Chapter 112

　The subsequent exchange went very smoothly and lasted for three days. Ding Shuang also witnessed all sorts of magical attacks.

　　The Pinyin Sect excels in music, but its attack methods are not limited to soul attacks. They use weapons to enhance their attacks, which affect the mind and spirit. They can also transform sound waves into weapons or even launch long-range attacks with thousands of troops. They can even directly smash people with musical instrument-shaped magic weapons.

　　During this period, Ding Shuang experienced both wins and losses, and also learned many minor spells, such as the sound transmission spell that he had never known before, as well as the ability to judge the opponent’s strength and realm through soul scanning, etc.

　　Ding Shuang fabricated a backstory for himself: he came from a sword-cultivating family in a remote and isolated place. His family was destroyed by enemies when he was young, and the eldest elder, severely injured, took him and fled, teaching him how to cultivate before passing away. He had only recently left the mountains, intending to travel the world and seek an opportunity for revenge.

　　Ding Shuang became friends with many disciples of the Pinyin Sect, and many of them expressed their willingness to help him when he sought revenge.

　　Three days after the exchange ended, Ding Shuang made an excuse to leave. The system had found a spacetime wormhole that could exist for at least a hundred years.

　　”System, quickly tell me where that century-old spacetime wormhole is and how far away it is?” Ding Shuang bid farewell to the disciples of Pinyin Sect and came to the desolate outskirts to inquire about the location of the spacetime wormhole.

　　”You are 38,207 kilometers due east-southeast,” the system told Ding Shuang.

　　Ding Shuang got up and flew towards the due west-northwest direction, immediately using full speed.

　　”Host, your flight speed is reversed, and you are getting further and further away from the spacetime wormhole,” the system warned Ding Shuang, indicating that she was flying in the wrong direction.

　　”Heh, are you trying to take advantage of me because I didn’t graduate from junior high? The Earth is round, with a circumference of only 40,000 kilometers. I only need to fly a little over 2,000 kilometers back to get there.” Ding Shuang flew at full speed, full of confidence.

　　”Host, the Earth is indeed round, but the direction you are flying in requires 72,111 kilometers to reach the spacetime wormhole.” The system didn’t know where Ding Shuang’s confidence came from.

　　This is Earth from 5.2 billion years ago. In Ding Shuang’s limited knowledge, he still believes that Earth did not exist.

　　”Holy crap! Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Ding Shuang quickly turned around and pressed the system navigation to move forward, while asking questioningly, “Are you really sure this is Earth from 5.2 billion years ago? And not some parallel universe’s Earth?”

　　”Host, the system does not have the ability to travel between different parallel worlds in the real world.”

　　”So there are parallel worlds? What are they?” In order to fly for a long time, Ding Shuang slowed down his flight speed to 400 kilometers per hour, so that he could barely keep up with his energy consumption and recovery.

　　”Parallel worlds are worlds formed in different directions of spacetime from your real world. Worlds in the same direction of spacetime are the past and future of your real world.” Considering Ding Shuang’s limited education, the system gave him a simple explanation.

　　”So, does that mean the past and the future are both certain?” Ding Shuang felt a little confused.

　　”Actually, only the present is certain; the past and the future are not certain.”

　　”I’m even more confused now. This is different from what you said before.”

　　”Given the knowledge you have access to, the system cannot explain any further. This requires you to understand higher-dimensional worlds, which are beyond your comprehension.”

　　Holy crap! Are you fucking insulting me? What do you mean I don’t understand? Fine, I really don’t understand. Ding Shuang fell silent. This system is bullying honest people!

　　”System, you said only the present is certain, while the past and future are uncertain. So if I’m in the past now, can’t I change the future?” After flying for a while, Ding Shuang felt a bit bored. Although he couldn’t understand the principles, he could at least understand the conclusions, so he continued the previous topic.

　　”No, what’s done is done, and it can’t be changed. Let me tell you a story, and you might understand. You are an American soldier during World War II. The Allies invented a time-travel machine that sends you to Hitler’s childhood, hoping you can prevent World War II from happening.”

