Li Shiming was riding in an ordinary horse-drawn carriage, with the coachman and the servant Moyan sitting on the shaft of the carriage. Siqin inside the carriage kept checking the items in the examination basket, fearing that one item was missing.
He didn't want to bring Siqin with him, but Siqin insisted on coming anyway.
Considering that Siqin had spent many days preparing for the autumn examination, I decided to bring her along.
Not far behind the carriage followed several guards from the mansion, which was a must for Li Shiming when he went out.
Several major events occurred in Nanling Prefecture in succession, but they did not affect today's excitement.
The streets were crowded with people, including the candidates taking part in the autumn examination and their families, as well as many onlookers.
There were also many more yamen runners and soldiers on the streets to prevent any unexpected incidents.
"Young Master, we've arrived at the Imperial Examination Hall!" Mo Yan reminded outside the carriage.
"Siqin, stay in the car and don't get out!" Li Shiming held down Siqin who wanted to get out of the car and ordered.
At this time, there were huge crowds of people outside the Imperial Examination Hall, and there were even children on the low walls and trees.
Many people bring their children here just to get some literary exposure so that their children can have the opportunity to participate in the autumn examination like these scholars.
In the eyes of ordinary people, any scholar who could take part in the Autumn Examination was like the God of Literature descending to earth.
This is normal. Every scholar here is among the top few in their respective places. In their local areas, they are definitely the incarnation of Wenquxing.
And if you have passed the autumn examination, you can no longer be called a scholar, but need to be called a juren master, which means you are qualified to be an official.
Li Shiming walked towards the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall carrying the examination basket. Several scholars he knew looked at each other but did not say hello.
The soldiers who were searching at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall were not soldiers from Nanling Prefecture, but soldiers transferred from other places.
The soldiers did not know Li Shiming, so the body search was the same as that of other candidates.
Daxia attached great importance to imperial examinations. Anyone who dared to cheat in the examinations would be punished by death. Due to the importance of imperial examinations, Daxia adopted a variety of methods to prevent cheating.
Even in the autumn examination in Nanling Prefecture, Li Shiming could not enjoy the preferential treatment given to the son of a prefect.
Li Shiming watched the snacks that Siqin had carefully prepared being crushed by the soldiers. Fortunately, Siqin couldn't see it, otherwise she would be sad again.
After the body search, a soldier took him into the Imperial Examination Hall. He was lucky as he was given a seat in the rows of cells. Although it was not the best position, it was not so bad as to be next to a dry toilet.
He took out the writing brush, ink, inkstone and paperweight from the examination basket and took some water to mix the ink.
Because of the existence of the computer room, he had all the books in the study in his mind, and he also had the computing and analysis capabilities of the large server IBMz15, as well as many excellent articles from the history of his previous life as a foundation.
Moreover, because his strength has reached the first level of Qi Refining, the nourishment of spiritual energy has greatly improved his memory, analysis, calculation and other abilities, so he is not worried about the autumn examination at all.
The questions for the first day were distributed, and the test was about copying scriptures.
Although he had studied the Four Books and Five Classics, he still observed the ancient examinations as a bystander.
It was only when he actually took the autumn examination that he realized how difficult the exam was.
Of course, this difficulty is not for him now, but for the students in his previous life.
The simplest way to interpret the meaning of calligraphy is to extract any paragraph from the 170,000 words of the Four Books and Five Classics and fill in the blanks.
This requires memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics in full before one can take the test on calligraphy and interpretation.
Li Shiming scanned the questions and the answer appeared in his mind, without even using the large server IBMz15.
He just needs to be careful to write clearly and not to dirty the test paper.
It took more than half an hour to finish writing the questions one by one.
He found that he answered too quickly, as the entire fill-in-the-blank test paper was the content of a whole day's exam.
I heard the candidates' cries of pain, followed by the soldiers' warnings.
At night, lanterns were hung up and the candidates in the dormitories also lit oil lamps.
Li Shiming sat on a crude wooden table, took out the spirit gathering plate from the computer room, sat under him, and began to practice the 'Five Elements Qi Gathering Technique'.
Even the Autumn Examination could not interrupt his practice.
There was nothing that could be done about it. The four glowing stones on the spirit gathering plate had become very dim and could not hold out for much longer.
Wasting any opportunity to practice is a huge waste.
Besides, no one will disturb the candidates in the dormitory unless they are found to be obviously cheating.
The spiritual energy surged into the body and entered the spiritual energy vortex along the opened spiritual veins.
As if it had reached a limit, the vortex of spiritual energy shrank a bit, and then expanded.
A gust of wind suddenly appeared in the entire Imperial Examination Hall, causing the lanterns to sway continuously. The soldiers hurried to check the situation.
After a thorough inspection, the soldiers found nothing unusual and thought it was just a weather accident.
Li Shiming opened his eyes, a light flashed in his eyes, and then disappeared.
"Finally reached the second level of Qi Refining!" he said inwardly with delight.
After reaching the second level of Qi Refining, he could try to learn magic spells, which meant he had truly stepped into the realm of cultivating immortals.
He put the spirit gathering disk into the computer room without wasting any time.
He could see that the Spirit Gathering Disk could only last for three days at most, after which he would no longer have such good conditions for cultivation.
As for the glowing stone in the spirit gathering plate, he had not found out where it was in Nanling Mansion.
Besides, even if he had the glowing stone, he had no way to activate the spirit gathering disk.
He lay on the wooden planks and spent his first night in the cell.
The next day's exam was on the meaning of scriptures. The questions were quite biased. Just from the occasional sighs coming from other rooms, I knew how difficult the questions were.
However, no matter how biased it is, it cannot be separated from the Li family's selection of classics. The Four Books and Five Classics have 170,000 words. After so many years, the Li family expanded the classics to more than 6 million words, which shows how deep the research on the classics was.
Almost every paragraph has corresponding scriptural meaning, and no matter how you examine it, it cannot go beyond the scope of the Four Books and Five Classics.
The third day's test was on policy essays, which tested one's literary level and practical research on the classics.
Li Shiming did not write the paper himself. Based on his understanding of the examiner, he selected excellent policy papers that met the examiner's taste from the historical database of the large server IBMz15.
This time he did not start writing immediately, but waited for an hour before starting.
At 5 p.m., the three-day Autumn Examination finally came to an end.
Siqin stood on the carriage, staring at the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall.
One by one, exhausted candidates walked out of the gate. The three-day examination had almost consumed every bit of their energy.
Some candidates even had to be supported by soldiers before they could leave the Imperial Examination Hall.
Every year after the autumn examination, some candidates would fall seriously ill, and some would even become bedridden.
"The young master is out!" Mo Yan exclaimed in surprise.
He didn't need to be told anything. Just look at the youngest candidate coming out of the gate, the only one who looked energetic. He could be recognized among the candidates at a glance.
Siqin stood on the carriage and waved her hands vigorously, indicating that she was here.