Chapter 213

　Others might not fully understand this situation, but Ye Gucheng, who had successfully achieved oneness with nature, could. He had now reached a state of “no sword in hand, no sword in mind.”

　　Although I will still use peerless divine weapons like the Tai’a Sword, it’s more about the sword intent than the sword itself.

　　His current unity with the sword is a fusion of his sword intent with that of the Tai’a Sword. He is now like Li Xunhuan’s Flying Dagger, where as long as he uses the Flying Dagger from Beyond the Heavens, he will definitely hit his opponent, determining victory or defeat, and life or death. If he does not use it, it means he is not confident and knows that he cannot succeed, so he will not use it. This is actually Li Xunhuan’s true martial arts realm (purely the understanding and artistic conception of martial arts, not the cultivation of internal strength).

　　If Ye Gucheng were to fight a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm now, even a peerless swordsman who has comprehended the sword intent would be no match for him; at most, he would only waste some effort.

　　The reason is simple: he can see through your sword intent and sword moves directly. Your techniques and skills are like being naked in front of him. He can anticipate the enemy’s moves and make predictions in advance, as if he has mastered the Dugu Nine Swords or created his own Dugu Nine Swords.

　　But against the ultimate version of Dugu Nine Swords, which is wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, and can command the power of heaven and earth, it is completely meaningless. A single bolt of heavenly lightning can blast you into nothingness. What can you use to break it?

　　The closer one gets to this realm, the clearer one becomes about the true terror of a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm.

　　At the same time, Ye Gucheng also saw what realm Zhang Weihao was at. This guy was also in harmony with heaven and man, so most of the time he followed the path of breaking all laws with one sword. In addition to his own extremely strong blood and qi, he could also easily see through your sword moves and sword intent and break them with one sword.

　　However, the others didn’t have such high comprehension and understanding, and they couldn’t understand what it meant at all. Only Li Xunhuan listened with a sweat pouring down his face, and he gained a deeper and clearer understanding of his own martial arts.

　　Gongsun Lan seemed to understand but not quite, and with a devout expression, she directly asked Zhang Weihao about her future path in martial arts.

　　Since these people have come from afar to help, and most of them came spontaneously, Zhang Weihai generously offered his advice: “What you need to do most now is to forget the sword, forget sword techniques, sword moves, and everything related to the sword. Go and see the world, see the beautiful landscape beneath your feet. When you understand the true meaning of your own martial arts, then you will have truly entered the path of swordsmanship.”

　　”Did you see that? Are you sure you still want to go up and challenge him? Aren’t you afraid of losing?” Jiang Yuyan and Xiaoyuer had never gotten along well. Perhaps it was because they were both smart people, and like repels like, so Jiang Yuyan deliberately teased Xiaoyuer, who was clearly having second thoughts.

　　Being looked down upon like this in front of Tie Xinlan and Xiaoxiannv was indignant, especially in front of the smug Jiang Yuyan. Xiaoyuer walked up directly to Zhang Weihai, who was chatting with Gongsun Lan and the others, and challenged him: “They all say you are the smartest person in the world. Do you dare to accept my challenge?”

　　”You’re challenging me? Tell me, I’m quite curious. How do you intend to compete with me in wisdom, knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics, and prodigious memory?”

　　”Pfft! Sorry, I just couldn’t help it. He doesn’t know how to do these things. If you were to compete in this, he could just admit defeat.” As the head of the number one manor in the world, Shangguan Haitang naturally had her professional ethics. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t laugh out loud no matter how outrageous the competition was, unless she couldn’t help it.

　　Little Fish, of course, wouldn’t do that. He could surrender immediately if it came to that. So he stuck to his old ways, adopting a “I’m smart and I’m right” attitude, and said, “It’s not like we’re competing to be the greatest talent in the world. Why do we have to compete in these boring things? Let’s compete by answering questions. I’ll ask one, you answer one, you ask one, I answer one. Whoever gets the most correct answers is the winner.”

　　Zhang Weihao roughly guessed that these would be some kind of brain teasers, and he agreed with a wry smile, “Alright, you’re the guest, you go first.”

　　”Everyone has a friend, with jet-black hair, who stays with you under the moon and lamplight, but never speaks.”

　　”That’s it?” Zhang Weihao thought it would be some kind of difficult problem, like threading a string through a long string of pearls, a common problem in movies and TV shows, or some ancient math problems that were difficult for people. But it was just this?

　　This is probably at the level of an elementary school student.

　　”Warm up, you can’t even answer this, can you?”

　　“Shadow. It’s my turn. I drop a drop of ink into this glass of water, and the water naturally turns black. No matter how much clean, clear water you add to this glass, it will never be clean and clear again. If I ask you to turn it back into clean, clear water, can you do it?”

　　Some illiterate people, who are not observant, would not notice this, but some literate people, who know how difficult it is to clean ink stains once they turn black, know very well that this is absolutely impossible, so they all shake their heads and do not believe that such a thing is really possible.

　　Although Xiaoyuer hadn’t attended much school, he still understood this principle. He studied it for a long time, racking his brains, but still couldn’t come up with a solution unless it was a matter of cheating. Unfortunately, Zhang Weihao made all sorts of promises not to cheat, but it was this cup of dirty water that had been stained with ink and changed color.

　　”Fine, I give up, but you have to promise you can really do it.”

　　”Of course, Sister Bai, go and get my distillation equipment for me.”

　　While the ancients were indeed intelligent, they lacked knowledge and systematic learning, especially in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, which is incomparable to that of later generations.

　　No matter how smart you are, you can’t understand these principles if you haven’t specifically studied and researched them.

　　Therefore, Zhang Weihao’s operation was very simple: he put the distillation flask on, heated and evaporated the water while connecting the condenser to the wastewater to be heated, thus achieving heat recovery.

　　The main purpose is to collect the heat released during condensation, because the evaporation process absorbs too much heat. It also helps to lower the drainage temperature and recover some of the heat absorbed by the temperature difference.

　　Of course, from the perspective of wastewater treatment, it is still not clean water that can be drunk directly, but just from the appearance, this new water that has been evaporated and formed by the condensation of water vapor is naturally clean.

　　”What…what is this?”

　　”This is Western science. By heating, water is evaporated, changing from a liquid to a gas. Then, by cooling, it changes back from a gas to a liquid. At this point, the water becomes clean and transparent pure water.”

　　This is just one example; there are many other applications, such as a candle that can’t be blown out, a cup that absorbs water, two iron balls of different sizes falling simultaneously, and a chopstick that can lift a bull. There are many such applications, resembling magic tricks, but they aren’t magic tricks at all; rather, they are a science, or even theology—the study of understanding and mastering the principles of the world.