Muscular Rabbits Legion: “No one can escape from the novice village!”
Chapter 578 - 548 Diligence is the Path

Chapter 578: Chapter 548 Diligence is the Path

The face of the Wenchang Star Lord immediately turned even darker, then he fiercely turned to look at the Wenqu Star Lord.

The Wenqu Star Lord smiled and said, "Don’t look at me like that, I certainly didn’t tell him to do so. Besides, the path to seeking knowledge is full of thorns, if they can’t even handle a single Rabbit, who is to blame?

However, it’s time to end this farce.

After all, it’s a formal examination..."

With that, the Wenqu Star Lord rose into the air and walked towards the outskirts of Book Mountain.

Although Rabbit did a splendid job and it made him happy, if Rabbit continued to cause trouble, the Heaven and Earth Association’s exam might turn into Rabbit’s one-man show...

That would be too disgraceful.

Just as Yi Zheng was shading his eyes with his hand, waving a big flag around looking for his next target, a large hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere, grabbing Yi Zheng by his rabbit ears, while an authoritative voice rang out: "You Little Rabbit, quite the schemer and trickster you are!"

Yi Zheng, caught by his rabbit ears, shuddered with fear, knowing he had encountered a formidable opponent, and quickly cried out: "Big Brother, Big Brother, there’s been a misunderstanding! I haven’t been scheming against anyone, I’m just a harmless Rabbit!"

Listening to his heart-wrenching screams, the Wenqu Star Lord’s face instantly stiffened.

When Rabbit was tricking others, he never showed mercy, but the moment someone laid hands on him, he immediately screamed in fear, telling outrageous lies.

This guy really was too cowardly and afraid to die, wasn’t he?

As the Rabbit in his hand kept wailing, he sneakily glanced back, and upon seeing it was the Wenqu Star Lord, he immediately stopped screaming, the pained expression turning into a smile in an instant: "Ah, isn’t this the Wenqu Star Lord? Yi Zheng pays his respects to the Star Lord!"

Witnessing the speed at which Rabbit changed his demeanor, the Wenqu Star Lord’s mouth twitched, and he began to ask himself: "What in the world have I brought back with me..."

Nevertheless, the Wenqu Star Lord still said, "Rabbit, you... it’s time for you to enter the examination hall."

Yi Zheng was astonished: "Eh? That’s not right. Wasn’t it said that as long as I trick a sufficient number of people, I could directly enter the Wenqu Palace without examination?

Why do I still need to enter the exam hall?

Let me think..."

Yi Zheng immediately began to count on his fingers in front of the Wenqu Star Lord: "One, two, three...

Those four from Boss Mo, then from Jing Huzi...

One thousand and eighty-four...

Three thousand seven hundred and sixty-two...

Just now I got rid of four more.

That’s a total of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six..."

Listening to this number, the Wenqu Star Lord’s mouth twitched, knowing that someone who could trick that group of ruffians was definitely no good thing!

But then he thought that the Wenchang Star Lord was surely watching remotely with his powers from afar, and imagining Wenchang Star Lord’s expression about to explode with anger gave him an inexplicable thrill...

The Wenqu Star Lord cleared his throat and said, "Rabbit, no need to count any further. Although you’ve tricked quite a number of people from the Wenchang Palace, it’s still not enough to beat Bill."

"Why? Did they bring hundreds of thousands of people?" Yi Zheng exclaimed.

The Wenqu Star Lord shook his head: "Not that many, just over seven thousand people in total."

Yi Zheng immediately protested: "But I’ve taken down half of them, with these numbers, with this ratio, I still can’t directly enter the Wenqu Palace?"

As he spoke, Yi Zheng suddenly realized something, and with a smirk, he said: "Star Lord, don’t tell me I’m the only one who signed up for the Wenqu Palace this time."

The Wenqu Star Lord’s face reddened slightly, and he sighed, "Well... initially you weren’t the only one. Some others came before, but for some reason, they gave up, and now it’s just you."

Yi Zheng was dumbfounded. He had never imagined that at the grand gathering of scholars from All Heavens, the sacred Wenqu Palace which was revered by scholars, he would be the only one to have signed up this year! No wonder the Wenqu Star Lord took him in; he was just making up the numbers.

The Wenqu Star Lord’s face reddened slightly, but he still spoke sternly, "The Wenqu Palace values quality over quantity. To enter the examination of the Wenqu Palace, one must pass the trials of literature and martial prowess.

Those who pass are always one in tens of thousands.

In recent years, the most that have passed at one time was only three people."

Hearing this, Yi Zheng’s ears instantly drooped, and the cogs in his mind spun frantically.

He never underestimated the heroes of the world; indeed, among All Heavens, there surely were countless true scholars and Great Scholars far surpassing him.

However, even those individuals were one in ten thousand!

So for him, if he were to take the official route, not to mention one in ten thousand, not even one in a million — he would have no chance at all!

Moreover, there was not only a literature exam but also a martial one to follow.

With his strength...

Martial exam?

Probably any random person could slap him to death with a single palm.

Seeing the Rabbit deflated in a moment, the Wenqu Star Lord patted the Rabbit’s head. He wanted to say some words of comfort, but in the end, he didn’t.

Because he didn’t know how to comfort someone...

After all, the other party was too weak!

"Let’s go, the literature exam is about to begin."

