Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Inside the cell, Gu Xiang's wrist hung in mid-air, the pen tip heavy with ink.

The drop of ink finally fell.

"Clatter".

Ink splashed onto the paper, creating a black flower.

Gu Xiang took a deep breath, as if he wanted to inhale all the Confucian classics he had read over the past twenty years, all the blood and tears he had witnessed along the way, and all the village that had been slaughtered, into his lungs, and then slam them down his arm and into the thin exam paper.

He moved.

The pen strokes glide across the paper, making a "scratching" sound, more like sharpening a knife than writing.

As the first stroke was made, the rickety wooden wall of the cell suddenly creaked, as if it had been kicked hard.

The student next door jumped in surprise, grumbling as he poked his head out: "What are you doing! Demolishing the house? Making such a racket just writing a few words, trying to show off how strong you are, huh?"

Gu Xiang turned a deaf ear.

The world before his eyes had changed.

It was no longer a cramped, moldy cell, no longer that stinking latrine.

He saw the dried-up river outside Qingniu Town, the dried-up corpses hanging from the trees by Black Wind Village, the numb faces beneath the prosperous facade of the capital, and the man-eating crows flying out of the high and mighty Imperial Preceptor's mansion.

To follow the will of Heaven and the will of the people?

Whose fate are we following?

Whose people are they referring to?

If he had followed the cannibalistic heavens and sided with the powerful and influential who harmed people, what would he have accomplished after studying for twenty years and cultivating his noble spirit?

Did you manage to turn it into a dog that only wags its tail?

"No!"

Gu Xiang let out a low growl and suddenly exerted force on his wrist.

One by one, black characters leaped out from the paper. They were no longer rigid ink marks, but living, wronged souls, and mournful cries.

"Heaven sees as the people see, and Heaven hears as the people hear!"

"Now, evil forces have usurped the country; in the imperial court, rotten wood holds official positions; and between the palace steps, beasts feast on the rich!"

"Those with wolfish hearts and treacherous deeds are rampant in power; those with servile faces and obsequious manners hold sway over the government!"

With each character written, the ordinary sheet of Xuan paper began to tremble slightly, as if it could not withstand the overwhelming rage.

Outside the cell, the sky, which had been somewhat gloomy, suddenly changed color.

Dark clouds, like splashed ink, surged in from all directions, instantly obscuring the sky above the examination hall.

"Boom!"

A muffled thunderclap boomed deep in the clouds, making the tiles of the examination hall rattle and clatter.

The soldiers who were inspecting the examination shrank back in fright and looked up at the sky: "How could the weather change so suddenly? It was fine just a moment ago."

Upstairs in Mingyuan Building.

The Minister of Rites had just changed out of his smelly official robe and was rinsing his mouth with a cup of fresh tea.

Although the stench had dissipated, he still felt a strange taste sticking in his throat, which he couldn't get rid of no matter how hard he tried.

"These unruly people, someone must have brought in some filth." The Minister cursed as he took a sip of tea. "After the exam, I'll drag that bastard out of that stinking cell and give him a good beating."

He had just swallowed his tea when a clap of thunder suddenly sounded outside.

Immediately afterwards, a chilling aura erupted from the center of the examination room.

This aura was neither the killing intent of a martial artist nor the spiritual pressure of a cultivator, but rather a pure and upright will that reached its extreme.

It was like a red-hot knife, plunging straight into this murky capital.

"puff!"

The Minister felt as if he had been hit in the chest by a sledgehammer. The tea he had just drunk, mixed with a mouthful of blood, was spat out and splashed all over the face of the deputy examiner opposite him.

"M-Sir!" The assistant examiner wiped the blood from his face and pointed out the window in horror, "Look!"

The Minister, without even wiping his mouth, stumbled and rushed to the window.

In the very center of the examination hall, a ray of golden light suddenly shone from the previously inconspicuous examination cell.

The golden light, which was initially only as thick as a chopstick, suddenly grew into a pillar of light that reached the heavens and pierced through the thick dark clouds overhead.

"This is…" The Minister's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. "Literary brilliance reaching the heavens? How is this possible! How could anyone in this world possibly write such an article?!"

Since the Grand Preceptor came to power, the teachings of the sages have been completely distorted, leaving only flattery and whitewashing.

Such an article that could evoke extraordinary phenomena in the heavens and earth, even the Confucian sage of the Great Zhou Dynasty three hundred years ago could not have been more than this, right?

