Celestial South Dao's Imperial Examination Hall, with thirty thousand rooms.

The dark-tiled roofs stretched endlessly, overlapping like a hidden dragon under the dim morning light.

This ancient building of a thousand years existed long before the current Dynasty of Great Li was established; it has served as the gathering place for Southern Border's Literary Fortune.

Even with mountains shaking, rivers flooding, winds tearing, and rain bending, and the cycle of day and night, this ancient examination hall has always stood firm.

It stands towering high, overlooking the mortal world.

Solemn, silent, orderly, awe-inspiring, as if eternal.

Bong——

The sound of a bell leisurely rang out.

It was the same "Heaven-Equalizing Bell"!

Every one of the hundred or so Great Li examination halls has a Heaven-Equalizing Bell stationed.

As the saying goes, "When the Heaven-Equalizing Bell rings, all beings are equal."

The existence of this bell not only invisibly suppresses all candidates' cultivation and strange power, but it is also a treasure that subdues Literary Fortune!

The Heaven-Equalizing Bell in the Celestial South Dao's examination hall is the strongest among the Seven Prefectures, worthy of being called a Divine Artifact.

When the bell rang, the main gates opened.

Outside the examination halls, all clamors halted at once.

Until the candidates' names were called, tokens handed over, and they entered in turn.

On the steps, a clerk loudly announced:

"Qinglin Prefecture, Mo Huaizhang, twenty-one years old, seven feet tall, with an upright appearance and no beard, verified correct, enter!"

Above the gate, a shining mirror was suspended.

This mirror, known as the Treasure Mirror of Universal Knowledge, could expose any hidden cheating contraband.

Under the spotlight of the mirror, if any suspicious red light flashed, that person would be publicly disgraced and shamed.

This examination method vastly surpassed the manual inspections during provincial and prefectural exams.

Mo Huaizhang stepped out from the crowd, full of humility and grace.

Outside the examination halls, a burst of noise erupted from the crowd.

"It's Mo Huaizhang, Mo Huaizhang is entering!"

Mo Huaizhang smiled faintly as he crossed the threshold into the examination hall.

Outside, the noise rose again, as if he were being revered by all.

Yet, amidst the adulation were layers of discussions: "Mo Huaizhang has a remarkable presence, hey, did you bet on him being the Top Scholar?"

"Heh, what's the point of betting on him? No matter how impressive he is, I don't want to lose money."

"Who did you bet on then?"

"Me? I bet on Chen Xu! And you?"

"I bet on Ning Siyu, though he might not have as great a chance as Chen Xu, but what if he wins? Currently, Chen Xu's odds are even lower than Ning Siyu's, even if he wins, the profit isn't much, so why not take a gamble?"

"If you want high odds, why not just bet on Mo Huaizhang or Luo Wenhuan?"

"Haha, what do you know? If you only focus on high odds, what if you lose everything?"

The crowd erupted into heated discussions.

The biennial regional examination had become a celebrated event across the Celestial South Dao.

In Pingyang City, naturally, it was the same.

Within the examination hall, Mo Huaizhang, who had just entered the main gate, suddenly lowered his expression.

Though his Qi Cultivation was suppressed upon entering, his Qi Blood and physique were far beyond ordinary due to years of nourishing Spiritual Food.

Thus, with excellent hearing, he caught many key phrases from the chatter in the crowd.

A bunch of fools, only knowing how to be incited and led.

This time, he vowed to make the whole world look at him with newfound respect!

Outside the examination halls, the hustle and bustle continued.

Renowned scholars like Mo Huaizhang entering the halls drew admiration and discussions.

There were also lesser-known students who quietly went through inspection and entered the halls, yet many were still subjects of public critique.

For example: "Eh, this student's nose is broad, mouth wide, eyes like copper bells, he looks quite uncivilized."

"This one is rather elegant, if he could pass, even at a lower rank, he'd make a fine son-in-law."

"This one is too thin, he'll topple with a breeze, won't he fall ill during the exam?"

"Gosh, this, this examinee... he must be seventy or eighty?"

At the entrance of the halls, when an elderly examinee with white hair crossed the threshold, sighs and whispers spread through the crowd.

An octogenarian taking the exams, is it ultimate dedication to the imperial exams, or folly in one's life?

"Alas!"

Someone couldn't help but sigh.

The road of the imperial exam is unusually arduous.

In truth, how many young scholars are there currently in the field?

Among the ten thousand candidates, those under twenty are less than five hundred, those under thirty are less than a thousand.

Most are in their thirties, or forties.

Beyond that, the numbers dwindle.

Yes, although there are thirty thousand rooms in the Celestial South Dao's examination hall, only ten thousand candidates registered this year.

Don't think ten thousand is many, remember, the population of the entire Celestial South Dao exceeds thirty million!

And among these ten thousand candidates are the accumulated scholars from over years, even decades —

Of course, in the Seven Prefectures of the South, each prefecture holds scholar examinations every year.

Hence the total number of scholars in the entire Celestial South Dao far exceeds ten thousand; it's just that many have repeatedly failed or simply chose to give up.

Some felt inadequacies in their knowledge and thus decided to spend a few more years preparing before reattempting the exams.

Enough with the digressions.

When Chen Xu entered the examination hall, his name being called caused a ripple of disturbance.

But with twenty lines of examination queues at the entrance, the continuous flurry eventually dulled any singular ripple.

Chen Xu let the chatter pass like the wind, crossing the threshold while only feeling a slight suppression at his Dantian.

It was that familiar sensation of pressure once more!

But now, he was in the Core Formation Realm, with a Golden Core transformed from Innate Qi.

Previously, at Yunjiang Prefecture's examination hall, the Heaven-Equalizing Bell's power wasn't sufficient to completely suppress his Innate Qi.

Now at the Celestial South Dao's examination hall, though the bell was grand and mysterious, the power of the Divine Artifact was actually dispersed.

It did not specifically target Chen Xu, simply enveloping the entire hall with an equal force field.

Thus, Chen Xu realized once more, he could actually still utilize his cultivation.

Of course, deliberately doing so might provoke a strong backlash from the Heaven-Equalizing Bell.

Naturally, Chen Xu would not go looking for trouble nor did he intend to break the rules.

Yet, the Heaven-Equalizing Bell suppressing cultivation seemingly made everyone equal.

In truth, however, among those who entered this hall, some were raised on exquisite Spiritual Objects, while some might have never even seen them.

Even if cultivation can be suppressed, physical constitutions inherently vary.

Under different physical conditions, mental capabilities inevitably differ.

In this world, where is true equality to be found?

Chen Xu's heart and spirit remained calm, as he merged with the other scholars, traversing the long corridor of the examination hall.

Passing through the ceremonial gate, he received his room token for this examination.

The bell tolled a second time—

Bong!

Crossing the dragon gate, Chen Xu, according to his token, was assigned to the East Literature Field.

Until the third bell rang.

The entire examination site suddenly fell into silence.

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