Chen Changsheng was somewhat surprised. There was no logic or reason that made it convenient for the two to speak to each other, yet Gou Hanshi had very casually asked him a question. Chen Changsheng had never held any sort of malice towards Gou Hanshi, and now the casual air displayed by him made Chen Changsheng feel very comfortable. After pondering the question, he described how he had answered it.

"I also think it should be that line of reasoning proposed by Master Song in his lectures at the Lian Stream, but the order that I remember is somewhat different from yours."

Gou Hanshi then described his own answer.

The two compared their versions and realized that, just like during the Ivy Festival, the difference in the contents of what they had learned stemmed from the revision the Orthodoxy conducted around the year fifteen-eighty-one. The Daoist scriptures that Chen Changsheng learned from were the old, unedited editions while Gou Hanshi naturally learned from the versions approved by the Orthodoxy. The former preserved the original meaning while the latter made the purpose clearer. As for which one was more accurate, it was truly difficult to say.

Even in the early spring, the trees lining the Divine Avenue had sufficient foliage to block out the sun and make the avenue quiet and secluded.

Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi walked beneath the foliage, chatting about the literary test. Their voices were not loud and they did not engage in any fierce quarrels, only calm discussion. This was not the imagined clash of two powers, nor was it the appreciation two mavericks had for each other's talents. It was nothing more than two ordinary seekers of knowledge.

They did not walk far before Luoluo emerged from a pavilion by a stream behind the trees.

Gou Hanshi bowed to her.

Luoluo returned the gesture and then hugged Chen Changsheng's arm, asking with concern, "Teacher, are you tired?"

She did not ask about Chen Changsheng's performance, as Gou Hanshi's presence made it rather inconvenient to ask this question, and also because she knew that he had done well.

"I'm not tired."

Chen Changsheng massaged his wrist and asked, "When did you leave the Hall of Shining Words? I never saw you."

Luoluo pulled on his hand and said, "I didn't answer any questions. I was here, drinking tea."

She did not need a grade, so she naturally would not waste her energy on the literary test. She had been in this pavilion outside the hall the entire time, waiting for Chen Changsheng to turn in his exam and come out. Chen Changsheng was somewhat confused, thinking, this being the case, why did you specifically request for His Holiness to agree to your participating in the Grand Examination?

Gou Hanshi understood why. He glanced at Luoluo, feeling somewhat moved at Chen Changsheng's good luck and destiny. Clasping his hands, he bowed and bid farewell.

....

...

...

Upon walking into the Garden of the Morning Sun, they were confronted by a vast plain of grass. The forest was far in the distance, so there was no foliage or pavilion to keep out the sun.

Luoluo extracted an umbrella from some place and unfurled it to shade Chen Changsheng from the light.

Upon seeing this, the examinees standing in front of the holly bushes revealed rather unnatural expressions.

To be treated in such a way by the princess, was this youth not afraid of his life being cut short from this excessive treatment? This was what many people thought.

Chen Changsheng was used to being attended upon this way by Luoluo in the Orthodox Academy so he found nothing inappropriate. However, when he saw the gazes of those examinees, he came to his senses, took the umbrella from Luoluo's hands, escorted her to the holly shrubs, and began listening to the Education Overseer of the Temple Seminary's explanation of the martial test's rules.

Many of the examinees who had turned in their exams for the literary test had already entered that vast and endless sea of holly trees. At the moment, only twenty-some examinees remained outside, including Chen Changsheng, Luoluo, Gou Hanshi, the four scholars of the Scholartree Manor, and Tianhai Shengxue.

Upon hearing the education overseer's explanation, Chen Changsheng came to know that this holly forest was actually a maze. The green trees that had been trimmed extremely neatly were countless barriers dividing this area into countless paths. The first half of the martial test involved passing through this forest. If one could not pass through this forest in two hours, one would be disqualified.

Seeing the stern and even somewhat fearful looks on the faces of the other examinees, Chen Changsheng felt rather confused. He thought to himself, there are many similar mazes in the gardens of the capital. Even children can walk through them. No matter how vast this forest in the Garden of the Morning Sun and how complex the paths, could it be more difficult than the questions of the literary test?

"This forest is called the Dallying Forest."

Luoluo knew that although Chen Changsheng was well-versed in the Daoist Canon, he was very much lacking in general knowledge known by most ordinary people. She softly explained, "It's said that at the very beginning, it was a game that Wang Zhice used to relax his mind while he studied in the capital. At the time, he used just brush and paper, but later on the maze became more and more complex, becoming more and more difficult to pass. Many years later, the then-Pope felt that this game was very useful for honing the wills of youths and testing the strength of their spiritual sense. Thus, in the Garden of the Morning Sun, he planted a forest of holly trees according to the design."

"It's very difficult?" Chen Changsheng asked.

"Wang Zhice called this game Dallying precisely because it was so difficult that one could simply dally one's time away on it," Luoluo explained.

If even a legend like Wang Zhice found this game very difficult, then it truly must be very difficult.

Chen Changsheng digested this information, then asked, "Many of Wang Zhice's solutions should have been left behind, so why have I never seen any in books?"

Luoluo said, "Wang Zhice used brush and paper and relied on his calculation ability. He believed that it was just a game and wasn't worth recording in his notes, so right now, no one knows the solution."

Chen Changsheng gazed at the endless forest and said, "One can trace a path through the maze using a brush and paper countless times, but now that the maze has become so large, a person can't walk faster than a brush on paper. To find a way out in just two hours is truly very difficult."

"So one absolutely has to have a strong enough spiritual sense."

Luoluo examined him and said, "Use your spiritual sense like a brush. The stronger it is, the farther you will be able to sense, so the farther your brush can travel, and so you can calculate faster."

"So it's for testing the strength of one's spiritual sense and perception. I think..that it shouldn't be a problem."

Chen Changsheng thought of that distant Fated Star of his and felt extremely confident. Suddenly, he thought of a question and asked, "Is there only one correct solution?"

If there was only one correct path, then even if the examinees couldn't calculate it using their spiritual sense, couldn't they just follow someone else?

"Based on the statistics and calculations His Holiness made in his youth, there are at least four thousand entrances to this holly forest, more than seven hundred exits, and at least three million, nine hundred and forty-seven thousand, and four hundred solutions. If an examinee in front were to successfully pass through the maze through a certain route and you were to very unfortunately or very shamelessly walk the same route, then with deepest apologies, you will have to walk the maze again."

The Education Overseer of the Temple Seminary said to the examinees, "Now, you must each choose your entrances."

At this time, a scholar from Scholartree Manor asked, "It's okay as long as the route is different, so can we use the same entrance and then split up in the middle?"

The education overseer slightly raised his brow and then said, "That is not allowed."

According to the rules of this year's martial test, only those examinees able to pass through this holly forest of the Garden of the Morning Sun had the right to participate in the one-on-one matches at the end. Those examinees that could not walk out would be directly eliminated. Moreover, those students who passed through this forest first would obtain a large advantage in the one-on-one matches. There was also one more particularly important rule: the martial test had to be done alone. The Grand Examination was originally meant for breaking the boundaries between schools and sects and collecting outstanding young cultivators for the Imperial Court and the Orthodoxy to use, so it was naturally forbidden for examinees from the same school or sect to work together. This rule was in extremely stark contrast to the rules of the Boiling Stone Summit.

Scholartree Manor was a famous school of the south and frequently participated in the Grand Examination and the Boiling Stone Summit, so how could they not know of this rule?

This young scholar had clearly meant for the answer to this question to be heard by someone else.

The entire time he was speaking, he was staring at Chen Changsheng and Luoluo, his meaning exceptionally clear.