Only at ten that night did all fifty-five young contestants finish composing their poems. Grand Academicians appraised and commented on the better works. Whether influenced by "Qing Dog Barks at Snow" and "Qing Donkey Exhausts Its Tricks" or not, none of the five young scholars from the Qing Kingdom produced a poem of county-exceeding caliber. The best of them placed fifteenth-a rout across the board.
Some scholars called this "Qing Donkey Exhausts Its Tricks," praising Fang Yun for his ability to see into the future.
The people of the Qing Kingdom dared not say anything. The Qing Lord had plainly meant to strike at Fang Yun and unsettle him, yet in the end, the Qing Kingdom's own youths had been affected. They had reaped the bitter fruit of their own actions and could do nothing about it.
After the young poetry contestants left the platform, Dong Wencong helplessly used Tongue Blossoms Thunder and said, "May I ask whether anyone here has seen Grand Academician Zhang Longxiang? He seems to have lost his way and still has not arrived."
Many people looked toward the first-class seats near Fang Yun. One chair had remained empty since the literary assembly began.
Fang Yun sensed the Pearl River Duke Seal inside his Sea-Swallowing Shell receiving message after message. Clearly, some people were growing anxious as well.
So Fang Yun secretly used the Pearl River Duke Seal to reply to Lei Tingzhen and several others.
"The literary contest will begin at the start of the midnight hour."
Soon, people began learning the exact time of Zhang Longxiang's arrival.
Dong Wencong also received the message, so he announced that the literary assembly would continue and invited Kong City's most renowned acrobatic troupe onto the stage to perform while they awaited the midnight hour.
On the Saint