All under heaven bustled for profit; all under heaven scurried for gain.
The atmosphere outside the station was always exceptionally lively. Amid the constant flow of people, a young man emerged from the station with a backpack in hand.
After graduating from high school, Jiang Ping had struggled in the city. Unfortunately, that city had kept his youth but could not keep him. On top of that, his girlfriend of five years had broken up with him just like that.
Tired of all the scheming and deception, Jiang Ping simply quit his job and returned to his hometown to clear his mind. Walking home, he did not know why, but he actually felt timid about returning.
Bang.
A black-robed person suddenly passed by Jiang Ping and dropped a thick book with a black cover.
"Wait, it looks like you dropped something." Jiang Ping bent down to pick up the book and hurriedly turned around to look for the person, only to find that the black-robed person had vanished in an instant.
"Strange. Where could he have run off to in such a short time?" The others around him looked at Jiang Ping curiously, as if no black-robed person had ever passed by him.
Had he seen a ghost in broad daylight? Jiang Ping waited at a roadside shop in frustration, but two or three hours passed in the blink of an eye. Seeing that the sun was about to set, he could only sigh and head back to his hometown with the black book.
Creak, creak.
The old gate made strange noises from having been unopened for so long. By then, the sky had darkened, and the scattered lights of the village gradually came on. Jiang Ping spent several hours tidying the old house before he could finally settle down. Dragging his travel-weary body, he was just about to lie down and rest when he suddenly remembered the black book he had picked up that afternoon.
Under the yellow lamplight, Jiang Ping finally examined the mysterious book closely. He had no idea what material its black cover was made of. It was completely smooth to the touch, neither leather nor fabric. The cover was plain and unadorned, without a single word, and it was impossible to determine what era the book came from.
Whoosh.
A glimmer of golden light suddenly flashed beneath the lamp. Jiang Ping rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things. He opened the cover, wanting to see whether there might be any clues about the book's owner inside.
The instant he opened the book, Jiang Ping froze. His entire consciousness was drawn into the mysterious book.
Countless people still sang beneath the night sky. Jiang Ping could not feel the existence of his body, yet he seemed able to see everyone around him. He could even clearly see the drool on the tongue of a little dog by the roadside that had just gnawed clean a bone and was sticking out its tongue in satisfaction.
"What is going on? Wasn't I reading at home just now?" Jiang Ping's mind raced as he struggled to understand his current state. Then, as though pages were flipping, the scenes before his eyes flashed past like a revolving lantern.
In the blink of an eye, artillery fire shook the heavens. Old planes continuously dropped incendiary bombs from the sky, while soldiers with different hair colors charged into battle. Flames of war raged all around, and explosions rang out without end.
"Th-this is the Great War?" Looking at the blood-soaked soldiers and the classic old planes in the sky, Jiang Ping was shocked. This clearly was not some deathbed memory of his.
Time continued to turn backward.
Whooo! Whooo!
A grating roar sounded beside Jiang Ping's ears. A classic black steam locomotive blew its whistle, billowing hot white steam from its front. Pedestrians dressed in Victorian-style clothing passed straight through Jiang Ping's body.
"The First Industrial Revolution?" Since he had no understanding of the situation, Jiang Ping could only suppress his unease and keep watching.
Jiang Ping was like a ghost traveling through different eras. He witnessed the Age of Discovery, when Columbus pointed at the Central American continent and shouted to his crew, "This is India!" He also witnessed the struggle for supremacy among Wei, Shu, and Wu, as well as the construction of the Great Wall by Qin Shi Huang, the Eternal Emperor.
The founding and destruction of the Holy Roman Empire, the construction of the 146-meter Great Pyramid of Giza, the rise and fall of the first Egyptian dynasty in Human Civilization, and the birth of Sumerian Civilization in Mesopotamia.
The Earth seemed to be spinning backward, revealing its mysterious and ancient history to Jiang Ping.
He also saw the land blanketed in white, where humanity's ancestors wielded stone spears during the Ice Age, fighting the heavens, fighting the earth, and fighting Mammoths!
The first Ancient Ape to eat cooked food after a forest fire, the first Ancient Ape to come down from the trees, massive and domineering Tyrannosaurus Rex galloping across the land, Pterosaurs whose spread wings blotted out the sky soaring through the heavens, and the enormous meteorite that destroyed the dinosaur dynasty!
The world-ending scene caused by the meteorite left Jiang Ping shaken. Before such Heaven and Earth Great Power, how insignificant was individual strength?
He also saw the ancestors of mammals struggling to survive upon the ancient land, enormous primitive insects ruling the ancient Earth, ferns growing madly across the ground, and the first strange ancient fish crawling out of the ocean to become the first amphibious animal!
