"Senior Sister Xiang, why are you here?" Wang Qi was somewhat puzzled.

Right now, indeed many cultivators are flocking to Langde City, but the purpose of this group of cultivators is mostly to study the Sea God type. Xiang Qi's main cultivation is the Heavenly Order Sword Disc, which is "elemental." This field is quite distant from the Sea God type. As long as human physics is not in a complete mess, the Heavenly Order Table—the periodic table of elements should be universal throughout the universe, and alien chemical elements are unlikely to differ from those on Earth.

Her presence here makes no sense!

Seeming to have sensed Wang Qi's bewildered gaze, Xiang Qi smiled and said, "I'm not here for anything specific. Well, I was just passing by the Wanfa Sect the other day, and, coincidentally, a senior there published a new book. I thought to myself, this guy behind me would surely regret not being able to see this book first because he's stuck in Langde, and then lament that he fell behind in this step. So, to prevent that scene from happening, I brought a copy over for him."

Wang Qi felt a bit puzzled: "Isn't that unreasonable? Shouldn't specialized publications be sold simultaneously across Shenzhou? Why does only the Wanfa Sect have it? Even if it's a special edition, shouldn't it be readable through the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm?"

"It's an internal version, still an internal version. The official release is the day after tomorrow." Xiang Qi kicked Su Junyu's calf: "I figured this guy must be thrilled."

"This book... is of no use at all." Su Junyu replied while flipping through the book.

Xiang Qi was stunned: "Hey, weren't you reading it quite happily just now?"

"It's useless." Su Junyu widened his eyes, afraid of missing any details inside, yet continued to say, "Really, this book is actually of no use to me."

"If it's useless, would you kindly take your eyes off the book?"

"Ah... wait, this part is interesting." Su Junyu didn't even lift his head.

The veins on Xiang Qi's forehead twitched: "Didn't you just say it's useless?"

"For my current cultivation and research... not very... not very..." Su Junyu kept reading and said, "Interesting... interesting..."

Xiang Qi gave a kick to Su Junyu: "Look at people when you talk! Didn't your parents teach you manners?"

"No..."

Xiang Qi supported her forehead with one hand. After a while, she said: "Alright, alright, you've read it for a while now, let Junior Brother take a look. This book is related to his papers from four or five years ago."

"Oh, oh." Su Junyu nodded, but still didn't move.

"You bastard..." Xiang Qi reached out to grab the book. At this moment, she used True Power. As her fingers touched the book, the physical properties of the pages immediately changed, neither metal nor stone, impervious to the force exchange between the two. Then, as Xiang Qi twisted her wrist to seize the book, Su Junyu was quicker, his right hand left the pages, two fingers like venomous fangs headed straight for Xiang Qi's wrist. The two of them, three hands, danced together like butterflies among the flowers.

Strictly speaking, Su Junyu was using three fingers—middle finger, index finger, and occasionally the thumb, along with a bit of wrist strength. His index and middle fingers alternately formed a Finger Sword, sometimes separated like two dragons seizing a pearl, occasionally retracting the middle finger, the index and thumb biting like tiger's teeth.

Even without looking with his eyes, just by listening to the sound, sensing the Mana Power Intent, and the feeling from his palm, Su Junyu could simulate all of Xiang Qi's moves within a virtual "Xiangyu." He didn't need to lift his head.

At this moment, Xiang Qi seemed even more strained than Su Junyu. Her arms were like two giant pythons, flipping up and down but unable to break through Su Junyu's defense. Su Junyu only used three fingers to seal all her changes. His fingers always hovered over the various acupoints on Xiang Qi's arms and wrist, and no matter how exquisite her fist technique and hand technique were, she couldn't deploy them. All changes were blocked by Su Junyu.

Su Junyu lifted his eyelids at this moment and laughed heartily: "Didn't expect, did you! You've forgotten! I've already become a Golden Core Cultivator! A Golden Core Cultivator who has initially mastered the Xiangyu Heavenly Position Technique! I'm no longer that weakling who had to rely on magic artifacts to fight back then! You won't be able to bully me again, hahaha!"

Aside from Wang Qi, the exception, the vast majority of Wanfa Sect cultivators are generally very weak in Combat in their initial cultivation phases. Mana is sparse, spells are few, and they rely on magic artifacts for strength — that's their portrayal. Take Su Junyu, for example; he had to rely on card magic artifacts imbued with spells as his main combat method during the Late-Stage Foundation Establishment. However, after cultivating high-level techniques like the Xiangyu Heavenly Position Technique, Wanfa Sect cultivators enter a true golden era.

An atmosphere of one technique creating countless techniques, one technique breaking countless techniques, can also only be revealed at this time.

Except for very few talented cultivators, generally, cultivators reach this technique's mysteries at the Primordial Spirit Stage.

Xiang Qi bit her lower lip: "Damn..."

—Seems like it really can't be like before...

