Chapter 38: Zhoumu Universe

Facing the camera, Jiang Zhe spent several minutes heating each new ring with fire, wiping them clean, and stacking them.

Every blackened ring lost some mass; every subsequent unburned ring appeared with the same mass as the previous one, meaning their initial masses were equal.

As time continued to pass...

What finally appeared before everyone's eyes was a spring.

However, this spring was somewhat different from the previous one.

It was like a pyramid; the higher the ring, the more obvious the difference in volume compared to the bottom-most ring!

He picked up the spring, aimed it at the camera, and asked a serious question:

"After several burnings, the mass of the rings is gradually decreasing."

"Now, everyone use your imagination. Stack this spring upwards to 99 layers, 999 layers, even 9,999 layers, or even ∞ layers high!"

"Theoretically speaking, will it get smaller and smaller until the top-most point becomes a sharp dot indistinguishable to the naked eye?"

Seeing this scene immediately sparked deep thought in countless people.

The spring, which originally seemed to have rings of similar size and mass, went through 'burning = one cosmic destruction' and 'wiping the soot clean = cosmic rebirth.'

With each cycle, every ring—every universe—would lose a tiny bit of mass.

This is equivalent to every Big Bang of the universe losing some particles and information.

It's just that being inside the universe, humans cannot observe these lost particles and information.

When the rings are stacked infinitely upwards, it will indeed be as Jiang Zhe said: it will gradually shrink. When it reaches an infinitesimal size, the Planck Scale, then the top-most ring becomes a sharp little black dot—the [End Point].

By the same token, the universe is the same!

The original universe must have been the largest. As the number of destructions, restarts, and rebirths grows too high...

The mass and primordial information of all things within the universe will become less and less, and the space of the universe will collapse smaller and smaller!

In this way, if you let your mind wander, you can imagine that even if the universe is an infinite loop, that infinity will eventually reach its dead end!

Thinking of this, the expressions of many viewers became increasingly solemn.

"In that case, hasn't the origin of the Elixir of Immortality become clearer?"

"Holy crap, it really is like that!"

"..."

Because Jiang Zhe's analysis was so simple and easy to understand,

it made most viewers feel they saw hope for the Elixir of Immortality!

"I call every cosmic rebirth after a cosmic destruction an [Iteration]!"

"In my 'Time Spiral Theory,' the most important core is the Iteration."

"I call the period of time circling through higher dimensions once an Iteration. If it circles twice, that's two Iterations; three circles, three Iterations."

"The length can extend infinitely, and Iterations can also stack infinitely upwards until they become like a spring whose top you cannot see. Time is the same!"

Having reached this point in his explanation, he tapped his earpiece and instructed the director to act.

The backstage received the prompt, and immediately an animated diagram was placed on the whiteboard behind Jiang Zhe.

"Everyone, pay attention behind me. The Grandfather Paradox I'm about to explain will directly clarify the Bootstrap Paradox. I will explain the two together as one."

Upon receiving the prompt, all viewers, leaders, and experts focused their eyes on the whiteboard behind him.

On the whiteboard was an animated desert. On the desert sat an oval machine, and in the center of the machine was a model of Jiang Zhe.

"Director, please start the demonstration!"

As he spoke, the model Jiang Zhe took the time machine and flew rapidly toward the sky, accelerating frantically into the vast sea of stars.

Taking the opportunity, Jiang Zhe began to explain:

"According to Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, we know that if the speed of light is the fastest speed and humans cannot exceed it, then we can only infinitely approach the speed of light."

"And approaching the speed of light is, in fact, one of the feasible ways to travel to the future, and a possibility for a time machine."

"Since a time machine cannot run in reverse, we can only move forward, heading toward the future."

"Here's a small tip: the fact that we cannot take a time machine back to the past is very easy to understand!"

"If a man-made satellite above Earth intends to slow down or even reverse its orbit, the only result is that it will fall to Earth."

"And satellites are affected by inertia. If a satellite runs in the resistance-free environment of space, it will run forever."

"Under these conditions, we can accelerate the satellite's speed to a second layer of orbit. By overspeeding in the second orbit, it can overtake other satellites above Earth."

"Pro-tip: Earth's orbits have three types: Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit, and High Earth Orbit."

"Generally, these three orbits are the paths for synchronous satellites."

"Low Earth Orbit is below 500 kilometers; Medium Earth Orbit is between 500 and 2,000 kilometers; High Earth Orbit is above 2,000 kilometers."

"Our previous example was a man-made satellite accelerating from Low Earth Orbit and then entering the second orbit—thus, the satellite we accelerated reached Medium Earth Orbit, surpassing all satellites in Low Earth Orbit."

At this point, he tapped the whiteboard, pulling everyone's attention back to himself.

"The same logic applies!"

"The case of a time machine accelerating and changing Iterations is not hard to understand."

"If we want to use a time machine to return to the past, we don't need to drive in reverse to a past timeline, because according to the Theory of Relativity, we simply cannot drive the machine back to the past."

"What we need to do is accelerate the machine, accelerate frantically, approaching the speed of light in cosmic space!"

"Until the next 'Iteration' appears, and then we just need to exit from that [Iteration]."

"Now, let's assume our world in the year 2024 AD is Iteration 1."

"Today, I invent a time machine and begin time travel."

"Then I will experience the destruction of Earth, the destruction of the universe, followed by the universe restarting with a Big Bang, then the formation of Earth, and finally waiting for human civilization to appear."

"Finally, after waiting for 5,000 years, I will be able to see the grandfather of this 'Iteration 2' world."

"A reminder here: the me at this moment, Jiang Zhe, is the Jiang Zhe from the Iteration 1 world."

"The Jiang Zhe from Iteration 1 waited through the time machine for the birth of the Iteration 2 world."

"He entered the world of the Iteration 2 grandfather."

"Note, this Iteration world is not a parallel world, but an identical world within the same space. It's just that the previous universe was destroyed, and then a new, identical world was born!"

The viewers understood this point; there was no rebuttal, and they continued to listen silently.

"At this very moment!"

"If I kill the grandfather, then the Jiang Zhe of Iteration 2 will not be born."

"Again, what does the Jiang Zhe of Iteration 2 have to do with the Jiang Zhe of Iteration 1?"

"So as long as my grandfather in Iteration 1 was not killed by a Jiang Zhe from the previous Iteration—Iteration 0—then as the me of Iteration 1, I will not die."

"Therefore, this is the same as my first answer when I discussed the Grandfather Paradox: [Jiang Zhe went to the 1980 of the future] rather than [Jiang Zhe went to the 1980 of the past]."

Having said this, he smiled slightly, giving everyone time to react and digest the information.

This information was both complex and simple at the same time.

The entire process boiled down to one core concept.

"[Jiang Zhe of Iteration 1 took a time machine and killed the grandfather of Iteration 2; what does that have to do with me, the Jiang Zhe of Iteration 1?]"

"[As long as the grandfather of Iteration 1 wasn't killed by the Jiang Zhe of Iteration 0 in a time machine, it's fine!]"

"[So whether that grandfather died or not, what does it have to do with me, Jiang Zhe?]"

After hearing it all, everyone finally understood.

Following that...

Every face was filled with shock and awe.

If they only had a partial understanding of the Grandfather Paradox before, everyone was fully enlightened now.

Only after they understood did they become shocked by Jiang Zhe's brilliance!!!