　　Based on the information you had, you assassinated the young Hitler who was studying in Austria. However, your actions provoked strong discontent among the German people at the time. A young man named Hitler formed the Nazi Party, which ultimately led to World War II.

　　If World War II were to break out again, or if you were to return to the present, you would find that history has not changed. World War II still happened, only the one who started the war was not Hitler but East Nazism, and East Nazism was established earlier. Your memory would also be altered. You would believe that the Allies provided incorrect intelligence, and that you not only failed to prevent World War II from breaking out, but your assassination attempt on Hitler actually propelled the outbreak of World War II.

　　Because, although you return to the past, you still belong to the present. The past is uncertain; theoretically, you have changed it, but for you, it hasn’t changed. When your memories alter, you will find that you are merely a participant and witness to history.

　　”Then how do you understand the uncertainty of the future? According to you, the future is also completely certain.” After listening to the story the system told him, Ding Shuang understood what it meant that the past was uncertain and the present was certain, but he couldn’t understand why the future was uncertain.

　　”Continuing with the story, when you return from the past to the present, you find that history has not changed, and you are very regretful. However, the Allied scientists comfort you by saying that they had expected this.”

　　The battle is currently at a stalemate, with both the Allies and the Nazis having a chance of winning. Therefore, the scientists hope that you can travel to the future to see what the final outcome will be. If the Allies win, you can return and tell them how they won; if they lose, you can also return and tell them how they lost, thereby changing the course of the war.

　　”Here, I need to specifically explain to the host that you must understand that the present described in this story is the present, not your understanding of history. In your understanding of history, the Allies won, but in this story, the Allies’ future is potentially one of defeat.” The system paused midway through its explanation, presenting Ding Shuang with a concept.

　　”I think I understand. Before I obtained the system, I might obtain it in the future or not, right?” Ding Shuang gave the system an example based on her understanding.

　　”Yes, host, you can understand it this simply: in the future, there are infinite possibilities before it happens. Going back to the original story, it can be understood that the Allies may win, or they may lose, or neither the Allies nor the Nazis may win, and the Soviet Union may become the biggest winner.”

　　The Allies are now only concerned with whether their crucial battle against the Nazis has succeeded, and you need to go to the future to find the answer. You board the time machine again, and the scientists send you to the future.

　　When you arrive in the future, you discover that the Nazis ultimately triumphed, having developed the atomic bomb before the Allies, forcing the entire world to surrender. Instead of returning immediately, you stay in the future, eventually uncovering the principles behind the atomic bomb’s construction. With these principles in hand, you travel back in time.

　　You excitedly described the future to the scientists and explained the principles of atomic bomb construction to them. The Allies then began intensive research into atomic bomb manufacturing, but just as success seemed imminent, the Nazis dropped two atomic bombs on the American West Coast and in the Nevada desert. This not only destroyed the Allied atomic bomb manufacturing facilities but also shattered the will of people worldwide to resist. Just as you foresaw in the future, the Nazis achieved ultimate victory.

　　This is because when you travel to the future, all the possibilities of the future collapse into the outcome you see. The moment you arrive in the future, you no longer belong to the present, but to the future. In other words, your present becomes the past, and the future you see becomes the present.

　　Just moments before the Nazi atomic bomb was detonated, you were fortunate enough to be sent to the future by scientists using a time machine. Seeing the world filled with Nazi flags, you felt utterly desperate! You couldn’t understand why you couldn’t change the future, after all, the scientists told you the future was uncertain.

　　You are consumed by remorse. Five hours later, you draw your sidearm, ready to end your life, but suddenly sirens sound throughout the city, and gunfire erupts in the streets. Through your window, you see a group of militiamen exchanging fire with Nazi soldiers. You realize that there is a resistance organization in the future, and so you join the revolution against the Nazis.

　　You secretly fired shots from behind the Nazis, enabling the resistance to win this street battle. The resistance leader met you, welcomed you to join the anti-Nazi organization, and told you some incredibly good news.

