There's something wrong with me

Chapter 243, "Past and Future"

'This old man...when...did he become...a true person?'

I could hear the sounds of kneeling and worship all around me, and the long lines of worshippers stretching out in all directions.

After being shocked, the thief was left bewildered beside Zhang Feng.

He clearly remembered that a year ago in the courtyard, Zhang Feng was at most at the Foundation Establishment stage, a proper Foundation Establishment stage!

Zhang Feng ignored the thief's surprise and instead, as his vital energy spread, he intentionally transformed the visible vital energy into an invisible substance, lifting more than a thousand people on the street from the ground.

"We thank you, Master..."

Faced with such miraculous magic from a real person, everyone was surprised, but most of them stood up and bowed to express their gratitude.

Apart from those four cultivators.

They are still kneeling.

Although they could feel some gazes directed at them, they also felt that their former title of 'superior person' had been completely lost.

But when faced with a life-or-death decision, even if they harbor feelings of shame and anger.

In the end, he remained motionless in the begging posture.

at the same time.

Zhang Feng also looked at them, but his voice carried far.

"And let me ask you one thing: who knows the whereabouts of the Xuan Yun Sect?"

"Xuanyun Sect?" Many people had heard of this sect and knew it was the 'third immortal sect' in their dynasty.

There is also a Nascent Soul cultivator presiding over it.

That's all the information they had.

Seeing their appearance, Zhang Feng knew that asking the common people was useless.

The cultivation world here has truly achieved effective secrecy.

However, Wu Shangren, who was also in the cultivation world, knew some things and cautiously looked up at Zhang Feng to ask:

“Senior… although I do not know the location of the Xuan Yun Sect… I do know that every ten years, a cultivator from the Xuan Yun Sect will come to this city to find a destined person… and lead them into the Xuan Yun Sect…”

"There are still eight years and seven months until the next time we accept apprentices..."

As he spoke, his voice vibrated in a strange spiritual way, ensuring that the surrounding thousand or so people could not hear any information from the Xuan Yun Sect.

In this way, the message is effectively protected.

This was also to prevent him from adding another enemy after 'pleasing' the person in front of him.

After all, the Xuan Yun Sect is a genuine 'secluded cultivation' sect, and its disciples are chosen casually, based on the ordinary mindset of normal people.

However, once the news leaks out, many people will likely have to deliberately pretend around the time they are accepting apprentices.

Alternatively, the main city of this region will be overcrowded with visitors.

All of these factors can affect the normal process of recruiting apprentices.

Furthermore, the cultivation world also has its own rules, and the matter of other sects accepting disciples cannot be easily revealed.

However, they would also inform each other of the time and place for accepting disciples, so as to avoid several sects accepting disciples in the same city at the same time, and then fighting each other because of a particularly outstanding disciple.

However, Wu Shangren and the other three also found it strange, feeling that there seemed to be something wrong with Zhang Feng.

Under normal circumstances, a True Person of such high level should have connections with other True Persons.

Even if this person is from an outside court, they still have their own network of connections.

After all, if you ask this person and that person, you'll find out the information quickly.

A Nascent Soul cultivator, with a lifespan of nearly a thousand years, has a very extensive network of connections.

At the very least, it's absolutely not up to them, the younger generation, to ask.

'This person...could he be a cultivator who has been in seclusion for hundreds of years...? Have all my old friends left?'

'This old scoundrel has some issues...he doesn't seem like a man of this age...'

'Could he be a reclusive hermit?'

'To be so old even at the Nascent Soul stage, one's days are probably numbered. I should go to the Xuan Yun Sect to seek medicine...'

The four of them could tell at a glance that Zhang Feng had many problems, but they didn't dare to ask.

However, what they didn't know was that, apart from Zhang Feng's guess that he had just entered the world of cultivation being correct, the rest, such as being old, were all at his own discretion.

While they were begging for mercy, they also recounted some matters concerning other sects.

As Zhang Feng listened, he learned that in this world, most sects with Nascent Soul cultivators were 'secluded' and lived a life of leisure.

It seems they have all realized that to achieve the Nascent Soul stage, one must first cultivate one's mind and soul.

Although the specifics may differ from one's own, it may not necessarily be that kind of 'high-dimensional composite'.

