"Good."
Suppressing his excitement, Zheng Shan said, " Deng Qing almost died in that Beast Tide. After he returned alive, Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji were killed that very night. What a coincidence!"
I'm certain that Deng Qing wasn't seriously injured at all. He faked his injury to avoid suspicion from the Deployment Office, and then killed Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji under cover of night."
Zheng Bei's expression immediately turned serious. After a moment of silence, he said, "Where is the witness you mentioned? Did he see Deng Qing kill someone with his own eyes?"
Zheng Shan, "No, that's not true."
Zheng Bei's face darkened.
Zheng Shan quickly added, "But he knows about Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji's plot against Deng Qing, especially the Beast Tide. He can prove that it was no accident. This man Hu Li, and he is Song Wuji's trusted subordinate."
When Song Wuji and Huang Yunfan plotted against Deng Qing, they entrusted him with many tasks. Although he wasn't involved in the most crucial secret discussions, he knew a great deal.
Zheng Bei was silent for a moment, then walked to the window, looked outside for a while, and then turned around. "Bring the person over."
Zheng Shan was overjoyed, "Great, I'll go get him right away."
"Etc."
Zheng Bei whispered, "Bring it over quietly, don't let anyone know."
Zheng Shan nodded repeatedly, "I know, I know. I'll make sure no one sees him. I understand how dangerous this is."
Zheng Shan was overjoyed.
In his view, the current situation was already very clear.
As long as Hu Li explains things clearly, the Deployment Office will follow the clues and find that Deng Qing's murder will no longer be able to be hidden.
By then, forget about being Senior Inspector or Feather Guard Merit; it's uncertain whether Deng Qing will even survive to leave this Desolate Soil.
Once Deng Qing is removed from the list, his fourth place will naturally move up one spot.
Zheng Shan could almost see the Senior Inspector position he had previously missed out on now beckoning to him.
Two hours after Zheng Shan left, a soft knock came from Zheng Bei's door.
Zheng Bei opened the door; it was already completely dark outside.
Zheng Shan darted in, followed by a young man in his twenties, Hu Li.
Hu Li bowed respectfully, "Greetings Steward Zheng."
Zheng Bei cut to the chase. "How much do you know about the affair between Huang Yunfan, Song Wuji, and Deng Qing?"
Hu Li's eyes darted around. "Which matter is Steward Zheng asking about?"
Zheng Bei glanced at Zheng Shan, Zheng Shan urged, " Steward Zheng is my thirteenth brother, so say whatever you have to say. If you can really Deployment Office solve this case, you'll be well rewarded."
Hearing this, Hu Li immediately relaxed a lot.
He cleared his throat and said, " Song Wuji has been plotting against Deng Qing all along. It was Chen Tai first wanted Deng Qing to withdraw from the assessment and came to Song Wuji for help. Later, Deng Qing not only refused to withdraw, but also injured Song Wuji in public, and that's how the feud between the two sides began."
Huang Yunfan had always disliked Deng Qing. Relying on his status as the son of an elder of the True Yang Martial Sect, he repeatedly warned Deng Qing Deng Qing to listen to him and not to rush into improving his grades.
Although Huang Yunfan and Song Wuji usually kicked us out when they discussed important matters.
But I've always been by Song Wuji's side, so I know a little bit about it."
Zheng Bei asked, "What can you be sure about?"
Hu Li lowered his voice. "I swear on my life, the Beast Tide that Deng Qing encountered was no accident; it was caused by Huang Yunfan."
Zheng Bei narrowed his eyes, "You saw it with your own eyes?"
Hu Li said, "I know that Huang Yunfan has a very special Yin Pet. That thing is only the size of a fist and is covered in red fur. But once its blood flows out, it has a very strong attraction to Qi Beast."
To test the Yin Pet's attraction to Qi Beast, Huang Yunfan once took it outside the camp. At the time, I was the one guarding the vicinity for him. He cut the Yin Pet's skin and let some blood flow. Before long, all the nearby Qi Beast were drawn over...
Furthermore, Deng Qing hunted seven Qi Petal the day before, and the next day, Beast Tide broke out in his area. There's no such thing as a coincidence like that...
Hu Li talked on and on, his heart filled with the joy of seeking credit.
Zheng Shan, who was standing to the side, nodded repeatedly as he listened.
