Chapter 40: Jiang Zhe Has No Medicine to Give?

This call hung up, and the next one immediately connected.

At this moment, a middle-aged woman's voice came through the phone.

"Teacher Jiang, you spoke very well earlier. As a teacher myself, I feel ashamed compared to you. Our exam-oriented education has lasted too long; it has indeed weeded out many talents who could have shone in certain areas."

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am a leader from the Su City Bureau of Education. I carry many responsibilities, and on behalf of the education sector, I apologize to all the 'gold' out there."

In this leader's view, Jiang Zhe's words were somewhat false; in reality, some people are indeed useless and can't do anything right.

However, Jiang Zhe's personal encouragement could at least provide those people with some confidence, which was a decent thing to do.

Hearing this, Jiang Zhe didn't care about these status issues and nodded. "Mhm. May I ask, Teacher, what is your question?"

The other side fell silent for a moment before asking:

"Since you said before that every cycle's world is independent—the 'you' from Cycle 1 killing the grandfather of Cycle 2 won't affect the life or death of the 'you' from Cycle 1."

"So, I have the following question."

"If the 'you' from Cycle 2 went to the Earth of Cycle 3 and changed its global landscape, would the Earth of Cycle 4 change because of your actions in Cycle 3?"

This question made most experts' eyes light up. This was precisely the [Butterfly Effect] issue that many experts and students had been concerned about earlier.

This question was tricky even for most experts!

It seemed like a trap was being set for Jiang Zhe.

No matter how Jiang Zhe answered, he wouldn't gain the maximum benefit!

However, for Jiang Zhe, this question was a bit too simple. This leader from the Bureau of Education had wasted a chance to ask a question.

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and responded without a second thought:

"It will change. The moment the 'me' from Cycle 2 went to the Earth of Cycle 3, it meant that the history of Cycle 3 was the same as the history of the Cycle 2 world."

"But the moment I step off the time machine in the desert of Cycle 3's Earth, the future of this Cycle 3 Earth will undergo earth-shattering changes."

"For example—"

"If the Xia Country Space Station originally had three astronauts and one of them left, then because of the subtle change in mass at the time of departure, the station's trajectory would briefly deviate by a subtle margin. In this case, when that astronaut returns, their originally set orbital path around the Earth would no longer be the same as the path if they had 'not left'. This impact on the Earth's orbit will persist, and it will never be exactly the same again."

At this point, he frowned. Without realizing it, he had made things complicated again.

So, he switched to a simpler explanation.

"I have an even simpler example here!"

"Assumption: The grandfather of Cycle 2's Earth was in Qingdao yesterday, is in Kyoto today, and is expected to be in Shaanxi tomorrow."

"Then: After the 'me' from Cycle 2 goes to the Earth of Cycle 3, up until the moment I step out of the time machine, my grandfather was still in Qingdao yesterday and is still in Kyoto today. However, my appearance might be observed by nearby hikers. After they see me and curiously post about it online, it spreads rapidly. Okay, now the change appears."

"The future of this Cycle 3 Earth and the subsequent Cycle 4 Earth will undergo earth-shattering changes. Therefore, my grandfather won't necessarily be in Shaanxi tomorrow; he could be anywhere."

"And up until the moment I step out of the time machine, the prior history of this Cycle 3 Earth, and even the subsequent Cycle 4 and Cycle 5 Earths, are all exactly the same!"

"The history of the preceding cycles—the history of all cycles—is consistent."

"The future of the subsequent cycles—the future of all cycles—is inconsistent!"

"All of this stems from me, Jiang Zhe, with the moment of [stepping out of the time machine] as the [World Split Point]."

"And the source of the Elixir of Immortality that everyone is concerned about is actually the work of either me or Qin Shi Huang."

"If there absolutely has to be such a person..."

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and then pointed to himself.

Seeing this, before the audience could even process the second question, Jiang Zhe pointed directly at himself.

At this moment, all the experts and audience members were dumbfounded.

An unbelievable thought surfaced in everyone's minds: [How is that possible?]

Seeing this scene, everyone felt it was unbelievable.

"You created it? That's impossible!"