But they all concluded that many people understood the importance of cultivating one's mind.

This is a good thing, proving that they have a lot of 'self-cultivation materials' accumulated over thousands of years.

Some major sects even preserve information about real people from thousands of years ago.

Of course, within the cultivation world, such materials are more often referred to as 'previous people's insights, previous people's handwritten notes, previous people's reflections'.

If I could acquire and collect all of these, it would be a great collection concerning the heart and soul.

While it may not necessarily elevate one's own level, it will certainly provide a more solid foundation for 'correcting mistakes if they exist, and striving to improve if they don't'.

And even if there is nothing at all.

Through these insights, Zhang Feng could also make a kind of cross-temporal connection and see the cultivators from thousands of years ago.

A comprehensive collection and organization of knowledge.

That's how it's been accumulated little by little.

Similarly, Zhang Feng also knew that the significance and treasure of this world of growth should be some completion of the 'heart and soul'.

It can be considered a kind of hard requirement, to at least step into the Golden Core stage, or to go a step further and choose that cultivation sequence option to enter the lowest and most basic Nascent Soul stage within the 'sequence mission'.

Following past logic, describing tasks in words is actually a forced "reminder" that I need to catch up in terms of my level of understanding.

Zhang Feng pondered, completely ignoring the four people kneeling in front of him, but he used his spiritual energy to make the surrounding civilians and soldiers who dared not leave leave.

As for these four people, let's leave them aside for now.

This wasn't Zhang Feng putting on airs; rather, he suddenly realized that the task logic within the text had changed.

The 'progress logic' in this task is far more important than these four people.

But at the start of the game, I was almost dead, so I didn't really think much about it.

But now, with the emergence of knowledge within the entire worldview...

By reasoning backwards, Zhang Feng was absolutely certain that even the simplest growth world in the current adventure world was correspondingly more difficult.

The difficulty here is not the same as the previous crisis of guessing, but rather the increased knowledge required.

If one's own foundation is insufficient, then one will inevitably be unable to teach everything, and even if one memorizes it all, one will still be unable to digest it all, let alone calculate it all.

But if you're talking about practicing leisurely and achieving the required standard every time, then you're talking about that.

Zhang Feng felt that if he studied for five days and then had a five-day break, he would have been fined.

That way, all tasks can be completed.

Even if one spends several decades in this world, one can still reach the Nascent Soul stage, and may even be stronger than a Nascent Soul cultivator in this world.

But it could never be like it is today, almost invincible in just one year.

One year of invincibility leaves ninety-nine years for advancement and learning.

Zhang Feng felt that he had actually saved time indirectly.

So let's start with the Qingling Sect and see what knowledge they have.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Feng turned his gaze to the four people who looked like they were begging for mercy.

……

Five days later.

The news of a 'real person' named Zhang Feng within the main city spread far and wide, reaching every corner of the city, as fast-moving martial artists rushed about.

This was also something Zhang Feng did intentionally, without anyone deliberately concealing it.

They even hoped that this news would attract some people from within the Xuan Yun Sect.

And also on this day, five days later.

Zhang Feng arrived at a remote mountain.

Behind him followed a notorious thief and four cultivators.

This deep mountain is where the Qingling Sect is located.

after that.

In less than a few minutes.

Amidst the thief's stunned and bewildered gaze, the Qingling Sect vanished without a trace.

They used people to raise monsters, and then used the monsters' blood to nourish themselves.

Such sects should be wiped out.

As for the knowledge materials, Zhang Feng did not feign benevolence by burning them, but instead carefully scanned them to see if there was anything that could supplement his own knowledge.

Then, it became even more certain that they deserved to die.

However, some theories about the bodies of monsters do have some applications in biotechnology.

It is possible to achieve this in reality.

Even if these were experiments conducted by monsters.

But Zhang Feng felt that knowledge was innocent, or perhaps he could find a 'good reason', such as these monsters and people shouldn't have died in vain.

They have made great contributions to humanity's advancement in biotechnology.

However, Zhang Feng felt that he had only learned knowledge and had actually done some awkward things, so he didn't want to hide anything.

The nature of humanity, whether good or evil, is chaotic, meaning that the knowledge derived from human good and evil is itself chaotic and abstract.

