"The fighting on the Front Line is fierce; I myself have participated in battles several times."
Jian Ruyu said in a low voice, "It won't be long before all these people are assigned to the Front Line, perhaps including you and me."
Deng Qing's expression tightened. He had been hiding in the back, feeling incredibly comfortable. He didn't want to risk going to the Front Line.
But things are often beyond one's control.
"There's nothing strange about it."
Jian Ruyu said, "In times of crisis, everything must give way to war. Especially a war involving the Desolate Soil and a cult, it is impossible for it not to be fierce."
Furthermore, this highest-level Retest will also be conducted on the Front Line. Be prepared.
Deng Qing felt a chill run down her spine.
Half an incense stick later, Deng Qing arrived at General Affairs Room Three.
This place is near the Northern Side of the camp. Room No. 3 is a large building standing outside a dirt slope, rarely visited by people.
When he arrived, the door was open, and the tables and chairs inside had been moved to the wall, leaving a large empty space in the middle.
An old man stood with his back to the door, seemingly waiting for him.
Deng Qing entered the room, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "Greetings, Senior."
The old man turned his head, and Deng Qing was startled. " Old Han! Junior Deng Qing greets Old Han."
Deng Qing was secretly shocked. He never expected that the Jian Ruyu had invited to teach him Movement Technique was this big shot.
Old Han didn't bother with pleasantries and went straight to the point, "Let's not waste any time. I'll demonstrate a set of footwork first, and see how much you can understand."
Having said that, he took a step forward, his toes barely touching the ground, and with the agility of a rabbit, he turned and disappeared...
Deng Qing observed intently.
At first, he was able to keep up, but as Old Han's pace continued, he quickly realized something was wrong.
Old Han wasn't fast, and all his movements were clearly visible, but the more Deng Qing watched, the more dazed she became.
His eyes widened, his gaze fixed on those feet, until he couldn't even distinguish which step was real and which was feint.
After a short while, Old Han stopped in his tracks. "How much did you understand?"
Deng Qing shook his head and said honestly, "This junior doesn't understand."
Old Han frowned. "Didn't you say you were Martial Dao genius?"
As he spoke, he muttered under his breath, "All talk and no action, but nothing more."
Deng Qing cupped his hands and said, "This junior is good at experiencing the techniques within the techniques themselves, but not good at observing from the outside."
Old Han snorted, "You certainly have a silver tongue."
Fine, since you paid for it, I'll explain the filling to you in detail.
As he spoke, he walked to the wall and moved a table over.
Before long, he brought out Charcoal Pencil and paper and spread them out on the table.
Deng Qing assumed he wanted to write down the Mental Method, so he said, "Senior, you can remember the cultivation Mental Method; there's no need for paper and pen."
Old Han laughed and said, "Don't be so arrogant, young man. There aren't many people who can truly understand this field of my knowledge."
In other words, I agreed to their request and also accepted a kickback from you. Otherwise, do you think I would have bothered with this?
After saying that, Old Han picked up Charcoal Pencil and began to write on the paper.
He first wrote a "one", then added a "two" after it, followed by three, four, five, and so on.
He finished writing on one sheet of paper, then tore off another and continued writing.
At first, Deng Qing patiently read on, but after seeing Old Han write seven or eight more numbers and then the word "infinity" appeared, he couldn't help but ask, " Old Han, what are you doing...?"
Old Han didn't look up, but asked, "Starting from the beginning, adding sequentially downwards, without end, how big do you think this number will eventually be?"
Deng Qing said, "Naturally, it is infinitely large."
Old Han put down his pen, looked up at him, and a mysterious smile appeared on his face. "Is that really so?"
Deng Qing felt uneasy at his laughter. Why was he suddenly switching from teaching martial arts to math?
Without explaining, Old Han pushed the paper filled with numbers aside, took a few blank sheets of paper, and began writing.
This time, however, it wasn't about numbers; it was all lines of text: things like "starting with one, increasing sequentially"; things like "positive and negative cancel each other out"...
This world naturally lacks Arabic numerals and mathematical symbols that Deng Qing was familiar with.
Deng Qing could tell that Old Han was using the language of this world to express the equation.
But because there were no Arabic numerals or symbols, what could have been written in a few lines took him several pages to complete.
Deng Qing felt dizzy from looking at it.
