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Chapter 1: I Am the Student Song Mu

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“Damn it, my brother Mu is a student of the Great Wen Dynasty!”
“Which poor family is jealous of the Song family? That they are going as far as to cut off our family’s literary lineage for three hundred years!?”

……

Song Mu woke up in a daze, faintly hearing a few women’s anguished cries, still feeling a bit disoriented.

He only remembered that he had just been at the antique market, negotiating passionately with a vendor and finally managing to snag a copy of A Comprehensive Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poetry for ten bucks.

He was about to take it home to verify its authenticity when, unexpectedly, a beer bottle fell from the sky.

The bottle whistled down, grazing his head and exploding at his side. The shattered green glass frightened him so much that he hurriedly stepped back, accidentally stepping into a storm drain grate beside the road.

Just as he was trying to pull his foot out, a pink sports car came speeding towards him…

At that moment, Song Mu heard a deafening sound and saw a heavily make-up woman in the car, screaming in agony, clutching her chest. The windshield wipers on her car were still flailing, indicating her last-ditch efforts to remedy the situation…

After flipping in the air after being hit by a car for what felt leternity, Song Mu’s head hit the ground hard. He saw the A Comprehensive Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poetry he had just bought fall in front of him, and then his blood spilled onto its yellowed pages.

So, had he died?
But why was there still an oil lamp in the underworld?

As Song Mu pondered this, his surroundings gradually came into focus. He found himself lying in a spacious, ancient-looking room, illuminated only by a single oil lamp. The delicate flame on the bedside cast a dim, yellow light.

Beside him sat a skinny old man with a goatee,^[1]a small, sometimes pointed, beard. who had one hand resting on Song Mu’s wrist while the other fiddled with his beard, lost in thought. Their eyes met for a moment.

“Eh, you’re awake?”

The doctor with the goatee noticed Song Mu had opened his eyes and was momentarily taken aback. He suddenly pulled out one of his grayish-white beard hairs, frowned, and began to carefully check Song Mu’s pulse.

“The place outside the city, Guiyang, is a place of great misfortune. Young Master Song, with your frail body, staying there for half the night is like walking through the gates of hell. To wake up so quickly, let’s hope it’s not just a brief flicker of light before death ”

The goatee doctor murmured to himself, secretly praying that Song Mu was not merely experiencing a fleeting revival, as that would ruin his reputation for saving lives over the years.

At that moment, the door creaked open, and a short, chubby man rushed in. Upon seeing Song Mu awake, he hurried over, asking the doctor, “Dr. Liu, how is my nephew? The Song family has had only this one remaining heir for seventeen generations. If Mu can’t survive, I, Song Liangda, would be ashamed of my brother and our ancestors!”

The man was Song Mu’s second uncle, Song Liangda. Seeing that Song Mu had awakened, he rushed to him with concern.

“Mu, are you alright? Tell your second uncle what happened. How did you end up at Guiyang? That place is a graveyard for people with low vitality!”

Wiping his tears, Song Liangda was filled with fear but suddenly noticed Song Mu’s pained expression. With a cry of distress, Song Mu fainted again.

Song Mu had just begun to regain clarity, but as he opened his eyes, the consciousness of this body began to invade him. A flood of information surged in, causing his head to throb painfully, almost tearing apart.

“Dr. Liu, what’s wrong with my nephew again? Think of something quickly!”

Seeing Song Mu lose consciousness again, Song Liangda urgently called for Dr. Liu. Dr. Liu gritted his teeth, felt Song Mu’s still-present pulse, and spoke after a moment.

“Perhaps Young Master Song is suffering from depleted yang energy, with yin energy entering his body. Second Master Song, hurry and fetch three doses of qi-replenishing powder! If we give him strong medicine now, we might be able to save his life!”

Upon hearing Dr. Liu’s words, Song Liangda was already frightened to the core and quickly nodded as he dashed out.

Dr. Liu then took out two silver needles and quickly punctured Song Mu’s forehead and the soles of his feet, sighing lightly.

“It seems the literary lineage of the Song family has little hope of preservation now.”

While Dr. Liu hurried to provide treatment, Song Mu’s mind became clear, bombarded by the massive amount of information flooding in.

This world was no longer the ancient world that Song Mu knew. There were the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Qin and Han dynasties, and the Three Kingdoms, but after the glorious Tang Dynasty, everything changed.

In the tenth year of the Tianbao era, a meteor fell into the imperial city of Chang’an, suspended above the main hall, dazzling and radiant. Initially considered an auspicious omen, as the Southern Literary Star dimmed, people claimed it was the Literary Star descending to earth. However, anyone who touched it died violently, leading to many palace servants perishing as well, causing the imperial city to be sealed off as a site of death, regarded as a disaster.

Three years after the meteor fell, strange occurrences began in Chang’an, with demons frequently appearing. The vast territories of the Tang Dynasty were also undergoing strange transformations. At that time, An Lushan led his troops to rebellion, shaking the foundations of the Tang Dynasty. Though the An-Shi Rebellion was eventually suppressed, the calamities of humanity had paused, but the demons arose.

Humankind mobilized to resist with all their might. Within seven years, demons ravaged the land, causing suffering to countless lives, an era referred to as the Seven-Year Demon Chaos.

At that time, a great scholar named Zhang Ce invented “Literary Power,” using it like weapons to combat demons through poetry and songs. He led the literary scholars of humanity to diligently practice ancient and modern works, all mastering “Literary Power” to repel enemies, eliminating great demons throughout the land within thirty years.

