20: Chapter 20: Li Chunfeng Prophesied the End of the World

"Take out your tui bei tu."

Jiang Zhe also opened a copy of the tui bei tu. "Turn to the 56th Hexagram and see what's inside."

Xiaoyu quickly flipped through the book and soon found the 56th Hexagram.

This was the version annotated by Jin Shengtan that they had bought on the street while out shopping in the rain.

The content was identical to the one in Jiang Zhe's hands.

"The little figures in this picture are wearing ancient-style clothing; they're holding two long spears in their hands, but why is fire spewing from their mouths?"

"And there are birds circling over their heads; their half-black, half-white appearance looks very fierce!"

"And is that a beach they're standing on? In the sea behind them, are those many fish surfacing? This hexagram image looks very strange, even a bit scary."

Not only her, but even the viewers in the stream had turned to this hexagram and noticed the strange details.

"Soldiers who can breathe fire? That's so damn weird!"

"What on earth are those two big birds circling in the sky?"

"The fish-like monsters in the sea actually look a bit like a naval battle from the Tang Dynasty."

"..."

Meanwhile, inside the teachers' dormitory building.

Old Wu, Zhao, and Wang—the three history teachers—were also examining this hexagram image.

Old Wu explained pensively, "This image is indeed strange. The weirdest part is what Li Chunfeng meant by drawing this. It's impossible for humans to spit fire from their mouths, and the things in the sea look very much like ships. This hexagram is basically incomprehensible."

Old Zhao tried to analyze it: "Almost every hexagram in the tui bei tu is accompanied by prophecies and historical events of each generation. But this image... it seems it really hasn't happened yet. It should be a major event that will occur in the future!"

"Who knows!" Teacher Wang couldn't help but sigh. "Other than Jiang Zhe, no one in our history circles has ever said such a thing!"

"For example, what Jiang Zhe said about the hexagrams after the 39th."

"Logically speaking, the following forty-something hexagrams should have been predicted by Li Chunfeng to occur in the nineties and the two-thousands."

"But the 45th Hexagram represents the war of national destiny from the last century."

"Reasoning further back, the 44th Hexagram says—'Now the Xia Kingdom has a Sage, not a hero but like King Cheng of Zhou. Barbarians call him the Son of Heaven through multiple translations; when misfortune reaches its limit, prosperity comes, and spring returns to the nine nations!'"

"Look, who exactly does this Sage refer to?"

The three of them exchanged knowing looks but didn't speak; they all knew.

Old Zhao said with certainty, "It seems the hexagrams of the tui bei tu are out of order and don't follow a chronological sequence."

Based on the inconsistent ordering of Li Chunfeng's hexagram images—

The content of this 56th Hexagram is definitely not simple!

Has it already happened, or will it really happen in the future?

Inside the secondary bedroom.

Seeing Xiaoyu looking so intently, Jiang Zhe offered a hint:

"Xiaoyu, you can't look at the 56th Hexagram from an ancient perspective." Jiang Zhe pointed his finger at the picture.

"Discard your ancient viewpoint for now and just assume it's a hexagram for the future."

Hearing this, Xiaoyu nodded repeatedly.

Then his finger landed on the pattern of the fire-spitting little figures.

"You think this is fire spewing from the little figures' mouths?"

"No, look closely and you'll find that this is simply the moment of a gunfight!"

"After a shot is fired, smoke instantly billows upward, covering the face of the person pulling the trigger—making you mistakenly think the figure is spitting fire."

"And as I said before—"

"Li Chunfeng calculated this through divination. How do you think divination works?"

"Naturally..."

At this point, he pointed to his own eyes. "Naturally, it's about crossing the river of time to look down, look up, and perceive a specific fragment of a future scene."

"A person from the early Tang Dynasty could accurately draw the 56th Hexagram, but where would he have seen firearms?"

"He could only draw based on what he saw."

As soon as he said this, Xiaoyu couldn't help but swallow hard. "So it was gunpowder smoke!!!"

A person from the early Tang Dynasty—there was no such thing as firearms back then!

Could he really have crossed time to see a hexagram for a future beyond 2025?

The more she thought about it, the more incredible it felt!

"What about those two massive birds?"

Jiang Zhe looked at the picture and shook his head slightly.

"Birds? Such huge birds circling back and forth over their heads."

"You have to realize, ancient people had never seen anything on a grand scale. What kind of thing is made to mimic a [bird]?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xiaoyu's pupils shrank. "This... Li Chunfeng was trying to represent—planes, drones, reconnaissance aircraft, and other automated flying machines?"

"Exactly..." Jiang Zhe grinned, "Indeed!"

*Hiss~~*

The live stream room instantly fell silent.

