Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

Under the blazing sun, the blue bricks on the square were scorching hot.

Gu Yannian stood at the back of the line, using his physique of 800 points to easily lock down every pore on his body.

He stood out as exceptionally refreshed among a group of sweating, swaying officials.

[Ding! Today's attendance complete. Attribute point gained +1.]

"Add to Agility."

As the music of ceremonial rites began, the Fengtian Gate was opened wide.

Under the protection of hundreds of Imperial Guards, several dark-skinned foreign envoys led an enormous monster slowly into the square.

The entire court was instantly in an uproar.

"Auspicious signs from heaven! Truly, auspicious signs from heaven!"

An elderly imperial censor was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes, and he knelt down with a thud.

"Your Majesty's virtuous rule has moved Heaven and Earth, thus the Qilin has appeared in the world! May the Ming Dynasty last ten thousand years!"

The praises swept across the entire square like a tsunami.

Zhu Di, standing on the high platform, was beaming with health.

Although he still maintained the airs of a superior nation on the surface, the smile in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Gu Yannian stood in the corner of the crowd, slightly tiptoeing.

Through the gap in the official's hat, one could clearly see the "Qilin" that everyone was worshipping.

It has a long neck, patchy fur, and two small horns like antennas, and it is chewing on leaves.

He looked at the excited Ming officials with an innocent and blank expression.

Giraffe.

Gu Yannian forced back the twitching at the corner of his mouth, desperately suppressing the absurdity he felt.

This is a blind spot in history.

In the eyes of these great Confucian scholars who had read countless volumes of the Four Books and Five Classics, the strange creatures they had never seen before were accompanied by far-fetched and fabricated accounts in ancient books.

This became the highest reward from Heaven for the emperor's virtue.

No one bothers to investigate what status this creature holds in a foreign land.

What everyone needed was just an excuse, an excuse to openly sing praises, please the emperor, and convince the world that the Ming Dynasty was legitimate.

"What a grand show."

Gu Yannian silently evaluated it in his heart.

This giraffe probably never imagined it would receive such high treatment in its life.

The grand ceremony lasted for a full two hours.

After the officials dispersed, many of the older officials were too weak to walk.

Gu Yannian, on the other hand, walked home briskly as if nothing had happened.

Pushing open the courtyard gate, a faint aroma of mugwort wafts towards you.

In the backyard, Shen Wan was hanging several washed blue cloth robes on bamboo poles by the well.

She was dressed in a simple ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), and her long hair was casually tied up with a hairpin.

Hearing the door open, she turned her head, her voice soft and calm.

"My lord is back. It's hot today, so I chilled some noodles in the well water and mixed them with the cucumber strips and sesame paste you requested."

"Thanks for your hard work."

Gu Yannian walked to the basin and washed his hands.

"Have you put labels on all the large pieces of furniture in the house?"

"It's all pasted up. As instructed by the master, all the items that couldn't be taken were sold off, and only the books and valuables that the master usually used were kept and packed into three red lacquered wooden boxes."

As Shen Wan placed the cold noodles on the stone table, she answered in an orderly manner.

This is what Gu Yannian is most satisfied with about Shen Wan.

She is not talkative, does not overstep boundaries, and is efficient in her work.

Knowing that they might move to Beiping with the imperial court at any time, she had prepared the small courtyard in advance, making it clean and tidy, ready to be set up camp at any moment.

The two sat down across the stone table and quietly ate their cold noodles.

Outside the courtyard, neighbors were still excitedly discussing the "mythical Qilin" that had fallen from the sky.

In this small courtyard, the only sound was the crisp sound of chopsticks touching porcelain bowls.

The fervor of the Ming Dynasty had nothing to do with him, the immortal.

All he needs to do during these long years is to eat well at every meal and watch every play.

Autumn of the eleventh year of the Yongle reign.

As several autumn winds swept by, the trees outside Jinling City gradually turned golden.

The Ming Dynasty's northward relocation project has finally entered a substantial phase.

The first group of officials and their families who accompanied Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi northward boarded the ship at Xiaguan Wharf in a grand procession.

The newly dredged Huitong River resembles a winding dragon, carrying thousands of official boats and grain transport vessels.

