Long River Eternity

The light from the campfire illuminated three young faces filled with smiles. They chatted and imagined the future. In the cave where there was no concept of time, they enjoyed the relaxing moments that would rarely be had in the future.

"Lin Ding, it's time to practice. Time is running out." Yang An's voice echoed in Lin Ding's mind. Although Yang An didn't want to interrupt such a happy time, in Yang An's memory, he had met many people in his long life, drank with them, chatted with them, laughed with them, and played with them, but it had been a long time since he had been able to sit in front of someone as openly as Lin Ding and the other two were now.

Billions of years of life have brought him too much and taken away too much. Perhaps he will never be able to return to the way he was when he first saw the man in feathered clothes.

"What's wrong?" Lin Ding responded.

"It has been three hours since you arrived here. Originally, this was just an ordinary spiritual vein, but it attracted two powerful monsters, Silver Wing and Black Dragon. Now, as the spiritual energy of the top-grade spiritual essence in this formation continues to overflow, perhaps even more powerful creatures will be attracted here." Yang An said lightly.

Through Yang An's explanation, Lin Ding also realized the seriousness of the matter. He briefly explained the situation to Wei Wu and Liu Xianxian, asking them to practice the newly acquired skills on the spot, while he went into the cave where the formation was located to practice.

"Just sit next to the largest spirit in the center of the formation." Yang An said.

"What exactly is this formation used for?" Lin Ding asked curiously after sitting down with his back against the spirit.

"I can only say that the revival of the world's spiritual energy this time should be related to this formation. I don't know the details." Yang An replied.

"Okay." Since even Yang An didn't know, Lin Ding didn't bother about it. He immediately unfolded the "Chaos Creation Sutra" in his mind and began to practice.

"When chaos first began, yin and yang began to separate, and the five elements were derived. Between heaven and earth, the movement of all things depends on the energy of yin and yang and the five elements..." The "Chaos Creation Sutra" begins by describing the way all things move. The core way is to cultivate the five elements, gather the yin and yang energy, and finally condense it into the fruit of chaos.

The golden sword that Lin Ding had used before was created based on his rough understanding of the simplest chapter on gold in the Five Elements.

"I have never heard of this theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements before. How should I practice it?" Lin Ding looked at the content of the scripture, confused, and couldn't help asking.

"I will separate a strand of your consciousness into my memory, allowing you to personally experience my original cultivation process, and this will solve your problem." Yang An replied.

"Is it the same as in the dream before?" Lin Ding asked.

"Yes, what did you dream about last time?" Yang An asked.

"I dreamed of Fuxi's first appearance." Lin Ding said.

After hearing Lin Ding's words, Yang An didn't respond for a while. Just when Lin Ding was about to ask again, Yang An's voice came again: "Okay, let's go."

As Yang An's voice fell, Lin Ding felt as if his soul had left his body. He felt weightless and floated up. When he landed again, he was in that river-like time tunnel again. Yang An, covered in mist, was standing in front of him.

"You are just a wisp of consciousness now. After your main body absorbs the spiritual energy to the extreme, I will recall you from my memory. You will return to your main body with your experiences, and your main body will know your experiences. Go." After Yang An finished speaking, without waiting for Lin Ding to say anything, he waved his hand and sent Lin Ding to the depths of the passage.

Lin Ding's eyes went dark, and when he opened them again, he was already in a large hall. Fuxi, wrapped in white mist with only a snake tail sticking out, was standing not far in front of him.

Lin Ding looked through Yang An's eyes and saw him bow and say, "Thank you, Taoist Master Fuxi, for rescuing us. I just don't know why you know us and pretend to be our master."

"Not only do I know you, I also know that you come from billions of years in the future. There is no such thing as a so-called master." Fuxi said.

Fuxi's words hit everyone like a bolt from the blue. Yang An looked at Professor Qin beside him and also saw the shock in Professor Qin's eyes.

Yang An then pretended to be calm and said, "Master, you are joking. How could we be from the future?"

