"Time Observer."
"The eternal torrent always sweeps through all beings, passing through two realms and annihilating them in between." The man shrouded in a red ceremonial robe slowly raised his right hand, his skin dry and pale.
He stretched his thumb and little finger so that they were at the same level, then raised his index finger, curled up his middle finger and ring finger, and pointed the three fingers in three directions: left, right and up respectively.
"Time is a measure of events. We observe time and maintain the sacred structure of the four worlds. This is our creed."
Li Chengshu stood still, turned around and asked, "Can you control time?"
"Precisely, we can adjust 'events'."
"What's the meaning?"
"The world is not a collection of objects, but a collection of events. Every object in your cognition is an 'event'. For example, a stone is a complex vibration of a quantum field, an instantaneous action of force, and an event before returning to dust. The process of maintaining the status quo and maintaining balance for a short period of time is a brief chapter in the history of the interaction between elements, a trace of Neolithic humans, a weapon used by a group of children, an ontological metaphor, and a part of the world that is divided .
A war is a series of events, so is a snowstorm, a cloud is the condensation of water vapor in the air, and a wave is the movement of water.
The objects you recognize are just events that do not change temporarily.
Time only means 'happening', everything is time, and there is nothing else within time. "
Li Chengshu murmured: "Then, past, present, future..."
"There is no difference between the past, present and future, it is just the sequence of events. Your perception of time comes from the attributes of Aqilu itself.
Four worlds emerged from nothingness, Aqilu, Belaiya, Jezila, and Ahiya, that is, the world of order, the world of fluctuations, the eternal world, and the multidimensional world. Among them, only Aqilu, that is, in the world of order, The occurrence of events is even, unified, and orderly, following the arrow of time, while in the other three worlds, the occurrence of events is diffuse, scattered, and disorderly. "
Li Chengshu seemed to understand, then thought for a moment and asked, "So, you can change the past?"
"You still haven't gotten rid of your misperception of time, and you are stuck in a persistent and stubborn illusion..." The mysterious man smiled lowly, "Although the arrow of time is smooth and irreversible, there are variables that evolve between events. … To put it in a way that you can understand, all events in the past, present, and future are interrelated and form a changing system. Any tiny variable will bring subversive changes to the entire system.”
"Are you saying that what happens in the present and future also affects the past?"
"You can understand it this way," the mysterious man shook his head: "Changing your concept of time requires a process."
Li Chengshu smiled: "What is going on with time is not something I should think about. I want to know more, who is your target? Li Liang?"
"No, it's Laplace, the 'New World' you call it."
"If I remember correctly, fairies call it 'Bu Bu'."
"Yes, it has had many names in its long life, and 'Laplace' is what it calls itself."
Li Chengshu was stunned for a moment before reacting: "Are you from the future? Is the 'New World' your enemy?"
"The future...well, you can understand it this way," the mysterious man sighed, "Laplace has trapped us in the arrow of infinite superposition of time."
"If you can go back to any time...well...events, why not go back to when the 'New World' was first created and directly control it or...destroy it."
"We are roaming among countless 'events', looking for key variables that can help us break free from imprisonment. We have already tried the two changes you mentioned and confirmed that they are not key variables."
"Destroying it...can't do it?"
"It would have been born another way."
"control?"
"It will confuse and control its life and turn it into a puppet," the mysterious man said in a low voice, "Don't you understand yet? When we intervene in a certain event, Laplace will also intervene in another event."
"I understand," Li Chengshu smiled, "So you just let things happen naturally, observe the results every time, and look for special variables?"
"Yes."
Li Chengshu walked up to Li Liang, raised his head slightly and looked at Li Liang's frozen expression, and said slowly: "Obviously, Li Liang is the variable you are looking for."
"No, Li Liang is Laplace's master."
"What?" Li Chengshu asked confused, "Then why didn't you strangle Li Liang to death when he was a baby?"
"Killing him is not the key variable," the mysterious man said calmly. "After countless observations, we believe that the key variable exists in a limited subset of events. This subset covers everything from 'the opening of the spiritual door of the earth' to 'human beings'." Rejoined all events in Do Ok Kyung'."
Li Chengshu looked sarcastic: "You are looking for a needle in a haystack..."
"No, it's like we're looking for one particular proton in the entire universe."
Li Chengshu walked slowly with his hands behind his back, then turned around and asked, "Who are you? Is this the first time we have met, or is it the first time in my life?"
"What do you think?"
"Take off your hat," Li Chengshu said with a stern expression.
The mysterious man slowly reached out and took off his hood, revealing a face that was almost octogenarian.
Li Chengshu could no longer maintain his composure and staggered back a few steps, his face full of shock.
It was his own face, but it looked at least ten years older.
The mysterious man of this natural sect is himself! ?
"Impossible, is this magic or an illusion?"
"Countless people die every day, but those who are still alive live as if they are immortal," red-robed Li Chengshu said with compassion on his face, "only when I truly traveled through the endless 'events' did I understand this sentence Meaning, for humans, time is ignorance.”
Li Chengshu shook his head subconsciously, breathing rapidly, as if he had aged several years in an instant.
"You have failed, but there is no need to be discouraged." Red-robed Li Chengshu lowered his head and pinched the thumb of his left hand. "You have failed countless times and won countless times. These are meaningless. The only important thing is to find Variable, the only, critical variable.”
Red-robed Li Chengshu put on his hood again, stretched out his right hand, and made the gesture again. The three fingers pointed to the left, right, and up respectively. Then he turned his palm over and changed the direction of his thumb and little finger.
Time begins to reverse.
Li Chengshu kept walking backwards with strange postures, and finally sat back on the large chair.
Then.
The bullet that was hovering in mid-air began to retreat, and the solidified flame quickly retracted into the barrel. The primer of the bullet returned from broken to intact, and then the bullet returned to the magazine.
next moment.
Li Liang, who was supposed to put down his gun as time reversed, suddenly split into two.
One Li Liang, along with everyone else, obeyed the reversal of time and began to go backwards.
The other Li Liang stood there with an expressionless face.
Red-robed Li Chengshu roared: "You are here!"
Li Liang, who stayed where he was, raised the corners of his mouth and said softly: "Now."
The next second.
Another Li Liang appeared in front of red-robed Li Chengshu, his eyes were inhumanly cold, and he pointed a finger at the time observer's eyebrows.
