This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 341: Mr. Ash

Chapter 341: Chapter 341: Mr. Ash

"I’ve seen you before, but you were wearing different clothes. Perhaps... something happened in between, leading to some changes..." Wang Ailin said as she made notes with her pen.

"I don’t think that’s correct, how can you see something that hasn’t happened yet? Or say, if you know you’re going to do something in the future, would you still do it? If I prevent it from happening... then isn’t that future meaningless?" Chen Ke said.

"Maybe so, but the flow of time is relative. If someone really can travel through time... you travel from 2009 to 2006, then that 2006 is your future," Wang Ailin explained.

"Then how do you explain the grandfather paradox?" Chen Ke asked.

"Maybe there’s no such thing as a grandfather paradox..." Wang Ailin said, her head bowed in thought.

"Impossible, if a person travels to a year before he was born and kills his parents, then he wouldn’t be able to exist in the future. If he does it and still exists, you could only explain it with parallel universes," Chen Ke shook his head.

"Chen Ke, all that you speak of comes from sci-fi movies, games, novels—creations of a group of writers’ imaginations. Real science doesn’t think about problems this way," Wang Ailin said.

"But I think that explanation is quite scientific..." Chen Ke retorted.

"I’ve been thinking, Chen Ke, I’ve been wondering if humans are too arrogant. Our assumed grandfather paradox is a product of linear thinking, while the butterfly effect and parallel universes are just self-fulfilling theories to justify altering the past. We’re always concerned about the effects our actions have on the universe after time travel, but..." Wang Ailin said, furrowing her brow.

"But what? Going back to change history, making history take a completely different path, that seems like a perfectly reasonable thing, doesn’t it?" Chen Ke asked.

"Chen Ke, have you ever thought the opposite, what if a person could travel through time, what would they become?" Wang Ailin asked.

Chen Ke was stunned for a moment, feeling a chill down his spine.

Wang Ailin’s question was a form of reverse thinking. Her point was simple: the notion of humans upsetting the cosmic order by traveling through time was a wishful and arrogant speculation on the part of humanity. The real question we should be considering is, if a person could travel through time, would they still be human...?

"Diana and I traveled through time via the subway, but as you see, I’m right here, and you’ve seen Diana. We haven’t become anything too different," Chen Ke said.

"It might relate to the difference between passive and active time travel. As I mentioned earlier, no matter how far back you travel, it’s essentially not going to the past but to your future. You’re changing your future, not my present... It sounds a bit confusing, but I mean to say that different individuals perceive time differently. If you go back to 2006, but I don’t, are our 2006s really the same...?" Wang Ailin said.

"I think I almost understand what you mean... You’re saying that the time you experience, and the time I experience, are different. We could even go so far to say... if I am someone living in 2006, and I meet you coming from 2008... then for both of us, that moment could be called the present..." Chen Ke followed Wang Ailin’s train of thought but then realized he had more questions.

"That’s not right, if you do something in my time that shouldn’t have happened, then is my present being interfered with by you? According to what you’re saying, is your time travel also an inevitable event for me? Then after you return to your time... is your 2006 still my 2006?" Chen Ke was a bit confused.

"That’s the issue... You just used a very good term, called temporal interference, which is the part I don’t understand. If we don’t consider parallel universes, each person perceives the universe differently. You jump out of your time, come to someone else’s time and interfere, then, when you return to your time... will there be changes? Or, once you leave your time... can you even return?" Wang Ailin pondered and quickly noted down something.

"This topic is too confusing to discuss, anyway, the 2006 that I went to no longer exists; it’s definitely not 2006 of this 2008... Damn, it’s so complicated, but it’s really true," Chen Ke said.

"What if it was originally our 2006...?" Wang Ailin suddenly said.

Chen Ke looked at Wang Ailin, not understanding what she was getting at.

"I feel that unless you bring up the parallel universe hypothesis, you can’t explain that place," Chen Ke said.

Speaking of which, Chen Ke felt that the 2018 he originally came from might be of the same nature as this 2006 that had been swallowed by the deities.

"Maybe it’s just other worlds at different dimensions. If there must be an explanation, perhaps this one works," Chen Ke added.

