Chapter 1

In the holy Yuan Continent, in the Jing Kingdom, Jiangzhou, Dayuan Prefecture, and Jixian County.

The sky was clear and blue, the sun was bright, and birds chirped joyfully. The ground was scattered with leaves and petals that had fallen during the night rain, exuding a vibrant spring atmosphere.

Fang Yun felt a chill all over his body and suddenly woke up, opening his eyes to look around in confusion.

Fang Yun found himself lying on a cobblestone alley, the ground still wet. He quickly leaned against the wall to stand up, feeling intense pain and a burning sensation all over his body.

"I clearly remember the library catching fire, and then I jumped out of the building to escape. Why am I here? What is this place?" Fang Yun wondered to himself.

Fang Yun noticed that his clothes were different. He looked down and was shocked to see that he was wearing ancient coarse linen clothes, stained with mud, water, and blood. His arms were thin and small.

There was a small puddle nearby. Fang Yun looked down and saw his reflection in the water.

"Isn't this the me from when I was fourteen or fifteen?"

Suddenly, Fang Yun's head began to ache severely, and his vision was filled with stars. A flood of memories surged into his mind. He gritted his teeth tightly, and sweat dripped from his forehead.

After an unknown amount of time, Fang Yun calmed down, his eyes filled with complex emotions as he slowly organized the additional memories.

"Turns out, this is not Earth, but the holy Yuan Continent, a place I've never heard of. The young man named Fang Yun here has already been killed. Could it be that I died in the library and, by some chance, took over his body? Is this what they call reincarnation?"

"This Fang Yun's strongest wish was to become a scholar, to bring glory to his family through talent. Here, there is actually a power called 'talent,' which scholars can use to control the 'heavenly essence,' gaining even greater strength. This is truly unheard of."

"Hey? The history here..."

Fang Yun discovered that, apart from the existence of demons and barbarians, the history of the holy Yuan Continent was normal before the Shang Dynasty. However, significant changes occurred at the end of the Shang Dynasty.

At the end of the Shang Dynasty, the Western Duke Ji Chang, who later became King Wen of Zhou, observed the sun, moon, and stars to write the ancient book *I Ching*. The sky showed strange phenomena, and his talent was bestowed by heaven, making him a sub-sage. He led the Western Qi army to attack King Zhou of Shang.

The Western Qi army advanced like a sharp blade, reaching the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Chao Ge, after several days. Suddenly, the city gates opened, and ten thousand demon clans, thirty thousand barbarian clans, and a million Shang soldiers poured out like a flood, surrounding the twenty thousand Western Qi soldiers.

King Zhou of Shang stood on the city wall, hugging the fox demon Daji, and loudly cursed the Western Qi soldiers. He then ordered a full attack. Just as the Western Qi soldiers were about to face a catastrophic disaster, King Wen of Zhou descended from the sky on a green cloud.

King Wen of Zhou, dressed in white, glared coldly, listing the ten major crimes of King Zhou of Shang. With each crime he listed, the Shang Dynasty's fortune decreased by one-tenth, and King Zhou aged by ten years. After King Wen finished, the Shang Dynasty's fortune was completely destroyed, and King Zhou was on the verge of death.

King Wen's talent transformed into a blazing sun, hanging high in the sky. He held the holy book *I Ching* and recited it, with tiny golden characters flying out of his mouth, growing larger and larger until they became as big as a person. Countless golden characters surrounded the blazing sun, emitting a brilliant golden light, illuminating the world.

The golden light did not harm humans, but the ten thousand demon clans and thirty thousand barbarian clans suddenly screamed in agony, their bodies splitting from the inside out, spewing blood, and dying one after another.

In the end, all five barbarian sages were killed, and only one of the three demon sages managed to escape.

On the battlefield of Muye, blood flowed like a river.

King Zhou died, and a million Shang soldiers surrendered.

Later generations praised King Wen of Zhou: "He single-handedly slaughtered demons and barbarians, and alone brought peace to the world."

Afterward, King Wen of Zhou passed the throne to King Wu of Zhou and devoted himself to studying the *I Ching*, living for five hundred years.

