Although the scholars of Valeguard Kingdom don’t study the Four Books and Five Classics, they still follow the tradition that a scholar should keep his hands clean. If a scholar is seen doing manual labor, he’ll be mocked by his peers.
Song Yan isn’t even a child-student yet, but he barely qualifies as a scholar. As his wife, Yoyo Chen would never let him carry firewood—if anyone in the village saw it, Song Yan would become a laughingstock.
Seeing Yoyo Chen insist, Song Yan could only give up the idea of helping her carry firewood. Honestly, ever since Yoyo Chen married into the Song family, she hasn’t had a single day of comfort—always worrying about daily necessities, and on top of that, suffering his cold disdain.
It’s worth remembering: even now, she’s just a fourteen-year-old girl. On Earth, a girl her age would still be pampered by her parents.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed.
From his pre-awakening memories, he knew that although this world doesn’t have the Four Books and Five Classics, it does have the Five National Histories and the Six Sage Discourses.
The so-called Five Histories are the records of the previous five dynasties, while the Six Discourses are the maxims of wisdom left behind by six sages.
The imperial exams test knowledge from these Five National Histories and Six Sage Discourses. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s just eleven books—the content is vast. Song Yan started studying at age five, and after eight years, he’s only barely finished the Five Histories.
The scholarly ranks here are just like ancient China on Earth: child-student, xiucai, juren, and jinshi.
As long as you pass the child-student exam, you can collect a stipend from the county yamen. It’s not much, but it’s still two qian a month.
If you pass the xiucai exam, your monthly salary jumps to one tael and two qian. If you can land a job teaching at a private school, life becomes much more comfortable.
So before awakening, Song Yan’s greatest wish was to pass the xiucai exam.
Without realizing it, the couple returned home together.
Their home was a small, standalone courtyard—just two rooms and a kitchen, with the latrine out back.
Thanks to the long stretch of monsoon rains, the house was damp and dim inside.
"Young master, you must be hungry. I’ll cook for you!"
Yoyo Chen put away the firewood and spoke to Song Yan.
"Mm!"
Song Yan nodded, not offering to help again—he knew Yoyo wouldn’t accept it anyway.
But when she opened the rice jar, Yoyo’s face fell. There was only a thin layer of millet left. Even if they ate watery porridge every meal, it wouldn’t last more than three days.
For a moment, she considered going back to her mother’s family in the neighboring village to borrow some grain, but then she thought of her sister-in-law’s sour face and couldn’t help but sigh.
Watching Yoyo Chen’s shifting expressions, Song Yan felt that the most important thing right now was to improve their household situation.
After about half an hour, Yoyo Chen called Song Yan for dinner.
Dinner was a thin millet broth porridge, with a few wild vegetable leaves floating in it—plain and bland. For a side dish, there were some mashed salted vegetables. Song Yan picked some up to taste—it was actually pretty good.
After finishing a bowl of watery porridge, Song Yan felt noticeably more energetic.
"Young master, let me get you some more rice."
Yoyo Chen took his wooden bowl and filled it with another serving of porridge, but put down her own chopsticks.
"You’re not eating?"
Song Yan asked.
"I’m full, young master. You eat!" Yoyo Chen gave him a smile, feeling that something was different about him today—he wasn’t looking at her with the usual disdain, which made her quite happy inside.
Song Yan didn’t say anything. He ate half of the bowl, then set it down and said to Yoyo Chen, "You finish the rest. I can’t eat any more—I’m going to read for a bit."
With that, Song Yan got up and went to his room.
That’s right—he and Yoyo Chen slept in separate rooms. His room was both his bedroom and his study.
"System, come out!"
After sitting down in his room, Song Yan silently called out in his heart.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished, the System interface appeared in the air before him.
Host: Song Yan
Spirit: 90 (average for a normal person is 100)
Physical Strength: 55 (average for a normal person is 100)
Skills: None
Divine Abilities: None
Qi Luck: 5 points
Looking at his stats, Song Yan felt only one thing: he was utterly pathetic—worse than a 'battle power of five' meme.
Before reincarnating, he’d already discussed with his master, Leo Li, how to seize this Eternal Grand World. The first step: gather Qi Luck and become the Child of Fortune.
Everyone has Qi Luck. Those with plenty of it succeed at everything—they might fall off a cliff and not only survive, but stumble into a lucky encounter. Those with poor Qi Luck are always unlucky.
Ordinary people’s Qi Luck ranges from 0 to 10 points. With just 5, he’s only slightly above average—destined for mediocrity. If he hadn’t awakened, Song Yan was sure he’d never achieve more than passing the xiucai exam, at best.
He put those thoughts aside and focused his mind on the System.
Now, the System was completely under his control. If he hadn’t reincarnated and still had peak Creation Realm power, the System would be almost useless. But as a mortal, it was a huge help.
Of course, in the past, all the System’s divine abilities, cultivation methods, and bloodlines were loaded by his master Leo Li. Now, to gain new skills, powers, or bloodlines, he’d have to fill it himself.
The method is simple: as long as he finds a technique, divine ability, or bloodline, the System can scan and store it. He can then fuse it directly, saving years of training.
Meanwhile, he’ll need to keep collecting Qi Luck—only with enough luck can he quickly fuse and master new skills.
So, for now, the System is basically a cheat device.
He closed the System.
Song Yan picked up a copy of the History of Zhou from his desk. Zhou was the previous dynasty, lasting over eight hundred years, while Valeguard has only ruled for a little over a century—and it’s already in decline.
That’s mainly because Valeguard’s rule was illegitimate—it was a usurpation. Rumor has it, the current royal family were prime ministers of the previous dynasty before grabbing power.
They took over so easily, there wasn’t much chaos.
As a result, Valeguard is full of powerful gate-clans, and the court’s control over the regions is weak. After the takeover, the royal family even enfeoffed a group of meritorious officials as princes.
Over the past century, of the five princes granted fiefs, one rebelled and lost his territory, but the other four rule their lands like kings—almost independent states.
When it comes to taxes, the four vassal states only pay symbolic amounts. The royal court can’t appoint their officials or touch their armies. If all four rebelled, Valeguard would be powerless to stop them.
The Zhou dynasty lasted over eight hundred years, so the History of Zhou alone fills more than thirty volumes. Add the histories of the other four kingdoms, and you get over a hundred books. No wonder it took Song Yan more than eight years just to finish reading the Five National Histories.