Genius

Genius is a modern-cultivation xianxia web novel by Liulang de Long, serialized and completed on Qidian in September 2009. It runs about 1.57 million characters over 526 chapters. The protagonist, Ji Xiaotian, cannot strategize like Zhuge Liang, but he possesses computing power greater than that of mainstream computers. After a chance encounter with martial arts, he applies this terrifying computational ability to martial study: he breaks down redundant movements in techniques, simulates the most suitable way to exert force in different situations, tailors move sets to people with different physical conditions, and even restores, completes, and optimizes incomplete cultivation methods into full, practicable ones. To others, Ji Xiaotian is like a super treasure basin—drop in a bit of knowledge and out comes a heap of key techniques. The appeal of this book lies not in slow-burn growth but in the protagonist's character. When wronged, he does not argue or shed tears; he beats the slanderer with his fists until they admit fault. He does not hide his ability or feign weakness to put on a show, and after defeating an opponent he does not waste breath on a long speech. One enemy after another is finished, and rival gangs collapse in succession. The author writes a "brash and decisive" protagonist in crisp strokes, and also offers an alternative cultivation imagination that pushes rational calculation to its limit: what happens to martial practice when techniques can be calculated, optimized, and mass-simulated?