Afterward, the Tang Emperor Li Lang established the literary power to suppress demons and restored the nation’s glory, renaming it the Wen Dynasty. He gathered great scholars to compile the monumental Complete Book of the Four Seas to control the demon stars, thereby nurturing the literary lineage of the Wen Dynasty, which has continued for over two hundred years.

By calculating the time, it should now be around the year 1100 AD, but with the Wen Dynasty in power, the historical Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms did not exist, and the Song Dynasty had not yet emerged, let alone the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties!

There were no Liu Yong(was a Chinese politician and calligrapher of the Qing dynasty.)), no Li Qingzhao,^[2]Li Qingzhao (Li Ch’ing-chao 李清照) was a famous Song Dynasty (960-1279) poet no Ouyang Xiu!^[3]Chinese poet, historian, and statesman of the Song dynasty
No Su Shi,^[4]one of China’s greatest poets and essayists of the song dynasty no Xin Qiji,^[5]was a Chinese poet and master soldier whose ci (poems written to existing musical patterns) are considered by many critics to be the best of the Southern Song dynasty no Lu You!^[6]was one of the most important and prolific Chinese writers of the Southern song dynasty, noted for his collection of nearly 10,000 poems as well as numerous prose pieces.
No Guan Hanqing,^[7]Guan Hanqing, probably a scholar, belonged to a writers’ guild that specialized in writing plays for performing groups. no Ma Zhiyuan,^[8]Chinese dramatist, playwright, and poet during the Yuan dynasty. no Bai Pu!^[9]was a renowned Chinese playwright of the Yuan dynasty.

The Wen Dynasty opened a brand-new chapter for humanity with its profound “Literary Power!”
This was a thoroughly literati-dominated dynasty. Mastering literature could earn one a literary position, and with that position, one could gather “Literary Power,” using it to slay demons and stabilize the nation!

Gathering “Literary Power” to strengthen oneself required extensive reading of ancient and modern texts, mastering countless classics! Knowledge of mountains and rivers^[10]vast knowledge or knowledgeable flowed from one’s lips!

Utilizing “Literary Power” to defeat strong foes required proficiency in poetry and songs, turning one’s entire “Literary Power” into sharpness through verse, enabling one to kill enemies in battle!
If he had merely traveled back to ancient times, Song Mu would have cursed heaven for being unfair and then calmly accepted everything.

But now, in this world, where literati were valued above all, especially poetry and songs as martial power, Song Mu, a graduate student in Chinese language and literature, felt like jumping with joy.

This world lacked the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, yet the countless poems and songs of later generations still resided in Song Mu’s mind.

With vast oceans for fish to leap, and high skies for birds to fly!
This world was like a landscape painting with plenty of blank space, and Song Mu, filled with ink, seemed as though the entire world awaited him to write!
As Song Mu felt somewhat relieved that he still had some use here, he also learned about the origins of this body.

This person was also named Song Mu, the seventeenth generation heir of the Song family from Shiyang County in Jizhou, Jiangnan West Road.

The Song family had moved here three hundred years ago, and the second generation produced a scholar named Song Xingzhi. The family then produced three generations of five scholars, flourishing in a tumultuous time of demons.

After the Wen Dynasty was established, the Song family became a prominent literary lineage in Jiangnan West Road. The fourth generation ancestor of the Song family published books, establishing their family among the prominent families of poetry and songs, even once outshining the Guangping Song family!

In this world, the families that preserved poetry and song formed their own literary lineages. The great poets of the Tang Dynasty, like Li and Du, established poetic sects, collecting descendants to study their ancestors’ works, naturally gaining “Literary Power” to defeat enemies!
Later, the founding emperor of the Wen Dynasty reformed the imperial examination system, widely distributing literary lineage, allowing commoners to attain degrees or compose enduring works, thus enjoying the benefits of the world’s literary lineage!

As such, the Song family shone for hundreds of years until Song Mu’s grandfather, Song Bingde, devoted himself to writing for fifty years before finally obtaining the degree of a juren. However, after that, he repeatedly failed to succeed, unable to continue the family’s glorious legacy. Eventually, he became a county clerk due to his stern demeanor and was framed, almost leading to his demise. The family matriarch at the time spent countless silver taels and connections to rescue him, and they returned to Shiyang County as a wealthy family.

Yet even so, in order to revive the family’s former glory, Song Mu’s grandfather and father upheld the aspirations of a scholarly family, studying daily, but their literary lineage gradually declined. Only Song Mu’s father, Song Liantong, attained the degree of a xiucai.

Two years ago, while on the road to the provincial city to take the juren examination, Song Liantong encountered demons along with Song Mu’s mother, both of whom perished. After losing his son, the elder Song also passed away, leaving only Song Mu, the seventeenth generation heir, and his second uncle Song Liangda’s family of three.

The Song family almost fell in one night, with their former glory completely vanishing, sinking into the realm of ordinary families, leaving only an ancestral home and a few shops to maintain their facade.

A year ago, the seventeen-year-old Song Mu finally passed the examination for the student degree, bringing great joy to the Song family. In an effort to revive the family’s glory, his second uncle partnered with others to do business in the east, but their ship encountered sea demons, resulting in the ship sinking and incurring huge debts, forcing the family to lose almost everything. Now, the Song family was left with just an ancestral home and a few acres of barren fields, struggling to get by.

The reason Song Mu had encountered this calamity was to gather money for his trip to the capital city to take the xiucai examination.

He had wagered with a few young masters in the south of the city that if he spent a night sleeping in the wilds outside the city, they would give him ten taels of silver.

For ten taels of silver, the frail Song Mu almost ended the Song family’s three-hundred-year lineage.