Just as Xiang Qi stopped her fist movement, another hand wedged between the two. Wang Qi at this moment stretched out his hand, his index and middle fingers together, like a sharp sword, fiercely pressed onto the Shenmen acupoint of Su Junyu's wrist, then lifted his thumb and twisted his wrist down heavily, the Mana at his thumb's tip penetrating Su Junyu's Taiyuan acupoint.

If this were just a normal forbidden acupoint method, Su Junyu might not be defeated. But, unfortunately, he stepped into the pit Wang Qi dug, cultivating the Dataized Cultivation Method.

There is certainly no backdoor in Su Junyu's cultivation method. Wang Qi indeed has the ambition to learn from Earth's industry leaders by embedding backdoors into every user's body, but he wouldn't trap Su Junyu. However, it's just like a program; your system, every code line was manually typed by someone else, so the difference in whether there's a backdoor isn't very significant.

It's like the "permissions" on a network, being just one rank higher crushes others.

Su Junyu's mana was instantly sealed by Wang Qi. Wang Qi pressed down on Su Junyu's wrist and took the book from his hand. Then, he said to the dumfounded Xiang Qi, "Senior Sister, I'll have to trouble you to take care of Senior Brother Su. He probably won't be able to use mana for a while — also, please help restore this book to its original condition. Thank you."

Xiang Qi, still stunned, completed Wang Qi's instructions and glanced at Su Junyu. Quickly, she realized — this was an opportunity!

She made a "thank you" gesture towards Wang Qi, then grinned wickedly, grabbing Su Junyu by the neck with one hand: "Oh my, when old friends meet, shouldn't we have a drink?"

Su Junyu struggled fiercely: "Mmm mmm, what are you going to make me drink? Listen up! I absolutely won't acknowledge that alcohol concoction you guys at Burning Gold Valley make as wine..."

Watching the two walk away, Wang Qi shook his head and lightly sighed: "After all, Wanfa Sect also desires a Daoist couple..."

Without thinking about the two who had already walked away, Wang Qi turned his gaze to the book in his hands. The cover was simple, with only the words "All Laws Mathematical Collection."

However, for Shenzhou cultivators, the significance of bearing the words "Wanfa" was entirely different.

On Earth, there has never been an academic institution, organization, society, or university with such influence, capable of representing "all mathematicians."

But, in Shenzhou, the class and identity of "cultivator" is the most natural bond connecting those mathematicians, and sects are natural societies. Wanfa Sect transcends all academic organizations on Earth, being the collective of all mathematicians.

To bear the words "Wanfa" is the orthodox of "mathematics!"

A few years ago, the two ideological factions within Wanfa Sect, the Zongli Sect, had a battle for the compilation right of this step of Mathematics Scripture. Wang Qi even shone in this struggle for publishing "Godel Completeness Theorem."

Years passed, and this Mathematics Scripture was finally compiled... the first volume.

"Only one volume. Also, 'mathematics' as a discipline has developed to an extremely terrifying level. Even a peerless genius cannot fully comprehend it all. To fully describe the entire mathematical system, you'd probably need a small library." Wang Qi opened the book.

Although it was just the first volume, the book was already voluminous. Its purpose was to recast arithmetic, categorizing it as set theory. In this system, "one plus one equals two" was described as "when a set containing one element merges with another set also containing one element, the resulting union always has two elements."

On the surface, the latter seems countless times more complex than the former, practically complicating a simple problem. However, in a mathematician's eyes, the latter explanation is indeed clearer, more fundamental, and more operable — of course, after this, they need to tackle a series of new problems, such as what a "set" is and how to define "union."

But, this is where the significance lies.

— In this world, there doesn't exist tasks like Alfred North Whitehead, but the Master of Calculation completed their work.

"Let's see, just to explain the definition of addition and prove 'one plus one equals two,' this book wrote over five hundred pages..." Wang Qi read through this part quickly, then smiled wryly.

This Mathematics Scripture did define "one plus one equals two," but as soon as Godel's Incompleteness Theorem appears, this classic, which embodies everyone's effort and wisdom, has to face a terrifying fact.

It cannot prove that any set theory rules sufficient to deduce arithmetic theory are consistent. You cannot logically negate the possibility of "one plus one equals three." However, anyone can intuitively judge that it is impossible.

"1", "2", "3", "4", "5"... these numbers themselves are objective facts beyond human thinking.

"Hear the thunder in silence." The most fundamental numbers in mathematics are such terrifying things.

"A typical mathematician is a Platonist on weekdays, but a formalist on rest days." After experiencing that terrifying despair, Earth's mathematicians could only helplessly write such a sentence.

When we must make correct statements, we have to admit that we cannot affirm that there are no contradictions in mathematics, but we will not cease exploring mathematics because of it.

"One plus one equals two" is, after all, such a frightening problem.

"Ah... this problem is really a brain teaser. The Human Clan has had 'one plus one equals two' for thousands or tens of thousands of years, and still, no one doubts it."

Wang Qi closed the book and continued heading toward the primary learning hall.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

"Wait a minute... the first mathematical realization I probably had was 'one plus one equals two'?"