"Yang An, 26 years old, PhD in Physics and Mathematics; Qin Hanming, 50 years old, PhD in History; Shi Gang, 27 years old, PhD in Biology; Yang Nian, 30 years old, Yang An's sister, PhD in Botany..." Fuxi reported everyone's age and degree one by one, then continued in a smug tone, "Do you want to be more specific?"

"No... no need, what is going on?" Yang An asked in a trembling voice.

The others were now speechless with astonishment and completely stunned. Fuxi, who lived more than 200 million years ago, could actually accurately report his academic degree. Who would dare to believe this?

"Don't be so surprised. Ever since I understood the River Chart and the Luoshu and created the Eight Trigrams, I have mastered the laws of time and space. No matter the past or the future, there is nothing I don't know except my own destiny." Fuxi said as the mist on his body dissipated. A teenage boy with a human body, a snake tail, and wearing white feather clothes walked out of the mist and appeared in front of everyone.

The renowned ancestor of humanity, Fuxi, was actually a young boy who hadn't quite grown out of his childhood. In just a few minutes, Fuxi shocked everyone three times. Even Yang An, who was usually calm, steady, and logical, was left with a blank mind, not knowing how to speak.

Fuxi seemed quite satisfied with the way he appeared. He looked at everyone's surprised expressions with pride, and his face showed an overflowing sense of accomplishment.

Seeing that everyone was speechless for a long time, he didn't care and continued to talk to himself: "Ever since I created the Bagua method ten thousand years ago, I have been able to let my consciousness enter the long river of time, constantly understanding the future. Until 2.5 million years later, I found that your civilization is so interesting and has invented many strange and bizarre things.

But before I could experience the charm of your era, I discovered that the river of time had been cut off. This was something I had never encountered in billions of years. However, I discovered that someone had actually gone upstream and arrived in an era thousands of years after mine. From that day on, I looked forward to meeting you.

At this point, Yang An had calmed down a bit and said, "How can time, as an objective thing, be interrupted? Even if the universe is destroyed, time should still flow."

Fuxi's expression was a little unnatural after hearing Yang An's words, and he said with a little embarrassment: "I'm not talking about objectively existing time, but the future that I observe. Let me give you an example."

Fuxi pointed to a large tree outside the window. It was autumn, and the leaves on the tree had turned yellow and were falling one by one. Fuxi pointed to a leaf that was about to fall from the branch and said, "Take this leaf as an example. Tell me what will happen to this leaf in the future."

Yang An glanced at the leaves and, combining them with the laws of physics, said, "In two seconds, the leaf will fall off the branch, and then fall to the ground at this location in three seconds."

Yang An pointed to a certain position below the dead leaf. Sure enough, the leaf fell off after two seconds, and fell exactly where Yang An's finger was after three seconds.

Fuxi glanced at Yang An with satisfaction and said, "So this is the future you observed. Although the time span is only 5 seconds, I can use the Eight Trigrams method and my cultivation to extend this time span to hundreds of millions of years or even longer, forming a long river of time. But if there was a gust of wind just now, could you still determine where the leaf fell?"

"If you don't know the specific information about that gust of wind, then of course you can't." After saying that, Yang An seemed to think of something and said, "Are you saying that there are factors beyond your control that interfere with the course of time, making it impossible for you to deduce the future, so it looks like the river of time has been cut off?"

"That's right, you are very smart, and you are worthy of being the one I've been waiting for." Fuxi clapped his hands in praise.

"But with your level of cultivation, is there any factor that you cannot control?" Qin Hanming asked from the side.

"It may be related to myself, or it may be related to time itself, or it may be someone with higher cultivation than me." Fuxi replied.

This answer seems to involve many factors, but it becomes ambiguous when applied to Fuxi. Moreover, the time span is more than 200 million years, which really makes people confused.

"May I ask Master Dao, at what exact point in time did the river of time break?" Yang An asked.

"Just after you entered the long river of time, the long river of time gradually became empty. I could only barely observe the place where you landed, but I couldn't see the situation in your world." Fuxi thought for a moment and replied.