After that, no one in the world had talent until Confucius was born.

When Confucius was born, he was ugly and deformed, and was abandoned in the wilderness. The weather was extremely hot, but an eagle descended, flapping its wings to create a breeze to cool him down. A mother tiger carried Confucius into her den and fed him with tiger milk, so later generations said that Confucius was "born of a dragon, raised by a tiger, and fanned by an eagle."

Later, the mother tiger returned Confucius to his mother, who raised him with great care.

Confucius's mother was a concubine. After his father's death, Confucius and his mother were driven away by his father's main wife.

In his youth, Confucius was very poor. After becoming a sage, he once told his disciples, "I was poor in my youth, so I learned many humble skills." This meant that he was very poor in his youth and thus learned many practical skills.

Confucius was very ordinary in his youth but showed extraordinary qualities in his middle age and traveled around the various states.

In his old age, Confucius returned to the state of Lu to serve as an official, eventually becoming one of the highest officials, the Grand Master of Justice, but was later forced to resign.

After resigning, Confucius revised the *Book of Songs*, *Book of Documents*, *Book of Rites*, and *Book of Music*, and wrote a preface to King Wen's *I Ching*. Finally, he personally wrote the *Spring and Autumn Annals*. When the book was completed, his talent soared to the sky, and flowers fell from the heavens, stars shone, and clouds and thunder filled the sky, shaking the world, making him a sub-sage.

After becoming a sage, Confucius secluded himself for ten years.

Not long after, the demon sage of the snake clan, who had escaped during the Shang-Zhou war, after eight hundred years of cultivation, advanced to become a great sage, planning to avenge the destruction of demons and barbarians by King Wen of Zhou, and launched a large-scale invasion.

The power of a great sage was slightly stronger than that of a human sub-sage, even surpassing King Wen of Zhou at the time.

The demon-barbarian coalition reached the city of Yuhai, causing panic among the people.

Just as the demons and barbarians were about to attack the city, Confucius arrived on the "State Car," holding the *Spring and Autumn Annals* in his left hand and the "Spring and Autumn Pen" in his right. Seeing the great sage of the snake clan, he smiled and said, "Food should not be too refined, and fish should not be too finely sliced. Please, great sage, enter my pot, and I will cook you with a fierce fire."

A million demons and barbarians were enraged. Confucius raised his pen, and the wind and clouds gathered, the sky darkened. The *Spring and Autumn Pen* wrote nine "punish" characters, each a blade, killing the great sage of the snake clan, splitting him into ten parts. Then, Confucius publicly cooked and ate the hundred-foot-long great sage of the snake clan.

During the cooking process, the million demons and barbarians tried to escape. Confucius casually threw the *Spring and Autumn Annals* into the sky, covering three thousand miles. The book moved, and a million demons and barbarians were killed.

The people knelt and called him a sage.

Later, Confucius founded the first academy, the Qufu Academy, breaking the educational monopoly and admitting thirty thousand ordinary students, three thousand personal disciples, and seventy-two virtuous disciples.

All those who studied under Confucius naturally possessed talent.

Later, Confucius advanced further, becoming a sage, a first in history and unmatched by any who came after.

The sage foresaw a great crisis for humanity and, riding the "State Car," went alone to the three barbarian lands, the four seas, and the five demon mountains, forcing the demons and barbarians to sign a thousand-year non-aggression pact.

No one knew the specific details of Confucius's journey to the three barbarian lands, the four seas, and the five mountains, only that after his return, he visited all the schools and then secluded himself.

After Confucius secluded himself, Mencius, Xunzi, Zengzi, Zisi, and Yanzi, who had received personal instruction from Confucius, successively became half-sages, below sub-sages.

The Confucian scholars no longer opposed other schools. Confucius's grandson, Zisi, even proposed the idea of "learning from all schools," actively seeking knowledge from other schools and helping them learn talent. Mozi of the Mohist school, Han Feizi of the Legalist school, Lü Buwei of the Eclectic school, Xu Xing of the Agrarian school, and Sunzi of the Military school successively became half-sages.