Finally, Hu Li shut up, and Zheng Shan couldn't wait to say, "Thirteenth Brother, what does 'ironclad evidence' mean? This is what 'ironclad evidence' means..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Zheng Bei's right hand was already on Hu Li's chin, while his other hand was on the back of his head.
Before Hu Li could react, there was a cracking sound, and Hu Li's head suddenly turned to one side. Before the smile on his face could fade, his whole body went limp.
Zheng Shan froze, cold sweat pouring down his back.
He stared at the corpse on the ground, then turned to look at Zheng Bei, opening his mouth several times, but no sound came out.
Zheng Bei took a cloth off the wall, slowly wiped his hands, and turned back with a smile, "You're scared already?"
"No, no..."
Zheng Shan's voice was weak and unsteady.
Zheng Bei hung the cloth back on the wall and sneered, "With so little courage, you dare to plot against Deng Qing?"
Zheng Shan rubbed his face, barely suppressing the fear in his heart, "Thirteenth Brother, what are you doing?"
"Do what?"
Zheng Bei coldly replied, "Saving you is also saving myself, and incidentally saving the Zheng family as well."
Zheng Shan gasped for breath, trembling as he said, "Don't try to pull this stunt. I just found evidence that Deng Qing committed murder. What does that have to do with the Zheng family?"
"Evidence?"
Zheng Bei laughed as if he'd heard a joke. "You think you're qualified to scheme against people?"
As he spoke, he pointed at Hu Li on the ground, "A good-for-nothing who relies entirely on his mouth and has no evidence whatsoever, you brought him here and made him say a few words, and you call that evidence? Do you know who Deng Qing is now?"
Zheng Shan, with his neck stiff, retorted, "He's nothing but a fraud. Even if he makes it into the top three, so what? He won't get the Feathered Forest Guard's Honorary Merit Rank; he's no important person."
Zheng Bei shook his head and smiled wryly, "You, it seems you don't understand anything."
Let me tell you, Deng Qing is now the model that the Martial Dao Lower Court is preparing to establish! This person comes from a poor family, was promoted and educated by the Martial Dao Institute, risked his life to lure away the Qi Beast in the face of the Beast Tide, protected the Martial Exam Student, and finally used the terrain and ingenuity to kill a large number of Qi Beast, making great contributions.
Such existence is proof of the Martial Dao Institute's effective teaching and merit-based selection process. You're taking this Hu Li around spreading rumors and misleading people, claiming that the Martial Dao Institute's newly established role model is actually a murderer. Are you looking for death?"
Zheng Shan, still unconvinced, retorted, "A murderer doesn't deserve to be a role model! I don't have concrete evidence right now, but if I keep investigating, won't I find it?"
Zheng Bei laughed angrily, "Investigate? You investigate, or should I? Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? And what do you think our Zheng family is compared to the Martial Dao Institute?"
Zheng Shan was speechless when questioned, and argued, "There's no need to kill someone, just drive them away."
"Drive them away? Hu Li has this thought, and you have this idea too. This is a huge hidden danger. There's no guarantee that Hu Li won't go to others and tell them. You've already come to us before, how could you be so stupid? Do you think this kind of thing can be left unattended?"
Zheng Bei approached step by step, "And Elder Jian, do you know who she is? Although her position is only that of an elder in the Martial Dao Lower Court, her background is beyond your imagination."
After Deng Qing encountered the Beast Tide, she personally brought the people back and personally examined their injuries. Now you're saying Deng Qing was faking her injuries.
Doesn't that mean Elder Jian covered up his injuries, helped him create an alibi, and was even his accomplice?
Zheng Bei, exasperated, poked Zheng Shan on the forehead, "How many heads do you have? How dare you point fingers at Elder Jian?"
The color drained from Zheng Shan's face little by little.
Zheng Bei grew angrier as he spoke, "You know nothing! For a spot that's already been lost, you dare to make false accusations everywhere. You're truly blinded by greed."
"If you hadn't brought him here tonight, and instead led him outside to make a scene, the entire Zheng family would have been ruined by you, you fool!"
Zheng Shan trembled all over and could no longer utter a word.
Zheng Bei snorted repeatedly, then suddenly walked to the bedside and pulled out a large cloth bag from underneath.
He opened the bag, stuffed Hu Li's body inside, tied the rope tightly, and then threw it directly at Zheng Shan, saying, "You caused this mess, so clean it up yourself."
