Great Zhao, Lin'an Prefecture.
By West Lake, white jade railings stretched as far as the eye could see. A spring rain had just passed, leaving the air faintly cool and tinged with a sweet fragrance.
The emerald lake water rippled, stirring the lotus leaves floating atop it. At the center of the lake, flower boats adorned with red lanterns had already begun brewing the restlessness of a spring night. Slender women could vaguely be seen leaning against the cabin windows, their autumn-wave eyes shifting.
Scholars and poets trod upon the rain-washed bluestone, loitering along the long embankment. They chanted poems and matched couplets, occasionally standing on tiptoe to gaze toward the flower boats, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bewitching beauties within without ever boarding—enjoying a free meal.
"Ah, it's too far away. I can't see clearly."
"Why not rent a painted pleasure boat and get closer? Maybe we'll see the Flower Queen. We could save quite a bit of silver."
On the long embankment, a youth in azure robes held a jug of wine. After taking a light sip, he muttered to himself.
"But if I don't go see the Flower Queen, I won't have to spend any silver."
The youth furrowed his brow and refuted himself. "Scholars and poets do so love a taste of romance."
"Forget it. Without silver, I can't afford romance. I can barely pay for my inn room."
The youth sighed. Being unable to enjoy the pleasures of freeloading left him deeply melancholy.
He raised the wine jug and took a drink against the beautiful scenery of West Lake.
A gentle breeze brushed his face, and willows swayed softly.
As he watched the bustling West Lake, faint ripples gradually rose in the youth's eyes.
He had never imagined that one day, he would encounter something so absurd—transmigrating across boundless time and space into the body of a scholar traveling to the capital for the imperial examination.
The scholar himself had not been poor. He came from a Lineage in Chong Prefecture and could even be called well-off. Yet he had not understood the principle of keeping wealth hidden. Nearing the capital, he had been robbed. His guards had thrown down their burdens and fled, while the scholar was beaten severely, allowing a visitor from another world to arrive.
The young scholar had been named An Le in both this life and his previous one, which made the transition easier to accept. In his past life, he had been an art student admitted into an academy of fine arts, with no small degree of skill in painting.
After arriving in the capital, he had fortunately relied on the one tael of silver hidden in his trouser pocket to buy paper and find charcoal. By selling several realistic sketches in a wholly different style, he earned some silver and barely gained a foothold.
In An Le's memories, there had been no dynasty called Great Zhao in his former life. Yet after inheriting this body's memories, he gained a hazy understanding of the entire world.
This world was anything but ordinary. There were cultivators, Gods and Devils, and chaos tangled like hemp.
Along his journey to the capital, An Le had seen human lives treated as cheap as grass, with the bones of those frozen to death lying by the roadside.
Beyond the borders, powerful foreign nations watched like tigers stalking prey, prepared at any time to march south, crush Great Zhao's territory, and wholly occupy the Central Plains.
Great Zhao's capital had originally been in the north, where it had faced the barbarian tribes for eight hundred years. In the end, the foreign tribes grew too powerful, and the Zhao Emperor ordered the entire court to move south, establishing the capital at Lin'an to temporarily avoid their edge.
Yet five hundred years had already passed since the Great Zhao Southern Migration. The capital of Lin'an had become incomparably prosperous, filled with music and revelry night after night. Any thought of heading north to reclaim the lost lands of the Central Plains had long since been buried beneath that prosperity.
In Great Zhao, all pursuits were lowly; cultivation alone stood high.
Even scholars could not compare to cultivators.
The imperial examinations were even divided into Jia and Yi Jinshi. No matter how brilliant your literary talent or how peerless your gifts, even if you could become a capable minister who governed an age, if you were not a cultivator, you could only enter the Yi Bang Jinshi. Only cultivators could place among the Jia Bang Jinshi and ask for the cauldron of top scholar.
An Le had been unable to cultivate, but if he wanted to live with some dignity in this era, becoming a Yi Bang Jinshi was still a way out.
That was also why An Le chose to continue toward the capital and prepare for the imperial examination.
He even harbored a wild ambition—to strive for a place among the Jia Bang Jinshi.
If he could become a Jia Bang Jinshi, that would be true success in the examinations, soaring into the sky in a single leap.
Though he had yet to begin cultivating, he still held hope, for he possessed the reliance of a transmigrator.
Gazing at the faintly rippling surface of West Lake, An Le's pupils unfocused. A translucent light screen unexpectedly appeared before his eyes.
Name: An Le Time Qi: 2 strands Time Dao Fruit: None
It was a very simple light screen. It had only appeared three days ago, when An Le first stepped into Lin'an Prefecture.
After several attempts, An Le discovered that through the light screen, he could draw in a gray current called Time Qi.
Although An Le had yet to figure out the use of that gray current.
There was no doubt, however, that if An Le wanted to step onto the path of cultivation, he could only place his hopes on this.
In Great Zhao, cultivators held esteemed status. Once one stepped into cultivation and registered with the authorities, one could even receive a monthly stipend. It was said that even the lowest-ranked cultivators could receive thirty taels of silver.
Thirty taels of silver—enough for An Le to live quite comfortably in Lin'an.
