Chapter 17: The Library

Chen Ji had been struck with awe this morning upon seeing the "Dream of the Red Chamber" published in the Literary Gazette; he had stood in the street, repeatedly pondering it until he was lost in thought, which was why he had arrived late at Wenyuan Academy.

He could not accept that the "Ode to Quelling Demons," an imagery-level work by the great literary master he revered in his heart, was being dismissively called "not bad" by someone.

The "Ode to Quelling Demons" was written by me!

Lu Fang cleared his throat, just about to introduce himself.

But he saw Chen Ji snort coldly, drive his entire body's Haoran Zhengqi, and climb upward with rapid steps—deng, deng, deng.

In the blink of an eye, he had left Lu Fang more than ten zhang behind.

Lu Fang was dumbfounded. Being at the same Ninth Rank, Third Stage realm, his Haoran Zhengqi was far less than Chen Ji's; he simply could not catch up.

"What a talent!"

Lu Fang muttered in his heart. Having no mood to explain, he lowered his head and climbed Mustard Mountain with great effort.

Fortunately, Mustard Mountain was only difficult at the beginning; after climbing a certain distance, crossing multiple stone steps would no longer consume Haoran Zhengqi.

It took him about two quarter-hours to reach the end of the stone steps—Wenyuan Academy—of the Mustard Mountain that pierced the clouds.

Looking up from the stone steps at the high walls of white plaster and grey tiles, one could vaguely see the corners of the academy's high platforms and pavilions amidst the clouds. The cyan Haoran Zhengqi above the sky condensed without dispersing, changing in myriad ways, as if one had entered a fairyland.

"I am Lu Fang, here to study at Wenyuan Academy. May I ask whom I should seek out now?"

Lu Fang asked the people guarding the two sides of the main gate.

The older gatekeeper bowed and smiled: "Supervisor Liu just gave orders. Since you have arrived, let the little one take you to see him."

"I have troubled you."

Lu Fang followed the older gatekeeper into the academy.

The first thing that came into view was a "spacious" white stone plaza, the size of more than a dozen basketball courts. At the end of the plaza were several rows of pavilions and lecture halls, from which the sound of reading drifted from afar.

On the right side of the white stone plaza was a small path leading directly to a courtyard with an arched gate. Entering the courtyard, they arrived in front of a room.

The older gatekeeper bowed toward the inside: "Supervisor Liu, the person has been brought here."

Inside the room was a relatively common three-connected house; everywhere one looked were books stacked into "peaks" and scrolls placed at random.

A middle-aged, elegant scholar sat before a ten-meter-long table, flipping through the Great Zhou Literary Gazette. Hearing this, he raised his head to size up Lu Fang at the door.

"You are Lu Fang?"

The scholar stood up excitedly to ask.

"It is I. This is my waist token."

Lu Fang took out a token. This token was made of some kind of brass material; while having texture, it was not heavy. Both sides of the token were engraved with the character "Xu," a master-disciple token given to him by the Great Confucian Wang Fu.

Li Yu had said yesterday that taking out the token would prove his identity.

The scholar bowed toward the token and looked at Lu Fang with a beaming smile:

"That is correct. I am currently reading the elegant prose 'Dream of the Red Chamber' you wrote. It is truly written too well."

"Especially the annotations for the 'Song of Well-Being.' I truly love it to the extreme. 'The humble room and empty hall, where once the tablets filled the bed. The withered grass and dry willows, once the scene of song and dance. Spider webs cover the carved beams, the green gauze now...'"

Liu Wenyu clapped his hands repeatedly in praise, seizing the chance to shower him with endless compliments.

What a heaven-sent talent!

In the future, he will surely be famous throughout the world!

Unprecedented and unrepeatable...

Even though Lu Fang had a thick skin, he blushed a little upon hearing this. He laughed dryly and reminded: "Supervisor Liu, I have come to the academy to study this time according to His Majesty's decree. I do not know how to proceed."

Liu Wenyu smiled:

"You are a disciple of a Semi-Sage, and your literary talent is outstanding. You do not need to care too much about the rules. Just come to the academy often to stroll around and listen to some lectures by the hall lecturers and main lecturers."

"If you feel the literary talent of those main lecturers is low, just wait for the two Academy Directors to return and listen to their lectures."

"On average, there is a lecture by an Academy Director every two or three months, basically in the last two or three days of the month."

The situation Liu Wenyu spoke of was not special treatment for Lu Fang alone; Li Yu enjoyed the same treatment at the academy.

Scholars who were accepted as disciples by Great Confucians and Master-level figures had their own master sects to supervise their studies. In the academy, they merely held a name and had the qualifications to listen to the lectures of the "Academy Directors" and "Main Lecturers."

