The eleventh day of the eighth month was the day the Human Race's Literary Gazette was published. Every morning on that date, long queues formed outside the bookshops of Literary Academies throughout the Human Race's lands, blocking entire academy streets. It was also the happiest day for booksellers everywhere, since they could earn at least a hundred copper coins more than usual.
Yet a strange sight appeared in Xiang Prefecture: in every city, the number of people queuing outside the Literary Academy bookshops to buy the Literary Gazette was only half what it used to be!
Both the clerks selling the Literary Gazette and the scholars buying it were shocked by the cliff-like plunge in numbers.
There was a saying among the Human Race: one could skip the Sacred Way, but never the Literary Gazette.
The contents of the Sacred Way were far too profound. Only Metropolitan Graduates could barely understand all of it; Provincial Graduates could understand half at most, while Licentiates and Academy Students could understand only a tiny portion. Most ordinary people never bought it.
In recent years, only when Fang Yun repeatedly broke the Sacred Way's records had there been a rush to buy it.
Ordinarily, the only publication truly worth queuing for was the Literary Gazette.
Yet now, so many people actually thought the Literary Gazette was not worth getting up early and standing in line to buy.
Those present found it strange, but soon understood the reason.
It was because of the People's Gazette.
That morning, Fang Yun was eating breakfast when Prefect Dong Wencong rushed in with a middle-aged man dressed in a Provincial Graduate's robes.
"My lord, this subordinate has an urgent matter to report!"
Fang Yun set down his chopsticks and glanced over Dong Wencong and the man behind him. Information