Evan Lin trailed behind Old Man Liu, watching the old teacher shuffle forward with hands clasped behind his back, his hunched silhouette stirring up a surge of strange emotion in Evan’s heart—a fleeting mix of respect and nostalgia, cool and detached yet undeniably real.
Although Evan hadn’t interacted much with Old Man Liu before, he still sincerely respected this elder who had devoted his entire life to education.
In his later years on the Immortal Martial Continent, Evan had met many ordinary village tutors, but the one who left the deepest impression was the so-called Mad Scholar of the Village School, who spent three hundred years teaching children near Sky-Severing Falls in the southern continent.
Back then, when Evan met him, Evan had just become famous in the Immortal Martial world and hadn’t yet ascended to Nine Mysteries Immortal Lord. He watched that man wield a bamboo sword, using only Foundation Establishment cultivation to slice the waterfall in half, then break through Foundation, form a Golden Core, transform into Nascent Soul, split his spirit, and charge straight for the Dao—all in just three hours.
Later, that man said he was going to the Western Pure Land to find an old monk with nine scar marks on his head and borrow his heavenly scripture. After that, he disappeared without a trace. Whenever Evan thought of him, Old Man Liu’s silhouette would sometimes flash through his mind.
Evan let out a quiet sigh, the feeling lingering—some things, even for an immortal, never change.
"I heard you played a beautiful game yesterday."
Old Man Liu, walking ahead, suddenly spoke in a flat tone.
"Mm." Evan nodded.
"Not bad." Old Man Liu paused for a moment before uttering those two words.
If Old Man Liu ever handed out a compliment, jaws would hit the floor. Around here, his 'Not bad' was worth more than a trophy.
Ask anyone outside and they’ll say Principal Liu Botao runs Brightsea No. 2 High. But insiders know the real big shot is Old Man Liu—the legend standing right here.
Old Man Liu’s students filled every corner of the city—directors, government leaders, you name it. Most of them once sweated it out in his classroom.
Old Man Liu strolled ahead, leading Evan to a classroom door, then turned and looked at him. "There’s a math test here today. I think you should give it a try."
His gaze was calm, carrying that unique, stifled seriousness of an old-school scholar.
Evan felt a little puzzled—he had no idea why Old Man Liu brought him to take a test. But since the old man said so, he could only nod and walk into the classroom.
Inside, thirty desks were arranged in neat rows—eight, eight, seven, and seven.
When Evan walked in, quite a few students were already there—boys and girls, most of them wearing glasses. Quite a few looked up and were momentarily stunned to see him.
"Hey, doesn’t that guy look kind of familiar?" A bespectacled girl in the back row glanced at Evan and asked the girl sitting behind her.
"He’s that guy from yesterday on the field, from Class 7!" the other girl whispered back.
"That’s him!" The bespectacled girl covered her mouth in surprise, her eyes growing even more curious as she looked at Evan.
Normally, if a guy’s good at soccer, his grades are trash. Even Ethan Yi—the school’s soccer god—barely scraped by academically. But every kid in this room was an academic beast, top of the food chain.
Last time, Old Man Liu dropped a test so brutal only those scoring over a hundred made it here. Today’s exam? It’s the final boss battle—pick the elite to represent Brightsea No. 2 at the National Math Olympiad (China’s top high school math competition).
Evan’s appearance obviously caught everyone off guard.
Evan quickly spotted Mia Chen and Rachel Liu sitting in the back row.
Mia’s gaze was complicated as she looked at Evan. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed much calmer—she just glanced at Evan and then lowered her head.
"Find a seat and sit down. I’ll go get the test papers. Everyone, get ready—the exam starts in ten minutes." Old Man Liu said, then walked off to the office with his hands behind his back.
Evan found an empty seat and sat down immediately.
"Hey, you really crushed it out there yesterday." The girl next to Evan flashed him a cheeky grin.
"Thanks." Evan nodded, deadpan. His chill response made the girl pout, clearly not getting the reaction she wanted.
Soon, Old Man Liu came back with the test papers, handed them out, then sat at the podium and announced the start of the exam.
Evan took his test and glanced over it.
Not many questions, but every one was a curveball. Evan’s interest was piqued—finally, something worth a glance.
If it was just basic stuff, Evan wouldn’t have wasted a single brain cell here.
After quickly scanning the questions, Evan picked up his pen and started solving.
......
Old Man Liu sat at the podium, his eyes sweeping across the exam room every so often.
He’d spent three days crafting this test, with every question carefully set up with traps. The first few were especially convoluted, testing attention and rigor; the later ones were pure knowledge checks, highly specialized and tough.
All around, academic aces clawed at their hair—the test was way nastier than they’d bargained for. Exactly as Old Man Liu had planned: pure mental torture.
Old Man Liu glanced over at Evan, noticing that he never stopped writing on his scratch paper. That made the old teacher reevaluate him.
"This is brutal." Mia Chen muttered, frowning. The questions were savage, packed with obscure details—her brain felt like it was melting.
Rachel Liu, meanwhile, was cool as ice. She was the school’s queen—brains, looks, the whole package. Everyone said she was a lock for Huaqing University (China’s equivalent of MIT).
After finishing the first question, Rachel glanced up at Evan, who sat ahead to her left.
Rachel hadn’t watched yesterday’s game, but the whole school was buzzing about how Evan from Class 7 had crushed Class 3’s entire soccer team single-handedly—even Ethan Yi couldn’t fight back at all.
Rachel didn’t buy the hype. But after seeing Evan vault out a library window and stomp Buck Niu on White Dragon Mountain, she couldn’t help being curious—though she kept her distance, and liking him was out of the question.
Time ticked by, second after second.
Evan stretched his neck, yawned, tossed his pen aside, and stood up—cool as ever, like he was just bored and ready to bounce.
Exactly forty-five minutes in. Evan was done. Everyone else? Still stuck in academic hell.
The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The so-called geniuses were all gnashing their teeth, clawing at their heads—this exam was pure brain-melting agony, like getting dunked in ice water and roasted over a fire at the same time.
The moment Evan stood, heads snapped up all over the room.
Old Man Liu frowned, thinking Evan was tapping out. After all, every question was a boss fight—even the best students were getting wrecked.
But before Old Man Liu could say a word, Evan swaggered up to the podium, dropped his test on the desk, nodded with that signature chill, hands in pockets, and strolled out like he owned the place.
Sunlight from the hallway spilled over Evan’s figure, casting him in gold as he walked out—leaving the room full of stunned prodigies with the image of a legend burning in their minds.
Old Man Liu’s frown deepened—he wasn’t pleased. This test was a big deal, and Evan was only here because he’d aced the last one.
He figured Evan was just phoning it in. But when Old Man Liu picked up Evan’s test and started reading, his eyes narrowed, his face went stiff, and his frown kept getting deeper—clearly, something on that paper had blown his mind.