340: Chapter 340: Jiang Zhe, the Boss, Gives an Offline Lecture!

As time passed.

Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock.

Jiang Zhe did not appear, but everyone knew he was in the master bedroom on the second floor. Faint sounds came from time to time, as if he were recording something, but the specific content was unclear.

No one dared to disturb him, nor dared to rush him.

Twenty people sat in the living room, drinking tea, reading books, and chatting in low voices.

At eleven o'clock, Xiaoyu's delivery of the big meal arrived.

Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish, Biluo shrimp, eel paste, water shield and silverfish soup, and so on.

The table was full. She invited everyone to eat first, saying her brother would come down later. No one asked why, and there was not a hint of complaint.

At twelve o'clock, the lively lunch finished.

At 12:10, the door on the second floor opened.

Everyone looked up.

Jiang Zhe walked down the stairs.

A white shirt, black trousers, and a pair of black leather shoes—a very ordinary outfit.

But the moment he walked down, all the noise in the living room ceased.

Professor Chen Runzhi's gaze immediately locked onto Jiang Zhe, unable to look away.

He had been in academia for over forty years, meeting leaders, academicians, and Nobel laureates; he thought he was immune to auras.

But at this moment, he felt his heart suddenly flutter.

It was an indescribable feeling—no fear, no awe, only an endless desire to get closer to Jiang Zhe.

"A sense of affinity!"

Not only him, but the rest of the old folks looked at each other.

This feeling was unprecedented, even stronger than the feeling of holding hands with their wives when they were young!

The super-strong sense of affinity made countless people unable to help wanting to listen to Jiang Zhe speak.

Celestial Master Zhang's eyes narrowed suddenly, his face filled with astonishment.

He also had this instinctive reaction; besides the super-strong sense of affinity, there was another feeling, as if suddenly seeing a peerless beast in the deep mountains, knowing the other party wasn't coming for him, but still bowing his head.

This wasn't fear, but a sense of submission derived from the suppression of one human race by another.

"Why, why is the aura on him so transcendent?"

"I haven't even seen this on my master!"

"Is this the temperament of an immortal?"

What was most surprising was Zheng Ming; his face was blank.

He remembered the articles he had written over the past month belittling Jiang Zhe, the questioning and rebuttals.

At this moment, he suddenly felt like a weak ant standing in front of an ancient giant beast, waving its antennae and saying: [I want to challenge you]!

Little did he know, the ancient giant beast couldn't even see him, the ant!

At this moment, he felt embarrassed and ashamed.

Just this aura alone would likely make leaders around the world feel ashamed!

Then, after Jiang Zhe walked down the spiral staircase, he had a gentle smile on his face.

The previous pressure and awe disappeared, as if he had become the big brother next door again.

Academician Zhang took off his glasses, and his tense heart relaxed.

The three foreign professors sat on the sofa near the window. James from Cambridge breathed a sigh of relief and said to Professor Hans beside him in English: "When he walked in, I thought I saw God. That was the suppression of humanity by divinity, not the existence of a human!"

Hans gasped and nodded repeatedly.

Professor Hans from Switzerland stared at Jiang Zhe as if looking at a peerless piece of jade!

Yes, when Jiang Zhe first appeared, he unintentionally released some mental energy—all attributed to the super-strong panel.

Xiaoyu was used to being with Jiang Zhe, so she didn't have this feeling.

She moved a single sofa to sit behind the crowd, placed a small table in front of the sofa, and kept the camera steadily aimed at her brother in front.

At this moment, more than thirty million people were quietly watching Jiang Zhe on the screen.

Jiang Zhe sat down and scanned every face at the scene. He had seen photos and papers of familiar people like Ouyang Baili under the containment of the Security Bureau.

"Today, everyone, just treat this as a casual chat, a meet-and-greet."

"My name is Jiang Zhe. J and 'Big Brother' on the internet are all my nicknames."

"Today, I am only responsible for answering the questions you want to know but have no channel to find out."

"As for controlled nuclear fusion, cutting-edge technology, people's livelihoods, artificial intelligence, and other practical technologies, you can consult Xiaoyu in the future. I have prepared another big gift for her and this world. When the time comes, you will slowly discover that the gifts I give to this world are all things you are researching!"

Everyone held their breath, filled with surprise.

You know everything about controlled nuclear fusion and various cutting-edge technologies?

Although they were skeptical, everyone understood what kind of venue this was—a meet-and-greet, a Q&A session.

They didn't expect the gift to be so significant!

Virtual publicity?

Impossible. That's 'Big Brother', the super god who could unravel the mysteries of the universe's truth!

Soon, Jiang Zhe's gaze stopped at the window seat, where a man in a gray-blue Taoist robe, a wooden hairpin, and a thin but rosy face sat.

The man was twenty-nine years old, a once-in-a-century genius in the metaphysical world, Celestial Master Zhang of Qingfeng Temple.

Jiang Zhe looked at him, "Starting with this Celestial Master Zhang, what would you like to ask?"

Celestial Master Zhang raised his head and met Jiang Zhe's gaze.

Those eyes were very clear, like mountain spring water.

He was silent for a few seconds before slowly speaking: "Mr. Jiang Zhe, I have been practicing for over twenty years, and there is one question I have never been able to comprehend."

"What is it that Taoists are most attached to?"

"Tell me your understanding first."

