The Martial Unity

Once Professor Lusskind calmed down, he took a good look at the Emperor of Water before nervously glancing at the glass doors of his posh office. There were numerous students and staff members passing by each minute. They could easily see through and spot the Emperor. It would become a whole mess that would be a headache to deal with.

”Relax, they can’t see me,” Rui remarked in a relaxed tone. ”Only you can. They won’t even notice anything odd here.”

The professor didn’t understand how that worked. It also sounded scary, to be able to toy with conscious experience to the extent that the Emperor seemed to be able to, but he didn’t linger on that point.

”Before we begin, there are some things that I need to ascertain,” the professor began, his demeanor becoming instructive. ”First, I would like to understand the extent of your knowledge. Not just your knowledge in the field of Physics, but also your knowledge in the field of mathematics. String Theory is a purely theoretical theory, so the mathematics is more than half of the knowledge foundation needed to understand String Theory. I know you have a foundation in mathematics as well, of course, but I will need to verify nonetheless.”

String Theory required multivariate differential calculus, linear algebra, differential algebraic geometry, operator theory, group theory, etc. The professor wasn’t certain if Rui possessed the fore knowledge.

”You can feel free to test me however you wish,” Rui replied calmly.

The professor indulged him, asking him questions, giving him problems. Rui even used a little bit of nonverbal communication and hypnosis for a hypnotic knowledge transfer. What shocked the professor was the sheer depth of understanding that Rui possessed in both the necessary physics and mathematics.

Especially in the fields of topology, operator theory, group theory, and advanced algebraic differential geometry. Not only had he fully mastered the cutting edge, but he had even gone further and had come up with his own mathematical paradigms!

On top of that, even within the cutting edge of mathematics, the professor realized that Rui’s knowledge, notations, and language were different from those who pioneered the theory and the standard norms. Meaning he had developed some of these entirely by himself rather than learning from textbooks.

But that wasn’t the most shocking part.

The most shocking part was that he had developed mathematical modeling paradigms that even the professor had never seen before.

He had come up with an integrated multi-dimensional tensor-field topological algorithmic modeling paradigm that allowed him to process inputs from his senses and spit out predictions for how a system of… almost anything would unfold.

”This…” the professor reeled with shock at the volume of knowledge that Rui possessed, before gazing at the Emperor with profound admiration. ”You are truly extraordinary, Your Majesty. I knew you would be knowledgeable, but this is beyond anything I had ever imagined. I feel I should be learning from you.”

Rui shook his head with a smile. ”It’s just stuff I developed organically over the decades as my Martial calculations grew more and more complex and voluminous. It’s not pure theory, but rather the opposite. These are practical innovations meant for practical problems to be solved in real time with your life on the line. Understanding String Theory is very different.”

That was true, the professor had to admit. Most of his mathematical knowledge appeared to be adaptively evolved to suit a battlefield rather than a derivation on a piece of paper.

”Still, your mathematical foundation is more than enough to understand everything about String Theory; the same is true for your Physics foundation,” the professor nodded encouragingly. ”It means we can skip the foundational stuff. Although, with this much knowledge. You wouldn’t need a teacher. I think you would be able to self-learn with a dozen or so comprehensive textbooks.”

”I did skim the textbooks, but they only cover the technical stuff. The equations are certainly helpful, but it’s ultimately subservient to the qualitative framework which only your lectures convey.” he shook his head. ”I’m more interested in a qualitative understanding of String Theory. Martial Artists don’t just need equations, they need an intuitive understanding of String Theory. I need to understand what the scientists who pioneered this theory were thinking. Why did they believe that the universe was made up of strings? What kind of situation led them to such an absurd view of reality?”

The professor smiled wryly at his words. Intuitive understanding was hard to come by in advanced theoretical physics. There was even a famous saying in the field of quantum physics: ’shut up and calculate.’ Even the most flexible and imaginative intuitions would melt in the face of the absurdities of relativity and quantum mechanics, and derivative fields that reconcile them.

”I understand. I will do my best to impart to you my full understanding of String Theory,” the professor said, nodding. Indeed, as a Physicist, the mathematics was always merely a tool to describe and predict. The heart of Physics was always the qualitative understanding and its connection to the material world. In his lectures, he often told students to study the field equations in depth on their own and ask him doubts outside his lecture, but during his lecture, he liked to focus on the qualitative aspects that could only be imparted by word.

The professor was particularly eager to impart this to the Emperor for two reasons. The first was the impact that it would have; he relished knowing that he would be partly responsible for whatever the Emperor was going to do from this point on. The second was that he hoped the Emperor would find proof for String Theory, which he demonstrated he likely already had just by showing so much interest in it. And the third reason was that the man before him was the source of immortality for the Immortal Sage Program.

He hoped to obtain a drop of the man’s blood and avert the impending death that undoubtedly awaited him in a decade or two at the very most.