In early spring in Jiangnan, it's often a continuous drizzle.
On regular days, it's either clear skies or days of fine rain, an indescribable damp discomfort.
In the stone pavilion by the small lake, a young man reclines on a bamboo rocking chair, reading a book and eating a golden pear, occasionally frowning and muttering curses.
The pavilion has bead curtains half-obscured, blocking the raindrops splattering in from outside, which then drip down the bead strands onto the bluestone slab below, scattering into little droplets.
"Ignorant, a worthless fool, you can't even recognize characters, are you a pig?" Qin Yuesheng holds his aching head, spouting coarse market language incessantly.
It's been three days since arriving in this world. Not to mention the past, Qin Yuesheng is somewhat accustomed to his new identity.
Qin Yuesheng, the eldest young master of the Qin Mansion, fifteen years old, with a betrothed fiancée whom he seems not to have met yet at the age of ten.
Over the past few days, he absorbed all the memories, and now, in daily life, Qin Yuesheng is unlikely to be seen as flawed by those close to him, allowing him to comfortably continue his role as the eldest young master of the Qin Mansion.
But here lies the problem, the master of the Qin Mansion, Qin Feng, who had his only son in middle age, indulged him to an extreme. Qin Yuesheng was pampered since birth, considered a rare treasure in the Qin Mansion, with everyone fearing even holding him would cause him harm, or letting him melt if he'd put in their mouths. His clothes, food, accommodation, and everything were delicately taken care of by the maidservants and old nurses.
Private school?
Qin Yuesheng: Too tiring, boring, don't want to study.
Qin Feng: Alright, alright, then go play.
Debauchery?
Qin Yuesheng: I want to have fun, but I'm short on money.
Qin Feng: Alright, alright, I'll give you money.
And so on, and so forth.
This person lived until age fifteen, yet his vocabulary doesn't surpass fifty words, which gave the identity-acquiring Qin Yuesheng a headache.
The characters in this world, although square-shaped, are vastly different from the ones Qin Yuesheng learned in his previous life. Because of this difference, Qin Yuesheng cannot comprehend them directly and remains illiterate, unable to glean information about the world from the books in the study room.
The original master grew from infancy to adulthood with a blank memory filled alarmingly. Except knowing the Qin Mansion is in Cyan Yang City, which adjoins Gusu River where sometimes Brocade Flower Boats dock from upstream, he lacks further knowledge, his knowledge so sparse it is appalling.
For three days, besides occasionally asking the maidservants and old nurses for some information, most of his time was spent studying the children's literacy book "Three Character Scripture", but relying solely on three days to learn this barely captures much, making Qin Yuesheng furious enough each day to curse openly.
"Calculating the timing, it should almost be here, not sure what help it'll provide once activated." Putting down the book, Qin Yuesheng fixes his gaze ahead, seeing white text prominently appear suspended in the air.
[⚠Hint: Activation countdown: 00:01:09]
These characters were discovered by Qin Yuesheng on his first day in this world, where the numbers initially showed 72 hours; now, after three days, only the short minute remains.
When the countdown finally ends, those characters undergo drastic change before Qin Yuesheng's eyes.
****
Super Auxiliary Tool
Attributes | Skills | Enhancement | Decomposition | Fusion
...
Personal Attributes:
Strength: 0.4 (Weak)
Agility: 0.3 (Slow)
Constitution: 0.3 (Poor)
Spirit: 0.9 (Normal Person)
Charm: 0.8 (Mediocre Appearance)
All-Purpose Essence: 0
...
Personal Skills:
Theft (0/10) Beginner
Flying Knife Skill (0/10) Beginner
****
Spending half a stick of incense, Qin Yuesheng thoroughly understands the usage of this Super Auxiliary Tool.
At the same time, he grasps the meaning and management of various statistics.
The five dimensions in the personal attributes column are self-explanatory without much description needed, but as for what this All-Purpose Essence is and how to obtain it, Qin Yuesheng has no clue.
The personal skill panel unexpectedly includes skills like Theft and Flying Knife Skill, which Qin Yuesheng never imagined. He originally thought the eldest young master of the Qin family was confined as a greenhouse boy with no knowledge, but now discovers some potential.
Simultaneously, Qin Yuesheng recalls the acquisition of these two skills.
Roughly a few years ago, Qin Yuesheng once went out drinking with friends at Willow-and-Smoke places, getting utterly drunk when outside chaos erupted, a Great Han was pinned down by numerous brothel hospital guards, being brutally beaten.
Drunk, Qin Yuesheng intervened to inquire the reason and learned the man was caught stealing on the premises, leading to the incident.
Qin Yuesheng directly took out a handful of silver to have them release the person. The Great Han was actually grateful and insisted on giving Qin Yuesheng two books as thanks.
But the illiterate Qin Yuesheng had no interest in looking at them. After learning that the two books paired text with illustrations, allowing one to learn the skills inside even without literacy, he accepted them. After returning to the Qin Mansion he lazily trained for a few days and then couldn't remember where he left them, using them to prop up a table leg.
Because this was a minor event and a long time ago, Qin Yuesheng couldn't recall it without prompting.
Thinking back now, the skills of theft and Flying Knife Skill should be thanks to those two books.