Old Han finally put down his pen and pushed the stack of papers in front of him. " Elder Jian said that you think ordinary kung fu is not difficult enough and insist on learning something more challenging. What do you think of my skill?"
Deng Qing took the papers and examined them carefully.
"Take your time and look at it."
Old Han put his hands behind his back and walked towards the door. "If you can understand it, we'll continue. If you can't, there's nothing I can do. I'm going out for some fresh air; you can think about it yourself."
After saying that, Old Han stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Deng Qing carefully examined the papers, her brows furrowing more and more with each reading.
It's not that this thing is truly so profound as to be incomprehensible, but rather that Old Han's way of expressing it is too torturous.
It's just a transformation of a sequence, yet he uses dozens or even hundreds of words to explain it.
Deng Qing simply picked up the Charcoal Pencil and spread out several blank sheets of paper.
He began translating, converting Old Han's written expressions into mathematical expressions that he was familiar with.
As long strings of words were transformed into a few concise equations, Deng Qing wrote faster and faster, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.
After he wrote out the third set of formulas, he stared at the paper for several breaths before finally recognizing what Old Han had expressed.
"It's this!"
Deng Qing couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
The door was suddenly pushed open, Old Han poked half his body in, saying irritably, "What are you yelling about?"
Deng Qing cupped his hands and said, " Old Han, I know the answer."
Old Han strode in, closed the door, and sneered, "You've only been watching for a short while and you already know? Fine, tell me what you actually know."
Deng Qing picked up the top sheet of paper, pointed to the last line, and said, "Your answer is one-twelfth, negative."
Old Han's expression suddenly froze, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He wasn't in the mood to teach Deng Qing, but he couldn't refuse Jian Ruyu. Coincidentally, Jian Ruyu mentioned Deng Qing's request: to learn a difficult and powerful technique. Old Han then wanted to use this technique to force Deng Qing to back down.
But he never expected Deng Qing to be able to provide the answer, after all, Numerical Arts is a high level of knowledge in this world.
Seeing Old Han's shock, Deng Qing couldn't help but feel a little smug. "I scored 123 on the college entrance exam, and I've studied Li Yongle's popular science math books countless times. How could I possibly stump you?"
It turns out that the problem listed by Old Han was a classic problem of summing positive integers to infinity, but it was not a simple problem of adding these positive numbers together, but a specific solution under specific conditions.
Deng Qing had just seen this classic question type before, and it wasn't difficult to understand using the principles of displacement and reduction.
However, Old Han's expression was too vague for Deng Qing to understand. But when it was changed to Arabic numerals and mathematical symbols, he immediately recognized it.
Suddenly, Old Han noticed the gibberish on Deng Qing's manuscript paper, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
He grabbed the manuscript paper from the table and hissed, "What kind of charades are these? I get it! You've stuffed my writing into these circles and lines. How did you do that?"
Deng Qing had already prepared his explanation. "When I was young, I met a passing Daoist priest and studied under him for a period of time."
"Daoist priest?"
Old Han pondered for a moment, then stared at the manuscript for a while, increasingly sensing its profound meaning. He simply pushed the paper in front of Deng Qing, "Could you explain to this old man how these scribbles are used?"
Deng Qing looked hesitant. "Of course I can. However, you only agreed to teach me for two hours. If I start from the beginning, I'm afraid I won't be able to explain it clearly in a short time. What if it takes too long..."
Old Han slapped him on the shoulder, "You brat, you dare to challenge me? Speak up! I'm going to take you on today."
Deng Qing stopped refusing and spread out a sheet of white paper. "Let's start with the simplest thing. This is one, this is two, and this circle is zero..."
At first, Old Han frowned, but after Deng Qing finished writing down the ten numbers and then arranged them to form tens, hundreds, and thousands, his brow immediately relaxed. "So that's how it is! Just by changing the positions of ten symbols, all numbers can be represented?"
"Good."
Deng Qing then wrote down various mathematical symbols and explained their uses one by one.
Old Han had immersed himself in Numerical Arts for many years and grasped it instantly.
After Deng Qing finished explaining the meaning of fractions, Old Han snatched the Charcoal Pencil and wrote down a few numbers on the paper, attempting to deduce them.
