No Applause

"Next, I will speak of the most important concept I learned from Master Xi, from the work of the Gottingen Sect—formalization."

The moment Wang Qi spoke those words, another furrow appeared between the Calculus Lord's brows.

Behind him, even more Mathematicians of the Unnamed faction were almost beside themselves with rage.

Xiboche had achieved countless accomplishments throughout his life. Yet his views on the essence of mathematics had drawn widespread criticism, and the overwhelming majority of Mathematicians found them difficult to accept.

In the Calculus Lord's view, the essence of mathematics was "form." Individual symbols possessed no meaning whatsoever. Only the "form" in which those symbols were arranged constituted mathematics.

It was like saying that in the most basic formula, "1 + 1 = 2," the symbols "1," "+," "=," and "2" were all meaningless, while only the complete equation possessed mathematical meaning.

Meanwhile, the many Mathematicians of the Gottingen Sect were filled with complicated emotions as well. Strange expressions surfaced on their faces, mingled with bewilderment and anger.

The concept of "form" encompassed consistency, completeness, and decidability. It could be called Xiboche's lifelong ideal and greatest pursuit.

And the one who had denied that ideal was Wang Qi himself.

Using the Calculus Lord's own line of thought, Wang Qi had rejected the Calculus Lord's pursuit and negated the Gottingen Sect's decades of effort.

Yet none of those tangled emotions affected Wang Qi.

Wang Qi understood that what he represented now was not himself, but "correctness."

Self-reference was not a mathematical description—it truly belonged to logic. But whether it belonged to mathematics remained open to debate; not every mathematician acknowledged it. Whether on Earth or in Divine Land, there were signs of this.

"This statement cannot be proved" was not a mathematical statement in the narrow sense.

The second step