Return to the Sand Table

Tongcheng was a fairly large city, and Xu Zhi and Chen Xi spent quite a while wandering around it.

He visited the mall and bought a washing machine, microwave, refrigerator, and a whole heap of miscellaneous things, planning to transform the old house into something modern.

The mall owner was naturally all smiles. Most people shopped online these days, so it was rare to encounter such a wealthy customer at a physical store. He immediately promised to have everything delivered to the countryside.

Xu Zhi was not particularly inclined to buy appliances online.

After all, their performance was mostly similar. What he cared about was the appearance of the furniture, how things matched in practice, and how to arrange a cleaner living environment.

Then, under Chen Xi's guidance, Xu Zhi went to several shops and picked up some equipment: a High-Pressure Water Gun, Electric Drill, Electric Saw, sprinklers, and other improved gardening tools.

After all, these were essential tools for a Creator! "Pack it all up. Deliver everything to the young man's farm for free," the owner said with a chuckle when faced with such a wealthy customer.

Some of the equipment cost thousands or even tens of thousands. Xu Zhi had already spent seventy or eighty thousand in scattered purchases, but he still had one hundred and ten thousand in savings. For the moment, he was not holding back at all and could not be bothered to think too much about it.

When you had money, you spent it. After all, he had money superpowers.

On the way back, Xu Zhi rode the Electric Scooter in front while Chen Xi sat behind him. Unable to resist, she touched his thick hair, then suddenly yanked out a strand with force. The pain instantly brought tears to Xu Zhi's eyes. He bared his teeth and grimaced. "What are you doing? Keep your hands to yourself."

Chen Xi was equally startled. She tossed away the strand she had pulled out and stared in shock. "Your hair is so firmly rooted! What on earth happened to you?"

Xu Zhi had a headache.

Why was she so obsessed with the fact that his hair had grown back? Couldn't he grow hair?

Wearing a speechless expression, he said in utter misery, "I told you, it was chemotherapy. Chemotherapy! The aftereffects have recovered now that I've been resting. I wasn't born bald."

"Really?" Chen Xi's eyes widened.

"Really."

Xu Zhi looked perfectly serious.

"That's way too unbelievable." Chen Xi was stunned on the spot.

After all, she had been bringing him meals for several days now, and it did not look like a final burst before death. Had he really become like this? It would have been one thing if his hair had merely grown back, but even his figure and face had become much more handsome. Could it really just be because he had recovered and exercised?

Something felt off.

"You're being paranoid. I can't even be bothered with you." Xu Zhi rode his flashy Electric Scooter with a dazed Chen Xi behind him, rolling over the occasional cow patty along the muddy country paths.

After all, it was not his vehicle.

Neat yet staggered fields stretched along both sides, and from time to time, aunties and older women greeted them warmly. "Oh, Little Zhi and the girl just went into town?"

"You young people should get out more, take a walk and look around."

"Our village is aging. The students are off studying, and the workers are off working. Now there are only you two young people left!"

"Hello, Li Shen. Hello, Zhang Ye." Xu Zhi responded with a chuckle. "I took Chen Xi out for a walk and bought some daily necessities."

Warm sunlight poured down.

It was already past six. Stars could faintly be seen in the sky. Unlike heavily polluted cities, the countryside had an exceptionally clear night sky.

Xu Zhi believed that even in that miniature Sand Table, during its fifty-year-long nights, they could see dazzling stars filling the heavens and the round moon, and understand the vastness and endless possibilities of this universe.

"How small is our world? For them, more than two hundred long years have passed, through the Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death of five or six generations. For me, only a little over two days have passed. I merely went out to buy some things." Xu Zhi smiled, bid Chen Xi farewell, and returned to the courtyard to look at the Sand Table. Only then did he learn from the Insect Nest Sub-Brain that Gilgamesh was about to die of old age.

"He will probably die tonight, perhaps even within half an hour," the Insect Nest Sub-Brain said.

"So soon? It doesn't feel real at all."

In the Orchard Courtyard, Xu Zhi froze for a moment.

He held a small knife and silently peeled an orange. A complete strip of orange peel fell away, circling once, then again, and again.

Suddenly, his hand trembled.

The peel broke.

"What a shame. I didn't manage to peel it in one piece."

Xu Zhi scratched his head, thought for a moment, and finally stood up.

That tiny Insect Ape from back then had actually come this far and written a vast epic of a life. Xu Zhi truly admired him.

He had merely given him a few tools. Not everyone who was given a lever for civilization could pry open the entirety of history and become a great man. Without question, Gilgamesh was an outstanding king, though his personality held far too much cruelty and brutality.

The Insect Ape race he had created, the race that used to cry "Bald! Bald!" had ultimately multiplied and flourished.

"Forget it. Since he wants to see me, I should go take a look. I can't change his lifespan, but it would be good to meet an old acquaintance. Besides, I need to stop this race. I never expected that in just a few days, they would destroy countless ecosystems and drive many species extinct. They conquer, wage war, and slaughter like locusts, with no regard for the environment. If this continues, the Sand Table will probably collapse before long. Countless species will go extinct, leaving only them behind. I need to persuade them to show some restraint."

Xu Zhi stood up and set down the orange. It would only take a moment; he could come back and eat it afterward.

"Slow down their time flow. Restore it to normal."

After saying that, Xu Zhi pulled blue laboratory shoe covers over his feet and slowly strode into the Sand Table.

Step. Step. Step.

The ground trembled slightly. Mountains, rivers, land, and seas.

Trees were crushed beneath his feet, enormous footprints were left in valleys, and countless beasts fled wildly through the dense forests.

"What is this?"

"Is the city going to collapse?"

Gradually, the entire Uruk Royal City seemed to tremble. Its walls, houses, ground, streets, and ant-like pedestrians all wore faintly terrified expressions.

Gilgamesh led his ministers in kneeling upon the ground. Suddenly sensing something, the aged face of the great Hero King showed childlike joy for the first time. "After two hundred years, the great Wisdom Giant Beast I saw in my youth—the one who bestowed upon me the three treasures of civilization—has finally returned?"

The ground shook, and all of Uruk City seemed to bounce faintly.

This towering circular city, the colossal city of Uruk that housed tens of millions of people, was no more than a disk slightly larger than a dining table in Xu Zhi's eyes.

For a city built by ant-sized creatures, it was already extraordinarily magnificent.

It was exquisitely detailed, every place carefully carved, elegant and luxurious. Every detail extended down to the microscopic scale of ant-sized beings. What kind of beauty was that? It was like the most perfect fortress in the world.

Although the giant city was not very sturdy. Their civilization was still too primitive, and they did not understand how to bury some of the stone pillars supporting their walls deep into the earth as foundations. Thus, with one step from Xu Zhi, the city began to tremble slightly.

"This is also related to their inability to use cement. Simply stacking stones together makes them far too unstable." Xu Zhi strode toward the royal city, crushing patches of emerald trees beneath his feet. At last, he arrived before the Nordic city that now possessed the beginnings of an ancient civilization.

He looked down upon the city's exquisite altar temple.

The snow-white, aged Hero King lifted his head. With Damocles Sword braced in his hand, his handsome yet ancient face streamed with glittering tears as he looked at Xu Zhi.