“When did you become a pre-saint talented scholar?” Li Yuncong asked.

“I was inspired by the Grand Academician of the Five Movements. I only slept for two hours these past two days and spent my nights memorizing the classics of all the saints. That’s why I was able to break through this morning,” Fang Yun replied.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, as it was common for many scholars to be inspired and rise up.

“What’s the deal with that strange bird demon that made noise?” Mr. Wang asked.

Everyone looked at Fang Yun with gratitude in their eyes.

Fang Yun said solemnly, “As you all know, I can recite the Analects fluently and recited it yesterday. Today, when I saw that strange bird harming people, I thought about how we were all going to die here and felt sad. I couldn’t help but think of the heroic figures of the great scholars and semi-saints of past generations. So I blurted out a famous line from the Analects, ‘The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived.’ This shocked the strange bird and it stopped making noise. I don’t know why.”

Mr. Wang said with satisfaction, “You have the courage to do what is right and have a righteous heart. You are a true scholar. I heard that an old child scholar who studied the classics of literature walked students home at night and encountered demons. In order to protect the students, he recited Confucius’s ‘Spring and Autumn Annals’ with the power of a thousand troops and horses, scaring away the demons. I didn’t expect you to do the same. This is sacrificing oneself for righteousness. Your achievements may not be as great as the Grand Academician of the Five Movements, but they are definitely not worse than Yi Zhishi’s.”

Fang Yun said, “Mr. Wang is too kind. I was only able to do this because of the inspiration of the three scholars. Without them sacrificing themselves to delay the demon, I wouldn’t have had the courage to do this.”

“You’re thinking too much. Wait here, I’ll go help the other two kill the bear demon!” Mr. Wang said as he turned and left.

After the crisis passed, the students cleaned up the battlefield, especially taking care to collect the body of the strange bird demon. They put the parts of the strange bird and tiger throat demons into iron water to make drums or drumsticks. If they were refined into treasures of literature, they could break the strange bird’s cry when struck.

While everyone was cleaning up the battlefield, the work of the three Grand Academician editors of the Holy Academy’s “Path of the Saints” was nearing completion.

The old and middle-aged Grand Academicians from last month were still there, and the new editor-in-chief was from the Wu Kingdom, adjacent to the Jing Kingdom.

“Ah, this Fang Yun is outstanding, outstanding! When I read the full text of ‘Inscription of a Crude House,’ I spent half an hour on it. Just this one piece of ‘Zhen Guo Refining Courage’ has probably helped many people strengthen their courage or even advance further. Especially for those talented scholars who lack courage and knowledge of classics, they owe him a great debt,” the old Grand Academician said.

“I like the line ‘Wherever there is beauty, there is grass.’ In the future, if I have melancholy, I can recite ‘Spring and Scenery’ to dispel it,” the middle-aged Grand Academician said.

The new editor-in-chief from the Wu Kingdom was over fifty years old, with a long beard falling on his chest. He said, “Someone said that although ‘Dream Record of the Pillow’ has the function of education, if it is sold with ‘The Story of the Western Wing’ and published in the ‘Path of the Saints,’ wouldn’t it be too vulgar?”

“Vulgarity has been around for thousands of years, and now that it’s a little vulgar, someone is unhappy? Is that person a ghost who doesn’t eat grains, or a king who wants to treat his subjects like pigs and dogs? Where is Mencius’s ‘The people are the most important’?” the old Grand Academician said bluntly.

The bearded Grand Academician smiled awkwardly and said, “It’s just what others say. I still like to read ‘Dream Record of the Pillow.’ This article is easy to understand and more persuasive than ‘The Story of the Western Wing.’ Naturally, the more people who read it, the better.””You understand it well. After the meeting in the Hundred Saints Hall today, a Semi-Saint will make a decision. Starting from May 1st, the newspapers ‘Wen Bao’ and ‘The Path of the Saints’ will teach ‘The Story of the Western Wing’ and ‘Dream Record of the Pillow,’ with new sentences added to help Child Scholars and ordinary people learn the meaning of righteousness. If ‘Dream Record of the Pillow’ is not included in next month’s ‘The Path of the Saints,’ the new sentences will become a joke.”

