Zhang Cang looked at Xu Kai's homework, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples with a headache.
Since he became a semi-saint, all the stubborn diseases and old wounds in his body have been wiped away, and no diseases will intrude on him anymore. This is Eucharistic eternity.
But when he got Xu Kai's coursework, he felt like he was getting older again.
"It turns out that the 'little knowledge' he told me when we met was not modesty. Then how did he become a scholar of the holy way?"
Can't figure it out.
I really can't figure it out.
How did he become a scholar of the holy way?
"Lord Zhang Sheng, it's not good!" Xu Kai broke through the door and broke into Zhang Cang's courtyard.
"What's wrong? Tell me what's going on." Zhang Cang opened his eyes.
He gave Xu Kai many privileges, such as his current rude behavior, and Zhang Cang acquiesced.
"Did you know that Tianxiang specially arranged a government examination for me and Huang Tu?"
"Oh, that's it. I just found out about it. I'm still worried about how you will pass this exam."
That's right, it was precisely because he knew that Xu Kai was about to take the imperial examination that Zhang Cang had such a headache.
"Can I not participate?"
"Tianxiang holds a government examination specifically for you two, which means that it has launched a God's Will List just for you two. Could it be that you didn't participate because you said you didn't want to participate?"
"...What happens if you fail?"
"Maybe he will be dropped out of school by Tianxiang. You may become the first student who was dropped out by Tianxiang but failed to win the top prize in the external imperial examination."
"So why is there a government examination suddenly held, specifically for me!" Xu Kai was going crazy.
Zhang Cang said helplessly: "All the students who enter Tianxiang are great talents, and the government examination is no different from a game to them. Even those who have sent their descendants to Tianxiang based on their merit will not send those with poor qualifications. Later generations, so as not to lose face. As a scholar of the holy way, the government examination is usually just a formality for you. Who knows why you are so bad? "
This is the truth. If the Dali saint hadn't revealed to him the path Xu Kai took, he might have suspected that Xu Kai's path was to introduce Qi into the body to refine the spirit.
Zhang Cang looked at Xu Kai as if he were a fool: "Because there are some activities in Tianxiang that only scholars can participate in, I arranged this exam for your sake."
Speaking of this, Zhang Cang was thinking in his heart, even a semi-saint like him has no right to apply for the launch of the Heavenly Will List. Didn't the person who planned this imperial examination have a relationship with the Dali Saint?
Even the three most powerful saints in the human race still have some internal disputes?
"Is there any way to avoid this exam?" Xu Kai was dejected. In the half month since he joined Tianxiang, he has fully enjoyed all the benefits of Tianxiang, first of all, the resources. Tianxiang has the best resources and the best craftsmen, and can make higher-precision experimental equipment; secondly, Tianxiang's subsidies are too large, and the state and state colleges cannot compare with them.
Although he has received dividends from the glass firing, there are some resources that cannot be purchased with silver and must be purchased with Tianxiang subsidies.
"Yes, there is."
Xu Kai raised his head suddenly: "What is it?!"
"There are two ways. First, worship me as your teacher." Zhang Cang raised a finger, "As a direct disciple of a semi-saint, to say the least, even if you fail the imperial examination, you will not be expelled from Tianxiang. ."
"Where's the second one?" Xu Kai asked without hesitation.
Zhang Cang had a dark face, but still said the second method: "Enter the Central Empire, change the content of your government examination to face the God's Will List directly. You face the God's Will List directly as a numerologist, the questions of the government examination These are questions from the lineage of numerologists, so that you can avoid your weakness in the classics of all saints. However, I do not recommend that you choose this method, because some questions are indeed extremely difficult. I dare not say it until I become a semi-saint. Able to answer all questions within the stipulated time.”
"Okay, that's it!" Xu Kai was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately clapped his hands and decided.
"Have you thought about it?" This time it was Zhang Cang's turn to be dumbfounded, "No one has tried this method for nearly three thousand years."
Yes, passing the imperial examination by directly facing the Heavenly Will List can indeed gain great benefits. Many people have tried it, but the final result is failure. The last person to pass the list of facing God's will was the Dali saint.
Because this means that the questions that were originally targeted at all candidates have become only targeted at one person. And facing the being who even paid three points of respect to the saint who became a saint in Dali, who can complete the questions on the list of God's will?
