"Countless subjects wept blood as they awaited the royal army, while the lords of the court still preened and wagged their tails in Luocheng... The sorrow of the four nations, the sorrow of the people, the sorrow of the officials, the sorrow of the king, the sorrow of the realm!"
At this point, he stopped abruptly!
Lin Su slowly raised his head and set down his brush.
"On the Four Nations"—1,013 characters in all, completed in a single breath.
There might have been flaws in the writing, but he had no desire to revise it. This essay might tear open people's scars, and that suited him perfectly!
Lin Su lightly raised a hand, caught the bell hanging above him, and gave it a gentle shake to signal that he was submitting his paper.
The Provincial Examination lasted twelve shichen.
Yet only three shichen had barely passed.
There might have been candidates who submitted early at the imperial examination grounds, but those who handed in their papers after merely three shichen were practically nonexistent.
The imperial examinations were simply too important. Every single character could determine whether one succeeded or failed at the final hurdle. Who would dare not inspect their work over and over, only submitting after confirming there was not the slightest flaw? Even if the essay itself was flawless, copying it out a few more times could always make the handwriting better.
Someone like him was absolutely one of a kind!
The bell rang, streams of light rose, and his Two Poems and One Essay shot into the sky before vanishing.
Then the door to the examination room opened. Lin Su strode out and headed down the mountain.
A hundred li away, within Zhenjiang Prefecture, lay Thunderclap Mountain.
With a thunderous explosion, a black shadow soared into the air. A monster clad head to toe in black armor sprang out of a mountain ravine, and the surrounding forest shattered into powder at the same instant, as though the mountains had collapsed and the earth had split apart.
A flash of light appeared in the air, revealing a seven-stringed zither.
The strings drew together, and ten thousand streaks of silver light abruptly merged into a heaven-shaking Giant Sword that stabbed straight at the black-armored figure.
With a hiss, the black-armored figure fell into the abyss, accompanied by a shrill roar. "You little wench, you've got some nerve! Do you know who I am? You dare chase me across the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains!"
A woman suddenly appeared beneath the zither. She was Zhang Yiyu, the Flower of the Great Dao of the Bishui Immortal Sect.
Zhang Yiyu said coldly, "I don't care who you are. You dared slaughter twelve villages. Even if you were gods and Buddhas of all heavens, you would become a dead soul beneath my zither!"
As her voice fell, the zither phantoms filling the sky abruptly changed, erupting with ten thousand rays of golden light.
Ten thousand golden nets swept down into the abyss.
Beneath the abyss, the stream surged like an enraged spring, colliding with the illusory golden zither strings. Yet beneath those golden strings, it was cut into countless pieces. The golden zither reached the valley floor, and the black-armored figure roared again. With a boom, he smashed through the gap ahead and fled downstream. Threads of blood stained the river water; the previous strike had clearly wounded him.
But it was not fatal.
Zhang Yiyu stepped forward. The seven-stringed zither in the air descended beneath her feet, carrying her through the forest as she pursued him relentlessly.
Ahead was the Great River.
The black shadow plunged into the Great River, stirring up waves a hundred zhang high. Zhang Yiyu arrived on her zither, but suddenly, an enormous black dragon head rose from the river. It opened its mouth and roared, and the powerful blast instantly sent her flying far away.
Zhang Yiyu flipped through the air ten times before suddenly steadying herself. Her eyes shone as brightly as swords. "So it's a Vicious Flood Dragon!"
"Indeed! Once a flood dragon enters the water, how can you possibly restrain me? I'll keep you as my seven-hundredth concubine!"
Zhang Yiyu's face abruptly darkened.
This Vicious Flood Dragon had gone on a killing spree in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, wiping out twelve human villages and slaughtering countless people. She had pursued it all the way, holding the upper hand throughout, yet she had never managed to truly kill it. Now that the flood dragon had entered the water and borrowed the power of the river, its strength had greatly increased. Killing it would be harder than scaling the heavens.
Floodwaters rushed inward from all directions. The soft currents transformed into mountains of knives and seas of swords. Zhang Yiyu shouted, "Dragon Domain?"
The Dragon Domain was no trivial matter.
Only royalty among the seafolk could wield it. Once they unleashed the power of the Dragon Domain, everything within it became their home ground. They could grant life or take it away at will, and none could stop them.
This flood dragon was merely a flood dragon. It had not transformed into a true dragon at all, so why could it wield the Dragon Domain?
The black flood dragon threw back its head and laughed wildly. "That's why I said you have no idea who I am! Close!"
The Dragon Domain abruptly contracted.
The phantom zither beneath Zhang Yiyu's feet shattered into pieces.
Suddenly, she touched her forehead with a finger and shouted, "And how do you know who I am?... Enchanting Zither Realm, open!"
A ring of seven-colored light spread outward from her forehead like flowing water. Wherever it reached, spring warmed the land and flowers blossomed. The ice mountains and ice swords within the Dragon Domain all melted into spring water...
The black flood dragon roared madly, "Flower of the Great Dao!"
Domain Power could be wielded by sea clan royalty.
Great human cultivators could wield it as well.
The minimum threshold for wielding Domain Power was breaking through the fifth realm—the Dao Flower Realm!
