Chapter 66: Boring Ping
After much hesitation, Anji finally pointed out that she had no idea. It was ultimately impossible for anyone to finish breathing all the air in the world. Even if this room’s air were finished, the forest would continue to supply it with new air. If the forest ran out of air, the sea would continue to bring in new air with the wind. The wind will never stop coming in, and in a way, there will never be a shortage of air.
When Yan Ping heard her reply, she agreed.
"That’s right," she confirmed. "It would be completely impossible for anyone to finish the air. That’s why we have a symbol representing infinite, which means endless. Once you understand this, you’ll understand the reason why zero exists. If something is endless, it has no number. If something doesn’t exist, it also has no number. However, when creating spells, they have to be represented by something. That’s what zero is. It’s the representation of nothing."
Sharing a little history of the Mystical Qilin Sect, Yan Ping confirmed that the placeholder of nothing was usually left as a blank. However, students in her sect always drew something in a rune represented by a circle. Hence, many students tried to draw a circle in a circle when the picture in the textbook only depicted a blank rune. The circle was a null rune symbol as it did not have ends or points, making it invalid for qi activation. However, due to the popular mistake, Yan Ping’s teacher decided to add the character and make that an actual rune symbol.
"Why is it called zero (ling) then?" Anji couldn’t help but ask.
Here, Yan Ping hummed. The reason wasn’t anything profound. It was something her shifu created, and the sect went along with it.
"No particular reason," she sighed. "My shifu thought the circle looked like a soul (ling hun) and decided to call it that after making it official. She did not have the best naming sense. That is why my name is only one character. It was straightforward enough, but it wasn’t the worst thing she could have come up with."
The Ping in Yan Ping’s name meant peaceful. However, it could also mean justice or flat. It sometimes meant average, and Anji wondered why her teacher’s name had been chosen.
"Did grand shifu want you to walk a peaceful or righteous path of justice?"
Recalling some terrible memories, Yan Ping’s mood dulled.
"Neither," she replied. "The Ping in my name was because my teacher thought I was calm. It did not matter what she did. I wouldn’t give her the reaction she wanted. In other words, she gave me this name because she thought I was boring."