　　A soldier from the future brought back the principles of atomic bomb manufacturing. The Allies had successfully developed an atomic bomb, but its yield was too small to change the course of the war. However, just two hours ago, this last remaining atomic bomb was detonated in Berlin during East Nazi Germany’s founding ceremony! All the high-ranking Nazis, along with their palaces, were blown to bits! Upon receiving the news, the resistance mobilized en masse, determined to take advantage of the chaos to overthrow the Nazis! Hearing this news, you smiled with satisfaction, a truly joyful smile.

　　”Host, do you understand?” The system didn’t directly tell Ding Shuang the conclusion, but instead let him think about it himself first.

　　”I understand. Changing the past cannot change the present, but it may change the future,” Ding Shuang offered her own interpretation.

　　”Yes, host, you are very clever. You are rewarded with 100 travel points.” The system gave Ding Shuang a reward.

　　”Only 100 time travel points? Stingy! But system, how can you be sure that the present I’m living in isn’t the past of the future? Just like… just like them in this world.” Ding Shuang suddenly raised what he considered to be a rather ultimate question.

　　”Host, don’t worry about that. The spacetime you’re in is definitely not the past. Because the system can’t see what the future looks like, but here, the system can see the future’s trajectory. To say it can see is actually to deduce it. The system has already sent you the specific deduction principles, which you can browse on the way to pass the time.” The system transmitted a long message to Ding Shuang’s mind.

　　After receiving the information, Ding Shuang began to browse it, and what he saw almost made him vomit blood! It wasn’t about being punished by the Heavenly Dao, nor was it too profound for him to go mad with demonic possession; rather, the entire message was filled with all sorts of mathematical formulas!

　　He couldn’t understand things like cosmological constants and energy coefficients. Ding Shuang had dropped out of junior high school years ago, and now the only math he was proficient in was basic arithmetic. He had difficulty solving equations with more than two variables, so how could he possibly understand formulas involving the mysteries of the universe?

　　Screw your attempts to relieve boredom! It’s just making me more and more depressed!

　　”System, are you making things difficult for me, Fat Tiger! How could I possibly understand this?” Ding Shuang was extremely frustrated. Why did this system always take advantage of his lack of education?

　　”Host, this is your problem, not a problem with the derivation principle,” the system said calmly with a mocking tone.

　　”Alright, alright. You win. But these past few days, I’ve been chatting with people from the Pinyin Sect, and they said there are cultivation techniques and spells in this world that can predict the future. Some people have predicted their inevitable death, and then they died. But according to you, the future is uncertain, so how do you explain that?” Ding Shuang had a premonition that cultivation might be another kind of science, an unscientific science.

　　”Host, the techniques and spells for foresight are essentially no different from the formulas I gave you. It’s just that they can only foresee one or two possible futures and try to avoid the bad future as much as possible. After all, the future is uncertain. Changing the past can change the future, and changing the present can still change the future. However, some actions that seem to avoid a certain death push them into the abyss of death, making it seem as if the future is certain and cannot be changed.” This time, the system didn’t give Ding Shuang a bunch of formulas.

　　”So, does that mean if I could see all the futures, I could choose the most successful one?” Ding Shuang thought to herself, a hint of anticipation appearing on her face.

　　”It cannot be used as a host. If you can understand the derivation principle I gave you, you can deduce it yourself and you will understand.” The system replied calmly.

　　”Holy crap! Can’t we even have a proper conversation?” Ding Shuang’s eyes welled up with tears of ignorance, regretting her past lack of education. Although she couldn’t understand the formulas, she had figured it out logically.

　　The future is uncertain, and this uncertainty stems from the fact that it is fundamentally unpredictable; that is, it is impossible to see all of the future. In other words, the foreseeable future, no matter how much we can see, is still limited and uncertain.

