Chapter 500
Chapter 500
Clang!
The first gong sounded, and the five candidates of the first group galloped out on their horses. Rabbits continuously darted out from both sides of the path, and Nan San and Nan Wu drew their bows from horseback.
Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip.
The arrows flew like lightning, and their horses galloped as if taking flight. They didn't slow or stop their warhorses to shoot the rabbits. Nor did their high speed hinder their archery. Geniuses of their bloodline, when focused on a task, perceived time as if it were slowing down. A single second, processed through their senses, felt as long as two or three seconds to an ordinary person. Furthermore, the horses they rode were thousand-li steeds, purchased by an ally from the Sky-Dao League. As soon as the test began, the two spurred their horses forward as if flying, taking a commanding lead. Nan San would shoot the rabbits on the left, and Nan Wu would take the ones on the right. The other three candidates in their group, trailing far behind, made a terrifying discovery.
‘Damn it, are they going to shoot all the rabbits? We have to get ahead of them. You can't be perfect at both aiming and riding! Who the hell are those two up front? Where did masters capable of such a feat even come from?’
Their warhorses were moving so fast that aiming precisely to kill a rabbit was an incredibly difficult task. But Nan San and Nan Wu had their own thoughts on the matter.
‘It would be an insult to call us geniuses just for accomplishing this! We didn't practice shooting rabbits; we practiced shooting mice.’
The gong had only sounded fifty times when Nan San and Nan Wu reached the destination and handed over their bows. The two trembled inwardly.
‘We're doomed, absolutely doomed.’
With twenty arrows, Nan San had only killed sixteen rabbits, and Nan Wu had only killed fifteen. Of course, according to the mounted archery rules, anything over ten was a perfect score. However, their results were sure to reach Chiliarch Gao Duhuan, so failing to kill all twenty was as good as failure. When they returned to the Marquis of Changping's estate, Gao Duhuan would surely try to kill them. Gao Duhuan would first curse them until they were black and blue, then punish them so severely they'd regret ever being born.
“We're done for. Done for. He's going to beat us to death.”
“Third Brother, what do we do? We're going to get beaten to death!”
Nan San and Nan Wu slapped their own heads, regretting with all their might that they hadn't shot every single rabbit. The examiners watched this scene, astonished.
‘To blame themselves despite such excellent scores. They must have incredibly high standards for themselves. Truly, they are the kind of talent that will support our State of Yue. A circle, a circle!’
* * *
Eight hours later, the third day's mounted archery examination officially concluded. According to the rules, anyone who failed to kill five rabbits within the allotted time was eliminated. In the end, only eighty of the two hundred candidates remained. A full sixty percent of the candidates had been eliminated in a single go. Hearing this number, one of the examiners was puzzled. Last year, out of the two hundred who took the third day's test, one hundred had advanced to the final day. But this time, only eighty were left?
The examiners soon discovered the reason. It was because a dozen or so unexpectedly brilliant candidates had appeared, each killing an average of fifteen rabbits. They had essentially stolen the rabbits that the other candidates in their groups were supposed to kill, causing even those who might have otherwise passed to be eliminated. It was a truly tragic state of affairs. Taking an exam alongside a genius is a great misfortune for an ordinary person, but with a dozen geniuses appearing in this martial examination, an unprecedented catastrophe had occurred.
As night fell, over a hundred candidates left the examination grounds, their eyes bloodshot, cursing up a storm.
“Damn it all. There was a freak in my group. He rode so fast and shot rabbits like a madman—one guy killed seventeen of them! I was riding right behind him and couldn't even get a glimpse of a rabbit's fur. If not for him, how could I have failed?”
“You were lucky, brother. My group had two of those freaks! This year's provincial martial examination feels like a trap!”
“By the way! What happened to those ten beggars under that piece of trash, Shen Lang?”
“They must have failed on the first day and slunk off with their tails between their legs. Why even bring them up?”
“For the entertainment, of course. Didn't Shen Lang make a bet with hundreds of vagrants and local thugs? If he loses, they each get to spit on him once.”
“That bastard Shen Lang is going to get spat on? That's fantastic news. I have to go see it. It's the only good news I've heard recently.”
Just then, someone asked.
“Is there any chance those hundreds of thugs will have to eat ten pounds of dung each?”
Everyone nearby looked at the speaker with contempt.
“Is that even remotely possible? Haven't you heard? They say those mad Nan brothers slept for three straight days in the examination hall and turned in blank papers. So many geniuses showed up for this year's exam, and those ten beggars only trained for a month—they can barely ride a horse. How could they possibly pass? They must have been eliminated long ago. Shen Lang is bound to lose the bet. I wonder how many thugs are saving up their phlegm tonight, ready to spit in his face the moment the list of successful candidates is posted tomorrow.”
