Chapter 325: System, you're rebelling!

Gu Yuan finished reading the task list, stood up, and straightened his long robe.

"This time I won't use immersion mode, nor bring anyone." Gu Yuan ordered, "Arrange a reasonable identity for me; I'll go out on my own."

After being a high-and-mighty young lord in the Primordial Immortal Realm for a while, occasionally changing disguises to experience the path of an ordinary scholar taking the imperial examinations, just to adjust life.

He wanted to see whether this so-called official road could suppress someone who harbors a perfect great world within him.

【Identity forgery in progress……】

【Travel warrant generation complete.】

【Host's current identity: Great Yin Divine Dynasty, impoverished scholar under Azure Prefecture, Gu Ziyuan. Parents deceased, family declined, possessing nothing, only filled with strategic talent.】

"No possessions?" Gu Yuan weighed the travel warrant that appeared out of thin air in his hand, "This system is getting stingier, not even giving me any travel funds."

【Read ten thousand volumes, travel ten thousand miles. The persona of a destitute scholar who studied hard in a cold window helps the host better integrate into the world's lower strata and experience the authentic imperial examination culture.】

The system spoke confidently.

Gu Yuan couldn't be bothered to argue with it, stepping into the void.

The Bronze Gate manifested, its doors opening.

Gu Yuan stepped forward, and the scenery of the Primordial Immortal Realm behind him vanished without a trace.

Great Yin Divine Dynasty, Azure City.

It was early spring, with continuous drizzle.

On the wet bluestone-paved street, the shops on both sides hung cloth awnings, and their hawking voices penetrated the rain curtain.

Gu Yuan stood at the street corner; the luxurious immortal-silk robe on his body had been replaced by the system with a whitened hemp long coat, its hem still stained with mud, and he held a tattered oil-paper umbrella.

He looked up at the sky.

Here the heavens were utterly different from those of the Primordial Immortal Realm.

There was no wandering heavenly-earth spiritual energy; instead, there was an invisible great net covering the entire city.

From a higher-dimensional perspective, every civilian walking the streets had an extremely fine gray thread above their head, extending upward and converging above the county office at the city's center.

Above the county office hovered a crimson cloud of fortune, within which a faint phantom of an official seal rose and fell.

This crimson cloud also split off a thicker line, running north all the way toward the distant capital.

"The populace sustains the imperial authority, which in turn nourishes the officials."

Gu Yuan withdrew his gaze and gave his evaluation,

"An extremely precise and selfish energy-harvesting system."

The commoners' faith, labor, and even lifespan are transformed into fortune, which is offered up to the court.

While officials, through the official seal, draw down this power.

Here, the saying that an official one rank higher can crush a person is no joke.

Gu Yuan folded his oil-paper umbrella and walked with the crowd toward the eastern tribute academy.

Today was the day the triennial county examination of Azure Prefecture opened.

Before the tribute academy's gates, crowds already gathered; hundreds of scholars in various robes lined up in long queues, awaiting body search and entry.

Some shivered from the cold, some murmured verses while reciting classics.

Gu Yuan blended into the crowd, appearing extremely inconspicuous.

He gripped the forged travel warrant from the system in his hand, eyeing the plaque hanging above the tribute academy's gate.

The plaque bore the four large characters "Seek Talent for the State." The strokes contained a faint power of law; ordinary demons approaching would be slain outright by these four characters.

"Name, native place."

When it was Gu Yuan's turn, two yamen runners in black robes stopped him.

Gu Yuan handed over the travel warrant.

The yamen runner took the travel warrant, glanced at it rudely, then sized up Gu Yuan's shabby attire, his tone impatient: "Gu Ziyuan, resident of South City Willow Tree Lane. Alright, go in. Go to the body-search entrance, clean out any contraband, don't go looking for trouble for yourself."

Gu Yuan took back the document and stepped into the tribute academy's gate.

In the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's imperial examinations, they test neither the eight-legged essay nor poetry, songs, and prose.

This is a world of Qi Luck Divine Path; the examination tests the candidate's understanding of heavenly-earth fortune, their strategies for governing the state, and the talent nurtured within their chest.

The examination cells were cramped and narrow, leaking wind on three sides. A broken wooden board served as both desk and bed.

Gu Yuan sat in his own examination cell, laying out the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the examination basket.

He didn't rush to grind ink, but instead leaned on the board, closed his eyes to nurture his spirit, awaiting the sounding of the bronze gong that signals the exam's start.

"Dong——"

The lingering bronze gong's sound echoed above the tribute academy, overwhelming the continuous spring rain.

The chief examiner, escorted by several sword-wielding guards, ascended the Tower of Distant Brilliance.

That was Wang Bo'an, the County Magistrate of Azure Prefecture, wearing a seventh-rank blue official uniform, with a mandarin duck badge embroidered on his chest.

He stood on high, looking down at the hundreds of examination cells resembling pigeon cages; the crimson official aura above his head rolled slightly, showing his absolute dominance over this city.

The yamen runners carried the exam papers, shuttling between the cells to distribute them.

Gu Yuan received the exam paper and spread it on the rough wooden table.

The exam sheet contained only one essay question: "On the Origin of Fortune and the Foundation of the Divine Dynasty."

The topic was broad and also empty.

For these impoverished scholars who have never touched an official seal and can only rely on rote memorization of the sages' works, this question is downright tricky.

What they wrote was mostly empty praise, devoid of any spiritual energy.

Gu Yuan picked up the inferior wolf-hair brush and dipped it in the inkstone.

The cultivation system of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty is quite interesting.

Ordinary people who read accumulate talent in their chests.

When talent reaches a certain level, it can draw the resonance of the official qi in the examination hall, thereby leaving an omen on the answer sheet.

The stronger the omen, the higher the rank, and the higher the starting grade after being appointed an official.

Gu Yuan lacks the talent of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty, and he cannot answer the questions.

So.

He was ready to begin.

"System, you understand me."

【Host, we…】

"I'll give you one incense stick's time—either you give me a perfect answer, or I'll call for help; then you'll try to set things right, but in short, don't even think about it."

System: 【……】

Gazing at the answer before him that only he knew, Gu Yuan pondered briefly, and his pen tip fell onto the slightly yellowed xuan paper.

"As for fortune, it is not a gift from heaven but a gathering of the people's will; the foundation of a divine dynasty lies not in the stability of dragon veins, but in the livelihood of the myriad folk…"

Actually, the system's answer to him is quite simple.

Fortune is the aggregation of all beings' will; imperial authority is merely a vessel that shepherds the people on heaven's behalf—if the vessel is insatiably greedy and ignores the life and death of the lower classes, then fortune will surely develop blemishes and the divine dynasty will surely collapse.

"System, you're plotting a rebellion," Gu Yuan teased.