Techniques and Dao

Chapter 154 Endless Rings
A small wooden cabin that looks like it's inhabited by a family of three.

The candlelight flickered.

Hua Sheng and Mie Ying found Jian, who had disappeared in front of the wooden house, and confirmed that it was her. But everything became even more confusing.

The three of them looked at each other.

This was no longer underground; Hua Sheng and Mie Ying had returned to the surface at some point.

Who lived in that wooden house? If there really was a family of three, where are they now?

Hua Sheng fell into deep thought. There were three of them in the house now. It seemed like there were three people living there. Was this number just a coincidence?

He, Mieying, and Jane come from different places and have different backgrounds.

She calls herself Feng Ling, but Lan Caihe considers herself a demon. Let's just call her a celestial spirit then. Mie Ying is a Mie Meng bird, while Jian is a true human. They have no connection to each other, don't come from the same family, and are not related as family.

Then why are the people in this house gone, yet they remain here in the same number?

No, judging from the clothes of the family of three, it should be parents and a boy, that is, two men and one woman. But now it is two women and one man.

But then he immediately remembered that in the mental world he entered after shattering the Star Veil, the Shadowbreaker was a boy. That would make the two men and one woman a perfect match.

But even if they match now, what does it mean? Who exactly wants to convey this message to them?

"So, Jane is the real Jane, and not an imposter?"

It was Mieying who couldn't hold back and spoke first.

Jane quickly replied, "I even suspect that you two are imposters!"

Mieying glanced at Huasheng beside him, and Huasheng shook his head as well.

She then said, "Since that's the case, then Miss Hua Sheng and I went back in time. We went back in time for about the duration of an incense stick burning in that bottomless pit?"

He spoke with a hint of doubt: "I've never heard of any place where you can travel through time."

Hua Sheng replied, "In our Holy Pingning, there exists a place called Panxian Cave. It is possible to travel through time for a very short period of time to a certain object there, but it is not possible to travel back to a previous scene like this. If anything, perhaps only the super treasure Suixing Silk can do it. But we do not have Suixing Silk."

"But judging from the current situation, we have indeed returned to the past. How do you explain that?" Mie Ying asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Suppose... I mean, suppose we didn't actually travel through time?" Hua Sheng said slowly, "Is it possible to create the illusion of time travel simply by changing the setting?"

Mieying hurriedly shook his head and said, "How is that possible? This isn't a mind control spell targeting anyone; we have three of us now!"

Jian Yi agreed with Mie Ying's point of view. She said, "Perhaps a few people combined with changes in the scene can temporarily deceive a target, which has happened in some prank shows on TV, but it's impossible to deceive multiple people at the same time. Especially for people who know magic, it's impossible to make them believe that time travel is impossible in different scenarios."

Hua Sheng rested his chin on his hand, pondering, "Jian, what did you say about Pan something forest at the beginning?"

"Pempont... in transliteration it would be called Panpeng Forest."

What's so special about this forest?

"What makes this place special is that we locals often call it the Magic Forest." "Is there some kind of legend about this place?"

"Because the legend of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table in the Middle Ages originated from this forest."

Hanamori asked in surprise, "Knights of the Round Table?"

Mieying asked, "You've heard of it?"

"I watched cartoons when I was a kid..."

Jian explained, "Panpon Forest is also known as Busleyande Forest. This forest is full of mystery and magic. Legend has it that ancient fairies and wizards live deep in the forest. Some people even believe that women who were abandoned by their lovers in ancient times also live here. They hide in the forest and set all kinds of traps to lure unfaithful men who stray into it. Therefore, this forest is also known as the Lost Forest, and few people dare to go deep into the forest alone."

“A heartless man…” Mieying murmured.

Jane continued, "Legend has it that King Arthur sent his Knights of the Round Table to find the Holy Grail hidden here, and Merlin, the most famous magician who assisted King Arthur in achieving his great cause, also had his various magical stories take place here. This great magician, who could foresee the future and control the fate of others, ultimately succumbed to love. He fell deeply in love with Vivian, the Lake Nymph, and imparted all his magic to her. Knowing Merlin's weakness, Vivian cast a spell on him, imprisoning him forever in an oak tree."

Mieying asked, "But this doesn't seem to have anything to do with our current situation?"

Hua Sheng said, "I just wanted to know if this place was a special magic circle, or a magical array. Now that I think about it, this forest might really have some kind of magical power?"

Jane nodded.

Hua Sheng pondered for a moment and said, "After we put on the robes of the Magic Academy, our magical abilities will be enhanced to a certain extent. So I was wondering if magic would be the same, and if we could cast some spells in the Magic Forest, the effects would be surprisingly good?"

Jane said, “You have a point. This forest, especially the depths of it, is like a natural magic circle. But even so, I still don’t think time travel is possible.”

"It's okay. What I'm trying to prove isn't real time travel, but rather the illusion created by a fake scenario."

"Huh?" Jane said in surprise, "I only separated from you for less than a minute before I ran over to knock on the door and saw you. But according to you, it took you at least ten minutes. That doesn't seem right, does it? No matter how the scene changes, it's impossible for that to happen. Where did the missing time go?"

Hua Sheng frowned and said, "I have some clues. Since the three of us are real, to solve the mystery, we must first solve two missing issues. One is the ten minutes that you mentioned between us that are not equal, and the other is the missing space that we have lost even though we have descended to the depths of the earth."

In short, we shouldn't be in the same space-time, but in fact we met.

Hua Sheng used the iron ring to lift the wooden planks off the ground.

"So before that, I need to ask you about the bottomless pit."

He pointed to the black hole below, then to the fireplace where he and Mieying had fallen, and asked, "We did fall a long way down this hole. From a magical perspective, is it possible to magically stretch the spatial distance between two places that are actually very close? Or even extend it to infinity?"

Jane squinted and pondered for a long time, as if she had thought of something, but then shook her head in self-doubt.

She repeated this several times until she finally came up with an answer she was certain of.

Then Jane slowly uttered six words:

The Möbius strip

(End of this chapter)