The stall owner, or rather time, has lost track of how many times this universe has been destroyed.
This universe started from a singularity, and has been evolving for tens of millions of years, giving birth to a brilliant civilization, and also giving birth to him. He started as a hazy consciousness, floating in the dark universe, he experienced the birth of stars and the brilliance of civilization, and over a long period of time, his self-awareness became stronger and stronger, from a hazy and chaotic consciousness, he became an independent individual.
He once transformed into the appearance of a wild beast to experience the cruel survival of the fittest in nature; he also once took the form of a human, went through many changes in the world, and gained countless believers.
This vibrant universe is closely connected to him. Countless strings make up this universe and also make up him. He is the essence of the universe and also time.
When he sold the key to Ruan Shiqing, he told him the name of the key was "Time", but actually it was the name he gave himself.
Heaven is the inn of all things; time is the passing guest of all things. [Note 1]
He transformed into all things, wandered in the universe, experienced the changes of the world, and was ultimately just a passer-by.
"A passer-by in the world" is the best interpretation of him.
He was born in chaos and will eventually return to chaos. He does not have the fear of death that humans have, and he learned compassion and reluctance without any guidance.
This universe prospered under his witness, and will also be destroyed under his witness. This is the natural law of the evolution of all things, and he never defies it. The living can die, and the dead can live. The universe is composed of countless strings. When the universe is destroyed, everything returns to the most original string. When the next ten thousand years come, the wandering strings will gather little by little to form a new universe.
The universe never dies, but there is always a new one replacing the old.
But when he saw the planets he once wandered through return to silence and the galaxy beneath his feet disappear, he felt a strong sense of reluctance.
So he used the power of the stars to reverse everything so as to change the final outcome.
But the result is just that the universe changes its way and is destroyed.
Out of reluctance, he traced the cause and effect, tried again and again, and failed again and again.
Everything is conserved. He used the power of the stars to reverse everything, which was equivalent to extinguishing all possibilities in this universe, including himself. Just like a tree has countless branches, each different choice will grow a different branch. But he cut off one of the branches and cut off all the other branches, so that the nutrients of the tree only feed this branch, cutting off all other possibilities. Once failed, the only remaining branch will also die, and the whole tree will die with it.
Now that the power of the stars is exhausted, this is the last chance.
"But what's the point of you looking for me?" Ruan Shiqing asked.
He had believed what the other person said, but he knew that he was just an ordinary person. If the world was destroyed, all he could do was to be by the side of the one he loved until the last moment.
How can an ordinary person prevent the destruction of the world
"No, you are useful."
Time stared at him and tapped his forehead again: "Why do you think this universe will be destroyed? All things have their own laws of development, which even I cannot fully control. But there is only one thing that will not change, and that is conservation. Only by maintaining balance can we develop steadily. The reason why this universe is destroyed is because conservation has ceased to exist."
The last time this universe was destroyed was due to the infestation of the Zerg.
Not only did the Galactic Empire's star field eventually fall to the Zerg, the entire universe eventually did not escape the Zerg's plunder. The Zerg, a creature that was bred on the Blue Star, had lived in an extremely harsh environment since their ancestors, which made their ability to survive and reproduce extremely strong. But at the same time, under the law of conservation of nature, they were always like wild beasts, without wisdom.
The Zerg have almost no natural enemies in the universe, and only humans with wisdom can create weapons to restrain them.
But the internal friction of the Galactic Empire eventually led to the collapse of the entire empire and the extinction of mankind. The Zerg, without restraint, began to spread everywhere, looking for "sky stones" that could evolve. No life could survive wherever they passed, completely cutting off the future of this universe.
After plundering everything, the rampant Zerg came to an end.
—The unbalanced universe entered a process of destruction.
"I have repeatedly replayed every destruction, and the best way is to maintain balance. As long as humans are not extinct, the Zerg will not spread again if they are restrained."
It's easier said than done.
Humans are not united, and the Galactic Empire has long been in decline. With the help of some humans, the Zerg have a stronger reproductive power. According to previous experience, in a few years, the number of Zerg will be enough to overwhelm the entire Galactic Empire. These modified Zerg will undoubtedly evolve and develop wisdom like the naturally bred Zerg, but the brutality and plundering engraved in their genes will be inherited and intensified, and humans will once again face extinction.
He studied for a long time, and finally found the person who broke the deadlock was Ruan Shiqing.
In the countless failures before, he did not notice this little kid who fell into the space-time rift and went to another world.
He was originally the royal egg laid by the Queen of Zerg, the beginning and hope of the Zerg's evolution. However, due to a conspiracy many years ago, he was hidden by the dying Queen of Zerg, and was accidentally sucked into a black hole by the explosion. He died, but his powerful mental power was not destroyed. He fell into another parallel universe and was raised as a human in an orphanage.
He knew nothing about his mission and lived in another parallel universe. He didn't know that the Zerg, having lost the leadership of the royal family, had embarked on a completely wrong path of destruction.
