Chapter 1: Chapter 1
"Young Master, young master!"
"it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much."
So this wasn’t a dream after all. He really had transmigrated.
Inside the antique room, Adam pinched the flawless, delicate cheek of his maidservant Cecilia. Hearing her pleas for mercy, he finally accepted the truth of his situation.
Nothing that just happened was a dream, he had genuinely crossed over into another world.
After his consciousness merged with the body’s memories, Adam gained a rough grasp of who he was now and what kind of world he had landed in.
The original owner of this body had been a scholar who toiled bitterly through his studies for eighteen long years.
Though he had only barely scraped his way through the imperial examinations, during the palace examination three days ago, he was unexpectedly named the third-highest ranking graduate, purely on account of his extraordinarily handsome face.
By any measure, it counted as a meteoric rise.
But his looks proved to be both his greatest fortune and his greatest curse.
Because his appearance was so striking, the Empress’s gaze had lingered on him for a few moments too long, and this small lapse provoked the displeasure of the Emperor.
In a burst of fury, the Emperor decreed that the original owner be sent to compile books at Inkwood Academy for thirty years.
With one sentence, his future was essentially ruined.
The original owner returned home, and the more he dwelt on the matter, the more enraged he became.
In the end, consumed by anger and despair, he simply dropped dead on the spot, leaving his body conveniently vacant for Adam to occupy, like a cuckoo settling into a dove’s nest.
Honestly, the original owner was something else. Was it really worth losing your life over such a trivial setback?
It wasn’t that Adam was dismissing the man’s pain lightly. Rather, while sifting through the inherited memories, he had uncovered a far more startling fact.
This was no ordinary feudal society he had stumbled into. It was a fantasy dynasty where martial arts reigned supreme.
Silver Willow, a young dynasty established a thousand years ago during the Fifth Heaven and Earth Upheaval.
Within Silver Willow, martial arts were held in the highest reverence.
Of all the high-ranking officials standing in the imperial court, which one was not a martial arts titan, a pillar capable of holding down an entire region by himself?
The original owner, unfortunately, had no real talent for cultivation.
After grinding away for over a decade, he had only managed to reach the fifth level of Qi Condensation.
Even if blind luck had landed him the title of third-highest ranking graduate, without proper cultivation talent he had no genuine future ahead of him.
At his cultivation level, the most he could realistically expect was to be sent off to some remote county as a magistrate. The post would grant him a touch more freedom than a compiler at Inkwood Academy, but nothing more than that.
Taking even one step further up the ladder would be next to impossible.
In Adam’s view, however, becoming a compiler at Inkwood Academy wasn’t a bad outcome at all.
Silver Willow Dynasty was a world where the strong preyed on the weak and martial strength ruled over everything. A greenhorn stuck at the fifth level of Qi Condensation was nothing more than cannon fodder in a place like this.
True, the public order in Silver Willow Dynasty was reasonably decent, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t one day let the wrong word slip and get cut down on the spot by some passing stranger.
The position of Inkwood Academy Compiler might be lowly, but it was still an official title.
More importantly, Inkwood Academy itself was a quiet backwater, untouched by power struggles and free of the usual corruption. The compiler role, in particular, was about as safe and unremarkable as a post could get.
Even if Adam knew nothing about navigating politics, as long as he kept his head down and stayed quietly in the academy, he could comfortably live out the rest of his life in peace.
"Young Master, being a compiler at Inkwood Academy isn’t so bad. Please, don’t go and make yourself sick with anger all over again."
Ever since Adam had collapsed from rage and lay bedridden for three days straight, Cecilia had been genuinely frightened.
Now that she saw him finally awake, she couldn’t help but try to offer some words of comfort.
"Don’t worry. I’ve survived a great disaster, and I’ve thought things through. Working at Inkwood Academy is actually quite nice."
"Alright then. I’ve been stuck at home in bed for three days. Now that I’m finally up, it’s time I went and reported for duty at the academy."
After bidding Cecilia farewell, Adam set off to take up his post.
...
Adam’s work at Inkwood Academy was to compile biographies. Put simply, his job was to write out the life stories of famous historical figures.
Once he arrived at the academy and had barely settled into his seat, his colleague Oswin sidled over with a mysterious look on his face.
"Adam, do you know why a third-highest ranking graduate like yourself ended up getting demoted by the Emperor and stuck as a compiler at Inkwood Academy for thirty whole years?"
Oswin was the very first friend Adam had made at the academy. Aside from his fondness for gossip and his eagerness to join in on any bit of fun, he was actually quite a loyal and upright sort of person.
"Isn’t it because the Emperor is petty?" Adam, slightly caught off guard, glanced around before lowering his voice and chiming in.
"How is that possible!"
