The Budding of Infinite Orders (Part 1)

Due to the Reformation in Europe, Protestantism and Catholicism had been in opposition for a long time.

Unlike Catholicism, Protestantism, as the core denomination in England today, is extremely inclusive of all social strata—this can be understood as a grand opening sale, offering very favorable benefits.

However, from a historical perspective, the fact that Protestantism abolished Catholic indulgences is worth acknowledging.

Therefore, guided by relatively enlightened thinking, Yarlin did not delve too deeply into whether Xu Yun was a believer or had been baptized, and quickly let William and his party enter.

The interior of St. Titus Didymus Cathedral was very spacious, with two floors that could accommodate about eight hundred to a thousand people seated and standing. At the very front was a raised platform for preaching and a space for the choir.

After entering the cathedral, the William family found a spot on the left side, somewhat towards the middle, to serve as their seats for the service.

After some adjustments, they finally settled on a seating arrangement for seven people, with Lilani sitting on Mrs. William's lap.

About half an hour later, a choir walked onto the stage at the front. Everyone in the church stood up simultaneously and began singing hymns.

As Xu Yun's knowledge of hymns was limited to the one that sounded extremely similar to "Love My China," which was "Hallelujah," he could only hum along like a wooden mannequin during the song, feeling rather like he was just making up the numbers.

After the hymns were sung, Pastor Yarlin, whom they had met earlier, walked onto the main pulpit.

After a simple prayer, the formal sermon began.

Yarlin's sermon today was from the Gospel of Matthew, and there was a passage that Xu Yun was quite familiar with:

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Xu Yun was not a believer, but this sentence had inexplicably touched him for a long time, and he had unconsciously memorized it.

It was somewhat akin to famous sayings like "The Bodhi tree is not a stand, nor is the bright mirror a desk," which even non-believers had heard a few times.

The entire sermon lasted an hour and a half. Xu Yun listened to the whole thing, half in a daze and half attentively. In the latter half, he was mostly observing the other people in the church.

When the sermon concluded, Yarlin wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with some effort and said:

"Hallelujah!

People of God, I pray that our Lord blesses each of your families. May your footsteps be guided to good paths, and may we one day share in glory together!

Now, please rise to receive Communion!"

Upon hearing this, everyone present immediately stood up in unison.

A moment later.

Solemn and heavy piano music began to play, and the choir continued to sing hymns.

Pastor Yarlin personally carried a small plate, followed by three or four people, walking from the front row towards the back.

Xu Yun and his group were seated in the middle of the many seats, so Yarlin soon arrived before them.

The rules for Communion were actually quite simple:

On the plate in Yarlin's hand was a small wooden dish holding a piece of unleavened bread the size of a fingernail, and beside it was a wine jug. Each person could use their own cup to take a little wine.

According to the instructions, everyone just needed to consume the unleavened bread and wine.

Xu Yun had learned about this part of the ceremony from Little Ox on the way, so he wasn't too resistant when it was his turn, and he readily picked up the unleavened bread and wine and swallowed them.

After all, this wasn't a ceremony for joining the church, but rather a form of thanksgiving and church etiquette. Normally, Xu Yun wouldn't have actively participated, but he wouldn't resist too much when the occasion called for it.

Under normal circumstances, the wine for Communion was usually red wine, symbolizing the blood of the Son of God.

However, due to the current disruptions in shipping, Grantham's wine reserves were running low, so Yarlin used newly brewed apple cider to substitute this time.

Apple cider was actually more blood-like in color than red wine, but the taste of fresh apple cider was far inferior to red wine—especially when using Bramley apples, which were very high in acidity.

As soon as it touched his tongue, Xu Yun's taste buds were met with an intense sourness.

However, as the liquid went down, Xu Yun's hand, holding the wooden cup, suddenly froze. A flash of lightning struck his mind:

He thought of something he could use to make his first fortune!

Yes, that was it!

After the Communion ceremony, William and his party carefully packed their belongings (mainly the Holy Book and Leaf Bag) and then left the church.

Unlike their journey there, Xu Yun and the others encountered no unexpected events on their way back, and they only exchanged a few words with some of the fellow villagers who were traveling with them.

After walking and resting for over three hours, the eight of them finally returned to the small village of Woolsthorpe.

Then, Little Ox and Xu Yun, the two young men, bid farewell to the William family at the village entrance and returned to their respective homes.

As soon as he returned to his garden house, Little Ox took out the paper Hooke had left him and said, "Fat Fish, don't speak yet. Listen to my solution."

Xu Yun readily agreed. Given Little Ox's pride, Xu Yun was merely an auxiliary 'tool,' and the problem-solving approach had to come from him: "Please, Mr. Newton."

When Hooke had left, he had already looked at Hooke's problem. Describing it in words was simple:

Suppose you have a marble, and it rolls around in an irregular pit. You know the relationship between the pit's depth and its horizontal coordinate, V(r). Then, find the properties of this function, which is a calculation problem of the space occupied by a continuous medium that has not undergone deformation.

"Here's my idea," Little Ox said, quickly drawing a diagram on the paper. "If we confine it within a Cartesian coordinate system, assuming the marble is a point mass, the only interaction is at close range, x."

The components of the force applied to each small piece within the medium can be regarded as applied to the surface of this piece of medium, so there should be some quantity of force density corresponding to some quantity on the surface."

Xu Yun continued to nod. The "some quantity" Little Ox mentioned was actually volume integrals and surface integrals.

Being able to start from integrals indicated that Little Ox's framework for Calculus was not far from being completed, which was undoubtedly good news.

"Then let's assume ￡X is the displacement of a small surface element. According to a property of parallelogram products mentioned in Cardano's The Great Numbers, published in 1545, we should be able to derive ζF, and then use the symmetry of quantities to further calculate."

Having said this, Little Ox suddenly stopped speaking.

It was obvious.

His train of thought had reached its limit.

Note:

Okay, I'm terrible at naming things.