As for the result of failure, due to facing the pressure of the Tianyi List, the worst result is that the literary heart is destroyed and the literary spirit is lost. In more serious cases, the meridians are damaged, and even the method of introducing Qi into the body cannot be practiced; the most serious result is that directly When the body dies, the Tao disappears. Therefore, in the past three thousand years, no one has chosen to take part in the imperial examination by directly facing the divine will list.
Although there are only two people in this government examination, the questions are still based on the premise of "opening to all candidates", so they will not be targeted individually by the God's Will List.
"And Xu Kai, if you want to be qualified to face the Heavenly Will List, you need to expend a lot of credit. Your "Elements of Geometry" helped me become a semi-saint. It is a great achievement. Although the credit for such a great achievement is enough for you to make this choice, do you really want to do it? Will these credits be used for this?"
Xu Kai hesitated when he heard that he needed to use up the credit, but still asked: "It shouldn't be all consumed, right?"
"Indeed. Facing the God's Will List requires a lot of credit, but not much. Otherwise, only those children of big families would be qualified to face the God's Will List."
Xu Kai let out a long sigh of relief: "That's it."
Zhang Cang still reminded worriedly: "Xu Kai, you are extremely talented, but you just lack accumulation. There is no need to be so radical."
"Don't worry, Lord Zhang Sheng, I have made my own decision."
Seeing this, Zhang Cang couldn't say anything else. I just sighed, put down Xu Kai's homework, and planned to continue studying Goldbach's conjecture.
"Lord Zhang Sheng, wait a minute. I have something I want you to see."
"What?" Zhang Cang raised his head and looked at Xu Kai.
Xu Kai took out the manuscript of Arabic numerals and English letters: "This is my simplified way of writing numbers. The previous way of writing numbers was too slow, which greatly affected the writing speed. In addition, I think that in geometry, for each point, It’s also troublesome to describe each line segment in Chinese characters, so I created a set of symbols to simplify the writing.”
When he wrote "Elements of Geometry", Xu Kai suffered deeply from it, so he planned to get these things out and promote them as soon as possible. The most suitable one is the semi-saint Zhang Cang, a numerologist.
Although there were no semi-saints in the Shushu family before Zhang Cang, unlike other factions that did not have half-saints, the Shushu family still had an influence in various countries no less than that of the Legalists and Mohists. Because most of the successive household ministers of the Shifang Empire and the Central Empire came from numerologists. If Zhang Cang, a half-saint numerologist, takes the lead, these things will surely be popularized soon.
Zhang Cang picked up the manuscript paper that Xu had opened and quickly read it, then frowned: "Why do you want to simplify it so much?"
"Don't you think using Chinese characters to do math problems is too cumbersome and time-consuming? Using these instead can not only save writing time, but also save manuscript paper, giving you more space to write important things?"
"Why do you think it's time-consuming?"
Xu Kai was stunned: "These are obviously much simpler than Chinese characters, right?"
Zhang Cang picked up a piece of manuscript paper and with a stroke of his pen, the entire paper was instantly filled with all kinds of uncommon characters. Xu Kai picked it up and saw that each character had no less than twenty strokes.
"...Zhang Shengda is profound in humanities, and his writing is as fast as the wind and rain, which makes students feel ashamed."
"you flatter me."
It turns out that I was once again bound by my previous life's perspective, just like the shortest line segment between two points.
Suddenly, Xu Kai thought of something: "Excuse me, Master Zhang Sheng, can every student have a writing speed like yours?"
"If they study hard and study hard, of course they can."
Xu Kai understood, this meant that he couldn't.
"Master Zhang Sheng, your literary skills are profound, so you don't need to worry about simplification. But what about those students? It is very troublesome for them to use Chinese characters for mathematics. Not only is it a waste of study time, but rows of densely packed Chinese characters also make it look awkward. Not concise enough.”
"Before becoming a Jinshi, the focus should be on the imperial examination. Without advancement in academic qualifications, everything will be a castle in the air."
"But numerology is the foundation of our life." Xu Kai said seriously, "Now that you have become a semi-saint, this road is no longer considered a dead end, and your views will definitely be included in future imperial examinations. Don't you think Don’t you think we should start with the basics first?”
Hearing this, Zhang Cang was stunned.
Indeed, it had been so long since the numerologist became a semi-sage, that he almost forgot that after he became a semi-sage, numeracy questions would definitely be included in the imperial examination in the future. Maybe you won't join every imperial examination, but you will definitely have some status.
