Ling Tian smiled, ignoring XiMen Qing completely as he said to Qian ShuiRou, "If that’s the case, this little brother will continue the poem from before," as he said that, he tapped the table lightly with his finger and pondered for a moment before reciting,

"The gentle rain and light fog forms a smiling tower,

With a flower-like spirit but yet gentle like the willows.

My silence doesn’t represent heartlessness,

The spring winds represent my desire and rain represents my worries!"

Qian ShuiRou showed a trace of embarra.s.sment as she turned around. A few grunts could then be heard as the eight tall guards burned in anger, looking as though they wanted to rip Ling Tian to shreds. With a chuckle, Ling Tian ignored them completely.

"Good! What a ‘The spring winds represent my desire and rain represent my worries’!" An old scholar stroked his beard and nodded his head. Ling Tian’s gentle poem was greatly to his liking and it was a love poem about love at first sight.

As the six judges compared Ling Tian and XiMen Qing’s poems, they all began to frown. Be it depth or substance, they were extremely similar and each had their own strengths. It was just impossible to place one above the other and a draw was declared.

Ling Tian shook his head with a smile and said with a trace of helplessness, "Ling Tian was only continuing the poem which brother Qian had created a few days ago. The inspiration for this poem is from brother Qian and it has nothing to do with young n.o.ble XiMen or this poetry compet.i.tion. How can such a poem be judged or be rated as a draw? Haha, if some casual nonsense by me can be considered a draw, it is far too much of preferential treatment to me. Haha…"

As Ling Tian said that, the faces of all the judges turned purple on the spot. None of them would have imagined that such a beautiful poem was not Ling Tian’s true talent to deal with the provoking XiMen Qing! If that’s the case, then just how talented was this young n.o.ble Ling? Furthermore, this Ling Tian was just too arrogant, actually calling such a beautiful poem nonsense. How was this trying to be humble? This was just complete arrogance!

In the eyes of everyone present, Ling Tian’s previous poem was already considered to be a fantastic piece of work almost good enough to be crowned champion. While XiMen Qing’s poem was far ahead of the other poems, it was slightly inferior as compared to Ling Tian’s poem! For the judges to rule it as a draw, it was already giving the XiMen Family a great deal of face! While XiMen Qing’s poem was outstanding, it was limited and far from being considered the work of a grandmaster. But for Ling Tian’s poem, especially the final two phrases, it was completely able to describe the tender feelings of youth in love. In love but yet unable to say a thing, wis.h.i.+ng to confess but yet staying silent from shyness. With just these two phrases alone, it was already enough to be a work pa.s.sed down for generations to come!

Furthermore, Ling Tian purposefully emphasized on the word ‘draw’ when he was speaking previously, making the faces of the judges turned red. Especially the three judges who were invited by XiMen Qing, naturally showing some biases towards XiMen Qing and greatly supporting both the poems to be ruled as a draw. As for Mister Qing and Meng LiGe, they were obviously on Ling Tian’s side but they still stuck to their principles. If they were to fight the other judges about such an issue, it would only make things ugly! Ling Tian had already won a round, and it wouldn’t do any harm to declare this round as a draw. Besides, XiMen Qing’s farewell poem also had its specialties and thus the both of them did not say anything, silently agreeing to rule this round as a draw.

Furthermore, both Mister Qing and Meng LiGe wanted to see all of Ling Tian’s abilities. If Ling Tian were to win an overwhelming victory at this moment, the both of them were worried that Ling

Tian would just give up on the fight later and not reveal any of his talents anymore. With Mister Qin’s understanding of Ling Tian, he knew that Ling Tian was someone who liked to lay low, feigning a pig to eat the tigers. It was entirely possible for Ling Tian to stop revealing his talent at this moment!

At this moment, XiMen Qing was also puzzled in his heart. He was indeed trying hard to regain his reputation to rebuild his prestige. For Ling Tian to give up such a beautiful poem, wasn’t it as good as shooting himself in the foot?

With his own talent, XiMen Qing could naturally tell that Ling Tian’s poem was better than his. Thus, he was extremely nervous that the judges would rule his defeat again, causing him to lose all his reputation! He was greatly relieved the moment that he heard that the judges ruled this round to be a draw.

Now that he heard that Ling Tian wanted to give up this poem, XiMen Qing was completely at ease as he thought to himself, For a single poem to have one or two phrases capable of being pa.s.sed on for generations, it requires a stroke of inspiration and most scholars would never be able to come out with anything better than that. There were even some scholars who were well-versed in multiple fields and had their fame spread across the world but were never able to come up with such a poem capable of being pa.s.sed on for generations! Did Ling Tian really think that such a fantastic poem was a worthless sc.r.a.p that could be found along the sides of a road? Even my own farewell poem was something which required a flash of inspiration and is my best work to date. I don’t believe this Ling Tian will be able to beat me over and over again!

Thinking about this, XiMen Qing snorted coldly, "Young n.o.ble Ling is indeed a talented individual and XiMen Qing is in awe! If young n.o.ble Ling is able to create another poem worthy of being pa.s.sed down for generations, I will swear to never play with poetry in my life again!"

Ling Tian laughed and filled up his gla.s.s again. Looking at the wine in his gla.s.s, he slowly recited emotionlessly, "One who abandons me, the day yesterday cannot be kept; one who troubles me, the day today will be worrisome!"