* * *
The fourth day. This was the final day of the martial examination, the day of the mounted saber test. In the martial examinations of the Tang Dynasty, the test was mounted spear. A candidate had to ride down a narrow path lined with wooden dummies, each with a wooden plate on its head. While galloping at full speed, the candidate had to use a spear to strike and dislodge the wooden plate from the dummy's head. However, only the plate could fall; the dummy itself had to remain standing. Simply thrusting a spear accurately from horseback was difficult enough, but this test demanded an extremely high degree of both power and precision.
The State of Yue's mounted saber test was even more arduous and difficult than the Tang Dynasty's version. The candidate had to ride down a three-hundred-meter course while twenty clay balls were thrown at them. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes two, but never more than two balls were thrown at a candidate at once. The candidate not only had to avoid being hit by the clay balls but also had to slice the incoming projectiles with their scimitar while riding toward the finish line. This test required speed on horseback, dynamic visual acuity, the ability to predict where the balls would come from, and the precision to slice them with a blade.
This test was conducted individually, not in groups, with candidates taking their turns one by one. Nan San was first, and Nan Wu was second. Nan San clamped his legs to his horse's belly and galloped forward at high speed. In that instant, a clay ball shot toward him from the left. Nan San swiftly cut it down with his saber, and the ball shattered in mid-air. A second and a third ball followed, and a minute later, Nan San had finished the test. He hadn't been hit by a single clay ball, but he had only managed to slice eleven of them. According to the rules, being hit by three or more clay balls meant immediate disqualification, as did failing to slice at least three balls.
Nan Wu took his test second. Like Nan San, he finished in a minute without being hit once, but he only managed to slice nine balls. The thirteen examiners had already memorized the numbers of these geniuses and didn't hesitate to draw circles next to both of their numbers. Six hours later, the fourth day's examination came to an end.
In the final mounted saber test, thirty of the eighty candidates were eliminated, leaving only fifty. With this, the provincial martial examination officially concluded. Out of three thousand total candidates, only fifty had passed, marking the lowest pass rate in history. This wasn't because the caliber of this year's candidates was too low, but because there were simply too many geniuses and freaks participating in this examination.
While scoring the civil service examination took days, the martial examination was graded in a flash. Candidates were eliminated at each stage, so those who remained at the end had essentially passed the martial examination. The only remaining task was to rank them according to their scores.
While the rankings of the civil examination tended to be relatively subjective to the examiners, the martial rankings were determined simply. The scores from each test were added up, along with the number of circles, and the person with the highest total score and the most circles became the top ranker. Even when determining the rankings, the scores were still tallied by number, so the examiners never knew the candidates' names until the very end.
Of course, there were some very famous candidates. The sons of renowned noble families could be recognized even in identical examination attire and masks. Therefore, achieving a completely fair examination was practically impossible. Still, the fact that it could be relatively fair was remarkable in itself. Moreover, not a single instance of cheating had occurred in this martial examination. Perhaps there had been some minor foul play. But that would have amounted to an examiner giving someone the benefit of the doubt at a critical moment, allowing a candidate who might have otherwise failed to pass. Ultimately, however, everything depended on the candidate's own ability.
Whether it was weightlifting or mounted archery, these were subjects with clear, objective results. The thirteen examiners grading the martial examination tallied all the rankings in less than an hour. Then, with a dozen other examiners acting as witnesses, they opened the wax-sealed box and took out the list containing the candidates' names and numbers. They then replaced the numbers on the ranked list with the corresponding names. The list of successful candidates was produced in an instant, and after seeing it, everyone fell into a stunned silence. The thirteen examiners stared at one another.
‘What is this? Are we seeing ghosts? What kind of madness is this?’
Nan One, Nan Two, Nan Three, Nan Four, all the way to Nan Ten, were all on the list of successful candidates. The one with the best score among them was Nan One, who ranked third, and the second-best was Nan Two, who ranked fifth. The one with the lowest score, Nan Nine, ranked nineteenth. In other words, all ten of Shen Lang's Nan clan beggars had passed. Not only had they passed, but they had achieved outstanding scores. Five of them were in the top ten, and the rest were all in the top twenty.
“Weren't the beggars Shen Lang brought in vagrants and half-crippled?”
“That's right. They went for a month of secret training, supposedly at an abandoned estate on Lake Heart Island because they were worried about spies. But in reality, no one was even interested enough to spy on them.”
“For all ten of them to pass now... it's truly like we've seen a ghost. Can someone who knows nothing about martial arts become this formidable in just one month?”
The thirteen examiners present felt their worldviews suffer an unprecedented blow.
‘This is too shocking, too frightening. Could it be that our martial examination was too easy?’
Of course, that wasn't the case. The standards for the martial examination were the same every time. Three thousand participated, and only fifty passed. This incredible pass rate proved everything. The other twelve examiners turned to the chief examiner, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, their eyes filled with dread.
‘What should we do now?’
Once this list of successful candidates is posted, it will cause a massive uproar. The failed candidates might even form a mob and come to tear down the Ministry of War.