Zheng Shan was startled. He hurriedly picked up the cloth bag, staggered to the window, looked around for more than ten breaths, and then carefully opened the door.
The night outside was deep, the wind whistled through the woods, and the dim, Blood Moon was obscured by the evening clouds.
Zheng Shan carried Hu Li's corpse and stepped out. He hadn't gone far when Zheng Bei appeared ahead of him and whispered, "Stay thirty feet away from me. I'll scout ahead."
Zheng Shan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The Blood Moon still hung high in the sky, but the Blood Moon surrounding it had faded to almost nothing.
This means the long night is about to end, and dawn will soon break.
General Affairs Room Three, Deng Qing was still practicing diligently.
He had lost count of how many times he had traversed the collapse step. He understood the mathematical foundation of the Collapse Step.
He also firmly remembered the essential principles of the Mental Method.
As for the luck route, landing position, and center of gravity shifts taught by Old Han, he remembered them all perfectly.
However, when he actually practiced the techniques, the principles of Numerical Arts and the Mental Method always went their separate ways, and he could never truly integrate them.
Deng Qing continued to practice diligently.
Following Old Han's guidance, the requirement is to step into the infinite. In this limited indoor space, the pursuit of the infinite can only be achieved by creating circles.
After Deng Qing practiced his footwork until he was comfortable, he began to walk in circles indoors.
To step on a circle, one must first step on a regular polygon to approximate a perfect circle.
After practicing all night, as Deng Qing stepped out of the regular polygon with more and more sides, and each side became shorter and shorter, the originally stiff turns gradually became smoother.
From a distance, the path he was walking was getting closer and closer to a true circle.
But in the end, it was only close; between each turning point, there was still a slight pause.
Even though the pause was so short that it was barely perceptible to most people, it remained crystal clear to Deng Qing himself.
However, once there is a pause, there is a flaw. Once a turning point occurs, it is no longer a perfect whole.
Sweat kept seeping from Deng Qing's forehead, dripping onto the ground, and was quickly trampled away by him.
His breathing was heavy, and his legs felt sluggish.
It was as if an invisible cage was trapping his thoughts within it.
He could clearly see the door, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get past it.
On the other side of the room, Old Han had already stopped paying attention to him.
In the old man's words, once you've reached this level, you can only figure it out yourself; anything you can explain is just a sham.
Old Han also didn't sleep all night, but he was even more excited than when he first arrived. A thick stack of manuscripts had already piled up in front of him, and he was still writing furiously.
The reason is simply that there are just too many Numerical Arts puzzles that have troubled him over the years.
In the past, when trying to deduce a problem, one would often have to write dozens of pages. The dense text was interconnected, and if one was not careful, one would not know where the mistake was.
Now, with this set of numbers and symbols, many lengthy deductions can be condensed into just a few lines.
Old Han wished he could take out all the unsolved problems from the past and recalculate them all in one night.
The old man and the young man continued to do their own thing, ignoring each other and the passage of time.
Deng Qing took another step into a regular polygon, and when he landed the last step, he suddenly stopped.
He realized he couldn't continue training like this.
Although he is resilient, he is by no means stubborn.
If the same method doesn't work the first time, you can try it ten or a hundred times.
If there's been no progress all night, it means the problem isn't a lack of practice, but rather that something is stuck, and we need to break through that mental block.
At that moment, Deng Qing adjusted her breathing and looked down at the ground.
In the huge room, there were footprints all over the place.
These footprints, some deep and some shallow, overlapped extensively, tangled together in a chaotic mess.
Deng Qing focused intently on the observation, and gradually, the footprints heading in the same direction connected in his mind.
In the end, the dense footprints almost merged into one, looking very close to a circle.
But Deng Qing knew that it was still not round.
Even if you keep going, taking a hundred steps, a thousand steps, ten thousand steps, it can only infinitely approach, but can never truly become a circle.
Deng Qing stared at the footprints on the ground, motionless for a long time.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind, "Yes. I've been thinking about how to find the finite from the infinite, how to make countless edges eventually converge into a perfect circle."
Therefore, it desperately increases the number of sides, trying to approximate the final result by exhausting all possible variations.
But if you keep going down this path, you'll never finish.
How can infinity be truly exhausted?
Suddenly, Deng Qing's gaze fell on the area surrounded by all the regular polygons. It was empty, yet it was the center of all the shapes.
