This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 360: The Bead and the String

Chapter 360: Chapter 360: The Bead and the String

"This claim is hard to accept. Are you saying that our era doesn’t actually exist in reality... and the only thing real is you?" Chen Ke was somewhat skeptical.

He could feel his own body and sense the restlessness of the air in the room. The instincts of an assassin even continuously reminded him how dangerous his surroundings were.

The scent of gunpowder lingered in the wind. The people from the Administration Bureau were nearby, waiting for the outcome of the final conversation in this room as time ticked away by the minute and second.

Yet the woman before him was telling him that all of this had ceased to exist, like the phantoms of yesteryears, an episode of a series that had long concluded.

"You can think of the universe as a super-large hard drive that is constantly writing and erasing every moment. The parts that have been erased make up the parts that are written. Your current state determines our current state," Xu Jing explained.

"This sounds difficult to comprehend... or should I say, there are logical gaps. Subjective reality represents the past, objective reality represents the present, but time passes! Aren’t you also gradually becoming subjective reality?" Chen Ke asked.

"Chen Ke, let me reiterate, there is no time... There is only the process of the birth and annihilation of matter. Subjective reality and objective reality are... separate. Do you understand? To explain it using human concepts of time, the period of humanity’s existence is like a glass necklace made up of countless little steel beads, with each bead representing a year," Xu Jing said.

"And I am on one of these beads, while you are on the last one?" Chen Ke asked.

"You are half right, but I am not on the last bead. I am on the string," Xu Jing said.

Chen Ke suddenly had an epiphany... He finally understood what Xu Jing meant by the two realities. The changes of human civilization over four thousand years, they were all beads on the string, and the time Xu Jing was in, that was the string.

"Each bead has its own color, strung together to form the appearance of the necklace. Those who live on the string have different opinions on the appearance of the necklace, so they want to change the colors of the necklace," Xu Jing said slowly.

"So this is what they call... going back to the past to change the future?" Chen Ke said.

"If interpreted according to your habitual thinking, that’s correct," Xu Jing said.

"That doesn’t make sense. It’s the year 2009, and we’re standing here talking, but the year 2006 that I’ve been to..." Chen Ke didn’t want to say too much.

"That’s your special nature, Chen Ke. You’ve been to 2006, you’ve encountered Fan Hede, but you don’t understand the significance of these two timelines," Xu Jing said with a smile.

"What does that count as then? A parallel world?" Chen Ke asked.

"There are no parallel worlds, Chen Ke. There’s only one necklace, and each bead is irreplaceable, making up the complete necklace. But you know, a necklace can be taken apart and reassembled..." Xu Jing reminded him.

"So you’re saying... 2006 is..." Chen Ke couldn’t find the right words to describe it.

"It’s broken, altered, a discarded bead," Xu Jing said.

"Is this what it means... to alter the timeline?" Chen Ke exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, a modified bead will be torn off the necklace by the universe and replaced with one that fits the logic of before and after; this is the universe’s self-repair ability. And that torn-off bead will be abandoned," Xu Jing said.

"That means... our 2006 has been replaced... that 2006 was..." Chen Ke suddenly realized; it all made sense now.

"Correct, because the necklace is unique. That 2006, according to the Foundation, is called the Dead World," Xu Jing nodded.

"What exactly happened in that world...?" Chen Ke asked.

"You’ve been there, Chen Ke, tell me, what did you see?" Xu Jing countered.

"The Great Black Pillar... red dust... Maggot People... Daughter of Sorrow..." Chen Ke recollected.

"That was a Zhang Heng Level world-ending event, Chen Ke... a maggot-form deity we named Nayuk turned 90% of the world’s population into its Clan... From that 2006, subjective reality ceased to exist thereafter, and objective reality also suffered a catastrophic blow," Xu Jing said, sighing.

Chen Ke was shocked...

"The Foundation had no choice but to use Meme Weapons to completely remove that bead from the necklace," Xu Jing continued.

"Wait... you just rewrote 2006 like that, won’t the future continue along the path of that 2006’s total annihilation?" Chen Ke didn’t understand.

The timeline is unique. The further back it’s modified, the greater the impact should be. The entire human race turning into Clan, and the entire human race being eradicated by Meme Weapons of the future Foundation, aren’t both scenarios world-ending events?

"To influence other beads with one bead is quite difficult, and to change the appearance of the necklace by altering the color of a bead isn’t simple either, Chen Ke. There is no butterfly effect, each time the Foundation reshapes a bead, they must contend with the universe’s self-repair ability. To change a person’s thoughts, you need to change the thoughts of several of his ancestors. To change an era, you need to change several eras... The universe has its own set of logic systems. It corrects beads that don’t fit the logic, and if you truly want to discard a bead, then you have much more to change..." Xu Jing explained with a smile.

"There are no parallel universes, so how do you explain the grandfather paradox? What would the universe do to correct things if I traveled back in time before I was born and killed my own grandfather?" Chen Ke pressed on.

"This is where your limitations show, Chen Ke. In truth, the moment you time travel, the universe starts correcting... You still don’t understand, time travel, or as the Foundation calls it, inter-bead jump, is a very serious and complex matter," Xu Jing shook his head.

"Inter-bead jump..." Chen Ke frowned; this was a new term.

"A person who is destined to undergo inter-bead jumps will start exhibiting symptoms a few months, days, or weeks before their first jump... These symptoms are quite consistent, such as vomiting, nosebleeds, and sudden hallucinations of scenes one cannot explain... These are the early warnings for a transmigrator. Tell me Chen Ke, have you experienced such things?" Xu Jing asked with a hint of mirth.

Chen Ke remembered an incident at Lucina’s place... He saw himself holding a strange gun with six green Holy Diamonds...

The design of that gun, wasn’t it the HCP0001...

"This phase is called the inter-bead observation stage by the Foundation, a prelude. Following that is the inter-bead jump stage. Whether your jumping action is passive or active, from that moment on, you’re no longer an ordinary human being. We use old-fashioned terminology and call it Time Primordial Man," Xu Jing explained.

"Time Primordial Man..." Chen Ke repeated.

"Right, and this is why the grandfather paradox doesn’t exist. When you jump out of the bead, the universe will replace your place in that bead with someone else. Watt invented the steam engine; you go back and kill Watt, the steam engine will still be invented by another person. Peter? Pat? Jet? Who knows?" Xu Jing said with a smile.