On the first day of the eleventh month, before dawn had fully broken, streets across the Human Race's lands were already deserted as countless people flocked to the entrances of their local Literary Academies.
This was especially true in the county seats provisionally governed by Metropolitan Graduates taking the Palace Examination, and in their hometowns. At least a third of their residents headed to the Literary Academies.
In Ji County, Ning'an County, and the capital, more than seventy percent of the residents took their entire families out early to visit their local Literary Academies. The spectacle surpassed the spring outings of the Dragon Boat Festival, the hill climbing of the Double Ninth, and the lantern viewing of the Lantern Festival.
In Ji County, the Literary Academy's main gates stood wide open.
Early that morning, County Magistrate Duan led all the county's officials, great and small, to stand in Literary Academy Square before the Temple of Sages.
Behind these officials stood Ji County's prominent families and scholars. The other commoners waited outside the gates, craning their necks in anticipation.
Among the officials at the very front, an elderly man in silk robes stood out most of all. Astonishingly, he was not even a scholar.
Yet every official present treated him with the utmost respect.
"Void Sage Fang has become the unprecedented Top-Ten Zhuangyuan, sweeping up all the Literary Qi of the Ten Kingdoms. Old Master Fang, as patriarch of Ji County's Fang Clan, you deserve a share of the credit!"
"Old Master Fang's deep virtue shines down through the generations, and his noble conduct surpasses all others. He truly is a model for us all!"
"Old Master Fang truly is a pillar of Jing Kingdom, a dragon and phoenix among the Human Race."
Old Master Fang laughed heartily and waved his