Chapter 991: Calligrapher Li Ziqi
It was very hard to succeed in drawing a spirit rune. It was even harder to draw a high-level one. Moreover, only when the completed spirit rune was at the fifth level and above would a spirit qi tornado manifest.
Since this phenomenon indicated that the spirit rune contained a vast amount of spirit qi, its effects would naturally be better.
To many spirit runists, even for a low-difficulty spirit rune like the Rain Request Spirit Rune, they would need at least an hour to draw something of this quality.
Zhou Wenbin really wanted to assume that Li Ziqi had used her written segment’s time to complete a spirit rune of this level. However, his rationale told him otherwise.
Impossible!
This was Sun Mo’s eldest disciple!
Sun Mo was a near-ancestor spirit runist, a creator of miracles. In that case, it was very clear how Li Ziqi’s standard in the study of spirit runes was.
“She has finished all the papers?”
Zhou Wenbin guessed as he frowned. He then looked at his papers and relaxed.
Luckily, he hadn’t started drawing yet, or this pause would definitely sever the flow of spirit qi and cause his spirit rune to be wasted.
“No matter what, I should just follow my own pace. Even if she finished answering all the questions, it’s impossible for her to get full marks, right?”
Zhou Wenbin mumbled, consoling himself.
(There’s no need to panic, I will still win!)
…
“She can’t possibly have finished the papers, right?”
“Maybe she chose to do the final major question first!”
“The phrase ‘lying to oneself’ is precisely used to describe people like you.”
The examinees whispered to each other.
“Silence!”
Liu Fan berated.
A portion of the examinees no longer looked at Li Ziqi and focused on answering the questions instead. But the others were now distracted.
…
“These questions are actually so simple.”
Li Ziqi was speechless when she glanced at the test papers. (I wasted so much effort and squeezed out time for my other subjects, focusing on the study of spirit runes. In the end, you guys actually gave me such simple questions? I feel that my intelligence just got insulted!)
Check through them once? There was no such thing!
Geniuses should be confident in themselves!
Naturally, Li Ziqi was also worried that Zhou Wenbin would hand in his papers first. Hence, after she had returned yesterday, she had found someone to purchase an information report on this beloved great grandson of Secondary Saint Zhou.
He was a genius!
A person that was worthy of his clan’s beautiful reputation.
His presence here was clearly to deliberately target her. He wouldn’t let her break the record so easily.
If not, where would the prestige and face of Secondary Saint Zhou be?
Others would say this, ‘Look, a secondary saint actually judged the potential of someone wrongly.’
Usually, Li Ziqi would check her answers once for the sake of safety. But today, she wanted to suppress everyone with overwhelming might.
(Not only for the results, even when it comes to handing in the papers, I want to be faster than you!)
Hence, a tiny and fair hand was raised.
“What’s the matter?”
Liu Fan glanced over.
“Main examiner, can I hand in my papers in advance?”
Li Ziqi’s clear voice resounded throughout the venue.
Swish!
Those gazes, which had just returned to their own papers, lifted again and stared at Li Ziqi.
(As expected, she finished answering the papers!)
This time around, everyone suddenly discovered that they were much calmer.
Why should they compete with a genius like that? If they did so, wouldn’t that be them courting unhappiness for nothing?
(In any case, it’s good enough as long as I’m better than the others here.)
“You can hand in the papers any time you want to. But you have to leave the venue after doing so to not cause any disturbance to the other examinees.”
When Liu Fan said this, his face was a mask of impartiality, but he grumbled a little silently in his heart.
(You are too impatient! At such a time, if you hand in your papers early, it might boost your fame higher, but the prerequisite is that you can get high marks for sure. If not, doing so would merely be engaging in vulgar claptrap to please the crowds.)
Liu Fan subconsciously glanced at Zhou Wenbin. He had looked at his papers earlier and could tell that Zhou Wenbin’s answers were very accurate.
“But I will suggest that you check through your work one more time!”
This sentence was already a little overboard because it was a hint. (If you want to obtain a high score, you have to be more serious than others!)
Li Ziqi’s Unrealized Dream had allowed Liu Fan to break through his bottleneck and ascend to the next level. Hence, he felt that he owed her a huge favor.
“Many thanks for the examiner’s care, but there’s no need to.”
Li Ziqi smiled gently. After she fastened her papers together, she stood up and left.
This was a convention for examinations in the Nine Provinces. When the students handed in their papers, they had to fasten them together. Not even an examiner could look at the answers before they graded them.
Naturally, this was just a convention so there was no need to strictly enforce it.
For example, right now, the gazes of the five examiners drifted to the table where the papers were. They were hesitating whether they should head over and take a look or not. They were truly too curious.
How brilliant would the answers of this outstanding student of Sun Mo be?
Liu Fan tried to endure it, but he eventually failed.
Cough!
“The papers are not properly put together!”
Liu Fan shook his head and grumbled before walking over.
The other four examiners were stunned. (We didn’t expect someone inflexible and decent like you to pull such a trick. Damn, why didn’t we think of it first?)
But this wouldn’t stop them. One of them immediately moved closer, thinking it would be good to satisfy his curiosity by just taking a glance.
Liu Fan pretended that he wanted to fasten Li Ziqi’s papers properly. But after sweeping his eyes over the papers, he was stunned.
Weren’t these words…
A little too beautiful?
An item’s true value could only be determined through comparison!
Just like the saying, ‘one’s handwriting is like one’s face.’
One must know that great teachers had to write on the blackboard. If their handwriting was bad, it would truly be embarrassing.
Among all the calligraphers in the Nine Provinces, two-thirds of them were great teachers.
Because of his father’s urging, Zhou Wenbin had put in the effort to beautify his handwriting and was close to a master in terms of his style, comparable to many great teachers. But as for Li Ziqi…
“W…what calligraphy style is this?”
