Chapter 132: The Time-Grinding Forest
Chen Changsheng was slightly stunned. Whether by logic or common sense, this was hardly the right time for the two of them to be talking, yet Gou Hanshi had asked so casually. He had never felt any particular dislike for Gou Hanshi, and the other’s casual demeanor now made him quite comfortable. After thinking it over, he gave his answer.
“I also think it should be the line of thought Master Song mentioned during his lectures at Lianxi, but the sequence I remember is somewhat different from yours.”
Gou Hanshi offered his own answer.
The two compared notes and discovered that, just like at the Green Vine Banquet, the differences in what they had learned stemmed from the revision the State Religion had undertaken around the year 1581. The Daoist canon Chen Changsheng had studied was the unrevised old edition, while Gou Hanshi had naturally learned the post-revision State Religion-approved version. One preserved the original meaning intact, the other clarified the intent clearly—it was hard to say which was more accurate.
Though it was still early spring, the trees on both sides of the Divine Path were already lush with green, casting shade and creating a serene atmosphere.
Under the tree shade, Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi walked and discussed the earlier written exam. Their voices were not loud, and there was no heated argument—just calm discussion. It was nothing like the tense confrontation people imagined between two rivals, nor was there any affected mutual admiration. They were simply two ordinary seekers of knowledge.
Before they had gone far, Luoluo’s figure appeared in a pavilion by the stream behind the trees.
Gou Hanshi bowed to her.
Luoluo returned the bow, then grabbed Chen Changsheng’s arm and asked with concern, “Teacher, are you tired?”
She didn’t ask if he had done well on the exam, because Gou Hanshi was nearby and it wasn’t convenient, and more because she believed he would surely do well.
“I’m not tired.”
Chen Changsheng rubbed his wrist and asked, “When did you leave the Zhaowen Hall? I never saw you.”
Luoluo took his hand and said, “I didn’t take the test. I just had tea here.”
She didn’t need a score, so naturally she wouldn’t waste her energy on the written exam. She had been waiting in the pavilion outside the hall all along for Chen Changsheng to finish and come out. Chen Changsheng didn’t quite understand and thought, if that’s the case, why bother asking the Grand Instructor for special permission to participate in the Grand Examination?
Gou Hanshi understood why. He glanced at Luoluo, sighed inwardly at Chen Changsheng’s good fortune and fate, and took his leave first.
Entering Chaoyang Garden, the lawn stretched wide, with the forest in the distance. There was no more shade to block the sun.
Luoluo somehow produced an umbrella, opened it, and held it over Chen Changsheng to shield him from the sun.
Seeing this scene, the examinees standing before the holly bushes wore very unnatural expressions.
Being served like this by Her Highness—wasn’t that young man afraid of shortening his lifespan? Many thought so.
Chen Changsheng had grown used to being served by Luoluo at the National Academy and hadn’t thought it odd, but when he noticed the looks from the other examinees, he came to his senses. He took the umbrella handle from Luoluo’s hand and led her to the holly bushes, where they began listening to the instructor from the Ancestral Sacrifice Office explain the rules of the martial exam.
Many examinees who had finished the written exam early had already entered the vast, sea-like holly forest. Only about twenty examinees remained outside now, including Chen Changsheng, Luoluo, Gou Hanshi, the four young scholars from Huaiyuan Academy, Tianhai Shengxue, and a few others.
Listening to the instructor’s explanation, Chen Changsheng learned that this holly forest was actually a maze. The neatly trimmed green hedges formed countless barriers, creating countless paths. The first part of the martial exam was to see who could get through this green forest. If they couldn’t make it within an hour, they would be eliminated.
Seeing the grave, even fearful expressions on the examinees’ faces, Chen Changsheng didn’t understand. He thought, many gardens in the capital had similar mazes, and even children could find their way out. Even if this forest in Chaoyang Garden was vast and the paths more complex, could it really be harder than the written exam?
“This green forest is called the Time-Grinding Forest.”
Luoluo knew that although he had read through the Daoist canon, he was ignorant of many common knowledge facts that ordinary people knew. She explained in a low voice, “It’s said that at first, Wang Zhice used it as a game to relax his mind during his studies in the capital. He used a pen and paper back then. Later, the patterns he made became increasingly complex, making it harder and harder to pass. Many years later, the then-Pope felt this game could temper young people’s will and test their spiritual perception, so he planted a large area of holly bushes in Chaoyang Garden according to that pattern.”
“Hard?” Chen Changsheng asked.
“Wang Zhice originally called this game ‘Grinding Time’ because it was so hard it could grind away all your time,” Luoluo said.
If even a legendary figure like Wang Zhice found it hard, then it truly must be difficult.
Chen Changsheng thought for a moment and asked, “Wang Zhice’s solutions should have been passed down. Why haven’t I seen them in any books?”
Luoluo said, “Wang Zhice used a pen and paper, relying on computational ability. He considered it a trivial game, not worth recording in his notes, so no one knows his solutions now.”
Chen Changsheng looked at the endless forest and said, “Drawing on paper with a pen allows countless attempts in a short time. But now this pattern has become so large. No matter how fast a person walks, they can’t match the speed of a pen on paper. Finding a way through within an hour is indeed very hard.”
“So spiritual perception must be strong enough.”
Luoluo looked at him carefully and said, “Treat your spiritual perception as a pen. The stronger it is, the farther you can sense, which means the pen can reach farther, allowing you to calculate faster.”
“So it tests spiritual perception and sensing ability. I think… no problem.”
Chen Changsheng thought of his distant fate star and felt very confident. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he asked, “Is there only one correct solution?”
If there was only one correct path, couldn’t examinees who couldn’t calculate it with their spiritual perception just follow someone else?
“According to the statistics and calculations the Pope made when he was young, this holly forest has over four thousand entrances and more than seven hundred exits, with at least three million nine hundred twenty-seven thousand four hundred solutions or routes. If a previous examinee successfully passes through the Uncrossable Heaven along a certain route, and you unfortunately—or shamelessly—take the same route, then I’m sorry, you must start over and do it again.”
The instructor from the Ancestral Sacrifice Office looked at the examinees and said, “Now, each of you choose your entrance.”
At that moment, a young scholar from Huaiyuan Academy raised a question: “As long as the routes are different, can we enter from the same entrance and then split up midway?”
The instructor raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “No.”
According to this year’s martial exam regulations, only examinees who passed through the holly forest in Chaoyang Garden were qualified to participate in the final duels. Those who couldn’t get out would be directly eliminated. Moreover, the first to pass would gain a significant advantage in the final duels. Another particularly important rule was that the martial exam had to be an individual competition—the Grand Examination was meant to break down the boundaries between academies and sects, recruiting outstanding young cultivators for the court and the State Religion. Naturally, it wouldn’t allow examinees from the same academy or sect to work together, which stood in stark contrast to the Stone Boiling Assembly.
As a famous southern academy, Huaiyuan Academy often participated in the Grand Examination and the Stone Boiling Assembly. How could they not know these rules?
That young scholar’s question was clearly aimed at certain people.
As he spoke, he kept looking at Chen Changsheng and Luoluo, making his meaning very clear.
(At this point, I have to push myself hard. No matter how much, I’ll write a bit more. But… my neck’s a bit off. I’ll go get a massage first. That means the update might not come until the early hours. Don’t wait up—read it when you wake up tomorrow. It’s all the same, the same. Keep shouting for monthly votes!)