Inside the examination cells.

Gu Xiang had no idea what was happening outside.

He had entered a mysterious state.

His heart, so full of wonder, pounded wildly in his chest, each beat like a drumbeat, sending streams of scalding heat to his fingertips.

He felt like he was about to burst into flames.

The words under his pen were no longer ink, but turned into dazzling golden light.

After the words were written, they actually detached from the paper, floated up, and hovered in mid-air, emitting a buzzing sound.

"The greatest virtue of Heaven and Earth is life; the greatest treasure of the sage is his position. How does one uphold this position? Through benevolence!"

"Now, the imperial court is filled with demonic filth and rampant ghosts. To the west of the Green Ox, white bones lie exposed in the wilderness; along the banks of the Luo River, wronged souls weep in the night. The powerful and wealthy feed the lust of demons with the blood and flesh of the people, treating the masses as worthless weeds and the common people as mere straw dogs. This is not in accordance with Heaven, but against Heaven and reason; this is not in accordance with humanity, but to recognize a thief as one's father!"

As the words "recognizing a thief as one's father" were written, the thunder above the examination hall roared even louder, as if the heavens were both angry and applauding.

"This man is a traitor to the nation! Everyone has the right to kill him!"

Gu Xiang's eyes were bloodshot, and a trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth, yet he seemed oblivious. He slammed his pen on the table, and the worn-out pen instantly shattered into dust.

"To obey Heaven is to obey the will of all people; to respond to the people is to respond to the suffering of the common people. It is not to obey one's own selfish desires or to respond to the tyranny of evil! Alas! The country is no longer a country, and the people are no longer human. I, with my humble seven-foot body, implore Heaven to open its eyes, punish this traitor, and restore our vast and mighty world!"

Gu Xiang roared, his wrist trembling violently, and the pen barrel cracked with a "crack".

"Today, I, Gu Xiang, wield my pen as a sword, urging the Holy Emperor to slay the evil spirits, purge the court of corrupt officials, and restore a bright and just world to the land!"

Each word flew out, transforming into a golden phantom in the air.

Immediately afterwards, a grand and majestic voice resounded throughout the entire capital city.

That wasn't Gu Xiang's voice; it was the voice of Heaven and Earth reciting this article.

The sound penetrated the high walls of the examination hall, the markets of the capital, and the deep walls of the imperial palace, reaching the ears of everyone.

The people on the street stopped in their tracks, the courtesans in the brothels put down their pipa, and the gamblers in the gambling dens threw away their dice.

Everyone looked up in shock at the pillar of light shooting into the sky from the direction of the examination hall.

"Who...who is speaking?"

"It sounds like they're cursing the Imperial Advisor? My God, are they courting death?"

"Listen... how satisfying is that?"

Inside the examination hall.

The other candidates were already terrified.

Their pens broke at some point, and the eulogistic essays they had just written on the exam papers in front of them suddenly started emitting black smoke.

"Fire! Fire!"

Someone screamed in terror.

The exam papers, filled with flattering words, spontaneously combusted without fire and instantly turned to ashes.

Vulgar and obscene writing is utterly unworthy to coexist with this groundbreaking article!

In that stinky cell.

Su Qing toyed with the half-folding fan in her hand, watching the golden characters fluttering in the air, and her lips twitched.

"I asked you to write an article, not to create a hole in the sky."

She sighed, picked up the test paper with the big turtle drawn on it, and folded it into a paper airplane in a few quick movements.

"If that old hag, the Imperial Advisor, can still sit still after such a commotion, I'll take her surname."

Su Qing looked up at the sky.

The dark clouds pierced by the golden light did not dissipate; instead, they churned even more violently.

Deep within the clouds, purple lightning was gathering—a punishment from Heaven for those who had revealed heavenly secrets, and a test for this defying-the-heaven article.

"boom!"

A bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket struck down, heading straight for Gu Xiang's skull.

"You idiot, all you do is cause me trouble."

Su Qing pursed her lips and casually tossed the paper airplane in her hand away.

The light paper airplane swelled in the wind and instantly transformed into a huge phantom of Xuanwu, with the enormous "National Master" turtle image on its back.

"Bang!"

The lightning struck the Xuanwu's back hard, exploding into a sky full of electric light.

