163: Chapter 163: Time Flows Between Cause and Effect

The somewhat dim light shone upon those two words.

Seeing this, Xiao Yu was momentarily stunned, staring blankly at the two words.

"Time?"

In the livestream room, millions of viewers—be they netizens, teachers, or experts—held their breath at this moment.

Time?

The power that prevents the destruction of the universe and creates stars and life is actually... time?

Their first reaction was: Are you kidding? Although time exists, it's just a fictional physical and mathematical concept. Doesn't everyone know it's just a state of matter in motion?

"Time? What kind of cosmic joke is this?"

"Isn't time just a concept we invented to conveniently describe motion—like the markings on a ruler?"

"Materialists are fuming! Time is just a measure of the process of matter in motion; it isn't a thing in itself!"

"Big Bro, isn't this a bit too far-fetched? How did time become the power that creates stars?"

"Even so... since it's our Big Bro saying it, I don't dare to flatly deny it now."

"Let's listen to what he has to say first!"

"..."

Meanwhile, inside Qingfeng Temple.

Upon hearing the word 'time,' Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang's eyes immediately lit up.

It was as if a shackle in their minds had been unlocked. It seemed that, perhaps, it really was time.

In Taoism and Sinology, they didn't care for all those messy details; as long as it was reasonable and aligned with the Great Dao, it might just be the truth!

Only Professor Zhang Qinian frowned deeply and couldn't help but speak up: "This is impossible. In physics, time is merely a parameter—a scalar, not a vector, and certainly not a power. He's substituting a basic physical concept for a metaphysical term; this is a classic case of equivocation!"

Zheng Ming's gaze fell upon his teacher and Senior Brother Zhang, then he looked at Professor Zhang.

For a moment, he felt rather confused.

...

On the other side, in the lounge of Huaqing University.

The students of the physics department began to argue over these two words.

"Time... Isn't time a fictional concept? How could it be a form of energy?"

"It's feeling more and more mystical, but it seems to make some sense. Could it be that time is what prevents the universe's acceleration of entropy?"

"..."

Professor Wu narrowed his eyes, his face full of scrutiny. Previously, he had thought Jiang Zhe did indeed have some ability.

But he hadn't expected him to actually tell his sister the word 'time.'

How could time possibly be a form of energy?

"Heh, this concept is indeed bold. But he's reifying and energizing time without any experimental basis."

"Science requires bold hypotheses, but even more so, it requires careful verification."

"Not forcibly attaching a noun to something!"

Professor Ouyang's eyes shone, however. "No, Old Wu, don't you think this line of thinking is very enlightening?"

"If time isn't just a measure of passage, but something more fundamental—an energy that supports the unfolding of the Law of Causality—then many problems, such as Quantum Entanglement, could be solved instantly!"

Li Mo and Professor Guan exchanged a glance and grinned.

Jiang Zhe was as bold as ever!

On the big screen, on the living room sofa.

Xiao Yu recovered from her confusion and couldn't help but press further, "Big Bro, what exactly do you mean by 'time'?"

"Are you saying that the power in the universe that combats chaos and creates stars is actually [time] itself?"

"Correct!" Jiang Zhe nodded. "In our current scientific framework, time is a passive scale, a metric used to describe change."

"But what I want to say is—time might not be a concept."

"It is itself an extremely special [energy] or [field]!"

"You can imagine a power that [locks] a star in its proper place, allowing it to burn continuously for billions of years instead of instantly exploding and returning to chaos."

"That force which binds it, maintains its slow Nuclear Fusion, and combats entropy is a manifestation of [time]!"

"It prevents destruction and allows stars to be born."

Jiang Zhe drew a simple diagram on the tablet—

A glass of clear water represented the initially uniform universe tending toward heat death, and then he dropped a few dots of ink into the water.

"Look, Xiao Yu. If we compare the early universe to a glass of clear water, it would eventually become uniform, bland, and dead."

"Then stars, and later planets and life, are like clumps of [ink] in this clear water that refuse to disperse."

He pointed at the ink dots.

"Here lies a fundamental question: what power is preventing this [ink] from immediately diffusing and dissolving into the clear water?"

"What is preventing the universe from turning into complete chaos and collapse at the fastest possible speed?"

Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes narrowed, and they began to shine.

"And that which prevents diffusion and maintains the stability of the clear water is the [Time Stream]."

As soon as he said this, Xiao Yu and countless netizens' eyes lit up.

Of these three characters, they only understood the first two; when combined with the third, it became something entirely new.

