Weak Water at this level.
Fang Yun scanned the swamp ahead, using the experiences summarized in those travel notes to identify these places. Those red-striped water plants liked to live in deeper swamps and should be avoided at all costs, while those purple-striped water plants could be deep or shallow. Only those unpatterned or serrated water plants grew in shallower swamps.
Fang Yun held his spear, with the spearhead up and the tail deep in the black mud. When it hit the bottom at about two feet deep, he confidently took a step forward.
After a while, Fang Yun looked at the seemingly close land and thought that if a Presented Scholar ranked outside the top sixty in the Holy Land were here, they would probably be drained of their Courage to Write by the Weak Water and die in the swamp.
When he was about twenty feet away from the land, a gust of wind blew. Fang Yun hurriedly quickened his pace, but after only a few steps, his body lightly shook, and his speed noticeably slowed down.
There were no visible anomalies outside, but outside his literary palace, the strange wind and the Weak Water had formed a terrifying combined force, attacking both the literary palace and The Courage to Write, and the power was greater than a simple addition.
Fang Yun silently changed the sixty to forty in his heart. This strange wind and Weak Water were too strong. Those ranked after forty had no chance of survival.
“This is just the first small swamp I’ve encountered!” Fang Yun thought helplessly.
After a long struggle, Fang Yun finally left the swamp and got on land. Under the effect of the pseudo-dragon pearl, the mud on his body quickly slid off, restoring his clothes to cleanliness. But the strange wind had not stopped, and he had to walk more than a mile to avoid it.
Fang Yun carefully observed his surroundings. The sky was dark, there was fog in the distance, and the dark red ground was barren.
The gray sky, the white fog, and the dark red land were filled with an inexplicable eeriness.
“These grounds have been hit by the power of a Semi-Saint, harder than metal. However, the Demon Realm’s divine objects like the Longevity Fruit can not only grow in this kind of land, but they also grow better! A few months ago, when we were fighting the Turtle Demon General, Mr. Wang and the others used up their lifespan to use the Azure Blood Danxin, indirectly saving my life. If there is a Longevity Fruit, it can increase their lifespan.”
Fang Yun recalled the map given to him by Li Fanming and found that there was nothing distinctive here. The swamp, the fog, and the dark red ground were everywhere.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake slightly, and a terrifying oppressive force rushed from the left front. Fang Yun was secretly shocked. The momentum and blood of that force were second only to the Qingjiang Dragon King.
This level of Demon Barbarian was too fast, there was no chance of escape. Fang Yun immediately stood still to avoid provoking the other party, while also preparing for a desperate fight.
A huge beast walked out of the fog. This beast was as tall as three people, with a lion-like ring of mane around its neck, but it had a tiger’s head and a horn on its head.
“Horned Tiger Demon King.” Fang Yun felt a chill all over his body. His methods were useless in front of the Demon King.
Fang Yun immediately looked into the eyes of the Horned Tiger Demon King. If its eyes had a blood-red ring, he would fight directly. It was better than not resisting and being eaten directly.
There was no blood-red ring in the eyes of the Horned Tiger Demon King, but rather clear, with a faint layer of starlight.
Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief. It was a member of the Star Demon Clan, different from the Blood Demon. He had so much Moonlight, unless this Horned Tiger Demon King was crazy, it wouldn’t attack.
“Human… peerless genius?” The Horned Tiger Demon King asked in the demon language. Its gaze was calm, without a trace of ferocity, just a faint disgust, but also curiosity.
Fang Yun immediately replied in the demon language: “Senior, I am indeed a scholar from the Holy Origin Mainland.”
“You are braver than the scholar I just met.” The Tiger King praised.
“Do we have companions? Could the senior be kind enough to tell me their location?” Seeing its good attitude, Fang Yun asked for help with confidence. (To be continued.)
PS: The third update will be late at night.