End to end, white sails blot out the sky and sun.

Because Gu Yannian was working at the Wenhua Hall, he was assigned to a medium-sized official ship behind the Crown Prince's ship.

The ship was mainly carrying some of the Crown Prince's files. There weren't many people traveling with it, so the environment was quite quiet.

Shen Wan was placed in the women's quarters in the lower deck, while Gu Yannian settled in a small compartment on the deck.

The fleet sailed down the river, then turned onto the Grand Canal, heading north.

The autumn air is crisp and clear, and the scenery along the canal is picturesque.

For many officials who had never left the Jiangnan region in their entire lives, this long waterway was a torment.

Many people suffer from seasickness and are unaccustomed to the local environment.

But for Gu Yannian, this was simply a leisurely, publicly funded vacation.

[Ding! Today's attendance complete. Attribute point gained +1.]

After completing his daily check-in in the swaying cabin, Gu Yannian habitually added attributes to "Strength".

Then he moved a bamboo deck chair and placed it in a sheltered corner of the deck.

Brew a pot of aged tangerine peel Pu'er tea, take out a book of supernatural tales, and leisurely enjoy the autumn breeze on the canal.

Upon reaching the Weishan Lake area in Shandong Province, the waters gradually widened.

The reed beds on both banks were bottomless, and the wind rustled through them.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, although the world was at peace.

However, such places with dense waterways often harbor some risky water bandits and outlaws.

Or perhaps the remnants of the White Lotus Sect.

In the past, they would never have dared to provoke the official ships, but this time the northward-migrating fleet was too large, stretching out the battle lines.

The guards inevitably found themselves overwhelmed with multiple tasks.

Some lone boats or those carrying valuables became easy prey for these desperados.

As evening approached, darkness fell.

The fleet of boats lined up on the lake, ready to anchor and spend the night.

Gu Yannian was drinking tea from a purple clay teapot when his high overall attribute score of over 800 made him instantly aware of the anomaly underwater.

He closed his eyes and, with his amazing hearing, clearly distinguished them.

In the dense reeds on the left, there are dozens of small boats with very shallow drafts.

Like a water snake, it silently approached the official ship he was on.

The small boat emitted a faint but pungent smell of tung oil and gunpowder.

"River bandits robbing travelers? That's quite a show."

Gu Yannian opened his eyes, a very faint smile curving his lips.

He didn't shout for help or go to the ship's guards to warn them.

He simply stood up and calmly moved the deck chair back three feet, avoiding a blind spot on the side of the ship.

Then he sat down again and continued reading the supernatural tales in his hands.

In less than half an incense stick's time, a strange change occurred!

"Whoosh whoosh!"

More than a dozen rockets, trailing sparks, shot out from the reeds and embedded themselves in the side of the official ship.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of dark figures, each clutching a single blade, nimbly scaled the deck like monkeys, following the ropes of the grappling hooks.

"Thief! Enemy attack!"

The sailors and guards on the ship were thrown into chaos, and the gongs were pounded loudly.

The carnage erupted instantly on the deck.

These pirates were fierce and ruthless, clearly having come prepared.

Several soldiers who didn't have time to draw their swords were instantly cut down and fell to the ground, their blood staining the deck red.

A burly bandit leader with a scar on his face carried a blood-dripping nine-ringed broadsword.

At a glance, they spotted Gu Yannian sitting leisurely in the shadows of a corner, sipping his tea.

On this battlefield where flesh and blood are flying everywhere, a civil official dressed in a blue robe is actually drinking tea.

The bizarre scene startled the pirate leader for a moment, then a sinister sneer appeared on his face.

"Kill this official first! Use his head as a sacrifice for the flag!"

The bandit leader shouted and leaped forward, pouncing on Gu Yannian like a hungry tiger.

The nine-ringed broadsword, carrying a strong wind, slashed straight at Gu Yannian's face.

To the average person, this would be a certain death.

That scholar would definitely be cleaved in two.

However, in Gu Yannian's eyes, the pirates' movements were so slow it was almost unbelievable.

His agility of over 800 allows him to calculate countless possible solutions within milliseconds.

But he chose the one that required the least effort.

They didn't take action.