“What? Won’t ‘Dream Record of the Pillow’ be on the front page?”

“No need for the front page, put it on the second page. Although it is a revolutionary text, it only came about naturally and should not affect the fortune of our human race. It is not appropriate to put it on the front page, which should remain blank.”

The middle-aged Grand Academician smiled and said, “This Fang Yun, ‘The Yin and Yang of Brightness and Darkness’ and Li Wenying’s ‘Early Plum Blossoms’ each count as half a piece. In next month’s ‘The Path of the Saints,’ he will truly have four works shining together. Li Wenying personally called him a ‘one-word master,’ so his reputation is even higher now.”

The elderly Grand Academician said, “I always feel that although ‘Three Character Classic’ is simple and straightforward, it is the best text for educating children. Can we publish it next month?”

“I don’t object to it. After all, educating children is also part of the Path of the Saints. However, ‘Three Character Classic’ is already long, and with Li Wenying’s annotations, the number of words is too many. Let’s put it aside for now. If there are not enough or too many poems and articles in the future, we can publish ‘Three Character Classic.’”

“That makes sense,” said the long-bearded Grand Academician.

“That’s good,” said the elderly Grand Academician.

At this moment, someone pushed the door and entered. It was a young Presented Scholar who bowed respectfully and said, “The Sage ordered that if ‘The Path of the Saints’ is finalized today, it will be sent to the ‘Eastern Sage Pavilion’ for the Sage to personally publish it to printing houses in various regions. The Sage also said that ‘Epitaph for a Small Room’ must be included.”

“We obey,” said the three Grand Academicians as they stood up.

The young Presented Scholar bowed again and left.

The three Grand Academicians looked at each other.

“Why is the Sage personally taking action? Your experience is the deepest. What do you think is going on?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m afraid something big is going to happen.”

“We don’t know what the Sage is thinking, so let’s just follow his orders.”

“Fang Yun is lucky. This is already a Semi-Saint’s endorsement.”

On Mount Ze, Fang Yun and the others finished cleaning up the battlefield. Three Presented Scholars returned, and one of them was dragging a bear demon that was the size of a small mountain.

“Let’s continue on our way. The demons won’t come back,” said Mr. Wang.

As they walked a few steps, Mr. Wang said, “From now on, you must not leave us, the three lecturers, and you must not speak to outsiders. Regarding Fang Yun’s creation of the Strong Army Poem, we must keep it a secret! At least until he passes the Imperial Scholar exam. You are not foolish people, you understand the reason behind this.”

One person said, “Please don’t worry, gentlemen. The meaning of the Strong Army Poem created by this Accomplished Scholar is significant. If those treacherous literati know that it was written by Fang Yun, they will spare no effort to kill him. Even if we have to sacrifice our lives, we must protect him completely!”

“Can we ask him to teach us ‘Capturing the King?’” asked Lu Yu.

Mr. Wang said, “The Holy Academy has its own way of protecting him. This poem will be falsely attributed to a mysterious Grand Academician, and an empty wooden plaque will be placed in the Holy Temple. Those who wish to learn ‘Capturing the King’ can worship the mysterious Grand Academician as their teacher.””Like this?” Fang Yun asked in surprise.

“Of course. You haven’t learned other people’s war poetry, so naturally you don’t understand. We don’t use the ones in the Book of Songs, but we all have to go to the Holy Temple to worship Taosheng’s ‘Eulogy to Xing Tian’ and thank him for creating this war poetry, otherwise we will never be able to learn it. When you become an Imperial Scholar and have enough self-protection power, then you can announce that you are the original author of ‘Capturing the King’, and then the people of the world will naturally be grateful to you.”

Fang Yun said, “That’s fine. I don’t want to expose myself now anyway.”