With just these two phrases, the almost one thousand people in the Smoky Thea Tower were completely silent! XiMen Qing’s face was also completely ashen. With just these two opening phrases, this poem was definitely worthy of being pa.s.sed on for generations!

Mister Qin and Meng LiGe’s faces gleamed as they looked towards Ling Tian as though they had just obtained a treasure. As they muttered these two phrases to themselves, they felt as though they had just tasted a hundred-year-old fine wine, with the strong aftertaste lingering in their mouth as they reminisced the taste of the wine!

Qian ShuiRou, Xiao YanXue, and the other ladies were completely in shock. They were all experts in this field and were fully capable of discerning good from bad. When they heard what Ling Tian said previously, they also thought that he was being extremely arrogant. But now that they had heard this beautiful opening, they stared at Ling Tian with an incredulous expression! When Ling Tian had casually opened his mouth previously, a beautiful phrase like ‘The spring winds represent my desire and rain represent my worries’ was recited. Who would have imagined that in this short 10 minutes, they would be able to hear another fantastic poem! Just how many people from the ancient times until now will be able to do that?! While Ling Tian’s talent couldn't be said to be unmatched in history and the following generations to come, it was more than enough for him to be crowned the number one talent in this generation!

Ling Tian frowned lightly as he walked out from the door of the Heavenly Moon Chamber as though he was in deep thought. Everyone couldn't help but hold in their breaths, afraid that their soft breathing might interrupt Ling Tian’s thoughts and destroy this historic work. If that happened they would definitely be scholarly sinners for life!

Ling Tian then took a few steps forward and looked up with an unrestrained demeanor like a hermit who was traveling the continent. At this moment, Ling Tian was no longer the number one silkpants, or the young n.o.ble of a Great Family. Instead, he was a broad and open-minded scholar, one who could see through all worldly affairs!

At this moment, Ling Tian’s crisp voice sounded, and he actually recited the whole poem in a single breath!

"The flock of geese migrating in autumn, one can enjoy a drink while viewing this scenery.

With the hopes of cruising the skies in flight, desiring to embrace the bright moon in one’s arms.

Just like how severing a stream with a knife increases its flow, drowning one’s sorrows with wine brings more sorrows

One cannot do as he desires in life, waiting for the time he has the freedom to float around in life!"

While the poem was already recited fully, the whole hall remained silent for a long time. Finally, someone began to lightly applaud, waking everyone up from their daze with the whole hall breaking out in thunderous applause!

What a beautiful poem this was! What a poem filled with wisdom! What an unrestrained mood! What a wise poem fully clear about worldly affairs!

What a talent he was! Even calling Ling Tian an outstanding talent wouldn’t be enough to describe one percent of Ling Tian’s talent!

Such a beautiful poem would definitely be pa.s.sed on for generations to come! Ling Tian’s name would also be pa.s.sed on with this poem, living on eternally!

As the applause died down, a white-haired old scholar walked forward with his body swaying. Everyone present could recognize this old scholar, he was well-renowned in the scholarly circle and was the publicly acknowledged number one scholar, Rong ZhiYu from Western Han. XiMen Qing was the disciple that he was the proudest of! Who would have thought that he would be present today? Rong ZhiYu had an upright character and was more knowledgeable than others, gaining respect from all scholars in the world! Seeing his teacher coming forward, XiMen Qing quickly went forward to support him.

Letting out a long sigh, Rong ZhiYu shook off XiMen Qing’s support and looked towards the crowd, "We are now in the territory of Sky Bearing and this old man shouldn’t be poking my nose in! However, this old man just cannot help but say something. I need to ask all the scholars in Sky Bearing something!"

Rong ZhiYu pointed at Ling Tian with his frail arms as his fingertip trembled and his voice turned hoa.r.s.e. It was as though it took all he had to shout out, "Such a talent cannot even be described with the words ‘overflowing talent’ and he is a one in a thousand years genius! How did he become the number one silkpants in all of your eyes?! Are the people of Sky Bearing really that talented?"

"How can all of you even be fit to be called scholars?" Rong ZhiYu shouted, "Before this old man came here, everyone would only be filled with disdain towards the name ‘Ling Tian’. There were even some who told their children that it was better to be someone without talent than become like Ling Tian." Rong ZhiYu began laughing as tears filled his eyes, "This old man was still wondering just how horrible of a character young n.o.ble Ling must be! Now that I finally know the truth, it is really completely laughable! Completely lamentable! Completely intolerable! This is a complete destruction of something so beautiful! It is really like the saying, ‘The lack of talent is a virtue, who can be compared to Ling Tian?’ The foolishness of the world can really be seen!"

"Young n.o.ble Ling, this old man apologizes for my prejudice towards you before today!" As he said that, Rong ZhiYu gave a bow to Ling Tian. Before Ling Tian could even reply, Rong ZhiYu had already straightened his back and shouted, "Today, this old man will shamelessly give a t.i.tle to Ling Tian on behalf of the scholars in the world! With young n.o.ble Ling’s age and talent, while there may be others like him in the future, he is definitely the first in history! He is definitely capable of being the number one poet in the world! Does anyone have an objection?"