"Okay, I wasted some of your time earlier, let’s talk about the important thing, the Ash Element in your blood. Put simply, such Elemental Knights don’t exist..." Wang Ailin said.

"Nonexistent? What do you mean?" Chen Ke asked.

"It’s a form of meme infection, a hint towards self-destruction. If you believe it exists, it will and begin to replace your original structure, but if you ignore it..." Wang Ailin suggested.

"I understand..." Chen Ke realized the problem.

The principle of this meme infection was to reinforce the notion of "turning to ash" in other people’s minds, and to spread as a fundamental meme with the idea "this disease is contagious." That’s how those people in 2006 were destroyed.

But there was still something in that world, something Chen Ke still had no answer for.

What were those red Maggot People...

Invisible deities devoured the world, the great dark pillars spread memes that extinguished humanity, and the Daughter of Sorrow created by humans... From where did the Maggot People come? Why were the subway entrances filled with sandbags? What exactly were they trying to block inside?

"So you’re saying there’s no antidote for this thing, and as long as you don’t take it seriously, gradually forget about it, it can slowly heal itself?" Chen Ke asked.

"I don’t know if it can self-heal, but at least it shouldn’t spread or worsen anymore," Wang Ailin said. After she spoke, she suddenly looked toward the pile of ash on the board.

Chen Ke noticed that the readings on the monitor were constantly fluctuating. Naturally, he couldn’t understand what the readings meant, but for some reason, he always felt as though the pile of ash was alive.

"It’s strange, it has been stable before, but now it’s showing unusually high activity, almost as if it wants to communicate with us..." Wang Ailin walked over and observed the readings on the screen.

"You just said this was an investigator’s body... it’s been cremated... how can there still be readings? What do those readings mean?" Chen Ke walked over and asked.

"Heartbeat... and brain signals..." Wang Ailin answered.

"Bullshit..." Chen Ke scratched the back of his head and turned to look at the door, which had a laboratory number written on it: 0451.

Wait a minute, wait a minute...

Chen Ke suddenly remembered something; the series of numbers seemed like someone had mentioned them to him...

Parker...

He recalled the last instance in Fan Hede, the Great Void slowly fading away as the cycle completed...

Parker had told Chen Ke that he felt like a pile of ash... able to see a door marked with the number 0451...

"When was this pile of ash found? Where was it found?" Chen Ke asked.

"More than two months ago, something happened at the West Gold Building. An investigator was killed by a human-faced dog. His body was brought here and has been decomposing since then, but it still maintains... normal physiological signals..." Wang Ailin said.

"Parker...? Can you hear me?" Chen Ke finally dared to confirm who the pile of ash was...

"What are you... doing?" Wang Ailin said, puzzled.

"Parker, if you are alive, give me a sign..." Chen Ke said, looking up at the several monitors above.

The waveform graph began to tremble violently, as if the pile of ash was greeting Chen Ke.

"I don’t know if this will work... but that’s how I brought Faralis back to life... This is all I can do for you..." Chen Ke said, reaching out his hand and plunging it into the pile of ashes.

"What are you...? That’s a test sample! Take your hand out!" Wang Ailin suddenly shouted. On this point, she was quite serious.

Just as Wang Ailin reached to grab Chen Ke’s wrist, the pile of ash on the tablet suddenly gathered together on its own...

As if drawn by some force, the clump of ash began to spin and converge on the tablet, emitting a red glow, like embers that had not yet gone out.

"Chen..." Suddenly, someone spoke, indistinctly, as if vocal cords were gradually taking form, but Chen Ke recognized it as Parker’s voice.

The ash twister formed, and Wang Ailin covered her mouth and nose, speechless at the scene before her.

The ash tornado suddenly leaped from the tablet as if imbued with self-awareness and landed in the center of the laboratory’s open space.

The ash, originally a grayish white, suddenly gained color, and with the flickering of the red halo, a man crouched down on the spot.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! A scientific miracle!" Wang Ailin’s mouth hung open in shock as she watched the clump of ash transform into a fully-grown man right before her eyes!

"Parker!" Chen Ke laughed.

Parker was still wearing the same outfit he wore in the Great Void and the West Gold Building, the same look.

He stood up, felt his body, and then looked at Chen Ke with a smile: "What took you so long?"