Chapter Eight: Life May Reincarnate, But the Imperial Examination Only Happens Once!

[Align Yourself with Sage Jiang!]
[You have established your goal in your heart, and consequently, you decisively begin to learn from your "role model"...]
[However, learning from her does not mean copying her entirely. Unlike Sage Jiang, who was mercilessly stripped of her sainthood by public opinion after her reputation for fraud was exposed, your goal is to forge yourself into a true prodigy!]
[You want the fame, but you must also possess the substance. The greatest lesson Sage Jiang left for the world is not that one shouldn't market oneself, but that one shouldn't over-market. As long as you truly live up to the name, you can bear the title of "prodigy"!]
[Thus, from this day on, you no longer conceal your precociousness as a transmigrator, but instead throw yourself wholeheartedly into your own "Dragon-Slayer" script...]
[...]
[In your literacy class, at only three years old, your progress is staggering. The teacher's pace of instruction cannot keep up with your rate of learning. "Drawing inferences from one instance" is no longer enough to describe your efficiency; you are drawing inferences from one to a hundred!]
[True hard work, a hundredfold the harvest!]
[As he teaches, the instructor finds himself breaking into a cold sweat...]
[While your peers are still struggling to bite their pens over basic character writing, you are already using your spare time to transcribe the "Three-Character Classic," the "Hundred Family Surnames," and the "Thousand Character Classic" for the instructor, reciting them with silky smoothness to his stunned face.]
[After those, you begin self-studying Tang poetry and Song lyrics, soon memorizing hundreds of them, with reading and writing posing no challenge at all.]
[The only thing that likely needs serious practice is your chicken-scratch calligraphy...]
[Consequently, while painstakingly practicing your brushwork, you begin to devour the core Confucian texts, the "Four Books" and "Five Classics," with your progress advancing by leaps and bounds!]
[You easily leave your peers trailing far behind. A genius such as yourself—after all this, the instructor is left sweating buckets...]
[What unnerves the instructor even more is that after the daily lessons, while other children run off in groups to play, looking as if they’ve been liberated, you stay behind voluntarily, asking for further guidance on calligraphy and various topics, calling it "evening self-study"!]
[Beyond evening study, you insist on morning self-study and even forgo your lunch break, eating a few bites before returning to your desk. Your motto is clear: "If you can't study yourself to death, study until you are dead!"]
[Your nearly masochistic approach to learning leaves the instructor terrified...]
[He isn't afraid that you'll learn too much, but that you'll drop dead at such a young age! No normal three-year-old is as terrifying as you!]
[Taking an opportunity, he gently advises you: "While a student's primary job is to learn, one must balance work and rest... Even the Holy Confucius combined the arts and physical activity; why must you focus only on study? Go out and play with your classmates. You're acting like a lone wolf; everyone is starting to isolate you..."]
[However, you, currently busy practicing calligraphy during evening study, respond with disdain.]
["Life may be reincarnated, but the Imperial Examination only happens once!"]
["Mere physical fatigue... help me up! I can still grind!"]
[Transforming into a god of grinding, you declare: "Sir, I am so eager to make progress!"]
[Instructor: ...]
[You are too extreme!]
[Vice-Director of Education, say something, please?!]
[Fearing that something might happen to you, the instructor rushes to find your masters, Vice-Director Ding and Director Xue, describing your terrifying progress and your self-abusive study methods, asking if a different educational approach should be taken for such a prodigy.]
[Master Ding: ...]
[Director Xue: ...]
[Wait... are you actually a prodigy?!]
[This unexpected news leaves the two, who had intended to keep marketing a "prodigy" persona to commit fraud, completely dumbfounded.]
[...]
[After a bit of skeptical verification, their eyes light up: We’ve hit the jackpot!]
[What was originally a sleazy scheme to scam rewards by faking a persona now seems like a chance to wash their hands and go legit...]
[A fake prodigy scams rewards in the shadows, but a real prodigy doesn't have to—you can do it in the light!]
[If they can rebrand the school as an "Excellent Demonstration Base for Education," won't they be rolling in money?!]
[Thinking of the glorious future, the two share a sinister smile...]
[As for the prodigy's health...]
[Don't panic. If the kid himself isn't complaining, why should we? Besides, even if it is truly miserable, it's not us suffering!]
[For the sake of a master's silver, let the prodigy suffer a little longer! Let him bear the infamy himself!]
[...]
"Huh?"
Zhou Liang is stunned:
"No... I know he is desperate to progress, and I know he wants to find a glimmer of light in the darkness as soon as possible... but isn't this too self-abusive?!"
A three-year-old, whose body hasn't even developed, is already using a "Hengshui-style" study method. Can he... handle it?