Tracing even further back, the Cambrian Explosion dazzled Jiang Ping. One strange creature after another was breathtaking to behold. They displayed the miracle of life, their bizarre appearances challenging Jiang Ping's imagination.
The first Single-celled organism was born in the ocean, followed by a three-thousand-meter-thick layer of ice that began at the North and South Poles and covered the equator! The entire Earth became a white Frozen Planet, utterly silent. It was difficult to imagine what cells could survive under such conditions.
Jiang Ping watched everything before him in shock. He had forgotten why he was here, and his very soul seemed as though it would dissolve into the vast history of the planet. Fortunately, the mysterious book in his mind trembled, awakening Jiang Ping's soul before it became lost.
The Earth continued turning backward. Jiang Ping witnessed the movement and merging of Continental Plates, as well as the Pangaea Supercontinent formed when all the continents fused together!
The birth of the atmosphere, the birth of the oceans, the appearance of Organic Matter, endlessly erupting volcanoes, and the newborn Earth's hellish environment.
"It's actually still tracing back!" Jiang Ping was shocked. He saw how the enormous Earth had slowly grown through collisions from a small fragment, and how the Moon had been blasted out of the Earth by an Extraterrestrial Meteorite.
A ray of light flew from where the Earth had originally been toward the Sun, and Jiang Ping's consciousness followed that light to witness the Sun's appearance.
Nebulae, Star Clusters, Supernova Explosions, enormous Black Holes that devoured stars, then the beginning of time—and finally, the earliest Cosmic Big Bang!
Amid the endless light, Jiang Ping suddenly felt his body again. He had returned. He was still at the moment he had just opened the mysterious book. That long journey just now seemed to have lasted only an instant, while summer frog croaking continued endlessly outside the door.
With a snap, Jiang Ping closed the book. Three large words had now appeared on its ancient and simple cover: "Creation Diary"!
Jiang Ping's eyes widened. He could not believe that the mysterious book that had just taken him to witness the origin of the universe possessed such a world-shaking name.
Ding! A voice appeared out of thin air in Jiang Ping's mind. "Companion Creature binding successful. Creation Diary officially activated."
"Who are you?" Jiang Ping asked the voice in his mind. It did not seem to possess self-awareness; it sounded more like a mechanical system voice.
"I am the Creation Diary in your hand. I do not know how I came into being. I only know that my duty is to find an owner, then create all things."
Jiang Ping raised the corner of his mouth. "Then can you create everything in my current universe?"
"The Great Universe of reality is far beyond what I can currently create. Right now, I can only create seemingly real, seemingly fake Minor Worlds, and doing so also consumes precious Primal Points."
Jiang Ping felt a little disappointed. He had thought he had encountered some Super Divine Artifact that could make him the Creation God of the universe. Who would have thought it was a counterfeit? It could not create a real world. Was that not just like playing a sandbox game? It could only entertain him and was completely useless in real life.
Seemingly sensing its owner's disappointment, Creation Diary continued, "The world I can currently create is equivalent to your Minor World. It is both illusory and real. Call it false, and that world truly exists; call it real, and it cannot affect your Third-dimensional space. Yet by consuming precious Primal Points, the items of the Minor World can be materialized. Furthermore, as I upgrade step by step, I may eventually be able to truly create a Third Dimension Great Thousand World."
Jiang Ping laughed. Wanting to reach the heavens in a single step really had been wishful thinking. Now that he had heard Creation Diary's explanation, its future seemed limitless. But what exactly were these Primal Points it kept mentioning? Everything seemed to require them. Jiang Ping immediately voiced his question.
"Primal Points are one, and they are ten thousand. They can evolve all things and interfere with the Third Dimension. My Main Body can only accumulate one point every hundred years. Your Initial Points are currently 1,200 points. Every single point must be used with caution! Once the points are depleted, they can only be re-accumulated over a long period of time."
Jiang Ping realized that Creation Diary did not care about anything else, but it valued Primal Points above all else. They really seemed to be extraordinary things.
"Can Primal Points interfere with reality too? Can they make me a god?" Jiang Ping asked curiously. Could points truly be omnipotent?
"If Primal Points are used to strengthen the owner's body, they can bring your physical body to its limit and greatly enhance cell activity. You currently have only a hundred years of lifespan. After strengthening, even your maximum lifespan can reach one thousand years."
Jiang Ping's eyes lit up. No one could escape birth, aging, sickness, and death. But according to Creation Diary, could Primal Points allow one to transcend life and death?
"What greater uses do Primal Points have? Besides slowly accumulating them, how else can I earn more Primal Points?" Jiang Ping asked, slightly excited.
