The old man clearly intends to publicly undermine the newly appointed record keeper. Wielding a broom, he unleashes 'Fowlbeast Skims Between the Leaves', a flurry of fierce, complex techniques unlike anything Yun Qingping has seen before. 'Can you make sense of my techniques?' the old man asks. The soldiers all look at Yun Qingping. 'No, elder, I cannot,' he replies, sheepishly. The old man snorts, lowers his head, and resumes sweeping, ignoring him completely. Yun Qingping makes inquiries among the soldiers and learns that the janitor who's been needling him is a close friend of the previous record keeper. The two spent a lifetime discussing martial arts together, and their martial pursuits have been genuine and pure. Yun Qingping had been worried he wasn't qualified to be appointed record keeper, and now, on his very first day on the job, he's been made a fool of. 'You have no real skill of your own, and you expect to hold the record book and judge others' abilities?' That must be what the old man thinks of him. But how exactly is he supposed to understand those bewildering techniques? He racks his brain, and finally comes up with an idea. He then goes straight over to the old man to demonstrate it. He runs into some soldiers along the way, and tries to convince them to practice it with him. The old man watches him and coolly points out his errors. Undeterred, he returns on a second day, then a third day, and then a fourth day. Whenever he devises a new approach, he goes to consult with the old man. Watching this spectacle becomes a source of amusement in the camp. The soldiers praise his ingenuity each time he finds a clever new angle, then sigh when the old man bats it down. Before long, he has 'crossed swords' with the old man a dozen times, though nary a blow has been exchanged between them. Yun Qingping is at a loss. However, instead of just asking the old man to give him the answer directly, he begins poring over every martial arts text in the archives, studying every style he can find. Until one day, when he awakens from his dreams with a start. 'I've got it!' he exclaims. He opens the record book and flips back to his notes for that fateful day, where he had purposely left half a sheet blank. He raises his inkbrush to write, but then realizes that only the old man can truly judge the suitability of his solution. His heart pounding, he races to find him. 'He's gone? When will he be back?' The soldiers meet his question with dead silence. His raised hand, still clutching the record book, slowly falls. One day, some time ago, the old man suddenly tossed aside his broom. He went to his shack, lifted up the bed boards and took out the sword he'd had sealed away for many years. Then, he just left. The soldiers explain that they didn't stop the old man because they assumed he must leave for a good cause. Before he left, he told the soldiers that if he did not return by a certain date, they should burn the broom that has accompanied him for forty years. As it turns out, that date has long since passed. A short while later, Yun Qingping sits in the courtyard and burns the old man's broom in accordance with his wishes. He stares at the fire in a daze, surrounded by the soldiers who have witnessed the whole affair. 'What an odd old fellow... he leaves behind a riddle and just runs off. Hey, Qingping, perhaps you should write your 'solution' down and burn it for him, along with his broom?' But Yun Qingping's face no longer bears the look of a man unsure of his place, as it did when he first took office. He closes the record book, leaving that unfinished page preserved inside.