Ordinary scholars entering the academy for the first time would be examined on their learning and assigned under a "Hall Lecturer."

"That is good."

Lu Fang nodded in satisfaction: "Then I shall take my leave first and take the opportunity to look around the academy."

"Today is an odd day, so the men's section of the Library Pavilion is open. Even days are for the academy's women's section. You can go take a look there." Liu Wenyu suggested: "Why don't I accompany you?"

"No need, no need." Lu Fang politely declined: "I will just wander around by myself. I will not trouble Supervisor Liu."

Bidding farewell to the overly enthusiastic Liu Wenyu, Lu Fang walked across the empty white stone plaza, stopped in front of rows of lecture halls to listen to lectures for a while, and finally walked toward the Library Pavilion at the very back.

The academy's students were all studying in the halls; apart from the gatekeeper, there was not a single student in the Library Pavilion, which appeared somewhat desolate.

The Library Pavilion was three stories high; from the outside, it did not look very large.

Only after walking inside did he discover that there was another world within. Even the first floor was larger than the white stone plaza, and books were everywhere on the boundless bookshelves.

"A Brief History of Wenyuan Academy!"

On a bookshelf near the door, Lu Fang discovered a bamboo slip recording the origin of "Wenyuan Academy."

According to the records, "Wenyuan Academy" was not established by the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Wenyuan Academy existed as early as the Human Dynasty before the Great Zhou Dynasty, founded by the sixth emperor of the Human Dynasty, only there was no Mustard Mountain at that time.

After the Human Dynasty split and collapsed, the Great Zhou rose strongly, and Sage Jiang moved Mustard Mountain from the void to guard the fate of the Great Zhou Dynasty...

Lu Fang finished reading the content on the bamboo slip and read a few more Confucian classics and elegant prose. Just as he opened the outer chapter of "Zhuangzi," strands of Haoran Zhengqi surged into his body.

Pop!

A sound, as if it existed or not, rang out.

Lu Fang successfully broke through the realm, entering the Eighth Rank, First Stage Literary Excellence Realm. Although both were in the Scholar Realm, after closing his eyes to perceive it, he happily discovered that the Haoran Zhengqi in his body had grown more than twofold.

Having taken three Haoran Zhengqi Pills, breaking through the realm was only a matter of time.

It was just that he had not expected the breakthrough to come so quickly.

Counting it up, he had been in the Great Zhou Dynasty for less than ten days and had already entered the Eighth Rank, First Stage, which could be called rapid progress.

"My Haoran Zhengqi is much less than scholars of the same realm. What is going on?" Lu Fang frowned and thought for a while, but could not come up with any reason, so he simply stopped thinking about it.

He picked up the outer chapter of "Zhuangzi" and continued reading, wanting to use this to go up another level; if that really didn't work, condensing some literary talent would also be good.

Clearly, he was thinking too beautifully.

He stayed in the Library Pavilion for three hours; let alone Haoran Zhengqi, he didn't even read out a single bit of literary talent.

Fortunately, "Dream of the Red Chamber" had just debuted in the Great Zhou Literary Gazette and was seen by more people, gaining quite a bit of scholarly aura, so he was not that depressed.

As time passed, some scholars arrived at the Library Pavilion one after another, and even though they deliberately controlled it, it was still slightly noisy.

"Go, go, go, there's a good show to watch ahead."

"What good show?"

"I heard from Brother Liu's sound transmission that the playboy Xiao Jinchen boasted that the Northern Frontier's 'Town-North Army' was incompetent, retreating repeatedly in the face of the barbarian army and not daring to fight them. 'Stubborn' Chen Ji heard it by accident and is currently arguing with him."

"Then there is indeed a good show to watch. 'Stubborn' doesn't care if Xiao Jinchen is the descendant of the Three Dukes; he is determined to argue out a principle."

Three scholars talked as they walked out of the Library Pavilion.

"'Stubborn'? A very apt description."

Lu Fang muttered in his heart, put down the book in his hand, and followed the scholars who were going to watch the fun to the white stone plaza.

"Chen Ji! Hurry up and kneel down to Young Master Xiao to admit your mistake. Perhaps you can save your dog life today."

A scholar with high cheekbones shouted arrogantly.

This person was called Hua Wenze, and his reputation at Wenyuan Academy was extremely poor. He was a typical petty person who used his master's power to bully others and was also one of Xiao Jinchen's lackeys.

"Which mad dog is barking?"

Chen Ji did not flinch at all, his waist and back straight like a flagpole. ===== CHAPTER 18 =====