　　”System, let’s not talk about this anymore. There’s a question I’ve been holding back for days, and I’m bored now, so I wanted to ask it. Why were people’s names so random in the past? Pinyin Sect’s Awo’e, Yi Wuyu? Isn’t that just the pinyin a, o, e, y, u? And what about the nearby Zimu Sect? Their sect leader is just an ABC? They don’t even bother with acting? The sect might as well be called the Alphabet Sect!” Ding Shuang didn’t have this feeling when he first came into contact with the Pinyin Sect. He thought that people’s names were just that strange in the past, but later he felt more and more that something was wrong. All the names of the Pinyin Sect members were just different combinations of pinyin pronunciations!

　　”Host, don’t you find it strange that people from 5.2 billion years ago could communicate with you without any problems? Hasn’t the language changed at all in 5.2 billion years?” the system asked Ding Shuang.

　　”Oh yeah, that’s even stranger. Wait, how the hell am I supposed to know why language hasn’t changed in 5.2 billion years, especially since I’m the one asking you a question!” Damn it! I almost got completely spun by the system.

　　”Host, your ability to communicate seamlessly with people from 5.2 billion years ago is due to the system’s translation function. If translated literally, Pinyin Sect would be Pinyin Sect, and Zimu Sect would be Alphabet Sect. Their names are composed of the basic sounds of ancient languages. The system simply made some optimizations during the translation process, at least making it sound like a cultivation world. If you prefer literal translations, the system will use literal translations in the future.” The system explained its translation mechanism.

　　”Can’t you just transliterate it? Do you think I wouldn’t be able to tell who’s who if you transliterate it?” In Ding Shuang’s understanding, this is the difference between Mr. White and Old White.

　　”Yes, host, you will not be able to distinguish them. Awo’e and Yi Wuyu sound almost identical when transliterated. If you haven’t lived here for a long time, you won’t be able to tell them apart.” The system transliterated the two names for Ding Shuang, and he indeed couldn’t tell who was who.

　　Sigh, this system is powerful, but it has too many flaws. I wonder if there’s a kind of吐槽 (tu cao, meaning to roast or criticize) system? Like in “100,000 Cold Jokes,” the more吐槽 you make, the better.

　　Ding Shuang stopped communicating with the system and focused on flying towards his destination. Five days later, Ding Shuang arrived near a spacetime node that had been stable for over a century.

　　Along the way, he saw many villages and cities, but the cities were not large and lacked advanced anti-flight formations. People lived in the villages and cities, but there were very few cultivators.

　　The system has successfully docked with the spacetime wormhole and has begun exploration. With the docking successful, Ding Shuang no longer needs to remain in one place; he can now move within a 50-kilometer radius of the spacetime wormhole.

　　This wormhole was located in a mountain range, at the foot of which lay a village, but it was beyond his reach. The trees here were very dense, but much more normal than the primeval jungle he had encountered when he first arrived.

　　During his conversation with the Pinyin Sect, he learned that there were no giant dinosaurs in areas where humans lived. Firstly, the lack of tall jungles was unsuitable for giant dinosaurs to survive, and secondly, human cultivators had cleared out a large area suitable for ordinary humans to live in.

　　According to the records of the Pinyin Sect, there were originally no people on Earth. About 200 million years ago, a group of cultivators brought a large number of mortals to settle on Earth, and it gradually developed into the scale it is today.

　　The exact origins of the first humans are unknown. During this period, numerous wars occurred, the original sects have long since disintegrated, and many historical records have been lost. What has been preserved most are cultivation techniques and secret manuals.

　　Ding Shuang realized that everyone in her world was looking for aliens, but she never imagined that she herself was an alien.

　　5.2 billion years ago, Earth was much larger than it is now, and there was no moon in the sky! This is why Ding Shuang hasn’t been able to see the moon these past few nights. The system refused to tell Ding Shuang the specific reasons why.

　　According to the system’s assessment, it will take at least 50 years to re-anchor to the original spacetime, while Ding Shuang can only move within a radius of 100 kilometers, which is practically like being in prison!

