Not a god

Chapter 188 The Way of Change
After dinner, Jiang Wanwan saw a few shops on Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media platform) that she said she must visit at least once in her life. These were mostly IP pop-up shops, themed shops, and places like "Shanghai Akihabara" that were only available in the Shanghai area.

Chen Xi led them around and watched them stroll. He followed behind, asking Chen Yan about how to use the time-manipulation ability.

Half a year has passed since Chen Xi obtained the seed of cultivation from the Tai Xu Heaven. Apart from the initial immobilization technique, there has been little progress in his mastery of the power of time.

Today, as Shan Tingming was activated once again, he could feel that the 'seed' was taking root and sprouting. However, after making a few minor attempts, he did not get the desired result and gave up.

Now, after listening to Chen Yan's explanation, he realized that he had been going in the wrong direction all along. He shouldn't have resisted, but should have gone with the flow.
The perspective from which time is measured is inherently change; mastering the ability to perceive change is tantamount to entering the realm of time.

The flower in Chen Yan's hand wasn't a rose, but it did resemble one. This flower was a 'transformation' of the tea seedling in her hand. This transformation wasn't magic; it was simply giving the tea seedling ample time. Time is change; besides turning a little monkey into an old monkey, it can even turn a dinosaur into poultry…

"I think... I understand a little better."

But there's one thing that's really bothering Chen Xi right now: what era is this guy sitting in front of him, shamelessly asking Jiang Yan for curry fish balls, from?

Chen Yan never hid the fact that she was different from the other Great Luo Heaven cultivators. She was neither a cultivator nor did she turn to the Goddess Mother. Yet, she persevered through one earth-shattering and heaven-shattering crisis after another, and the resurgence of spiritual energy.

At first, he thought that this guy was a human ancestor who lived even earlier than the Shang and Zhou dynasties, perhaps even dating back to the tribal period. He was different from other chosen ones and was a true immortal.

But what is immortality? Does living for hundreds or thousands of years count?

Hundreds or thousands of years is certainly a long time, but that is only a long time in human perception. Just as a day is a long time for a mayfly, a summer is a long time for a cicada.

But those are just different perspectives, subjective views of how long ago it was.

Chen Xi realized that he had been mistaken about Chen Yan's advanced age all along.

It's no wonder he's having trouble calming down right now. Fantasy works do have this kind of immortality setting, like Yaobikuni who ate mermaid flesh and became a vampire after being embraced by a vampire prince, or the native ones who become zombies.

But today, when he asked a long-lived being about the secret to longevity, she pulled out a book on evolution and said earnestly, "If you want to live a long life, you have to learn to evolve..." Chen Xi felt his mind suddenly go blank.

The time that Chenyan lived in was not a long time as perceived subjectively by living beings, but a time that was truly objectively as long as heaven and earth.

So what period of life did she exist in? If she was a creature that existed before the birth of human civilization, then what life form did she exist in before Homo sapiens set foot on this land? To be precise, what species was she at that time?
Why is the boss looking at my face?

"May I ask your age?"

"Hey boss, asking a girl's age is really impolite!"

"so……"

She didn't answer, so Chen Xi didn't ask any more questions. That's how they've always interacted.

She seemed to enjoy seeing him confused because of her, but Chen Xi would never let her have her way. Even if she really wanted to know, she would act as if she didn't care much and just quietly watch his performance with a cold demeanor.

But sometimes, not answering is also an answer.

Chen Yan's age was just a side note; Chen Xi mainly discussed the method of time and change with her.

Using evolution as an example, the teacher helped Chen Xi better understand time and realize how to correctly perceive and utilize it after life has mastered it.

Time travel and time reversal are nonexistent. Tell him not to think about it too much. The time he can control is limited to a very small range, or more precisely, his own time. If he wants simple immortality, it's easy: just keep going back in time. And this going back in time is naturally related to the changes.

"I see. I thought it was something like time travel."

"What are you thinking? That kind of thing involves fate and cause and effect, it can't be done by time. Mastering time is just mastering your own changes." Chen Xi needs to understand this change, and control this change, to master the time of her own body.

Even the Goddess of Love cannot rewrite the timeline of the universe.

"What era did the goddess belong to?"

According to them, the dream world we see now only appears when the goddess is asleep. But what happened before the goddess fell asleep?

“Wanwan and the others all know this about the Late Cretaceous period, after all, the ‘Ancient Gods’ were active during that time.”

"More than a billion years ago..."

"It's not a billion years, it's clearly more than 60 million years."

"Is it the time when velociraptors ruled the earth?"

"Bullshit! Them? A bunch of treacherous and shameless... Never mind, I'm not talking to you anymore. You naughty boy, you've been trying to trick me into telling you things!"

As she spoke, she vanished in a flash. She was probably really annoyed by Chen Xi's attempts to extract information from her all night. This time, she didn't even try to conceal her disappearance; she simply vanished into thin air on the street, causing many people around to gasp in surprise.

Ignoring the stares around her, Chen Xi had already formed several answers in her mind.

He recalled that when Chen Yan transformed Xue Ji, the image she presented was that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex... the most famous and largest dinosaur species from the Cretaceous period.

Chen Xi is feeling very conflicted right now.

The older sister who had been spying on him from the shadows since childhood, and who is now working in his shop after being recruited by him, is suspected to be over 60 million years old, a Tyrannosaurus Rex that has lived from the Cretaceous period to the present.

Just knowing about this made him feel like his mind had been polluted.

However, after talking with Chen Yan, Chen Xi, guided by her, tried to touch the so-called power of 'change'.

Transforming into male, female, old, or young are the lowest levels. Higher levels, like Chen Yan now, can easily transform into birds and beasts, or even species that may not exist now, such as mermaids, catgirls, werewolves, and other creatures from fantasy stories.

He suddenly understood why he had felt someone watching him from behind, but when he turned around he found nothing.

Maybe back then Chen Yan was a sparrow on a telephone pole, or a cat on the eaves.

A little figure came out of the store, hugged his leg, looked up at him, and mumbled something, probably something like, "Yiyi is tired, hug Yiyi."

Chen Xi picked her up and rummaged through her little pockets, pulling out a Want Want milk candy that Jiang Yan had given her.

"Give it to Dad!"

"I will not eat."

"Yiyi, eat." She didn't insist at all, and pulled her hand back as she clumsily tried to tear off the candy wrapper.

"Yiyi needs to be carried every day now, she's so lazy! Haven't Mom and the others finished shopping yet?"

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(End of this chapter)