166: Chapter 166: We come from time, and we return to time.

Jiang Zhe's words left countless viewers in a daze.

The livestream room fell silent for dozens of seconds before the bullet chat erupted like a flood!

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!"

"I'm getting freaking goosebumps listening to this!"

"Free fall is the gradual release of the Time Stream?"

"Physics no longer exists! As of today, it's gone!"

"Our big brother's mouth is terrifying. This is scarier than saying aliens exist; he's rewriting the prologue of our physics textbooks!"

"I can't refute it. There's no angle to argue from—because scientists themselves don't know where that energy actually comes from!"

"The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. If gravity is just a side effect of the Time Stream, then is the term 'Universal Gravitation' itself wrong?"

"I'm kneeling. Offering my respect to the master. Is this something I should be hearing for free? I just donated 250 yuan!"

Wave after wave of bullet chat surged forward!

Some meticulous viewers repeatedly questioned and inquired, attempting to salvage their remaining materialistic worldview!

"So, the gravitational potential energy we studied is actually the abundance or scarcity of time at different altitudes—the higher the place, the greater the time energy; the lower the place, the smaller the time energy? No way, that's too absurd, right?"

"To the person above, it's not absurd. I've discovered a terrifying fact: astronauts' bodies age faster in space than on Earth—bone density is lost rapidly at about 1% per month, which is 10 times the normal rate on Earth; after two weeks in space, muscle mass drops by 20%, and the body gradually becomes inflamed; the genome becomes unstable, mitochondria malfunction, and stem cells age prematurely; the immune system ages—all this data comes from NASA, Imeta, and PLOS. If we follow our big brother's logic, it's not the consequences of weightlessness at all, but... the Time Stream in space isn't as abundant as the Time Stream on Earth; that's why they age faster!" (Ps: Data is real)

As soon as this was said, the bullet chat, which had just spiked, suddenly thinned out again.

"????"

"My god, damn, it's even scarier now!"

"Holy crap, no, don't do this. I'm just here for a bedtime story, don't make it real!"

"Waaa~ Don't, don't take it seriously. I beg you, don't be so meticulous; I don't want to be 'awake' to reality!!!"

"Mom, I'm scared!!!"

Even though most people wanted to refute Jiang Zhe's claims, the hard evidence aligned so well with reality that they couldn't stop thinking about it, yet they still wanted to find a loophole.

This contradictory mood filled the hearts of every viewer!

Meanwhile, in the History Staff Quarters in Kyoto.

The four old professors stared at the large screen in silence for a long time.

After 2.5 seconds, Professor Liu Guangyi of Ecology was the first to speak: "If the Time Stream truly is an energy flow that maintains order and counters chaos, then in terms of biology and ecology, everything makes sense!"

He looked at his three colleagues, his eyes shining. "Because physics cannot explain the birth of life!"

"Life emerging from inorganic matter, the evolution from simple cells to complex ecosystems—this is inherently [anti-chaos]; it is a miracle of [order] battling [chaos]!"

"The birth of life is the greatest, greatest, greatest miracle in the world!"

"In biology and ecology, we have always been searching for where the [power] behind this miracle comes from!"

"But what if this power isn't chemical energy or some mysterious factor, but something every living organism is born with—an instinctual energy drawn from a denser Time Stream?"

He grew more excited as he spoke, his pace quickening: "In this way, we can answer why life was born!"

"Because life itself is a product of the [Time Stream]."

"And we humans, intelligent life, are ourselves products of [Anti-entropy]; or rather, products of [anti-chaos]—we build nations, establish harmonious societies, manufacture warm clothing, and eat clean food. All of this is [combating chaos], or combating [death], or rather, combating the [Yin: negativity, death, lethargy] in the [Yin-Yang Taiji]!"

"That is why we humans pursue stability, order, and harmony..."

"Heavens, none of this is just what humans want; it's a biological attribute inherent to humanity itself. We have always come from [time], and after death, we must surely return to [time]!"

Hearing this, Professors Chen Runzhi, Qian Mingyi, and Wang Shouren were left dumbfounded.

"Damn!" x3

The three were speechless and could only curse at Old Liu three times to express their shock!

...

Gusu No. 1 Middle School, Principal's Office.

"Hiss~"

Everyone in the office sucked in a breath of cold air.

Principal Fu, Old Wang, and Xiao Wang all turned their heads simultaneously, their eyes fixed on Old Yu.

Old Yu patted his chest in shock, trying to calm his racing heart. "He... he pierced through that [Why] we've taught countless times but never delved into, using the simplest and most direct method!"

He looked at his colleagues and took a deep breath. "We are like a group of passengers in a luxury carriage. In the past, teachers taught us how to make the carriage run faster and steadier; engineers told us how the wheels and bearings interlock;"

"But no one ever told us why the carriage can move—it has always been because of the horse pulling it. That horse is the ultimate source of power!"

