Chapter 521: The Future
Stopped in her tracks, Lu Yuesheng listened to Bai Mo's words with a skeptical air.
By relying on the stat-point system she had previously acquired, in just over a year, she had continuously added points, elevating her physical attributes from those of an ordinary person all the way to the Second Tier.
This speed, to the "innate spirits" from back during the Spirit River Autumn, perhaps wasn't much; in fact, it could even be considered somewhat slow.
But compared to the situation in the Manghuang Realm and on the Moon currently, her speed of becoming stronger was absolutely astonishing.
After the spirit tide had completely subsided, cultivators of average talent would take at least three to five years just to enter the First Tier, let alone the massive hurdle from the First Tier to the Second Tier afterwards.
Countless latecomers cried out that the Dao of Heaven was unfair, that the pioneers had too great an advantage, but it was all meaningless, because everyone knew in their hearts that from birth, injustice, like an unbridgeable chasm, separated everyone.
The starting point for some had long surpassed the finishing line for most.
......
Of course, potion-guzzling tycoons could still get a head start of a year or so, stepping into the Second Tier within ten years.
......
"Those are nothing but virtual information; they're not real life experiences at all!" Lu Yuesheng still wanted to "save" Bai Mo.
A super-powerful expert whose mind couldn't be fathomed by common sense, in fact, one might even say a slightly deranged super-powerful expert, his influence on the entire world was simply too terrifying.
"Does it matter if it's real or not? Is one hundred years lived in a virtual world not an experience?"
Bai Mo's words inexplicably reminded Lu Yuesheng of the chilling-upon-reflection brain in a vat.
......
"Keep walking forward, don't block the way."
Still pondering how to respond to Bai Mo, after his reminder, she only then realized she had walked into the middle of the road.
Bullock cart drivers slowly passing by on both sides were wearing standardized smiles, looking at her with strange eyes.
A bizarre tableau slowly unfolded before her.
History seemed to be furiously accelerated. Livestock, the material transport tools of the agricultural age, continuously transported raw materials like iron ore into primitive iron smelting workshops.
The pig iron produced by the workshops was then further processed into various types of steel, to forge the outlines and cores of large quantities of primary machinery.
These crude machines quickly transformed into more precise machinery for processing parts, iterating generation after generation, until finally, truly modern high-precision industrial machine tools were born...
The bullock carts originally responsible for transport, accompanied by the upgrading of industrial equipment and the continuous transformation and replacement of road surfaces from concrete to asphalt, eventually turned into endlessly moving truck convoys.
The surrounding buildings also rose from generally low residential houses to densely packed reinforced concrete high-rises.
All progress occurred without any twists or turns, moving straight ahead towards industrial modernization.
......
"No, this is all fake!" Watching everything rapidly develop, Lu Yuesheng keenly sensed something amiss—though the factories and technological advancements seemed real; at least to her, they had no flaws.
But the people inside, or rather, the humanoid creatures, didn't seem like living beings at all.
They didn't laugh, didn't cry, not a trace of expression on their faces. They only received tasks, completed tasks, received tasks, completed tasks... There was no communication, and even eye contact between them was extremely rare.
These "machines" that looked exactly like humans, at an unimaginable speed, seamlessly completed the colossal task of building the world.
Everyone was like a gear, and nothing more than a gear.
The moment this thought arose in her mind, the world shattered!
She returned to reality.
"What did I just see?"
"The changes that will occur here over the next five years," the emotionless voice still replied.
"You can even foresee the future?" Lu Yuesheng was speechless, or rather, numb.
"I cannot predict the weather, but I can choose to change it to the weather I desire," Bai Mo replied enigmatically.
"......"
"It's like I know what I'll eat for lunch, not because I have the ability to predict the future, but because what I eat is entirely up to me?!"
Bai Mo didn't answer, but he clearly acquiesced to this answer.
The ultimate capriciousness is foreknowing the future; today was the first time she had heard such a twisted logic.
......
"Logically speaking, if there truly is only one visible future, does that mean everything is already predetermined?
Does the foreseen future already include the observer's reaction after seeing that future?" The more Bai Mo spoke, the more convoluted it became, and the conversation began to veer in a strange direction.
"If I see that my future lunch is braised beef, and I deliberately change it to Mapo Tofu, then the assumption of a singular future would be overturned, wouldn't it?" Lu Yuesheng found herself unwittingly participating in this kind of discussion.
"But would there be some kind of world-correction force that forcibly makes me eat braised beef again? For instance, what if the restaurant coincidentally sold out of all dishes except braised beef...?"
"The future should be a trajectory. Any difference at any point on that trajectory is equivalent to two different futures, and not just the outcome of certain events within it.
Even if the final outcome of certain nodes cannot be changed—for example, you are destined to eat braised beef—those are still two futures, because you experienced different events in between."
......
"I'm going crazy! Why am I discussing topics like this?!" A few minutes later, a Lu Yuesheng whose expression had crumpled looked utterly frantic.
She found that unconsciously, she had also been led astray.
"Boundless, wild, extended thinking—perhaps it's a side effect from back then, when I used the Sky Soul Jade to advance to the Myriad Forms Realm?" A thought suddenly popped into Bai Mo's mind.
Ever since he devoured the Soul Crystal that originated from his own work in a parallel world, and easily broke through the myriad thoughts level, he had discovered that his imagination and divergent thinking abilities had become increasingly terrifying.
Any casual thought that arose would be fleshed out in his mind into an intricate, complex epic.
The long "dream" that Lu Yuesheng had just seen was a thought that Bai Mo had produced in an instant.
......
"Can you answer me a question?
Those machines that don't laugh, don't cry, only receive and complete tasks—are they the people who remained on Earth, their future appearance?" She pulled the conversation back to the question she had originally wanted to ask.
If humanity truly abandoned emotions for the sake of rapid technological and species development, becoming a group of purely rational machines, in her view, it would simply be the greatest nightmare.
PS: Daily author promo: "Myriad Heavens Power-Leveling System." If interested, you can take a look (Finally, I've repaid all the author promo debts I owed ORZ).
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