"One man slaughtered seven thousand Demon Kings and Barbarian Kings, along with five main force armies. This was unprecedented in the history of the human race, but those were only his visible achievements. Frightening off the demon barbarians and ending the Battle of Bi and Shen would earn him even greater merit."
"This battle shattered the Demon Realm's morale. It will take months, perhaps even more than a year, for them to recover. Once Li Guang's phantom appears on the Boundary Mountain City Wall, the hundreds of millions of demon barbarians before it will surely fall into panic. Those achievements should count as well."
"One thing is certain, though: the Pearl River Army will take first place on the military merit ranking!"
Some people looked toward the Military Merit Register, but even more turned their eyes toward Gou Bao and the other Grand Academicians of the Chu Kingdom.
Not a single Grand Academician spoke, for all of them felt that Gou Bao was no longer worth the breath it would take to mock him.
Instead, some Hanlin Academicians and Metropolitan Graduates murmured among themselves, ridiculing and taunting him.
"Fortunately, Gou Bao lost. Had he succeeded in bringing down Zhang Mingzhou, we might never have witnessed the birth of the Ode to Li Guang."
"Put that way, even if these Grand Academicians earned no merit, they at least deserve credit for their toil!"
"We should encourage Gou Bao to wager with Zhang Mingzhou again. Perhaps that will inspire Zhang Mingzhou to write a third transmissible battle poem!"
"The question now is, what does Gou Bao have left to wager against Zhang Mingzhou?"
"His face."
The assembled scholars burst into laughter.
The men of the Pearl River Army laughed with particular delight.
The Qishan Army, Gou Bao, and the others flushed crimson.