I proved immortality through the imperial examination.

Chapter 41 Examination of Literature
"What nonsense are you spouting? You're just a country bumpkin, full of vulgarities."

Su Ziming said dismissively, his provocative gaze almost declaring that Xue Xiang was right, but that he was powerless against him.

"It was Su Suiran, wasn't it? He first had you use the five-colored soil to test my spiritual root, and after getting the definite result, he pushed the spiritual root test into the examination stage. You really went to great lengths to deal with me."

Xue Xiang understood one thought, and understood a hundred thoughts.

The city examination was important, but it was only the most basic examination in the imperial examination system.

The authority to set questions for written examinations rested with the academies, while the authority to set questions for spiritual practice examinations rested with the local authorities.

Given that Su Suiran had secretly tested Xue Xiang's spiritual root quality, it was undoubtedly possible for her to pay some price and push for spiritual root testing to become part of the examination.

However, while it is easy to deduce the cause from the effect, from Su Suiran's perspective, setting up such a scheme from scratch would undoubtedly require racking one's brains.

Su Ziming's smile grew brighter and brighter. Suddenly, he leaned close to Xue Xiang's ear and whispered, "Everyone has the ability to pull off some shady dealings, huh?"

Having said that, he was completely satisfied, and with a swaying gait, he walked away laughing and wobbling away.

Two more drumbeats sounded, and all candidates returned to the circle corresponding to their assigned numbers.

Before long, soldiers brought in batches of prayer mats and low tables.

After a short while, Xue Xiang sat down on a futon, the height of the long table just right for him to sit and write.

After another half cup of tea, he received a plain sesame seed cake and two bamboo tubes of water.

After eating and drinking, all candidates were allowed to wash their hands in batches.

At 1:15 PM, three cannon shots rang out, and at the command of the red-robed examiner, everyone stood up.

Then, Yunmeng City Magistrate Wei Yang accompanied a thin old man as he stepped onto the central high platform.

Xue Xiang had seen Wei Yang when he was in the lock hall of Jiufen Mountain, but this was the first time he had seen Wei Yang in formal official attire. He was wearing a blue official robe with mandarin ducks embroidered on his chest and a black gauze hat.

The old man beside him was also dressed in a blue official robe and a black gauze hat, but the one on his chest was embroidered with an oriole.

Xue Xiang guessed the old man's identity; he must be Feng Jing, the chief examiner sent by the academy, who was in charge of this written examination.

Feng Jingchong bowed to Wei Yang, who returned the bow, and then stepped down from the stage.

Immediately, a master of ceremonies brought over an incense table, lit incense, and offered prayers.

Feng Jing took out a blue celestial talisman and chanted the incantation. Suddenly, rays of auspicious light descended from the sky.

Feng Jing cried out, "Please, Your Majesty!"

A phantom slowly emerged from the auspicious light and landed peacefully on the high platform.

Soon, the illusory image materialized into a bronze statue.

He was a kind-faced old man with a broad forehead and prominent eyes, his gaze full of wisdom and compassion.

"Bow down to the Saint!"

The emcee shouted.

Led by Wei Yang and Feng Jing, everyone bowed down to the saint, and suddenly a faint halo appeared on the statue, enveloping the entire area.

A feeling of kindness and holiness spread from everyone's heart.

After the three bows, the ceremony concluded with the master of ceremonies announcing the end of the ceremony.

Following that, Wei Yang and Feng Jing delivered speeches.

The content is the same every year: take the exam seriously, don't cheat, report to your country and your parents, and so on.

After Wei Yang finished speaking, he left the stage, while Feng Jingan sat below the platform, scrutinizing the candidates.
Three more drumbeats sounded, and the exam papers were handed out.

Xue Xiang counted them; not counting the draft paper, there were a full twenty official exam papers.

He quickly wrote down his name and place of origin. Before long, the examiner arrived and covered up his name with paper.

After a chime, the exam officially began.

Xue Xiang didn't rush to start writing, but instead turned to the title of the article.

The text above reads, “A gentleman should not be concerned with trivial matters, but can be entrusted with great responsibilities. There are things a person should not do, and only then can he do things. Let us discuss the conduct of a gentleman.”

Xue Xiangxin immediately made up his mind, and his gratitude towards the woman in the yellow dress increased even more.

The woman in the yellow dress posed this question and also commented on her solution.

At the time, the woman in the yellow dress rated his solution as "excellent".