　　Ding Shuang sighed and began building the house. He was going to live here for more than 50 years, so he couldn’t be without a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

　　Two days later, Ding Shuang stared silently at the crooked shack in front of him. He had no desire to live in it; it felt like it could collapse at any moment. In fact, this was the second shack he had built; the first one had already collapsed.

　　Ding Shuang carries the artifact, the Love Hut, with him, but he cannot enter it. If he enters the Love Hut, the connection between the system and the spacetime wormhole will break, and it may also damage the system’s spacetime positioning module.

　　”Excuse me, are you the immortal who flew by the sky the day before yesterday?” Just as Ding Shuang was admiring her own ugly work, a child’s voice came from behind her.

　　”I am not an immortal, just an ordinary sword cultivator. Young man, what is your name?” Ding Shuang turned around to look at the newcomer, who was about thirteen or fourteen years old.

　　Ding Shuang had sensed someone approaching from behind long ago. The person’s aura was very weak and showed no hostility, so Ding Shuang was not on guard.

　　”Greetings, Immortal! My name is Shanwa. I saw you flying by in the village yesterday and wanted to try my luck here. Please accept Shanwa as your disciple!” As he spoke, the young Shanwa knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly to Ding Shuang.

　　”Uh, Shanwa, get up. I can’t take you as my apprentice.” Ding Shuang shook his head, after all, he was just a passerby and had no intention of taking on any apprentices.

　　”Immortal, please! Please take Shanwa as your disciple!” Shanwa kept kowtowing, his forehead bleeding from the effort.

　　”Get up first, and tell me why you want to cultivate immortality?” Ding Shuang quickly helped Shanwa up and used a small spell to heal the wound on Shanwa’s forehead.

　　Ding Shuang felt that this young man was not simple either. Judging from his appearance, he should be a villager from the village at the foot of the mountain. It was already a miracle that he could come here in two days.

　　After all, the journey from the village to here was long, the forest was dense and it was easy to get lost, and there were wild animals in the mountains, making it very dangerous. Even the mountain boy wasn’t sure where he was going, so finding him was quite a stroke of luck.

　　Ding Shuang indeed had no intention of taking on a disciple, but seeing Shanwa’s persistence and the fact that he was truly destined to meet the boy, Ding Shuang wanted to understand Shanwa’s motivation for cultivation. If it was suitable, he could teach him cultivation techniques, but he still would not take on a disciple.

　　”Shanniu was taken away by the Tianqing Sect. They didn’t choose Shanwa. Shanwa is afraid that Shanniu will be bullied, so Shanwa also wants to cultivate well to protect Shanniu.” Shanwa cried as he told Ding Shuang the reason why he wanted to cultivate.

　　”Who is Shan Niu? Is she your sister?” Ding Shuang guessed that Shan Niu was either his sister or his childhood sweetheart, and from Shan Wa’s words, Shan Niu had been chosen by a sect to cultivate immortality.

　　”Yes, Immortal, Shanniu is Shanwa’s sister.” Shanwa looked at Ding Shuang with tears in his eyes and a hopeful expression on his face.

　　”Sigh, do you know how to build a house? You help me build a house, and I’ll teach you a martial arts technique. Just so you know, this isn’t about taking you as a disciple.” Seeing Shanwa, Ding Shuang felt as if he were seeing himself, and he felt a desire to protect his younger sister.

　　”Thank you, immortal! Thank you, immortal! Shanwa can build houses! Shanwa can build houses!” Overjoyed, Shanwa wanted to kneel down again, but Ding Shuang stopped him.

　　”Alright, alright, and don’t call me an immortal. My name is Ding Shuang, you can just call me Brother Ding. Let’s start building the house now.” Ding Shuang pulled Shanwa to the front of his shack and helped him brush the dirt off his body.

　　”Okay, big brother, did you build this house?” A boy is a boy, easily attracted by novel things. Ding Shuang’s crooked shack aroused Shanwa’s interest.

　　”Uh, yes. I’m not very good at building houses,” Ding Shuang said somewhat embarrassedly.

