"Fang Yun, Licentiate of Ji County, requests the Sage Selection!"
Fang Yun's clear voice echoed through the Literary Academy.
Academy Head Wei stared at Fang Yun in shock, unable to react for a moment. Then he flew into a rage. "How dare you! Insolent brat!" Having said that, he glared furiously at Liu Zicheng.
Yet Liu Zicheng kept his head lowered, a venomous smile appearing on his face.
"Bastard!" Academy Head Wei cursed under his breath, though it was unclear whether he was cursing Fang Yun or Liu Zicheng.
Gao Minghong sighed softly, but inwardly admired Fang Yun's decisiveness. He could not help recalling the history of the Sage Appeal.
In the early days after Literary Academies were established, a major incident had occurred.
In Yongwen Prefecture of Wu Prefecture in the Jia Kingdom, a highly promising Academy Student offended the local Academy Head and was stripped of his qualification to enter the Literary Academy. The Academy Student's mother was so enraged that she died alive from grief.
The Academy Student filed a grievance against the Academy Head, but officials shielded one another. In the end, the officials of Wu Prefecture suppressed the matter.
He endured humiliation and bore heavy burdens, studying furiously. After becoming a Metropolitan Graduate, he returned to Yongwen Prefecture and exterminated the Academy Head's entire clan—all one hundred forty-one people, leaving neither chicken nor dog behind—before committing suicide in public.
The matter shook the Ten Kingdoms. Some mourned the more than one hundred dead, while others mourned the possible loss of a Great Scholar to the Human Race.
The Sacred Academy dispatched a Hall of Punishment force led by a Legalist School Half-Sage to Wu Prefecture to try the case. Every high-ranking official who had held office in Yongwen Prefecture or Wu Prefecture that year was