He took Xu Kai's manuscript again and looked at it carefully. After thinking for a while, he nodded solemnly: "This thing of yours does have merits. After I optimize and improve it, I will pilot it in Tianxiang. If it is effective, I will promote it to other countries in the future."
Xu Kai saluted: "Thank you, Lord Zhang Sheng."
…
…
After leaving Zhang Cang's courtyard, Xu Kai let out a long breath.
The ideological differences between the two worlds are indeed quite big.
Take numerologists as an example. Those sages who pioneered numerology were accustomed to Chinese characters and may not have thought of simplifying numbers. The later comers did not pay much attention to numeracy in the early stage because the imperial examination did not include numeracy. After your literary skills reach a certain level, your writing speed will naturally increase, and you don't care whether you have to simplify numbers.
Thinking of this, Xu Kai came to the book pavilion again. Although he has confidence in himself, he should still take a look at the classic questions on Tianyan Continent and quickly understand what the questions on the Tianyi List mean, so as not to capsize in the gutter.
Entering the bookstore, Xu Kai suddenly found that the first floor was very lively, without the quietness that a bookstore should have. He looked up and found that the second floor of the bookstore was still quiet. It seemed that there was no interference from here. There must be some means of isolating sound between the two floors.
He was about to go straight to the second floor when he suddenly noticed a familiar figure among the crowd on the first floor. He walked up behind the man, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Huang Tu looked back at the person who tapped him on the shoulder, and then explained: "It turned out to be Xu Kai. We are writing poems here to help the soldiers on the front line. Writing poems and injecting literary spirit can help those soldiers recover faster, and can also inspire them. Morale. This is one of the few things we students can do to help the front line. We are here discussing how to write poems and lyrics."
"Then why are you doing this in the library?"
"There are many classics here. If you want to use them, you can check them at any time." After that, Huang Tu lowered his voice and said: "It is said that there are also semi-saints watching here. If you can write good enough poems, you can get the attention of semi-saints. maybe."
Xu Kai suddenly realized that this was the case. Speaking of which, this war was inseparable from him, so he geared up and said, "Then I'll add one too."
Huang Tu was thinking about Xu Kai's poem, and just wanted to stop it, but then he thought of the sentence written by Xu Kai, "I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood," so he stepped aside.
"Have you suddenly become enlightened?"
"why do you say so?"
"I don't know how bad the poems you wrote before were? But last time you suddenly wrote that poem again..."
"Oh, the situation was urgent last time and I didn't have time to name it. If you are talking about the song 'I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood', then its name is 'Self-Inscribed Portrait'."
"Yes, yes, that's the one." Huang Tu nodded, "If you can write that kind of poem, I won't stop you, but if you still write that kind of jab-jumping poem, you don't need me. , these classmates will give you a hard lesson. These manuscript papers are all unique and can amplify the effect of the poem, and there is no room for waste."
Xu Kai touched his nose and shrank his neck, thinking that he was almost running out of poems that he could remember, so how could he write them?
He searched every corner of his memory and finally found a poem, but Huang Tu waved his hand and said, "You'd better go and review. I have no problem passing the government examination, but your problem is big. You You came to the bookstore to prepare for the review for the government exam, right? In that case, you'd better read the book first, and it won't be too late to write these after the government exam is over."
"Don't worry, I have plenty of time." Xu Kai waved his hand, indicating that nothing happened.
"What do you mean? Can you pass?" Huang Tu asked doubtfully. He knew better than Zhang Cang how poor Xu Kai's basic level was.
"I choose to face the Heavenly Will List directly as a numerologist." After saying that, he picked up his pen and started writing. My writing has improved a lot, at least it is square and straight, no longer crooked.
"Oh, that's right. Then you really don't have to read scriptures, just read the works of your numerologists... Wait, what did you say, you want to choose to face the list of providence?!"
The sound was so loud that everyone on the first floor of the library heard it. The previously noisy environment suddenly became quiet. Even a few people on the second floor seemed to have heard the news and came down to watch.
Xu Kai, who had just written a title, stopped writing and asked doubtfully: "Yeah, what's wrong?"
"What else are you talking about!" Huang Tu said anxiously, "Don't get carried away!"
Xu Kai patted his shoulder: "In this case, you have to trust me."
