Once, he had dreamed of roaming the world with a sword in hand.
In the end, only the dream remained.
Lianshan Xin tossed his ornately decorated longsword casually to the ground. Having failed countless times already, he had finally come to terms with reality: push a person hard enough and they can do anything—except math. And martial arts.
Having lived two lives, ever since he learned that this world had martial arts, and even the legendary immortals, Lianshan Xin had begun training seriously. Boys will be boys—who among them didn't harbor a wuxia dream? Maybe girls had them too. Armor up, just in case.
After more than a decade of practice, Lianshan Xin still had not broken through the first gate of martial cultivation, Body Tempering realm. He remained stuck at tempering his muscles and bones and strengthening his qi and blood.
In the words of his mother, He Miaojun:
“Son, you need to accept the fact that you're a hopeless martial talent. The second realm of martial cultivation is Meridian Connectivity realm. You need to open up the meridians in your body, take your first step toward sensing and guiding heaven-and-earth qi into yourself, and form internal force. Your meridians were blocked from birth, and I was injured while I was pregnant with you, leaving you with an innate deficiency. Without a great stroke of fortune, you will never cultivate internal force. You'll be stuck in Body Tempering realm your whole life. Stop wasting your energy.”
His mother had told him this when he was six and had just begun learning martial arts.
At six, Lianshan Xin hadn't believed it. At sixteen, he still hadn't. This year he was eighteen. If he still didn't believe it, he really would be old.
So he changed his dream. “Fine. If martial arts won't work out, then I'll become an immortal cultivator.”
He Miaojun burst out laughing at her son. “You really know how to adapt, don't you?”
Lianshan Xin felt pretty pleased with himself. “What's the point of learning martial arts? Cultivating immortality has way more prospects. If you can become an immortal, why bother with martial arts? I've decided to bring my talent to the world of immortal cultivation.”
He Miaojun patted Lianshan Xin on the head, her eyes full of pity. “Son, cultivating immortality has been a legend for a thousand years. The environment of heaven and earth has changed drastically. This is the age of martial arts now. There are countless martial artists under heaven, but immortal cultivators are few enough to count on your fingers. You must understand—immortals are hard to find, and they rarely set foot in the mortal world. Seeking an immortal's fortune? How could it be that easy?”
“It's not that hard, actually.” Lianshan Xin's gaze was steady and his tone calm. He had clearly thought about this for more than a day. “Mother, immortals are indeed hard to find. But there's one place that definitely has them.”
He Miaojun blinked in surprise. “You mean the imperial court?”
“Exactly. The imperial court definitely has immortals suppressing its fortune.”
The Great Yu Dynasty had been passed down to this day, a thousand years already.
Lianshan Xin understood the historical cycle law. Ever since he learned that the Great Yu Dynasty had a thousand years behind it, he had been shocked. How had a dynasty that lasted a thousand years resolved those contradictions that inevitably arose?
It wasn't until later that he learned of the existence of immortals. Then it all made sense.
Rumors of immortals elsewhere in the world might be true or false, but there were definitely land immortals within the imperial court, and they held the methods of immortal cultivation.
In a high-martial-arts world, for the imperial court to dominate all four quarters and remain unshaken for a thousand years—it would be stranger still if no immortal were overseeing it.
The Great Yu Dynasty was terrifyingly strong, and its foundations were even more absurd. Legendary miracle medicine and divine weapons existed only as legends in the jianghu, but within the imperial court they had always circulated.
It was just that the price of joining the imperial court was losing your freedom, and martial artists yearned for freedom by nature. The fact that the imperial court was strong didn't mean that joining it would make you strong. So talented people with martial aptitude who didn't want to be bound mostly chose to cultivate martial arts on their own, forming part of the jianghu.
If he had a choice, Lianshan Xin of course wanted to train martial arts himself too—to be a carefree wanderer of the jianghu with a sword in hand. To look down on kings and marquises, to disdain dukes and ministers.
Cultivating immortality really was a pie in the sky. As the world changed, each generation had its own glory—Lianshan Xin understood that reasoning well.
But what could he do, with no talent for martial arts?
So joining the imperial court might not be a bad choice after all.
