In Prince Runan's Residence, Xiao Lin, Prince Runan, was resting on his armchair.
"My lord… someone asked to see you!"
A soldier came in a hurry.
"Nobody can see me when I'm resting. You do know my rule, right…?"
Xiao Lin slowly opened his eyes; an intimidating aura began to spread out.
The Abyssal Ocean Kingdom had four Great Generals and Prince Runan was one of them. His responsibility was to defend the southern border of the country. Every year, he only had a month's leave to spend with his family in the capital.
He would normally decline all visits when he was enjoying his holiday.
"Yes, sir!" The soldier lowered his head and said, "However, the visitor says that he was instructed by Seniors Qiao Zimu and Dong Yingquan…"
"Senior Qiao and Senior Quan? What do they want?"
Frowning, Xiao Lin was slightly puzzled.
They were famous and very capable in Green Abyss, but they had never been close friends of his, except for their interactions when they worked on questions or studied new laws together.
Why did the two of them send someone to his house?
"Let him in!"
Although dissatisfied, Xiao Lin would rather not piss off the two esteemed seniors.
Soon, a young man approached him and knelt before him. "It's my privilege to meet you, my lord! I'm here at the behest of Senior Qiao and Senior Quan, who wondered if they could borrow your Marching Flag!"
Grimly, Xiao Lin narrowed his eyes. "Do you know what the Marching Flag means?"
The young man said, "The Marching Flag is a national treasure built by His Majesty himself. It can calculate data quickly and automatically! Senior Qiao and Senior Quan are verifying the top-tier question left by the Ninth Princess in the Empyrean One Pavilion, but they've met some difficulties during their calculations. Therefore, they're hoping that you could help them with the flag, my lord!"
"They're verifying the top-tier question?"
Shocked, Xiao Lin quickly stood up in disbelief. "Are you implying that someone worked it out?"
He had seen the Ninth Princess's question, but he was clueless after studying it for months and had to give up.
He thought nobody in the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom could work it out, but an answer was already being verified.
"Yes… Someone is answering it, but we don't know if it's correct!" The young man nodded.
"That doesn't sound right…" Dazed for a moment, Xiao Lin thought about something and frowned. "Senior Qiao is best known for his abilities in mental calculation. Dong Yingquan is an expert of arithmetics, too. Now that they have joined hands, even though they can't work out the question, they should certainly be able to verify the answer, shouldn't they?"
"My lord… The answer was too complicated and too fast for Senior Quan to verify, so he invited Senior Qiao. However, Senior Qiao couldn't keep up with the guy even with the help of an abacus. Instead, he was heavily hurt and spewed blood…" The young man smiled bitterly.
Xiao Lin was stiffened.
Even he admired Qiao Zimu's abilities in mental calculation. Currently, not even Qiao Zimu could keep up with the guy's steps while using an abacus…
"Could it be true?"
"Lead the way!"
Waving his hand, Xiao Lin stopped talking and followed the young man. They reached the Empyrean One Pavilion ten minutes later.
The previously empty Empyrean One Pavilion was jam-packed with hundreds of people at the moment.
"Level-one Mage, Bai Ding; Master of Abacus, Huang Muxiang; specialist of the Moya Formula, Wang Yuanhai… Well, well…"
Xiao Lin did not know what to say and his eyelids shivered.
Everybody in the room was familiar to him. They were all renowned people of the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom whose position and abilities were high. Most of them were always training in seclusion, and he could barely get a chance to meet them. However, they had all gathered in one place…
Had the top-tier question really been answered?
He looked over, only to see that everybody in the room was calculating fast with paper and brushes.
Senior Quan, who was in front of everyone, was giving orders. "We'll split the steps. Bai Ding, you will confirm the first formula. Huang Muxiang, the second… Tell me the result when you're done!"
Soon, everyone offered their results.
Gathering their answers, Senior Quan read for a long time and took a deep breath. "Very good. This part is correct. Let's work harder. We've already confirmed one percent of all the steps!"
"The most famous arithmetic masters in town have calculated for such a long time, and they've only covered one percent?"
Xiao Lin trembled, unconvinced of what he had seen.
"Who wrote the answer?"
Unable to hold back anymore, he squeezed into the crowd and saw the young man writing on the wall.
The young man wrote so fast that he had written a couple of steps while Xiao Lin was drawing near.
One step required the confirmation of so many people, yet the guy wrote four in less than one minute.
Xiao Lin's face was livid
As a Great General and one of the best level-one Martial Artists, he had a deep knowledge of arithmetics. Otherwise, he couldn't have served as the commander of an army.
However, he couldn't understand the answer, either. No more than the others could!
That was too unbelievable!
"My lord, you're finally here…"
Seeing him, a miserably pale Senior Qiao approached in a hurry.
Qiao Zimu's health seemed to be at less than half of what it was when he arrived. He was down and his hair was a mess. He seemed to have aged ten years after only half a day!