Initiate the decomposition function.
[Yes/No—Decompose "Three Character Scripture"]
Qin Yuesheng clicked yes without hesitation to test the effect of this decomposition function, and the Three Character Scripture vanished instantly.
[Decomposition successful, acquired 'Universal Character Recognition']
A light sphere appeared in Qin Yuesheng's hand, resembling a balloon, which fragmented into small light particles that drilled into his body upon a gentle squeeze.
Looking back at the skill column, the original two skills had now increased to three.
The third one being:
Universal Character Recognition (0/160) Mastery
Passive①: [Character Affinity] Reduces the difficulty of learning characters.
Passive②: [Character Proficiency] Speeds up the learning of characters.
Suddenly, Qin Yuesheng was struck with an epiphany; all the text from the Three Character Scripture was now in his mind.
He could recognize everything.
"Good stuff." Qin Yuesheng expressed great admiration for this decomposition function, now able to save a lot of time and never worry about illiteracy again.
He tossed the half-eaten snow pear into the lake, drawing a flock of red and white koi to compete over it.
Qin Yuesheng immediately got up and ran toward the study room. Now he could finally explore the specific details of this world.
As a distinguished family in Cyan Yang City, the Qin Mansion's study naturally had no shortage of books, ranging from great works to folk tales, quite the collection.
However, Qin Yuesheng wasn't interested in these; he wanted to read books that recorded geography, history, chronicles, and folk customs.
Amidst greetings from maids and household servants along the way, Qin Yuesheng strode into the study and started searching for his targets according to the book titles on the shelves.
Soon he found a blue-covered book called "Ziwei Grass Hall Notes" and began to quickly browse through it.
Cyan Yang City is a county town within Jiangnan Suzhou, part of Great Tang's territory. Coincidentally, Great Tang's capital is also named Chang'an.
North of Great Tang are the three nomadic countries of Northern Liao, Jin, and West Xia, which are vassal states of Great Tang, often sending royal members south as tribute annually.
To the west and south of Great Tang are uncivilized barbarians, typically residing in deserted mountains and wilderness.
Beyond these known areas lies unexplored regions. The dangers there are a death zone for anyone; even martial arts masters find it difficult to keep themselves safe.
"Hmm?" Browsing along, Qin Yuesheng noticed some peculiar content.
In the thirty-sixth year of Great Tang Jianwu, sixteen fishing boats vanished while fishing in the East Sea; the fishermen aboard were untraceable. Forty years later, these boats reappeared with fishermen unchanged in appearance from forty years back, claiming to have been out at sea for only one day, yet their parents and children had long died or grown old. This was a major strange tale back then.
In the seventy-second year of Great Tang Jianwu, outside Chengqing City in Bashu, a small temple was temporarily inhabited at midnight by three travelers. The next day, two had died, one was injured, and the survivor was insane, claiming the clay Bodhisattva in the temple manifested to kill, an incredibly bizarre event.
In the twenty-first year of Great Tang Fengxing, a family of four in Bianjing City was found hanged on the beams, bodies intact with no wounds. After a forensic autopsy, their bodies were found to lack internal organs, and days later, the forensic officer was found hanged at home on the beams.
In the eighty-third year of Great Tang Fengxing, a hundred people were said to parade with lanterns outside Jiaying County at night. Witnesses, over ten, fell gravely ill afterwards, with some dying from illness.
In the thirtieth year of Great Tang Yongle, many citizens of Chang'an City saw a woman in white walking in mirrors; days later, some died gruesomely before mirrors, bodies without heads, their whereabouts unknown.
…
The book contained many similar events. The more Qin Yuesheng read, the more serious he became, reading each passage repeatedly but feeling increasingly terrified and uneasy.
This world seems a bit off.
Besides some mysterious causes of death and injuries, Qin Yuesheng noticed even more bizarre occurrences.
For instance, in the forty-fifth year of Great Tang Yongle, a sudden sandstorm enveloped the northern Great Desert frontier for days, with fog obscuring the sky. Frontier soldiers glimpsed great figures over ten zhang high in the sandstorm, only for them to vanish in the blink of an eye.
After reading the last page, Qin Yuesheng slowly closed the book, taking a deep breath: "Is this world so dangerous? Even such a foolish original host survived safely for fifteen years, so don't let strange events surround me now that I'm here."
Sitting in a nearby wooden chair, Qin Yuesheng began contemplating life. Anyway, he now possesses a super assistant, amounting to a power trump card. With the assistant's decomposition and enhancement functions, he should live decently here as long as he's slightly wise and clever.
Just as Qin Yuesheng pondered how to obtain that All-Purpose Essence on the super assistant, a chubby little maid hurriedly ran in from outside the study, quickly exclaiming: "Master! The master wants you to go to the Cyan Pine Guest Hall; there are guests."
Qin Yuesheng puzzled: "Guests? Why do I need to greet them? I'm the master here."
"No, no, Master! That's not an ordinary guest; it's your betrothed since childhood."
Qin Yuesheng felt an ominous premonition rise within, his face puzzled: "You're not telling me I'm about to be jilted, are you?"
The little maid hesitated: "How can that be, Master? The lady from the Su family is here to bring you medicinal food."
"Oh, then that's fine."