My Family Put Me Through the Imperial Exams, but I Went to Train in Martial Arts

Not a wish-fulfillment story + slow and steady growth + the family's hopes rest on him + smart protagonist + espionage within espionage + high-level martial arts

Three years after transmigrating into the body of a poor scholar, Lin Changming looked at the Four Books and Five Classics he'd copied countless times and fell silent.

To pay for his studies, his father hauled sacks until his back bent, his eldest brother and sister-in-law scrimped on food while working the fields, and his second brother and sister-in-law even gave up their wedding gifts. His younger sister hadn't had a new set of clothes in three years. The whole family's hopes rested on his brush.

But only he knew what was coming: urgent battle reports from the frontier, refugees fleeing south in droves, and harsher proclamations from the court with every passing day. In this world, passing the exams meant being buried with the dynasty, while failing meant the whole family would starve to death.

That night, he set down his brush and said to his father, "Father, I'm done with the exams. I'm going to train in martial arts."

The whole family erupted. No one knew that a panel had appeared in his mind: [Martial Arts Training Simulator]. He could simulate a punch a thousand times over, though it took others three years just to lay the groundwork. He could practice a blade technique day and night, one that others couldn't master in a lifetime.

Three years later, as promised, the world descended into chaos. While the scholars in the city begged for mercy in terror, Lin Changming stood at his family's gate, alone with a blade in hand.

Books couldn't save this world. But a blade could.