Most importantly, we need to see where this technology will ultimately be used.

If it's a good thing, then the contributors will be blessed with good fortune and merit in a world with a cycle of heavenly rebirth.

And this dilemma.

This was Zhang Feng's first time experiencing this.

Of course, situations like those in the past, where drug dealers and human traffickers were killed and their money was used to do other things, are also wrong in themselves.

Even if someone claims they avenged someone else, so it's only right for them to take the money, that's still incorrect.

Because most of the victims were scammed, and they could have lived better lives.

Similarly, Zhang Feng is now able to see through cause and effect and his true nature, and can also ponder this perplexing question.

But I really couldn't think about it too much before, because if I did, I would feel guilty.

Back then, he still had inner demons, which Zhang Feng intentionally and subconsciously ignored. But now, according to Zhang Feng's understanding of the rules of cause and effect...

Speaking of revenge, it means taking immediate and decisive action.

This kind of fixed result is necessarily caused by a cause, and it is equivalent to cursing someone's 'past'.

Just like how I tricked the thief in order to achieve a certain result, this is turning cause into effect and directly reversing the cause-and-effect relationship.

Although human trafficking is something that happens directly, not 'now'.

But what Zhang Feng is currently deducing is precisely this issue: how to change the 'past' and the 'future'.

Because there is now a perfect example: the real world overlaid with virtual reality.

For example, human trafficking wouldn't happen in the Federation now, so there's no such thing as "future revenge".

Furthermore, since there will be no revenge in the future, there is no 'past where I was deceived'.

Therefore, Zhang Feng felt that many assumptions about the past and future were fundamentally invalid, and even formed a 'paradox', just like the theory of spacetime relativity.

In short, the issues of the future and the past are fucking difficult.

Theoretically, it doesn't make sense.

Regarding this difficult problem.

As Zhang Feng pondered, he felt he had to come up with a solution, so he decided not to go back.

He will go into seclusion for a period of time, right here in the ruins of the Qingling Sect.

……

Before we knew it, a year had passed.

This morning.

The notorious thief had already gone hunting in the mountains early in the morning.

And this day.

As Zhang Feng pondered, he suddenly thought of a metaphor similar to a time paradox.

It's like you're an 'omnipotent creator' who created a hammer that you can't even lift.

This is the paradox.

However, there is another solution.

That is, you can't pick it up when you're creating it, but you can pick it up the next second.

Because the person they were a second ago fit the description of being unable to pick it up.

But the next second, it also conformed to the setting of its creator.

Because the future self is a completely new creator, the creator of the present, not the self that couldn't handle things in the past.

Then, we use this abstract solution to deduce further.

Zhang Feng also knew about the past and future of cause and effect, and how to resolve it.

But the process was incredible.

Because one needs to be in the chaos before the creation of heaven and earth, and decide to create the world in the 'present' and command all cause and effect relationships, then the 'present' is the 'past and future'.

Or rather, everything is under my control 'now'.

If everything is under control, then it aligns with one's current desires, and naturally, there is no causal relationship between the past and the future.

Because no matter how much time goes by, it is what you want now, and it is also what you wanted in the past and future.

After all, I am currently in perfect control of both the 'past causes' and the 'future effects'.

It is even possible to determine the cause of the present based on the 'future effect', and then, in the blink of an eye, according to the Creator's hammer analogy, it naturally becomes the 'past cause'.

In science fiction terms, it's about 'all timelines converging, with the present as the initial starting point of cause and effect'.

Zhang Feng had also witnessed this ability.

It was the power that 'writing' once exerted on the 'temple of time and space' that coordinated the timelines of all their worlds.

That's where the entire timeline converges, and then everything you're about to do becomes the beginning of all cause and effect.

Of course, at the time, this matter was more about the world time of the Temple of Time and Space, in order to ensure one's resurrection count.

One's own experiences and causal relationships within that adventure world are still intertwined.

But this convergence also encompasses the past and the future.

This also gave Zhang Feng some clues.

……

Two years later.

The bandit spent his days hunting in the mountains and forests.

Zhang Feng, who had been in seclusion at the Qingling Sect ruins, once again grasped the key point after reviewing various subjects.

The answer lies in reality.