He'd be under others' control, sure, but the perks of an establishment post—those who know, know.
Where was there absolute freedom in this world anyway?
Did the jianghu have no constraints?
“Do you think you can just join the imperial court whenever you want?” He Miaojun reminded him. “Who knows how many people in this world want to enter court and serve as officials? And there are plenty of people just as unrealistic as you who think they can chase immortal fortune by becoming officials. Those who succeed are few indeed. Joining the imperial court is no easier than cultivating martial arts.”
“Mother, martial arts—I can't. Civil service exam—you can't.” Lianshan Xin was brimming with confidence.
He Miaojun didn't get it. “Where does all your confidence come from?”
Because in my last life, I was from Shandong.
Long tempered by countless trials.
To a Shandong person, the entire universe was one giant Shandong.
No matter how fierce the civil service competition in the Great Yu, a Shandong native wouldn't be scared.
Besides, he had a cheat.
It was just that this cheat really was useless for learning martial arts.
But for the civil service exam and the civil service establishment exam, it was very useful.
“I won't agree to you joining the imperial court.”
He Miaojun was usually a doting mother, always spoiling Lianshan Xin, but now her tone was stern. “Hawks of the court, despised by all in the jianghu. And once you enter court as an official, you'll face struggles a hundred times more treacherous than anything in the jianghu. It's too dangerous. I absolutely will not agree.”
Lianshan Xin wanted to explain further, but He Miaojun flicked her sleeve and walked off, giving him no chance to talk her around.
Still, the husband and wife were well coordinated. Just as He Miaojun swept away, Lianshan Xin's father, Lianshan Jingcheng, strolled over unhurriedly.
Lianshan Jingcheng had a typical middle-aged pretty-boy look. In his younger days, he'd relied on his looks to land himself the wealthy He Miaojun, and with her support he'd opened a clinic, Huichun Hall. So naturally he had always had little say in the household.
Of course, in Lianshan Jingcheng's words, in their family he handled the big things and He Miaojun handled the small things.
It was just that in all the years Lianshan Xin had been alive, he'd never seen anything big come up in their family. He didn't know whether his taking the civil service exam counted.
“Dad, you're the head of the household. You have to stand up for me and uphold justice.”
Lianshan Xin was trying to get Lianshan Jingcheng to stand up and not disgrace men everywhere.
Lianshan Jingcheng had overheard the conversation between Lianshan Xin and He Miaojun. About Lianshan Xin's idea of joining the imperial court, he tried to talk him out of it indirectly. “Little Xin, you want to enter court and serve as an official. But do you know what ways there are to become an official in our Great Yu?”
“Of course I know. Either someone recommends you, or you go take the imperial examination yourself.”
Lianshan Xin had long since looked into it.
Recommendation: nominally recommending talented men to the imperial court, letting you become an official without going through the imperial examination. On the surface its purpose was to prevent capable men from being wasted out in the wilds.
“This path of recommendation—you won't be able to take it,” Lianshan Jingcheng reminded him. “Our family is just an ordinary household.”
Lianshan Xin shot Lianshan Jingcheng a glance and grumbled. “Then it's just that you're not working hard enough. If you were the Inspector of Jiangzhou, I'd be a recommended talent.”
Lianshan Jingcheng didn't argue back. He only smiled and continued. “Then the only path left is the imperial examination. But not everyone can take it. To sit for the imperial examination, you need an academy background.”
“I know.”
To take the civil service exam, you also needed a university degree.
At heart, there was no difference.
A Shandong native understood instantly.
“Our Jiangzhou has an academy with a thousand years of tradition—Bailudong Academy. As long as I get into Bailudong Academy, I can use its background to take the imperial examination. And Bailudong Academy is one of the four great academies under heaven, where they train both the literary and the martial. Every year's top disciple receives a Qi Condensation Pill. If I can get a Qi Condensation Pill, I can skip Meridian Connectivity realm and condense true qi directly, becoming a third-realm martial artist.”
Although Lianshan Xin had already decided to bring his talent to the world of immortal cultivation, immortal cultivators really were hard to find. He hadn't met a single one his entire life.
From what he understood, even within the imperial court there were probably only one or two land immortals who could stand against a whole nation, and they weren't easy to meet, let alone inherit anything from.