That 4-star great teacher that walked over was also shocked when he saw the words.
Swish~
The examinees lifted their heads again with looks of astonishment on their faces.
There were only a few styles of calligraphy in the Nine Provinces. Let alone great teachers, even students knew the basics. But now, a 4-star great teacher actually couldn’t identify a style?
(Is there a mistake?!)
Many examinees shifted their butts subconsciously and stretched out their necks to look, wanting to see what was on Li Ziqi’s papers.
The other three examiners weren’t reserved either. They hurriedly came over as well.
“I’m not familiar with this style!”
“I have never seen it before!”
“Is it a self-created one?”
The only remaining possibility was this. After that, the five examiners exchanged a mutual glance and had a look of envy on their faces.
She could set up her own sect!
She completely deserved the title of a grandmaster calligrapher!
“Wait a minute, maybe someone else taught it to her!”
An examiner guessed.
“It should be Sun Mo. If someone else taught this calligraphy style to Li Ziqi, that person is definitely an extremely famous person of great talent, and news of this style should have been leaked out.”
Liu Fan mentally mused that Li Ziqi was a princess, so how could those qualified to teach her not be famous?
For someone like that, the number of their disciples and grand-disciples would be innumerable; hence, this calligraphy style would surely be leaked.
Also, this was a type of glory and a chance to earn money. Who wouldn’t want to earn more of them?
Thus, it could only be Sun Mo.
Sun Mo was already cloaked in glory, so he didn’t need this little bit of extra fame and money. His title of a grandmaster calligrapher couldn’t be compared to his God Hands, and nor was it as tyrannical as his ancestor-level spirit runist title.
“I heard that Sun Mo seems to be someone skilled in both writing and painting. However, this is nothing major and hence only a small number of people know it.”
“I also heard that during his 3-star examination in the Dragon Subduing Academy, Sun Mo painted a famous painting on a tree!”
“Ah? There’s something like this? Quickly tell us more!”
The examiners continued their discussion fervently.
“Cough, cough!”
Liu Fan forcefully coughed a few times. (What are you guys doing? The examinees are still taking the exam.)
The few examiners immediately had awkward expressions and could only cast another glance at the handwriting before leaving with regrets.
Let alone great teachers, even ordinary people would want their handwriting to be more beautiful.
The examinees exchanged mutual glances, while Zhou Wenbin’s expression was already very unsightly to behold.
A self-created calligraphy style?
When he lowered his head and glanced at his papers again, Zhou Wenbin’s mood worsened even more.
(Be composed! Be calm! I can still win! Is this a competition of calligraphy or knowledge?)
Anyway, it was already impossible for him to hand in his papers in advance. Hence, Zhou Wenbin chose to be even more focused, choosing to draw the highest-grade spirit rune he could.
(I, Zhou Wenbin, the great grandson of Secondary Saint Zhou, wouldn’t lose!)
(If not, I will eat this table.)
…
Li Ziqi who had left the classroom had no idea that her calligraphy script, the ‘thin gold body’, caused such a huge commotion.
The first time she had seen her teacher using this script, she had fallen in love with it immediately. Hence, she had practiced it assiduously. Her intellect and hard work allowed her to use merely two years to gain some minor accomplishment in it.
When Li Ziqi left the school, she discovered that it was still very early. Hence, she decided to head to the sports field in advance as the martial segment of the exam would be held there.
(Let’s get used to the terrain first!)
…
Jiang Zizhong handed in his papers 15 minutes in advance and slowly strolled out of the teaching building.
“Was re-checking my answers thrice a little too much?”
Jiang Zizhong silently asked himself. If he didn’t re-check so many times, he would be able to leave earlier.
(However, Li Ziqi probably isn’t faster than me, right?)
When he reached the school gate, Jiang Zizhong was also not in a hurry to leave. He sat beneath the shade of a tree and waited. And not long later, Li Ziqi appeared in his vision.
Jiang Zizhong’s lips involuntarily curled into a complacent smile. After that, he got up and patted the dust off his body as he hummed a tune before leaving.
…
Dang! Dang! Dang!
The bell rang out, signifying that the written segment had ended.
The examiners finished collecting the papers and placed them into bags. After that, they sent the papers to the grading chamber.
“After you guys finish grading the papers, please pass Li Ziqi’s papers to me!”
Liu Fan was worried that he might miss out on it, hence, he pleaded.
“Ah?”
Wang Song started. He wanted to ask if Liu Fan had gone mad.
(What’s the point of taking an examinee’s paper?)
“Do me a favor!”
Liu Fan clasped his hands.
“I can’t make a decision on this!”
Wang Song shook his head.
Truthfully speaking, the exam papers of the majority of examinees had no collection value. After all, this was just a 1-star examination. It wasn’t that important.
As long as the results were published and the examinees had no objections, these exam papers would be sealed. And after every five years, the papers would be destroyed together.
Some descendants from major clans had the hobby of collecting their own papers. They could just look for the person in charge of looking after the stored papers and pay some money to obtain them.
After all, there might be bugs chewing on the papers after storing for so long.
Moreover, some people were willing to pay for Sun Mo’s papers because he was famous. Once he became a secondary saint, the collection value of his past exam papers would definitely surge explosively.
But after checking things, these people with scheming intentions realized that they had been slower by several beats as Sun Mo’s papers had been bought by someone else long ago.
“Teacher Liu, I know that Li Ziqi helped you before. But there’s no need for you to go so far as to do this, right?”
A great teacher at the side with the surname ‘Qian’ interjected.
“Only Sun Mo’s exam papers have collection value. Who would want the exam papers of his disciple?”
“Me!”
Liu Fan pleaded. “Please help me out. I will remember this favor!”