The Xuanwu phantom didn't even flinch; instead, it opened its mouth wide and yawned, as if the lightning wasn't even enough to tickle it.

Deep within the imperial palace stands the Star-Picking Tower.

The figure who had been standing by the window suddenly trembled.

Beneath the bronze mask, two lines of bloody tears streamed down his cheeks.

"A righteous spirit... a mind as sharp as a needle..."

The Imperial Advisor's voice choked with emotion, like the mournful cry of a wild beast, "There really is someone who can awaken this power... My lord? Is it you?"

She turned abruptly and looked towards the main hall at the deepest part of the palace.

There, the Holy Emperor, who had been asleep for a long time, seemed to be disturbed by this righteous aura.

Examination Hall examination booths.

Gu Xiang wrote the last word.

"flat!"

With the final stroke, the entire article shone with golden light, and its righteous spirit reached its peak.

"To establish a moral compass for Heaven and Earth, to secure a destiny for the people, to continue the lost learning of past sages, and to usher in an era of peace for all generations!"

As soon as these four sentences were uttered, the churning dark clouds instantly dissipated, and the thunder that filled the sky vanished without a trace, like mice seeing a cat, tucking their tails between their legs.

Even the crows sent by the Imperial Preceptor, before they even got close to the examination hall, were shrouded in the golden light and began to squawk incessantly, turning into wisps of black smoke and dissipating into the air.

The pen in Gu Xiang's hand exploded into powder with a "crack".

He felt as if all his strength had been drained away; his body went limp, and he fell straight backward.

The expected hard ground did not appear.

A hand steadily supported his back.

Gu Xiang barely opened his eyes and vaguely saw a familiar face.

Su Qing still looked lazy, but her fox-like eyes, which always carried a playful air, now showed a rare seriousness.

"Alright, you idiot." Su Qing helped him sit up straight and made him lean against the wall. "You usually look like a coward, but you can be quite a braggart when it really matters."

Gu Xiang grinned, his mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood: "Brother Su... I... I didn't disgrace our village, did I?"

"It's not shameful." Su Qing took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with disgust. "It's much better than that old hen."

Gu Xiang chuckled foolishly twice, then tilted his head to the side and completely fainted.

At this moment, the deputy examiner, whose face was sprayed with blood, finally rushed over with a group of soldiers.

The Minister of Rites, supported by others, arrived at the scene, trembling unsteadily.

Looking at the mess on the ground, the exam papers turned to ashes, and the unconscious Gu Xiang, the Minister trembled with rage.

"Seditious! This is anti-Chinese!"

The Minister pointed at Gu Xiang and roared hysterically, "Spreading heresy and inciting unrest! This is treason! Arrest him! Arrest him immediately! I want to tear him to pieces!"

The soldiers drew their swords and prepared to rush into the cells.

Su Qing slowly stood up and stood in front of Gu Xiang.

She straightened her slightly disheveled cuffs, then looked up at the still-shouting Minister.

"Who are you going to arrest?"

Su Qing's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached the Minister's ears.

A terrifying killing intent instantly enveloped the Minister's entire body.

That was the suppression from the strong, the fear from the depths of the soul.

The Minister felt a heat in his crotch, and a warm current flowed down his thigh.

"Well……"

He rolled his eyes, and before he could even utter a harsh word, he fell straight backward and passed out.

"My lord! Minister!"

The deputy examiner and the soldiers were in complete chaos.

Su Qing withdrew her gaze, not even bothering to look at that group of people.

She bent down, carried Gu Xiang's tattered book box on her back, and then lifted the unconscious Gu Xiang up as if she were a chick.

"Go, you idiot, let's go home for dinner."

She swaggered out of the cell, and wherever she went, the soldiers made way for her as if they had seen a ghost, not daring to even breathe loudly.

At the entrance of the examination hall, the plaque that read "Fairness and Integrity" had cracked at some point, and the character "正" (upright) in the middle had fallen off crookedly, crashed to the ground, and shattered into two pieces.

"West River Moon - Thunderclap at the Examination Hall"

His brushstrokes startled the wind and rain; his writings, once completed, soared to the heavens with righteous spirit.

Behold, the scholar sacrifices his life, only to be bathed in golden light.

The Minister was so frightened he wet himself in court, while the fox spirit protected him and went free.

The plaque fell to the ground, and we heard the mockery; who broke their spine?