Autumn deepened, withered yellow leaves drifted across the mountains, and the distant mountain scenery became half green and half yellow.

Iona walked through the forest of fallen leaves, the places she stepped on emitting continuous crunching sounds.

She arrived under a large banyan tree outside Scorchstone City, this giant tree being particularly conspicuous in this mountain forest.

After waiting for a while, another person entered this mountain forest, wearing a black cloak with cloth covering their face.

Upon seeing Iona, this figure stopped, removed the face cloth, revealing a somewhat aged face.

"Lady Iona." He pressed one hand to his shoulder, bowing in salute.

"Mhm." The golden-haired girl turned around, slightly nodding, her expression revealing neither joy nor displeasure.

"These are the items you previously wrote to prepare." The other party placed the long wooden box he carried on the grassy ground covered with dead leaves.

Unfastening the latch, he opened the box, revealing two custom-made black steel longswords, a small bag of black stones, a velvet jewelry box, a row of blood-red potions, a yellowed book, and a small bag of flower leaves sealed in a silk sachet.

"What is it." Iona looked up after checking everything.

"Young lady, you should understand, the things Lord Caren left behind are nearly exhausted."

Hearing this, Iona remained silent for a moment, then nodded.

"This is the last time I will deliver things to you, please understand."

"I served two generations of Viscount Caren, and once thought I would stay in the Viscount's residence my whole life, but alas..." He slowly shook his head.

"Please forgive me for not being able to see you again in the future, and I wish you success in entering the Hidden Grove, where there is extraordinary knowledge and power that ordinary nobles cannot access."

"If you can complete your transformation there and stand out, restoring the Caren Viscount residence won't be difficult, but by that time, I likely won't be around to see it."

"I have two grandsons, one currently in a legion at the Watch Fortress, the other studying in Greyleaf City. If you need them then, they will become your loyal assistants."

After saying these things, the old man thought for a moment, but ultimately didn't speak further, just looking at the golden-haired girl with aged, weary eyes.

"I understand." Iona closed the box and picked it up.

She turned and walked toward the mountain foot, gradually disappearing into the distance, only pausing midway to say.

"Thank you, Butler Eason." Then her figure disappeared around the forest bend.

...

Scholar Hyde's residence, courtyard lawn.

Scholar Hyde with his long white beard, as usual, lightly tapped the blackboard with a wooden stick, today's knowledge written on it.

"It's already November now. Normally, the weather would have turned cold, but because we're in the Rising Wind Season, autumn and summer are exceptionally long. So winter will only begin briefly in December, then end in January next year when spring arrives."

"Such differences also bring variations in agriculture and trade activities. The Rising Wind Season typically has abundant, cheap grain, while the Sinking Mist Season is completely opposite."

...

"Today's lesson ends here. Additionally, I remind you that there will be a Secret History knowledge assessment next week." The old man raised a finger.

"The top three in the assessment will receive some prizes from me. Of course, not as extravagant as Viscount Xuefeng's, but they will still be quite helpful for you. Please look forward to it."

"Yes, teacher." Everyone replied with some anticipation, then dispersed.

Leaving Scholar Hyde's backyard in small groups, everyone discussed this assessment.

"This time it seems they're not testing combat, just knowledge-based assessment."

"Sigh, then I won't have any chance to shine."

"Can't be helped. It's not like Lord Xuefeng will come every time. Teacher is a scholar, so naturally he cares more about academic achievements."

"A Secret History assessment, then wouldn't Iona and Tia take first place?"

"Probably. They're evenly matched, maybe Tia is slightly stronger. I've seen her recently tutoring several struggling students regularly."

"Can wild kids like Mick, and that big dummy Ray really learn?" someone speculated doubtfully.

"Who knows? But I've seen Tia teaching very seriously. A few times when I passed by, I wanted to listen in."

"Sigh, your Secret History grades aren't bad either, why would you need tutoring?"

"This is hard to explain to you. Let's just say there's always a higher mountain behind another mountain." The other person shrugged helplessly.

"But recently, Lady Iona has become much less visible. She often misses training, and sometimes misses Scholar Hyde's classes too. Not sure what she's doing."

As everyone talked, their figures receded into the distance, next meeting at the afternoon training ground.

...

"The assessment is coming soon, are you all prepared?" Sylutia sat on a wooden chair, looking at the several students she was tutoring.

"Hah, of course I'm fine." Mick pretended to be relaxed while rubbing his head.

"I'll do my best." Karen nodded.

"What about Ray?" The girl tilted her head, looking at the large guy who stood a head taller than her.

"I, I'll take the test seriously." Ray answered in a muffled voice lacking confidence.

Despite being the most physically robust among them, unexpectedly he was the shyest in Sylutia's small tutoring sessions.

Faced with this big dummy, Sylutia couldn't help but facepalm and shake her head.

Although all three had poor foundations, Mick and Karen couldn't be called stupid, just lacking good education before. Only 'Ray' made Sylutia feel somewhat discouraged - he was truly hard to teach.

No choice, even she couldn't change someone's natural talent and intelligence, could only try her best to help him keep up and not fall too far behind.

Additionally, for stupid students like Ray, Sylutia had summarized some experience.

Different from normal students and genius students, when facing overly dull people, you can't teach using conventional knowledge frameworks. They can't comprehend such complex, vast things, so the knowledge framework must be further simplified, lowering the learning difficulty.

Such simplification naturally sacrifices original effectiveness and makes further advancement difficult, serving as foundation for certain advanced courses. But compared to fragmented knowledge frameworks they couldn't understand anyway, for dull students, simplified frameworks are easier to accept, operate, and solve common problems.

Having a crude knowledge framework system is better than having nothing at all - this is a helpless compromise.

"Alright, I believe you all want to prove yourselves and won't take this assessment lightly." Sylutia stood up.

"Let's review today, and also... could you show me your recent combat training achievements?" Her words surprised everyone.

"Tia wants to watch us fight and train?" Ray rubbed his fists, eager to try.

"Of course we can." Karen felt this was simplest thing, didn't even need special mention.

"Tia, can you even understand it?" Although Mick felt this girl was far ahead academically, often feeling less clever than her.

But combat, swordsmanship - could she really understand these? She probably never even held a sword.

"Is that what you think?"

The black-haired girl picked up her teacup, took a small sip, her calm expression suddenly making Mick somewhat uncertain.

During this period interacting with this black-haired, blue-eyed girl, he increasingly realized that beneath her seemingly ordinary appearance lay an incredibly intelligent mind and insight.

He rarely admired people - one was senior adventurer Big Brother Jello, the other was this girl who seemed similar in age but whose knowledge and thinking far surpassed his.

"Probably, but since Tia requested, I'll just show you during sparring." He turned his head away, avoiding that face and eyes that gradually unsettled his heart.