All six hundred thousand plus viewers were speechless.

The first instinct was that it was fake, added by later generations.

It was even more likely that someone from the late Qing Dynasty had seen planes in the sky and then drawn them in.

But!

When those who truly knew the trade focused intently on Jin Shengtan's version of the tui bei tu from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties...

They fell into deep thought again.

Even if it were fake, even if the later parts of the tui bei tu were written by Jin Shengtan himself...

Then they could only say, [Great Master Jin, I bow down to you].

Therefore, it was impossible for original and reprinted copies from the late Ming and early Qing to show modern and future warfare!

This only proved: [It's all damn real!!!]

While the audience was in shock, Jiang Zhe's narration continued.

He pointed to the half-submerged large fish in the ocean behind the two figures.

"Now, you should know what those are, right?"

Xiaoyu said with a solemn expression, "Although they look like fish, based on the era, those are [submarines]."

"Yes, exactly!"

"This shape doesn't look like a fish at all; this is clearly the conning tower of a submarine. Li Chunfeng was an ancient man who had never seen a submarine. Seeing one on the ocean surface, he racked his brains and could only draw this image for the [tui bei tu]!"

At this point, Jiang Zhe's tone became increasingly stern as he pointed to the text: [War is not about soldiers, but a game of creation].

"So, this isn't cold weapon warfare at all, nor is it the early Qing's gunpowder warfare."

"This is simply beyond-visual-range warfare!"

"Soldiers don't need to be face-to-face; instead, they rely on these man-made objects that are [neither birds nor fish]."

"[A game of creation] isn't a deeper interpretation; it means that in the future, both sides will deploy destructive power everywhere across the battlefield!"

"If this isn't a [game], what else could it be?"

As he spoke, the air in the small room seemed to freeze.

The viewers in the stream had also tried to interpret it using [ancient methods].

Regarding [A game of creation], they thought it meant: [Everything that happens is unpredictable].

They didn't expect...

That in Jiang Zhe's words, ancient interpretations weren't needed at all.

To solve it, one must use a [future interpretation]!

Once the future interpretation was applied, these four lines of the [Prophecy] became clear as day.

Countless comments like [Amazing] and [Impressive] were sent.

On the screen.

Jiang Zhe directly spoke out the full meaning of the following Ode.

"So Xiaoyu, this 56th Hexagram predicted by Li Chunfeng, with Kun below and Kan above—Water over Earth—is World War III!"

"The modern technology above the soldiers' heads, the bombing, the drones, and the submarines in the water."

"A thousand miles of sea borders are filled with smoke; reaching up to the clouds and down to the springs."

"What do these two lines mean when put together?"

He gave a hint and then left the answer to Xiaoyu.

Xiaoyu, almost in shock, blurted out, "The 56th Hexagram Li Chunfeng spoke of could be understood as a holographic game season."

"But it can be better understood as!"

"The sky and the earth are all covered in smoke, making everything invisible!"

"Tell me, what kind of scene is that?" As Jiang Zhe's powerful question fell.

Xiaoyu was instantly speechless. "This!!!"

The viewers in the stream were also instantly dumbfounded.

Two words surfaced in everyone's hearts!

"Nuclear Peace!"

As the words fell, Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes flickered, her mind trembling.

She had originally thought her brother's talk about future hexagrams was just something to listen to casually.

She didn't expect...

That it was so clearly predicted by Li Chunfeng.

This alone doesn't seem to explain a nuclear blast, right? What if it's a meteorite?

Just as Xiaoyu was thinking this, Jiang Zhe spoke as if reading her mind: "Still doubting it's a nuclear blast? After all, it's too far-fetched?"

Xiaoyu nodded repeatedly.

"It's fine, such doubt is normal. You just need to look at the third and fourth lines; they are the key!"

"[Golden Mother and Wood Lord play their illusions], [Before weapons clash, disaster fills the heavens]; all the prophecies point to the last two lines!"

"Golden Mother, the West; Wood Lord, the East; playing illusions—meaning methods of deception and unreality."

"Weapons refer to arms and war; 'before clashing' means the war hasn't even started yet—'disaster fills the heavens' means the consequences of doomsday have already arrived."

"The full interpretation is: before the two sides even meet in battle, a large-scale disaster has already occurred!"

Jiang Zhe looked at his sister again and asked with a serious face: "What is this?"

His sister Xiaoyu felt a chill in her body, a cold sensation creeping over her.

This was clearly the future war Li Chunfeng saw while drawing with Yuan Tiangang in the early Tang Dynasty!!!

"This is... cyber warfare, economic warfare, drone warfare, and other high-tech warfare!"

"Once the preceding events have occurred."

"By then, everyone will naturally be at each other's throats!"