"Nice job, Little Xuan!" Xiao Feng nodded in satisfaction, praising without reservation.

Lin Jiaxuan took a deep breath, suppressing her temper as she spoke, "I want to know, how exactly did you do it?"

"Mind your words. You are now my servant girl, according to the rules, you must address me as Master," Xiao Feng said discontentedly.

Lin Zhiyan frowned, "Lord Xiao, how come I never noticed before that you love putting on airs so much?"

The tone of her words clearly showed she couldn't stand it anymore and was speaking up for her younger sister.

Xiao Feng coughed twice and said, "Let's go out first and then discuss in detail."

Having said that, he took the lead and walked out of the passage.

...

To everyone's surprise, the end of the cave was actually the peak of a mountain.

Of course, everyone except Xiao Feng.

Earlier, he had hypothesized that the cave might be constructed within the mountain, and with the steps leading upwards, he deduced it reached a height of over a hundred meters, further solidifying his theory.

The only discrepancy was, Xiao Feng initially thought they'd exit halfway up the mountain and discover a treasure vault or something similar.

But now, a vast ocean of bamboo came into view.

It was already deep winter; flowers had withered, trees had shed their leaves, yet this sea of bamboo before them remained lush green, standing tall and firm, looking extremely impressive!

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Everyone took big breaths of fresh air. Though the air was cold, making them shiver, their faces displayed indescribable happiness and excitement, as if they had been reborn.

This was normal. After all, anyone would crave light after staying in a pitch-dark environment for a long time, even starlight would be precious!

"Now can you tell us how you managed to complete the puzzle in such a short time?" Lin Zhiyan asked.

Xiao Feng smiled and explained, "It's actually quite simple. No matter how difficult the mechanism, as long as you find the right method, it can be solved easily."

"Are you saying that our previous puzzle-solving method was wrong?"

"Yes, the method was wrong, so the effort was in vain."

Lin Jiaxuan said impatiently, "Then what is your method?"

Xiao Feng frowned slightly, "I remind you again, pay attention to how you address me, and your tone."

"You!" Lin Jiaxuan was so angry her teeth were clenched. He's really putting on airs, huh.

The little girl stepped in to mediate, "Alright, alright, Brother Xiao Feng, just tell us the answer already, stop keeping us in suspense."

"Before revealing the answer, I'd like to ask a question first."

"What question?"

"Generally, how do you play a puzzle game?"

The little girl thought for a moment, then replied, "Of course, you start from the top left corner and piece it together bit by bit."

Xiao Feng nodded, "This is the approach most people adopt. What I want to say is, if you really start assembling from one corner, the puzzle may never be completed in a lifetime."

"Then Brother Xiao Feng, how do you piece it together?"

Xiao Feng smiled slightly, "If anyone observed carefully, they might remember that in my last attempt, I flipped the puzzle over and started by finding the four corners and then moved on to fill in the central parts.

This means you shouldn't focus solely on one corner and piece it together bit by bit, as that would be futile."

Lin Zhiyan interjected, "How did you determine this was the correct method?"

Xiao Feng pointed to his eyes, "By using these to see."

Then pointed to his head, "Using my brain to remember."

Finally pointed to his heart, "And think with my heart."

After finishing this series of actions, Xiao Feng stood with his hands behind his back and said, "This is the key to mastering the correct method."

However, after waiting a long time, the applause he expected did not come; not even the little girl seemed willing to cooperate.

"Caw... caw... caw..."

It seemed a crow was cawing in the sky, making the scene awkwardly quiet.

Everyone looked at Xiao Feng standing with his hands behind him, gazing at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, feeling a sense of speechlessness.

Can you be any more pretentious?

Facing away from the crowd, Xiao Feng frowned deeply, pondering where the problem arose.

Why is no one clapping with joy?

Why is no one moved to tears?

Granted, this wasn't a concert, so being moved to tears could be forgone, but there should still be applause.

Before he could figure it out, Zhao Guo'an's question came, "Does that mean that when you tried the new method, you weren't one hundred percent certain of success?"

"Nothing is absolute in this world, just like when you have diarrhea, can you guarantee it's just gas and not more?" Xiao Feng retorted.

"..." Zhao Guo'an.

What kind of analogy is that!

Fujiwara Keiaki asked, "Weren't you afraid of losing the bet and having to work as a laborer for a year?"

"Of course, I was afraid!" Xiao Feng replied frankly, "But trying to take on a rather competent underling... oh no, I mean a servant girl, without taking risks is simply impossible.

If you think about it, if I hadn't given her a feeling of a very high chance of winning, she wouldn't have bet against me."

At this moment, Meng Lang, who had remained silent, cautiously asked, "Since we're all out, can you let us go now?"

"No way." Xiao Feng decisively refused, "We haven't even seen the treasure yet, and who knows what dangers lie ahead. If I let you go, who would step on the mines in front?"

Suddenly stifled, Meng Lang couldn't argue. Though he had spoken of "being cannon fodder comes with a cannon fodder's awareness" before, it was different when someone else said it.

Now hearing Xiao Feng state so bluntly about sending them to their deaths, he couldn't help feeling a bit dejected.

The other three also looked more unpleasant.

Seeing through their thoughts, Lin Zhiyan sneered, "Don't forget, if we hadn't saved you, you probably would never have seen such beautiful stars in your entire life."

Xiao Feng added, "Also, I advise you not to entertain any bad thoughts. In times of need, I won't hesitate to deal with you myself."

"Understood, understood!" Meng Lang nodded quickly.

He wasn't particularly disappointed by the outcome, as he hadn't had much hope in the first place.

He only asked to try his luck; maybe they'd let him go.

Having finished lecturing the cannon fodder, Xiao Feng took out his phone, found that the signal was still not great, but at least there were one or two bars, which was barely enough.

He opened the map navigation and activated the location function to see where exactly they were.

After all, they were in a bamboo forest, without any distinctive landmarks behind them, and it was nighttime, so there was no way to know the exact location.

Seeing the little red dot on the map, Xiao Feng was taken aback, "We're still in Jiuyou Town?"

Hearing the amazement in Xiao Feng's voice, everyone immediately looked at Jiuye and Sun Shijie; these two local 'veterans' should know where this place is, right?

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