16: Su Qingying's challenge: Your theory has a fatal flaw!

"You don't understand physics at all?"

When Su Qingying's cold, sharp, and undisguisedly provocative question clearly reached the ears of everyone in the lab, the air seemed to be sucked into a vacuum instantly!

Oppression!

An unprecedented sense of oppression settled over everyone.

The expressions on the faces of Academician Li Zhenbang and Academician Zhang Jingtong instantly became incredibly complex.

They looked at Lu Chen, then at Su Qingying, opened their mouths, wanting to say something to ease the tension, but found they couldn't interject at all!

This was no longer a normal academic discussion!

This was... a battle between gods!

One was the "True God" whom they revered as divine and believed to be the advent of future technology!

The other was an unparalleled genius in the scientific community of Xia Nation, whom they had watched grow up and personally cultivated.

These two, immediately upon meeting, were going... King against King?!

Long Weiguo stood at the doorway, showing no signs of worry; instead, he crossed his arms with great interest.

A smile of anticipation, as if watching a good show, curled at the corner of his mouth.

This was exactly what he wanted to see!

He wanted to use Su Qingying, this sharpest and hardest "whetstone," to thoroughly test how profound and weighty Lu Chen, this "Divine Weapon," truly was!

As the center of the storm, Lu Chen showed no anger or surprise on his face when facing Su Qingying's near "accusation" of a challenge.

He calmly took the tablet computer from Su Qingying's fair, slender hand.

His gaze swept across the screen, over the seventeen "logical fallacies" and three "fatal flaws" that Su Qingying had marked in red font.

The entire process took no more than three seconds.

Then, he looked up and smiled.

It was a smile tinged with helplessness, amusement, and a touch of... appreciation.

"Student Su Qingying, is that right?"

He shook the tablet in his hand.

"I must say, you are very capable."

"To be able to find these 'problems' from a seemingly perfect set of data in such a short time, and accurately pinpoint their conflict points with existing physics theories."

"Your mentor is Elder Zhang, isn't he?"

Lu Chen looked toward Academician Zhang Jingtong.

"With your level of skill, you certainly qualify to be his Final Disciple."

These words sounded like praise.

But for some reason, coming from Lu Chen's mouth, they carried a condescending tone, like a senior commenting on a junior!

A flicker of imperceptible anger flashed in Su Qingying's cold eyes!

What she hated most was when others spoke to her in such a "senior" tone!

"You don't need to beat around the bush here!"

Her voice grew even colder.

"I am asking you to address the fatal flaws in your theory! Please answer my question directly!"

"Flaws?"

Lu Chen smiled and handed the tablet back to her.

"No, Student Su."

"The one with flaws is not my theory."

"But rather..."

He reached out a finger and tapped Su Qingying's smooth, full forehead.

"It is the set of... outdated physics in your mind."

Boom!

This statement was even more devastating and arrogant than the time he told Academician Li Zhenbang, "The times have changed"!

If Li Zhenbang's knowledge was the "previous version."

Then, according to Lu Chen, the cutting-edge physics knowledge that Su Qingying was so proud of, representing the forefront of this era, was also... outdated?!

"You!"

For the first time, intense emotional fluctuations appeared on Su Qingying's perpetually icy face!

A blush of shame and annoyance spread from her fair neck all the way to her ears!

"Arrogant!"

She glared fiercely at Lu Chen, her voice trembling slightly with anger!

"By what right do you say that the knowledge I have learned is outdated?!"

"Based on this."

Lu Chen stopped wasting words on her.

He walked directly to the massive holographic touch screen in the center of the lab and brought up the Lithium-Sulfur Battery Model that all the Academicians had hailed as a "miracle" yesterday.

Then, he reached out and lightly tapped the model!

"Look here."

He pointed to one of the parameters that Su Qingying had marked as a "fatal flaw."

"You claim that the conductivity of the 'Ion Film' I set exceeds the theoretical limit permitted by the 'Wiedemann-Franz Law,' correct?"

"That's right!" Su Qingying lifted her fair chin like a proud swan. "Anyone who has studied Solid-State Physics should know that this is the most basic common sense!"

"Common sense?"

Lu Chen smiled.

"However, the scope of the 'Wiedemann-Franz Law' is within the framework of the 'Fermi Liquid' theory."

"And I, from the very beginning, was not using the 'Fermi Liquid' model."

As he spoke, he brought up a completely new theoretical framework, complex enough to make one's scalp tingle!

On the screen, countless strange symbols and formulas began to flash and reassemble rapidly!

"What I used is the 'Planckian Dissipation' model, based on 'Non-Fermi Liquid' theory!"

"Under this model, electron transport is no longer limited by 'Quasiparticle' lifetime, but enters a 'Quantum Critical' state of chaos!"

"In this state, the so-called 'conductivity limit' is nothing but a joke!"

"Therefore..."

Lu Chen turned back, looked at her stunning face, which had gone completely blank, and said clearly, word for word:

"It is not that my parameters are wrong."

"It is that you simply have not studied the more advanced theory."

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Su Qingying stared blankly at the "Planckian Dissipation" model on the screen—a model she had never heard of or seen before—feeling as if her brain had been violently struck by a neutron star!

She had completely... stopped thinking!

Non-Fermi Liquid?

Planckian Dissipation?

Quantum Critical?

What... what were all these things?!

Why couldn't I, a Doctor of Physics, understand a single word?!

Her knowledge system, which she was so proud of and which was at least ten years ahead of her peers, was as fragile as a piece of thin paper before Lu Chen's explanation, which was nothing short of a "Divine Revelation"!

It was easily torn to shreds!

"As for the other sixteen 'logical fallacies' you mentioned..."

Lu Chen gave her no chance to catch her breath.

He was like the cruelest teacher, intent on crushing all the pride of this "genius student" in one go!

"That is because you are still using 'Maxwell's Equations' to explain macroscopic electromagnetic phenomena."

"While I have long since integrated the 'Yang-Mills Theory' and the 'Electroweak Unification Theory' into my model."

"Therefore..."

"The places you perceive as 'fallacies' are, to me, precisely the most brilliant truths."

Having finished speaking, he turned off the screen.

The entire world seemed to plunge into eternal darkness as the screen went black.

Su Qingying remained standing blankly in place, motionless.

In her cold, proud eyes, confusion appeared for the very first time.

It was like a devout believer suddenly discovering that the god they had worshipped their entire life was... just a joke.

The massive impact of this collapse of faith nearly suffocated her!

Long Weiguo watched this scene unfold, feeling an indescribable... tempestuous surge in his heart!

He knew Lu Chen was powerful.

But he never expected Lu Chen to be powerful to such an... illogical degree!

He wasn't on the fifth floor.

He was in the... atmosphere!

He gently waved his hand.

Academician Zhang Jingtong and Academician Li Zhenbang immediately understood, and, one on each side, half-supported and half-guided the still distraught Su Qingying out of the lab.

Only Lu Chen and Long Weiguo remained in the enormous laboratory.

Long Weiguo looked at the young man standing in the darkness, seemingly integrated with the entire universe, and remained silent for a long time.

Finally, he slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and, in a voice almost like a sleepwalker's, asked a question that even he found absurd.

"Lu Chen..."

"Are you... truly... an Earthling?"