"It absolutely couldn't have been created by you, nor by Qin Shi Huang!"

"There's simply no logical path for this!"

"..."

Evidently, the audience did not believe it at all.

Perhaps Jiang Zhe had unique views on time and space, but it was absolutely impossible for him to have created this medicine of unknown origin himself!

...

In the lecture hall of Kyoto University of Science.

Professor Hua Yunfeng hurriedly shook his head. "This is impossible!"

This kind of imagined Bootstrap Paradox couldn't possibly be Jiang Zhe's doing.

Professor Feng asked, "Wait, this Elixir of Immortality must have an ultimate original source."

"No, this isn't about who exactly made the Elixir of Immortality; it's that the matter itself is a conjecture. The concept of Spiral Spacetime was introduced through the Elixir of Immortality."

In Professor Hua Yunfeng's view, it was truly impossible for this Elixir of Immortality to have been created by anyone.

He had always thought Jiang Zhe was just using the question of who created the elixir to explain the spacetime loop of the Grandfather Paradox type.

Who would have thought that in the end, Jiang Zhe actually intended to reveal the source of the Elixir of Immortality?

If he had somewhat approved of Jiang Zhe's every move before, then upon reaching the source of the elixir's creation, he found that Jiang Zhe's level might not be as high as he had imagined.

Leng Fei raised his hand and responded, "Professor Feng, Elder Hua is right this time. If he were just using the gimmick of the Elixir of Immortality to solve the Bootstrap Paradox, I would call Jiang Zhe a 'god'. But this has already transcended the scope of theory and conjecture. Jiang Zhe is creating something out of nothing, claiming existence where there is none!"

"Yeah, Jiang Zhe is going to trip up this time!"

"Sigh, it's a bit of a pity. I thought he was amazing before, but it turns out..."

At this moment, many graduate students showed expressions of regret.

They knew Jiang Zhe would fail; they just didn't expect him to fail so quickly.

Hearing this, Professor Feng couldn't help but feel that something was off.

Those like them included other professors well-versed in science and philosophy, including Professor Li from Magic City and others.

Meanwhile, in the leadership conference room, Old Zhao, Wang Guosheng, and the others still hadn't noticed where the problem lay.

Nevertheless, Jiang Zhe's explanatory voice continued to come through methodically.

"Perhaps you find it unbelievable when I say I created it, but in reality, that's exactly how it is!"

"Exactly which 'me' created it?"

He didn't even leave any suspense and directly spoke the actual situation.

"The Jiang Zhe of Cycle 0 obtained a machine or ability to travel through time and space. He thought of a way to travel back to the Qin Dynasty and give the Elixir of Immortality to Qin Shi Huang."

"Since Cycle 0 is the beginning of all things in our [Spacetime Spiral Theory]—the very, very first original universe world—theoretically, Jiang Zhe did not have the Elixir of Longevity; he only had a time machine."

"Therefore, the Elixir of Immortality was not created in Cycle 0 at all, because there was no elixir to begin with!"

"If it wasn't created in Cycle 0, then the Jiang Zhe of Cycle 0 didn't have the elixir. Without the elixir, he wouldn't have traveled to Cycle 1's Earth to give it to Qin Shi Huang. Consequently, the Jiang Zhe of Cycle 1 wouldn't have the elixir either. Thus, the Jiang Zhe of Cycle 1 wouldn't travel to Cycle 2... and so on."

"Ultimately, the example of [Jiang Zhe Giving Medicine] will become [Jiang Zhe Has No Medicine to Give]."

"So, without the Elixir of Immortality, this [Jiang Zhe Giving Medicine] wouldn't hold up."

"Since [Jiang Zhe Giving Medicine] doesn't hold up, then [Spacetime Spiral Theory] doesn't hold up. If [Spacetime Spiral Theory] doesn't hold up, then time travel doesn't hold up."

"In the end, this experiment will become [Jiang Zhe Did It All for Nothing], like drawing water with a wicker basket."

As these words fell, all the audience members frowned deeply; it felt as if a certain thread in their minds had been severed.

There was a sensation—they felt that they were wrong.

They all felt that their thinking had, to some extent, deviated and erred—and these were fatal errors!"