Chapter 84

The sacred page's radiance continued to grow, and the final layer, the "World-Inheriting Radiance," slowly appeared, ultimately covering the nine layers of radiance.

In the dim forest, the grass was startled by the wind,

The general drew his bow at night;

At dawn, he sought the white feather,

Embedded in the stone's edge.

This poem by Lu Lun is based on a story about the Arrow Saint Li Guang. The Records of the Grand Historian in the Holy Yuan Continent records: Guang went hunting and saw a stone in the grass, mistaking it for a monster and shooting it. The arrow pierced the stone, and upon closer inspection, it was indeed a stone.

Li Guang, like the Martial Saint Guan Yu, the Engineering Saint Lu Ban, and the Music Saint Yu Boya, is a quasi-saint in the Holy Yuan Continent. Though not as revered as the true saints in the Sacred Temple, he is a renowned figure with a temple dedicated to him.

The poem first describes Li Guang's encounter with a monster in the dim forest, where the wind seemed to signal the presence of a monster. It then describes his full effort in drawing the bow and shooting, only to find the arrow deeply embedded in the stone, a more miraculous feat than merely hitting the surface. The poem vividly portrays Li Guang's archery skills with concise and powerful language.

The golden sacred page, now covered by the nine layers of radiance, rose and exploded in the air, releasing a burst of golden light.

To the human eyes, including Fang Yun's, this golden light was only slightly bright, but to the monster turtle, it was blinding.

Even though the monster turtle had pseudo-dragon blood and was only one step away from becoming a monster general, its eyes still felt a sharp pain.

As the golden light dissipated, a towering golden-armored general's apparition appeared in the air. This general exuded an indescribable aura of authority, his imposing figure inspiring reverence in the humans and fear in the monsters. His eyes seemed to pierce through the world, his left hand holding a war bow, and his right hand drawing an arrow, slowly pulling the bowstring.

A fierce wind howled in the sky, and above the golden-armored general, a funnel-shaped vortex appeared, channeling a large amount of essence energy into his body.

"Invoke the Saint!" many people shouted in unison, even the monster turtle cried out in terror in its own language, its eyes filled with fear.

As a creature with pseudo-dragon blood, the monster turtle had a deep understanding of human history. Invoking the Saint, whether it be a famous person, a quasi-saint, or a true saint, would elevate the battle poem to a higher level, making it more powerful than ordinary poetic souls, approaching the strength of the most powerful saintly souls.

Whether invoking the Saint or a saintly soul, they would gather one of the seven divine thoughts left by the sages in the world: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trustworthiness, integrity, and courage, thus triggering powerful abilities.

In the Holy Yuan Continent, Li Guang killed countless monsters and achieved great military feats. The "divine thought of courage" he left behind was no longer his own strength but also included the thousands of troops he once led, the praise in historical records, and the gratitude of countless humans for his contributions. If these forces were summoned together, they would be enough to challenge a great monster.

"Run! This person is more talented than I am! Remember this person, and report him to the Dragon Palace and the Monster Realm! He will become the second Li Wenyi, no, one of him is worth ten Li Wenyis! If he survives, our monster race will perish!" the monster turtle shouted in its heart, retrieving the pseudo-dragon pearl from the sky and turning to flee.

"You can't escape!"

Fang Yun said softly, his gaze fixed on the corner of the monster turtle's mouth, where the blood of his classmate still dripped.

The Li Guang apparition moved, the bow opened like a full moon in the sky, and the arrow flew like a meteor, illuminating the night sky for miles around.

The monster turtle was terrified, knowing it could not avoid the arrow, it retreated into its shell, using all its blood essence to form a blood-colored light shield on its surface.

Everyone saw a silver light streak across the night sky, then pierce through the monster turtle's tail, emerging from its mouth, and penetrate the ground, leaving a deep hole.

The monster turtle lay motionless, its body emitting continuous cracking sounds, blood gushing out, and the pseudo-dragon pearl it failed to retrieve fell to the ground.

The Li Guang apparition looked down at the crowd, finally focusing on Fang Yun, his gaze like a void.

Everyone was stunned. Although Li Guang was not a half-saint, he was a quasi-saint who had made great contributions to humanity. They carried the fortune of humanity, and as long as humanity existed and the historical records were not destroyed, the divine thoughts of such great figures would remain in the world.

Li Guang's divine thought, even if invoked, would usually disappear immediately, but now it moved uncontrollably, a clear sign of his highest approval of Fang Yun, clearly encouraging the younger generation and praising Fang Yun's resolve to kill monsters, affirming his contributions to humanity.

Fang Yun bowed slightly in respect.

The Li Guang apparition nodded gently, then dissolved into countless light points, returning to the world.

Fang Yun, having overextended his talent, had been relying on his resolve to kill monsters and avenge his friend. Now that his wish was fulfilled, his vision went dark, and he collapsed.

"Fang Yun!" Lu Yu hurriedly supported Fang Yun.

The other candidates also came to check on him.

"He has only exhausted his talent, no serious harm," a lieutenant said.

Nunu suddenly jumped out of the crowd, ran quickly to the monster turtle's corpse, picked up the pseudo-dragon pearl, which was now less than a quarter of its original size, and returned to Fang Yun's side.

Everyone looked at the pseudo-dragon pearl with envy. This treasure was extremely rare, even though it was a pseudo-dragon pearl at the monster general level, its value was close to that of a university scholar's literary treasure, something that could not be measured in gold or silver.