"I'll calculate and deduce with the Marching Flag now…"
Without any hesitation, Xiao Lin laid the chess board he prepared on the ground. Countless tiny flags wandered quickly under the boost of magic, manifesting rows of data.
"The Marching Flag is truly good…"
Everybody was relieved once they saw the data.
Senior Qiao was the best mental calculator in the Abyssal Ocean Kingdom, but abacuses calculated faster than minds. Above the abacuses was the Marching Flag!
It was basically a computer, similar to those that Shen Zhe used to know!
"The first step is correct!'
"The second step is correct!'
"The third step is correct!'
…
"The fifty-seventh step is correct!"
…
As the announcements echoed faster and louder, the plump girl at the counter shivered with pale lips.
She wasn't a genius, but the princess couldn't have sent her there because her grades were bad…
The steps written by the guy she had mocked and derided couldn't be calculated by so many masters!
"How did he do it?"
"Did he intentionally give a wrong answer just now?"
Her body trembled.
He was answering the question so fast that even Senior Qiao and dozens of other famous experts couldn't keep up with him. It was challenging even for Prince Runan's Marching Flag.
Nobody would've believed that he couldn't answer the simple question just then if he had such rapid calculation abilities!
So, the only explanation was that…
He did it on purpose!
However, she took it as a serious answer and really thought that the guy was being pretentious. She made a fool of herself!
"Maybe… He can really solve this top-tier question… I need to inform the Ninth Princess right now!"
She had thought that the guy was there to stir trouble, but as more experts confirmed the correctness of his steps, she finally understood that the guy was truly capable of answering the question!
Although the princess was the one who came up with the question, she was the princess' maid, so she knew very well that the princess had never been able to solve it!
If the princess couldn't solve it, how good must the young man be to work it out?
She had to inform the princess as soon as possible!
She returned to her room and sent an envoy to the royal palace. After it was done, she looked at the young man in a long cloak again.
His brush finally came to a stop.
"That's all of it…"
Shen Zhe heaved a sigh of relief.
It was truly not easy to obtain an herb…
Thank god his body had reached the eighth stage and illuminated two stars. Otherwise, he would've been exhausted copying the answer!
Nothing was simple.
He didn't know that copying homework could be so troublesome.
He rubbed his sore hand while his mind was filled with complex feelings. Suddenly he noticed hundreds of people in the room; all of them were gazing at him so passionately, as if they were going to tear his head apart and see what was inside.
Shen Zhe stepped back and almost cried out aloud.
The last incident wasn't over yet, and the potential crisis was still looming before him. His plan was to get the herb in a low-key way, repair his damaged veins to continue illuminating the stars and increasing his strength…
But things didn't quite go as he had planned.
He had specifically counted when he entered the Empyrean One Pavilion. There were a dozen people and a handful of cats and kittens.
Where were the hundreds of strangers from, and when did they come?
Shen Zhe felt like weeping.
"I must go…"
Knowing that he would be in even greater trouble should his identity be exposed, Shen Zhe lowered his head and looked around. Finally, he found the plump girl who apparently ran the shop.
In a low voice, he asked, "Can I claim the Bark of Penghe now?"
He solved the question only to get the herb. Since he had solved it, he wanted to leave with the trophy as soon as possible, or he would become famous!
What if many beautiful fangirls wanted to marry him and have his children once he became famous?
He was only a child!
Shen Zhe was rather apprehensive.
"The princess instructed me that as long as half of the answer to the top-tier question is confirmed to be correct, you will be qualified to take the herb away…"
The plump girl fetched a long narrow jade box from a room and delivered it to Shen Zhe.
"This is the Bark of Penghe collected from a hundred-year-old tree. It's pure and powerful…"
Shen Zhe accepted the box and opened it. He immediately smelled the fragrance of spiritual energy. Once confirming that it was genuine, he said with relief, "See you…"
"Please wait a moment, senior…"
Senior Quan hurried to approach him.
He had finally met a great expert who could solve the top-tier question. He would certainly not let him go easily.
"While we can verify the answer to the question, we don't quite understand the mechanism behind it. Could you please explain it for us, senior…?" said Senior Quan, blushing.
The stranger didn't show his face but he was obviously a young man, judging from his figure and his skin. It was truly embarrassing for a white-haired old man like Senior Quan to call him senior…
However, intelligence was the faculty that mattered most on this continent. His superiority was justified by being able to answer a question that other people couldn't.
"Mechanism?" Shen Zhe scratched his head and said honestly, "I'm just a bad student. Honestly speaking, I don't understand any of those formulas or steps…"
He was just copying the answer. How could he understand the mechanism?
"A bad student?"
"You don't understand?"
Senior Qiao and Qiao Zimu both trembled.
The plump girl almost vomited blood.
He told them such a blatant lie so matter-of-factly. Was he really serious?