So settling for the next best thing and continuing his wuxia dream wasn't out of the question.
He was just that easygoing.
Lianshan Jingcheng was at a loss for words. “The Qi Condensation Pill can only be refined by a Celestial Master. Bailudong Academy only receives two of them a year. A single Qi Condensation Pill can create a Qi Condensation realm martial artist. With medicine that precious, Little Xin, do you really think you have a chance of getting one?”
“Every year's top disciple of Bailudong Academy gets a Qi Condensation Pill. As long as I join Bailudong Academy and become its top disciple, I'll naturally get one.”
Lianshan Xin's confidence didn't infect Lianshan Jingcheng in the slightest.
Lianshan Jingcheng shook his head. “Never mind how hard it is to become Bailudong Academy's top disciple. Just getting into Bailudong Academy is already hard enough. The only son of Chairman Qu from the trading company next door took the Bailudong Academy entrance exam twice in a row and failed both times. Your grades and his are about on par. As for getting in through martial achievement, you'd need to be at least Meridian Connectivity realm and under twenty. You're only Body Tempering realm.”
Lianshan Xin didn't take it to heart. “Chairman Qu should reflect on why his only son failed to get into Bailudong Academy two years running. Isn't it just because he doesn't have enough money? If only he were the richest man in Jiangzhou, he could smash open Bailudong Academy's gates with money.”
Lianshan Jingcheng: “…Son, looking at it now, you really are suited to being an official, but your father truly hasn't worked hard enough.”
“It's fine, as long as you two don't drag me down. Getting into the academy still depends on me.”
Before today, Lianshan Xin had never given up on relying on his own martial training. What if a miracle happened?
But as Mr. Lu Xun once said, you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.
The famous “intelligence dealer” Xie Ruolin had a classic line: “There are two gold bars here. Tell me—which one is noble, and which one is filthy?”
Lianshan Xin had now figured it out too. “Two Qi Condensation realm martial artists—one who cultivated it through his own effort, one who got there by popping pills. Isn't the result the same?”
Before he was eighteen, he could believe that effort paid off.
Now that he was eighteen, grown up, it was time to believe that popping pills beat effort.
What he needed to consider now was how he could get his hands on those pills.
For this, he had made two preparations in advance.
Both Lianshan Jingcheng and He Miaojun found Lianshan Xin's confidence hard to understand.
The two of them muttered about it in the clinic.
He Miaojun: “Little Xin has spent most of his energy on martial training these past years, and he still has to spare time to learn medicine from you. He does study, but he really is stretched thin, so his grades are just average. Where does he get the confidence that he can get into Bailudong Academy?”
Lianshan Jingcheng thought about it and said confidently, “Rest assured, madam. Little Xin takes after me.”
“How so?”
“Blind confidence.”
He Miaojun: “...”
“Once Bailudong Academy rejects him, he'll know that quietly inheriting our Huichun Hall is the best choice. Talented scholars and beautiful ladies, emperors and generals—those are all stories from storybooks. For ordinary folk like us, being ordinary is a blessing.”
Lianshan Jingcheng's words won He Miaojun's approval. “Well said. Being ordinary is a blessing. We named our son wrong—he's far too confidently ordinary.”
Just as the two of them were gradually relaxing, a green-robed scholar walked into the clinic.
“Excuse me, are you the Master Lianshan whose healing hands bring patients back from the brink?” the scholar asked.
Lianshan Jingcheng's medical skills were good, and he had a small reputation in Jiangzhou. People often came from far and wide to seek his treatment. Especially after he'd once demonstrated a technique that could restore a man's vigor—Huichun Hall's business had grown fivefold.
Lianshan Jingcheng naturally greeted him with a smile. “Young sir, are you looking for me?”
The man looked a little familiar. Lianshan Jingcheng suspected he was a repeat customer.
So young, and already suffering from a hidden ailment?
Were young people these days so weak so early?
“No. I'm looking for your son.”
Lianshan Jingcheng was taken aback. “Little Xin? What do you want with him?”
“Bailudong Academy is about to take in new students. On my master's orders, I've come specially to deliver an admission letter to Young Master Xin.”