"Fate?!" All of the villagers were stunned, unable to comprehend what General Li said. Fate? How could fate be tested?
Fang Zhengzhi was confused as well.
The fate as foretold in the legends would appear just like that? Did it have to come now? I’m not prepared for this! Mainly because I’m only six.I’m not even matured yet.
"Open it!" General Li ordered the eight soldiers carrying the mysterious object without much explanation.
"Yes sir!" The eight soldiers replied in unison.
After that, the eight soldiers walked towards the side of the object simultaneously. They stretched out their hands, grabbed the gold drapes that covered the object and gently unveil it.
"What is that?"
"Could it be...the Illustration of All Creation?! My god, the last round is actually the Illustration of All Creation."
When the giant jade slab that was made entirely of pitch black jade was revealed, every villager was dumbfounded. Everyone was staring the jade slab like deers caught in headlights.
Especially those that passed the second round. They had eyes opened wide like saucers staring at it, afraid to miss even a second of it.
On the pitch black jade rock, light gold shimmers flowed along the surface. Those are countless of gold lines. There were characters and also figures that had an intricate complexity. From the top, these extended all the way to the bottom.
As the lines progressed bottom, the characters and figures got more complicated. From the initial simple characters and simple squares and circles, it slowly changed to a composite of squares and circles. Finally, the stars, sun, moon and a myriad of other figures and characters…
At the most bottom was a portrait of a immensely expansive mountains and rivers scenery.
General Li gave a small smile and a slight cough after seeing the expressions on the villagers’ face.
"That’s right! This is the Illustration of All Creation! Although this was one with the lowest quality, without an strong and solid foundation, it would still be impossible to solve. The Illustration of All Creation is fate, and it is also the gate!"
"To pass the final selection by the Divine Constabulary, there are two ways. First way: Unravel the Illustration of All Creation! Second way: Be the top scorer in the Capital’s "Law of Dao Examinations". Both will receive the special attention of the Divine Constabulary!"
Just as he finished, the villagers were in a commotion.
To them, both paths were too difficult. This first path was way beyond difficult. In legends, this Illustration of All Creation had proved too challenging even for some of the great men that had accessed Dao. To these people who barely even read the "Law of Dao", it was an impossible endeavour.
The second path was also extremely demanding. Although it was just the Capital’s Law of Dao examinations, the requirement was to be the top scorer. In other words, even if you passed the examinations with the second highest marks, there would be no recognition!
Any one of these paths was problematic for the villagers that were illiterate.
However, it was the Divine Constabulary after all.
By entering the Divine Constabulary, it was equivalent to an immediate rise in status. Why wouldn’t it be a difficult task? The villagers were all chattering among themselve, yet no one raised any objections.
"The road is shown to you by me, how you traverse it will depend on yourselves. Although both paths are challenging for all of you here, with the first two tests, I have noticed the huge potential of the Southern Mountain Village. I will personally suggest to the Divine Constabulary to set up a ‘Hall of Dao’ here. Those that passed the first two rounds will have the privilege of studying within the Hall of Dao.
"Hopefully one day, under the guidance of the Hall of Dao, you can become the top scorer in the Capital’s Law of Dao Examinations!"
General Li did not mention the path through the Illustration of All Creation because he personally felt that this path was just too challenging. Forget about the Southern Mountain Village. Even in the Divine Constabulary, other than the Divine Lord and the "special guests", only Missus could solve the so-called "Illustration of All Creation of the lowest quality".
When it came to General Li who was also an outstanding individual that accessed Dao, he could only look on and sigh.
Thinking about this, General Li immediately recalled his Missus. She was only five years old when she solved the Illustration of All Creation. When the current Sacred Lord heard about the news, even he jumped out of his skin. He personally send out a sacred order on the spot, praising the Divine Constabulary of the Northern Lands for producing an incredible "Pride of the Heavens".
Although it was just a seemingly normal sentence, it was anything but. That was a sacred order! In the records, from the rise of the Great Xia Dynasty until today, there had only be thirty sacred orders given out. The rest was merely royal orders.
"Alright, let’s keep the Illustration of All Creation. Although solving the Illustration of All Creation was an indication of great fate, allowing people to instantly aligned the heart of Dao, facilitating the road to accessing Dao, it was not something anyone could do. Only those with great accumulations of knowledge could...could…"
As General Li spoke to this point, he could not continue at all.
For, at this moment, the Illustration of All Creation was shining with a dazzling radiance. Those initially dim golden flows of shimmers were suddenly burning hotter than the sun.
The whole Illustration of All Creation was completely lit up, golden light bursting from within!
Village Chief Meng Bai, who was currently standing on the stage with his head lowered and listening respectfully, suddenly realised General Li stopped talking. He felt something was amiss so he raised his head to look at General Li.
"General Li?" Chief Meng Bai meekly voiced out.
Then, when he say that brilliant golden light from the Illustration of All Creation, he almost cried.
"This, could this be…" Chief Meng Bai was really moved. He was so moved that his pair of eyes were red. He pinched his thighs with all his might and realised that this was not a dream.
The golden light from the Illustration of All Creation was still so obvious.
At this moment, all the villagers were staring dumbly at the Illustration of All Creation. They could not comprehend why the Illustration of All Creation suddenly lit up. Furthermore, the light seemed to be growing in intensity.
Many of the villagers were confused but General Li knew very well what was happening, due to his knowledge. That’s why he could not contain the stupefaction in his heart.
Not only General Li but even the soldiers below the stage were stupefied by the radiance of the sacred slab.
"How, how is this possible?!"
"The Illustration of All Creation... was solved!"
"Who?! There was someone who could solve the Illustration of All Creation in a place like the Southern Mountain Village!"
"How much time was this in sight? It has not even been a minute…"
All the soldiers could not believe their eyes. Forget about the Southern Mountain Village, even in the Divine Constabulary, there were few could solve it.
This did not mean that no one have solved the Illustration of All Creation.
It was just that no one in the Southern Mountain Village had accessed Dao! Without accessing Dao and solving the Illustration of All Creation was equivalent to someone racing a Black Gale Leopard without learning how to walk and winning!
It was incredulous, unimaginable even.
All these years, the Divine Constabulary would annually send out a team with the Illustration of All Creation to every county town to conduct tests. Their real motive was to advocate the meaning of Dao, set up Halls of Dao. This would allow more people the chance to study the "Law of Dao", and as a result, gradually travel down the path of cultivation.
What about the Illustration of All Creation? That was purely ceremonial so as to respect the ways of their ancestors.
But now…
General Li just wanted to pass by, let these villagers have a glimpse of the Illustration of Creation then keeping it. Instead, he discovered that someone had already solved the Illustration of All Creation?!
How was he to keep calm? How was he to keep composed?
More importantly, it was in less than a minute.
He still remembered that Missus initially spent a full week to solve the Illustration of All Creation. This had already shocked the whole Great Xia Dynasty.
Who? Who exactly solved this? Did it have to be this fast? Could it be even be exaggerated further?