Celestial Master Zhang pondered for a moment and explained:

"I think what Taoists are most attached to is not immortality, not supernatural powers, not ascension, but the Tao itself."

"But the Tao cannot be spoken, cannot be seen, cannot be grasped."

"So the attachment of Taoists is a contradictory attachment—an attachment to letting go of attachment!"

Celestial Master Zhang glanced to the left, and a case came to his mind:

"The story of Pao Ding butchering the ox in 'Zhuangzi'."

"An ordinary chef is attached to using a knife to chop bones, and the knife breaks in a month."

"A good chef is attached to using a knife to cut muscles, and the knife breaks in a year."

"But Pao Ding, he is attached to the Tao; he does not look at the shape of the ox, but uses his mind to perceive the natural skeletal texture of the ox; this is following natural laws."

"His knife travels in the gaps of the bones and tendons, entering the gaps with no thickness, moving with ease."

"He used his knife for nineteen years, butchered thousands of oxen, and the blade is still as new as if it had just been taken off the whetstone!"

"Pao Ding's attachment is not an attachment to the result of 'I must butcher the ox well', but an extreme focus on the process of complying with the internal laws of things: the Tao!"

"This focus allowed him to reach the realm of art, and also allowed both him and his tool to be preserved in the best way."

Seeing this, Celestial Master Zhang slowly raised his head and looked at Jiang Zhe.

"So I think what Taoists are most attached to is the attachment to letting go of all worldly attachments, to realize, comply with, and finally return to the Great Tao that gives birth to all things and runs ceaselessly."

"What they are most attached to is precisely a kind of wisdom and realm of non-attachment."

"Mr. Jiang Zhe, what do you think?"

After he finished speaking, the other materialist professors just listened for fun.

After all, Celestial Master Zhang was the only metaphysical practitioner present!

Jiang Zhe curled his lips slightly, "You said it very well, but what you said is the method, not the Tao itself."

"I have spoken before, the Tao is very simple. It is not something ethereal and void; it has a physical existence."

Celestial Master Zhang frowned.

"The Tao is the zero-point field."

"Your Taoist classic 'tao te ching' says—'The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things'."

"That 'one', in the language of modern physics, is the zero-point field."

"Quantum vacuum fluctuations, the ground state energy field of the universe."

"All this order, rules, particles, forces, are all derived from that field!"

He looked at Celestial Master Zhang calmly,

"You just said that Pao Ding butchering the ox is following natural laws, is complying with the internal laws of things."

"Then what is natural law? What is the law? It is the projection of the Tao on specific things."

"Pao Ding is not a genius; he just saw the texture structure of the ox more clearly than others."

"What he saw was not the ox, but the way the Tao is presented on that ox."

"You metaphysical practitioners cultivate, meditate, introspect, contemplate, chant scriptures; essentially, you are all doing one thing—extracting information from the zero-point field. Some people are gifted and can see things as soon as they meditate; some are untalented and cannot enter a state even after sitting for ten years."

"Why?"

"To explain it with the most materialist genetics; the skill information carried in your genes is relatively more. That skill information is what your consciousness downloaded from the zero-point field in a previous life or an even earlier reincarnation."

"As the saying goes, part of the information you had in the zero-point field last time was carried into this life by your genes."

Hearing this, Celestial Master Zhang looked surprised. He didn't expect Jiang Zhe to explain it this way.

"So people with talent are not born that way; it is accumulated."

"Your cultivation in this life is easy, and you were selected as a national-level metaphysical big shot at twenty-nine because you have already been cultivating in your last life, the life before last, and the life before that."

"You didn't start from scratch; you just continued from where you left off last time."

"For this case, just refer to the Tibetan Living Buddha reincarnation being found by disciples!"

Following the series of explanations, Celestial Master Zhang's eyes shone.

He knew that the reincarnation of Tibetan Living Buddhas and the Tao lead to the same destination.

Great practitioners, after death, will instruct disciples to find a child carrying memories of the previous life for about three years, and then take the child to the temple.

There have been many, many cases so far. Now the national policy is: not allowing Tibetan Living Buddha reincarnation to any place other than Tibet!

"So that's it!"

In the living room, Professor Chen Runzhi, Guan Jingming, Ouyang Baili, and others looked at each other, all seeing the shock on each other's faces.

Academician Zhang narrowed his eyes.

He thought Jiang Zhe would talk about metaphysics, but he didn't expect it to be half-metaphysics and half-science, which sounded very novel!

The three foreign professors chatted in low voices for a few sentences. James Thompson said softly: "zero-point field; I was a bit ignorant about the zero-point field when watching the live broadcast before. I didn't expect him to be able to explain it like this; my brain was extremely clear on the spot!"

Celestial Master Zhang was silent for a long time, then he raised his head and subconsciously asked the second question.

"Taoism says 'my fate is up to me, not heaven', but it also says 'comply with heaven and people'."

"How can the contradiction between these be unified? Just like the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics in science cannot be unified, as humans, can we really change our own destiny?"

The atmosphere in the living room suddenly stagnated, and everyone stared at Jiang Zhe.

Jiang Zhe's gaze at Celestial Master Zhang held a hint of appreciation, "This is your second question."

Celestial Master Zhang was slightly stunned, "Sorry, I..."

But he saw Jiang Zhe gently raise his hand, "But I can answer you!"