With a trace of envy, An Le dismissed the light screen before him. Several scholars and refined men beside him began to stir. Amid the mist at the center of the lake, a Flower Boat lit its red lanterns. The curtains of its cabin lifted, and graceful maidservants in goose-yellow dresses slowly emerged, standing in rows on either side.
Though they were far away, the maidservants possessed slender, enchanting figures and beauty no less than the leading ladies of ordinary flower boats, setting many scholars' hearts surging.
This display was unusual. Based on the original owner's memories, An Le knew something of the flower boats' hierarchy. The flower boats on West Lake were ranked as well—the closer to the lake's center, the higher their status, and the more esteemed the Flower Queens within.
There were even rumors that the Flower Queen aboard the foremost Flower Boat at the lake's center was a cultivator with considerable cultivation!
A cultivating woman serving as a Flower Queen—how could scholars and poets not be excited? That was an added bonus to her professional charm.
If they could taste her fragrance even once, a hundred poems would not be enough to boast about it.
Suddenly, an uproar rose from the crowd of scholars along the long embankment.
"Fairy Yun Rou has arrived!"
"So beautiful! A Female Sword Immortal, peerless in grace!"
"If I could board Fairy Yun Rou's Flower Boat, this life would be worth it! Even if I failed this Spring Imperial Examination, I would have no regrets!!"
The scholars and poets chattered endlessly, their flirtatious nonsense pouring forth in streams.
An Le stood upon the long embankment, raised his wine jug, and took a light sip. The wine's rich aroma spread across the corner of his slightly upturned lips. His eyes narrowed, carrying a hint of excitement.
"She's finally here."
A hundred meters above, a dazzling streak of sword light flashed as a longsword pierced through the sky.
Upon that longsword stood a woman in white, tall and slender. Her three thousand strands of black hair streamed in the wind, while the mist over the lake seemed to be swept up by her Sword Qi. She was ethereal and peerless.
The woman using Sword Control descended onto the Flower Boat. The maidservants on both sides bent at the waist in salute. Then the woman in white glanced back and smiled. A veil covered her mouth and nose, yet the exposed curve of her brows and eyes seemed to send currents of electricity racing forth.
It electrified the scholars on the embankment, making their hearts pound and itch unbearably.
Though it was not his first time seeing her, An Le was still stunned by her beauty. More importantly, witnessing Sword Control flight with his own eyes was simply too overwhelming.
A female sword immortal playing the part of a female sword immortal—this was what they played with in this era. What scholar could withstand such a test?
In An Le's faintly narrowed eyes, wisps of gray airflow unexpectedly curled around the ethereal white-clad Flower Queen as she landed upon the Flower Boat, coiling like Flood Dragons.
Counting carefully, there were more than a dozen strands of gray airflow.
The gray currents were utterly out of place amid the white mist blanketing the lake. Though separated by a great distance, An Le could see them with incomparable clarity. Vaguely, they even produced an immensely powerful pull toward him.
An Le had spent the past several days lingering along West Lake's embankment precisely because of this cultivator Flower Queen. The two strands of Time Qi in the light screen had been harvested from Fairy Yun Rou over the previous two days.
The first time he saw Fairy Yun Rou on the long embankment, An Le had detected the Time Qi upon her. She possessed more than a dozen strands of it, yet An Le could only harvest one strand per day.
Thus, over the following days, An Le kept coming to West Lake to lie in wait.
One strand a day, slowly harvesting them.
Though he still did not know the use of Time Qi, under the principle that there was no reason not to harvest free gains, gathering more could not be wrong.
Before his eyes, the pale golden light screen appeared.
Within the light screen, the Time Qi entry flickered faintly.
Then An Le saw a strand of gray airflow break free from the foremost Flower Boat at the center of West Lake, drifting like a dandelion seed floating unrestrained through the world.
The gray current crossed several hundred meters of West Lake before finally circling An Le's fingertips.
Yet strangely, that gray current transformed into gold as it coiled around his fingertip, like a gleam of gold bursting from mud and sand. Its brilliance could not be concealed as it flowed into An Le's body.
Within the light screen, another strand appeared under Time Qi.
As for why it had turned gold, An Le could not understand it either.
Since he could not understand it, he simply did not bother with it.
His great task complete, An Le happily drained a large cup.
With a hopeful mindset, An Le tried to freeload another strand of Time Qi from the foremost Flower Queen. However, the Time Qi entry on the light screen no longer flickered, and he could not draw any more in. Clearly, it had entered its sage phase.
Feeling faintly regretful, An Le turned away without a trace of attachment. He squeezed past the flushed, excited crowd of scholars behind him, carrying his wine jug as he swayed off.
However, he had only just stepped out of the crowd and taken two steps.
When An Le froze.
Because before his eyes, the golden current he had just drawn in burned like a stick of golden incense, its smoke curling upward.
Then An Le discovered that a scroll had unfurled before him, its images shifting like light and shadow.
Like a film, it began to play slowly.
What entered his sight was a woman's boudoir.
Gauze curtains hung low, and the heavy fragrance of rouge filled the room.
Upon the bed in the boudoir, there was unexpectedly the faint outline of a graceful, alluring figure.
Looking closely, An Le was immediately shocked.
Because that alluring figure...
Was precisely the cultivating Flower Queen—the Female Sword Immortal—who had ridden her sword across West Lake and boarded the Flower Boat!
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