Center!
Deng Qing gave a wry smile. Why did it take him so many detours to figure out such a simple truth?
Whether it has three sides, four sides, or thousands of sides, they can change constantly, but the center never moves.
Isn't that the point where all changes ultimately collapse?
"To remain unchanged is to change; to expand is to collapse."
At this moment, Deng Qing's thoughts finally became clear.
With that thought in mind, Deng Qing took another step.
This time, there was no turning at his feet. His body was about to go to the left, but in the next instant, he slid to the right front.
In the past, his weight followed his feet. Now, however, his weight moves first, constantly shifting the position of his feet.
As his pace quickened, the hem of his robes fluttered.
He moved like a gust of wind chasing the moon, circling around that unseen center, and swept past in a flash.
After completing one lap, Deng Qing suddenly stopped.
He looked down and saw a series of footprints on the ground, one after another, without any sharp edges or turns, which had become a perfect circle.
At the same time, a Clear Radiance, No Thought.
Ignoring everything else, Deng Qing focused solely on the last line: [ Collapse Step: 1% ( Initiation )]
As the panel appeared, Old Han, who was lying on the table, suddenly turned his head.
He stared intently at the round object beneath Deng Qing's feet, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, and waved to Deng Qing.
The meaning is clear: let's do it again.
Deng Qing composed himself, looked at the center of the circle he had just anchored, and moved his feet again.
This time, he showed less of the awkwardness of accidentally breaking through the level.
When the first step is taken, the body is still on the outside of the circle, the hem of the clothes has just lifted, and the person has already circled to the other end.
His steps seemed slow but were actually fast; each step was clearly visible, yet there was an apparent gap between each step.
A few breaths later, Deng Qing returned to his original spot, and another perfectly round object appeared on the ground, its ends joined together.
Old Han stood up, walked around the circle drawn by Deng Qing, and clicked his tongue, saying, "Not bad. Really not bad. It seems Elder Jian wasn't lying to me. You really are capable, kid."
Deng Qing bowed respectfully, "Thank you for passing on your skills, Old Han. I am only just beginning to grasp the basics and do not yet know what the Collapse Step will look like at its most advanced level."
Old Han glanced at him sideways, "You've only walked two circles, and you're already thinking about what it will be like after you've mastered it? Kid, don't be arrogant. Even I wouldn't dare say I've mastered this skill."
Deng Qing was slightly surprised.
Old Han put his hands behind his back and said, "You must know that there are countless principles in this world. The wind has its force, the water has its nature, the sun and moon revolve, and the four seasons change, all of which have their reasons."
To be able to glean martial arts from a single principle is already an extremely superior skill. The closer that principle is to the origin of heaven and earth, the higher the upper limit of the skill will be.
As he spoke, he pointed to the equations on the table, "The principles of Numerical Arts do not follow human feelings or desires. One is one, and two is two. Even if heaven and earth were turned upside down, the number would still be the same."
It measures length, defines shape, extends infinity, and calculates the universe. Formless and without appearance, yet it resides within all things. Any martial art that integrates the profound principles of Numerical Arts into its techniques is undoubtedly of the highest caliber.
As Old Han finished speaking, he took a step forward, and Deng Qing's gaze remained fixed on him.
But the moment that foot left the ground, Old Han had already appeared on the other side of the room, as if a part of the process was missing.
Deng Qing's eyes narrowed, her mind exploding. Was he really that awesome?
Old Han, "When you master the Collapse Step technique to a high level, you can combine countless landing points into one place and collapse the countless steps you've taken in between into nothingness."
To outsiders, it would seem like teleportation. However, don't overestimate me.
Old Han shook his head. "I, too, am now trapped in circles."
Each move must begin by determining the center of the circle, then drawing the area that one can control. All points within the circle can be changed; once outside the circle, the stance must be redefined.
The largest circle I can draw is no more than ten zhang in diameter.
As he spoke, he glanced at Deng Qing's feet and said, "As for the circle you made with those two steps, is it even ten feet in diameter?"
Deng Qing was embarrassed.
Old Han snorted, "So, you're still short on training."
After saying that, he picked up the manuscript paper on the table, humming a little tune as he walked towards the door.
Deng Qing clenched his fist, thinking to himself, "Old Han, Old Han, isn't it impolite to talk to a nobody like that?"
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