"What does it eat? Where does its strength come from?"

"And now, Jiang Zhe is pointing directly at the horse pulling the carriage and saying: [Look, the power for your carriage comes from that well-trained horse. It eats grass and drinks water; it uses the omnipresent time!]"

After speaking, Old Yu sat back in his seat dejectedly. "We might... perhaps we really are, as Professor Ouyang's bullet chat said, teaching students a textbook; we have never taught them [why it's like this]. We've always been teaching [it should be like this, it should be like this, it should be like this]!"

At this moment, all the teachers looked at each other, their faces filled with shock.

They felt an increasing sense of wonder, respect, and disbelief toward the 25-year-old Jiang Zhe on the large screen.

Is this really the level of thought, logic, and intelligence a 25-year-old should have? He's practically a madman!

...

On the other side, inside Qingfeng Temple.

Professor Zhang Qinian's face was also full of surprise upon hearing this.

His initial urge to refute was momentarily derailed by these thoughts.

"Interesting. This conjecture is very bold and subversive, but!" As his tone shifted, his gaze fell on the night scene outside the window. "If gravity is merely a byproduct of the Time Stream, then many core facts of astrophysics would face massive explanatory difficulties!"

"For example, the Sun—its massive mass curves spacetime, generating gravity and binding the eight planets."

"According to his so-called Time Stream theory, the Sun's core area's Time Stream should be compressed and become thin, while the time in the orbits of the planets far from the Sun would be denser!"

"So, how do planets stably orbit a core with a thin Time Stream from the denser periphery?"

Having said this, he looked back and glanced at the incredulous faces of Zheng Ming, Celestial Master Zhang, and Wang Chongyang.

"I'm not saying the Time Stream is absolutely wrong, but rather that while there is a possibility, it isn't high."

"His theory must undergo the most rigorous testing; otherwise, it can only remain a shocking 'madman's idea'!"

Zheng Ming's emotions fluctuated wildly as he listened from the side.

He realized that the usually arrogant Professor Zhang actually seemed to agree somewhat with the concept of the Time Stream now, even changing his previous attitude.

Perhaps in the eyes of professionals, Xiaoyu's brother's claims had already moved beyond crackpot delusions and were potentially a real fact?

His gaze fell back on the large screen.

Xiao Yu instinctively covered her mouth and didn't speak, clearly more shocked than anyone else!

...

Meanwhile, in a residential building, at the home of a high school physics teacher.

Teacher Xue was in his study conducting an online Q&A session.

A student asked a question live: "Teacher, why don't satellites fall down? Is it really the balance between Universal Gravitation and centrifugal force?"

Teacher Xue was about to habitually use classical physics to explain, but the words died on his lips.

On his other computer, Jiang Zhe's livestream was playing quietly—that sentence, [Universal Gravitation might not exist], had been haunting him.

He opened his mouth, finding that the answer he had firmly believed in and taught countless times was now difficult to say.

Images of astronauts in the International Space Station and the Moon's orbit around the Earth flashed through his mind...

After twenty-five seconds of silence, he took a deep breath and said hesitantly into the camera:

"Students, regarding Universal Gravitation... our current textbook explanation is based on Newton's laws and Einstein's Theory of Relativity."

He paused for a second and shook his head:

"But, like all scientific theories, it might not necessarily be the correct ultimate answer to [why it's like this]. Gravity might just be a derivative of a more fundamental phenomenon."

"Just as scientists believe [Gravitons] exist—after all, if there's Universal Gravitation, there must be [Gravitons], right?"

"But I'm sorry, so far no so-called [Gravitons] have been detected manifesting between the Sun and the Earth."

"Just like why astronauts age rapidly in space; the general explanation is the environment in space. But if we look at it from a different perspective, from the density of the Time Stream..."

Having reached this point, Teacher Xue frowned and shook his head repeatedly. "I'm sorry, students. Teacher Xue needs to calm down and reorganize my thoughts."

After ending the stream, Teacher Xue looked at Jiang Zhe's peerless face on the large screen with a look of astonishment, confusion, and soul-crushing realization.

He felt a deep-seated shaking of his foundations.

This wasn't the metaphysics Jiang Zhe had talked about in the past...

It was a question about the essence of the world. Perhaps gravity had never existed?

Situations like this were actually occurring in every corner of the country—in university research offices, in middle school teachers' offices, and on the computers of countless math and physics students.

A seed named [Universal Gravitation Might Not Exist] was planted in the heart of every science student!

After a long while, on the large screen, Xiao Yu finally snapped out of her shock.

She looked up in horror at Jiang Zhe's serious expression.

"Heavens, big brother!" She stood up abruptly, her eyes shining. "If we follow your line of thinking, Universal Gravitation doesn't seem to need to exist at all!!!"