Instead of rushing to write the final text, Xue Xiang turned to the first page and started from the beginning, writing the rest while simultaneously conceiving the final text.

The written test questions still fall into three main categories.

First, basic historical knowledge.

Second, memorize the meaning of the classics.

Third, the essay section. The first two sections are divided into required questions and optional questions.

Required questions are scored, while optional questions are not scored and are used for ranking.

The reason is simple.

With too many applicants and a low acceptance rate, there will inevitably be many people with the same score.

This is where the optional questions come in.

For those with the same score, the performance on the optional questions will be considered.

Therefore, the thickness of the written test papers is achieved by stacking them up in this way.

"This is really difficult."

Xue Xiang felt a headache coming on. The first of the mandatory history questions was something like this: "...list the birthplaces of all the ministers during the reign of Emperor Wu of Ming, Jiayou..."

Not only did we need to find out who Emperor Wu of Ming was, but we also needed to confirm the exact time of the Jiayou reign title. Emperor Wu of Ming was famous for frequently changing reign titles and having a large number of Grand Secretaries during his reign, totaling twenty-three reign titles and more than sixty Grand Secretaries.

To find out who the Grand Secretaries were during the Jiayou era, one also needs to list their places of origin. Without thoroughly studying history books, it's impossible to remember them all.

Xue Xiang pondered for a moment, then dipped his brush in thick ink and began to write.

After all, no matter how difficult the questions are, they are only testing memory, which is precisely his strength.

In the past few months, he had already read through all the official histories, unofficial histories, and various annotations twice.

He answered the questions quickly, his pen flying across the page.

More than half an hour later, he finished answering the compulsory history questions and began to unleash his power on the optional questions.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew out from behind him, and his skin felt grainy all over. A cold, large hand touched his warm neck.

Xue Xiang turned his head, and a rotting face was almost pressed against his own, with scarlet eyes oozing from the corners of its eyes and hanging from the bridge of its nose.

With a scream of pain, Xue jumped up from the left, knocking over his inkstone and staining the exam paper with ink.

A headless corpse was lying on his back.

Screams and cries of alarm came from all directions.

Xue Xiang remained motionless and continued writing.

The man snorted coldly, climbed up from behind him onto the desk, turned around, bared his teeth, and released countless foul-smelling black snakes from his throat, shooting them towards Xue Xiang's face.

Xue Xiang ignored him and continued writing.

He had heard about the process of vengeful spirits invading him long before the exam.

In every city's examination halls, there are always disillusioned scholars who take their own lives, and over time, their resentful spirits are numerous.

These vengeful spirits are deeply attached to their past and unwilling to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

In order to appease the vengeful spirits, the examination hall staff gathered them up and released them during the examination to interfere with the candidates.

Those who are not resolute in their will and whose minds are not at ease will be frightened by vengeful spirits when they are concentrating on answering questions.

In this way, we can get rid of these people.

Although all candidates knew about this hurdle beforehand, there were always some with weaker minds who were frightened by the illusory vengeful spirits and lost their eligibility to take the exam.

As dozens of unlucky souls were dragged out of the examination hall, another chime rang out, and the holy statue on the high platform in front emitted rays of clear light. The clear light stirred the shadows, and a fierce tiger with a completely black body walked out of the shadows.

It was two zhang long and about six chi tall, with bright, piercing eyes, and it roared in a low voice that shook the entire area.

In an instant, all the vengeful spirits in the area dispersed.

"The Scholarly Black Tiger!"

Xue Xiang was startled, secretly glanced at Black Tiger, and continued answering the questions.

Time passed slowly, and torches were lit in the examination room at some point. Under the bright moon and stars, Xue Xiang wrote furiously.

As the moon reached its zenith, he finally put down his pen, shook his aching neck, and rubbed his swollen wrists.

By this point, he had answered all of the nearly two hundred questions in the first two categories.

At this time, Xue Xiang also had a basic idea of ​​how to break down and develop the topic of the text. Xue Xiang lay down on the table for a short nap, and when he woke up, he felt refreshed and full of energy.

Xue Xiang picked up his brush again, dipped it in ink, and wrote, "Great talents cannot be glimpsed by those who are petty, and the ultimate truth is rejected by those who are rigid and inflexible..."

Nearly eight hundred words were written in one go and landed on the manuscript paper.

Xue Xiang carefully examined the words on the manuscript paper, balanced the meter, and revised the parallelism, spending almost an hour on the task.

After all that trouble, I read it again, and immediately felt a chill run down my spine.

(End of this chapter)