This is an opportunity that I discovered after reviewing time over and over again for a long time.
So in his last attempt, he took the risk and brought Ruan Shiqing back.
He gathered together a group of people who had the greatest hope of saving the universe, hoping that they could change the countless tragedies that had happened before.
Fortunately, they did not disappoint him too much. This time was different from every time before.
The chaotic scene before him made Ruan Shiqing fall silent. After a long time, he finally spoke: "So I am originally from this world, not from a book? What's the story behind that book I read?"
"This is what I recorded, the experience of my last failure." Guang Yin said, "I hope you can change all this, so I implanted the experience of my last failure into your memory as a reminder. It's just that you were in another universe at the time, repelling me, and I didn't have time to let you see all the experiences."
After all, he was just a passer-by. He couldn't interfere too much, nor could he completely control the course of events. All he did was to keep giving hints, but everything didn't go according to his expectations, and even he himself couldn't guarantee it.
No wonder, no wonder he was so busy with work and never liked to read novels, but the content of a novel suddenly existed in his mind.
Ruan Shiqing was shocked, and recalled the description of the "Black Phantom" in the book, as well as the black dragon who resolutely died to protect his companions: "So everything I saw really happened?"
"You can say that." Guangyin nodded hesitantly.
After failure, everything returns to nothingness. It can be said that all this has really happened, or it can be said that it has returned to the time before everything happened.
"The crystal ball I sold you stores the experience of your last failure. You can use the crystal ball to see what happened before the last destruction. But with your strength, you can only use it ten times at most."
"I hope you will make good use of this opportunity. This is the last thing I will do for you."
The shape of time became empty again, and the condensed stars dispersed like fireflies. He stared at Ruan Shiqing, and his voice drifted away: "I'll leave it to you from now on."
"time!"
Ruan Shiqing let out a low cry and sat up suddenly, feeling a sense of weightlessness. He covered his forehead and gasped for a moment, finally freed from the strong feeling of dizziness, and found himself back in the bedroom.
Everything that happened before seemed like just a beautiful dream.
However, the sparkling crystal ball on the bedside table reminded him that this was not a dream.
He stared at the flickering crystal ball with his teeth clenched. After a long time, he reached out and held it in his hand.
Time did not tell him how to view the record of his last failure through the crystal ball, but when he held the crystal ball, he suddenly had a mysterious feeling. He closed his eyes and silently recited Rong Heng's name.
The sound pattern slowly spread out, and the crystal ball emitted a soft blue halo, enveloping him completely.
When he opened his eyes again, Ruan Shiqing found himself back on planet B3024—not the prosperous and peaceful planet B3024 now, but the chaotic garbage planet when he had just come through.
He appeared at the noisy underground auction and saw the "Silver Falcon" being auctioned.
When Rong Heng was attacked in the Baghdad area, he fled in a Silver Falcon. In the end, the Silver Falcon was severely damaged and its power was exhausted, so it crashed into the garbage dump of planet B3024.
At that time, Ruan Shiqing, thinking of picking up a bargain, discovered the Silver Falcon, as well as Rong Heng, who was seriously injured and hidden in the cabin and was returned to his cub stage and in a coma.
Before this, he had never thought about what would happen if he found out that the person Yin Suan and Rong Heng were not him, but now, he knew.
The crashed Silver Falcon was dismantled and auctioned, and Rong Heng, who was hiding in the sealed cabin, was naturally discovered. No one on the backward garbage planet knew the young Ymir, and seeing that he was seriously injured and dying, he could not be sold for money, so he was thrown into the garbage dump outside the auction site.
A homeless man picked him out of the garbage dump without any hesitation, not because he felt sorry for the cub, but because he was going to take him home and cook him for dinner.
The dying Rong Heng was unaware of this.
Ruan Shiqing's hands were drawn together, and he followed the homeless man anxiously and angrily, but he could do nothing.
He saw the homeless man return to his hiding place, carefully building a fire away from the crowd. On planet b3024, supplies were scarce, and the homeless man, who had been hungry for many days, was too lazy to even wash himself, so he simply roasted the dying cub over the fire.
The flames licked the cub's white fur, giving off a burnt smell.
The unconscious Rong Heng finally woke up from the burning pain. He struggled to escape from the flames and killed the homeless man with all his might, which aggravated his abdominal injury. Finally, he dragged his seriously injured body into the depths of the garbage dump.
He was at the end of his strength, and after he finally found a place to hide, he fainted again.
Ruan Shiqing watched over him for as many days as he was unconscious. He saw the small cub curled up in the shadows with its fur burnt black. The blood oozing from its abdomen formed clumps on its fur, attracting strange-looking scavengers hiding in the garbage dump. Groups of these extremely small creatures lay on his body, greedily gnawing at his flesh and blood.
Ruan Shiqing tried desperately to drive him away, but to no avail. He couldn't even touch him, and could only pray over and over again for him to wake up soon.