The Return of Stars to the Jianghu

Chapter 128 Traveling to the End of a World Beyond Time

2025 January 10

The research vessel successfully reached its designated location in the South China Sea. Shen Lixi was the first to enter the water, and after reaching the predetermined position, the mooring line was released.

Then, Zhao Zhi, Zhang Mei, Sun Li, and Su An dived underwater in that order.

The time tunnel was right beneath them. Its projection in three-dimensional time resembled a door, which was a spherical cloud of light.

With Earth as the reference point, Zhang Mei is currently in the center, with Zhao Zhi and Sun Li beside her, while Shen Lixi and Su An are on either side a little further away.

Neither of them noticed that the light fog was getting smaller.

The light has not disappeared, but its projection in the three-dimensional world is disappearing.

The people on the research vessel were unaware of the tunnel's anomaly. The sixth member of the advance team was slowly diving underwater following a pre-planned route.

In five-dimensional spacetime, Wen Bin is applying the smallest possible force to three-dimensional time. Of course, there is no three-dimensional entity of Wen Bin here.

Under the influence of this force, Shen Lixi and Su An passed through the time tunnel and, according to the preset function of the time tunnel, traveled to the Xuan Tian Continent unharmed.

Before the sixth person to descend reached the designated location, the tunnel had completely disappeared from the three-dimensional world.

With the time scale slowed down, Zhang Mei, Zhao Zhi, and Sun Li were "noodle-like" in four-dimensional space.

At this moment, their single timeline disappeared, splitting into countless timelines.

Meanwhile, on Earth, in the eastern seas of Asia, in the basement of the only café on a tourist island called Desert Island.

One of the Wenbins existing in the three-dimensional world said softly, "It's over, another failure."

......

Zhang Mei opened her eyes, and all she could see was white, nothing at all.

An unprecedented sense of fear washed over her, and she tried to calm herself. She took deep breaths in and out.

But soon he found that he could not feel his breath, and he stopped breathing.

All I could see was endless white.

She tried to feel her heartbeat, and thankfully, she could feel that her heart was still beating strongly.

How terrible it would be if the heart stopped beating.

Then her heart stopped beating, and she could no longer feel her own heartbeat.

"Shen Xili?" Zhang Mei called out.

No one responded.

"Su An".

Still no one responded.

"Zhao Zhi".

Zhao Zhi appeared out of thin air in front of her.

Zhao Zhi looked at her with a horrified expression. "Where's Sun Li?"

Before the words were finished, Sun Li appeared in front of the two of them.

"Where is this?" Sun Li asked.

The white sky was no longer visible; instead, a starry sky appeared above, filled with countless stars, and the same starry sky stretched out beneath my feet.

"Help! We're falling!" Zhao Zhi's face was deathly pale, his whole body seemed to be falling endlessly. Fortunately, judging from his movements, it seemed to be at a constant speed.

However, when Zhang Mei and Sun Li looked at him, they found that he was still standing there.

Zhang Mei said, "You are not falling, and your relative position to Sun Li has not changed. We should be in an imagined world of consciousness, or we may have fallen into an illusion."

"If we were standing on the ground instead of under a starry sky, with grass on the ground, it would make us feel a little more at ease."

When Sun Li uttered the word "if," green grass appeared beneath their feet, slowly stretching into the distance.

As soon as she finished speaking, the land in front of her had transformed into a vast grassland stretching as far as the eye could see.

Zhang Mei squatted down, looked at the grass at her feet, picked a blade of grass, and smelled the scent of its green sap.

The scent of earth assaulted her senses, and she shifted her footsteps, her footprints clearly visible.

"Where is this?" Zhao Zhi asked.

As he uttered those four words, a green, unnamed tree with many branches appeared before the three of them.

It seems infinitely close, yet also infinitely far.

"Welcome to the world beyond time, at the end of the world." Three different voices echoed in the minds of the three.

"Who are you?" Zhang Mei stood up and asked.

"I am no one. If I had to be given a concrete form, I would be this tree in front of you?" the voice rang out again.

This time, the three of them heard it very clearly; the sound was the sum of their three voices.

"Tree, do you have a name?" Sun Li asked.

"In your universe, you call me the Tree of Time, or the World Tree. But these are all just metaphors. This tree is merely a concrete projection of my three-dimensional world, created to help you understand my existence." The voice rang out again.

"Where are we?" Zhao Zhi asked.

"Beyond time, at the end of the world," the voice replied.

"Outside of time? At the end of the world?" Zhao Zhi repeated, then asked, "How did we get here?"

"I brought you here," the voice replied.

"Who are you?" Zhang Mei asked again.

"I am time, I am the Tree of Time, I am the World Tree, and you may also call me the Creator," the voice said.

"The Creator?" Zhang Mei asked in surprise.

"Yes, I created your universe," the voice said.

“That’s impossible.” Zhao Zhi shook his head, refusing to accept this fact.

"I know it's hard for you to accept this fact, but it is the truth," the voice said. "Your universe is just a tiny bubble that I created, and I created countless bubbles. The universe you understand is just one of them."

"Is our universe just one of them?" Zhang Mei asked.

"Yes, the universe as you understand it is merely a creation of mine, an experiment," the voice said. "In your universe, you call it the Big Bang, right?"

“Yes,” Zhang Mei replied.

"That's just a phenomenon caused by the energy from the explosion when I created your universe impacting your three-dimensional space," the voice said. "Your universe is three-dimensional, while I exist in a higher dimension."

"A higher dimension?" Zhang Mei asked, puzzled.

"Yes, you cannot comprehend higher dimensions because you only exist in a three-dimensional world," the voice said. "However, I can help you understand that higher dimensions are the infinite possibilities you can comprehend."

“Infinite possibilities?” Zhang Mei frowned.

“Yes, infinite possibilities,” the voice said. “For example, the tree you see now is just a point to me, but in your three-dimensional world, it is a tree with a trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit.”

"One point?" Zhang Mei asked.

“Yes, a point,” the voice said. “To me, a point can be a tree, a mountain, an ocean, a universe, or a bubble.”

“Foam?” Zhang Mei asked.

“Yes, a bubble,” the voice said. “Your universe is a bubble, a bubble I blew casually.”

“This…” Zhang Mei was shocked and didn’t know what to say.

"I know it's hard for you to accept this fact, but it is the truth," the voice said. "Your universe is just a bubble I created at will, and you are just creatures inside that bubble."

"Are we... just creatures in a bubble?" Zhao Zhi asked.

“Yes,” the voice said, “your lives, your civilization, your technology, everything you have, are nothing but an existence within this bubble.”

"This..." Zhao Zhi also fell silent.

"So, why did you bring us here?" Zhang Mei asked.

"Because of a mistake, a mistake made by our agent," the voice said.

"An agent?" Zhao Zhi asked, puzzled.

"Yes, he is a five-dimensional being, and his projection in your three-dimensional world is called Wen Bin."