"Excellent!" the unknown Half-Sage praised.
The Academy Students had originally felt that Fang Yun's second line surpassed the first in both wording and artistic conception. If it were placed in a poem, it might not rank below Prefecture-Reaching. Now that the Half-Sage had praised it, that meant the Half-Sage was indirectly acknowledging the excellence of Fang Yun's second line.
Tan Yu and Nie Shi, the two attendants, had been holding their breath for a long time. Upon hearing the Half-Sage praise Fang Yun, they finally let out long sighs of relief. Even if Fang Yun failed, that Half-Sage should show mercy and would not deliberately strike at Fang Yun's Literary Palace.
Academy Head Wei and Liu Zicheng's expressions changed slightly. For a Licentiate to receive a Half-Sage's praise was the highest glory, scarcely inferior to earning Double-A Honor Before the Sages.
The people around Liu Zicheng began to panic. If Fang Yun truly passed the Sage Appeal, the imperial court would certainly have to protect him. Opposing him would be no different from suicide.
Guan Yaoyuan rebuked them in a low voice, "What are you panicking for? This is only the beginning. How could a Saint set only one question? The harder ones must be yet to come! I heard that someone once answered the first question correctly in a Sage Appeal, only to be angered unconscious by the second. Saints are just and fair; they would never let such a thief pass the Sage Selection!"
Liu Zicheng glanced at Guan Yaoyuan in thanks, then looked at Fang Yun with narrowed eyes, no one knowing what he was thinking.
The Half-Sage's voice rang out in the sky again. "I am presently standing amid the mountains and have happened upon a second first line: 'Mist locks the mountain peak; the mountain