“Except for the people today, only Jianmei Gong and Wen Xianghui in Jing Kingdom will know. Even the king and the queen mother cannot be told. Finally, it will be recorded in the punishment hall to avoid accidents, and even unrelated Semi-Saints will not know about this. Except for us, no more than seven people know your identity.”

Yu Xiansheng said, “You don’t need to go to the state academy every day from now on. Just report once every ten days. You should study hard and participate in the prefectural examination in June to become a talented scholar in the imperial examination. You will get more talent when the fourth talent falls. If you have any questions during these days, just come to the state academy to find Mr. Wang or other teachers. We can all answer your questions. I really want to see how many double armor you can get this year.”

Li Yuncong said, “I am more curious about how many literary archways can be built on Fang Yun’s hometown street.”

Lu Yu smiled and said, “Let me count. One Child Scholar before the saint, one double armor Child Scholar, one talented scholar before the saint. And there must be a Holy Path Archway in ‘The Path of the Saints’. Even if a poem cannot have two archways, you already have nine archways now, including ‘Spring Morning’, ‘Year End’, ‘Ji County Early Travel’, ‘Dream Record of the Pillow’, ‘Inscription of a Hut’, ‘Butterfly Love Flower Spring Scene’, and the combined work. In a few years, the whole Ji County won’t be able to hold your literary archways.”

Everyone laughed.

Archway is a building that honors meritorious service, imperial examinations, and good governance, also called a gate tower. The birthplace of those great scholars and Semi-Saints all have a large number of archways, but it is extremely rare for a talented scholar to have so many archways.

Lu Yu asked, “Can the same year talented scholars also be on the archway?”

“No, the same year Imperial Scholars and Presented Scholars have archways. I think Fang Yun can pass the Child Scholar, Talented Scholar, and Presented Scholar exams this year, but this way, he may not be able to get first place in the Talented Scholar and Presented Scholar exams, let alone the full armor. I would rather see him spend ten years to get the unique full armor in the imperial examination, rather than compete with his peers.”

“Yes, Fang Yun, full armor and five talents are the highest honors in the imperial examination. Don’t settle for less!”

“Full armor and five talents? You guys really think highly of me. Even Yi Zhishi couldn’t do it.” Fang Yun laughed.

Lu Yu said, “But Yi Zhishi couldn’t write a strong army poem when he was a talented scholar! This is a strong army poem by a talented scholar. With just this one poem, it is enough to make our human race have tens of thousands more soldiers every year. If the demon barbarians invade in large numbers in the future, we may save tens of thousands of soldiers and millions of civilians in a year, and kill hundreds of thousands of demon barbarians! Your poem is a poem that increases our human race’s luck, and the credit is huge.”Mr. Wang looked at Fang Yun and said, “Your literary status is too low, and it won’t show up now. When you become an Imperial Scholar, your great achievements will take effect. Work hard, the more merits you accumulate for the human race now, the smoother your path to becoming a Saint will be. Think about the ancient Saints, which one of them didn’t leave behind astonishing works? Although the later Saints may not be as good as the ancient ones in terms of their writings, they are still more than capable in terms of killing enemies and making achievements.”

“It is said that after Sage Tao attained the Path of the Saints, he secretly sneaked into the demon world to retrieve the ‘Sun Tzu’s Art of War,’ one of the thirteen chapters, ‘Terrain,’ which had been defiled, and rescued hundreds of thousands of trapped human race citizens in the demon world. Only then could he become a Saint.”

Ning Zhiyuan whispered, “Sir, I heard our family elders casually mention that Sage Tao had actually visited the Saints’ battlefield left by Sage Confucius and was able to become a Saint. Is that true?”

“That’s just one version of the story. However, it’s true that our human race’s Great Scholars have gone to the Saints’ battlefield one after another, and it’s also true that there are great secrets hidden there. However, that place has nothing to do with us. Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Go back and write a summary of killing demons that is no less than three thousand words. You are not allowed to mention the last demon counterattack or the poem about strong soldiers. Understand?”

“Yes!” All the students replied weakly, as this short sentence was more demoralizing than the cry of a strange demon bird.