The Song Dynasty Imperial Exams: You Use Modern Archaeology to Break the Seals?

Xie Mingtang, a concubine-born daughter of a family of generals, transmigrates into the body of a doomed maid in a Northern Song cultivation world. In the outwardly prosperous Xuanhe era, the imperial examinations are really a way to screen for spiritual roots, while the imperial family and the five great clans jointly control the Tianshu Bureau. She bears a broken jade pendant, and on the night of the full moon, it awakens memories of her past life: she was a modern archaeologist who specialized in the mysteries of Song dynasty talismans.

Bullied by her legitimate sister and cold-shouldered by her family, she assumes she'll be facing household intrigue from the start. But one family letter reveals the surviving legacy of an ancient Daoist tradition. Civil officials wield talismans, military officers control flying swords, and alchemists are tested on their knowledge of policy. She uses modern knowledge to find a way through.

The jade pendant reveals fragments of memory, letting her identify talismans, undo seals, and reconstruct alchemical recipes, each step fraught with danger. But could the truth behind her transmigration be the reverberation of a seal that began to weaken a century ago?