　　”Oh, big brother, do you want to build a wooden house? But all this wood is wet, so we can’t build a house directly from it,” Shanwa explained to Ding Shuang.

　　”Oh, it seems Shanwa is quite good at building houses.” Ding Shuang liked Shanwa’s simplicity more and more.

　　”Hehe, Shanwa and Shanniu’s father is good at building houses. Most of the rooms in the village were built by him. Big brother, why don’t you go back to the village with Shanwa first? Shanwa will have his father bring people to help you build a house, a stone house for you.” Shanwa invited Ding Shuang to go back to the village with him.

　　”No need, no need. You just need to tell me how to build it. Also, when you go back to the village, don’t mention that you’ve seen me, or I won’t teach you the techniques.” Ding Shuang didn’t want to go back to the village with Shanwa. On one hand, Shanwa’s village was beyond his reach, and on the other hand, he didn’t want to be disturbed.

　　”No, big brother! Shanwa won’t tell anyone!” Shanwa was frightened by Ding Shuang’s threat, shook his head repeatedly, and started crying again.

　　After calming Shanwa down, Ding Shuang began building the stone house under Shanwa’s guidance. Using his magic, Ding Shuang manipulated four flying swords to carve neat stone bricks from the mountainside.

　　After having enough bricks, Shanwa instructed Ding Shuang to dig the foundation. They found a relatively flat spot nearby, and Ding Shuang slapped down, creating a rectangular pit 52 meters long and 17 meters wide in front of them.

　　”Wow! Big brother is amazing! It would take the villagers at least three days to dig such a big foundation!” Shanwa exclaimed in amazement at Ding Shuang’s strength, which strengthened his resolve to cultivate.

　　”Haha, just a little trick. Is the foundation deep enough? How many floors can you build on it?” Ding Shuang’s foundation was not of uniform depth because it was built on a hillside, so one side was deeper than the other.

　　”It can probably build two stories, but big brother, you don’t have any mud yet, so you can’t stick the bricks together.” Shanwa jumped into the deep pit and roughly judged the depth of the foundation based on his height.

　　”Hehe, don’t worry about that. Look, each brick has two protrusions on top and two round holes on the bottom. They fit together perfectly when you snap them together.” That’s right! Ding Shuang shaved each brick into the shape of a Lego block.

　　”Wow! Big brother is so amazing! He can even polish stone bricks like that! It’s a pity the stones here are too hard; the villagers can’t polish them so precisely.” Shanwa picked up the two bricks that Ding Shuang had thrown down and happily played with them.

　　Kids really do love Lego! Ding Shuang remembered that the gift she bought for Ding Fei with her first paycheck was Lego, which could be built into half a villa with a family of Lego minifigures living in it. After Ding Fei finished building it, she often dragged Ding Shuang to play house, with Ding Shuang playing the dad and Ding Fei playing the mom.

　　Ding Shuang couldn’t remember the blueprints for that half-finished villa; if he could, he could assemble a room himself. Fortunately, he encountered a Lego master from 5.2 billion years ago—Little Mountain Boy!

　　Little Shanwa truly had a talent for architecture. He directed Ding Shuang to lay stone bricks in the designated spot. Ding Shuang used both his object manipulation and physical control techniques simultaneously, and five rows of bricks appeared and landed at the spot indicated by Shanwa.

　　Ding Shuang’s C-rank object manipulation technique allows him to perfectly control five items simultaneously, as if they were extensions of his own limbs. Object manipulation is a minor skill in spellcasting, allowing control of objects remotely, but it lacks flexibility, and the more items controlled, the less flexible it becomes.

　　However, Ding Shuang only needs to place the stone bricks in the designated place; he doesn’t need to be so flexible. With the combination of the Art of Manipulating Objects and the Art of Controlling Objects, it’s equivalent to five cultivators of the same strength as Ding Shuang moving the stone bricks here.

　　Two hours later, a two-story villa in the mountains was completed, and Ding Shuang was very satisfied with the building in front of her.