It was not until the Han dynasty, when Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang rose to power by slaying a white snake demon, that his disciples learned that Confucius was about to die.

When Confucius passed away, his body transformed into a pillar of talent, rising to the sky, lasting for a long time, visible to all. Three days later, the pillar of talent split into three parts: one entered the Qufu Academy, one entered the thirty thousand disciples, and one entered the world.

Mencius, Xunzi, Zengzi, Zisi, and Yanzi, the five half-sages, advanced further, becoming sub-sages.

From then on, the era of talent began.

From then on, the Hundred Schools of Thought ultimately converged to Confucianism.

Without the tragedy of the suppression of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the human race flourished.

After Confucius's death, the Qufu Academy was renamed the "Holy Academy," with a transcendent status.

The Holy Academy gradually perfected the power of talent, following Confucius's will, absorbing the essence of the Hundred Schools of Thought, and selecting talent, creating ten ranks of scholars: scholar, candidate, provincial candidate, metropolitan candidate, imperial scholar, grand scholar, great scholar, half-sage, sub-sage, and sage.

The higher a scholar's rank, the more talent they possessed, and the more powerful the heavenly essence they could control.

Fang Yun was overwhelmed with emotion, never imagining such a wondrous world.

"By becoming a scholar, one can possess the basic 'talent' and receive a heavenly gift. The gift for a scholar is 'night vision,' allowing one to see in the dark and read without oil lamps. After becoming a candidate, one can 'talk about war on paper,' which is not a mocking phrase but means that the war poems and war verses written by candidates can transform into reality, forming powerful forces. As one's rank increases, there are even more incredible heavenly gifts."

Fang Yun also recalled that the holy Yuan Continent had experienced the Qin, Han, and Three Kingdoms periods. Currently, the holy Yuan Continent has ten countries. Through recent historical figures, Fang Yun deduced that the current time on the holy Yuan Continent was probably before the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Fang Yun listed the recent figures who had become sages.

Wang Xizhi, known as the "Sage of Calligraphy," became a half-sage through *Lanting Xu*, *Ping An Tie*, and *Sang Lu Tie*, below sub-sage.

Tao Yuanming became a half-sage through *Peach Blossom Spring*, *Biography of Mr. Wuliu*, and *Returning to the Fields*.

Zu Chongzhi became a half-sage through *Zhu Shu*, *Daming Li*, and *Yi Yi*.

Li Daoyuan became a half-sage through *Shui Jing Zhu* and *Ben Zhi*.

Fan Zhen became a great scholar through *On the Annihilation of the Soul*, below half-sage.

However, there was no Li Bai! No Du Fu!

No Bai Juyi! No Wang Changling!

No Li Shangyin! No Wen Tingyun!

No Wang Wei! No Du Mu!

No Han Yu! No Liu Zongyuan!

No Yan Zhenqing! No Liu Gongquan!

No Su Dongpo! No Ouyang Xiu!

No Lu You! No Li Qingzhao!

No Lu Jiuyuan! No Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao! No Zhu Xi! No Wang Yangming!

None of the famous figures after the Sui and Tang dynasties!

Fang Yun took a deep breath. Undoubtedly, for him, this might be the best era!

Suddenly, Fang Yun's expression changed slightly, as he remembered his current identity and the day.

This Fang Yun came from a poor family, with both parents deceased. The only person in the family was a child bride named Yuhuan, who was three years older than him.

The Fang family originally could not afford a child bride, but Yuhuan was brought to the Fang family by her father during a famine. Her father stole the little money the Fang family had and gambled it away, losing and cheating. He was beaten to near death and, before dying, said he had sold Yuhuan to the Fang family as a child bride to repay the debt.

Yuhuan was a beauty from a young age and grew up to be even more beautiful, known as the "Jiangzhou Xi Shi" by the neighbors. Even in her simple coarse linen dress, her extraordinary beauty could not be hidden.

After the death of his parents, Fang Yun and Yuhuan relied on each other. Yuhuan was skilled and made a living by doing needlework.

Fang Yun studied in a private school in the morning and worked as a waiter at the Jixiang Restaurant in the afternoon, determined to pass the scholar examination.