With that, the Wenqu Star Lord took Rabbit and shot into the sky.

A streak of light landed at the foot of Book Mountain, and the Wenqu Star Lord threw Yi Zheng in front of the path of diligence: "Climb up, and you’ll be qualified to participate in the literature exam. Don’t look at me like that; although there is still one day left, climbing the path of diligence also takes a day.

Do your best in the upcoming exam."

This final remark was perhaps the Wenqu Star Lord’s way of comforting and encouraging Yi Zheng. But after speaking, the Wenqu Star Lord flew away, leaving only a Rabbit standing at the base of the towering steps, stroking his chin and falling deep into thought.

"There’s no way I’m passing this exam, going up is pointless.

"If it’s just for myself, I could simply admit defeat and go home,"

"I don’t really care about face anyway."

"But giving up without even trying for the sake of those little rabbits and Liu Fei’s dreams doesn’t seem justifiable, does it?"

Thinking this, Yi Zheng stamped his foot, "Death awaits in any case, so what’s the harm in dying once more?

At least I’ll have tried, and that will be my explanation to them."

With that thought, Yi Zheng lifted his leg and started up the arduous path.

As soon as his foot touched the first step, a majestic voice boomed in his ear: "One!"

At the same time, a firework burst deep within his soul, the character for "one" exploded magnificently as if to split his Sea of Consciousness in two, astonishing and awe-inspiring!

The voice came so suddenly, Yi Zheng, unprepared, stumbled and almost fell flat on his backside.

Panicked, Yi Zheng looked around to ensure there were no traps or nobody hitting him with a board from behind, before he finally relaxed.

"Goddamn, what’s this all about?" Yi Zheng rubbed his ears before stepping onto another stair.

"Two!"

Another earth-shaking sound.

But this time, Yi Zheng was prepared and wasn’t scared anymore.

He closed his eyes and caught a glimpse of the forming character "two" deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

"Could it be voice-controlled steps? Designed to prevent climbers from forgetting how many steps they’ve taken by giving auditory reminders?

But isn’t this too loud?

Are all the Great Scholars who come to Book Mountain deaf?

It must be so, after all, those who have read enough to become Great Scholars are inevitably old..." Yi Zheng muttered to himself and took the third step.

Sure enough, the next voice was "three," followed by "four," "five," "six"... "eight," "nine," "ten."

"Eleven!" Yi Zheng boldly stepped forward, calling out before the voice did.

However...

"Hundred!"

The sound was deafening, and Yi Zheng grimaced, "Oh come on, that’s not the rule!"

He advanced another step: "Two hundred!"

"Thousand!" The voice grew even louder.

Yi Zheng waved his little fist in defiance, "Hey, are you picking a fight with me?"

Yi Zheng ascended another step: "Ten thousand!"

This time, Yi Zheng didn’t curse. He wasn’t stupid; by now, he had realized that these weren’t just simple numbers—there was a trick to them.

He climbed another step.

He yelled, "Billion!"

But the voice shouted, "Person!"

Yi Zheng grinned bitterly and swore, "What kind of trick is this?"

By now, he was pretty certain, the strange voice didn’t follow any rules...

So, he closed his eyes, picked up his pace, and started to sprint up the stairs while the voice sequentially cried out: earth, heaven, law, way, principle, rule...

After dashing up more than three hundred steps in one go, Yi Zheng furrowed his brows again. Over three hundred steps and each word he heard was different, with no repetitions.

Continuing to run, the voice sounded again, still popping out one unique word after another...

Yi Zheng sprinted especially fast for one hundred thousand steps, encountering not a single repeated character!

"One hundred thousand words... not a single repetition. This isn’t a meaningless sound; it seems to be teaching me words!"

In that moment, Yi Zheng grasped the key point. This painstaking path, each stair was marked by a character, a sound, teaching him a new word with every step he took.

This was clearly a lesson!

"I wonder how many characters there are between heaven and earth..." Yi Zheng looked up at the path ahead, the stairs trailing along Book Mountain up into the sky, with no end in sight.

However, Yi Zheng became intrigued and stopped rushing forward. Since there was plenty of time, he decided to turn around and run back down.

Of the characters he had passed, he recognized only two thousand; he was unfamiliar with the remaining ninety-eight thousand or so characters.

This was the case for most people, who only recognized common characters, let alone the rarities they had never even seen before.

Since he was here, Yi Zheng didn’t plan to leave empty-handed or to slack off.

He still wanted to give it one last try...

Even if recognizing a few characters might not be of much help, what he needed to do was to exert his utmost effort and seize every possible opportunity!

"Why is that rabbit running back?"

This scene was observed by three disciples on the mountain. They were Outer Disciples in charge of monitoring the painstaking path.

Fighting and arguing were forbidden on the path. If anyone broke the rules, they had the authority to kick them out of the examination. Fighting was easy to recognize, but arguing offered a large grey area that gave them considerable power.

All three of them were puffed up with pride, faces glowing with self-satisfaction.

Hearing one of them muttering, another laughed and said, "Is he thinking of giving up? Although the path isn’t hard to walk, it contains profound mysteries. If one ignores the voices and the characters and just keeps pressing forward, it’s merely a matter of a hundred thousand steps to reach the summit.

However, once someone pays attention to those words and sounds, it becomes an endless nightmare."