Chapter 179 (1/2)

No one was discussing anymore. Not one dared to delay the soldiers' time by even a second because they knew that the release of results was upon them.

Rows of anxious and nervous pairs of eyes focused on the soldiers and the inside of the Imperial Academy. The atmosphere seemed to be suffocating as some kind of pressure started bubbling up.

Some candidates were so nervous that their faces were turning green.

Although Fang Zhengzhi would not mind whatever results he got, however, that was not to say that he did not care about it at all. Therefore, he was beginning to fill up with antic.i.p.ation.

Yan Xiu, at this point, abandoned his thoughts and focused his eyes on the Imperial Academy.

Soon, a team of official messengers in their black official robes appeared in their sights. Every one of the officials had the character for ”Imperial” on their chest, representing their rank.

The person leading the team was someone Fang Zhengzhi knew. He was the Chief Examiner for the Huai An County County Examinations, Imperial Messenger Qin Yumin.

After Qin Yumin stepped out of the gates of the Imperial Academy, his eyes swept the crowd in front of him. He showed a slight hint of shock. It was obvious that the crowd today was greater than the crowds that showed up for the past release of results for the Theory Examinations.

However, it was not surprising if he thought about it.

Previous results release of the Theory Examinations had more candidates and palace officials while the majority of the citizens would view the results after the Combat Examinations.

However, this time it was different.

Because…

A heavenly miracle happened in this round of Theory Examinations, therefore, pa.s.sing merchants and citizens with free time would come and squeeze for a look.

Everyone wanted to see the outcome of this Theory Examinations.

Qin Yumin did not stand at the gates for long. He cut through the crowd and came to the two huge Roll Tablets beside the door.

These two tablets were different from the tablets at the River of Trust Province.

The tablet had the standard features of a tablet but magnified to gigantic proportions and dark as ink. Whether it was the height or width, they were all twice in size in every dimension compared to the Roll Tablet at the River of Trust Province.

”This round of Imperial Examinations had two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven candidates. Following the rules of the previous rounds, the Theory Examination will have first and second-cla.s.s rolls. The first-cla.s.s roll will contain the top twenty while the second-cla.s.s roll will start from the twenty-first position to the two hundredth position.”

As Qin Yumin explained to this point, his eyes surveyed the anxiously waiting candidates and spectators.

When the candidates heard the number of them that partic.i.p.ated, they were all dumbfounded. They would publicise the number of partic.i.p.ants in every round of the examinations. However, in this round, the number of partic.i.p.ants was a full five hundred more than the previous round.

In this case, the chance of acceptance became all the more precious.

Furthermore, this was only the Theory Examinations. If the disqualifications from the Combat Examinations were taken into account, then, in the end, those that truly pa.s.sed the Imperial Examinations at most also would not exceed fifty candidates.

Every two years, the number of people in the Great Xia Empire that manage to pa.s.s the Imperial Examinations were not more than fifty. For the more than two thousand candidates, their chances were paper thin.

However, if they ever pa.s.s, it would be equivalent to the carp jumping through the dragon gate. They gain the rights to step into the palace courts.

Qin Yumin did not say anything redundant because he knew that everyone now only cared about the names on the Roll Tablets.

He swiftly took out an exquisite rectangular box made out of pure metal from his chest.

The box was black and it was hard to tell what was the exact material used to craft it. On the top and four sides of the box were different characters carved into it, there were even some archaic patterns adorning the surface.

”Ka!”

Qin Yumin removed the seal on the box.

After that, he took out an ink-black jade rock that was shaped like a cube from inside the box.

All the candidates immediately tensed up because when this ink-black jade rock was pushed into the tablet, it would determine the fate of their futures…

”Wvoom!”

The ink-black jade rock was pushed into an indentation on the Roll Tablet. After that, the enormous Roll Tablet started to s.h.i.+ne was blinding light.

One by one, names started to appear on the rock.

The tension at the location reached saturation point. Everyone opened their eyes wide, intensely scanning the rock for names.

They were all overly anxious to the point where they forgot about their money pouch.

Within the fully packed crowd, some figures started to wind their way through. No matter which world, there was no shortage of such people.

This also made sure that today was a definitely a day filled with happiness and shock.

”It's out!”

”I thought I just saw my name, where did it go? Where did my name go?!”

”Ah, that's my name but…why is the address behind my name wrong?!”

There were more than two thousand people partic.i.p.ating in the Imperial Examinations, there were bound to have people with the same name. As a result, after every name was the address of each individual and the index number for the examination.