Xiao Yu's curiosity was ignited. "Time Stream? What is that? Does it 'flow' like an electric current or a water current?"

"You can make that analogy, but it's not exactly the same." Jiang Zhe nodded and began to list examples. "Electric current flows between positive and negative potential differences to power appliances. Water current flows between high and low elevations to wash over the land."

"Light flows at the speed of light between a light source and an object to illuminate the world."

Having reached this point, Jiang Zhe paused for a moment, his gaze falling on Xiao Yu's curious face.

"But time does not flow between two points in space."

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiao Yu, his expression gradually becoming serious. "The place where it flows is more fundamental than space. The Time Stream flows between cause and effect."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu and countless netizens' eyes sparkled with realization.

Carefully savoring the words: time flows between cause and effect.

These words held a profound sense of the Dao!

Only Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang's eyes shone with an inexplicable light.

"Between cause and effect..." Xiao Yu's eyes brightened as she pondered the phrase. "How mysterious and profound. I feel like everything has suddenly become much clearer!"

"Naturally, it is profound." Jiang Zhe picked up a ripe apple from the fruit plate on the table. "Take this apple in my hand, for example."

"The cause: I let go."

He released his hand.

The apple hit the ground and smashed.

"The effect: As you can see, it fell to the ground and smashed."

"Between these events, it wasn't some force pushing the apple down, nor was it gravity or gravitation."

"Rather, it is time that allows this apple to move from [cause] to [effect]. Without this flow, the [cause] would forever remain just a [cause], and it would never give birth to any [effect]!"

"In other words, without the [Time Stream], the moment I let go, that apple would remain [suspended] in the air forever!"

"To put it another way, in daily life, I can believe in Universal Gravitation. But in this concept of mine—I don't quite acknowledge the existence of Newton's law of Universal Gravitation. Within this framework, I only acknowledge the existence of the [Time Stream]!"

"This isn't being narrow-minded; it's looking for a breakthrough for the world's unsolved mysteries!"

Xiao Yu was filled with astonishment upon hearing this.

She knew that there were some lunatics on the cutting edge of science who were passionate about overturning outdated theories.

Could her Big Bro also be such a super-talent?

Jiang Zhe didn't give Xiao Yu a chance to react further and pointed toward the night sky outside the window:

"The birth of the sun is the same."

"The cause: A nebula collapses under gravity."

"The effect: A star begins to burn and becomes a sun."

"If the universe truly only contained chaos, then the [cause] of the nebula's collapse should have directly led to [the matter becoming a sun smashing into a mess of sludge or gas]. The stable [effect] that is the [sun] would never have appeared."

Having finished this part, Jiang Zhe's gaze returned to Xiao Yu's intrigued face.

"But the fact is—the sun was born, and it burns steadily."

"What does that indicate?"

"It indicates that between the [cause] of [nebular collapse] and the [effect] of [solar formation]..."

"...there is a power that allows for the defiance of entropy. It allowed for the formation of the sun, and it allowed for the unfolding of this star's long story, which eventually stabilized to produce the nine planets and the habitable planet Earth!"

"And this power is the Time Stream."

He took a deep breath and, seeing Xiao Yu's increasingly stunned expression, continued:

"The Time Stream doesn't make time go faster or slower; rather, it makes all change possible!"

"Without it, the [cause] is a severed thread. With it, the universe gained a story after the Big Bang!"

"Do you understand?"

Xiao Yu was taken aback, then nodded in surprise.

For some reason, her Big Bro's words were very simple, yet they gave her the feeling of seeing the truth of the world!

As Jiang Zhe's series of explanations concluded, the millions of netizens in the livestream room went completely wild!

"Holy crap, flow between cause and effect?"

"Damn, even though it's still very mystical, hearing it like this makes that contradiction suddenly seem understandable!"

"I've got goosebumps. This brand-new perspective is absolutely subversive!"

"Holy shit, if the Time Stream really exists, then gravity to us... damn, could it be a lie?"

"If the Time Stream really exists, could it be that [invisible connection] that links telepathy, Quantum Entanglement, and the resonance between the Earth and the Moon?"

"Too much information! My CPU has fried!"

"Whether you believe it or not, I'm a believer. Our Big Bro is as sharp as ever!"

"..."

At this moment, his words left the teachers and experts dumbfounded, as if they were hearing the words of a god!

It was no less shocking than when Newton first proposed Universal Gravitation!

Even if it was just a rough outline!!!

...

P.S. It's true.

This comes from a hypothesis by a Soviet astrophysicist in the last century that predicted the birth of Nuclear Fusion.

The great [Nikolai Kozyrev].