General of the Heavens

Chapter 86 Klein Bottle [Recommendations Requested]

Ning Chen had been walking through the endless Qianling Mausoleum passage for three whole days. Anyone else would probably have been driven mad by fear and darkness.

"Is it really as the legends say, that the Qianling Mausoleum passage is a road without end, where anyone who steps into this forbidden area will die?"

Ning Chen couldn't help but think of it.

Is there a road in this world without an end?

The answer is yes. Putting everything else aside, just take Earth. Theoretically, as long as we keep moving forward, we will eventually return to where we started.

However, how do you create a path with no end in a limited space? The ancients provided the answer with their wisdom: the maze.

Some large ancient tombs have mazes built in the tomb passages to trap tomb raiders. Once inside, tomb raiders often find that no matter which way they go, they will always return to the starting point.

Ning Chen initially thought that Qianling was like that, but the truth is not so. There is really only one road in the Qianling tomb passage, with no side roads.

This rules out the possibility of a maze.

Therefore, the destination of the Qianling Mausoleum's tomb passage was beyond Ning Chen's imagination, and he even suspected that it was a road without end.

"No, building such a tomb passage inside the mountains is impossible, not even in the main world, let alone in ancient times!" Ning Chen shook his head.

Given the varying strength of the mountain, such a long tomb passage would easily have collapsed over thousands of years due to tectonic movements. The fact that this tomb passage remains intact indicates that it is not an endless road at all.

"Could it be... a Möbius strip?"

Ning Chen suddenly recalled an interesting hypothesis, namely the Klein bottle hypothesis. The structure of a Klein bottle can be described as follows:

There is a hole at the bottom of the bottle, the neck of the bottle is extended and twisted into the inside of the bottle, and then connects to the hole at the bottom.

Unlike the cups we usually use to drink water, this object has no "edge" and its surface does not end. Unlike a sphere, a fly can fly directly from the inside of the bottle to the outside without passing through the surface, meaning it has no inside or outside.

However, in reality, even the most skilled craftsmen in our three-dimensional space have to make it into a shape where they intersect.

It's like even the most skilled painter, when drawing knots on paper, has to depict them as intersecting.

Interestingly, if you cut the Klein bottle along its line of symmetry, you will get two Möbius strips.

A Möbius strip is a paper loop made by twisting a strip of paper 180 degrees and then gluing the two ends together. It has magical properties.

Ordinary paper tape has two sides, a front and a back, and the two sides can be painted with different colors, while Möbius strip has only one side.

Ning Chen imagined himself walking through a tomb passage similar to a Möbius strip; he would never reach the end of the passage.

However, as the saying goes, "You can't see the true face of Mount Lu because you are in the mountain itself." If Ning Chen were really in a tomb passage similar to a Möbius strip, he himself would not be able to be sure.

This infuriated Ning Chen.

However, after walking for another three days, Ning Chen finally confirmed that regardless of whether the Möbius strip was real or fake, he was indeed going in circles.

Looking at the tunnel that had been dug over ten days above him, Ning Chen felt a sense of unreality. This was just too much of a rip-off!

If they placed some burial items in the tomb passage, Ning Chen would feel a little better. It's truly shameful that a dignified general of tomb raiding couldn't even touch the coffin!

"Ding! System notification: The process of this world is nearing its end. Please complete the system task as soon as possible and return in time."

Ning Chen: "..."

Ning Chen had already interrupted the plot development in order to buy more time to rob Qianling, but he still ended up empty-handed.

Although Ning Chen had anticipated this, he was still somewhat unwilling to accept the failure. The tomb raiding mission required Ning Chen to raid an imperial tomb in the Eastern Mausoleum and the Qian Mausoleum.

Since Ning Chen had already emptied the Eastern Mausoleum, there was no question of the system task being incomplete; the only missing element was the overall evaluation of the task's completion.

The system's final reward for stealing two imperial tombs is definitely more generous than stealing only one, so it seems a bit disappointing now.

"Fine, we'll leave this tomb for another time!"

The storyline of the looted treasure list has only just ended; the rest of the story hasn't even begun yet. Ning Chen believes there will be another day when it happens again.

After packing up, Ning Chen boarded a military plane and flew back to the capital. In the past two days, a major event had also occurred in the Five Families.

The five clans have begun electing their next clan leader.

This generation of the Five Families has two outstanding candidates. The one with the highest popularity is Yao Shenxing from the Xuanmen Yao Family, while the one with the strongest strength is Xu Yicheng from the Baimen Xu Family.

To prevent one surname from holding the position of clan leader for too long, the five clans stipulated that the clan leader be elected by a vote of the elders of the clan through a public referendum among the five surnames.

Even though Shen Mo and the others favored Yao Shenxing, they couldn't directly appoint him as the next clan leader.

At least the procedures still need to be followed.

The election requires the use of a Fulong Boshan Furnace, which is a family treasure of the Five Families. Outsiders are not usually allowed to view it.

Shen Mo solemnly placed the incense burner on the altar, said some polite words, and finally said that he wanted to give way to the virtuous and hoped that someone with ambition would step forward.

Yao Shenxing naturally stepped forward without hesitation, and the other teams also sent their representatives, but it was obvious to everyone that they were just there to fill the numbers.

There are five families among the five lineages, but in the end only the Xu family did not participate. The Xu family has only one heir, Xu Yicheng, who also came today, but he just stood in the corner in a daze and showed no intention of competing.

Shen Mo felt relieved.

If Xu Yicheng were to step forward and announce his candidacy at this point, it would be difficult for him to say anything, and the election might even encounter some unexpected twists and turns.

However, before Shen Mo could even call for the start, a commotion suddenly erupted outside the courtyard, and a dozen or so policemen stormed in menacingly.

Shen Mo's heart skipped a beat. He glanced at Xu Yicheng first, but the lead policeman laughed and said, "Don't bother looking. This has nothing to do with Mr. Xu. I'm here to arrest him."

He pointed at Yao Shenxing.

Everyone present was stunned. But it was a foregone conclusion that Yao Shenxing would be the next clan leader. Why did the police suddenly run over and ask why they wanted to find him?

Meanwhile, Ning Chen arrived late.

Yao Shenxing grabbed Ning Chen's shoulder. "Was it you? Did your police department insist on making Xu Yicheng the clan leader?"

Yao Shenxing is a shoo-in for clan leader. Even if he is arrested, the clan leader election ceremony cannot be stopped, and the Five Clans can only let someone else become the clan leader.

Of all the people present, only Xu Yicheng had the ability. Ning Chen was from the police department, so Yao Shenxing would naturally suspect that Ning Chen was behind it.

However, Ning Chen, the person involved, was also completely bewildered. He thanked the invitation, but he was helpless as this happened right after he landed in the capital.

"What's going on with you all? Didn't I tell you not to interfere in the affairs of the Five Families? Why don't you all disperse now?"

The lead policeman looked somewhat embarrassed: "Secretary Ning, you don't know, the Kuomintang has taken over the capital. The people we're arresting today were ordered by Chief Dai."

"Which Commander Dai?" Ning Chen asked.

The policeman stepped forward and whispered something in Ning Chen's ear. When Ning Chen heard that it was Officer Dai, whose name only had two characters, he was stunned...

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(End of this chapter)