That very day, Xiang Prefecture's Legal Office reported the matter to the Hall of Punishment and passed judgment: Zhuang Li was stripped of his Literary Rank, permanently barred from taking the Imperial Examination, and sentenced to one year of detention.
The results were posted on September nineteenth. Early on the morning of September twentieth, Fang Yun returned to the Literary Academy, for the newly promoted Provincial Graduates were to ascend Book Mountain.
Near noon, the ascent of Book Mountain ended.
Although none of them remembered the exact course of their ascent, they all knew which mountain and pavilion they had ultimately reached.
Although many Provincial Graduates of the Human Race ascended Book Mountain that year, very few reached the fourth mountain. Of several million Provincial Graduates, fewer than a hundred reached it. As for anyone ascending the Seventh Mountain as a Provincial Graduate, as Fang Yun had, there was not a single one.
Scholars everywhere, especially those from poor families, praised the Sacred Academy for expanding access to Book Mountain. Among the few dozen most outstanding participants were several students from poor families, all of whom had been utterly unknown as Academy Students.
In previous years, these people would very likely have failed to become Provincial Graduates. Even if they had passed, their low rankings would have disqualified them from ascending Book Mountain. Without that ascent, their potential would have remained dormant, and they would have faded into the crowd, precious pearls buried beneath dust.
But now the Human Race had given them a chance to enter Book Mountain and awaken their potential, allowing them to leap into the ranks of geniuses. In the future, they could at least become Hanlin Academicians, and might even become Grand Academicians. With good fortune, they might have a chance to become Great Scholars