After finishing writing, he stared at the few concise lines of formula, his face full of joy. "Brilliant, brilliant! The top is the number to be divided, and the bottom is the number to be divided, separated by a single line, making it clear at a glance."
Why waste time writing about fractions?
Old Han became more and more excited as he learned, sometimes slapping the table, sometimes scratching his head.
These numbers and symbols do not add to the principles of Numerical Arts, but they can compress the originally lengthy and complicated deductions into a concise form while making the meaning clear.
For someone who has been immersed in Numerical Arts for many years, this is not just a change in writing style, but rather a sudden and extremely useful tool.
After Deng Qing finished explaining the numbers and symbols, he was about to ask about the cultivation method when Old Han had already gathered all the sheets of paper with his previous calculations in front of him.
The old man held Charcoal Pencil, hunched over the table, sketching and calculating. He would fill one sheet, then immediately switch to another, completely absorbed in his work.
After waiting for a while, Deng Qing saw that Old Han was still engrossed in writing at his desk, so he coughed softly.
Old Han did not respond.
"Cough cough!"
This time the sound was louder.
Old Han paused, his Charcoal Pencil momentarily still, finally snapping out of his reverie amidst the numerous calculations on the page.
He glanced at the manuscript in front of him, then turned to look at Deng Qing, as if only then remembering the purpose of his visit.
What's the rush?
Old Han put down the Charcoal Pencil, carefully gathered the paper filled with calculations, and tucked it into his sleeve.
Then, he patted Deng Qing on the shoulder twice, "You're not bad, really not bad. Alright, this old man won't keep you from your business any longer, let's continue passing on the skills."
Old Han put his hands behind his back and paced around the room a couple of times. "Now that you can understand the equation you just read, it will be easier to explain. As you saw, one plus two, and so on, should result in an infinitely large number. But according to another set of rules, it just happens to fall on 'one-twelfth, which is negative'."
Of course, this doesn't mean that simply adding up those numbers will actually yield such a result. The real key lies in the underlying principle: more is less, and the infinite is finite.
Ordinary Movement Technique and movement techniques prioritize speed and agility. The footwork I teach you aims to find the finite within the infinite.
One moment, you take a step and can land at any of the countless possible points; the next moment, all the potential landing points vanish, leaving only the one you actually landed on.
In short, countless things converge into one, all forces merge into one force—this is the Collapse Step.
At this point, Old Han took a half-step outward, a very ordinary step, and not particularly fast.
But when Deng Qing looked again, she found that Old Han's body was clearly leaning to the left, and the final landing position was actually to the right front.
Old Han moved his feet again.
This time, he walked around Deng Qing.
It started as a tiny circle, but it grew larger and larger as it moved, constantly increasing the distance between itself and Deng Qing.
For some reason, Deng Qing felt that Old Han was not only not moving away, but was actually getting closer to her.
It was as if with every step Old Han took outward, the space around him that he could move around in shrank a little.
"Expand outwards, but consolidate inwards. Seemingly expanding outwards, all changes are actually converging towards a single point."
Old Han suddenly stopped. "Therefore, expansion is collapse."
Deng Qing stared intently at the route Old Han had just taken, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"When you truly grasp that fast is slow, slow is fast, immutability is change, expansion is collapse, then you've Initiation the realm of footwork."
Having said that, Old Han beckoned, "Come here, I will first teach you the Mental Method, and then I will teach you the Movement Technique."
At that moment, Old Han explained the energy flow, weight shift, and power generation techniques for each step in the Collapse Step.
Deng Qing had a good memory and was quick to understand. After Old Han explained it twice, he had Mental Method most of the key points.
Later, Old Han let him start practicing on his own.
But when Deng Qing actually tried to use the Collapse Step, he realized how awkward this skill was.
The Collapse Step requires the mind to be focused first, then the breath to follow, and finally the body to catch up.
Ordinary people take a step, and the moment a thought arises, their foot goes out. But the Collapse Step requires that before the ball of the foot leaves the ground, one must first determine many landing points in one's mind.
These landing points are neither real nor illusory, and could become actual destinations at any time.
Only when the body moves does one choose one of the landing points, discarding the others at the same time.
This feeling is very much like Schrödinger's Cat.
Such a profound theory leads to a sharp increase in the difficulty of cultivation.
When Deng Qing took her first step, she only managed to set three landing points before her body instinctively chose the closest one to hers.
