Shi Tiexin's world was one where technology flourished and culture prospered. Even with Shi Tiexin's social standing, he had access to all sorts of imaginative novels. In that world, they were called Dispersed Literature. Sometimes free articles would be pushed to him, and he had read them now and then to take advantage of the bargain.
Shi Tiexin knew about transmigration stories too. If he had transmigrated into some unrelated fantasy world of beastmen and magic, Shi Tiexin would not have given it much thought. He would just hone his strength arts and mind arts, then get to work.
But this was not an entirely unrelated other world.
Two Earths so identical, yet with such different historical turning points. It was as though the main trunk of history had split at the node of 1919, growing two different branches.
Besides, both worlds had a version of him. What deep internal connection lay behind this? Was there some reason his spirit could descend into this body?
Just as Shi Tiexin furrowed his brow in thought, the information in his field of vision suddenly shifted. In that instant, Shi Tiexin froze completely, utterly stunned.
"Class."
"Rise!"
A rustle swept through the room as students stood. Although Class 28 was a Trash Class, they still had to observe basic classroom etiquette. The students throughout the room, whether obediently or with indifferent faces, all stood in the end.
The substitute teacher was just about to casually say, "Sit down," when she noticed a hulking figure by the window in the third row from the back, sitting firmly and unmoving, with no intention whatsoever of standing.
This student did not even have basic manners?! The teacher could not help feeling anger rise in her heart, but she also knew the Trash Class had plenty of thorns among them. If she really called out this big fellow, the odds were higher that she would be the one unable to get off the stage. So the teacher endured and endured, finally gritting her teeth and swallowing her urge to reprimand him. She casually said, "Sit down," then planned to go on teaching her lesson.
Why bother locking horns with these bad students? At least half of them would be expelled before they even reached their second year of high school.
Though the teacher did not make a fuss, the hooligans sitting in the back rows saw everything clearly. Their admiration for Brother Old Tie instantly rose to another level. To hooligans at their age, a big brother who did not give a damn even about teachers was the coolest kind of big brother. What was the use of studying well? Even good students were nothing but Echo Bugs for their parents and teachers' lackeys.
Look at Brother Old Tie. He did not even budge during class. Could they not see that even the teacher did not dare say anything? Now that was badass!
The hooligans all turned worshipful gazes toward Shi Tiexin, as though a prompt had lit up above him: "Hooligan Faction Reputation +10."
If Shi Tiexin knew what these hooligans were thinking, he would certainly have scoffed at them. What did cool or badass even mean? Putting on these useless airs was supposed to be cool? Learning real skills was what truly made someone cool, truly made someone formidable.
Besides, someone was publicly teaching mind arts. What a rare opportunity. Was it not only right to show some respect? If Old Tie had not really run into trouble, if he had not truly failed to notice, did they think he would not have stood up and respectfully said, "Hello, Teacher"?
It was simply that he truly could not spare the attention right now.
Because an image had appeared in Shi Tiexin's field of vision.
No one knew where this image had come from or where it was headed. No one even knew why it had been triggered or what had caused it to appear. Perhaps Shi Tiexin's intense contemplation had set some mechanism into motion. Perhaps some inexplicable logic had caused it to emerge at precisely this moment. In any case, the instant the image appeared, it occupied Shi Tiexin's entire field of vision.
Everything else vanished—the progress bars, the attribute descriptions, all of it.
He could not even see the real world anymore.
Only that image remained in his field of vision.
The image was incomparably complex, yet incomparably simple; incomparably vast, yet incomparably concrete. Shi Tiexin could not describe the feeling. It was as though he had directly glimpsed some lofty concept beyond the bounds of his comprehension, and boundless information came flooding toward him.
Had some special mechanism not taken effect, his mind and reason might have been crushed by those infinite concepts in an instant, his personality washed into a blank void. Fortunately, some special mechanism resisted the overload like a dam, leaving Shi Tiexin merely stunned for a moment.
Looking at that image, with his current abilities, he could only see a part of it—a negligible part. Or rather, of that lofty information and those concepts, only the tiniest reflection could presently be mirrored within his consciousness.
It was an image made of beams of light. It resembled a tree, with branches and spreading limbs. Yet it also resembled a trident, each branching offshoot made of parallel lines, some thick and some thin.
On the thickest, straightest, brightest line, Shi Tiexin saw a point of light. From within it, he sensed something familiar. Then, on one thick branch, he saw a faint flashing point. That tiny glimmer also gave Shi Tiexin an inexplicable sense of closeness.
The two flashing points occupied different positions on their lines. The one on the main trunk was slightly farther back, while the one on the branch was somewhat farther ahead. Apart from the main trunk and this one branch, there should have been something else, but Shi Tiexin's abilities were already insufficient to see any of it.
The image flashed and vanished. It was merely a fleeting glimpse, yet like an electric shock it blasted Shi Tiexin so thoroughly that he could neither think, feel, nor move, muddled as before birth.
Only when the teacher began lecturing loudly did Shi Tiexin finally let out a long breath and abruptly recover his senses.
"What... was that?"
Shi Tiexin was shocked. How could he not be? Even if it had only been a glance, that image was simply impossible to forget.
After sitting there blankly for a long while, Shi Tiexin suddenly understood something.
Though there had been no explanation, no written note, no spoken instruction, the image itself was a message. Shi Tiexin's mind began working automatically. After interpreting the information to the greatest extent his abilities allowed, he suddenly gained a faint understanding of his current situation.
There were not many insights, only two, but they were crucial.
First, the world he was currently in and the world he had originally inhabited were one whole. More precisely, this world was another possibility born from the other world at a different historical turning point—a parallel Worldline. And this Scholar Stone here was himself under another possibility.
He truly was me. It was only that the world's evolution and different circumstances had given rise to a different possibility.
This could be called his "manifested form."
Upon realizing this, Shi Tiexin felt his connection to this body and to the other consciousness suddenly grow closer. The other consciousness's resistance toward him also weakened, while the Primal Vital Energy in his lower abdomen and the thought energy in his mind both seemed to grow a little more lively.
The second point was even more important—he would not remain here forever.
Though he did not know when the time of his return would come, Shi Tiexin knew very clearly that his consciousness would eventually return to his original body, return to his "true self," return to his original "possibility."
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