The candidates looked at each other, then at the candidate who had returned with the Chen Xi pen, hesitating but ultimately sighing. Without a doubt, only Fang Yun had the right to receive this pseudo-dragon pearl, even Li Wenyi could not take it away.

Nunu carefully placed the pseudo-dragon pearl on Fang Yun's lips, then slowly pressed it down with her small mouth, using her paws to open Fang Yun's mouth, and finally pushed the entire pseudo-dragon pearl into his mouth.

Nunu then carefully closed Fang Yun's mouth, stood up, and scanned the crowd with a wary gaze, as if saying: Be careful, don't approach Fang Yun!

The pseudo-dragon pearl slowly melted in Fang Yun's mouth, eventually turning into a gentle stream that flowed into his stomach, a surge of vitality forming within him, continuously nourishing him.

An Chengcai looked at Fang Yun and said softly, "Calm and composed in danger, turning the tide, yet not sparing himself, this is what a true scholar should be." As he spoke, he gripped his dagger tighter.

Mr. Wang said helplessly, "Since he can even invoke the World-Inheriting Poem of the Saint, I can't hide it anymore. This morning, he also composed a poem to strengthen the army, more accurately, a poem to strengthen the bow. You know, we can't announce this, otherwise, the monsters would spare no effort to kill him, even mobilizing great monsters. But these two poems are extremely important and cannot be kept secret, so we have to use the old method."

The candidate lieutenant said, "Then we can only claim that a university scholar successfully revised a poem, changing the battle poem he composed during his scholar period into a World-Inheriting one."

"Still, find a great scholar. A university scholar revising two poems in a row, I don't believe it."

"Only this way."

"Fang Yun is truly remarkable, able to invoke the divine thought of the Arrow Saint. Otherwise, we might all have perished here. That monster turtle even mentioned the Dragon Ascension Platform, indicating its significant status in the Dragon Palace."

"It's just a monster general, yet so powerful, it must be a big figure in the Dragon Palace. We must not let the Dragon Palace know that Fang Yun killed it, or it would be extremely detrimental to him."

"Before the magistrate arrives, no one is to leave or contact the outside world. Violators will be executed!" the lieutenant said.

"Yes!" everyone responded in unison.

"Fang Yun is awake!"

Everyone quickly looked at Fang Yun.

Fang Yun slowly opened his eyes, feeling warm and without any fatigue, though his talent was exhausted, the discomfort had disappeared.

"Ying ying!" Nunu clapped her small paws happily.

"Fang Yun, thank you for saving us!" the lieutenant bowed.

"Thank you for saving our lives!"

All the candidates, students, and teachers bowed in gratitude.

Fang Yun hurriedly said, "Please don't say that. If it weren't for your constant depletion of the monster turtle's blood essence and shell, and if it weren't for your activation of the '碧血丹心' (Bixue Dixin), my own talent would not have been enough to complete this poem."

Fang Yun now understood that the reason he could complete this battle poem was mainly due to the five layers of "碧血丹心" (Bixue Dixin), which were the result of five candidates consuming fifty years of their lives.

At this moment, a deep voice said, "I said I would protect you, but I was saved by you. I was careless, thinking the monster turtle was just an ordinary pseudo-dragon. Now I realize its father might be one of the famous great monsters in the Dragon Palace. I was at a disadvantage in direct combat and was defeated by its ambush, not unjustly."

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice.

"General Chen is awake!"

His shoulder was already bandaged, and he was struggling to stand, saying, "Let's go see the snake monster. County Magistrate He should have it pinned down. It doesn't have pseudo-dragon blood, and the recent defilement by a great scholar's literary work has likely depleted much of its blood essence. It can't move much now. I still have the strength for one more battle, and it will surely die! Tell me what happened on the way, how Fang Yun killed the monster turtle."

Everyone continued toward the mountaintop, where the remaining monsters were either killed or had fled.

At the top of the mountain, a human and a monster were in a fierce battle. County Magistrate He had reformed his lip and tongue sword, though its power was far less than before, and was continuously reciting battle poems to keep the snake monster general pinned down.

An Chengcai, however, kept his head down, seemingly lost in thought.

Soon, everyone reached the mountaintop. The snake monster, seeing the humans, began to fight desperately, and County Magistrate He gradually struggled to hold on.

Several candidates recited rapid movement poems and ran forward to attack the snake monster general.

As they got closer to the snake monster, An Chengcai suddenly said to Fang Yun, "Fang Yun, come closer, I have something to tell you."

Fang Yun nodded and moved closer, slightly away from the others.

The little fox followed Fang Yun, her black eyes darting, her gaze fixed on An Chengcai's chest.

An Chengcai put away his dagger, took out a cloth-wrapped object from his chest, and handed it to Fang Yun, saying softly, "Keep this with you. If I'm fine, I'll come back for it; if I'm not, it belongs to you, because only you are worthy of being its master! Don't ask what it is, and don't let anyone else know. When you enter the range of the Sacred Temple, you will understand."

"This..."

Fang Yun wanted to refuse, but the little fox suddenly jumped onto Fang Yun, grabbed the small cloth-wrapped object, and pushed it into Fang Yun's chest, using extra force, as if saying, "Hide it quickly, hide it quickly, it's a good thing!"

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