Brother, this is a bit un-materialistic...
Wait, the plot itself isn't very materialistic—the Chongzhen Emperor hanged a hundred thousand rebels with a hemp rope; what's materialistic about that?
Never mind then...
"Still, I think he's a bit ridiculous... How can a child have so much energy? This guy is cheating!"
[You are indeed cheating!]
[In fact, even you are surprised, because you can clearly feel that you have an abnormally high resistance to fatigue!]
[A normal three-year-old, let alone doing morning and evening study, would be drowsy after just a few regular classes because their physical hardware can't keep up... But you are different. Your mental willpower seems overly powerful. You can endure fatigue that others cannot, and your willpower greatly increases your tolerance threshold.]
[Through your own experiments, you discover that you only need five or six hours of sleep to stay energetic throughout the entire day. Such a long period can be used to support your high-intensity learning... You are simply a "Born Labor-Ox Saint Body!"]
[Of course, you know this isn't normal, and whether it's good or bad, you can't really say... But after a brief moment of hesitation, you decide to continue the Hengshui-style masochistic study method.]
[Because, as you said before: Life may be reincarnated, but the Imperial Examination only happens once!]
[For you, with the ability to rewind time, life isn't actually that valuable. What you need to do is trade lifespan for time, turn yourself into a real prodigy as much as possible, and then use that status as a stepping stone to climb atop the corpse of the Ming Dynasty, to witness with your own eyes what this world is like, and to find a cure to save it!]
[For this, what is life? I have plenty of it!]
[You firm your resolve, and under the apprehensive gaze of the instructor and the greedy gazes of Master Ding and Director Xue, you continue to practice calligraphy during evening study...]
"So that's how it is..."
Zhou Liang suddenly realizes:
The logic is clear now. The reason "the other me" can ignore physical hardware limitations is because of the new prize I just obtained!
["Light of the Sacrificed Spirit": Allows the holder to slightly increase their resistance to negative mental states such as fear, fatigue, and hallucinations!]
Why is he not tired? Because he can carry it!
"I understand the logic... but even with increased mental resistance, the body still can't handle such extreme consumption, right?"
Zhou Liang is worried...
[True.]
[After more than a month of high-intensity grinding, although your mental state remains excellent, you are, after all, made of flesh and blood, and various adverse conditions begin to manifest.]
[Your weight continues to drop, your lips are dry, your face is pale, and your appetite is gradually fading... But in contrast, your eyes are as bright as lightbulbs!]
[You are too energetic, to the point of being abnormal...]
[Your extreme and abnormal behavior draws the serious attention of your parents. While they were initially happy and gratified by your diligence, your health is clearly what they care about most.]
[So they go to the school and beg your master to assign fewer tasks: "The child is still young, please show mercy!"]
[Your master: ...]
[No... what does this have to do with me?! I didn't force him; it's your son who insists on self-abuse!]
[He mutters to himself, but facing the two parents, he puts on a show, promising to reduce your burden moderately...]
[However, in his heart, he is still grumbling: Although he doesn't really care about the life or death of a tool, you are a rare, high-level tool, his future cash cow. Even if only for the sake of cold, hard silver, he cannot let you work yourself to death.]
[But if you really failed the "Star-Making Project" because you relaxed your studies, then he would have nothing to gain!]
[So, after hesitation, he comes up with a win-win solution...]
[This night, a gaunt you are packing up your stationery, preparing to end evening study and head home to sleep... But just then, your master, Vice-Director Ding, finds you and mysteriously insists on taking you somewhere.]
[You are confused, but considering your master shouldn't be harming you, you obediently agree.]
[Then, he leads you under the cover of night along a path you are quite familiar with... Why familiar? Because this is the exact route you took when you went to the county office to report the crime before...]
[You enter the county office quietly through the back door and, in a study lit by candlelight, meet the impatient County Magistrate!]
[Why bring me to see the Magistrate in the middle of the night?]
[While you are wondering, your master leans forward and whispers a few words to the Magistrate, and the Magistrate is suddenly wide awake!]
["Are you sure... he is a true prodigy?"]
[The Magistrate strokes his dark, greenish beard, his gaze serious.]
["I am sure!"]
[Vice-Director Ding bows earnestly: "My lord, opportunity knocks but once..."]
[The Magistrate's eyes shift, finally nodding: "Then I will give him a chance... But whether he can handle it or not depends entirely on him..."]
[Having said that, he calls you forward and places a large, tangible hand on your head... In this moment, you recall the events before your last death. On the day before you fell ill, the Magistrate had also patted your head gently like this...]
[Ding! Detected extraordinary gift: "Faint Tyrannical God-Emperor Divine Power!"]