Old Han stood at the table studying the numbers from the newly learned society, glanced at Deng Qing, and said, "I'm not telling you to pick a place to go. You must remember that once you take a step, there are destinations everywhere, and yet none of them are destinations. Before you settle down, you cannot make any choices."
Once a choice is made, a judgment can be made; once a judgment can be made, things become stagnant and disjointed.
Deng Qing nodded, resumed his efforts, and continued to make mistakes, with the old man continuing to offer guidance.
And so he continued, making mistakes and being corrected. As time passed, his practice gradually became smoother, and he kept repeating. "More is less, slow is fast, infinite is finite, expansion is collapse..."
Old Han was also extremely busy.
He already had more than a dozen sheets of paper piled up in front of him, and he was becoming more and more adept at using the numbers and symbols he had just learned.
One was engrossed in practicing Numerical Arts; for a moment, they both forgot about time.
Just as Deng Qing was practicing the Collapse Step diligently in the General Affairs Room Three, Zheng Shan quietly arrived at a Wooden House on the other side of the camp.
He looked around to make sure no one was nearby before raising his hand to knock on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Who?"
Zheng Bei's voice came from inside the house.
"It's me."
The door opened, Zheng Bei frowned immediately upon seeing who was outside. "Why are you here again?"
Zheng Shan didn't answer, but turned sideways and squeezed inside.
Zheng Bei glanced outside and had no choice but to let him in, then closed the door behind him.
This room was much more spacious than the Inspector's quarters, but the furnishings remained simple.
A wooden bed was placed against the wall, with a table and two chairs in the middle. Several registers and documents were spread out on the table.
Zheng Bei said irritably, "What else do you want? The results are already set, and no one can change them. I've done everything I can to help you."
If it weren't for my intervention, given how you instigated the trouble that day, and if it weren't for my efforts, the Deployment Office would have either given you a good beating or put your name on the blacklist.
They were relatives, within the fifth degree of kinship. Zheng Bei couldn't ignore Zheng Shan's affairs even if he wanted to.
Zheng Shan waved his hands repeatedly, stood by the window facing outside, and after confirming it was safe, whispered, "I have a secret."
Zheng Bei grew increasingly impatient. "What kind of secret could you possibly have, talking so mysteriously?"
Zheng Shan stepped forward, almost whispering in Zheng Bei's ear, "I know who killed Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji."
Zheng Bei paused for a moment, then his face turned cold. "What nonsense are you talking about? The Deployment Office has been investigating for so many days and still hasn't found the murderer, but you know about it first?"
As he spoke, he pointed to the door, "Go, get out of here. You weren't here tonight, and I don't want to listen to your nonsense."
Zheng Shan remained motionless, staring at Zheng Bei, and softly uttered a name, "It's Deng Qing."
Zheng Bei's expression changed drastically. He stared at Zheng Shan for a long while, then suddenly slammed his hand on the table. "Don't talk nonsense! I know Deng Qing came in second, and you were pushed to fourth, thus losing your spot Senior Inspector, and you're unhappy about it. But no matter how unhappy you are, you can't make a fuss like this."
Zheng Shan said urgently, "Thirteenth Brother, it's not me making this up, it's true! I have witnesses."
Zheng Bei was already preparing to kick them out, but upon hearing this, he withdrew his hand from the door. "What witness?"
Zheng Shan took a deep breath and said, "Let me start from the beginning. Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji disliked Deng Qing a lot when they were alive, and they targeted him more than once."
Zheng Bei frowned and said, "Who told you that? Isn't that nonsense?"
I know that when Huang Yunfan heard that Deng Qing had been caught in Beast Tide and his fate was unknown, he was so grief-stricken that his eyes welled up with tears, and he almost cried. Many people in the canteen saw it. Now you're telling me that Huang Yunfan and Deng Qing have a grudge?"
Zheng Shan sneered, "It was all an act! It was all Huang Yunfan's doing. Huang Yunfan had warned Deng Qing many times before not to rush into achieving good results. Deng Qing agreed verbally, but then he hunted down seven Qi Beast in a single day."
Seeing that they couldn't control him, Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji devised the subsequent Beast Tide.
Zheng Bei's gaze suddenly froze. "You're saying that Beast Tide was caused by those two?"