First, the virtual world itself is modeled after the 'creation of the world' and can also coordinate time.

As the person with the highest authority, one can experiment with timeline-related aspects there.

And the causal rule computing power of quantum superconductivity can be used as an auxiliary tool.

Finally, there is also a 'past' world within the text, and the selves within those worlds, who are influencing what will happen in the future.

I have firsthand experience with this myself.

Therefore, the topic of 'future and past' can be applied to the present reality.

This issue has also been left to reality.

Then there are divination arts such as cause and effect, the Way of Heaven, and the Book of Changes, which might serve as a basis for refining the underlying logic of the 'present'.

Thus, a world possessing the Dao of Heaven, a 'calculated world' encompassing the past, present, and future, was fully formed.

And so on backwards.

If this 'computational world' eventually reaches the same world rules and physical parameters as the real world.

So when the computational world is 'regressed', and when all rules and parameters actually undergo related regression changes.

Is it possible to rewind time in reality using the same rules and parameters?
Then this is used as the standard.

Zhang Feng reached a final conclusion, a conclusion that was reassuring.

That means there is no one in the real world who can 'control time'.

Otherwise, if I were so special and did things this way, people would have come and killed me long ago.

Because there is a saying in Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering": "To know without seeing, to see without seeing; to hear without hearing, to hear without hearing. Hence it is said: 'To see a sage does not make one a sage.'"

Although it means 'Even if I meet a saint, I can only see the surface of the saint.'

But from a more fantastical perspective, it can also be understood as follows: if there is a saint in the world who can change time, then there will never be a second one.

Because a saint is comparable to the Creator, representing the 'present' where the timeline converges.

If he saw his younger self when he was still very weak, then no matter what level he reached in the future...

His past, which made him weak, is reflected in his present.

Under such circumstances, he would not have survived, nor could he have become a saint.

After all, according to the rigorous scientific theory of spacetime paradoxes, he has always perceived himself as weak.

If one is weak, how can one become a saint?
Their level of understanding is truly "I think, therefore I am," and everything else is just illusion.

This is a dead end.

Zhang Feng was even thinking about how to avoid the 'sage'?

Thus, a sage is not some kind of immortal being above the level of a human immortal, earth immortal, celestial immortal, golden immortal, etc.

Instead, within their own system, immortals who have reached the Void Realm have already stepped into the realm of saints and can try to grasp the timeline through their own insights.

Those who master the rules of the timeline become saints instantly, because time has no meaning for them.

He could easily pause the timeline here and then go to some secret realm to cultivate for hundreds of millions of years.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the saint returned!

Exactly.

The more Zhang Feng learned, the more panicked he became.

Because many science fiction movies feature time travel devices.

Although it's unclear why they didn't become saints—perhaps due to the setting—the text, aside from grammatical errors, is remarkably logical.

If you encounter a future world with time travel, even one like the Terminator, a seemingly ordinary world.

Zhang Fengdu wondered if he should die five times at the start of the game and then return to reality to avoid this type of situation.

Otherwise, if a sage glances at you, you'll be 'permanently trapped'.

Without knowing whether words can directly challenge a sage.

Zhang Feng felt he had to run away.

……

Five years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Because of the problem with the saintly humans, Zhang Feng has been in a state of anxiety for years. He hurriedly led the great thief back to the main city and rented a secluded courtyard there.

This means that the Xuan Yun Sect is getting closer to accepting disciples.

He wanted to see his old friend and the Xuan Yun Sect.

Secondly, specific plans have been developed for addressing both past and future issues.

So now I need to try to digest all the knowledge within the Qingling Sect as soon as possible, quickly reach the Nascent Soul stage, and sweep across this world as soon as possible.

And on this day.

In a deep mountain 17,000 miles away.

Xuan Yun Sect, back mountain.

As the morning sun shone, a group of outer disciples began to meditate cross-legged in an open space in the mountains.

And in front of the main hall in front of them.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator in a gray robe nodded from time to time while breathing in spiritual energy.

He was an outer sect steward and also an old friend of Zhang Feng.

at the same time.

As always, the old friend supervised the disciples.

An outer disciple strode quickly towards them from a distance.

"Uncle Zhao! There's news about the old friend you asked me to inquire about!"

(End of this chapter)