"If you were a bad student, what would we be?"
Since the truth didn't convince them, and knowing he would likely give himself away the more he talked, Shen Zhe escaped from the crowd and left in a hurry.
He found an empty corner in the Gold Source Mall and took off his cloak and hat to restore his previous look. He was finally relieved after that and continued shopping.
He had collected one of the three missing herbs he needed; two remained to be found. He was going to see if they were available in the mall, or if he could find out where else he could buy them.
After he left in a hurry, the Empyrean One Pavilion was almost exploding.
"Who exactly is he?"
"If I solved the question, I would've announced it to the whole city… Still, he didn't say anything and even claimed that he was a bad student…"
"That's what low profile really means!"
"Solving a top-tier question without leaving his name… He's truly a role model for us…"
"Compared to him, my abilities in mental calculation are nothing worth mentioning… I'm like a kindergartener…"
…
Watching Shen Zhe leave, all the geniuses were awed when they recalled his humble words just then.
What was a real expert?
Someone like him!
Solving such a tricky question without leaving his name or his address, he was as low-key as a cloud… He was too great!
"The princess is here…"
While everybody discussed with one another, someone announced the arrival of the princess. They turned around and saw a girl who was in glamorous clothes but seemed slightly weak.
Her face was hidden behind a veil, but her wise looking eyes were so bright that none of them could shift their attention away from her.
She was Xiao Yurou, the Ninth Princess, and the creator of the top-tier question.
"It's an honor to meet you, Ninth Princess…"
Everyone lowered their heads and clasped their fists.
Although the princess was congenitally weak and couldn't cultivate, nobody in Green Abyss dared to underestimate her, because she was an unprecedented genius in mathematics. She was the real talent of the whole country!
She wasn't eighteen yet, but she had solved more questions than they did in their entire lives.
Even the Marching Flag that Xiao Lin just used was personally designed by her through calculation, before it was forged by Xiao Jin.
"Where is the problem solver?"
Xiao Yurou looked at them.
She looked around but didn't find the person that her maid described.
"He's gone!" The plump girl approached her and said, "I was too useless. I couldn't stop him…"
Even though she was the manager of the Empyrean One Pavilion backed by the royal family, she couldn't force the guy to stay after he had solved the question and obtained the herb.
Xiao Yurou shook her head in disappointment.
Even she was unable to solve the question. The person's academic competence was awe-inspiring.
She would love to meet him and learn from him.
"Your Highness, we haven't confirmed all the steps yet, but half of them are correct…" said the plump girl.
"Let me take a look at it…"
Nodding her head, Xiao Yurou approached the wall and read it.
She scanned the answer on the wall. Characters glittered with sparks of wisdom in her eyes.
"…Correct!"
"…Correct!'
…
The Ninth Princess's conclusion echoed in the room. It wasn't loud, but it sounded like rumbling thunder for everyone in the room.
Although they speculated that the answer was correct halfway through the confirmation, the Ninth Princess' endorsement was still beyond their expectation.
"…All the steps are correct… He solved this question!"
Xiao Yurou was visibly trembling after reading the complete answer.
She thought she wouldn't be able to see the answer because she would die in a few months… Little did she expect that someone could really solve her question!
More importantly, the intricacies and subtleness of the answer's methodology was unimaginable even for her.
Unable to hold herself back anymore, Xiao Yurou turned around and asked, "Did the senior who solved the question mention who he was?"
"Well…"
The plump girl shook her head.
"Did he leave any remarks?" asked Xiao Yurou hopefully.
Hesitating for a moment, the plump girl replied, "He said… that he was only a bad student!"
Xiao Yurou: "…"
"We are all bad students when faced with the skyscraper of academics…" said Xiao Yurou after a long pause, with mixed feelings and glittering eyes.
He had solved such a difficult question, yet he claimed to be a bad student…
What a low-key man!
It was true that those who were capable were modest, while those who were ignorant tended to be arrogant!
"Where did he go?" she asked again.
"That way. But he was too fast. I couldn't follow him…" replied a genius who was still running the confirmation.
"Okay!"
Xiao Yurou looked at that direction and said to her guards, "Go and check!"
Ten minutes later, a guard returned and said, "Your Highness, we found this cloak in a corner over there…"
Looking at the clothes, Xiao Yurou remembered something and sighed, "Alright, stop searching. This senior must really hate to be in the public eye. Investigating his identity would be disrespectful for him… Ask everyone here not to talk about him, or they will be deemed to be enemies of the royal family!"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
All the guards nodded their heads.
"Who are you exactly?"
Xiao Yurou had a great deal of complicated thoughts as she touched the cloak and the hat.
Disguising his body and his looks on purpose meant that he didn't want to be recognized. So, he was probably someone that was well known in Green Abyss…
However, she knew everybody who could be called a genius in the city. None of them could be that person.
She stood still while she remained stunned.