Mortal Mage

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In the heart of the mountains, stands a majestic city.

Under the mottled city wall, three stone characters full of cracks are engraved.

Taihe City

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"The results are released! The results are released!"

On the inner city tower hangs a golden plaque with three large, powerful characters written on it.

Taihe Palace

Solemn and majestic.

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In June, the weather is hot and dry.

Outside the palace, in a huge square, a dense crowd of people was blocking a list.

A skinny young eunuch led a dozen soldiers dressed in red and holding swords, and nailed a seven or eight meter long piece of yellow silk to the imperial edict.

The soldier had a fist-sized badge hanging around his waist, with three eye-catching small characters engraved on it: Lingyu Guard.

"The first place in the examination is Zhang Mingxuan!"

The young eunuch looked up at the list on the silk and screamed at the top of his voice in front of the imperial edict.

He was reluctant to read out the entire list of more than a thousand people, but he still had to go through the motions to read out some of the top names.

The crowd continued to come in, becoming denser and denser, and they rushed forward in a chaotic manner. The noisy sound covered up the screams of the little eunuch.

The dozen or so Feathered Guards found it difficult to maintain order. They held their long swords tightly in their hands, waiting impatiently for the young eunuch.

Seeing that order was difficult to maintain, the young eunuch simply signaled the Feather Guards to leave and let the candidates watch it themselves.

The crowd pressed forward like an overwhelming tidal wave.

Occasionally there were cheers coming from the front of the list.

Zhang Mingxuan was dressed in a coarse linen shirt and was anxiously tiptoeing to squeeze forward in the crowd.

In his previous life, he was a science graduate student on Blue Star. After graduation, he worked on innovative robot research in a large company. As a result, he died suddenly from working overtime. After waking up, he traveled to the body of a baby from a poor family in this world.

In this world, the steam from boiling water can open the lid of a pot, but the power is not enough to propel a steam locomotive. There is no static electricity in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Sand cannot be burned into glass. Light can be refracted, but it is difficult to form energy.

After years of trial and error, he came to the conclusion that he could not create any value here using his science knowledge.

Fortunately, this world uses the Blue Star language.

In this life, he learned from the lessons of his previous life and did not waste his youth. After discovering the problems of this world at the age of eight, he quickly changed his mindset, took the imperial examination, and studied hard every day for several years.

During the ten years, he passed the Tongshi, Xiangshi, Fushi and Zhoushi examinations successively.

"Zhang Mingxuan?"

"Zhang Mingxuan?"

"Who is Zhang Mingxuan?"

The people in the front row were talking about it.

Zhang Mingxuan was still anxiously squeezing forward. If he failed this time, he would have to wait three years for the next one.

"I've never heard of anyone named Zhang Mingxuan in Taihe City. Maybe he's a distant relative of some minister?"

"Kangtai County should belong to Nanzhou Zhili, which is more than 30,000 miles away from Taihe City, with the Canglang Mountains in between. Beyond the Canglang Mountains, everything belongs to the border area. No Shangshu has distant relatives in the border area, right?"

The crowd in front of the imperial edict was still talking.

Zhang Mingxuan squeezed for a long time but couldn't move forward, so he gave up, left the crowd, sat under a tree to enjoy the cool air and waited.

After all, it will be three years since the list was posted, so he was a little anxious just now.

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The moonlight is bright and the crowds are no longer crowded.

There is no curfew in Taihe City.

Zhang Mingxuan stood in front of the list with his head raised.

"Taicang Empire, the 60th Imperial Examination"

"First place, Zhang Mingxuan, from Lishu Village, Kangtai County"

"First place in the exam!"

He bared his snow-white teeth on his astonished face, his heart was pounding, and he tried to pretend to be calm while breathing.

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After a long time, Zhang Mingxuan returned to the restaurant.

When the waiter saw Zhang Mingxuan, his eyes lit up and he hurriedly greeted him with a bright smile.

"Master Zhang, this is an invitation from the Minister of War Li Xucheng and the Minister of Revenue Wang Mingde. Both masters are hosting a banquet at their respective homes tomorrow night and invite you to come."

"Oh?"

Zhang Mingxuan has calmed down.

He glanced at the servant, took the two invitations, and looked through them in thought. He had only been in Taihe City for seven days and did not know the situation in the imperial city.

Before taking the test, each candidate will report his/her residence in Taihe City to the examiner to facilitate contact after the test.

"I think two invitations, the same time, two locations, clearly meant to make me choose sides."

Zhang Mingxuan pondered for a long time before putting the two invitations in front of his chest. He glanced at the smiling boy and asked, "Brother, do you know which of these two ministers has the most influence in the court?"

The servant had thought that this poor scholar would give him some troubles today as he had passed the imperial examination, but he did not expect that he would call him brother as he did when he first came. He grinned excitedly as if he had been pardoned, "My lord, please treat me with such humility. I am not worthy of being your brother."

"Brother, I am asking you if you know which of the two ministers has more power in the court. Calling you brother is just my habit, it is not the point."