Creation Diary's voice remained calm. It seemed that nothing other than Primal Points could draw its attention. "It is not recommended that the owner use precious points to strengthen yourself. Initial Points are the owner's initial capital. The best method of use is to create Minor Worlds. Once the lifeforms in a Minor World flourish and grow strong, they will feed back to me after death. Using Initial Points to directly strengthen yourself has the lowest utilization rate. It is no different from using gold to make farm tools."
Jiang Ping nodded. It truly would be too wasteful to directly use precious points for strengthening. It seemed they still had to be used to create a world!
Forget it. You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. Today I'll plant one hundred points, and someday harvest one thousand. It seems I still need to honestly develop this great undertaking of farming. What's more, perhaps I can obtain an opportunity for transcendence from a Minor World. That is the most cost-effective path!
Having thought it through, Jiang Ping was suddenly enlightened. Ever since he had followed Creation Diary to witness the origin of the universe, the birth of the Sun, and other cosmic history, Jiang Ping's horizons had greatly opened.
A famous historian had once said: if someone could immerse himself in historical realization, then he would surely obtain true knowledge, because historical experience was the richest treasure trove of wisdom. What Jiang Ping had seen was the truth of the entire universe. If not for Creation Diary's help, he would have gone mad in that instant.
If Jiang Ping went to take examinations in fields such as geography and biology now, he could easily earn a university degree.
"Thinking about it this way, why does this Creation Diary feel a little like Chubby Blue's Creation Diary from the cartoons I watched as a child?" Jiang Ping laughed at his own thought. Could this mysterious Creation Diary really have been dropped by Chubby Blue?
Primal Points were precious. Under normal accumulation, it took a hundred years to obtain just one. Jiang Ping decided to carefully plan how to use his initial 1,200 points. He already had a massive plan for creation in mind, but he still needed to think it through and conduct some tests first. This was his initial capital; he could not afford to be careless. One wrong move, and he could lose everything.
Throughout the long night, Jiang Ping continuously communicated with Creation Diary and began preparing for his Journey of creation. He discovered that it was difficult for Creation Diary to create things out of thin air, but as long as it had a template, it could easily replicate them. Touching the "creation" capital in his pocket, Jiang Ping sighed inwardly. It seemed he would have to suffer a big loss tomorrow! Exchanging money for points—there was no more cost-effective business than that.
"I need to remind the owner of something. While tracing history just now, I discovered an asteroid heading toward Earth."
"What?" Jiang Ping was greatly surprised. Creation Diary really didn't stop until the shocking words were spoken. Such an important matter as a meteorite striking Earth, and it had not told him at the first time? He had seen the meteorite impact that destroyed the dinosaurs. In a world-destroying disaster, ninety-nine percent of lifeforms would find it difficult to survive.
Jiang Ping hurriedly took out the laptop he had brought and searched online. He discovered that only the asteroid Apophis frequently visited Earth. Apophis was also known as the Destroyer God Star. The internet showed that Apophis would not collide directly, merely pass by. It seemed that some undiscovered change had caused the asteroid to alter its orbit.
Having witnessed Creation Diary's wonders, Jiang Ping believed its words even more. Creation Diary had clearly been left behind by an existence far beyond Human Civilization!
"About how long until it hits Earth?" Jiang Ping asked insistently.
"According to your time, this asteroid will strike Earth in approximately twenty years," Creation Diary said calmly.
Jiang Ping's heart tightened. Don't talk about a world-ending crisis so lightly! Twenty years were not short, but they were not long either.
"What good solution do you have?" Jiang Ping asked with a frown. He had only just obtained this extraordinary encounter, yet he did not want a World Destruction Crisis to arrive as well.
"With humanity's current technology, solving the problem of this asteroid would be very difficult. Even if it were shattered, the fragments would become countless meteorites falling upon Earth. Owner, you would do best to properly manage your world. In a Minor World, you can control space and time and adjust time acceleration. Perhaps in one year, you can become transcendent and ascend to godhood. Of course, if your management fails, your points are depleted, and then you sit and wait for death, there is also a high chance of that happening."
The corner of Jiang Ping's mouth twitched. Creation Diary could be quite sharp-tongued at times, perhaps because it analyzed everything with absolute rationality. Still, it was right. With an additional sense of crisis over the end of the world, he had to create his world properly. After all, he now had the additional task of saving the world!
"Then Starting Today, I'm a Creator God!" Jiang Ping said with a smile as he looked out into the night beyond the window.
Newbie seeks collection and recommendation. This book was originally called "Starting Today, I'm a Creator God," which was also the line at the end of the first chapter. However, the first chapter could never pass review, so it was eventually changed to this title.
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