Lin Su had already reached the riverbank. An old man stared blankly at him. "Young master... young master, are you a candidate taking the examination today?"
"Yes. I've finished the exam. Old sir, can you ferry me across the river?"
The old man said, "The Golden Bell marking the start of the exam only rang three and a half shichen ago..."
"Yes, the questions were so few. Who could stand being stuck there for twelve shichen? I finished early, submitted early, and came home early to eat... What, is there some rule saying I can't go home before the exam ends?"
"How could there be?" The old man hurriedly said, "Please board, young master. This old man will ferry you across at once..."
He more or less understood. This young man had never intended to take the exam seriously. He had merely muddled through it, or perhaps he could not answer the questions at all. Since he would not come up with the answers even if he sat there all night, he might as well pack up and leave right away...
He had seen plenty of such people. Most were scions of great households who could not endure hardship or study properly, yet could not withstand the arrangements of their family elders. They merely put on a show and went through the motions.
The man before him was dressed quite elegantly, which basically matched his judgment.
After boarding and leaving the shore, the little boat rowed eastward beneath the lingering glow of the setting sun...
Suddenly, Lin Su's gaze sharpened. "Old sir, there seem to be great waves ahead. Could there be some river beast?"
The old man narrowed his eyes and looked. With his eyesight, he clearly could not see that far. "Rest assured, young master. The sea clan and humans have long had an agreement: sea beasts do not enter inland rivers. And what ordinary river demon would dare make trouble beneath Qiankun Academy? That is only river mist over there..."
"You're the expert in this." Lin Su nodded. "Let's go."
He trusted the old man, and the old man trusted old tales passed down through the years. In the end, the little boat rowed straight through the middle of the river. Lin Su lay back in the boat, gazing at the sky. The boat sailed atop emerald waves, and he drifted through a painting. This Great River was nothing like the Yangtze on Earth—the Yangtze was muddy beyond compare, while this Great River was as picturesque as a painting...
Suddenly, the old man cried out, "What is that?"
Lin Su sprang up and saw an enormous black dragon head in the river ahead...
Holy shit!
A dragon! Who on Earth had ever seen a dragon?
Not a dinosaur, but a real dragon...
The black dragon head spewed black flames, like swords of doomsday tearing through the sky. A woman in white flew high and fled far away, blood spraying from her mouth like rain.
The black dragon's tail swept around, churning the river's emerald waters. In an instant, the emerald water turned into a river of blackness. Night arrived ahead of time, and the little boat was suddenly thrust onto the crest of a wave, with a bottomless abyss beneath it...
One moment, Lin Su had been lying in the boat, comfortably watching the slanting sunset. The next, he was facing life and death.
He planted both feet firmly, like nails hammered into the Boat Plank.
Even when the boat shot straight up a ten-zhang wave, he remained as immovable as a mountain!
With a flick of his hand, the Precious Brush and Precious Paper appeared in his palms!
He raised his brush and began to write:
"How Is The Will Of Today's Beheading? Starting A Business Is Difficult, With Many Battles!"
The brush rose and silver light fell. A desolate aura abruptly shrouded the Great River.
"On this journey to the Yellow Springs, I shall summon my old troops..."
Five-colored rosy clouds suddenly covered half the river. Within those clouds, countless phantoms of soldiers abruptly appeared.
Zhang Yiyu, flying high and fleeing far away, was stunned. A War Poem?
Who had written a War Poem? And it was five-colored?
The black flood dragon in the river was even more shocked. It suddenly discovered that its incomparably tyrannical aura had been completely suppressed by the grandeur of this War Poem. It could no longer churn the river's spring waters.
"Ten Thousand Banners Slay Yama!"
As the final line emerged, the scene became magnificent beyond measure. The five-colored rosy clouds transformed into seven colors, and one hundred thousand ghosts merged into one, raising a heaven-shaking Giant Sword and bringing it down upon the black flood dragon's head. That strike surged forward without hesitation, carrying an unmatched Hegemonic Way that would destroy gods if gods stood in its way, and destroy Buddhas if Buddhas blocked its path...
With a massive boom, the black flood dragon was sent flying more than ten zhang away. Black blood poured from its dragon neck.
With a flick of its tail, the little boat Lin Su rode shot through the air toward the distance. He clutched the gunwale tightly, his mind spinning.
He had confirmed two things. First, Marshal Chen's poem was also a millennium poem.
Second, his current strength was still far too weak. Even a seven-colored War Poem could not truly kill a powerful enemy.
If there was a third thing, it was that War Poems were exceedingly overbearing. The moment this poem emerged, it stirred his Literary Root and Martial Root. His entire body went limp as mud, and his head throbbed with unbearable pain...
The next moment, Lin Su's boat smashed heavily into the shallow waters by the riverbank. The boat scattered apart, and Lin Su and the old man both tumbled into the water. As he surfaced, he saw the black flood dragon rolling and roaring in the middle of the river...
My heavens, he had really provoked it. Run!
He did not know where the strength came from, but Lin Su ran wildly all the way. At last, he reached the shore and entered a small grove. The grass behind him rustled, and the old man followed, his hair hanging loose like a water ghost's. His weather-beaten face, normally unmoved by wind or rain, was now filled with terror...
"Old sir, what is that thing?"
Before you continue