Chapter 328 (1/2)

Chapter 328: The real motive of the combat examinations

One of the masked men placed the dagger in his hands on his lips as he licked the blood on the blade . His eyes glittered with pride .

This was an arrogance that stemmed from within .

”What are you talking about? The Domain Chief is still waiting . Strip these two humans and you two will dress up as them!” Another masked man ordered icily .

”Yes!” The male immediately kept his blade, his arrogance turning into respect .

The wind blew and carried the scent of blood into the woods . This quickly attracted wild beasts . When the beasts saw the two naked bodies . . .

”Roar!” They lunged and picked the bones clean within moments .

Sometimes, things were just so ironic . These two men may have been of n.o.ble origin and led good lives . However, once they were dead, they were just bodies . . .

Fang Zhengzhi did not know that Wu Yuer would have brought him so far from the capital . In order to get back to the capital would waste too much time .

More importantly, it would be meaningless .

He should just head straight for the Stable Mountain Gates .

However, Wu Yuer's actions had caused him a huge problem . Right now, he did not have any soldiers .

No soldiers?

How was he going to partic.i.p.ate in the combat examinations?

It felt like he was going to ice skate without skates . Ice skate barefoot? It did not seem like a huge problem . However, skating slowly was not the problem, he could not stand the cold!

Was he going to ride into battle alone?

That would be a legendary story .

He had no idea if he was lucky or unlucky .

A week later, a figure appeared at the Stable Mountain Gates . The figure wore a blue long sleeved s.h.i.+rt and rode a poor horse of unknown breed .

Only two people would enter the city at this time . A leather merchant, or Fang Zhengzhi .

The answer was the latter .

Fang Zhengzhi glanced at the limestone buildings around him . He also looked at the solemn soldiers pa.s.sing through the streets .

He had two choices .

He could find the general in charge of holding this fort . He could introduce himself and request for some soldiers . However, success would depend on the general's character .

The second option was to enter the Southern Mountain Range alone .

Before making his final decision, Fang Zhengzhi decided to have a good meal . He had been rus.h.i.+ng all the way to this place . He couldn't possibly leave on an empty stomach .

Being this close to the Southern Mountain Range, the city had no lack of delicacies .

Each restaurant served the meats of various beasts .

”Recently slaughtered! Cut off what you want to eat!”

”Would you like to go inside?”

All of the sounds showed how bustling the city was . Even though it was no match for the capital, this city was still doing quite well .

Fang Zhengzhi picked a decent restaurant and chose a place with the most people . He called a waiter and placed his order . Then, he began to drink .

He chose the most populated place so he could listen to recent news .

The restaurants were always the best place to gather information . Having roamed the streets for so many years, Fang Zhengzhi was well aware of this fact .

The better the seat, the better the information that he could gather .

As more and more customers entered, Fang Zhengzhi's ears perked up . Most of them were talking about the combat examinations .

Fang Zhengzhi combined the information he heard here with those he gathered along the way . He began to have some understanding of the combat examinations .

”The Great Xia Dynasty sent 100,000 soldiers . ”

”Each candidate was given 2000 soldiers and the t.i.tle of General . ”

”Crown Prince Lin Tianrong commands over 40,000 troops in support . ”

”The results will be based on the number of surviving soldiers and territories controlled!”

Fang Zhengzhi enjoyed the wine and food leisurely as he listened to the news . At the same time, he thought of how he was going to do well in the examinations .

On the surface, his biggest problem was that he did not have any soldiers . He could not take the test alone . However, this was not what was bothering him the most .

The question bothering him the most was . . .

The motive of the courts!

In order to answer a question, one could not just take the question at face value . One had to guess the intentions of the person setting the question . Why would he set such a question? What was the question asking? What was he thinking? What were the hints and hidden ideas?

The court examination .

It was the most important examination in the Great Xia Dynasty . It was the examination which required the most thinking, intellect, and power . Yet, the rules were this simple? Guard the territories and conserve troops?

If that was the case, why was there a need for 40,000 troops as reinforcements? What were they supporting?

Ensuring the safety of the candidates?

That sounded reasonable, but it did not seem very likely on closer thought .

After all, Fang Zhengzhi knew for a fact that he had topped the court theory examination . Wu Yuer had told him this when he left .

To put it simply, the theory examination question was based on battle .